|
CBG SATELLITES
The ADD Blog by Alan David Doane
|
 PLEASE SUPPORT COMIC BOOK GALAXY BY VISITING OUR SPONSORS
Breakdowns – That Not-So-Freshmen Feeling
Pig’s Missing Poo by Robert Goodin. Listen, this is a handsome little mini-comic with a lovely cover, but it reminds me of a mid-60s album by bands other than The Beatles: very short, with just a hit or two, and lots of filler. With albums, of course, the hit is usually up-top, but here it’s the last story, ‘The Monkey and the Crocodile”, which has also been in at least one anthology that I remember, and is itself just a fanciful take on an old fable, the crocodile replacing the snake, I think. Goodin draws the story well, but seems overly concerned with fine lines and texture in stories like “Seeds of Grass”, the characters themselves misshapen and ugly for no real reason. This story, and the following “That’s Life” and “The Lovely Evening Urbanus Met Thadeus Cornloaf” are a somewhat promising but for now, unappealing, mix of whimsy and darkness, like vegetable dip when it’s just been mixed and the freeze-dried veggie bits and seasonings haven’t had a chance to soften in the sour cream. The unlisted, pointless Space Ghost two-page gag lets readers know that anything goes here, as long as the requisite pages are filled. I think Goodin has some originality, but there’s no feeling that these are stories that had to be told, and even piffle should have more laughs. I think there’s a dangerous mindset in the minicomic world that because it’s cheap and small and self-published, it doesn’t need to say anything—just fill it up with whatever you’ve got and it’s onto the next one. With some tougher self-editing and discipline, perhaps Goodin can become one of those minicomic creators for which every new release is a real event, an exciting little bomb. CSI: Secret Identity #5 (of 5) by Steven Grant, Gabriel Rodriguez and Stephen Perkins. If there’s one thing I don’t like to do, it’s review the last issue of a miniseries. I mean, if you weren’t interested the first time I reviewed the book, what can I do? But I liked this a lot and wanted to give it a little send-off. Now, I admit I’m not entirely sure the guy’s name is Stephen Perkins after all, but I don’t want to get up to find out, especially when his flashback sequences were the only bad part of this otherwise excellent story. Aside from him, this was one of the first times in comics spin-off/tie-in history that the story was good enough to be an actual episode of the show. Grant really delivers here, with all the twists and turns and red herrings that fans of the show would want. A lot of TV spinoff comics are kind of like The Simpsons: looks close enough, but the stories are dumbed down or rendered harmless. True, Grant doesn’t advance any of the little subplots among the show’s characters, and how could he, but aside from that, it’s top-notch work. IDW Publishing. $3.99 Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World by Bryan Lee O’Malley is the second installment in the greatest romantic action comedy ever put to paper. Following the martial arts/videogame parody plot, Scott must face another of his new girlfriend Ramona’s evil ex-boyfriends (they’re in a league) in battle, while Ramona (an American ninja, mind you) defends herself against the assault of Scott’s vengeful, but sympathetic, seventeen-year-old ex-girlfriend Knives Chau (still one of the greatest comics character names ever). I use a lot of parentheses here, and a lot of ultimates like “…ever!”, and that’s because the book is damn good, and there’s a lot going on. O’Malley is so assured here, able to mix in the various pop culture influences and sheer unreality with knowing dialogue and touching shots of Knives and Scott’s old high school girlfriend, Kim, both of whom obviously ache for Scott. One of the interesting things is that Scott is not really likeable at all. O’Malley is confident enough not to add dimension to the character—at least not yet—and so Scott is more the befuddled, callous straight man amidst people much more sincere, much smarter, and much more aware than he is. Presumably, we’ll come to care more about him and his relationship with Ramona, but right now, it just seems to be a good thing he’s with her, aside from the duels to the death, and that she’ll pull him up to something resembling maturity and manhood. The other thing I’ve found is that it’s the only highly manga-influenced Western comics work that really feels fresh and fun and unstudied. The simple faces shouldn’t be able to convey so much, but they do. The clunky