November 2008 Archives

SUNDAY GRAPHIC novel reading choices...

Tom Strong's Terrific Tales
By Alan & Steve Moore plus others (ABC/WildStorm/DC).

A solid collection of the first five-issue offshoot from parent title Tom Strong, this features solo stories about the extended family.

Alan Moore's stories tend to be about Tom himself and play around with the comics storytelling medium or have a philosophical viewpoint as strong subtext to them, and feature strong traditional EC-esque art by the likes of Paul Rivoche and Jerry Ordaway. Whereas Steve Moore, that non-relation who helped the A-Man break into the British comics business, concentrates on telling the story itself first and foremost.

The S-Man has being doing it that long he knows what's required inside out: his strengths are as a short story writer, 6 pages and he's in a league where few others can match sheer plot value paced evenly for an intricate twist in the tail to deliver reader satisfaction. He develops the back-chronology of Tom when he was young, and future expositions with the babe that is Jonni Future, as desirably drawn by Art Adams - It's an updating of those old pulp derived stories that artist Matt Baker et al at the Iger Shop use to pump out for Planet Stories back in America's Golden Age of comics, although I must confess I can also see a bit of Warren's The Goblin from its 3rd issue as a starting point for the origin tale told her.

A-Man's daughter, Leah, chips in with a suitably silent visual gag tale about King Solomon for Sergio Aragones to draw and make us raise a smile, published prior to her work on Albion. Also along for the ride are artists Jason Pearson, Jaime Hernandez and stalwart Alan Weiss all doing strong work.

It's a good package throughout. It won't change your life but quality entertainment not to be missed.

Daredevil: Yellow
By Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale (Marvel Graphic Novel)

Collecting a six issue series from the Eisner award-winning team who also work on the Heroes TV show.

This is an expansive retelling of the Daredevil stories as put to the printed page by Lee, Wood and Everett all those decades ago, filtered through the nuances of Miller's run on the series, all told in diary boook form as a love letter that will never be sent to Daredevil's first love Karen Page.

It's nice in places but ultimately has little point. A more inexpensive viewpoint can be obtained via the original 60s comics collected in the Essentials series, and they probably contain more action too.

The Chronicles of Conan Volume 6: The Curse of the Golden Skull & Other Stories
By Roy Thomas, John Buscema, Neal Adams and Others (Dark Horse)

Collecting #35-42 of the original Marvel comic, apart the cover credited guys we have Rich Buckler on #40 and Ernie Chan inking most of John Buscema's pages. However, it should be noted that despite Buscema completing the bulk of the visual work within its #37's Neal Adams one-off that gives the collection its title, and cover image.

That's name value rather than stand out tale as such, but Adams' visuals do stir the loins more than Buscema, despite both offering master classes in comics visual grammar with nearly every page. You may look at the panels/angles and think haven't you seen them a thousand other places, yes, but that's because they work - a full stop or a comma means something - and across the breadth of a page designed to make a statement they - including Buckler, do it consummately.

The plot? Conan's working for empire-gathering Turan, the king unaware his son wants Conan's head (and quite likely his own!), so we get tales of gems and girls who promise the world but offer only monsters that lurk in the night all over the desert sands. Either way it's Conan's sword that always saves the day.

No great surprise story wise. But the collection works quite well gathered as one epic tale despite its disjointedness. It's a good romp, you know.

It's actually been digitally re-coloured and re-lettered - the digital lettering adding an enormous amount of typos in the process, especially in the latter half, spoiling the reading flow ands begging the question if the book collection's editor was doing his job properly.

Thomas does his Comic Book Artist/Alter-Ego style stroll down memory lane with long text features.

Ghost in the Shell: Man-Machine Interface
By Shirow Masmune (Dark Horse)

Super cyborg Motoko Aramaki investigates global net security break-ins by terrorists, downloading into several alter-egos along the way, and they're all bodacious females.

Visually ultra-impressive, regardless of the distracting uberbabe figures. There are some fantastic graphic ideas hinted at that could be developed further by other artists. It's nonetheless hard to decipher what's actually going on in the story a lot of the time, until, ironically, it moves from its post-modern science fictional overtures into to universal new age philosophy.

It's a colour digest collection, I'm told a larger size was available previously and easier to read, but the size was not a problem. Masmuune filled too many elements, captions and likewise with filler intended for affiliated games etc when he should have been concentrating on the core story.

Quimby Mouse
By Chris Ware (Fantagraphics)

An over-sized coffee table book collectting strips from the ACME Novelty Library comic, as with the award-winning Jimmy Corrigan it exudes with Ware's tasteful flair for design.

The strips themselves feature multi-panelled Quimby tales, many silent, some quirky superhero pastiches in The Hurricane, and biographical material. One way or another the whole book feels like some peculiar homage to Ware's beloved late maternal grandmother.

I admire Ware's artwork - his Quimby, although he might detest this comparison, comes on like Marshall Rogers taking off Victor Moscoso and Rick Griffin doing Krazy Kat doodles, while his Hurricane shows a love if not some distinct swipes for Golden Age comic book artists like CC Beck and more tellingly Joe Schuster. He's a literate chap but tells a tale without being over-wordy. However, as a whole, the book does not engage me.

I know the book is heartfelt and no doubt highly personal, and a little cathartic but I felt I was too aware of the multi-faceted, albeit subtle techniques he brings to bear admiring technique and style over content.

The Originals
By Dave Gibbons (Vertigo/DC)

Mr Gibbons can stand tall for the praise due for the accomplishments he has made with his first major solo work, The Originals.

Lauded as one half of the men who brought us The Watchmen, he's collaborated with the best and that's because he's always been recognised as a consummate draughtsman, defining his skills as the years have gone by.

In The Originals, Gibbons appears to take several of his personal interests and blend them together - it presumes to take a skewed look back on a brief time in British history when youth rebellion meant the clock had moved on from Teddy Boys to the division of mods and rockers. Lesley, or Lel, our hero is of the former in type.

It's a world like ours was but rather Dan Dare-ish with odd touches like hovering motor scooters, although that quaintness is offset with some violence .

It's a story of a young man's dreams coming true, getting shattered and decisions that need to be made at still a tender age (although life experience teaches us that we tend to keep similar mistakes all our life). It's fun, exhilarating, capturing a real youth feel of optimism.

The comparison to Pete Townsend and The Who's Quadrophenia is readily apparent even though you suspect Gibbons was probably more of a Small Faces fan himself. But it has the breath to stretch out and express emotion and query life as we are actually reading it - as opposed to the immediate rush a record gives us or the secondary contemplation one has after walking home after going to the movies. Gibbons writes clear and intelligibly, just like he draws. And only Dave Gibbons, only him, could have utilised all his skills to make this such a deservedly novel well-designed book: from its irregular almost square size to the art & lettering dancing beautifully with the page composition. In a way only independent mavericks have tried successfully before, ironically this very straight artist beats them at their own game. It's a book the mainstream could enjoy and not just the comics fan.

