All Star Superman Complete Retrospective Fun Fest

Since you can now order All Star Superman Vol. 2, and recommend it to people without lending them your issues, I thought it'd be good idea to take a look back and remember just why the series was worth recommending in the first place. There have been a couple really great interviews with Morrison particularly this one at Newsrama. It's 10 parts and Morrison tell you pretty much everything you need to know about the series.

Issue 1: “…Faster…”
Summary: Superman saves Quintum’s mission to the sun from Lex’s plot to destroy it. In his trip Superman flies straight through the sun super charging his cells giving him new super powers, but also starting his road towards death.
Its Importance to the Series: This issue establishes all of the threads that will run through the series. It shows, through a speech by Quintum, that Superman's legacy isn’t just saving people’s lives but the hope he inspires.
Morrison Says: "And I think that’s what makes him great. He just keeps tirelessly trying to make things better, to be a role model for everyone. People take him for granted – he’s always dealing with characters who think he’s an idiot, or irrelevant or who just don’t like his plain morality and can’t see that he’s just a genuinely good guy slightly hampered by a fear of forcing his ideas on people." Link.


Best Panel: Superman flies through the sun. Yeah, it’s a two page spread but it’s too good to pass up. It’s only on page two but it’s when I first realized this series was great. Superman is completely rigid in his flying position but still looks like he’s gliding. His face has a mix of determination and hope that is perfect.
Best Quote: This issue is full of them but I got to go with, “I’m getting older and…and he isn’t. So, if I want to die happy, it’s time to get serious about killing Superman. Don’t you think?” –Lex Luthor
Craziest Sci Fi Moment: Voyager Titan. Quietly’s art helps make this thing really weird, but it’s Quintim’s explanation that is really nuts.



Issue 2: “Superman’s Forbidden Room”
Summary: After Lois finds out Superman is Clark Kent, they take a trip to the Fortress of Solitude. Lois stumbles onto a secret room and becomes paranoid about Superman's intentions.
Its Importance: Going deep into Superman and Lois’ relationship. She comments herself how strange it has been over the years. It shows Lois’ strength; she's willing to take on Superman.

Best Panel: Lois’ teeth. This panel is truly creepy and shows Lois’ paranoia about Superman.
Best Quote: “And you’ve always been Clark Kent? Sorry. I just don’t believe you Superman.” – Lois Lane

Craziest Sci Fi Moment: It’s a tour through the Fortress of Solitude so there are a lot but the craziest has to be Superman feeding the Sun-eater with miniature suns he creates on the Cosmic Anvil from New Olympus. Honorable Mention – The half-a-million ton fortress key.



Issue 3: “Sweet Dreams, Superwoman”
Summary: Lois is given the gift of Superman’s powers for 24 hours. They meet up with Samson and Atlas who flirt with Lois. Lois plays hard to get but sees Superman’s the real deal after he rescues her from the Ultra-Sphinx.
Its Importance: The issue shows how others behave with Superman-like powers. Samson, Atlas, and Lois all have powers comparable to Superman’s but he is constantly rescuing and setting right their mistakes.
Best Panel: Lois and Superman kissing on the moon. Everything on Earth is small to them compared to the feeling of this kiss. Lois is a stone-cold fox.
Best Quote: Lois’ life hangs on the line. The Sphinx asks Superman “What happens when the unstoppable force meets the immovable object?” Superman replies “Ha. How about this? They surrender.”
Craziest Sci Fi Moment: The Ultra Sphinx. Where did this guy come from???

Issue 4: “The Superman/Olsen War”
Summary: Jimmy Olsen becomes Professor Quintum for the day while doing a piece for the Daily Planet. Superman rescues him from the Underverse but is exposed to black kryptonite which turns him evil.
Its Importance: Establishes Jimmy Olsen as an actually interesting character. He isn’t annoying as has been hinted at in the previous issues, but always somehow at the center of action. We see Superman trusts Jimmy and values him as a close friend. When Superman turns evil, it’s Jimmy who handles the situation.
Best Panel: Another Superman flying. Similar to the first two page spread.
Best Quote: “The Black K Superman was everything you’re not. A bully, a coward… a liar…Weird thing is the worse he acted, the weaker he became.” – Jimmy Olsen
Craziest Sci Fi Moment: Quintum goes on a trip to meet the Elecrokind. Tungsten Gas life forms with a brittle glass exoskeleton.

Issue 5: “The Gospel According to Lex Luthor”
Summary: Lex Luthor has been sentenced to death. Clark Kent goes for an interview, but Parasite begins absorbing power, causing chaos in the jail.
Its Importance: This issue focuses on Lex Luthor. He talks about Superman as being an impossible ideal. He looks down on him because he comes from another planet and didn’t earn his super powers. He can’t see past his own ego to realize Superman is an inspiration to people.
Best Panel: Parasite falling through the panel. This is just an interesting panel technically. The edge of the panel is also the bottom and top of the floor. Parasite eats everything, even the world around him!
Best Quote: “We all fall short of that sickening, inhuman perfection, that impossible ideal. Feel that, Kent. Real muscles, not like his.” – Lex Luthor.
Honorable Mention: "Attila the Hun. Genghis Khan. Al Capone. Adolf Hitler. Lex Luthor..." -Judge at Luthor's trial.
Craziest Sci Fi Moment: Luthor’s Bibliobot Mark 2. “A roving library. He’ll read you any of a thousand classic works of literature from ‘Ulyssess’ to ‘A Tale of Two Cities’” -Luthor

Issue 6: “Funeral in Smallville”
Summary: Flashback time. We head back in time to Superman’s life in Smallville. He meets up with three generations of the Superman Squad, and deals with the death of his dad, Jonathan Kent.
Its Importance: Superman confronts death and the fact that he can't save everybody.
Best Panel: After flying around with Krypto, Superman relaxes on the moon, staring at the beauty of the Earth. The Earth is touched-up by computers enough to make it stand out, and look special to Superman. Reinforced by the Lois/Superman kiss panel in issue 3.
Best Quote: “He taught me that the measure of a man lies not in what he says but what he does. And showed me by example how to be tough, and how to be kind and how to dream of a better world. Thanks, Pa. Those are lessons I’ll never forget.” -Superman. Jonathan Kent's Eulogy.
Craziest Sci Fi Moment: Superman meets the leader of the Superman Squad.

