Best of 2012: Pre-2012 Comics

Something that always seems to get lost in year-end lists is that no one experiences just new things. You always have a mix of new and old and the old always get lost. So, mixed in with my top ten comics of 2012, I will discuss five comics (in alphabetical order) that are from before 2012 that I read in 2012 and loved.

100% BY PAUL POPE! In the summer, my shop had a big sale and I picked up two Paul Pope hardcovers, Heavy Liquid and 100%. I was thinking about 'cheating' and including them both here, but decided to limit myself to just one. I love them both, but 100% edges out Heavy Liquid for reasons that I could never properly explain. I love the way 100% meanders from character to character, from story to story, and feels like Pope picked two random moments to begin and end. There's a real sense of being dropped into this world and then taken out at a whim. You want to know what happened before you got there and what happens after you leave. I mean, there are reasons why it begins and ends where it does... but forget that crap.

I'm amazed at the way that Pope interwaves these stories and makes them all compelling. In 'anthology' ensemble stories like this, there are usually ones you love, ones you hate, and then some that fall in the middle. I don't recall anything in this book that didn't grab me, didn't pull me along with the rest. I felt disappointment when he would leave characters and it would fade almost immediately because I was getting to see these other characters that I liked just as much. It's like going from hanging out with one groups of friends to another. A blessed life.

The world that Pope creates seems real. Things are different in the details, but close enough. The characters all seem like people you could meet. I don't know any of these people in my life, because I live a different sort of life from what's in 100%, but I've come across them in quick meetings. While I seem obsessed only with myself, I do love seeing people who aren't me and Pope makes them come alive. He's very good at leaving things unsaid, of creating a sense that there's history and depth in his characters.

And his art! Paul Pope's art... I don't even know what to say. Part of the way his characters look real is similar to what I said about Guerra's art in Scalped: they're kind of ugly and grotesque. And so are real people. Most artists draw generic beautiful people, while guys like Pope draw attractive, imperfect people. That works in harmony with his writing to create that sense of reality and depth that I spoke of. There's so much energy in Pope's art. They feel like his hand was struggling to keep up with his brain while not looking dashed off in any way. There's so much detail and nuance that I can open any page and see something that I haven't seen before. And I've looked at this book quite a bit.

But, why this comic specifically? It made for a nice evening reading it. I drank some coffee, had some music on, and lost myself in these pages. I didn't come out for days despite reading it all in a single evening.

CRÉCY BY WARREN ELLIS AND RAULO CACERES! I missed this when it came out for whatever reason or other. Ordered it when I pre-ordered Gun Machine by Ellis to reach the $25 free shipping mark. I had heard good things and I enjoyed this. I like the idea of an essay/long talk used in comics like this. Basically, a single character talking us through a situation above and beyond his station in a sense. Ellis used that technique again in Supergod and I would like to see more of it. It's similar to Harvey Pekar's approach to writing comics -- or something like Alice in Sunderland. But bigger than Pekar's comics and narrower than Talbot's. Somewhere in the middle. Crécy made me wonder if Ellis could pull this off at Marvel or DC with one of their superheroes. Not even would they let him try, but could he actually make it work. I don't know. I'd like to see him try. And have it not turn into some extended history lesson on the character in question. An issue-long recap. Fuck me.

No, could this form be used to tell an engaging story? It does here. There's warmth and humour and drama within this narrative -- and there's information. It's more than a simple lecture on what's going on at Crécy. The same thing happened with Supergod, except Ellis allowed himself to fall into the narrative a bit more there, if I recall correctly.

This comic gets a mention because it makes me wonder about stuff like this. Not many other comics did that this past year. Everyone do better.

THE METABARONS BY ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY AND JUAN GIMENEZ! This is one fucked up comic. It deals with a topic that I find rather interesting when it comes up: the idea that a family line has to come first. One of the things I liked most about Gormenghast was the way it looked at that idea -- even season two of Justified explored that to an extent. The Metabarons deals with it rather explicitly, going so far as to introduce little rituals and bullshit codes into what being part of the family line means. Most people would see a couple of freak accidents that result in requiring cybernetic prosthetics as things to avoid in the future, but these insane people turn that into a requirement. Want to be the new Metabarons, you need to lose part of your body and, then, kill your dad. The final Metabaron is the only sane one when he decides that he will be the last Metabaron, ending that cursed, fucked up family forever. Of course, if he were serious, he would have committed suicide. But, he's a weak one that boy.

