Baltimore Comic Con 2010 (Late Edition): George Gordon Pope

 

I was not trying to troll Paul Pope at all. It was simply in the long tradition of my forgetting to find things for Paul Pope to sign that I realized I had forgotten my notebook. I had, before buying Life on Mars #2, only a copy of a short, racy biography titled Byron in Love, which I had been reading for class. I figured Pope could sign it. It was not a totally inappropriate thing for Paul Pope to sign as the two men have a few things in common: Paul Pope is a rock star – Byron is the original rock star; Paul Pope makes me want to rip off my shirt – Byron had lots of people ripping off their shirts for him, and frequently; Paul Pope is conscious of his public image – Byron played with his public image. It made sense.

After falling all over my giddy self with an explanation, Paul Pope signed my book while laughing at me, trolling me right back with a signature from Lord Byron.  I walked away lightheaded; how Byronic.

Blood, Sweat & Twitter: One Woman Paul Pope fandom? Bitches, please

Good friend of the blog and semi-committal comics reader Camden had the, what, dumb luck?, no, unique opportunity to see Paul Pope talk about his craft during spring break. So of course we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to have her share with our readers here something of her experience. What her piece here seems to get at it is how Paul Pope has a certain something, a bit of the rock star, almost, about him that sets him apart from other comics artists. What she doesn't mention is how she had to be talked into ditching her dad's girlfriend's middle school musical to go see Paul Pope. She also doesn't mention the octopus drawing she commissioned for me. -d

I had the absolute privilege of seeing Paul Pope speak at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, which is where I live in real life. San Francisco Bay Area, not the Cartoon Art Museum, although the Cartoon Art Museum is a real treat and I do wish I had been less starstruck by His Popeliness to wander around a bit more, as they had some really cool stuff on display.

Now, you must understand where I come, pulphopefully speaking. I have been a fan of Paul Pope for about a year. David gave me a copy of Heavy Liquid to read on a plane. I think I finished it before my plane even left the airport. It was a magical moment for me. Later after I expressed my enjoyment of Heavy Liquid in several exclamation-laced sentences, David handed me 100% which I of course adored with the passion of a thousand burning suns and thus my love for Paul Pope was solidified for all eternity. I love the man and his work and though I have no background whatsoever in illustration or comics, I think his storytelling is phenomenal.

So like any good fangirl after her first fannish epiphany, I googled him, put his blogspot on my Google reader, added him on Flickr and called it a day. Later realizing that his blogspot is one of the least informative sources on all things Pulphope, at least in terms of his actual Goings On, I set up a Google alert which sent me emails every day containing extensive articles about Pope John Paul II and the occasional article casually using Paul Pope’s name in reference to something that invariably had very little to do with him. One time an actual interview with him came up! That was real exciting. Another time MTV referenced his twitter! So I added him to my Twitter feed and promptly forgot about it. Then I cut the alert email, because it was annoying.

This entire process took about thirty minutes, not counting the time I took, one day, to go back, starry-eyed, through his flickr. I merely wanted to make sure I got up-to-date information on whatever he happened to be putting out or where he might be going and signing stuff or what have you, since he is not a man who seems to make many formal appearances and who does not rapidly produce work, at least new comics. I also wanted a peek inside that magnificent brain of his, having so very little knowledge of him. I’m an English major prone to close-reading and obsessive analyzing and the only thing I have ever learned is that too much information is never enough. Twitter, Flickr, and a blog? That’s me not even trying.

Anyway, I received an email from The Cartoon Art Museum the day before the event telling me that the actual Paul Pope would be in MY STATE talking about HIS COMICS and I flipped.

I was disappointed in the talk, sort of. Forty-five minutes of talking (split between Pope and Dr Michael B Johnson talking and an audience Q&A) was never going to be enough for me, and certainly did not satisfy my desire to know more. Nevertheless, I was pleased with what I got. Johnson obviously knows Pope well and had me scrawling down illegible notes in one of my school books regarding Pope’s answers. They covered a fair bit of the artist's history, which I do feel most people could have gotten had they spent more than thirty minutes on the internet looking for tidbits of his life. I was content to learn about this part of his life though, given I’ve heard all of one interview with him. It was an interesting interview to bear witness to, and I enjoyed it, honest. It just wasn’t long enough.

However, they opened the talk with a brief poll of the audience. Who here is involved with the creation of comics (writing, drawing, etc)? At least half the audience. Who here is involved with projects around comics (apparently this means movies)? The other half of the audience. Even the surly-looking bro in the front row was an artist. I sat in my corner of the room, clutching my stupid books and thinking great, here we go, an entire talk about the industry, something I care very little about except in the context of how the industry affects the art which in Paul Pope’s case, as I learned that evening, is very little for everything between THB and Batman Year 100, and then again after the publication of Batman 100. (At this point in his career, the man is basically unstoppable. And he knows it.) But maybe there’ll be something of interest?

No. Take a crowd of mostly young and hip artists and comics dudes who are precisely the age group to which the iPhone is marketed and the first Q&A is a question about what brushes Pope uses. Um, what? He’s answered that question like a million times on twitter, dude. Or at least once and I’m sure that question has come up before. He suffered a few other questions about his art – do you thumbnail, what kind of paper do you use, what kind of ink do you use, what would you change about your art if you could start from the beginning – before I finally managed to steel myself.

I raised my hand in a sea of seemingly informed Paul Pope fans and I inquired politely as to what the fuck Shakedown actually is and what is he doing there and oh my god Paul Pope and burlesque how perfect etc, and a man sitting near me asked, “what burlesque are you talking about?”

WHAT?

Apparently the rest of the crowd looked fairly mystified as well and a quick explanation was in order. It is not, Paul the Illustrious said, him doing burlesque. (“Oh damn,” said half the crowd sadly, including me.) It is a show that he helped to organize with his girlfriend who is a burlesque artist. I was moved to tears, he said, at a burlesque show I went to, and I wanted to give back to this community that inspired me.

YOU’RE SO GREAT OH MY GOD I said in my head. The Q&A session moved on while I hung back, shocked – shocked! – at the ignorance of these young hip comics peeps around me. Dude next to me had a website for his comics. This other guy used ebay to buy Pulphope swag. Clearly an internet savvy crowd, as anyone over the age of two is wont to be. And yet they’d never heard of the Shakedown shows? Were they stupid? Did they just not pay attention? Was everyone here a pretender and I alone was the only true Paul Pope fangirl? Was I, in fact, the only Paul Pope stalker in the room?

Impossible. I’ve never even read all of THB. I read like half an issue once and got distracted by pasta. But Shakedown is all over his blog and his twitter and check out sheer amount of scans and photos of his art for Shakedown on his flickr. His enthusiasm for Shakedown, whatever it may be, is impossible to miss even if you visit his blog a mere once a month.

