Blog 2.0

By Andrew A. Smith

Scripps Howard News Service

It doesn’t seem probable, but a new graphic novel with Batman at the center of a classic Christmas story is simply terrific.

Lee Bermejo writes and draws Batman: Noël ($22.99, DC Entertainment) which tells of a Batman/Joker battle through the lens of A Christmas Carol. At first blush this sounds like a terrible idea; the schmaltz of Charles Dickens would seem a poor fit for Gotham City. Amazingly, Bermejo makes it fit like a glove.

Well, a glove with brass bat-knuckles crunching into the face of a cowardly criminal, that is. On the Batman Grimness Scale – with Adam West’s campy Caped Crusader on one end and Frank Miller’s psychotic Dark Knight Returns on the other – Bermejo’s Batman leans strongly toward “Heartless.” Almost Scrooge-like, you might say.

So alert readers will realize immediately that Batman has a lesson to learn, and a voice-over – we don’t know whose voice until the end – tells the familiar tale of Scrooge meeting three spirits that change his perspective. There’s enough variation from the original to leave little doubt who is “Scrooge,” but it’s muddied enough that the Dickens tale remains largely intact. The “spirits” are characters everyone will recognize, and moreover, they work well metaphorically in plain old flesh and blood.

Bermejo has graphic novels like Luthor and Joker under his utility belt as an artist. Here, in his authorial debut, he pulls off the nearly impossible, scraping the barnacles off the most oft-told Christmas tale and successfully applying it where it would seem least likely to work.

Even if it didn’t, though, I’d still recommend Noël for the art alone. Bermejo has always been exceptional, but in this book we see a plausible leather-and-metal-clad Batman (his suit fairly creaks) and a Gotham rendered so lovingly that it, too, feels real.

Points go to colorist Barbara Ciardo too; her frozen, blue-white Gotham sucks the warmth right out of you. She wields the complementary colors just as well, giving a certain Kryptonian an inner glow entirely appropriate for a man fueled by the sun.

Batman: Noël hit comic shops Nov. 2 and bookstores Nov. 8. It’s not your typical holiday tale, but Batman isn’t your typical Scrooge.

Elsewhere:

* I’ve never been the biggest fan of Lewis Trondheim, the French cartoonist best known for his role-playing-game parody series Dungeon. But his latest Little Nothings Vol. 4 (NBM, $14.99) was so entertaining that I’m going to have to re-read his oeuvre with fresh eyes.

This collection of one-pagers illustrates Trondheim’s adventures in a trip across the U.S.  It’s a travelog comprised of both the exotic and the mundane, and throughout we are treated to Trondheim’s curmudgeonly reactions. It’s like Andy Rooney commenting on a trip to France, only in reverse.

Little Nothings is illustrated in a cartoony style that would feel at home in a children’s book. But Trondheim’s urbane, self-deprecating humor is so dry it would go over the heads of children (and many adults). The French may be enamored of the broad comedy of Jerry Lewis, but you wouldn’t know it from Trondheim’s subtle and sarcastic wit.

* Sometimes a comic-book story based on a videogame rises above its obvious limitations. Then you’ve got Bleedout Volume One (Archaia, $14.95).

Written by Mike Kennedy, Bleedout contains 10 chapters by 10 different artists that sets up what I presume is the premise of the game, detailing a world run out of oil and how Sunrise City, U.S.A., is now run by a criminal cabal. The 10 chapters explore the different factions and leaders who jointly control Sunrise, narrated by the mysterious Pilot, who wants to kill them all for revenge, and whose back story we piece together over the course of the book.

The problem with any graphic novel based on a videogame is that it can’t end – it just sets up the game, which also doesn’t end, so you can play it over and over. And that’s the problem with Bleedout. It’s all set-up, with no payoff.

Further, Pilot’s narration is the only voice we hear, so we don’t really “meet” anyone else – all the other characters are simply described, like (cough) players in a game. And the author’s tendency to use lines from Jesus’s betrayal in The Bible to describe Pilot is both pompous and wildly tone-deaf.

What redeems Bleedout is the art, which includes luminaries like Ben Templesmith and Howard Chaykin. If you’re looking for an actual story, though, you may need to wait for Volume Two.

