Comic Binge reviews.

Finally had a chance to read some comics. Lots of issue #1's, since they do me the most good on the recommendation front, and because -- well, there were a bunch of new stories that interested me, too.

DESTROYER #1-5. Marvel Max.

Underneath the supercostume is an old guy, with a bad ticker. He decides to take out all the ultrabad guys before he goes, and proceeds to slaughter them bloodily.

Best line, about halfway through the series, "All these years -- all the fighting -- all the assholes trying to take over the world-- trying to kill the ones I loved.

"The thing that caused me stress -- the source of my tension -- was trying NOT to kill them."

Strangely, amidst all the mayhem, there is a touching domestic drama concerning his wife and daughter, and the son-in-law he's trying to save from same fate.

Comics tell different stories than anyone else, I tell you. Satisfying, and yet they probably wouldn't work in movies unless done by Tarantino.

Written by Robert Kirkman, of Walking Dead.

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RED HERRING #1. Wildstorm.

Political thriller. Tries a little too hard at misdirection? Hence the title? A little wordy for my taste.

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SWEET TOOTH #1. Vertigo.

One of Vertigo's 1.00 intro's, about a little mutant deer boy with antlers and his father isolated in the woods. Post Apocalyptic. Father has raised him to avoid people, but when he dies....

Very intriguing. Written and drawn by Jeff Lemire, who is better known for his indie comics, such as Essex County. Got me hooked.

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STARR THE SLAYER #1. Marvel Max.

Bought it for the Richard Corben art, which I'm a sucker for -- he wrote the Den stories in Heavy Metal. Quirky look at sword and sorcery, with a hack writer pulled into the world he thought he created.

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GREEK STREET #1, 2. Vertigo.

A retelling of Greek tragedy in the streets of London. I get the Oedipus references, and I think I recognize Cassandra, but some of the others went over my head. Kept me reading through 2 issues, but I'm a little confused.

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DOMINIC FORTUNE #1. Marvel Max.

A 1930's soldier of fortune, (heh), and debonair man about town, and a bevy of half naked women attached to every appendage (heh), and Nazi's and Hollywood, and all the Howard Chaykin touches. I loved American Flagg when I first started reading comics, and this comic seems up to his old standards.

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NORTH 40 #1, 2. Vertigo.

Lovecraft in a redneck town. Kind of reminds me of the movie MIST, but maybe cause I just watched it last night.

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THE UNWRITTEN #1,2,3. Vertigo.

What if Harry Potter was real; well, Harry Potter-like character is real, and his father wrote his adventures and disappears and the Potter-ish kid grows up the son of a famous missing author but with no memory?

And then the strange things start happening...

I really like this comic. What's really uncanny is how the authors mimic the tone and language and ideas of this kind of fantasy.

***Note. Before I go any further. Any of you who actually read comics will see a pattern in what I'm reading. Vertigo is the more mature line from DC comics; Marvel Max is the mature line from Marvel. It's the kind of thing I gravitate towards, just as I gravitate toward thrillers and suspense and S.F. and horror PG13 and R rated kinds of movies.

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WEDNESDAY COMICS 1,2,3. DC

For a change of pace. This is a weekly experimental comic about the size of a newspaper, with 15 separate one page stories.

I really liked it. It has a nice feel, and having stockpiled the first 9 issues so far, I can read the stories fast. The large size really brings out the enjoyment of the art (though it seems to hit right in the middle of my short-sighted range, so neither my bifocals or my bare eyes can quite read it right.)

It has a very nostalgic feel -- which happens surprisingly often with comics. As though a part of the brain you don't use is opened up. A couple of the characters are ones I loved as a kid, such as Kamandi, Last boy on Earth, and Metal Men. I've liked neither the newer versions of these, nor the older versions when I went back and actually read them.

These versions seem more like my memory of what I used to like, but probably never existed until now. If that makes any sense. Some writers seem to have a talent at bringing this feeling back; Kurt Busiek for one, and of course Alan Moore.

I suppose it doesn't hurt that they have the best talent available for these stores; and a nice mix of main characters and secondary characters; Batman, Superman, Supergirl, Green Lantern, Deadman, Metomorpho, Flash, Hawkman, Sgt. Rock, Teen Titans, Demon and Black Cat, and Adam Strange. The only story I couldn't read was Wonderwoman, which was just too cutesie manga-ish for my taste. Some of the creators have an 'indie' slant, which seems to work surprising well for mainstream characters. (By the way, Marvel has just produced a comic from indies that does something similar, maybe even more offbeat, called Strange Tales which I completely missed. I've reordered it, and hoping I get some copies.)

Usually, I don't like the weekly thing; I seem to always eat a lot of copies because I can't adjust orders quickly enough, and people seem to drop the titles halfway through when they realize it costs four times as much as usual.

But I enjoyed the quality of this title, and I kind of hope they keep doing it. The payoff may come when they collect the entire run in book format, and wouldn't it be cool if they made the books oversized too?

It also points out, once again, the artificial lines we draw between cartoons and comics and newspaper strips and children's books. These are comics, just as Calvin and Hobbes is a comic, just as Get Fuzzy is a comic. People will admit all the time to enjoying Calvin and Hobbes, but stick a character like Flash in a comic and they won't touch it. Sigh.