So what gives, dudes? A twenty-one year old with no independent interest in comics outside of Kate Beaton should not be more informed than you, actual comics creators with decades of knowledge, on the goings-and-comings of Paul Pope. Everyone who attended the event – and there were quite a few, standing room only – was clearly a fan. So what’s with the ignorance? Is it willful? That stupid misled fan desire to keep the creative separate from the man? But Paul Pope himself talked about “skingrafting [his] identity” onto the character of Batman in Batman Year 100 and anyone with eyes knows that it is utterly impossible to get away from Paul Pope in Paul Pope’s work. Furthermore, Paul Pope produces too little work that is so immediately difficult to get hold of that it strikes me as utterly stupid not to devote a little time and energy into keeping up with him. Particularly in something that is so obviously important and interesting and exciting to him.

Plus, it’s burlesque. Paul Pope and burlesque.

So come on, motherfuckers, get it together.

Beast Week Coda: Wailing for her Demon Lover

"He's um . . . I don't know, kind of inscrutable." These words, spoken by Colette at the opening of Part Two of Marian Churchland's Beast in an abortive attempt to describe the book's eponymous anti-hero to her friend Jane, could just as easily be used to describe Churchland's book itself. Beast is that rare example of a comic--though we could easily apply this to novels or movies--that, by borrowing elements from other works, artists, movements, forms and genres, becomes something utterly new and unclassifiable and still somehow manages to be beautiful, meaningful and affecting. Originating from a dream that is not a little reminiscent of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," Churchland borrows the structure of her favorite fairy tale, using it to construct an ambivalently Freudian, post-feminist pleasure dome, populated by Italian Renaissance artists, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and even a little bit of Byron, by way of Paul Pope.


Though Churchland's book ultimately deviates from its original in many fundamental ways, it is useful to remember that "Beauty and the Beast" is a tale that begins with a father's prostitution of his daughter. Beast's opening, in which Colette is taken by her father to a mysterious sculpting commission that he arranged, imposes a sense of ambiguity, the feeling that something is being withheld from the reader, that we don't have all the information, which propels the whole of the narrative. The relationship between Colette and her father is clearly transactional; she relies on her him to divvy out whatever "bottom-feeder" art commissions he is able to, but the revelation that he is unaware that she is no longer with her boyfriend (whose name he struggles to remember) reveals that they have long since retreated from any traditional notions of familial intimacy. The scene is a perfect, exceptionally economical opening to the book, introducing each of the book's major themes--gender politics, creative integrity, menacing and complex sexuality--in a scant few pages.

One of the fascinating things about Beast, and perhaps that aspect of the book that makes you want to keep going back to it, looking at it more closely, is that Churchland resists taking any of its elements to its logical conclusion and therefore pigeonholing the narrative. Thus, while the story has some very definite things to say about women and creativity and power, these statements are problematized by some of the book's imagery and the ambiguous sexual position of Colette vis a vis Beast. A great subtle example is the the juxtaposition of panels which show the upper portion of the Carrera marble slab atop Colette's body from the waist down. At first glance, this appears a relatively straight-forward association of the artist with her medium. But a closer look--perhaps a dirtier mind--reveals the great white phallus of the marble towering over Colette's crotch.


Of course, Colette is only able to complete her sculpture when she abandons the gradual chipping away of the chisel for the power drill's penetration. In effect, Colette denatures the marble's monotonous masculinity by drilling it full of holes. The image, then, is one in which the masculine and feminine are present together--the marble embodies both qualities.


This sort of fluidity of imagery and representation is consistent with Churchland's illustration strategies. Colette, though undeniably gorgeous and feminine, has a boy's long arms and narrow hips. The aggressively Byronic Beast, who owes perhaps just a small debt to Paul Pope's Batman, occupies a similarly ambiguous position with respect to gender, with his long delicate fingers and narrow shoulders.


I don't mean for any of this to suggest that this is what Beast is about. Indeed, as I mentioned above, it is the book's ambiguity, its consistent refusal to lend itself to one particular reading or interpretation that makes it so interesting. There are lots of other curious questions planted throughout the book, such as the hinted at association of Roz with Cecilia or Colette's highly unstable hair-length, but they aren't questions which beg resolution, they just present interesting and variable readings.

The point, of course, is that Churchland has created an admirably, no, remarkably complex and rewarding narrative that augments her already apparent (to me, anyway) illustration skills. This bodes well for those of us who like to read smart comics that aren't smarty-pants comics, comics which are personal but not sappy-autobiographical. Marian Churchland officially enters that growing pantheon of interesting and talented creators who are bucking the typical categorizations of high and low comics and in doing so pointing toward a rich possible future for the medium.

Verve & Snap: Paul Pope's Escapo

John Ford kept coming to mind as I finally got the chance to read Paul Pope's Escapo because Pope's highly-sought-after, long out-of-print graphic novel (let's call it a graphic short story, or graphic novella though, it's more fitting) moves along with the same kind of iconic rarification of characters, images, and locales as John Ford's work. And just as importantly, like Ford's work, Escapo plays-out in sweeping, big-ass single-page panels and double-page spreads--the comics grammar equivalent of Ford's signature widescreen images--all wrapped around a deeply felt, melodramatic unrequited love plot.

"Ford has never been sufficiently appreciated for the verve and snap of his visual storytelling..."

That's a quote from Andrew Sarris' The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929-1968, noting the critical focus on director John Ford's storytelling, melodrama, and supposed worker-bee film direction over his visual style and flair. Besides establishing my point that there's a distinctly Ford-like feeling and visual style in Escapo, I like that quote from Andrew Sarris because in many ways, Paul Pope's critical reception is the opposite of John Ford's: It's all about Pope's verve and snap. What that leaves out is the deep caves of feeling behind his deceptively developed characters, the rush of sex and love and fear careening through his characters, even if they sometimes seem to only be smoking and babbling on about this or that.

In Wednesday Comics, Adam Strange is a knowing icon, a handsome hard-ass, fighting through every strip with existential abandon. Everybody in 100% is squirming and just because Pope too looks and maybe seems to act like his characters, doesn't mean he can't do a kind of comics surgery on their psyches and make a comic about how damned lost and confused they all are (less than a year after September 11th, mind you and not long after another post-9-11 comic, Heavy Liquid). Speaking of Heavy Liquid, that upside-down, hazy single-page spread of "S" injecting the titular liquid is not only a brilliant illustrations (and the most perfect visualization of the feeling of opiates, maybe ever) but a stylistic flourish that makes events of the comic palpable. As Pope bragged, his Batman sweats, and bleeds, and all that...

What I'm saying is, there's emotions in Pope's work and that's easily forgotten or pushed to the side because he's sick with his pen and ink and tucks all this emotion in very sexy people doing very cool things. That said, Escapo is also arguably, Pope's most hit-you-in-the-gut direct piece of storytelling. It all builds to a devastating and then life-affirming climax and it's got all the cool shit you expect from a Paul Pope story.

Beginning with a strange, almost overture like beginning, illustrating the birth of Escapo in graphic detail--it is, in a sense Escapo's first "escape" through dangerous circumstances and parallels his (sorry) leaps and bounds through narrow, water-filled canals as a big-time circus performers (though not too big-time, an important detail) many years later--Escapo kicks-off on sensory overload. Dashes of ink, thick and thicker bounce across the pages, sometimes motion lines, sometimes the dialogue of a carnival barker, sometimes drops of sweat dripping from the increasingly-aware-of-his-mortality main character.

