This week Andy and Derek review two recent graphic novels, James Vance and Dan E. Burr’s On the Ropes (published by W.W. Norton) and Matt Kindt’s Red Handed: The Fine Art of Strange Crimes (First Second). As the Two Guys with PhDs make abundantly clear, both of these are incredible original works that are sure to end up on the guys’ year-end top ten lists. First, Andy and Derek discuss On the Ropes, a follow up to Vance and Burr’s original 1988-1989 miniseries, Kings in Disguise (Kitchen Sink Press, and latter published as a graphic novel in 1990). They discuss this earlier work, so as to set a context for the new book, and then go on to explore the ways in which On the Rope builds upon — and in some ways, even surpasses — the narrative reach of Kings in Disguise. If, as many critics have pointed out, Kings in Disguise is one of the seminal American graphic novels, then the latest collaboration between Vance and Burr is indeed a notable occasion.

Next, the Two Guys with PhDs turn their attention to Red Handed: The Fine Art of Strange Crimes, one of the most ambitious works they’ve recently encountered. They discuss in detail the ways in which this book bears the “Matt Kindt stamp,” especially in its use of fragmented storytelling, the themes of crime and intrigue, the intertextual uses Kindt makes of comics history, and the text’s metafictional play, where the work itself becomes a blueprint for the way we read comics. As Derek and Andy both point out, Kindt is definitely on an upward trajectory, with each work getting more ambitious and impressive than the previous.

The two guys wrap up with a brief summary of other things they are reading, such as 1980s Marvel comics and recent first and second issues from Image, including Sex, Lost Vegas, and Ten Grand. The jury is still out on some of those new titles.

Be sure to check out John Mayo’s monthly articles on Comic Book Resources, where he provides even more insight into the numbers.

In this week’s episode of The Comics Alternative, Andy and Derek interview acclaimed artist Rick Geary. His new book, A Treasury of Victorian Murder Compendium, Vol. 1, was recently released by NBM Publishing. In it, you’ll find some of Rick’s Victorian murder classics, such as The Crimes of Dr. E.W. Prithard, The Fatal Bullet, The Beast of Chicago, and of course Jack the Ripper. The Two Guys with PhDs talk with Rick about his line of murder story comics — Victorian era as well as 20th-century — his meticulous research when preparing for each project, his strategies for storytelling and how he frames his narratives, and his fascination with crimes and unsolved mysteries. They also ask Rick about his many adaptations — many of them published through Eureka Production’s Graphic Classics Series – translating into comics form such classics as Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, O. Henry’s “The Marionettes,” Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Copper Beeches,” and Mark Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger. Rick also talks about some of his work in other genres, including all-age comics such as Gumby and graphic biographies on the lives of Leon Trotsky and J. Edgar Hoover. All in all, Andy and Derek have a great time talking with Rick and are reminded, yet again, of why they keep gravitating back to his art again and again.

Be sure to visit Rick Geary’s website as well as that of his Treasury of Victorian Murder publisher, NBM, and Eureka’s Graphic Classics, who publishes many of Rick’s adaptations.

Are We Currently In a “Golden Age” of Comics?

This past Saturday, Free Comic Book Day, Lone Star Comics in Plano, TX, sponsored a panel discussion on the current state of American comics.  He invited a variety of individuals from different backgrounds and with different perspectives, but all participating in the field of comics in some form or another. The Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics were invited to take part in this event. Unfortunately, Andy couldn’t make it, but Derek was able to be there and provide his two or three cents. Joining Derek on the panel were Scott Fane, one of the writers from the blog Comical Musings; Chris Danger from live pop culture broadcast SCNS:Live; Brent Erwin, the Chief Operating Officer and one of the founders of Ape Entertainment; and Hunter S. Zombie, the writer of the indy title, Stillborn: The First Zombie.  Introducing the panel was Shea Hennum, the scheduling manager of Lone Star Comics in Plano and a friend of the show.  Shea got the ball rolling by asking the question, “Are we currently in a ‘golden age’ of comics?”  What followed was a series of responses to that questions, insights and observations that led down several interesting paths.

