Berlin: City Of Stones (Book One)
Writer/Artist: Jason Lutes
(Chris)
The Crusades #1
Writer: Steven T. Seagle
Penciller: Kelley Jones
(Ross and Chris)
House Of Secrets: Facade #1
Writer: Steven T. Seagle
Painter: Teddy Kristiansen
(Ross and Chris)
House Of Secrets: Foundation
Writer: Steven T. Seagle
Artist: Teddy Kristiansen
(Ross)
Metabarons #11
Writer: Alexandro Jodorowsky
Artist: Juan Giminez
(Ross)
The Red Star #5
Writers: Christian Gossett, B.J. Kayl
Artists: Christian Gossett, A.D. Coulter, Simon Chan, John Moberly, Snakebite (whew)
(Ross)
Strangehaven: Arcadia
Writer/Artist: Gary Spencer Millidge
(Ross)
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Saturday, February 24, 2001
DEADENDERS #14
w: Ed Brubaker
a: Warren Pleece and Cameron Stewart
In which the axe of cancellation becomes rather visible. It's obvious from this issue that this comic is being prematurely cancelled; after the steady build-up of the first thirteen issues, Brubaker drops plot bombshell after plot bombshell in the space of twenty-two pages. You have to think that those bombshells would have been spread out a bit more if the series wasn't getting axed in two issues' time. Or maybe not.
In any event, the plot clearly outshines the characters this time out, which is a shame, since while DEADENDERS has always had an intriguing plot, the characters are what really makes the book tick. The development of the Beezer, the protagonist, has been fascinating to watch; he's believably grown from a throughly unlikable jerk to a wiser, kinder, more sensitive guy. That said, we do get some nice characterization here with Anna, Beezer's current lover, and with Danica and Corey, two of Beezer's friends.
Part of what has made this series work so well is that Brubaker clearly "gets" teenage characters; DEADENDERS has consistently featured the best written pre-adults in comics since its launch. Most comic writers (middle-aged white males) write teenagers terribly, but Brubaker writes thoroughly realistic characters. In a related vein, his dialogue tends to be quite naturalistic, too. (Though that's not entirely true this issue, as plot exposition/advancement constitutes a not-insignificant portion of the comic - but even much of that sounds fairly real.) It's this realism that grounds a story about scooter-riding teens in a postapocalyptic future and what makes the comic so excellent.
It's a damn shame that Cameron Stewart hasn't been with this book since the beginning; he's simply done wonders for Warren Pleece's pencils. If you've ever wondered how much a good inker can add to artwork, look no further than DEADENDERS. No offense to Richard Case, the original inker of DEADENDERS and a fine artist in his own right, but Stewart has tightened up Pleece's pencils considerably; there's an economy of line in Pleece-Stewart's art that is just stunning. They get maximum expression with a minimum of detail.
Additionally, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Bjarne Hansen's colors; they've been knocked as "garish" by man critics, but for my money they're exquisite. There's a bit of subtlety at work in the color schemes; the villainous characters tend to dress in pink/purple, while our heroic underdog teens tend tend to dress in earth tones. Hell, the coloring even becomes integral to the storytelling -- take a gander at what Anna's wearing this issue and tell me it doesn't effectively foreshadow the issue's conclusion. (And more subtly than Pleece's pinched-up facial expressions or Brubaker's cryptic lines of dialogue of her do, too.) Hansen makes the settings come alive, too; brighter primary colors are used for the settings in New Bethlehem, while murky greens and browns are the order of the day in Beezer's turf, Sector 5.
If you haven't been reading DEADENDERS, there's not much point jumping-on now; you'd likely just be confused. But pick up the TPB and see what you can do about tracking down the rest of the run on eBay or in your friendly neighborhood comic store's back-issue bins; DEADENDERS is one of those series that folks will be wistfully remembering for years to come and you should know just what you missed.
posted by Ross at 11:33 PM EST
Tim, from the certainly excellent Shey.net, wants me to make good and sure that you all know the name of David Gaddis, another certainly excellent guy with a selection of really VERY good comics at his site. This is a link that was floating about in the blogging zeitgeist a few weeks back, but since I know we've roped some of you reader-folk in from outside the blog community, it's high time you got a look at this. If you're a Kyle Baker fan, Gaddis' work may well be for you, and even if you're not, it's worth a click.
posted by Chris at 8:14 PM EST
You've got to appreciate just how ethical the world of comics is. Or perhaps you don't. Artist Kaare Andrews on his recently victorious suit against "bad girl" T&A publisher London Night Studios. You'll probably want to scrub yourself after reading this one. Publishers screwing artists, softcore porn, a fair bit of gloating, and amateur rappers. Yikes.
