So back in the day, before Kirkman turned his on-going zombie saga into a massively successful cable television show, I used to put up Walking Dead covers all the time. I’m not changing just because of the show. Next arc looks great, and although I’d be sad to see any of the characters die, I’m kinda expecting it. A major character hasn’t died in this series for a long time, it feels. Almost since the prison/Woodbury conflict. Watch the show, if you don’t; read the comic, if you don’t.
-Sonny
[DISCLAIMER: The following is a list of media I thoroughly enjoyed in 2009. Not the "best" anything.]
PLANETARY #27 for its pull the curtain over my eyes awesomeness, its ability to close out a remarkable new millennium series on a decisive high note, and its stellar artwork.
WALKING DEAD #66 for its use of the reader’s imagination, its willingness to paint all of its characters in a very neutral gray tone (figuratively and literally), its implied violence as oppose to portrayed violence, and its heart.
SWEET TOOTH for its surreal vision of the post-apocalypse, and its multi-talented creator Jeff Lemire.
SUPERGOD for its grab at concluding one fucked up trilogy of books (first Black Summer, then No Hero), and its bomb made of scientists and officers hurtling into the surface of Jupiter.
CHEW for its amazingly original concept.
Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader, in DETECTIVE COMICS and BATMAN, for its complete dismantling of the Dark Knight’s cultural relevance for over 60 years, and its legendary creators each on top of their game.
The Gnawing, in SCALPED, for its layer by layer reveal type story telling, its anything can happen atmosphere, and its uncompromising portrayal of crime on a Reservation.
Dallas, in UMBRELLA ACADEMY, for its striking minimalistic (almost) art, and its re-imagining of one of the most studied and infamous historic American events of modern times.
ASTERIOS POLYP for its utterly insane density, and probably the best use of the medium this year.
STITCHES: A MEMOIR for its connection between writer, character, and reader, and its harrowing visual account of growing up under specific circumstances.
THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, CENTURY: 1910 for bringing the infamous series into the 20th century, its pop cultural references, and its ability to be both modern and ancient.
INCOGNITO for its wonderful take on the notion of super-powers and mad scientists.
THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ for its inspiring art, its ability to stay true to source material while expanding upon it also, and its wistful, dream-like ambiance.
NO HERO for showing the reader that yes, sociopathic madmen do rule the world, but without them we’d gain freedom of choice in exchange for order and possibly our lives, and its ambiguity and deconstructionist nature.
BATMAN & ROBIN for its experimentation of genres within an established series (mixing 50s psychedelic with gritty 80s and 70s sequences), and introduction of new villains (some good, some bad, at least it tried).
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN for taking a microscope to the inner-workings of Tony Stark, exposing his thought process down to the very core through plot devices, and running all over the world.
SECRET SIX for stepping into the examine-a-team-of-crazies role after Ellis left Thunderbolts, its perfect characterization of typically one dimensional characters, and its sheer brutality.
THE UNWRITTEN for its meta-contextual-ism, its pop cultural references, and its historic references.
BAD DOG because it’s just a whole lot of fun.
PUNISHERMAX for somehow staying true to a previous writer’s vision, and its take on a classic character.
DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? for its printing of the entire original Philip K. Dick prose.
FREAKANGELS for putting something exciting in my mailbox every Friday, and its change in story direction by going back to the beginning.
TEAM MUMMY because its creator is a madman genius with a serious amount of talent.
GOBLINS for its completely reliable artwork, seemingly constant output, and staying true to itself.
ED BRUBAKER for coming back to Criminal, finishing both Daredevil and Incognito on high notes, bringing back Steve Rodgers and still experimenting with other projects.
WARREN ELLIS for getting a whole boat load of attention from the film industry, and juggling a million projects.
JASON AARON for capturing grit in anything he does.
FRANK QUIETLY for steady and simplistic boom-boom action sequences, and his conciseness.
JH WILLIAMS, III for his amazing stretch of the medium, and splash pages to gawk at for days at a time.
SKOTTIE YOUNG for making sure dreams can still come true, and drawing with character.
VAL STAPLES for accentuating the brilliance of Sean Phillips, and giving surrealism in small doses.
