Comics Worth Reading: FRAGGLE ROCK

A few days ago, I posted an old article I wrote back in 2004. I posted it in reaction to the news that DC Comics is canceling two of their all ages titles.

Those of you who know me, know I've spent much of my career working on all ages comics. (Shameless plug: coming soon -- The Oz/Wonderland Kids!!! Stay posted as I can give more details.)

So I was reminded yesterday while at the comic shop that there was a series on the shelf that I've been talking up with everyone I can talk it up to. (Did that sentence make sense? I need an editor . . .) And that series is Fraggle Rock, by Archaia Comics.

Fraggle Rock, Free Comic Book Day issue

Now, i had no idea that there was going to be a Fraggle Rock comic. Or maybe I did, but I heard about it so long ago that I completely forgot. But when I helped my local comic shop, BuyMeToys.com (also publisher of The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles and The Oz/Wonderland Kids), with their Free Comic Book Day event, The Archaia free comic caught my eye.

"Fraggles?" I said. "Really? Fraggles?" Guess what the first comic in my take home pile was. Guess what the only comic in my take home pile that I've actually read was.

Fraggle Rock #1

I've made no secret how much I admire Jim Henson. Dark Crystal and Muppets and Labyrinth and The Storyteller and Fraggle Rock. These things all helped shape me creatively. Not only that, puppets are a huge part of my life, between the work I do with children and some of the film work I'm looking at doing in the near future. When I was a child, my parents would travel to work at camps and Bible schools and stuff like that, and those puppets were passed down to me.

So, armed with the knowledge that Fraggle Rock is a comic book, but cautiously optimistic (it's EASY to write for a license, NOT easy to do it well) I flipped through the free comic. It looked AWESOME. I read it, and it read AWESOME. They got it.

And I got the next issue. Paid for that one. (And eventually, the other two issues as well.)

Fraggle Rock #2

The Fraggle Rock comic series is an anthology. I don't know how they selected the different artists and writers for the series (but I'm jealous of them), but each issue of the books has three or four different short stories, each one by a different team. There are a number of different styles, but amazingly each style is able to capture the character design without following a "house style".

These books are, simply put, gorgeous. I mentioned in some previous posts about how much I love to flip through concept art. These comic books are similar. I could stare at this artwork forever.

Essentially what you have here is an anthology on the level of Flight . . . except all the stories are about Fraggles.

Not one story looks "wrong", even though each story looks different.

Fraggle Rock #3

But on to the topic that made me post this in the first place: these books are TRULY "all ages". Like the TV series, these Fraggle stories are "for the young and young at heart" (to use an apropos cliche). They are fun. They are energetic. They are sweet. They are even a bit edgy. Just like the TV show.

A hardcover collection is coming out in September, I believe. You can order the Fraggle Rock Hardcover from Amazon for just $10. (That may just be a pre-order deal.) I believe that means that it would be in last month's Previews. I'm going to be ordering mine through my local comic shop (although that means paying more for it) (it also means I'm buying it twice, but I can live with supporting it like that). But for any fan of all ages fantasy and whimsy, this is a must have.

~ Ben

PS -- I understand Archaia is developing both Dark Crystal and Labyrinth comics. Very interested to see what they do with those . . .

Artwork (c) Archaia Comics

WAITING FOR THE TRADE: Some Cool One-Shots

Here's a review I've been wanting to write for a while now.

I'm not a big fan of big events, mainly because I don't have money to follow them. So, halfway through I find out that Blackest Night might be awesome . . . but I'm just going to have to hope my library gets the collected editions.

But I like the characters. I like Hulk . . . I'm just not going to buy the latest run of Hulk crossover event stuff. (Speaking of, I have the entire run of Planet Hulk and World War Hulk, including Amazing Fantasy #15 which debuted Amadeus Cho -- is that the kid's name? -- and the four issue storyarc that led to Hulk getting launched into space, I'm willing to part with it . . . cheap. Any takers?) I like Green Lantern and the Corps, I'm just not going to buy five titles a week to keep up with the storyline.

So, on the opposite end of the spectrum, we get One Shots. I like One Shots. A lot. They are single, self-contained stories (or a group of self-contained stories . . . or a group of stories that add up to a self-contained story . . . or, in some cases, a trick because they're really a prologue to a big event . . .).

Last month, Dark Horse put out a bunch of one shots -- two Star Wars ones, a Buffy one, a Conan one, Hellboy, Good, etc. -- and used the tagline "Suffering from crossover fatigue?" Nice! "One-shot wonders", they called them. I like it. A lot. I only bought one (although I plan to buy the second Star Wars one-shot), but I love the sentiment. And I'd love to see more stuff like this.