From there, it's very much that aforementioned "verve and snap" as Pope, in one of his awesomely laborious action sequences--it's about 19 pages--presents a stunt by Escapo, moment-to-moment, step-by-step, pausing a little over halfway through when Death shows up in a filling-with-water pipe/tube thing to tell Escapo his time's come. Escapo being an escape artist and all, bargains with Death (represented as a gangly skeleton who speaks like he's from a Bergman movie) and holds-off Death (and death of course) until his next stunt.

The moment's awesomely surreal but classicist too, a simple physical manifestation of the main character's fears, that becomes more powerful because it totally slows down the extended action sequence: From being chained up and elevated, to breaking free, to navigating his way through a grinder, to falling into a cage to battle a tiger, to some more grinders, to a tube of rushing water...to Death. And so yeah, it's a big, show-offy, unrestrained piece of narrative storytelling, but it's distinctly Ford-like in that it defines its character through action, physicality, and even, occupation.

But then Pope's story takes a fascinating turn, almost entirely inward, as every panel, page, and sequence of Escapo following the introductory stunt is tightly wrapped around Escapo's insular concerns. Namely, his own mortality and a his love for a tight-rope walker. The comic doesn't become any more wordy or less action-packed, but these two obsessions--love and death, core obsessions/themes for most art--flutter through every subsequent page. The next escape sequence is just as well-wrought, but it's now dominated by Escapo's sudden confrontation with death and so, he's second-guessing every move he makes, and thinking of everything that could/might go wrong. Pope, simply by hinting at the spectre of death and failure, mindfully removes that verve and snap from the action.

At the same time, there's Escapo's very old-school quasi-courting of the Tight-Rope Walker. Watching her perform, slackjawed, Escapo says, "She's the most beautiful girl in the whole world, I declare." A few scenes later, other circus performers mock Escapo for his heart-on-the-sleeve affection and the otherwise daring character shuffles away in silence. His friend and maybe manager--who bears a resemblance to a young Hemingway--scoffs at the others with a simple, declarative, "You guys are a buncha bastards." You can hear John Wayne uttering that line, the whole scene anchored in Ford's blend of mean, mean reality bumping up against starry-eyed romantic idealism and refusing to fully fall on either side of that binary.

Where the comic goes from there, I hesitate to explain in-detail, but Pope artfully weaves the realization of death of the first escape sequence through Escapo's romantic idealism and the two meet-up, appropriately under the circus tent. Apparently rejected by the Tight-Rope Walker and diving into a bizarre, hollow metal creature full of water, while chained-up, Escapo just kinda rests there in the water--like Benjamin in The Graduate, Herman in Rushmore--purposefully pushing the possibility of escape and in a sense, committing suicide. In a final burst of hard-assed reason, he thinks "Aw, she's not worth it" and bursts out of the creature, now unchained, to an adoring crowd. The Tight-Rope Walker, stiff upper lip, is on the verge of tears--why we don't totally know, it's a beautiful piece of ambiguity in the straight-forward tale--and Escapo says to himself "I'm alive..." and the story ends. A deeply moving, in-the-gut simple affirmation of life and living.

Now, why is this still out of print??

The Wednesday Comics Experience Part 4

The Wednesday Comics experience is becoming exhausting. This issue marks the one month anniversary of Wednesday Comics and the one-third completion watermark. This is the first full issue where I've not been excited to pick one up next week. My general strategy/rules for the end of purchasing for an ongoing comic is two strikes in a row and I'm out.

Of course, there are other factors that go into it, but this rule is one of the main reasons I was one of the few that stuck with Final Crisis to the end. One issue would be good, then the next one would be boring. I trusted Morrison enough that he could get things back on track. As it turns out, if the series went on for one more issue I probably would have dropped it. Ultimately though, I'm glad I stuck with it because there were some really good and intense moments on the way. That's about where I'm at with Wednesday Comics right now: Not as exciting as it was, but the highs are still really high. I trust that the six or so stories that keep me buying this thing will bring it back next week, but who knows, they could end up with Darkseid killing Batman. So yeah for right now, here are some comments on the most worthwhile strips.

BATMAN by writer Brian Azzarello and artist Eduardo Risso
Batman hurt me the most this week. This is probably the most underrated story of the bunch, and after this week it's hard to argue for it. I would argue though that the first three pages were something of a classic in the making. Each page was like a succinct poem with each one standing on its own and dealing with specific themes and building towards something bigger.

The first page showcased Batman and Commissioner Gordon, saying a lot about their relationship to one another, their feelings towards crime, and their position within the city. Page two had a lot to say about the character of Bruce Wayne, his relationship with his parents, and his romantic relationships with women. Without saying a word, page three showed a darker side of Batman, playing the voyeur and showing his anger. By having this subplot underneath the interaction of Luna and Carlton Glass adds different meanings to the story. It becomes more than just a conversation between two people stretched over a cool, well-drawn action story.

This week's page just doesn't fit with the quality or tone of the first three pages. It departs from the wordless panels and the single page storytelling to show a dinner date between Bruce Wayne and Luna Glass. There's nothing here that we didn't already know from previous pages. In this week's page, each line of dialogue is just a double entendre without much going on other than sexual tension. This could be a turn for the worse for the comic. By focusing only on a detective plot it loses all the character and tone that made the first pages great.

KAMANDI by writer Dave Gibbons and artist Ryan Sook
Definitely the best Kamandi yet. It's quick, to the point, and really intense. It plays up the prior knowledge of the story by reusing the final panel of the last page only this time with Kamandi swinging in. Even though a lot of action happens in this page, each event that isn't glossed over and has it's own weight to it. The serious tone of the narration helps a lot. It focuses on the courage of the heroes and even the fear of Kamandi and Prince Tuftan. It makes them more than just heroic characters and this highlights exactly why their heroism is impressive. Kamandi's motive is not just to save a life, like a normal heroic character, but is rooted in a curiosity to find more out about humanity.

SUPERMAN by writer John Arcudi and artist Lee Bermejo
Like Batman this episode just treads water thematically. The first page set the tone while the next two pages explored different aspects of Superman's multi-faceted personality. Unlike Batman I think that Superman has just his a slow patch and will pick back up next week with business as usual. The prospect of seeing some Kryptonian technology is a really exciting one.

Despite it's disappointing showing this week, Superman is easily one of the better stories in Wednesday Comics. Some have complained that its lack of action has made it boring . I don't get comics fans sometimes. When anyone ever talks about Superman it's about how his powers make him unbeatable and there is no suspense, but when a comic finally changes it up and focuses on his personality people complain about the lack of supervillains. The story even plays off of that perception on page one with Superman fighting some random meaningless villain. People who are hating on this one are most likely missing the point.

STRANGE ADVENTURES by writer/artist Paul Pope
Like most people predicted, Pope has the most consistent quality comic of the bunch. This week's page is a direct parallel to last week's when Adam is stuck in prison, but it's told from the guard's perspective at first instead of Alanna's, and we're just confronted with two panels of her staring straight out at us. By not giving us her perspective while imprisoned Pope actually helps the reader identify more with Adam Strange. We're not privy to her thoughts, so we're forced to ask ourselves about her personality and have an outsiders take on her the same way Strange would. Even though Pope shows her as a hardened warrior, his spotlight on her shows her being seemingly emotionally vulnerable. The greatness of Pope's story is his art and how it adds subtle aspects of personality and emotion to a generally pretty cliched storyline.