R. CRUMB for still inking his work, and tackling the Bible with balls.
DAVE STEWART for his ability to switch tone and time with the flick of a switch.
Am I missing anything? OOHHH… COVERS.
-Sonny
Hrrm. Things just keep getting more and more interesting with this book.
-Sonny
- On the cover to Walking Dead #68 Abe and Rick hold what seems to be a new character at gunpoint.
- Comic Book Resources has an interview with the lord of comics himself — Alan Moore — about his latest thought experiment: a Victorian inspired magazine called “Dodgem Logic“. The tagline for which is:
“Colliding ideas to see what happens.”
-Sonny
I was going to write about the new Brother Ali, Pearl Jam, Alchemist, Q-Tip (well, a re-issue from 2000-ish “new”), possibly Rain Machine, possibly the new underwhelming Muse release, and possibly the severe lack of Blues albums (generally speaking) so far in 2009. But I’m just one man. Ali’s album though – changed to the title “Us” from the original “Street Preacher” – is lyrically striking; it’s almost his perfect album. Onto why I’m REALLY here…
Along with my regular, monthly, comic reads, I’ve rented some trades from the public library this week. One is the infamous Preacher from the 90s, which – like Ali’s album – doesn’t really “preach”. At all. Garth Ennis is one sick fuck, in fact, not preachy. Clever, witty, entertaining, but sick (and I mean that in the best of ways). Preacher serves up obscure bible references (which only those who’d never lay their fingers on this book could understand; I’ll give that a 9.6 on the irony scale), demonic/satanic coolness, black humor with subtle grace, ultra-violence (if Alex and his droogs got a hold of this book they’d probably try to act it out), and a constant level of weird which might out weird Pyramid Head. For Ennis’ latest blood bath, look to Avatar’s CROSSED.
But don’t tell Warren Ellis that. Over on Rich Johnston’s newest website BleedingCool.com, Rich claims Ellis is trying to “out Ennis Garth Ennis” with the end of No Hero. Speaking of the two, Bleeding Cool’s also featuring the 17th chapter of Ellis’ Do Anything. (I’ve also rented he and John Cassaday‘s Planetary from my local library) Not to be out done in the messed-up-beyond-belief category, Ellis has crafted a book of sheer psychedelic horrors in the pages of No Hero. I’ve yet to get issue 7, which came out yesterday; but I’m going in with a cleansed pallet after the final splash page of #6 featured the horrifying “spine cock” (just a brief description since I can’t find the page online and I’m too lazy to whip out my issue and scan the page: the supposed “good guy” of the book, the main character, to a psychotic turn last issue; he killed almost everyone including a guy named “Ben”; he beat Ben to a pulp, but not quite dead, threw him face down at his feet, dug into his back, ripped out his spine with his bare hands, and corralled it into the front of his pants in a very phallic manner; Lord).
Of course, there’s always good clean super-hero fun SOMEWHERE, right? Right. Even if it is a tiny, tiny, bit messed up [see: Professor Pyg's disco dance from Hell/pedophilia in issue #3], the supposed “flagship” Batman title Batman & Robin offers this. It began as a Morrison/Quietly collaboration (the team who previously took “super-hero fun” to an extreme with All Star Superman, or even New X-Men). It was old-school: chase scenes, flying cars, wack’ed out super-villains, side-kicks, armies of masked followers. And it was fun. The newest artist – for issues 4 through 6 – is Phillip Tan and he’s getting not so much love from reviewers. They’re even claiming he’s dragging Morrison down the tubes with him; they are wrong. Tan’s art is nothing to splurge one’s fan-boy pants over, but it works. And the series is still making cool, fun, wacky Dark Knight action as it was before. Don’t listen to the haters, they’re probably just pissed because they never broke into the industry as an artist, instead filling in as “reviewers” and schlubbing sandwiches at the local deli. I’d love to see Morrison return to X-Men…
The X-Men are one of the most beloved team’s in comics history and for good reason. In those pages, not so much currently, you’ll get that super-hero fun I mentioned, and you’ll get intellectual/philosophical discussion which pisses all over any cable news program of today. That’s why when I saw The Dark Phoenix Saga staring at me at the library, I had to take (also, I’d never read it in its entirety). When Jean Grey, tricked into seeing herself as a 1800s woman living on a Southern plantation, sees her former teammates as three Northern freedom fighters (Cyke, Collossus, Nightcrawler) and one owned slave (creepily in the case of Storm), those intellectual wheels start churning. There’s mixed meanings – weather meant or not – in this. It’s also mentioned in that same issue how Storm’s “the only black X-Man”; could her image as a slave mean more than simple political/sociological overtones? This run, from the legends Claremont and Byrne, also has some the most legendary comic covers of all time [see: here, here, HERE especially, and here].
