Strange Bedfellows

Josh Kopin: Among the many and varied books that I picked up on this week of weeks was Marvel's Strange Tales #1, a title I've been excited about since I learned that the Norwegian cartoonist Jason would be drawing a story starring the Spectacular Spider-Man. Now that it's finally out, I was rather excited to see what worked, what didn't, and if the execution was as brilliant as the concept. Presumably, Jon, you were wondering some of the same things?

Jon Gorga: Sure, it's a weird mix. Although specifically in the case of Jason I had no fear, because the man is a genius. And to be honest this isn't the first time Marvel has done something like this. "The Megalomaniacal Spider-Man" #1 was a one-shot written and drawn by Peter Bagge that Marvel published a few years back under their short-lived imprint "Startling Stories" which was essentially all indie creators and Marvel published some of Fred Hembeck's stuff back in the day. So I was pretty confident that Marvel editorial and indie creators of both a comedic and dramatic stripe could co-exist and do some good work. How familiar were you with these lesser known creators before the announcement of this crazy title back in June, Josh?

Josh: Very few, actually. I know Jason and Paul Pope, of course, and was familiar with the Perry Bible Fellowship and James Kochalka, but outside of that I'm afraid I was very much in the dark about the creators. This is part of what made reading this series so much fun; I sort of knew what to expect from the first story (Pope's) and the last one (Jason's), but everything in between was something of a pleasant surprise.

Jon: I have to admit that I'd be lying if I said I knew everybody in here. Although on closer inspection the only names I couldn't place in some way was Junko Mizuno and Johnny Ryan. And after I saw Junko Mizuno's art style I realized I'd read a really creepy story of hers once in an anthology of manga and after my store's General Manager told me Johnny Ryan was the "Angry Youth Comix" guy, I said: Oh. Them. Okay.

Josh: Given, then, that we knew Paul Pope and Jason were going to bring their A-Game (and I'm pretty sure they did; that Pope could muster dialogue like "Horrors! I--I am incontinent with fear!!" is a pretty sure sign of genius), the real test of the book was going to be in those unknowns- the Johnny Ryans of the bunch. Which of the in-between stories stood out to you?

Jon: Although I was excited for Jason's Spider-Man story, I think the stand-out for me was Nick Bertozzi's M.O.D.O.K. story. It was SO sad and so funny at the same time. Which is pretty much exactly what was advertised in his interview with Marvel here. Maybe I've been sub-consciously affected by the fact that I've had to look at the M.O.D.O.K. build-a-figure for the entire time I've been working at the store. But I was actually genuinely moved by the choice M.O.D.O.K. makes at the end of the story. The idea that he almost had a shot at happiness because one female A.I.M. member (and the idea of one of those ugly-yellow-suited A.I.M. stormtroopers actually being a beautiful girl underneath was gold all by itself) tolerated his insanity but he fucked it up because he's a vain power-hungry maniac? I felt for him. My second favorite was the Dr. Strange story by Dash Shaw. (He talks about it with Marvel here.) I really need to read his graphic novel "Bottomless Belly Button". I think that Marcos Martin has to move over, because Shaw is now the smartest artist to ever draw Dr. Strange. This one panel with a battle of magical will between Doc Strange and Nightmare is to kill for. If they could get him to be the artist (JUST the artist mind you and with a good editor) on a monthly "Dr. Strange", I would buy at least the first issue to check it out.

But I was really disappointed overall that none of these creators took a firm stance in the dramatic. We never got an indie creator's take on Marvel characters. We pretty much got indie creators making fun of Marvel characters, if lovingly. Paul Pope said in this interview: "It's not a parody, though it is a comedy." But it was a parody. Did you not feel that way?

Josh: I guess that, for the most part, I did. With the exception of Jason's Spider Man story (which isn't parody simply because Spidey is already steeped in comedy and teenage angst), most of what's here seems to be making fun of the Marvel universe rather than looking at it from a unique perspective. In this regard I'm disappointed by Paul Pope in particular, because he's shown that he is capable of being a brilliant superhero writer/artist. Which isn't to say that Pope's pages aren't good, because they're great, simply that they weren't exactly what I was hoping for. Still, I think the MODOK story and the Perry Bible Fellowship ones walk the line between comedy and outright parody (that is, what Pope was aiming for) very well and I think they, as well as the Jason one, hold up the best in that respect.

