Preacher Season 3 circles Jesse back to pure evil: Gran’ma!
What a disappointment the end of Preacher Season 1 was. No Gran’ma.
And Marie L’Angell was missed at the start of the AMC adaptation of the Garth Ennis (writer) and Steve Dillon (art) graphic novel Vertigo series Preacher.
One of TV’s best works, in terms of capturing the spirit of the source material, the amazing acting, and the black insanity strewn perfectly across the lens, has truly been a remarkable series from the outset.
The character growth, from Cassidy’s weighing whether his conscious has business competing with a lust in everything (blood least of all), to the destined Natural Born Killers-esque lovers, Tulip and Jesse, is engrossing.
The crumbling chaos of the world of Preacher is straight from the comic books.
And it is riveting.
But after the first echelon of the show wrapped, I had one disappointment, one major letdown, amongst the incredible job they did: the show’s introduction to the epic Jesse Custer tale was devoid of Gran’ma.
The comic books were the first to carry the same writer-artist power team throughout the entirety of the series.
And their introduction added a lot of Jesse’s backstory living and learning god from the most vile, cruel and ruthless family matriarch imaginable, Gran’ma.
The show has brought a great introduction of the present day Tulip, Cass, and Custer, and now it has circled back to bring the preacher back home . . . to Gran’ma.
Her depiction starts in the shadows.
SPOILER WARNING
Wrinkles emerge!
This is the trait that the great artists Steve Dillon and cover artist Glenn Fabry always struck me with the most.
The stark wrinkles full of wisdom, wickedness and woe.
At first the Gran’ma on-screen seems to be far less of a shrunken head than in the books.
But, like with all of the brilliant design, shots, and carnage in the film, Preacher adds its own touch to the mythos by giving wispy black hair, like a levitating shroud to Gran’ma so she has her own purely evil shadow or veil to add to her power, like some sick talisman.
So far Jesse has not even considered trying the Word against Gran’ma.
In the books he learns, the hard way, that she is resistant to it.
But for now, Gran’ma’s own twisted game of control, dominance, and family will play out at home.
Tulip is alive again thanks to the scraped heel flakes of Tulip’s skin that Gran’ma chews and swallows to start the process of resurrection.
Some of the woman’s tremendous power is alluded to in a flashback showing a very old prisoner, worn and in pain, that escaped Gran’ma’s captivity.
God knows what she harvested from her prisoners.
Or maybe he doesn’t. He has been largely absent until now.
Tulip is almost back to the land of the living when she is told by the creepy dog, God, that she is now his ‘chosen.’
Should we be optimistic?
Looming over them all is the demon incarnate, the quietly snarling and eerily pure evil that is Gran’ma.
To date, the adaptation is simply awesome and on-screen Gran’ma, with her slippery Louisiana accent, does not disappoint!
I cannot wait to watch more!
If you want to read all about it, and cannot wait to learn about the history because you have been locked in your own Gran’ma’s house amongst your daddy’s corpse and gators, then by all means go to your LCS (my local comic shop is Red Shirt Comics) and pick up the Preacher Vertigo comics ASAP!
Sunday is just days away!
“Preacher Season 3 circles Jesse back to pure evil: Gran’ma” was written by R.J. Huneke
“Star Wars Adventures Amazes Readers Of All Ages” sums it up perfectly, and Rey kicks off the book spectacularly.
The newest comic book anthology from IDW, not Marvel Comics (they have the adult-based books), Star Wars Adventures gives the youngest of kids to the grayest of graybeards, alike, something to revel in: an all-out thrill-ride of stories from all over the Star Wars universe made for all Star Wars fans!
The first story arc is about Rey’s exploits before The Force Awakens.
The Jedi to be is thrust into the shady scavenger strife surrounding Jakku’s Niima Outpost, and the array of Star Wars The Force Awakens characters, especially the obscure ones are being revealed.
And Rey is every bit as resourceful, bold, and kick-ass a young woman before she found the Skywalker lightsaber, as she was in the The Force Awakens.
The book’s creative work by writer Cavan Scott and artist Derek Charm is innovative and intriguing.
Charm’s artwork is a unique menagerie of style!
The 2-D cartoon-like look on the surface holds a lot of detail in each panel: the faces are full of emotion, the armor is glinting in the light of Jakku’s suns, and in the shadows of Obi-wan Kenobi’s robes and beard. Scott’s writing is top notch.
He brings familiar voices to light, as well as giving further interest, accents, and local colloquialisms to the myriad characters of the Outer Rim and the remnants of the Republic.
Star Wars Adventures ^^SPOILER ALERT^^
Scale a desert-claimed crashed Empire ship, and get immediately thrust into not just a struggle to eat, but a struggle to survive an ambushing attempt from rival scavengers!
This is fun, high-paced Star Wars storytelling.
Our favorite lump of an enormous alien, Unkar Plutt, is a key to the new Rey tale in this premier Star Wars Adventures Issue #1 and the books to follow.
He is kidnapped for his role in selling parts of a droid of interest to some dark and unsavory mystery marauders.
When Rey realizes Plutt’s protection of her has left her open to being attacked, robbed, and possibly killed by her scavenger competition, the stakes are raised and she stands fearless and daring, fighting for her keep.