Photos:

1. Lee Bermejo somehow combines the Dark Knight and Charles Dickens to good effect in Batman: Noel. Courtesy DC Entertainment.

2. Little Nothings Volume 4 gives free expression to Lewis Trondheim's sardonic wit. Courtesy NBM Publishing.

3. Bleedout Volume One, based on a videogame, makes you wish you'd bought the game instead. Courtesy Archaia. 

Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics@aol.com.

By Andrew A. Smith

Scripps Howard News Service

March 15, 2011 -- When Dark Horse began reprinting Flash Gordon comic books last year (as opposed to the more famous comic strips, by Alex Raymond and Mac Raboy) I wondered “Why bother?” The recently released second volume answers my question.

Flash Gordon Comic-Book Archives Volume 1 reprinted all the comic books published about that character from 1947 to 1953, all by Dell Comics and mostly mediocre. But Volume 2 collects the Gordon comic books published by King comics from 1966 to 1967, and is a huge leap forward in quality.

The stories improve greatly with the addition of legendary writer/editor Archie Goodwin. But Flash Gordon has always been more famous for its art than its stories, and King doesn’t disappoint. Volume 2 boasts an all-star lineup, including Dan Barry, Reed Crandall, Ric Estrada, Al Williamson, Wally Wood – even Raymond and Raboy, in the form of occasional reprints from the comic strip.

Since King comics weren’t distributed in my area growing up, this is the first time I’ve seen these hidden gems. I’m delighted to add Flash Gordon Comic-Book Archives Volume 2 ($49.99) to my collection, and to recommend it to other Mongo fans.

Two other books in the running for “most improved reprint series” are Creepy Archives Volume Nine (Dark Horse, $49.99) and Vampirella Archives Volume Two (Dynamite, $49.99). Both Creepy and Vampirella were originally from Warren Publishing, which hit a rough patch in the late 1960s and was forced to use lesser, cheaper, creators. But both of these collections come from the early 1970s, when Warren had recovered and improved.

But before I tell you how good they are, let me indicate how bad they’d gotten. Here’s Publisher Jim Warren himself describing early Vampirella in Comic Book Artist #4 (available online at http://twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/04warren.html):  “The first issue was awful – and the second issue was just as bad. … Suddenly she came alive in the twelfth issue with Archie [Goodwin] writing an entirely new origin. … Now if only there was a way I could wipe out the first 11 issues and erase it from memory.”

That’s a little harsh; Goodwin was writing the Vampirella episodes as early as issue #8, where he began adding a supporting cast, motivations and other elements that turned the strip from an incoherent pun-fest into an actual story. But Warren is right that the strip really took off with issue #12, when Spanish artist Jose Gonzalez came on board.

And it wasn’t just Gonzalez. The early 1970s saw an avalanche of new, talented, hungry artists, and many of them arrived – or debuted – at Warren Publishing. Vampirella #8-14, collected in this volume, featured horror stories by Neal Adams, Frank Brunner, Billy Graham, Jeff Jones, Esteban Maroto, Mike Ploog and Ralph Reese. Add old hands like Wally Wood and Tom Sutton, and these 1970-71 issues of Vampirella are as good as the early Warren years, or maybe even the famous EC Comics that inspired them.

All of that also holds true for Creepy Archives Volume Nine, which collects four issues from 1971-72. But Creepy #42-45 also availed itself of the huge influx of talented Spanish and Filipino artists of the time, as well as some of the new, hot writers of the early ‘70s – Don Glut, Steve Skeates, Jan Strnd and more. It’s worth a look.

Elsewhere in reprint collections:

* The Dark Knight Archives Volume 7 (DC, $59.99) collects Batman #26-31 from 1945, and I’m sad to say it’s just plain boring. The Dynamic Duo fight various dull, plainclothes crooks in these stories, and if it wasn’t for the humorous shorts starring Alfred the butler, I would have forgotten them already.

* Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Battlefield (Marvel, $64.99) reprints all 11 issues of this war book from 1952-53. The usual faults of old war comics are present: vile racial caricatures, implausible combat, infallible Americans. But “Battlefield” was clearly aiming for the high bar set by the famous war books at EC Comics, and sometimes it succeeded. The presence of many artists who would make Marvel famous in the 1960s certainly helps.