Jon: Yeah, agreed. Although that's why I liked Bertozzi's M.O.D.O.K. story best, it also straddles a different line: that between drama and parody. In the interview with Paul Pope, Pope mentioned "Teenage Sidekick", the short story that appeared in his DC "Solo" issue (issue #3) which I just read recently and it is damn good. As is his O.M.A.C. story "Are You Ready for the World That's Coming?" in the same comic. In fact, I'd say both stories are required reading for a full-understanding of both Robin, the teen sidekick of the title, and the 'One Man Army Corps', respectively. By comparison his material in "Strange Tales" #1 is not as focused and rather silly. So as a fellow Marvel fan, I can't help but think: Paul Pope does two dramatic tales for DC and a parody for Marvel. What gives?

Josh: I suspect we will never know exactly what gave, although I wonder if it had more to do with Marvel editorial than the creators themselves: this would explain why it seems to be such a unifying feature of the stories present in this issue. I'm curious though: does your dissatisfaction with the style of some of the stories mean you don't like the stories themselves? Or that you don't like the project as a whole?

Jon: That's a hard question to answer. I think I still very much like the idea. But I'm hoping there might be a little more drama to be found in the next two issues. I'm not crazy about the stories themselves for the most part and I think both the individuals and the editorial staff are to blame. If Marvel wants this to be seen as them putting a hand of friendship out to the larger comics community (which may very well be something they desire considering they're going be bought up by Disney Corp. at the end of the year) I think they shouldn't have encouraged/allowed all the stories to be comedic in drive. Most of these creators have done some excellent dramatic work in the past. Indie comics- underground comics- comix- whatever you want to call them, are not purely a satirical-look-at-us-we-are-so-clever world. Michael Kupperman's "Tales Designed to Thrizzle" is not the be-all and end-all of underground comics. And they should have stepped up and really said: This is who and what we are, we do quality work of our own kind, and we may not ever want to be an in-house Marvel writer/artist but this is what we could do if we were. We'll have to see all three issues out before I could declare this whole project a failure or a success. Marvel has certainly, at least, shown that they know how to healthily laugh at themselves. Which stories stood out most for you, Josh?

Josh: Well, aside from the three already mentioned, I'm rather fond of both the Dr. Strange story you spoke of earlier and Michael Kupperman's Namor story. This brings me to an interesting point: what's so fantastic about Kupperman's story is the art, which sort of looks like it came from an Adult Swim cartoon. In fact, few of the artists (if any) draw in a traditional superhero style, something which I appreciated mightily. Are you fonder of the art than of the writing?

Jon: Well, it's funny you should say that, because I believe something Kupperman did was adapted recently into a cartoon on Adult Swim. And yeah, I guess I would say I liked the art more than the writing here. The art was never really disappointing. I can say that much. But if DC's "Solo" series from 2005, or so, is their equivalent to this project? It blows "Strange Tales" #1 out of the water. A'course, by doing it the way DC did it, each creator had a lot more space. There was no way this series could compare.

Josh: So, you think you'll pick up issue #2? I probably will, mostly because I remain curious about it. There probably won't be some major shift towards the dramatic (after all, Max Cannon is one of the writers), but I don't think I was turned off enough be this not to come back for at least one more go.

Jon: Yeah, I too will almost certainly return. My curiosity about this concept is still unabated. Will we do another switcheroo review week and a dialogue double-team review?

Josh: Yea! Let's do it. There are a couple of imprint books coming out the week before that I want to take a look at, and I'm curious to find out if you think that the second issue of Strange Tales is better than the first one.

Well, until next time:

Make Ours Marvel!

Already Tired of Wednesday

Comics come late this week, thanks to a holiday celebrating the Labor Movement.

Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Exodus #1:
Matt Fraction's big summer crossover concludes! Will Scott Summers' plan work? Will Norman Osborn rue the day that he messed with the X-Men? Will the coloring of Emma's diamond form be brilliant or awful? After a disappointing last issue, I'm hoping it picks up here.