With Plutt out of his hut sitting atop the heaped throne of junk, another crime boss comes in to the Niima Outpost to take over the trade.
Meanwhile, Plutt is not revealing anything about the mystery droid, and as this tale’s first part closes, Rey is seen in her dwelling with its head.
The shorter story of the book is one of Obi-wan Kenobi, at his favorite diner, as he works to help out a familiar friend who has been the target of a thief.
Star Wars Adventures #1 gives readers of all ages epic tales and unlimited possibilities from the mythic George Lucas universe of yore.
”Star Wars Adventures Amazes Readers Of All Ages” was written by R.J. Huneke.
Be sure to head down to your local comic shop for Star Wars Adventures #1 and the many different and brilliant covers, including the awesome variant (see picture above) starring Rey that this writer picked up at Red Shirt Comics in downtown Port Jefferson – where there is now an “All Ages” section dedicated to the best stories for folks of any number of birthdays under their lightsaber belts.
“Graphic Novel Peepland ’s Bloodstained Mystery Oozes 80’s NYC” by R.J. Huneke is the last part in a series unveiling both a New York Comic Con interview with the creators as well as a review of the gritty Hard Case Crime graphic novel TPB that was released on August 1, 2017.
Peepland is a page-turner that leaves delicious grime under your fingernails!
The book by Christa Faust (Author), Gary Phillips (co-author), and Andrea Camerini (Illustrator) is 128 pages of mayhem in 1980’s Manhattan.*
Peepland’s beauty lies in the eerily entangled corruption that clings to a New York murder merging 40’s gangster noir with 80’s NYC for a historically bound bloodbath.
The protagonist is a complex and intriguing character, a peep booth worker named Roxy Belle, and she is an unwilling participant in the murder mystery at the thick of the plot.
She has the kindness, craftiness, and nastiness (including willing to do some pee porn promos for a favor or two) to make this tale sexy, thrilling and innovative.
Such insight into the underworld living upworld in the heart of 80’s Midtown is the brainchild of Christa Faust and the help of her editor and the founder of Hard Case Crime Charles Ardai who partnered with Titan Comics for the comic book.
We were fortunate to receive an interview at New York Comic Con 2016 with none other than these two talented people.
R.H.: “How do you get the female perspective from a peepbooth?”
C.F.: “I grew up in the city . . . I have a vagina and I once worked in the peepbooths. So double-chromosome easy-peasy; write what you know.”
That is simple enough.
As a pornographer’s latest tape is bestowed upon Roxy during her shift, she goes home and finds a surprising strangling at the end of the video that is spit out of her VCR.
Later she learns that after dropping off the tape and fleeing her booth, porno filmmaker Dirty Dick is snuffed out in the subway.
Someone is erasing that video.
Roxy does not know who the murderer is or why they are wiping out anyone tied to the flick.
But what is a very well connected real estate mogul’s son to do when he might be implicated?
The world crafted in Peepland is its own badass character.
The writing is top-notch and with the art matches the stunning clarity with which the greasy alleys and shadows contrast the neon lights of Times Square in the 80’s. The air is stuffy with exhaust and cigarette smoke, and the bangs of gunshots go off at random twists and quakes as the plot unfolds.
The white versus black racism, even in New York, is palpably disgusting, and accurately adds an unease that was felt in the city at the time.
This affects the story and the poor characters caught within, for none are wholly unscathed in such a story as this.
You may be thinking: where do NYC’s punk haircuts, perms, and thongs (hiked way over the hips!) get off attempting to spawn a noir crime thriller sans the razor-sharp suits, tommy guns, and fedoras?
Well this book perfectly merges the 40’s noir age of gangster to the 1980’s NYC.
The web of crime and organized crime outfits, from the smallest pimps, hookers, peep booth operators to the corrupt cops, either detectives on the take from a Mafioso or detectives trying to sell out to the highest bidder mirror, in a kind if circus-mirror-way that works, the Al Capone days of Chicago.
The long gone New York age is brought to life again.
Is the Mayor’s office in on it? . . . Maybe . . .
It becomes quickly apparent that noir was meant for the mid-1980’s New York City era and Faust delivers it in spades.
R.H.: “What was your inspiration for PEEPLAND?” C.F.: “It was mostly just because . . . you know being a fellow New Yorker it’s so different now.” R.H.: “The way that is was, the city.” C.F.: “That’s never coming back . . . and I wanted to tell that story [of NYC] in a visual medium, because you can tell people what it was like, but if you can show them, it’s more visceral, it’s grittier, it’s more true.”
And the tale of Peepland could not be more ‘’visceral’ and pointed, as cops use any excuse to grab an African American male, a minor, and accuse him of rape and murder of the white victim in the park.
The depth of the corruption is staggering in its ferocity, as is the massive body count stemming from constant plot twists, from blowjobs turned wrong to shocking melees enveloping any and all characters in a variety of guns and knives as only the 80’s could do it.
R.H.: “What I loved is that the historicism is there. I love the 80’s perms [for example].” And at this point Charles breaks in. C.A.: “This person,” he says with a smile and playfully accusing point to Christa, ‘was the police person, policing in acronyms.” C.F.: “I was the G-string Nazi – I was like ‘hike that aaaall the way up to be here,” she says pointing to high over her hip. C.A.: “What were the buildings, what were the posters, what were [the] hairstyles, ads, shoes . . . what were the characters?”
