Strange Surfer

Yesterday, the above preview from Strange Tales II accompanied an interview with writer/artist Frank Santoro- suggesting that at least some of the stories that we'll see in the second iteration of the anthology will be serious rather than comic. Santoro had this to say about his Surfer story:

It plays into my fascination with romance comics and this sort of romantic, universal idea. The other thing I was really interested in doing, and I don't know if I pulled it off or not-I don't know about you, but whenever I look at a Surfer comic, it never really looks like he's surfing through space. There's always this splash page or big panel where he's got an arm forward; he's surfing in a way that you would never really surf. If you ever look at people surfing, they're barely moving their bodies. They're sort of just lilting with it, you know? They might duck down, but they're not posed with their arm forward and their leg back. Usually there'll be this one big panel in the spread, but there's no real sense of motion. I never get the feeling that he's soaring through space. Maybe for that one panel, but it's too over the top. I was trying to have a more quiet approach to it, and I hope I pulled it off. Hopefully people will agree. My intent was to show that motion, to show how he could move across the spreads. And I only had four pages, so it was like, "Do I have two two-page spreads? Do I have one spread with a right side and a left side?" I bookended my story-you'll see what it is-so that it's a Moebius strip, honestly. It just goes in and out. With four pages, you really have to pare it down, so hopefully it worked.

Read the rest of the interview here.

Bee in My Bonnet!

"bee in... The Ramble" from MySpace/Dark Horse

There was a unique and unusual pleasure to be had in hearing the comicsmith, Jason Little, read this comic out loud with accompanying music and a projection of the comic panel-by-panel to a small crowd at one of R. Sikoryak's (@RSikoryak) Carousel nights a few months back. Now the masses can be exposed to it as well since it has been published on "MySpace Dark Horse Presents". The experience of hearing this comic read that night (and then having it divorced from that experience on the web) was particularly surreal for reasons that will become clear over the course of this review.

Right from the start "The Ramble" is a hilarious tale of two friends meeting-up in the Big Apple's world-famous Metropolitan Museum of Art for a... uh... unique tour. Oh man. You've really got to click the link at the top of this post and read it yourself to fully appreciate this. THERE ARE NO WORDS.

Speaking of there 'being no words,' one of the most fun elements of the comic is explored after they leave the MET, occasional pictographs in place of words. An element that starts out playful like this:










and this:


And later, after a few sausage jokes, crescendos into something brilliant, painful, awkward, and hilarious:



And that's the tip of the iceberg.

There's a sequence of photographs inter-spliced with drawings during a tour of statues and another one during a film [above], four panels in silhouette during a discussion about burlesque, and there's a panel in '3-D' color-separation style while talking about 3-D. A character attempts to better read the text in another panel by grabbing the panel borders! The piece does take Bee and friends through the part of Central Park called the Ramble and all over New York City, but really it's a ramble through different art mediums and styles Little finds interesting. (On his blog, Little refers to this as the practice of "putting it all in there". Which says everything.)

Actually, as far as Jason Little's career in comics, the whole piece is just the tip of the iceberg.

I first became aware of Jason Little (@Beecomix) several years ago when I suddenly found myself in possession of a copy of "Jack's Luck Runs Out" from Top Shelf Productions, a marvelous/crazy comic that's like a Tarantino action-movie but with a playing-card visual style set in the world capital of entertainment: Las Vegas. I first became aware of his rotund reoccurring character Bee, a little over a year ago when I discovered "bee in... Motel Art Improvement Service" on Act-I-Vate.com [Unfortunately, that link now only goes to a 10-page excerpt. Fortunately, that means that a collected print edition from Dark Horse is in the works!] a webcomic about sexual discovery and... a whole lot of other crazy things.

