Dead Boy Detectives #8 – Review

By: Toby Litt (story), Mark Buckingham (layouts), Ryan Kelly (finishes), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: It’s hard to tell the difference between the living and the dead in a nursing home.

The Review: In my line of work, I see firsthand how often kids take their parents’ mistakes to heart, which is probably one of the saddest things you’ll ever see besides an invalid alone in the hospital or the mentally ill talking to themselves at a bus stop in the rain. So it’s not surprising to me that Charles would internalize his dad’s problems so much, to the point that his dad’s litany of horrible qualities results in his own self-loathing and a desire for a second death.

It takes a bit of adjustment to handle this sudden emotional weight that’s been thrust on the previously quirky Dead Boy Detectives, but it works. If nothing else, it provides a springboard for the Charles-Crystal relationship, as his melancholy spurs her to show the sweetest parts of her personality. “Charles, you say that ever since I met you, you’ve done nothing but put me in danger. But it’s all been so exciting—even the terrifying parts! …If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t know about Clementine. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t know about the Neitherlands. We need each other, Charles. …I wish I could give you a proper hug.”

Dead Boy Detectives #7 – Review

By: Toby Litt (story), Mark Buckingham (layouts), Ryan Kelly (finishes), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: Even ghosts can have daddy issues.

The Review: We’ve had a lot of fun with the Dead Boy Detectives’ miscellaneous adventures, but now seems like the right time for us to grapple with more long-term material. I expect most of us are new to the characters, so we really know nothing about Charles and Edwin before they attended, died, and returned to St. Hilarion’s. If a ghost exists only because of unfinished business in its life, then it’s essential we learn more about that life, no?

It’s easy enough to see what was left unresolved with Charles’ untimely death: his feelings toward his father. We’ve seen hints that Charles’ dad wasn’t a very nice guy, but the nature of his cruelty is unclear, even after Charles recounts his boyhood memories of the man. Obviously, Charles’ dad was kind of a douche for receiving his son’s thoughtful, handmade gift with more thought to its flaws than delight, and the fact that he was constantly away isn’t great, either. But these seem like typical paternal failings, not the kinds of things that’d keep a long-dead boy attached to the world.

The Unwritten: Apocalypse #4 – Review

By: Mike Carey (script), Peter Gross (art), Ryan Kelly (selected finishes), Chris Chuckry (colors) and Todd Klein (letters)

The Story: Tom goes into storyland to find a possible ally.

Review (with SPOILERS): Geez….I really don’t know what to make of this issue.  By that I mean, I literally don’t understand what happened.

The main focus of the issue was on Tom Taylor dreamwalking his way into a Tommy Taylor form and visiting Madam Rausch.  Of course, I understood the surface layer of things in that Tom was there to recruit Rausch as an ally in his war against Pullman and that she may or may not help them, but then things became murky for me.  Rausch has been a recurring character in The Unwritten for a very long time, but this issue made me reevaluate her character in a different way.  I’ve always thought of Rausch as being similar to Wilson Taylor in that she was a gifted storyteller who did her work with puppets whereas Wilson was a writer.

But to be honest, I never thought of Rausch that deeply before.  She was just always “there” in the story as a quasi-villain.  Whereas Pullman is obviously the embodiment of the “Original Sin” story and Leviathan (i.e. humanity’s collective consciousness) loves that story to the detriment of all else in the world, I always thought Rausch was just an antagonist.  Hmm… I’ll have to revisit her because it seems there is a LOT more to her character than I’ve appreciated before.

The Unwritten: Apocalypse #1 – Review

By: Mike Carey (script/creator), Peter Gross (art/creator), Ryan Kelly (select finishes), Chris Chuckry (colors) and Todd Klein (letters)

The Story: Tom & Gang try to escape a screwed up London.

Review (with minor SPOILERS): This was a much lighter issue of The Unwritten.  Often this series dives into some pretty deep waters in terms of story, but this issue is really here just to introduce the villain.

