“The Winter Men” is a patchwork quilt of observations and red herrings that takes the spy thriller to new heights of eccentric fun. It’s one of those stories that starts out about being one thing and ends up embracing everything. Meet Kris Kalenov, the main character in “The Winter Men,” he is your guide into the underworld and beyond. It’s a new world order since the collapse of the Soviet Union and Kalenov is no longer a star player in a Soviet secret weapons program. He has become a Moscow cop, usually full of vodka and, at the start of this tale, is keeled over drunk on a sidewalk covered in snow.

I did not discover “The Winter Men” when it was a comic book but, considering it’s production delays, including its switchover from Vertigo to Wildstorm, it’s understandable that it  somehow slipped by me. Luckily, I did not have to experience any long waits between issues and got to read this new collected trade in one sitting. This is a good read anytime and anywhere but I also see it as perfect inflight reading. Aren’t spy thrillers very popular in airport bookstores? I believe this to be so. It’s because you’re out of your element and open to adventure.

One big thing about “The Winter Men” is that it gets you way out of your element. It’s like “Goodfellas,” one of the best movies about gang life, all about wiseguys and getting whacked. “The Winter Men,” is all about Russia’s new Mafiya and its biznessmen and getting under the right roof. There’s also something akin to “Watchmen” going on in the background, a uber-man that was once the pride of Mother Russia, but it’s Kalenov and his rough and shady bunch, that will have you delight over this convoluted plot as you would in, say, an Elmore Leonard novel.

“The Winter Men” has a real attitude about it too. It promises the world, heroically keeps up with its ambition and, if it falters, shrugs like a good world-weary Russian. Kalenov, our drunk Moscow cop who once was so much more, would prefer to just live quietly and make do with his less than perfect marriage. But too much has happened in the past and it can’t be ignored. “We once filled the sky with heroes…but now they’ve fallen to earth…” That is an intriguing refrain that is looped throughout the book. Within the span of the first few pages: hints of the Soviet super-hero program, a woman is shot, a child is kidnapped and Kalenov is picked up from the snow and enlisted to solve the crime of the century, although he doesn’t know that yet.

All this reminds me of any number of very good television series that, from the narrative, the characters and the production value, are clearly a cut above. And these shows usually make big promises and it’s okay if they don’t deliver on all of them since it’s the world that the characters inhabit that’s most rewarding. I think of shows like, “Life on Mars,” at least the American version, or “Life” or “Dollhouse.” In fact, it’s interesting to consider if these shows would have done better in finding an audience if they were less about process and more about results but, then again, these shows are primarily about attitude. The promises they make, real or not, can be legitimate fuel for the story’s engine.

Another connection to “Watchmen,” I think, is the group of heroes that Kalenov originally belonged to. Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, the line-up is recalled by Kalenov in a regular loop throughout the book: Drost, the soldier; Nikki, the gangster; Nina, the bodyguard; Kalenov, the poet; for a total of four, or five, if you include The Siberian. There’s even a sepia toned photograph of the gang in much happier times: Nikki has just told a joke and it has The Siberian in stitches. Along with the irony, it’s those details, the atmosphere and texture that this book thrives on.

There are a couple of scenes that come to mind. And, like everything else here, the writer and artist team of Brett Lewis and John Paul Leon tackle it with gusto. One has Kalenov and Nikki creating a disturbance in a McDonald’s so that they can unbolt from the floor a plastic table and chairs console to take home. The employee desperately tries to convince an irate Kalenov that the mayonnaise does adhere to city regulations with “well above the forty percent fat requirement.” Another good one has Nikki in the middle of a full-on turf war with other soft drink vendors. Informing the mayhem and murder are quotes from a self-help best-seller like, “Lose Control to the Maximum.”

Perhaps your reading of “The Winter Men” will find it keeping to all its promises and even holding the answer to the meaning to life. God knows, it is certainly within its reach. If you find fault, some blame, maybe a good bit of it, can go to the fact the series was cut from a promised eight issues down to six. There are parts to the story that do appear truncated. And the ending does seem to come all too quickly. However, the fact remains that this comic is really about the quirk and it’s all there for you to enjoy.

