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The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack HC (Dark Horse)($24.95)
by Graig Kent

I’m a sucker, a total sucker. I paid almost $25 for this book when I could venture over tothe strip’s website and read all the material for free.

But, you know what, I already did. Well, not all of it, but a lot of it, more than enough to know that Nicholas Gurewitch’s Perry Bible Fellowship is not only hysterically funny, but often ingenious and frequently brilliant. I knew after venturing through only dozen of his strips, one day, months ago, that I needed the Perry Bible Fellowship on my bookshelf. For some reason, nothing legitimizes a comic strip, whether newspaper or on-line (and the PBF was both) like a proper collected edition, something you can hold in your hands, something you can stare at and appreciate for a long time without a screen saver popping up or bring to bed with you without the batteries dying.

If you’ve never read The Perry Bible Fellowship, well, there’s no time like the present to correct that mistake (just head over to the website and peruse). Of course, humour is very subjective, and a matter of personal taste, so it’s not like PBF will be for everyone. It’s certainly not all-ages friendly (sexuality and violence are frequent topics/punchlines), and so many of Gurewitch’s jokes require a moment of processing (on more than one occasion I found myself staring at the page, like those old maddening “magic eye” pictures, waiting for the joke to reveal itself), but each and every gag is rewarding, most in fact becoming more entertaining upon repeat visits, like any truly great pop-culture contribution.

Gurewitch mastered a number of different comedy techniques through his strips, ranging from the pull-back (starting in on a tight shot, and continuously pulling back to reveal more of the scene), the time jump (from panel three to panel four, a length of time passes) and the pop-culture reference (playing with inspirations like the Far Side, Muppets, Transformers or even Super Mario Bros.). Gurewitch is also a brilliant artist, varying his style with every cartoon, from simplistic, detail-free figure in a nominal setting, to incredibly ornate cartooning, to photo-realism, to comic book or pulp magazine textures. Though there’s a lack of uniformity to the visual flavour of PBF, the tone of its humour unifies the strips.

Beneath a textured cover, the hardcover “Almanack” collects the entirety of Gurewitch’s PBF strips, one-per-page, extra-sized, and in glorious colour reproduction. It also features incomplete strips, sketches and alternate takes, as well as highlighting with commentary some of the strips as they appeared differently between the web and newspaper. There’s also a fantastic interview with Gurewitch by David Malki discussing in depth Gurewitch’s style, inspiration and growth. These “added features” are great, but the beautiful presentation and the quality of the strips alone makes the collection worth owning… even in spite of it’s free availability elsewhere. Hell, at about $25 it still feels like a deal.


FIVE OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS



Trade Winds: Strongman OGN (Slave Labor Graphics)($9.95)
By Sean Fahey

The easiest way for me to describe the original graphic novel Strongman is to say that its a 1970’s exploitation film on paper with a lot of heart and healthy serving of detective noir thrown in for good measure. In many ways, the basic architecture of Strongman will be immediately familiar to anyone that’s read anything by Raymond Chandler or the original Sin City. A washed up functioning alcoholic who’s glory days are long gone is approached by a dame with a sad story and agrees (initially) to help her out for the cash, but in the process gets a shot a redeeming his wasted life. Certainly familiar territory (and, hey, these things are called “classic” for a reason), but in making his protagonist a retired Mexican luchador, writer Charles Soule gives things a fresh twist with a no-nonsense protagonist that spends less time trying to be witty and more time bulldozing his way through everything.  Not too long ago, I saw “The Wrestler,” and while I was reading Strongman I found myself genuinely pulling for Tigre in much the same way I was pulling for Randy “The Ram” -- I wanted to see Tigre go out in that one last blaze of glory. But if I have one complaint about Strongman, it’s the ending. It just doesn’t follow its own logical progression. Still, this was a lot of fun. I mean, a motorcycle riding Luchador sticking it to “The Man” and sticking up for the little guy. Come on! This is why we read comics. You can check out some preview pages HERE.


