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This Week in Comics: 04/26/2010

Saturday night I saw Everybody Was in the French Resistance… Now at The Casbah in San Diego and it was wonderful. The band is a side project for Art Brut frontman Eddie Argos and Dyan Valdes of The Blood Arm where the two respond to pop songs. For example, they’ve written a hilarious response to Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean” in the form of “Billy’s Genes,” told from the prospective of the illegitimate son in question. Or how about “G.I.R.L.F.R.E.N.,” a response to Avril Lavigne’s kind of mean “Girlfriend”? Yes, we all need this in our lives.

So welcome to This Week in Comics, where every day is a comic book and you can listen to some French Resistance tracks here: http://www.myspace.com/fixingthecharts

MONDAY

First Issues

Garrison #1 of 6

(Jeff Mariotte/Franchesco Francavilla)

Wildstorm/DC Comics

We as a society don’t pay enough attention to Wildstorm’s non-Wildstorm Universe titles. Have you heard of Sparta USA? Because I only heard of it when through compiling titles for this column. We gotta do better, people.

Garrison, about a federal agent’s hunt for the eponymous man in what sounds like an Orwellian future, sounds like a fun espionage book that will inevitably get made into a poor movie. We’ll see.

TUESDAY

Too Tired to Search for Manga, Switching to Ben Templesmiths

Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse Volume 2: It Only Hurts When I Pee

(Ben Templesmith)

IDW Publishing

Believe me when I say I didn’t JUST choose this for the title. I chose Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse Volume 2 because Ben Templesmith is a wonderful creator and clearly an ill man. Having never read Wormwood, I cannot tell you how sick it is. However, I know it features leprechauns something called “Squidmen.” Sold!

WEDNESDAY

Mainstream Superhero Stuff

Ultimate Comics Avengers 2 #1

(Mark Millar/Leinil Francis Yu)

Marvel Comics

Here’s how I know that the tides have changed for superhero comics: I thought the first Ultimate Comics Avengers was boring, mundane and read like an illustrated movie pitch as Mark Millar books (as interesting as they are) often do nowadays. The movies have started to resemble The Ultimates, which was the initial point of The Ultimates (a Hollywood portrayal of The Avengers), so what is the point of this now? Methinks the franchise needs a drastic reinvention.

THURSDAY

Not Quite Friday, but Still Exciting

Gigantic

(Rick Remender/Eric Nguyen/Matthew Wilson)

Dark Horse Comics

Rick Remender is a crazy man. I know this because he made Frank Castle a Frankenstein and he made it work where, in the hands of a lesser writer, it would have just been stupid instead of awesome.

Gigantic, as you know because you read this column and I assume you have taste because I respect you, is about giant robots and aliens and satirizing television and consumer culture. It is, as you might guess, crazy.

FRIDAY

TGI(ron Man)

Invincible Iron Man #25

(Matt Fraction/Salvador Larroca)

Marvel Comics

If you have a friend who likes the Iron Man movies, make him or her read Matt Fraction’s run of Invincible Iron Man, because it is seriously the best superhero comic on the shelves. This one starts off a new story arc: “Resilient,” which follows the conclusion of “Stark: Disassembled” with a new status quo and whatnot. It’s gonna be guuuuud.

SATURDAY

Essential Reading

JLA: Deluxe Edition Volume 3 hardcover

(Grant Morrison/Howard Porter/John Dell/Mark Pajarillo/Walden Wong)

DC Comics

Grant Morrison’s run on JLA is not only the run that made Morrison a comics superstar (and made the franchise a bestseller for the first time in years), but a pillar comic of my formative years. Morrison’s writing was tight and full of beautifully cosmic ideas with busy, wild pencils by Howard Porter that border on bizarrely Kirbyesque. It is, for my money, the last great run of the Justice League franchise, and none of Morrison’s successors have ever been able to stack up to it. (Honorable mentions to Mark Waid and Joe Kelly).

This penultimate volume collects some particularly good stories of Morrison’s run, including a surprising appearance by Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and an epic JLA/JSA team-up in the form of “Crisis Times Five.” I bought every issue of Morrison’s run as it came out, bought a few trades, and now I’m going to buy the hardcover.

SUNDAY

I didn’t pay attention to last issues, so here’s an indie book.

Native Drums #2

(Vince Riley/Chuck Paschall)

IndyPlanet

Searching through some of Indyplanet’s releases this week, I found some seriously horrifying comics that were put together by either children or mental patients. Good for them for putting their work out there. It’s admirable that their parents and handlers nurture their creativity like that.

Native Drums takes place in a future where the wealthy live in space and send “Agents” to Earth (which, as you might expect, is in shambles) to retrieve necessary resources. The art is expressive and fantastic and the writing shows a bit of wit. I imagine the creators will gain some heat if their books are as good as the preview pages suggest.

You can buy Native Drums at IndyPlanet: http://www.indyplanet.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3573

Danny Djeljosevic