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CBG SATELLITES
The ADD Blog by Alan David Doane
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"I wish I was a mole in the ground Hope your week has been going well. Myself, a chance to see my San Diego Padres win their (admittedly weak) division on Wednesday night led to a somewhat shortened, possibly delayed edition of the column this week. I think I might've said last week I was going to review Four Letter Worlds as well, which will have to wait. I've read 99% of it, but believe it or not, I sometimes like to reread things and let my opinion solidify with a bit of time, so that I'm at least three-quarters cocked.
Niles writes the first story, with art by Chamberlain, and starts out like many tales of the cool young man becoming a vampire and having to deal with the curse of it. He's lucky enough to convince his ex-girlfriend to help him. From there, though, while it's admirable Niles isn't interested in writing the same ol' vampire story about how hard it is to be immortal, it seems he's not quite decided just what story he does want to tell. The vampire/girlfriend angle never goes anywhere, and while a whole chapter is spent on a cop reading up on vampires in order to track the guy down, his character isn't developed, either. The only fun comes from a mad scientist type of Reanimator intensity who wants the secret of eternal life and has been abducting so-called vampires to feed them nothing but blood and study them. Still, his months of research really doesn't mean anything, as all he does is to drink vampire blood and poof, he's a huge fanged, long-clawed bloodsucker himself. Niles has remained a consistently entertaining writer despite his increased output the past couple years, but this is one of his least focused, indifferent efforts. And whereas a Ben Templesmith can hide some flaws with his disturbingly fun artwork, Chamberlain isn't at that level yet. That moody coloring typical of Niles' IDW work can't hide fundamental flaws in anatomy, consistent facial designs and just plain clunky storytelling. Fraction's "Juarez or Lex Nova and the 400 Missing Mexican Girls" reaches intermittently for a higher level of ambition, like jumping on a trampoline to see over the fence into the neighbor's yard. Fraction seems to understand that the vampiric murders of 400 young women should be treated with a little bit of care and gravity, but it doesn't get much more than that. What we get is a slovenly clone of Niles' detective character Cal Macdonald, with the added tic of speaking his internal monologues out loud. When he does this, the characters in earshot are either confused or annoyed, which was pretty much my reaction. It seemed like a really self-conscious gimmick to distract from the fact that there is very little story here. Lex Nova is looking for a missing girl and follows the trail to Juarez, where a family of vampires in clown makeup have feasted on the young women there, many of whom are prostitutes. The case is personal, because the young girl, we learn, was a vampire herself and Nova was her "first feed," so it's a revenge story. Maybe it's too personal, because the 400 girls could just as easily be 400 rifles or doubloons-the story is all Lex trying to get back at the Zero Family. And the narrating and shambling and wisecracking Lex does works against any kind of dramatic tension. There's nothing at stake. Instead, we have lots of scenes of Bingo Zero's depravity (his size and look resembles serial killer John Wayne Gacy in his Pogo the Clown get-up, though this may be unintentional), but again, this can't hide the fact that there's not much plot and no one seems very focused on accomplishing anything. Also, Lex and Bingo, who get the majority of the dialogue, both sound alike, peppering every sentence with f-bombs and pet Fractionisms like "ass-hat." Colorful dialogue is good, but this becomes monochromatic. Sharing a little of the blame is Templesmith, who is great at depicting creepy, but still unsure of how to depict convincing settings, normal faces, or dramatic moments that don't involve violence or gore. His art is kind of like if Brad Pitt inA River Runs Through It fished with dynamite instead of a fly-rod. It's a really loud and dynamic-- but unsubtle--way to get the job done. There are some fun lines and nice, gross scenes here and there, and I like the genres it mixes together, but all in all it felt insincere and too concerned with being cool and scanning with Niles' established style-too reverent of Niles but not committed enough to the possibilities in the premise for something more than disposable entertainment. Fraction is still in the early stages of his career, but there's some indication he could have brought a couple of his own toys to Niles' sandbox. IDW Publishing. $19.99
"Don't clasp that hand
