Che: A Graphic Biography
Written by Sid Jacobson
Illustrated by Ernie Colon
Published by Hill & Wang

Che Guevara…, the dude seems to be stalking my comic book reading lately. Considering I’ve never had any interest at all, it’s a little surprising. First, I had interest in discovering the comics of underground legend Spain Rodriguez, which led me to borrow his book Che from the library. Now, I find a review copy of Hill & Wang’s new book, Che: A Graphic Biography in my mailbox.

While Spain opted for a more jingoistic approach, celebrating Che’s ideals and message, pushing adulation over journalism, Jacobson and Colon show respect for the man’s ideals, but balance their approach with frank comments about the assassination of Cuban dissidents overseen by Guevara and his later inability to stir Congolese and Bolivian revolutionaries. Of course, Jacobson and Colon are the duo who successfully adapted the 9/11 Commission Report to comics, so their balanced approach isn’t terribly surprising.

The book opens with the famed “motorcycle diaries” days and follows Guevara through his meetings with the Castro brothers, extensively details his role in the Cuban revolution, and then devotes two additional chapters to his life in African and South America, trying to again sow the seeds of revolution. While there will undoubtedly be far more detailed biographies (only so much can be said in 110 pages, no matter how talented the teller), Jacobson and Colon provide a compelling overview through the high points of Che’s career.

That said, a couple chapters run aground fairly heavily. The second, for example, details the political circumstances in Central and Latin America during Guevara’s coming of age. Certainly those respective histories are compelling unto themselves, but reducing the saga of each country to half a page, and compounding the problem by failing to tie any of those events firmly to Guevara’s life, doesn’t provide justice to the situation or its impact on the man.

Ernie Colon, a wonderful draftsman, does strong work throughout Che: A Graphic Biography. His likenesses are strong, without being stiff photographic tracings, and he does a professional job with backgrounds and locations. Occasionally, as with past Jacobson/Colon journalism collaborations, the order of captions and balloons is difficult to follow, however.

Che: A Graphic Biograpy continues Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon’s streak of solid and effective comic book journalism projects.  I hope to see them tackle more current events, but their talents are put to good use here chronicling the life of one of the twentieth century’s most influential and controversial figures.

Superman: New Krypton vol. 1 & 2
Written by James Robinson, Geoff Johns and Sterling Gates
Illustrated by Jesus Merino, Leno Carvahlo, Steve Scott, Nelson Pereira, Kevin Stokes, Lee Loughridge, Sal Cipriano, Pere Pérez, David Baron, John J. Hill, Pete Woods, Gary Frank, Renato Guedes, Jon Sibal, José Wilson Magalhães, Hi-Fi (I assume that’s his real name), Steve Wands, David Curiel, Brad Anderson, Rob Leigh, Jamal Igle, Keith Champagne, Nei Ruffino, Jared K. Fletcher, Tom Chu and Jorgé Correa Jr.

Yeah, I dig Superman. I sit here reviewing Jason and classic strips and relevant prose books and intriguing literary-minded independent comics, but at my core, I totally dig Superman. Of course, I have more conflicted feelings toward the Superman comics themselves and many of the extraneous elements of the Superman mythos, and Kandor is no exception. The possibility of Superman being reunited with his people is one of potential; yet I’ve never – in any incarnation – cared much about Krypton or Kandor. It’s all just an excuse to justify powers beyond those of mortal men, to me.

Despite a large indifference (meaning, they were okay, but nothing that affirmed by love of the character) the few volumes leading into New Krypton, I did my best to give the books a fair shake. Geoff Johns’ lead-in, Brainiac, was solidly plotted, but trended toward predictable, and Robinson’s Coming of Atlas managed a few sharp lines, but padded an issue and a half of story out across five full issues.

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This Side of Jordan
Written by Monte Schulz
Published by Fantagraphics

Fantagraphics has been publishing comics and comics criticism for nearly thirty years now, yet it was just a few years ago that co-founder Gary Groth got to achieve one of his goals when the company worked with writer Alexander Theroux to publish the literary-minded novel (note the lack of “graphic” before the word) Laura Warholic, or the Sexual Intellectual. Now, Monte Schultz – son of arguably the most famous cartoonist ever, Charles (Peanuts) Schulz – becomes the second writer to publish a prose novel with the august comics publisher.

