Random Mainstream Meltdown 12022013

 Hey bra bras and grl grlls.  Let's take a look at this huge stack of mainstream print comics so that I can put them in a box and never think about them again.  Can we do that?  Together?  Right on!  Let's do it!

Harley Quinn #0

By Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti and 17 artists.

Published by DC Comics and sold for $2.99.

This is my daughter's comic book but I read it and liked it a lot.  It might be my favorite DC Comic since the launch of the New 52.  I don't know who's idea it was but instead of starting the new Amanda Conner/Jimmy Palmiotti written Harley Quinn ongoing series with a standard #1 they decided to kick things off with a jam comic using more than a dozen different artists.  I like jam comics.  They are fairly common in indie comics and usually a lot of fun.  Less common in mainstream comics.  In fact, in mainstream comics they are almost always a disaster.  Even Grant Morrison could not pull it off when he tried it in The Invisibles.  Total mess.  But Conner and Palmiotti stick the landing.  One of the great things about the Harley Quinn character is that you can go into an absurd comedy idea like Harley having a mental conversation with two comic book writers and say, oh yeah, she would totally do that.  Harley would totally sit around and imagine what it would be like if 17 different artists drew her comic book.  Of course she would.  So with almost every page of the book, Harley is imagining her own comic book drawn by a different artists and arguing with Conner and Palmiotti about their writing.  It is funny.  Conner and Palmiotti deliver the jokes but more importantly they let each artist cut loose.  Or maybe they don't.  Maybe the artists just drew whatever they wanted then Conner and Palmiotti put the words in later to tie it together.  Maybe they "wrote" it the way Stan Lee "wrote" comics.  Either way, I'm very impressed.  I love the tone of the thing.  Conner and Palmiotti are taking shots at the artists.  Taking shots at those that can't meet deadlines.  Taking shots at big boss man Jim Lee himself for recycling art.   There is more joy and love for comics in this book than I've seen in any of the post New 52 DC books with exception maybe of Ame-Comi Girls which is another Palmiotti project.  My favorite bits are Stephane Roux's Mad Men parody and Darwyn Cook's cartoon retelling of Conner and Palmiotti's real world wedding.  (As seen in the panel posted above which I declare to be DC Comics panel of the year.)

I'm sold on this book.  Sing me up for Harley Quinn #1.  (My daughter will make me buy it either way.)  I've said for a year or so that the best comic DC publishes is/was Palmiotti's Ame-Comi Girls.  With it canceled Harley Quinn looks to be the most fun comic in the DC line. 

The Walking Dead #114.

By Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard and some other people.

Published by Image Comics and/or Skybound Entertainment whatever the duck that is.  Sold for $2.99.

I have not read many The Walking Dead comics in the past several years.  I think I'm about 100 issues behind.  I saw this comic at my local comic book shop video game store and they had it for a dollar off.  Maybe they over ordered it or something.  I guess this comic was supposed to be some big deal new story line start or something.  It didn't feel like a new start or anything.  Nothing was explained.  I recognized maybe half of the characters and got the jist of what was going on but I couldn't recommend this comic as a starting point for a new reader.  This comic is soap opera so it really doesn't matter where you start.  You either want to get familiar with the characters and you will either care about them enough to buy another issue or you wont.  Of course, the ones you care about will probably die.  Just like a soap opera.  

I like Kirkman well enough.  The dialog is believable.  Like a good wrestling match, each character gets their spots.  

The thing that surprised me most about the comic was how poorly it was produced.  I like Adlard's pacing but his drawing is very uneven. Lots of lazy close ups without backgrounds.  And look at that last close up of Rick.  All of the sudden his right eye is a quarter inch below the left and his eyes are about four inches apart.  Did the character get so angry that he became deformed?  That's some minor league art right there.  Say what you will about Marvel and DC but I don't think that would fly in one of their books.  

The lettering is also very amateur.  The negative space between the computer text and the computer drawn balloons is inconsistent from panel to panel and even within the same panel.

I shouldn't notice crap like that.  It should not be a distraction.  But it is.  Skybound should have the money to aim a little higher. 

Savage Dragon #192

By Erik Larsen and some other guys.

Published by Image Comics.  Sold for $3.99. 

