The Technopriests
Book 1, Techno Pre-School


There are aspects of this that i really like. The art, of course, is gorgeous. I like how the colors do some of the hatching. The tech designs are very cool. There are some bits that were obviously influenced by TV and movie franchises, but then there are things that i've never seen before, like the computer controls made of goop, or the stunningly odd bulk of the "Verdant Fury" warship. The "album" format of this edition complements the art very well.

The story (of which there are only 52 pages here) promises to have a lot of exciting and trippy moments.

Where this story doesn't engage is in its characters. There aren't many people here you can like. The protagonist is Albino, an unloved child who dreams of becoming a technopriest (a glorified game designer). He's the Artist. Some of his monologue sounds like the author speaking directly to us. However, by the end of this chapter, he's determined that the skills he needs to succeed include lying, stealing, swindling, betrayal, etc. So we've got one character with whom we could sympathize, but in order to achieve his dream, he has to become scum.

Then there's Panepha, Albino's mother, who is horribly abused and abandoned. I sympathized with her. But she rejects two of her three children because of their appearance. Even after that, i could have gotten somewhat behind her quest for revenge, or at least taken some satisfaction in seeing her getting some payback against her tormentors, but that doesn't happen.

Finally, there's Albino's sister Onyx--who, despite her name, is red, not black--who is even more poorly treated. At least her brother gets to leave home to pursue his dream. Onyx is stuck cleaning the factory floor. She isn't corrupted in this volume, but i'm sure that's only b/c it's such a short volume. No doubt she'll be a sadistic pirate queen by volume two or three.

So it seems in the world of Technopriests, the worse you are, the more successful you are. That could be a commentary on the real world, but shouldn't there be at least one character to form the moral center, to show the good? Without such a character, does the examination of all this darkness end up saying "the world is a horrible place, but go with the flow and you can be one of the few with a relatively cushy life"?

Maybe Jodorowsky and Janjetov just aren't interested in that. Maybe they just want a gritty, scary backdrop against which to tell this broad, sweeping epic. But for me, if it's about how horrible the world is, it makes more sense to set the story in the real world, where it would be more immediate and perhaps be a bit clearer. To me, any time you set a story in a mythic world, some part of the story is going to be about values--more specifically, what's right, what's worth fighting for and preserving, etc. That's what mythology is about right? Preserving values? Although i wonder how some of those myths about Zeus work in this scheme.

Anyway, i like to have someone to cheer for in a story, and i don't find one here. These characters seem to work at making me dislike them.

Also, what's up with Panepha making the blessing sign on the cover? Is there supposed to be a Christian allegory here? I can't see how. Or maybe it's just a generic, sloppy "throw some religious imagery in there b/c it's deep" kind of thing.

Thoughts on Comics I Bought on 8/27

Air #1 – I like the subject matter, but i'm not sure i like the story. I think i'll like the two main characters when we get to know them a bit more. There are some things that didn't quite work for me.
Blythe gets talked into things far too easily. This is an action/intrigue story, though, so that can be ignored to a degree, b/c we all want to get to the cool stuff.
Midway through, Zayn tells Blythe that “they” (whatever organization he works for) have *suspected* someone of being a member of the Etesian Front. They “suspect”? These Etesian idiots have identifying tattoos on their right hands and hand out business cards advertising their supposedly covert activities. You shouldn't have to suspect when your target reveals his allegiance to the world at large.
The Etesian Front wants to hijack some planes so they can have their own fleet with which to “patrol the skies.” Again, these guys prove their stupidity. 1. These planes will be shot down. You can't just fly a big passenger jet around without the local military noticing. 2. Where will they land? 3. If they can't afford to buy their own plane, how can they afford to maintain it? 4. How does having a passenger jet enable someone to “patrol the skies”? Will they fly up next to another plane and mindread everyone on board to see if any of them are terrorists? Suppose they find out terrorists have taken over a plane. Assuming they can catch it, what will they do? Ram it? Are they going to outfit their plane with weapons? That raises the money issue again, and will get it shot down quicker.
Hopefully these Etesian Front mooks are not going to be an ongoing part of the series, or they'll get a lot more credible.

