I had read all 44 pages of FVZA: Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency #1 (Radical Comics) before I began to understand why the comic book existed at all and why it felt like a very solid premise from which a story was being reverse engineered, rather than a story that needed to be told.

That realization didn’t come from the comic book itself sadly, but from an interview with writer David Hine, printed after this first third of the story ends—he was apparently brought in to turn the website fvza.org into a comic book. (This also explains the wonky credits. David Hine and Roy Allan Martinez are the only creators with their names on the cover; on the title page the former is credited as “writer” and the latter as “illustrator,” but there are also two people given a “conceived by” credit and two more people given a “painted by” credit).

The premise is an alternate history of the United States, in which both vampires and zombies are real, and have posed existential threats to the nation since at least the time of the Civil War. Eventually, a federal organization was formed to protect the country from these two supernatural menaces. At present, they’ve both been seemingly stamped out, and the agency is in decline, the way that perhaps the Department of Homeland Security would be if the threat of terrorism were somehow almost completely erased.

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I usually try to review a comic or two here on the weekends, but my review stack has gotten pretty out of control, so I figured instead of shaving a little off the top, I’d try to make a more sizable dent in it. So below you’ll find reviews of five comics and graphic novels from the last few months.

Empowered Vol. 5 (Dark Horse Comics) Adam Warren’s one-man graphic novel series has reached the point where reviewing each new volume seems a little beside the point. You’re either reading or your not, and if you’re not, you should be. Or at least, you should be if you like, love or maybe even loathe superheroes.

Empowered remains not only the funniest superhero comic on the stands, but also the most mature and sophisticated, which itself seems like a joke given the series’ start in superhero parody, shameless cheesecakery and bondage gags that would make William Moulton Marston blush.

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In a surprising move just days before the San Diego Comic Con, David Elliot, the former editor in chief of Radical Comics, has sued parent company Blatant Entertainment.

The co-founder of the Radical Comics, Elliot said that he was terminated in April, and alleges he was not given his full salary from Blatant.

Elliot also claims that he was not credited some Radical Comics finds such as Aladdin, City of Dust, Caliber, and Hercules; that he was not compensated for acquiring Hotwire, Cholly & Flytrap, and Lords of Misture; and that other projects that he owns part of the copyrights have been exploited by the company without his consent. You can read the complaint in full here.

Another interesting quote, from THREsq.com: “Blatant’s management failed to have any of its employees sign work-for-hire agreements and/or assignments of copyrights, thereby clouding title to all of Blatant’s projects, and making it impossible for Blatant to provide proper chain of title documents and guarantees to investors, production companies, studios, and insurers, to the detriment of its shareholders.” If this is true, this a whole new can of worms for the comics-to-film venture company.

Radical Comics, which hit the scenes last year, has teamed up with figures ranging from Jim Steranko to Steve Niles to Nick Simmons.

Radical Publishing recently won Diamond Comics Distribution’s 2008 gem award for “New Comics Publisher of the Year,” a fact I mention here not to congratulate them (but hey, congratulations Radical!), but to point out they haven’t been around very long at all.

I’ve read at least one issue of every series they’ve put out so far—they have a very strong public relations strategy—and have been impressed with their aggressive, confident growth and the extremely high production values of each and every one of those books.

What I haven’t been quite so impressed with was many of the books themselves, which have tended to fall into the emerging category of movie pitches packaged as comics. That probably makes pretty good business sense in today’s media environment, but it also makes for less than ideal comics. If comics are created with the idea that the medium itself is merely a proving ground for another medium, they’re somewhat creatively hobbled right out the gate. (Which isn’t to say the whole line is lousy or anything; I have liked an issue here or there).

Hotwire: Requiem For The Dead #1 may also fall into this same category. It certainly has a pitch-ready premise, the opportunity for some neat special effects and I didn’t have to squint too hard to see Christina Ricci as the petite, small-faced heroine with the round forehead.

But where it differs from other recent Radical books is that it also works quite well as a comic book.

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By Barry Levine

As someone who’s been a comics fan for decades but only just started my own comic book business last year, I’m always interested to see how all the people I currently work with made their way into the industry. The staggering amount of talent out there makes one thing crystal clear: nobody works in this business because of a shortage of other options. In short, nobody works in comics because they have to; they work in comics because they want to.

I’ve collaborated with people in film, music and photography at some of the highest levels of those fields, and they’re easily matched by the passion that every single comics professional I’ve met has for their craft. My only disappointment is that Radical Publishing can’t realistically hire them all (yet). But since I find it so interesting to compare how others got into the business, it’s probably only fair that I explain my crazy path into this world of high concepts and alternate realities.

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