Human Target: Strike Zones
Writer: Peter Milligan
Artist: Javier Pulido
DC Comics/Vertigo 198 pages $9.99

Christopher Chance is the world's greatest impersonator, who makes his living by taking on the lives of those in trouble until he can get them out of it.

The first story in this collection apparently deals with the ramifications of a past story, where Chance's job didn't go well. Not having read the prior story, I'm not entirely sure of its exact details. Yet apparently while pretending to be a movie director whose son was kidnapped, things went wrong and everyone involved was killed or badly burned.

While not being able to grasp all of the conflicts, the main one about the sense of identity was clearly on display. By the nature of his job Chance has to lose himself into his role, and this time he'd gone too far and it led to a split of his mind.

When he finally comes to himself he must deal with the ramifications, but is still left with the uncertainness of who he really is and whether what he feels is real or not.

Following up on this is so far the only storyline involving the events of 9/11 that doesn't seem exploitive. As Chance takes on the role of a man who faked his death during the event, and is now trying to take on those in power who caused him to take such a drastic measure.

Then to end the volume has Chance taking on the role of a pro baseball player, dealing with the steroid problem that seems ripped straight out of sports headlines. I thought this was the weaker of the three given its rather bland straight ahead storyline, that played only token care to there being other choices.

Still the overall series is very intriguing. The action and violence is well done and made consequential but not the overblown "Importance" that other lesser talents use in attempts to shock the reader.

The art tells the story well for the most part, the action scenes flow well and facial expressions are very strongly done. If I had a quibble with it, it's that during the most emotional impacting moments it tends to pull back too far. This could be by writer design though, but for me it leaves me feeling too distant.

The key element of the series I like though is the exploration of the nature of identity. This series is more direct about it by having Chance's job being about being different people. Yet it is something all can understand, as every one of us has different faces we show people. How we are to friends is different than how we are to family and both can be different to how we are at work.

Through Chance's exploration of who he truly is, we too as readers can examine ourselves to try and determine who we truly are.

Quick takes on two comics I picked up last night.


Captain America #29

I was really looking forward to Robert Kirkman's run on this series, as he's done such wonderful work on his own series for Image Comics. The idea that he was taking the character and series back to its superhero roots, after its last few years of dealing with political intrigue. Was a strong draw for a reader like myself, who cut his teeth on the Mark Gruenwald Cap stories of the 80s.

So I was very disappointed by the results of this issue, which was so by the numbers that it was dull and boring. Cap as a wise cracker, at least as scripted here, just seemed very out of character. Plus the story had no heart or tension, the big reveals lacked any bite because they were not setup enough.

The book was just too simple, and felt like I was being "talked down to" through out the story. Which makes me wonder if perhaps I've just outgrown the simple superhero genre?



The Technopriests Vol. 1

I was looking for something really different to try, and since this is the first of the DC/Humanoids joint publishing I'd seen I decided it would be what I would experiment with.

I must make an important note to myself here, though it is one others should strive to do as well. Look through the first few pages of anything new before you buy it.

If I had done so here I would not have bought this book, as on its first few pages are the graphic gang rape of a young woman by over 50 men. Then the extremely graphic depiction of birth of three monstrous looking babies.

It takes a lot for me to put down a book unfinished, but those opening four pages was enough for me. Perhaps I'll come back to give it another shot. Yet my initial impression of "ugh disgusting" is still strong enough for me to not want to see what happens next.

Wow

I've never been a real Grant Morrison supporter, I thought his JLA run was overblown and didn't like his run on X-Men at all. Yet this quote by him in an interview at Newsarama just made me go wow:

The current vogue in superhero comics, post- Hush is for the 'definitive' take, which tends to manifest itself as creators playing it safe by cherry-picking and re-packaging all the best and most popular elements of an already successful feature. It's a commercial strip-mining kind of approach to a given property that seems to make a lot of sense until you realize it can really only work once before you find yourself in the awful position of having to make up stuff again. Seven Soldiers is an attempt to clear some new ground and make stories for people who want something a little different from 'greatest hits' reworkings of books they've already read.


This was a problem I myself had been seeing in superhero comics for a long time, and is likely why I've lost so much interest in the majority of it. Yet to see it written so clearly and concisely by someone in the industry is great. It gives me hope that things can get better, and makes me want to throw my support behind Morrison's next project. Which is a very interesting sounding new take on the 7 Soldiers of Victory.

Sabrina's Manga Makeover

I've never had any interest in Archie's Sabrina comic. While similar in style of story telling to the other books by the company. Its rather simplistic focus on more fantasy elements didn't hold my interest.

Yes Archie, Betty, and Veronica stories can be simplistic at times, yet at their heart they are teen drama stories that I could understand and relate to. Sabrina's life just seemed too weird for me to have that same level of connection, given that on any page any type of magical solution could be just whipped up.

So when I heard the series was getting a manga makeover, I shrugged even given my love of those type of comics. Because I'd seen what American comic companies like DC and Marvel thought manga meant -- big eyes, spiked hair, and panty shots--- and thought that was silly.

Yet when I saw the first issue I decided to give it a try just for the heck of it. I'm really glad I did too!

One of the things that made the series bland to me was that its art style was the Archie house style, with closed panels and a typical figure work that just seemed dull. The manga style Tania Del Rio brings, provides such a fresh, more open style that sets it apart and brings the magical stuff to life in a way not seen before.

The writing seems much sharper as well, Sabrina and her world seems more well rounded and the love triangle established in the first issue already has my interest as much as the Archie/Betty/Veronica one ever did.

I'm not sure what to make of the night charm school stuff yet though, as it at times strikes me as being too much in the vein of Harry Potter. I guess by the basic concept that the similarities are unavoidable, yet I wonder if there aren't ways to cut those down as much as possible. Though given its popularity, such similarities might be something to purposefully strive for.

One of the big changes, is that for the most part Archie's series of comics are more like their comic strip cousins in being short self contained stories. Yet here the stories are all issue length, and has some plotline carryover from issue to issue.

Will this take be popular, and perhaps change things for the other Archie books? Only time will tell, but I do know that I am enjoying it so far.

Sgt. Frog Vol. 2 & 3
by Mine Yoshizaki
Tokyopop


This hysterical sci-fi comedy series featuring a group of frog like alien invaders, who are taken in by Japanese families continues. This series offers hijinxs galore as the aliens try and learn more about the world they are stuck on. Yet also offers some surprisingly indepth insights when the aliens offer advice or commentary on the world that takes an outsider's viewpoint.

In book two for instance, one of the families is doing a cleaning of the house in order to get things in better order. The young boy is hesitant to part with his library of books, so Kero (the lead frog) intervenes with a startling insight.