Incredible Hercules #134:
More of the INCREDIBLE THORCULES! I loved the last issue of this arc, and with the addition of a cover homage to The Graduate, this one looks even better. It took me a while to pick up this book, but now I'm really glad I did.

Nomad: The Girl Without a World #1:
I'm a sucker for anything involving Cap somehow, even as peripheral as this is. I'll take a look at it, for sure, but whether or not I actually buy it is sort of up in the air. Still, it looks like an interesting piece to the Cap puzzle.

The Marvels Project #2
Everything Ed Brubaker touches turns to gold. This project, in particular, seems like its going to be an explosion of awesome after last month's wonderful introduction. I know Jon wasn't that fond of it, but Epting's art on its own makes this book worth a look.

Wednesday Comics #10
Karl Kerschel!

A quick note on what I'm NOT picking up: Dark Reign: The Avengers. Part of it is because I'm already picking up several four dollar books this week, but the other part is that I'm simply tired of this Dark Reign thing. If I care about the character, I might pick up the book, but I mostly just want Norman's rule to end. Right now. It was a good idea, but it has become both detrimental to the stories within some of the books themselves and REALLY REALLY EXPENSIVE. It needs to end now.

Jon's Looking Forward To... (9/the 10th!/2009)

Hm...

Wednesday comes on Thursday this week thanks to Labor Day. So the new books will be out on Thursday September the 10th!

(From my pull-list...)

the requisite Spider-Man: "the Amazing Spider-Man" #604
This description is... awkward to say the least. This is the kind of stuff that my General Manager says is going to be gone from the main Spider-Man books when Disney starts to show their hand in half-a-year or so.

"Dark Reign: The List: Avengers"
Another Spider-Man appearance. (If you haven't guessed yet, I have what my boss likes to call "a Spider-Man problem") This looks hot. No question about it.

"The Life and Times of Savior 28" #5
I am VERY excited for this one. This series is brilliant, although the last issue was a bit of a let down compared to the first three. It was essentially set-up for the final act, I suspect. The fantastic story of this poor, poor superhero is probably going to be wrapped up in this issue. And if it is indeed the end, I will do a retrospective piece about the series because it is in many ways the new "Watchmen" and nobody knows it.

(From the take-a-peek pile...)

"The Marvels Project" #2
Well, the first issue failed to impress me but Josh feels that it was all set-up for some great stuff to come so I will check it out.

"Thunderbolts" #135
This looks and sounds damned cool.

So check back to see what I actually buy!

Hardcover Hell!

This is a bit of a rant. Forgive me.

Okay. Flashback time. It's Fall 2005. Jon Gorga has just begun his senior year of high school. He knows that the current Marvel event is "House of M", but he believes it to be an X-Men thing which qualifies it generally under the 'stay away-too complicated' category, even though the New Avengers are in it. But it's not the 'real main-continuity' Avengers, isn't it? It's the 'House of M' world Avengers. Mutants are the majority instead of a minority, Peter Parker married to Gwen Stacy and living like a celebrity and stuff like that. Case closed. I didn't need to own it. Not the story of the life of the Spider-Man I was following. Skippable! How smug I was.

Flashforward. It's late Summer 2007. And Jon Gorga finally deigns to read the first issue of House of M and discovers: "Oh, yeah it's still Spider-Man it's just that the world is different. Their memories are altered so that all this different bullshit seems normal to them. Well, I still don't know if I need to own that. It's one damn step away from an alternate Spidey." Then in "House of M" #4 immediately after it becomes clear that these are THE Avengers, a remarkably tender scene occurs between Wolverine and the young Layla Miller:

"Who are you?" "L-Layla." "Like the song?" "No." "Where'd you come from?"
...
"I mean I woke up and everything was all-- I thought I was crazy. My parents were the same but everything else was--I mean, what's going on? Am I crazy or not?" "You're not crazy." "You sure?" "If you are-- then we both are."

