Indie Corner - 02/11/2015

Each week I'll spotlight a couple independent books I've read and may have flown under people's radar.

ABE SAPIEN v5

I was all set to complain about this book... until the end.  This marks the third volume of Abe wandering around the country and while reading I realized I really miss the old Abe.  Old Abe was a man of action.  New Abe is unsure of what he's doing, where he's going, and generally aimless.  But as I said, at the end of the book, Abe gets yelled at by a new character and I think (hope!) it's the push he needed.

The first few issues here are fairly stand-alone, well-written, and interesting on their own, but served as a reminder that Abe has spent far too many issues just walking.  Interesting characters and events come and go, but aren't satisfactorily explored.  Almost everyone Abe encounters is more interesting than he is here, and that's a serious problem.  I hope to see more of these characters and I really hope Abe busts out of this slump.

Wytches 4

WYTCHES 4

Last week was such a huge haul of comics I wasn't able to write anything about this book before the column went up Monday morning.  Even now, I'm writing this Sunday afternoon because I'm not sure what I want to say or how I felt about it.

When I wrote about the last issue of Wytches, I mentioned how the step-by-step art process shown at the back of the book made me dislike the art.  I thought the art looked better at an earlier stage, before some of the final colors were placed.  Time has softened that somewhat, but the colors are something I remain aware of more than usual.

The story is definitely still creepy and weird, but between the scene at the coast and the other at the ferris wheel, it felt weird for the wrong reasons - disjointed.  The last page alone ensures I'll keep reading, but I don't hold this series in as high a regard as I once did.

HABIBI

I bought this years ago, based on the strength of Blankets, Thompson's previous work.  It's spent the intervening years on a shelf because the size of the book was a little daunting.  In reality, it's a much faster read than it appears, taking about a week of bedtime reading to finish.  On one of the first nights, I wife walks in and asks what I'm reading.  She sees the title and author's name while I'm trying to find the words to describe the strange combination of religion, language, and children forced to grow up too quickly.  She goes, "Sounds like a white guy."  I say, "He is!  And the book is definitely about the desert..."  That essentially sums up my issue with the book - it's good, but it doesn't feel like Thompson should be the one to tell it.  It's hard to recommend, but definitely worth checking out for the art.

CONAN/RED SONJA 2

Last time I joked that this pairing followed the traditional superhero crossover formula of meet, fight, and team-up.  Still, I enjoyed it enough to ask my comic shop to grab the rest of the series for me.  Well, the joke is wearing a little thin now.  An indeterminate amount of time has passed between the first issue and this one, but once again Conan and Red Sonja meet, fight, and team-up.  Other than that, I don't really have much to say... the characters are decently written, the art is well-suited to the characters, but the story is rather thread-bare.  I'll still pick up the rest of the series, but I can't recommend it any longer.  Hopefully the next two issues are better than this one.

GHOST FLEET 4

I'm making this my last issue of Ghost Fleet.  Things got weird, and not in a, "This new wrinkle will be interesting to see play out." kind of way, but instead a, "WTF is even happening?" way.  Until now, I thought this series was a pretty standard heist/revenge story with a little Ronin or Pulp Fiction thrown in for not knowing what's in the stolen truck.  This issue we learn more about our two main characters Cohle and Trace, but the center of this issue appears to be a hallucination or metaphysical event that significantly alters things.  In a book that was hardly explaining itself to begin with, this new mystery is one too many.

Indie Corner - 01/14/2015

Each week I'll spotlight a couple independent books I've read and may have flown under people's radar.

NORTH 40

There's a new printing of North 40 out this week, a series from 2010 with art by Fiona Staples.  So people might be interested in picking this up.  Also: It's good.

When two two high school students unwittingly read from a spell book, they release something that changes Conover County, NC overnight.  Suddenly there's zombies, a hulking brute, giant robot, tentacle monster, and loads more this small town is trying to contend with.  It's a shame the series didn't run longer, because the end of the book seems to imply the writer had more he wanted to do.  It's a bit like a Hellboy or BPRD trade, with more humor, and art by Staples.  So if that sounds like something you're interested in, I recommend checking it out.

Trees 8

TREES 8

Firstly, that's a powerful cover for anyone that's been reading the issue.  Next, one of the major events of last issue isn't followed up on at all in this one.  We touch base with everything else, however, with some major character deaths and location destruction.  The characters are still fantastic, and I hope this supplies enough "stuff happening" for the people that complained about that earlier on.  I, for one, am very much looking forward to the next arc.

BIRTHRIGHT 4

Now this is what I'm talking about.  The drama is back as well as the fantasy - this issue hits the high points of the first issue that the last two issues had been missing.  While not much happens in the other world, in the "real" world, characters are hitting emotional and plot beats on just about every page.  I had been wavering on this series, but I'm glad I stuck around, because this issue paid off that patience in a huge way.  Really looking forward to next issue.

FEATHERS 1

I emailed my comic shop to hold a copy of this for me while I was out of town.  That decisions was based mostly on the strength of the art because I couldn't actually read the preview pages on the slow Internet connection I had.  The beginning of the issue reminds me of a Fable game, with child and vague talk of paths not yet choosen before jumping ahead a decade.  There's a rich city, and a poor city that surrounds it.  A boy, a girl, and a budding friendship.  In all, there's a lot of common pieces here, and they didn't combine into a compelling story for me.

AMERICAN VAMPIRE v7

Oh American Vampire, how I've missed you.  Skinner, Pearl, and Calvin are back, now in 1965.  They've been keeping a low profile, more or less, for the last few years, and that's about to end for all of them.  Something is coming.  Something old and powerful, destroying everything in its wake.  Batman and Wytches are both very good books, but I think American Vampire remains my favorite Scott Synder title.  The writing remains excellent, and I absolutely love Albuquerque's art.

MEN OF WRATH 4

This issue is great and I can't stop thinking about the last page.  Of everything I've read this week, that's the standout page among all of it.  Nothing that happens in this issue is what I expected.  It's all brilliant and makes total sense, but absolutely none of it went how I thought they'd go.  There's a quote I can only half remember from an introduction in one of the Scalped trades about how in a noir story the audience expects the characters to redeem themselves, but instead they continue to self-sabotage.  "Self-sabotage" sums up this series pretty well, and I don't expect any of these characters to eventually redeem themselves.  Recommended.

GHOST FLEET 3

I haven't talked about this series yet, but I have read the first two issues as well.  Quick summary: There's a couple shadowy groups, one of which, the titular Ghost Fleet, drives trucks across America.  A member of the Ghost Fleet gets betrayed and left for dead only to return really pissed off and looking for revenge.  What should be a pretty straight forward revenge tale is somewhat bogged down by keeping details of the parties in play especially vague.  The dialogue is good, and the art is great, but the story is kept a bit close to the chest and I think it's starting to hamper things.  I'll stick around for a little while longer to see where this is going.

COPPERHEAD 5

I haven't been sure about this series for a few issues, but I decided to pick up issue five to see if/how the arc ends.  It does end, and it ends well.  The investigation gets wrapped up, resolution is attained for a couple plot threads, all characters get a nice spotlight, and at least one story seed gets planted.  I'll stick around for a few more issues to see where it goes.  If it's anything like this issue, it'll be somewhere good.