“The Winter Men” collected trade releases on November 25.

Hope you enjoyed this installment of Comics Grinder and I welcome you back for more. You can always check in too at the Comics Grinder site.

Hans Rickheit’s “The Squirrel Machine,” published by Fantagraphics Books, is a beautiful 179 page hard cover graphic novel. It is an appropriate book to start out this new column since it sets the tone for the type of offbeat work that attracts me and I hope will interest you. The story involves two brothers who desire to build wondrous things but are destined to create monstrous gadgets made from animals.

Rickheit’s world of self-published works, notably the series, “Chrome Fetus Comics,” and the graphic novel, “Chloe,” follow the internal logic of dreams and do well by it. In “The Squirrel Machine,” a magical reality confronting a mundane reality leads to a lot of very real bumps and bruises. Edmund, for instance, may rely on a pair of goggles to filter out the world but does not fully realize how odd he looks to all the other schoolchildren, especially the bullies. It’s the turn of the last century, and while amazing technological advancements lie ahead, Edmund and his brother, William, are doomed to be grotesquely out of step.

The things that seem the most curious and promising may ultimately be the things best left alone. That is a line of reasoning Edmund and William refuse to follow. They are dreamers but do not know they are guided by nightmares. The Squirrel Machine, whatever it is, has its own needs and is certainly not going to tell these boys what’s good for them. Much is left to mystery in this book. We can let Rickheit’s exquisite drawings, with their ornate detail and patterning, speak for themselves. Down to separate panels, the art provides little gems of its own storytelling as in a notable scene of two lovers covered in snails.

“The Squirrel Machine” defies easy categorization, but I’d venture to say, “steampunk surrealism.” This is for mature readers as well as discriminating ones. And it’s also for those who love a good coming-of-age story. Edmund woos the local beauty by the most unconventional of means. William falls madly in love with the Pig Lady. Each will take a turn that will twist the fate of the other. The mundane won’t accept them and yet the magical is no more reliable. Very romantic and strange at the same time, like any good coming-of-age tale. Primarily, this is adult, dark and disturbing work provided to you in healthy doses.

You can purchase “The Squirrel Machine” from Fantagraphics Books and make sure to check out the marvelous Squirrel Machine site. You can find Comics Grinder here every Wednesday. And for further observations, you can always go to the Comics Grinder site.

Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer

Written by Van Jensen

Drawn by Dustin Higgins

Published by Slave Labor Graphics

Who knew Pinocchio was such a badass? Well, he is in this 128 page graphic novel. Just released in time for Halloween, “Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer” is a treat combining horror and humor. This isn’t coming from the Disney “Pinocchio” either but a far more earthy version in keeping with the original 1883 tale by Carlo Collodi.

This Pinocchio has a sort of Scott Pilgrim energy to it. When his father/maker, Geppetto, is killed by vampires, that seals the deal: a wooden puppet vampire slayer is born. All he has to do is tell some lies, watch his nose grow and then snap it off to instantly dispatch any blood sucker. And if he needs back up, there’s always his faithful surrogate dad, the other carpenter, Master Cherry. With his own modified machine gun, “The Monsterminator,” he’ll get anything that might try to get away. And no cute cricket in a top hat here. This cricket gets routinely stomped on within an inch of its life.

Dustin Higgins sure knows how to create a world. His live wire brush work is crooked, jaggy and sharp. The buildings themselves have character. And he is certainly in tune with Van Jensen’s writing as each balances the laughs with the spooky stuff. Within this world, tension mounts and the vampires do feel like a real threat.

Speaking of Scott Pilgrim, there are hints that we may see more of a growing boy’s life in future installments. In this first book, Pinocchio is caught in a bashful moment as he chats it up with a girl he is sweet on. But, of course, he is mostly concerned with killing vampires.

By the end of the book, there have been a whole lot of changes and a whole lot of issues dealt with so it will be interesting to see what happens next. “P:VS”  began as a one panel gag by Higgins and was transformed by Jensen into a full-fledged serious, yet funny, work.  One thing is for sure, the creative team of Van Jensen and Dustin Higgins are two to keep an eye on. You can pick up a copy here.