SATURDAY'S COLLECTION of graphic novel reviews...

Ministry of Space
By Warren Ellis & Chris Weston (Image/Titan)

Dan Dare meets neu-realism in this variable history story that sees the British steal German technology before the Yanks and Ruskies can get a look in during the fading hours of WWII.

It postulates the theory that space exploration would have continued on as a part of Britain's empirical nature instead of us becoming an inward looking trading post of diminishing returns.

Sir John Dashwood is an air commodore with the RAF an it is his ruthless spirit that makes it all happen, hiding a deadly secret in his doing that at the end the Americans have discovered and will reveal so. This proves Dashwood's downfall and Britain's folly - it doesn't quite ring true as every nation hides its war crimes with a smile and sadly generally gets away with it.

The last panels suggest racism would still be profoundly here but it just wouldn't be in the same way - But if so surely the Americans would have blacks in chains still? One change doesn't mean every nation will stay in isolation.

Regardless, it captures the height of empirical ambition, the sterling stiff upper lip, and a God's kingdom on Earth approach as exemplified by William Blake.

To this artist Weston deliver his exacting art in to evoke not only Hampson with modern mannerisms but as an apprentice to Don Lawrence also serves the memory of his mentor well.

American Splendour
By Harvey Pekar & Various (Ballantine/Titan)

A hefty album collecting two previous collections.

For those new they will find a collection of vignettes of generally high quality about the drudgery of daily working class life in Cleveland, USA. Boring? No.

There are insights into the human character, nuances and prejudices made and lost , and honesty from Pekar himself, and a point, moral or otherwise to the stories.

Robert Crumb's on board but there are plenty of delights from the other male and female artists.

I used to read the annual oversized comic version of American Splendour that Pekar self-published and this acts not only as a reminder of some good stories but how I saw a small-business man self-publish and treat his artists with apparent integrity - an attitude that's stayed at the back of my head and I've taken as a blueprint for any endeavour I've been personally involved with since.

Barnum! In Secret Service to the USA
By Howard Chaykin, David Tishman & Niko Henrichon (Vertigo-DC).

Sheer carny hokum that must have been written with tongue firmly planted in cheek!

The premise: that scientist Nikola Tesla is trying to take over the United States, as that nation's growth into Empire and future world dominator... and obviously kill of President Grove Cleveland in the process!

To prevent this, P.T. Barnum and his circus troop become special agents on behalf of the president. It's almost a two fingers-up assault on the revisionist pulp hero material that's pumped out these days. It's also an honest to goodness adventure of the sorts we all to rarely see these days.

A lot of it will leave younger readers bored rigid. It has to be admitted it feels the story has been padding out somewhat and Henrichion's quaint illustrative style isn't going to appeal to the X-fans out there, but there's some fun moments in it,.

I got get the feeling Chaykin's main interest was the history and politics side of this. The book ends happily enough, with that comic book sense that there might be a reprise, but I doubt sales would make it. To be frank I don't know how a hard cover collection came about unless there was also potential movie deals happening at the time. Regardless, I'm a sucker for almost anything Chaykin put out.

The League of Extraordinary Gentleman Volume II
By Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill (DC/WildStorm)

The group reform and take on the aliens from HG Wells' War of the Worlds - it both loses and gains over the first collection. Charactersisations expand beyond their own chronoligical definitions, but maybe we prefered them otherwise. Cameos from John Carter and Gulliver Jones on Mars in the prologue were a welcome sight, however, an explansion of their roles would have been welcomed.

Supplementary text stories and covers round out the collection. All in all, there's enough meat on the story with the villains suitably menacing, doubly so when characters change allegancies.

100 Bullets: Samurai
By Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso (DC/Vertigo)

Quite why this collection of 100 Bullets #43-49 is subtitled Samurai confuses me - Caged Creatures might be more appropriate. The book's in two parts, the first featuring a con doing time and thinking he's little chance of surviving other prisoners, the second and more interesting, if initially, apparently more predictable, involves the illegal hunting of caged tigers. There's lots of mean and moody action, and it's all very cinematic

A mysterious man called Graves gives individuals 100 bullets to do whatever they want, promising that they'll get off scott free, but the 100th bullet must be for the individual themselves. The first story in this collection needs some awareness of the series' continuity, the second more accessible to non-series readers.

Creatures of the Night
By Neil Gaiman & Michael Zulli (Dark Horse Books)

Zulli has adapted two short stories by Gaiman, The Price and The Daughter of Owls.

They are brief reads despite their individual page count, and beneficial for it. Each tells a dark fairy tale suitable for all ages. The one a story about a cat battling the devil, the other a girl thought of as a demon herself.

Zulli gives thanks to Barry Windsor-Smith in his credits. That artistic influence was always there in Zulli's work and initially it may well have hindered his progression though made him a little more commercial, now he takes the essence of the storytelling that is Windsor-Smith's true skill (rather than the absolutely wonderful drawings themselves that people first admire) and uses that in a natural flow that makes the book work.

I expected not to like this and was very pleasantly surprised. Nothing deep but an effective collection.

MORE GRAPHIC novels reviewed, many collections of popular series.

Fables Vol 5: The Mean Seasons by Bill Willingham & Various (Vertigo/DC/Titan)

Fabletown, where the folk of fairy stories go to live in an all too real world. Politics, sexual drama and the odd bit of hokum. Always loved Willingham's superior soap opera way with words even if it falls to Vertigo to ghettoize him. Appealing Mark Buckingham work. The plot: who will become new mayor of Fabletown and is there a serial killer loose in town?

Hellboy: The Chained Coffin and Others
By Mike Mignola (Dark Horse Comics)

One does tend to wonder at times if all Hellboy needs to do is go in swinging his fists Thing style to solve any problem that come his way when dealing through this collection, but Mignola marries atmospheric scene setting with matter of fact storytelling to deliver contemporary pulp fiction that's engrossing and wholesomely satisfying.

The Spider: Scavenger of the Slaughtered Sacrifices
By Don McGregor & Gene Colan (Vanguard)

It's a little unclear who actually commissioned this book, and one expects only dedicated fans and the downright curious will actually pick it up.

The Spider is a classic pulp character, and the masked crime-fighter featured in this contemporary tale has him attempting to stop heinous murders and the like that are the copycat crimes of a TV show - thus we have metaphors with the pulps, comics and everything else that has been cool for kids at one time or another. These themes take up an awful lot of the story time and because it's McGregor most often by narrative caption, this is indeed something worthy of the title of being a book.