I had the pleasure of meeting the man himself a few months ago at the Carousel event at which he read "bee in... The Ramble" and his personal style is as warmly whimsical as his comics. The surreality of the story for me is that after a sequence in which Bee and her friend get thrown out of a silent movie for the above antics, they arrive at a Carousel event where a sequential self-portrait of Little himself reads the first half of the comic we were hearing! Reading this later on the web broke the 'this comic could be now' feeling, but added an exotic feeling of cluing you into this weird gathering of comicsmiths. Add to this, the fact that it's the last comic in the last issue of "MySpace Dark Horse Presents" and that's mighty strange right?

THE LONG AND SHORTBOX OF IT?
The humor in the character interactions can be a bit 'precious' at times and the draftsmanship has a few uneven moments, but in the end the jokes are great, the art is smooth, plus it's colored fantastically, and the play with art medium and art-styles more than makes up for any faults anywhere else.

Really, all of Jason Little's work I've encountered so far is worth reading. Look him up at Beekeeper Cartoon Amusements' website.

~ @JonGorga

Thursday's Most Exciting Announcement...

...is Fred Van Lente's upcoming Power Man and Iron Fist mini-series, spinning out of the Shadowland: Powerman mini that begins next month.

Van Lente is a hell of a comics writer, and he's among the few people I trust to bring a modicum of the glory that was The Immortal Iron Fist back to the character. It's no secret that I hold the sixteen issues of that series that were written by Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker and drawn mostly by David Aja in high esteem, so FVL is going to have some high standards to live up to... but I think he'll probably be up to it, provided that he doesn't go too far down the buddy comedy route. In his interview with CBR about the project he sells it as sort of a fun street book and he talks about the way Fraction thinks of the character, which are both good signs.

It helps too that Van Lente's done some of the best comics work out there in recent years, from The Incredible Hercules to Comic Book Comics- Marvel is handing the reigns of one of my favorite characters to an excellent writer and, while I do hope that Fraction and Brubaker return to Danny Rand some day, I have high hopes for what FVL can do.

The runner-up announcement is pretty cool too. While Jon and I had mixed feelings about the first Strange Tales anthology, the list of talent (which includes Kate Beaton, Rafael Grampa, Jeff Lemire, Jhonen Vazquez and the late, great, Harvey Pekar) is mind-boggling, as are the possibilities.

Inspiring "DEMO"nstrations of Skill and Possibility

"DEMO" v2 #1 from Vertigo (an imprint of DC Comics)

Have these questions ever crossed your mind: "Superheroes could be so much more as a genre, couldn't it?" or "Why do they all have to be in that damn spandex, why can't they just be regular people with weird abilities?" If you ever thought these things (and REALLY, haven't we ALL?) you should be reading "DEMO", the anthology comic-book mini-series written by Brian Wood and drawn by Becky Cloonan. Either go back and find the original series from small publisher AiT/Planet Lar or buy these new issues from big publisher Vertigo as they come out. Or better yet, both.

When I came across the collected first volume of "DEMO" on the comics shelf of my good friend Davy Brustlin, I was mesmerized. I still haven't read all of Volume 1, but as the series is an anthology (and as such doesn't have any continuing characters or situations) we all have the freedom to read whatever we can find.

I have come to think of the series' name as an implication more than a label. A dare: 'This is what we can do with superheroes. This is our demonstration. Can you top us?' And this issue shows us once again why they deserve that title: These stories are strong. [At left, is a page from v1 #1. Raw teenage angst portrayed in angsty lines.]

To kick off the new volume Wood and Cloonan show us the mind of Joan. (Which is my mother's name. Weird.)

Joan doesn't really sleep anymore. She can't. She keeps seeing a vision in her dreams of someone falling to their death. Feeling a moral ache and an apparent inability to do anything about it, Joan draws away from her own life in San Francisco in growing concern over this person, this woman, in her dreams who seems to be falling to her doom.

Finally, deciding the location of the girl's fall she rushes across the globe hoping to save her in time. Quitting her job, breaking up with her boyfriend, and spending all her savings in a desperate and STILL sleepless race to St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

What she finds is that there is no girl about to fall, that the life she abandoned was very easy to abandon, and that in the falling moment of final freedom of all her burdens, as she topples over the guard rail to be saved at the very last moment by a nameless security guard, she can finally sleep.