THREE AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS



Flash: Rebirth #1 (DC)($3.99)
By Devon Sanders
 
I remember his death. Over the years, his sacrifice is what people have come to remember. I remember the impact of his death in the pages of Crisis On Infinite Earths. The impact, to my ears, sounded like a “thud.” Barry Allen’s tenure as The Flash had no resonance. He was, to me, the guy in red who ran really fast in The Justice League comics I read on occasion. He was the guy who almost lost at his own game in the pages of Superman and his own comic, The Flash. Barry Allen was, to me, the Flash who died. The arrival of his former sidekick, Wally West, as The DC Universe’s Flash of note had a distinct rumble of thunder and a crackle of lightning. It was young. It was new. It was sound of a lightning strike. Following years of botched fits and starts at the hands of DC editorial, Barry Allen, The Fastest Man is once again, alive with Flash: Rebirth #1.

Across the city, lightning strikes and evil is gathering in the corners where lightning does not reach. Central City’s favorite son, Barry Allen is finally returned and yet, The Fastest Man Alive is oddly still. The city is ready to welcome him back with open arms. His colleagues and loved ones are gathering to do the same. Still, his feet, better yet, his heart refuses to carry him to these places. The Fastest Man Alive is sure of one thing, the lightning from which he was recently released is calling him back. It feels familiar. It feels final. It feels like death, again.

Artist Ethan Van Sciver is at his usual best again, delivering expert draftsmanship, attention to detail and a Barry Allen that recalls the solid jawline and staunch military of Captain America. Van Sciver’s Barry Allen, even when not in action, is a man one could easily see running into the fray. One of this issue’s Easter eggs is Van Sciver’s new way of seeing his old charge, Bart Allen, the former Impulse. His treatment of Bart has evolved within Van Sciver’s Brian Bolland-esque line and it proved to be somewhat of a revelation on just far this artist has come over time.

I’ll be the first to say it, writer Geoff Johns’ scripting didn’t blow me away. I can’t say that I’m displeased. After numerous mis-starts by editorial, I was left wondering whether or not, Barry Allen’s anxiety and blasé attitude towards his return was some sort of meta-textual comment by Johns on DC’s handling of The Flash “franchise” since his initial departure. Johns’ Allen isn’t the “happy-go-lucky” sort I expected or remembered him to be but in retrospect, death should change a man’s heart. If this were anyone else, I’d be worried but this is a comic from the man who turned Green Lantern into a top-selling comic so he gets the benefit of the doubt with this one.

Flash: Rebirth #1 is very much a re-introduction to Barry Allen and to the brave, confused world he left behind. I’ll go on record as saying Wally West is my Flash and always will be. If anyone can prove to me that lightning strikes true, it’s Johns and Van Sciver, their previous efforts tell me it’s more than possible.


THREE AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS



Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye #1 ($3.99)(Vertigo)
By Adam Prosser
 
There was a time, not so long ago, when superheroes were regarded as being interchangeable with cartoon characters. Go back and watch the Fleischer Superman cartoons sometime—the character designs of the supporting cast and villains often look like something out of a Mickey Mouse cartoon. Or think of Plastic Man, or the (admittedly obscure) Johnny Thunder, who were unquestionably funny cartoon characters as much as they were superheroes—and both of those guys joined the JSA. Even in recent years, we’ve had characters like Howard the Duck and Mighty Mouse blurring the line between cartoon mayhem and superhero mayhem.
 
I think this is the crucial thing to keep in mind when reading Grant Morrison and Cameron Stewart’s enjoyably bewildering Seaguy. Sure, it’s “Silver Agey”, as many others have described it, but I don’t think that goes far enough in making clear what Morrison and Stewart are trying to do. This series is a meta-commentary, as only Morrison can meta-comment, on the idea of cartoon characters and their relationship to the corporate media—superheroes included.
 
Seaguy lives in a world without conflict, in which evil was forever (?) defeated some time ago, and the bizarre, vaguely-heroic characters of a new generation sit around, aimlessly watching cartoons and attending theme parks, built and sponsored by the not-at-all-ominous Mickey Eye megacorporation. Seaguy adds “playing chess with Death” and “lusting after the local bearded lady/warrior princess” to his daily activities, but he’s just as listless as the others. In the previous storyline, Seaguy attempted to grab life by the horns by going on an adventure, but ended up right where he began, his memory erased by Mickey Eye, and his bestest pal Chubby Da Chuna dead into the bargain. All he accomplished was gaining the attention of Mickey Eye, which was secretly run by the Popeye-like neighbourhood Seadog.
 