Is Savage Dragon now the longest ongoing print comic by the same creator?  Does Love and Rockets count?  Love and Rockets has been around longer but they change volumes and formats and move from character to character.  Savage Dragon has been Savage Dragon for 192 issues.  But this one sees some big changes.  I won't spoil the whole thing for ya but it looks like starting with issue 193 Dragon's son will be the star of the comic.  He's pretty much been the star for a couple of years now but 192 makes it official.  I like ongoing periodical comics and like for characters to go on and on and change but one of the things that makes Savage Dragon so much fun for me is that Larsen is not afraid to make huge changes.  If this were a Marvel or DC comic book  property change would mean bringing in new talent to re-tell the stories you already knew.  A constant re-mixing of the greatest hits.  Larsen doesn't care about hits.  He just does what he wants and pushes it as far as he can without losing so many readers that he can't afford to keep publishing.  I wish we had a dozen more Erik Larsens. 

Daredevil #32 and #33.

By Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, Jason Copland and some other folks.

Published by Marvel Comics.  Sold for $2.99 each.

I'm gonna admit that I missed the Mark Waid era Daredevil bandwagon.  That is super lame on my part because I think Waid is one of the best and Daredevil is one of my favorite characters.  But the book started during a time when I did not live near a comics shop and the video game store that now sells comics was not open yet.  So I missed the first issues and then I think I just conceded to the idea of eventually buying the trades on eBay.  But I went ahead and picked up 32 and 33 because they had the Marvel Monsters in them.  Werewolf by Night, Frankenstein's Monster, Satana, The Living Mummy and Zombie.  These characters are so much fun to see in action as drawn by Samnee and Copland with Javier Rodriguez's fantastic colors.  And I like the story.  Waid puts Daredevil on a search that leads him to the woods of Kentucky.  I like any time Daredevil, Spider-Man or Batman get to swing from trees.  Throw in some monsters and you've got an instant classic.  Oooh, and one of these comics even has wisecracking Doctor Strange.  Every superhero comic should be this good.  Marvel better cancel this one quick before the other creators start feeling bad about themselves.  

The Sandman Overture #1

By Neil Gaiman, J.H. Williams III and some other dudes. 

Published by DC Comics/Vertigo.  Sold for $4.99.

Hey guys, did you guys notice this comic book was edited by Karen Berger.  You know, that lady that quit Vertigo a while back.  I imagine it went something like this..

Neil Gaiman: "Hello.  Superstar writer Neil Gaiman here.  I'm calling to talk with Karen Berger about my new Sandman series."

DC Entertainment: "Um, Mrs. Berger left.  I'll get the new Vertigo editors on the line."

Neil Gaiman: click...buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

DC Entertainment: "Mr. Gaiman?  Mr. Gaiman?  Oh dear lord someone call Karen Berger!"

I have to admit that I totally missed the Sandman phenomenon.  I was right there.  I saw the whole thing go down.  I was at the station, I just missed the train.  I was the exact target audience of the initial The Sandman series.  I was in college, in a rock band, fingernails painted black,  weekly comic shop guy, listening to music made by guys wearing Sandman t-shirts, living with people that read the comic, dating girls that looked like characters in the comic... I don't know.  I just missed it.  I've owned the 1st The Sandman trade paperback for years and have never made it more than 10 pages into the thing.  And I actually like Neil Gaiman's novels.  I also lived with dudes that were super into Dungeons and Dragons and I've never played that game for a second either.  I just don't know. I'm kinda dense sometimes. 

But enough about me.  Let's talk about a comic book I did read, Promethea.  And J.H. Williams III drew the crap out of Promethea so when I see J.H. Williams III is drawing some fantasy stuff I buy that thing.  Well, at least one issue anyway. 

And Williams delivers.  Every page is a home run.  Mesmerizing stuff.  All your favorite heavy metal album covers rolled into one comic.  I have no idea what is going on but who cares?  The only bad thing is some jarring ad placement.  Lots of ads breaking this thing up.  All the more reason to never buy another issue and wait for the trade paperback on this one. 

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s. Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.
p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.
p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.
p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.
p.p.p.p.p.s.  Yeah, I do Instagram too now.  I guess it's a law or something.

Into the Supercontext part 1: Doom Patrol 54

Hello friends.  Welcome to a series of posts I'm going to call Into the Supercontext.  What does that mean?  I am not sure.  Maybe we will figure it out.  Maybe we will not.  It is probably not important.  What is important is that I explain to you what exactly the Don Heck I plan on doing. 

