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The Sixteen Comics Series' That Made Unca Cheeks Smile and Smile Most During the Last Twelve Months (Give or Take) Pt. 1
*Phew* -- !
Not too shabby a year for halfway decent mainstream comics, huh...?
Other than our having expanded the list of this year's lucky winners from twelve to a whopping sixteen -- and (even then) still having left out any number of infinitely worthy nominees, post the inevitable winnowing of same -- it's still the same baseline "ground rules," hereabouts. My natural inclination is to limit this list to comics still readily available to the (one hopes) intrigued reader; meaning that laudable (but -- sadly -- canceled) efforts such as, say, ANARKY and HEPCATS received rather shorter shrift, in this instance, than they might otherwise have merited.
A few notable exceptions from this list will be readily apparent to the more astute reader:
*** James Robinson's and David Goyer's much-lauded JSA remains a little on the inconsistent side; it's storytelling "highs" (and it most assuredly does have 'em) mitigated, every so often, by the occasional unfortunate auctorial stumbling. (Time will almost certainly remedy this, however; the series very definitely remains one to watch, overall.)
*** Grant Morrison's smart, sharp INVISIBLES -- while remaining as deftly written as always -- is presently being hamstrung by some wholly muddled and (to these eyes, at any rate) wildly inappropriate penciling. (A fate it shares, coincidentally, with Peter David's otherwise laudable SPYBOY.)
*** Another one of last year's Vertigo winners -- Peter Gross' THE BOOKS OF MAGIC -- has contracted an infuriating case of The Meanders, direction-wise. Let's all hope for a speedy recovery.
*** ... and two of the more highly touted Marvel Comics series' of the
past twelve months -- Kevin Smith's DAREDEVIL, and Devin Grayson's
THE BLACK WIDOW -- just plain ol' petered out, BIG-time, right at the
end, there, didn't they...?
With those codicils in mind, then these sixteen were (and remain) the
undisputed brightest spots in my comics year, you damn betcha.
# 16 Ty Templeton's Gleefully Berserk PLASTIC MAN SPECIAL #1
The standard fannish objection to DC's periodic attempts at crafting a new PLASTIC MAN series, over the years, generally goes something like this:
"FACT sui generis PLASTIC MAN creator Jack Cole is dead." (This is, of course -- lamentably -- a demonstrably true statement.)
"FACT the overwhelming of writers and/or artists laboring within the comics industry, nowadays, couldn't hold the late Mr. Cole's pencil shavings." (This one, too, is pretty much a stone "gimme.")
"FACT therefore, all modern-day attempts at PLASTIC MAN revivals are (at best) misguided; (at worst) evil; and -- either way -- predestined to shame and ruination, outright."
Bulldookey.
The estimable Mister Templeton -- no slouch, he, at light-hearted super-hero storytelling fare, God wot -- amply demonstrates (in the course of a breezy and economical forty pages) the veracity of Balzac's maxim that, "with clean hands and composure"...
... anything is possible, in comics.
Packed fit to bursting with twelve essential vitamins and nutrients, as a part of this complete four-color breakfast PLASTIC MAN SPECIAL boasts more gleefully vicious observations regarding (and cruel, unrelenting mockery of) every last dopey fannish dictum and storytelling shibboleth in sight... and then some.
This one is almost certainly still available for cover price (give or take the cost of a plastic bag and a backing board) at your local comics shop.
Right now.
You need it right now.
# 15 Mark Waid's and Tom Peyer's Timely Reminder Of What A Real "Green Lantern" Looks Like THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD
KINGDOM COME. THE KINGDOM. JUSTICE LEAGUE YEAR ONE. THE FLASH. The creation of IMPULSE.
Try imagining -- if only for a moment -- what a frightfully dull
place the modern-day DC Universe would be, if not for the polished and
thoughtful auctorial efforts of one Mark Waid, Esq.
(... and not that your ever-courteous Unca Cheeks intended the foregoing
as slight or slap towards the gent's co-author -- the criminally
underrated Tom Peyer -- either. His is a name you'll be seeing
at least twice more, in the course of our year's-end overview; and there
are garlands and gardyloos aplenty awaiting him, solo, later
on.)
