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The ADD Blog by Alan David Doane
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Breakdowns - Arf Fodder Who Art In Heaven Well, here I am again, your cuddly, squishy, pink blob of fiberglass, soft but liable to get under your skin and irritate you for days. This is the second weekly (New) Breakdowns for the (New) Comic Book Galaxy, but as you’ll see believe, I’m still talking about the same ol’ things, like Bendis, and Jason, and Moore…and Alba…So before you can say, “Hatlo, Dali”, let’s get on with it.
I was less impressed with the piece on the artist Rubino, but it was still interesting because one can see some of his influence in Yoe’s own portfolio of colorful, id-propelled creations also in the book. Another piece explores the visual ancestors of MAD’s Alfred E. Neuman, which is fine but seemed like something I’ve seen many times before. Examples of the “worm’s-eye view” cartoons of largely forgotten cartoonist Hy Mayer are technically impressive but little more. The Dali work featured here, including a juvenile comic strip and some mixtures of art and photography, are amusing and still have the power to surprise, though the impact is muted somewhat with a some mostly mediocre old comic book covers paying homage to the most obvious Dali elements (the Steranko Nick Fury cover is an exception, and is exceptional), and the reprinting of a justly forgotten backup strip with a silly Dali stand-in for Will Eisner’s Spirit newspaper section from 1946 is cause for consternation, not celebration. Skip that and get to the Jimmy Hatlo piece, with several examples of “The Hatlo Inferno”, an unfunny but riveting selection of Hatlo’s pet peeves given artistic vengeance, a parade of inconsiderate being appropriately tortured in Hell. Try to find something like that in the safe Funny Pages today! Yoe closes out this first installment in calmer waters, with a handful of words and several droll examples of Patrick McDonnell’s non-MUTTS cartooning. It’s a sprawling, idiosyncratic, and valuable book.
I was a bit worried about this one at first, as it concerns the possible return of Retro Girl, whose murder mystery formed the plot of the very first Powers story. With this new Marvel series launching with a new #1 issue, it all seemed a little too cute and convenient. Plus, after all the busts Deena Pilgrim has been a part of with partner Christian Walker, having the police chief tell her she doesn’t have what it takes as soon as she returns to the force seemed forced to me as well. There was never any question she has what it takes, right? One of the nice things about reading this series only in collected form now is that those kinds of thoughts die quick and merciful deaths within an hour, rather than resounding across months in the serialized form. Bendis knew what he was doing all along, and handles the Retro Girl storyline with a pretty light touch, letting it become the “B” plot as Deena really is challenged, in harrowing fashion, to show her resilience and resourcefulness. Even better, her story ends in a way that echoes the very first Retro Girl story again. That Oeming knows what he’s doing is never in doubt. He continues to evolve his style, softening a facial contour while exaggerating a torso even more, drawing only the essential visual elements and letting the masterful Pete Pantazis drench the scene in gold, or green, or red. Pantazis’ work with delicate, gray facial shadows adds a poignancy to an early silent scene, while elsewhere he reliably ups the dramatic element of every panel with his rich palette. The only small complaint is that, as always, the legendary Ken Bruzenak’s lettering is reproduced poorly, losing its fullness and roundness as it’s digitized. But a very strong book regardless. Marvel Comics. $17.95
Jack is a would-be loveable rogue, capable of great daring and a courage softened by wisecracks. He looks good in a flight suit or tuxedo, and his confidence is going to win over a lot of women. He’s already on his way here, teaming up with a female British agent to investigate a Nazi mine full of uranium and quickly falling into lots of trouble. Of course, she finds me obnoxious, but that will change. Haley’s work here is strong—dynamic and sexy, if somewhat skimpy on period details and a little bland with the facial characteristics. Cosby’s script is brisk but it doesn’t take full advantage of Haley’s abilities to deliver big, bold visuals; I’d prefer a little more eye candy to the non-stop banter, actually. It’s not bad, though I would like more originality than “What’s Plan B?” “RUN!” And to really suck in a reader and make them need to come back for #2, I’m not sure if uranium and a Nazi in a robot suit is quite enough. Enjoyable enough beginning, though. There’s a nice preview here. Boom Productions. $3.99