This Side of Jordan is the first installment of Monte Schulz’s “great American novel,” an interconnected trilogy of narratives that all fall under the umbrella title Crossing Eden. Jordan’s Alvin Pendergast, a young man suffering a relapse of tuberculosis in the Midwest in 1929, elects to hitch a ride with a mysterious stranger traveling out of town. He has no idea why he does it; he just can’t imagine staying on the farm, perhaps going back to the sanitarium where his illness was previously treated. His benefactor, Chester, is a conman, rum runner and a killer. Shortly into their “partnership,” an hour before Chester enlists Alvin to abet a bank robbery, Alvin meets Rascal, a dwarf desperate to escape his own circumstances.

Long poetic passages typify Schulz’s writing, who exhibits a focus on crafting particular scenes and letting the theme of the novel come together of its own accord. There are some wonderful passages throughout the book, and Schulz has a knack for putting together some attractive paragraphs. As a narrative, Jordan seems to wander occasionally, however, as Schulz indulges himself in these wandering poetic sequences during several of Alvin and Rascal’s encounters on the road. Small meetings turn into extended sequences whose impact on the protagonist is far less than the page count would indicate.

The last of the main trio introduced, Rascal, takes up the challenge of carrying the narrative for long segments, as Alvin broods discontentedly but lacks the will or wits to find a way out of his circumstances, and the vile Chester sets out on his own to pursue an unknown agenda. Fortunately, Rascal is witty and intelligent, a verbose teller of elaborate family yarns, an amateur philosopher who latches on to his way out of his aunt’s home, but now finds himself looking for another escape hatch.

The research Schulz has done gives an unmistakable air of authenticity to Jordan’s setting and social mores. It’s not difficult for readers to follow the narrative, but you’re unmistakably immersed in the culture of Missouri and Kansas of the late 1920s. The roles of church, education, and agrarian living are stamped all over every paragraph. The authenticity of the moment transports the reader to Alvin’s time and Alvin’s world, settling you into the feeling of inevitability and inescapable fate that haunts Alvin throughout the novel. His sickness, his inability to communicate, and his lack of imagination to see better options for himself all come through crystal clearly.

Monte Schulz has proven that his father isn’t the only Schulz with considerable storytelling talent.  This Side of Jordan is a strong vision of the American Heartland at a time when America was a little less jaded, yet many in the country had already developed a malaise of directionlessness.  Schulz manages to capture a moment in history, a piece of humanity in transition.  It’s bleak, but funny, and smartly written.  It may not have any pictures, but readers of good fiction should appreciate what Schulz has accomplish.

Nexus Archives vol. 9
Written by Mike Baron
Illustrated by Steve Rude, Paul Smith, Neil “Spyder” Hansen and Adam Hughes
Published by Dark Horse

The greatest superhero comic of all time hits one of its most controversial eras in this volume, which collects issues 53-57 and issues 2-4 of the concurrently published Next Nexus miniseries. Among Nexus fandom, the first fifty issues are nearly universally beloved, and rightly so. Baron and Rude create a universe far more complex and nuanced than that of any other superhero comic, stuffed to the gills with immigration concerns, energy shortfalls, religious zealotry (and they were writing these stories twenty-five years ago!), massively complex moral quandaries, enticingly realized alien culture, political parody as good as any you’ll find in the papers, and yes, awesome and bombastic action sequences.

Nexus Archives vol. 9 deals with war and assassination. It shows presidential politics and the struggles of humanitarian missions. Angry little girls are confronted by dedicated younger ladies, and sci-fi military antics abound during the chaotic assassination attempt on Sundra Peale. Capitalism runs out of control. It’s a superhero comic, with plenty of balls and a brain, and it’s a rare breed that manages to have both.

Despite alternating issues of the standard Nexus comic and the Next Nexus spin-off (ironically, classic Nexus artist Steve Rude is the illustrator on the secondary title, not the main series), the story flows quite smoothly in this Archive. Credit to Mike Baron, who deftly juggles the war on Ylum, as well as Ylum’s presidential election, the blindly vengeance-driven quest of the replacement Nexuses, and ex-Nexus Horatio Hellpop’s establishing of a medical clinic for the impoverished of Flatlandia.