THE PLAN:  Read the entire run of Grant Morrison's The Invisibles before the world ends on December 22, 2012.  Whatever that means.  The Invisibles is about... a lot of things.  It's about the 90s.  It's about 2012.  It's about the past.  It's about the future.  It's about revolution.  It's aboutt the status quo.  It's about the individual.  It's about the collective.  It's about all of our fears.  It's about all of our hopes and dreams.  It is a comic book.

I invite you to read along.  I invite you to share your thoughts in the comments section below or tweet them at me on the twitter.

For me, this is a re-read.  Maybe it will be for you as well.  Maybe you have never read it before.  I will be reading it in its original serialized print format.  Maybe you will read it in trade paper backs or in the new Omnibus.  Or maybe you will just read this series of posts without reading The Invisibles at all kind of like  Grandpa reading the TV Guide in The Lost Boys.  That is A Okay.  There are no rules in this thing.  

It is not my intention for this to be a critical analysis of the work or a scholarly investigation.  It is just a re-read.  I know the series well.  It is my all time favorite comic book series.  What I am personally most curious about exploring in this re-read is how it holds up now that we are all currently living in the future the series predicted.  The series ran between 1994 and 2000.  I was a very different person in 2000 than I was in 1994.  The world was very different as well.  The world turned upside down in the late 90s.  Our tools we use to interact with the world changed.  Then in 2001 a year after the series was over the world turned upside down again.  No new normal has yet been established.  Our new normal is constant change.  Now in the year 2012 I am an entirely different person again than I was in 2000. I do believe that perception shapes our reality so I'm curious to see how 2012 me reacts to this work.

Before we start, one small bit of housekeeping.  I intend to lean heavily on the Barbelith library of Invisibles related resources as I go through this.  You can go ahead and assume that anything clever I point out in this series probably came from Barbelith's issue guides.  Thank you very much to Tom Coates and all of the contributors for their thorough study of the work.

So, let's get started.  We will begin at the beginning.  Wait.  That is way to obvious.  Let's start before the beginning.  Let's start with one of the comics Grant Morrison wrote before The Invisibles.  Let's start with  Doom Patrol.  

 "The word 'BARBELiTH' is derived from a dream I had when I was about 20 or 21 and coincided with my first structured 'magical' experiences and a minor nervous breakdown (in the dream, BARBELiTH was the name of some higher dimension or alternate reality). Like a lot of stuff in INVISIBLES I used the name unconsciously when I needed something to call the red circle that represents our Universe's placental twin. I'd taken the etymology as far as 'bearded stone', which seems much less interesting and less weirdly appropriate than 'alien stone'. My real life is getting more like the comic every day (in ways I should have suspected but didn't really expect on this scale). There's more on the red circle and its many meanings in DOOM PATROL #54, I just realised. That issue was written in near-trance so fuck only knows what's been trying to get through all these years."- Grant Morrison, July 7, 1998.

Doom Patrol Issue 54. 
"Aenigma Regis".  Writen by Grant Morrison.  Layouts by Richard Case.  Finishes by Stan Woch.  Cover by Gavin Wilson.  Published by DC Comics in 1992.

It is 1992.  George H. W. Bush is President of the United States.  Boris Yeltsin is President of Russia.  John Major is Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  Bush pukes on the Prime Minister of Japan.  Yeltsin pukes on whoever he damn well pleases.  The Soviet Union has collapsed.  Bush and Yeltsin announce that they will no longer point nukes at each other.  The Cold War is over.  The New World Order is in control.  Bill Clinton is running for President.  (SPOILER:  He wins.)  War in Bosnia.  263 dead coal miners in Turkey. South Africa ends apartheid.  LA riots for six days after the Rodney King trial. NAFTA is signed.  A shootout at Ruby Ridge.  Image comics changes everything.  Sinead O'Connor rips up a photo of the Pope.  Batman Returns.  Sharon Stone uncrosses her legs.  Clint Eastwood shoots down the Duck of Death.  Agent Dale Cooper is in the Red Room.  The Singles soundtrack is played in thousands of dorm rooms.  Ozzy Osbourne retires. (SPOILER: It didn't take.)  Nirvana is the biggest band in the world.  (This pisses off Axel Rose.  A lot.)  Kurt and Courtney have a baby.  Johnny Carson says goodbye.  Joe Shuster, Peyo, William Gaines and Martin Goodman die.  Prince Charles and Lady Di separate.  Queen Elizabeth declares the year annus horribillis.  Let's hope she does not read The Invisibles.