Issue 7: “Being Bizarro”
Summary: The Bizarro World attacks earth. Superman, in an effort to save earth, gets stuck on the Bizarro World.
Its Importance: A lot of people say this is where the story slows down. I think it gives a deeper perspective on Superman and his personality. He recognizes he might be in a hopeless situation and that he’s only one man, but listens to help from his friends at the Daily Planet. With their help, he finally repels the Bizarros.
Best Panel: Godspeed Superman. I love these Superman flying panels. This one shows his trail as a kind of sci-fi neon light. It's computers so it contrast the art around it highlighting his superhuman speed.
Best Quote: “The formula for an experimental Bizarro Repellent is right here on this card I planned to give you. Merry Christmas.” –Superman talking to Lois
Craziest Sci Fi Moment: Square Earth.


Issue 8: “Us Do Opposite”
Summary: Superman, stuck on Bizzaro world where he is slowly dying. With the help of Zibarro, a genetic fluke of Bizarro world, and Bizarro Superman, he escapes on a rocket ship built from trash.
Its Importance: Superman is confronted with a world that makes no sense and one where he is slowly dying. He inspires hope in Zibarro, and inspires all the Bizzaros to help him get home. The Bizarros become an alternate version of humanity, one that's lazy and disorganized, and it shows the series' humanism about earth and its people.
Best Panel: This goes along with Lois' teeth panel. It's really creepy and gives the feeling of paranoia around Superman. Like one false step could be the end.
Best Quote: “Bizzaro-Green Lantern am no have ultimate power ring can make it real what me am no think of! Only trouble is…me am no think only of everything.”
Craziest Sci Fi Moment: Issue am too normal for un-science.

Issue 9: “Curse of the Replacement Supermen”
Summary: Superman comes back from the bizarre world to discover Lilo and Bar-El, astronauts from Krypton, have found their way to Earth. They have some ideas of their own on what to do with the planet. When they become afflicted with a Kryptonite illness, Superman saves their lives by sending them to the phantom zone.
Its Importance: Lilo and Bar-el show another path that Superman’s personality could have taken. They are obsessed with their heritage from Krypton and look to take over the Earth as Dictators. Superman’s basic kindness is shown again when he tries to help the two after they’ve become sick by Kryptonite.
Best Panel: Lilo! Quitely is a master of showing cowardice and fear.
Best Quote: “That’s not fair. What right do I have to impose my values on anyone?” -Superman
Craziest Sci Fi Moment: Repairing a crack in the moon with bridges!

Issue 10: “Neverending”
Summary: A lot goes on in this issue. Superman writes his will, and rushes around the world doing good deeds. He creates a universe to see what it would be like without him.
Its Importance: This is my favorite issue of the series. The best scene is when Superman talks a young girl from committing suicide. The issue takes all the themes of the series and compresses them down into short moments. Lex spitting at Superman is an example of everything that goes on between them.

Best Panel: Superman’s Last Will and testament. His clothes are too big. He's looking completely weak and vulnerable here.
Honorable mention: Regan dropping her cell phone. Has that timelessness effect. Where things hang in the air.

Best Quote: “As she spoke, I watched 35,000 dead skin cells scattering like confetti…like promises…like the dust of stars.” -Superman reflecting later on a conversation with Lois.
Craziest Sci Fi Moment: Creation of Earth Q.




Issue 11: “Red Sun Day”
Summary: Superman inches closer to his death. Lex Luthor somehow survived execution and is now super powered. Earth is attacked Solaris but is defeated by Superman and his robots. Superman is finishing up his last moments before death.
Its Importance: This issue feels a lot like armageddon or something. Things are getting to the end of the line. Superman closes up the Fortress of Solitude for good. Death weighs everything down and it's pretty heavy.
Best Panel: There’s always a way. Something about this gets me. I don't think I've ever seen Superman without some kind of shirt on. Here his 'S' is obscured and he looks like a normal guy, except for that heroic look on his face.
Best Quote: "What a Life! I've traveled across time and space. I've seen and done thing beyond imagination. Blessed with friends like Pete and Lana and Jimmy. And Batman...what incredible adventures we've shared. What amazing people I've known." -Superman
Craziest Sci Fi Moment: Lex Luthor builds a robot in one panel.

Issue 12: "Superman In Excelsis"
Summary: Superman starts off in a dream/alternate universe of Krypton right before it explodes. Jor-El talks him back into living again. He returns and the final showdown with Luthor. He flies into the heart of the sun saving Earth one last time.
It's Importance: This is it. It's the final showdown. All the panels feel apocalyptic and claustrophobic. It's Superman's greatest challenge but somehow he's been planning it from the beginning. It's the end and it feels like it, but it somehow leaves you still wanting more. The ending feels like a bizarre cliffhanger to a sequel. This non-ending gives you the feeling of a loop and a desire to pick up issue 1 all over again.

