By Martijn Form     Wow. Awesome. That is a hell of a gun. Last week I stalked some of my fellow comic buyers in my local store and asked if they read Young Liars #1 yet, and if so, what they thought of it. Living in a post 9/11 world, people aren't surprised by much anymore, so the general response to Young Liars was "It was okay." Well, that got my blood cooking. People, read my lips! Vertigo comics are special. You can't--and I will have to emphasize this really strongly--you can't judge a Vertigo comic just by reading one issue. You have to read at least the first story arc to make a fair judgment! Vertigo books are always fresh and bold and not like the same Spider-Man story that you've been reading for the last 20 years. Believe me, the first issues of Sandman, Preacher or Transmetropolitan were not the greatest either! Offbeat stories take time to soak in, damn it. So now that my blood pressure is coming down to an acceptable level again, we can move on to: by J.M. DeMatteis with artists Glenn Barr, Jon J Muth, Michael Zulli and Jill Thompson.   This new segment of the Vertigo Spotlight called Gone But Not Forgotten spotlights great series from Vertigo's hidden archives. Series that are out of print and haven't yet been properly collected into some hefty trades. In the coming months I will introduce some of the most fascinating comic book series ever produced that time just swallowed up. I will hunt them down. Investigate every basement or attic for lost treasures. I will open up those long boxes, dust off those bags and boards like a talented tree-surgeon. Putting on my acid-free white gloves, I will handle every issue with great care and report to you right here. My name is Jones, but you can call me Indy. Let the treasure hunt begin. Let's go back in time. Back to the last millennium. The year is 1995 A.C., when we didn't have I-Tunes, MP3 or a large HDDVD collection that we soon can burn. Man, we barely had hot and cold running water! Do you remember those days? By this time, Vertigo had been up and about for a good two years, proving that their on the (l)edge and off beat stories could appeal to a mainstream audience. Writer J.M DeMatteis submerged himself into several DC and Marvel superhero properties, including the Spider-Man epic Kraven's Last Hunt. Then DeMatteis twisted his writing hand and cooked up the astonishing autobiographical graphic novel called Brooklyn Dreams. Nothing short than a masterpiece and for $12.95, it's a bargain! This would become what I like to view as J.M. DeMatteis' Magnus Opus. Moonshadow, Brooklyn Dreams, and Seekers into the Mystery are all closely connected. Personal and highly emotional stories and when you read them back to back, you can see a grand and fast philosophy on life. Seekers into the Mystery is a remarkable story that time seems to have forgotten. It's not easy to summarize this small saga clearly because it isn't a superhero story or a story for people with weak nerves. Seekers isn't so much a linear story with a beginning, plot and end. You don't finish reading this book and just go along with your every day routine. No. J.M. DeMatteis is a profound writer. He conceives great plots--complete with humour and lovely twists--and executes them ambitiously (read Kraven's Last Hunt). What makes Seekers so rich is not so much the actual writing or the art, but the amount of personal emotion DeMatteis put into this comic book. For this comic book DeMatteis poured heart right onto the paper, and when you are ready for it Seekers will affect your own emotions on a rich level.  Seekers asks questions about life which emerge from the story of Lucas Hart, a Hollywood screenwriter and a one hit wonder of a more or less successful B-movie. He is loved at every Sci-Fi convention, but the people around him think he is the greatest asshole on the planet Earth. Everybody but his daughter Aimee. Hart (notice the name is just one letter away from "heart" or "hard") thinks his life is in excellent condition, until some repressed memories from his past invade his life. His existence mimics a 9.5 earthquake! The story that follows over fifteen issues is a pilgrimage into the mystery of life. The journey isn't a paved road, but a river that constantly changes direction.With superb artists like Glenn Barr, Jon J. Muth, Jill Thompson and my personal favourite magician Michael Zulli, Seekers into the Mystery becomes a successful sequential art experiment. These art magicians weave aliens, angels, alternate realties with eastern philosophy, family relations, and abuse with a flick of the wrist. Amazing.  This isn’t a breeze to read. The creative team expects you to pay close attention, put on your reading glasses and your thinking head (cap?), and leave your prejudices in the closet. Seekers makes us eager students again, like we are studying an art piece in a museum. Oops, did I just compare a comic book to highbrow art? Hmmm, you can bet your sweat ass I did! But don't be afraid. I know you love to play detective, seeking questions and connecting them to the answers. Sure you do! You love a good whodunit book, right? With this series we don't seek a murder or murderer; we seek life and the one who is living it. J.M. DeMatteis throws a lot of balls into the air which become difficult to juggle all at once. With the help of the artists though, this is a rich comic book that should be re-read from time to time in order to glean new understanding. Seekers into the Mystery isn’t a perfect comic series; it's got flaws. The main one is that after 15 issues this journey is cut off, just like that. You can't blame Vertigo. If sales were low, the series had to be cancelled. Comic books are still a business and not a philanthropy, people! No, if there is anybody you can blame, it's me. I didn't buy ten thousand copies more than the one or two I bought a month. But in the end this is a series that time should not swallow whole. So seek out these easy to find issues, bag and board them and make them yours. Or you can order the trade that Boom Studios is going to publish, and I salute them for that, even though the format will be smaller and new readers will miss out on the great letter pages. So that's all for this week's Vertigo Spotlight: Gone But Not Forgotten . Feedback is almost mandatory for reading this column, so write me at info@martijnform.com, and give me comments or suggestions for lost Vertigo series you want to see in the column. I urge readers to write me for a new Vertigo Spotlight section called Vertigo Readers United . It is basically a platform for you Vertigo readers to express your thoughts about current Vertigo series, like the old letter pages we so dearly miss. Of course, yours truly will provide some smoky comments. (Please mark your email: "okay to publish, edit and eat.") Seek Vertigobblers, and you will find me next week, right here. |