The actual fight that begins at the outset lasts some 50 pages before we change location and during that time the caption boxes hypothesize and pontificate with great gusto. It's eccentrically paced to say the least, and we're not even talking about the abrupt conclusion.

This aside it's a heartfelt story, but Colan's art - reproduced from his pencils - while nice and occasionally exquisite, even obscurely painterly, tends to visualise the most basic interpretation of the what's happening as indicated in the words, thus illustrating rather than illuminating and not moving the story along as it should within the comic medium.

McGregor fans will forgive this, fans of the Spider may to, I myself and pleased I actually sat down and read it, but I wouldn't hold it up as an interesting experiment rather than anything like the best of either of the creators' work.

Ex Machina: The First Hundred Day
By Brian K Vaughn & Tony Harris (WildStorm/DC/Titan)

Michael Hundred is the mayor of New York City. He used to a superhero. If you like The West Wing but want thrills with your drama this is your book. It also pre-dates Heroes. Excellently well told, and written with unobtrusive style. Flashbacks add intrigue rather than being an outdated dramatic device. There's a subplot or two and a satisfactory conclusion to the collection. It's fully rounded with a supporting cast you want, need, to know more about. The art may too photo referenced at times but that can be forgiven. Superb stuff.

Swamp Thing: Bad Seed by Andy Diggle & Enrque Breccia (Vertgo/DC/Titan)

The Swamp Thing tends to be all the more exciting when that Hellblazer John Constantine makes a guest appearance. It's always a case of pouring oil on burning water too.

The Swamp Thing now controls the ancient Greek element of fire, water, air and naturally earth - but he's got Sargon the Sorcerer giving his elemental daughter Tefe the Chinese whispers about how daddy's going to tip the natural world off balance and between a parent-child grudge and heroine heroics she gets lead down the proverbial garden path.

It's all rather interestingly put together because when it comes to it and all the sections can get broken down and the themes it tries to put across are also the type seen in a standard TV soap opera. However, when Breccia's art lets rip with the horror elements the standard goes up several sharp notches.

Tales of the Vampires
By Joss Whedon & Various (Dark Horse/Titan)

The Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator gathers his TV scripting crew to create short comic strips about vampires. It uses a framing sequences of children learning how to be slayers at the feet of a shackled vampire so they can learn about their enemies first hand, and there's a suitable twist in the tale to that.

The short stories are generally decently entertaining. It's more for the vampire fan than the Buffy completist I'd have thought unless characters within get expanded at a latter date.

BIRCH'S BARK at Speech Balloons continues to discuss graphic novels, this time focussing on solo outings and super teams-ups.

Invincible
By Robert Kirkman & Cory walker (Image)

Mark Grayson is a teenager who starts exhibiting superpowers just as puberty sets in. Perhaps not too surprising when one considers that his old man goes by the name of Omni-Man.

So begins a bitter sweet adventure of a well adjusted lad learning to deal with his powers, teaming up with fellow kids in the Teen Team and fighting villains who once in a while even end up being school teachers.

Detractors might say it's about as relevant as The Cosby Show was to working class blacks in America but hey, not everyone has it bad. Of course there are those superhero lovers who pontificate that the hard edged post modern variety is the only relevant format these days, but those dudes can't see the irony of that.

What we have in this book is a feel good story that is well written in a clear manner with art that looks like John Byrne got inked by Kevin O'Neill and the results turned out surprisingly well.

Superman: Red Son
By Mark Millar, Dave Johnson, Killian Plunkett + (DC/Titan)

This is an Elseworlds tale wherein Superman crash-lands from the planet Krypton not in Smallville, USA but Russia.

As usual for an Elseworlds book all the familiar faces are gathered on the chessboard just set up in different position, eg. Lex Luthor is an indifferent snob of scientist married to Lois Lane. There's novelty value inthis to some degree.

It has moments, gives some world views that Americans are usually guarded from by their leaders and popular news services, has standard well executed art... But, and this is a mighty big but, I can't help recalling that Howard Chaykin said all this kind stuff in some squiffed way within a few issues of his old American Flagg! comic book series a decade or so back, infinitely better and in an manner that still stands up as being cutting edge were you to read it again today. Whereas, the feeling I get from Red Son is that I'm reading the Secret Alternative Life of Colossus from the X-Men.

It's a pretty wordy book for a contemporary mainstream comic book, but then it was supposedly written a while back. It is not my cup of Russian tea. Russia, and its former Soviet states was and is increasingly becoming an entirely more interesting place than the stereotype offered within this fictional work.

Superman: True Brit
By John Cleese, Kim Howard Johnson, John Byrne & Mark Farmer

I had the very special opportunity of seeing a number of these pages before they were inked and while they were rough around the edges in places there was no doubt I was looking at a craftsman doing what he does best, efficiently and without being precocious. John Byrne put all the bits and pieces were where they should be to make the damned thing work.

In fact Byrne opted for a slight cartoony feel that reminds me of those off beat adventure strips with a bit of humour that guys like Mike Western would draw in countless British anthologies much missed from back in the day. And well it should do as the book is set in Blighty with all its sunny seaside postcard joking, self-depreciation, class-consciousness campness and desire for anonymity that combines to make the people who populate this nation.

It's obviously more Johnson than Cleese but it hits some amusing home truths along the way, adds metaphors to a changing British society and, "cough", even dares to suggest the grass may be greener in America - if only because Lois Lane lives there! As a whole it is rather hit and miss but worth more of a read better than Superman: Red Son because it doesn't take itself too seriously. Even so, it is still an Elseworlds book
And it holds to many of the conventions of those types of books rather than letting rip from the mother's teat of them. Oh, it should be noted that there is a thanks to a John Hodgkins the credits, this is a typographical error and should be James Hodgkins who assisted Mark Farmer on some of the pages.

The Incredible Hulk: Return of the Monster
By Bruce Jones, John Romita Jr & Tom Palmer (Marvel/Titan)

Mr Jones stacks his Hitchcockian thriller style high in this scenario suitable for The Fugitive as the Hulk is blamed for a child's murder and becomes pubic enemy number one. As events unravel the plot gets deeper and deeper. Cool is the only word to describe this. It is so well done.

Teen Titans: Family Lost
By Geoff Johns, Mike McKone & Marlo Alquiza (DC/Titan)

Collecting Teen Titans #8-12 and an #1/2 of the recent new millennium era series. The back cover tag reads: "The Titans have never been in better hands." Well, that's not only hyperbole it's misguidedly insulting.