Of course, that villain is Pullman, but he isn’t introduced in all of his glorious depth.  He’s really just introduced as a “bad guy” and we don’t get into how he represents the story of original sin (or the devil or evil personified….whatever) and how humanity’s fixation on that story has both warped that story and made it worse….but also irritated the story itself and the story – through Pullman – has become sentient and fought back against humanity.  Carey and Gross certainly get all of the important pieces/mechanics on display in this issue, but they don’t really shake them in the reader’s face.  That’s fair enough.  That portion of The Unwritten’s story is really deep and these final 12 issues should be at least somewhat welcoming to new readers.  They haven’t dumbed the series down yet…..and I don’t think they will now.  They just didn’t emphasize the greatest depths of the narrative in this particular issue.

The only bad thing is that it leaves the issue a little light and it stays strictly in the action-adventure realm.  I mean….the issue is fun as we watch Tom & Gang trying to escape from a London that is beset by all the armies that have invaded London in all of fiction, but it is nothing more than fun.  Given that this series only has 8 issues remaining, I am reluctant to fully endorse any down-shift in ambition…..even if it is a temporary.

I also don’t remotely understand what is going on with the young Australian man and the veiled woman.  It makes no sense to me.  I know it’s just because I don’t get it yet.  Or perhaps I’m not supposed to understand yet?  I don’t doubt that once it is explained, these issues will merit a re-read.

Saucer Country #14 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (story), Ryan Kelly (art), Giulia Brusco (colors)

The Story: Kidd realizes he’s spent a lot of time visualizing naked people.

The Review: It’s kind of a rite of passage for every comic book fan to get attached to a series that seemingly no one else in the world even cares about, much less cares enough to love or hate, and then go through the agony of having that series taken away before its time.  I’ve had the fortune to experience this multiple times, which has allowed me to get a practical perspective on the whole thing, though it doesn’t lessen the sting by much.

The cancellation of Saucer Country was announced about a month or so after I officially declared it as one of my favorite titles last year, which left me with the sneaking suspicion that I might be cursed.  Oh, well.  In a case like this, all you can really do is cross your fingers that you’ll at least get a somewhat satisfying finale, one that rewards the devotees for all the time and affection they’ve invested into the story and characters.  To a certain extent, this issue strives to do all that, but gets hampered by the timing.

Saucer Country #13 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (story), Ryan Kelly (art), Giulia Brusco (colors)

The Story: Professor Kid discovers he’s been the object of a kinky couple’s dirty game.

The Review: With only one more issue until the end, Saucer Country now seems in a hurry to get it all over with.  If you thought last issue went by quickly, this one takes it up a couple notches more, throwing one big confrontation after another in succession.  This isn’t such a bad thing; the pace on this series has been fairly slow up to this point, so acceleration during what is essentially a series finale seems appropriate.

So it’s not the speed itself that feels off; rather, it’s the jarring feeling of everyone suddenly kicking their interactions into high gear when cautious wariness has been the name of the game for the past year.  Saucer Country has always been about the mind games these various groups engage in with each other, but to win requires playing for the long game—meaning you need to do as the chess masters do and take your time to consider the next move.

Saucer Country #12 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (story), Ryan Kelly (art), Giulia Brusco (colors)

The Story: You decide—man who may be an alien or woman abducted by aliens?

The Review: This is the big downside of serial fiction: if it manages to get some momentum, having it suddenly halt almost guarantees a major derailment that leaves the plot in smoking, broken heaps on the ground.  The best thing that can happen in these cases is if the story’s near some kind of end anyway and can semi-neatly wrap up.  The worst-case scenario is for the creators to give up and phone in the rest of the series.  And who can blame them, really?

What usually winds up happening lands somewhere on the middle ground: the story will desperately try to jump ahead to what should have been its long-term conclusion, squeezing in every last plot thread it can along the way.  In most instances, this well-intentioned move usually results in a haphazard, rushed, and implausible jumble that has almost no chance in satisfying anyone.  In the hands of a skilled storyteller with experience in the art of forced resolutions, the result is usually just rushed.

MQ’s Favorite Things of 2012

So, against all odds, we managed to make it through the year, doomsdays and raptures notwithstanding.  Congratulations, all—and very, very happy to see you.  Granted, we’ve all experienced some fairly grisly things in the past twelve months, but it’s worth keeping in mind all the good we can, if for no other reason than to prevent yourself from weeping helplessly.  In that spirit, it’s time again to look at my favorite things of the year.  Now remember, no judgments—we are all entitled to like what we like, whether or not they are qualitatively “good.”