So here's some quickie reviews of some recent one shots and why you might like to buy them too:

Marvel Comics, Black Knight One Shot -- This was a fun superhero fantasy that feels like they might be rebooting the character a bit to start some sort of new series. It's an origin story, and really it's one of those stories that when you get to the end you realize it's really "the beginning", but from end to finish it's a fun romp with some fun twists and turns, that takes place in a medieval fantasy period. I like the character Black Knight, although I don't understand much of his backstory (because I don't know much of his backstory) so this was, as I said, a fun read. I have no idea how much was added to the backstory for this presentation, but reading it felt like much had been added to the mythos that may not have been there before, or at least much that had not been organized like this before. There's some interesting struggles with the concept of good and evil and how that battle works in our own life . . . and a cool sword! Written by Tom DeFalco, so you know it's going to be good (although, with limited space, you can see where he wished he were writing a four issue limited or something).

Marvel Comics, Hulk: Winter Guard -- This is exactly the kind of one-shot I like, although I think it should be retitled "Winter Guard: Hulk". It's really more about Winter Guard dealing with Hulk than Hulk dealing with Winder Guard . . . but who cares? It's a good story, it cleverly weaves a classic Hulk story into it, reprints said classic Hulk story as a flashback, and delivers a couple nice twists that let you look at the classic story slightly different and also make for a fun ride. David Gallaher always delivers exactly the kinds of stories I like to read and write, and consistently does so much better than I could ever do.

Dark Horse, Star Wars: Purge "Seconds to Die" -- This is a quick little story taking place between trilogies, as Darth Vader is tracking down some of the Jedi who may have fallen through the cracks when the Jedi were mass-murdered in Revenge of the Sith. The story follows her and her desperate plan in the aftermath. It's an interesting little story with a concise beginning, middle, and end, although it may resound more with fans of the original trilogy.

Like I said, I'd love to see more of these kinds of one shots. I can't buy all of them, but the ones that interest me are far more likely to make it into my "buy pile" than the big, grand crossover event type things. At $4 a pop, it's a good read, and a little longer than your usual comic book.

But don't wait for the collection!

~ Ben

WAITING FOR THE TRADE: Hulk -- Heart of the Atom

So what did new comic day (Wednesday) bring to me?

The latest issue of X-Men? The newest development in the ongoing soap opera that is Superman . . . or Batman . . . or Spider-Man? The comic book adventures of Star Trek, Transformers, or Terminator perhaps?

No, all of those things were brand spanking new and on the shelves, but nothing appealed to me.

So I took a look at the graphic novels shelves at my local comic shop and found this gem that I had considered getting a long time ago. I was casually acquainted with the story inside, and decided that this would be my new comic for new comic Wednesday: a collection of stories between 30 and 20 years old.

Like Iron Man's Doomquest and Sword of the Atom (another collection I hope to review soon), Heart of the Atom takes the Incredible Hulk and drops him in a land of swords and sorcery. And for that, it's a cool concept. It's also developed a little further than Doomquest, as Hulk returns there a number of times over the years of publishing. (The collection alone contains ten issues from the Incredible Hulk, and one stand alone What If? issue.) Like many fantasy stories (John Carter of Mars especially comes to mind) we have a hero dropped into a strange alien landscape. This time, though, the hero is more than equipped to handle the challenges thrown at him. He is, after all, the Hulk.

Launching off with a story by Harlan Ellison (if you know who he is, you know why that's pretty incredible to begin with), the Hulk is shrunk down to microcosmic size where he comes to rest on a world smaller than an atom. This world is populated by creatures and people who seem to come straight out of Middle Earth or Narnia or Hyperboria and they use primitive weapons and magic and what technology they once possessed is now long gone, save some artifacts here and there used by evil people. Oh, and they're all green.

I expected this to be a "Hulk smash puny dragons . . . and medieval armies . . . and magicians". But while that was an element, I was surprised to find out as I read through this thing last night, it was really a romance, as Hulk fell in love with the (green) queen of this world. A parallel storyline develops on earth as Betty Ross, Bruce Banner's one time lover, falls in love and gets married as well.

