Top of the Pile 8/29/2012

Spaceman #9
Written by: Brian Azzarello
Art by: Eduardo Risso
Cover by: Dave Johnson
Publish by: Vertigo

I know, this is a couple days after the Wednesday release of this book. But I have a thing with limited series. I wait until the complete before I read them. I have found that, let’s just say, the release schedules for limited series are somewhat looser than ongoing titles. So instead of just reading the single issue this week, I had the enjoyment of reading the whole series to get to the top of the pile with Spaceman #9.

This series is a scifi adventure with Orson as the main character. Orson is what people call a spaceman. He was genetically engineered by NASA to survive better on Mars. So he is bigger and has a simian look to him. Spacemen in this flooded Earth are ostracised and shunned. But he’s a nice guy just trying to live his life. Everyone on Earth also watch web videos, and the most popular one is called “The Ark”, which is some sort of reality show with orphans. When Orson stumbles onto the botched kidnapping attempt of the star of The Ark, a young girl named Tara, he ends up in the middle of tons of trouble. At the same time, there is a simultaneous plotline of Orson and three of his fellow spacemen on an outpost on Mars, which turns into a Treasure of Sierra Madre type story.

Brian Azzarello tells a good story. One of the first things you’ll notice when you start reading is that he has created a slang lingo. Often dropping syllables from words or spelling phonetically, it takes a little effort to get the complete understanding. But like pig latin, the more you read the easier it is to comprehend. The dialog helps realize the future world Azzarello creates, which is believable. An underwater world where the rich live in a walled, dry area while the rest live on the water scraping a life for themselves. We feel for Orson. He’s not dumb nor naive, but he seems the optimist. However, the other characters are mostly plot devices without much depth to them. Which is understandable in a limited series.

And Eduardo Risso helps create this future world with his detailed art. The backgrounds are fully realized and each frame conveys tons of information. We see how bleak the world becomes. And by issue 9, we see how opulent the rich society becomes. Character designs are interesting in a futuristic way.

So, I didn’t discuss Spaceman #9 specifically too much. But as the climax to an interesting story, it was a very good issue. I would certainly add the trade of this series to any public library library, though it might be a little mature for a teen area. And for non-comic readers who like scifi, this would be a good suggestion for them to pickup.

Top of the Pile 8/22/2012

Supercrooks #4
Story by Mark Millar and Nacho Vigalondo
Art by Leinil Yu and Gerry Alanguilan
Colors by Sunny Gho
Letters by Clayton Cowles

There are tons of post-modern superhero stories where the heroes are as bad - or worse - than the villains they are supposed to fight. And Mark Millar has built an entire collection of books around this theme. His book Wanted and Kick-Ass have been made into movies. And he pumps out uber-violent, profanity laced tales that always entertain me.

With Supercrooks #4, we are at the end of a mini-series. The tale revolves around a heist. To get money for an old supervillain who gets in trouble over gambling debts, a team is assembled to steal the 800 million dollar nest egg of the greatest villain, with the obvious name The Bastard. So like all the old heist films, (Topkapi, Oceans 11, The Italian Job, A Fish Called Wanda, Reservoir Dogs…) each character has a role in the caper. And there is always a switcheroo to throw off the victim. And Millar hits all the tropes, which is good.

Leinl Yu’s art quite good. Though unique, he uses a rougher style which works well with this type of story.  The viscera are nicely drawn and the narrative isn’t lost in it’s roughness. There is a funny panel where The Bastard has been had. He ends up in front of the “Monkey Go-Round” in the Banana Land amusement park. That made me chuckle.

So for a thin week of few books purchased, what ended up on the top of the pile was a good read. Not great. But fun.

Top of the Pile 8/15/12

Saga #6
written by Brian K. Vaughan
art by Fiona Stapes
published by Image

This weeks top of the pile would of been either the two hip titles from Image, Fatale or Saga. But my comic shop messed up and didn’t pull Fatale, so by process of elimination, Saga is on top.

Written by Brian K. Vaughan with art by Fiona Stapes, Saga is an apt title for this science fiction fable. The plot of the story is where two combatants from a warring solar system fall in love and produce a daughter. They name her a rather mundane name, Hazel, and she is the narrator of the story. As they try and escape from their war, they wind up have a robot prince, and a couple bounty hunters on their tail.

