Beowulf- It is rare that movie comics are any good. I bought it because it was three dollars and my local theater didn't keep the film on the screens long enough for me to see it. I wanted to because I've been a Neil Gaiman fan for a long time. (Gaiman wrote the script for the movie but not the comic.) After horrible reviews from friends and my cousin, I put off seeing the movie. I read the comic and it did renew my interest in see the film for myself. A flaw in the book, common to many film based comics, is that it still reads like a screenplay than a comic. I still have to say I got my money's worth on this one only because I paid so little for it to start with.
The Best of Harvey: Baby Huey- I think I've mentioned this before: When I was little we had two very strange syndicated channels that would air the most bizarre shows for kids. They had a whole hour long show of old Paramount/Harvey shorts. I loved Baby Huey. So I thought finding this trade for $6 would be a steal. I soon discovered this was not the case. Sometimes less is more. As another reviewer for Collector Times pointed out with another Harvey trade "if you only got 100 pages, you might not realize that each Harvey character has maybe three plots." It really wears on you if you get over 400 pages. There were some individual stories in the book that were great. I chuckled at the two part "Cousin Quacko" or when Huey had a brother made of balloons. There are only so many times you can see the Wolf get clobbered before it loses some charm. There is an attempt to break up the monotony by inserting some Herman and Catnip stories. This doesn't work because there is only one Herman and Catnip plot. It was funny when it was called Tom and Jerry.
Mr. Punch: If you're a fan of the team of Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean (and who isn't?) this is probably the book for you. It has a vaguely autobiographical feel to it. It is about a young boy with a dysfunctional family and really bizarre grandparents. The real story revolves around how the boy becomes obsessed with the twisted perversity of Punch and Judy shows while not understanding the perversity of those around him. As is common with Neil Gaiman, there are hints of supernatural elements but for once none are confirmed. They are true if you wish them to be. The only thing disturbing to me is that this book is filled with references to rape, abortions, murder and suicide and was one I found in the kids section of the Montgomery County Maryland's Historical Society used book sale on top of a bunch of old Sweet Valley High books. Still with a price of $2 and it being Gaiman and McKean story at their most eerie, this one is practically a steal.
Plus . . . I probably saved the County from a lawsuit. I'm great guy now, aren't I?
Fantastic Four Visionaries- John Byrne Volume 2- It was John Byrne's Fantastic Four run, which I got much of in a massive collection I assimilated from a family friend more than a decade ago, that got me interested in the Fantastic Four in the first place. As a whole, his run is both faithful to the vision of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, but not afraid to go off on its own. The stories are actually at their best when John Byrne allows himself to be John Byrne and not just aping Lee and Kirby. The Frankie Ray/ Galactus story, while a good piece of work, is a prime example of what I'm talking about. It was written and drawn by Byrne but feels like it could have been a lost Lee/Kirby trilogy. Still, it is a really fun read and I would recommend it all major Marvelites. At five dollars, I really got what I paid for.
The Complete Maus- A Survivor's Tale: This is a hard book to review. I originally attempted to not read any other comics while reading it. I couldn't do it. Some parts of the book made me want to vomit. The book started giving me nightmares. Considering the book is about the Holocaust, it shouldn't be an easy read. It should be painful to think about. The visual device of making each nationality a different animal both dehumanizes the characters at first, but after a few pages the mind just begins to blur it. You don't notice it. All the animal figures just become people in your head even if you eyes see mice, pigs, frogs and dogs. This is one of the most amazing graphic novels I've ever read and by far the most painful. It'd be a worth while buy at any price. I ordered it in June from Amazon's Graphic Novel month and only got around to reading it now. I feel guilty that I got to Baby Huey before this one. Even my most agnostic Jewish ex-girlfriends should be ashamed of themselves for not lending me their copies for a week while we dating and making me read it sooner. I got what I paid for.
Perhapanaughts Vol Two: This is a rarity for this column. First is the fact that I paid full price for this one. I literally grabbed it out of Todd Dezago's hand while he was packing up his booth at Baltimore Comicon on Saturday, October 10th 2009. Todd graciously did not sign for me so I could read it. (He also agreed to do something else the next day, but you'll just have to wait until January to read it.) Dezago's work always walks a weird line between action adventure and comedy. Imagine Men in Black without the humans plus 20% more silliness and you get the Perhapanaughts. Three characters really stick out as the true stars, even if they aren't intended to be: Molly the dead girl with a heart of gold, Big the emotionally distant super genius sasquatch, and the resident writer insert, Choopie. The book is a fun read. Anytime Fruit Pies are used as bait, you can be sure it is good. I got what I paid for.
Fantastic Four Visionaries- John Byrne vol 4. - Remember a few paragraphs ago, I said John Byrne's Fantastic Four was better when he wasn't afraid to be John Byrne? Well, this book is exactly what I'm talking about. It is a little more crossover happy than volume two but since most of the issues are included, I won't hold that against him. In fact, the only small fault is that it includes one issue that was obviously an inventory piece left over from Marvel Two-In-One. The two-parter where they fight a character who is a spoof on Neal Adams more than makes up for that. The ending, while not as much a punch as other things I've reviewed this month, is still pretty dark for a Fantastic Four comic. It is definitely not the road that Stan and Jack would have gone down. It almost makes me think that Byrne planned a long string of Lee/Kirby homages just to pull the rug out from under the reader. If you see this book for even a little higher priced than the $7 I paid for it, do yourself a favor and buy it.
Wolverine- The Original Miniseries- He may be the best there is at what he does, but what he does isn't always that interesting. This book however nailed Wolverine. It is no surprise- when Chris Claremont sets his mind to telling a good X-Men story, he succeeds. Frank Miller may occasionally over do it on the violence but the one thing you can't call his fight scenes is visually dull. The story itself is full of martial arts movie cliches but that is part of the charm. All that is missing is for the dialogue balloons is for one panel be two or three panels in the future and you've sold me on this as a major motion picture. (Which if Chris Claremont's comments at Baltimore convention this October are any indication, should happen some time in 2012 or 2013.) There are a few twists. The trade also collects the two issues of Uncanny X-Men related to Wolverine's non-wedding where Logan finds out Rogue, who "killed" his close friend Carol Danvers, has joined the X-Men. I already have that volume of Essential X-Men, so I didn't see the need to re-read those two issues. At $7.50- those two issues I already had in another trade made me feel a little robbed. So, I guess my answer is a somewhat noncommital 'not quite'. Raise the price to $10 and include the quasi-sequel, Kitty Pryde and Wolverine then you'd have something.
Girl Genius Vol 8: Girl Genius is probably one of the most thoroughly designed alternate histories I have ever seen. The history of their world can be daunting for the uninitiated. If you wanted to start reading the series, this is not the volume for you. Go back and start at the beginning. The sheer volume of back history material does not make it hard to believe that Phil and Kaja Foglio are avid table top gamers. (They actually co-wrote the Steve Jackson Gurps book Girl Genius as well as contributing art and other elements to my favorite Gurps book ever- Illuminati University.) It also doesn't surprise me at all that at the time of the volume's publishing they had been nominated for a Hugo Award. The series has a sense of humor even at its darkest moments. It slides between drama and dark comedy with the grace of a tightrope walker who operates without a net and not is afraid to cross into "that's damned funny but just plain wrong" territory. Gilgamesh's hat proves it can also be downright silly. I still have yet to find volume seven- but it is one of the few items on my very short Christmas list. I have to say- aside from the fact that I have never threatened to enslave a small town, I think I sympathize with Gilgamesh Wolfenbach a little too much.