Informing the lad that reading is the experience of new ideas and stories, not the actual books themselves. Offering that while it is okay to want to keep close favorites, one must be on guard to not let it get to a point where you become hesitant to try new books. Because one should never close themselves out of new stories and ideas because that way leads to nonthinking.

Sounds like something the American comic industry could learn, with its over dependence on old stories and characters for its business. Which has led to a lack of acceptance or even openness for new ideas and characters.

While that is something deep, the main appeal of the series is its fun approach. Mainly because it doesn't take itself too seriously, something which just so rarely happens in comics these days.

Such as the take in Vol.3 on the idea of kids becoming magically adults and vice versa. As one of the aliens invents a weapon that can age or deage a human. The mother is turned into a kid and goes to school for a day, while one of the kids is turned into an adult and takes everyone to a beach.

These type of stories are always fun and interesting, because they show the viewpoints of life from two different takes. And allow for exploration into the idea that the grass isn't always greener on the other side. Plus they are just fun too!;)

This series is just pure goofy fun, in ways similar to the classic Loony Tunes cartoons if filtered through a more modern lens.

Infinity Inc.

So much of today's JSA series is based on this series, that I really looked forward to trying it in order to perhaps get some of the references that writer Geoff Johns throws out in it. And in part it was nice to see just who Hector Hall was, and some of the other bits and pieces helped fill in some gaps.

I actually really enjoyed the early issues of this especially, because it was such a dynamic idea to have this entirely new generation of heroes having to deal with moving out of their parents shadows. The fact that these characters grew up and lived the lives of kids together and separately at the feet of the greats like Wonder Woman, Batman and the like, just added a real dimenion of fun.

What was it like to date Wonder Woman's daughter, who can tell if you're lying or not? What happens when instead of borrowing your dad's car for a night out, you swipe the invisible plane? Or when a simple game of baseball turns into a super villain plot?

Too bad Crisis pretty much killed the series, though its corpse would continue for a year or more afterwards. On one hand it was interesting to see how a shift in a company's directional policy could cause such havoc in one series. Crisis just made most of the heart of these stories null and void, and the attempts at fixing things didn't work at all.

Mainly because the origins went too far afield, and lost the heart of what made the characters so great. Lyta Trevor as the daughter of Wonder Woman is a fascinating character, that has plenty of potential. When her origin has to change to make her from some other island it just seems rather pointless.

It comes more off like lying to the reader saying "see this is the same character, but her origin is completely different" which could still have worked if you just stated that outright and moved on. Except Thomas continued to poke and prod at it, like a bad scab.

I was glad to finally come to the last issue, because it became unreadable very quickly. With pointless deaths, depowerment of usually the few female characters who had a personality. (Jonni Thunder) Which huh sort of reminds me of today's JSA series.

Flowers & Bees Vol. 3
by Moyoco Anno
Viz 216 pgs $9.95

This is my real guilty pleasure manga series, that follows a cast of characters who are way too obsessed with their looks and sex, but do so in ways I find extremely funny and interesting. Most of the stories center around Komatsu, a hapless virgin who in an effort to attract the opposite sex finds himself in a male beauty salon.

There two equally sex obsessed women known as Kiyoko and Harumi, who enjoy torturing him ruthlessly as they improve his looks. Despite the treatment, he actually does see an improvement in how others treat him because he has improved his style.

Which is a rather interesting take, as far too often in stories of this type the point goes back to "if people are going to like you, they'll like you for who you are not how you look. " Which is a nice dream, but in reality it doesn't quite work that well usually.

I actually appreciated the idea that a guy should pay attention to how he looks. All too often in stories, female characters are the only ones portrayed as being obsessed by clothes and the like. Yet I've known quite a few guys, including myself at times, who appreciate certain looks in shirts, hair style and the like. Yet that seems to be a "no no" in comics, which leaves me wondering "What's wrong with a guy wanting to look and dress nice?"

In this volume Komatsu enters a nationwide idol type contest, in order to try to beat out his best friend and rival Yamada. Yet when he becomes distracted by a beautiful print shop clerk, who he eventually loses his virginity to. Yamada takes the opportunity to steal Kiyoko and Harumi's help away from him, in order to better his chances in the contest.

This volume's approach to sex was very mature in it's rather immaturity. Building up to it Komatsu's idea of sex was this grand life changing event, yet when he achieves it he's unable to rationalize the experience. The story doesn't demean the wonderful feeling the act can bring, but also doesn't make a fairy tale type like "now everything's changed" approach either which I found a very realistic type approach.

This is just a fun little series, that's oddballness can be sort of eye twirling at times, but I think has a good heart at its center and has me wanting to read more with the end of each volume.

New Comic Blog

Join me in welcoming Heidi Meeley, a reviewer for 4 Color Review, to the comic blogosphere.

She has started her own blog called Comics Fairplay covering comics and pop culture items. She's a clever writer, and is off to a good start with interesting commentary of her comic purchases of the past week.

So check it out!

Covering the San Diego Comic Con Coverage

I can't be at SD, too expensive for me, but I've enjoyed following the coverage from the various websites and so wanted to list the things that interest me most along with commentary.

From the DCU Panel, as reported by Newsarama

Joe Kelly and Ariel Olivetti(with Alex Ross Covers) are doing a serious take on Space Ghost, with a 6 issue miniseries that tells his origin. I'm not entirely sure what to make of this, I was a big fan of the original cartoon as a kid, but like the rather bufoonish take on the character in Coast to Coast as well.

The most interesting news of the piece though was this from Bob Wayne:

Starting in 2005, DC will begin its own ambitious reprint project, Batman Chronicles, a trade paperback collection which will reprint every Batman story ever printed in chronological order, starting with Detective Comics #27, and including stories from Batman, World's Finest Comics and everywhere else that Batman appeared. During he question and answer period, Wayne said that the idea behind the Chronicles is to keep them as a line of relatively inexpensive softcovers.

To say this is ambitious is a HUGE understatement, given that Batman is the one DC character who has appeared every month since his inception. What does this mean for the Archives though? For years fans have been saying how they wish DC would release trades of this material rather than the rather expensive HCs.

Is this a test of the waters, or just a special deal for the popular characters such as Batman?

In other news, Devil's Due is launching a new line of superhero books. Which at first I rolled my eyes at because "gee just what comics need, more comics with people in tights."

Yet this pic and info has me curious:

Blade of Kumori: (Written by Ron Marz and illustrated by Dub of Grafiksismik Studio) In the mid 19th century, the samurai disappeared forever from the face of the world. Or did they? This book focuses on Kumori, a young woman carrying on the traditions of her family's samurai clan in the modern world, while discovering some incredible things about herself. Think Kurosawa meets Bond.

