Who Is Charles Webb?
A frequent contributor to Comics Bulletin, Twitchfilm, and his own blog, Monster In Your Veins, I do more than write about comics, movies, and games – I make my own. I was the lead writer on the horror-mystery mobile game “Exile,” and contributing writer to several other titles for both classic mobile and home platforms. Most recently I’ve taken on the Lead Game Designer position for the North American arm of Advanced Mobile Applications where I hope to have some interesting projects to tell you all about soon.
Postcards from the Ledge (No. 10)
Hi, fellow Vertigophiles, and welcome back to the Ledge! It’s 2008, and a year of political change is upon all of us Americans (To all my friends from other parts of the world, you can skip the next two sentences). Whether you're Republican, Democrat, or Independent, this is a year when our political ideals mean something, something we can all act on by voting. The primary is coming to my home state of Virginia this week, so I’m excited about having my voice mean something. Well, we here at the "Vertigo Spotlight" are all about democracy, and what better way to show this than through our monthly Power Rankings! There are a lot of titles that have recently dropped out of the Vertigo race, so your opinion counts more than ever. Write me at "rmurray@comicsbulletin.com" and let me know what you think. Don’t worry: there won’t be any hanging chads! As for this week, we have a double feature for you. We have exclusive preview art for this month's Army @ Love #12, and I had a chance to chat with Rick Veitch about the series. Hey, Army @ Love does have some political satire, so this is the perfect time to feature it, as I'm feeling particularly patriotic today. Yeah, if this was a "Marvel Spotlight," I'm sure I’d be pulling out Captain America right now, but us Vertigo faithful think outside the box...
Now that the victory lap for Y: The Last Man is over (sniff!), there’s a black hole where Vertigo news usually resides. But, we still have... Vertigo Trends of the Week! And there were a lot of titles this week, so here we go:
- F***ing Cool Scenes: Okay, this might be a very subjective category, but did anyone see that scene in Northlanders #3 this week? You know which one I’m talking about if you read it... The pages with Sven wearing a deer’s head? Awesome! Add to this Ambrose's dispatching of the Wooden Soldiers and Dash destroying a truck with his bare hands, and you have some comic book action that will have you talking around the water cooler this week. Alright, that may be a little extreme...
- Mothers: Mother's Day may be three months away, but Vertigo is celebrating this week, with two titles featuring major storylines based around those fine women who brought us all into the world. However, I wouldn’t recommend giving one of these issues as a gift... Vinyl Underground #5 is titled "Mother's Day," featuring Morrison's schizophrenic search for his lost mother, which turns up an interesting development. Also, Scalped #14 has Part Two of "Dead Mothers," which features a highly conflicted Dash and a Gina flashback, which I'm sure we'll see more of.
- Redheads: Matthew McConaughey said it best in the movie Dazed and Confused, when he proclaimed, "I love them redheads." In Exterminators #26, the lovely Laura is the main character in a tale called "Laura Goes Down" (not what you think). Fables #69 features the reunion of Red Riding Hood and Flycatcher. Oh, and then there's Sven again, who may not be a natural redhead, but his head was certainly soaked in blood. Man, was Issue #3 bad ass!
Now that my droolings are complete, let’s have a chat with Rick Veitch, the talented creator of Army @ Love, about what makes the Vertigo series tick.
Robert Murray (RM): What was the genesis of Army @ Love?
Rick Veitch (RV): Like pretty much everything I do, I was coming from a couple different directions at once. Probably foremost I was responding to the Iraq situation and a lot of the trends in our increasingly superheated general culture. The whole direction things are going in kind of cries out for satire and farce, you know?
RM: The first ten issues of Army @ Love have hilariously embraced the insanities of a warfare situation. What kind of information/images did you bone up on before starting this project?
