Reading Comics - June 2009

It's been some time since I posted any comic reviews, but trust me, I've been reading away, and sure enough I have some thoughts on them.

Bone - The Complete Series
'Bone' is one of those comics that I credit for bringing me into comics. I can remember ordering back issues directly from Cartoon Books (mostly for 5th or 6th printings), and waiting almost a month for the comics to arrive at my door. I'd even buy the trade paperbacks just to have, and at the bottom of my drawers are still a couple t-shirts that I bought, and then was too embarassed to wear them.

And as time went on, and Mr. Smith changed publishers, and the release schedule became more erratic, the series disappeared from my radar, only to resurface towards the end of the complete run. Fortunately, the enormous volume that comprises the entire series makes it easy to digest the story without having to wait or switch between trade collections.

First and foremost, 'Bone' makes it clear that Jeff Smith is one of the great cartoonists working today. Even starting out, his skills were sharp and well-crafted, but as the story moves along, his line and character design become more refined and precise, but without losing that cartoon influence. And by finishing the series, Smith has given comics a tried and true epic, one that surpasses 1,000 pages, and stands up there with the likes of 'Cerebus' (an irony, I know, considering Smith's feud with Dave Sim.)

Story elements like the Great Cow Race, Fone Bone's fascination with Moby Dick, and the suspense surrounding Phoney Bone's involvement with the Hooded One and the Lord of the Locusts are sure to stand out as classics in comics literature. But I have to say, almost with some resignation, that the first half of the series stands better than the second half. This isn't to say it's bad by any means, it still is great comics storytelling, but once Phoney's involvement with the Hooded One is revealed, the story falls into its fantasy mythos, which feels borrowed rather than original. The Bone cousins become supporting characters in events that are far from their own making, and Thorn becomes a warrior princess with almost limitless powers (which apparently suck away any shred of personality). Things pick up a little bit when Phoney and Smiley go back to scheming in Atheia, but at that point the epic narrative is well under way, and this small episode becomes swallowed by something far larger.

Is 'Bone' essential? Absolutely, this a huge achievement within the realm of comics and comics literature. 'Bone' itself is a product of comics' struggle to break free from the grip of the superhero mainstream, and has definitely had a hand in the creation of the modern day 'graphic novel.' It's just a shame that the spark that initially started the whole adventure of the Bone cousins gets lost along the way.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Century: 1910
Alan Moore, Kevin O'Neill, and the League are back (and this time at Top Shelf Comics)! Dealing with an occult society, and the return of a serial killer to London, Mina Murray leads a new version of the League in the wake of the failed Martian Invasion from Volume 2. Among the new crew are Alan Quatermain Jr. (Alan Quatermain Sr. rejuvenated), the gender bender Orlando, the pschic Carnacki, and the reformed burglar Raffles (could the League exist without Wikipedia today?)

Since this is the first in a longer series, I feel I can only give impressions. O' Neill's art as always captures the neo-Victorian period perfectly, while at the same time developing a certain hand for parody that wasn't as evident in the earlier stories. And Moore brings his interests in the occult and the Jack the Ripper killings into the League's world, but without giving them a fitting conclusion, in this chapter at least. And as before, a sexually risque, bawdy, and sometime brutal quality permeates the story, but it's hard to say if this will have an effect on the larger story, or if it's just the after effects of Moore's 'Lost Girls.'

Above all else, it seems clear Moore is making these Victorian characters more of his own. He's less interested in planting them to their roots in the 19th century, and more inclined to see how they would have operated in the tumultuous events of the 20th century. He has a good start, and I'm eager to see where he goes.
(Writer's note: I haven't read 'Black Dossier' yet. Trust me, it's on deck.)

Jamilti, and other stories
This is my first encounter with Rutu Modan's work, and I certainly wish I had found it sooner. The stories in this collection, made between 1998-2007, reveal an artist experimenting with her craft, and developing a storyteller's voice within the comics medium. Many of the comics are made with a clean, spare line, but they're drawn with such command that they exude character. And even though the color is muted when it is used, it brings texture and depth to the stories.