character bodies and staging shouldn’t make for exciting action sequences, but somehow those work very well, too. It’s terrific.Oni Press. $11.95 Freshmen #1 by Hugh Sterbakov, Seth Green, Leonard Kirk and Andrew Pepoy was a spur-of-the-moment purchase for me. Due to working on my own “young superheroes” comic, I haven’t read many so as not to be influenced. Maybe the George Perez cover grabbed me; I’m not sure, but for whatever reason, I picked this one up. And I really needn’t have worried about being influenced. We meet Annalee, a vaguely Asian young woman on her first day at D. W. Freese University. Something tells me there’s some sort of in-joke in that name, but anyway, the story hits a sour note on only the third panel. Seeing Annalee off, her mother makes a comment about Annalee’s father and his “secrebitch”, and that kind of forced, unrealistic word threw me off right away. But okay, maybe Mom is kind of a psycho, let’s see what Annalee is about. After a lazily written panel where an Amish boy calls his mother “Mom” (note to Kirk—Amish shirts don’t have buttons, they have hooks), we meet a bickering young couple who proceed to insult each other in the vilest ways possible. As a way to show that sweet Annalee is in a harsh, new world now, it works, but it’s also pretty distasteful, though seemingly intended as comedy. It becomes kind of a running gag throughout the book, and I fear it will continue in other issues. The sweet Annalee thing doesn’t really work, either, as Sterbakov uses her to narrate the introductions to the rest of the cast of freshmen characters, all forced to live closely together in a science room, due to overcrowding. Annalee describes them all in a condescending, superior manner, from Paula, who “defines the fanbase of US Magazine”, to Renee, the teased hair Jersey girl “from Skanksville”, to the “fat” Amish boy, Liam, to “every girl’s nightmare”, Jacques, and on and on, including the die-hard vegan African-American protester, the shy nerd and the ubernerd. With the exception of shy nerd “Norrin” (how Radd!) and Paula, they’re all unsympathetic caricatures, and Annalee doesn’t come off well with her vicious slams of them. Near the end, she claims she’s not judging these people, she’s just trying to understand them, but it comes off pretty hollow by then. To Sterbakov’s credit, he writes Annalee fairly well elsewhere, and her attraction to, and disillusionment by, a handsome upper classman feels real. But for a book that apparently, judging from the “onset of superpowers” sequence at the end, is going to tie all these characters together, with Annalee occupying each one of their minds for a time (I think), it’s off to a poor start, as none of the characters are very appealing. If the idea is that Annalee doesn’t realize how judgmental she really is, and her experiences inside these peoples’ heads will change that over time, then I’ll take back some of the complaints and say that’s a pretty ambitious idea for the book. Still, I would hope Sterbakov eases up quite a bit on trying to come up with outrageous comedic lines and gags and instead really finds the voices of the characters. For instance, during a party that is really just a ruse to humiliate the freshmen, a young man is hung upside down, naked, and his penis size is mocked. Fine, that’s a typical college prank and we’re meant to hate these guys. But later, in a silent sort of collage of shots of the various characters, we see this same young man, sad-faced, holding a ruler in his lap, his finger and thumb indicating the size we weren’t allowed to see earlier. In effect, it makes Sterbakov a kind of bully toward his own character, and it’s embarrassing as a reader, something we don’t need to see because it just calls the creator’s motives into question. Are we supposed to laugh at this kid now? I will say that Sterbakov’s Introduction is so sweet that I’m still rooting for him to pull it together quite a bit more than I am for Annalee. Kirk and Pepoy are veterans, and while the work isn’t inspired, it’s fine if somewhat inconsistent in tone, cartoony in places and almost photorealistic in others. It’s not the worst debut by any means, but with enough wrong to it that I don’t think I’ll continue with it. Image comics. $2.99
Send review copies to:
|
It’s hardly worth discussing, but heck, I need something in this space, so let me address something that seems to keep getting mentioned on blogs, which is the overwhelming majority of white guys to girls on this here site. It’s true; aside from the extremely talented mini-comics creator