posted by Chris at 6:06 PM EST
OK, time to introduce you all to the Distinguished Competition. ;-)
Bugpowder is "ostensibly a resource for small press comics in the UK, but being the Internet, there's other stuff here as well." They've got a rotating cast of contributors (they'll soon be opening up for everyone to post) dishing out excellent links to small indie books and zines, as well as to some of the higher-profile stuff that's out there. Particularly not to be missed is Dachshund, their links depository, with over 2000 links, including a spotlight on what is historically believed to be the first "comic" ever, a 17th-century German engraving. Brilliant.
LinkMachineGo (another INVISIBLES name, God bless us all) is theoretically the personal blog of Darren Shrubsole, but it's not at all about his life and times (unlike for instance, yours truly's boring blog) -- instead, he serves up links to all kinds of areas of interest, including comics. His finds from the comics realm are excellent, and all his other links are never less than entertaining. He deserves your time. He's also the creator and host of TimeMachineGo, the world's most accurate and comprehensive Grant Morrison comixography. God, I love this man. Both Grant and Darren. Anyway.
There's also C-Log, which unfortunately doesn't update much, but perhaps you ought to pop over there anyway and see what he has to offer.
And that's pretty much all I know for comics-centric blogs; if anyone knows any others, please, PLEASE let us know! And if you yourself are a comics reader with a weblog, there's free linkage here at GLIT! for you; just drop us a line with your URL.
posted by Chris at 5:07 PM EST
And speaking of Scott McCloud: Comics Newsarama is currently running a multi-part feature on Online Comics. First came the Matrix comics, now it's a lengthy -- and excellent -- interview with Steve Conley, the creator of Astounding Space Thrills. On Monday, they'll post their interview with the aforementioned McCloud. This is a feature worth following...
"Comics are literature, no hold barred. It`s literature and you`re not limited to alphanumerics... That`s all it is. All the rules of literature apply, everything Aristotle said about literature appl(ies), everything about fiction writing applies, and that`s why the writers will always have the upper hand in this business. As much as the artists have wanted to be the big shots, you can see how things have collapsed and it falls back into the laps of people like Alan Moore, Warren Ellis and Brian Bendis, because comics are literature, first and foremost, and it has to have a good story. It has to have a narrative, whether the pictures are next to each other or not." Read more >>
posted by Chris at 3:54 PM EST
Thanks to Megan at the Warren Ellis Forum for finding this: Scott McCloud has an article up at the Apple web site: "Reinventing An Art Form Online." And now, I'm going to sleep. More comics fun on the morrow.
posted by Chris at 2:14 AM EST
ULTIMATE X-MEN #3
w: Mark Millar
a: Adam Kubert and Art Thibert
Oh yes, ladies and gentlemen. The comic book I loved above all others for many years was X-MEN. Like almost everyone else on the planet, I'd given the books up for crap a while ago (I was a stubborn little bugger, though; held out until #90 or so of the adjectiveless book). But when Mark Millar was announced to be helming the ULTIMATE version of the series, I *had* to check it out. And boy, did I want to love it.
After a fashion, I think I do. I've got plenty of reservations, though. The book has been stripped back to a pure, flashy, sexy, punk-rock core -- teams of superpowered revolutionaries fighting amongst themselves -- and that's a great thing (One of the highlights of the first issue was Xavier's rhetoric justifying code-names as a "post-human baptism" -- a damn clever assimilation of fringe-culture methodology). Millar has conceived of some brilliant twists on the characters -- Colossus, for example, was a Russian arms dealer before the X-Men found him -- and has constructed some phenomenal action sequences, such as this issue's climactic battle (trust me, it's worth the look), and Adam Kubert has done an ungodly job rendering both. Everything about this book screams "We kick ass," and that's the kind of X-Men we want kids to find on the shelves (of course, I wonder just exactly what those kids' parents would make of the decapitations, bloody machine-gun murders, and surprisingly strong -- by Marvel standards -- language of the book. We know the little tykes would eat it right up. But I digress).
