Booze, Broads & Bullets: The Big Fat Kill

[The third of seven posts on Frank Miller's Sin City as part of a larger, cross-blog thing. David Brothers has the index over at 4thletter. Tim Callahan, Tim O'Neil, and David have all contributed some new stuff not there yesterday at this time.]

The Big Fat Kill by Frank Miller. (1994-1995.)

It's hard to read this book without thinking of the film adaptation. I don't have the same problem as much with The Hard Goodbye or That Yellow Bastard, because some of Miller's visual problems from A Dame to Kill For show up here. The lack of clarity in places makes it easy for Jackie-Boy to become Benicio del Toro; for Dwight to become Clive Owen... then again, I really dug the film adaptation of The Big Fat Kill, my favourite of the three stories in the flick. It's a fluffy story that works well on the screen, less so on the page where Miller's pacing isn't 100% on.

While rereading this, I tried to figure out the pacing of the story based on chapter breaks. I assume the breaks coincide with issue breaks, but given that the chapters of the first two stories didn't line up with their serialisations, I won't assume -- though, given the breaks, that's the only thing that makes any sense. Early on, it seems like Miller just hit a page number and said "Alright, I'll pick this up next issue..." It's not quite that bad really, but it's not far off. The first chapter ends with Jackie-Boy and his crew in Old Town, about to get themselves killed, Dwight just held back from interfering by Gail. It's not a bad place to stop and pick things up, but it's a quiet place. It's a lull. There's a rising tension as we wait for the kill and there's an appeal in that, but it just strikes me as odd.

Then again, you don't often see the anticipation break. Building up to something and, then, it's come back next time where the tension has the be rebuilt somewhat. Usually, it's more a cliffhanger. This is subtler and not as effective because, as I said, Miller then spends a few pages at the beginning of the next chapter rebuilding the tension that he spent half the first issue building. It's a long, leisurely build.

The payoff isn't what you'd expect as Miller plays it up for laughs. Crew members are skewered by Miho's blades, while another's head is chopped off, sent flying, bouncing right in front of a freaked out Jackie-Boy frantically searching for his cut off hand. Miller builds up to something awful and delivers absurdist comedy. The real payoff comes after the killing when Dwight finds Jackie's badge.

The payoff is the best sequence of the book and is built in the false payoff scene with the rumbling of thunder that tips Dwight off to the idea that something isn't right. Dwight searches Jackie's body for cash and he finds the 'atom bomb' as he puts it. Full page of thunder with a giant BOOM! sound effect. Two-panel page where one panel is the rain starting to fall and the second is the downpour in action. Then he drags it out over another few pages as Dwight talks around the badge, talks about what it means, how they're all fucked, etc. until he reveals that it's a police badge and Jackie-Boy just isn't any cop, "HE'S A COP. DETECTIVE JACK RAFFERTY. 'IRON JACK,' THE PAPERS CALL HIM. / A GOD DAMN HERO COP."

I do love that reveal. Jackie-Boy is a cop -- and not just any cop, but a hero cop, the sort of cop that could be the star of one of these books. I almost wish the book ended there, because it doesn't get any better than that reveal. That's the climax of the story, the ultimate payoff/joke. Everything that follows feels like work, like necessary mechanics, like going through the motions. Entertaining and fun, sure -- some cool scenes with great visuals, yeah -- but, the reveal of Iron Jack? That's some good shit.

Something I don't like is how Jackie is drawn. Miller uses a lot of blocky lines with lots of contrast for him. He looks generic and blank, which is why del Toro fills in for him pretty easily. Even after he's been killed, his look is one that puts me off.

Dwight, on the other hand, is in full superhero mode in this story. A protector of women, he has his jacket that's like a cape... He's trying to atone for the murder of Damien Lord, Ava's husband that he killed in cold blood, tricked by her... but I never get the feeling that that matters. Miller pays the idea some lip-service and moves on, preferring to focus on the situation Dwight's landed himself in.

