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The ADD Blog by Alan David Doane
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“Courage my sweet
But I'll stick with the gang of one “Ludd Gang” – The Fall I get my comics and graphic novels via mail order, so I’m generally a week behind…but what a week. The Acme Novelty Library hardcover from Pantheon is beautiful and with lots of new material like an incredible glow-in-the-dark map of the constellations, while Absolute Watchmen is the ultimate version for us jaded old men. Alan David Doane was right—it really smells incredible, never mind the actual, enduring contents. And my order also included the V for Vendetta hardcover, which I hadn’t read in fifteen years, probably, Bob Fingerman’s new book, You Deserved It, and one of the most highly-anticipated new graphic novels of the year, which I’ll discuss right about now…
From the squat, odd dimensions of this book and its dynamic logo to the quotes from respected writers like Jonathan Lethem and John Patrick Shanley, I really expected to like this book. I didn’t dislike it, but I was disappointed, for a number of reasons. First, while I like Haspiel’s art, I don’t think he was the best choice here. His style was a little too slick, and while he did a very nice job of storytelling, and spotting blacks for depth, I can’t say I took much pleasure in the art. It was fine work and all, but didn’t take the script to the next level. And that takes us to the bigger problem—the story. Pekar is an older man now, and apparently a lot mellower, though refreshingly honest enough to admit a big part of writing this book was the prospect of making money for his daughter’s education. And I’m happy to provide, but it underscores that there isn’t a story inside Pekar here that is burning to get out, even his life story. He takes as a kind of theme, or at least a motif, that the young Harvey is someone who quits everything that presents a challenge, from sports to various jobs. What compels him to do this so often is an interesting question, but Pekar chooses not to dig into it much. Similarly, at one point he states that his mother—who, significantly is often portrayed as pessimistic and discouraging—always knew he had psychological problems, yet he he either doesn’t recognize or is unwilling to discuss the part she and his stern, Yiddish father may have played in the creation and fostering of these problems. Pekar is still a keen observer, especially of himself, but his efforts end with recognizing his quirks and foibles, not in their origins. The details of Pekar’s life are pretty interesting, yes—I had no idea he was so into beating people up as a youth—but he really doesn’t go into what brought on such anger and rage. The last section should have offered some of this, at least, but here Pekar and editor Jonathan Vankin really drop the ball with no interesting summing up or reflection of what Pekar has learned from the look back. Instead, we get a pretty lifeless recap of Pekar’s “famous years,” with Robert Crumb nearly stealing the show in the few panels in which he appears. As a visual biography of Pekar’s life, it’s a fairly good one, covering what appear to be all the major landmarks: Jewish identity, school, undemanding jobs, jazz music, fights, but it can never rise from anecdotal to artful or arresting. Vertigo. $19.99
It’s true—Kirby’s story of a lone Anglo boy fighting for survival in a world run by evolved, anthropomorphic animals is much like the basic story in the film, and like the apes in the film, Kirby has the animals—apes, tigers, lions—think of humans as inferior creatures fit only to be pets or locked up in zoos, and there are some sympathetic animals who go against the herd to befriend the man/boy. But while the film may have been the catalyst—I don’t know for sure—for the comic, Kirby clearly goes well beyond it with his fertile imagination. I don’t just mean that there are different animals, including the thieving rats and bloodthirsty bats, or the territorial skirmishes between the gorillas and tigers. Kirby introduces some wonderful concepts like Tracking Site, a floating city housing the other few remaining human survivors who are sentient and articulate and not enslaved. Tracking Site is rich with tradition and ceremony, though it’s mainly for the benefit of the many robots—Serviteks—housed there, and memories are stored for future generations, perhaps, in the “NASA Mind.” The survivors, including Ben Boxer, a kind of big brother figure to Kamandi, have evolved to be able to change their skin to metal, a side-effect of tremendous radiation, their bodies now cyclotrons. Kirby also adds dimension to this world with The United States of Lions—an amusing illustration of how history is written by the winners—and the volume climaxes aboard Tracking Site with the traitorous Misfit—a pathetic genius very similar to The Gargoyle from The Incredible Hulk--and the deadly germ Morticoccus, which is about three feet long and looks to be in a bad mood, and capable of killing every living thing on the planet. These may not be the best concepts and stories Kirby has ever told, but they’re good, and each issue is packed with his trademark dynamic storytelling and energy. And like most of his work, the theme of the series is about power, about the little guy taking it back from the bully. Kirby’s childhood scuffles informed everything he ever did, and it’s no wonder one issue even recounts the Biblical David and Goliath story, as it was central to Kirby’s work. Kamandi, like many Kirby characters, is the little guy, plucky and brave and persistent. Whatever is thrown at him, he is able to react, and never compromises his ideals. It’s fair to say that Kirby’s theme is very limited, and arguably wrong-headed here, though. As is learned, mankind blew it and caused the state we’re in today, and one can say that it’s the animals turn now. Kamandi never once considers fitting into this new world—he wants Man to take back its supremacy over other creatures, no matter how smart and humanoid they are. And on the other hand, Kirby does a poor job thinking through how the humanoid animal societies might behave. One would think a society of speaking, upright lions or tigers would have an interesting culture hard for humans to fathom, but instead, Kirby just takes archetypes of human oppressors from olden days and puts animal masks on them. There’s nothing different about their culture; they’re just more primitive, their fiefdoms very much in line with the various fiefdoms in Conan the Barbarian. That’s a bit disappointing, but I still enjoyed the collection immensely for pure, unadulterated entertainment, and look forward to the rest of the series. DC Comics. $49.99