Yes, the “Thriller” jacket is present and yes there were peep booths, and XXX video stores by the dozen in Times Square during the 80’s.
If you do not believe the history, view the photographs Christa includes at the end of the graphic novel.
Without giving away too much, this tale spins faster and harder building up and up and up to a furious conclusion coinciding with the countdown on New Year’s Eve at The Deuce, Times Square.
Ask your local comic shop if they have the hardcover trade graphic novel, or grab one here.
Nothing expected happens in Peepland, and it is truly wicked and wonderful.
“Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini Interview” by R.J. Huneke is the first in a series of articles resulting from our interviews with the creators at New York Comic Con 2017 and discusses the classic mystery graphic novel from Hard Case Crime and Titan Comics.
Cover Art By Robert McGinnis
Based on facts and questions surrounding Harry Houdini’s bizarre death in 1926, Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini is an imbued look into a female private detective taking on a whopper of a first case from long-time Houdini friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The vibrant history, the tenacious protagonist Minky Woodcock, and the stunning aspects of the art make this book a classic.
Impactful surprises, intricate looks into character personalities, and a fully-fledged and almost surreal world is built to exude the many mysteries of the day.
I was fortunate to interview Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini writer and artist Cynthia von Buhler, as well as Pearls Daily the model for the protagonist, and consulting editor Charles Ardai.
*The following MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS for Minky Woodcock ISSUE 1*
Renowned artist Cynthia von Buhler had me on page one of Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini.
The graphic novel’s first page has two panels: one remarkable overhead shot of Minky at a typewriter CLICK clicking away in a letter to Agatha Christie about their meeting at Minky’s mother’s funeral, which takes up all of the left side of the page, and the sub-panel to the right tying two images top-to-bottom of the funeral and furthering along the letter telling of Ms. Christie knowing Benedick Woodcock, a private investigator and Minky’s father.
The character of Minky is already established as both ambitious and a member of an interesting family and family business.
The sound of the writing implement, the scarlet locks of Minky’s hair, down to her red nails on the keys in such a stark close-up and unique angle are vivid and intriguing, while on the sub-panel a subdued brown and black coloring scheme goes back in the past to the early twentieth century and a sad and poignant funeral.
The art is utterly spell-binding and unique as it emanates the Roaring Twenties and the young woman who graces the next pages with a trench coat, a hint of bare leg, and a flask in her hand, as she still grieves for her lost mother, which had a great impact on her life.
Minky is not content to be a private detective’s secretary (her father’s request) when she can be one herself.
A case presents itself in her father’s absence, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wants Minky to investigate Harry Houdini, and she smartly says that she can take the case without arousing suspicion, which her father – a well-known P.I. – might very well attract.
Doyle aks Minky to join him for a séance with world renowned Margery, who he says is “adept at manifesting spirit ectoplasm from her orifices.”
This is historically accurate, and it is portrayed with all the zeal that a talented nude spiritualist can bring to a séance for society’s high rollers.
What is overlying all of this . . . a piece of tragic history:
On Halloween of all days, October 31, 1926, Harry Houdini died of very mysterious and suspicious circumstances, and though this is not touched on in the first issue, I suspect Ms. von Buhler’s tale does so as it progresses.
The rich depth of Minky and the portrayal of famed author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are posed, depicted and brought to life through an innovative use of art that is invigorating.
I succinctly asked artist Cynthia von Buhler about this:
R.J.H. – ‘I love your style [in this book].’
C.V.B. – ‘I’m doing more drawing it and ink [on paper] and color on the computer . . . this is my drawing style.’
Cynthia added that she was lucky to have Pearls Daily to model for the character of Minky.
C.V.B. – ‘She’s [Pearls is] great because she’s posing . . . she’s like that all the time.’
And with that Pearls, donning her detective’s trenchcoat did a little twist of her leg in a pose on the floor of New York Comic Con after the Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini signing.
Pearls Daily’s acting abilities helped to give life to the vivacious rendition of Minky Woodcock that Cynthia von Buhler puts on the page masterfully, and you can see it from panel to panel throughout the piece as Minky struts into the ritzy home for the séance, as she deftly grasps a martini glass, and as she flees the scene in a tight and curvilinear dress.
What is Minky running from exactly? Her mother’s ghost?
Well I leave that to you, the reader, to find out!
Get down to your local comic book shop and pick up this book, it just came out this week, before it sells out forever.
I will be scouring my LCS, Red Shirt Comics, for whatever variant covers are left on the shelf.
And check out all of the beautiful cover variants. The alternatives are stark in contrast from Charles Ardai’s photograph of Pearls Daily as Minky, to Cynthia von Buhler’s cover, to David Mack’s portrait, and last but not least to a legend that Cynthia spoke on with reverence:
C.V.B. – This cover [she said holding up the cover bearing Margery] is by Robert McGinnis . . . he’s ninety years old and he’s doing this style of painting for years in the James Bond movie posters . . . and it’s such an honor for him to do this cover.
All of the covers are unique and excellent views of the book, and the Robert McGinnis cover seems to pull you to it, as though it were magnetic.