HAWKMAN by writer/artist Kyle Baker
Quickly this went from a Hawkman solo comic to Hawkman featuring the Justice League. The addition of Hawkgirl and Batman completely change aspects of Hawkman's personality. Page one of the story established him as a loner. He came off as a general of an army that would rather be feared than respected with a "My way or the highway" kind of attitude. Now, we see him orchestrating a plan, not as a general, but as a leader and peer. Baker takes advantage of the format with small panels which add an increasing comic book feel to the story and he continues to do a good job of pacing, adding in small bits of plot and character while keeping things exciting with action.

The Wednesday Comics Experience Part 3

We're officially into it. Now that we've got a couple weeks under our belt, I know exactly which ones to read and in which order. Basically, the good ones come first and the not so good are last. Some I skipped altogether and are going to left out for review purposes. Skipping pages is a little weird because of the cost issue, but I still feel like the good ones are good enough to justify the whole thing.

BATMAN by writer Brian Azzarello and artist Eduardo Risso
This Batman story is blowing me away. A lot of the panels in this strip feel "Powerful Panels" worthy. Especially the panel when the son throws this droplets into his mouth. It's a weird panel because it's completely interpretive of the action. The panel is meant to convey getting the last drop out of your cup but there are slightly too many and it just looks like that's the way he's drinking. It's particularly good because it somehow manages to sum up why this guy is creepy. Like, he's so awkward, even his drink comes out awkwardly. Batman lurking in the background is a nice touch and his fist appearing while the girl is slapped works as a way to show Batman's anger in contrast to the son's. This is another page that could stand on it's own and tell a complete story.

KAMANDI by writer Dave Gibbons and artist Ryan Sook
I skipped this one on my initial run through, not because it's bad, but because it's more dense that most of the others. A mini adventure happens in each of the recent Kamandi. I get excited by the ideas of Kamandi like Apes driving jeeps, airships, and caveboys wielding guns. When it's drawn well and not too dense it works great. The characterizations are done very well. Tuftan, despite being this noble prince, has a warm reunion with Kamandi in the last episode and is reprimanded by Dr. Canus. He's shown looking sullen about it, which is a panel that really adds to the investment in the character. Stuff like this is especially important--these tiny gestures of characterization--when you're only getting a page a week.

SUPERMAN by writer John Arcudi and artist Lee Bermejo
I like how this page gives you the two halves of Superman's personality shown through the major locations in his life. The story seems to be just dissecting the personality of Superman. There hasn't been a single villian for the past two pages and it's still going strong. My big worry is that existential Superman could wear thin. I think as long as the art continues to knock socks off it will work. Be sure to pay attention to John Kents' expression in the last panel and that will pretty much tell you why this story is good.

DEADMAN by writers Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck and artist Dave Bullock
I'm really getting into this. I like how the page is carefully constructed to be a page in a newspaper. The idea of this crazy murderer's mind being all messed up is intense. Even the idea of this murderer being possessed by a demon or something, as the last panel implies, makes perfect sense as a metaphor.

GREEN LANTERN by writer Kurt Busiek and artist Joe Quiñones
I'm still not ready to give up here. The black and white panel of the astronaut changing into a alien and the half-Green Lantern half-Hal Jordan panel still got me to cross my fingers. Even the party with Ferris and Jordan has me a little intrigued. I hope next week rules.

METAMORPHO by writer Neil Gaiman and artist Michael Allred
I don't even care about this story. I would continue to be happy with full page Allred Metamorpho spreads though.

STRANGE ADVENTURES by writer/artist Paul Pope
Again, lots of good stuff to harp on. The best part is how Pope explains the silliness of the zeta-beam strike into something meaningful. He comments that nothing like this could have ever happend on Earth. It's almost as if Adam Strange is in on the workings of the story itself which even kind of makes sense because of his super power. Pope's always been one to play with comics form and expectations and he's quietly getting meta here even as he gives you pure Pulp.

METAL MEN by writer Dan DiDio and artists Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Kevin Nowlan
The reason why this works is because the strength of the villain. The robber in this page behaves realistically in the situation. He grabs onto a last ditch chance at safety and holds onto it. The last panel is a challenge to the "robots" to beat his trigger finger. It's a classic set-up but it still works because it grounded in reality. Guns are the sort of the ultimate power and seeing super heroes outwit them really never gets old.

WONDER WOMAN by writer/artist Ben Caldwell
Let's talk about Little Nemo in Slumberland. The reason why it is great is because of it's simplicity and it's formula. Most pages in Nemo end with him waking up. It's a large and important part of the story because it tell how his dream affects him in the real world. It's also the joke of the strip and the focus. In Wonder Woman there is no focus. What these dreams mean is undefined and they don't matter at all.

SGT. ROCK and EASY CO. by writer Adam Kubert and artist Joe Kubert
These pages have been simple, quick, and enjoyable so far. The page setup is excellent because the climax panel of the interrogation scene where Rock looks defiant is directly under the climax of the tunnel searching flashback where the Easy Co. asserts that they go in together and come out together. Both panels sum up what's special about these men. They have a brotherhood and heart that propels them forward. This contrasts with the two Nazi interrogators just from their body language alone.

FLASH COMICS by writers Karl Kerschl and Brenden Fletcher and artist Karl Kerschl
Remember how last week (Monday) I said it wouldn't be outrageous if Iris just left? Well she did! The thing that is really sad here is that Barry doesn't get the message even by the end of the page. Iris has left and by saying, "I loved you", she's made things pretty final between them. Then, in the Flash's strip he's still trying to make things right the same way he always has by doing superhero type feats. This is exactly what Iris is tired of and it makes the tension between the two strips--and the two characters--even deeper.

HAWKMAN by writer/artist Kyle Baker
The introduction of Aliens turns out to not even be that big a deal. Baker's art and his tone for Hawkman carry it right through the traditional comic book cliches. Aliens are typical comic trope but with lines like, "Suspecting and KNOWING are two different things" and a reaction that isn't exaggerated but a legitimate open-mouth speechlessness make this moment actually meaningful to Hawkman. The panel with Hawkman's red boots and blood on his mace is another Powerful Panels contender. Just sitting here and looking this far into one page of a comic is a pretty good indication that it has something going for it.

The Wednesday Comics Experience Part 2

In reading issue two of Wednesday Comics, the initial excitement has only worn off a little. Usually the honeymoon stage for comics is about one issue and then most comics endure the dreaded sophomore slump. This week's issue carries a lot of momentum with it because it's only ONE WEEK later. The first issue hasn't really had time to settle in. When I went to read this week's issue, I actually remembered the plot of all of the story lines. If this was being released monthly there is no way it would be readable, but since it's still fresh in my brain I'm able to enjoyable juggle sixteen separate stories at once. The price tag is definitely sinking in. When I bought this and Blackest Night (which was good!) and my bill is almost ten dollars...something is wrong.