Best Panel: Superman in the heart of the sun. See below quote.
Morrison Says: "Superman grew up baling hay on a farm. He goes to work, for a boss, in an office. He pines after a hard–working gal. Only when he tears off his shirt does that heroic, ideal inner self come to life. That’s actually a much more adult fantasy than the one Batman’s peddling but it also makes Superman a little harder to sell. He’s much more of a working class superhero, which is why we ended the whole book with the image of a laboring Superman."
Best Quote: Luthor's epiphany. It's weird that Luthor ends up kind of summarizing the feel of the series all in this quote: "This is how he sees all the time, every day. Like it's all just us, in here together. And we're all we've got."
Craziest Sci-Fi Momment: Superman's cells turn into pure energy-information.

Casual Racism In Comics

Casual racism in comics is something that's either dismissed and laughed-off by white fat nerd comics fans (you know, most comics fans) or with the sensitive smarty-pants types, seems to get shoved to the side for issues of casual sexism. And it seems that generally, sexism or racism's obsessively poured-over by the kind of comics fans that wouldn't ever talk about MARVEL titles if not for the fact that it offends them as they're more apt to be reading a TOP SHELF title or something, so it often feels like one more way for a certain kind of comix fans to feel superior to that other kind of comics fan.

So, while I'm delighted by the grossed-out guffaw that happens when some moronic Neo-Con in Asheville, NC thinks he's being clever and biting, I can't help but wish that comics that wrestle around with race properly got their due just as much because they're the real way casual racism--or just good old regular racism--gets corrected and upended.

A series like Elephantmen or VERTIGO's race comics (Unknown Soldier and Haunted Tank) just get reviewed alongside everything else without the special attention and praise they deserve for touching on an issue that a) Totally doesn't sell comics and b) Opens you up for a lot of criticism from all sides. The three aforementioned series' are especially worthy of praise because they go way beyond being defiantly anti-racist, but roll around with the complexities of the issue and still come off as fun, goofy pop too.

Elephantmen as I've said quite a few times before, is basically mining the concept of "victims" and "perpetrators" and forcing it through a Heavy Metal or TMNT lens of adolescent fun. Unknown Soldier is well, a journalistic comic book masterpiece. The joke I've expressed with other readers is how writer Dysart keeps promising the pulp but never wavers from this right-minded sense of sophistication and complexity. If next issue though, Moses discovers some like underground African cave of moloids or some shit, it'd still be awesome. And Haunted Tank, while I must admit to have stopped reading it, is basically a broad goofy race satire in the style of Watermelon Man...delightfully silly, and sensitive even as it's tries to push your P.C buttons.

Let's waste as much energy praising smart comics that deal with race as we do condemning dumb comics--or political cartoons--that get it all wrong.

X-Men Cartoon Over Homework Any Day

Previously, the X-Men animated series episodes were released only in single disc packages with one or two episodes stuck together just to get hype for the next Marvel movie. Fortunately, Marvel has finally decided to release the X-Men cartoon series, originally airing afternoons on Fox, in two DVD volumes, on April 28th.

It's taken far too long for this to come out, I can still remember walking home from school and watching this show, and becoming completely obsessed with the X-Men. For a while, the Fox afternoon was just too good; this series and Spider-Man both played a huge part in my pre-teen imagination.

Being in elementary and middle school, this cartoon was a little more mature than the others and put my mind at rest, bringing me back into comics and giving me an artistic outlet, creating my own mutants and drawing the characters I related to.

The X-Men is probably the most continuity-heavy comic in the history of comics, every character, location and action seems to be important to something that will happen in the future, and because of that you become seriously involved. You care more about the characters you like and put yourself in their shoes. I loved some characters so much, and hated others, here's where I was at as a child, and now:

CYCLOPS

THEN: Cyclops is everything not cool about a super hero. He's like Superman without the humanity, just a fucking cop who harasses you for skating in an empty parking lot. My neighbor loved him when we were young and would always talk about how great his powers were, which at the time I just saw as laser beams, and would shit on my favorite X-Man, Nightcrawler. Cyclops is just your friend's dad who won't let you play behind the shed.

NOW: Cyclops has become a man who demands respect, breaking away from Professor X's rule, and is doing what needs to be done to protect the few remaining mutants. I realize his "laser beams" aren't lasers but pure force that has to be held back, but when dude lets loose it's actually pretty scary. He's still an asshole but now I know it's for the better of the X-Men and not just because he's a prick.

JEAN GREY

THEN: I never understood why everyone wanted to bang her so badly, or why Professor X even had her around. I get she could move stuff with her mind or whatever but she didn't feel essential to the team, not her specific personality. A friend once said to me "There are two kinds of people, ones who bring something to the table and ones who don't" and I've gotta apply this to Marvel Girl here, why do you matter outside of causing problem?

NOW: She's dead and Cyclops is with Emma Frost, which makes a lot more sense. Emma is strong and over all more interesting, and I don't mean because of her revealing outfits. Jean caused nothing but trouble, she's like the damsel in distress but she was causing the distress! Good riddance, unless, you know, she's Cable's baby in some fucked up way.

GAMBIT

THEN: Gambit was so cool. He wore a trench coat, threw these playing cards and stood leaning against walls. Everything as a little boy you think is cool, except instead of sunglasses his eyes were just dark! That transcends coolness.

NOW: What were we thinking? He's everything lame about a character. All he needs now is a motorcycle or to team up with Starman or Constantine. He's just what kids in the 90's thought were cool. The worst thing looking back are his powers, the man has the ability to use kinetic energy to charge anything to cause it to blow up and he decides on playing cards? SERIOUSLY?

ROUGE

THEN: Her ability to steal powers from any other mutant made her one of my favorites. I was even willing to be her when we'd play X-Men, taking on the ridicule until I would suck up all their powers and win. I had a little boy crush on her too which just makes that weirder...

