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Writer: Brian Wood, Artist: Ryan Kelly
Published by DC/Vertigo 2009

I enjoyed the first volume of Northlanders well enough, even if it could be a bit anachronistic at times. I kept thinking that Sven was a very modern hero. This time round Wood doesn’t even try. Just the opposite. This time we get a police procedural. Seriously. Five pages in and we’re talking about ‘splatter patterns.’ Its CSI Erie.

The story is set in 1014, relatively late in the Viking period, and the Scandinavians are about to be thrown out of Ireland. Still, their king dispatches one of his best men, Ragnar Ragnarsson, to stop a violent insurgency. The king’s officials and loyal servants are being ruthlessly killed. Once he is on the scene, however, the forensics make it very clear that it is all the work of one man. That man is Magnus Mag Rodain. After a life of violence, Magnus hopes to find some sort of redemption by funneling his energies into the service of his people, so, accompanied by his daughter Brigit, he has been terrorizing the Viking communities.

The book is one long chase as Ragnar attempts to run Magnus to ground. This is not a book for people who really know much or care about the period. While Vikings pillaged Ireland as much as anywhere, anyone who’d read anything of the period would know that their actual presence there was always tenuous. That aspect of the story would have been better suited to Britain. And so many of the details - Ragnar has detailed maps of the Irish countryside, Magnus is identified by his tattoo, the Irish are called Celts - are just wrong. It’s a crime story with swords and horses replacing cars and guns. And even there it hasn’t much to offer. Chase, violence, chase, violence. There is little reason to care. Only towards the end are we given any insights into Magnus, and never any into Ragnar, and those are offered in a gimmicky way, which might have worked better as characterization if it had been made clear from the beginning.

A definite miss.


This blog has been syndicated from David Bird's Eponymous Blog.

Writer: Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba, Artist: Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba

De: Tales published by Dark Horse, 2006
Daytripper published by DC/Vertigo, 2009-ongoing

These two titles are by a pair of twins from Sao Paulo who have been making a name for themselves illustrating titles like Casanova, The Umbrella Academy, and B.P.R.D. Left to their own devices they leave behind super-spies, superheroes, and the supernatural behind to spin tales about twenty-somethings in modern Brazil.

De: Tales was published four years ago. It includes biographical and fantasy stories, but principally focuses on capturing moments in the lives of young people. Meetings, by chance or appointment, are a common theme. Like most anthologies, it’s a mixed bag, but none of them are terrible. The best, which was also the first of their stories I read, when it was collected in Autobiographix tells about an actual encounter the two had while in Paris. At their weakest the stories just seem a little pointless. They capture their characters’ youth, their hipness, in a way that seems more real than Pope, but there often seems to be little reason for the story.

Daytripper, which has a third issue coming out this week, also focuses on the on the lives of young Brazilians and may be heading towards the same problems. The first story centered on an obituary writer whose dreams of becoming a novelist suffer in the shadow of his father, one of the nation’s most revered authors. The second story centers on a young man on vacation. He meets a dream girl. There are various profundities spoken. While the first story is full of potential, the second goes no where, though both end at the same place. I am not going to say where - I don’t want to spoil things - but I hope it doesn’t become a gimmick. With only two issues out, and those so uneven, its probably too early to form a judgment of the series as a whole, but it seems to share the same strengths and weaknesses as the stories in the earlier book.

As with most stories in the earlier collection, the credits don’t break down who did what. Its Moon and Ba all the way.

Writer: Alan Moore, Artist: Stephen Bissette, John Totleben et al.
Published by DC/Vertigo, 2009

If I was worrying about trying too hard to sell things with my last review, I certainly shouldn’t need to sell this one. This is the comic that started it all! Alan Moore, Vertigo, and the Modern Age of comic books! Okay, that statement stretches things quite a bit, but it did introduce Moore to America, securing it an important place on must read lists.

I was just getting back into comics when this came out, having given them up during my teen years, and I wasn’t reading anything as mainstream as Swamp Thing, but a friend loaned my his copies a few years later. That was the only time I read them before re-reading them now, but I am pretty sure his collection of singles did not include .‘Loose Ends’, Moore’s very first issue. It has been collected here for the first time.

What did I think re-reading it after all these years? The art poses a problem for me, one that I often have when older comics are reprinted with modern production techniques. The colours are too much. Too bright. Garish, even. Especially when you consider how fine Bissette and Totleben’s lines are. The story? Through the actions of the vegetable villain Floronic Man, Swamp Thing learns his true origins and begins the process of reconciling himself with that knowledge. But first Moore kills, or tries to kill, just about everyone. He does kill the title character. And when he brings the Swamp Thing back, he completely retcons the character, taking him from the B movie monster he had always been and making him over completely. How often do we hear that complaint today? A new creator comes in and throws everything previous writers have done out the window? On reading this I also realized that this, and the first two or three Sandman arcs, were deeply steeped in the horror genre. A lot of people traced the darkness of the Modern era’s comics to DKR and Watchmen, but the roots are laid here and those roots grew out of monsters and nightmares. I also spotted the first appearance of Sting, a preoccupation of Bissette’s that would give rise to the character John Constantine.

Besides the addition of issue 20, this collection also boasts an informative introduction by Swamp Thing creator Len Wein, who describes both the original creation of the title and, with Wein acting as editor, the passing of the torch to Moore, whose changes he enthusiastically supported.