Sandy over at I Love Rob Liefeld did some number crunching and pointed out that the entire run will cost a grand total of $47.88 . There are too many stories worth reading in here for me to drop it though. Superman, Batman, Strange Adventures, The Flash, and Hawkman are shaping up to be great, while several others are very solid. There are a few clunkers, but really it's only .31 cents a story, and I can't wait for this week's issue.

BATMAN by writer Brian Azzarello and artist Eduardo Risso
Another really solid page for Batman. The panel work and pacing are excellent. Especially the the recurring statue panel. The ending is a final, period-like ending the page but also, a sort of a twist and a lead in to next week. Mrs Glass is introduced as a one-dimensional gold digger but the last panel shifts her interests from money to darker desires connected to romance and presumably manipulation.
KAMANDI by writer Dave Gibbons and artist Ryan Sook
For whatever reason, this felt like more of an origin story than the last Kamandi page. The plot of the rest of the story is outlined which is kind of a bad sign. The story almost treads into narrative overload territory. I like the tone that the narration is striking, but too many words per panel makes things way too dense. The page works best when the words are kept to a minimum as in the second panel and the final two panels.

SUPERMAN by writer John Arcudi and artist Lee Bermejo
What happened to the art? Maybe there was a problem with the printing but the page looks washed in green. Batman is portrayed as really over the top especially in the art. I understand that they are trying to contrast the two characters here but drawing Batman like an actual demon/gargoyle is a little jarring especially after reading the Batman story first. The writing I thought was well-done again. Batman, although insensitive, is basically right and outlines what, presumably, Superman will discover through the course of the story. Even though he is right, Batman is only reinforcing Superman's problem that humans are sort of violence-loving loud mouths. Quick, smart complex stuff.
DEADMAN by writers Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck and artist Dave Bullock
The biggest surprise of Wednesday comics is Deadman. I really like the art and the page layout. The dark background gives it a Batman: The Animated Series feel. The simple plot, with the focus on Deadman's character works well. The panel with the giant green lady and the last panel are highlights.

GREEN LANTERN by writer Kurt Busiek and artist Joe Quiñones
Another big disappointment. I like the art but the layout and even the angle of the characters in the panels are boring. When it's done well it's great, like the "Holy--!" panel but others are just standard stuff or at awkward angles. I still have my fingers crossed that this ones picks up.

METAMORPHO by writer Neil Gaiman and artist Michael Allred
Ok, so they really switched it up on me here. A huge one page panel with some time lapse stuff going on in there. Gaiman seemed to dominate the last weeks page with a flopped attempt at throwback camp humor, but this week Allred's more genuine gee-whiz-like mentality shines through.

TEEN TITANS by writer Eddie Berganza and artist Sean Galloway
This one is even more bland than the last one, and the art choice really doesn't help. It doesn't give it any excitement which is pretty important for a superhero, action-based story. I still enjoy the art but it's not well suited here.
STRANGE ADVENTURES by writer/artist Paul Pope
I like Pope working in the circles in this one. The best part of this for me, is just going back and looking at the details in the art like the background blue monkey warriors and the striking facial expressions. Just another Flash Gordon-like adventure story but Pope's art elevates it to the next level.

SUPERGIRL by writer Jimmy Palmiotti and artist Amanda Conner
If this took anymore than five seconds to read this would be a waste of time. As it is now, it's entertaining filler especially after reading something intense like Adam Strange.

METAL MEN by writer Dan DiDio and artists Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Kevin Nowlan
Continues in the same style and similar quality as the last page. Jokes are funny and not ironic. The last panel is where the Metal Men are standing is where the art stands out. Leaderboard for favorite so far: 1. Lead 2. Gold 3. Iron 4. Tin 5. Platinum 6. Mercury.

WONDER WOMAN by writer/artist Ben Caldwell
Ok, this one lost me. I was a big fan of the previous page, but if this is going to be Finding Nemo every week count me out. There's too much work reading the thing to have such a thin storyline. It needed to go into a real storyline about young Wonder Woman hanging out on Themyscira or even sneaking off to the real world.

SGT. ROCK and EASY CO. by writer Adam Kubert and artist Joe Kubert
Joe Kubert's art is really intense when it's large. The first two panels are affecting by giving off a feeling of dread that even the panels of Sgt. Rock getting beat up don't give. Special Bonus: Easy Company portrait at the bottom!

FLASH COMICS by writers Karl Kerschl and Brenden Fletcher and artist Karl Kerschl
The dual strip really adds a tension to the comic. Iris is seperate and has her own strip, giving her equal footing with a superhero. It wouldn't be that outrageous if they broke up and she was going on dates as the Flash was going around saving people. Time travel is introduced and, despite my normal dislike, it was done well. It's always best where no weird paradoxs are discussed and it's more like a normal thing that's just happening.

THE DEMON AND CATWOMAN by writer Walter Simonson and artist Brian Stelfreeze
Still setting up the story. Is this just going to be Catwoman vs. The Demon? I have no idea how this is going to be interesting for sixteen pages especially when they are losing me at number two.

HAWKMAN by writer/artist Kyle Baker
The art and the writing are definitely in a nice harmony. Baker interjects some humor, and it works well, but the story's real strength is Hawkman as a warrior/general. His smiling thumbs-up gives a great contrast to the complete confidence he exudes in the last panel. The tiny details in the art helps make the silhouetted panels of Hawkman breaking into the plane and bodies flying out even more compelling.

The Wednesday Comics Experience

You might be in a recession if: you see someone kicking a can down the street and you ask them what they are doing and they say "moving."

You might be in a recession if: you wave around a popsicle and call it air conditioning.

You might be in a recession if: your comics are shorter, printed cheaper, and still cost four dollars.

But seriously folks... Wednesday Comics is the much hyped newspaper throwback style comics where each creator takes one page per issue. As I alluded to jokingly above, the big problem with Wednesday Comics is the strange combination of quality and shoddy production. The quality of these high-profile creators' stories makes you want to tear into the thing, but being confronted with an actual newspaper is like being forced to solve a complex puzzle from another solar system. I remember watching my Dad navigating a newspaper as a child and being amazed at his skill in handling that bulky paper. I never got the chance to really master is because, you know, newspapers are dead and all, but now my time has come and I'm too worried about ruining it.

The first issue of Wednesday Comics was an exciting experience. Opening up for the first time and seeing a sad Commissioner Gordon staring at you, or a giant Kyle Baker Hawkman will make nearly any comics fan giddy. The stories themselves are really varied in tone and with all the creators working with a new format, it's awesomely overwhelming.


BATMAN by writer Brian Azzarello and artist Eduardo Risso
"Every time I turn this on, it's like I'm signaling failure." A pretty bold kick off of the first comics you open up to when you unfold the pages. This comic is definitely one of the highlights of the collection. It uses up its page to perfection to introduce us to the story but also to tell its own contained story. If this page was the only page in the whole story, it would somehow make perfect sense.