Not everything has to involve shudder inducing tights, however. Two of my favorite on-goings involve neither tights nor “super-hero fun”: the zombie apocalypse ongoing epic Walking Dead and the Sioux inspired, FBI entangled Scalped. In the first, Robert Kirkman and the underrated Charlie Adlard (probably underrated because he isn’t issued color and/or a colorist) are still working brilliantly together after years. It didn’t even cross my mind the “Hunters” arc was already on the second to last issue until I finished it. What we know now is that cannibalism exists – probably more than we think – in this world, Dale’s been bitten and slowly turning, Michonne’s still a badass, and Carl – along with any child who grows up in this world – will most likely evolve into a psycho-path as an adult. What’s great about Scalped, and Walking Dead too, is that no one’s really that “good” in the book. Sure, there are character’s who are clearly “bad”, but no one’s all “good”. It’s no wonder Jason Aaron was plucked up by Marvel to write for them, currently on Weapon X, he’s a brilliant writer. Not only does he infuse tones and concepts on an adult level (Scalped proves this with its characters, and reservation itself, searching for a lost Native American identity in a modern, post-Indian Wars world), he’s also just a damn fine pacer, laying out pieces of a narrative clearly but never obviously (Scalped jumps back in forth through time marvelously; both to tell the story, and to represent his over-arching themes above).
(I’ve also finished some amazing novels recently, which I should review, don’t think I’m a comics-only schmuck)
More to come.
-Sonny
Apparently Eugene’s got some serious information to share. I LOVE this book.
-Sonny
I might be a little bit late on this one, but I’ve been preachy as an Evangelical lately (and writing too much) and I need to cleanse myself of such high-horse-ishness. So… these are the games that got my nerd nerves pumping from this year’s E3 2009.
God of War III – Seriously, who wouldn’t include the third and final game, and first on the next-gens, from the visceral as all hell action franchise from SCE Studios and Sony Entertainment? I also figure a good way to start involves a guy covered in his family’s ashes who rips off the horn off a mythical beast and impales its skull with said horn. Sheesh….
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 – How many arcade heroes, legends of the cabinet shack, have been waiting for this game for about 10 years? That’s not to mention how many gigantic nerds have been also waiting in the wings, feeding their urge meanwhile with Marval Ultimate Alliance. Magneto vs. Bison? Chun-Lee vs. Psylocke? Mega Man vs. Iron Man?? Holy shit, sign me up. NOW.
The Last Guardian – This might be one of the best games released for the PS3, 360, or Wii in their lifespans (yes, I’m even assuming Heavy Rain will live up to the hype). Honestly, with “Team ICO” you can’t go wrong. They’ve proven themselves to be the most artistic video-game developer in the industry with their previous two games, which I shouldn’t have to even name. This is the type of game you play almost in awe cause it’s so beautiful.
Tekken 6 – Yup, it was a big year for fighting games at 2009 E3. Since this is Tekken’s 6TH installment, one would assume a few things: it’s tired and uninspired, there’s no new characters, and it’s being milked for all it’s worth. None of these are true statements. I’ve been waiting for a Tekken game on the PS3 for years, as have many, and with 6 new characters and a fresh take on old-hat w/ new hardware, this game looks fluid as hell. Fun too.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii – Years ago (two?) a guy posted about Mario Galaxy on the H-Board right after it was released, and it was brilliantly simple: “the only way to play a Mario Bros. game is in two dimensions”. I’m not sure if it’s the ONLY way, but it is the best. Finally Nintendo‘s returning to the green and red brother’s roots with the announcing of this upcoming Wii title. Like the exclusive DS Mario Bros. game, this looks to be fresh but familiar. And with up to 4 players at a time, who wouldn’t have fun?
