Red Eye, Black Eye

Here's how this works: I finish reading a comic collection, and I tell you about it, and I try not to go on too long.



In K. Thor Jensen's first graphic novel, he recounts a bizarre journey around the US at the end of 2001, after he lost his job, got dumped and kicked out of his apartment in the space of a week. He puts his belongings in storage, buys a two-month Greyhound Ameripass and hits the road, relying on the couches of internet acquaintances in more than a dozen cities to continue his odyssey.

I was a little disappointed in the end, as I was hoping for some sort of resolution, but this is perhaps my fault for trying to see "plot" in what's plainly nothing more than an anecdotal travelogue. It's certainly a very interesting story, with many funny diversions, and it's told quite well. I'm shocked and apalled that his Atlanta host could find the Varsity, but not the Clermont. Give us a ring next time you're in town, Thor; I'll give you directions.

(Originally posted Aug 26 2007 at hipsterdad's LJ.)

Invasion!

Here's how this works: I finish reading a comic collection, and I tell you about it, and I try not to go on too long.



Invasion! was a regular series for the first year (1977-78) of 2000 AD, appearing in its first 51 issues. It's about a resistance movement in occupied Britian in the far-flung future of 1999, after the Volgan Empire of Eastern Europe sweeps into power to control the oil in the North Sea. Leading the fight back is a trucker named Bill Savage and his trusty shotgun.

It's pretty damn dated, but incredibly fun, as the nigh-indestructible Savage plays a cat-and-mouse game against the bafflingly incompetent invaders. 25 years later, Pat Mills brought the character back in a more somber and realistic take on life under occupation. More on that another time, but this collection is an excellent time capsule of British comics from the late 70s, full of wild ideas and violence that don't always make the most logical sense, sometimes really straining credibility, but remain compelling and exciting. Recommended for readers familiar with the style.

(Originally posted Aug. 24 2007 at hipsterdad's LJ.)

Clubbing

Here's how this works: I finish reading a comic collection, and I tell you about it, and I try not to go on too long.



DC has a new line of ~150-page graphic novels for teen readers. It's called Minx and this book came out early in July. The price point's a little high for something I breezed through during a long lunch, but it was a fun, light read about a spoiled London teen who gets sent to spend the summer in the country with her grandparents and gets caught up in both culture shock and a murder mystery. Nothing here you haven't read before, but done with both a little flair and a lot of wit, and very nice artwork by Josh Howard.

The ending is about as left-field and ridiculous as that episode of The Saint with the giant ants, but it has ample fun getting there. Recommended if you can find it less than retail price.

(Originally posted Aug. 21 2007 at hipsterdad's LJ.)

Tomorrow Stories Vol. 2

Here's how this works: I finish reading a comic collection, and I tell you about it, and I try not to go on too long.



I didn't like the second collection of this as much as I did the first. There are only two Jack B. Quick stories in it, and while they're both hilarious, there should be a lot more than two, and Moore completely runs out of steam with the First American. On the other hand, there's some very good guest artwork by Joyce Chin on a Cobweb episode, and seven further Greyshirt stories. Greyshirt's been MIA for a few years, and Darwyn Cooke's leaving The Spirit in a few months. Life's not fair. Recommended for Alan Moore fans; I don't see this appealing to people unfamiliar with his quirks.

(Originally posted August 14 2007 at hipsterdad's LJ.)

Black Jack: Two Fisted Surgeon

Here's how this works: I finish reading a comic collection, and I tell you about it, and I try not to go on too long.



I was telling you about Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack last month. This is the second and last volume of translations that Viz made available in that hybrid sorta-digest form they used to use. I got this from the same "buy one get three free sale" I mentioned; I've certainly no objection to spending $4 on almost 200 pages of Tezuka.

Volume two has more of the same utterly outlandish and captivating medical mysteries, but it also features an amazing story called "Assembly-Line Care" which, thirty years later, is every bit as important today. Our health care system has been manipulated and screwed with by greedy businessmen for an awfully long time. Highly recommended on many levels.

(Originally posted August 12 2007 at hipsterdad's LJ.)

Doctor Who: The Flood

Here's how this works: I finish reading a comic collection, and I tell you about it, and I try not to go on too long.



The fourth and final collection of Panini's Who comics (the ones that predate the BBC kids' comic I mentioned earlier), this covers the final two years of the Eighth Doctor stories in Doctor Who magazine. Absolutely wonderful work from a host of talented creators, with some additional "director's cut" pages filling out two of the stories, and detailed commentary, including the abandoned plans to have the Paul McGann Doctor regenerate into Christopher Eccleston in the comic!

It's about 250 oversized color pages on nice paper, and is highly recommended.

(Originally posted August 9, 2007 at hipsterdad's LJ.)

Buddy Does Jersey

Here's how this works: I finish reading a comic collection, and I tell you about it, and I try not to go on too long.



Speaking of Peter Bagge...

I found myself liking the previous collection of Bagge's Buddy Bradley stories, Buddy Does Seattle, principally because of his bipolar, on-again-off-again girlfriend Lisa Leavenworth, but not enough to pick up the second collection until a 40% off sale earlier this spring. Honestly, I wasn't as taken with this one as the first, despite a whole lot more Lisa in it.

The problem is that the book just isn't funny. The Seattle book had Lisa's manic antics ratcheted up to twelve, and some absurd situations. Here, as Buddy settles into uncomfortable suburbia, the only outlandish things that happens are the idiotic crap he brings upon himself, or situations that are just so bizarre that they aren't amusing. And Lisa's just a jerk, not the catastrophe she was on the west coast. That's not to say it's not an occasionally compelling read - I cared enough to see what was going to happen next - but more comedy would have made the misanthropy more palatable.

Kudos to Fantagraphics for a great format. 350 pages for $15 is very, very good.

Pete Bagge draws horribly ugly people to look horribly, horribly ugly. When he draws them in flagrante delicto, I want to spoon out my eyes.

Recommended to readers familiar with the material.

(Originally posted Aug 6 2007 at hipsterdad's LJ.)