Saucer Country #10 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (story), Ryan Kelly (art), Lee Loughridge & Giulia Brusco (colors)

The Story: And now the presidential candidates confront the real issues—alien abduction.

The Review: Here at the ten issue mark, Cornell would be, if precedent means anything, about a few issues away from calling it a day on this series.  And if that should turn out to be true, it would be the absolute worst decision he ever made.  Given all the major events of our nation in recent days, Saucer Country as a political story, a social commentary, and just as a work of comic book fiction is more important, more relevant, than ever.

I will try to keep my real-world extrapolations to a minimum; it’s always risk to draw comparisons to a story when none are intended by the author.  But I wonder.  Even if Cornell couldn’t have predicted what would happen yesterday morning in an elementary school of Newtown, Connecticut, surely he had other similar atrocities in mind as he made gun violence a focus of this current arc.  Here, however, the shootings are not senseless; they mean something.

Saucer Country #9 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (story), Ryan Kelly (art), Giulia Brusco (colors)

The Story: Here you’ll find the worst and best shot in the history of the world.

The Review: If any of you caught the final page to last issue, you’ll know exactly what I mean when I say: well, that was quite something, wasn’t it?  Having a masked assassin attempt a potshot at Arcadia from point-blank definitely takes the tension of the series to whole new level.  I think that shot is a message from Cornell that even while the players try to navigate the myriad conspiracies surrounding them, that doesn’t mean they can avoid physical danger for long.

With all the government intrigue, you always had a sense that what Arcadia and friends were doing posed some risks, but for some reason, you—or, rather, I never thought that’s where the harm could spring from.  Cornell has spent so much time keeping our vision focused outward, looking for threats from the stars, that the credible, real-world dangers fell into a mental blind spot.  I don’t feel too bad, though; it’s clear the Alvarado team landed in the same trap.

Saucer Country #8 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (story), Ryan Kelly (art), Giula Brusco (colors)

The Story: Even without the aliens, this is a very strange election we have going on.

The Review: I’ve often spoken about the dangers of using politics in comics.  If this election has taught us nothing else, that world is a complicated place, not always driven by what’s right or rational.  Even if you take your own personal philosophy out of the equation, the issues themselves have so many factors going into them that they can’t be easily discussed.  Comic book writers (e.g. Gray-Palmiotti) have no special virtue in this regard that I can discern.

In choosing a story that centers on a political candidate, Cornell has no choice but to wade neck-deep in that environment and hope his ambition doesn’t sink him.  I will say that an advantage he has (contra Gray-Palmiotti) is he actually has a nuanced perspective on the hot-button topics, as you can see in the opening mock debate.  Here, he plays both sides of the immigration issue with surprising accuracy.  Arcadia advocates for “—amnesty for all those immigrants in honest employment, already contributing to our society, but without the right to—”

Chloe (acting for the opposition): “So you’re giving a reward to those aliens [Oh, Chloe—you went there.] who snuck across the border?”

Saucer Country #5 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (story), Ryan Kelly (art), Giulia Brusco (colors)

The Story: This is a long, long way from the late act of a high school grad night.

The Review: I don’t know what this world is coming to.  Without naming names, I often look at the TV personalities frequenting the airwaves, unleashing loose opinions and unsubstantiated ideas with a delivery that borders on frantic, yet somehow drawing a ton of people into their larger-than-life mania.  I don’t know how folks get suckered into such a ridiculous worldview yet simultaneously scoff alien conspiracy theorists because in my mind, there’s no difference.

Do you know why we all brush off the UFO-heads as crazy people?  Because with few exceptions, they act like crazy people, either strident to the point of violence, or so deadly convinced of their erroneous logic that it’s frightening.  You can pity these people, but you can’t take them seriously.

Saucer Country #4 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (story), Ryan Kelly (art), Giulia Brusco & Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: There’s more than one way for an alien to be a Predator.

The Review: I’ve hinted at this from the start, but Saucer Country, when you think about it, works with a lot of clichés.  The aliens in particular are a callback to the hysterical imaginings of the nineties, but many other parts of the story also draw from certain tropes of the genre, whether it be the feverish conflicts between believers and skeptics, or the deepening suspicion that the government and other entities know more about the foreign visitors than they ever let on.