But Hulk's relationship, and the consequences of it both in her world and his, form the spine of these stories. Since these stories develop over numerous intermittent issues of a monthly comic, taking years to come to a conclusion, I'm surprised how well this holds up as a straight narrative (although, there were a couple points where they had a page of text to tell the story of the fifteen issues between the ones they chose to put into this volume). This story is a tragedy, of course, but it ends on just the right note. Judging from the notes between stories, it seems there have been a couple more recent stories with Hulk returning to that world, but from their description I'm glad they weren't including in this collection. That would have ruined the satisfying conclusion of this storyline.

Bottom line, it's a love story. A love story set in '70's and '80's era Marvel comics, with a fantasy background. I enjoyed it and was surprised how emotive it was. Normally, I associate Hulk with anger and rage (and there was plenty of that in this volume), but because of the magic of the fantasy world Hulk's humanity is allowed to come into play, and his other emotions. I mentioned above that Hulk was more than equipped to handle the challenges thrown at him by this fantasy world, and that almost makes this a boring story. Except for one thing: he's not equipped emotionally to deal with what happens.

Check it out at your local comic shop (they should be able to order for you, and if you're not sure where your closest comic shop is, you can find out here: The Comic Shop Locator), OR you can buy Hulk: Heart of the Atom here!

Visit the Waiting for the Trade bookstore here, where you can buy, from Amazon, many of the comics I'm reviewing!

~ Ben

WAITING FOR THE TRADE: Doomquest & Legacy of Doom

DOOMQUEST & IRON MAN: LEGACY OF DOOM

WRITERS: David Michilini, Bob Layton
ARTISTS: Bob Layton, John Romite, Jr. (Doomquest), Ron Lim (Iron Man: Legacy of Doom)
PUBLISHER: Marvel

I’d heard of the Doomquest issues of the Iron Man series a while ago, and I was interested in reading them, but never really looked for them. They were issues 149 and 150 and 249 and 250 of the Iron Man comic series.

What got my interest was seeing a paperback copy of the collected edition of “Iron Man: Legacy of Doom” mini-series on the new comics shelf at my local shop. I peeked at the back and saw that it was a sequel, of sorts, to those two Doomquest mini-story arcs. And that those two Doomquet story arcs were about King Arthur and time travel and . . . well, I was hooked.

A quick glance at the old comics shelf revealed a collected edition of Doomquest and the hardcover edition of Legacy of Doom. Cool. I just hoped it was worth it.

Long story short, they were. The first Doomquest story (issues 149 and 150, from 1981) has Iron Man and Dr. Doom thrust back in time, to the time of King Arthur and all his knights. Iron Man allies himself with Arthur, Doom with Morganna, and conflict ensues. It’s exciting seeing Iron Man and Dr. Doom’s technological armor amidst the knights of the round table and the crazy creatures of evil, and the story resolves itself nicely.

The second Doomquest story (issues 249 and 250, from 1988) pushes Iron Man and Doom into the future, where they must once more team up with Merlin to save the Camelot of the future, and the future king of Camelot -- Arthur. There’s some funny twists with Arthur and his legacy and upbringing. Now, Iron Man and Doom are outclassed when it comes to technology, and ultimately this is a fun comic book trip to the future and a nice counterpoint to the first Doomquest story.

Iron Man: Legacy of Doom, a four issue mini-series from 2008, reunites the creative team from those two Doomquest stories and takes up the themes (technology vs. magic) and tropes (time travel, although not as far flung into the future; along with the whole Arthurian thing) and wraps the story up neatly. (And like all good time travel stories, it wraps the story around as an element from the past that shows up in the future is preserved because of decisions in the present. Just read it, you’ll appreciate it.)

I liked these two volumes because it’s a good Iron Man story and a good Dr. Doom story, using these character archetypes in a way that you don’t need to know the convoluted backstories of the characters. If you’ve heard of the characters, you’ll get into the story. I also like the time travel themes that get used, and the technology vs. magic argument is explored in ways that aren’t just conflict, but philosophical concepts.

When the Iron Man movie came out, one problem I had was that there were no comic stories that were as good as the movie. These come close.

Check it out at your local comic shop (they should be able to order for you, and if you're not sure where your closest comic shop is, you can find out here: The Comic Shop Locator), OR you can buy Iron Man Doomquest here and Legacy of Doom here!

Visit the Waiting for the Trade bookstore here, where you can buy many of the comics I'm reviewing!

~ Ben

WAITING FOR THE TRADE: Star Trek Countdown

"Waiting for the Trade" is a term that was coined to describe people who, instead of buying monthly comics, waited for them to be put into collections. On my Myth Understanding blog, I have used the term to be the umbrella for my comic book reviews. My reviews aren't ALL about bound collections of comics -- some will be about comics I wish were collected, and some will be about comics I may not have waited for. For the most part, my reviews will be positive: the point here is to point people to works I enjoy, not point out things I disliked (unless I change my mind).