Detailing the events attendant a series of "off-duty" get-togethers between stolid Barry [THE FLASH] Allen and daredevil Hal [GREEN LANTERN] Jordan, this series successfully evokes the sprightly, loose-limbed storytelling spirit of the Silver Age; without sacrificing so much as a single drop or dram of the characterization and meta-textual self-awareness so beloved by today's readership.
This one might well "read" best as the (surely) inevitable trade paperback collection, a few months down the road from now; with each issue flowing seamlessly into the next...
... but, either way it makes for one sweet antidote to the flat
and uninspired home brew being proffered nowadays, under the misleading
label of "Green Lantern."
# 14 Geoff John's and Lee Moder's Madcap, Brick-By-Brick Deconstruction Of Two (Not-Quite-)Icons Of The Golden Age STARS AND S.T.R.I.P.E
This one, admittedly, took a few issues to grow on your Unca Cheeks,
it did.
Penciler Lee Moder's cartoon-y, manga-esque renderings
-- appealingly open and expressive though they undeniably are -- are still
something of an acquired taste, for those of us weaned on the more representational
likes of (say) Gil Kane and Carmine Infantino; and ingenious
scribe Geoff John's own manifest strengths, re dialogue
and characterization, are (occasionally) undercut by a sense of pacing
so bizarrely amphetamined, one might well be excused for wondering if
the poor man had just been informed by his physician that he had only
six months left to live; and was in a hell-bent-for-leather rush to squeeze
sixteen issues worth of scenes into six.
However the penciling is (as previously stated) as fetching and expressive as all get-out...
... and John's dialogue is (again as mentioned) as crisp as corn flakes; and as knowing and sure-footed in the ways of teenaged girls as anything to be found on the stands today.
Unca Cheeks Says check this one out, if you haven't already.
The most relentlessly smart-assed young heroine in comics copping (simultaneously) with the labyrinthine pitfalls and social snares of high school; the unwanted chaperoning of her battle-suited stepfather (a former lightweight crime-fighter of the Golden Age); and the daily humiliations attendant to being "the only super-heroine forced to leap into action sporting a mouthful of metal braces."
So what's not to love...?
# 13 Karl Kesel's Painstaking Re-Establishment Of The Long- Vanished Friendship Between Superman and the Batman, In WORLD'S FINEST
Unca Cheeks keeps waiting for the screaming to start, re inker-turned-penciler Karl Kesel.
Unca Cheeks is beginning to wonder, at this juncture, if anyone else
out there is even paying halfway decent attention to what this
fellah's been doing, these past few years.
The last really excellent "take" on DC Comics' THE HAWK AND THE DOVE. The last really "Stan Lee"-ish run of issues, re Marvel Comics' DAREDEVIL. Presently rocking the proverbial house with an unflinchingly "Kirby"-esque approach to DC's SUPERBOY...
... and, oh yeah this little wonder of a gem of a marvel, as well.
The baseline premise is a streamlined and elegant one: a chance encounter with one another, early on in their respective costumed careers, leads to both Superman and the Batman fouling up the resolution of a simple kidnapping plot; culminating in the untimely (and preventable) demise of the very man they both labored so desperately to rescue in the first place.
The two (then-)fledgling heroes make a solemn pact to jointly visit the poor unfortunate's grave, on the anniversary of his passing, each and every year thereafter; with the bonds of a strange (albeit grudging) camaraderie slowly forming between the two legendary comics icon, as a result.
The tone of the series shifts gears smoothly from issue to issue; with (say) a playfully perverse visit from both Bat-Mite AND Mr. Mxyzptlk being followed, next time out, by a somber an introspective "mood" piece dealing with the Dark Knight's agonized attempts to cope with the gruesome death of former partner Jason Todd.
If this'un doesn't finally cue in the greater comics readership out there as to just how bloody good that Kesel fellah has become, over the past decade or so of virtual fan neglect...
... then Unca Cheeks just plain ol' gives up, is all, by golly.
# 12 [TIE] Mark Waid's NATIONAL COMICS #1 and Tom Peyer's SMASH COMICS #1
This year's big, splashy pre-inaugural JSA "event" revolved around the near-simultaneous release of no fewer than nine "one-shot" comics.