This issue very nearly falls into that hole of the overdone when Michael recalls his hypnotically recovered memories of “the abduction” for Arcadia and her team to hear.  Every part of his tale can be linked back to one common conspiracy theory or another, the tired invention of paranoid who has long ceased to even strike doubt into people’s hearts.  Remember, though: Cornell plays on all this with a lot of self-awareness; his goal isn’t to make you believe Michael’s story, but to remind you why those stories propagated and struck our consciousness in the first place.

Saucer Country #3 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (writer), Ryan Kelly (art), Giulia Brusco (colors), Sal Cipriano (letters), Mark Doyle (associate editor) & Will Dennis (editor)

The Story: Are alien abductions real?

Review/Recap: So, this is the issue where Cornell starts to fiddle with the idea of whether alien abductions are real or whether something else is going on.  The whole issue recalls some themes from The X-Files–before that show collapsed under its own weight.  Remember when The X-Files started to make it vague whether aliens were actually abducting people, or whether it was just the government stealing people and it was convenient for the government to let us think it was aliens because then we wouldn’t blame the government?  Well, this issue has a lot of that vibe to it.

Saucer Country #2 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (writer), Ryan Kelly (artist), Giulia Brusco (colorist)

The Story: They’re everywhere!  In the mirror!  This couch!  That potted plant over there!

The Review: It’s been a long time since I thought about the show, but it seems appropriate to mention The X-Files here.  Fear of what’s out there has been a recurring theme in fiction since The War of the Worlds, but X-Files capitalized on that sentiment, combined it with growing distrust of the government, added in a heaping helping of psychological thriller, and became the exemplar of its genre.  Every similar work since feels redundant and familiar as a result.

You can’t tell at this point how far Cornell can break away from the trends and themes X-Files established, but one thing’s for sure: his gift for dialogue and character work will always ensure whatever he writes feels fresh and different.  The heated exchange between Chloe and Arcadia (and, to a lesser degree, Harry) in the limo embodies much of what makes Cornell an effective writer.  The way Arcadia keeps Chloe firmly in line, almost commanding her to stay despite an admittedly tenuous story about visiting aliens (“You say it was ‘like a dream’?  I think, therefore, that it was probably a dream!”), makes the would-be president that much more convincing, and that makes the premise in general that much more convincing.

Upon closer reading, you realize there’s so much groundwork getting laid down in this scene.  Just because Arcadia perceives an impending alien invasion doesn’t mean she’s about to let that jeopardize her chances of appearing as a viable candidate for the White House.  Yet at the same time that she demonstrates her governmental competence hasn’t diminished for her paranormal experiences, she also creates a sticky issue of political ethics: should someone whom we’re supposed to trust to lead the country be keeping a secret (delusional or no) this big from us?

Saucer Country #1 – A Second Opinion

By: Paul Cornell (writer), Ryan Kelly (artist), Giulia Brusco (colors), Sal Cipriano (letters), Mark Doyle (associate editor) & Will Dennis (editor)

The Story: The Governor of Arizona announces herself as a candidate for the Presidency under weird conditions that may or may not involve aliens.

A few things: 

1. Yay! A new Vertigo #1! – I don’t really count Fairest #1 since that’s just a spin-off from Fables; it has been a LONG time since we got a new Vertigo #1 from an ongoing series.  I Zombie was the last ongoing to be launched by Vertigo and it is up to issue #21.  And, Saucer Country is part of a glut of new series from Vertigo, which is great because this is the place for great ongoings for adults.  Image will hit a few too, but Vertigo has a better set up for ongoings and a better track record.

2. Interesting story concept. – There’s a lot to enjoy about this story.  Of course, we’ll have to see how Paul Cornell and Ryan Kelly execute on the promise of this issue, but they lay out a lot of tasty bits.  Of course, the big hook is the very X-Files treatment of aliens: Maybe they’re here and abducting us…or maybe something else is going on.  Given that the protagonist announces her candidacy for the Presidency, I’d imagine we’ll get into government conspiracies and cover-ups.  That’s just catnip for someone like me who loves to read conspiracy websites about what NASA knows about aliens but won’t share with the public.  But, layered on top of this, the protagonist seems like a wonderfully complex character.  In this first issue we meet Ms. Arcadia Alvarado, Governor of New Mexico, her estranged husband who physically abused her and her campaign staff.  Arcadia is that great mix of both strong and vulnerable and she’s a fairly three-dimensional character after only one issue.  Can’t wait to see where she goes.  But, the other characters seem neat too: There’s clearly more going on with her ex-husband than meets the eye, her bodyguards seem like they have interesting back-stories, I like her plucky campaign advisor and there’s even a whacky university professor who writes about aliens.  It’s all very rich.