At first glance a pulpy, simple story about a girl who dreams someone falling and rushes there to self-fulfill the prophecy, the story becomes something much deeper. If her life was so boring, by traveling half-way around the world and stranding herself there on a wild-goose chase, she did save the girl in her vision. She saved herself.

[To the right, super gorgeous page from v2 #1. A more mature sleek style for a more mature woman.]

Though this first story doesn't have the raw power of the debut issue of the first volume it is still really, really wonderful. And, although Brian Wood may not have been quite as awesome as he has been in the past, Becky Cloonan shows a great refinement of the crazy intensity and skill on display in her past work. Plus the story of a girl taking a chance, leaving her shitty life, and being helped by a male supporting character actually kinda parallels the story in v1 #1. So that's cool!

THE LONG AND SHORTBOX OF IT?
This comic is like NBC's "Heroes" with all the stupid taken out. Read it.

Would You Accept Candy From These Strangers?

Jon Gorga: "Strange Tales" #2 has come out (in fact number 3 has come out, but let's not talk about that) and we have both read it. So now it is time to review it! I found this issue much more balanced than the first one, do you agree Josh?

Josh Kopin: Yea, I think that's true. There was still a lot of parody, but some of the funnier strips (in particular, Lookin' Good Mr. Grimm) took advantage of how absurd comics can be without really lapsing into parody and I appreciated the more serious stuff towards the back of the anthology.

Gorga: HA! "Lookin' Good, Mr. Grimm!" Delightful. Jacob Chabot's art is even better than his writing, and that's impressive. Those last two panels crack me up every time I read them. But I REALLY appreciated finally seeing an interpretation from one of these artists (many of whom I have tremendous respect for) that had some fun with a Marvel character without being purely comedic. "The Black Widow" by Matt Kindt is definitely in the running for my favorite piece so far in this series. Although I still have a soft spot for the M.O.D.O.K. story from the first issue and the awesome "Anything but RETAIL!" by R. Kikuo Johnson from this issue couldn't fail to amuse and excite me, as it hits real close to home for a recent college grad!

Kopin: Speaking of things that hit you as a recent college grad, how do you feel about what may be the most experimental piece in the anthology: Jonathan Hickman's series of advertisements seeking heralds for Galactus? It, beyond all the other works in the issue, takes the idea and runs with it- it's the least the comic-y thing we've seen in the series so far, it references the absurdity of comics (and of Galactus in particular), but it doesn't feel like parody to me- how about you?


Gorga: Oh, it's a parody. It's just not a story. It's a satirical poster series (or video?). Galactus doesn't need to advertise, he's a goddamn god-like being. I know that sounds worthy of parody. I'm not arguing it's not. I'm just saying that if you were a Devourer of Worlds, you wouldn't need a poster campaign... I don't know, am I being far too loose in my use of the word parody? To my mind, a parody comes from a different frame of mind than the thing being parodied, specifically the constructed, mocking frame of mind. Maybe I'm just too sensitive about people poking fun at my favorite funny-books.

Kopin: Well, I'm not sure Hickman's posters fit into that particular definition of parody- they are poking fun at Galactus, of course, but I'm not sure they're doing it from a mocking place.

Gorga: Well, it feels mostly that way to me. But Hickman in particular has always rubbed me the wrong way for some reasons I can't put very articulately: He appeared out of nowhere with strange comics in which it is difficult to discern what's going on, to both my eyes and my mind (while they're certainly still not BAD, just NOT GREAT). I heard one of the iFanboy boys (possibly Ron) say that "The Nightly News" was (paraphrasing here) 'the future of comics' and I thought 'If this is the future of comics I hope that future is populated with creators with some sense of restraint.' I feel about the same way toward this short experimental-comic/faux-posters-thing. I see more lost potential. But maybe turning 23 has finally turned me into the old-fuddy-duddy I always was on the inside. [Note: At the time this section was written, my birthday had recently come and gone.]