Not sure what to make of Dwight's interactions with the girls of Old Town. Obviously, the women like being in charge and running things, and they resent Dwight... but he's right. His plan is the right one and they fight him on it, and they nearly fuck it up, while also supporting him by sending Dallas and Miho to the tar pits after him. Even in A Dame to Kill For, I've been struggling with this relationship. Miller likes his strong, powerful women -- his warrior women -- but they always seem to need some male figure to gather around and listen to. It's weird.

Dwight, as a character, is maleable. I'm not sure he has a fixed position. He shifts from confident to panicked easily. He's very competent, but also a bit of a loser. Why does he choose Shellie over Gail? That's a topic that Miller talks around a lot, but never really addresses. It's also one of the more complex parts of his character, so it's one that interests me...

The Big Fat Kill also includes a scene right at the beginning of chapter five regarding the Spartans that Miller would do 300 about. It's an odd page, because we actually see the Spartans in the Hot Gates -- Miller breaking from the world of Sin City visually. He doesn't do that anywhere else (not including the hallucinations in Hell and Back, but that's different). It's little things like that that remind you how much of this is driven by the idea of 'cool shit Miller wants to draw.' The Tar Pits are an excuse to draw dinosaurs... the women of Old Town are hot babes in skimpy clothes... the Spartans are Spartans... the pacing is relaxed, the pictures are big... it's a breezy, fun read.

Tomorrow, That Yellow Bastard.

The Status Quo Abides, but What about the Auteur?

First, go read Kyle DuVall's post on auteurism at Marvel and DC and then come back.

I've seen these sentiments raised before and they never fail to baffle me. This idea that the status quo of corporate-owned superhero comics is a fragile little thing that needs to be protected from dangerous men with dangerous new ideas... it took Marvel, what, two comics to gut and turn around any progress made during Grant Morrison's New X-Men run? The status quo and the corporate-owned superheroes will be just fine. They've been going for almost 50 years in most cases (some more by a few decades, some less) and it doesn't look like they're going anywhere. Oh, there may be some twists and turns, but, at the end of the day, Spider-Man is still Spider-Man, he's always been Spider-Man, and he'll always be Spider-Man.

Your comics are safe.

Even if these characters could be 'ruined,' so what? Why is ambitious storytelling that pushes things forward, changing characters, making them grow, why is this a bad thing? Why is the reader concerned with maintaining the status quo, of not hurting the character in the longterm, when that's clearly only something that the owners of said characters should care about? I don't understand that mentality. Is it as simple as I sometimes say -- is it that most corporate-owned superhero readers believe somewhere that they will get a chance to write them someday and don't want changes to fuck with that? Or is it something else? Why the resistance to change?

And why blame the creator? Blame the creator for the way a story is told, even partly for the ideas, but don't the publishers approve them? Isn't that where the true responsibility for preserving these characters lies? The creator's only responsibility is to the story, to producing the best possible comics. For some, that includes caring about the status quo, about what comes next, but not all. Some would say that's part of the job, but, if the editors/publisher don't hold the writer to that standard, why should the writer go out of his or her way to adhere to those limitations?

Fuck the characters, give me stories from auteurs. Why would I (why would anyone) want to read some middling bullshit that's too afraid to step out of line that I can't remember what the story was about three minutes after putting the book down? I wouldn't. I don't. The only problem with auteurs in corporate-owned mainstream comics is that there aren't enough of them. Obviously, you're not going to like everything, but I'd rather see stuff like what Geoff Johns write on the shelves than toothless, bland comics. At least Johns has his vision and he sticks to it. It alienates readers like me, but I can respect it.

There's no such thing as ruined or broken or going too far. These are fictional characters and do you know how easy it is to put them right back where they began? Any hack with a keyboard could do it in a single panel. That's how fragile they are: one panel to fix any problems.