Operating as an ensemble piece more than ever before, Nexus moves quickly between scenes, giving readers snippets of conversations and high points of action. Baron’s clearly a believer in starting the scene as late as possible and ending it as early as possible, because there’s not a wasted panel here. While Next Nexus focuses on Horatio’s clinic and the immature, desperate rage of the Loomis sisters, Baron still offers peeks into the political climate of Ylum. When Nexus deals with Zeiffer Meird’s assault on Ylum and Sundra Peale, mentions of Horatio’s quest are frequent. Baron juggles all the balls extremely effectively. Nexus is a title whose consequences are always on the minds of its characters.

His writing of Lonnie Loomis, the objector to the Loomis sisters’ vendetta, is some of his most convincing. The conflict and denouement between Sundra Peale and the Merk (a fitting irony to the assassination attempt on Sundra herself) is both surprising and effective, and the pages devoted to Tyrone and Dave continue to round out the picture of Ylum society. Horatio’s story is quieter, slower, and more difficult, but such is the condition of missionary medical work, and Baron deserves credit for giving time to the emotional cost of the work on our hero.

Steve Rude and Paul Smith handle three issues of material each, so you know the comics look great. Rude’s the visual architect of the Nexus universe, and Next Nexus gives him plenty of chances to shine. Multiple missions for Stacy and Michana Loomis as they establish their tenure as the new Nexus, each building their legitimacy as a threat to Horatio – the man who killed their father. Rude’s work is a little too slick to handle the sickly masses of Flatlandia, but he exhibits his usual élan when drawing the lush palace of Ursula X.X. Imada on Procyon or the brutal executions perpetrated by the Loomis sisters.

Paul Smith’s work doesn’t match Rude’s design work, but Smith, even then, was a precise cartoonist, setting scenes with clarity and keeping the drama high on each page. Spyder’s clumsy pages show some talent, but it’s very raw here, offering a passable if uninspiring penultimate chapter to the book. Adam Hughes, like Smith, an artist who went on to much higher profile work but showed talent from the very beginning, handles the finale, and his illustrative prowess is obvious from the get-go. He doesn’t provide the backgrounds and trappings of Smith or Rude, not yet, but the character work is very strong and clearly a sign of better work to come from Hughes.

This volume also introduces one of my favorite Nexus characters: Stanislaus Korivisky, the man who replaces Horatio as Nexus (after the Loomises prove untenable). Stanislaus is only glimpsed here, but his respect for Horatio and the responsibility of his position is well handled, setting up some of Baron’s most compelling character work ever over the next two or three volumes of the Nexus Archives.

Nine volumes into the series, the quality remains very high. Steve Rude’s art is going to be sorely missed in the coming volumes, but Baron’s scripts remain politically and socially relevant, dynamically paced, gilded with exciting action but woven with dozen of threads of human existence. No exception to the rule established by previous editions, Nexus Archives vol. 9 is a true must-have comic for fans of intelligent sci-fi and/or superhero adventure.

The Simpsons: The Uncensored, Unauthorized History
Written by John Ortved
Published by Faber & Faber

Conducting dozens of interviews with writers, producers, cartoonists and executives whose lives have been connected to the development of the forever-running television series The Simpsons, John Ortved’s book attempts to untangle the web of the series creation and provide a glimpse at how it all came to be and who fathered the show’s, and the family’s, many startling and hilarious facets.

As might be expected, a network television show doesn’t truly have its origins in a phrase as simple as “created by Matt Groening.” Dozens of writers have passed through the show’s writers room, each drawing from different experiences, divergent senses of humor and completely individual expectations for the series itself.

Curiously, Ortved doesn’t speak to the three major players: Matt Groening, whose comic strip Life in Hell was noticed by producers on The Tracey Ullman Show, who in turn asked him to come up with a concept for interstitial cartoons to run between their skits; James Brooks, the movie and TV mogul, who produced and protected The Simpsons at Fox; and Sam Simon, the show’s lead writer during its formative years. Brooks’ company, Gracie Films, opted not to cooperate with the book’s creation, leaving Ortved to fill in his history from the outside in. Thus, readers are left with an interesting view into the world of the show’s three-headed initiators.

