Report what comic books you have read today--and tell us a little something about it while you're here!
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Report what comic books you have read today--and tell us a little something about it while you're here!
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I don't think it's official WitSec. At one point, when his wife is complaining that he'll never let her leave him, one of the cops says, "It's okay, lady. The boys pooled together some money." I don't think it's a matter of him being the Joker yet -- I think it's a matter of the local cops recognizing him as a bad dude, and deciding to use some of their resources to protect this woman and her unborn baby. Get her out of town, and tell him a lie. Nothing meant to be a permanent solution, or a foolproof one -- just something quick, hoping his attention would turn elsewhere. (And it did! Unfortunately, it turned to mass murder.) Then, somewhere down the line -- and this isn't laid out, but I'm just guessing -- once he became the Joker, Bruce Wayne stepped in and used his resources to keep her location secret and make her new identity more secure.
That seems plausible enough to me, at least for comic books.
Mark Sullivan, are you aware of this? The trade comes out on May 22.
This sounds fascinating. I will be looking out for the trade.
Blessed Be by Rick Altergott (April 2024)
We're in an America based on tabloid news, underground comix, 1970s trash culture, Jack Chick Tracts, Mad magazine, and what Fox News viewers likely think kids these days are up to. The geist is very 70s, blended with present-day and 1990s elements. In short it's a story that could only take place in a comic book, and one NOT intended for children. It features a small army of small town characters, including writer/artist Rick Altergott's most notorious antihero, the socially maladjusted loser, Doofus, who lives comfortably without apparent means of support and devotes his time to metal detecting, masturbating, and huffing women's underwear.
The plot begins with Tom Cottonwood, the self-proclaimed Acid King, an asshole of a drug dealer who gets sentenced to a year in prison. A year later he returns, bent on revenge, angry that others have taken over his business, and over-the-edge deranged from years of sampling his product. Like many, he has found religion in prison. The religion in question, however, is Satanism.
Meanwhile, the mysterious 40 Acres Club has lost a member, and Doofus puts forth his idiot sidekick, Henry Hotchkiss (an even bigger doofus than Doofus), as the replacement. All seems to be going well, until Doofus explodes over a minor issue with Hotchkiss and kicks him out of his house. He soon regrets his childish outburst, but by then, Hotchkiss is gone, convinced that Doofus hates him. He moves into the woods where he has more than a few bizarre and unsavoury encounters.
Local horny teens Astrid and Scotty engage in local horny teen activities until Scotty blunders into the Acid King’s revenge plot. Both Doofus and Astrid now find themselves exploring the seedy elements of their small town (I'd call it an underbelly, but it's pretty damn prominent) as they try to find their respective missing friends. Naturally, these mysteries draw in the colourful and ridiculous inhabitants of Flowersville, USA. Along the way, we might glean some insight into the darkness that we still want to believe doesn’t touch mythic small towns ("Don't try that in a small town?" Why not? They've done everything else there). However, I wouldn't get too serious about this comic. Altergott delves into cultural craziness, scatology, sex, violence (including, but not limited to, a decapitation), and lowbrow gags in order to entertain us while following the dictates of his own loony, often terrifically silly artistic vision.
The artwork goes a very long way towards selling us that world. One sees influences of Wally Wood and Mort Drucker and Will Elder-- but also Will Eisner and the Looney Tunes. In some panels Elder's chicken fat principle holds, corners crammed with crazy details. A more restrained approach applies in others. Altergott's attention to light, shadow, and detail invests Flowertown with an insane reality. I feel like one wrong exit off an Interstate could land me there.
One must take this crazed, satiric world as presented. Thinking about it too much doesn't work. We see a couple of cell phones, one modern desktop PC, and hear one e-mail joke, but the characters mostly function as though these things do not exist. They scurry around town trying to find each other. They get the latest from newspapers, dropped off in bundles before sunrise and purchased from newstands. Reporters wear rumpled fedoras and take notes on sketch pads. A field rave takes place, ripped from a mid-90s exposé that Geraldo Rivera might have hosted; the nearby "love van" is a classic Volkswagen Type 2 microbus. The Acid King drives a muscle car. Doofus and his ilk buy old-timey porn magazines from a sketchy shop.
