General Comicbook Talk, Reviews, etc.

[Toyboy like a hole in the head Find all posts View Profile Close Toyboy]

What'd you think of Karmen? Saw you said you'd picked it up. I just read #4 yesterday and it's an issue that sort of bridges a gap, not as fun as the first three and #5 is the last one, so it's clearly setting something up.

Read issue one and dug it but haven't had time to read 2 or 3. Once I get caught up on work I'm gonna sit down and read a pile of comics.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Read issue one and dug it but haven't had time to read 2 or 3. Once I get caught up on work I'm gonna sit down and read a pile of comics.

That day will be a good day.

I looked into that Wolverton Bible adaptation and it looks to be OOP and pretty expensive. Will keep my eyes open for a used copy.

[Scott Intellectual Carrot Find all posts View Profile Close Scott]

Mosey on down a ways and sit for a spell, it's Western Tuesdays!

Calamity Jane
The Calamitous Life of Martha Jane Cannary, 1852-1903
Written by Christian Perrissin with art by Matthieu Blanchin.

CALAMITY JANE collects three albums and is a thick meaty book at 368 pages. The art is sketchy and cartoony but there's lots of detail and it has an incredible life to it. It's kind of a cross between Gilbert Shelton, George Herriman and Christophe Blain.

Early in life Martha Jane's family wagon trained across the prairie. Eventually both of her parents died leaving Martha who was the eldest of 6 kids to look after the rest. She couldn't do it and simply left her siblings with the hopes a nearby farmer would look after them. Later in life she runs into one of her brothers who asks her why she left and she has no answer. Because of all the rape Martha had a few kids too who she also gave up. It seemed to be a cycle that repeated itself and took it's toll on Martha Jane over time. She leaves her daughter, who she very much loves, with a rich couple and while she's happy to see the girl grow up to be a proper educated woman she's also torn by the loss of not being her mother and active in her life.

It pulls it's info from 3 books about her life (one is a book of letters she wrote to her daughter) and goes on what is actual facts as much as possible. During her life she was already a legend so plenty of tall tales and bs surrounded her. It's all pretty damn fascinating and is a great western frontier period piece. Lot's of rape. Lots of bewilderment. Lots of mud, dirt and monotony. If even a sliver of this book is true then Jane Canary led a very large life, one that is almost incomprehensible to our modern sensibilities.

IDW offers a grand hardcover tome that fits the epic nature of this larger than life frontier icon. Black and white all the way through the book offers no insight beyond the story, no extras or forward. Still very much recommended and delight to read.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Haven't had time to read it yes, this has been a busy week, but I picked up the OOP TPB edition of Tales Of The Mysterious Traveler that Eclipse put out way back in the 80's collecting Ditko's weird radio play adaptations for Charlton. It's weird and rad and I got it for $3.99.

[Spaghetti Monkey Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Spaghetti Monkey]

It's weird and rad and I got it for $3.99.

Bargain at twice the priced.

[Scott Intellectual Carrot Find all posts View Profile Close Scott]

TCJ article from 2011 on Brian Azzarello's work on Northstar's SPLATTER comic and KLOWNSHOCK.

http://www.tcj.com/this-week-in-comi...arious-chills/

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

That's awesome. Northstar's history always seemed poorly documented to me so it's to read some background info on what happened in those later years.

I always grab Slash and Splatter back issues when I see them, especially the early ones as they have Vigil and O'Barr work in them respectively.

[Scott Intellectual Carrot Find all posts View Profile Close Scott]

That's awesome. Northstar's history always seemed poorly documented to me so it's to read some background info on what happened in those later years.

I always grab Slash and Splatter back issues when I see them, especially the early ones as they have Vigil and O'Barr work in them respectively.

Your Kyle Hotz post in the cover thread had me googling his older work and I came cross that article. His work evolved a lot along the way. I'm happy to see him doing more high profile work too. Similar to Dave Cooper's work at Northstar his evolution later on. I never picked up that Brian Azzarello was credited in those issues, but it's been a while since I cracked one open. I did go through my Tim Tyler comics the other day. Maybe I'll do a post about them sometime. I think I completely blacked out that he was an artist on KLOWNSHOCK but then I never picked up the self titled issue, having only read it serialized in SPLATTER. It could be that I thought the single issue was just a collection of stories from SPLATTER, similar to GOTHIC NIGHTS. Also I just was never big on murder clowns, (KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTERSPACE aside). EVIL ERNIE had a similar vibe and I never got into it. Looking back at all that stuff now I have a lot of mixed feelings.

[Scott Intellectual Carrot Find all posts View Profile Close Scott]

1997 was a good year. Me and a bunch of friends got a hotel room for the Chicago Comic-Con, then dubbed Wizard World, it's inaugural event (I actually have a photo with Gareb Shamus somewhere). I met David Prowse, Peter Mayhew and Jeremy Bullock. Ralph McQuarrie was there! And one of my friends was a friend of his manager. I brought a great Lucas Film art book to have him sign but his Parkinsons was pretty bad and he wasn't doing any signing. So I told him how great he was and showed him my book and thanked him.