Saucer Country #1 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (writer), Ryan Kelly (artist), Giulia Brusco (colorist)

The Story: I swear, I was abducted by green men who took me to a museum—or I was drunk.

The Review: I’m a big Cornell fan, if my last review of Stormwatch didn’t make that clear—and it did, because I practically slipped on my own tears writing about my disappointment on his leaving the title.  Of course, there’s always Demon Knights, but once Vertigo announced Cornell’s involvement with Saucer Country, I had to know what kind of story he’d write given semi-complete creative freedom, unbound by continuity or traditional interpretations of any kind.

If you boil down this series to its essence, you can scrape the dredges together and call it your classic alien encounter/psychological thriller.  All the major tenets of that genre are accounted for: uncertainty of what’s real and what’s imagined; tampered memories and repressed traumas, all to be whipped up upon some foreboding trigger event; people perched precariously on the edge of cogency and paranoia.  In that sense, Cornell doesn’t break the formula all that much.

Again, just as in everything people do, it’s all in the execution.  Cornell’s first step away from convention is in his choice of protagonist.  Arcadia Alvarado is no helpless, simpering lady begging the authorities to believe in her; she is the authority, being governor of New Mexico, and moreover, she’s out to become the authority as she trains her sights on the White House.

Quick Hit Reviews – Week of April 27, 2011

The last Wednesday of the month is also know as “The Week When Marvel Tries to Kill Us” by releasing everything they possibly can so that we can all throw our backs out as we leave the comic shop.

New York Five #4 – Here is an early contender for “miniseries of the year” and I’m going to be highly pissed when it gets left off those lists in favor of a bunch of miniseries that end in December because comic fans have the attention span of a mosquito.  This whole series has been a really touching slice-of-life drama as we follow these young ladies in the spring semester of their freshman year at NYU.  This issue brought things home in a major way.  For one thing, someone dies and the characters are left to ponder on the transitory nature of their lives: They’re all moving on in life and the little group of friends is moving apart.  We’ve all been there and had friends who seemed like the most important things in our lives before something changed because someone took a new job or moved or signed up for classes at a different time of day from you, and you just drift apart.  That’s life and Brian Wood really nails that sentiment.  I’ve gushed on Ryan Kelly’s art before (and own an original page from issue #1), but not only does he do a tremendous job on the young ladies who are the center of this book, but he also makes “The City” a co-starring character itself.  This is a “must read” for everyone and especially so for anyone with any affinity for New York.  Grade: A 

Velocity #4 – Oh la la!  Kenneth Rocafort is a beast!  This series wraps up a very good and straightforward tale of Velocity racing against the clock to save her Cyberforce teammates from a deadly virus.  Every panel that Rocafort draws of Velocity just oozes energy.  She just looks fast even when she is standing still.  He’s got a really powerful understanding of human anatomy and muscle groups.  Sunny Gho does a pretty nice job of coloring too.  Even though the story was really simple, I think Ron Marz deserves some credit.  It’s almost like he knew that this series would take almost a year to come out and kept it simple so that each time all you had to remember was “race against the clock to save teammates.”  If you’re an art fan, this is a must-buy in collected form.  Grade: B+

Morning Glories #9 – This title continues to be confusing, but in a very good way.  Sometimes I get highly annoyed by books that are being mysterious and opaque (see: Batman, Inc.), but I think Nick Spencer is pulling off the confusion because we actually have a hope of learning some answers.  In this issue, we follow one of the students, Jun, and see his back story, how the Morning Glories Academy became interested in him and what lengths they were willing to go to in order to get him as a student.  Yikes!  Once again, I can’t wait for next month.  I’ve heard a lot of folks complain about the art in Morning Glories, but I really don’t get it.  It’s true that it isn’t JH Williams or Mike Kaluta, but I think Eisma is doing a wonderful job with telling the story in terms of his panels and layouts.  Grade: B+