Sounds very interesting to me, the lead is sexy looking but not in the "huge breasts and no clothing" way that too often happens in comics with female leads.

I was also glad to hear this bit of info from the publisher about their approach to storytelling:
There's no decompressed storytelling here - it's a new universe, and we need people to know what these characters are about with the first issue, because we might not get a second chance. You'll wait ten issues for a new Fantastic Four origin, because you already know the old one, and you already love those characters, but with an Aftermath book, you want to know who this badass looking guy on the cover is by the time you're done reading that single issue.

That's a very key point because at most you only get the one issue from most fans. There are so many comic publishers and different kinds of comics to read, that if you can't grab that reader the first time then you've probably lost them forever.

This isn't writer Ron Marz's only dealings with samurais in the upcoming year though. According to The Pulse he has a new series called Samurai: Heaven and Hell from Dark Horse Comics due in December. With his current Green Lantern artist Luke Ross doing the art chores.

I've heard from sources that this series will have a preview in the MORE FUND COMICS book that will be available at Baltimore Con.

Apparently Alan Moore's daughter Leah, is launching a comic writing career as well. With a new series from Wildstorm called Wild Girl. I wonder if this is the first time a comic creator's daughter or kid in general has followed their parents footsteps?

ICV2 Announces Electric Girl going to Cartoon Network - I've seen other similar announcements that didn't pan out, but I hope this awesome comic property can become an animated hit show. If you want further info on this series, please check out Johanna's page dedicated to it.

Sounds like a great time was had by all. I hope to make it to the show at some point in my life, but it is fun to read the coverage from those who are there.

Astonishing X-Men #2
Writer: Joss Whedon
Artist: John Cassaday


Isn't that just an amazing looking cover? I'm not one to buy pamphlet comics, that's why this review is so late given that I only just found it on the newsstand at my local book chain store. Yet even if Joss (Buffy:TVS) Whedon wasn't writing this book, I think the cover alone would make me at least look through it. It is very striking, and actually is a metaphor for what happens in the story.

The plot itself, a doctor has come up with what appears to be a way to cure mutants and the main team trying to find a new way by taking an old path. Aren't anything new or that inventive from a plot standpoint.

Yet that's okay as Whedon isn't out to reinvent the wheel here, a trap I think too many new to comic writers all into. His story while not anything revolutionary, is compelling because he puts interesting twists on them.

I've seen stories before about someone thinking they found a cure for the mutant gene, yet none that seem to offer this personal of a response from everyone. Usually in the past such stories focused on one or two mutants, who just wanted to look normal

Here there is that element of course, but there is the reaction by some of being labeled a disease. Which though only a short piece in the comic so far, caused an interesting thought process. Because it caused me to wonder, what if there was a drug or process that made everyone "normal" or like most everyone else?

That would be a scary thought, if the mob rule of normalcy had the power to shift people they feel are different around to their way of thinking or life. Imagine if you are just an extremely smart person, which intimidates many of those around you. Or perhaps like where I live aren't into the "outdoor life" (hunting, camping etc.) which makes me a bit of an oddball.

If such a thing was possible, I wonder whether others might consider trying to make me more their sense of normal. For my own good, and so I would fit in of course. Which just puts an entirely different spin on the whole mutant oppression thing, that I had never really thought of before.

A good element to Whedon's run, is that I haven't read more than an issue or two here and there of any X-Men book in probably over a decade. Yet so far Whedon has managed to use the history in such a way that it in intriguing to me, like wondering if the animosity between Emma and Kitty is something with history. Or perhaps if this is something Whedon himself invented this because the characters are such mirror images of each other.

Whichever it is it works quite well and puts a very interesting dynamic into the mix.

One thing that I found myself doing when reading this, was to try to equate the characters to Whedon's Buffy tv series characters. Which on one level is kind of fun, and even easily doable in this instance. With Cyclops= Giles, Kitty=Willow, Wolverine=Buffy, Anya=Emma, and Beast=Xander being easy touchstones.

Yet that's not really fair to Joss as a writer, thinking he can only write certain character types, and not really fair to myself as a reader. Mainly because if I pay more attention to what I think those characters would be like in relation to that, I don't allow them to be like they truly are displayed.

Cassaday's art is quite attractive, with very defined looks for each character and has created a vibrant world. His scene breakdowns could use some work, especially in the action scenes which are stiff and very stagnant. Still his use of facial expressions and body language are high above what I see in 90% of mainstream artists.

I still find myself very surprised to be reading an X-book, even more so one in the monthly pamphlet format which I thought I'd sworn off. Yet each month I feel the need to get it, rather than wait for the trade, because there is an anxiousness to see what happens next. Something I haven't felt in a very long time.

The Darkness #10-12

I don't read that many books in pamphlet form anymore. I just don't have a lot of free time for reading and when I do I'd rather read a complete volume, or at least a more substantial amount of material that GNs/trades provide.

Yet I received a number of them in the mail recently, and will be spending the next few days covering them. First up are three issues of Top Cow's The Darkness series.

I have never really followed Top Cow books, because for the most part they seem to only concentrate on the "boobs and blood" genre of comics. Which I'd always thought of as being fairly immature and uninteresting.

So imagine my surprise when I receive these 3 issues in the mail, and see they are written by Ron Marz, whose prior work I've liked a fair amount of.

Marz does a nice job of summarizing the basics of the series for readers like myself who don't know anything about it. It apparently follows the leader of a Mafia gang, who is able to tap into some alternate dimension filled with demons he can control. When attempts at peace with a rival gang falls through, he decides to kill every member of it.

This is a bit of a departure for Ron, known mainly for his work on Green Lantern and at CrossGen, where the definitions of hero and villains were clearly defined. Here things aren't black or white, just lesser shades of evil, as bad people do bad things to other bad people.

This little run could have really hooked me, given that the dialogue is crisp and it is quite different from what I usually read. Yet as with all TC books, it follows the "house style" that all of their series do, with big chests on women and just a slickness to the inks that looks messy.

It does TC no good to try to be diverse in terms of the writers it hires, if they don't also make some attempt to make the looks of their books different as well.

Sue's Fate After IC

Don't like what's happened to Sue in the Identity Crisis series? I've come up with a "great" way to make lemonade out of this lemon.

How many readers out there read DC's Resurrection Man series? The series followed a guy who died at least once in nearly every issue of his series, returning each time with a new power.

Sue can be brought back with the same power and modus operandi, and be known as "The Victim!" It'll be a huge hit, with a female character you can kill off multiple times in each issue for years!