I look at my bookshelves, at the corporate-owned superhero comics that I own and they're the ones with ambition and vision. Those are the books I want to read. The stuff you'll actually remember in five minutes, in two years, in two decades... The precious status quo was built by auteurs with vision and drive, making it all up as they went, no rules to follow because the characters were brand new and those are the books celebrated. Those are the creators celebrated. No one remembers the journeymen who wrote safe little stories that didn't rock the boat, because why would anyone?

Give me more auteurs. Give me more ambition. Give me more change. The toys will still be there, the status quo will take care of itself, stop being a bunch of timid children.

"Auteur problem"? Fuck...

Booze, Broads & Bullets: A Dame to Kill For

[The second of seven posts on Frank Miller's Sin City as part of a larger, cross-blog thing. David Brothers has the index over at 4thletter. Go check it out for his posts on Ronin and Elektra Lives Again.]

A Dame to Kill For by Frank Miller. (1993-1994.)

A Dame to Kill For probably ranks near the bottom of the Sin City books for me. I enjoy it and love how, rereading it, I could see how it's the one book that connects to every other Sin City book, but, man, that story... the story is just way too far gone. Even more so than The Hard Goodbye, this seems like a dry run for stuff Miller would do later. Dwight becomes a more entertaining and engaging character by the end and continues on in that fasion in future stories. The photographer stuff is handled better in Hell and Back. The problems between police partners is returned to in That Yellow Bastard (with one of the same cops). Even Miller's art is weaker here as he tries new things out.

I don't like Miller's art in big chunks of this book. At the beginning, he tries to mix a minimalism in thin line work with the extreme contrast of black and white he often has, and it doesn't look as good. The thin lines give it a look of incompleteness, like it hasn't been finished, just rushed through. Around the edges of characters, lines will disappear in places... I've been trying to think about why Miller used this style. He jumps around a lot in Sin City books, alterning lighting and how characters are expressed from panel to panel. I'm not sure I always understand why (other than him liking the way that looks), but this other style confuses me more since I really don't think it's good.

It continues throughout the book at different times. One place where it mixes with something I really like is the scene where Dwight and Ava meet in a bar and Miller does a fantastic effect to show the smoke-filled room. It's just these horizontal chunky lines of white that take out parts of the art. Like a heavier, thicker version of the very straight lines he used for the rain in The Hard Goodbye. It makes for a gorgeous, overpowering look, the way the smoke would overpower you. But, that's sometimes coupled with that contrast that doesn't work. Manute, the black servant of Ava and her husband, poses a problem for Miller it seems, because of his skin colour. Miller never really draws Manute in an attractive manner, the black and white parts of his face never really working for me.

I guess A Dame to Kill For represents that tension I've always had with Miller's Sin City art that I didn't often have with the art meant to be coloured. In his extreme contrasts, Miller can be very hit or miss. Sometimes, the pictures are gorgeous and stop you dead. Other times, they're muddled and unclear and you just want to push past them. I do like how he keeps trying new ways to work with the black and white art, though. He keeps trying to find new ways to show people with different variations on shading and lighting and line thickness. It doesn't always work -- even he doesn't expect it to, I imagine (I hope!) -- but it is interesting.

Beyond the art, the writing in A Dame to Kill For is hit or miss. Dwight is a character that ends in a very different place than where he begins and, from what I can remember, he never returns to that initial starting place. The face change he receives is a plot device, but also something I think Miller uses to get rid of that other Dwight. It's like Miller could sense the character wasn't working, wasn't someone that could be used beyond this story, and changed him to someone more interesting. That 'man with a problem with women and booze, has a monster inside' thing works... once. And once Miller introduces Dwight's relationship with the women of Old Town, you realise that this is a character that could be used again in the future, so why not keep him around?

I usually find myself laughing at the original Dwight and his over-the-top 'can't let the monster out' bullshit. It's cartoony and over-the-top. So is Ava. The femme fatale that makes any man do as she wants simply because she feels like it. Miller playing with a trope, but he does so in a way where she's two-dimensional. You never get the sense that she cares about her husband's money or anything other than fucking with people. Dwight's reaction to Manute's crazy rantings about her being a goddess is how the reader should react: what a load of crap. She's a convenient plot point...