Unfortunately, the book, despite its spurts of brilliance, doesn't fully measure up to a truly critical reading. For one, Millar is falling into a dialogue trap. In THE AUTHORITY, the catchy quips and one-liners of the team members are to be expected, even required -- Ellis wrote the characters with a quick mouth, and Millar's upped the ante to entertaining results. But on ULTIMATE X-MEN, he's using the exact same character voices, to the point where everyone's dialogue is entirely interchangeable. The first two pages of dialogue in this issue contain the most stumblingly obvious and awkward plot recap I've seen in a long time; Millar seems to have taken this crappy X-Men tradition to heart while managing to discard all the others. And when presented with an opportunity to do a fantastic action series set in a practical real-world setting, with realistic repercussions -- one of the things we've all enjoyed about his hyper-political AUTHORITY -- he has instead created an implausible paranoiac fantasy-world where the government can use giant robots to kill its citizens at whim. It's entertaining on a purely visceral level (take a look at that opening page of the Sentinel Sweep this month) but grating on a practical one.
Make no mistake, ULTIMATE X-MEN represents the absolute pinnacle of the X-MEN comics franchise for at least the last five years, possibly longer. Unfortunately, its few weak spots hamstring it from being a truly classic superhero action book. Now the gauntlet is thrown down: I fully expect Morrison to whip his protege's ass come this May; until then, I'll be settling for ULTIMATE X-MEN, enjoying the great moments and silently, pessimistically grumbling about the flaws.
posted by Chris at 1:43 AM EST
HITMAN #59
w: Garth Ennis
a: John McCrea and Garry Leach
It wouldn't be a HITMAN arc without an issue chock full of over-the-top violence, would it? Although the staggering body-count in this issue leads me to believe that next issue (the series finale) will be a quieter affair. Anyway, the penultimate issue of HITMAN is rather like most issues of the series - stylized ultraviolence (with the requisite displaced internal organs splayed about), crisp dialogue, and the usual trope about doing the right thing because it's the right thing, convenience be damned.
McCrea and Leach render ultraviolence with a lovely, cartoony flair, but draw faces with almost painfully realistic characters. However, writing-wise, this comic's a bit unremarkable - you get the feeling that Ennis could do this sort of thing in his sleep. Once again we establish that CIA spook Truman is a Very Bad Man; once again we see Tommy and Natt (joined by Tommy's latest paramour, a fetching redhead CIA agent who isn't named in the issue - thanks, Garth) engage kill lots of people, and once again we get to see that, hey, despite the fact that Tommy and Natt are hired killers, they're hired killers with consciences.
Frankly, I have to question why you're reading this review, to be honest. If you're not reading HITMAN, you certainly aren't going to start reading the series with the second-to-last issue (though if you do want to get into HITMAN, I recommend starting with the TEN THOUSAND BULLETS collection). And if you are reading HITMAN, well, chances are you're going to be buying this comic, regardless of what I say about it. Who's going to stop reading a comic two issues before it's over? That's like running a marathon and then quitting two blocks before the finish line. So, basically, this is just a rather typical issue of HITMAN; better than most mainstream comics, sure, but in the context of the series, it's nothing remarkable.
posted by Ross at 12:35 AM EST
Friday, February 23, 2001
Ooh, thank you, Ross. David Mack is, to quote Depeche Mode, my personal Jesus. If that article leaves you feeling unsatisfied (and it should -- it's far too short. One can never have enough Mack, and yes, you can quote me on that), then you should check out NohTV, the premier KABUKI fansite. It's beautifully and elaborately designed, and while it might take you a few minutes to get used to the interface (much as one must adjust to the abstract storytelling techniques used in KABUKI), it's worth your time and effort.
posted by Chris at 11:51 PM EST
CBR has a rather nice interview with David Mack, he of KABUKI and, more recently, DAREDEVIL, fame up on their site now. Head on over there and find out about, among other things, all of the swell-sounding projects Mack has lined up. One particularly interesting tidbit: Mack says that he had the current "Parts of a Hole" DAREDEVIL story arc outlined in 1998. We're now nearly three months in to 2001 and we've still yet to see this entire arc. Woo, Marvel.
posted by Ross at 11:45 PM EST
As much as we here at GLIT! like to sniff out bits of comics news and interviews and whatnot, we also like to laugh. Fortunately, the Internet is a truly kind and giving master, for it has blessed us with not one, not two, but three comics humor columns - PopImage's brand-new From the Wire, Comics Newsarama's Fightin' Words, and, of course, the grandmama of 'em all, Comic Book Resources' You'll All Be Sorry. So get over there and start laughing at these wonderfully funny pieces of work.
posted by Ross at 10:38 PM EST
We know you love THE AUTHORITY. Of course you do. Everyone does. So get yourself over to this week's Newsarama Weekly, wherein you may view the Dustin Nguyen cover for #23 (only five months away, folks! woo-hoo!), as well as hear editor John Layman's take on current events with the book. Classy.
