Dec. 3-9: Read and Repeat
By Michael Deeley
“I don’t care who you are; when authority shoves an angry finger in your face and dubs thee “Murderer”, lightning tears down your spine and thunder shakes your guts.”
-the opening lines to Action Comics #809,
written by Joe Kelly, which I read many, many times.
I decided to see what would happen if I read the same comic book every day for a week. I had considered reading only one comic and no other, but the new ‘Y: The Last Man’ and ‘Plastic Man’ series came out. And those had to be read right away.
I selected ‘Action Comics’ #809 for this experiment. Why? Because I knew that whichever book I chose, I’d be sick of it at the end of the week so I decided against a title I followed. I was still thinking it over while working at the supermarket on Wednesday night. Fortunately, this supermarket sold comics. ‘Action’ was one of the few I hadn’t read. (It was that or ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’, and I’ve already got maturity issues.)
Written by Joe Kelly, with art by Pascual Ferry, Andy Owens, and Cam Smith, the story has Clark and Lois on a cruise catering to reporters. Also on board is Jack Ryder, Clark’s nemesis and all-around jerk. During dinner, Clark has to zip off as Superman to rescue a sinking ship. When he returns, Ryder has been found dead and frozen in a block of ice. Since Clark was the only person who couldn’t be accounted for when Jack was alone, he becomes the prime suspect.
Clark’s attempts to solve the mystery are complicated when two other passengers connected to Ryder are found comatose and covered in sloppy tattoos. A passenger informs Clark that she and her friend, the second victim, were witches hired by Ryder to summon a demon. She believes this demon is behind the attacks, but fears she can’t contain it. When Lois falls victim to this demon, Clark discovers it to be The Creeper. But this isn’t the same Creeper we’ve know; it’s an emaciated, unnatural creature of pure madness whose very presence makes you sick. Clark is able to dispel The Creeper with help from the witch. During the fight, Clark figures out Jack Ryder is The Creeper.
After The Creeper vanishes, Jack and the others return to normal. But when Lois and Clark threaten to expose Jack’s secret, he says he’s paid the witches to keep quiet. Besides, he got the idea from Clark anyway. Jack figures Clark cut a deal with Superman before he was famous to jump start his career. Clark is stunned, but Lois promises that they’ll keep an eye on him.
Overall, I thought it was a nice story. What I didn’t expect would be my actions over the course of the week. I thought my repeated readings would reveal to me new depths or angles on the story. I knew my feelings about it would change over time. Familiarity breeds contempt, after all. But I found myself acting very strange upon repeated readings. I think I developed a desire to destroy this comic I had forced myself to read so often. My actions resembled a kind of madness.
I recorded my feelings and actions as a daily log. Read on.
Day One:
This turned out pretty good. Clark acts more human than I’d expect. I especially liked how he used his heat vision to give Jack Ryder a sunburn. The whole “hero can’t provide an alibi without revealing his secret identity” plot is a little old, but it still works, especially when the story’s set on a ship. After all, how many suspects can you have in the middle of the ocean?
I don’t know much about Jack Ryder and the Creeper, except that Ryder turns into the chaotic demon when he rubs a mystic tattoo. Ryder’s portrayed here as an obnoxious tabloid journalist, like Geraldo crossed with Leisure Suit Larry. The Creeper looks scary, but what, exactly, does he do?
Overall, this was a nice little comic. I’m kind of sorry I didn’t read more of Joe Kelly’s run. Now he’s on the way out.
Current rating:  .
Day Two:
I read comics for their stories first and their art second. So it takes me a while to appreciate just how good the work of Pascual Ferry, Cam Smith, and Andy Owens really is. The art has a smooth look and a clean feel. The characters and action just flow from panel to panel. It’s very pretty to look at, and also quite lively.
I remember Ryder showing up back in Action #775, another issue by Kelly. Did Kelly use Ryder as a supporting cast member in ‘Action’? I get the feeling this darker take on The Creeper could have been intended for the character’s re-launch/revamp.
Current rating: 
Day Three:
Nearly every ad is for video games! There’s a candy ad, an ad for Fox’s Saturday Morning Cartoons, two ads for card games, and one of those Verb: get out and play PSA’s. All the rest are videogames! No DC house ads, no other toys, just 5 pages of non-video game ads and 15 pages of game ads. There’s the “DC In Demand” hype page, but it’s only about the upcoming change in Superman comics. DC dropped the letters pages for this?
One of the ads is for the new Neopets card game from Wizards of the Coast. It features a card called “Eliv Thade”, a devious-looking cat creature with a stitched-up face and bandaged hands. Oh, and his name is an anagram for “evil death”. Other cards seem to feature pale-skinned women and fairies with heavy eye-shadow. It’s like goth Pokemon. Cute.