The Marv Wolfman and George Perez series that first appropriated the New to the series made the group book hugely successful. It brought readers totally unexpected stories with lavish art, and became a zeitgeist of the moment to counterpart Marvel's The X-Men, that in so doing not only revitalised DC across the board as a company but also made them an awful lot of money.

That historical incorrection aside, this is a damn good collection.

Some of the aforementioned Woflman/Perez created team have gathered together yet again with new kids on the block, specifically a new Wonder Girl and Kid Flash. Meanwhile, Raven's threatening a comeback but whether as enemy or friend we're unsure.

The new group have characters and old enemies like Deathstroke and a new Ravager dip in and out, while an old nemesis but in a new guise, Brother Blood, makes his pitch to wed Raven and a back-up story is revealed. The book moves briskly. It is a really good superhero adventure with a purposeful quest that's conclusion doesn't fail to deliver.

Justice League: Another Nail
By Alan Davis & Mark Farmer (DC/Titan)

Following on from the popular The Nail book wherein it was postulated what would happen in the DC universe if there were no Superman? We now have the big guy as junior partner in the JLA.

It kind of reminds me of those old stories about Superboy's training in the Legion of Superheroes and I know inker Farmer's a big fan of that stuff. It's all a race against time to prevent the late Darkseid's legacy destroying the world and beyond. It's so wrapped up in 70s concepts and derivations of storylines only an old fogey like myself could see where Alan Davis' subconscious must have gleaned some of these ideas and transformed them to work in a hell for leather more modern adventure... while younger folk can just sit back and enjoy it!

Davis's art really puts his Aparo influences through hoops to produce some really cool figures stretched out in anguish, while his Adams style is more evident in a little more panel experimentation than Davis usually cares for. Initially it's odd to see the bucksome babes Davies presents to appeal to the presumed modern reader but one becomes accustomed to it all.

Overall, it's a safe book and while there are no genuine surprises it is a superior feel good adventure in the classic manner.

Superman: Secret Identity
By Kurt Busiek & Stuart Immomen (DC/Titan)

Derived from DC Comics Presents #87 when writer Elliot S! Maggin came up with a Clark Kent for Earth Prime (the one we were supposed to live on prior to Crisis On Infinite Earths blowing it apart non-continuity freaks). Busiek takes his template; fine tunes it, adapts and adjusts, then teases a few surprises in for good measure.

The four issue mini-series that this book collects told how a Clark Kent discovered he had superpowers as a teenager and kept it a secret, for nearly all his life. It starts with an adolescent outsider dealing with his emotions and slowly chips away at that isolation as loved ones enter the picture.

What's most interesting is the only part that breaks from the traditional myth, because this Clark Kent doesn't seem particularly close to his parents.

It's slow moving, emotive occasionally if not exactly thought provoking. Sure it's just an Elseworlds/What If/Imaginary story and I think I've duly expressed my personal problems with those (good idea in principle but too often play safe and so lead to predictability). It's also a tad Marvelman like in approach albeit with the added revision of hindsight for our modern times.

Despite all this, I have to say it works. Whether it works for the young as much as it might for grouchy middle-aged warriors is another matter.

Immomen's art catches every nuance of Busiek's printed words and dances with them gracefully with understated power on the page. That it is digitally coloured from his pencils is a technical detail, the results are what count. If you find yourself restless one night stay up and read this until the sun comes up as I did, you'll feel tired but good.

The story takes some familiar routes and a couple of inevitable points develop but the journey is a good one. It doesn't strain the mind but its gets the heart pumping once in a while.

HEROES COME in all shapes and sizes. Most of them are fictional characters but they can inspire you in real life... Birch's Bark, worse than its bite?

The Speed Abater (NBM Comics Lit)
By Christophe Blain

An award-winning European book and deservedly so.

The exact time is not given but we presume this to be set in the early part of the 20th century, during the first or second world war. There are new recruits to one of the last monster sized vessels that roamed the earth in those days and they prepare to set sail and face the enemy. Who would have thought that getting seasick could cause so much trouble?

The author (and the translator?) have a wonderful ear for dialogue as the very humanity of it all comes across mundanely and joyfully in equal measures. The art, like some weird cross between Harvey Kurtzman and Popeye's Elzie Segar, evokes both easy passion and startling menace. Very readable, an easy read in fact and all the more impressive since it works on multiple levels.

James Bond 007: The Man with the Golden Gun
By Ian Fleming, Jim Lawrence & Yaroslav Horak (Titan Books)

This newspaper strip collection also includes the shorter The Living Daylights story. They are adapted from Ian Fleming's novels by Jim Lawrence who adds his own spin with near-impressionistic art by Yaroslav Horak.

First published in The Daily Express in 1966 they still hold up well being fast-paced but with some surprising cerebral connotations for Bond to figure out about his own character along the way.

Batman: The Collected Adventures: Volume 1
By Various (Titan/DC)

This collects the original Adventures issues. They're well plotted although you wish editor Scott Peterson had been a better proofreader, and some of the dialogue could have been made better in places. Fortunately, it's clearly drawn by, and then charismatically inked, by Rick Burchett.

Okay, there is the feel that we're looking at strips that could have been done in half their page count but the irony there is that you'll have a couple of silent action pages that turn out to be the best in each story. 7/10 for effort and 8/10 for something that entertains all age groups.

Trenches
By Scott Mills (Top Shelf Productions)

Designed so that you view the pages in a landscape format but more oversized than your standard newspaper strip collection. Also the pages in no way conform to that 3-4 panel set-up to punchline format but a general four panel (2 at the top, 2 at the bottom) grid, and that's not rigidly established either, but suits the loose cartooning style presented within the panels.

Set during World War I, two very different brothers from up north, in England, join up to serve king and country. Lloyd Allenby is the more timid brother, David, or Davey, the have-a-go permanently mouth-engaged one. To this set-up add Officer Jonathan Hemmingway, a professional soldier - likewise he leaves his nice home to lead his men. From thereon most of the story takes place down in the trenches of No-Man's Land in France.

Hemmingway and the Allenbys start to integrate, initially arguing, there are possible court-martials, a Queensbury Rules punch up and a poison gas attack. To anyone regularly picking up one of the eight monthly 64 page digest Commando comics, published by Scotland's DC Thomson, they might wonder what any commotion could be about and why the hefty price tag. Well, I guess the fact that it's produced by one of our cousins across the Atlantic makes it all the more intriguing.

Mills has done his research but doesn't bog us down in it. Sure it tends towards whimsy at times, but there are heartfelt moments realistically done. The Germans aren't portrayed as evil, just guys on the other side, the world waited until the second time round for a specific group known as Nazis to fit that bill.

