Cinema Suicide

If you’re just joining us and haven’t been following me on Twitter or the Facebook, you’ve missed months of me going on and on about how excited I am to finally have a comic published. I also reviewed the first volume of Zombie Bomb just prior to its release before the Boston Comic Con, where it sold out in mere hours. What can I say? I liked it a lot. It was a great book. This time around, Rich Woodall and Adam Miller have been keeping it quiet and I’ve only gotten a brief preview of comics to come in volume 2, apart from my own, that is. It’s shaping up to be a kick ass comic. Better than the first, even. I’ve seen the colored and lettered version of my contribution, This Night I’ll Eat Your Flesh, and it had my pulse racing at the very excitement of seeing my story come to life on the page. It was a short that Rich Woodall liked so much, he did some rearranging of his own workload in order to do the pencils, himself, and I couldn’t be happier with the results. Seriously. It’s fucking awesome! This is not to downplay the contributions of the other two artists on the story. Lawrence Basso, who I want to call Lance Bass so badly, turned in an appropriately nasty color job for the story that accentuates Rich’s pencils perfectly and the lettering, by Matt Talbot, even expresses every nuance of the dialog. When I finally get to hold the printed version of the comic, it’ll be a transcendent moment for me and when you get to hold the printed version of the comic, you’ll get to see a kick ass zombie comic. Honestly. Even the unbearably negative jackasses at Ain’t It Cool News’ Talkback compared the book to Heavy Metal Magazine, which is a staggeringly sweet analogy.

San Diego Comic Con kicks off on July 22nd, showering the internet with big-hype movie news, a new stand-up talking show from Kevin Smith and more photos of chicks in Leia slave garb than you can shake a stick at. It also brings the launch of Zombie Bomb volume 2 which you’ll be able to buy directly from Terminal Press at the show and at their website. I’m not positive at this time, but I believe they’ll have had a distribution deal worked out with Diamond at that point and you’ll also be able to order from Previews and find it on your local comic shop’s shelf. But don’t quote me. Check it out below, bitches, and see what I have in store for you when I put my own spin on the classic EC formula of irony in a horror comic. Click on each to see a larger view.

The prospect of Sherlock Holmes vs. anything is a pretty attractive deal for me but Victorian Undead is pretty much a horror/mystery wet dream that throws in everything but the kitchen sink to achieve maximum cool. I was once reminded here on this blog that not everything old timey and British constitutes Victorian and this is certainly the case here. Around the turn of the century, the last century, that is, Holmes and Watson are called in by Scotland Yard to have a look at a dead man who defies logic and continues to live. Before any conclusions are drawn, though, MI5 shows up and shutters the case. This, of course, does not stop Holmes who eventually uncovers a sort of writhing mass grave below the streets of London and stumbles into the plot of his now undead arch-enemy James Mortiarty to turn all of England into a shambling horde of zombies.

Writer, Ian Edginton, a 2000AD regular, is exceptionally familiar with the rich lore of Holmes, he also knows how to have a good time with a ton a genre tropes, all playing nicely with one another in a single six issue series. You get the usual Holmes treatment with the obvious zombie horror, steampunk elements and nods to Dr. Who, James Bond and Professor Quatermass. Victorian Undead, for anglophiles, is a gigantic love letter to British pulp culture. Fall in love with this book.

I have been waiting with baited breath for I, Zombie ever since I spotted it in the House of Mystery one-shot last year. I hate reviewing Issue 1′s because of how vague the books can be. Every issue 1 is out to introduce characters and set up the issues to come, so it’s hard to get a handle on what’s going on. I, Zombie introduces Gwen Dylan, zombie girl detective. She lives in a cemetery, hangs out with a ghost from the 60′s and puts up with the relentlessly awkward advances of a were-terrier named Scott. In order to maintain her state of human appearance, Gwen has to eat brains once a month lest she turn into a shambling, rotting corpse. In the process, she gains the memories of the brain she’s eating. In this particular issue 1, Gwen eats the brains of a murder victim and is compelled to find out what happened.