The biggest qualm with this issue is that there is not enough Houdini (though he does pass through a wall briefly). But he is almost certainly lurking not far from Minky’s investigation in the future pages to come.
The hardcover graphic novel for Minky Woodcock is soon to be held!
And in the meantime check out the evidence and real history that was used in creating Minky Woodcock’s tussle with Houdini, Doyle, and the séance craziness of the time at minkywoodcock.com.
The grit of V For Vendetta creator David Lloyd’s Kickback is a welcome overtone unleashed across a thrilling tale of crime, mystery, and the spotted soul of a haunted detective unraveling, as he battles to persevere. This is our inaugural POWkabam Comics Review, and it could not have been for a more impactful graphic novel. Today, of all days, is November the Fifth, and the co-creator of V For Vendetta David Lloyd is a visionary whose works of art are an innovative reflection of the human condition.
Kickback is David’s baby, and he is proud to have been able to focus a lot of time and energy in cultivating a truly remarkable tale, as he wrote the story, as well as produced all of the art for the book.
The main character is Joe Canelli, who is a detective tormented by his own involvement in the department’s kickbacks.
Joe is as real as real gets, and his slow deterioration, as he fights to press on, does little to stymy his quests for mental clarity and to solve a black case.
Two things are immediately apparent in the book: One is that Joe is literally haunted; fleeting dreams from his childhood speak to his terror, as he stands aloft in the body of some skeletal aircraft, and his guilt from morally bereft decisions to look the other way.
The character is fleshed out, and has misgivings from childhood as well as his decisions along a pothole-marked path as an adult and the psychological aspects make for a very unique and relatable character in Joe.
The second aspect that stood out was the use of integral female characters in Candy, Joe’s girlfriend, and McLean, a reporter, who both have resonant personalities that make for interesting conversation and intense additions to the plot as the story unfolds.
Candy struggles to learn enough from Joe’s past to place the source of his incessant nightmares, and her dealings with his family are truly warming, funny, and at times, alarming.
McLean is a reporter for the ages, combining brains, courage, and impulsiveness in an awesome mix.
Though the character of Lois Lane is a phenomenal example of a strong woman in a (quickly deteriorating) boy’s club of the comic book world, McLean would likely go much further kicking ass and collecting hard evidence in bringing about the conclusion of a story, than Lois would.
But Lois has Superman to back her up, and McLean has only a rattled and hopelessly in over his head, mentally and physically drained Joe, who is all too mortal.
The style of the words amidst the world building are entirely new here, and offer a fresh conglomeration of noir, as fans of Raymond Chandler’s classic character Philip Marlowe will be delighted to see elements that are reminiscent as influences, yet this noir and this writing are wholly David’s.
The timeless nature of the story combines some of our contemporary times, i.e. cell phones, with a glimpse into a gritty fictional city rotting with corruption and dank with the oily barrels of many guns.
The art of David Lloyd has always been stark and unique in its way to attribute a bevy of emotions to the characters involved, as well as make the world itself a character, and this is very true in Kickback, where the city is capable of overshadowing its inhabitants in a realistic and yet surreal way with incredible feeling.
Interestingly enough, David was interviewed for the French magazine Bahniwé, and he spoke on his delight at being the creator of Kickback, on the process for making the work and his use of computing to enhance some of the color.
David Lloyd: But the greatest thing about Kickback for me is that it’s all mine. I like writing my own stuff, but the problem is that when editors like what you do as an artist, and see how well you illustrate various writers’ scripts, they always want you to keep doing that. It’s very difficult for an artist to get to write his own stuff because he has to make an effort to do that, and take time out from paying work he can get doing other stuff to develop his own ideas—in effect . . . I wanted to get that pleasure of working back for myself.
Kickback is set in a mythical US city—not a real place at some specific time. Franklin City is in the state of New Plymouth. It’s a fictional state but as familiar in all aspects as any other real city you’ve ever seen portrayed in a film or an album. But nothing, absolutely nothing—apart from the revolvers—is completely accurate in structure to the real objects and settings of the contemporary world around us… the cars are just regular basic cars that could be Fords or Chryslers, or whatever.
Bahniwé: In Kickback, you use a computer in your drawing. How do you see the evolution of your style?
David Lloyd: I don’t think my style has ever ‘evolved’ in the usual sense of the term. I’ve always just chosen to use different tools or techniques according to the needs of a story.
I didn’t actually plan to use any computer effects at the beginning of Kickback, but it just occurred to me to use them while I was doing it. I know some comic purists hate them. But I don’t overuse them. It’s very important not to overuse them. I use them in very specific cases. I think they’re valuable tools. I didn’t have a computer for many years. I got my first one in 2000 and discovered it had great value to me.
What I do with Kickback is scan in my black and white art, reduce it to the size of the printed page, print it out in black and white, then use colour pencils to colour it. Then I scan that using a Photoshop filter tool—smart blur. You can turn the texture of the colour pencil work into a pure colour shade, or keep some or all of that texture depending on what you want from a page or panel. Copy and paste the black. Make tifs, put it on cd. That’s it.
To read more of this insightful interview check out the David Lloyd Interview by Bahniwé, conducted at the Festival Quai des Bulles à St-Maloon.
Writing/Art By David Lloyd
As for David Lloyd’s newest creations, he is now a founder for a revolutionary digital publishing agency named Aces Weekly.