This is space opera, emphasis on the opera. Large, generational, dramatic, and so damn addicting. I had read parts of The Metabarons before this year, but the recent hardcover release (the smaller, cheaper hardcover) was the first time that I read the entire thing. I could barely put it down. Also, the way that the robots' story actually factored into the overall plot was great. The slow build to the reveal was very well done and surprising.

Juan Gimenez is amazing. I'm not always the biggest fan of painted art in sequential narratives, but it's hard to not love Gimenez. Though, as Tucker Stone said, it's hard to notice him too much when you're reading about these fucked up things Jodo is writing. You almost need to stop and force yourself to forget that he's drawing a scene of sci-fi incest to appreciate his actual art. I wish I gave it more attention, honestly. But, the writing distracts far too much. It's kind of hard to get over.

That generational story. That focus on the idea of the family line... it's compelling and something I've yet to tire of.

NEXUS OMNIBUS VOL. 1 BY MIKE BARON, STEVE RUDE, AND OTHERS! I heard great things and they were right. This was not at all what I was expecting. I was expecting something more superhero-y, I suppose. Instead, this reminded me a lot of Dreadstar in its tone. Not the art, but the feel of the series. That makes sense since they were done around the same time and, eventually, shared a home at First Comics. They were both series that took place in a cosmic setting with a protagonist that held certain superhero trappings. Nexus more obviously so, but Vanth Dreadstar became more and more like Superman as the series progressed. There was a lightness in both books contrasted with the extreme dark. In Nexus's case, it was his dreams and the compelling need to kill mass murderers. That sounds like a superhero, right? My kind of superhero, maybe...

There's a very freeform way to the way that Nexus is paced in these issues that's surprising. While the tone is similar to Dreadstar, the adherence to Starlin's issue-to-issue storytelling isn't there. There's a much looser feeling to this comic and a willingness to go where the story need to, damn what page it is. Also, Horatio Hellpop is a fantastic name.

The big appeal of this volume is watching Steve Rude become so good so quickly. I love his art now and watching him improve on an almost panel-by-panel basis is remarkable. He becomes more and more confident in his line work, more inventive in his approach to the page, and creates a visually stunning comic. The more confident he becomes, the looser the writing becomes, like Mike Baron knew he could trust Rude to keep things grounded and make it work. The 11th issue is a marked improvement over the 1st. You can't always say that. I can't wait for the second omnibus volume. Where will they go next? How good can this comic get?

"THE SPIDER-CLONE SAGA" BY MANY, MANY PEOPLE! When "The Spider-Clone Saga" was happening, I read some of the comics, but not nearly all of them. What kid is going to be able to buy four or five comics a month like that? And what kid, if they can, is going to focus exclusively on one group of titles -- no matter how interesting the story is. This year, I bought all of the trades for "The Spider-Clone Saga" along with the six volumes focused on Ben Reilly when he becomes Spider-Man. I haven't made it past the first volume of that set. I really enjoyed "The Spider-Clone Saga" material, though. I knew a decent chunk of it. It's a story that began strongly and had a smart end point with Ben becoming Spider-Man, allowing Peter and Mary Jane to go off and have their family. Things didn't work out that way in the end, but it was a good idea.

What struck me was how little Peter Parker and Ben Reilly interacted at first. They each dealt with their own problems and mostly stayed apart. Those issues were incredibly strong with Peter trying to stop being so lost inside of the Spider and Ben trying to figure out what he wants to do -- and who he wants to be. Where the books close their way is by focusing on the bullshit surround the clone stuff. Focusing on who is the real Peter Parker, introducing more clones, reintroducing the Jackal... oh, that stuff is just dreadful and is such a huge misstep. It's a big ball of "Who gives a fuck?" I certainly didn't all those teases and promises of answers did was turn a perfectly good story into something tedious and awful.

If they had kept it simple and contained with just Peter and Ben, it could have been a lot better. Stuff like "Maximum Cloneage" was so misguided, so wrongheaded. I found it cool as a kid, but really bad as an adult.