NOW: Rouge is the X-Man that all dudes my age continue to have crushes on, even though she hasn't been in the comics for a long while. Her powers still remain some of the most interesting, but most under-utilized. Marvel sometimes won't put the time needed into building a character, and so we're left with heroes like Rogue, who we'll see for two months until they run out of ideas. She, like most of the X-Men, just doesn't have enough life outside of the X-Men to make them interesting.

STORM

THEN: Storm's powers seemed stupid to me, but I think that may been been because weather is something we see every day, its just wasn't "sci fi" enough.

NOW: Storm is one of the, if not only, strong black characters in comics that doesn't rely on race to tell her stories. I know now that her powers are incredibly diverse, dude can't even fly but manages it by using winds! She's not as involved in the X-Men anymore but has moved onto the Fantastic Four books with her husband Black Panther, and is currently in the running for actually being the next Black Panther. She's one of the few characters from the X-Books to really evolve since I was a child.

BEAST

THEN: I have always been into monster characters so Beast always appealed to me. The obvious difference between him and other smart dudes just made him more popular with me and my friends, his blue fur and sudden bits of rage were frightening after being so used to his calm demeanor. They have never given Beast a proper toy, step it up Marvel!

NOW: Secondary mutations have made Beast into a blue, humanoid lion, very few pieces of him remain man. His character has managed to develop alongside the rest of the X-Men, taking a sidecar to action and acting almost exclusively as a behind the scenes character.

WOLVERINE

THEN: I hate Wolverine, from his stupid one liners to his cowboy hats. He was everyone's favorite and each and everytime we'd be on the playground, at least five kids were yelling "SNICKT" and slashing through everything. I always just wanted Magneto to rip him apart and get it over with.

NOW: I love Wolverine, from his great one liners to his flannel shirts. I buy into it completely, picking up every one-shot, excited to see which artist they've gotten for the character next. He's the new Conan, in a way, he's done so much his adventures are all legendary, and because of his powers and past, we have no idea how old he is or how many places he's actually been. Instead of sitting complacent on a character they didn't need to expand, they've done everything they can to make him relevant, it's why the X-Men are still interesting to people, they never settle down.

Powerful Panels: Cable #11 by Jamie McKelvie and Duane Swierczynski

Ariel Olivetti's art has been such an integral part of the success of the current Cable series that the abrupt and dramatic shift to that of Jamie McKelvie that happens on page 8 of the current issue at first seems like a profound mistake. That said, like a lot of things that at first glance have seemed ill-advised or even absurd in Swierczynski's paradoxically superb series, this shift reveals itself upon reflection to fit perfectly within the larger framework of the series.

McKelvie's art stands in stark contrast to Olivetti's. What makes it work is that it appears just at the moment when Cable and Hope timeslide to a future in which they are quite likely the only living things on the planet. If one could witness the appearance of these two travelers in such a landscape without negating the conceit, the experience of such would likely be as jarring as the transition from Olivetti's hyper-realistic artificiality to McKelvie's cartoonish artificiality.

This particular panel is so critical because it underlines the many and varied sub-textual strands Swierczynski has gradually been introducing into the series. Sure, this issue is about Cable and Hope timesliding into the future to avoid the catastrophic fallout of the bioweapon employed to defeat the cockroach armies and about the difficulties presented by Cable's inability to move anywhere in time except forward. But it is also about the secondary responsibilities of Cable's role as protector of the mutant messiah--namely those associated with fatherhood. It is interesting to note in this regard that for the first time in the series, we see Cable embodying the role of father-who-plays-games with his daughter in the McKelvie illustrated pages.


There are two main threads that are developed in the panels leading up to our focus here. In the first place, we have Cable enacting the role of self-denying father--assuring that his "child" is fed, even if it means going without himself. The word Hope uses to call him on this tactic--"Baloney"--sets up the other major thematic thread, namely the issue of a father's role as preserver of innocence. As Cable asks Hope where she learned that word, we are party to Hope's thoughts in which she reflects that she had ample opportunity to learn new words and concepts from Cable's military counterparts. As we come to the final panel on the page, Hope's thoughts tell us that the things she learned from Zyker and the other soldiers include those that Cable may not yet be ready for her to know.


The composition of this panel and specifically the respective aspects of and relations between the two figures speak volumes for what is going on under the surface of this issue. As Hope's thoughts inform us that Zyker and his comrades presumably taught her words of a sexual nature, her pose suggests that what she learned may have exceeded the bounds of vocabulary. The look on her face as she brings her hand to her opened mouth is one of resigned distaste. The sexualization of this gesture of eating is relatively overt and her aspect at once indicates that this process of sexualization is something with which she is as yet uncomfortable, but which she realizes is inevitable and that her discomfort will gradually diminish; in other words, she is resigned.

Cable's posture and positioning in this panel encapsulates the forest-for-the-trees shortcoming of all over-protective parents. Cable is so focused on the horizon, looking for external threats, that he cannot see those threats that are right in front of him. This sequence presciently foreshadows the crisis at the end of the issue, in which Cable, weakened by lack of food and water, collapses after timesliding once again, leaving Hope utterly vulnerable to whatever she might encounter in this unknown future.


The sexualization of the older, yet still pre-pubescent Hope is presaged by Olivetti's brilliant, but downright creepy cover. As if the comically oversized revolver she wields were not enough, Olivetti gilds that lily with the all too knowing look in her transfixing green eyes and the all too sensual leer of her criminally sensual mouth. What is really effective about all this, however, is that it keeps in the reader's mind all the little unanswered what-the-fucks that have been peppered throughout the series: Why do Little Girl and the older Hope look so similar? Was the older Hope Little Girl's mother and if so, is Cable her father? Are the two Hopes the same and if so, does this mean that Cable has already bedded Little Girl/Hope? I get the sense that none of these questions will ever be satisfactorily answered and this is yet another reason why this series has been so satisfying.

