COMIXFAN FEATURE REVIEWS: FEBRUARY 19, 2006

[Stephanie Kay]

Would it be fair to say this week’s features are a celebration of the Oddballs of Comics? Capitalist hating convenience store working girls taking on crime syndicates, time travelling alternative ‘versions’ of yourself, cowboys and a horse-riding pseudo-Death, aliens, robots and deranged scientists - and well - Kid Eternity.

Comixfan takes a look at Brian Wood and Kristian’s latest new mini Supermarket #1, the TP collection of Morrison’s trippy Kid Eternity, the ‘giant’ boys of Marvel over at Ultimate Fantastic Four #27, a homage to the unrestrained old school comics in Doris Danger Seeks Where Giant Monsters Creep & Stomp #1 and the finest looking Death since The Seventh Seal in Death Comes To Dillinger #1

For more astute opinions on comic books, please check out Comixfan's Reviews.

---

Supermarket #1 Review

Reviewer: Stephanie Kay, children_of_paradise@hotmail.co.uk

Writer: Brian Wood
Art & Colors: Kristian Donaldson (credited as Kristian)
Letterer: Robbie Robbins
Color Seps: Travis Stephens
Editor: Chris Ryall
Published by: IDW Publishing

Supermarket is the perfect embodiment of this sort of cross culture setting, and the ‘merging’ of certain stylistic qualities inherent in American, European and eastern media. Generally speaking, the comic ponders on a disruption of genre and ‘country lines’ and its protagonist is fixated on critiquing rampant consumerism and materialistic desire found in both – the dangers of money and convenience gone to its extreme. The world presented in Supermarket is perhaps the potential development of the socially inadequate capitalist system of ‘now.’ Society is damaged where legitimate and black-market economies are dominated by the Yakuza and Porno Swede crime families, riots threaten to erupt and people now live in zones of commerce. Places are rated on money (those living in a zone described as less expensive than ‘Platinum’ are considered to be situated in a real ‘dump’) The system points to a sort of dehumanising and a breakdown between conscience ‘thought’ and simplistic bragging rights over how much money one is able to spend. People have more surplus cash to spend on just about ‘nothing’, whilst the poor are…well, it remains to be seen yet, although it’s clear that social ‘void’ will be at the centre of the protagonist’s plight in the following issue. The first issue itself opens by throwing young convenience store worker Pella Suzuki completely into the midst of it all after a family tragedy leaves her questioning, and then implementing all her knowledge on consumer empires and possibly crime. Thematically this sort of economic interest is aligned against contrasting styles, all of which Kristian nails. Supermarket plays through the classic indie wryness within the part time job, progresses into Yakuza violence (equipped with a scene straight out of Luc Besson’s Leon), and then concludes with an image reminiscent of Wong Kar Wai’s lost souls travelling on night buses.

OVERALL:


For the full review, go to here

---

Kid Eternity TP Review
Reviewer: Brian Torney, DKBatman@comcast.net

Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Duncan Fegredo
Letterer: Gaspar Saladino
Original Series Editor: Karen Berger
Collected Edition Editor: Scott Nybakken
Published by: Vertigo/DC Comics

Morrison’s scripting here is even more schizophrenic than usual, leaping page by page from a comedian’s deathbed to a 1942 U-Boat strike, from a roadside diner to the halls of Dis, city of anguish. Whereas, conventionally, modern comics usually retain a solid sense of location by lingering singularly in one place at a time, Morrison chooses to bounce perpetually back and forth, allowing the reader little or no time to adjust to spatial changes. The volume’s first chapter presents so many interlocking story threads simultaneously that I needed to read it twice just to figure out what was happening where, and to whom it was happening. The narrative captions do little to unify the panels into any sort of coherence, but do unify the story emotionally and thematically, and do drag the reader’s eye across the page. Sure, most times I haven’t the foggiest notion what Morrison’s captions are talking about (things become much clearer upon second readings, for those baffled easily by Morrison’s work), but having something to read that is equally as baffling as the artwork somehow makes it better.

Conventional rules of pacing, time and place, and coherence don’t necessarily apply here; Morrison’s tale of post-death adventure is as much about presenting a collage of imagery, as it is old-fashioned storytelling. I’m readily aware that my immense head-scratching confusion is purely the result of Morrison wanting me to be confused. And, cleverly, the basics of storytelling are still very much here: tragic, engaging characters, progressively building scenes, and refrained themes –even if they aren’t as easily found as elsewhere in graphic literature.

OVERALL:


For the full review, go to here

---

Ultimate Fantastic Four #27 Review
Reviewer: Zachary Ayotte
Story Title: President Thor: Part 1

Writer: Mark Millar
Penciler: Greg Land
Inks: Matt Ryan
Colors: Justin Ponson
Letters: VC’s Randy Gentile
Production: Deborah Weinstein
Assistant Editor: John Barber
Assistant Editor: Nicole Wiley Boose
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor in Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel Comics

This book starts at the end, or close to the end. Reed Richards is traveling through time and runs into himself, from twenty-four hours in the future. We quickly learn that in twenty-four hours, something will happen that will cause the fantastic four to decide to travel through time and stop the accident that resulted in the FF getting their powers powers from happening. The rest of this issue is devoted to those twenty-four hours. I really enjoyed this format. At first I was a little thrown and thought I had missed a page or an issue or something. Once I caught up with the rest of you I was excited. I generally enjoy it when a story starts at a place that leaves the reader thinking “How did this happen?” and then uses the rest of the story to justify that opening. It’s a technique that has been used in various movies and television shows and I think it usually works quite well.