After all deaths and degradation of female characters is a staple of the superhero comic industry apparently. As it seems that the only way some writers are able to add pathos or meaning to their story, is to do something to the women in the book.

She can in turn team up with the other female superheroes who have garnered similar treatment over the years. Katma Tui, Donna Troy, Hypolyita, Supergirl, Fury, Aquagirl, and Monstress to form Dead Grrls Are Us!

Join me now is supporting what I'm sure will be a surefire hit!

Imadoki Vol. 1
Written and drawn by Yu Watase
VIZ June 2, 2004
$9.95 208 Pages

Imadoki which according to the creator translates to "Nowadays" or means to her "The Present is the most precious time" marks a departure for the creator. Known mainly for sf and fantasy series like Ceres: Celestial Legend this series instead offers a straight forward story about life for a young teenage girl starting off at a new high school in Tokyo.

Tanpopo, which also means dandelion and is a good description of her character, is a high energy teen girl from a small town. She loved where she was, but felt the need to test herself in the big city's high school world.

When sneaking into her high school a day early to see what it is like, she literally crashes into a young male who is also a student there. After some initial consternation they commiserate over a flower the boy is planting, making Tanpopo happy that she has finally found a friend.

Or so she thinks at least, until the next day when the boy and the rest of the school completely snub her. It turns out that the boy is Koki Kugyo, whose family has bank rolled the school and thus is worshipped by his fellow students and the faculty.

Tanpopo's attempts at friendship with him causes her no end to trouble, from both him and his "friends", who see her as bothering him.

His only dealings with people, is with those wanting something from him. So his idea of friendship is only in terms of what others can do for him. Given Tanpopop's lack of money or influential family connections, he sees no reason to be friends with her. Because he doesn't think there is anything she can offer him.

I've had dealings with people like that before, who only think in terms of what others can do for them. Seeing such an honest and direct take on it was interesting.

It was also interesting to see that Tanpopo doesn't just accept this, and go away. She sees something in him that she wants to get to know. So she sets out to prove herself to him, not to change him or lesson herself, but to show him that she too is worthy of being known.

This is an interesting take on the concept of friendship that you don't see too often in comics. Rather than the usual take of "I'll teach him/her to be a better person." It accepts that people are different, and that if you see something in someone else that you think is worth getting to know you must accept their (as you perceive them) faults as well as those things you like about them.

Which makes this manga something to learn from, as well as a fun read that I look forward to seeing more of.

Comic book friends are hard to find

This is sort of a personal, more diaryish entry today, done more to help me sort my thoughts rather than offer criticism. It is about the wonder I had of finding a friend whose comic tastes matched mine, and opened up new doors in comics that I never knew existed.

I live in a very rural area, and comic books just aren't a very big deal here. I loved them, but found trying to find someone to talk comics with very hard.

I tried at the comic shops at first, yet the fans in this area only seemed interested in the corporate X-titles type books or the very odd blood and boobs books like Lady Death and the like. Which I've never had a huge amount of interest in.

When I got online I was thrilled to see so many forums dedicated to comics, yet still found myself a little apart at first. Many of the places had their own little communities of which it was hard to become accepted into.

Or they were filled with fans who just sort of bothered me because of their oddness of behavior.

The DC Message boards are prime examples of this, be it the ones afraid of change to the point that anything new and anyone supportive of it are hammered. Or just the mindless, sexists, bigots, who have no clue as to how to deal with other people. It just made for an unpleasant place to visit and chat about comics with.

There are good folks there, but they get drowned out by the loudmouths who the moderators let run free. Plus even the good ones still mainly use made up screen names.

I've always had a problem talking with people who use screen names rather than their own names to discuss things. It just creates a detachment that for some reason or another makes it hard for me to take them seriously.

Still one day I lucked out and found a friend who I just clicked with. We seemed to like many of the same comics, shared similar views on the problems we saw and just seemed to really get along well.

It was just amazing to find someone who matched me in a medium where I always felt like an outsider. After all, I wasn't a long time reader so didn't like or know a lot about the heavy continuity or all time greats books that so many readers have a history with.

I also always found that most of the really popular books like X-Men or Spawn to be really poor works. Yet when I would see how well they sold, I thought something must just be wrong with me or my tastes. Having a friend who felt the same way made things okay though, just to know that I wasn't alone in what I liked or didn't was a good feeling.

Through my friend I got suggestions on things to try, many of which were these odd b&w small press comics which I had never heard of before. Which just amazed me because they offered content that I had never expected to see in comic book form. It was like someone turning on a light in a dark room, and opened my eyes to a whole new world.

For years it was great to have someone to chat with, get/make suggestions from/to, trade stuff with and just know what I was talking about no matter the topic. I would make other friends who were into comics as well, but none that just clicked in such a similar way.

Unfortunately in recent months, my friend's time to talk with me has lessoned to the point where it is almost nonexistent. Which while I understand completely, is sort of hard to deal with because this friendship helped opened so many doors for me. I probably wouldn't even still be interested in comics without this friendship.

Yet I'm trying to move forward, and while I hope to not lose my friend from my life completely, am trying to find things that while won't replace that level of friendship can offer similar things. Looking on the various forums I've only found two places that I really enjoy though.

One is the Usenet, Rec.arts.comics sections, where the fans tend to go by their real names and the discussion of industry topics is strong. The other is the The Grotesque Rampage Forum which is run by John Jakala. It offers a great bunch of people, it isn't a huge group but the participants are all very interesting and fun to know.

Which in the end is a good thing, because when I first got online I was mainly looking for interesting comic discussion with intelligent people.

Finals?

Does anyone know if this wonderful Vertigo series by Wil Pfeifer and Jill Thompson, taking a harsh but funny look at college life was ever collected? I found an issue of it tonight at the bottom of a box, and had a burning need to want to reread it again.

Princess AI Vol. 1
Created by Courtney Love and D.J. Milky
Written by Misaho Kujiradou and D.J. Milky
Illustrated by Misaho Kujiradou
Tokyopop July 1, 2004
$9.95 160 Pages


It's always good to see a book try and be ambitious, given how many books stay too close to typical formula, which this one certainly strives hard to counter. Yet there is a such a thing as trying too hard to be everything for everyone, because usually you wind up with a muddled mess that is nothing to everybody.

The story follows Ai, a princess of sorts from another planet or dimension who finds herself on our world with little idea how she got there, and only the vaguest notion of who or what she is. After some initial confusion she finds herself a friend in a librarian, would be singer as she tries to sort out what to do.

The story tries to do too many things, and winds up giving mixed messages from page to page. Ai is shown at times as a stranger in a strange land, and we are supposed to feel her trying to adapt. Which would be interesting, except that in other places she's shown as very worldly and able to fit in with little problem.