Mass Effect 2 – The original Mass Effect is one of those games I absolutely LOVED without ever getting fully into it. It’s really quite sad, in a way. I played only a few times, but it’s the type of thing you need to play a lot and REALLY get into. It was astonishing in sheer scope, and somehow BioWare looks to be outdoing themselves this time around in the “scope” department. There are literally 10X the amount of reactions and AI actions in the game (they report up to 200 from 20 for “cover”), a far deeper open ended deep-space-exploration feel, and much improved graphics and physics. All this should equal a very immersive XBox title.
Left For Dead 2 – The zombie nerds’ pick of the Conference.
Red Steel 2 – Wait, you’re telling me I can seamlessly, in-game, switch between katana and revolver?
East India Company – A strategy game about 18th century commerce? Fail or succeed, I gotta see this.
Alan Wake – The “holy shit a new title” game of the year this year. I hear it’s incredibly atmospheric and gorgeous to look at.
-Sonny
Busy as hell. Very little time to rant about phony Sci-Fi movies and other meaningless tidbits. Head hurting. Eyes too. Computers and MDMs and Scopes. Driving me mad. So here’s this ditty. Looks like we’re seeing a new theme come to the forefront of Walking Dead soon. Actually religion has yet to be covered. This cover’s been catching my eye for months.
-Sonny
All I can do is chuckle at the IGN review of Walking Dead #60. Clearly this is a transitional type issue. Something absolutely mandatory of almost any type of fiction (film, books, television). The final page shows the silhouettes of two characters abandoning, rather unhappily, a farm house they thought was going to become their new home. The last line even reads: “I’m anxious to see the NEXT way he’s going to endanger all of us…”. In the book, this line refers to Rick (the defacto main character of the series); but the line also refers to the scribe, Robert Kirkman, who has been putting his characters in almost impossible situations, if not killing them, for quite some time. The dipshits over at IGN seem to be totally forgetting that this is a zombie book. Their biggest complaint with this issue is the fact that “Seeing as how the actual walking dead are the least compelling components of this series… My main point is that The Walking Dead works best when it is first and foremost a human drama”.
Yes, it’s the human aspects that make Walking Dead one of the best consistently good comic books on the shelves, but what fuels that is the fact that it takes place among millions, maybe billions, of horrific former neighbors who’ll stop at nothing to eat you. The second this aspect gets lost in the shuffle, as it seems IGN wants to happen, the human drama won’t mean as much. Therefore, even if it isn’t as powerful/stirring as seeing a main character kill themselves or getting raped or avenging a loved one, issues like #60 are absolutely imperative to the success of the story. What makes the review even more ridiculous is this issue features at least two very powerful zombie-less moments. One where recently returned Morgan finds the corpses of an entire family, apparently a mass suicide. The father even took a drill to the heads of his children after death to ensure they wouldn’t get up and start roaming mindlessly. The way it’s drawn is very powerful, very sad. The other is a moment between lovers. To put it simply, one tells the other one he makes life worth living for. IGN even mentions this: “For instance, the scene involving Morgan seen here is one of the most haunting and poignant moments glimpsed in the history of this series, and the conversation between Glen and Maggie is equally as powerful and revealing”. But they go on to (try to) explain why it was wasted: “instead of following up on the implications of said scenes…much rather spend more time peaking into the psyches of these fascinating characters than listening to needless explanations about the undead”.
How much father does the writer need to hold your fucking hand?? They’re missing the point. The point is: YOU, the reader, deal with the implications of those horrific or beautiful words/images. You deal with it while the story goes on, just like how the characters have to deal with loss, on a personal level, while moving on, while trying to survive. To be honest, I don’t even know how you’d follow either of those scenes up, and if you did, it’d be shitty writing. Instead, here it is. BOOM- entire family killed themselves together; try to make sense of that. Wrap your head around that. BLAM- even in a world this miserable, love is worth living for. That’s it. How much follow up do you need? By complaining about how moments like these aren’t dwelt on for whole issues, and how the book would be much better with no mention of zombies and/or threat from zombies, the IGN Comics Crew is starting to show that they simply don’t get it.
-Sonny
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