KAMANDI by writer Dave Gibbons and artist Ryan Sook
This is another really solid page. It tells Kamandi's origin in a simple and direct way. It reminds me of reading an actual action newspaper strip like The Phantom. The art does a great job of making Kamandi and his world look like a contradiction of modern and savage. When he turns around in the last panel with a gun in his hand it's a real surprise. Interesting the story begins after the death of Kamandi's Grandfather.

SUPERMAN by writer John Arcudi and artist Lee Bermejo
Bermejo's art takes center stage here and seeing it in this oversized format is easily one of best parts of the whole collection. The gleaming city of Metropolis and Superman's reaction to the telepathic question from the Madman's Mott-like alien are exclamation point bookends to the comic. The words and panel are chosen carefully enough to be a sort of comic poem. It's strange to me that this of all the comics was picked up by USA Today. This page is so quickly paced that it might not even seem worth it to someone who isn't a comics fan--it's mainly an exercise in art and comics grammar and hero mythology.

DEADMAN by writers Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck and artist Dave Bullock
This is another origin set-up story. It's a little peculiar because his origin is in the title and also in the comic itself. The art here is pretty good--the Deadman in the center being a stand out highlight. This one seems like it will pick up as the story progresses.

GREEN LANTERN by writer Kurt Busiek and artist Joe Quiñones
Good Green Lantern stories are pretty hard to come by, so when I was looking at teasers for Wednesday Comics and saw the art I was pretty excited about this one. The intro box was good giving the story a timeless sort of feel but the rest of the story didn't really back it up. With nothing really notable standing out on the page, it doesn't seem to utilize the format well. The last panel has got me a little hopeful for future installments though.

METAMORPHO by writer Neil Gaiman and artist Michael Allred
Probably the biggest disappointment of the bunch. Allred's art is Allred but Gaiman's writing ruins it. While most of the other comics are mostly homage to the newspaper format, Gaiman goes for more of a campy/satirical approach. Gaiman just seems confused by the format and just decided to write a regular comic story and have it read a page a week, instead of inserting natural breaks.

TEEN TITANS by writer Eddie Berganza and artist Sean Galloway
The origin/explanation of the Titans as a group is solid, but this page falls apart with the Trident character. The art is decent enough, especially the Titans, through the ages does a good job of showing them in their different incarnations developing fluidly. It falls apart with the story and the panels get confusing towards the end.
ADAM STRANGE by writer/artist Paul Pope
Paul Pope is already a master at telling short cut off stories (see: Spiderman Tangled Web) so his Adam Strange is well paced. His art style is definitely modern, even "indie" by some standards, and the first half of the story plays into that showing Adam Strange waking up in his bed and hanging out a little in his house. The second half of the page plays with the sort of camp stuff Gaiman was trying but Pope pulls it off. Strange rattles off a list of sci-fi jargon that just comes off as completely genuine. Pope's art and the calmed introduction of Strange's character allow Pope to do this kind of sincere distance well.

SUPERGIRL by writer Jimmy Palmiotti and artist Amanda Conner
We'll have to wait to next week to see how this one really pans out. Supergirl plus animals is a good mixture but nothing really happens here.

METAL MEN by writer Dan DiDio and artists Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Kevin Nowlan
Didio goes for camp too, but pulls it off because he just goes for it instead of trying to be too clever or above it all. The joke with Gold being part of their stash and talking to them is actually funny so it works.

WONDER WOMAN by writer/artist Ben Caldwell
Here, Caldwell jams about three pages worth of story into one page. I think it utilizes the format well and the art is really interesting. Having this sort of prequel Wonder Woman, totally modern and neon, makes a sort of weird sense. It's a nice change from the sword-bearing killer that Wonder Woman has turned into recently.

SGT. ROCK by writer Adam Kubert and artist Joe Kubert
Six huge panels of Sgt. Rock getting beat up looks really awesome. These guys obviously know what they are doing. No surprises here but reading Kubert--Joe at least--is all about this kind of hard-ass craftsmanship.


THE FLASH by writers Karl Kerschl and Brenden Fletcher and artist Karl Kerschl
This one sort of suprised me. It divides the page into two separate strips. The Flash's strip is completely action but it's done well with the Flash using and explaining his power in a coherent way that sometimes doesn't happen with the Flash. The panels at the end are well done, enhancing the effect of the Flash's compressed time. The second strip is about his girlfriend Iris done in an Apartment 3G style. Kerschl also changes the art slightly giving it a more dramatic/romatic focus. The combination of the two works really well and makes the other one better. Kind of like a real relationship.

THE DEMON AND CATWOMAN by writer Walter Simonson and artist Brian Stelfreeze
I like where this is headed. Both have these snobby personalities that actually play well into each other. Nothing too spectacular about the panels but the art is good especially the shadow panel of Catwoman. How Catwoman is ever going to tangle with Etragon should be interesting.

HAWKMAN by writer/artist Kyle Baker
Hawkman is similar to Batman and Superman pages by being a story into itself. Told from the point of view of his birds, the story gives insight into Hawkman's strength of character as a leader. It's also a look into the mindset of soldiers of any sort of autocratic governing system and how they value strength and purity. The art is simple but really effective. It matches the tone of the story and takes complete advantage of its format. Even the colors seem to be complimented by the paper.

Paul Pope: MICK JAGGER OF COMICS

In the back of the Paul Pope issue of DC’s Solo series, there is a quote referring to Paul Pope as the Jim Morrison of comics.



This is inaccurate for several reasons. Comparing Pope to Morrison understates his creativity and influence. While the Doors are a ‘legendary’ band, their creativity and impact on music is not as significant as say, The Rolling Stones. Admittedly, equating Pope with the Rolling Stones would be an overstatement, but comparing him to Mick Jagger seems fitting. The evidence for this comparison is subliminal; Paul Pope actually looks more like Mick Jagger than he does Jim Morrison. Jagger was not only the lead singer of a super-influential rock band but he was also known as an individual who was a style icon that created the ‘rock star’ persona. Pope is similarly complex. He makes great, really creative and influential art but he’s also an ‘image’.

The "Pope" of Comics
Through the 'world-lens', Pope is always first, a comic book writer and artist. He's more hip and creative than the typical indie comics creator yet, also more popular and more successful. He's able to pull this off because he stays true to the comics medium; his style remains cartoon-ish while still being 'edgy' and still cannot be criticized for lacking craft or content. The best example of Pope's grasp of the comics realm is Batman: Year 100. It's considered a contemporary classic by most comics-fan standards. Pope takes an iconic superhero and reinvents his look while retaining Batman's mysterious persona and writing an atypical story.

Recently, Pope took another crossover opportunity through designing some clothing for Donna Karan New York.

Ultimately, for the comics-outsider looking in on DKNY, it's a really interesting look: she invites a famous comics artist to do some designs = makes the line look more diverse and fundamentally, Pope is a fitting artist for DKNY. DKNY has always been going for androgynous, urban look and Paul Pope's understanding of female sexuality combined with his appreciation for the 'male rogue' totally fits the bill. But being that I was looking in from the other side of the tunnel, I really wanted it to be a Paul Pope fashion experience. I really pictured it as being a variation on his personal style: maybe awkwardly constructed white tee-shirts and other items that are just as unpredictable and fresh as his art.