Blue Beetle #30 – Yet another issue that proves the value of a good supporting cast and a well-developed setting. The bit with Paco's family is great. Anubis and Devil Dog are amusing. Sturges is doing a good job so far. This is the most well built superhero series in years, and Sturges seems to understand this. He's exploiting its strengths and slowly adding complimentary elements of his own. Albuquerque is awesome.

Jack of Fables #25 – It's cool to see this particular story moving ahead. The problem is, the Western story interrupted this one several months ago, and it's hard to just jump back in. For instance, i had totally forgotten that the Book Burner had entered the Mundy world. Weren't his followers zombified before? But here they aren't. So why are they following him? See, now i have to dig out my old issues and re-read them. Or, more likely, i'll just read something else and sort of write this series off until a new story kicks in. This actually makes me think of dropping this series, which, considering how much i love the world of Fables, is extreme. But if the monthly is going to be this mixed up (of course the trades will have the stories collected in the correct, rationale order), why should i stick with it? (This happened with a previous story, too—i think it was the Vegas/Lucky story? Again, i'm not going to dig through my back issues.)

Jonah Hex #32 – Palmiotti & Gray have made some kind of artform out of the 22-page comic story. With them (at least on Hex), it's like one of those constrictive poetic formats that ekes out a special kind of beauty with its limitations. Reading this story, i was convinced that it was going to be a two-parter, b/c i couldn't see how it would be resolved in the last couple pages, but it was, and it worked very well. It reminds me of the stories on “Have Gun Will Travel”, which are also incredibly tight, economical yet rich with characterization, and which deftly utilize the familiar elements of the Western without slipping into cliché.
This issue's story is a tale of revenge, but revenge that takes a circuitous route and transfers from one person to another. Hex, as so often happens, is drawn in against his will, but once drawn in, he owns the situation, regardless of the odds against him.
Jordi Bernet is an amazing artist. Movement, depth, personality, tone: all the elements of great comic art and storytelling are here. I can stare at these pages for hours. Look at the panel at the bottom right of page four, where three characters are in profile. The senorita's profile is a couple of smooth, curving lines. Her brutish husband is a series of craggy, unharmonious protrusions. Hex's profile is all straight lines and sharp angles. The artist tells us what these people are like by the types of lines used to depict them.
On Friday i watched some episodes of Deadwood. Several times i was reminded of Bernet's art by the lines and shadows on the TV screen. Quite often the abstract elements of cartooning capture elements of reality more strongly than other styles of art. (Not that Deadwood is strictly “real”: it's carefully lit, etc. and at least parts of it are altered in post-production to get that sepia-toned look; but it's still “realistic”.)

