The Perpetrators:
Writer – Bill Mantlo
Artist – Frank Robbins
Inker – Frank Springer
Letters – Tom Orzechowski
Colors – Janice Cohen
Editor – Archie Goodwin
Publisher – Marvel Comics

The Plot:
Mark Harris, a survivor of Atlantis who is has a host of typical sea-centric powers (breathe underwater…swim long distances…webbed hands…communicate with sea-life…blah blah) and is just high-lariously naive in the ways of humans, must help the U.S. Navy solve the mystery behind a nefarious white mist causing disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle.

The Deal:
The ’70s are really such an incredible wealth of amazing crap, aren’t they? According to Wikipedia, NBC’s short-lived sci-fi/superhero seriesMan from Atlantis (starring Patrick Duffy — but you just KNOW they wanted Mark Spitz!) sprung out of four highly successful TV movies.

The series never made it past one season, but that didn’t stop Marvel from trying to have their very own Aquaman-that-wasn’t-Submariner…for seven issues. Comic/TV tie-ins have never had a very high success rate, I guess. Although it’s somewhat humbling to think this comic probably sold more issues than like Secret Invasion #1.

The Verdict:
Doofy, but less a quick, cynical cash-in than one might expect thanks to some above-average art and the most hilariously rampant homoeroticism this side of that last James Bond movie.

The Dialogue:
Dr. Elizabeth Merrill: “Mark, you never cease to amaze me! You have eyes like an eagle!”

Mark Harris: “No — more like a dolphin!”

Random dude: “That was what we call a figure of speech, Mark!”

The Wtf Moment:
Page 23, when the villainous mastermind behind the evil mist reveals he’s kidnapping sailors and brainwashing them into helping him build Seatopia: a “self-sufficient city beneath the sea.” Of course, Seatopia will also double as the world’s food supply since the villain plans on wiping out all of earth’s produce with man-made natural disasters so that he can corner the market on global nutrition. Yep.

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Jesusmaryandjoseph are there ANY American indie comic creators who had a decent or even normal childhood? Joshua W. Cotter’s fascinating and nightmarish graphic novel Skyscrapers of the Midwest is, first and foremost, 300 (exquisitely packaged) pages of misery and angst. But what beautifully rendered and riveting misery and angst it is.

A deftly woven tapestry of ostensibly autobiographical early-adolescent pain, Skyscrapers is a compellingly structured series of short vignettes and lively stylistic detours (some of them deeply surreal) all relating to the central story of a young social outcast living a dark, tortuous existence with his family in an unnamed mid-western state.

It all sounds basic enough, and a quick glance uncovers a few common modern indie comic tropes: anthropomorphized main characters, robots, awkward and scarring nerd experiences, different styles of comic art, superheroes, black humor. But Skyscrapers is anything but straightforward and/or cliched. Cotter, an immensely talented and thoughtful artist, presents everything so skillfully, economically, and with such bleak but sympathetic honesty that the book rises far, far above the other heavily Ware-inspired work out there. In short, Cotter trusts himself to show and not tell, and some of the more heavy-handed moments are nicely offset by a deep, genuine weirdness that may be Cronenberg inspired.

Either way, it’s the most impressive debut in a long, long while.

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With the U.S. economy sinking further and further into the clogged septic tank of the earth and gas and food prices skyrocketing, what’s a comic reader to do? Where can they go for the cheap thrills and pulp entertainment of the 4-color fix? Stop hustling for blow jobs, silly, and get thee to a Dollar Bin!

Ah, the dollar bin: where there are so many fine gems and vast treasures from comic book ages past to uncover. In this column I’ll reveal to you the many cheap wonders and low-budget worlds I’ve found in my lazy, half-assed travels.

Screw you Secret Invasion! Up yours Final Crisis! I’ve got f%$king mouths to feed!

The Perpetrators:
Writer – Michael Uslan
Artist – Ricardo Villamonte
DC Comics

The Plot:
Ancient prince/barbarian with an awesome skull helmet randomly fights dudes and evil monsters.

The Deal:
It’s 1975 and DC desperately needed another title (along with Warlord, Claw, Stalker, Starfire, Nightmaster, and Tor…) to compete with Marvel’s then-hugely popular Conan book. How about a comic inspired by the legendary British hero who fought and defeated Grendel and Grendel’s moms? Better yet, subtitle it “Dragon Slayer” even though there are no dragons or slaying of them contained therein. Sounds good. It was canceled after six issues.

The Verdict:
An atmospheric, straight-faced sword and sandal slugfest with some excellent art best read while listening to Kamelot, Mastodon, or Dio-era Sabbath.