I began a love affair with Mike Allred back in the day when I was introduced to the pages of Madman, a quirky super hero book that you could read and still maintain credibility with your Eight Ball reading friends. Allred’s art here is Allred’s art. If you’re familiar with his minimalist, old school graphic design style, you won’t miss a beat. It’s all clean, organic lines, solid inks and soft coloring. Chris Roberson’s script is where the book excels, of course. This is about the most original mystery premise I’ve ever seen and the book’s tragic characters, bearing a likeness to the BBC series, Being Human, are a tragic lot in spite of the sometimes comical and weird circumstances. Lots of fun and nice to look at, I, Zombie is definitely worth following into issue 2.

I need you to understand something. I don’t buy monthly books anymore. The cover prices on these books are just too damn high and comics are full of shit, mostly. Something genuinely original comes along so seldom and even some of my favorite books don’t compel me to keep up with them monthly, but Sparta USA just might be the most fascinating title of 2010 that keeps me coming back every month for a new issue. Roght from the get go, something seems very wrong with the town of Sparta whose 10,000 citizens all play football at some level. As a matter of fact, the whole town seems cut off from the rest of the world, stuck in a small town mentality that is an extreme-right-winger’s dream come true. They all live under the thrall of The Maestro, wise leader with blue skin who shows up a few times a year to deliver babies supplied to the community by the President of the United States, who, in this book, is almost regarded as god or at least The Pope. Meanwhile, living in the hills is the greatest quarterback Sparta ever knew, now gone rogue and living off the land, he and his red skin return to Sparta to show everyone the mysterious and terrible truth about the world outside of Sparta.

I don’t even know where to begin with Sparta USA. The art isn’t much to write home about. It’s a thick line, low detail style from artist Johnny Timmons that is suitable and strictly utilitarian. However, it’s writer, David Lapham’s crazy-ass ideas of the Texas lifestyle run amok that cements the plot firmly in weirdsville. In its second issue, the series is out of its mind and unlike anything I’ve ever read. Whatever brought the idea to Young Liars writer, Lapham is beyond me and how he managed to pitch is successfully to Wildstorm is even harder to understand. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s fucking awesome, in fact. It’s just that it’s so original and strange that it’s hard to see any company printing this book. Sparta USA combines Americana with fairy tales and mythology and not that Fables way. It’s a hard sell but I urge you to check this one out.

European comics rarely ever seem to get any kind of translation over here in the States, which is a shame because European comics, particularly French and Italian books have an entirely different vibe about them that distinguishes them from their American cousins. Because they’re so different, with a hangup on villains and anti-heroes, evident in books like Kriminal, Fantomas and Diabolik, I am totally fascinated by them. What is it about European standards and expectations that the protagonists of comic books are often brutal criminals?

Dylan Dog isn’t that kind of book, actually. The eponymous hero of the book is, in fact, quite heroic but he’s so wildly off beat that you’d be hard pressed to find a book on American shores with a character as wildly eccentric as Dylan Dog. In spite of his heroic status, Dylan Dog is very European. With the upcoming adaptation of the Italian comics sensation, Dead Of Night, Dark Horse Comics seized the opportunity to remind us all that ten years ago they brought Dylan Dog to the United States in a series of digest sized translations with some minor modifications and outstanding covers by Hellboy creator, Mike Mignola. Now available on comic shop and book store shelves all over the country is a single-volume reissue of those digests called The Dylan Dog Case Files.

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It’s never a good idea to base your opinion of a book on the first issue because really, they’re just beginning to lay the ground work for the entire series but Marvel Zombies 4 is the one that I’ve been most looking forward to.  The original Marvel Zombies story, technically a part of their spinoff Ultimates line, which reboots the entire Marvel universe, had an alien virus infect the superheroes of earth who use their particular powers to help them eat everything. And I mean everything. The very nature of the book is pretty silly.