And it’s not the greatest thing ever, but you know, it’s better than I thought at first. It kind of takes a couple good stories to open up the others. A bouquet doesn’t all bloom at the same time. To be fair, it starts slow, and it’s apparent early on that even with broad themes for the four sections, “Love,” “Hate,” “Fear,” and “Fate,” in which the 16 stories are spread evenly, some of the creators offer works that don’t really fit. In the “Love” section, B. Clay Moore’s and Steven Griffin’s “Spin” is a very pretty school assignment in silent storytelling but isn’t much of a story, and the moral at the end is cloying and distracting, a paperweight dropped on a butter cookie. Jim Mahfood remains defiantly superficial with “Lust” and Jeff Parker’s “Bear” is just a dud, but Joe Casey’s/Mike Huddleston’s “Funk” has a spark of life to it, a reflective, even hopeful direction for Casey’s writing, with somewhat creepy but still effective art by Huddleston. In the “Hate” section, which one might expect some edgy, tense material, we find Jay Faerber’s/Steve Rolston’s “Loud” is forgettable but inoffensive tale of a noisy neighbor, followed by J Torres’/R’John Bernales’ “Cool,” which pulls some nice tricks with visualizing the subjective nature of memory but fails to provide a payoff. Robert Kirkman finds another good artist in Matthew Roberts, but it can’t save the warmed-over Rucka act of “Blam.” Eric Stephenson may have had an “in” for the book, being Executive Director of Image Comics, but his and Mike Norton’s story “Junk” is one of my favorites, just some smart, truthful dialogue about divorce, hinging on the mundane items that take on unbelievable importance when emotions are involved. The “Fear” section is just as hit-and-miss, with startling, powerful images from Phil Hester going to waste in Mark Ricketts’ muddled silent story “Same,” and James McKelvie’s “Loss” being well-drawn if a little flat with its even line weights, but the story is too tidy and corny. Scott Morse’s “Mano” has an appealing sloppiness to it—Morse’s usual craft replaced with good results by some honest concerns about being the best artist he can be and the fear that his pained drawing hand won’t be able to carry him through. It’s the only story that convincingly presents its theme, and on a very accessible level, though I did enjoy Steve Lieber’s sharp adventure/romance story “Fell” a lot, too. It’s one of the best stories in terms of structure, and his art is always a joy. The book finishes off with “Fate,” probably the strongest section. Chynna Clugston’s “Anew” is a change of pace for her, a story of adults and their chance to finally find the love together that has eluded them in their relationships with others. It’s pure schmaltz, and with her drawing style the couple look like kids playing dress-up, but it’s still enjoyable. As with other misfires, the art is always good in this book, and “Hype” is no exception, with Mike Hawthorne’s amazingly slick, fluid line adorning the tired Antony Johnston story, where ad agency phonies try to give the cloaked, omniscient Fate an image makeover. Points for tying into the theme in an unusual way, but we’ve seen this kind of thing a million times, and it’s free on TV in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. But the penultimate story is my second favorite, and marks the return of former Oni Press EiC Jamie S. Rich, along with other Image mainstay Andi Watson on art. With them, Torries, Clugston, Johnston and others, as well as the size of the book, many will buy it and think it’s an Oni book, I’m sure. Anyway, “True” is Rich’s hilarious and highly suspect autobiographical retelling of a couple of big lies he perpetrated throughout high school, and like the great Welles movie F for Fake that the story briefly references, Rich has a great time blurring the line between truth and fiction. Finally, there’s Matt Fraction reteaming with artist Kieron Dwyer for “Fate,” the only story that is actually named after one of the themes. It’s actually anti-Fate, in that it’s all about the stupid choices people make that affect so many others. Promiscuity, alcoholism, dropping out of school, robbery, arson…it’s a heavy-handed tale, to be sure, but a good one, especially with Dwyer providing some of the grimmest and most committed artwork I’ve seen from him. As with all anthologies, it’s not perfect, but the ratio of good to mediocre is high, and even among the stories that don’t work, they’re mostly interesting, honest efforts. Image Comics. $12.99
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The Quitter by Harvey Pekar and Dean Haspiel is only a “graphic novel” because the format is still young and disrespected enough to allow a lot of books to wear the label. It’s really Pekar’s autobiography, eschewing the day-to-day anecdotes in his short stories for a whole piece, his life from childhood outcast all the way to biopic subject, a fairly well known man of letters. Pekar teams up with Haspiel, an artist as well known for writing his own material in Billy Dogma and Opposable Thumbs but who has also collaborated on occasion, even on superhero work like The Thing: Night Falls on Yancy Street a couple years ago. It would seem DC/Vertigo saw Haspiel as an artist with recognition in both the “mainstream” and “artcomix” fanbases, a guy who could make conversations as visually interesting as fistfights. He gets to draw both here.
Kamandi Archives Vol. 1 by Jack Kirby and Mike Royer collects the first ten issues—one fourth of Kirby’s run—of one of the last series Kirby created for DC Comics before returning, disappointed and somewhat dispirited, to Marvel Comics. The series, debuting in 1972, ended up being Kirby’s longest running book for DC, though its detractors focused on its similarities to the film, Planet of the Apes, which had come out to great success a little earlier.
Four Letter Worlds by Various. I’ve had this book for a month and read most of it the day I got it, set it down, and have just now finished the last couple stories. To be honest, I dreaded reviewing it because I found that within just a couple days I’d forgotten all of it. Just another comics anthology, in other words.