The effect creates a multi-faceted perspective that enables backers and detractors of each of the three to put forth their own experiences as to what occurred, as well as offering other theories as to how the show found its unique satirical voice and visual design. Readers can examine the evidence presented and look for something close to the “truth,” if such exists, in the cross-section of the testimony given.

Ortved is able to speak to many of the important figures, including the show’s original animation executive producer, Gabor Csupo; former writers and producers like Brent Forrester, Jay Kogen, and Josh Weinstein, among many others; one-time writer and current talk show host Conan O’Brien; former creative consultant Brad Bird; Matt Groening’s long-time friends and fellow cartoonists Lynda Barry, Art Spiegelman and Gary Panter; and FOX CEO Rupert Murdoch and other FOX execs like Barry Diller and Charlie Goldstein. Also, the administrator of fan sites like NoHomers.net are able to weigh in. So readers will definitely get a well rounded picture of how things occurred.

Probably the most distracting element of the book is when Ortved breaks from the “oral history” style and inserts his own thoughts. Often, he’s providing valuable and factual background that sets the stage from the interview segments, but sometimes, Ortved drifts into editorializing. His comments on others’ quotes are occasionally valuable, but often unnecessary. More disconcerting is his penchant for slagging off the show’s later years. It’s not that he’s wrong (not having watched the show in close to a dozen years, I can’t say myself), but it seems unnecessary and at times even petty when cast against his own fawning over the undeniably massive influence of the show on current pop culture and comedy.

That’s a fairly minor complaint, as most of the book conforms to the “oral history” format, using quotes and only context-providing paragraphs from the author to set the scene for each person’s story. All of those people providing their perspectives on the founding of The Simpsons builds a multifaceted history of a television revolution and institution. If anyone has any interest in codifying the building of one of the most important pieces of American pop culture, The Simpsons: The Uncensored, Unauthorized History is a very effective, very worthwhile read.

Dark Corners
Written & Illustrated by Caitlin Plovnick, Jeff Lok, Mario Van Buren and Denis St. John, with Steve Bissette and John Nicoll
Published by I Know Joe Kimpel

The crew at I Know Joe Kimpel has been pushing out their four-square anthology books for a while now, and I’ve enjoyed every one of them. Minicomics aren’t exactly my forte, because I just don’t have the time to pursue them like I should (and because many I’ve sampled have been amateur in too many respects), but I’ve reached the point where I’m honestly looking forward to their latest anthology offering.

The most recent, Dark Corners, marks the group’s first major foray into horror comics, and the first of their four-square books wrapped around a single theme. Of course, not being a horror fan, per se, I came to the book with a little trepidation.

Well, the Joe Kimpel crew hasn’t completely turned me around on horror, but they’ve at least acquitted themselves professionally. Caitlin Plovnik’s strip deals with an imaginary friend and a twist ending that I’m not sure how to read. One reading doesn’t work for me at all, but the other kind of does. The story’s a little under-drawn, but not to the point that it’s distracting. Solid piece, if I’m reading the ending correctly.

Mario Van Buren follows with the second installment of “Jenny, the Marsh.” Of course, I haven’t read part one, so take anything I say with a grain of salt. Mario’s strip is the best drawn strip in the book, employing an open, bigfoot style for the characters. However, Van Buren layers on the shadows to amp up the atmosphere for Jenny’s cornfield encounter, and the dreamy, reality-challenged nature of the vision adds a haunting element.

“Of the Matters that Occurred on the Road to Carlyle County,” by Jeff Lok, is a peculiar beast. The art is cartoony, with large areas of cross-hatching to add depth and shadow, and the character designs are great, totally adorable and a nice contrast to the story’s dark tone. That said, the story meanders too much, using five panels where two would suffice. Rather than building the moment, I found myself struggling to keep my attention on the pages.

The final piece, Dennis St. John’s, is the most traditionally horror-oriented. Losing teeth, fangs, vomit, creepy sexual encounters, etc., not really my thing, but I can see where others might find it creepier than I do. The art’s pretty solid, a little loose and sloppy, but much better than most other minicomics.

Steve Bissette, the Swamp Thing and Tyrant dude, provides interior illustrations between each of the stories, and those are really cool.