Author: Now Read This

By Andy Garcia (Slave Labor Graphics 1996)
No ISBN

Andy Garcia’s eccentric adventures of art director and underground cartoonist Seth Throb were one of the alternative highlights of the 1990s, and fans (all too few, I regret to say) watched as a talented creator grew in skill and imagination with every succeeding page as he revealed the purely insane saga of his hero’s ordinary life in and the greater and so much weirder metropolis of Oblivion City.

Manic humour is the order of the day here, centred around the Oblivion Café (House speciality: Chilli laced with acid) featuring Throb, roommate Wuffle Head Spurt, his girlfriend Tabby (who murders the Mayor of Oblivion City every Thursday), Meggazar Dude (the world’s only epileptic superhero), the Hellish Demon Evil Willy and the sundry other billions who extraordinarily inhabit the very strangest city on earth.

When this eccentric twisted and unique fun-fest was released as a nine-issue series in 1991 through 1993 from Caliber, it was a comic you had to see to believe. The same still holds true. Hunt this book down. You’ll be glad you did.

™ & © 1995 Andy Garcia.

By Brian Michael Bendis (Caliber)
ISBN: 0-941613-85-2

Brian Michael Bendis created a powerful and very dark crime noir story in this tale of small-time con artist David Gold, the eponymous lead character. ‘Goldfish’, comes home after ten years away, but nothing is the same. His old point man Izzy is a cop now, and ex-girlfriend Lauren Bacall is the most powerful and ruthless criminal in the city, which she rules from her nightclub ‘Cinderella’. Around her floats an ugly coterie of gangsters and power-hungry city officials like a big black cloud, all jostling for position and advantage.

As the players advance their own agendas, each exploiting friend and foe alike, it is impossible to predict who, if any, will survive the inexorable, inevitable final confrontation.

Originally a five-issue mini-series published by Caliber Press in 1995-6, this is one of those independent stories from comics’ outer edges that led to the reinvention of the Crime genre in the industry mainstream. It’s a dark, ruthless tale without heroes, and Bendis manages to blend staccato action with moments of slow, choking tension.

This is excellent stuff, highly recommendable to any non-comics fan and yet, inexplicably, seems to be out of print.

© 2000 Brian Michael Bendis.

By Joss Whedon & John Cassaday (Marvel/Panini UK edition)
ISBN 978-1-905239-59-7

Spectacular action and unforgettable dialogue are the standard for this series, and Joss Whedon and John Cassaday constantly outdo themselves. If only all X-Men series could be this good…

With this third volume the long-running plot-thread of Emma Frost’s allegiance is resolved as the New Hellfire Club makes their move. Long a major threat to the X-Men, the organisation of millionaires, evil mutants and greedy malcontents has often tried to remove or subvert our heroes and their latest assault seems to be unstoppable. Meanwhile, mutant-hating alien Ord of the Breakworld has spectacularly escaped S.H.I.E.L.D. custody and seems utterly determined to save his species by obliterating ours.

A spectacular action epic with deep psychological underpinnings, this non-stop rush of multi-level conflict (physical, psionic, emotional) still finds moments for wrenching empathy and laugh-out-loud gags as the team achieves one of their greatest victories. The creators seem to have a perfect grasp of their charges here, so they know that no X-Men story ends truly happily. Thus this book concludes in a foreboding prologue as the heroes take off for Breakworld with the Xavier School’s psychic ordaining that they won’t all be coming back…

This UK edition reprints Astonishing X-Men issues #13-18 and also features interviews with Whedon and Cassaday. Every comics fan should read at least one X-Series, and this is it.

© 2006, 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved

 

By Steve Ditko and various (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-4012-0302-7

Steve Ditko is possibly comics’ most unique stylist. Love him or hate him, you can’t mistake his work for anyone else’s. His career began in the early 1950’s and, depending on whether you’re a superhero fan or prefer the deeper and more visually free and experimental work, peaked in either the mid-1960’s or 1970’s.

Leaving the Avenging World, Mr. A and his other philosophically derived creations for another time, the super-hero crowd should heartily celebrate this deluxe collection of the first costumed do-gooder that Ditko handled. Although I’m a huge fan of his linework – which is best served by black and white printing – the crisp, sharp colour of this Archive edition is still much better than the appalling reproduction on bog-paper that first displayed Charlton Comics’ Atomic Ace to the kids of Commie-obsessed America, circa 1960.

Captain Adam is an astronaut accidentally atomised in a rocketry accident. Eerily – and the way it’s drawn spooked the short pants off me when I first read it more than forty years ago – he reassembles himself on the launch pad, gifted with astounding powers. Reporting to the President, he swiftly becomes the USA’s secret weapon.

In those simpler times the short, terse adventures of Captain Atom seemed somehow more telling than the anodyne DC fare, and Marvel was still promoting monsters in underpants; their particular heroic revolution was still months away. Ditko’s hero was different and we few who read him all knew it.