Umbrella Academy: DALLAS #3

How good was the latest issue of Umbrella Academy: Dallas? Not good enough that I jumped on my laptop within minutes of finishing it like I did #1 and #2, but good enough that two weeks later I still feel the need to comment on it.

The first two issues I compared to the apocalyptic slow-burn of Morrison's Final Crisis, well issue three's the mind-bending headfuckery of Morrison's Doom Patrol. Like that series, Way's developing this sense of "anything can happen" and then filling every storyline and characterization with this palpable, awful sense of dread and doom, and then just when it gets too heavy, you get something really insane and playful like The Seance apparently in Heaven, only heaven's a color-less Monument Valley or something and God, a world-weary cowboy. Imagine the metaphysicality Sam Elliot's "The Stranger" from The Big Lebowski magnified and made really fucking explicit.

Meanwhile, Gabriel Ba's doing his simple jagged ugly line thing with perfect inking real uh, perfectly, and channelling like Moebius' Blueberry and Geoff Darrow's Shaolin Cowboy minus the obsessive-ness of those masterpieces. There's an especially brilliant panel where God rides away on his horse telling Seance "And stay off the drugs, Klaus" and Ba's punctuated the empty white with western movie settings signifiers (cacti, jagged rocks) and sticks God in the corner of the frame drawing some stretched-out M's to convey dust floating from the horse's feet stomping the arid ground and forgetting all other details so like, if you aren't looking closely it kinda looks like God and the horse are rocketing through the air and not clomping away into the desert. Or maybe that's the intention? Okay, it totally is, this weird secondary, more conventional idea of God going back up to heaven.

And then you turn the page and in that swiped-from-Wes Anderson-Futura-font, you get "DOWNTOWN." just as you got "HEAVEN." (which is perfect because both heaven and downtown are these weird idealized non-places) when the narrative bounced from sick fuck hitmen Hazel and Cha Cha electrocuting the pathetically fat Spaceboy to Way and Ba's John Ford-country heaven. What else happens is sort of messy and confused and involves a lot of time-travel insanity connected to wiping-out people so shit doesn't happen and it's all interesting but sort of weird because like, Umbrella Academy does this thing of sort of always being in quotes--with the constant referencing to everything and anything--but it's also really emotionally affecting and somehow, an ever-twisting mess of time-travel settings and history-erasing murders and history-creating assassinations seems a little too "in-quotes", know what I mean? We'll see.

Hey, Video Games Are Like Comics: LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD'S ZOMBIE BBQ

For trading in Pokemon: Mystery Dungeon, Trauma Center for Wii, and Brain Age, I was able to cop Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ for Nintendo DS, which retailed at Gamestop for only $14.99 new. Zombie BBQ takes place after Little Red Riding Hood and the Woodsman kill the Big Bad Wolf. On her way home she finds that zombies have taken over, "feasting on everything from the succulent ham of the Three Little Pits to the sawdust brain of Pinocchio."

The playable characters are, obviously, Little Red Riding Hood, who uses guns and mega bombs, and Momotaro, a Japanese fairy tale hero born from a giant peach, who uses ninja stars and a grenade launcher. The character designs in this game are incredible, and for the life of me I couldn't find any information on the artists, Santiago Casas and Daniel Vendrell, outside of they both also helped illustrate some "How to Draw" style manga books, most notably some of the "erotic" ones.

The most surprising thing about this game is that it's not Japanese developed, but comes from a small Spanish developer Enjoyup. A simple dodge and dash rail shooter, it doesn't expand on the genre but adds to it with great DS controls, you drag the stylus across the bottom of the screen blasting zombies as they approach, clicking the different weapons. The most satisfying moments are when you've cleared a screen and you can start working on the top screen living dead.

Items and weapons include flame-throwers, shotguns, and lasers, the latter is a screen clearing straight line that you can sweep the length of the screen with. The movement when it comes down to it is grid based, sliding across the screen in front of zombies depending on which square they are walking in front of. Seeing what's coming next on the top screen isn't always positive, when you hit a tight spot with a ton of zombies you feel the horror movie pressure and start to freak out about what's coming soon.

The name implies "Snakes On A Plane" level bullshit irony, but the game is actually a lot of fun and challenging. It's like Time Crisis if it had zombies and you couldn't hide behind stuff.

BONUS: LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD ZOMBIE BBQ TRAILER!!

Percy Carey Making Some Comic About APES!

Swiped from the Oh Word feed--Percy Carey, writer of the graphic novel Sentences and rapper under the name MF Grimm, recently wrote a quick blog about the long-standing feud/fallout/whatever between himself and MF Doom and how you know, it just isn't a feud anymore and everyone needs to move on. And that's cool and a big deal because Grimm's gone pretty hard at Doom for being a dick (which he is) and a lame sell-out who's reduced his talents to rapping alongside of Meatwad from Aqua Teen (which is also true) but the bigger, less tabloid-y thing is that Carey hints at his next graphic novel:

"I'm on a path to become a better person, it's the only way the creator will allow me to enjoy the benefits of life. I'm about to apply for college, and attempt to get a degree in marketing, I'm also donating my time to the local zoo, because of my fascination of studying orangutans; my goal is to create a story about them and other great apes and turn it into a graphic novel"

Sounds great!

For those that don't know, Grimm also does a weekly comics column for the very bro-friendly Complex magazine website....