But instead, I was totally underwhelmed by an Ed Hardy-esque line of clothing that just placed his art on clothing. I reference Ed Hardy because the brand has a habit of uncreative design placement and one of the biggest problems with the Pope DKNY line is it does nothing new or creative with the integration of the art with the clothing. I'm not sure how much control Pope had over the line despite having his name and art being associated with it thus, the outcome does not affect him but rather, just suggests that he's either a. gettin' that cash or b. toying with the idea and may do something better later.

The "Pope" of Cinema
One of the most striking aspects of Pope's comics work is his ability to be cinematic. He composes frames the way a director would compose shots. For example, in this page from 100% (which he cites as being “a graphic movie” right on the front of the issues), without words, he creates tension and an overall, mood when they are illegally buying a gun.



Without words, the perspective changes on this page really express the apprehensive feeling. The page starts with a long two-shot of the girls and then cuts to a tight shot of the man’s hands on his bag. The “camera” then pulls back and puts the scary-dude with the guns in perspective; he’s gross. Again, the focus is tight on his hands and then cuts to a tight two-shot of the girls on the couch, now leaning forward with interest. Lastly, Pope takes almost half the page up with a huge close-up of his gnarly hands about to open the sack of guns. He uses the action of turning the page to accentuate this feeling as, the guns are shown in a similarly large frame, immediately on the next page.

It’s not that other comics artists don’t utilize comics in the same cinematic way, it’s that it is not often that it is used when discussing the same topics. In this page from 100%, it’s being utilized to express the timid innocence of the characters while doing something illegal, dangerous and out of character.

Pope’s ability to synthesize a cinematic feeling into comics has origins in his combined ability to both create an unfamiliar setting and fill it with well-rounded characters but furthermore, because Pope seems to be an incredibly interesting person, his taste in movies. Upon viewing his myspace, it's apparent that Pope is interested and influenced by a lot of movies, books, and music.

Evolution of Influence
When I say ‘influenced’, I mean he's clearly been affected by art and this in turn, makes his art whole. You can't pick out any one favorite or interest and say, "he's definitely ripping this off" because when a person is truly affected by art, it becomes a somewhat of a circular process. To me, it seems easier to visualize this process than to outright describe it so, I made this incredibly nerdy graph… META-MOMENT:

In order to ultimately increase artistic progression, the circle of internalization has to be completed. Stopping at any point within the circle would result in being at a point lower than the original point of exposure. Once through the internalization circle, all points yield higher artistic progression.

In relation to this graphed theory, if a young comic book artist read and really enjoyed Batman: Year 100 and then, immediately sat down to draw his or her own Batman comic, he or she would likely sit down make something really derivative of Year 100. This same comics artist…let’s just say 10 years later… and many influential comics better, may subconsciously take a small aspect of Year 100 and integrate it into a totally different story.

When I say “subconscious”, I’m really just meaning that the art they are referencing has become so much so a part of their attitude that it can be recontextualized. So, when an artist is drawing something similar to art they have seen before, they are able to separate their reference from its original context and weave it appropriately into their ‘new’ creation. I think this is especially the case with Pope. It seems to me that Pope's influences vary greatly. In any one of the items in his eclectic lists of his favorite/interests, if you are aware of it, you can see how that item is a small part of what he has produced rather than the opposite: reading a comic and being able to pick out the influences.

For example:
In his musical interests, he lists Brian Eno and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. When I think about the two in relation to Pope, I can connect both to parts of his work. I see Yeah Yeah Yeahs as being influential to the tone and style of characters. They are a female-led indie rock band; they are young and fresh. Karen O.’s, the lead singer, style and appearance reminds me of some of Pope’s female characters while, Brian Eno’s music, in my head, could be cinematically playing in the background to any of his comics because Eno makes this electronic music with a notoriously cinematic tone.

Think: "Here Come The Warm Jets" playing over “S’’ using the eponymous substance in the Grand Central Station bathroom in issue one of Heavy Liquid.

The "Pope" of Fine Arts


Despite Paul Pope’s fame, he does not release new material with any predictable frequency. So, when I was researching the new Haunted Tank series, I was surprised to see that Paul Pope was doing the cover for the second issue.

Truthfully, the cover blew me away.

As always, the quality of the work is outstanding but what ‘makes’ the cover is in the details. The tone of the colors makes the picture seem distant and snapshot-like. The genius of the colors, assuming that Pope actually did them, is the subtle gradient from the upper-most sky to the horizon and from the ground to the horizon. The gradient bookends the top and bottom of the cover making the scene within seem panoramic. The horizon with the setting sun followed by light from the tank gun assists the viewer’s eye to scan the page from left to right. Moreover, the contrast of the sharp edges defining the light from the tank gun and the “light splatter” represents the same antagonism of a heavy-weight war machine being led by a ghost riding a ghost horse. It’s these subtle parallels made by Pope, which make his work so significant; there is much more to think about within his art than meets the eye. This is what makes Pope’s art less disposable than most other comic book art.

Paul Pope's Joker

Unlike Tim Sale's basically iconic, game-changing Joker, Paul Pope's Joker only appears in one place ("Teenage Sidekick" from his issue from DC's SOLO series) but it is, in its own way, as weird and interesting as Sale's too big for the body, mile-high demonic smile Joker from Long Halloween.

Paul Pope's Joker is Cesar Romero from the Adam West "Batman" series just, rendered with the tons of lines, too-big lips, and the overall slightly manic style in which Paul Pope renders everything. If we weren't viewing Romero from the distance of cameras and then our own televisions, and were instead, inches from his laughing face, he'd probably look more like this Pope drawing than we might expect. And that's the initial brilliance of Pope's Joker; he saw beyond the decades of irony and hipster guffaws that've rendered the Adam West series basically irrelevant and realized that in most ways, the sickest and scariest incarnation of the Joker remains Cesar Romero's.


It's the Joker in the real world...his make-up's toilet bowl white and slathered on, hinting at the real human being underneath. That it's so much more obvious that an actual human being's under the make-up in Romero/Pope's makes the Joker's devotion to his anarchic persona even more absurd. He's in denial of his humanity and he's pathetically in denial that we know he's a human being and not some crazy, evil force (as he's stupidly portrayed in The Dark Knight movie).

And the hair! His hair's not perfectly dyed green but like old-lady-dyed-her-hair-blonde-and-then-went-swimming-and-the-chlorine-turned-it-green, green. Supervillians, especially in the heavy psychological realms in which even the goofiest Batman stories operate, are crazy, messed-up sick people, and seeing an older guy looking like Cesar Romero as the Joker would be horrifying. Seeing Sale's joker would be scary, but scary because he's deformed and not-human looking and unlike anything you've ever seen before. Rather than create a new image of Joker--something the brilliant mind of Paul Pope could've easily done--Pope chose to go back and revitalize a Joker and put him back into context as a really scary dude.