Kopin: Well, I'm an old-fuddy-duddy at 19, so there you go. Pardon me while I go chase some kids off of my lawn.

Sorry, I'm back. Having not read that much of Hickman's stuff, I have trouble agreeing or disagreeing with you [Note: Since the time I wrote this sentence, I have read and reviewed an issue of Hickman's Fantastic Four for this site]. I am curious about his presence here, though- given that he's been writing Secret Warriors for almost a year and also that he's been handling Marvel's first family for a little bit, it's hard to argue that he's "an indie creator" at this point. Do you feel any better about the way Marvel has handled this issue, simply in terms of their labeling it an "indie" book?

Gorga: Yes! Specifically, because it has so much more variety than the last one. We got a hilarious and warm story from a cartoonist-cum-New-Yorker-cover-artist ("Anything but RETAIL!" by R. Kikuo Johnson). A spy-story from the master of subtle spy comics ("The Black Widow" by Matt Kindt). AS WELL AS an ironic abstract piece by one of the more unique artists working anywhere ("The Invincible Iron Man" by Tony Millionaire), a pulpy 'blaxploitation' comedy piece ("Brother Voodoo: Death Rides A Five-Dollar Bag!" by Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca) and a faux-document parody piece ("Feed Galactus, See the Universe" by Jonathan Hickman)! That is much closer to an accurate representation of what 'indie' comics is.

Kopin: Got any new favorites, then?

Gorga: I did really enjoy the Brother Voodoo story! one panel: "The building is too qui--" next panel: "KA-BOOM" That's great. But other than that it's still hands down the Black Widow story by Kindt and the R. Kikuo Johnson story about poor blind recent college grad Alicia Masters and her father the Puppet Master! The dog! It can talk! But you don't know until the end! Great! What are your favorites from this issue?

Kopin: Well, I think my favorite one from this issue that I haven't already mentioned is Jhonen Vasquez's M.O.D.O.K story. What is it about the Model Organism Designed Only For Killing that works in this format so well? Is it just that he's so damn ridiculous? I mean, he is a giant floating head-chair.

Gorga: Galactus is an equally easy, but always welcome, target isn't he? Although Vasquez's style often comes with stuff that makes me want to throw up, it also comes with an equal amount of things that make me weak in the knees with laughter. (His "Fillerbunny in My Worst Book Yet!" is the funniest comic I've ever read.) Galactus munching on Mars (ever so delicately poised between two halves of a sesame bun) with a planet-gut hanging out of his purple outfit is one of the latter! I imagine, if you were a Devourer of Worlds, you might need a slice of bread every now and again. Well, I feel as if we've said everything that needs to be said about this issue and this post has taken longer to gestate than some babies! What say we turn it loose on the world, Mr. Kopin?

Kopin: And loose it shall be, Mr. Gorga.

Dark Horse Noir

A couple of weeks ago, in one of my Already Tired of Tuesday posts, I'd mentioned that I had ordered the brand new Dark Horse Noir anthology from my shop.

I don't know if I've ever really written about this here, but I adore crime stories in all their forms- detective and con stories in particular, but I mostly just adore the crime genre. It makes sense, therefore, that crime comics, in taking on one of my favorite genres in my favorite medium, have a very special place in my heart. Somewhere in between my first exposure to the genre (the brilliant 100 Bullets) and the latest issue of Criminal I became fascinated by the notion of crime-themed sequential art, and I've been slowly looking into as many examples of the genre I can find.

When I heard about the Noir anthology, I was pretty excited, particularly because I heard about it on Jeff Lemire's blog. That Lemire (who seems to be everywhere these days) had contributed a story to the collection was reason enough to buy it- that Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Brian Azzerello, Gaberial Ba and Fabio Moon had contributed stories and pictures to the book was just sort of icing on the cake. Well, a lot of icing on the cake. And maybe a cookie and a milkshake on the side.