I’m just going to go ahead and say it: I think X-Men: Misfits Vol. 1 (Del Rey Manga) is the single best X-Men story I’ve experienced since Grant Morrison brought his run on New X-Men to a close.

Writers Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman and artist Anzu have a lot of definite advantages over the creators toiling away in Marvel Comics’ X-Men mines, of course—they’re not beholden to decades worth of continuity or the designs and characterizations of other creators, and they don’t have to line-up what they’re doing with what, say, the people over in the Avengers office are up to that month.

In this manga-style “remix” of the X-Men (to use the back of the book’s own word for this particular sort of reimagining), the creators are free to take whatever core concepts they think work best, and rebuild the X-Men franchise from the ground up as they see fit. They do an incredible job, and it was downright uncanny how they managed to make the X-Men into something that seemed completely new while still retaining much of their essential je ne X quoi.

Telgemeir and Roman retain the deep adolescent appeal of the mutants as stand-ins for kids who feel awkward, persecuted or alone (but, it turns out, are actually much more special than anyone else), and, if anything,  broaden the appeal beyond the normal metaphors and make it feel a little more universal.

They also retain basic elements that worked well from throughout the various eras of the comics: Xavier and Magneto’s differing views on on how humans and mutants relate, school-as-superhero team, Kitty Pryde as point-of-view character, and so on.

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On Wednesday, I was fortunate to catch the tail end of the ICv2 conference as well as take a first look at the convention floor. As they say, it’s all about the fans. And that often means it’s all about the money. Seeing so many people at Comic-Con with giant bags of swag, standing in so many lines, desperation in the eyes of some, waiting for a chance to win something or buy something, I could clearly see money as the dominant theme: those who make it and those who spend it.

So, before being part of the human comedy that is SDCC, it was nice to listen to a few elite voices plot out what they think will motivate the fans. ICv2 is a consulting firm in the service of those trying to sell something to the fans. The conference was meant to tell it like it is about market trends. For my money, the star of the last panel was Jeff Katz, a Hollywood exec (Snakes On A Plane) turned comics writer (DC Comics’ Booster Gold) who led off with a two guns firing declaration that Hollywood is no fool and it knows how to chase down money and the money is in comics. Katz, looking like a hyperactive Kevin Smith, went on to rally for all those good-natured, well-meaning, creators who feel powerless in dealing with corporate interests. “The secret is that they need us more than we need them. The corporate balls are exposed and you should feel free to squeeze!”

Katz, who runs his own company, American Original, was beside himself in forecasting further profit in comics in a big way. He didn’t say exactly how a lone creator overcomes and succeeds but the general idea was to control what is yours. This is where Top Cow’s Matt Hawkins stepped in with more straight talk, “Don’t take the money. Don’t sell you soul for $25,000 when your title could make millions over time.”

Once I was out on the convention floor, observing the fans, as a mass of humanity, out for the next shiny bauble, they seemed totally at the mercy of the various corporate interests, utterly powerless. Of course, they really are not. Just like those good-natured, well-meaning, creators, the fans have more power than they probably realize. As Jeff Katz would advise, if the corporate balls are hanging, the fan should not hesitate to squeeze.

Phil Yeh holds a unique place in the comics community not only as a comics creator (he’s been called, “the godfather of the American graphic novel”) but as a prominent activist for promoting literacy through comics. He’s been around for quite awhile, going back to the very first San Diego Comic-Con in 1970. Phil is a passionate, colorful, and outspoken voice in comics and, as I head out to SDCC, he’s someone who can definitely help take stock of things.

Blog@Newsarama: Phil, I’d like to start by focusing on the San Diego Comic-Con and branch out from there. You have been very active in comics over the years and you go back to the first San Diego Comic-Con. Can you tell us about your earliest experiences with what started out as a modest comics convention?