I had a small issue with Astrid's single use of "that's gay" as a pejorative. Yes, it's true to teenspeak for a large chunk of recent history and yes (as should be clear), Altergott revels in depicting the problematic. Much worse happens in this story! Nevertheless, coming from one of the few relatively non-satirized and generally likeable characters, it felt gratuitous, more like an oversight rather than Altergott being the deliberate jerk that his characters require.
Blessed Be also lost me a little with its conclusion. Other readers might take issue with the amount of crude toilet humour, but that's integral to a Doofus story. There's a lot more than that crap in Altergott's first graphic novel and, if you're open to reading well-crafted and truly odd meta-trash, you might find Blessed Be rewarding.
Thanks for the review, JD! I'll give this one a flip through when I'm next in the comic shop, and see if it might be for me.
Worth taking a look. It should be obvious from the review that it is not for all tastes.
No! First I had heard about it. I have read several jazz-related comics in the last couple of years, so I will certainly be on the lookout.
Glad I could turn you guys onto Deep Cuts! I think you'll like it.
In the last few days, I used DCUI Ultra to catch up on Green Lantern (by Jeremy Adams and Xermanico) and Green Lantern: War Journal (by Philip Kennedy Johnson and Montos). Both are good books, but I give War Journal, which features John Stewart, the edge.
Green Lantern follows Hal Jordan, marooned on Earth, as he begins a new life after he quit the Corps (which is now being run by a Durla-led United Planets as opposed the Guardians). He starts the book ringless, but acquires a new (and unusual) one in short order, but can't use it to leave the Earth. There's a fun team-up with Barry Allen, a big fight with Sinestro, and relationship drama with Carol Ferris, but eventually Hal discovers something secret about the Earth (a cool notion that explains a lot about why there are so many Earthborn GLs) and becomes able to leave the planet. (We also get a flashback showing how and why Hal decided to leave the Corps.) Once he's on OA, he discovers a lot of his friends involved in a rebellion, led by Jo Mullein, against the UP-run Corps. It's shaping up to be a good storyline, and Adams is doing the sort of thing he did during his Flash run -- using every part of the mythos to move the story forward. There are also backups in each issue; I've read most of them, and might even get around to reading the kid Sinestro one someday, but I can't say the first chapter appealed to me.
Green Lantern: War Journal, on the other hand, seems more focused. John Stewart has retired from the Corps to take care of his ailing mother, an influential civil rights leader who is now suffering from dementia. He goes to Metropolis to get a job at Steelworks, thinking he and his mother can move there. But there's a multidimensional threat, called the Radiant Dead -- sort of black-light infected zombies, somehow connected to the Darkstars -- that is causing trouble, especially when they get their hands on a few of the UP Green Lanterns come to take John in. (Oh, also: Because of previous events, at the start John no longer needs a ring to use his powers; this changes along the way.) Shepherd, a GL from another dimension comes to recruit John into the war against the Radiant Dead and the Revenant Queen (since John led the fight in his home dimension). Strangely enough, even with the supernatural threat from across the multiverse, this story feels more grounded than the main Green Lantern title -- largely because of the very real,and heartbreaking, situation of John's mom.
Something both books have in common -- terrific art from the main art teams. Xermanico brings a lot of explosive fun to Green Lantern, and Montos has a rare talent for depicting both horrific and everyday situations in War Journal. Both artists are bringing their A game.
So far the two titles haven't crossed over, aside from the shared situation of the UP now leading the GL Corps. We'll see if that continues. If both titles continue into a second year, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a crossover eventually.
Another thing I've been reading lately -- on and off for the past several months, using Marvel Unlimited -- has been Immortal Hulk, by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett. Published from 2018-2021, it's a horror-inspired take on the Hulk, which starts out as a situation where Banner can be killed in the day, but will resurrect as the Hulk at night... with aspects of psychological drama (with Hulk, Betty, and Rick all having identity issues), as well as satire (a rapacious oil company is owned by a murderous minotaur). I don't follow all the ins and outs of Marvel continuity, but this seems to fit squarely in it, but manages to tell a satisfying, self-contained story nonetheless. I'm up through issue 38 (of 50), and it's a ton of horrific fun.
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