My first review:


STAR TREK: COUNTDOWN

Writers: Mike Johnson, Tim Jones (script); Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman (story)
Artist: David Messina
Publisher: IDW

This comic book series basically bridges the gap between the FAR future world of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager and the NEAR (or nearer, anyway) future world of Star Trek, the new movie.

Spoilers abound in the following review . . . so if you haven’t seen the movie, you may want to skip reading this review. Maybe. So here’s the END of my review: I recommend this book if you are a fan of Trek or liked the movie and want to know more. Fans of Trek should read this before seeing the movie. People who aren’t fans should watch the movie first, and if they want more Star Trek this would be the first place to start.

Let the spoilers (for the movie, not the comic so much) begin.

First of all, the story of this comic was told in Spock’s mindmeld with Kirk on the ice planet. This comic fleshes that part out, though.

I knew the comic was coming out, but my local comic shop sold out of the first issue before I could get a copy because I didn’t know WHEN it was coming out. So I patiently decided to wait for the trade. A four issue mini-series, it tells the backstory of Nero, the villain from the film, and really gives more weight to his anger against Spock. Also, the scientific plot hole from the film is explained with some classic Trek-ish technobabble.

The story takes place after all the Next Generation movies have occurred. We get to see where some favorite Next Generation characters have ended up, and the whole story really serves two purposes: set up Spock and Nero’s backstory, while giving the Next Generation era a proper send off. Fans who believe the Star Trek timeline has been changed to much so that all the original stories never happened, you can be reassured when you see that last page.

The storyline is great, the art is cartoony while retaining enough detail to make the characters recognizable, and not just as caricatures. There were moments in the script that felt just a bit too . . . cute? A clever line, slightly out of place, inserted just for the sake of being clever -- that sort of thing.

But overall, as a Star Trek fan I found this to be a fun comic.

It was also interesting, because it gave insight into the backstory material that the writers of the movie intended for their characters. I like seeing the artistic intentions of creators, and reading this comic book you can see that Orci and Kurtzman, when wrtiting the script for Star Trek, truly did not want to invalidate what people loved about Star Trek. Instead, they embraced it -- all the legacy, all the history, all of what had gone before.

Check it out at your local comic shop (they should be able to order for you, and if you're not sure where your closest comic shop is, you can find out here: The Comic Shop Locator), OR you can buy Star Trek Countdown here!

Visit the Waiting for the Trade bookstore here!

~ Ben

COMING UP: More time travel, superheroes, and teeny, tiny barbarians.

(Web)Comics Worth Reading

Well, as we're nearing the launch of our new webcomic (some of you may have already clicked on the link above . . . but the truth is, we haven't officially "launched" -- what does that mean? I don't rightly know, except to say we haven't done it).

Anyway, as we approach that launch (and a couple others as well -- keep your eyes peeled) I though I might just post a couple links to some webcomics that are worth checking out.

The Dreamer is by a friend of mine, Lora Innes. I met her at one of my first conventions and when she showed me her artwork, all I could say was that I thought she should be working for a big publisher. A while after that, she and I were doing a little topical comic for a youth magazine a while ago and I was disappointed when she told me she'd have to quit. Well, turns out she was quitting so she could work on The Dreamer. So, while I was disappointed, it turned out to be well worth it. IDW will be publishing a print version in the near future. There's just something about Lora's artwork -- something captivating.

Clockwork Game, by another friend of mine (Jane Irwin), who I met at another one of my first conventions. Her Clockwork Game comic is a classic example of the "find something interesting, write about it" school or art. I've written about Jane's work before, but in coming up with a list of webcomics I actually enjoy, her's was on the list. I'd be stupid not to include it. It looks great (always a plus) but has an interesting story (also a plus) and a definite ending planned. Check it out.

Jump Leads was a comic I knew nothing about and know none of the people behind. But their banner on a webcomic list drew me in -- and with comparisons to Dr. Who and Red Dwarf it would have been very easy for me to be disappointed. But I wasn't. It's actually a fun and funny comic, and the comparison is apt but they aren't just aping those shows. It's quirky, snappy, and comedic, and just sophisticated enough to be good sci fi.

Truth be told, I've read a lot of webcomics. I've read a lot of really awful webcomics. I mean, the kind of thing that, if he read it, would make Alexander say, "Hmm, guess I wasn't having a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day after all . . . compared to this" awful comics.