Tears. Something about this scene never fails to leave me on the verge of tears. EVERY TIME. I don't know how it happens. I don't know if it's the gorgeous art by Olivier Coipel or the simple manner in which Layla Miller expresses herself or the fact that after 48 hours of running around like he's going insane Wolverine, the big bad-ass, finds his answer in a thirteen-year-old girl. A thirteen-year-old girl who's been going through pretty much just what he has for the past two days. Probably it's the combination. It's beautiful somehow. So now a sophisticated college boy Jon Gorga says: "I NEED to own this. This is GOOD."

And that's only one of many amazing scenes that follow. In #5 Spider-Man gets the memories of his original life back. And promptly FREAKS OUT. He's looking at a dead woman he loves and the child he can't possibly have had with her, he feels the life he always wanted wiped out in an instant. He physically doubles over on a car's hood in psychic/emotional pain.

And the twist in #7? Forget it, I couldn't ruin that for you. You have to read it yourself. But that moment when Bendis pulls out the big emotional rug from under you, that was when I said: "I need to own this in hardcover. This is an amazing eight-issues-of-comics worth story. This is a great Spider-Man story, a great X-Men story, a great sci-fi story. This is a great story. Period. It deserves a nice hardcover position on my shelf." Which brings me to my point:

Hardcover comics reprint collections are the most frustrating/wonderful/stupid thing the comics industry produces.

A hardcover edition of the "House of M" mini-series was due out in January of the next year (2008), but January is too late for Christmas, so I've had a jones to own this hardcover for a long time. I thought: "It's a story I'D like to read over and over. It's a story I could put in anyone's hands and..." Oh wait. Not quite.

Most people probably don't know or care who the Scarlet Witch is. (I barely did before I read "House of M") And as she's the force that alters the world, she's pretty important. Furthermore no one will understand what's happening on the first few pages without an understanding of who she is. Then I reread the last few pages of the mini-series. They are pretty much just a set-up for another story. It wouldn't make a ton of sense. So I scrapped it. Really. I figured $30 is too much to pay for something I can read in a certain illegal format on my computer any time I want and which I am going to purchase partially in individual comics. Why have two and a half versions of something?

I then noticed that there was a collection of "New Avengers" issues that would form a perfect long epilogue to the "House of M" story. New Avengers: The Collective is the story set-up in the last pages of "House of M". So there's another thing I could buy in hardcover and have a really nice kind of a set. But still not quite worth it. Then I discovered the gorgeous "Avengers Disassembled" hardcover. This collection tells the fucking awesome story of the end of the Avengers as we knew them and is a great introduction to the Scarlet Witch and leads pretty directly into "House of M". So: Buy "Avengers: Disassembled" and "House of M" and "New Avengers: The Collective" and it will all make sense. I was beginning to have a beautiful vision of all the big Marvel events together on my shelf in hardcover. Oh wait...

Except the 'New' Avengers formed in the meantime between "Disassembled" and "House of M" and Spider-Man gets a temporary costume between "House of M" and "New Avengers: The Collective". So someone who knows nothing will say: "What? I thought The Avengers were gone. Who are the New Avengers?" AND "Why is Spider-Man wearing that thing? Is it metal?" See what I mean? When I buy individual super-hero comics I expect an incomplete story. Anything else would be impossible because Spider-Man has been published since 1962! So why not buy five thousand little nuggets of the story that add up to one mega-story. That works for me. Maybe it's just me being a control freak, but by buying these stories in 22-page installments I can make sense of them: Spider-Man shows up here, then he shows up here, then he gets a new costume and everywhere he shows up for a while afterward he's wearing the new costume. Simple.

But if Marvel and DC are going to tell stretched-out stories AND they're going to publish hardcover collections, they need to start doing it smarter. Because the way it is now, it's IMPOSSIBLE to actually read these stories in order. You've got to make goddamn flowcharts to try to make their collections work in order. Honestly, for me? It's come down to this: I don't want them. And I'm not the only one, people come into the store all the time asking for a story they can understand and fully appreciate. And they are in short order. The problem is only exacerbated by Marvel's insistence at not keeping their collections in print for more than a month.