Writing/Art By David Lloyd
ACES WEEKLY is an exclusively onscreen comic art magazine: a weekly anthology of serial episodes and short stories in seven-week volumes, featuring some of the world’s finest creators of sequential art.
Readers can tune in to each volume and hundreds of comic pages, for as little as $9.99 (US)!
David spoke to me briefly about Aces Weekly at the New York Comic Con and felt compelled to embrace the digital age where more readers could be reached.
David provides some of his own work in the first volume (and it is damn GOOD), and in others.
What is truly remarkable about Aces Weekly is the sheer amount of great writers and talented artists that have come together to make top-notch comics for a bevy of audiences across myriad genres.
The remarkable list of artists includes: JOHN MCCREA, PHIL HESTER, MARK WHEATLEY, MARC HEMPEL, DAVID LLOYD, SHAKY KANE, DAVE HINE, KEV HOPGOOD, YISHAN LI, HERB TRIMPE, BATTON LASH, VAL MAYERIK, JAMES HUDNALL, KAT LAYNO, HENRY FLINT, PAUL MAYBURY, ALAIN MAURICET, LEW STRINGER, DAVID LEACH, RACHAEL SMITH, LAURA SCARPA, and many more.
Upcoming creators being added to the team (and the 19th Volume of Aces Weekly approaches on November 9, 2015) are Steve Bissette, Dylan Teague, Colleen Doran (the artist on some of the best Sandman issues), Arvell Jones, John Kaiine, Pete Docherty, Shane Oakley, Fumio Obata and Warwick Johnson Cadwell.
In this review The Man of Steel #1 brings new humanity to Superman and also to Krypton, with the planet’s dangerous demand for resources to expand its trade system of commerce coming to light from the unlikeliest of sources.
Brian Michael Bendis adds a riveting storyline backed by a sharp edge to the Superman mythos that is very relevant today.
The bad-ass creative team for The Man of Steel #1 is as follows:
THE MAN OF STEEL #1
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Jason Fabok, Alex Sinclair, Cory Petit
Edited by Jessica Chen, Michael Cotton, Brian Cunningham
Published by DC Comics
Release Date: May 30, 2018
The intricate, tight, and incredible style of all of the artwork feels like a DC Universe we recognize with a fresh take on the (80 year old) Superman character.
All of the artwork is extraordinary, but the bright effervescent colors by Alex Sinclair balancing some deep shadows and blacks give life, realism, and sheer superhero-ness, for lack of a better term, in a way rarely done before.
SPOILER WARNING***
From the pages of Action Comics #1000, we caught the Present Day in the Brian Michael Bendis Era where a new relentless villain, Rogul Zaar, emerges onto the DCU to give Supes a beating and a slicing in Metropolis.
And worse, Zaar claims to have destroyed Superman’s home world, killing his parents.
The opening of The Man of Steel #1 reads simply: “Krypton: Many Years Ago.”
And there in the past in front of an un-named council of overseers of the universe is Rogol Zaar!
And he is considered by the council as a hero and one they give great respect.
They hear him out as he states that the “plague” of Krypton is a greedy colonial push for commerce that will instill interplanetary war and consume many worlds as they pursue their increasing lust for decreasing resources.
This makes Krypton seem far more human than ever before!
The planet of the red sun is home to mortal beings that have faults and flaws, and their own imperialism and need for more and more resources to further their technological prowess, despite the deaths and downsides that can emerge from this, is truly a flawed and more realistic look at Kal El’s lineage than we have previously seen.
There have always been flaws with his brethren who ignored Jor El’s warnings of planetary destruction, but only in the movie Man of Steel do we see a more human look at the people who, in their greed, bring about their planet’s own demise.
Bendis takes this apt portrayal into a deep and much more realistic depiction of humanity on Krypton, even though in the first issue we have yet to see a single Kryptonian except for Superman himself.
This is so stark a view of our own world, let alone the emerging technical prowess of Krypton that we know of from the Superman canon that readers are left taken aback.
Things are not black and white in the United States, or the world at large, and neither are they in the Brian Michael Bendis Era.
“Writing Superman in today’s day and age is a such powerful experience,” Bendis told Forbes when The Man of Steel was announced. “We live in a world where we’ve heard, ‘Truth, justice, and the American way’ our whole lives, right? But this is the first time those things are really not to be taken for granted. Truth has been revealed to not be as black and white as we thought it was; justice is sadly not always for everybody; and the American Dream, the American way of everybody coming here to pursue the idea that they can live a safe and healthy life — these are ideas we always took for granted, but now we don’t. No matter where you are politically, we just don’t take these things for granted anymore.
“And now I think it’s time Superman stand up and give us that hope we always want from him. It’s a great thing to be writing a character who exudes hope at a time when people really, really need it.”
Zaar wishes to prevent bloodshed in an outright war and asks the council to instead wipe out Krypton.
He is later respectfully informed, at the end of The Man of Steel #1, that they do not see aggression from Krypton and will let them be.
The bulk of Zaar immediately questions if the council was paid off.
Brian Michael Bendis Brings New Humanity To Superman
What is equally intriguing about this opening saga is that Superman is shown to be far more human, in his costume as Superman, than he is as Clark Kent.