If anything A Dame to Kill For feels like one big exercise in play. Which is fine. It's entertaining and has some great art sometimes, but I just can't get beyond a lot of the more stupid elements. Dwight going from Ava's slave to bossing around the women of Old Town... yes, it happens for a reason, but, like I said, this guy is two characters. The minute his face is made to look monstrous, he becomes a different character. So, I'm left wondering what the point is. Why not begin there? Was Miller going along and realised that things weren't working, so changed mid-course?

As I said near the beginning, A Dame to Kill For is a foundation for the rest of Sin City as Marv's involvement shows. Here, Miller begins to build up the idea of the world. Marv is Dwight's pal and helps him out; later, we see scenes from The Hard Goodbye, which is happening at the same time as the second half of this story. Funny how the old Dwight and Marv are gotten rid of at the same time. It's a sign that the new Dwight is the hero of Sin City (kind of)... an attractive young hero to replace the bruttish thug of Marv...

I'll talk more about the new Dwight tomorrow with The Big Fat Kill.

CBR Review: Greek Street #10

I recently reviewed Greek Street #10 for CBR and, in the process, wrote the following sentences: "Greek Street is a series that’s interested in the long game. Early issues were middling and somewhat disappointing as pieces were slowly moved into places, issues too fractured amongst its cast, none receiving enough space or time to make a lasting impression. However, as the series has progressed, the events of those early issues have formed a solid base for the book, making the continued fractured narrative approach work better and better with each issue, the connections between characters becoming more and more apparent, giving the impression that the disparate, seemingly wide open world of the beginning of the series, is really a closed, narrow one."

You can read the rest HERE!

The Splash Page Podcast Episode 11.2

The second podcast episode of the week is up. This episode is a long one, almost an hour and a half, but it's got a lot of good conversation about bad readers, learning to read, bad teachers, and a variety of books from this week like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Boys, and the "X-Men: Second Coming" crossover.

Also, I fixed the problems with our new theme music, but it will debut next week. There's a reference to it in this episode, though.

You can download and listen to the Splash Page Podcast episode 11.2 HERE!

CBR Review: Great Ten #6

I recently reviewed Great Ten #6 for CBR and, in the process, wrote the following sentences: "Beginning the second half of Great Ten with this week’s issue, the structure of focusing on one of the members of China’s government-approved superhero team continues with a spotlight on Ghost Fox Killer, the deadly woman in green. After five issues of origins, Tony Bedard changes it up with this issue, providing the ‘origin’ of one of Ghost Fox Killer’s informants instead of her story. It’s refreshing to have the formula tweaked a little to keep things from growing stagnant."

You can read the rest HERE!

Booze, Broads & Bullets: The Hard Goodbye

[The first of seven posts on Frank Miller's Sin City as part of a larger, cross-blog thing. David Brothers has the index over at 4thletter.]

The Hard Goodbye by Frank Miller. (1991-1992.)

My edition of The Hard Goodbye is the one that comes with the special edition of the Sin City movie. It's even smaller than the other repackaged Sin City books from 2005. I actually like the size of this one the best. It fits in my pocket. I remember taking it with me one night to the second night of this one-act play festival at my university. It was fourth year and it was my second year writing a play for the festival. The first year, I wrote and directed my play. That year, I wrote a sequel to the first play and acted in it with the two actors from the previous year and a friend directed. We went on the first night, but I showed up for the second because, after that night's showing of the plays, there would be awards. For the second year in a row, the lead actor in my plays won best actor and, that year, the play won best comedy. None of that really matters, except I remember waiting for the bus, reading my small copy of The Hard Goodbye... The paper is a little better and the size just feels better in your hands. The other books look small enough to be held, but are just a little too big. They dig into the skin between your thumb and index finger a little. I would probably shell out money to have the other six Sin City books at the size of the DVD copy of The Hard Goodbye.