FF #2 – The story here is pretty top notch as the FF has to fix Doom’s brain damage and it has all the moralistic tropes where there are opportunities to kill Doom that are passed upon.  Fortunately, Hickman doesn’t spend too much time dwelling on the morals because the idea of the FF seriously killing Doom is just preposterous.  And, we get a pretty cool cliffhanger ending featuring Valeria who is having a really nice run as a character under Hickman’s pen.  The only thing holding this back for me is Epting’s art.  It isn’t that I think Epting is a poor artist, but I just don’t think his realistic style is suited for FF.  I’d rather see Epting illustrate a crime story and let us have an artist who is more cartoonist on FF.  It doesn’t have to be outlandish cartooning. Let’s just have someone like Dale Eaglesham.  Grade: B

New York Five #3 – Review

By: Brian Wood (writer), Ryan Kelly (art), Jared K. Fletcher (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Shelly Bond (editor)

The Story: A few of our freshmen co-eds at NYU have life-changing experiences.

What’s Good: Again this month, New York Five is really a showcase for Ryan Kelly’s art.  The story is good too, and I’ll get to that in a minute, but the art is so good that it overshadows the script.

Kelly is just a beast drawing architecture.  NYC comes alive under his pencil and pen and that is vitally important because The City is as much a character in this story as any of the young ladies.  I would love to know more about his process and if he is using some sort of photo-assist.  I wouldn’t hold it against him if he was because the end-result is incredible, but the only other option is that he doesn’t sleep because I can’t imagine how this could be a monthly book with this level of detail.  Or….it was all “in the can” before they solicited it?

The other great thing about Kelly’s artwork is that he can get his characters to act and emote without resorting to a cartoony art style.  Cartoony would never work with his buildings and architecture, but most artists who go for a more realistic style get more wooden characters and also have the stray panel where someone just looks funny.  This never happens with Kelly’s characters and he nails their faces and bodies from just about every angle possible.  Just amazing!

This reviewer is such an art whore that the story almost becomes an afterthought, but Wood is doing good work here too.  I’m a sucker for these young-women-coming-of-age, and if you like those types of stories, you’re going to love these characters.  They are all so lifelike and will all remind you in some way of people you’ve known in your life as these girls struggle with the transition from childhood to being an adult while also adjusting to life in the city.

Quick Hit Reviews – Week of February 23, 2011

Sometimes there are soooo many comics published in a given week (ahem….I’m looking at you Marvel) that despite the heroic efforts of the WCBR writing staff, we simply can’t give every comic a complete review.  Thus, the Quick Hit Reviews…

New York Five #2 – Wow is Ryan Kelly a great artist!  The story here is solid, slice of life stuff as we follow our four college freshmen as they adapt to life in NYC, but the star of this issue is Kelly’s art.  His character work is really strong as young ladies are all cute and express appropriate emotion, but his attention to the city around them in just incredible.  The city just feels alive. I really need to track down New York Four and I encourage everyone to check out this Vertigo series.  Kelly and Tommy Lee Edwards (on Turf) made a LOT of artist’s backgrounds look like dog food this week.  Grade: A-  — Dean Stell

X-Men: To Serve and Protect #4 – All I ask of an anthology series is to give me one really memorable story.  I almost don’t care if 3/4 of the issue is crap as long as I get that one stellar tale.  This issue has a BIG mission accomplished for Jed MacKay and Sheldon Vella’s story of Dazzler, Misty Knight & Colleen Wing engaged in roller derby death match involved a really wacky version of MODOK (Mental Organism Designed Only for Roller Derby!!).  Vella’s art and colors are just amazing.  Toss in a good finale to the Rockslide/Anole story that has woven through this anthology series and you’ve got a winner.  I love the X-office continues to publish these anthologies.  Grade: B+  — Dean Stell

New York Five #1 – Review

By: Brian Wood (writer), Ryan Kelly (art), Jared K. Fletcher (letters) & Shelly Bond (editor)

The Story: A bunch of young women who are freshmen at NYU deal with life in the city.