Brotherly love, human understanding battling on in the face of adversity - no different from what your average superhero comic used to be, except in this book they wear mud on their face instead of a mask.

Superman: Adventures of the Man of Steel
By Scott McCloud, Paul Dini, Rick Burchett, Terry Austin & Brett Blevins (DC/Titan)

I guess you could describe the Dini debut story as fast-paced, introducing characters along the way and Lex Luthor as a major villain who is as much a chancer come risk-taker as a mastermind tactician and scientific genius. Truthfully, the cartoon Adventures' story editor gives us the equivalent of the opening establishing scenario before the credits roll up. There's little subplot, no subtext, superficial emotional value and little to make us return for next issue save Burchett's captivating art.

When McLoud takes over scripting it's a completely different story with all the aspects missing in Dini's story standing present and correct with some fun, twists and turns. Villains include Metallo (always naff), Brainiac (super cool design) and Livewire plus the best emotional story going to the one about Krypton.. There is depth to the stories and they are also simple entertaining adventures suitable for kids off all ages. I have to say I preferred this to the Batman one I mentioned.

But, is Luthor meant to be inferred as being gay? He's preoccupied by his appearance, his eyebrows are plucked, and there's a strange dividing line between the macho and the camp with a constant use of female bodyguards that comes across as a poor foil to avoid showing his true self? It's an odd one. Interesting, but unnecessary. Other than that Perry, Lois & Jimmy stay in the classic mould and do well by it.

Isolation And Illusion
By P Craig Russell (Dark Horse)

Subtitled Collected Short Stories 1977-1997, this book has a line somewhere that it's the first such collection of Russell's work. I thought an American book publisher who he had been doing illustration work for on books such as The Arabian Knights had bought an album-sized collection out, possibly in the late 80s, but maybe I'm mistaken. It doesn't claim as such in the list of other books available. I suspect if it did come out any long-term fans of Russell's work will have that in their collection.

Actually, I'd say most long-time admirers of his work have already got most of these strips in the irregularly published Night Cries series of yesteryear (or should that be decade now?) from Eclipse Comics, and a few rarer places. One presumes this collection is for the newer P Craig Russell fans that have come to his work via his contributions to comics like The Sandman but those older ones won't complain at having a nice new compilation.

As those older fans will tell the newer ones, Russell has been doing his fantasy shtick for quite some time, 30 years or more. But aside from that genre there are also literary adaptations and science fiction material. There is also much seriousness and despair but there is also a tip of the hat to comic humour now and again, although it doesn't always work.

Some may say Russell seeks to make comics highbrow art but if so one has to admit that his visual material reaches in that direction well. He is strong on overall page composition and design while his classic approach to figure work is ever present (although photo reference becomes a dominating effect in the more recent stories collected). His penchant for page boy hair-styled angels can begin to grate after a bit and I'm constantly reminded about the Frank Frazetta meets William Blake look that emblazoned the old Swan Song record label.

The texts are frankly too long. This is a man whose original claim to fame was as collaborator to wordy writer Don McGregor on the Killraven series in Marvel's Amazing Adventures back in the 70s, it should be noted. For the most part, that worked because of the emotional context that prevailed in McGregor's work. Here, they largely read as too verbose and do not interact with the pictures to any great capacity, leaving one unfulfilled. Comics is the magic of words and pictures interacting to become something more than either. Too often I found the choices of strips collected here too dull or too lengthy. Some beautiful images and very appealing colour when used make it something I may return to as an art book rather than a comic book.

Witchblade featuring Tomb Raider: Coda
By Various (Top Cow/Titan)

An odd mix this. Not the combination of Witchblade and Lara Croft but that their particular story team-up takes up the first half of the book and ends up abruptly presumably unfinished. The remainder of the book is taken from the regular series of Witchblade, the last page of the book also having a cliffhanger, meaning you don't know the outcome .Two stories without resolutions isn't good.

In the first story, by Charles Holland, Lara finds the Sword of Lucifer for an old wizard called The Master. His apprentice, the well-stacked Daria, gets hold of it, kills him and brings back Sir Lancelot from the dead with the promise that he can kill his old enemy, Merlin. There are some nifty interpretations of the Arthurian legends that pad out the pages, whereas Miss Croft is in and out over fewer pages either doing her Indiana Jones with boobs bit or packing her clothes for a couple of pages, before briefly teaming up with Sara Pezzini (Witchblade) and Jackie Ecatatado (The Darkness) to play cops and robbers chasing after Daria.

There must be at least another issue not collected here. Why? It's madness. It pleases fans of neither character and has got to put off the casual purchaser coming back for more (I'm big on crime fiction).

Dwayne Turner's art is what kept me along for the ride - it's like some hyper-Philippines style with the odd flourish of John Buscema in a WildStorm! mode.This stated there is the odd panel here and there that's below the standard of the others and it gets me begging some uneasy questions about artistic boredom and swiping.

The Witchblade issues have Christina Z and David Wohl nailing the Witchblade scenario in their dialogue to make it both accessible to new readers and at the same time pushes the plot along. It sees one story arc concluding and another's opening chapters begin in Pezzini's life as she is pushed out of the NYPD after defeating demonic forces to take up a position in some Black Ops set-up that in fact sets her up for what looks to be a more science fiction/potentially mainstream superhero styled scenario and ends with her about to be killed.

The Michael Turner/D-Ton art doesn't really keep my attention and dates in style and substance before my eyes.

Overall the collection is fun enough superficial action, but badly mispackaged.

Batman: Castle of the Bat
By Jack C Harris and Bo Hampton (DC/Titan)

Brother Scott and Bo Hampton were promoted as being something rather new and exciting when they first broke onto the American comics' scene. They invested some of the storytelling qualities of Will Eisner (who they had briefly studied under as apprentices) then add the world of painting to their styles. It takes a better man than me to tell the brothers' styles apart I fear.

Harris was a new latter-day editor at DC in the late 70s early 80s and also wrote, doing similar at other companies. He adhered to the regimentation of the old school of DC editing but seemed to look and appreciate new ideas if they worked. He may well have been the man who brought Brian Bolland to US comics and from thereon the whole British invasion.

Here in Castle of the Bat they bring those old traditional values to play and try to incorporate the odd new twist. It's an Elseworlds book and that too often means an imaginary Superman or Batman that goes on for too many pages.

This is a slim volume and a reworking of the story of Frankenstein and his monster with the Batman legend tagged onto it. It is suitably gothic in feel, uses the comics medium's strengths and while in conclusion it isn't the greatest comics story ever (there's tense drama intended rather than slam bang action excitement, kids) it's a well structured one with its short length working to its advantage.