I met David Quinn a year or two earlier at the same con, but this was the first time I met Tim Vigil. I was mostly awkward and told him how great he was and thanked him. He looked at my portfolio and was nice even though I know he didn't like it. I paid him $75 for an inked commission. I believe it was $50 for pencils and $100 for full color with colored inks, a favorite look of mine that I wish I went for. I asked for Joanna Tan the she-Faust, but in her costume from the initial concept shown in Raw Media Mag #1. He smiled and seemed happy at the selection. I bought an unopened box of Garbage Pail Kids Series 2 and a bootleg copy of CHINESE SUPER NINJAS, a video I looked for for years. Wesley Willis was there and I had to drive him to the train station (not a YELLOWSTONE joke, but a separate story for another time).

Long story short my friend left my car window rolled down and everything got stolen, except the Tim Vigil drawing.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

That's rad. I met Quinn and Vigil at a Detroit Con in, I believe, 1996. Wound up having dinner with them and then interviewed Quinn for a self published a fanzine which lasted 1 issue (only 24 copies were made, haha I printed them on a laser printer at work). One of these days I'll digitize that. Anyway, I bought a B&W Faust sketch from Vigil but wound up having to sell it a few years later when I was broke-ass broke. I regret that now, but you can't change the past.

Cons were fun in the 90s.

Your Kyle Hotz post in the cover thread had me googling his older work and I came cross that article. His work evolved a lot along the way. I'm happy to see him doing more high profile work too. Similar to Dave Cooper's work at Northstar his evolution later on. I never picked up that Brian Azzarello was credited in those issues, but it's been a while since I cracked one open. I did go through my Tim Tyler comics the other day. Maybe I'll do a post about them sometime. I think I completely blacked out that he was an artist on KLOWNSHOCK but then I never picked up the self titled issue, having only read it serialized in SPLATTER. It could be that I thought the single issue was just a collection of stories from SPLATTER, similar to GOTHIC NIGHTS. Also I just was never big on murder clowns, (KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTERSPACE aside). EVIL ERNIE had a similar vibe and I never got into it. Looking back at all that stuff now I have a lot of mixed feelings.

Tyler's interiors in the Klownshock one-shot don't really look quite as distinctive as a lot of his other stuff. I just read that issue after finding it for $1 a month or two ago. The art is good, but it's almost like Tyler was going for a different look (though that could be the inker's doing, I really don't know).

[Scott Intellectual Carrot Find all posts View Profile Close Scott]

BILLY BUDD, KGB
Written by Jerome Charyn, Art by Francois Boucq

A young boy with a hairlip is found orphaned in a potato field in Soviet Russia. He is taken in by the military who teach him and train him to be a spy, and nurture his psychic ability. Years later he moves to New York and as a sleeper spy he works on the construction of skyrise buildings and begins to date a woman. Starting to finally find a peace and normalcy in life he then gets his orders from his Soviet leaders.

Paul Pope does an wonderful intro to this book that sums it up perfectly. This came out a couple years after Maus, Watchman and Dark Knight Returns, the three books which are often lauded as examples of being comics as sophisticated literature, but this book makes good on that promise. Written by Jerome Charyn who comes to comics after first being a successful prose writer and novelist. Broken into three chapters the story unfolds naturally and captures each story beat perfectly as the years swing by. The first chapter takes place at a remote military installation in Soviet Russia where our protagonist, Yuri (or Devil Mouth as the kids tease him) learns how to be a good citizen for the Union and how to be a man. The second chapter begins Yuri's life living in New York City and takes us through his daily routine and the people in his life. When his superiors in Russia contact him things begin to unravel and it reaches a thrilling climax.

The art by Francois Boucq is gritty and grimey and full of personality. When the story moves to New York it feels like filthy scenes out of TAXI DRIVER or some other '70s sleeze. Boucq is the heir apparent of Mobius but sweatier.

Charyn and Boucq did two other graphic novels together, LITTLE TULIP and THE MAGICIAN'S WIFE. All three books a very highly recommended and are some of the best graphic novels ever made, IMO. Up there with the Obscure Cities books as far as story and art and breathtaking architecture. This was a reread of the recentish Dover book, it's a softcover and the size of a Euro album. Along with the introduction it also includes a handful of sketches and art in the back, always a nice addition.

[Newt Cox Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Newt Cox]

Been slowly replacing all the comics I have from Peter Bagge with TPB and hardcovers. Got this one in the mail today. Can't wait to re-read the Kool Aid Man story Alan Moore wrote.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

So I'm about half way through Crumb's adaptation of Genesis. It's really good. Played 100% straight and, as such, very dense. There are little humorous nods here and there, the expressions on the faces of some of the characters in the background when circumcision is discussed for example, but it never takes you out of the story. The level of detail in every panel is impressive. It's an impressive work, though it is taking me a while to finish it (partly because I've just been really busy since I got it).

[Spaghetti Monkey Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Spaghetti Monkey]

A RECKLESS BOOK: FRIEND OF THE DEVIL
Writer: Ed Brubaker, Art: Sean Phillips

I know they said there'd only be three RECKLESS books but I can read these into the sunset just fine. Jacob Phillips colors are starting to grow on me but man I miss Bettie Breitweiser.

Just got Reckless in from last weeks Amazon sale. So are Reckless and Friend of the Devil the first two here? Just want to be sure and start at the beginning.

[Scott Intellectual Carrot Find all posts View Profile Close Scott]

Just got Reckless in from last weeks Amazon sale. So are Reckless and Friend of the Devil the first two here? Just want to be sure and start at the beginning.

Yep those are the first two. The next one is due in Sept/Oct. Originally they were going to do three books but they decided to make five of them.