posted by Chris at 9:26 PM EST
Popimage reviews X-PRESIDENTS, the first comics effort of Robert Smigel (of SNL and Comedy Central's TV FUNHOUSE fame). This is a blindingly funny book. Read it. And when you're through reading it, read the similarly depraved SNAKE 'N' BACON'S CARTOON CABARET by Michael Kupperman; at least two of the strips from that book -- "Captain Marginal" and "Pablo Picasso: His Amazing Life" -- have been adapted for Smigel's Comedy Central TV FUNHOUSE show.
posted by Chris at 7:16 PM EST
And let the great game of recent-links-catch-up begin. Salon recently ran a tremendous cover (!) story on Los Bros Hernandez, the creators of seminal indie book LOVE AND ROCKETS. First, read Salon's writeup on the book, and then, their interview with the Bros themselves. These links have been all over the Web by now, but this is one more chance. if you haven't read them, DO SO. Site traffic for comics articles in a mainstream publication = demonstration of interest = more coverage. A necessary thing.
posted by Chris at 6:00 PM EST
"What hath God wrought?"
And just like that, GLITTERDAMMERUNG! is launched. Hi there. I'm Chris, that (the guy who's not talking at the moment) is Ross, and this is our weblog about comics -- the medium, the industry, and the disturbing cult surrounding both. You can get pretty much the full skinny on what we'll be doing here in the About Us section, but a brief summary -- this is the place where we'll be posting both the outstanding links we find (to news items, interviews, fan and creator websites, excellent critical work, etc.) and our own personal reflections, including but not limited to: reviews of the stuff we read, creator lovefests, random explosions of wrath, all the things that make life worth living.
At the moment, there's just two people on the staff, Ross and myself; but in the coming weeks, we'll be adding people who make an impression on us. If you're interested, let us know; our first few additions will only be people with weblogging experience, but do feel free to register your interest in the position and share with us some writing samples and some indication of your thoughts on comics, both specific and general.
If you have any more questions, do please refer to that About Us page, and if you have any others, don't hesitate to e-mail us.
We'll be launching right into the links once this is over with, but for now, a one-time-only introduction to the people who'll be lobbing this stuff at you. Like I said earlier, my name's Chris, and I'm a college student at New York University in Manhattan. I've been reading comics since I was ten, and like everyone else who reads them these days, I do aspire to a life spent creating them. Don't worry, I won't be subjecting you to my half-cocked scripts and brainstorms on this site. A laundry-list of my favorite creators: Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis, Alan Moore, Brian Michael Bendis, Tony Harris, Garth Ennis, Phil Jiminez, Brian Wood, Peter Milligan, Dan Clowes, Jhonen Vasquez; there are plenty of others but I'd be wasting time trying to name them all. I also have a personal weblog called Not Enough Of Me, which I'm sure will give you a better indication of who I am as a human being, but hopefully you'll be able to track my personality as a comics reader through this blog.
Alright, I'll turn this thing over to Ross now for whatever he wants to add. Take it away, Ross --
Thanks, Chris. Like Chris, I'm a college student possessed with entirely too
much free time. Unlike Chris, who calls the Big Apple home, I'm living in
Iowa City and attending the University of Iowa. (NOTE: No jokes about
Midwesterners will be tolerated, so check 'em at the door.)
I've been reading comics since I was, oh, about nine years old, having been
drawn into this bastard medium by a property which seems to have brought in
many a young male my age - G.I. JOE. From JOE it was a hop, skip, and a jump
over to X-MEN, with which I had a tawdry, tumultous affair until last summer,
when it finally fizzled and died. In the nine years I've been reading
comics, I've read a lot of bad comics (which I'm sure I'll mention here at
some point - perhaps if I'm blogging while drunk) and a lot of good comics
(which I'll also be raving about here), yet I discover something cool every
time I hit up my local comic shop (Daydreams, if you're curious).
I buy comics for "It." It is that feeling you get when you discover a really
good comic, when you discover something so stunning that you can hardly
believe that it's just ink on paper. No other medium can give me that exact
feeling, that "warm, fuzzy glow." They can create other special feelings
within me, but nothing quite like the one that I get from comics - that's
utterly unique. And that is why I buy comics, and that is why I'm doing this
blog.
Alright, Chris again (don't worry, it won't be this confusing once we get started). GLITTERDAMMERUNG! is officially open for business. Brace yourself for, um, something good. We hope.
posted by Chris at 5:35 PM EST
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