Mouse Guard: Fall and Winter 1152

I read David Petersen's Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 and Winter 1152 recently, and then again for a second time over the past two days. I was bowled over on the first read. The art is beautiful, and the writing is tight. This is a comic made for the medium. There is no shortage of dialog and narration to be found, but the story is told in the art.

These books are square volumes, shorter and wider than a standard comic. It makes use of the size very well, and gives us a good number of full page and even two page spreads that really set the tone and also punctuate just how strong the art is in this. The characters are distinct, even though most of them are extremely cute mice.

The basic story isn't exactly brand new ground. It's a lot like a lot of classic adventure stories. It takes place in something akin to a medieval setting. It features a small group of adventurers on a mission. The main characters are part of a group of elite warriors whose heyday was in the past to some degree. There is a conspiracy afoot, and the order to which they belong is cast in a negative light. Along the way they have opportunities to face perils, meet characters from legends and fight foes that seem to greatly outnumber or outclass them. There are a lot more standard elements that I could name. Add to this that there is no way to avoid comparing this to at least the excellent Redwall series of novels by Brian Jacques.

Beast of Burden #3 came out last week. This also excellent comic is by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson. I read the issue and loved it, and then my ten year old daughter walked over to see what I was reading. I explained it to her and showed her some of the pictures. The art in BoB is also exceptional as well as being very cute in places. She asked to read the issue, and loved it. She is also now a big fan of Mouse Guard. I was thinking about these two very different series, and started to think about something they had in common.

Mouse Guard and Beasts of Burden are both comics I would call 'all ages'. I would actually call them 'most ages', but either of them could be read to a younger reader and edited a little on the fly if needed. Kids nine and up I would say should love these stories.

Mouse Guard made me feel the same way that movies and stories like Robin Hood and The Three Musketeers and Zorro made me feel as a kid. It's exciting and full of action and adventure. The characters are real and flawed, but that isn't the focus, they are also brave and daring, and selfless in their quest to protect those they are sworn to protect, and to complete their missions for the greater good.

I highly recommend these books. Check your local libraries (that's where I picked up mine). And after you read it, share it with a kid. There is a lot to be gotten from the brave little mice of the Guard.

CBD 11/29/2009

Image United, Detective Comics, The Tick New Series, Ultimate Avengers, Beasts of Burden

Image United #1 - I had no interest in getting this until I read something recently that talked about it and it got in my head for some reason. It is both a crossover book AND an image comic filled with all of the characters I was turned off of in the 1990's. It is slightly better than my expectations, but not great. I don't think I will get any further issues, but this wasn't exactly terrible. There is something that I secretly like about this stuff but am afraid to admit.

Beasts of Burden #3 - This is really a great series. I've said this before, but the art is fantastic, and the writing is every bit as good as the art. This comic is about animals that dabble in the supernatural. The animals are cute and compelling and distinctive. The dialog is natural and fast paced. It would make a fantastic cartoon in my opinion, which isn't always the case. There is a lot of action and suspense in this issue, as well as humor in the form of banter. Great stuff. It is a tiny bit to the right of pg, but I think this would be a good comic for kids over 10 or so, and it certainly works for me as well.

Ultimate Avengers #4 - I think that I would absolutely buy any comic where the focus was all the big powerful heroes trying to beat up Captain America, and Captain America Schooling them as he is inclined to do (same thing with Batman... It's a thing of mine). Again, I don't think I will continue to get this title, but something about it calls to me when I see it on the shelf. I think that I am hoping it will be a reprint of the first Ultimates series.

Detective Comics #859 - This is another chapter in the Batwoman origin story. I am still really enjoying this. It's nice to read this as it isn't a story we've seen before.

The Tick New Series #1 - Reviewed Here... Go buy it, you'll love it. If you don't love it then you are incapable of love and I can't help you.

The Issue at Hand: The Tick New Series #1

The first issue of the new ongoing Tick series came out last Wednesday. Unfortunately for me i didn't pick up my comics until today. The really great news is that in addition to there being a copy in my box, there was also a copy on the shelf. This is in a store that doesn't tend to use a lot of shelf space for comics that aren't from the top four or five publishers, but it was there. Hopefully it will catch the eye of someone who has fond memories of the Tick from its various incarnations who didn't realize that a new series was starting.