Much thanks to Rick Cromack, the manager of Lone Star Comics in Plano, for organizing this event.  And a big thank you as well to Jason Dilworth of SCNS:Live, who helped us with the recording and who captured the panel discussion on video. If you would like to see the panelists in action, in addition to listening to them, be sure to check out the SCNS:Live recording.

Hey Kids! Porn!

Despite its nefarious subtitle, this week’s episode of The Comics Alternative is all-age friendly! In it you’ll hear Andy and Derek discuss the shapely offerings in the May Previews catalog. They highlight the various sexy solicits from Dark Horse (Smoke/Ashes, The Best of Milligan and McCarthy, Sin Titulo, and Gamma), curvaceous tomes from DC/Vertigo (Batman ’66, Collider, Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril, and The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Ship That Sank Twice), come-hither titles from IDW (The Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror, Rocketeer/The Spirit: Pulp Friction!, Doctor Who, Series III, Vol. 2: The Eye of Ashaya), drool-inducing images from Image Comics (Satellite Sam, Ghoster, Sheltered, Kafka, and Masks and Mobsters), alluring visuals from Abrams (Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales, Vol. 3: The Donner Dinner Party), exotic bodies of work from Action Lab Entertainment (Molly Danger and Skyward), bodacious books from Boom! Studios (Day Men, Adventure Time: Summer Special, and Adventure Time: Candy Capers), provocative forms from Conundrum Press (Paul Joins the Scouts), voluptuous offerings from Fantagraphics (Child of Tomorrow! and Other Stories, VIP: The Mad World of Virgil Partch, and The Daniel Clowes Reader), seductive stuff from First Second (The Death of Haggard West, Genius, and Templar), inviting packages from Improper Books (Porcelain: A Gothic Fairy Tale), arousing entertainment from Oni Press (Stumptown, Vol 2, and The Strangers), and titillating titles from Top Shelf (Monster on the Hill and God Is Disappointed in You). The Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics then go off on a strange tangent involving racy manga, erotic art, and Internet porn. And they’re not proud of that fact. How did they reach this low point? You’ll have to listen to the podcast and learn that answer for yourself!

It’s the stuff that dreams are made of.

Find many of the upcoming titles mentioned on this week’s podcast at Amazon.com!