Phil Yeh: I was a 15 year old kid growing up in one of the toughest neighborhoods in Los Angeles near Watts.  I knew a couple of kids in my area who read and maybe even “collected” comics with a passion but most of us just read comics very infrequently.  Sports was the big thing for most of my friends.  But I managed to see this tiny ad in a DC comic book about a convention at the US Grant Hotel in 1970 and asked my dad to drive me down.  My sister Kathy went with me too as I recall.  The funny thing is I actually was published in DC Comics that same year.  I sent this idea in for a promo cartoon that Henry Boltinoff did and my name got in print and I had this check from National Periodical Publications for $5.  My first and last check from DC Comics who I am sure must appreciate my role later in helping Jerry and Joe get some money for Superman.

Anyway, I went to the convention at the U.S. Grant hotel and met two of the greats in that room with maybe 300 people.  Ray Bradbury had always been one of my favorite writers, I never read many comics as a kid or now, but I love to read books.  Classics especially but some living authors too and Bradbury was a big deal to me and even now.  I told Ray that I wanted to be a writer but I had problems in school with spelling and grammar and didn’t know if I could become a writer.  He told me that there were editors to correct those things and that I really should just do what I loved.

I then walked up to this giant of a man in our comic book industry and who, to me at 15, was a GIANT and told him that I wanted to become a comic book artist.  Jack Kirby in reality was not that tall of a man but, to this 15 year kid from the ghetto, he was HUGE.  Jack smiled and told me to just do it.  “If you want to draw then you should draw and if you want to tell stories, just tell stories. ”

Both Ray and Jack made this seem so very easy and that fall I would start my own publishing company and never look back.
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Did you have your fill from yesterday’s news of the first look at Scarlett Johanssen as the Black Widow?

Well, Paul Cornell of Captain Britain fame, along with Dark Avengers: Hawkeye artist Tom Raney, have some news that’ll make die-hard fans of the Soviet spymistress up a wall — Black Widow: Deadly Origin.

Cornell told the LA Times that his take on the character is that she is the world’s most experienced spy, honing her martial arts skills while having her body in prime condition for more than 50 years.

Yet the hook of this book will be that every man that Natasha has ever kissed — be it Iron Man, Hercules, or Daredevil — is now vulnerable to a “technological curse” which only she can foil. The four-issue miniseries is due out this November.

Posy Simmonds’s critically-acclaimed, Eisner-nominated comic Tamara Drewe will be turned into a movie by director Stephen Frears, The Guardian reports.

The director of The Queen and The Grifters is reported to have cast former Bond girl and St Trinian’s graduate Gemma Arterton as the title character, a newspaper columnist whose recent nose job transforms her into a seductive flirt, to the chagrin of the quiet village’s womenfolk. Tamsin Greig and Roger Allam are also said to be attached to the project.

Simmonds’s strip ran in the Guardian’s Review section between September 2005 and October 2007 before being collected in a graphic novel. The tragicomic story was inspired by a piece of classic fiction – Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd; likewise her earlier serialised cartoon, Gemma Bovery, took Flaubert’s Madame Bovary as its template.

Frears’ most recent project was also based on a popular work of French literature: Colette’s Chéri novels, which he turned into a film starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Friend.

Frears was nominated for an Oscar for The Queen and The Grifters and has shown admirable range as a director. Just another indication, I suppose, that the words “comic book movie” don’t have to be synonymous with “big dumb blockbuster,” but can also be linked to “serious film with art-house creds.” If The Dark Knight didn’t completely kill those stereotypes, perhaps a Tamara Drewe movie will put another nail in their coffin.

Following the success of the “Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels” academic conference, Boston University doctoral student, comics scholar and comic creator A. David Lewis has been granted a Library Acquisitions Award to create a new “Religion and Graphica” collection at the university.

The collection, which will contain works like MAUS, Persepolis, and Sandman (and one assumes, Preacher and Testament, two of my personal favorites), will be part of the School of Theology Library (OK, maybe Preacher won’t be appropriate).

According to the press release, this will be the first library collection devoted exclusively to the study of comics, and it comes in a religion department. This might seem odd, though I’ve had conversations before about the similarity of comics to religion, particularly superhero comics. They’re fables, archetypal stories that give us advice on how to live our lives, as well as part of a weekly routine–the Wednesday trip to the comic shop. Comics are reassuring, and fans often are very resistant to change in their books or their routine.