I mentioned that this is one of the new hip titles out there. With several printings of the first issue, it’s seems to surprisingly found an audience. Which is cool, since it is a fun book to read. Brian K. Vaughan has developed a universe where magic is used in battle, sentient robots of reproduce biologically, and rocket ships grow like trees. It reminds me a little of the Hitchhikers Guide in its outlandish ideas.

But what makes these outlandish ideas live is the artwork by Fiona Staples. Her lines are wonderfully clear and her facial expressions are spot on. We feel the pain/wonder/anguish/joy experienced by each of the characters. (Except for the robot prince who has a computer monitor for a head.)

I haven’t read all the end notes and letters, but I did notice that if the book didn’t sell well, it would have ended after 6 issues. I’m glad to see that it will continue.

Top of the Pile 8/8/12

The Mighty Thor #18

Story - Matt Fraction & Kieron Gillen
Script - Matt Fraction
Penciler - Alan Davis
Inker - Mark Farmer
Colorist - Javier Rodriguez
Letterer - VC's Joe Sabino

This weeks top of the pile is a book I isn’t part of my pull list from the comic shop. The Mighty Thor #18 has the honor of being read first due to the fact that it is the beginning of a story arc that will contain the book Journey Into Mystery, which I do subscribe to and enjoy. They Asgard books are doing a crossover event called “Everything Burns” which will be a huge battle with the fire giant Surtur.

Written by Matt Fraction and Kieron Gillen with pencils by the phenomenal artist Alan Davis, this was a book I wanted to read to see if it was worth adding the extra title to collect the whole “Everything Burns” event, or to drop Journey Into Mystery since I find these cross book storylines a pain.

As far as the story goes, I think it will be pretty good. It seems for the last couple years Asgard is in one existential crisis after another and only Thor can save the day. But I mentioned that I am only picking up Journey Into Mystery, which tell the story of a young, reincarnated Loki. Without the pure malevolence, I find this Loki a wonderful character. He tries to fight against his nature to do bad. He tries to do what’s right. But no one thinks he has changed that much from his old evil self. However, there was precious little of young Loki this book. I’m sure he’ll have more of a presence as the story continues.

Well, I liked this book. But what made it better than average was Alan Davis’ artwork. His style hasn’t changed over the years, and that’s a good thing since his style is wonderful for comic books. His draughtsmanship is top notch and clearly advances the narrative. Unlike some comic art where there are expressionless and featureless figures. His expressions and figures are unique. And I had to take about 5 minutes to look at the group battle double page spread.

So when the next issues of this story come out, I'll liked this issue enough to continue getting the story. But I'll wait till the end of the crossover event to read the complete tale in one sitting. I find this much more rewarding.

Top of the Pile - 8/1/12

Black Kiss II
by Howard Chaykin
Image Comics
I know there are better books in the pile. The last issue of I Zombie came in. The Garth Ennis book Fury Max with all it’s cold war sexyness was in my stack. But I had to go with the most prurient book, Black Kiss II.

Black Kiss was a pornographic comic from 1988 which was something we talked about around the comic shop at the time it was released. And I guess it caused a little stir in the day. But being a young, free thinking man, I didn’t worry about.

Now almost 25 years later, he is writing what looks to be a prequel the original work. The story starts off in a magic nickelodeon in 1902. The audience, while watching a pornographic movie, devolves into a very hentai style tentacle rape scene. From there, the story continues 10 years later on the Titanic. We meet what seems to be the hero. He’s trying to lose his virginity to some loose hooker when the ship hits the iceberg. While escaping, he is grabbed by same tentacle raping being from the cinema and anally rapes this young virgin. After his violation, he finds his way to a rescue boat and the book ends.

Obviously, this is not a book for most people (young and old alike). At the Comic Con, I attended a Buck Rogers panel where Chaykin was presenting. He admits that he is a style and brand all his own. With his name on the cover, you know what you’re going to get. Some racial and ethnic slurs. Images of ties flying to the side. Curly hair. Garters and stockings with the seam down the back. And this has all that with the full frontal too. I wouldn’t call this single issue good, but it is different enough with the deviant subject matter to keep me hopefully interested for the remaining 5 issues of the limited series. But I can pretty much guarantee that issue number 2 will not be the top of the pile when its released.