Several of these were quite entertaining efforts (the James Robinson/ David Goyer-penned ALL-STAR COMICS; Geoff Johns' STAR-SPANGLED COMICS, with some truly spectacular pencils, courtesy of genuine "find" Chris Weston).
A few others were... well... adequate, I suppose. (Ron Marz's slightly muddled ALL-AMERICAN COMICS offering, featuring Johnny Thunder ; Robinson's and Goyer's SENSATION COMICS, marred -- chiefly -- by too many lingering, gratuitous buttcheeks-and-boobies shots of Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman.)
Two of them -- and Unca Cheeks profoundly regrets that there is no happier way to put this -- just plain ol', flat-out stunk up the joint, in all painful candor. (Robinson's and Goyer's ADVENTURE COMICS; and -- incredibly, given the pedigree, here -- Chuck Dixon's and Russ Heath's THRILLING COMICS.)
The two winners listed above, on the other hand...
... now these were comic books, goldang it!
Mark Waid's NATIONAL COMICS edges out its closest competitor -- if only
by the most razored of margins -- for its jaw-dropping, omigawd-did-you-see-that
re-extrapolation of little-utilized Golden Age character Mr. Terrific
as a genetic anomaly who simply can't help being better than practically
everyone at practically EVERYthing. (Never one to opt for
the quick'n'easy route, Our Mister Waid.)
Tom Peyer's SMASH COMICS, however -- featuring, as its "capper," the
single, all-time, flat-out WEIRDEST Super-Villain Death Scene in the history
of mainstream American comics, bar none (i.e., a super-powered
owl passing explosively through said stinker's rib cage at
sub-sonic speed) -- makes the highlight reel right after it.
# 11 Indulging your "Inner Geek" with Jolly R. Blackburn's crazed KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE
Unless ragged mem'ry plays your increasingly Alzheimer'd Unca Cheeks false, here -- and there are professional bookies working on both coasts who'd cheerfully cover that bet -- it was site regular Martin L. Shoemaker who first cued him onto this black-and-white whacked-out wonder of a series.
It would be less than gentlemanly of Unca, then, NOT to pass said
Favor Incalculable along to all the rest of you, in turn.
Featuring the sedentary adventures of long-suffering "Game Master" B.
A. Felton, along with fellow fantasy gamers Bob Herzog
and Dave Bozwell (proto-typical "gamer geeks"); Brian Van Hoose
(sly and imperturbable "rules lawyer"); and Sara Felton (the
group's sole Voice of Sweet Reason), KNIGHTS is a veritable treasure trove
of dysfunctional inter-group squabbling and back-biting; slashing one-liners
and put-downs; and pained (if relieved) there-but-for-the-grace-of-a-social-life-goes-I
self- recognition for any reader who's ever hefted multi-sided
dice over successive weekends, or sweated over the "hit points" of their
imaginary wizard; paladin; or cleric.
The artwork is (obviously) just this side of functional; with the characters never positioned anywhere but around B.A.'s dining room table -- Unca Cheeks harbors the deep, burning suspicion that writer/
artist Blackburn simply doesn't know how to convincingly render legs or feet; and has wisely elected to play to his nominal "strengths," in that regard -- but...
... but this isn't necessarily the sort of book requiring the
illustrative services of (say) a Barry Windsor-Smith or
a Bill Sienkiewicz in order to achieve its modest storytelling
goals, either.
Lookit, troopers and trooperettes tire meets tarmac... this book is just fall-down, roll-about-on-the-floor-wheezing funny, all right?
Funny is a GOOD thing.
Give the nice Mr. Blackburn your money...
... and he'll give you the funny.
Numbers Ten through Six of our yearly Required Reading review, people...
... on Page Two, immediately following.
Arcudi. Bolton. Busiek. Chadwick. Kaminski. Moore. Morales. O'Neil. Perez. Peyer.
C'mon and check out all the waycool stuff you may have missed over
the past twelve months, whydon'cha...?
"MORE COMIC BOOKS," YOU SAY...?
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