Dr Thomas Wayne as the reborn monster that is Bat-Man is actually off panel more than one would expect allowing character studies to be given more time. Is that what the kids want though?

I would rather that Harris and Hampton had developed something completely of their own but this is a commercial world we live in and at the time of their creating it, the Elseworlds series wasn't quite a flogged dead horse.

Superman Exile
By Various (DC/Titan)

Collecting various Superman titles first published between 1988-89 we're in the second phase of rebirth for the character (after John Byrne had rebooted him).

Blaming himself for the unfortunate death of others Superman goes into self-imposed exile in outer space, and goes through the various points of conflict that make up Joseph Campbell's Hero of a Thousand Faces (you can picture the writers' summit with them ticking off all the relevant sections covered). In brief he becomes a slave, forced into gladiatorial combat but refusing to kill - this all ties in via flashback memories for both himself and an ancient alien called The Cleric who had visited Krypton in its dim distant past.

There are some curious comments upon the subject of (anti) cloning given by The Cleric and you wonder what the thought processes were back then in the 80s while now it's just round the door if not already in proliferation under our noses by the rich and powerful for use as spare body parts. The writers also revisit an old Superman story from the 70s where lack of sleep caused problems - that's what I don't like about reigning characters' histories: once it's done every other writer that comes along feels they have to put back the original idea, but with their own spin.

For me, space opera can be boring, especially in comics and with superheroes shoehorned into them. They used to do this with Green Lantern by sending him out into space for a year but black skies with twinkly star bits get boring after a bit. Fortunately we also intercut with Earthbound tales of Superman's friends and family as they go on about their business doing their best to live up to his credo. Well-drawn characterisations of personality are given to many - standouts being Lois whose few appearances though they are ensure her importance to the legend.

The fact that Mongul's seemingly left to fight someone else while Superman rushes back to Earth leaves an empty unfulfilled feeling - and that he returns to Earth to deal with an even bigger menace, Darkseid's Turmoil robot... only it's secretly Desaad (the real best 4th World creation Jack Kirby came up with).

Superman is Superman - an icon, good guy, symbol of truth, justice and truthfully the humanitarian way. I wish this was available in b/w and sold cheap to kids so they could pick it up but Superman stories don't really date, no matter what editors and publishers think.

HOW TO get the best use out of a dead tree... Birch's Bark continues.

Supreme: The Story of the Year
By Alan Moore & Various (CheckerBPG)

This collection found Alan Moore moving on from his 1962 concepts and the odd conceit to clear the way for his ABC line of thinking. It's the tale of Superman (in all but name) given some modern spin.

The theme is faithful to the heart of what traditionally makes a hero and yet is clothed in new technology theories (reminding us perhaps of that age-old tale of The Emperor's New Clothes and the moral implicit within it?).

Where the story fails is Moore's overused plot device of the villain of the piece always being the person you'd least expect... simply because he or she has been standing next to you through thick and thin for several hundred pages! Still we fall for it the nine times out of ten that he uses this because we get carried along with the characterisations and never look for any other would be red herrings.

Visually, Rick Veitch gives a more than decent take on pre-modern American comic art styles for the flashback scenes produced within, but, curiously, Moore's words are best complimented by the various Image/Rob Liefield styled guys on this particular book. There is a downside to this, if what I hear is true, because I understand that apart from Liefield none of the creators have received monies from this particular collection.

Bruce Wayne: Murderer?
By Various (DC/Titan)

There's an old plot creaking away in this book, The Count of Monte Christie used it to some effect, among others. Basically, Batman's alter ego of Bruce Wayne is accused of killing a former lover. Did he, didn't he? That's the game the extended Batman family have to play within this collection and they do it well enough with Nightwing (Dick Grayson, the original Robin) getting the best lines.

The Best of Ray Bradbury: The Graphic Novel
By Various (iBooks)

The contents within were first published as a mini-series from Topps, and apparently previously collected by Bantam. They were also available for viewing online as a subscription service from Stan Lee's Sunday Comics on www.Komikweks.com.

You can't fault the standard of artwork; from Richard Corben to P Craig Russell it's all top-notch stuff. And Bradbury is a world-renowned science fiction author so there's little doubt that the book should at least attract the browser's attention.

The trouble is, while there's a star team on the bench they don't deliver the goods when they're out on the field.

I think the main problem is that these adaptations follow too closely Bradbury's texts, or at least the prose part of what comics is about. They linger and seek to resonate when they should allow the pictures themselves to activate and engage. Not always, but often enough to make it a less than a cohesive whole. Strangely, having just stated that, it's the more painterly artists like Jon J Muth and John Van Fleet whose work comes off as having least pretensions towards the conventions of what constitutes real art and actually take the stories to a higher plane.

The Story of Tao: 1
By Andy Seto and Ding Kin Lau (ComicsOne.Corp)

Mixing various Eastern cultures' ideals of heroism to bring about a manga style adventure of gods walking the earth kung fu-ing each other and seeking forbidden romance on the side. It doesn't always come off, and you probably need to see yet another 100 pages of what is no doubt an epic before really getting into it, but there are some interesting enough visual moments.

King Volume 3
By Ho Che Anderson (Fantagraphics Books)

What little I had seen of Anderson's art previously made me recall the poor man's painter division that developed in America after Bill Sienkiewicz's shift in art style after once being labelled a Neal Adams clone. This is opposed to the one year in art school swipers who got work in the UK once Simon Bisley made it big, by the way.

Anderson's artwork lacked definition. It was sketchy without style. Frankly, it did not move me in any way. He either got a lot better or I wasn't looking hard enough before. I'm still not enamoured of his art but it works well in tandem with the story he's telling in this volume.

The story is indeed a very terse one, because we know the inevitable outcome that will come in the final pages. I say "we" but sadly, do the young still know who Martin Luther King was and what he achieved?

Anderson doesn't portray King as a complete saint, but a man, that's what kept my interest.

Remembrance of Things Past: Combray
By Marcel Proust, adapted by Stephane Heuet (NBM Comics Lit)

Some consider Proust brilliant, others unreadable. Having never read him apart from in this graphic novel adaptation I have to assume it's somewhere in between with some good pruning by Heuet.

Proust lived between 1871 and 1922 so his wordy descriptions reflect those times and the bourgeois society he lived in. The book is basically a man remembering events in his youth, you keep expecting them to tie in to each other but they don't. And that's irritating. However, the passages do act as an interesting barometer to the social history of the times albeit that one feels like a voyeur. It never truly engages the reader, but it has its moments. The art follows the clear line European school method but it is only functional rarely doing more than illustrate the words.

