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CBG SATELLITES
The ADD Blog by Alan David Doane
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Breakdowns - Fair Trigger Pretty big column this week, and to be honest, I would love to write more if I had more time. So expect another big 'un next week. It's hard to even know what to read next, what with all the upcoming graphic novels from FirstSecond like Eddie Campbell's The Fate of the Artist, or the new Marvel Masterworks Tales To Astonish with all the monster/sci-fi stories from Kirby, Ditko and other Atlas talents, Ganges #1...the list goes on and on. I can tell you right now that Schizo #4 is not only the best thing Ivan Brunetti has ever done-miles above the early stuff, and you're just wrong to think otherwise-but it's a guarantee as one of the best releases of 2006. A must-have. Actually, I don't care if anyone likes the earlier, rantier Brunetti better, but this really is just as valid an expression as far as I'm concerned. More on that next week. In the meantime, let's get to the reviews, starting with something I had no intentions of revisiting up until a couple weeks ago... Banana Sunday #1-4 
I reviewed the first issue of this miniseries last year, quite negatively, and normally I'm loathe to revisit something that made a poor first impression. However, a very nice, professional email arrived a week ago from Oni's Managing Editor, Randal - asking for reconsideration, and I figured why not? You know, one of the hazards of being a critic is that people will often seize on throwaway or minor comments to rationalize their feelings about a book. For example, in my first review, I took issue with the orangutan, gorilla and spider monkey referred to simply as "monkeys" when only two are, and "banana sundaes" are more commonly referred to as banana splits, so the title is weak. But the main thing that should have come across is that this cutesy comic about a sweet new girl in school and her precocious talking monkeys just isn't very good. Coover is a nice cartoonist and draws appealing bipeds of all kinds, and I do think everyone had their heart in the right place trying to make a sweet, angst-free comic. But I didn't laugh at any of the gags, and found it odd Nibot tried so hard to base the humor on would-be witty repartee between the girl, Kirby, and her suitor, Martin, who to me vaulted right over the line between sweetly awkward to abrasive nuisance from the start. If it's any consolation, I found Kirby too likeable to want her to settle for this geek. Banana Sunday wants to be a fresh homage to good-natured, nutty comics like Archie and Millie the Model, but it really plods from incident to incident, one missed opportunity after another. Kirby speaks at her second assembly in a week, for no particular reason and with no comedy ensuing. Her movie date with Martin, despite the promise on the cover-hey, three monkey/apes at the movies will cause a riot, right?-turns into nothing but the chance for Kirby to tell her new friend, the reporter Nickels-the secret of the monkeys. I saw another book today to which Coover contributed where this was called a "children's comic," but there's very little here to entertain children at all-no visual gags or antics, no inspired silliness. Like too many comics that purport to be "all-ages," it's no fun for kids and not smart enough for adults. In the end, I did like the exuberant, nonsensical Go-Go the gorilla, but the pedantic Orangutan and pervy Spider Monkey left me cold, and the well-intentioned series just came up way short on laughs. These monkeys don't shine. 
Swallow #2 Swallow's mission seems pretty simple: lots of attractive pictures on glossy paper by some of the best artists to work in comics. There isn't any sequential art here, just sketches and pin-ups and the occasional cover. Given the predominance of nubile, seminude women in his own comics, it should come as no surprise that Wood the Editor focuses on similar images from most of his contributors. Aside from brief interviews with each artist on expected subjects like their influences and preferred media, and a kind of "Day in the Studio" feature with Kent Williams, the book is mainly just page after page of girls, with the occasional building, robot or spaceship. If you like tasteful, playful or just slightly lurid paintings and renderings of nymphs, ingenues, waifs and jailbait in a collection you could reasonably put on a shelf without your girlfriend throwing it at you, then this book is for you. Capote in Kansas 
Truman Capote's In Cold Blood remains a celebrated book, a "nonfiction novel" depicting the details of the murder of a Kansas family in a style much more artful and full of emotional detail than typical journalism. It is probably the father of the "true crime" genre. To retell the story of the murders would be an exercise in redundance, so Parks focuses instead on filling in the gaps of what caused the notorious New York writer Capote to take on the assignment, and what physical, mental and emotional struggles he experienced in trying to get it done. Physically, he has some difficulty just in getting people to talk with him, this flamboyant homosexual with his fancy clothes, literary affectations, and stated disinterest in justice, but his friend, the writer Harper Lee, gives him a talking to, and that, plus a long walk and change of clothes, get him started. The soul-searching walk is a cliché, though admittedly depicting the creative process in a visually effective manner has eluded many. Curiously, especially when one considers a good deal of the readers of this book probably already known the realistic In Cold Blood, Parks employs as fantastic a device as you can get in the ghost of slain teenager Nancy Clutter visiting and befriending Capote. We're meant to understand she is Capote's creation, a way of focusing on the heart of his story in order to finish it, but it still seems a bit of a cheat. Despite these flaws, Parks has written an involving story that presents Capote as neither hero nor fake, an imperfect but talented man who achieved greatness with effort and a compassion for his subjects. After his bumbling introduction to the town, he exercises great care in drawing out the information he needs, and his commitment to his story is illustrated in how he interviews and gets to know Perry Smith, considered the more sensitive of the two killers. Capote is there to record but not judge, and to some extent he even befriends Smith, though there is a scene near the end where we see the limit of this friendship butting up against Capote's sense of decency. He can't really help Smith out when Smith killed his Nancy, can he? Samnee employs an Expressionistic style suitable to evoke the horror of the crime and the void it leaves in the town and its residents, but he offsets it well with the dashing but round-faced Capote. He's very good with all the real likenesses, especially a young Norman Mailer in a cameo early in the book. It's unclear why Parks chose this particular story, aside from his living near the scene of the decades-old murders. There are themes of cherishing one's family, whatever family it is, and the value of hard work, and compassion overriding all. Parks has a screenwriter's mind in how he constructs his story for maximum effectiveness, and oddly enough I found a few similarities between this story and A Few Good Men in how a brash man is put in his place by people with more rigid morals than his, how he is upbraided by a strong woman, and how his poor relationship with his father is central to his weakness and his eventual redemption. Not all the scenes are effective, and the easy choices stand out, but this is still an intelligent, involving story with much to recommend it. Local #1-3 
