This Week in Comics: 09/09/09

Judging by this week’s comics shipment, I don’t think comic books want me to write an article on them. Most of my go-to companies have mini-series ending, and I’m not going to tell you to buy the last part of the Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men Crossover because you’re probably going to do it anyway.

So here’s a bunch of books you don’t read and probably won’t buy.

DMZ #45

(Brian Wood/Riccardo Burchielli)

Vertigo/DC Comics

Wow, #45 already. DMZ is becoming one of Vertigo’s elder statesman, though significantly younger than Hellblazer (#259), about half the age of Fables (#88), and slightly older than Jack of Fables (#38).

For those of you who don’t know, DMZ takes place in a not-too-distant future where the United States has been torn apart by civil war with New York City rendered a demilitarized zone in the aftermath. The series follows a young journalist called Matty Roth who gets embedded in the DMZ and faces danger at every turn.

While the book’s been around a while, DMZ #45 gives a good jumping-on point for new readers, being part one of a five-part story.

So go read it.

You can read the first issue at Vertigo’s website.

Love & Rockets: New Stories Volume 2

(The Hernandez Brothers)

Fantagraphics Books

Love & Rockets has been around for 700 years, and will continue long after we’re all dead because The Hernandez Brothers will have their consciousnesses uploaded into cyborgs that will write comics about the descendants of Maggie, Hopey, and Luba waging future war on our alien warlord masters.

Until then, enjoy the newest 100-page installment of Love & Rockets.

Vampirella: The Second Coming #1

(Phil Hester/Daniel Sampere)

Anarchy Studios/Harris Comics

Vampirella is something I only knew about from late-1990s issues of Wizard Comics, during the regrettable “bad girl” craze, which the character was a perfect fit for. If Vampirella actually has fans, I really wouldn’t know. She must, considering she’s been around since 1969. I must admit, however, there’s an awesome pulp appeal to the property you can feel just looking at the Frank Frazetta covers of the early issues and knowing that Vampirella was, before a silly retcon, a blood-drinking alien from the planet Draculon. No, seriously.

 So there’s a new Vampirella series out this week. I was going to consider just making fun of this when I noticed that it’s full of surprises. First of all one of the variant covers is by zombie fetishist Arthur Suydam, and is not a zombie variant. Secondly, it’s written by legitimate comicker Phil Hester, creator of The Athiest and artist of things like Kevin Smith’s Green Arrow. It’s not the first time talent has become involved with the property in recent years — Grant Morrison and Mark Millar wrote a bunch of Vampirella issues in 1998.

Most shocking, however, is that Vampirella: The Second Coming is $1.99.

One dollar. Ninety-nine cents. For boobs.

To compare: the new kid-friendly Marvel Superhero Squad is $2.99. DC’s Doom Patrol #2 is $3.99.

Comics is a stupid, stupid industry.

The Unwritten #5

(Mike Carey/Peter Gross)

Vertigo/DC Comics

Not interested in reading a meta-fantasy book that lazily gives me analogues of Harry Potter tropes (isn’t there enough children’s fiction that does that already?), I gave up on The Unwritten with Issue #1.

However, a friend informed me yesterday that the book is slowly going away from the Potter analogues.

I may have to get back into The Unwritten.

Yotsuba & ! Volumes 1-6

(Kiyohiko Azuma)

Yen Press

I’ll admit it: we don’t cover enough manga. Taking full responsibility for this, I give you two Japanese comic books to help bridge the gap and marry the preposterously separate-but-equal worlds of comics and manga. Reminder: ”manga” is just Japanese for “comics.”

Yen Press is releasing the first six volumes of Kiyohiko Azuma’s Yotsuba & ! — another book I knew nothing about until I did a bit of research — all on the same week. It’s a pretty ballsy move — one made presumably so interested readers will buy multiple books at once rather than buy the first one, find out it’s mostly set-up, and not wait to see what happens next when Volume 2 comes out months down the line

With Yotsuba & !, I find myself intrigued by the covers. Azuma meticulously renders photorealistic backgrounds yet draws Yotsuba as an anomalous cartoon character. The juxtaposition is a really intriguing one, and I hope it carries on into the interior.

Regardless, this one seems good for the kids.

Squirrel Machine

(Hans Richeit)

Fantagraphics Books

For my personal blog I wrote a piece wherein I went on a huge digression about how way too many alt-comics creators just render the minutia of their lives into self-indulgent autobiographical wankery. We can’t all be Harvey Pekar.

Then I came across Hans Rickheit, whose new book The Squirrel Machine I’m going to buy based exclusively on the cover, which features a man with a weird device on his head that’s connected to another device with a drowned squirrel in it.

What’s it about? Two brothers in the 19^th century who invent weird devices from strange technology and dead animals.

You had me at “hello.”

West Coast Blues

(Jacques Tardi, based on the novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette)

Fantagraphics Books

Because West Coast Blues was adapted from a novel I was a bit wary of mentioning this, but then I saw the cover. What is it with Fantagraphics and great covers?