Of course, there are many brilliant graphic works that deal very directly with religion. Which ones would you suggest the library, which has already started purchasing, not miss?

Scarlett Takes Manhattan

by Molly Crabapple and John Leavitt

48 pages, trade paperback, $12.95 US

Published by Fugu Press

Due out in July, Pre-Order thru Amazon

Sweet and naughty, Scarlett Takes Manhattan is an assured sexy romp through Victorian New York with the beautiful Scarlett on a journey of self-discovery. Warren Ellis calls it, “disgustingly wonderful.” Coming from the creator of some pretty sexy stuff, like Anna Mercury, you have to wonder what he means. Well, this book is absolutely erotically charged and delightfully so. Molly Crabapple has a deep love for her subject matter, vaudeville, erotica, comics, and it shows. Her evolution as an artist, with her illustration work and with Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School Cabaret, leads her to a successful first graphic novel. 

Two glasses of cocktails with cherries looking very much like boobs on page one prepares us for what lies ahead. We next find Scarlett in bed with her lover as she tells the story of her life. It all begins quite innocently enough as a girl from the slums, Shifra Helfgott, eighteen and sexually curious, goes to the city to see a circus parade. She witnesses two elephants copulating which foretells her life’s path mixing sex with show business.

This is the 1880s and so opportunities are slim to none for Shifra, poor, uneducated and orphaned. As a charwoman, she learns that providing sexual favors can help ease her life. It’s then that she crosses paths with theatre impressario, Daniel D’Lovely. She discovers her sexual appeal on stage and Daniel’s secret once they become lovers. In time, she realizes she’ll need to develop a talent in order to remain relevant in vaudeville. This leads to her becoming the star fire-eater, Scarlett O’Herring. 

Shifra’s transformation into Scarlett is handled with sensitivity. As the character gains more control over her life, she becomes more complex as well as more conniving. She reahes a point where she must choose between her friends and betraying them for even greater power and wealth. Here is where the story tackles a little politics and gives us a taste of the corruption of the times with a hint at how little has changed. We also further explore the unique relationship between Daniel and Scarlett and whether they can remain loyal to each other no matter how their lives evolve.

In the end, Scarlett Takes Manhattan maintains a nice head of steam. Nothing too heavy here. What is remarkable is Molly Crabapple’s approach. Considering how sex is portrayed in comics, let alone all media, it is refreshing how Crabapple maintains our interest by celebrating sex rather than exploiting it. What else would you expect from a cartoonist who appreciates toasted marshmallow milkshakes?

Maybe his illustration for the cover to The Lord of the Flies is permanently etched in your memory. Or perhaps you know him from his work with Neil Gaiman in The Sandman: Endless Nights. Barron Storey has been around for quite awhile creating amazing art and now it’s time for a retrospective.

Life After Black: The Visual Journals of Barron Storey is on display at the Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators. Covering a span of 30 years, the exhibit covers a selection of Storey’s 143 journals. The show runs from June 10 through July 31, 2009.

These journals provide a unique opportunity to see original work from a graphic narrative unfolding over many years. As Barron Storey puts it, “I do them for me but they are for you too. It’s the illustrator in me. They’ve been seen by a lot of people in my travels, but never like this.”

Barron Storey will be in attendance on June 12 for the opening reception. And he will deliver a lecture at the Society of Illustrators on June 16 at 6:30pm. In conjunction with the exhibit the Society has partnered with Materials For The Arts to provide journal making workshops on June 8 and June 15.

This exhibit features original art and journals as seen in the book, Life After Black and The Marat/Sade Journals. Work from “Despair” in The Sandman: Endless Nights will also be on display.

Barron Storey’s work has appeared in Time, National Geographic, The Saturday Review and his work is permanently on display at the National Air and Space Museum, The American Museum of Natural History and the National Portrait Gallery. He continues to inspire others as an illustrator, graphic novelist and noted educator. His work has influenced many artists in comics including Bill Sinkiewicz and Dave McKean.