The Invisibles Book 7: The Invisible Kingdom
By Grant Morrison & Various (Vertigo-DC/Titan)

The series may well have gone on too long but Morrison brought most of the bits together to play mind games for the Mission Impossible crowd one last time so that The Prisoner in each of us could break free to politely shout "Hooray!" for a genuinely satisfying climax. The changing tour of duty for the artists in the latter part of the book actually works better for me than the first part that is predominately drawn by Phillip Bond.

FRIDAY 5th December sees the launch of a One-Day Comic at the newly opened Eastside Project, a new artist-run space as public art gallery for the city of Birmingham.

Conceived by Berlin based artist Henrik Schrat the One-Day Comic concept focuses on the short term, but intense cooperation of two artists or artist-groups. Without previous preparation, these individuals meet in the morning to develop a comic strip that is completed in one day.

Schrat has collaborated with twelve artists to create twelve comic books over the past six months. The original pages and completed comics will be presented in the main gallery at Eastisde Projects as part of an installation crossing genres from Schrat's comic world into the wild west film sets of Shezad Dawood's solo exhibition taking place in the gallery. Schrat will present large-scale drawings in the space and arrange the gallery as a whole into a reading room.

The event represents the desire to collaborate by artists around the world alongside the tendency for collaborative projects within the growing Birmingham art scene. It is a project about personal encounters, the mutual influence on creativity and an attempt to nurture unpredictability towards unique agreements.

The artists who will be involved with Shrat are Asia Alfasi, Simon and Tom Bloor, Celine Condorelli, Hans Christian Dany, Stefan Heidenreich, Reuben Henry, Karin Kihlberg, Henrik Schrat, Plastique Fantastique and Olav Westphalen. Shrat and Dawood will be giving a ticketed talk at Eastside Projects on Friday 5th and the exhibition will be available for general viewing from 6th December to the end of the year, and comics available for sale.

Eastside Projects is situated at 86 Heath Mill Lane, Digbeth, in Birmingham's city centre. For more information visit: www.eastsideprojects.org.

WELCOME TO Birch's Bark Part III as we look at some more graphic novels that are out there in your comic shops, book stores and libraries!

Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
By Mattotti & Kramsky (NBM Comics Lit)

Look for a large hard cover when browsing through your shop for this European reprint. It contains an abstract painted adaptation of the classic Robert Louise Stevenson novel, so don't expect the old films when you pick it up and leaf through its pages. It works. One word to describe it? Creepy!

Total Sell Out
By Brian Michael Bendis (Image)

A great collection of strips from hither and yon by the man who's been responsible for writing an awful lot of Marvel's best selling comics in recent years.

Bendis' mainstream action art never appealed to me before and I'm familiar with his work as early as his Caliber Press days. He seems to know the reason why that may be himself. In one of the written pieces he notes he's a poor inker. It muddied the dramatic intent of the draughtsmanship skills he was still learning back then.

His cartoon work, however, is a most pleasing graphic revelation - it sits there balanced on the page with suitable tones and lighter inking applications. His ear for dialogue is where Bendis wins you over, and there's a really good batting average of successful strips - a lot of them comedy ones, some crime stuff, and the odd slice of life too.

Coming in a standard paperback book size this b/w collection is worth picking up.

Just A Pilgrim: Garden of Eden
By Garth Ennis & Carlos Ezquerra (Black Bull Entertainment/Titan)

Ennis and Ezquerra have brought Clint Eastwood type characters to the printed pages several times before.

This is a post apocalyptic tale of the sort that ran as filler material back in the heyday of 2000AD before veering dangerously close to ripping off aspects of Ezquerra's fellow Spaniard Victor de la Fuente's Haxtur saga. It's professionally done but there's little reason to get excited about it.

Oh, and by the way, in case you think I'm harping on about how wonderful 2000AD used to be, forget it - that comic had countless great moments, but it had many a failing too. When failings can be regurgitated for the modern age and get false praise we've hit a major problem so I'm not giving this any.

Portajohnny
By Johnny Ryan (Fantagraphics)

Subtitled The Best of Angry Youth Comix the Early Years this is wicked toilet humour that I picked up courtesy of the British Library system - Thank you, fellow tax payers! Let's hope the library assistants don't put it down on the lower shelves by mistake though.

We're talking material coming from the same ballpark as early Peter Bagge (who wrote the introduction) and J.D. King. A fast, furious totally dispensable but nonetheless lowbrow funny read!

BIG BOYS, bad boys, girls without sugar but plenty of spice -Not every graphic novel is worth its listed price. Welcome to Birch's Bark Part II!

The Witching Hour
By Jeph Loeb & Chris Bachalo/Art Thibert
(DC/Titan)

Initially, this collection has no clear direction, and once the plot develops it's not that original a story I'm afraid.

A small coven of witches are allowed to play the time worn role of The Fates but on a shoe string budget in that they can give mortals the choice over which path their life can take come the stroke of midnight. A modern day all grown-up fairytale? Well, I guess that's a tagline the Vertigo imprint played to for its first ten years.

It pulls you in for Loeb's matter of fact narration that pulsates with ideas casually thrown away in its very conversational flow. I found Bachalo's art to be rather pleasing and influenced by the work of Bernie Wrightson for this book but no one else I've mentioned this to can see it - which only goes to prove how subjective anyone's opinion can be!

Transmetropolitan: Dirge
By Warren Ellis & Darick Robertson/Rodney Ramos
(DC/Titan)

Many claim this is Ellis's old Lazarus Churchyard character rebooted for the American market. I seem to recall him telling quite a tale in a short space within the pages of Blast where Lazarus first appeared. Here it takes a whole graphic novel collection of water treading (for those of us who've just dipped in for the first time) to work out that the President of the United States has set lead character Spider Jerusalem up.

We do this before the lead character, and that may be admirable for our part, but it's of little literal substance when your lead character's supposed to be some Hunter S.Thompson-styled investigative journalist.

There's a nice attitude to some of the dialogue but other than that I would hardly presume this to be one of the must-have collections from the series. If it had run in the weekly British comic 2000AD during its heyday it might have been episode 6 in an 8 part run, and only needed to have lasted 6 pages.

Hellblazer: Haunted
By Warren Ellis & John Higgins
(DC-Vertigo/Titan)

A truly gripping tale is held within these pages as John Constantine seeks the murderer of an old lover and finds black magicians at work in every nook and cranny of London's occult underbelly.

Its plot is only two steps removed from that of Transmetropolitan: Dirge but Ellis stands up to the platform and delivers the goods this time round. This is worthy to stand alongside the early Delano and Ridgway tales for evoking an undercurrent of political intrigue fostered by Old World magic.