She's shown at times as very shy and wary of attention, yet on the next page she's ripping up her dress in order to go on stage and sing some really bad lyrics.

Still if the book would have only settled on a theme and dealt with it rather than skip around. It likely would have still have been at least a decent read. Yet at times the book seems to be a "finding yourself in the world down to Earth epic",other times a "behind the scnes look at music and the spiteful world of backstage politics thriller", to a "sci-fi/fantasy epic" involving aliens, wings and the like.

Leaving me unable to really care about what was going on, because not enough attention was paid to any one part to make it matter.

The most interesting thing in the book, were the brief bio pages on the people behind the book. Given that of the three, I'd only heard of Courtney Love and wasn't that familiar with her. This book as a sort of vehicle for her is getting a lot of attention, yet doesn't move me to want to try more.

Stop Caring?

One of things I've been contemplating over the last few weeks is the notion of caring. People caring about other people is one thing, though only works well if the people you care for do the same for you. Which as I've been coming to know, isn't something easy to figure out some days.

Yet another type of caring I've seen can be about fictional characters, and I've begun wondering how wise that is.

When you care about something or someone, that gives them or it a certain level of power over you. Rather than doing things that might suit you best, you put the interests of the person or thing above what you may initially want at least.

This is fine with people, again as long as they care for you in return as well, yet when you take that over to entertainment like comic characters I have to wonder if that is a good thing.

Yes it can be fun and easy at times if a character strikes a personal chord with you, to look forward to reading their adventures. You come to feel as if they are a friends to you, who you enjoy visiting every month. Living vicariously through their highs and lows.

Yet I often wonder if that doesn't leave you open to taking a certain fall. One of the most common things is that no matter the character, there will come a time when the writing on the book will be subpar. Yet if you care about the character, you'll often find yourself continuing to buy it out of some sense of loyalty.

Without that level of involvement a reader might focus more on the things that make them happy. Where if the started gravitating to the stories they like, rather than focusing on who stars in them, they would enjoy comics more.

Yet too often in the current industry you don't see that. Whether it is the readers or the creators, there seems to be more importance on who the characters are, rather than what or how the stories are done.

I'm back!

So what have I been doing while under the doctor's orders to just take things easy and relax? Reading those great novels in history, that I've always meant to read? No. Watching some of the greatest movies of all time? No.

I've been reading comics, or more specifically manga! Here are some quick opinions, on what I've read over the past week. I'll go into further detail on many of them later but just had to share these quick takes.

SGT. FROG #1 - I honestly didn't think much of this title when I first saw it in stores. The idea of a member of a frog like race trying to invade the Earth, only to be caught and forced to live with a family of humans. It struck me a bit too close to the TV show Alf for my tastes, and just a dumb idea in general.

Yet when I saw people whose tastes I trust -- Yes John Jakala I'm thinking of you!-- praising the series I was surprised. Yet I didn't know whether it would be for me so was hesitant to try it.

Yet I'm glad I did as its mixture of humor and strange science fiction twists has me hooked. The situations these wacky characters find themselves in every story just gets more preposterus each time. Making me hardly able to wait to see what happens next in volume 2, because if the zaniness level increases I may laugh myself to death.

HIKARU no GO #1 - Yet another title I didn't expect a lot out of, because it seemed to focus on a game I'd never heard of before. Which I thought would mean that I'd be lost when I read it, and would have no sense of what was going on.

Yet the way they include the game in the book works out well, what I need explained is, and actually made me interested in the game itself. The focus of the book being about the differences between ages and interest is the driving force though.

Hikaru is a likable enough lead, who I could feel for in being sort of pressured into doing things by others that he may not necessarily be interested in. Yet when he tries it starts to garner a better appreciation for some of it. Something I've often felt as well, with friends pressuring me to try things that I may not necessarily be inclined to.

The ghost who drives Hikaru to play the game Go is an interesting character, that was made more interesting by how I got to look at it in two different ways. When I first read it the character seemed to clearly be female. Just the way the character was drawn, behaved and sounded in my head screamed feminine to me.

So it was with great surprise when I read reviews like this one that pointed out differently. Which led me to going back and reading the book again, seeing things in a very different light then before.

THE KINDAICHI CASE FILES: DEATH TV - Whew I'd forgotten how great it was to read a good mystery, one that keeps you guessing to the identity of the culprit to the last chapter. There just aren't very many such comics like this, but the KINDAICHI books always meet my need for them really well.

This one isn't quite on the level of the previous two volumes, but it still a very intriguing case. I wonder at times at the rating on it, since some of it seems more violent and racier than I expect for 13 year olds.

Yet it doesn't pander or go for the easy shock, everything has an importance and level of realism that keeps things even keel.

I've also begun to watch the Wonder Woman Season One DVD set which I received for my birthday. I've only watched the pilot and first episode so far, yet while it is fun, I also get this odd "so this is where Baywatch came from" feel about it in places.

Especially during the scenes where they have the classic Baywatch bouncy trot, years before those infamous lifeguards hit the beach. Still a fun show, that while a very keen example of its time and place also offers enough enjoyment for my cynical nature.

On "hiatus"

Not sure how long the blog might be down for, could even be for one day. I've been having some health problems the last couple of weeks, lack of appetite and other factors. Plus other things that have been going on longer than that which I sort of ignored.

Things finally came to head this morning when I fainted at work. So I went to the doctor where I was put on an IV for a few hours. Ran tests and I'm waiting on the results now, could be problems with my thyroid of which there is a family history or just sheer exhaustion from some upheavals of the past two weeks in my personal life.

I'm not really caring that much about comics these days anyway. I'm reading some manga, and hope to get around to covering them. Yet I look at everything else and am wowed by my lack of interest. I can't recall a time when I've been so disinterested in everything by DC, Marvel, the Indies etc have to offer.

I am watching a lot of movies though. I'm fast approaching the end of my nearly three month experience of watching all of my Buffy The Vampire Slayer DVD seasons. Watching one episode a night has given me such a familiarity with the characters and storylines, which I didn't have when I watched them live.

I've also started watching the first season of the Dead Like Me TV show. A very different show, that continues to surprise me so far. I heard it was going to start coming on the Sci-Fi Channel soon, which will hopefully increase its exposure. As when I was trying to buy the DVD in stores here, none of the staffs had even heard of it, much less ordered it.

So anyway I hope to be back soon, recharged and energized.

Tuesday Link blog

Bruce Jones Signs DC Exclusive - Interesting to see DC take another name away from Marvel, I never cared that much for his work on the Incredible Hulk yet he had a good fanbase. Also interesting to see that one of the series he's working on is the Vigilante series that Micah Wright was removed from after his controversy.