Over the last few weeks I have been writing on a variety of comic-book miniseries that have recently wrapped up. Now I want to comment on a couple of miniseries that ended a little while back, but ones that I’ve just recently finished up. They are both Vertigo titles, Sean Murphy’s Punk Rock Jesus and Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso’s Spaceman. In the past I’ve had nothing but wonderful things to say about these creators — in particular, Murphy in his illustration with Joe the Barbarian and Azzarello and Risso in their seminal work, 100 Bullets — and my current take on their latest efforts is no exception. Regarding Punk Rock Jesus, let me begin by saying that had this miniseries ended a couple of months earlier, and had I read it then, it would have probably been on my “Top 10 of 2012″ list that we discussed on The Comics Alternative back in December. This comic had a fascinating and timely premise, the narrative was executed well throughout, the momentum of the series never flagged, and the art was (of course) phenomenal. It’s the perfect example of what we’ve come to expect from Vertigo, and what we get most of the time: a sophisticated and mature story that pushes the boundaries of comics narrative. The book follows two primary figures. Chris, the “Jesus Clone,” born of Gwen Fairling through her participation in the J2 Project — a reality show coordinating the impregnation and birth, and later broadcasting the day-to-day life, of a boy cloned from the DNA supposedly found in the Shroud of Turin — and Thomas McKael, an man from Belfast whose parents were killed when he was just a young boy during the conflicts in Northern Ireland. Both lives are shaped largely by corrupt belief systems: Chris’s by the cynical attempt to cash in on evangelical millennialism, and Thomas’s by the bloody crossroads of religion and politics. And with these two trajectories, Murphy constructs a scathing indictment of contemporary religious culture. He’s not attacking religious belief, as you may find in the comedy of Bill Maher, but the systems surrounding those beliefs. The J2 Project, overseen by media conman Rick Slate (an unsettling figure who would be right at home on Fox News), plays on the religiously sensitive gullibilities of the (primarily American) public that is only too eager to buy into the faith-based huskterism that Slate is feeding them. Equally disturbing is the New American Christians, a band of evangelical ideologues who come awfully close to the boundaries of terrorism. They are almost the American version of the IRA that has largely shaped, and nearly destroyed, the life of Thomas. While the New American Christians do not engage in the outright violence that took place in Northern Ireland, one can see how its tactics and philosophies could easily lead to such an outcome. Money, power, and ideological purity are the driving forces behind this miniseries, and caught up in the middle is Chris Fairling, his naive mother Gwen, and the quietly manipulative Dr. Sarah Epstein.  In fact, Epstein is arguably the most developed character in Punk Rock Jesus.  She is obviously the more “anchored” representative of science in this religious maelstrom, but her hands are not without dirt. Throughout the narrative we see her make moral compromises with a view on the long game. As a result, she stands in stark contrast to the hard-line fanatics of both money (Rick Slate) and faith (the New American Christians) and challenges us to put ourselves into her shoes. The “Jesus Clone” Chris, although the center of the story, doesn’t come across as dynamic as Epstein, nor does he have as much depth. We sympathize with him, and rightly so, given the environment he grows up and the abuses he undergoes. But Chris reacts as I would expect him to, playing up his part in the “second coming” as a youth and then embracing punk rebellion when everything turns sour. He’s interesting and conflicted, but he doesn’t underscore the moral dilemma that we find in Dr. Epstein. My one reservation about Punk Rock Jesus comes in the closing panels of the miniseries. I won’t give away any spoilers, but I will say that it involves Rick Slate and his comeuppance. It’s a little too neat. Still, all in all, this was an incredible miniseries, and the new collected volume is a nice edition, containing a few sketches and unpublished illustrations.

A different kind of miniseries, and a longer one, is Azzarello and Risso’s Spaceman.  This comic has the same dark, gritty tone that’s the creators’ hallmark, the kind found in Jonny Double, Batman: Knight of Vengeance, and of course the team’s pièce de résistance, 100 Bullets. The smoky atmosphere, the sexy lips and cleavage, the shadowy panels, the violent action, and the brightly lit eyes and teeth illuminating the dark (part of Risso’s style) are all there. This is the story of Orson, one of the Neanderthal- or ape-looking humans genetically engineered specifically for exploration on Mars — thus, his nickname “Spaceman” — and who is now a forgotten, down and out, and even persecuted relic from the past. His friends are various kids, scruffy and street smart, and he inadvertently gets caught up in a kidnapping scheme involving a famous media and reality TV couple with a large adopted brood. (Think Brad and Angelina crossed with Jon & Kate Plus 8…as repulsive as that might sound.) He takes the kidnapped girl, Tara, under his care and looks out for her in a way she hasn’t experienced before. Filling out this noir narrative — and it very much fits into the noir mold — is a couple of no-nonsense detectives on the case of the kidnapping, a series of seamy  figures out to make a fast buck on the media frenzy surrounding the kidnapping, and an unscrupulous mobster bankrolling the chaos. Woven throughout the nine-issue miniseries are flashbacks to Orson’s Mars expedition, where he undergoes the trials of passage with his “brothers,” the other spacemen bred for this very purpose. Indeed, one of the central figures in that expedition, Carter, becomes the catalyst in Orson’s current ordeals. This is a great narrative and a perfect example, along with Punk Rock Jesus, of the kind of comics Vertigo does best. In fact, Spaceman is like Murphy’s miniseries in many ways. Both revolve around innocent figures who undergo persecution brought about through lies and manipulations, and both texts are an indictment of current media — especially reality TV — culture. Murphy’s targets are more apparent, and his writing more polemical, whereas Azzarello’s futuristic tale relies more on action and sensationalism to propel the story. But both are thought provoking and complex narratives and are well worth reading. I haven’t yet seen the hardbound deluxe edition which came out back in November, and I wonder what kind of new material it might have. The book collects not only the nine issues of the miniseries, but the prologue that originally appeared in Strange Adventures, one of Vertigo’s recent series of anthologies, back in July 2011. When I originally read the piece in Strange Adventures, I assumed that the upcoming series would be a sic-fi narrative. But although much of the story bears the conventional markings of science fiction, it’s much more noir — Azzarello’s forte — than anything. In that sense, it’s right up my alley.

