Ghost Rider #1
Writer: Daniel Way
Artists: Javier Saltares and Mark Texeira
$2.99

Ah, Ghost Rider. Much like the Silver Surfer, She-Hulk, Dr. Fate, etc, good ole flamey noggin is one of those guys who just doesn’t seem to be able to carry a regular series for very long, even if he is one of the best character designs in mainstream comics. But now there’s a movie due soon, so Marvel has seen fit to bless us with another Ghost Rider #1. This one picks up after last year’s mini-series. The scoop: Ghost Rider is stuck in hell, and only with the help of a new “friend” and old enemy will he be able to find his way out.

For the artistic duties, Marvel smartly goes (back) to Saltares and Texeira, the talented artists behind the most successful Ghost Rider to date, an on-going series that ran from 1990-1998. In fact, the book resembles an early 90s comic in many ways: pretty art, cliched characterization, lazy dialogue, oddly convoluted plotting, a character that could’ve leapt from a McFarlane sketchbook. The often-harangued Way does keep his stories moving and doesn’t rely on heavy exposition, but the Rider himself would get a flat from all the plot holes. Zing.

Respectable cliff-hanger at the end, though.

KFR Rating: C+

Alex
By Mark Kalesniko
$19.95

Alex Kalienka — drawn as a humanoid dog in a world of humans — was a successful animator with Mickey Walt Cartoon Studios, but he became disillusioned and quit. Now he lives back in his old hometown, where his life consists of unproductive painting, unwelcome visits from old friends, relentless self-loathing, violent temper tantrums, and booze, booze, booze.

Kalesniko (Mail Order Bride) first published this Bukowski-esque saga over ten years ago, and this is the first time it’s been collected. Ostensibly autobiographical (Kalesniko himself worked for Disney), Alex is an angry, darkly humorous depiction of a man at war with his own creative mind. Although heavy-handed and preachy in spots, Kalesniko’s exceptional cartooning smooths out the bumps and makes this bittersweet tale compulsively readable.

KFR Rating: B+

Task Force #1
Writer: Jeff Stevenson
Artist: Carlos Rodriguez
$3.50

WOW. Look, I’m sure Stevenson and Rodriguez are good guys, and I genuinely applaud them for accomplishing something. But I have to be honest: if it weren’t for the admittedly spiffy cover, this might be the single worst comic I’ve ever read. You know those comics either you or a friend did on notebook paper in middle/high school before you really understood the concepts of plotting, pacing, characterization, originality, storytelling, logic, structure? Back in the days when Liefeld was the most raddest awesome dude ever?

A poor/destitute man’s version of an early 90s Image book, the best thing I can say about Task Force is that it has absolutely no irony or sense of itself, which is kind of amazing considering it barely makes any sense. Sure, I’d tell you guys what it’s about, but I don’t really know. Something about a secret super-powered government team that takes down terrorists…I think…? This is what happens when people write/draw from what they know, and all they know are really bad comics.

KFR Rating: F

Pussey!
By Dan Clowes
$9.95

Finally, Clowes’s ferocious, bile-spewing skewering of the comics industry is back in print. Follow fan favorite artist Dan Pussey (pronounced “pooh-say”) as he takes a harrowing, picaresque journey through the horrifying world of the early-90s comic industry. No one is safe from the gleefully sadistic Clowes this go-round: Stan Lee, Art Spiegelman, Gary Groth, Gareb Shamus and others all fall victim. Bridges, they burn aplenty, my friends.

The thing is the amazing tricks Clowes pulls off is making Pussey something of a sympathetic character. We have met Dan Pussey, and he is us. A very funny and very sad minor masterpiece.

KFR Rating: A-

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