None of that matters.

Seven days, seven Sin City books, seven posts. That's what I told David I would be doing. He e-mailed a bunch of us a week or so back... just around the time we posted our 11-part conversation and I mentioned to Tim how another idea was for us to do a cross-blog thing about Sin City with us each taking three books and doing the last one together. David, like the smart guy that he is, took that and made it bigger by expanding the range of discussion to all of Frank Miller's career and calling in some friends that are, honestly, more talented than I am. Thankfully, I get to run with this crowd now...

Since I liked the original idea, I'm sticking with Sin City. These posts will be pretty loose. Nothing too serious or in-depth since there's a loose feeling about these books. Not that they don't warrant serious thought, but I'm just having a ball reading them again. It's been a while.

Except I didn't reread The Hard Goodbye, I've just been flipping through it. I've read it a lot and seeing the movie a few times only makes me know it that much better. I had another copy of The Hard Goodbye before this: a regular comic-book sized trade that might have just been called Sin City. I gave it to a friend I got the smaller copy. So, it was my first exposure to Sin City and the only book I'd read of the series before seeing the movie. I wouldn't say it's my favourite, but I dig it a lot.

The only Frank Miller stuff I own is Sin City and his Batman work. I've read the Daredevil stuff and Elektra: Assassin. Actually, I own the first Martha Washington book and 300, too. I've skimmed that Wolverine series he did with Chris Claremont. But, yeah, Frank Miller, for me, is Sin City and Batman -- as he is for a lot of people.

The Hard Goodbye. An allusion to The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler. If you haven't read it or seen the Robert Altman adaptation, go do both, because they're both fantastic. Some may tell you that the Altman flick gets it all wrong, but those people are the sort that complain when anything is changed in an adaptation of a book and clearly didn't understand what they read when they read Chandler.

In his essay, "The Simple Art of Murder" (I think), Chandler talked about the private detective as the white knight in a world of corruption. That one guy that would stand up for what's right, fuck the consequences, fuck the authorities, fuck everyone. That's Marv. He may not look like the white knight, but he is. He's the guy who stands up for what's right, fuck the consequence, fuck the authorities, fuck everyone. And he dies for it.

The Hard Goodbye is a mystery story. I nearly did a post where I applied Chandler's "Twelve Notes on the Mystery Story" to it, but that was a little too dry for this week. Maybe another time. But, it's a mystery story: someone had Goldie, a prostitute that sought protection in the arms of Marv, killed. Marv wants to find out who to kill the bastard. I could have said "Marv wants to find out who to bring the bastard to justice," but it's the same thing. When he discovers the identity of the man behind the killing of various prostitutes, it's someone powerful -- someone so powerful that you wouldn't blame Marv for turning around and walking away, but he goes at the prick even harder. Because it's the right thing.

Marv is a funny guy. He's got personality. He starts his mission and nothing stops him. He gets beaten, he gets captured, he goes through all of the regular detective fiction bullshit. That he takes it that step further and kills in the process, willing to damn himself at the end is a nice distinction that reminds me of Altman's The Long Goodbye. In the movie, Philip Marlowe's buddy apparently kills himself after killing his wife, but Marlowe doesn't buy it. Seems like a frame job and, in the end, it was... but not really. Marlowe figuring things out is the part where the movie really deviates and he winds up killing his buddy in the end, because right is right. Miller's first Sin City story reminds me of that.

The Hard Goodbye has Miller finding his feet visually. He does a lot of big splashes, lets the story breathe, but he also does pages with five or six panels, something he doesn't do much of as the story progresses or in later volumes. Miller is finding himself in this volume as he realises that this is his book and he can spend pages on only two or three panels -- or just one picture and that's fine. He mentions at the end that the story was meant to be 48 pages, but it kept growing because of Marv. I don't doubt it, but I also think that it's because Miller realised that he could take his time, let the story unfold at a leisurely pace. It's a brief read as a result, probably a bit like what manga's like (I haven't read enough to say).