Steve Wacker named Full-time Editor - Steve was one of the regulars back when I used to host the chats on DC Comics On AOL,and was one of the nicest guys I ever talked with. When he was hired as an assistant editor and am pleased as punch to see him doing so well.

Positive FCBD Stories

While the day didn't work out for me, I was pleased to see that others elsewhere had a good time.

Shawn Fumo had a day that started off sort of like mine, but was lucky enough to live in a place near to many comic shop options. So I envy the way the day wound up for him.

Johanna Draper Carlson had fun at her local shop, devoting herself for 9 hours(!) to the cause.

Ron Marz devoted some time on his son's birthday no less, for a signing.

All of which gave me a real well rounded view of the way the day should go, seeing it from a fan, person behind the counter and comic professional's viewpoint.

More Marvel Age At Target

I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this, but I was in Target last night and noticed they have expanded the number of Marvel Age "Magazine sized" books. The original books in the line I saw were of Ultimate X-Men, Marvel Age Spider-Man and a sort of who's who type book.

Now they have volumes featuring Gail Simone's Gus Beezer stories, about the little kid who befriended many of Marvel's big name heroes. A Marvel Age Fantastic Four(?) series written by Scott Mckeever, and surprisingly a Marvel Mangaverse book collecting some of the stories from Marvel's manga week event a little while back.

I was sorely tempted by the mangaverse one, mainly because I missed out on those stories when they came out, so am curious about what they were like.

My First Free Comic Book Day

For one reason or another I've always had to work on FCBD, and when I do it has usually been for 10 hours meaning I miss the entire day. When I had to work again today I thought "Oh well business as usual." Yet I went in early, and got off at 4 so knew I could finally make it to one.

Now the point of Free Comic Book Day is to showcase comics to people who aren't regular customers, to give them a free sample in hopes that they'll come back for more. This gets new people into the comics shops, so hopefully the shops can put on their best face.

I used to be a regular customer at comic shops, until the behavior of my retailers eventually drove me off with their lack of quality service. Yet with FCBD I was willing to give them one more shot.

Too bad once again I was let down by them. The first store I went to had to have the weirdest thing, and perhaps shows the folly of putting FCBD so close to a national holiday. For on its doors was a "Closed for the 4th of July Holidays" which left me scratching my head.

So it was off to the only other shop in my area, which was open thankfully. Yet I've never cared for it because it looks like a teenage boy's room in regards to what's on the walls and the way things are just stacked everywhere.

I wander in and the place is empty, the shop owner looks at me and nods, which is more than I used to get. So I wander around looking, looking and can't find the free comic day stuff anywhere. The place is just as much of a mess than it used to be, except for some newer "babes with little clothes bending over" posters on the wall.

I finally ask him about it and he looks up annoyed because I've interrupted his reading to go "Oh yeah that" and points me towards the very back of the store. Where buried underneath a box are the Archie, Teen Titans Go! and a few of the others very basic offerings that I knew FCBD had.

I thought about getting the Archie one, as the others Star Wars (not into it), Image (yuck), Teen Titans Go! (waiting for digest) and Marvel Age Spider-man (no interest) just didn't interest me. Yet was so put off by the experience, which should have been fun, but reminded me of what I quit going.

That I just left it there and went out of the shop. I love comics, and know that at least these shops are just some poor representatives of the larger comic shop whole.

I've been in shops that I've loved, Richmond Comix, and if I lived in the area I would be a constant customer at. Yet I wonder about those who for them this FCBD is their one shot at comics? What kind of impression does this lead them?

Of course maybe I'm being too pessimistic, after all after I left the shop I went to the mall, where I was pleased as punch to find the first volume of the SGT. Frog Manga I've been looking ages for. Which I'm really looking forward to covering here once I get a chance to read it.

I'm hoping others around the country have had a better experience during their FCBD though.

No Updates

Today is my birthday, and I'm likely to be out for most of it at work or at dinner with family.

Local Newspaper Reports on CrossGen Bankruptcy

The St. Petersburg Times has a report on CrossGen Comics filing for bankruptcy. Contacting some sources I haven't seen the comic news sites do in the bankruptcy lawyers themselves.

They also talked with comic shop owners in the area, one of whom had the odd theory that CG failed because of a low economy. How does that explain the rising sales of comics in general I wonder?

Spider-Man 2

I went to the movies with some non-comic reading friends to see the new "Spider-man 2" film today. This entry is going to discuss some of the movie's themes, and will likely contain some spoilers (though I'll try to avoid being too specific) so be warned before you read on.

One of the first things my friends noticed, and it even hit me despite my being used to it by way of the nature of the comic. Was the sheer overwhelming message that Peter Parker is the ultimate loser. As what seemed like every personal problem he's ever had in comics was condensed to the first hour and a half.

I found myself not thinking "man I feel for you Peter" as I think I was supposed to do, but instead thought "no wonder you are so miserable, you're a loser who makes the wrong choices every time."

One of my friends even asked me after the movies, (paraphrasing from memory) "Is that how he is in comics? Do things go that wrong for him? Because it seems to be too much, and loses a lot of the fun that being Spider-man would bring."

One of the longest running themes in comics, and the slogan that is Spidey's catch phrase is that "with great power comes great responsibility."

Yet this movie sort of undermines that message, because it forgets what I perceive is a key element to people's lives. In that personal responsibility is just as important, because if you put everyone else ahead of yourself you eventually find yourself unable to help anyone.

Something else my friends and I discussed on the way out, was how a lot of time spent to the nature of heroism and the need for sacrifice. We got that message and could understand it, but it goes too far in the extreme showing to my mind a bad message to people in the long run.

Saying that to be truly good and heroic one must give up everything, even your dreams, just seems way too pessimistic of an attitude. The idea that a hero can't be happy in order to be there for others just seems rather off. A hero who is willing to sacrifice everything for anything doesn't come off as very heroic to me, because then the sacrifice itself means little if he could so easily do it.

There were other odd moments as well, but those were the basics for what seemed a rather depressingly themed movie. That was interesting but had lots of messages that I just couldn't find myself agreeing with.

Lots of stunning visuals though, which thrilled my friends despite their problems with the basic theme. And with the packed theater, I'm guessing Spider-Man 3 will soon be on its way.

Monday Link Blog

Otherwise known as it is Monday, I'm tired and irritable about a lot of things and at certain people.

Greg McElhatton has done his Previews rundown for Ninth Art. He has a hilarious comment about how bad a name "Chocolate Thunder" is for a comic. While doing his usual great job of some of the lesser known titles from the smaller companies.