Writer: Guy Davis, Artist: Guy Davis
Published by Dark Horse, 2009

As an artist, Guy Davis can do anything and do it well. In the design of each page and panel, the depiction of epic battles and subtle emotions, of historical minutiae and undreamt of technology, the range and depth of his skill stands up to anyone’s. I’ve known that for some time. The Marquis: Inferno was my introduction to Davis the writer.

It collects three stories written between 1997 and 2003 and introduces Vol de Galle, an inquisitor who lives in a world loosely modeled on 18th century France, and has spent his life serving a Church very different from any that we would recognize. Principle among its teachings is the idea that evil behavior is not caused by our own agency but by the influence of devils. Armed with a mask that allows him to see the demons, de Galle becomes the feared Marquis, and launches a one man war against the monsters who inhabit the city of Venisalle.

The strongest story is Danse Macabre. It introduces the zealous de Galle, a man plagued by doubts, about himself and his faith. I found I could take the story at face value, but that it was also open to an alternative interpretation: that his actions are those of a madman. That de Galle’s battle with his faith and its hypocrisy have broken his mind. Even his revelation in chapter five can be read an attempt to rework his initial rationale in order to continue his crusade. That the next two stories make it clear that the book really is about the Marquis sending demons back to Hell was almost a disappointment.

In his introduction Mignola writes of Davis’ obvious love for monsters, but I can’t think of another artist who comes close to portraying the horrors of damnation. Most comic book monsters lean on Kirby or Lovecraft (or both), but Davis’ Hell would thrill Hieronymus Bosch.

As a reviewer I almost always write very positive reviews, and, though they tend to lack the pithy quotes ad copy writers look for, I sometimes worry that I don’t come across as balanced as I should (as I am!). The fact is I don’t have to write reviews and I don’t enjoy tearing things down. I do read comics I think are absolute rubbish, but I am rarely motivated to waste any more time on them by reviewing them. I want to give a more balanced representation of what I read, but I have more interesting things to do with my time rant on about what annoys me (usually, and last week’s review notwithstanding). My review of The Marquis is not going to change anything. Having already praised Davis’ artistic talents, I have to say his writing matches it incredibly well and that this book establishes him as one of the best cartoonists in the medium. I look forward to three new volumes beginning this year.

Originally Published on David Bird's Blog. See the original post here .

Writer: Brett Lewis, Artist John Paul Leon
Published by DC/Wildstorm 2009

There are a lot of ways to start a review, but a rant isn’t one of them. Usually. But bear with me.

We live in an era of fanboy saturation. When a title can foster more discussion than sales. So why is it that far too few people have heard of, let alone read, one of the best titles of the “aughts”?

The importance of a consistent publishing schedule is a lesson the comics industry never seems to learn. The Winter Men was originally solicited as a Vertigo title in 2003, but didn’t see print for another two years and then at Vertigo’s sister imprint, Wildstorm. The first two issues came out a month apart. The third issue two months later. Then there was a five month wait for issue four, another six months for issue five, and a far too long twenty-six month wait for the sixth and final issue. And originally it was said to have an eight issue story arc, but that was shortened to six (though the last issue was double-lengthed, so maybe they split the difference). By the time that last issue did come out, the title had fallen off my radar and a revised pull list. As big a fan as I am, why would I keep track of a comic that wasn’t being produced? I only got a copy of the last issue because I happened to be in a comic shop (and not my usual one) when the clerks were debating what to do with the single issue of a title they had been shipped. Perhaps this customer of theirs would like it? I took one look at what they were talking about and said, I would like it! I bought it then and there. When Leon was asked about all the delays, he replied, “I wouldn’t want to badmouth my writer, so I’ll just leave it as two words - not me.” I don’t know whether Lewis ever responded to that, but six issues in forty months? Of course, it bled readers.

Thank you. End of rant. On to the review.

The Winter Men is the story of Kris Kalenov, a Russian policeman struggling to maintain some semblance of integrity in the chaos that followed to fall of the Soviet Union. When circumstances put him on the trail of a kidnapped child, readers are drawn into a world of gangsters, politicos, and the anything-for-a-buck ethos of Moscow in the 90s. We also learn of Kalenov’s own astonishing past. He once led a squad of rocket soldiers, part of a tech superhero program developed by the Soviets themselves as a counter to their own meta hero, The Hammer of the Revolution. In a world where personal loyalties and connections trump all else, Kalenov finds himself ever relying his old squad.

The first three issues concentrate on the story of the kidnapping and serve to introduce us to a varied and vivid picture of Russian life in the Yeltsin era, from Moscow to New York to the Caucasus. The next three issues work like an inverted matryoshka doll, expanding and enriching the story. Making it larger and more personal. Each of the last three issues, interestingly, given the publication delays, could also serve as an ending for the series. The fourth, my favorite issue, would leave us with a day in the life a two Muscovites, a cop and a gangster, struggling to keep afloat in their new reality. It would have made for a quiet, sad resolution. The fifth issue is anything but quiet, as the former rocket soldiers strike back at the people who have been manipulating events and bring the bad guys to justice. Sort of. It was certainly a more typical comic book ending, but it lacked the gravity the story seems to call for. And that brings us to the final chapter, which brings it all together for a grand finish by going back to the squad’s original purpose.

Lewis and Leon do an incredible job creating characters and an environment that seem so real you feel it must have actually been like this before Putin began his clamp down. In the end my only disappointment was that Wildstorm hadn’t put the thing out in a hard cover format. It deserves it.