Who's Who in the CBU 2009

Name: Regie Rigby

Regie is a strange, almost ethereal creature. Who can plumb the hidden mysteries of his dark and murky past - a past which contains a terrible secret. A secret that taught him that with great power comes great responsibility, that criminals are a cowardly superstitious lot and just who exactly knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.

By day, he assumes the appearance of a mild mannered teacher, bringing the joy of literature and the English Language to classes of enthralled and enthusiastic students. But by night?

By night he goes home and writes lesson plans. Sorry. That's as interesting as he gets. Really.

The rumours about rooftop struggles with underworld uberfiends, the gossip about the hidden cave filled with hi-tec equipment and the suggestion that his car might be fitted with turbo lasers are all nonsense.

When he's not teaching he reads comics. Sometimes he combines the two activities. When he's not doing that he's either playing computer games or asleep.

Komiks That Werk

By Regie Rigby

I’ve noticed a very agreeable trend which I’m keen to encourage. Almost every time I mention how much I love getting free comics somebody else sends me some more. Just thought I’d mention it…

Anyway, this is how I discovered the rather lovely Komikwerks anthologies. Not that you really need to take my word for it, the back cover of issue #1 sports endorsements from such luminaries as Geoff “The Flash, The Avengers” Johns and Keith “Ambush Bug” Giffen, but read on anyway, because if you haven’t seen the work of Komikwerks yet (and I confess I would never have discovered them if they hadn’t sent me their stuff) you owe it to yourself to let me introduce you.

The design is rather interesting I think. The idiosyncratic spelling of Komikwerks coupled with the factory style logo and blue/brown colour scheme seem to smack of the post glasnost communist chic I’d normally associate with parts of the London music scene in the early nineties rather than twenty-first centuary Los-Angeles but it is certainly distinctive – the muted palette offering the suggestion that there might actually be comics of intellect behind the cover, rather than the brightly coloured antics of unlikely superheroes.

This assumption leads the reader to the next big surprise, because although the antics within the covers cannot be described as brightly coloured (Komikwerks is a black and white book) Superheroes do feature. However, these are good superheroes, drawn with wit and more than a little sarcasm and because Komikwerks is an anthology that’s not all there is.

On the superhero side Komikwerks #1 features the patriotic antics of Mary America a masked heroine who battles Nazis in an almost Kirbyesque manner (she sort of strikes me as a cross between Fighting American and British Forces Sweetheart Jane) but still manages to avoid sinking into the simple-minded “bash the enemy” mentality that pervades so many of the comics of this ilk. Then there’s the outrageously tongue in cheek Dr. Good, who hits things and made me laugh.

But, as I said, there is more to this anthology than superheroes, spoof or not. There’s a rather spiffy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles style romp called Samurai Koimandos (yes, they’re carp…) which somehow lifts itself above the level of mere rip-off, or even homage, and for contrast there’s a little supernatural tale about a Scottish warrior trying to get home from the defeat on the field of Culloden.

Actually, that one annoyed me a little, because the warrior (a Scot) keeps referring to the enemy as “The British”, which is silly, because the Scots never fought the British. They fought the English a lot, but that’s not the same thing. An Irish warrior might well refer to the British, but not a Scot. The Scots are British. (Technically the Irish aren’t you see, not even the ones in Ulster who think they are, hence the full name of my country being “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”.)

This may seem like a small point, and indeed it is I suppose, but it jarred with me a little and there is so little else to pick fault with here that such a little thing seemed like fair game.

The real stars of the first volume from Komikwerks though are a lighthearted supernatural cartoon called Cid and Cyn and a equally cartoony strip about a magician called Martin’s Misdirection.

The first, by Anissa Dorsey and S.D. Lara reminded me a little of the wonderful Courtney Cumrin and introduces us to a world where Humans are unknown and everyone is a creature of the night. The characters are well drawn, the art is pleasingly cute and the story, though undemanding is entertaining. Can’t ask for much more, really.

The second, although cartoony is cool rather than cute, and seems to have been originally conceived as a four panel gag strip (I could see Martin’s Misdirection as the star of a college paper) which has been collected to fill ten pages of the anthology. Now, you may know that I don’t laugh out loud at cartoons. I laughed out loud at this one!

So, that’s issue one of Komikwerks. Geoff Johns reckons he couldn’t think of a better way to spend an afternoon, and I’m not sure that I can either. Not alone anyway.

Issue two hits stores in November, and so you can’t read it for a week or so. Me, I’ve read an advance copy – perk of the job. I have to say I was a little disappointed that none of the strips from Komikwerks #1 made it into Komikwerks #2 (although most of the creators are back, they bring new characters to the party) but since the new strips are so good I can hardly complain.

Basically, you’re going to love it, so get down to the comic store, fork out your US$9.95 and get yourself a copy. If I haven’t convinced you (although I now have documentary evidence that people actually do buy stuff on the strength of my recommendations believe it or not…) point your browser at the Komikwerks Website where you will find all sorts of comics available online.

They’re brilliant, and you’ll love ‘em.

The whole point of the Komikwerks project seems to be to showcase and promote new talent and to “serve as a digital bridge between the comics and animation communities”, which seem like laudable aims to me. We need more of this sort of thing and I’m grateful to Patrick Coyle for bringing both the print anthologies and the website to my attention. (He said some complimentary things about the column too, which is always nice…) So, whaddya waiting for? Get over there and give ‘em your support!

While we’re on the subject of really good comics available online, you are all reading Gun Street Girl over at Graphic Smash aren’t you? Written by SBC’s own Barb Lien-Cooper and illustrated by Ryan Howe it’s like Hellblazer but, y’know, kinda better. And if more recommendation were needed, this is one I bought a subscription for even though I was privileged to be able to read the scripts ages ago.

Oh, and while we’re on the subject of reviews, the reason Fool is a few hours late this week is the fact that my desktop (which houses my internet connection) has been out of service all day. Which gave me the perfect excuse to spend the day playing Dredd Vs. Death on my laptop.

I spent most of the afternoon walking ‘round Mega-City One arresting people. A full review will follow next week. For now, let me just say “WOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”.

Man that’s good!

Oh, and further to last week, you may notice that you still haven’t read Pirate Pan. Sorry, technical problems again I’m afraid. He’s worth the wait though.

Anyway, my time’s up. See you in seven.