Justice Society of America #18 – Johns is working on themes that he's worked on several times before. Unfortunately, IMO, he's never given them a satisfactory conclusion. Gog is going around making things “better.” That's fine until his idea of “better” comes into conflict with other peoples' idea of “better.” The question is, when do attempts to better the world according to one's personal convictions change from heroism to villainy? Professor Zoom wants to make heroes “better” by putting great challenges in their paths. Black Adam wanted to make the world better by being merciless towards villains. Johns usually does a good job of showing us how following these strong convictions uncritically can cause harm. Where his stories fall short, IMO, is showing us the better alternative. The heroes who oppose the extremists have the most vague, and seemingly simplistic, rationales: “we don't kill,” “you've crossed the line,” “we uphold the law,” etc. I assume he thinks that Jay Garrick is right and Black Adam is wrong, but while his stories convey very well what Black Adam is thinking and feeling, i've very little idea of what forms Jay's convictions. So the bad guy ends up being the sympathetic figure, and the hero just represents a status quo that is unconvincingly portrayed as morally superior.
In this issue, Jay stops Hawkman from killing a soldier who had been attacking unarmed villagers. Fine. Heroes should avoid taking lives when at all possible. They can find a better way. Later, Gog turns some other, similar soldiers into trees. He pointedly says that he doesn't kill. (This is how Johns' theme is a bit different from how it's worked out before; generally his morally tainted characters indulge in cinematic hyperviolence.) Jay and some other JSAers think this is suspect. Is removing their humanity really different from killing them? By the end of the issue, it's clear that the JSA is going to be split between those who think Gog is doing good, and those who think he's going “too far.” In all likelihood, by the end of this story, those who sided with Gog will realize they were wrong, and be somehow tainted by their mistake. However, if this story follows the pattern of Johns' previous stories, we won't have any clear idea of why the anti-Gog JSAers are right.
Maybe they are right. I would have problems with superpowered beings dishing out “justice” as they saw fit. I have problems with ordinary humans in the real world doing it, regardless of who they are. In the real world, i'm skeptical about anyone or any organization, legal or vigilante, dishing out “justice.” It's a complicated world and mistakes are easily made, even when those involved have the best intentions (which is too often not the case). But this is a superhero story. It's in part a morality play. If it's going to be satisfying, the good guys' case needs to be made. It's not enough to know that they stopped someone else from “going too far.” What's far enough? What do the good guys believe in? What are they fighting for? If they're simply fighting for the status quo, for moderation...well, that's not exciting or inspiring.
This kind of story also undercuts the fantasy of superheroes, and maybe makes them unworkable. It inevitably raises questions like, Why aren't the JSA doing something about these atrocities going on in Africa? They can't bother to face these problems until a stargod goes on walkabout? Sorry, Africans, but it's not strictly ethical for us to use our superpowers against normal human soldiers, so just get used to the atrocities? Now i'm wondering why the JSA isn't doing something about Darfur. If their concept of superethics won't let them intervene in situations like that, what good are they? This is the danger of introducing too much realism into an otherwise traditional superhero story. The good guys maintain idealistic morality while their world becomes increasingly cynical—and the cynical elements are given far more attention and depth than the idealistic elements. So the heroes become more simplistic and unsympathetic as their world gets more complex. It's the same thing that happens when Batman resolutely refuses to deal realistically with the Joker, while the Joker gets more and more deadly, or “realistic.” It ends up making Batman look like an incompetent fool who can't, or won't, prevent the Joker from slaughtering hundreds or thousands of people. The superhero genre falls apart.
Now, it might be interesting to read a comic about a superhero who does deal with more realistic threats. What would happen if a superhero decided to “fix” Darfur? What would altruistic heroism look like in the real world? What would be the results? That could be a very compelling story. But that's not what's going on in these comics. These comics only ask “what if fantasy heroes were in a real-er world?” not “what if real heroes were in the real world?” and i find the incomplete story uncompelling.
So my appreciation of this story is of a puzzle: how are these pieces going to fit together? I wonder if that's enough, given all the other things i could be reading?

Legion of Three Worlds #1 – It's cool to see the old Legion again. I really enjoyed the LOSH during the “Great Darkness Saga” era. I'm assuming that this story ignores the “Five Years Later” stuff? It doesn't seem like Earth has been blown up. Anyway, it's cool to see these characters again. But in the end, it all feels like set-up. So this story is going to tell us how there are multiple Legions. It looks like the answer is “they're from different Earths in the multiverse.” Okay. We all could've guessed that. In former times that would've been explained in a few panels. What's going to happen when this story is over? Will the current Legion series go away, and a new one focusing on the old Legion start? Will the new Legion continue in its own book, or will we have yet a newer Legion which merges the previous versions? What's the goal?
Superboy Prime isn't quite as annoying here as he has been in the past, b/c he's being played more for humor, but i'm sure he'll be mutilating people again by next issue. And why must he be redeemed? Maybe i'm being unenlightened here, but i'd rather see this mass murderer (he's murdered entire planets) be punished than redeemed. How do you pay your debt to society for murdering billions of people, then become, i assume, a hero that the reader will be expected to cheer for? I can't see that working.

Madame Xanadu #3 – I wasn't expecting to move on from the King Arthur milieu so soon, but i'll roll with it. Here's where Nimue gets her more familiar name. I'm confused about what type of creature she is, though. She's of the “ancient folk”. I'd assumed that was something like Faerie, but maybe it's just an older breed of human that's more in tune with the arcane? Anyway, i'm still digging this comic, despite those uncertainties. Hadley continues to rock on the art, too. This one is still building, but so far, so good.