Ghost Comics

An anthology edited by Ed Choy Moorman

176 pages, 6″ x 9″, $10 US

www.edsdeadbody.com

There is so much good stuff emerging from the MoCCA Comics Arts Festival and here is one fine example: Ghost Comics, an anthology to benefit RS Eden, an agency for changing lives in Minnesota. Put together by Ed Choy Moorman, this book recently won a Xeric Grant.

One standout is Evan Palmer’s story, “The Trials of Sir Goodnight.” The sharp clean lines and details are very impressive, especially the panel that cuts to the severed head of the beast. The anthology bio section mentions that Palmer does background drawings for Vertigo’s The Unwritten. What a cool gig for a recent art school grad!

Another must-see is Kevin Cannon’s “The Architecturons” which is, you guessed it, a parody of The Transformers made up to be super-powered architecture. This is the one piece that stretches the ghost theme to the most absurd level.

If I were to do a ghost theme comic, I’d go with something about ghosts from our former selves. Some contributors agree such as Lucy Knisley’s “Unlearning Curve” where she looks back on life in her teens. It’s a nice piece by the creator of the celebrated, French Milk. I also liked Will Dinski’s “Mind-Mapping” which follows the struggles of a man haunted by the ghosts of past mistakes and mishaps.

A couple of melancholy pieces that work well include Jeffrey Brown’s “Great Ghosts.” His page is a nice example of what he does best: showing how awkward and disconnected we can be when that’s the last thing we really want to be. Ed Choy Moorman’s “Dear Dave” is on a similar track complete with playlist.

And then there are a couple that really spooked me. One is John Hankiewicz’s “The  Offering” which you’ve got to read over until you’re ready to move on. Set in a church just off the highway, a young man peers at a very strange ritual throughout the night.

The other particularly eerie tale is Hob’s “The Witness” which might make a beautiful answer to whatever happened to Winsor McCay’s Gertie, the Dinosaur. It is certainly full of that type of wonderment. For fans of Hob, this finds him in true form.

And props to Allegra Lockstadt for such an awesome cover illustration.

Woman King

Written and Drawn by Colleen Frakes

88 pages, 5.5″ x 5.5″, $7 US

www.iknowjoekimpel.com

www.tragicrelief.blogspot.com

Here is a quintessential comic from MoCCA making its debut this year: Colleen Frake’s Woman King, a continuation on her take on fables and myth. Since her Xeric winning Tragic Relief, her work has gotten sharper and the scope of her storytelling keeps getting more complex. A recent graduate of the Center for Cartoon Studies, Frakes finds herself coming into her own with Woman King giving us a distinctive style and vision.

This is a hero myth turned on its head about the nature of war. In the middle of this is a girl being raised by wild bears. The bears are depicted as normally fun-loving gentle creatures who are led by one bear to rid the forest of abusive humans. Well, all humans, actually, except for the girl.

There is a fascinating internal logic at play in Woman King. The bear leader’s message is kill or be killed. The girl, a sort of Patty Hearst among terrorist bears, is becoming wiser to her surroundings, finding evidence that the bears are no better than the humans, but her sympathies remain with the bears. In one sense, I am intrigued mostly by the relentless telling of this tale. The characters are so vividly rendered and the pacing is spot on. But, to be sure, there is a satisfying ending to this thoughtful little tale.

Last week, the Houston Chronicle reviewed Drawn & Quarterly’s new edition of 32 Stories: The Complete Optic Nerve Mini-Comics and Shortcomings, both by the excellent Adrian Tomine. It’s not a bad little piece, especially from the Chronicle, whose motto is “Yeah, we suck, but we’re the only paper in town, so eat it, Houston”. The introductory sentence is the best part:

Hand Adrian Tomine a business card and a pen, and he can sketch out a fully realized narrative on the back.

I’m afraid I have to call shenanigans on that one. Therefore, I will give an entire long box full of Valiant, Malibu, and CrossGen comics to anyone that can produce a business card with a fully-realized, original comic story by Adrian Tomine. No cheating, either; I know what Freytag’s Pyramid looks like. I want the whole works: exposition; rising action; climax; falling action; and a denouement.