What’s Good: What a breath of fresh air this was!  You know how crummy you feel if you eat junk food for 4 days straight and then eat a nice fresh salad? New York Five is that salad.

This comic introduces us to four young women who are freshmen at NYU.  They’re sharing an apartment as they begin their spring semester and adapting to life in NYC.  These characters have all the issues and hang-ups that are typical for kids that age: boy problems, problems at school, family issues, home-sick, being almost-but-not-quite grown up, etc.  But rather than becoming a kinda comic version of Sex in the City, everything is presented in a much more real and down-to-Earth fashion.   Wood does a great job of portraying how important some of these problems can seem to a kid that age while also making it clear that none of these issues are life-and-death.  It’s all relative and most of us can remember when getting a bad grade in English was the end of the world even if it seems like small potatoes now.  I’ve never been shy admitting my love of comics about teenage girls coming of age (too many women in my life, I guess), and if you enjoy comics on the superhero side like Batgirl, Supergirl or Spider-girl or enjoy things like Love and Rockets you’ll love this issue.

I shudder to think how many pencils Ryan Kelly went through to illustrate this issue because it is sick how much detail is in these panels.  The outside panels show trees with intricate branches and all the cracks in the sidewalk.  The kitchen is full of cereal boxes, dish towels, magnets on the fridge, overflowing trash cans and such.  The architecture in the city is FULLY rendered.  My god is this art detailed!  And….it is black and white which is a huge bonus for me in a comic like this.  This is a realistic comic and things like bright RED hair or a GREEN sweater would detract from the story.  A few colorists might add to this story (Val Staples), but most would just screw it up.  Plus, when you have B&W art, the line work is just more detailed because the artist has to handle all of the contouring and shading themselves.  The girls are all cute without being over sexualized and that’s important because we’re supposed to care about them…. not be having fantasies about them.  This comic would be worth buying just for the art.

The Unwritten #17 – Review

by Mike Carey (writer), Peter Gross (layouts), Ryan Kelly (finishes), Chris Chuckry & Jeanne McGee (colors), and Todd Klein (letters)

The Story: Lizzie/Jane’s past is revealed and Savoy and Tom make a daring rescue effort in a special “pick-a-story” issue.

What’s Good: Is have to give props to Carey and Gross for having the balls to even attempt a “choose-your-own-adventure” issue.  The experience of reading this comic is quite unlike anything I’ve experienced reading comics, the layouts are unique, and it’s all clearly the result of an extremely labor intensive creative effort.

Format aside, the story that Carey tells here is a good one, equally divided between exploring some of the series’ early moments in greater detail while also surprisingly trucking the plot forward.   The scenes detailing Lizzie’s past do a fantastic job of illuminating events from the Unwritten’s first issues that were clouded in mystery and completely puzzling at the time.  Now, Carey clarifies them, while also showing how much sense it all makes knowing what we know now, something that’s quite pleasant when recalling how mystifying these happenings were back when we read them.

Meanwhile, the present day events deliver a satisfying feel of the gang “coming together” as character relationships are stronger than ever.  Tom and Lizzie’s relationship has never felt more meaningful, even if it ends up being solidified by a fiction, while Savoy and Tom’s banter livens it all up.  An interesting parallel between these scenes and those from a Tommy Taylor novel also give everything a heavier and more significant tone.

DMZ #43 – Review

by Brian Wood (writer), Ryan Kelly (art), Jeromy Cox (colors), and Jared K. Fletcher (letters)

The Story: Just when main character Tony begins to question the cult, they manipulate his emotions once again, causing him to commit his bloodiest act yet.

What’s Good: Last month, Wood provided a disturbingly plausible look into cult psychology and emotional manipulation, and this month, he digs further. It works so well simply due to the reader’s ability to see just how wrong the cult’s mentality is.  The reasoning provided by Tony’s “boss man” is so hideously opposite to what most normal people consider emotional common sense, and yet that a sick logic remains is evidence of Wood’s skill as a writer.  It’s all shades of grey as well: there are signs that Tony’s boss is merely keeping his man in line, burying him all the deeper, and yet the rhetoric is said with such passion that the reader actually believes that sincerity is present nonetheless.

