(Note: Mr. Deeley regards comic books as his religion. The medium and most of its characters are older than himself, and their stories will undoubtedly continue long after his death. He considers comics to be something greater than any individual person, and more than the sum of the medium’s many contributors. It is best not to challenge this belief, as he considers all of his anger to be righteous and justified.)
July 3rd was a good day for Our People. Another year of loyalty and sacrifice was rewarded. Our Shops were bursting with stacks of new Literature, both for Us and Those-Yet-To-Join. This Day, as in previous years, came soon after the latest adaptation of one of the Great Legends was presented to the Mundane World. Once more, the Makers believe those who have seen and heard a Legend would seek out His origin. Thus would Those-Yet-To-Join discover what We know. They would be come like Us: A Reader.
But Our numbers would grow only if The Books are properly represented. Here, I shall review these Works for their quality, their ability to attract new Readers, and their representation of Publishers and the Medium.
If you have not yet obtained one of the following Books, you may yet find them at a participating Shop. Most were closed for the 4th of July holiday on Sunday. Ask for these, and other books, come Monday or Tuesday.
Archie Comics
Archie: “I Was a Teenage Comic Book Character.
W/P/I: Craig Boldman/Jeff Shultz/Rich Koslowski
Archie’s friend and aspiring comics artist Chuck Clayton, (a.k.a. The Black Guy), is given the chance to sell one of his comics at the local shop. Archie offers to write the script, but spends more time telling girls he’s a writer than actually writing. Chuck follows Archie around hoping for some story ideas. After dabbling with manga, superheroes, secret agents, and horror, Chuck decides Archie’s normal life is entertaining enough.
I don’t know if it’s me or this comic, but I really enjoyed this! You may remember I tried reading Archie comics last year as part of my “53 Wednesdays” column. I found them so simple, it hurt my head to read at its level. I found this comic to be quite funny and clever. The timing is perfect, the story is easy to read, and the comics parodies are pretty sharp. I think the spy story is my favorite part. Archie’s “million dollar car” stops an enemy agent with an oil slick and a smoke screen. But those weren’t gimmicks; those were malfunctions. He’s sunk a million dollars into that lemon and it still doesn’t run right!
Quality: Solid work. Maybe I’m going easy on it because I had low expectation, but damn this is good!
Promotion: Plenty of ads for other Archie products, including TPB’s, DVD’s, and bobble heads. There’s also a plug for the new Sabrina manga. It makes Archie look like a diverse, successful company with a long history.
.Industry: Ironically, by featuring parodies of manga, the Legion of Superheroes, and Sandman, this book presents comics as a medium rich with story possibilities.
Overall: 4.6BULLETS. Ideal for young readers, their parents who remember Archie when they were kids, and anyone who likes a good laugh.
Beckett:
The Ballad of Sleeping Beauty #1
W/A: Gabriel Benson/Mike Hawthorne
A teenaged boy tells an aged gunslinger the story of Briar Rose. An old Indian woman laid a curse on that frontier town. She made the first child born there, a baby girl, fall into an endless sleep on her 18th birthday. The whole town soon fell asleep. No one’s seen it since. The boy wants help in finding that town. The gunfighter refuses. After all, they’re about to be hanged tomorrow morning.
A good start, I’ll say that. The whole comic has the two men standing on the gallows with noses around their necks. They’re made to stand like that in the rain until their hanging at dawn. I’m curious just to see how they get away.
Quality: A great re-imagining of a classic fairy tale in a Western setting. The twist is the townspeople kind of have it coming. The colors are done by Mike Atiyeh, formerly of Crossgen. Fantastic job. A good book overall.
Promotion: There’s also a 7-page preview of a new series called ‘Fade from Grace’, about how a man’s development of superpowers affects his marriage. First issue comes out in August for 99 cents. I might check that out. Back page ad shows the next issue of ‘Ruule’, and the web address for becketcomics.com is printed on the bottom of every other page. So, you can easily find out everything you want to know about the company. Good job.
Industry: Don’t think anyone’s seen a Western comic in years. The story’s a mix of revenge, despair, and fantasy. Again, it’s something other than superheroes, and not easy to define. Those are the best kinds of comics.
Overall:
. If I see another issue at the shops, I’ll pick it up.Dark Horse Comics:
Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures
W/A: Welles Hartley/The Fillbach Brothers
Based on the animated “Clone Wars” micro-series, this is the story of two green-skinned lady Jedi that we’ve never hear of saving villagers from a droid army led by some armored villain we’ve never heard of. His name is general Grievous and I’m sure he’ll lay a vital role in the Star Wars universe. Just like Count Dooku and the Trade Federation.