Trinity #13 – This series has developed nicely into hi-octane superhero adventure. This time we see Superman, utilizing the traits bleeding over from Wonder Woman and Batman, dominate the big three of the CSA like never before. He gets downright scary in places, like when he debilitates Ultraman with super-speed jabs to multiple pressure points. All the while Enigma, watching from the anti-trinity's lair, freaks out that the “balance” of the anti-matter Earth is being disrupted by Superman's success. That guy is becoming the most interesting character. He's got a mystery, he's clearly thinking farther ahead than anyone else (and has planned longer), he's got cool superscience gadgets and a very cool, weird science, floating-head, space-based hideout. And he must be very formidable if he's managed to operate independently (as far as we can tell) on the CSA's anti-matter Earth for some time.

August 21st, 2008

It was a slow week for me, but i had a hankerin' for comics, so i picked up some things that weren't new or on my list.


Lucky Vol.2 #1 - I read part of an interview with Gabrielle Bell on The Daily Crosshatch, and liked some of the samples i found online. I haven't finished reading this one, partly b/c i read comics until i couldn't stay awake last night, and partly b/c it's got a lot of content. It's all six-panel grids with plenty of text. That's cool by me. So i don't have much to say about this one except so far so good and i like the use of blacks on the page.


New Tales of Old Palomar #2 & 3 - I told Chris that Gilbert Hernandez's stories are more depressing than Jaime's, but that's not the case here. (I'm not sure it's a fair comparison anyway; it's just that the later Palomar stories in the Heartbreak Soup trade i read had some pretty bleak moments.) If you don't know what Palomar is, it's a small town in an unspecified area of Central America (i think of it as a small island nation on the Pacific side of Central America, but can't remember if that's accurate). Moreso, it's the home of the characters who populate Gilbert Hernandez's stories. It has a lot of the familiar aspects of small towns in fiction: everybody knows everybody, eccentric characters, childhood adventures become the stuff of legend, etc. But it has a mystical side, too: ghosts and witches are real, and the ancient stone statues outside town have a magical presence. Mostly it's the sum of its inhabitants, whom Hernandez endows with remarkable humanity. They feel like real people, for good and ill.
Having read the first Palomar stories will help you recognize some characters here, but i don't think it's necessary. Each of the stories here are self-contained. In #2, some of Palomar's boys get kidnapped by some weird people in unitards who speak an unknown language (it's rendered as a bunch of hashes, kind of like Woodstock's word baloons in Peanuts). It falls, as usual, to Sheriff Chelo to rescue the boys, and she gets into quite a scuffle with the weird people. #3 has two stories. In the first, firecracker Tonantzin is haunted by the Blooter Baby. To get rid of it, she consults with the local "witch" (who has cool Ditko-Dr. Strange windows in her house; there's a lot of Ditko influence in los bros Hernandez' work, which is awesome). It works, but the result is a bit different than you'd expect. The second story sees the return of the hash-mark-speaking people, and their rather gruesome revenge on Chelo. These stories emphasize the otherworldly aspects of Palomar. There's more focus on being imaginative than on being dramatic, which is cool by me. I really liked these.
New Tales... is in Fantagraphics' "Ignatz" format, which is oversized. I thought i wouldn't be buying these b/c i think they're kinda pricey, but, well, they're really pretty, and i enjoyed them, so i guess it was a good buy afterall.


Trinity #12 - There's a lot of action in this one, and some character development/clues about Enigma. I'm curious to see what's up with these weird powers John Stewart is manifesting. And hats off to Busiek and Nicieza for packing plenty of story into each half--maybe that's part of what i like about this, that it moves at a pace a bit more akin to the stuff i grew up with. Is Madame Zodiac a new character? It seems like i would have heard about a mystical woman living in Gotham.


Madman #10 - It's the least experimental, but most solid issue of the series. A lot of events of the last several issues are in clearer focus now. I really like Haley and Whelworne. I feel like the Madman story is moving ahead again. I know that Allred will do some more experimental issues, and i'll probably like them (varyingly, of course), but it's really nice to have a more "traditional" issue like this (and hopefully we'll see some of those experimental things woven into, and enhance, "traditional" issues). Also, the first letter on the letters page, from a Kat Roberts, echoes a lot of how i feel about comic art. It's always encouraging and refreshing to know that there are kindred comic souls out there.

Blue Beetle #29 -- The new writer, Matthew Sturges, starts with this issue. Though the cover credit still says "Rogers", who hasn't been the writer for at least two months. Rogers' run was great, so there's trepidation about a new writer taking over. So far, so good.