Miller also plays with the black and white art a lot here. Shifting from pages that are drawn like they were going to be coloured to pages where it's very impressionistic in its uses of shapes to suggest forms. The rain pages are gorgeous in that I've been in rain like that and haven't seen it too many other times in comics. Not everything works. Sometimes, the pages are just ugly and unclear. Sometimes, there just isn't enough there. That happens again in subsequent books as Miller continues to try things.

That's the first book. There's a joy and an energy in The Hard Goodbye. It's different from Miller's superhero stuff, but Marv isn't that different a character, not really. He's cruder, rough, uglier... but he's the white knight. I still love the joke at the end of the story.

Tomorrow, it's A Dame to Kill For. I love that title.

CBR Review: Demo Vol. 2 #3

I recently reviewed Demo Vol. 2 #3 for CBR and, in the process, wrote the following sentences: "If there’s a familiar feeling to Demo #3, 'Volume One Love Story,' it’s because, as Brian Wood says in his text piece at the end of the issue, this issue comes from the notes for the original Demo series. With that, it fits well into this second volume and the feeling of a short film that each issue seems to evoke. Wood himself provides a good word for this issue: cute. It’s a cute issue."

You can read the rest HERE!

The Splash Page Podcast Episode 11.1

After a week of solocasts, the Splash Page Podcast is back. And, if you loved the solocasts, we kick things off just for you by discussing them... because we're self-conscious and self-aware like that. We also discuss the Eisners, our fellow CBR reviewers, and S.H.I.E.L.D. #1. This episode was supposed to contain our new theme music, but there have been problems that I wasn't able to solve this morning. Hopefully, I'll have everything fixed and solid by next week.

You can download and listen to the Splash Page Podcast episode 11.1 HERE!

CBR Review: Nemesis: The Imposters #2

I recently reviewed Nemesis: The Imposters #2 for CBR and, in the process, wrote the following sentences: "Nemesis: The Imposters #2 has Tom Tresser found by Batman after he and the Joker went off a cliff in his car. Ivan Brandon uses Batman to underscore the idea of fakes and imposters as Tresser immediately spots that this Batman isn’t the real Batman -- or, at least, the Batman that’s been around for years. It’s a nice bit of commentary on the idea of replacement heroes being authentic. Is Dick Grayson truly Batman or is he just an imposter? Tresser thinks the latter, but where do we stand?"

You can read the rest HERE!

CBR Review: Avengers: The Origin #1

I recently reviewed Avengers: The Origin #1 for CBR and, in the process, wrote the following sentences: "Joe Casey expanding upon the early days of the Avengers isn’t anything new after his two Earth’s Mightiest Heroes series, but Avengers: The Origin acts as a prequel to the first of those minis, which told the tale of the Avengers after their formative adventure. This series looks to expand upon and update the schemes of Loki that brought together Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk, Ant-Man, and the Wasp, with the first issue only covering the first seven pages of The Avengers #1."

You can read the rest HERE!

CBR Review: Vengeance of the Moon Knight #7

I recently reviewed Vengeance of the Moon Knight #7 for CBR and, in the process, wrote the following sentences: "Deadpool’s purpose in the story isn’t clear beyond him acting as a reminder of what Moon Knight used to be, but without ever really saying that. I’m not one to criticize subtle storytelling, but when more time is spent on the boring, clichéd backstory of the comatose criminal than the contrast between Deadpool and Moon Knight, maybe it’s time to be a tad more obvious about the point of the story. And, if the point isn’t to contrast the differences between these two similar characters, but just to have a wacky killer appear in a straight-laced Batman-esque comic, I’m left wondering why I should care, because the execution is mediocre and dull."

You can read the rest HERE!

Quickie Reviews (Apr 7 2010)

Back after a week away. Yay. Eight books to briefly discuss, so better get to that...