Yesterday Ultimate Spider-Man #133, the very last issue of the nine-year-old ongoing series, shipped. I don’t think I could have been more disappointed and unhappy with the way it ended if I turned to the last page and Brian Michael Bendis himself somersaulted out of the book, punched me in the stomach, and then magically disappeared with my wallet.

I wasn’t disappointed because the work in the comic itself was sub-par, and this piece isn’t really a review anyway (though it sure is long; if I were you I’d skip it entirely), and I wasn’t all that terribly disappointed that the series had come to an end, although I’ve greatly enjoyed reading it over the last almost-a-decade, and have long considered it one of the best super-comics being produced regularly.

Rather I was disappointed because of the way that it ended, as it seemed antithetical to the way it began and the way it was for most of its long existence, and the available evidence seems to point towards the next incarnation of a Bendis-written Spider-Man with the word “Ultimate” in the title remaining antithetical to the Ultimate Spider-Man that was.

When the book launched in 2000, and the Ultimate line with it, the concept sounded simple enough, even if it was perceived as risky from Marvel’s perspective (and the perspective of plenty of industry watchers).

As good as any Marvel comic book might be, as naturally interested as any potential reader might be in reading a Marvel comic, they’re going to have to contend with decades worth of continuity, spread across thousands and thousands of pages of comics collected in hundreds of trades. Even if the books are made as accessible as possible, and are perfectly new-reader friendly, their age and the perception of impenetrability, of having missed the boat, will keep new readers away.

So instead of ignoring these potential new readers, who are going to have their interest in Marvel comics primed by the Hollywood movies that were then just about to enter their boom period, why not create a whole new line for them? Why not reboot the Marvel Universe, keeping everything about the characters and scenarios that was more or less timeless, but updating them so they were of the 21st rather than the mid-20th century, and applying modern creative sensibilities?

Looking at the numbers available to those of us who don’t work for Marvel, I don’t know how well it worked. Perhaps not as well as Marvel might have hoped (That is, it’s not like one-in-three people who saw the Spider-Man movies bought a subscription to Ultimate Spider-Man or anything). But anecdotally, I know from personal experience it worked. Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men were my gateway comics into the Marvel Universe and the Marvel line, as I know they were for others, and, for a couple years at least, I associated the Ultimate brand-name with good comics I could confidently read without worrying I’d feel like I walked in on the middle of the movie.
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The Hound of the Baskervilles

Adapted by Ian Edginton, Illustrated by I.N.J. Culbard

144 pages, Full color, published by SelfMadeHero

I’ve done some sleuthing and have found the graphic novel to enjoy amid the hightened interest in Sherlock Holmes generated by two upcoming major motion pictures. That book is SelfMadeHero’s  The Hound of the Baskervilles. Check out their whole line up of classics including Manga Shakespeare!

It shouldn’t matter but I love the fact that the offices of SelfMadeHero are just a few doors down from where the original author of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, lived and worked. That close proximity must have added to the drive to create something special and these guys have done it.

This is no cut and paste transfer from prose novel to graphic novel. Instead, it is in tune with the comics medium. Holmes is a dynamic presence with a prominent cartoony chin and without the deerstalker cap and calabash pipe. Watson is also his own man in comics with wavy hair and a smart rugged mug.

I.N.J. Culbard’s art brings every character to life with his well placed brush strokes. An expressive mark across the face, from brow to cheekbone, is his trademark. The comics have a spare quality combined with a nice eye for essential details. The living quarters of Holmes and Watson set the tone for the book which is grounded in solid layouts and interesting textures.

Edginton does a beautiful job of reworking the prose novel’s many nuanced observations. In the original novel, for instance, Watson can linger upon how the foggy moor is far more suitable for prehistoric rather than modern people. A well-crafted sentence and image, in the graphic novel, does well to replace the prose novel’s longer digression.

Together, Culbard and Edginton give us a true comics adaptation of this famous murder mystery surrounding a phantom creature in the Devonshire moor. It is a wonderful tribute to a book that was a Harry Potter sensation in its day. When it first came out in 1901 as a serialized story in The Strand Magazine, long lines awaited each installment. And more than just a tribute, this graphic novel is a cool and fun read too.

