AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #700
AQUAMAN #15
AVENGING SPIDER-MAN #15.1
BEFORE WATCHMEN NITE OWL #4
CROSSED BADLANDS #20
DEATHMATCH #1
EERIE PRESENTS EL CID HC
HIP FLASK OUROBOROUS
JUSTICE LEAGUE #15
MARA #1
SHADOW SPECIAL #1
STAR WARS OMNIBUS CLONE WARS TP V.3
This short list comes from Comics & Collectibles of Memphis. Arrivals at your local comics store may vary.
Andrew A. Smith
Scripps Howard News Service
July 12, 2011 -- In the early part of the twentieth century, the United States had the world’s most amazing and unique comic strips, a legacy of innovation and irresistible storytelling almost forgotten today. Which is just one of the reasons I’m grateful for The Comics: The Complete Collection (Abrams ComicArt, $40), by Brian Walker.
Walker, who previously released this book in two volumes, is a comic-strip expert who has worked in every aspect of the field. He is part of a team producing new strips (“Beetle Bailey,” “Hi & Lois”), has taught cartoon history at the School of Visual Arts, was director at the Museum of Cartoon Art, served as editor of Collector’s Showcase and has written both books and magazine articles on the subject.
Walker is such a scholar that, if there’s a flaw in the book, it is his relentless amassing of minutiae. Walker is so thorough, so methodical and so academic that this can be a formidable and forbidding tome to the newcomer.
But for those of with a love of the medium it’s virtually indispensible. In the first few chapters alone Walker demolished a host of myths about R.F. Outcault’s “The Yellow Kid” that I had taken as gospel for decades. From there Walker’s work is one discovery after another. Like which strips were owned by the syndicate and which by the artists (which often forced major artists elsewhere, like Roy Crane leaving “Captain Easy” to start “Buz Sawyer”). Like how the phrase “hot dog” got popularized (Tad Dorgan’s “Inside Sports”), or what katzenjammer means (German for “cats howling,” and a popular ‘20s euphemism for a hangover) and why a “Rube Goldberg device” is still a catchphrase.
Walker also brings an artist’s eye to how many amazing, uniquely American early strips got started and what effect they had, like the surreal “Krazy Kat” (George Herriman), the intricate “Little Nemo in Slumberland” (Winsor McCay) and the art Deco “Bringing up Father” (George McManus). He continues with the rise of strips through their heyday, and later fall, examining not only the strips themselves and giants like Milton Caniff (“Terry and the Pirates”), Al Capp (“Li’l Abner’) and Walt Kelly (“Pogo”), but the now-declining business of comic strips and even the marketing (think “Buster Brown shoes” plus radio, television and movie spinoffs).
Naturally, there are hundreds, if not thousands of actual comic strips included. Combine that with interviews and biographies of major American cartoonists, and Comics: The Complete Collection lives up to its name. This book is so comprehensive and full of valuable information that superlatives simply fail me.
Speaking of important comic strips, author Craig Yoe has contributed Krazy Kat and the Art of George Herriman: A Celebration (Abrams ComicArts, $29.95).
Most people are familiar with the strip’s basics, but almost nobody knows what it means. Ignatz Mouse hates the androgynous Krazy Kat, whom he routinely bops in the head with a brick, which the smitten feline interprets as a valentine, but Offissa Pupp regards as criminal behavior (especially since he is enamored of the cat) and routinely jails the surly mouse. All this occurs in a vaguely Southwestern U.S. landscape that morphs and/or moves from panel to panel.
Celebration collects rare essays by names big and small who interpret this strange triangle in a myriad of ways. Some note that Herriman was “Negro” on his birth certificate, but “Caucasian” on his death certificate, which is fascinating all on its own – but was racial uncertainty or insecurity a factor in “Krazy Kat”? And if so, for God’s sake, someone explain how!
Alas, Celebration does not end the mystery of “Krazy Kat,” but simply informs it. And, you know, that’s exactly how it should be.
If all this comics history arouses a taste for some seminal comic strips, look no further than Fantagraphics’ “Captain Easy” collections. This series (it’s up to volume two, $39 each) collects Roy Crane’s Sunday pages about the good-natured “soldier of fortune,” which were prequels to the dailies Crane was producing at the same time, which paired an older Easy with the strip’s original star, Wash Tubbs.
Collected in oversize hardbacks that present the pages at their original size, these beautiful books restore one of the original adventure heroes of the strips – the affable (albeit two-fisted) mercenary who was much more interested in excitement than money or women, which is what he was supposedly after. Easy moved through a more innocent – and largely unexplored – world, and there’s no better word for this adventure strip than “charming.”
Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics@aol.com.
By Andrew A. Smith
Scripps Howard News Service
Cartoon Network’s Young Justice cartoon isn’t your daddy’s Teen Titans. It’s not even your older brother’s.
Young Justice is its own animal by virtue of playing mix and match with the various teen sidekicks from different eras of DC superhero comics, plus inventing a couple more. For example, the show features the original Robin at age 13, even though in the comics he hasn’t been that age since the 1950s. By contrast, YJ features the contemporary comic-book version of Superboy, a teen cloned from Superman in 1993.