It’s been in several of the later books where Jason pushes beyond the simple, real-life plots of love, death, grief and endurance to frame these themes within crime stories, as he does here in a “wrong man” tale explicitly modeled on Hitchcock films, particularly REAR WINDOW, as there’s someone watching through his window, and the lead character is a good man who only really comes to life when that life is in jeopardy. Unlike The Iron Wagon, Jason’s graphic adaptation of an old crime novel from a fellow Norwegian, he is not as confined by the trappings of the plot. Yes, the demands of time and space, and possibly Hitchcock’s brisk influence, force the reader to take the romantic, dangerous notion of the now-wanted-for-murder Alex being taken in and sheltered by a single mother simply for his honest eyes as a matter of course, and the police are ineffectual. However, Jason is much more comfortable in this milieu, and he enhances many scenes with naturalistic dialogue about subjects like Dolly Parton’s singing ability and how many exciting anecdotes do most people have to relate from their lives. These conversations bring Alex to life in a different, but no less interesting way, than the silent, heartbroken figures in his earlier graphic novels. Of course, Jason has always been a master manipulator of emotions, and here he not only tugs at the heartstrings but delivers some shameless suspense when the real killer finds the single mother, Geraldine’s, daughter. If not an out-and-out triumph, it’s still an impressive addition to Jason’s rapidly growing oeuvre. Fantagraphics Books. $12.95
Finishes – Your Weekly Reader Well, Jessica Alba is #3 of the 122 People (& Things) the mag loves this summer, hyping Fantastic Four while mentioning the success of Sin City. Then, closer to actual comics, sometime Marvel writer Robert Kirkman comes in at #60 (just below Coldplay and customized sneakers), more for his own Invincible and The Walking Dead, and rightly so, though there’s mention of “two top-secret Marvel projects” as well. Mickey Rourke is right after him at #61 for his role as Marv in Sin City. At #93 is Larry Young for the upcoming Black Diamond as well as AiT in general. Matt Fraction’s also-upcoming Five Fists of Science is also mentioned, as is Brian Wood’s Demo and The Couriers, and Rick Remender’s Black Heart Billy, so Uncle Lar really got a lot of mileage out of this piece. Interestingly, the magazine also features a blow-in card for a subscription to Ultimate Spider-Man. Kudos and best of luck on that promotion, and now it’s time for me to blow-out.
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Modern Arf is a new squarebound anthology edited by Craig Yoe, really more of a magazine with better paper than Comic Book Artist, more like a longer version of Comic Art. This first volume celebrates and explores a wide range of cartoonists from Kirby to Cruikshank, Dirks to Dali(!). It packs a good deal of comics history and a fair amount of insight into features often light on text, but insightful nonetheless. Yoe’s voice is playful, never pretentious, and as an acclaimed artist and designer himself, he lets the artists’ work, and his placement of it on the page, do much of the talking. The opening feature on “Artists and Models” collects many different cartoons and even some paintings on this theme, many of them quite funny gags, others titillating, such as Wallace Wood’s Sally Forth strip.
Powers Vol. 8: Legends by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Avon Oeming collects the first story arc published for Marvel Comics in their ICON imprint. So in order to make the most of the potentially larger Marvel audience familiar with Bendis’ superhero work, the monkey sex and more experimental storytelling of the previous volume had to give way to the classic police procedural and spandex elements that made the book successful and acclaimed. 
G.I. Spy #1 by Andrew Cosby and Matt Haley is the latest in what seems to be a lot of adventure books set in WWII lately. I guess the allure has to do with the simplicity of the time, from its technology to its morality. Americans or other Allies are definitely heroes, and anybody else is a bad guy, and you don’t need to go through a lot of red tape and self-examination to take them down. 
Why Are You Doing This? is the latest graphic novel from Jason, who seems to be releasing at least two a year now, at least in this country. That’s our gain, pretty much, as they’ve all been worth reading, though the first two, Hey, Wait.. and SSHHHH!, remain the best.