Batman and Robin #11: I like the cover's callback to issue one. A nice, briskly-paced issue that dropped a lot of hints about things, and ended strongly with the revelation of who was now in control of Damian's body. The pacing of the part where Damian asks if Oberton Sexton is Bruce Wayne is fantastic. The pacing in general was very good here. Andy Clarke's style is growing on me -- and I liked it last issue. Reminds me of that classic-looking style the cover artist of Marvel 1602 used with the vertical lines to show shading. Good stuff. [****]

The Boys #41: Man, I enjoyed the hell out of this issue. It just hit all of the right notes for me. The reveal of Auntie Sis as the social worker/nurse of the Legion parody team was good. The cat rescue just made me laugh. Bobby Badoing is a spot-on mockery of a character I've always thought was really, really, really stupid. It's a gentle mockery, though. Ennis makes you feel for the team and uses that to make Hughie's actions at the end seem even better -- and Butcher's reaction that much worse. Mother's Milk catching on that something isn't right and Annie's talk with Hughie definitely make it seem like the shit is hitting the fan soon there. I also love how well Robertson drew the alternating scenes between Hughie's training and actually doing the tracheotomy. [****]

Detective Comics #863: I bought this issue really because why not buy the last issue of the run...? Meh. Nothing special. Not bad, but not much to say here that I hadn't already said about the previous two issues. [**]

Gødland #31: Ah, Gødland... what can I say about you that I haven't already said? You rock my world, dear comic book. You make me laugh, you make me cry (well, not cry), and I love you every time I get to spend $2.99 on you. Never change. Except when you want to, because change is good. Just ask Basil Cronus. [****]

Rasl #7: It continues to come together and just makes me want to go back and reread it all. Really dug Jeff Smith's art here with the contrasting timelines and the wild theories in the writing. He draws human emotion really well here. [****]

S.H.I.E.L.D. #1: I liked this, but didn't love it. After seeing a day of people mess their pants over this issue, I'm stuck in the position of looking like I hated the comic by comparison since I thought it was good, not great. It felt like a prologue, a overture, a preview... not an issue. And that's okay, I know this is a longer game and I'm fine with that, but this issue didn't wow me. The jumpy nature was nice, but didn't share much that wasn't there in the concept. The end of the issue was really strong, though. Liked Dustin Weaver's art, but it was wildly inconsistent, some pages and panels absolutely gorgeous, others looking rushed and not fully rendered. Really liked it, just not as much as everyone else. (Which I hate because, fuck, look at the rating I gave the book... and I'm still Mr. Negativity. Weird. Whatever.) [****]

Sparta, U.S.A. #2: An entertaining issue that shed a bit of light on the town of Sparta. The weird cutthroat politics behind the scenes makes for some entertaining stuff. As does the army of women Godfrey McLaine had sex with coming to his aid. The art is good and continues to improve. And the end of the issue is fantastic. Probably my favorite final page of the week. [***]

Spider-Man: Fever #1: Some fun stuff. Entertaining and weird and definitely McCarthy having fun with the characters. I really like the way he draws Spider-Man as a skinny, twitchy, weird guy. I was kind of expecting Spider-Man to be tacked on since he originally wanted to do Dr. Strange, but Spidey works well here. Really enjoyable. [****]

Really strong week since I enjoyed the other books I got, too -- but I'm reviewing them for CBR. And, no doubt, some expanded versions of my thoughts will show up in this week's podcast for some of these books.

CBR Review: Philip K. Dick's Electric Ant #1

I recently reviewed Philip K. Dick's Electric Ant #1 for CBR and, in the process, wrote the following sentences: "Adapting Dick’s writing can be challenging because, as a stylist, Dick wasn’t much of one. His writing is direct and without a strong flavor often, and 'The Electric Ant' is no exception. The prose is little sparser than normal, but it’s very direct and almost mechanical in the way it advances, accepting certain things in service of forward momentum. Mack decompresses the beginning of the story effectively, adding elements to draw the characters out more completely or to create more interesting visuals like calling for a page to show Poole’s squib accident. However, in some places, the changes seem forced and out of place, like the technician who replaces his hand trying to sell Poole on having his genitals upgraded."