As I get to know more people and see more webcomics, I'll post some links here.

~ Ben

Comics Worth Reading -- Star Wars: Vector

Okay, so the Clone Wars movie didn't excite me much. At all. Although I hear rumors the television series is better than the movie . . .

But here's something that got me excited about Star Wars again.

It's called "Vector" and it's a miniseries that crosses over a number of different Star Wars comics from Dark Horse. The different series all take place in different time periods, and that's what initially attracted me to the story. From a purely analytical POV, I wanted to see how they went about doing it.

But I stopped reading from an analytical POV with the first issue.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #25
Vector Part 1, written by John Jackson Miller

I looked at that first cover and I saw Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and two dudes I'd never heard of (although I assumed one of them is Luke's ancestor, because I at least knew enough about Star Wars: Legacy, one of the titles the crossover went into, to know it was about the grandson or grand-nephew or whatever of Luke).

In this first issue, we're introduced to a bunch of characters that have been established in this series: Knights of the Old Republic, which takes place generations (I think) before the movies. But the writer does a fairly good job of introducing the characters to new readers (like me).

But what gets me excited in this issue is the opening prophetic dream that has Luke, Darth, and the new Skywalker . . . and makes it known that something terrible is going to happen.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #26
Vector Part 2, written by John Jackson Miller

And something terrible DOES happen. It's a plague, and it has something to do with the force, and I'm not going to get into the details too much because I recommend people read the series and enjoy and experience it for themselves.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #27
Vector Part 3, written by John Jackson Miller

Now, other than the initial prophetic dream sequence, the characters I know and love don't appear in these first three issues of this story. And that's okay. The characters who DO appear are likable, and the story itself is intriguing.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #28
Vector Part 4, written by John Jackson Miller

The first four issues of the "Vector" story make for a great first act. I really enjoyed it. I'm curious about the further adventures of those characters, and I'm curious about earlier adventures as well. The old pocket book may not let me actually read them, but I was pretty happy/satisfied with the story. And I was ready to get into some of the characters I DO know . . .

Star Wars: Dark Times #11
Vector Part 5, written by Mick Harrison

"Dark Times" is Dark Horse's Star Wars comic series about Darth Vader, during the time between Episode III (when he is "created") and the original Star Wars movie (still can't bring myself to call it Episode IV).

Again, I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but generations have gone by and Darth finds the ancient plague . . . and some other ancient evils . . .

Star Wars: Dark Times #12
Vector Part 6, written by Mick Harrison

. . . and we get to see Darth in some good old fashioned Jedi fighting.

There's much more to it than that. Again, I don't want to give too much away. But the writers of this crossover series do a nice job of finding a natural device, that makes sense in the context of the story, to move the action (and even some characters -- again, don't want to give too much away) generations ahead in time.

But as cool as it is to see Darth in action, he's not who I was waiting for.

Star Wars: Rebellion #15
Vector Part 7, written by Rob Williams

I was a pretty big fan of the Star Wars comics when they were being published by Marvel. In those days, we didn't have a VCR, so the Star Wars comics were all I had to fuel my Star Wars excitement between movies. As a result, I did get pretty fond of and attached to the original trilogy characters. (And I still think, as I said in my Clone Wars movie review, an animated series featuring those characters would be fun, but I'm biased.)

Star Wars: Rebellion #16
Vector Part 8, written by Rob Williams

Again, a nice, natural device is used to move the story from Darth's early years to Darth's later years is utilized. And it works. Putting on my analysts hat, this is one of the better crafted crossovers I've seen, and not a lot of absurd concepts have to be put into play to make it work. The Rebellion chapters and the Dark Times chapters flow together so seamlessly, you almsot don't notice it's two different titles the story just passed through.

Getting away from looking "under the hood" as a writer, and switching over to being a reader and a fan, I'm just enjoying seeing Luke and Leia in action again.

Sadly, Luke's chapter in the story is only two issues long out of the twelve. So far, that's my only complaint about the crossover.

Star Wars: Legacy #28
Vector Part 9, written by Rob Williams

What will the future bring? That's my only concern. Like the first four chapters, which dropped me into a series revolving around characters I know nothing about, these final four chapters are about the future "Legacy" of the Skywalker family -- and again, these are characters I don't know about.

Will the story sustain itself? I don't know.

But man, I've not gotten excited about reading a new Star Wars story in a while.