He's also made me curious about Morrison's Doom Patrol, which given that I've never read any of it and have never been a big Morrison booster surprises me.

Johanna Draper Carlson has also posted her Previews rundown and snarky comments. She's got a shrewd eye for what's good and bad in the industry, and her recommendations list always makes me think "that's the type of stuff people would be reading if comics were a bit more normally populated medium."

John Jakala has announced the winners of his Street Angel fanfiction contest. Congratulations to the winners, and good for John for showing such activism spirit in support of a small press book.

Tokyopop is also getting into the activism spirit, by starting their own Manga Force group of fans. From what I read on the site, the fans in the Manga Force will be given assignments to help spread the word about various Tokyopop products. And in exchange will get exclusive behind the scenes access to upcoming projects, and well as be able to enter exclusive contests.

Newsarama has a strange article that points out the ultimate bandwagon jump on of some of today's comic creators. As Rand Queen is bringing back his Darkchylde creation, this time in manga form as a very young girl.

Interesting to read the responses in the thread, of the fans of his old T&A style, professing either no interest or feelings of betrayal about this new less blatantly sexual look.

Marvel Publisher Dan Buckley has a great quote in an article on the new "Spider-girl" type character in the "Amazing Fantasy" series in the Omaha World-Herald. Saying "The thing that we've noticed is that manga sales have proven females will read graphic-novel fiction," Buckley said. "If we can develop the content and get it into the right retail, we'll have a chance."

Okay number one, that they didn't know women would read GN fiction is sort of mind boggling. Did they really have no faith in the medium itself, or just think they were too dumb to "get it"?

Then the second, I can agree that if you get the right content in the right retail outlet you have a chance. Yet since when is yet another superhero type character the "right content"? If you really want the different audience, you have to make what they want to read. Not expect them to adapt to what you produce.

Sensual Phrase Vol. 2
by Mayu Shinjo
Viz Comics June 1, 2004
$9.95 192 Pages

When a young lyricist named Aine and Sakuya the lead singer of the super popular band known as Lucifer, find themselves involved in a relationship the two never realized was possible. They find themselves experiencing things that will leave them both forever changed.

Aine was always a quiet young woman, who at times doesn't realize her own value as a person and as a talented lyricist. So she was stunned when the super cool and sexy Sakuya took an interest in her and her lyrics.

Sex or perhaps lust is something I've felt never came through in comic form very well. Oh there have been relationships in comics that I've wanted to see go well, but I never felt the utter passion of lusting for another truly realized.

That is until this book, where the passion and sheer lust Sakuya and Aine feel for each other comes burning right off the page. I almost had to look away at times, out of the feeling like I was almost intruding on them as they are so passionately drawn to each other.

In volume two there is a new element that could drive the two apart. While I can understand the need for it, in order to give the two leads something to overcome. I must admit to being more irritated with it than anything else, because it just seems so obtrusive and in the way of what I feel is important in the story.

Still the book is well worth reading, that'll leave just about any reader breathless from the sheer forcefulness of its passion.

Remote Vol. 1
Story by Seimaru Amagi
Art by Tetsuya Koshiba
TokyoPop June 1, 2004
$9.95 192 Pages
Preview Pages

Described as ultra-violent in the vein of other manga like Battle Royale, I must admit to being drawn in by the very attractive female character on the cover instead and didn't find the violence that "ultra".

Kurumi Ayaki is a young meter maid who plans to take early retirement in order to marry her long time fiancee. When it turns out that he didn't get the promotion they both thought was a given, she instead has to beg her sleaze of a boss for her job back.

He cruelly assigns her instead to work under a young genius in the Unsolved Crimes unit, who never leaves his room and expects her to be at his beck and call. Who quickly has her involved in a case about a series of murders apparently being perpetuated by a circus clown.

I shouldn't really like this book, there are a lot of scenes such as Kurumi coming out of her shower naked, and the panel focus on her panties while she bends over to investigate a dead body. That serves no purpose but "fan service" to titillate the young male audience.

Yet for some reason I could get past that, and I found myself really liking Kurumi. She's a bit of a ditz in places, but she's smarter than those around her expect her to be.

She actually has realistic reactions to the situations she finds herself in, by not being the "tough guy" when coming upon these rather gruesome murders. Yet instead wears her emotions and fears on her sleeve, so that it is more impressive when she overcomes them.

This book is a real page turner when it concentrates on the murder case, and has a tension level that should leave just about any reader on the edge of their seat anxious to see what happens next.

So if you can accept some immaturity in places, give this book a try, perhaps you'll be as surprised at finding yourself liking it as I was.

CrossGen's Start & End

The first I'd heard of CrossGen Comics was in a Wizard Magazine ad asking for submissions. I didn't really think much on it at the time except to think it was a strange name for a company.

As a DC Comics Chat Host I had the rare opportunity to talk with and even befriend a number of comic professionals. One or two of whom wound up taking CrossGen up on their submissions, which in a round about way led to my being aware of them. I do know I was surprised one day to find a note in my e-mail box one day from then CG PR Director Ian Feller.

Ian told me, paraphrasing as it has been over four years now, that he'd been told that I was an influential comic fan who could help them out. They wanted to start a grass roots movement among fandom, that would spread the word and get a buzz going for their books before they hit the stands.

He wanted me to give him a list of other fans, and their addresses, so they could send them surprise PR material in order that they would hopefully sing CG's praises on the internet as well.

I was of course a bit pleased that they would pick me out, yet a bit bemused at the stuff as well. It sort of showed a lack of understanding at how the online world of fandom at that time worked.

Yes we all talked online at various online forums together, and at times met each other at cons. Yet I can't say that I knew more than one or two on a personal level, and having their mailing address was far out of the question. I wasn't supposed to let any of them know why I would want the address either, so it was certainly an odd request.

Thinking on it now, the current comic blogosphere and its tight knit community would probably be closer to what CG had in mind back then. Still I did what I could, and got them a few names and addresses.

A month or so later I would receive the CrossGen Info packet, a very nice and professionally made package containing a divider and color glossy paper info on their Quad system, HQ, various launch books and most unique of all bio pages on every single staff member down to the singing receptionist out front.

I found myself, given recent events, a bit amused by their Mission Statement of the company which you see when you open the divider:

To set and maintain the industry standard for quality in comic book publication.

To deliver product in a timely and consistent manner.

To provide readers with a high quality, entertaining product that does not insult their intelligence.

To treat all employees with integrity, courtesy, dignity and respect.

To share the wealth with those who help create it.

To prove it can be done.

While looking over this stuff for the first time in a few years, I was reminded about things like the CrossGen money back guarantee. Where if a reader bought the CrossGen Chronicles #1 and the first three issues of any of their series, and didn't like them. That they could send them to CG along with a hand written note explaining why, and receive a full refund.