Now Seaguy has a new pal, a robot parrot given to him by Mickey Eye to keep tabs on him, but he’s still seeing ghostly glimpses of Chubby that threaten to make him remember everything. After an encounter with a mad scientist, Seaguy’s dragged off to an asylum, where he’s rescued by multicolour clones of himself.
 
Most of Morrison’s comics are, of course, extremely bizarre, yet they always Mean Something if you’re willing to do the work of deciphering them. With Seaguy, however, I get the distinct impression that the weirdness is an end in and of itself—that Morrison’s just, on some level, goofing around with zany ideas and characters…which fits with the whole cartoon theme. At the same time, you’d have to be pretty oblivious not to notice the strong sense of corporate paranoia, or the way Mickey Eye obviously evokes both Disney and Viacom, or the way everyone’s head is being mucked with via cartoons. There’s also an odd anti-science undertone here, from the mad scientist who gives Seaguy a lesson in faked dinosaur fossils to the arrogant doctors at the mental ward, who literally make the “See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil” tableau when confronted with Chubby’s ghost. But then, Mickey Eye seems to have its own, deceptive creation myth, one which Seaguy dismisses with “Everyone knows the world’s made out of science and history.” Except, of course, when you live in a cartoon, that’s probably not true.
 
Meanwhile, Cameron Stewart’s art makes Seaguy an always-delightful experience. Stewart’s got a clean, expressive line that, surprise, harkens back to those early days I was talking about, when superheroes had a much more cartoony style to them. Actually, this time out Stewart’s changed the look of the comic quite a bit from the first miniseries, more in line with the rough, exaggerated linework of his “Apocalipstix” GN; it may not be intentional, but it meshes well with the sense that Seaguy’s world is fraying at the edges, that the sense of wrongness underlying everything is beginning to bubble up in a way that even the determined thought police of Seadog and Mickey Eye can’t conceal.
 
Many reviews of Seaguy, trying to explain its appeal, contain some variation on “I can’t put my finger on it” or “there’s just something…” I’m forced to join the chorus here and say I just can’t quantify what it is that’s so much fun about this comic, but it most definitely is fun. The world Morrison’s created seems more consistant in its wackiness, the odd dialogue and Seaguy’s well-meaning haplessness fundamentally appealing in a way Morrison’s trademark weirdness doesn’t always manage to be. Also, at 40 pages, there’s a great value for your dollar here. The first mini was hardly a hit, being completely overshadowed by the contemporaneous “We3”, but Morrison has obviously used some of his cred with DC to keep this comic going. It certainly feels like a labour of love.


FOUR AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS


 

Irredeemable #1 (Boom Studios)($3.99)
By Graig Kent

Grant Morrison provides and interesting afterward to the first issue of Mark Waid’s new series Irredeemable, discussing “patterning” and how, in this instance, writers get typecast by fans. He mentions that Waid is best associated with keeping the spirit of the Silver Age alive in his comics, that wide-eyed optimism in an age of comic book super-science. It’s true, if you want someone who understands what a superhero or team is at their core, and will write to their greatest strengths, Waid is that guy. Action and adventure storytelling seems to come easy to him, and he doesn’t ever reach for the extreme just for the sake of being extreme. He’s not Mark Millar or Garth Ennis, Grant Morrison or Warren Ellis, UK imports who often look at American superheroics from an outsider’s perspective, examining the American ideal as they absorbed it through exported entertainment. Waid is an American and a fanboy, steeped in the lore of comics but native to the life and culture of his country, thus in his stories the American ideal is a constant, just assumed to be there, irrelevant.