There was also trepidation about this issue's subject: illegal immigration.* Politics is the opposite of art and entertainment. If this story falls into politics--i.e., this party's policy is right, the other party is wrong; or the people who support X are good, and their opponents are bad--it will fail as both art and entertainment. The only way this kind of story can succeed is if it addresses the reality that the politicians are trying to manipulate. The reality is complicated, nuanced and contradictory, while the politics is simplistic, arbitrary, and deceitful.

Thankfully, Sturges is steering towards the reality so far. There are characters involved in various aspects of the issue. None of them have been portrayed as saints or devils. Everyone is sympathetic so far. The only cliches or political spin i noticed were delivered by reporters, which is appropriate, since that's what they do in real life. There is a bad guy involved, but he's clearly not meant to represent any element of the real life problem. Jaime, of course, is caught in the middle, and, true to his character, wants to find a solution that does the least harm to everyone. It remains to be seen whether this story will conclude without decending into politics, but so far, so good.

Okay, on to the good stuff. Rafael Albuquerque is still the series' artist, which is great. Pairing him with another writer on this comic highlights how much of the series' "feel" is attributable to his contribution. Plus, i can't imagine any other artist making a flying coyote dude look cool.

The coyote dude figures in a very entertaining sequence in which two wannabe supervillains fight over the right to use the name Hellhound (aparently the last guy to use that name died in Salvation Run--this is a nod to "universe" continuity that doesn't intrude on the main story or make you feel like you're missing something by having not read something else; well done). They're fighting in a cheap wrestling ring, with a small audience (presumably friends or henchmen) egging them on. Blue Beetle busts up the match and, while he's clobbering both would-be Hellhounds, suggests alternate names so they won't have to fight in the first place. This sequence makes me think that Sturges has a decent grasp on the character; it's a good sign--and it's fun and funny.

It'll take a few more issues to form a real impression of Sturges' run on this series, but after the first issue, i'm hopeful. Recommended.


*I call it illegal because, per law, it is. Don't assume that, by recongnizing that it's illegal, i think it, or the people who do it, are automatically bad. I don't. Speeding is illegal, but we all do it all the time and don't consider it or ourselves immoral. There are loads of legal activities that are immoral, and the government that writes the laws often does immoral things. So i'm not making a connection between law and morals here. Identifying it as "illegal immigration" rather than "immigration" clearly identifies the issue that people are arguing about.


Trinity #9 -- See, i knew Busiek was going to bring in the Crime Syndicate, a la his JLA run. Now all we need are the Qwardians. This issue also features some of Wonder Woman's and Batman's supporting casts. The second story features Oracle, Nightwing, and a couple of Bat rogues. McDaniel does another cool two-page spread in this issue. Like the one from last issue, it isn't just a "splash", but does a lot storytelling. This guy really knows how to lay out a page (or two). There are also more new (AFAIK) characters: a flamboyant and highly skilled martial artist called the Swashbuckler, and a bizarre guy called the Trans-Volitional Man--and what he does is even weirder than his name.

I also got Dynamo 5 #15 and Justice Society of America Annual #1. Both are good. Maybe i'll post reviews of them later, but i've felt kind of cruddy this weekend.

Previews for October 2008

Do i want to dive into this New Krypton thing? It might be fun to follow this thing across the three “super” books. That's almost a weekly series. However: do i want to add another three monthly books to my sublist? Maybe i could drop Green Lantern Corps, then it'd be a net two adds. What i really want is to read more trades, so i'm hesitant to add more monthlies.

Example: check out the Fantagraphics section on pages 288-9. They got some classic collections in Popeye, Dennis the Menace, Zippy, and Mr. Natural. My interest in these varies wildly, but at the least, any of them would show me more of the artform, whereas the Superman stuff, as cool as it might be, is something i'm already well familiar with. The argument is pretty much the same with the newer collections. So, more of the same, or something new? Maybe i should go to the library and see if they've got any of this stuff.