(Grant Morrison with hair and some unknown writer named Neil.  Image stolen from some guy's myspace page.)

And... if you were alive in 1992 you could buy a hot fresh copy of the Grant Morrison written Doom Patrol complete with freaky photo collage cover boasting that it is suggested for mature readers.  This thing is about as Vertigo as comics get but Vertigo does not exist yet.  Grant Morrison is not Grant Morrison MBE the writer of JlA, X-Men, All-Star Superman or any of that stuff.  He's not even bald yet.   He has Arkham Asylum and Animal Man under his belt and is handed the keys to the C level DC comics property Doom Patrol.  Not a lot of people are paying attention so anything goes.  And it did.  To the dark side of the moon. 

"IAMTHEINVISIBLEFIRETHATWORKSINSECRET"

Well, hi there invisiblefirethatworksinsecret.  How do you do?

This comic is bonkers people.  Maybe, possibly, perhaps if you had read the first 53 issues of Doom Patrol this thing might make some sense but I doubt it.  What we are presented with here is a comic book where Negative Man, you know, the DC comics guy with the spooky black energy powers and the bandages all over his face, yeah, that guy... no wait scratch that.  He's not really Negative Man any more.  The star of this comic is the merging of a man, a woman and that crazy energy stuff.  They are merged together into a "divine hermaphrodite" named Rebis.  

I know.  I know.  I'm right there with ya buddy.  And see, if you picked up this comic in 1992 without being up to date on the latest in hermaphrodite super heroes you would be totally lost.  This is before teh intronets and before comics put those explanatory "our story so far" things at the front of the books.  No, you open this comic up and you get super hermaphrodite floating around on the dark side of the moon.  

Like ya do.

So, Rebis is floating about the moon dealing with all the horrific mental scenarios and split personality issues one must deal with when they are a super freak made up of three beings.  This comic is multiple streams of consciousness at war and love and sex with each other.  Multiple personality hallucinations blending in on each other.  We witness conception and child birth, life and death and everything in between. 

Birth, death and rebirth are ideas we will deal with again (and again) in The Invisibles.  We see an Ouroboros, the symbol of regeneration.  A snake eating itself.  We see snakes on an Apollo moon lander.  Space sex.  Negative being birth.  Double headed hermaphrodite fighting itself.  Negative being transvestite prostitute.

And on page seven we see Barbelith.   A red dot.  A red dot that lives on the dark side of the moon.  Red bleeding into black.  Or is the black bleeding into the red?  

"STOP.  STOP SAYS THE RED LIGHT.  NO, IT'S THE BUTTON.  THIS IS HOW THEY START THE FINAL WAR.  A TOUCH ON THE BUTTON.  TONGUE ON THE BUTTON.  MOTHER'S NIPPLE, LOOMING UP LIKE A SUN.  MATTER DISSOLVING IN THE CORE OF THE SUN, IN THE SOLAR FURNACE.  THE NUCLEAR BRIDAL CHAMBER.  IT'S COMING!"  

It's coming.  It always seems to be coming doesn't it?

After our man Rebis walks through all of this madness he goes beyond the Apollo moon lander to see what is really out there just like the astronauts in an awful Michael Bay movie would years later.  He/she/it finds a crater with a twin tree holding a glowing radiant orb.  There is a gold ring around the tree.  There is a body at the base of the tree.  It is merged with the tree and branches grow form its head.  It has box containing artifacts from all of Rebis' lives.  Rebis digs deeper and on the final page pulls out and holds in the air a giant glowing green egg.  Something will be born.  In a future issue?

What does it all mean?  I have no idea.  But something is coming.  Something will be born.  And Barbelith waits for us on the dark side of the moon.  Barbeltih waits for us in future issues of The Invisibles.

"I FELT HIM IN THE SUN, IN THE COSMIC RAYS.  I COULDN'T CONTROL THE MONSTROSITIES FORM OUTSIDE, THE SPASMS OF THE RAVISHED SOLAR SYSTEM.  MY ASTRONOMY IN HER HOT MOUTH.  THE DREAD MONSTER DISCOVERS THE SEXUAL INTRUDERS.  TWO PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT A THIRD?  NO.  THERE'S ONLY ME.  NO ONE BUT ME.  THERE WILL BE SOME AMAZING RESULTS..."

Tune in next time dear reader as we explore the first issue of The Invisibles.  "Dead Beatles".     

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s. Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.

p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.

p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.

p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.