Mostly written or co-written with Joe Gill, the first wonderful, addictive run of 18 stories from Space Adventures #33-42 (and three of those were drawn by the uninspired and out-of-his-depth Rocke Mastroserio), are a magnificent example of Ditko’s emerging mastery of mood, pacing, atmosphere and human dynamics.

In 1961, as Ditko did more and more work for the blossoming –and better paying – Marvel, Charlton killed the series. But when Dick Giordano created a superhero line for Charlton in late 1965, Captain Atom was revived. Space Adventures was retitled, and the Captain’s first full length issue was numbered #78.

As he was still drawing Amazing Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, Ditko could only manage pencils for the Captain and Mastroserio was recruited to ink the series, resulting in an oddly jarring finish. With #79 Ditko became lead writer too, and the stories took on an eccentric, compelling edge and tone that lifted them above much of the competition’s fare. Eventually the inker adapted to Ditko’s style and much of the ungainliness had disappeared from the figurework, although so had the fine detail that had elevated the early art.

This volume ends with issue #82, leaving six more published issues and a complete unpublished seventh for another time.

It’s impossible to describe the grace, finesse, and unique eclectic shape of Steve Ditko’s art. It should be experienced. And this is as good a place to start as any, and probably a lot easier to obtain than much of this lost genius’ back catalogue.

© 1960, 1961, 1965, 1966, 2004 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

By Various (Burlyman Entertainment)
ISBN: 1-84576-021-2

The comic strip world of the Matrix gets a second outing courtesy of another batch of superstars and thematrix.com – where these stories originally appeared. Tim Sale gets things started with ‘Farewell Performance’, scripted by Jim Krueger, and Paul Chadwick returns to the universe with ‘Déjá Vu’.

Poppy Z. Brite’s prose piece ‘System Freeze’ is illustrated by Dave Dorman, and is followed by ‘The King of Never Return’, a full colour yarn from Ted McKeever with Chris Chuckry. Troy Nixey’s ‘An Asset to the System’ is followed by Greg Ruth’s ‘A Path Among Stones’ and the vibrant ‘Run, Saga, Run’ by Keron Grant and Rob Stull.

Vince Evan’s ‘Wrong Number,’ and ‘Broadcast Depth’ by Bill Sienkiewicz, are followed by the show-stealing ‘Who Says You Can’t Get Good Help These Days?’ from Peter Bagge, whilst Spencer Lamm and Michael Oeming’s ‘Saviour’ returns to the fraught oppression the fans expect. ‘I Kant’ from Kaare Andrews, Ron Turner and Dave McCaig amps up the all-out action quota to round off the action. (My copy also contains two preview inserts for upcoming series ‘Doc Frankenstein’ and Geof Darrow’s ‘Shaolin Cowboy,’ but I’ll ignore those in this instance).

This is a great book for adult comic fans and followers of the multi-media franchise that spawned it. Good work from big guns is always appreciated and the cross-border cachet of a good license ought to bring in some converts to our own particular artform.

© 2004 Burlyman Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved

 

By Various (Burlyman Entertainment)
ISBN: 1-84023-806-2

You’ve probably heard this before, I suspect, but I wasn’t overly impressed by the Matrix movies. This made the arrival of these two books something of a surprise to me.

The folks at Burlyman have gathered a pretty impressive crowd of comic creators to produce tales set in and spinning out of the filmic universe for their website, and these are now available in a format you can read on a bus or in the bath. And, believe me, you will want to.

Volume 1 expands the universe first seen in the movies, starring Neo and a brave band of human survivors battling against an oppressive computerised tyranny in a deadly cyber-reality with a series of telling short tales in a variety of styles and formats.

Under the editorial eye of Spencer Lamm and the auspices of original creators Larry and Andy Wachowski – who kick off proceedings with the Geof Darrow illustrated ‘Bits & Pieces of Information’, followed by Bill Sienkiewicz’s ‘Sweating the Small Stuff’, and Ted McKeever’s ‘A Life Less Empty’.

Neil Gaiman contributes the prose vignette ‘Goliath,’ with spot illustrations from Sienkiewicz and Gregory Ruth, ‘Burning Hope’ is by John Van Fleet, and Dave Gibbons recreates a Japanes parable in ‘Butterfly’. Troy Nixey and Dave McCaig combine for ‘A Sword of a Different Colour’ and alternative legend Peter Bagge crafts the truly disturbing ‘Get It?’

David Lapham’s black and white thriller ‘There are No Flowers in the Real World’ skilfully counterpoints Paul Chadwick’s oppressive ‘The Miller’s Tale’, whilst Ryder Windham and Killian Plunkett explore creativity in ‘Artistic Freedom.’

Greg Ruth returns to conclude the volume with the painterly comic strip fable ‘Hunters and Collectors,’ a contemplative finish to as funny, thrilling, frightening, distressing and rollicking a bunch of tales as I have not seen since the glory days of 2000AD.

In comic book terms at least this book is a fan-boy’s delight.

© 2003, 2004 Burlyman Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved