Archive for February, 2006
February 13, 2006 | Trades
Sexy Chix
Dark Horse Books
$12.95 US (Paperback)
**** (out of five)
It’s either a great thing or a damned shame that the new anthology Sexy Chix exists.
On one hand, it highlights the amazing and diverse talent pool of women that are currently working in the male-dominated comic book industry. On the other, most of these women are so good they shouldn’t need to be lumped together by something as elementary as their gender.
Featuring such noted creators as Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother), Gail Simone (Birds Of Prey), Roberta Gregory (Life’s A Bitch), Amanda Conner (JSA Classified) and Pulitzer Prize-nominated novellist Joyce Carol Oates, this brainchild of Dark Horse senior editor Diana Schutz offers a broad (no pun intended) spectrum of styles and subject matter.
Standouts include Simone’s sweet tale of her hairdressing past involving a frightened little old lady with a curious reason to look her best, Sarah Grace McCandless and Joelle Jones’ The Art Of Letting Go about the emptiness of recovering from a breakup and two cute little one-page gags about boys and shopping by eight-year-old Alexa Kitchen.
While there are no voluptuous super-babes in spandex, there are plenty of great stories from these Sexy Chix.
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February 13, 2006 | Comics
Owly: Flying Lessons
Andy Runton
Top Shelf Productions
$10 US (Paperback)
**** (out of five)
Owly is truly the comic for everybody.
Creator Andy Runton’s sweet tales of a good-natured little owl and his best friend, Worm (who is, of course, a worm), are virtually impossible not to like.
With his use of symbols and expressions in place of words, Runton has created one of the purest and most powerful forms of graphic storytelling. — an achievement that should not go unnoticed.
On the surface, Flying Lessons sees Owly trying to make friends with a skittish flying squirrel, whose fear of all owls blinds him to our hero’s kindness. But as with the previous two Owly books, there in an underlying message, in this case that of not prejudging others and learning to accept people for who they are.
Owly is great stuff with such a broad appeal you could loan it to a friend, your grandma or your kids and they’d all love it.
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February 13, 2006 | Trades
Battle Hymn
B. Clay Moore, Jeremy Haun
Image Comics
$14.99 US (Paperback)
*** 1/2 (out of five)
It’s a story as old as superhero comics: costumed types get together to fight the evil hordes of (insert wartime enemy of America here).
Of course, that old song sounds nothing like Battle Hymn.
When Good Ol’ U.S.A. decides to round up some of the aforementioned superpeople to use to teach the Nazis a lesson, Watchguard — an assemblage that rather greatly resembles a couple of other comic book company’s WW2 superteams — is born.
The different tune chimes in when writer B. Clay Moore — impressively aided by artist Jeremy Haun — asks: What would happen if Uncle Sam really did have control over a collective of individuals as powerful as a legion of troops?
Would it be a quick end for the Nazi regime? Or would a much darker side of the U.S. government rear its ugly head?
The answer unfolds in this collection of one of the smarter superhero books of 2005.
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February 13, 2006 | Trades
Y: The Last Man Vol. 6 — Girl On Girl
Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, Goran Sudzuka
Vertigo/DC Comics
$17.50 (Paperback)
**** ½ (out of five)
It’s the story that had to happen: the lesbian love boat arc of Y: The Last Man.
Yorick Brown, the sole survivor of a plague that wiped males of all species off the face of the earth, is off to Japan to find his pet monkey, Ampersand, who holds the secret to curing the outbreak. With him are longtime companions Dr. Allison Mann (I wonder if the pun is intended) and the still-mysterious Agent 355.
After Yorick is discovered to be a stowaway on a converted cruiseliner by the ship’s captain, he is quickly taken in, and true to form he ends up quickly developing feelings for her.
Meanwhile, the simmering heat between the openly gay Dr. Mann and Agent 355 finally boils over.
Then the Australian navy shows up and all hell breaks loose.
If you’re a comic book junkie then Y: The Last Man is what you’ve been jonesing for.
Writer Brian Vaughan and artists Pia Guerra — a B.C. girl — and Goran Sudzuka never seem to disappoint and with Girl On Girl they’ve delivered another classic.
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February 13, 2006 | Trades
Bone Vol. 3: Eyes Of The Storm
Jeff Smith
Scholastic/Graphix
$12.99 (Paperback)
**** (out of five)
Anyone who’s read Bone would have to admit it’s a classic that could hardly be improved upon.
Illustrated in rich black and white by creator Jeff Smith, this 55-issue series has been collected in various forms over the years, from trade paperbacks to a one-volume edition and now in a series of smaller-sized, colourized books from Scholastic’s Graphix imprint.
While the addition of colour in the first two books from Graphix were beautifully done and added a surprising depth to Smith’s stories, the impact it brings really begins to show in Eyes Of The Storm.
After the riotous The Great Cow Race in Vol. 2, the Bone story — the adventures of three cousins lost in a valley full of magic and mystery — begins to take a much more ominous tone.
As the cousins and their friends — Lucius Down, Gran’ma Ben and her granddaughter Thorn — start to take notice of the darkness that surrounds them, the truth behind Gran’ma and Thorns’ past comes to light and threatens to tear their lives apart.