Despite some very unnecessary self deprecation by the author, both on his blog, and on the Arachnida page at the back of the comic, This is an exceptional book. I understand the fear that there will be disappointment from people who are only familiar with the Tick from the very excellent Fox cartoon that ran in the 1990's. There are a lot of characters that were created exclusively for the show, and they will not be in the comic. There are a lot of characters from the cartoon that created very strong and lasting impressions on people. I don't see this as a negative.

In the case of the Tick, I think that the humor and the tone are most important. The cartoon recreated and perfected the tone and humor of the original comics. Subsequent comics in my opinion were created with an awareness of what had already been done.

This latest offering does the same thing. It draws upon the tone and the humor, it uses existing characters, and adds it's own new elements. Cereno perfectly creates situations and stories within the existing framework of the character, and does so at a level that keeps you from even wondering about the creative team as you are reading it. This is an extremely funny new book that feels familiar in the best possible way. Les McClaine's art is fantastic in the same way as the writing is. When you look at it, it looks like what you are expecting. The book will get a lot of people's money based on the fact that it elicits this sense of familiarity. The good news is that you get more than just the familiar in both the writing and the art. The expressions that McClaine brings out in the characters are what really tie the comic together.

Issue number 1 focuses on two separate Christmas parties. One is for heroes at the Comet Club, and the other is for sidekicks in the Sidekick Lounge at the same venue. In each party there is a gift exchange going on, and stories are being told by both the sidekicks and a group of super-villains gathered in a lounge at the institution in which they are housed. There is an underlying story relating to the gifts, but we also see a handful of times when the Tick ruined a number of villains Christmas-time exploits.

The Tick New Series #1 is good comics. It's funny, well written, and the art is spot on. The 4.95 price tag may seem a bit steep in relation to mainstream comics, but don't let that stop you. If you love the Tick, you will love this. If you are a fan of funny riffs on superheroes, you won't be disappointed.

The Tale of One Bad Rat

I borrowed this Bryan Talbot Graphic novel (Dark Horse Books) from the library a few weeks ago, and just got around to reading it.

The title of this book is in the style of Beatrix Potter. The cover art and font are obviously a nod to the small volumes of stories featuring animals that many of us grew up loving. The story relates to Potter in a number of ways, and is a nice story about overcoming abuse and learning to live and finding peace with yourself. It is a bit neat, and perhaps overly straightforward in its telling and its resolution, but it is still very well done.

There are several themes that run the course of the book. One is a connection to Beatrix Potter, One is vivid visions or hallucinations, One is the theme of child sexual abuse and the toll it takes on the victim, and the last one is rats. These are all tied together in a way that helps us to feel what the protagonist, a girl named Helen, who is homeless when we first meet her and has a pet rat. is going through, and to really see how she is coping with a history of many years of sexual abuse by her father, and emotional neglect by her mother.

Helen goes from one place to another, encountering something at nearly every point that triggers flashbacks to her abusive past. It is something that is ever present, and keeps driving her on. She has a strong interest in Beatrix Potter and goes more or less on a pilgrimage of sorts the the area in which Potter lived and wrote her stories about. In addition to meeting a number of people who just want to use her, she does encounter a number of good souls.

The overall feeling of the book is one of hope. Helen takes control of her situation by the end of the book and it ends on a good note. She is greatly helped toward this end by people she happens upon when she is at a low point, who end up being good and kind to her and step into a positive sort of parental role that she had been lacking in her life.

It's a good story, I'm glad I read it, but I don't particularly love it. The art is good but not a style I like very much, and the story is well written, but didn't blow me away. It's a good book to borrow first.

Talkin bout the same thing over and over

I picked up this weeks comics today. It was a light but good week and I picked up a little bonus comic to read as well.

The Unwritten #7 came out, and it continues to be really good and really compelling. The is great, the covers are even better, and the writing is pretty awesome. I love the fictional geography aspect of this probably more than anything else, but the whole conceit of the power of stories and their influence and their standing as a commodity of sorts is really neat. There is a lot going on in this. There are a variety of things that will eventually come together, and the promise of learning a lot more as everything develops. This is one of those smart comics that doesn't come off as pretentious or trying to be more than it is. One of the core stories is basically Harry Potter. The power is in stories, no matter what the stories are.

Batman and Robin #6 - I am not loving every second of this title, but I am liking it a lot. It is going a long way to keep me reading it. The team of Dick and Damian is a good one. Both characters have strong well defined personalities, and bring a lot to the table. Both provide different perspectives on the Batman identity and make for good action and an interesting dynamic. The Jason Todd Red Hood and his crazy sidekick Scarlet were a good counterpoint to Batman and Robin, and the flamboyant Flamingo was a tough enemy, but still came across as sort of generic and with only the flashiness and brutality standing inplace of actual character. I am enjoying this more than a lot of relatively recent Batman stuff. I still like Batwoman more, but this is pretty good for a Batman fix.

