Clotheslines.

Review -- SHADOWMAN #14

Shadowman #14

(Peter Milligan / Roberto de la Torre / David Baron / Dave Lanphear; Valiant)

With Shadowman #14, the art team of Roberto de la Torre and David Baron stomp the horror genre comic with thick, masterful boots. A matter of fact, screw genre niches, as far as I am concerned, these guys are stomping comics in general. This book is as beautiful as it is creepy as it is viscerally, knot-tingly, horrifically powerful. Its strengths lie in its visuals and they cover the mars of some minor Milligan missteps.

There is a distance to the pages in Shadowman #14, a gauze between the action and the reader, a haze or a fog. The things that come out of this mist come at you hard and vicious. There is little air to breathe in these panels; de la Torre's wispy lines and suggested backgrounds barely hold together and Baron's colors wash you even more in uncertainty, as if your emotional reaction can only be gauged through subtle shifts in the vibrancy of greens or reds or grays. This art burrowed into my own primal fears getting to a fundamental, intrinsic horror – something so terribly alien mating furiously and frantically with everything familiar and comforting.

Review -- BLOODSHOT AND H.A.R.D. CORPS #18

Bloodshot and H.A.R.D.Corps #18

(Christos Gage / Joshua Dysart / Bart Sears / Matt Milla / Allen Passalaqua / Dave Sharpe; Valiant)

Hey cover banner that reads “All-New Arc!” and “Must Read Valiant,” your shouting makes me nervous. There's a desperation to your punctuation; methinks your admonition protests too much, perhaps. I'm wary, but...  well... okay. It's you, Valiant. I've come to trust you over time. Your relaunch has brought such bounty, such pleasure. I guess you're just enthused. I understand. I can be excitable too.

But not all hype is in service to the truth.

There's something droll about Bloodshot and H.A.R.D.Corps #18, something not quite serious in its over-seriousness. It's as if everyone involved is in on this joke but nobody really understands the punchline because it's actually a Nietzschean aphorism and not supposed to be funny in the first place. Imagine, if you will, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson playing the role of Macbeth … in a wet suit … translated into Klingon or Elvish or something nerdy like that, and then packaged as an exercise regimen called “Lay On, Macduff” because The Rock is all muscly and really, we all want to be muscly, don't we?

That's kind of where I ended up when I started thinking about this book.

It could be that I am still associating this H.A.R.D.Corps with THIS H.A.R.D.Corps and that's fucking me all up.

I know, I know. Let this book stand on its own merits. The past is the past, let sleeping dogs lie, a bird in the hand, mama didn't raise no coffee table. Professional in attire and attitude. Ahem.

Dillon Naylor talks Da 'n' Dill

Tim Molloy talks Mr. Unpronounceable Adventures

The Artists of Milk Shadow Books

How Poop (Office) is Made - Poop Office 75

I've been writing about Poop Office (here and here) from Naked Grape Comics and have called it both a "a scathing condemnation of Capitalist doctrine" and "a Dadaist manifesto of survival in the bureaucratic structure inherent in modern life." 

Now Ben Pooped gives us some insight into "the making of" Poop Office #75 and we are all the better for him having done so. 

Click "Click Here to Read More" to see the video

Review -- THE ILLEGITIMATES #1

The Illegitimates #1

(Marc Andreyko / Taran Killam / Kevin Sharpe / Diana Greenhalgh / Peter Pantazis; IDW)

This is a comic that is all about premise. There is not much to it otherwise. The question becomes then, I guess, is premise enough for a critic like myself to declare something “good”? This, of course, brings up questions about the nature of criticism itself, as well as an even larger can of worms concerning what, itself, is “good”. But I'm wondering if a review of IDW's The Illegitimates #1 is really the platform for such a discussion? This strikes me as neither the time nor the place for this larger  discourse.

Instead, let's talk about premise. The Merriam-Webster definition of the term is “a proposition antecedently supposed or proved as a basis of argument or inference; specifically : either of the first two propositions of a syllogism from which the conclusion is drawn.” It is, in a nutshell, the “IF” to the “THEN” of the cause and effect relationship. Premise is all about Idea, and Idea is the fecund ooze from which all art arises; it's the single celled organism about to evolve through evolutionary action. As my fellow reviewer Justin Giampaoli has never said, “A sandwich is a premise, while a Banh Mi is its fruition.”

What is Zeno's Dichotomy Paradox?

A Brief History of Plural Word...s

Myths and Misconceptions about Evolution

How Do You Smell.

Review -- FACTION #2

Faction 2

(Allan Xia / Cory Mathis / Damon Keen / Sheehan Brothers / Rachel Royale / Michel Mulipola / Ned Wenlock / James Squires / Adrian Kinnaird / Mukpuddy)

I love to sample. Beers, chocolate, ice cream, music, excerpts, trailers, sound bites, and the like. You know, you get to try all sorts of new experiences without having to fully commit. Nothing wrong with trying before you start buying, amirite?  Maybe that's why I like anthologies so much, as you encounter new voices, see new visions, be set assail on new seas, without having to invest your full self to the experience. I mean, when was the last time you sat down and read the work of 10 different cartoonists from New Zealand?

I rest my case.

Faction #2 is the second anthology released by Three Bad Monkeys and once again it fulfills its mission to: “show off the diverse range of comic talent that exists in New Zealand and celebrate the extraordinary new direction that comics have been taking in the past years.” Diversity is certainly the name of the game here as the material presented in its 80 or so pages runs the gamut from science-fiction to fantasy, thick painted panels juxtaposed with lightly inked expressions, dead seriousness contrasted with the oddly goofy. As my grandmother used to say, “It's got a little something for everyone,” some stronger than others, but all worth a sample.

Review -- David Lapham's JUICE SQUEEZERS #1

Juice Squeezers #1

(David Lapham / Lee Loughridge; Dark Horse Comics)

I know I'm a little behind on this story, but the idea that David Lapham is writing an all-ages comic kinda bends my mind. I mean, this is Stray Bullets David Lapham, right? The same guy who was artist on Warriors of Plasm? Is this really the kind of guy you want creating comics for kids?

Apparently, the answer to this question is YES, because Juice Squeezers #1 is all kinds of family fun awesome.

As an all-ages comic, the premise behind this book is straight up nutso. There's this town, Weeville, California, and it's been invaded by “legions of giant bugs” who are threatening to overrun the town. The only thing standing between staid, small-town American Life and arthropod Armageddon is a “covert group comprised of scrawny tweens, the Squeezers,” who “are the only ones who can fit into the cramped subterranean battlefield and fight the insects on the frontlines!”

Having student-taught at a middle school for a semester, I can understand why those little suckers are the perfect insecticide. Seriously.

1/1/14 -- And So Begins A New Year

Good Luck To All of Us