Senator Kelly and William Stryker will be furious to hear the news.

The Onion reports that President Obama has vetoed the Mutant Registration Act:

I personally think this is a pretty good thing.

I mean, it’s not like mutantkind is building an army in San Francisco, or creating black ops killer teams that could potentially rend the space-time continuum, right? Right??

That said, I’m hoping Obama’s act doesn’t open up worser things for mutantkind. Time will tell, right?

Old Man Winter and Other Sordid Tales

Written and Drawn by J. T. Yost

56 pages, 6 5/8″ x 10 1/4″, $6.95 US

www.birdcagebottombooks.com

An old man in the inner city living a lonely and desolate existence not much removed from the young people he tries to befriend is the lumpy little frame that J.T. Yost hangs his social commentary on. The old man, quite an unlikely hero, is up to the task and shines with humor and character in this Xeric Grant winning comics collection, Old Man Winter and Other Sordid Tales.

Yost states that the old man character is loosely based on a customer who frequents the art supply store where he works. Having worked in an art supply store myself (mandatory or inevitable for many an artist), I appreciate the details and cadences captured here: the monotony and need to create stories out of anything around you.

Within just a few panels, Yost brings to life a little drama taking place in the space of a couple of neighborhood blocks. Down to the pigeons and flies lingering over a garbage bag, a perfect gritty tale is told. A new tale that sets the tone for other previously published works.

“Old Man Winter”  leads you to “All is Forgiven,” a tale about the abuses of lab animals. A bit heavy-handed for some and probably spot-on for just as many, the actual story and execution is credible. The same can be said for a story about the darker side of circus life which has solid design sense. “Roadtrip,” a tale about the abuses of the meat industry, proves disturbing but it is also a masterful interplay of the story of a girl and the fate of a cow.

“Logging Sanjay” is the other story in this book based directly from life. As the title suggests, someone is the victim of something. Set in rural Georgia, this is a confessional of sorts about two teens who repeatedly torment another teen they call their friend. The character development is engaging. Yost has a way with bringing out the more animalistic qualities of humans that is very effective.

If there is one message Yost would want to make clear it is that we humans are more like animals than we’d care to admit. For more on J.T. Yost, please read on to my interview here at Newsarama.  

J.T. Yost recently won a Xeric Grant for his book, Old Man Winter and Other Sordid Tales. He is an emerging talent with a lot to say. For those of you interested in how one cartoonist on the rise, out in Brooklyn, keeps it together, read on.

Blog@Newsarama: I appreciate all the stories in your collection. Each is different, created at different times, but part of a whole as it came together for this book. Your vision appears to be to look at life head-on and expose the truth. Is that the voice you intended for your book?

J.T. Yost: With the exception of “Old Man Winter”, all of these stories were created within a framework of “rules”. For instance, “All Is Forgiven…” was for an anthology called BIZMAR. Each story had to include six familiar icons of comics: Bunny, Insect, Zombie, Monkey, Alien and Robot. I had an idea of what most of the stories submitted would be like, so I wanted to do something diametrically opposed. I worked the icons in subtly so that it could work as a stand-alone comic, and since I knew most of the subject matter would be humorous I attempted something more serious.

Animal welfare and vegetarian/veganism is extremely important in my life. I’m not a very confrontational person, so I use comics to convey what I believe to be an important message. Critics have faulted me for including so many comics dealing with these issues in one collection, but I believe I approached each in such a different manner that it doesn’t detract from their impact.

I spend a lot of time researching factory farm conditions, slaughterhouse practices and other facets of meat processing, and although I am surely biased I do try to present a truth that some may not be aware of. I have been accused of lacking subtley, and I suppose I am guilty to an extent. That’s actually something I’m working on in current comics. It’s difficult to present these horrible truths so close to my heart without coming across as preachy. (more…)

Here is a quick run-down on the latest about the new Pop Gun War. Emily is somewhere on tour with her rock band and is staying at some seedy Motel in the middle of nowhere. She slams the door on a nosy mailman and that seems to set off a chain of events. Like Alice in Wonderland, she gets propelled down a portal to another world full of dark mysterious figures. (more…)