RV: I'm a newspaper junkie. I've been reading the New York Times closely every day for over thirty years. And I usually scan two or three other papers. So I've got a reasonably decent sense of recent historical events and how they developed. But I've always dug military stuff too (although I'd never want to be a soldier). And now with the internet it's easy to research the latest weapons systems and tactics. Army @ Love is set five years in the future so there is a sci/fi aspect to how I imagine the weapons that are in the pipeline now will be used.
RM: Do you have a favorite character?
RV: I become a character in the first issue of the mini-series. Does that qualify?
RM: Sure, what the hey! What's the most exciting element of the reality you've created for Army @ Love?
RV: That even though its an obvious farce, many of the far out concepts seem kind of plausible.
RM: That’s really scary! Speaking of farce, why did you change the names of the nations involved in the series?
RV: Just to give the humor some space. Army @ Love isn't propaganda. It's counter-programming.
RM: Did you have to school for that? Just kidding! Seriously, though, what is up with the Mother of Mountain?
RV: That's a state secret. I can say that you aren't going to believe what happens to her in the mini-series.
RM: Mini-series? On the DC website, it references that Army @ Love will go on hiatus after the first "season" ends. Can you shed some light on this?
RV: It takes me about two months to write and pencil an issue, so with my running start we were able to keep things monthly right up to #12. The plan now is to release the second trade collecting #6-12 in July. Then we'll relaunch as a six issue mini-series that new readers can jump in.
RM: There's a lot going on in each and every issue of Army @ Love, which you brilliantly organize in your panel constructions. Are there going to be storylines that concentrate on one single aspect of the story?
RV: The intricate layered puzzle structure is really what's at the heart of the book. I like to give readers real meat for their money.
RM: Some of the scenes in the series are screamingly funny! There's a lot of slapstick that lightens the mood beyond the straight satirical. Will this continue?
RV: Oh yeah. There's a scene in the first issue of the mini-series that should top everything we've done so far, including the "Hot Zone Club."
RM: Any upcoming Army @ Love revelations you can share with us?
RV: Nothing is what you think it is.
RM: C'mon, that's a non-revelational revelation! Switching gears, you've become a welcome fixture at the SPX, which I attend every year, and a friend of the independent comic. Do you have any new titles you're working on?
RV: King Hell Press has a new release in February Previews. It's titled Heartburst and Other Pleasures and offers my graphic novella Heartburst completely re-mastered along with five never before collected short stories. Also included is the original Mirror of Love by Alan Moore, S.R. Bissette and myself. Sample images from this book are available at: http://www.comicon.com/veitch/heartburst.htm
We're also bringing back the @#*! BRAT PACK T-SHIRT due to popular demand. I've been posting some cool images to go with it at: http://www.comicon.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/ubb/get_topic/f/1/t/014010.html
RM: What comics do you read when you have a spare moment? Any Vertigo titles?
RV: My favorite Vertigo title has been Crossing Midnight. I've also enjoyed All Star Superman and Black Dossier. For reprints I've been digging the New Gods Omnibus Editions and the Fletcher Hanks book too.
RM: In one word, what best describes your feelings about comic books?
RV: "Squinkas" (I was told by a comics veteran that this is what they called comics scripts back in the early 40's.)
Thanks, Rick! And now, a preview of Army @ Love #12. Here's the official D.C. write-up:
Like any good prime-time soap, Army@Love reaches its explosive season finale with Allie taking on Batskuh, Royden taking on the monstrous Mother of Mountain and Loman and Flabbergast coming to a reconciliation…of sorts. Find out who lives, who dies and in what shape they survive as they head into Season 2 of Army@Love, debuting in a few months!
On Sale February 27, 2008
Well, now that you’ve gotten the skinny on everything upcoming for Army @ Love, go out and buy some back issues, for crying out loud! And don’t miss Issue #12 on February 27th. That’s all the time I have for this week. Look for me next week when the mighty Keith Dallas sits down with the Exterminators gang to discuss the series. That’s right, I’m taking a breather! But don’t worry (if you are worrying, that is): I might make a surprise appearance this week. Be on the lookout!
Thanks for reading!
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