Alex, like so many of us, is both figuratively and literally lost, and after his accident he decides to settle down in the town of Strangehaven for a spell to sort himself out. But of course, life doesn't often allow for this, and he finds himself almost accidentally in a budding romantic relationship with an attractive girl several years his junior. Millidge hits on a logical character trait for Janey: in a small town of few suitors, even a sweet girl would be almost predatory in her mating instincts. Just as interesting is the supporting character, Megaron, a white man who spent many years with an Amazon tribe who brings a different perspective, somehow more thoughtful and more brutal than typical Westerners, though obviously that could be debated endlessly. Meg isn't the only character to fill the role of alien possessing unique and perhaps crucial knowledge to be needed later. There's also a real alien, or so he says: Alex, who appears to know things before they've happened, though Millidge is clever enough to keep these miracles very minor indeed, to keep one guessing. This first collection is, frankly, mainly an elaborate setting-up of the characters and location, but that's not to say it's slow-paced or flags in interest at any point. There's just a great deal to set up, and aside from some slightly flat art in the first chapter, he really looks like an old master storyteller already, adding mystery and mood with enigmatic images, imparting fascinating history and sociology without losing the thread of the plot, and knowing just how long to stay with the supporting characters so they gain dimension but don't derail the story. His drawing is based on photos redrawn with fine ink lines, but this quickly evolves into frequent usage of ink washes and more sophisticated Photoshop effects integrated into the art. An early sequence depicting an Amazon creation myth is particularly sensual and effectively conveys the humidity and danger of its locale. Abiogenesis Press. $14.95 Strangehaven Contest This is kind of a nice coincidence. Gary, a good friend to the site, lets us know that the third trade paperback, Conspiracies, is about to drop, and he'd like to run a contest to help promote it, as well as the existing books and ongoing series. To that end, he's offering the following shwag: All three Strangehaven tpbs! Limited edition print! Postcards! Signed Strangehaven #1 first printing collectors item! An original Gary Spencer Millidge sketch! And Gary says he may even have some other goodies to throw in as he scours the Strangehaven Warehouse. He gives, and gives, and what do you have to do to receive? Here's what I want. Like Alex, most of us have had some sort of strange experience in an unfamiliar town. Just tell me about one of them. It doesn't have to be a mythical English hamlet. Maybe you woke up in a shopping cart on a Milwaukee street, or saw a hideously deformed cow in Calcutta. I don't know. Just search your melons and let me know the best story you have, and if pictures help, send those along, too. I'll pick the best one, and that lucky lad or lass gets the grand prize. Runners-up will receive the new Strangehaven: Conspiracies tpb. Send entries to "Strangehaven Contest", callengalaxy@adelphia.net Quick Takes
Songs quoted above: 1) "Mole in the Ground" - Traditional, performed by DJ Rupture from Special Gunpowder (2004); 2) "Don't Argue" - Cabaret Voltaire (1990)
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30 Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales by Steve Niles and Kody
Chamberlain, Matt Fraction and Ben Templesmith is a new trade collecting the
six issue miniseries of two complete stories. The fact that there's no "Vol.
1" on the spine suggests Niles & Co aren't interested in continuing this
idea in further stories a la Mike Mignola's B.P.R.D.. Which is
just as well, as the 30 Days world could use some rest, some absence
from readers' minds to make the heart grow fonder.
Strangehaven: Arcadia by Gary Spencer Millidge starts off with a
mystery: who is the woman our hero, Alex, hits with his car late at night on
a remote road in the English countryside? Or does she even exist at all? A
story of unraveling a beautiful young woman's death in a small town full of
secrets naturally brings to mind David Lynch's seminal Twin Peaks for
many, but truly Millidge approaches the material in an entirely different
way. There is none of the self-conscious irony and Peyton Place
parody present here; rather, it seems to have evolved from less obvious
sources such as research into Freemasonry and Amazon Indian cultures and
leylines and other things that will no doubt creep into later issues. 
The Black Forest #2 by Todd Livingston, Robert Tinnell and Neil Vokes
is a very mildly diverting, largely forgettable horror adventure; that is,
it's an action-packed adventure that has some monsters in it. The
characterization is uninvolving, and for seven bucks, one might expect a
complete story here, rather than a cliffhanger that may take up to a year to
resolve. It's not a hard-and-fast rule, but there aren't a lot of good
comics written by two guys rather than one. Vokes' art is nice, in a kind of
Tim Sale vein, but the reproduction and/or tone work makes it blurry at
times. An essay near the back reveals that these characters are part of the
"Wold Newton Universe," as originally conceived by sci-fi author Philip Jose
Farmer, which seems to be a kind of non-comics-based continuity geekery that
seeks to unite many famous fictional characters from Sherlock Holmes to Doc
Savage to Philip Marlowe, via phony genealogy. If this sounds like a fun
idea, and more important than a good story, then by all means pick this book
up and take that first or second step into metablivion.