Yeah, I didn’t like this comic. I don’t like the cartoon. The art looks amateurish, like a beginner art student using a felt tip pen. The coloring lacks variation and shading resulting in almost no sense of depth. The story itself is incredibly simple: Young Jedi learns lesson from Old Jedi which she immediately puts to use to save villagers from droids. Part of her plan meant playing dead so the droids would walk past her. So, these mass-produced droids can’t hear people breath, or sense heart beats? These robots suck!
Quality: It didn’t hurt to read this comic, but it is ugly.
Publisher: Ads for ‘Conan’, a new comedy/horror series called ‘Lazarus Jack’, the Dark Horse website, and the upcoming ‘Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures’ digest-sized series. It will not be written or drawn by the “talents” featured here. So why give them work? No mention of Dark Horse’s other licensed titles, manga books, or original works.
Industry: Feeds the idea that comics are for kids. Even worse, it’s one of 5 free comics tied into another media property, suggesting that comics are dependent on other media for stories and sales.
Overall:
It even lacks the accidental humor of the ‘Star Wars’ comic DH gave away in 2002. (Consider the Freudian implications of a woman stealing Anakin’s lightsaber while it was hanging from the front of his belt, requiring him to sneak into her bedroom to retrieve it.)DC:
Teen Titans Go!
W/P/I/: J. Torres/Todd Nauck/Larry Strucker
Based on the “Teen Titans” cartoon show. This issue sees three villainous teens use a video game to study the Titans fighting styles. But this knowledge doesn’t help as they are defeated by the Titan’s teamwork. But it doesn’t matter since the whole fight was a simulation anyway. The real Titans spent the whole story playing video games.
Man, I hate stories that end with “It was all just a dream”. That means nothing really happened. What a gyp. Art is provided by former ‘Young Justice’ artists Nauck and Strucker. The absence of manga-style visual expressions of emotion, (called “manpu”), within the story means the comic looks better than the cartoon. However, the presence of super deformed Titans along the bottom of the pages is a needless distraction, and makes an otherwise decent action story too silly.
Quality: Not great, but better than the cartoon. Then again, I don’t like the cartoon.
Publisher: The final page features the new Johnny DC talking about DC’s other cartoon-based books and the letters/fan section appearing soon in those titles. Nice. No other ads for DC comics, but the website is visible on the front cover.
, mostly for reviving the letters page for young readers.Industry: Another TV/movie tie-in. It’s also one of many free comics to sport anime-style art and storytelling. This is indicative of an industry-wide effort to mimic the success of manga in America.
.Overall: 3.6BULLETS It’ll probably do as well as other comics based on DC superhero cartoons. And then be cancelled and relaunched every 3 years.
Dreamwave Productions:
Duel Masters #1
W/A: Brian Augustyn/Jeremy Tiongson
Chobu dreams of being the best player of Duel Masters, the popular new card game where players simulate monster attacks. He remembers a game he played against the mysterious Knight. It taught him there’s more to playing than just beating your opponent. Knight later comes to Chobu’s house and tells him the game controls events on another plane of reality. There, the monsters are real, and so are their battles. In this barren waste, one human struggles to survive. Chobu has much to learn and many mysteries to solve.
Duel Masters is the newest card game/cartoon/video game to capitalize on the success of Yu-Gi-Oh. I don’t know much about it and frankly, I don’t care.
This comic seems to follow a typical anime story: Boy has special powers that affect magic realm. Boy must battle and improve skills to fight evil and save world. Boy’s power is key to saving father. The art looks great, as it always does from DW. In fact, it looks like it might have ben taken directly from the cartoon. I know it wasn’t. I’m just saying it’s drawn and colored like an animated series. My only real complaint is with the cover. There’s a large hand on the left holding a card, and I don’t know who it’s supposed to belong to.
Quality: Great artwork from DW. Average story.
.Publisher: The ads make it clear DW publishes Transformers comics almost exclusively. Makes me wonder why they didn’t choose a Transformers comic for FCBD. Their new line of digest-sized Pockets are also advertised. Web address included on company news page.
.Industry: Another non-comics tie-in. More manga-style comics. Bad sign.
.Overall:
. Ironically, Marvel’s free comic features an ad for the new Duel Masters video game, but this comic does not. What did you think of this book?
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