* The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor Archives Volume Two (Dark Horse, $49.99) continues the 1970s adventures of a character the editor wanted to be a narrator, and the writer wanted to be an adventurer. This creative tug-of-war is sometimes confusing, but Glut’s stories and the art (by Jesse Santos and others) are both enthusiastic and entertaining.

Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics@aol.com.

By Andrew A. Smith

Scripps Howard News Service

April 5, 2011 -- NBM ComicsLit’s partnership with The Louvre museum has produced another outstanding graphic novel.

The Sky Over The Louvre ($19.99) almost couldn’t miss. It’s written by celebrated screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière (The Tin Drum, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie), and drawn by leading French artist Bernar Yslaire (Sambre), and both demonstrate the surefootedness of their experience in both quality and content. It says a lot that NBM was willing to go with an odd size (10½ by 11¼”), which is often the kiss of death in the marketplace.

That extra width gives room to appreciate Yslaire’s delicate pencils and elaborate ink rendering. It also allows for the unobtrusive appearance of 38 of The Louvre’s greatest pieces, from Jacques-Louis David’s “Marat Assassinated” to Michelangelo’s “Captive (‘The Dying Slave’).”

The extra size also yields more room for story than you’d expect in a 72-page graphic novel – and what a story it is! Carrière puts his stamp on the story of Robespierre and M. David during the French Revolution, during which the former wanted to replace religion with a secular Supreme Being, and demanded that the latter paint it. David, meanwhile, had an obsession of his own with a delicate young soldier he thought represented the purity and nobility of France (which resulted in the famous painting “Death of Joseph Bara”). 

All of this takes place with The Terror as its backdrop. As politician and artist bicker about the Supreme Being, thousands are marched to the guillotine (“The Widow”) while Robespierre attempts to recreate society from scratch, up to and including a new calendar. It’s a horrific, violent turning point in Western civilization, and neither artist nor writer attempt to soften its brutality or surreal “logic.”

 Quick Hits:

* Cartoon Network has not renewed Batman: The Brave and the Bold for a third season, an odd but clever Bat-cartoon in which the Dark Knight teams up with different DC characters (which was the format of the Brave and Bold comic book from 1966 to 1983). Nevertheless, Warner Home Video continues to collect the episodes on DVD. Season 1, Part 2 debuted March 15 with 13 episodes, with co-stars ranging from the obscure (Bat-Mite) to the famous (Aquaman). It’s worth it for the odd take on these characters. Green Arrow looks as he did before his 1969 revamp, for example, and the really entertaining Aquaman is like no other version ever seen (with a bombastic, self-congratulatory personality). Batman himself appears to have come straight out of the 1960s (with more than a nod to the Adam West TV version). Recommended.

* Gold Key published Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery for 27 years (1963-80) and 97 issues, so when Dark Horse began reprinting the series in hardback, I was surprised to discover that all of these stories were new to me. Why didn’t I buy any issues of Boris Karloff in those years? The first four volumes gave no clue, as they were solid if unspectacular examples of the post-Comics Code “suspense” book – workmanlike stories that were deliberately not too scary or gory, but with bad guys generally getting some sort of satisfying, usually supernatural, comeuppance at the end. But in the recent Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery Volume Five ($49.99), the stories aren’t solid, they’re simply silly – which jogged my memory. The books reprinted here (Karloff #17-24) arrived when I first sampled it (1967-68), and now I remember why I didn’t buy Karloff: I found it insulting to my intelligence. Since the Li’l Capn would have been about 10 when he came to that conclusion, you can judge for yourself if you want to indulge in them.

* Few Americans know the backstory to “Blondie,” a comic strip which started in 1930 with filthy rich Dagwood Bumstead and airhead flapper Blondie Boopadoop (yes, that’s her real maiden name). But when Dagwood married Blondie in 1933, his parents cut him off without a cent, and the former silver-spoon slacker had to learn how to hold a job – thus creating the modern domestic comic strip. IDW has done history a favor by reprinting the pre-marriage strips chronologically (Blondie: The Courtship and Wedding: The Complete Daily Comics Strips from 1930-1933, $49.99). The strips focus on the Bumstead family (whose patriarch resembles later Dagwood boss J.C. Dithers), are a little repetitive (and a little boring), but pure gold from the standpoint of historians and comic-strip aficionados.

Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics@aol.com.