This year, I plan to finish it by reading the Ben Reilly stuff. Those books are on the shelf beneath the Kirby stuff.

Sketch Reviews (June 30 2011)

In case anyone was wondering, I plan to get the '28' series back on track after missing last month's post. The same 'lack of desire' that struck my Comics Should be Good work hit there, too. I've been keeping the basics going, but definitely needed to step back. Not sure if the stepping back is entirely done just yet, but it's been nice.

Batman, Incorporated #7: Chris Burnham's art seemed more in sync with Morrison's writing in this issue. A pretty great done-in-one comic that I can't help but see as drawing some inspiration from Scalped. One of my favourite issues of this series so far, honestly. [****1/2]

Detective Comics #878: A good issue and good conclusion to this little story. Tiger Shark is an interesting villain and one I'd like to see more of. In a couple of places, Jock's art really confused me, but that's nothing new. Snyder's narration was rather strong and the voice Dick put on when talking to James was appropriate and... yet, surprising. In a good way. Between this and last week's Gates of Gotham, I'm feeling more confident about my decision to add Batman to my pull list come September. [***1/2]

Flashpoint: Project Superman #1: An interesting issue that didn't quite land. This seems like the sort of book I'd be all over: a man slowly losing his humanity to superhumanity, but... I never get the sense that Sinclair is the one who changes so much as it's everyone around him that changes how they relate to him. He simply gains powers and people react differently to him until he loses control. It's not so much that he loses his humanity as it's taken from him. It kind of reminds me of the X-Men and how I never quite bought into that 'different non-human species' line of thinking, but understood how, after so many people treating you as something other than human, you'd begin to think of yourself as something different. Sinclair never reaches that point, though. That doesn't make it bad, just less interesting than it could have been. Gene Ha's artwork is a little disappointing in its minimalism. When he pairs down his art, it comes off as sloppy and only partially rendered a lot of the time. The stuff with the X-Ray vision worked quite well, though. I'm intrigued enough to see this one through. [***1/4]

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #8: I really like Nick Dragotta's art, but that little blast from the past story at the end of the comic added nothing. It was five pages that Dynamo had already summed up in a few sentences. I still think that those '60s sequences would work better integrated and this issue definitely seemed to have that problem. At least the pace picked up from issue seven. Still a somewhat humdrum story so far... aside from the debate between Len and Bill, which was quite well done. [**1/2]

X-Men: Prelude to Schism #4: Professor X, Magneto... Cyclops, Wolverine.... seems like an obvious enough pattern. It occurs to me that the hints provided seem like they're pointing to the Celestials. I thought Earth had 50 years until the gold one in San Francisco woke up, but, hey, why wait? This series suckered me in with a pretty good first issue and then did nothing by let me down the rest of the time... but, hey, I imagine some people are happy to see Jenkins revisit Logan's past... maybe? [**1/4]

The New Avengers 100 Project: I bought this off of the Hero Initiative's eBay page and it finally arrived with the mail lockout ended. Nice little collection of art. It's fun to see the same ideas pop up again and again or callbacks to an artist's previous tenure on the book like Steve Epting drawing that '90s team featuring the Black Knight and shaven Hercules... except he left out the leather jackets! I only flipped through it so far, but definitely worth it, especially since it supports a good cause.

The Incal: Classic Collection: This finally shipped this week after a while of waiting. The next best thing to that deluxe, oversized hardcover Humanoids put out last year and, if you didn't get that one, FUCKING HEAD OUT AND FIND A COPY OF THIS ONE! The original colouring is back and I already found one panel that's made two hundred times better for it. It's a shot of Animah with purple skin and blue hair because of the lighting and it stands out so well. Just a perfect little panel. My only hope is that Humanoids keep these coming. A hardcover like this with the original colouring of Avant L'Incal would be a fantastic companion piece -- and, then, maybe Apres L'Incal and Final Incal? Please?