You know what? I'm kinda getting tired of Buffy, too. When Renee died, it was like, so that's what we're doing here: more of the same. Pointless character death? Abruptly halting the progression of Xander's character? Meh, shrug, and phooey to that. And it keeps going in all these different directions. I don't know whether i should just enjoy it as episodic stuff with a season-plot in the background, or if this stuff with Dracula and Fray and whatnot is part of the season-plot. And i like Buffy less as a character. I'm putting it on my maybe-i'll-drop-it list.

Savage Dragon is coming back. At Acme's quarter bin sale, i picked up a couple issues of this series, and i'm intrigued. It's good superhero stuff. And the issue solicited here has a bunch of the Golden Age public domain characters that were in Image's First Issue Project. So i'm probably going to pick this one up.

Image is soliciting a collection of the new Firebreather series, but the only issue i've seen so far is #1. ??? Have the other issues not shipped, or has my local comic shop somehow missed them or been shorted on them? IDK. But i'm thinking of dropping it from my sublist, b/c either the schedule is messed up, or i'm not getting the issues when it comes out.

Stuff from my sublist: Atomic Robo & the Dogs of War #3, Blue Beetle #32, Buffy #19, Comic Book Comics #3, Dynamo 5 #18, Fables #77, Firebreather #6, Jack of Fables #27, JSA #20, Madame Xanadu #5, Noble Causes #39, Secret Six #2, Trinity #18-22, Wonder Woman #25

Other stuff that interests me (my “maybe” list): The Bradleys by Peter Bagge (Fantagraphics), Delayed Replays by Liz Prince (Top Shelf), Tales to Suffice by Kenny Kiel (Amaze Ink/SLG), Kill Your Boyfriend by Grant Morrison, Philip Bond & D'Israeli (DC/Vertigo), Sloth by Gilbert Hernandez (DC/Vertigo), Outlaw Territory by various (Image), Hey Wait... by Jason (Fantagraphics), Savage Dragon #141 by Erik Larsen (Image)

Cloverfield and Final Crisis

I just watched Cloverfield on DVD. It was fun. Having heard criticisms and letting the hype pass no doubt made it work better for me.

I watched one of the "making of" shorts. It's the one where they discuss designing the creature. [SPOILERS AHEAD] Everything they said made sense, that it's a "baby" and is propelled by fear. That makes sense. I even thought that a few of the cries/roars of the creature sounded a bit scared or defensive, but that's a common trope in monster movies, so maybe i heard that b/c i expected it. Anyway, it all makes sense. It works. But it's not in the movie. There's nothing in the movie to tell you that the monster is newly hatched and acting on frightened instinct.

There's also the bit in the short where J.J. Abrams says he was inspired to make the movie by all the Godzilla toys he saw in Japan. Wouldn't it be cool if America had its own monster? Sure, it would be cool. That's not in the movie, either. The monster is barely seen in the movie, and it certainly does not lend itself to toys. More importantly, the movie isn't about the monster. The audience can't sympathize with it.

The ideas that went into designing the creature are interesting. The designers apparently put a good deal of thought into creating some feasible alternate biology. It's impressive. It's not in the movie, either. In the movie, we see that the monster moves strangely, that its body is oddly put together, that it has weird critters that fall off of it (there's probably a well thought-out explanation behind that, but it's not in the movie), etc. But just seeing glimpses of that stuff on the screen (the dark, shadowy, constantly shifting screen) doesn't convey all the thought and intended coolness of the design.

This makes me think of Final Crisis. When i read an interview with Grant Morrison, the ideas and rationales he gives for FC make sense. They sound cool, even. But they aren't in the comic. (Or at least not #1, which is the only one i've read. From the reviews and message board posts i've read, they aren't in #2, either, or not so as people can spot them.) For example, the idea that the Fourth Worlders are becoming like ancient polytheistic gods, "possessing" people when they dive into whatever concept a particular god embodies? That's a very cool idea. It ain't in the comic.

I've wondered before if there were aspects of Countdown or One Year Later that weren't being conveyed from the creators' brains to the page. Like, if you could sit in on the conference call where the big ideas are hashed out and the broad plot outlined, you'd get a lot more out of the comic than when you just read the end product. Apparently the same is true of Cloverfield: if you know all the stuff that went into designing that weird kaiju, you'd probably have a whole other level of appreciation for the movie. But you can't get that from the movie, b/c it didn't make it from the creators' brains to the screen.