I also picked up SuperGod, but haven't read it yet. Touching the ultra glossy cover was like taking a time machine back to the 90's but I don't hold that against it. I am pretty sure I will like this just as I tend to at least LIKE most things Warren Ellis writes. I'll talk about it more when I don't have to make stuff up to do so...

CBD 10/07/09

North 40, Batman and Robin, Models Inc, Doctor Voodoo, Haunt

North 40 #4 - Aaron Williams, Fiona Staples - Still loving this series. I am not always a fan of horror, but this really has me hooked. It is well written, and the art is fantastic, with emphasis on just a great job on the colors. It isn't what I would call a comedy, but it certainly has a sense of humor. It comes off almost in a Twin Peaks meets Lovecraftian apocalypse sort of vibe. At this point the law is trying hard to maintain order in the face of all the strangeness, and things are gradually coming together. There is so much to take in at this point that i am not asking for the plot to move any faster than it is. Each issue brings us new mysteries and new insights into the characters we see. It's creepy smart and fun.

Batman and Robin #5 - Grant Morrison, Philip Tan - I like this title, and I liked this issue. I think it is well written, but just a bit more extreme than I am interested in . I think it's great, I just don't think it beats out some of the other titles I am reading for my comic dollars. This title vs Detective comics at this point... I have to go with BatWoman. It isn't really a contest like that, but given limited funds and rising prices, I do have to keep jockeying my money around where it gives me the most bang, or lets me pick up things I just 'have to check out'. The story lines move from a guy who replaces faces to a guy who eats them... I'll check back in with this title later I think.





Doctor Voodoo #1 - Rick Remender, Jefte Palo - I loved this issue. I haven't paid much attention to Doctor Strange in a really long time. I used to love it when I was in Middle School, though. For some reason, it was like Daredevil at the time for me, Maybe my local library had some runs of it and I read a lot of it. My library back then had these bins of single issues that were beat to hell, but you could check them out. They stamped right on the comic, it was kind of great. I like Brother Voodoo, and if this issue is an accurate intro into how this will consistently be, then I will need to put this on my pull list. It starts out with Dr. Voodoo getting the easy upper hand over Dormamu, and certainly gets no less awesome on it's way to a cross dimensional battle of indeterminate length with Dr. Doom. It was really awesome on a very high level for me.


Models Inc. #2 - I think this is a pretty decent comic. It has a LOT of human interaction, some murder mystery elements, etc., but probably isn't something I will keep picking up from this point on. I don't think this is a bad book at all, I just think it isn't a book I am particularly interested in reading.





Haunt #1 - Robert Kirkman, Ryan Ottley, Todd McFarlane - Despite the fact that I have been making fun of this character since the first picture of it was released (See... It's from Robert Kirkman and Todd McFarlane, and the McFarlane cover image really really looks like a cross between Spider-Man and Spawn... More like a hybrid of the two than like Venom in my opinion, but it has a venom-esque look as well.) That being said, this comic has some Spawn-like elements to it... Mercenary or government killer type who dies and becomes something else... That being said, it really is something wholly new. I really enjoyed this issue, and think it is a pretty great setup to an intriguing and interesting ongoing story. Ryan Ottley's Pencils have Todd McFarlane's inks over them, and the art is brilliant. My favorite 'panel' has the good guy jumping over the front of an oncoming jeep and simultaneously shooting the driver in the face while kicking the passenger in the face. As the story goes on, the soldier is killed, but his ghost keeps appearing to his brother who is a priest. When people show up to kill the brother, the soldier's ghostly self merges into his brother and becomes this other sort of creature. I guess it sort of is like Venom, if the symbiote was his brother. I was not at all surprised by the quality of this book, but I didn't think I would like it as much as I did. I am glad I succumbed to my curiosity and picked it up. It definitely has me for a few more issues at least.

A Fistfull of SPX 2009 part 1

I've had a chance to get through a good number of smaller comics at this point, and I am pretty impressed with what I have read so far. I think it says a lot about the things I choose to pick up and buy, as well as a lot about the quality of the offerings at SPX this year that I pulled out a pile of minicomics and really truly believe they were all pretty awesome. I am sure I picked up some things that I won't love this much, but this first batch, pulled randomly, is filled with winners.