You can read the rest HERE!

The Splash Page Solocast Episode 1.Chad

My first solocast is up. I discuss wrestling and comics, Art Discussion Month 2010, and a little bit about the reread reviews. 22 minutes of awkward silences and the odd f-word.

You can download and listen to the Splash Page Solocast episode 1.Chad HERE!

The Splash Page Solocast Episode 1.Tim

Since I am out of town this weekend, Tim and I couldn't get together online for podcasting action. Instead, we each recorded a separate (what we like to call -- if someone hasn't already called them this) solocast. Tim's is up and... I haven't listened to it yet. I just woke up and had an e-mail in my inbox saying it was up. And I wanted to share that with you all. Tim says he discusses some comics stuff and no wrestling. That's lame. His solocast is also about 35 minutes or so. This after he e-mails me last night and is all "I don't know what to talk about!" and, then, ignored my suggestions. Bastard. Mine will go up tomorrow. It's a little shorter and it does involve wrestling.

You can download and listen to the Splash Page Solocast Episode 1.Tim HERE!

(And, yes, I know I'm the only one who will be amused by my referring to them as 'episode 1.Tim' and 'episode 1.Chad' but I don't care!)

CBR Review: Realm of Kings: Inhumans #5

I recently reviewed Realm of Kings: Inhumans #5 for CBR and, in the process, wrote the following sentences: "Much like Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard, the Inhumans-centric tie-in mini provides a side story of sorts to what’s happening in Guardians of the Galaxy, leading up to the Galactic Council meeting in recent issues of that series. Here, the Fault is shown in a slightly different light due to its effects on the Kree; The focus is also on Medusa as the leader of the Inhumans and Kree, and her use of Maximus to create state-sanctioned acts of terrorism."

You can read the rest HERE!

CBR Review: Incorruptible #4

I recently reviewed Incorruptible #4 for CBR and, in the process, wrote the following sentences: "Concluding the first story arc of Incorruptible and revealing how Max Damage became Max Danger, Mark Waid also provides a greater depth on the Plutonian’s fall from grace in Irredeemable. While not essential reading, it offers a different perspective on exactly what the great hero’s turn meant to the world, including one of the worst criminals. After all, it was shocking enough to make him turn good. More than that, we’ve begun to see a small glimpse of who Max is inside and, if his story is anything like the Plutonian’s, what we’re given here is only the beginning."

You can read the rest HERE!

CBR Review: X-Men Forever #20

I recently reviewed X-Men Forever #20 for CBR and, in the process, wrote the following sentences: "Reading X-Men Forever is watching Chris Claremont go wild and do whatever he wants to do with these characters and is conversely brilliant in its inventiveness and stunning in its argument for editorial control and limits upon writers. Claremont without a filter is entertaining, since even the questionable decisions like the final page reveal of this issue contain something intriguing. People have argued in favor of letting writers like Claremont do what they want without editors saying no, without being slaves to continuity, and here it is."

You can read the rest HERE!

CBR Review: X-Men: Second Coming #1

I recently reviewed X-Men: Second Coming #1 for CBR and, in the process, wrote the following sentences: "Beginning the third part of the trilogy of stories that include Messiah Complex and Messiah War, X-Men: Second Coming #1 does an adequate job of setting up the players in this event, but doesn’t exactly demonstrate what the plot will be. If you were to judge by what’s given, there doesn’t seem to be much of a plot set up beyond 'Hope returns to the present with Cable and some bad guys want to kill her using means that will be determined sometime in the future.' For the kick-off issue of an event years in the making, there’s a significant lack of depth in the plotting and not much here that compels to continue reading the story."

You can read the rest HERE!