Brian Wood has made significant progress as a writer in the past five years or so, developing from a stylish sloganeer to someone able to capture real, small moments of human interaction that ring true. His best example of this-and really the only long form example-is Demo, last year's twelve issue series about teenagers developing superpowers and special abilities. Wood returns with another series, designed very similarly, but this time without the crutch of the extraordinary or supernatural. The characters in these stand-alone stories are just people: people at their best, worst, and in those odd stages we have that, hopefully, we can look back upon and laugh. The first issue introduces a 17 year old girl and her drug addict boyfriend. He wants her to go inside the pharmacy and attempt to fill his forged prescription. Wood experiments with different takes on the same moment, the possible outcomes zinging through her mind. It's not the hardest thing in the world, to stir sympathy and protectiveness and desire for a pretty drawn girl from a mostly male audience, but Kelly does it well. It's a good thing, too, as she will be the link for each issue, sometimes the star and sometimes just a supporting character or cameo, each issue one year later and in a different city. She turns up in #2 working in a Minneapolis music store, stumbling into an exciting but potentially dangerous romance with a stranger who leaves her Polaroids and notes in her apartment, with her reciprocating. This was probably the least effective effort of the three, but at worst, it provides some interesting moments and a unique take on boy-meets-girl. The third issue is perhaps the most ambitious so far, following four former bandmates as they return to their hometown of Richmond, VA. The lead singer, naturally, gets the most play, as he provides the exposition through the device of being interviewed about the band's career and what took them to Europe and then back home. There's the female bassist, who will always have a thing for the singer but the music always gets in the way; the drummer reduced to pawning his original LP pressings and scamming local girls, and the guitarist who attempts a go at some solo gigs because, well, it's what he does. I liked how Wood kept all the stories tight and restrained; there's no melodramatic fights or overdoses or anything like that, just creative people going on with their lives as best they can. Kelly isn't as distinctive an artist as Wood's Demo partner Becky Cloonan, but he doesn't need to be. There's some sloppiness in #2 but for the most part his style is very appealing-his characters uniquely designed and integrated into their surroundings. Wood is coming into his own as a crafter of compelling slices of life, though it could be said these stories are paced somewhat luxuriantly to fill each issue and could work as well or better as shorts. This is where he's most impressive, though: the character-based stories rather than the genre works. One of the more interesting titles on the stands at the moment. Golgo 13 Vol. 1: Supergun 
I had no idea, but apparently Golgo has been around as long as I have, approximately. While this volume is short on info about Saito or the publishing history of the character, there are references to stories going back 35 years. Not only is it a best-selling manga, but there has been anime, a couple Nintendo games, and even some films, once with Sonny (The Streetfighter) Chiba in the lead role. Golgo 13 is an enigmatic hitman for hire, with his own rules of conduct but undetermined morals, as one would expect of an assassin. The good news for those who want their manga self-contained and not spread out over multiple volumes is that this one contains two stories. The first, "Supergun," takes up most of the book and appears to have been created in 1997. A brilliant ballistician named Murai is so committed to completing his mentor's plans for a "supergun," a huge weapon able to fire accurately across hundreds of miles, that he kills his mentor when the man's conscience gets in the way. Murai sells the weapon to Saddam Hussein, who has the gun constructed within a huge dam, so it is not only obscured but any attempts to destroy it would flood the Iraqi people, ensuring a swing in world opinion to Saddam. Into this sticky situation comes Golgo 13, working for the U.S. government. If you like tough guys and plots depending on that one great shot, this one is for you. There's not much to Golgo's character; he's a consummate professional who nonetheless finds the time to have sex with a female intelligence agent, and in fact, the dossier at the end of the book explains he often likes to have sex before a mission, with prostitutes as often as not. So pay attention to that "Mature" label. Saito draws a good likeness of Madeleine Albright, of all people, but his Clinton is poor, and his habit of drawing characters under stress with sweat shooting out of their pores becomes laughable quickly. The back-up story is about a cop bringing down the gangster who ran over his girlfriend by floating the story that he hired Golgo 13 to kill the man. This results in the gangster losing all his connections and turning himself in for protection from Golgo. It's not a bad story, but not a great choice for the first volume, since Golgo doesn't actually appear. Better to use that one down the road, once the character is established enough to use something like this as a change of pace. Pretty good work, though, and I'd be interested in more. Note: the image used is from an anime dvd, not the Viz manga, which is not listed on their website or anywhere else yet that I could find. Next Week: I should finally get to Epileptic, plus Sexy Chix, The Murder of Abraham Lincoln, and some other stuff. I've stepped up my reading due to the Eisner voting coming up, so there should be some good books reviewed over the next month or so. Plenty of crap, too, so don't worry. Send review copies to:
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