Here's a classic Doom/Grimm collaboration from Doom's Operation Doomsday:

Secret Invasion

Marvel's (and more specifically Brian Michael Bendis') Secret Invasion is a comic book made in your room with your friends, talking shit while playing with action figures. The tie-ins and crossovers brought anger from the comics community, and the $3.99 price point was all most people could talk about, ignoring Yu's art and (outside of Luke Cage's semi-racist dialogue) Bendis' writing actually being good.

Secret Invasion did something most comic books don't do anymore, throwing the moral "depth" and forced politics out the window for double page spreads and issue-long fight scenes, Super Heroes saving the world from an Alien race, not sitting around talking about what to do next, or being sad asses. SI is a comic book from my childhood, continuity heavy but still entertaining. Marvel has done the unthinkable, and made two year long story arc comics popular again.

It's easy to first say to yourself "There's no way Bendis knew what he was going to do, there's no way he planned that much." You start to reread and think things like "Well Tony Stark must've been a Skrull, that's why he signed the initiative and killed Captain America." or "If so-and-so could be a Skrull, than maybe so-and-so is one too!" At first it seems foolish to be someone who falls into the "Who do you trust?" hype, but that's the best part about reading Secret Invasion, it turned readers back into True Believers.

Rarely does an "event" series actually cause a change in the comic universe's status quo, things returning to normal shortly after the books are off the new issue wall. Marvel's House Of M, Civil War and even the events that lead up to and followed World War Hulk reshaped their characters and the world they live in. The company has set themselves up, allowing new characters and series (the newly back in action Hawkeye, Nick Fury's Secret Defenders, and the War Of Kings tie-in titles) to give you a hint of what's coming, the entire Marvel Line coming together, making sense again.

What makes SI special, and I do mean special, is that it's a collaborative effort by all at Marvel, every character and book being impacted by the Invasion and Skrull reveals. Final Crisis was Grant Morrison's idea, but, even now at the end, it didn't feel complete. DC Comics didn't trust in Morrison, and added too many mini series to tagalong, ultimately confusing fans trying to keep up with everything, especially nerds (who also write great books) making Final Crisis Annotations.

It's extremely hard not to compare the two, the event books coming out around the same time, both being heavily advertised and both were to be universe-spanning. Secret Invasion has a definitive ending, it makes sense and most importantly, was an event comic. Final Crisis should have been an Else Worlds sort of thing, or something that was understood to be out of continuity. The progressive ideas Morrison may have had about where Final Crisis was going were simply bastardized by DC's barrage of mini series tie-ins that didn't really tie-in.

The major flaw of SI is that there may have been too many tie-ins that weren't new mini series, particularly with the New Avengers, Mighty Avengers and Avengers: Initiative, essentially putting your regularly scheduled programming on hold so you had to concentrate on the main event. They were too involved, and held pieces of the bigger picture, Marvel did a good job giving you bits and pieces to inform you, but it pushed you to buy more and more, a bummer at the $3.99 price point.

Outside of the straight Secret Invasion issues, I personally only read the X-Men and Inhumans mini series, not really caring about the other things going on. The new "recap" page in the front of Marvel books reminded us what was going on, and news broadcasts shown in the actual pages updated the reader on what was happening in books they may not have been reading. You never felt out of touch or detached from what was going on.

Now, with the collected issues coming out in hardcover and paperback, it's incredible to read the comics I didn't read monthly, seeing differences and figuring things out, watching the destruction of the events of Secret Invasion, which take place over the course of only two days or so. It also branches out into the Dark Reign and War of Kings separate event books, War of Kings taking place in space, reintroducing Marvel's cosmic characters, some of which I thought were lost forever.

Like most of Marvel's events, it feels like the moment it lead up to was a boner kill, the entire series ending with Norman Osborn (the Green Goblin and leader of the Thunderbolts, duh dudes) being the hero at the end of the day, which leads into the Dark Reign and the Dark Avengers.

All their books are connected, and it does mean you have to try to follow some continuity which some people can't handle, but catching up isn't hard. Everything is in trade now if you're willing to dish out the cash or you know, go to a library. With comics becoming popular, one shots and mini series are popping up everywhere, it's easy to get into any character you'd like, even dead ones like Captain America.

Continuity heavy comics are the only way the nerdy bullshit we love in super hero comics is going to survive outside of weird and kinda fun nostalgia comics like Old Man Logan. Haters of Secret Invasion just never gave it a chance, even the introductions were more captivating than whatever Superman mini series was going on. We don't want reality in our fantasy, so stop acting like you do. Y: The Last Man may be popular, look good in trade on your shelf and be acceptable to your girlfriend, but you're reading it because it's Science Fiction. Secret Invasion is so pure, it's brightly colored super heroes fighting a bad guy they all understand is bad, and winning. It's just, you know, no bullshit.

Harvey Pekar's New Opera: Leave Me Alone

Harvey Pekar, who you probably know from his most popular comics work American Splendor, has written an opera based on the life a math teacher who struggles to balance his day job with his passion for being a jazz musician. Pekar is trying to spark an interest in the average person in experimental music through this "jazz opera". You can stream the opera from Oberlin College's website, here.

Pekar quoted as saying:
"Well, I'm trying to get everyman involved in art," he says. "And I'm trying to get them involved in thinking about what it takes to get everyman into experimental music or painting or novel writing. I think it's important to have the support of the masses."

I see what Pekar is saying but really, he's being fairly idealistic. There's a reason why this stuff is considered experimental! because it's taking a chance and playing into some weird interest of the artist. In today's world, you can't expect to be successful without playing the game a little bit by at least, winning critical acclaim. It's also weird for his conduit for this message to be Opera, a notoriously polarizing art form.

