by Paul
My friends, amid this week’s torrential downpour of new comics, think of me as your umbrella.
SPOTLIGHT TITLES
The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #1 (Dark Horse) by Isaac Goodhart, James Tynion IV, and Tate Brombal: The inside front cover of this book informs us that Tynion’s contribution here is that it’s “based on an idea by James Tynion IV.” One imagines him sitting at the great oaken desk in the library of his grand estate, flickering candles illuminating the darkness, as, with widening eyes, he exclaims, “Great Scott! What if… Scott Pilgrim lived in the world of Something Is Killing the Children?” while the eyes of intricately-carved busts of James Tynions I-III seem to gaze upon him approvingly.
And well they should. This comic is delightful, with an appealing, well-designed protagonist trying to manage his undiagnosed mental issues in a way that rang true for me. He also meets a werewolf. Isaac Goodhart’s storytelling and linework bring back warm memories of 90s Duncan Fegredo and Peter Milligan books like Enigma and Girl. Off to a strong start.
Creed: The Next Round #1 (Boom!) by Wilson Santos, LaToya Morgan, and Jai Jamison: Set in the year 2033 (as the book mentions once and then wisely never brings up again), Adonis Creed’s daughter Amara is now a headstrong teen pugilist who feels too reined in by her protective father. Considering the casual, wanton violence superheroes resort to at the drop of a hat, it’s strange that there isn’t a thriving genre of boxing comics, which seem like they would be pretty fun to draw. A really cool thing about this book is that, as Creed film fans know but I had forgotten (I only saw the first one), Amara is completely deaf and her mother, Bianca, is mostly deaf, so they communicate using Black American Sign Language, something I had never heard of and appreciated learning a little bit about. Wilson Santos and letterer Andworld Design do a great job depicting this visually, and Santos takes care in staging the characters so that they only speak out loud when they know that Amara or Bianca can see their faces to lip-read. He’s also good at making the boxing suitably kinetic, and mostly stays on the right side of making the characters resemble their real-life actors without being distracting. Deserves a look.
Brynmore #1 by Damien Worm and Steve Niles (IDW): Underneath the cover image of the ghoulish visage of a character I’ve come think of as Count Not Appearing in This Comic is a nicely atmospheric story of a man returning to his hometown to re-build his shattered life by rehabbing a disused church into a house for himself. You don’t need me to tell you that rehabbing a disused church into a house for yourself is always a terrible idea and that you’re probably going to find something in the basement you’ll wish you hadn’t, as this guy does. Great work by Damien Worm, marred only by colors that are maybe a little too dark for their own good. Either he forgot that not everyone was going to read this on a tablet, or he was coloring with a different paper stock in mind and IDW switched it late in the process. There’s also a semi-transparent marble texture laid over the artwork for some reason. It’s distracting at first, but you get used to it. Steve Niles’ script is tasteful, restrained, and doesn’t cover up the nice artwork with unnecessary balloons so thank you for that, Steve.
The Exiled #5 (Massive/Whatnot) by Gabriel “Eskivo” Santos, Wesley Snipes, Adam Lawson, and Keith Arem: There’s a scene early in this comic where the main character (I think he’s the main character) wistfully regards what I take to be an old flame and says, “You always looked nice in a bulletproof vest.” Later on, the main villain (I think he’s the main villain) says to his lackey, “Quit petting that goddamn dog before I CUT ITS HEAD OFF!” It’s hard to tell if these scenes are meant to be funny because Eskivo draws them with the same gravity and import with which John Byrne drew the death of Phoenix. All I know is, they made me laugh. If, like me, you haven’t read The Exiled #1-4, The Exiled #5 probably isn’t the place to start. Then again, maybe it wouldn’t help much anyway. If you have warm memories of Extreme Studios books full of heroes with muscles so rippling they show through even the least binding fabric, The Exiled #5 will feel like a warm bath. It’s dumb, but it has a strange kind of power. For the life of me, I cannot imagine which of these roles Wesley Snipes thinks he would play in a movie version of this.
AT A GLANCE
Starfinder: Angels of the Drift #1 (Dynamite) by Edu Menna and James L. Sutter: If you’re in the market for a hot take, you can have this one for free: In 15-20 years, the dominant genre of comics will be gaming tie-ins. Speaking of which, here’s one. Also, one or more major companies will be publishing a significant number of Americanized adaptations of manga and anime. Take that to the bank. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, ya bank-tanking pipe-smoker.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin—The Lost Years #4 (IDW) by Ben Bishop, Kevin Eastman, and Tom Waltz: These Last Ronin books are good fun, but it does feel a bit like a sign of the times, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it feel like they had to lay off three of the Turtles due to budget cuts? “Sorry, Raphael, but with recent advances in AI we’re now able to thwart the Foot Clan with 75% more efficiency. We wish you luck in your future endeavors.”
Nudism Comes to Connecticut (Fantagraphics) by Susan Schade and Jon Buller: That’s a good title. That’s a title that makes you want to find out what happens. I bet those stuffy prep-mongers at Vineyard Vines didn’t take it lying down, that’s for sure.