I digress. When I went to my store on Friday to pick up my books from the last couple of weeks, I got a chance to look at the collection- and it's fantastic. I mean, first of all, just take a look at the design: its unbelievably beautiful. Really, just look at the cover- it's understated and yet powerful, just like a good noir story. You get everything you need to know about the anthology by just looking at its cover- and then you turn it over, to see if you missed anything, and you find the back. Now, it doesn't look as nice here because I couldn't find an image file of it on the internet, and so I had to scan it, but that isn't the designer's fault. Here, too, the look is wonderfully powerful and understated- mostly black, with a little bit of grey and white. The details you could divine by looking at the cover can be read on the back, as well as that fantastic list of creators, several of whom I will be checking out solely based on their work in the anthology.

The design is so striking that even if I hadn't have known any the names on that list, I probably would have bought it anyway. The team at Dark Horse clearly put a lot of work and thought into this, and I felt it was appropriate to commend them for it before we began to work our way through the anthology itself.

Now, the beauty on the outside doesn't stop there. It's a damn good-looking book through and through, and if you can find it in your shop I urge just to flip through it so you can see what I mean. The art is, on the whole, unbelievably fantastic. The artists I mentioned above (Lemire, Ba, Moon, and Phillips) put in their usual brilliant work, but I was also struck by David Lapham, Kano and Steven Gaudiano (working together on one story), M.K. Perker, and Eduardo Barreto. I think I've named every artist in the anthology save four (I only left out Hugo Petrus because the Alex De Campi story he's illustrating is incomprehensible) and even those artists are pretty good- just not quite as good.

Part of what makes the stories in the anthology so damn worthwhile is, like any noir story worth its ink, how unbelievably complex they are. Take Perker's story, The Albanian, for instance: it manages, amazingly, to be absurd, terrifying, serious, heart-warming, and a little bit disturbing all at the same time, and all of these different aspects complement each other brilliantly. Somehow, the protaganist turns the murderous rage of an office worker into a little boon for his son- the morality and sense of this desicion is left ambiguous, and that's part of why it's so effective. The Perker story is also notable if only because it's one of six (eight, if you count the Fillbach brothers and Brubaker/Phillips, who work together so well and have worked together for so long that they might as well be one entity at this point) stories written and illustrated by the same person- this is interesting to consider, because it makes me wonder how the process changes when this is the case and, furthermore, why it lends itself so well to the noir genre.

I don't know about most of the other artists who worked by themselves in Noir, but I do know that Lemire works best when he's by himself, and "The Old Silo" is unbelievably good. It's got the atmospheric and moody feel typical of Lemire's work, and the rural setting he's so fond of, but it advances beyond that- while he's dealt with moral ambiguity before, he's sort of shunted it aside: here, it's full blown and incredibly finely focused. It's surprising that he hasn't written a story quite like this before because he's so incredibly good at it.

In fact, all of these creators are incredibly good at it- Dark Horse picked a fine stable of writers and artists for this anthology. This review is already pretty long, and I don't want to spend a whole lot more time talking about individual stories, so I'll just bring up two more. The Brubaker/Phillips story is wonderful (at this point, I expect nothing less), and it further proves that Sean Phillips may be the best crime comics artist there is (with the possible exception, of course, of Eduardo Risso). "21st Century Noir" has everything a good noir story should (the femme fatale, the gorilla, the double cross) and a little bit more, and it's worth every panel. Finally, the Azzerello/Ba and Moon story is the crowning jewel of the collection- the twin artists are some of the best working in all of comics, and their work is consistently mindblowing and (despite the fact that what I'm about to say goes without saying at this point, I'm going to say it anyway) Azzerello is among the genre's best writers- the twist at the end of "The Bad Night" is so unbelievable that I had to read it twice just to make sure I had interpreted it correctly. It shows that the writer has guts and, furthermore, that he knows exactly what buttons to push.

I really can't urge you enough to pick up this anthology. At $12.95 it's vastly underpriced for the quality that's inside, particularly if you like crime stories. At the very least, just take a look at it. I promise it will be worth your time.

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!