Current Ranking:
Day Four:
Lois Lane is hot! I love her violet eyes! Are her eyes always that color, or was it just done so they’d match her dress? Either way, she’s smokin’ hot! But then, she’s a comic book woman. When has a woman in comic books ever looked less than beautiful? Aside from the occasional horribly mutated or disfigured mutant, the comic book world is full of babes. Even Amanda Waller has a certain sassy charm.
Jesus, I’ve got to get laid.
Current Ranking:
Day Five:
I am struck by the notion to disassemble the comic. I’ve never done it before, so why not now? I remove the staples with a staple remover (a sure sign of over-specialization in society), thus transforming the book into 11 pairs of pages. I lay them down on the floor, like an auger reading the future from animal parts. I immediately realize that I can only see half the story at once. I buy another copy, take that apart, and lay it down with pages from the first.
First, I lay out the outer cover from one copy, outside up. Then the cover from the other copy, inside up. I repeat the pattern, taking one pair of pages from one copy then laying next to it the same pair with the opposite side facing up. This enables me to see the entire comic, story and ads, all at once. I wonder if editors or other employees of comic book publishers see comics in a similar way.
I discern a pattern to reading the story. But rather than read it the same way again, I read every page in the order it is laid out. And so, I read the last half in reverse while simultaneously reading the first half forwards. It is an experience. I know it’s all the same story. And yet, it now appears to be two intersecting storylines. Clark Kent dashes out of his room and sees The Creeper, then suddenly is drinking with a beautiful woman. Clark trades barbs with Jack Ryder when they board the ship, and then threatens to expose him as The Creeper. The simple act of arranging these pages in a new order creates a new story with a logic of its own. I think this is the art of collage.
Current Ranking: , but mostly for this unique experience.
Day Six:
I am reluctant to read the comic again. I am finally sick of it. I put it off until the end of the day. Perhaps this contributes to my continued destruction of the comic. I now separate a single issue into individual pages. I throw them in the air several times and gather them up in random order. I feel like a madman tossing his feces.
I read the pages one at a time, front and back. There is no flow to the story. They are now just random images connected only by the reappearance of characters. I have succeeded in destroying the story of the comic. And yet, it is during this reading that I ask what should be an obvious question. How did the other passengers think Clark Kent killed Jack Ryder? Ryder’s body is found frozen in a block of ice 10 minutes after Clark disappears. No one asks how it could have happened. Nor does anyone wonder how Clark could have rendered the other victims comatose and tattooed their bodies. It seems so obvious to ask “how did he do it?” in a murder investigation that I curse myself for not picking up on it earlier.
Current ranking:
Day Seven:
Finally, I reduce the comic to its most basic elements: panels. I cut out each panel of an issue between the panels. When a page had art on both sides, I cut up the identical page from the second copy. I put all the panels into a plastic bag and shake it up. I pull out each scrap of paper and read them, or look at them individually. A few panels could inspire a painting like Roy Lichenstein’s. Overall, it is chaos. I am looking at random images and words. There is no consistency from picture to picture. There is no flow to the story. I have completely destroyed the comic book and its story.
Current ranking: Not applicable, since I didn’t actually read a story of any kind.
Conclusions:
I can read a better-than-average comic book 4, maybe 5 times before I get sick of it. A comic book’s story may retain its story continuity, or “flow”, if it is broken down into pairs of pages, but not when reduced to single pages or panels. Video game makers seem to be the major advertisers in comic books. Most comic book women are attractive, even when they’re old. And I will never read this comic again.
And now for the stuff I only read once this week:
The Eternal #6 -
Ikaeden makes a deal with the Celestial: He’ll be as dumb and superstitious as Jeska is now, and their children and the Deviants children will destroy each other through centuries of warfare. The Celestial appears to agree. So the price for too much knowledge becomes an eternity of violence propagated by our inherent violent natures. Nice.
Y: The Last Man #17 - 
The play about the last man on Earth is protested by the town’s mayor. The clean-cut, incredibly wholesome town leader objects to the play for portraying women as petty, vicious tramps. Yes, the tight-assed conservative objects to the negative portrayals of women in a play written and performed by women. Get your head around that. Then Yorick & Co. take their monkey back and find out the ending to the play: The last man kills himself and lets women save themselves. You might want to remember that.
Thanos #3 -
We get a detailed origin for Galactus and the reason behind his recent actions. It seems Galactus has found an energy pattern similar to the energies he needs to survive. Thanos learns all of this while engaging Galactus in a brief telepathic battle. Thanos is unable to stop Galactus from collapsing the star and opening a dimensional portal. From it, he withdraws a humanoid skeleton with a purple jewel imbedded in its chest.
Thanos does save the planet’s population from Galactus, but in his own unique way. He is cunning, seductive, arrogant, cruel, impatient and dismissive of “lesser” beings. And I wouldn’t have him any other way. I’m very sorry to see Jim Starlin go so soon. While I think Keith Giffen is a good writer, I can’t imagine anyone but Starlin writing Thanos this way.