This opinion puts me semi-parallel with R. Crumb, who discusses the similar topics with Pekar in the NPR podcast. It's interesting to hear the dichotomy between Pekar and Crumb in this podcast because Pekar is expressing his interest in the average person, which is also apparent through his comics, and Crumb is just being himself, a radical individualist. They end up discussing music and based on my previous knowledge of what Crumb likes and Pekar's interest in promoting experimental jazz, their differing tastes in music only further expresses their difference in attitude; Crumb does exactly what he wants and seems like an oddball, Pekar tries to be different, innovative--and maybe not always succeeding--with some interest in the outside world.

Crumb's Taste in Music

VS
Pekar's Taste in Music


BONUS: Crumb explains the BEAN effect

Quasimoto Action Figure from KID ROBOT

Just click "Play" on the video above and don't think too hard. This appropriately drowsy ad for the KID ROBOT's Quasimoto action figure's backed by the music of Madlib, whose alter-ego is the helium-voiced Alf/Ant-eater/itdoesn'treallymatter Id that is Quasimoto, sometimes Lord Quas. And now it's this figure that comes in Yellow and Blue, with awesome art by STONES THROW records' art director Jeff Jank:




Jank's artwork is the perfect analogue to STONES THROW's personal and personable hip-hop. Like a Madlib beat which'll sample some dope Melvin Van Peebles record or some weird-ass Bollywood crooner, Jank's pulls from any and anywhere, with a focused, distinctly professional sense of design that's throwback but then, a mindfully handmade, looks-like-doodling drawing style. His drawings looked scratched-out on paper like he never lifted his pencil from the paper while drawing and although his lines wobble, there's a really crazy sense of consistency to the wobble that trips you up.

Notice the hand-drawn sense you get from the "Q" sign on the cover to Quasimoto's The Unseen or the contrast between computerized shading and gradients on that same cover or on Further Adventures and how somehow, it like works right along with the dotted grit of the building's bricks AND the photographs of people placed, collage-like in some of the windows. It has the same insane but perfect sense of contrast and complement as something like Jack Kirby's collages.

This cover for J. Dilla's masterpiece Donuts is crazy on the perspective, but also feels like some kind of weird, captured-from-life image realist image too. Brandon Graham's work is perhaps the best example of what I'm talking about, where somehow it's bubbly, inherent cartoony-ness is so well-rendered that it feels as real as some hyper-realistic painting of the same thing. Something about those angled, nervous lines that mark the different window panes on the shop that accomplishes more than a straight-edge...

There's also just a charm to Jank's work, as seen in the gold-toofed donut gobbler or that Dragonball Turtle Master-esque dude (wonderfully named by Jank, "Lord Wigflip")...



-Promo for B-Ball Zombie War Compilation featuring Lord Wig Flip!


-"Bullyshit"


-"Don't Blink" (Incredible fan-made Lord Quas animation)

Music Video Animation by Overture

Overture are a husband and wife animation and art duo. Usually, I'm not partial to this type of animation but I think they do a good job visually representing experimental electronic music by way of really understanding the emotional undertones of the music. In the past couple years, they have released three music videos in addition to their animation shorts for TV, illustrations and personal art exhibitions. The first was for the Icelandic experimental electronic band, Múm, and the most recent two were for German Modern Classical pianist, Hauschka. Their animation style is reminiscent of Fantastic Planet with animal and plant-like characters and more textured and saturated colors. The Múm video seems really "far out" in a Fantasia way but with a more folk-y, storybook feeling.

Múm "Rhubarbidoo"


In contrast to Múm, Hauschka's music is experimental in a more subtle way, using the manipulation of the piano in combination with electronics. Hauschka has revealed in interviews that his album Ferndorf is about his childhood and the small German town where he grew up. Not suprisingly, the videos Overture did for Hauschka, "A Memory" and "An Idea", are about the interactions of two characters, Kapok and Bryum, with one another and their environment. Kapok kind of looks like a Shmoo with arms, legs and game show host hair and Bryum looks like a sad, hunchback sloth, Sanrio character. Both of the characters are really great! I wish Overture would make a comic book using them...maybe in the silent style of Gon! Anyway, watch these really great videos!

Bryum & Kapok: A Memory


Bryum & Kapok: An Idea

NEGATIVE ZONE: eBay-Worse Than Variant Covers and Obama Spider-Man Crossovers

When you're a Comics Reader you become a Comics Collector, but not all Comics Collectors are Comics Readers. The after market of comics starts in comic stores, back issues in long boxes with inflated prices, sometimes ten to twenty dollars more than what the Overstreet Price Guide lists. At one store a back issue of something you'd think no one would want like, let's say, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures 2nd series issue #1, would be sold at the book price of $3 while another would have it for $20.

This could happen for a few reasons, the "#1" on the cover, the fact that it's a an older series, or because in some cases it's genuinely rare. The problem with "rarity" is that it's subjective from area to area and from seller to seller. Making a trip to visit North Carolina to see Brandon, it feels like I've hit a gold mine when we go to comic stores, things I can't find anywhere up here in any store I find there at multiple stores for cover price. It's simply a matter of a different area and therefore, a different market.

eBay, however, has no area specific market. When you've been looking for that one issue to complete a series or rare gem that you can't find, chances are someone on eBay is selling it. It's easy and fast, and this way you don't have to spend the gas money traveling to the four corners of your state visiting random comic stores. The "BuyItNow" feature allows you to jump ahead of the pack and grab the auction, and with all of the eBay stores, someone is bound to have what you're looking for.

The reality of eBay shopping is that a lot of times there are reserves on items, BuyItNow prices are too high, and "a little wear and tear" amounts to the back cover missing. Sellers who don't read comics but see it as a way to make more money hold on to that one issue, not selling a series in a "lot" but only individually. Most sellers, fortunately, will work with you but often the ones who have what you're looking for still have it because no one else was willing to pay their prices.