It is true The Man of Steel #1 is a small sample size.
But seeing Superman stop amidst all of his chivalrous deeds, flying like a god, to simply listen to a local musician’s take on a catchy song is simply brilliant.
Bendis, in a single page, makes the Man of Steel so much more human than the bumbling Clark Kent.
The writer who created one of the most human and realistic superheroes of all time in Jessica Jones, the private investigator and flawed female protagonist in Marvel’s comic series Alias, is adept at letting life, politics, and all of the warts and grace of humanity in civilization bring his stories and world building to amazing heights.
Superman now has more ancillary characters of importance, like the female fire chief Superman meets in a burning building, just as the great Jerry Ordway and Dan Jurgens often did in their writing of the character before.
Building on the firefighter, Bendis has given us a rare moral dilemma that is truly endearing with her and Superman.
We all have the thought at some point even if we would never act on it, and Superman now does too: despite his wife Lois (who is currently MIA at the Daily Planet) and their child, he shows lingering interest in the firefighter.
This is not an outright infidelity interest, but if for no other reason then fleshing out the mortal humanity in a superhero above all superheroes, Superman is shown to at least have the thought and sexual urges that all people share.
What is more human than that?
Pick up The Man of Steel #1 now, and follow with The Man of Steel #2 on Wednesday at your Local Comic Shop; my LCS in Port Jefferson is Red Shirt Comics and I will be there!
“Review: The Man of Steel #1 Brings New Humanity To Superman” is written by R.J. Huneke
“I wish you could hear this…” Brian Michael Bendis, Ivan Reis/DC Comics
Frankenstein Alive, Alive! Trio was written by Steve Niles and illustrated by Bernie Wrightson sans the “Trio” part in the 1980’s, and is a part of IDW Publishing’s new mini-series collection featuring three of the gorgeously reprinted monster -horror comic books, and a fourth issue is coming.
This POWkabam review of Frankenstein Alive, Alive! Trio examines a book that blew the doors off my feeble mind.
My LCS [local comic shop] owner pointed this out to me a couple weeks back, at Red Shirt Comics, and I became enamored with the ingenuity of the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein sequel for both the innovative storytelling that Ms. Shelley would be honored by and the incredulous black and white spreads of artwork unlike anything I have ever seen.
Frankenstein Alive, Alive! Trio is a stunner of a monster tale and, much like Frankenstein, so much more!
And Frankenstein’s Monster, the deeply disturbed, organically rotting, humanistic, and intriguing protagonist of this yarn draws in readers from the very first and refuses to let them go without sympathizing for such a creature whose thirst for intelligence, whose guilt, and whose loneliness reveal so much more of the raw character that Ms. Shelley introduced us to (and scared the bejesus out of us with) over a hundred years ago.
Niles has brilliantly evolved Frankenstein’s Monster.
And I think he does this in a way that is a natural progression from where Ms. Shelley left the Monster.
**SPOILER WARNING**
As Dr. Frankenstein echoes the Monster’s inner guilt by declaring him a murderer, likely without a soul, the Monster attempts to commit suicide.
We do not know what a supernatural being brought to life from the warped experiments can survive or how long he could live for instance, and the Monster does survive being frozen and encased in compounded rock and/or ice.
The Monster’s inner turmoil while living amongst humans makes for a look into its inner-most hell.
The Monster’s journey eventually takes him to a sideshow at a carnival where he terrifies people for a living.
But there he does not feel so out of place.
Before he gets there, he achieves his first ever friend only to witness that mad scientist’s plot: to murder a young woman’s soon to be born child in order to fuel a concoction to resurrect the doctor’s comatose wife.
Artwork by Bernie Wrightson
His first impulse is to kill his friend before he can commit such a heinous murder.
But then he exits and reflects on how this man took him in and became his friend.
What does the Monster owe mankind to act on its behalf?
It is a conundrum left for the next issue.
**SPOILER WARNING ENDED**
The artwork of Mr. Wrightson, who famously wrought the skull-like, nose-less, visage in his version of Frankenstein’s Monster is truly as remarkable as it is chilling.
The incredibly detailed black and whites of the shadowy castle bricks and the snow and all the morose scenery, the lively characters depicted with each one having a personality all their own, and the bubbles in the many glass beakers make for a transformative experience.
The art adds to Niles’ story and makes the mystery deeper and the sense of urgency and panic and horror all come through.
How will it turn out in issue Frankenstein Alive, Alive #4 is what I want to know.
“Review Frankenstein Alive, Alive! Trio Monster’s Inner Hell” was written by R.J. Huneke.
“Quarry’s War Hits Comics: Insights With Editor Charles Ardai” By R.J. Huneke
Charles Ardai of Hard Case Crime was kind enough to speak with POWkabam Comics in an interview to discuss Quarry’s War, Hard Case Crime’s newest revelation in the Titan Comics lineup, a four-issue graphic novel written by famed Max Allan Collins (Road To Perdition; Flying Blind) based on his hard boiled assassin Quarry.
The artwork by Szymon Kudranski is compelling in its portrayal of the character Quarry, who has really no readable expression.
The poker face and the Laissez-faire attitude of the intelligent gun-for-hire with more than a semblance of a conscience is a perfect emanation of Quarry on page one of issue 1.