One new character is a black Aqualad, although the original in the comics was white (and is dead). Evidently DC liked what they saw, since the new guy was recently introduced as Aquaman’s partner in the comics, too. Another new character may be confusing if you know too much; she’s a girl archer named Artemis who is NOT A) the Amazon warrior with that name in Wonder Woman comics, or B) the girl archer in the 1998-2003 Young Justice series named Arrowette.
But you don’t need to know all that to enjoy the cartoon. The ensemble cast is fine without prior knowledge, and entertains by depicting the interactions of an immature Robin, a reckless Kid Flash, a brooding Superboy, a flighty Miss Martian, and so forth. The flirting, fighting and search for identity and acceptance all ring true.
My one complaint is how they portray the Justice League. The show’s premise, you see, is that the sidekicks had demanded to join the League and be treated as adults. But that wouldn’t create a show starring that all-important demographic, the teenager. So story considerations required heroes like Superman to refuse to associate with the kids, and force them instead to become a covert superhero team. That’s not only more dangerous, it’s cruel. Thankfully, these jerks masquerading as super friends don’t show up much, except for Batman (assignments), Black Canary (combat trainer) and Red Tornado (supervisor).
And it seems to be working; Young Justice has been renewed for a second season. If you can’t wait, Warner Home Video released the first four episodes on DVD July 19 as Young Justice: Season One, Volume One ($14.97) and DC Kids has launched a companion comic book.
REPRINT ROUNDUP
* Sweet Tooth is ongoing mature-readers series set in a post-apocalyptic America where a plague has wiped out most of humanity, and animal/human hybrids are being born. These hybrids are immune to the plague, and are pursued by the ruthless human survivors for their secret. The eponymous star is one such hybrid, a boy with antlers who loves chocolate. Hence, “Sweet Tooth.”
I have to say I’m not a fan of the impressionistic art style of writer/artist Jeff Lemire (Nobody). On the other hand, my wife is crazy about every aspect of the book, so it’s really a matter of taste.
You can judge for yourself with the latest collection, Sweet Tooth Vol. 3: Animal Armies (DC/Vertigo, $14.99). Collecting Sweet Tooth #12-17, this volume sheds some light on the plague’s origin, re-unites Sweet Tooth with the big man who’d sold him for experiments (and has since had a change of heart) and begins a quest to learn Sweet Tooth’s origins.
Naturally, all of this complicated by the usual inhabitants of an apocalypse: brutal survivors, religious fanatics, mad scientists and rogue militias. Which, in Lemire’s hands, feel fresh. I may not care for the art, but Sweet Tooth is an absorbing and disturbing read.
* When Deluxe Comics re-launched a beloved 1960s series in 1984 as Wally Wood’s T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, I bought them while holding my nose. I was a purist, you see, and was irritated by the title and concept, because Wally Wood – the heart and soul of the series – had died in 1981. I didn’t think of these characters as the “real” agents of The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserve.
Now DC has reprinted those five issues as T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Archives Volume Seven ($59.99), and I was surprised: They were much better than I remembered. With work by Rich Buckler, Dave Cockrum, Paul Gulacy, Jerry Ordway and George Perez, it is more consistent in quality than the original 1960s T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, which featured two or three superstars (like Wood) but also a whole lot of drek. Given that DC has re-launched T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents currently with the welcome revelation that all previous stories remain in continuity, this volume of obscure stories is simply that much more necessary for any hard-core comics fan.
Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics@aol.com.