Later

Sketch Reviews (May 5 2011)

Well, the Jays got destroyed this afternoon. Price pitched a great game and, in the top of the ninth, I stopped wanting the Jays to make the comeback and win because it's the team I cheer for and shifted to wanting the Jays to win just to stick it to the Rays' manager who took Price out of the game with two outs because the Jays managed to score a run that wasn't Price's fault in any way. John MacDonald got on base because of a throwing error by the shortstop that left him at second. He got to third off a sacrifice fly and scored on a groundout. It should have been three outs. I so wanted the Jays to win just to stick it to Maddison, the Rays' manager. You know you're making odd calls when fans of the opposing team sit out and go "That's stupid!"

Annihilators #3: I'm not sure if I really like this comic. The lead story is fine -- I liked the second issue's portion quite a bit. The second one has left me cold until this issue. I don't know. One issue left and, if that was just the end of the first arc, I think I'd stop there anyway. It's a fine comic, just not one that connects with me. [***]

Fear Itself #2: Um... we're still in set-up mode? What bugs me is that this tried to have a 'everything is falling apart' feel to it and it never lands for me. The final pages are good, but, fuck, this felt like where the first issue should have ended. Seriously, two issues in and the prologue feels more useless, the first issue feels like a prologue, and the second issue feels like the first... [***1/4]

Moon Knight #1: Wow, I like Alex Maleev's art a lot more here than I did on Spider-Woman and Scarlet. More crazy energy, less focus on photorealism, and the colouring doesn't have that same neon glow. It's a fine first issue. It introduces the concept well enough. Nothing here that blows my mind beyond some great art. [***1/2]

Wolverine #8: Missed it when it first came out, but my shop ordered me a copy. I don't know why, but that this story came down to the men trying to kill Logan while the women try to save him makes me laugh. So did the different rooms inside Logan's head. Him surviving for the sole purpose of wanting revenge is a decent idea, I guess. Undecided if I'll continue with this book. I really just popped in for what looked like an interesting storyarc -- and it has been. I guess we'll see. [***3/4]

Weapons of the Metabaron: I really should have got this last week, but my retailer forgot that it had come in. He called me later on Thursday last week to tell me that he'd forgotten in case I wanted it right away. It's an okay book. I shouldn't be surprised/amused that Travis Charest's name is the biggest on the cover -- then again, I'm buying this for Jodorowsky, so... The story is straightforward and incomplete: the Metabaron gathers weapons to defeat an enemy and kills everything in his way through intelligence, skill, and awesome technology. Not a mind-blowing book. I dunno. Jog wrote a good review of it, while Tim told me that he didn't actually read it, he just looked at the pictures. Personally, I preferred the Janjetov pages... [***1/4]

Later

The Incal

I read Avant L'Incal (yeah, that's right, I'm feeling pretentious enough to use the original French--it means "Before the Incal," by the way--the sequel, Apres L'Incal--"After the Incal"--hasn't been released on English yet when it was serialised in issues by Humanoids because my dad bought it. I don't know why he never bought the collections DC released of the original Incal. So, I kind of understood what had gone before while reading The Incal: The Epic Conspiracy and The Incal: The Epic Journey, except only partly. I also remembered some stuff from The Metabarons.

That said, these two books are one fantastic read, people. A little antiquated in its ideas at times--I'm sure some women I know would just LOVE the fact that for half of the first book, one of the women walks around in nothing but a loin cloth--but I knew that going in. Jodorowsky has a certain mentality and once you accept it, you're golden.

The story is basically John Difool has to save the unoverse over and over and over again despite his selfish and cowardly nature. He is surrounded by people with more selflessness and courage and never changes. It's actually rather astonishing how little he changes throughout the story. At any given chance, he'll try to pack it up, steal some money and go home to a life of cheap drugs and hookers. The only reason why he sticks around is because of a woman.

What impressed me was how well this story meshed with Avant L'Incal since it was written after these books. Jodorwsky must have had the backstory very well plotted--or bluffed pretty damn well.

And what can I say about the art of Moebius? My favourite panel has to be in the second book where the Metabaron realises the woman he loves will always love Difool and never return his love. The sheer look of anger and frustration Moebius draws is perfect.

I'm a little wary of the ending, though. Not sure what to make of it.

I wish I had more to say, but you know me: if I like something, I tend to just say "Hey, I like it" and then shut up. If you see these books, check them out. Good stuff. And not quick reads, either. You get bang for your buck.