The cover of West Coast Blues (I love the title, too) features an entire comic sequence, presumably from the book, which made me realize something: you don’t see this very often. The only other example I can think of is an old Lee/Ditko Spider-Man with the Sandman, and I think that one might have only been a two-panel sequence. Too often do comic book covers mislead with cool Brian Bolland art when there’s boring crap in the interior. I’m looking your way, Last Days of Animal Man.

Let’s also realize that West Coast Blues is a French noir comic and then write off my wariness as a moment of weakness. Yep, definitely reading this, too.

Tyrese Gibson’s Mayhem! #2 (of 3)

(Tyrese Gibson/Mike Le/William Wilson/Tone Rodriguez)

Image Comics

New rule: if your name’s on the cover and you did not actually write the issue, you don’t get credit.

I went back and forth about whether to credit Tyrese as a writer because I actually think that Tyrese has creative input in his own series even though he doesn’t actually script it. So there.

Tyrese, whether he knows it or not, is contributing to 1990s nostalgia, and I don’t know how to feel about that.

Wait. Yes I do.

And now, the ad copy for Mayhem! #2, courtesy of Image Comics and the copy-paste function:

“Mayhem and Malice are back again, but this time their rival Big X has pulled out all the stops! When his regular thugs can’t get the job done, Big X calls in the world’s most notorious assassins known as The Four Corners, who force Mayhem right to the edge. Will Mayhem survive long enough to learn that there’s more to Big X than meets the eye…?”

The Four Corners sounds like a doo-wop group, which gives me a brilliant idea for a comic book that Tyrese Gibson can also not write.

Models, Inc. #1 (of 4)

(Marc Sumerak/Paul Tobin/Jorge Molina/Vicenc Villagrasa)

Marvel Comics

Let’s get this out of the way: This is unrelated to the weirdo 1990s Aaron Spelling TV show (I think I just read The CW is reviving it?!).

This Models, Inc. is another Marvel attempt (along with Marvel Divas, which I’ve said far too much about already) to get women to read their comics. It seems Marvel’s method might be “create a solid comic book that nobody reads because we present it in an unlabeled package under a neon sign that keeps flashing the word PANDERING.”

However, the cover to Models, Inc. is light years ahead of Marvel Divas in terms of being sensible: a faux glamor mag cover a la Dave Sim’s Glamourpuss (bad example, I’m aware), full of enticing article teasers. Ignoring the Power Girl-esque cleavage-hole in her top, Millie the Model is dressed in something a real person would wear.

The plot, while totally cliché, sounds like it could be light fun: when Millie the Model is framed for the murder of a set designer, Mary-Jane Watson, Patsy “Hellcat” Walker, Jill Jerold, and Chili Storm must find out the identity of the real killer — during Fashion Week, at that.

What amuses me most about this project is the dipping into relatively obscure Marvel history. You, dear readers, probably don’t know much about Marvel non-superhero books, of which there were many in the pre-Fantastic Four era. Millie the Model (which featured Chili Storm and Jill Jerold) ran from 1945 to 1973. Before Patsy Walker was an Avenger, she was a Timely Comics humor character from 1944.

Full disclosure: I’m tempted to buy this just for the Tim Gunn variant cover. No, seriously.

Nomad: Girl without a World #1 (of 4)

(Sean McKeever/David Baldeon)

Marvel Comics

A girl with goggles and a gun.

SOLD.

Nevermind that this book sounds a bit convoluted by having to explain that Rikki Barnes is the Bucky from the Heroes Reborn universe trapped in the Marvel Universe — compared to more contrived efforts like Models, Inc., this is exactly the kind of book Marvel should be pushing if they want to entice female readers with female characters: a high-concept superhero book that doesn’t shout “HEY GIRLS! GIRLY CRAP!”

Too bad Marvel hasn’t done very much to promote this book. I only knew about it due to a reference in a completely unrelated Newsarama article and by looking for what comes out this week.

B. Ichi Volume 4

(Atsuhi Ohkubo)

Yen Press

B. Ichi looks like a high-concept boy’s action/comedy comic in the vein of Dragon Ball or One Piece. The premise surrounds a group of people called Dokeshi, who use more of their brains than the average human and, as a result, have special abilities. The protagonist, Shotaro, has the ability to gain the powers of any animal — provided he bites their bones. Ha.

Most enticing about B. Ichi is that it’s only four volumes, giving a reader minimal amount of commitment to a manga series for once. Stuff like Bleach (40 volumes, ongoing) and Naruto (47 volumes, ongoing) just seem daunting. Even something I might actually want to read like the ongoing Fullmetal Alchemist has 23 volumes already! That’s years of story I have to catch up on–

Wait, this sounds familiar.

COMICS AND MANGA ARE EXACTLY THE SAME!

So thanks B. Ichi, for being four volumes.

Secret Six #13

(Gail Simone/Nicola Scott)

DC Comics

Fanboys, you get one. And it’s not even the one that has all the zombies in it.

Secret Six is a wonderful book. It’s written and drawn by incredibly talented women, and it’s more violent and hedonistic than anything made by men at DC Comics. I love this world.

Secret Six is also the only mainstream superhero book where you can actually fear for the characters, as many of them are disposable supercriminals. As such, you also get to watch them do very mean things to one another.

I love comics.