Another reason the way this story is told is so successful is because, like the big angry Hulk, it is relatable. If I had the power to turn invisible or to “flame on” then I can’t imagine anything that would make me want to give it up…except maybe the sight of my made-of-rock best friend crying alone in the park and asking me to kill him. That would do it.

OVERALL:


For the full review, go to here

---

Doris Danger Seeks Where Giant Monsters Creep & Stomp #1 Advance Review
Reviewer: Robin Lewis, lucillerobin@aol.com
Story Title: Also known as Tabloia #577!

Creator, writer, artist, letterer, editor: Chris Wisnia
Production, front & back cover design, logos & colours: Wesley Ruff
Inker (pages 7-31): Dick Ayers(!)
Pin-ups: Mike Allred, Gene Colan, Thomas YeatesSteve Rude, John Severin, Irwin Hasen, Bill Sienkiewicz, Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Mario Hernandez, Ryan Sook, Ramona Fradon, Tony Millionaire, Sam Kieth, & Mike Mignola
Editor In Chief: Rob Oder
Published by: Salt Peter Press

This large format book collects together all the Doris Danger strips from Tabloia and throws in a bunch of new pages for good measure (including the tale of the creature with possibly the finest tagline in the book: "AAHBLAAH! The Creature Who Defied Science ... by Punching!"). If you're after nuanced storytelling and naturalistic dialogue this isn't the book for you. If, on the other hand, you're looking for enormous monsters creeping and stomping, plotting that seems to spring directly from the mind of a lunatic with ADD and dialogue such as 'Redneck fools! You've doomed us all!' you're in the right place. Giant monsters have gone through a bit of a revival recently, with Marvel publishing a few new titles featuring such favourites as Fin Fang Foom, releasing a shiny hardcover of their most famous appearances and even having them pop up in books like Warren Ellis' Nextwave. Following their example, Wisnias' monsters often wear the regulation tight-fitting pants to cover up their modesty, and all have fantastically evocative names: FUGGABLUH!, SPANKO!, SPLUHH!, DABBA-DOO!. The exclamation marks come thick and fast as Doris Danger attempts to discover the truth behind their appearances and their connection to the many strange characters that accompany them.

You, like Doris, will probably try and attempt to discern some thread of continuity or logic in these stories. A futile notion. Aliens, robots and deranged, giggling scientists spring up from panel to panel, each forming another layer of paranoid conspiracies and convoluted plotting only truly understandable to those who possess the early (and entirely non-existent) issues of Tabloia mentioned in the many footnotes. Which is exactly as it should be.

OVERALL:


For the full review, go to here

---

Death Comes to Dillinger #1 Advance Review
Reviewer: Robin Lewis, lucillerobin@aol.com
Story Title: Death comes to Dillinger

Creator & Writer: James Patrick
Pencils: Se7venhedo
Colors: JM Ringuet
Letterer: Jason Hanley
Published by: Silent Devil Productions

Death has indeed ridden into town, and he has, as you might expect, done so on a pale horse. He carries with him a sackful of pocket-watches, on which lives are counted down in a decreasing number of ticks and tocks. And, it seems, he can be defied, though the inhabitants of Dillinger know this is almost certainly a futile gesture. That won't stop a desperate man from trying, though. One such man is the mild-mannered protagonist, Paxton, an accountant with a sick daughter and a practical wife. He, like others in the town, suspect that Death is here for someone he cares about, and he tries, like so many other heroes of the old west before him, to place himself in danger in their stead. So far, aside from the inclusion of Death, all seems in the best traditions of the western. It's unclear, apart from this one detail, how far the story will depart from the usual lines of the horse opera. I'm not sure much more of the supernatural wouldn't overbalance the story and send it off into the realms of the very silly. As it stands there's just the right amount of strangeness and gothic horror to skew the familiar scenes into something new and disturbing. The issue is all set-up, of course (all first issues are, to some extent), but there's enough material here to give some nice character moments to the accountant and his wife, and plenty of space to set up the most important aspect of the piece: the mood. It's the mood of the book that'll stay with you after you put it down: despair and sweating fear run all through the book.

OVERALL:


For the full review, go to here

---

[Will Carper]

Kid Eternity for me.

[Anthony Devlin]

seems almost unfair on Ult FF

Death comes to Dillinger for me.. Although, I more than likely would have gone for Kid Eternity or Supermarket, had they arrived on time. damn mail order. But on the basis I’ve read Dillinger and enjoyed it, i back that.

[ramiss]

UFF.Best Of The Week For Me

[Paul Shinn]

Supermarket was great, amazing art and Brian Wood is really on a roll lately. But Ultimate FF sounds interesting. Has Millar's run so far been pretty good? I might pick it up in trade...

[Ann Nichols]

Heck, I voted before I even read the reviews. The "Doris Danger" title sounded right up my alley and the review confirms my choice.

[Phoenix_Force]

Doris . . . sounds a-mazing!