While many of the stories are set within Israel, they don't deal with the many conflicts in the Middle East directly. Modan's stories are more concerned with the personal stories of her characters, and the strange, sad, and tragic events that befall them, helping them to reveal hidden strengths. This isn't to say Modan ignores the geo-political conflicts, they hover on the periphery, always waiting to intrude on the characters, whether a stolen plane flying from Lebanon ('Homecoming'), or a suicide bomber mistaken for a victim in the title story, 'Jamilti.' While something like Joe Sacco's 'Palestine' is more political in nature, examining the forces that lead people into a social and cultural stalemate, they do share a common thread, I think, in examining the repercussions of living with the knowledge of terror.

The last story in the collection, 'Your Number One Fan,' shows Modan finding her strongest voice. Using a style similar to Herge's, she tells a story about identity, loss, culture clashes, and expectations through the experiences of an Israeli musician visiting England. Both he and his 'fan' are looking for different kinds of acceptance, only to find it in the unlikely, and possibly wrong, places. It's a fitting end to the collection, and prepares us for what I'm sure is going to be a fruitful career of stories.

What's on deck:
'Crime and Punishment' by Fyodor Dostoevsky - what, you thought I only read comics?
'A Princess of Mars' by Edgar Rice Burroughs - because it's summer, and I need something to balance out the above.
'Concrete Volume 1' by Paul Chadwick
'Maakies Volume 1' by Tony Millionaire -dook dook dook dook dook dook
'T-Minus' by Jim Ottaviani, Zander Cannon, and Kevin Cannon

Reading Comics: Batman-The Long Halloween

So, this will hopefully be the first in a long series where I review/comment on comics that I find to be worthy of note. They won't always be current, but will be works that I think are significant to the medium, and just plain good. First up: Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Batman: The Long Halloween.
Set during the Year One era, the story traces Batman's pursuit of Carmine 'The Roman' Falcone, Gotham City's untouchable crime lord. But amongst this pursuit is a serial killer dubbed 'Holiday,' who strikes on a holiday each month, killing members of either the Falcone family, or their rivals, the Maroni family. And peppered in with this are an assortment of Batman's rogues gallery, from the Joker, Scarecrow, and Riddler, to more obscure villains such as Solomon Grundy and the Calendar Man. Catwoman also plays a prominent role, but Batman (and you, the reader) can never tell whose side she's on.

I originally read the series back when it was serialized in the late '90's, and having read the series subsequent follow-ups (Batman: Dark Victory and Catwoman: When in Rome), I wanted to go back and take a fresh look at the series. My first impression was just how fast of a read it was. Loeb's writing is sharp and to the point, and Sale treats the page as a canvas, including splash pages and double spreads throughout. Is this a weakness? Not necessarily. It gives each issue a structure, with an opening splash page, and then a double spread. It also focuses our attention on the characters, who are drawn with great detail and character. This isn't to say that Sale doesn't give attention to the environment, Gotham has an excellent, retro atmosphere reminiscent of the first animated series, but the characters are the central players in the story.
My second impression from re-reading the series is that it reads well as a monthly serial, but was clearly not designed as a 'graphic novel.' Loeb does an excellent job of bringing the reader up to speed at the beginning of each issue, with narration that makes it clear who the main players are, and where we are in terms of the story. It's a technique that you don't find often in serialized comics nowadays, to the detriment of readers. But if you were to read three or four issues back-to-back, you may begin to find the writing repetitive. My advice? Give some time between chapters/issues. Granted, you'll want to keep reading, cause Loeb and Sale keep you on the edge of your seat.

But the one of the key elements in the story, and one of the things that most intrigued me about the story when I first read it, is Gotham's transition from organized crime to its cadre of psychotic super villains. One of the things that I never understood about Batman was how people like the Joker and the Penguin were equated with crime in the sense that we understand it. Okay, it's a comic and it's a fantasy, but still... their crimes never resembled anything that we would see today. They were extraordinary. But when this story opens, the mob still has control over Gotham city, people like the Scarecrow and Poison Ivy are just distractions from the main threats to Batman and the city. But by the end, the psychotic villains make a claim to take over, aided by one of Batman's former ally's, district attorney Harvey Dent, now Two-Face. It's a story element that the filmmakers of the current Batman films seem to have picked up on. And I have almost no doubt this story by Loeb and Sale has played a part.

The ending reveals the identity of Holiday, and fits in well with the Batman mythos, adding to it and enriching it. But Loeb also throws in a trick, something that you can't help but question, a loose thread that never quite gets tied up. It may infuriate some readers, but in some ways, it's the sign of a good mystery, leaving you guessing even after the end.