The Dialogue:
“The world-candle turns to BEOWULF, boon of the GEATS! He swings his SWORD — his IRON-KILLER lord! His might EXPLODES across this BLUE-ORB earth, as ROSY-FINGERED dawn brings peace to the land of his BIRTH!”

The Moment:
The last panel on page 11 where Beowulf unironically punches a woman in the face.

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SCALPED Volume 1: Indian Country
By Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera

As with so many innovative creative endeavors, the once-great Vertigo was so successful at what it set out to accomplish that it’s reached the point where the majority of their product looks tired and out of ideas. When you pick up a Vertigo book, you can guess the contents will probably involve at least one of the following: a cynical anti-hero protagonist with plenty of attitude and nihilistic John Constantine “cool,” a dark and muted color palate, violence, caustic dialogue, boobs, drugs, swearing, dark humor, a labyrinthine plot, maybe some loopy dark fantasy. In short, Vertigo’s become the thing it once rallied so spectacularly against: predictable.

That said, it is nice Vertigo still exists because every once in a while they’ll publish something like Scalped. A brutal, bleak, intricate crime noir set on a South Dakota Indian reservation, despite some very clunky set-up early on Scalped distinguishes itself from its routine Vertigo trappings (Exhibit A: the cover) with a deftly woven plot that actually makes sense, flawed, three-dimensional characters, Guera’s superb, detailed Jim-Lee-meet-Klaus-Janson artwork, and a tiny — but still noticeable — sense of humor. Nice to see a couple up-and-comers get a possible something-special going.

Grade: B+

FEAR AGENT Volume 1: Re-Ignition
By Rick Remender and Tony Moore

What? A new comic that doesn’t take itself too seriously? Unbelievable. Harkening back to the gritty, pulp-inflected, smart-ass adult sci-fi of the 70s and 80s, Fear Agent is the kind of effortlessly fun escapist fare that’s oddly rare in comics these days. From issue one, Remender hits the ground running and doesn’t let up through a parade of vicious space monsters, vicious space robots, vicious space alcoholics, lasers, ships, planets, and space ladeez — and that’s just the first four issues. Meanwhile, Moore remains one of comicdom’s unsung heroes.

Grade: B+

BUDDHA Volume 1: Kapilavastu
By Osamu Tezuka

Thanks to years of near-religious critical fawning and hyperbole, I don’t think I ever really understood Tezuka until I read this, his first volume in an ambitious eight-book biography of Siddhartha Gautama.

Tezuka’s comics are quite strange. You could chalk this up to an untranslatable Japanese sensibility I suppose, but I find that it’s mainly because the tone of his work is wildly uneven and often elusive. For example, on one page you’ll have slapstick comedy, and then on the next, naked charred corpses. High adventure will tumble suddenly into stark brutality. A peaceful, thoughtful scene will be followed by shrill played-for-comedy shrieking. An exquisitely rendered landscape leads into a drawing of a Disney-esque tiger. A naked feral child kisses his dead mother’s boob.

It can all seem quite random and jolting, but in Buddha (and probably in most of his other comics, which I should probably re-read) what it adds up to is gloriously entertaining, dazzlingly drawn pulp. And that’s ultimately what I think Tezuka is going for. Nothing more, nothing less. Much like Disney, a man to whom he is often compared — although I would argue Disney is the better storyteller — Tezuka is a brilliant, near-genius entertainer. This first volume of Buddha, where every page is alive with grand-scope, unapologetic melodrama, may be the best introduction to his aesthetic.

Grade: A-

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As I’ve mentioned elsewhere on the site before, new comics these days seem creatively a bit stagnant, but it is a legitimate Golden Age for reprints, so, there’s still plenty to read.

To wit:

DEVIL DINOSAUR OMNIBUS
By Jack Kirby

Devil Dinosaur — the adventures of a leaping, fire-engine red Tyrannosaurus Rex and his best cro-magnon pal Moon-Boy — is more of a minor work in Kirby’s vast canon. Although the genius for character design and epic science fiction surrealism is still there, overall Kirby’s art just isn’t as sharp or innovative here as it was in the 60s and early 70s. And let’s not forget, as incredible as his ideas frequently were, his writing can take patience.

Still, at the end of the day, it is Kirby and, as such, reliably and enjoyably insane — especially an exceptional four-issue stretch where the strangest duo in comics history repels an alien invasion. Lots of fun and, somewhat surprisingly, not just for Kirby completists.