I WANT:
+A "HOUSE OF M" hardcover with "Son of M" #1-6 and "New Avengers" #26 as an epilogue.
+A "ROAD TO CIVIL WAR" hardcover with everything that was a part of the lead up to "Civil War": "Amazing Spider-Man" #529-531, "New Avengers: Illuminati" #1, and so on.
+A "CIVIL WAR" hardcover with the "Civil War: Frontline" issues, (maybe just the important ones, i.e. #1, #4, and #11), the "Iron Man" tie-in issues, some of the "New Avengers" tie-in issues, the "Amazing Spider-Man" issues, and "Civil War: Casualties of War" mixed in and more importantly "Captain America" #25 and "Civil War: The Confession" as an epilogue. That one is a no brainer, guys.
+A "SECRET INVASION" hardcover with "New Avengers" #31, "New Avengers: Illuminati" #5 first and "New Avengers" #41 and #43 mixed in.

Or simply produce the "Civil War Chronicles" and "Secret Invasion Chronicles" series as paperbacks and hardcovers. I just want things to be published in order. IMPOSSIBLE you say? Yes and no. It IS impossible because Marvel and DC are corporate entities and some of these collections I'm talking about would be massive, but no it ISN'T impossible because Marvel produces those godawful beasts called Omnibuses and the story is laid out for them already, all they would need to do is go back and pick out the parts required to tell the damn story right. They've already done it once: "Secret Wars II" Omnibus Edition is exactly what I'm talking about, except apparently the order of the material is wrong in some places and most of us don't want to read that story anyway. I say play ball fair or go home. Give us a hardcover that tells the whole story or don't do it at all. If you can't enhance what you've already done, leave it alone.


UPDATE: 9/15/2oo9

I spent a far longer time than is sensible staring at the "House of M", "Avengers: Disassembled", and "Secret Wars" hardcover editions at a store today. Le sigh. They are all the same height and depth. Perfect for a shelf. They are so pretty. Damn I want them.

UPDATE: 9/24/2oo9

I own a copy of the "House of M" hardcover. It is so beautiful. It keeps me warm at night. To quote Tom Waits' song "Step Right Up": "It finds you a job. It is a job. ... It disinfects. It sanitizes for your protection. It gives you an erection! It wins the election!" I know it ain't 100% right. But like a good friend who's just a little off, I love it anyway.

Just the story of a certain cat with steel-hard skin and the skirt he lost when he went in the clink on a bum rap.

"Luke Cage Noir" #2 from Marvel Comics

Re-telling the origin of Marvel characters in the new setting of the Depression Era is a fairly novel idea that Marvel is milking for all it's worth. Still, issue #1 of this series impressed me, so I came back for more. It's Harlem in the 1920s, a topic that already interests me because my, perhaps, favorite prose novel of all time is Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man", a brilliant piece of work that takes place in Harlem of the 1950s. There are echoes here of Ellison's essential concept of African-American man as 'invisible' in a social sense.

(Cover of "Luke Cage Noir" #1)

I'm not sure what bloody right Tombstone had appearing in the cliffhanger ending of the first issue and then fairly heavily in this issue as he has nothing to with Luke Cage. But noticing that Tombstone is an albino African-American (a fact often over-looked) and noting that both he and Luke Cage have nearly identical abilities (impenetrable skin, super-strength) I'm almost tempted to say that his inclusion here is inspired. But it isn't.

Actually, I think that giving this 1920s version of Luke Cage a super-villain is the weakest element of this mini-series so far. Everything else, however? I LOVE IT.

The 1920s dialogue by Adam Glass and Mike Benson is delightful and for the most part sits just below the place where it would be over the top and ridiculous. As a result it feels fun while still giving a sense of a real time and place. Shawn Martinbrough's art is atmospheric. Great panels of Luke Cage in an urban environment, every image in the rain is damn gorgeous. The facial expressions show a nearly true range of human emotion. Although I wish the artist and the colorist had been in closer conversation about the flashbacks. Both issues have various flashbacks and both issues have some panels with sepia-tone coloring to make this clear and some panels without. It makes for frustrating reading at times. "What is this? When does this take place? 10 years ago, before Luke Cage was in jail or tomorrow?" Frustrating.