7 WARRIORS #3 (OF 3) (MR)
ACTIVITY #2
ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN HC
ALL NEW BATMAN THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #15
ALPHA FLIGHT BY PAK AND VAN LENTE PREM HC VOL 01
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #677
ARCHIE BEST OF DAN DECARLO HC VOL 03
AVENGERS 1959 #5 (OF 5)
AVENGERS BY BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS TP VOL 02
BATGIRL #5
BATMAN AND ROBIN #5
BATMAN THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS HC
BATTLE SCARS #3 (OF 6)
BATWOMAN #5
BLACK PANTHER MOST DANGEROUS MAN ALIVE #528
BLUE ESTATE TP VOL 02 (MR)
BRILLIANT #2 (MR)
BTVS SEASON 9 FREEFALL #5 JEANTY VAR CVR
BTVS SEASON 9 FREEFALL #5 MORRIS CVR
CAPTAIN AMERICA #7
CARNAGE USA #2 (OF 5)
CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #66
COBRA ANNUAL 2012 ORIGIN OF COBRA COMMANDER #1
COLTS MANNING 14 INCH PLUSH (C: 1-1-3)
COLTS MANNING 7 INCH PLUSH (C: 1-1-3)
COMIC SHOP NEWS 90CT BUNDLE #1282 (NET)
DAKEN DARK WOLVERINE #19
DARK MATTER #1 (OF 4)
DARK TOWER GUNSLINGER BATTLE OF TULL PREM HC
DARK TOWER GUNSLINGER WAY STATION #2 (OF 5)
DARKNESS #97 CVR A HAUN (MR)
DC UNIVERSE ONLINE LEGENDS #21
DEADPOOL #49
DEATHSTROKE #5
DEMON KNIGHTS #5
DOCTOR WHO ONGOING VOL 2 #13
DR WHO MAGAZINE #442 (C: 0-1-2)
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS 100 PAGE SPECTACULAR
ESSENTIAL MARVEL TWO IN ONE TP VOL 04
FANBOY MAKE YOUR OWN COMIC BOOK (NET) (O/A) (C: 1-1-3)
FEAR ITSELF AVENGERS PREM HC
FEAR ITSELF GHOST RIDER PREM HC
FLASH TP VOL 01 THE DASTARDLY DEATH OF THE ROGUES
FORMIC WARS SILENT STRIKE #2 (OF 5)
FRANKENSTEIN AGENT OF SHADE #5
GERONIMO STILTON HC VOL 09 WEIRD BOOK MACHINE
GHOST RIDER BY DANIEL WAY ULTIMATE COLLECTION TP
GHOST RIDER CYCLE OF VENGEANCE #1
GHOST RIDER OFF INDEX TO MARVEL UNIVERSE GN TP
GI JOE A REAL AMERICAN HERO #174
GREEN LANTERN #5
GREEN LANTERN #5 VAR ED
GRIFTER #5
HAUNTED MANSION HC VOL 01 WELCOME FOOLISH MORTAL (O/A)
HELLRAISER TP VOL 02 (MR)
HP LOVECRAFT THE DUNWICH HORROR #4 (OF 4)
INCREDIBLE HULK #4
INVINCIBLE #87
INVINCIBLE TP VOL 15 GET SMART
JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #633
KULL THE CAT & THE SKULL #4 (OF 4)
LEGION LOST #5
LOBSTER JOHNSON THE BURNING HAND #1 (OF 5) JOHNSON CVR
LOGANS RUN AFTERMATH #4 (RES)
MAGNETO NOT A HERO #3 (OF 4)
MARVEL UNIVERSE AF ASST 201107 (C: 1-1-3)
MEGA MAN #9 REG CVR
MISADVENTURES OF ADAM WEST #2 (MR)
MISADVENTURES OF ADAM WEST #3 (MR)
MISTER TERRIFIC #5
MONSTER MESS HC
MORIARTY #8
MY GREATEST ADVENTURE #4 (OF 6)
MYSTIC TENTH APPRENTICE TP
NEW AVENGERS #20
NORTHANGER ABBEY #3 (OF 5)
NORTHLANDERS #47 (MR)
OPERATION BROKEN WINGS 1936 #3 (OF 3) (MR)
ORCHID #4
PC CAST HOUSE OF NIGHT #3 (OF 5)
PIGS #5 (MR)
POKEMON BLACK & WHITE GN VOL 05 (C: 1-0-0) (PP #997)
PREACHER HC BOOK 06 (MR)
PUNISHERMAX #21 (MR)
RAY #2 (OF 4)
RESURRECTION MAN #5
ROGER LANGRIDGES SNARKED #4
SCALPED #55 (MR)
SCARLET SPIDER #1
SCARLET SPIDER #1 BLANK VAR (NET)
SECRET AVENGERS #21
SEVERED #6 (OF 7) (MR)
SFX #217 (C: 0-1-1)
SHADE #4 (OF 12)
SMURFS GN VOL 10 RETURN OF SMURFETTE
SNAKE EYES ONGOING (IDW) #9
SPAWN #215
SPIDER-MAN COMPLETE BEN REILLY EPIC TP BOOK 03
SPIDER-MAN SPIDER-ISLAND HC
STAND NIGHT HAS COME #6 (OF 6)
STAR WARS AGENT O/T EMPIRE IRON ECLIPSE #2 (OF 5) (C: 1-0-0)
STAR WARS FIG COLL MAG #43 SNOWTROOPER (C: 0-1-3)
STAR WARS KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC WAR #1 (OF 5) CARRE CV
STAR WARS LEGACY TP VOL 11 WAR (C: 0-1-2)
SUICIDE SQUAD #5
SUPER HEROES #22
SUPERBOY #5
THE OCCULTIST #3 (OF 3)
THE STRAIN #2 (OF 12)
TRANSFORMERS MORE THAN MEETS EYE ONGOING #1
ULTIMATE COMICS X-MEN #6
UNWRITTEN #33 (MR)
UNWRITTEN TP VOL 05 ON TO GENESIS (MR)
WOLVERINE #300
WOLVERINE #300 BLANK VAR (NET)
WOLVERINE AND X-MEN #4 XREGG
WOLVERINE BEST THERE IS BROKEN QUARANTINE PREM HC
WOLVERINE BEST THERE IS CONTAGION TP
X-FACTOR #230 XREGG
X-MEN LEGACY #260.1
YOUNG JUSTICE TP VOL 01