Marvel Zombies 2 couldn’t really keep pace, though. Neither could Marvel Zombies 3. By this point, the zombies are using Mr. Fantastic’s gear to move from dimension to dimension and have basically eaten up entire universes apart from our own. In the final pages of MZ3, it is revealed that a single zombie managed to escape but in the earliest pages of Marvel Zombies 4, it turns out that it’s actually two zombies: Simon Garth, the zombie from Marvel’s nigh-forgotten horror series Tales of the Zombie and he’s not alone. He carries the chattering zombie head  of Deadpool with him where he strikes a deal with a voodoo coke dealer. Meanwhile, The reformed Midnight Sons comprised of Werewolf By Night, Son of Satan, Jennifer Kale and Morbius, the living vampire try to stem the zombie infection which begins in this dimension under the sea with a race of sea people known from the Submariner books.

Marvel zombies realizes that it jumped the shark a while ago and it seems to have embraced its ridiculous nature, which is a good thing because even though it’s a humorous series, it did seem to take itself pretty seriously in the second series. What I really like about this book is the reintroduction of Marvel’s horror characters, a group that I’m fairly certain that rival DC managed to do without and one of the reasons that as a 13 year old comic kid, Marvel was my book of choice. Man-Thing is still left to be introduced into the series and Simon Garth was unexpected, so I can only hope that Johnny Blaze or Dan Ketch, whichever Ghost Rider exists in this dimension winds up introduced as well.  Marvel’s horror characters were often continuity bound superhero types, but they had that same element that made Warren and EC horror books so cool. This series, already by the first issue, rings of the 70′s horror books that made Marvel so badass. Kev Walker’s art also helps the book substantially. It lacks that Marvel in the 70′s vibe that the rest of the comic has, but that wouldn’t fly too well in this day and age of heightened expectations. Walker’s lines suggest action, which is what the first Marvel Zombies 4 book is all about.

All around, Marvel Zombies 4 is looking like a book that I may see to the end. The writing is solid, Deadpool is… Deadpool and The Zombie introducing the head of Deadpool as a potential means of dominating the drug market in this dimension is an interesting twist. It’ll be interesting to see where this book goes. Why they don’t just turn it into a monthly series for up and coming writers and artists to cut their teeth on is beyond me. Marvel Zombies 3 practically just ended a couple of months back!

I had pretty high hopes for The Warriors. It’s an iconic flick and a favorite of mine. It also marks the first time I’ve ever bought a comic that adapts a movie. The appeal of movie adaptations is pretty thin for me. I’m a lot more comfortable, though only marginally, watching a movie based on comic. Movie adaptations usually have a cheap, rushed feeling about them but The Dabel Brothers have had thirty years to develop this book. You’d think that with that span of time they’d have kicked out a better product.

The draw of this comic is the alleged further adventures of the gang from Coney that the outstanding video game published by Rock Star delivered on. This five issue series, a sort of back door pilot to a longer ongoing series, adapts the movie almost verbatim. Omitting a word from the dialog here and there, it matches the first fifteen or so minutes of the movie yet seem to rush things a bit. We start with the opening montage that introduces The Warrios and sets it up. They’re heading up to Pelham Bay Park to hear Cyrus, leader of the Grammercy Riffs, present his big idea on how to take over the city. However, as he’s whipping the gangs into a frenzy, Luther, leader of The Rogues shoots Cyrus and pins it on The Warriors and so begins the chaos and the run back to Coney as the police raid the meeting.

I’d address David Atchison’s script were there an original script or at least some creative riffing to talk about but you must understand, this is the movie word for word. The draw of the movie is the charismatic performances of the characters. What makes Cyruses speech so powerful is Roger Hill’s fantastic delivery. Reading through the comic, the movie is brought to mind at every turn (and a certan song by Biohazard), which is a strength but it loses points as nothing about it seems larger than life. The presentation is very, very flat but what ultimately sinks The Dabe’s book here is Chris DiBari’s boring art. The Warriors could have been a worthwhile book had it been represented by the urban style of the period. DiBari is hardly a newcomer and his pencils are usually solid comic book art, but The Warriors seems to be a low priority for him. Everyone is represented with thin, noodly lines and nothing to suggest action.

It’s still early and there’s four issues to go but The Warriors is a dud. It lacks every ounce of punch that Walter Hill’s movie has and glosses over some of the best scenes of the entire first act. It fails to spotlight the colorful gangs in the early scenes and features nearly as many pages of advertisements as comic.