Graffic Traffic
by Ryk McIntyre
“When everything else fails, Comics rule.”
Welcome to another short-attention span production. You know, the reason for this approach is… I’m sorry, was I saying something? Oh, yeah, y’wanna read some comics? Dark Horse Comics sent us a bunch, joining the growing ranks of “Those Who Gain Honor By Giving Me Free Stuff, May They Rest In Their Plastic-sleeve-with-cardboard-backer-Heaven.” And though they seem to be relying heavily on their Aliens® franchise, hey! I can’t blame them. Historically, it’s how they’ve survived every economic drought: smart licensing (Terminator®, Predator®, E.T.C.®) and great stuff they can publish ’cause the licensing pays the bills (Grendel, Sin City, HellBoy, etc., etc.). Anyway, AliensWraith (story by Jay Stephens, art by Eduardo Risso) is a kinda cooooool riff on your “teens go into the Haunted Place” standard with an X-Files® end scene. And the art is a nice P. Craig Russell/Tim Sales influenced jam, and that’s a complement. In a different spurting-vein is Aliens–Stalker (David Wenzel, all by his own-bad-self) in which the Alien story is grafted onto the Beowulf legend, and while the story stretches in places, the art is still beautiful, similar in tone to Scott or Bo Hampton. Decapitator (story by Bowen and DePlume, art by Mahrike and McCullum) offers us a human-brain-in-a-killer-droid story that links Mayan legend to a time-travel sub-plot. One for the Lobo fans. In Halloween spirit, Dark Horse also offers the twisted wit of Sergio (Groo, Mad Magazine) Aragones‘ BoogeyMan (collaborating with long-time partner Mark Evanier) with twist-tales and poetry narration, and the sort-of return of Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan to the subject of Dracula. It resurrects (heh) the feel of their classic ’70s Marvel comic, but I think it’s different enough so they won’t get sued. Too Much Coffee Man’s Guide for the Perplexed (Shannon Wheeler) collects Jab #1-3 (Adhesive), the Dark Horse TMCM Special, and various one-page strips from wherever, and begs the question “Is Shannon Wheeler very clever, or just good at marketing (remember the sneaker ads?)?” Well, it begs it, but never really answers it. Sometimes it seems a one-joke gimmick, but sometimes comes very close to genius. If you’re cynical and jaded, you’ll like this. Not that you’d ever admit it.
I’ve reviewed every issue of this series in this column, and yes, I’m doing it for #5. Of course, I refer to 300 (story and art by Frank Miller, color by Lynn Varley), and it’s just that fucking good. An example of the best this medium is capable of, and, in the face of overwhelmingly superior numbers of crap comics, it stands, brave as a Spartan and as immortal, too. Get it. Now.
Tying in Dark Horse to Image Comics (which is not as bad as it sounds) is WildC.A.T.S/Aliens (story by Warren Ellis, art by Sprouse and Nowlan), and while I know what you’re thinking about inter-company cross-overs, especially ones that pit name characters against a horde of identical monsters (guess who wins every time…), this one actually makes some sense. Warren Ellis (I’ve written about him) uses the premise to end (literally) the old StormWatch comic, paving the way for a new start come 1999. As you might imagine, the body count is high, with most of the old StormWatch team dead before we even get there. Good superhero stuff.
Image Comics has released a bunch of stuff in trade paperback format recently, including WildC.A.T.S-HomeComing which collects the first seven issues of the Alan Moore run on WildC.A.T.S (21-27), featuring the original team on the planet Khera (where all is not Paradise) and the new team, assembled to replace them. Actually, Alan seems to be having fun here, as well as delivering his one-of-a-kind take on super-powered realities, and a host of great artists do the visual honors – Kevin Maguire, Travis Charest, and Kevin Nowlan, to name a few. Comparing this to the WildC.A.T.S-Gathering Of Eagles (ex-X stories by Chris Claremont, art by Lee and Williams) is like comparing art and craft. Claremont is not a bad writer, but he practices his shortcomings (endless dialogue and hyperbole) as much as his strengths (strong female characters and melodrama), and while these issues mark the return of Jim Lee to the pencil, if you look at the stuff these two did together on X-Men and Uncanny X-Men, you’ll see how much they haven’t grown or changed since then. They’re just solidifying their respective styles.
A better bet is the weird and risky Desperadoes-A Moment’s Sunlight (campfire stories by Jeff Mariotte, sketchin’s by John Cassiday) which is that rarest of modern comics – a good and spooky Western. Combining classic elements from the best movies and stories and setting it up against a Millennium (the TV series) race against a supernatural psychokiller, this is the kind of strangled sage and horror tale that you’d expect from Joe Lansdale or Tim Truman. And the art is good both in accurate detail and story-telling perspectives. It collects the first five issues, and I hope that means we’ll get more.
Oni Press is a company that comes from relative non-entityhood to present the kind of unique and untraditional creator-driven stuff that once made Dark Horse Presents a comic to be feared. Their anthology series, Oni Double Feature, provides an outlet for several shades of weird, and has already featured stories by Neil (SandMan) Gaiman and Kevin (Clerks, Chasing Amy) Smith. In fact, #1 has a Jay and Silent Bob story titled “Walt Flanagan’s Dog” with Matt Wagner doing the art. ComicBook nerds, drugs, gutter humor, fast dogs… this shit cracks me up. Also from Oni-Smith-land comes Clerks (The Comic Book), picking up where the movie made a mess on the floor, and though Jim Mahfood’s art is heavy-lined and does take getting used to, give it a chance. Tim Sale started out this way. To make things sweeter, the story revolves around the “lucrative” collectibles market, how to blow an inflated price to shit, and our comicbook nerds from the ODF story. Oddly enough, it is Jay and Silent Bob that end up being the major movers in this story. If that’s not enough for you, there’s a Jay & Silent Bob four-issue mini-series with Duncan Fegredo doing the b/w art. This one has almost-sex, lots of Jay talkin’ the talk, and further peeks into the sensitive soul that is Silent Bob.
You see, this is what comics can be, if they really try hard.