In spite of the effectiveness of the original stories, the world of Bone truly benefits from the rich and moody colour pallet in these, OK, I’ll admit it, improved volumes.
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February 13, 2006 | Trades
Noble Causes Vol. 5: Betrayals
Jay Faerber, Fran Bueno
Image Comics
$14.99 US (Paperback)
**** (out of five)
Sometimes I feel a little bit guilty about loving Noble Causes.
Truth is, it’s as close to a soap opera as you’re likely to find in current comics.
There’s a taste of the dysfunctional Dynasty family dynamic, some of the spice of the OC, oh, and superpowers and explosions and stuff.
Writer Jay Faerber, along with artist Fran Bueno, knows how to keep the hooks coming, too.
There’s the teen pregnancy (Zephyr finally has the half-demon baby!), the guy sleeping with his brother’s ex (Frost proves he’s not total scum) and the man trapped in a, well, another man’s body (Doc is stuck in a sanitarium and he is POed).
Throw in some snappy dialogue, wonderfully realized characters and a little of the hot and heavy stuff and you’ve got another great volume of Noble Causes — the soap it’s OK to love.
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February 13, 2006 | Trades
Oversight — Short Stories 1990-2005
Phillip Hester
Desperado Publishing/Image Comics
$19.99 US (Paperback)
*** 1/2 (out of five)
Phil Hester has been living a double life and it’s about time someone called him on it.
In one life, Phil is a well-respected mainstream comic book artist, penciller on such bestselling titles as Green Arrow and Nightwing. Hester’s other life, that of an edgy writer/artist full of angst and ideas, is the reason Oversight
Hester’s thick black inks set the mood for over a dozen short stories about things like love, heartbreak, family, dreams, idle conversations and pro wrestlers in outer space (I swear I’m not making that last one up.
While some of the stories and art is a might crude and certainly more raw than readers of Hester’s mainstream work are used to, it is easy to imagine this talented creator rising to the lofty double threat (writer/artist) status enjoyed by the likes of Frank Miller, Mike Mignola or Charles Burns.
With under-appreciated works like Firebreather and Deep Sleeper as more recent examples of his ever-rising skills, the future looks bright for Phil Hester.
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February 13, 2006 | Comics
Local #3 (of 12)
Brian Wood, Ryan Kelly
Oni Press
$2.99 US
**** (out of five)
Every city’s got a story to tell and Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly are the ones you want telling it.
After engaging looks at Portland, Ore., and Minneapolis, writer Wood and artist Kelly continue their highly original look at American cities and the people who live in them with a stop in Richmond, Va., where the members of the band, Theories And Defenses, have just announced their breakup and returned home after years of living abroad.
With a smooth pace, the story unfolds the lives of the Frank, Bridget, Kevin and Ross as they each decide what comes next after life at the top and how their hometown fits into that.
Local is just more proof that Wood is one of the up-and-coming writing talents in comics today. With critically acclaimed works like Demo under his belt and Local and his new Vertigo book DMZ ongoing, 2006 may be the year he finally gets some of the spotlight he so richly deserves.
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February 13, 2006 | Comics
Thunderbolt Jaxon #1 (of 5)
Dave Gibbons, John Higgins
Wildstorm/DC Comics
$4 ($2.99 US)
*** 1/2 (out of five)
Being neither British, nor over 40 might be a bit of a hinderance when it comes to appreciating Thunderbolt Jaxon.
According to the afterword explanation by writer Dave Gibbons (Watchmen), Jaxon had his moments from his creation in 1949. He shared an origin with the original Captain Marvel by being an average boy who turned into a muscleman by uttering a magic word (or, in Jaxon’s case 14 words inscribed on his magic belt).
With Wildstorm’s new Albion line, a reinvention of classic British superheroes, Gibbons and artist John Higgins have taken a stab at an all-new Jaxon and have quite quickly come up with something quite good.
When Jack Jaxon and his friends Billy and Saf go exploring at a recently uncovered historical site, they’re stunned when a bolt of lightning reveals a buried treasure: a gold cross, necklace and belt. Each teen takes an item and they eventually go their separate ways. But when Jack tries on his new belt, he quickly finds out it does a heck of a lot more than hold his pants up.
Just one issue in, the new Thunderbolt Jaxon is a golden as the magic belt he wears.
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February 13, 2006 | Comics
Star Wars: Purge
John Ostrander, Doug Wheatley, Adam Hughes
Dark Horse Comics
$2.99 US
**** (out of five)
It’s almost impossible for the average comic book fan to resist an Adam Hughes cover.
The celebrated artist, known best for his gift for putting the va-va-voom in superheroine pinups, is sure to rope some more in with the stunning cover of Star Wars: Purge — depicting a triumphant Darth Vader standing over the body of a Jedi with a lightsaber hole burnt through her chest and her right hand (still gripping her own weapon) laying next to her.
After turning inside, readers are treated to a solid story (written by veteran John Ostrander and impressively illustrated by Canada’s Doug Wheatley) set one month after the event’s of Episode III, where Vader is hunting down Jedi — specifically looking for his former master, Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Vader is lured into a trap by a group of eight surviving Jedi, some thirsting for revenge on the Sith. Watching Vader overcome the odds is totally worth $2.99.
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