The cliffhanger ending from last month involving Luke Cage, an empty grave, and the mobster Tombstone with a pair of tommy guns as well as a pair of rottweilers didn't really interest me as much as the story of a regular joe in remarkable circumstances who wants to find the girl he loves. Thankfully, that story hasn't been entirely derailed, but it has been a bit submerged. Speaking of submerged... Spilling a rooftop water tank onto bad guys is funny no matter what medium, genre, or decade you do it in. Awesome!

And THIS issue's cliffhanger brings the plot about Luke's dear Josephine back to the fore!

THE LONG AND SHORTBOX OF IT? This is a damn good series with a great character re-placed into a logical location for his origin story to take place. Despite minor problems, this mini-series is fun and cool and will probably make a damn good collection in a few months. You can bet I will be picking up #3 and the final issue, #4!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
So here's my review of a Marvel book. Josh just reviewed Jeff Lemire's "Sweet Tooth", an imprint book, so if it isn't clear yet we're giving you a special point-of-view this week in honor of "Strange Tales" #1! The Marvel Guy goes indie and the Independent Guy takes a look into the Marvel Multiverse and then both of us will together, give you, in the next few days, our thoughts on this unusual moment in which Marvel invites some "Strange" bedfellows into the House of Ideas!

Tales From The Forest

Reading Sweet Tooth #1 got me wondering if I'll ever be able to understand Jeff Lemire's work.

My musing isn't because I don't GET Lemire; I do get him. And I love him. The Essex County trilogy is, quite simply, one of the most magnificent pieces of sequential art ever put to paper because he manages to tell such a complex story with such a simple vocabulary. It's rare to come across a story that manages to do so much with so little (in fact, the only example I can really think of is Craig Thompson's Blankets, but that's just so damn long it's hard to put in the same category as Essex County). This is particularly striking because Lemire doesn't seem like a consciously indie cartoonist- instead of denying the superhero tropes that most associate as one and the same with comic books, the first Essex County volume embraces and plays with them. Rather than deconstruction in the Alan Moore and Warren Ellis vein we get deconstruction from an entirely different perspective; that of a young reader of comic books. Instead of putting the realities of superheroes under the magnifying glass we find the realities of reading superhero comics there, and what we come to understand about ourselves as readers of comics is fascinating. Someday, I would like very much to explore this more deeply.

No, it's not that I don't understand Lemire's work because it is incomprehensible or indecipherable, because it isn't; it may be complex but it is also beautifully simple and it works on about a hundred different levels. Instead, I don't understand Lemire because his protagonists are just so unbelievably isolated, so incredibly alone. Sometimes they can find their way out of this loneliness and sometimes they don't but the end result is, unsurprisingly, not as important as the fact that they all, at one point, hit such depths.


It's these depths that make Lemire's work so powerful, so moving, and it's the way his new Vertigo series, Sweet Tooth, gets its start. The series' hero (or, perhaps, simply its protagonist) finds himself alone in a world that is very dangerous, one that he knows absolutely nothing about. And it's terrifying. One wonders what's going to happen to Gus; what horrible things Lemire has planned for the poor boy with deer antlers on his head. This curiosity, on its own, would be enough to bring me back for another issue.

As always with his work, Lemire's artwork is a treat, but it has a whole new dimension with the addition of colorist Jose Villarrubia. Initially, I was worried about this new dimension; Essex County is probably so effective because its in black and white and I actually think color would have taken away from that project. Here, I'm still not convinced its required (or even welcome, really) but it does add a certain flair that I like quite a bit. I'd be interested to see an issue printed in black and white to compare, but, truthfully, this is the only complaint I have with the book. A more perfect piece of sequential art I haven't read in a long time.

---------------------------------------------

In honor of Strange Tales #1 Jon and I are pulling a little switcheroo- I'm reviewing Jeff Lemire's Sweet Tooth, which is new from Vertigo, and he's reading and reviewing Luke Cage Noir. In the next couple of days you'll see a conversation we'll be having about Strange Tales. If you're a little confused about why "the marvel guy" is reviewing an indie and why the indie guy is dipping his toes into the Marvel Method well, thats why.

HOLY SHIT

It appears that my favorite comic shop in the whole world is about to sue Diamond.

Shit.