Bizcochito - Dennis Pacheco - pigeonholepress.net - This is billed as 'a tale of sweet revenge', and 'a cautionary tale in two acts'. This small square mini is 24 single panel pages, and tells a story that spans a 13 year time frame, and highlights the fact that some people will wait far longer than you might think to exact revenge. It is very cute, very well drawn, and very available to read for free. If you follow that link you will be on a page that shows several of Pacheco's works. bizcochito is toward the bottom of the page. Well worth reading. Budgeting and a desire to get a wide variety of creators are the only reasons I didn't buy more of his work. He was not able to be at SPX, but his work was well represented.

Earth Minds Are Weak (1-4)- Justin J Fox - clifffacecomics.com - here is the blurb about the first issue from his website.

"Issue 1 of an 80 pg. wordless adventure, The Story of Suave Prospects. This surreal tale focuses on four brothers. Born into the world as naive adults, they explore a mythical temple in search of their Ids. Magical candles, the living dead, dancing beer labels, alien plants, shape-changing mushrooms and a tavern in the belly of a whale are just some of the dream-like elements that they encounter. 4.25” x 5.5”/21 pages/b&w"

The art is fantastic in this. I am not sure I understood much of anything in the four small books, but it was interesting and made me think and try to decode what was going on, and what we were being told in each of the panels. In that regard I enjoyed it a lot. It's trippy. I don't think I ever have an opportunity to use that word, but it applies here. There is a heavy sense of design and mythology (central american) represented in the black and white. You get a lot of really heavy black and white, but also a lot of fine textures drawn in very thin lines. There is a strange mystical,sexual, and psychological vibe at work, and while I don't feel I understand it, I get it, and I like it.

Four Stories - Tom McHenry - noncanon.com - I was standing in front of Sara Bauer's table trying to figure out what to buy when I picked this up. I laughed so hard at what I saw on the random page I flipped to, that I felt obligated to buy it. The pieces in here aren't exactly funny, but the title of one of them just killed me... it was "Fucking Comics on the GodDamn Internet", which is a short sort of existentialist piece about two webcomics creators sitting in a cell talking about their place as basically mankind's last hope in some alien gladiatorial arena. It works. This also contains the story No Argument is Ever Won, which hits WAY too close to home for me about the dickish behavior we subject the people we love to, and geek... identity issues? The piece that hit me hardest is probably the Rag and Bone Man. Inside the strange sad story of a couple losing a baby, is this concept of selling things like memories and abilities, for money. This is a powerful and effective small volume. The art is good and the writing is great.

Hey Pais, the best thing in the WORLD - Sara Bauer - heypais.com - Hey Pais is a journal comic by a cat. It is simple and cute and funny and endearing. It is really just a nice comic. It is also a webcomic, so follow that link and enjoy! The mini comic I picked up is especially precious. In March, Paisley decided that she was going to make a March Madness inspired bracketed competition to determine the Best thing in the world. It was divided into four divisions of People, Food, Activities, and Events. There is a tiny little envelope inside the front cover with a very small copy of the brackets, which include among other things: Ice Cream, Dropping Beats, Morrissey and Unattended Bread. There is one comic for an item in each division in each round. It is very cute, and very funny. Inside the back cover is another tiny envelope that contains the brackets with the results all written in. I LOVED this. It makes me smile to take out the little brackets. It's sweet and nice and funny.

Outreach - Raina Telgemeier - www.goraina.com - It was really nice getting to meet Raina. She is just nice and friendly and accessible. Her art is fantastic, and she is a perfect choice for the graphic novel adaptations of the babysitters club books. I picked up two small volumes from her that have panels drawn from real life classes she has done for kids. I LOVED the fact that she had minis for sale. She has quite a few books under her belt, but she also had minis available, which is a genius thing to do in the context of a show like SPX especially. If she lived closer to Virginia I would be trying to figure out how to have her attend an event for our Girl Scout service unit. The cover for Outreach #2 is cute and smart. It has a boy and a girl reading comics on it, and the boy is reading a comic labeled comics for girls and the girl is reading the one for boys. PLUS her booth was giving away a cookie with each purchase!! it was delicious. <--- disclosure per the new FTC rules...

Ok, I am getting tired now. I know it doesn't look like much, but this is 9 comics covered. I have a bunch more that I have already read, but they will come in another day or so. Be sure to check out the sites for these folks!