In another way, it's also the Joker that most closely resembles Pope's prior work and in that way, maybe Cesar Romero's Joker spoke to him or maybe, given Pope's comic-nerditry, really was a huge influence on how he drew. The big lips especially, invoke nearly all of Pope's creations as well as Pope himself. Most portrayals of Joker--again, except Sale's super-deformed Joker--suggest that the Joker applies clown make-up to enhance his look and extend his lips, but Joker's giant lips here just have lipstick applied to them, they're already gigantic. In Pope's world, everybody kinda looks like this. Some readers and critics have hinted or outright stated that the similarities between nearly all of Pope's creations and Pope himself (see above self-portrait) is some odd form of egomania or self-obsession, but it seems more in the vein of the pervasive Grant Morrison doubles in so many of Morrison's comics. More of some weird, meta attempt at self-reflection and self commentary than something as simple as turning the world into your double due to inflated ego.

Powerful Panels: Pirates of Coney Island #1 by Vasilis Lolos

Pirates of Coney Island is a still-to-be-completed eight-issue series drawn by Vasilis Lolos and written by Rick Spears. Currently, it's stuck at issue six, although Mr. Spears assured myself and Karen (in separate conversations at SPX) that the final issues are indeed written and just need to be drawn and then you know, published.

The series is in part, an obvious homage to Walter Hill's The Warriors as it's about theme-based gangs in Coney Island, namely the uh, "Pirates" (dudes) and "The Cherries" (chicks), who like most gangs, are rivals and stuff. And like The Warriors, it's all happening in some strange, non-our world setting where everything's fun and unreal but not meaningless or disconnected from real-world emotions, even as it enthusiastically exists in a world where all of the Pirates sleep in hammocks right next to one another and the villain's a bad-ass caddy called "Cadillaculla".

One of the best aspects is the tension between Spears' fantasy Coney Island world and Lolos' angular, uglified art work. Everyone in Lolos' world is squat and wrinkled, with their eyes too far apart. Because the work's consistently "ugly", you forget about that aspect and get used to how strange everyone looks. It's hard to describe, but Lolos' work shares the weird but makes sense, iconic feeling of stuff like The Simpsons or something. You know, where you're like, "Okay, everyone's yellow and their eyes are stuck together, got it." This sends you further into the story and the just-outside-of-this-world feeling that Pirates has and maintains as the story gets more serious.

At the center of Pirates is the budding love affair between Pirate "Patch" and Cherry, "Trish". Again, playing with well-worn but effective sub-genre rules, their romance has to be kept secret, is sort of denied by Patch and Trish themselves, and could cause the dissolution of the rival gangs or at least, some serious shit's gonna go down. The romance is especially a surprise because in the first issue--which brilliantly, focus only on the Cherries, we never even see the Pirates--it's Trish and her fellow Cherries that find Patch wandering the beach and it's Trish that slices his eye out.


In the panels leading up to the removal of his eye, Trish and (soon-to-be) Patch talk shit to one another and are kind of doubled, with Patch putting up his fists ready to fight. The next panel is a close-up of Trish's stomach and crotch, and the panel after that, her flicking out her switchblade. In the stomach/crotch panel, Lolos makes the weird choice of sketching out some light pubic hair sticking out of the top of Trish's low shorts. It's just ten or so thin dashes of ink, but it's jarring because we don't expect it (and it's not necessary) and because in some ways, it's a funny way of it seems, showing Trish's bad-assness. Dunno if there's some actual precedent, but it just makes sense that in this 80s cult movie homage comic, the bad-ass chick would have her pubes sticking out, no?


There's also something just sort of voyeuristic and like, viscerally exciting about the image. At the risk of reading like some comics pervo, it's inexplicably erotic precisely because it's sort of fucked-up and realistic and not supposed to be attractive. Because it's drawn with the same uglification as the rest of the comic and Lolos' art has sort of lulled you into Spears' comic world, it has the same sort of exciting effect that seeing this in real-life might have. Unlike most comic books, especially Marvel/DC books, the vague sexuality of it isn't made a big deal or anything and that's exactly what makes it sort of is a big deal here. It's ugly and real and is more appealing because of it.

In Issue #4, there's a big fight scene between the Pirates and the Cherries and in the struggle, one of the Cherries' breasts falls out of her shirt. This is the Roger Corman 70s-era exploitation trick of sticking in some gratuitious nudity--fight scene=titties popping out--that's also made it's way into a lot of comics in less overtly sexual ways. So many of those X-books I read as a kid were full of fight scenes between busty girls or even a guy and girl fighting and rolling around, which was a corny and (I now see) obvious way to make the comics appeal to my third-grade, almost new-to-boners brain. Here again though, it's not made overtly sexual or idealized, it looks pretty much what a boob looks like when it's half-way out of a shirt.

Once again, that's actually what makes the image appealing. It looks and is rendered in a realistic way and in effect, bypasses the idealized part of our brains and connects to real sexual memories we have. It's all real obvious, but in an air-brushed, photo-shopped, plasticine culture and blah blah blah, these little glimpses that resemble the reality we live become extra appealing. This is presumably, the reason for the increased popularity of "amateur" or faked to look amateur pornography and all that...


Lolos' casual use of sexuality reminded me of this rather overt image by Paul Pope from his book PulpHope. When pretty much everyone I know opens this book, they quickly end up on this image and it's often commented upon and discussed. Sure, there's the whole thing of it being a pretty explicit drawing of a vagina that moves eyes toward it, but I think it's the blase' way that Pope illustrates it--hyper realistic within the confines of his style--that grabs people too. What makes anything interesting, be it intellectually, emotionally, or sexually, is the details and well...Pope doesn't spare the details in this image.


The focus on these vague bits of "real" sexuality in Pirates is not to simply be kind of creepy, but to highlight the way these comic book-y images foreshadow and build-up to something meaningful in the comic. That too, makes them more appealing than another Marc Silvestri "Witchblade" pin-up. That first scene, where Trish cuts-out Patch's eye really is about sex, not only because you can see her pubes but because Patch sees it too. In Issue #5, Patch finds Trish in order to enact revenge and they essentially have an all-out knife-fight that ends with the two making out in a pool of blood! It's not some weird S & M thing or anything--it's supposed to be weirder and funnier than that--and it goes more along with Lolos' dirty but attractive aesthetic. Their fight-scene turned make-out has the same messiness and weird, inexplicable, un-idealized excitement as Trish's pubes sticking out.

This panel, from Issue #6, is Trish in the hospital, concerned about Patch and in her own, half-joking way, admitting she really fucking likes, maybe loves, the dude. This adds one more dimension to their relationship and makes all of the sort of vague sexuality and tension of the Trish/Patch sub-plot (turned main plot) mean something: they just might love each other! It's beyond glimpses of naked bodies and sexuality, but that's where it started (just like all relationships).

The point of these panels posts is generally to focus on the way the artists conveys something in a single panels or group of panels, but in this case, Rick Spears' name should be in the title of this entry because Spears and Lolos perfectly complement one another here. Spears crafts a typically outsider, "forbidden" love plot with just the right degree of fun and idiosyncrasy to make it feel new and Lolos illustrates it with the same degree of raw energy and familiarity. What begins as a kind of loosely "dirty" voyeuristic image of pubes is really the first hint of the weird, scrappy love affair that one Pirate and one Cherry experience.