Plastic Man #1
Kyle Baker writes and draws this new series starring Plastic Man. Plas foils a robbery in his own unique way, dreams about his origin, and is called in on a murder investigation. He’s asked to find Eel O’Brian, a.k.a., HIM!
The good: Baker’s back in top form, after the disappointing and sedate ‘Truth’. The timing and humor of the story are top-notch. This is as much fun to look at as it is to read.
The bad: The attempt to make Pas seem like a secretly lonely, tortured soul feels forced and fake. Woozy is portrayed a little sleazier and a lot dumber than I’m comfortable with.
The ugly: Some of Plas’ shape-shifting seems a little disturbing, especially when his eyes flow like liquid out of his skull. I’d advise against showing this to young children.
Overall: A good start. I’m looking forward to future issues. I’m also interested in reading the old Plastic Man stories from the 1940’s and 1950’s.
Battle Royale #4
The cast has thinned out enough to keep track of the character’s names. Takako Chigusa overcomes her attacker, only to be shot by Mitsuko Souma. She dies in the arms of Kazuo Kiriyama as he tells how much her strength inspired him. Shuuya takes Noriko to an abandoned infirmary despite Shogo’s warnings. Shuuya finds two girls having a gunfight and tries to talk them into joining his team. Sadly, one girl has gone completely around the bend and cannot be reached. She scares off the other girl and almost kills Shuuya. She is killed by Shogo, who remembered to be more aware of people’s feelings. Meanwhile, Shinji has figured out the guards can hear them, so he writes his next plan to Yutaka: prepare an explosive raft and float it towards the command center. Fortunately, his uncle left him an ignition key severe enough to detonate a homemade bomb. Time to get to work. . .
Action #810 -
Clark takes Lois on a worldwide trip to celebrate New Years in every time zone. He also answers some letter people have sent him, including a suicide, children, an old man waiting to die, and a criminal bragging about his crime. It was a corny, old-fashioned kind of comic where the hero just does his thing and be bigger than life.
Brought a tear to my eye. Good work.
And everything else:
DC-13, another Super Spectacular; ‘Green Lantern Secret Files & Origins’ #2; ‘Detective Comics’ #763 and 787; ‘Starman’ #25-27 from the ‘A Wicked Inclination’ TPB; ‘Starman: Times Past’ TPB; ‘Flash Secret Files & Origins’ #3; the 2003 edition of ‘Stewart the Rat’, a 1970’s graphic novel by the ‘Howard the Duck’ team of Steve Gerber, Gene Colan, and Tom Palmer. It’s a must have for all ‘Howard’ fans; ‘Batman: Year One’ from ‘The Complete Frank Miller Batman’; and ‘Across the Universe: The DC Universe Stories of Alan Moore.
I got a preview copy of ‘Street Angel’ #1, the Pittsburgh comic that’s been picked up by Slave Labor Graphics. Congratulations to Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca for getting their book a national audience. The SLG version of ‘Street Angel’ differes from the original only in size. The comic was redrawn for the larger, standard comic book page. The art style is slightly improved, and it looked great before. Panel layout, story, and action are otherwise exactly the same. ‘Street Angel’ is an hilarious comic about a homeless teenage girl saving the world. Go buy it at www.awefulbooks.com, or order it from SLG in the January Previews catalog. I’m going ot be flogging the hell out of that book next month.
Finally, a brief conversation I had with my father. A commercial for the new Spawn video game had come on TV.
TV: In the war between heaven and hell. . .
Dad: Hey, is that Spawn?
Me: Yeah, how’d you know that?
Dad: Well, it looked like Spawn. And that heaven and hell stuff is part of his backstory, right?
Me: Yeah, but how do you know who Spawn is? You’ve never seen the movie, and you only read one ‘Spawn’ comic 10 years ago.
Dad: Well I remember you talking about it sometimes. I pay attention to things going on around me. You never know when you might pick up on something useful.
He turned 54 on Dec. 4. He listens to NPR, and watches “The Newshour with Jim Leher”, “The Daily Show”, and ‘South Park”. Sometimes he watches network news to get the official spin. He’s spiritual, cynical, principled, corny, and responsible. He looks like Mr. Rogers with crazy pale blue eyes. And I couldn’t have done this column if he hadn’t let me and my brother live in his house for the last 2 years. Thanks dad.
I don’t think he’ll read this, but I should give props when they’re due.
New technologies allow one to experience comic books as more than just lines on paper. Next week, I’ll be looking at some of those alternatives, comparing the experience of reading “normal” comic books to TPBs, DVDs, CD-ROMs, and over the internet, which doesn’t have a catchy acronym. Oh, there is COW, Comics On the Web, but that’s just for CrossGen.
Until next time, I know nothing about a tattooed corpse in the ice box. NOTHING!!
QED
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