The insights into war, from the ‘good hunting’ diction to the portrayal of moods surrounding the American sniper team are incredibly interesting – because the snipers do not kill in battle they, like the Vietcong, are ‘strange…crawly things in the jungle’ even to their own comrades in arms.
For fans of the Quarry books, the Quarry’s War comic has backstory that Mr. Collins has never explored before on the page!
For those of you not familiar with Max Allan Collins’ oldest running series to date, we will explore the history of Quarry in detail with someone who is intimately familiar with his work, Charles Ardai.
Charles Ardai is an accomplished author, editor, noir-buff, and co-founder of the Hard Case Crime publishing company, which has in the last couple of years started to create incredible editions of graphic novels through Titan Comics, like Cynthia Von Buhler’s Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini.
How did it all start?
C.A.: Max Allan Collins is probably better known for comics than for anything else. He started doing Dick Tracy, the newspaper strip, for something like ten years; he took over for Chester Gould, the guy who created Dick Tracy. He crated his own comic called Ms. Tree, which I think was one of the longest running crime comics in history, and he did Batman, and a bunch of other things, but he really hit it big with a book called Road To Perdition. Road To Perdition was a stand-alone graphic novel that became an academy award-winning movie with Tom Hanks.
Artwork By Szmon Kudranski + Quarry’s War By Max Allan Collins
Aside from his work in comic books, Max Allan Collins has dozens of riveting novels, including his Nathan Heller series where a private detective with a penchant for cash becomes a high-profile private dick, as he ends up working with the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Bobby Kennedy (in Bye Bye, Baby), and Amelia Earhart (Flying Blind); the historical fiction combined with the tragic figures of legend make for addictive masterpieces.
C.A.: [Max] started Quarry in the 70’s when he was a student in college, and he never did a Quarry comic. So here’s this guy who’s been doing comics his entire life, and here’s his longest running character – [Quarry] even became a TV series – and he’s never shown up in comics.
R.J.H.: So how did this innovative noir character, a good-guy gun-for-hire finally come to comic books?
C.A.: When we started Hard Case Crime for comics, I said Max: you’ve got to do Quarry. I want to see what this guy looks like. I’ve been reading about him for thirty years!
The magic was in the making: Quarry’s mug would come to comics.
C.A.: The idea was Quarry was a soldier in Vietnam. He comes back stateside from his tour of duty, [and] he can’t get a job. The only thing he knows how to do is kill people. He was a sniper in Vietnam; and the government trained him in how to shoot people, and he has no other skills. He discovers his wife was cheating on him, and he kills the guy she’s sleeping with, and so now he really can’t get a job. And someone shows up at [Quarry’s] door and says, ‘why don’t you do for good pay what the government had you doing for pennies over in Vietnam?’, and he becomes a killer.
And three interesting twists on the hard boiled crime genre here are as follows: Quarry stands in a United States in chaos in the Vietnam War era (this was contemporary when the first books were written by Collins), the tales take place in the middle of the country, and in many rural and suburban areas – not in the atypical L.A. or New York City – and Quarry himself is utterly unique as a character in that he is as honest a killer as he is an efficient survivor.
Charles Ardai worked as consulting editor on the first comic book adaptation of the character, Quarry’s War, along with editor Tom Williams.
C.A. But what we never saw in any of the books – and this is what is so exciting – we’ve never seen his Vietnam experience…and when they did the TV show there was an episode and part of it takes place in Vietnam, and it got phenomenal reviews. But what Max is doing [with Quarry’s War] is an interesting structure [where] half of each book is set in Vietnam – and we see Quarry as a marine sniper in Vietnam – and the other half is back home after the war. And it’s done alternating pages: every left-hand page tells the story in the present day America [being July 1972 in Issue #1] and every right-hand page tells the story of Vietnam [in 1969].
R.J.H.: Was this done to invoke a sense of the parallels between the two lifestyles?
C.A.: So if you just read the right-hand pages, you get the Vietnam story and if you just read the left-hand pages you get the current day story in America, and, of course, they get integrated.
Like most of the innovative works of Collins’ career, the integration of the past and the present pose dramatic expositions in the visuals and story on the page.
The first issue is dubbed “Partners In Crime” and throughout it we get to know Quarry’s partners, both in crime in America with Boyd, who is the interesting “passive-side” of the hit team, compiling the stakeout part of their jobs, and in Vietnam with Quarry’s sniper partner, a spotter, Lance Corporal Lance Roberts ‘who took plenty of shit for the double name’ – this quote is some of Collins’ witty genius, as he shares a character’s innards in brevity.
*SPOILER ALERT As a side note: in the very first novel in the Quarry series by Max Allan Collins, Quarry, Boyd does not make it out alive, though he has worked numerous successful jobs with Quarry.
Getting back to the comic: the current tale in America is also in Quarry’s past, and his Vietnam story is deeper into that past.
There is a connection to the soon-to-be-dead partner, Boyd, and the partner from the war.
The connection comes abruptly in the form of a twist, like a gut-shot, as the new job’s target for Quarry in America winds up being his old Vietnam spotter Lance.