Ah, but here's the difference:

With Clone Wars, it felt like they were just doing a story with the Star Wars label and expecting you to like it because it's called "Star Wars", it has lightsabers, spaceships, and explosions.

With "Vector", it feels like they're trying to tell a good story and using Star Wars characters to do it. And they succeeded.

Dark Horse, and those four writers plus whatever editors and story consultants worked on this story have done a great job. This is how a crossover should be done.

~ Ben

Comics Worth Reading -- Metal Men

DC's Metal Men mini-series just wrapped up. And I really enjoyed it.

For those not familiar with the Metal Men, here you can find the "secret origin" of the group. 

The biggest reasons I picked it up in the first place were: 1. It was a limited series, 2. I like the Metal Men characters from some really old back issues I accidentally accumulated, and 3. It looked interesting.

This "re-invention" of the team was written by Duncan Rouleau (who I've never heard of), based on ideas by Grant Morrison (who I have heard of . . . and am leery of), it's a wonderful eight issue mess of time travel paradoxes and existential pop quantum physics (or something -- but what do you expect when it's based on ideas by Grant Morrison). And it's good.

This is real science fiction, here. It takes ideas from science and weaves them into a speculative story that's both sprawling an epic (spanning eons) and personal (following Dr. Magnus' personal trials as he creates the Metal Men and then must deal with the consequences).

The story itself jumps from the current action to flashback and back again constantly, and can be a bit confusing. But I'll say it again: I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the characters, I enjoyed the bad chemical puns, I enjoyed the over the top bad guy, I enjoyed the audacious and old school tag ending, I enjoyed the clever ways the metal men used the powers of their elements.

I enjoyed it.

Now, if I could just find issue one so I could re-read the series. 

~ Ben

Comics Worth Reading -- glamourpuss

Wow.

Not much else to say.

Last night, before bed, I read Dave Sim's new comic book, glamourpuss.

Dave Sim, to the uninitiated, is the creator/writer/artist of a 300 issue/26 year long run on a comic book series called Cerebus, a critically acclaimed series of monumental proportions.

glamourpuss is his follow up.

And, after reading it, I can't figure out if glamourpuss is a monumental mess or a work of genius. It is either the most absurd or the most ingenious comic ever made.

Essentially, the comic is Dave Sim musing about what this comic will be. Graphically, he starts out drawing photo-realistic black and white drawings of fashion models and ruminating on how he could do a comic about those images, since in a fashion magazine he really only gets a small amount of reference images for the same person. He shifts gears into talking about Alex Raymond and Al Williamson and their art styles, and he begins copying panels from their non-science fiction work (mostly, panels that seem to look like fashion models) and uses the speech balloons to continue his ruminating. It shifts gears once more, this time to present a story about glamourpuss, using a half dozen fashion magazine photo references to draw teh character, and then shifts back into musing and ruminating and ruminating and musing about art, the glamourpuss series, and life.

Think of it like this: if David Lynch and the editors of seventeen magazine got in a room to create a comic book, this is what it would be.

And it works. The traces and wisps of the story of glamourpuss and her twin sister, SKANKO (yes, i thought twice before typing it), are wound together with Dave Sim's own ideas about art and copying the masters, which is bookended by satire about fashion magazines.

I do not recommend this for everyone. I'm not sure if I recommend it to myself. But I will be buying issue #2.

For those wondering how Dave Sim's "seeming" "misogyny" play out in a comic book about women, I didn't see it. I did see some very biting satire of the fashion industry, which is mostly women. And there was the whole through line of, when asked what he was going to do after Cerebus his answer always was, "cute teenage girls in my besst Al Williamson photo-realism style", which he is essentially doing here. This book has a LOT images of beautiful women. But honestly, this book seems to be more commentary about his art and his reference material.

~ Ben

"Comics Worth Reading" -- Thrivers

For a comic book writer who has a blog, I don't blog about comics much, do I?

Well let's change that, shall we?

In the spirit of my last post, about the Clockwork comic, I hereby start something new for my blog. Comics Worth Reading. These are comics that I feel are, uh, worth reading.

Today, I want to point you in the direction of Eric Merced's blog, where he has posted a comic called Thrivers.

In his own words, Thrivers is "a short 12 page comic with the goal of bringing awareness to the mass about emancipated Youth from the Foster Care system".

In MY words, it's a beautiful story that is, unfortunately, too often very true. The art for this story is spot on. The dialog and pacing are smooth and natural. The message is strong without being preachy.

So please, check it out HERE. You'll be glad you did.

~ Ben