It feels a bit like listening to someone tell stories about cool stuff that happened in their Dungeons and Dragons or WoW campaign. If you're a player in the game, it's fun and exciting to reminisce about all the killer monsters and wicked maneuvers, and barely-made saving throws, etc. But if you weren't a player in the game, and you're just hearing about it after the fact, it's really boring. Sure, you can follow the plot, but the cool factor doesn't translate. You have to be in on it to get the full--or any--effect.

This phenomenon is no big deal when it comes to telling stories about D&D campaigns, or that crazy thing that your friend did in college that only you and your buddies thinks is funny, or in some fanfic for a niche audience, but when it becomes a factor in something intended for a wider audience, it's a problem.

I don't know what you would call this, but maybe it's something that science-fiction-y geek-culture-y things are more prone to?

Note, i'm not saying that either Cloverfield or Final Crisis are bad. I liked Cloverfield, just not as the "Godzilla for America" thing that it was apparently supposed to be (in fact, i doubt that was the actual intent, regardless what Abrams says; maybe it started out that way, but...). I didn't like Final Crisis #1, but maybe i'll like the whole thing when it's done, but i won't be surprised if i like it for something other than the grand re-imagining of Kirby's Fourth World that it's apparently intended to be.

Water Baby
by Ross Campbell
156 pages, black and white, paperback, $9.99

Ross Campbell has established a very distinctive style, not just in how he renders things, but in tone, themes, and those little elements that make a writer's work recognizable. There are hot girls in tiny, punky outfits (often dirty and ragged), but the hot girls have different body types and do unhot things like pick their noses. There are some really creepy visuals. The settings are always kinda rednecky and lowdown. There's a nihilistic vibe. Some of the same bands are referenced that are referenced in Wet Moon, but i don't know if they're real, or he's just using the same made up bands.


Brody is a teenage (?age not given?) surfer in Florida. She has lots of tattoos and skull-themed swimwear. A shark attacks her and takes her left leg. The rest of the book is obliquely about how she recovers from this. Well, not all of it is oblique. Some of it is directly about the physical recovery. It's the psychological stuff that is appropriately oblique. This takes the form of Brody's relationship with a worthless leech of a guy whom i wouldn't mind to have seen shot named Jake. I'm not sure how well that part of it worked. It performed its narrative task, but it didn't feel significant. Getting shed of this bum didn't feel like an emblem of Brody conquering her injury as much as her finally ceasing to be an embarrassing pushover.


The plot is straightforward, but has a loose flow. The second half of the book is a road trip, and that always lends itself to a jangly, episodic, meditative form or story, like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The purpose is to give the characters room to reveal themselves to the reader in a casual, organic way. You know who they are through dialog, mannerisms, and those sorts of character work. There are no info dumps or exposition-disguised-as-dialog. This is how Campbell's series Wet Moon works, too. The best moments in that series are when Cleo obsesses and when Trilby dorks out or gets disproportionately offended by the least significant slights.


Unexpectedly, Water Baby is darker than Wet Moon, even though WM is very gothic (in both the Southern Gothic and Siouxsie Sioux sense), has more drooling rednecks, physical oddities, and decay. But WM does have bright spots like Trilby's manicness and a sense that the characters are moving and having a bit of fun along the way. In Water Baby, there are fewer bright spots. Brody and Louisa are friends, but we don't know how much they really care about each other. Brody is moving forward by the end of the story, but it's slow, and the nature of her moving forward involves getting tougher, harder. She starts off cynical and sarcastic, so getting harder doesn't make her more sympathetic.

Where her vulnerable side comes through, and this is pretty effective the more i think about it, is in the dream sequences where her trauma about the shark attack manifests itself in various bizarre, horrific images. In these scenes, her anxieties play themselves out via dream logic, and in the moments before she falls asleep and after she wakes up, we see the same emotions in her body language.

Campbell is a major talent, IMO. His pages look incredible. He marries beauty and grotesquerie not only in the horror elements, but in the mundane (i.e., hot chicks picking their noses). His shapes are amazing. The balance of detail and expressiveness is just right. His interest in the macabre and in unconventional beauty will likely keep him outside the mainstream of direct market comics, but could easily garner him a sizable following outside of it.