The young marine who tries to smoke pot while setting up a target in the jungle, and is quickly threatened to be killed by Quarry for potentially alerting the ‘VC’ to their whereabouts if he smokes, comes to work well with the humorless sniper Quarry. But as the reader gets to know the sniper team in the Vietnam turmoil, there is a sense of foreboding. After all, Boyd is dead in the books and now Lance is supposed to be soon-to-be-dead, as Quarry’s next victim. *SPOILER ALERT ENDING
The detail of the jungle trees, the paddy fields, and the people all seemed to be immersed in a tint of shadow that may signal the past, or just a darker world in general.
It is compelling alongside the brighter America complete with Quarry’s best stress reliever, a swim and subsequent bikini-clad dame that takes an interest in him.
*SPOILER ALERT Even the casual one night stand highlights Quarry’s need to be cautious and meticulous: as a sexy shower curtain silhouette of the buxom companion graces the background, Quarry checks out her purse to ensure no mob ties, or guns, lie in wait.
The Vietnam mission comes without backup on the opposite page, and the brains of armed Vietnamese teenagers burst from their skulls, as the job is carried out. *SPOILER ALERT ENDING
Quarry’s War from Max Allan Collins is a gem, as dirty and sharp as an unpolished diamond.
Grab the last issue (and the preceding ones if you do not have them yet) that just hit shelves at your local comic shop, like Red Shirt Comics.
And a gorgeous collection of the entire graphic novel Quarry’s War is coming soon!
Too F$&%*N Metal DARK KNIGHTS METAL 6 Shreds All! And that summarizes the gnarliest, twisted, epic DC tale to ever land a piercing note.
*SPOILER WARNING
DARK KNIGHTS METAL 6 comes to us from one of the all-time greatest teams of ass-kicking artists ever assembled: master storyteller Scott Snyder (writer) on vocals and the Muhammad Ali-Bruce Lee tandem force of Greg Capullo (pencils) on bass and Jonathan Glapion (inks) on guitar.
And let’s not forget the Nolan Ryan of colorists here drummer FCO Plascencia.
Metal is the essence of the entire multiverse and it has permeated the weapons, the Forge of existence, and every being.
The intricate guitar solos rip through the thumping rhythms, as a story so warped with dark twistedness and innovative visions of Batman’s worst nightmares pits earth’s greatest heroes against the worst fate to ever threaten the DC Multiverse: a darkness so complete that only hungry nightmares and the screaming song of Barbatos resonating in the dark night will pervade.
Quoting (my favorite metal band) Metallica’s frontman James Hetfield from a 90’s concert in Mexico City: “You’re too f$&%in’ metal!”
He yelled this at then-bassist Jason Newsted; James continued, “you’re too metal for your own good.”
There can be no greater compliment I can think of.
Because DARK KNIGHTS METAL 6 is ‘too f$&%in’ metal.’
Barbatos, the hellish demon from the darkest corners of Batman’s being, is about to screech a song so sick and powerful that everything in the multiverse will fall to the darkness.
And then the Metal-Hawkgirl – black, silver and sharp as an embodiment of a katana – flies and, with a little help from Wonder Woman, cuts straight through the torso of Barbatos before the death-song can be bellowed.
The badass art and writing are going to go down as a legendary DC tale like no other.
The look and feel of the earth swallowed by the lost nightmare’s worlds running rampant is utterly compelling, bleak, and full of shadows.
The weapons, the expressions and the clothing are all intricate details of spikes and metal edges, and the incredulous warped characters that don the gear . . . damn it is so good!
The DARK KNIGHTS METAL crossover is something wholly new and about as different from standard superhero myth as it can get, and yet it somehow fits perfectly together and works in a legendary way.
Part of this is due to each personality crafted from the minds of Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, and Jonathan Glapion from the seemingly Joker demon Mouth Of Sauron-like figure with his crowing vampiric Robins on chains to the colossal Doomsday nightmare, who seems to make one of the grittiest and frightening villains in DC history even scarier.
And in the wake of nightmares, DARK KNIGHTS METAL 5 revealed that Dream of the Endless, Daniel’s whole world too, the essence of all things, stories, was at risk.
In DARK KNIGHTS METAL 6, victory is achieved in many unlikely fashions. A troop of Batmen from Earth #39, including Frank Miller’s version of the older Batman – looking like he is straight out of the Dark Knight Returns world – lends help in the heat of the final battle.
And Batman goes to the nightmare Batcave to battle the Joker demon who reveals he is not based off a Joker nightmare but is a vision of Batman himself.
The revived Batman appears outmatched.
Batman kneels on the floor of the Batcave with the Joker-like Teeth taunting him, and a gun is gun raised to execute the Bat.
But when Batman says to do it, the real Joker – looking freaking sick in classic purple duds turned modern/metal/uncompromisingly badass looking via hanging green chains and his mohawk-like hair – fires his giant Joker-pistol and the gag-flag spears through the demon.
This book, DARK KNIGHTS METAL 6, has it all.
The ending and epilogue leave the DC Multiverse blown wide open as a wall to another multiverse is breached and new possibilities of good and evil lay in wait for the Justice League.
Even Neil Gaiman’s version of Sandman is missing, despite the world of dreams and the library of tales having survived the fires of Barbatos.
This one was METAL to the end!
“Too F$&%*N Metal DARK KNIGHTS METAL 6 Shreds All!” was written for POWkabam by R.J. Huneke.