I figure only the real comic folk have made it this far, so come on in and talk!

Jack Black, High Fidelity moments...

I had four teenagers in yesterday, three who weren't interested at all in comics, and one who was sort of semi-interested (I diagnosed immediately that there was a 60% chance he was all talk, a 40% chance that he might actually buy something.)

The store was busy, so I got called away to the counter.

I heard my friend and long-time customer Paul shouting to the teenagers -- "Whatever you do, don't buy that! It sucks!"

I sort of winced, and watched the four teenagers leave.

Now, I wasn't that alarmed. I figured out in talking to the kid that he was more or less showing off to his friends. I also had to warn him against being so rough with the books. There's a sort of passive-aggressive tone the under-20's have, toward being a nerd -- half defiant, half embarrassed.

I've learned to ignore the strong opinions of youth -- "All these comics are bad....all these are good."

Maybe because I came to comics as an adult, I've never been judgmental about people's comic choices. If they like a comic, who am I to say nay?

(I do have strong opinions about S.F., which I try to subdue. S.F. readers seems to come in two camps, and if I ask them what they're reading, I can tell within a few authors which camp they belong. If they read the stuff I don't read, I say, "Have fun looking." Because if I carry on the conversation, they'll inevitably find out I hate what they like, which isn't helpful. If they like some of the same authors I like, I can get into a pretty good conversation.)

Anyway, Paul comes up to the counter and I sort of say, "Hey, Paul. I usually don't try to actually talk someone out of buying something."

To his credit, Paul saw that he had been a bit out of line. But he compounds it by saying, "Well, you don't read comics anyway!"

I'm standing at the counter feeling naked while everyone stares at me. What I should have said was, "Hey, Paul. I read more comics than YOU do; I know because I know how many comics you buy!"

Instead, I sort of sputtered, "I read comics...."

Anyway, really there is a time-honored tradition to vociferous opinions about comics. It's almost to be expected that the fan-boys will tell the other fan-boys they are idiots for liking something.

Another customer was amazed that I actually liked the Wolverine movie. We started arguing about it, until he mentioned a plot element I didn't remember.

"Wait. Deadpool with laser eyes? I don't remember that." (Actually I do, now. But my mistake brought out the following admission....)

"Well, I didn't actually see it. But my friend...."

"You didn't see it? You're arguing with me over a movie you didn't see!"

After which I teased him mercilessly.

Turns out, he had seen the pirated version.

Jack Black in High Fidelity was really funny, especially since he was unknown to me at the time. ("Do you even KNOW your daughter?!") but he also kind of made me squirm a little. I've been known to do that. I've even had customers come up to the counter after one of my little tirades, and say, "I enjoyed the High Fidelity moment..."

But I really try to not do it.

The mild phrase I use is, "It's not helpful to business."

I also think that it's just wrong. Let's say that guy Black put down was into something else, like -- oh, horseshoes. And let's say Black has a Uncle into horseshoes and he goes into a horseshoe business and asks a really stupid, uninformed question. ("Do you even KNOW your Uncle?)

The way I put it, there are little sub-cultures everywhere.

In my own case, I often think people should read more, should read more kinds of stuff, and should be open to the graphics.

But I'm sure music-philes would think I'm hopelessly out of touch.

Foodies would disdain my food choices.

And so on.

So....I try to avoid imitating Jack Black.

Instead, whenever someone asks a really stupid question, I think to myself. "Forgive them. They have a brain tumor."

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Paul's critique that I don't read comics stung a little. I haven't had time to do much reading of any sort, which is a huge life-style change for me. Due to the working everyday, pretty much. Too tired to concentrate.

I've always said, it's actually easier for me to concentrate on a book than a comic.

But I had free time yesterday, so went on a comic binge.

BATMAN AND ROBIN #1: New Batman comic, by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. I loved their All Star Superman so had high expectations. Pretty much a set-up issue, which was kind of quirky. For those who don't know, Batman is M.I.A., so Dick Grayson has taken on the Cowl, and Bruce Wayne's incorrigible son is Robin.

PUNISHER WAR ZONE: 6-issue mini-series by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. I seem to always read Ennis first. He's pretty outrageous and amusing. I've noticed, overall, that I seem to be gravitating toward very bloody comics -- way more bloody, actually, than you'll actually find in the movies.

I'm worried about my bloodlust.

PUNISHER ONE-SHOT: by someone other than Ennis. Hard to top Ennis, so this really goes for the extreme. At the end, the Punisher and the enforced sex-slaves he has saved are trapped in a tower, so he strings the dead bodies of the mobsters as a rope so they can get down.

See what I mean?

KICK-ASS: 6 - issues so far. A teenager puts on a superhero costume and becomes a media sensation. Then he meets a little girl and a dad who are the real deal. Very bloody. Very fun.

BACK TO BROOKLYN: 5 - issue mini-series. A gangster turns himself in to the police, because he finds that his brother is a molester. He has to go back into Brooklyn to save his wife and son.

This is Ennis again, so there is a huge body count as he basically kills everyone. He even throws his mother under a truck.

GREATEST HITS: 6 - issue mini-series. I caught up on the last two issues. A super-hero group as the Beatles. Really liked it, though the conclusion was a little soft. Loved the parallels though.