Grade: B

I SHALL DESTROY ALL THE CIVILIZED PLANETS!: THE COMICS OF FLETCHER HANKS
Edited and afterword by Paul Karasik

First brought to the public’s attention by Dan Nadel in the indispensable anthology Art Out of Time, Fletcher Hanks’s highly imaginative and carefully drawn short stories, produced between 1939-1941 for a variety of independent publishers, are a dizzying assault of weirdness. Often disturbing and always very, very strange, they most resemble the random, eventful, and chaotic storytelling techniques of 8-year-old boys. The superheroic adventures of Stardust the Space Wizard is what many people will gravitate to, but the outlandish and creepy Fantomah (one of the first female superheroes) stories are the standouts.

Although perhaps what’s most impressive about Hanks’s work is it’s never dull or predictable; not something you can say about most Golden Age comics.

Grade: A-

JAMES STURM’S AMERICA: GOD, GOLD, AND GOLEMS
By James Sturm

Sturm made a huge splash a few years ago with a series of lovingly rendered indie comics based around strange and sordid aspects of American history. Unfortunately he’s been quiet since writing one of the finest series to ever carry the Marvel name, Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules, and co-founding the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont. So, it’s wonderful to have his American history trilogy — “The Revival,” “Hundreds of Feet Below Daylight, and “The Golem’s Mighty Swing” — collected in a single volume: James Sturm’s America.

While “The Revival” and “Hundreds of Feet” are interesting, if underdeveloped and histrionic, reads in their own right, the justifiably celebrated “Golem” is the obvious gem. The story of an independent Jewish baseball team in the early 20s, the quiet intensity and gritty despair of “Golem” is somehow actually better than I remembered.

Grade: B+

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ALIENS OMNIBUS Volume 1
By various folks

It may be hard for you young folks out there to believe, but back in the late 80s, these Aliens comics hit like a neutron bomb with pre-90s boom readers. People used to movie tie-ins being lazy cash grabs were genuinely shocked by their dark and gritty quality, high production values, and eager willingness to expand the franchise’s universe and scope. The first couple mini-series were sensations. In a way, Aliens made Dark Horse.

Like everyone else, I loved these books way back when. I’ve even gone as far as saying that they’re better than the third and fourth movies, which is still true in some respects. But, you know what, these Aliens books haven’t aged very well. At all. Although Mark Verheiden came up with some legitimately great ideas — Aliens overrun Earth; Ripley pays a visit to the Alien homeworld; origins of the derelict ship where the Aliens were first discovered — and the art (by Mark Nelson, Dennis Beauvais, and Sam Keith) is often of very high quality, the books are full of 80s comic crimes like cliched faux-military dialog, bad dream sequences, clunky and confusing storytelling, jumps in logic, and taking themselves far too seriously.

Grade: C+

EXIT WOUNDS
By Rutu Modan

2007 was a weak year for comics overall, which made Rutu Modan’s exceptional debut stand out all the more. A quietly tense and involving story about an Israeli cab driver and his estranged father’s young lover, Exit Wounds, like many successful works of art, emphatically believes the unremarkable entirely remarkable. Modan’s sharp characterization, smooth pacing, and loose, inviting artistic style brilliantly captures what life is like in the world’s most contentious country without being obvious or heavy-handed. This modest and profoundly empathetic work may go down as 07’s finest comic.

Grade: A

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The show, which celebrates its first anniversary Tuesday at 8 p.m., covers all things comic book, which these days also includes the worlds of video games, television and film. As that anonymous audience member put it, “It’s great to be in an atmosphere where you can sit and discuss these things without getting strange looks.�

Guests at the anniversary performance constitute a Who’s Who of the comic book industry. They include Ed Brubaker, the man who wrote the death of Captain America in March, and Brian Michael Bendis, who writes New Avengers and is masterminding Marvel’s latest blockbuster: Secret Invasion, a multi-title cross-over about aliens who may have been impersonating certain heroes for many years. Also on the schedule is Bill Hader, a cast member of “Saturday Night Live� and an avowed comic book fan. The show is officially sold out, but a limited number of $5 tickets will be for sale at the door.

Some weird regression to old school geekery in those first couple paragraphs though. So…people can’t admit they read comics now? What? Haven’t we moved beyond that?

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Basically, I’m apologizing in an around about way for posting quick links like the following, which nicely links to a whole bunch of 2007 Graphic Novel/Comic Best Ofs! Thanks PW!

Although I will say, despite the somewhat inexplicable “rah rah comics!” positivity you’ll find in most places, 2007 was an incredibly weak year for new material. True, we are living in a Golden Age of reprints (of comic books AND comic strips), and there was, as always, a healthy amount of good work. But compared to the monumental amount of great must-reads from the last few years, 2007 was full of mediocrity, and overall, something of a dud. What can you do.

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