More reviews

 

Grandville. Bryan Talbot. Dark Horse. 108 pages.

Funny animals? Ugh. Though Walt Kelly, Carl Barks and even Jack "King'' Kirby embraced and elevated the genre, it mostly left me cold — until now. Talbot's tightly plotted political thriller posits an alternate universe where France conquered England in the Napoleonic Wars, and the world is ruled by anthropomorphic animals, with a few hairless apes as servants and lackeys. Following his tour de force Alice in Sunderland, the grand master of British comics' recent projects have been a bit odd. Grandville is no exception, but this wildly heady blend of mystery, heroics, politics, religion and romance is more reminiscent of his classic Luther Arkwright series than anything he's done since. If you can get past — or embrace — his archetypical menagerie of well-drawn faux-bipeds, the story, with allegorical echoes of 9/11, is further evidence that Talbot blazes his own path and is always worth following.

 

The Year of Loving Dangerously. Ted Rall, Pablo G. Callejo. NBM Publishing. 127 pages.

In different alternate universes, normal-looking Rall, an award-winning writer and artist, is a stud-muffin, so irresistible that women at peace protests, pizza joints and other public places invariably invite him to share their beds. Just as well: Since he was tossed out of Columbia, Rall has no fixed abode and usually bunks down in supply closets or subways (and strange ladies' apartments). The story is true, apparently, and unfolded in the 1980s after a freak medical condition resulted in Rall's school expulsion for failure to take his final exams. Rall scripted but wisely left the illustrations to Spain's Callejo, who did a great job illuminating a story as bleak as the empty experiences it depicts.

 

The Escapists. Brian K Vaughan, Eduardo Barreto, Philip Bond, Steve Rolston. Dark Horse. 160 pages.

Stories about comics can be dull affairs. Affection for the medium and its practitioners often distorts the image. Even the great Will Eisner's The Dreamer was somewhat whitewashed and sentimental.

Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay added mysticism and religion to the mix, but his love of the genre dominated. The series of comics spun off from his novel are a mixed bag, but this standalone story is wistful, evocative and powerful as it depicts the conflict and ambiguity of art, comics and real life. Vaughn's story has all the elements of a great comics tale with clearly drawn heroes and villains, but it also transcends the medium with its great heart and spirit.
— Richard Pachter

Originally published in The Miami Herald

Zombies, Dylan and the Bible

BY RICHARD PACHTER

The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks. Max Brooks and Ibraim Roberson. Three Rivers.
Brooks' silly and self-important "historical'' zombie vignettes serve as illustrated back-stories to his popular series of expository zombie prose novels. It's a decent enough gimmick, and this graphic treatment might be entertaining and important to acolytes and fans of his other undead work. But the only redeeming feature for the unconvinced is the lithe and imaginative illustrations and vivid storytelling of Ibraim Roberson, whose craft and skill far outclasses Brooks' moribund material.

Bob Dylan Revisited. Various artists. Norton.

This French collection of illuminated Dylan lyrics, illustrated by an international, non-American team of artists is a mixed bag. Some of the selections seem odd choices for graphic retelling; others represent missed opportunities. But when things click, like in Dave McKean's Desolation Row, Gradimir Smudja's Hurricane and Zep's Not Dark Yet, you can see the promise of the concept. But most of the interpretations are a bit too serious and austere to justify the effort.

 
The Spirit: The New Adventures. Will Eisner and others. Dark Horse.

Reunions are usually iffy, which is why Eisner wisely resisted revisiting his creation, The Spirit, except for a few brief encounters. But he finally acquiesced to publisher Denis Kitchen's entreaties to allow other creators to play with his most famous character. The result was an eight-issue series that's gorgeously reproduced in this volume. Artists and writers alike were canny enough to resist slavish mimicry, bringing a new energy to the strip while retaining the original noir-ish blend of innovation and tradition. Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Eddie Campbell, Kurt Busiek, Tom Mandrake, John Ostrander, Paul Chadwick and others clearly had a ball with their stellar homages to The Spirit of Will Eisner.

 
The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb. R. Crumb. Norton.

The good news is that Crumb tackles the Bible -- but that's the bad news too. While his draftsmanship and composition have never been better, the material is, frankly, weak, hackneyed and disjointed. Unless readers allow their own transcendent faith and suspension of disbelief to make it more than what it is, Crumb's visual tour de force is for naught.

 
Masterpiece Comics. R. Sikoryak. Drawn & Quarterly.

Sikoryak's astonishing mashups take classics from Shakespeare, Camus, Bronte and the Bible and combines them with the hoary comics motifs of Batman, Superman, Mary Worth, Blondie, EC, Garfield and more. He's a terrific artist, and his awesome mimicry and maniacal imagination will startle and delight litt'rateurs and fanboys alike.

 
Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth. Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos H. Papadimitriou, Alecos Papadatos, Annie Di Donna. Bloomsbury. 

This amazing and rewarding book presents a portrait of Bertrand Russell -- of all people -- and his quest for meaning in logic and romance. The book's creative team also appears as characters in their resonant and interesting evocation, using of the graphic format in an imaginative and engaging way.

Originally published in The Miami Herald

Cameron Stewart on Batman and Robin

Announced today.

He'll be doing Issues 7-9, right after Philip Tan and before Frank Quitely returns for 10-12.

Here's a sketch from his blog.

Planetary #27 preview

An actual story, it would seem. Nice!

New Brian Azzaello promo comic

In conjunction with his forthcoming novel, Vanished, author Joseph Finder produced a comic featuring his creation, The Cowl.

From his site: The Cowl is written by Brian Azzarello, one of the greats in the comics world and the author of 100 Bullets and the bestselling Joker, and drawn by talented new comic artist Benito Gallego. There are limited quantities of the comic book available in print. This is an exclusive offer for fans who pre-order VANISHED. (Click here) for a letter from Joe explaining the origin of The Cowl.

More Chris Sprouse

In a bit of synchronicity, this interview of Sprouse just appeared online. Disregard the typos. It's pretty good!

And Sprouse was set to do a Superman story, he says, but it was canceled.

Alas!

My favorite quote: "It was very easy to break in: I simply mailed sample pages to DC Comics and they called me two weeks later! "

The great Chris Sprouse

Artist Chris Sprouse has a very appealing style. Simple, clean and really elegant line work, expressive faces, terrific page design, smart sexy ladies, powerful men, scary villains — Sprouse does it all and makes it look easy.

He's currently working on a new series featuring Tom Strong, the character he co-created with Alan Moore.

I ganked the above image from his website which is well worth a visit.

Wouldn't it be great if Chris Sprouse regularly drew Superman? I sure think so.

Wayne Boring + Curt Swan + Kurt Schaffenberger = Chris Sprouse. That's how I figure it, anyway.