Perhaps this is the difference between Waid and the writing of his foreign contemporaries. The Golden and Silver Ages of comic book superheroes, which Waid, Gaiman, Robinson etc. are obviously quite adoring of,  were vibrant entertainments, full of flash and spectacle, bravado and arrogance representative of the might-makes-right attitude, where money and super-science were what made the world go round, an America-centric medium full of good guys with a John Wayne swagger. It’s appealing, self-affirming entertainment, and something worth hanging onto, worth championing, worth legitimizing once again, and I think Waid in his writing looks to make that perhaps outdated sensibility relevant to a modern era. Waid wants heroes for America, because America, for any number of reasons, needs heroes to believe in.  The Bronze and Modern age exploded with the deconstructionist flair of Moore’s Watchmen, with droves of writers from the UK actively grasping onto the idea of the decaying American ideal, and exploring it through superheroes. Heroes were made human, fallable, and what was once black and white - good and evil - was made muddy grey. Meanwhile most American superhero writers seemed to glom onto the cool sex-and-violence of Miller’s grim’n'gritty Dark Knight Returns without any sense of social commentary. In this respect, Waid stood out amongst most of his contemporaries and countrymen.

But Waid is no stranger to casting the eye to the dark side. Kingdom Come and Empire, his bleakest superhero works, peel away the idealized superhero realms he so often delves in, exploring evil with the same vigor he explores good.  For someone who so adeptly understand what makes a hero, it should come as no surprise that he's as equally interested in and capable of exploring what makes a villain. Irredeemable then, is a sister series to his darker dreams, the story of a hero-turned-heel. From the first issue, which arguably is a might thin on story, instead full of set-up, I surmise the tale will be about the “why” of looking at a superman who has gone rogue, and seemingly all are powerless to stop him. 

There’s not a lot yet to discuss about the plot of Irredeemable, what is presented within the first issue is barely enough to glean the direction Waid is going in, or from what perspective we will be viewing things. My initial impression of the series honestly reminded me of Moore’s Miracleman, with Waid’s Plutonian seeming more like the power-tripping, twisted Kid Miracleman than the altruistic, world-dominating hero.

Waid is joined by Peter Krause, the fantastic artist from Jerry Ordway’s Power of Shazam series in the 1990’s who has produced little for comics in the intervening years. I recognized his work immediately and am amazed at how tight his skills have remained. With a style not too dissimilar to Ordway plus a touch of Dave Gibbons, Krause isn’t a flashy artist, but an incredibly talented one who is perfect for the superhero genre. If Waid wanted to establish this turned-upside-down world of superheroes within a classic, bright-tights feel, he’s found the right artist to go along with it.

Though Waid’s track record isn’t perfect, he is a rarely-fail creator, which is why he’s one of the few actual brands in the industry. Irredeemable isn’t a unique set-up, but there’s little doubt that Waid has an angle here worth keeping an eye on.


THREE OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS



Raided: Jonah Hex #42 (DC)($2.99)
By Sean Fahey

If I walked away with one thing when I finished The New Frontier, it was that Darwyn Cooke is the most talented visual storyteller working in comics. But god damn if artist Jordi Bernet ain’t a close second. Not to slight the excellent script by writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray in any way, but it would have been interesting to see this issue without dialogue - told entirely through the artwork. In a story designed to shed a little light on what went into making Jonah Hex the hardened and deadly bounty hunter that he is, Bernet conveys volumes of information in a handful of panels. Sometimes it’s just a look or a glance - a mother’s look of sympathy for her son being forced to learn life’s hard lessons, and her look of anger towards her husband when he takes those lessons too far. The look of adoration a boy has for his distant father, and the tragic, cold reserve that father shows in return.  But Bernet absolutely nails every moment and every beat.  It’s a virtual textbook on visual storytelling for aspiring artists. This is one of the better issues of this series, my favorite ongoing by DC.  I just can’t recommend this series enough -- top-notch, one and done stand alone tales of Western justice.  If you’re a fan of Westerns (or just quality comic books for that matter) and you’re not picking up this series, I’m be curious to know why. You can check out some preview pages HERE.


FIVE OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? SUGGESTIONS?

We’re always looking to find ways to improve in our mission to provide the best comic book reviews on the web.  To that end, let us know what we can be doing better.  Is there a genre we’re not covering enough of?  Is there a book in particular you would like to see reviewed?

Please send any and all questions and suggestions to me at: scfahey@yahoo.com