The Collectors' market and lack of knowledge about comics and what they are worth is mostly a product of the 90's, people buying every "FIRST EXTREME ACTION PACKED ISSUE" and foil cover with hologram card they could find. Since they aren't a part of the comics community, they haven't paid attention to the trends in the past ten years, and probably have never even opened their "investments" once. The prices they charge slowly become the standard, since other non-comics reading collectors only check a site like eBay for prices.

While it is a supply and demand issue, the demand comes from the person with the supply. Using eBay as a reference for prices and availability is just retarded, something you're looking for today may be on there tomorrow, and there could be ten of them by next week. Seeing one item doesn't always mean that it's so rare there's only one auction, it only means there is only currently one seller of the product. It far too often just amounts to complete rip-offs and a frustrating experience for someone who, you know, just wants to read the comic.

Now that comics are getting some press, the world looks to our little island and is curious. They still think of comics as something quirky and weird, but they understand some of us are willing to pay a lot of money for our little funny books. CNN reports on comics like The Death of Captain America and more recently, Spider-Man #583 which featured Obama on the cover and in the book, making it hard for us who weekly read these books but do not subscribe through our local comic shop or an online provider to get our new issue. This leaves a Reader without an issue, and a Collector with one more to put on eBay.

Right this moment, I went to eBay and typed in "obama spider-man 1st print". I'm not going to link the auction going for $38.05 with 6 bids, or the BuyItNow seller who's asking $84.99. This comic has a cover price of $2.99, and right now is in multiple printings and fortunately is available for the Readers to get their hands on. The one good thing about this whole Collector vs. Reader thing is that the Reader usually comes out on top, the publishers knowing that more printings means more money, and adding Variant covers on top of that can't hurt either.

It may just be a problem with the after market of comics themselves, no Readers or Collectors can really say what something is worth. With more and more older comics being republished online, some back issues may go down in price, the Marvel Masterpieces and DC Archive collections also collect older issues. Dark Horse and Fantagraphics have taken it upon themselves to collect many old, lost, out of print series into hardcover books making single magazine issues that were once impossible to find completely accessible.

With these collections becoming more and more popular with Readers and allowing people new to comics to get caught up, one day the Collectors' market will be just that, for Collectors'. All the Readers will have the issues they want, albeit not in issue form and not in a white box but on a shelf, and all the Collectors can rip each other off.

Powerful Panels: The Immortal Iron Fist #21 by Timothy Green and Duane Swierczynski

After the perplexingly lackluster and interminably repetitive "Mortal Iron Fist" story arc, this highly polished gem of a stand-alone issue dropped with all the force of the proverbial lead balloon. Though generally a wildly overused term, the comic is highly cinematic in presentation. The work's most obvious direct influence is unquestionably the comics of Alexandro Jodorowsky's Incal universe--an artist arguably more famous for his handful of cinematic productions than his far more prolific work in comics. Moreover, Timothy Green's illustrations are grounded in Moebius by way of Seth Fisher and his compositions are presented with a painterly flattened perspective, reminiscent of a particular aesthetic most directly associated with the films of Akira Kurosawa.



This particular page encapsulates much of what is great about the comic and can be read in multiple ways, each revealing different aspects of the work that are no less strong for their subtlety. The narration ("But he fought like a man") that opens the sequence follows the opening qualifier of the panel immediately preceding it ("The hero was just a boy"), emphasizing the youth and disconcertingly slight stature of the fighter who ostensibly came to save the last few surviving inhabitants of Planet Yaochi. The boy's diminutiveness is highlighted in the first panel's side-view illustration. The depth-distorting flat perspective of the drawings is enhanced by a reverse reading of the panels on the page. The effect echoes the long-lens shot aesthetic adopted in all of Kurosawa's post-1950 films and mirrors in reverse the shot sequence in Red Beard in which the Mantis surprises the young, arrogant Noboru sulking in his room.



The following panel in which Wah Sing-Rand responds to Min's lament of his tardy arrival is a sort of microcosm of the intense concentration of subtlety and understatement typical of the book as a whole. His response--"I have been with you this whole time"--calls to mind the sorta corny, sorta really affective "Footprints" poem that is central to American Christian kitsch and emphasizes the religious nature of Wah Sing-Rand's role as planetary saviour. Green's portrait of the boy, however, at once confirms and contradicts the message carried by his words. On the one hand, the boy's delicate beauty and the look of penetrating, yet benevolent intelligence in his eyes are of a piece with the stories of the precocious young Jesus. At the same time, that Matrix-y serpent running up the side of his face runs counter to the boy's otherwise overtly Christian characteristics.



Min's response to Wah Sing-Rand's claim in the two panels that follow cement this biblical reading of the comic. His face is all cockeyed disbelief and the skepticism of his words plant him firmly in the 'Doubting Thomas' tradition of those of little faith. This kid just dropped from the sky and single-handedly destroyed the robots which were raring to exterminate Min and his family and all he can think to do is ask why the boy didn't do more.


In addition to illustrating Green's particular perspectival choice, the page's final panel deepens the Christian connection to this Messianic tale. Wah Sing-Rand's response to Min's extremely disrespectful query ("I know the suffering you and your people have endured. I watched it all from above.") adds the God as benevolent father above and outside the world aspect to the God as personified son acting in the world motif developed by his arrival on Yaoching. Moreover, in claiming to have watched their suffering above, it sets up Wah Sing-Rand's story of how he was able to view their suffering and yet not able to do anything about it, which is one of the more powerful and effective permutations of an Iron Fist tale I have yet to read.