Shonen Graphic Novel: Yu-Gi-Oh! Book 1
By Kazuki Takahashi (Viz)

Based on the top rated animation show, card collecting game, and now film, this manga collection features Yuri, a small Japanese kid fascinated by games. When he solves the Millennium Puzzle it miraculously gives him the power to get back at bullies of all shades and sizes.

I'm presuming that it was originally intended for kids around 13 years old but it's a damned sight more mature than anything their English speaking counterparts ever get (or got in my very old case) offered. There's some sheer knee-jerk stuff too so don't get the wrong impression. What I'm talking about here is Takahashi's ability to focus on teenage preoccupations and fears as the regular cast's characters develop.

The stories themselves do veer towards plot set-up similarities though. And the endings are almost consistent in that Yuri uses the Millennium Puzzle to exact his revenge against a bully. Mind you, the gruesome manner that this is undertaken brings to mind those old Michael Fleisher & Jim Aparo stories of The Spectre in DC's Adventure Comics from the 70s. In both that series' case and this book's the unique way the dastardly ends are made are worth going along on the ride for.

The Big Book of Bad
By Various (DC)

From the much overlooked Paradox Press imprint this offers a vast array of cartoonists & artists who deliver, in the main, entertaining, interesting, or both, tales on people and ideas that are considered bad. Stand out artists include Roger Langridge and Brian Buniak.

WINTER IS upon us, so what better time to stock up on graphic novels as we try to keep warm in front of the fire ... Here are a few interesting ones with a slight romantic edge.

True Story Swear to God Chances are...
By Tom Beland (AIR/Planet Lar)

Here we have an honest retelling of love refusing to accept barriers, conventions and goddamn rationality. It's about a chance trip to Disneyland by the author and how he and a Puerto Rican girl discover themselves soul mates. Simple as that, to use a phrase my own better half tells me I've been over using of late.

But sometimes simplicity wins out.

Beland's cartooning is adept enough to convey the visual emotions he needs in his art and his self-depreciating nature is kept in check by an enthusiastic conversational need to narrate that keeps this book two-steps shy from wading in too-cute a pile of sugary-sweet gooey-smulch.

This is a feel-good book, and one to pass on to the opposite sex, to show our supposedly sensitive side!

Jax Epoch and the Quick Forbidden: Borrowed Magic
By Dave Roman & John Green (AIT/Planet Lar)

This comes across like the Kim Possible cartoon series but with a fantasy edge. It also reminds me of early 80s US b/w independents, ready to take risks and have fun with the medium at the same time.

Jax is a teenage kleptomaniac with a heart-of-gold who finds herself in a Wizard of Oz meets Conspiracy Theory scenario. It's light-hearted and fun.

It's yet another book from AIR/Planet LAR I recommend. Females, kids and even grumpy old guys could dig this!

The Summer of Love
By Debbie Drechsler (Drawn & Quarterly)

A book that uses green and brown spot colour throughout so that it looks like it was dropped in a pool of murky mud is an odd choice at best. If its colours are intended to subliminally draw the reader deeper into the woodlands where some of the most important acts of the story take place I can see the point, but it doesn't work for me. You've then got Drechsler's art style to consider. It resembles Julie Doucet (who Drawn & Quarterly used to publish) but going a more traditional storytelling route.

For those of you left that I haven't put off checking out The Summer of Love when you look at the actual comic book pages and get into the flow of it all this is in fact a sprightly and quite compelling read.

A family moves to a new town and the two eldest daughters begin their individual exploration of adolescence, each in their own way disturbed by the confusing signals we each send out in regards to sexual attraction. This too can be seen in the metaphor of the woodlands with worldly phrases like "Be careful you don't get lost" and "Can't see the wood for the trees" coming to mind, alongside the more primal mythological symbolism of woodlands as being fertile like women.

Ho, hum, ultimately none of that really matters. The lasting impression is that it is a moving piece of work. Whether this is more from the hindsight of my own adulthood I can't say and, I wonder, if there is a target audience for this book, who that might actually be? Predominantly females? Younger girls? Regardless, I'm content to go against any such demographics as a reader.

The Blue Notebook
By Andre Juillard (NBM Comics Lit)

Two guys when passing by on a train spot a girl in her apartment getting out of a shower. Independently they both find out who she is and date her.

Yes, this is a European album, and some come to that with preconceptions. I agree that its initial impression is that it's all a bit sad because of the voyeuristic qualities but, frankly, it does this in an understated manner and there is an effectively ambiguous twist near the end.

The Blue Notebook is totally mainstream in its appeal, rarely pampering to any pornographic whims despite nudity. While Juillard's art does not attain the standards of a Milo Manara it is good, and he obviously enjoys the female form other than for just its sexual aspects, and is able to use this to service the stories needs. His positioning of a subtle shift to the leg between panels to demonstrate movement is highly effective and lingers in this reader's mind.

Even at 62 pages this doesn't take long to read. Importantly it was a satisfying read, but I can't give anymore of the plot away than I have. You will have to read it for yourself. Mature readers should do so.

Tiny Giants
By Nate Powell (Soft Skull Press)

An interesting collection, but possibly less so for its various vignettes about growing up and more for how a collection, by a presumably small publisher and a basically unknown creator, arrives in a British public library.

Powell's art resemble early Sam Kieth (who supplies an introduction) with the odd splattering of Bill Sienkiewicz but ultimately the stories, while aiming for meaningful angst, never quite fulfil their potential for me.

Pop Gun War
By Farel Dalrymple (Dark Horse Comics)

My first impressions were that the creator has similar influences to Nate Powell, He may have, but he's more focussed in his delivery of story and art.

Pop Gun War comes on like a tale of adult surrealism, but really it's just a feel-good collection of fairy stories set in a dirty American city. It's not exactly my cup of tea (I prefer coffee) but I can see its appeal to others.

Illegal Alien
By James Robinson & Phil Elliott (Dark Horse)

Feast your eyes on a short paperback sized b/w travelogue of the paranoid 50s becoming the swinging 60s with old Ealing movie sets and mob connections moving in and out of the picture as backdrops.

An alien has landed on Earth and he's hiding in a dead gangster's body. He changes the lives of those who knew and previously despised this character, not least a nephew.

It's a coming of age book, simply told, with blanks there for the reader to fill in (possibly a little bit due to the inexperience of Robinson at the time as much as the style of the book? And if so we should all regain such innocence). There are some awkward angles that Elliott doesn't always get right in his art, and it's not his best work but he delivers the story effectively enough.

Much as I deride the idea that any half-decent comic book ought to get mutilated into a Hollywood movie, I wouldn't mind seeing Illegal Alien as a short British TV serial or even adapted into a theatrical production as we've got the character actors over here who could pull it off.