One final word. Both Spaceman and Punk Rock Jesus are shining examples of what Vertigo can do and how much we need its titles. With the recent departure of Karen Berger as Vergito’s Executive Editor and Senior Vice President, along with the wrap up or cancelations of certain Vertigo titles, there were speculations, including those Andy and I voiced on The Comics Alternative, that the imprint might be in trouble. However, given the several new titles announced over the past three months — including The Wake, Astro City, 100 Bullets: Brother Lono, Collider, and Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril (despite the fact that most of these are revisits to older property) – I feel more hopeful.

Free Comic Book Day!

Free Comic Book Day was Saturday, May 4th, and the Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics were at Lone Star Comics in Plano, TX.  They spoke with staff and customers about what FCBD titles people were getting, which ones were going quickly, what was in some of their FCBD issues, and how publishers were making the best of this annual event.  Along the way they talked with a variety of folks, including aspiring comics writer Nick Bridwell, Jess from Rainbow Runners, Chris Danger from SCNS:Live (also on-location at Lone Star Comics), and of course their ol’ friend and the scheduling manager of the Plano Lone Star Comics, Shea Hennum.  (A young comics fan in a cool Superman outfit almost came by to talk with Andy and Derek, but he was spooked out at the last minute by Chris from SCNS:Live.)  The shop was packed with customers, and as a result, the Plano location of Lone Star Comics surpassed its previous single-day sales record!  On top of that, the city’s mayor, Phil Dyer, worked with the shop to declare May 4, 2013 official “Free Comic Book Day” in the city of Plano.  Later in the day, there was a panel discussion held at the store, including contributions from bloggers, podcasters, local artists, and publishers.  All of that and some damned good comics.  What  more could one ask for on FCBD? Listen to this special “Point One” episode and experience the fun!

This is the big box the Artist’s Edition came in.  You can tell by the “Artist’s Edition” label.

The book in its box.

To give you a sense of size, this is the Artist’s Edition next to a pen and The Spirit Archives, Volume 1.

Also to give a sense of size: the Artist’s Edition next to Derek’s Old English Sheepdog, Chester. (Right after this picture was taken, Chester, with his perpetually wet mouth, shook his head and got moister on the book.  Derek wasn’t happy.)

The Table of Contents.

The splash page of the famous “The Story of Gerhard Shnobble,” originally published September 5, 1948.

First two story pages from “Gerhard Shnobble.”

Final pages of “Gerhard Shnobble.”

First page of the story “Happy New Year,” published December 31, 1950.  Eisner’s assistant at the time, Jules Feiffer, wrote the script for this one. It’s Feiffer’s metafictional fantasy about taking over The Spirit from Eisner.

Next two pages of “Happy New Year.”

The character Skinny Bones.  Yowza!  No one can draw a sexy femme fatale like Will Eisner.

]]> http://comicsalternative.com/2013/05/02/episode-35-bonus/feed/ 0 http://comicsalternative.com/2013/05/01/episode-35/ http://comicsalternative.com/2013/05/01/episode-35/#comments Wed, 01 May 2013 21:13:27 +0000 Admin http://comicsalternative.com/?p=1807 …