This is not at all a cheerful comic. After the poignantly hopeful image that ended last month’s comic, it’s depressing to see Tony pulled back in with such ease. Yet, this only shows Wood’s dedication to realism. There are no heroes or insurrections here, only broken men. No amount of suspicions or discoveries on Tony’s part will make him any less vulnerable or shattered. For some reason, despite the gruesome atrocity Tony commits this month, Wood somehow makes an automaton killing machine sympathetic.

Ryan Kelly’s art is nothing short of astounding, impressing me even more this month than it did the last.  His rendition of Wood’s desolate NYC is dense and packed and yet hopelessly desolate and barren.  Kelly is also one of those remarkable artists where the more brutal his subject, the more emotional baggage he’s able to toss on. Once again, he also provides a metaphorical and poignant image to end this book on, one that should stay with the reader for some time, blending the mundane with the murderous in a manner that is truly disturbing.

I suppose the best thing about this issue is the ever-present disparity between Tony’s world and the reader. Wood’s depiction of brainwashing is only so effective because we are able to see the cult’s manipulation so clearly, while Tony is not. While the reader is able to recognize Tony’s boss’ “gift” for the farce it is, Tony, lost in his trauma, automatically switches into “kill-mode.” Thus, Wood is able to contrast the healthy psyche of the reader with the shattered life of Tony; and the result can only be described as “real.”

What’s Not So Good: Very little is wrong with this book. Plot-wise, the book does centre around one crucial event while showcasing Kelly’s art. While this isn’t a bad thing, as both are golden, it also makes this issue a quick read.  I was honestly surprised how fast I went through it, though I definitely wanted to re-read it almost immediately.

Conclusion: This is heavy, heavy stuff that’ll give the “comics should be fun” guys fits.  Then again, I always hated those guys.  Make no mistake, this is haunting, grade-A quality, can’t miss stuff.

Grade: A-

-Alex Evans

DMZ #42 – Review

by Brian Wood (writer), Ryan Kelly (art), Jeromy Cox (colors), and Jared K. Fletcher (letters)

The Story: The gas-mask wearing death cult who inhabit the Empire State Building are examined from the perspective of one of its members, a former police officer.

What’s Good: This is not a happy comic. In fact, it’s downright miserable. If you want a light adrenaline ride, go pick up this week’s issue of Action Comics or the Flash:Rebirth. If however, you want something tough as nails and heavy as a stone, this is an issue to consider.

The strongest thing about DMZ #42 is its tone. Brooding, traumatizing, and pitch dark, this comic develops its mood perfectly. A key reason for this is the incredibly distinct, genuine, and hard-biting internal monologue, which plays to Wood’s great ability in establishing engaging narrators.

This is a remarkably cerebral book. Its focus on the manipulation of trauma and cult mechanics is outstanding and neither heavy-handed nor ham-fisted, despite the weight of the comic. It feels thorough, accurate, honest, and completely terrifying. One-part support group, one-part Nazi-styled “I was following orders” mentality, the cult is frightening stuff, yet it’s also made plausible by Wood. The examination of cult-mentality is especially good due to how gradual it is; it takes even the reader a while to realize the incredibly structured mental manipulation that is occurring, let alone the characters.

Plot-wise, I always like it when writers look at an event from early on in their series from a completely different perspective. I also have to quickly mention the final scene of the book, which is simply beautiful. An emotionally heavy moment, it goes to show just how well symbolism and metaphor can work in a comic.

Art-wise, Ryan Kelly does a great job. The images of the city are gorgeous and Kelly gives the comic an incredibly dark feel that matches its story perfectly. I can’t imagine a better artist working on this arc. There’s a strong “indie/stylized” flavour here, but it’s not at all overbearing or dominant. It achieves a perfect balance of style, detail, and grit.

What’s Not So Good: This comic does what it does very well, but it may not be what some DMZ readers were hoping for. This comic does not advance the main storyline of the series. Matty Roth is nowhere to be seen, nor are any of DMZ’s main characters. This is simply a standalone arc explaining a particular sect of the city, a side-story if you will.

Also, a bit of a minor quibble, but occasionally it can be a bit hard to distinguish the main character when everyone’s wearing a gas mask and similar clothing.

Conclusion: A hard-hitting examination of psychological manipulation and cult construction in a warzone that is, and promises to be, tragically beautiful in its unfolding.

Grade: B+

-Alex Evans