I was also surprised to be reminded how CG had sent out samplers to all of the retailers, had an primer in Wizard and had a sort of half issue that was only available through Another Universe. Which may have shown a bad precedent to begin your comic line with exclusive comics.

It was fun to read some of their old PR and interviews again as well, from a perspective of where these reporters are now. Included was a Matt Brady article for AU, a Randy Lander and Don MacPherson article from Psycomic and a strange article in Comic Retailer that probably has the nugget that shows what brings about CG's eventual downfall.

In it Alessi explains to retailers how he knows how comic fans tend to only follow a popular creative team or story idea for 6 to 12 issues and then depart. Yet that their goal from the framework he and the creators had devised was to not have that type of direction.

He seemed to believe that if you don't give readers a true ending, and just kept an ongoing narrative that the readers would have no reason to depart. I don't think I can agree with that, as I enjoy a story not the concept behind the story for the most part. And would think I would get tired of anything if it kept going on and on.

Yet there was also the minus that if something didn't work for you, then you knew it was no use to go back to it, because if the concept is bigger than the individual story or creators. Then it wasn't likely to change very much.

Still I was feeling pretty positive about CG, likely in part due to the way they seemed to go out of their way to make me feel as if I was a part of their beginnings. When I saw a contest to win a free trip to their HQ in Diamond's Previews by just writing to tell what books you were trying and why I entered.

I must say the accommodations that CrossGen had for me where first rate,as my hotel room was a suite (with a kitchen, walk in closet, etc.); plus, Thursday night writer Ron Marz and Ian Feller (their Media Relations guy) came by and took me to dinner at this really terrific seafood place in nearby Clearwater that was located right off the beach.

The next day was the visit to CG HQ with my retailer, who had a different flight in and as such didn't get into Tampa until late Thur. night, along for the tour. We where both amazed by the art collection on the wall with pieces from just about every major (and some not so) artist (Frazetta, Romita, Silke and numerous others) that has ever worked in the comic field. It took us 2 hours just to see all of it as they even had some of the art displayed in the bathrooms.

I must admit to wondering at the time whether CG would be up for a possible sexual harassment charges at the time. Given the plethora of art that had women in no clothes at all,and amount of non-creative staff they had. Yet that never came to be.

After we finished our tour and were introduced to everyone we were given free rein to roam the building and see and do whatever we wanted. The people working there were some of the nicest I have ever seen in any business situation. They seemed very enthusiastic and proud of their work and it really showed when they talked with us about it.

I never felt like we were intruding on them at all (even though they were all hard at work in order to meet deadlines) as they welcomed us openly whenever we happened to stop by were they where at and answer our questions and show us what they were working on.

I got to see preview copies of all of the #2 issues of CrossGen's books (and some artwork for #3s as well) except Meridian which was in production. The improvement in the quality of the art and storytelling from the #1s to the # 2s was amazing to see at the time.

SIGIL especially (being a book I had serious questions about the art after #1)seemed to have made the biggest improvement in storytelling ability. The art has a lot crisper style and tone that truly impressed me. I almost couldn't believe the same art team that did #1 had done the art for #2 upon seeing it.

The computers they use for their website and for coloring the comics are amazing as well. They were IBMs but according to them have more power than the ones the Disney Animation studios used at the time.

They showed us how they do the special effects and such using programs like Photoshop, which was interesting for someone like me who has always been intrigued by the computer coloring process.

For lunch we ate at a great Italian restaurant nearby with nearly all of the major people from the company there. Mark Alessi the owner of CrossGen really picked our brains for what we thought of the books, what could be done better and what could keep me as a fan (and my retailer as a retailer:) ) buying their comics.

Over lunch I asked them about their plans for expansion and Mark said they are working towards 7 regular titles.

Mark was a very interesting guy who was obviously very excited about what he was doing. He is also a very much a salesman and really sold his company to my retailer who at the time didn't really know much about the company.

For me it was the creators who won me over though. I've already talked about Ron and Ian but Barbara Kesel was a pleasure to talk with as well. She took my thoughts on the events of SIGIL #1 (the main female character's death which I didn't like especially) very well and explained to me what she wants to do in both of the titles she was working on at the time.

As I recall this was at the time that the FANDOM MERIDIAN#1 review controversy had started. Where Don MacPherson had taken exception to the display of the young girl's panties in the first issue. The creators there didn't seem to have much to say about the review though. They admitted to being taken by surprise by the reviewer's view on the book, as they just didn't expect anyone to interpret the book that way when they read it.

If I remember correctly they said they were teaming up with the magazine COSMOGIRL to get girls to send in a story idea for what they would like to see Sephie (lead character in MERDIAN) do in an issue. The best one would be flown to CrossGen HQ for a tour similar to the one I just had and they'd also get to co-write a story with Barbara Kesel that will be drawn and run in COSMOGIRL.

I wonder if anything ever happened with that?

I received a lot of free goodies while there were a beautiful SCION wind-breaker jacket, a CrossGen T-shirt, posters, and one of every comic they had produced so far signed by their respective creative teams.

Though they seemed to have expected me to be a large fellow by giving me 2XL sizes when I only wear a Large.

Overall I was truly impressed with CrossGen's approach to the way they worked and had a really positive feeling towards what they seemed to be trying to accomplish. Yeah I thought Alessi was a bit too fanboyish at times, especially with his talk before we left of "go out and spread the word" which had me rolling my eyes a bit.

Yet still I'd had a nice time, given that I hadn't ever been to Florida before then, and I admit it they'd sort of "bought" a lot of goodwill from me. Which sort of makes how things turn out sort of odd really.

I doubt there were many bigger fans of the company than I when they started out, as I said they'd built up a lot of goodwill. Yet as the series went on, what I saw as promise eventually became just missed opportunities. The books were not awful but they just didn't have the bite that would make me want to come back for more.

Then the bad PR started coming out slowly but surely with Alessi seeming too defensive of any negative criticism. Then the reports of employees being unfairly treated and leaving. And the eventual reports of non-payment to the people who gave up a lot to give Alessi and CG a try.

All of the positivity that things seemed to have when I visited during the first year seems lost now, as things have not gone as planned. Recently reports have come out that Alessi has filed for Bankruptcy in an attempt to save the company. Will it work? Who knows, if anything does come out of it the company and line will be drastically different than the way things began.

Whew this has been a weird week focusing on one company's line for such a long period of time. I must admit to some appreciation that I'm through so that I can look at a smaller picture again for a bit.

CrossGen Three Pack

Okay gang my mind is turning into mush after spending the entire week reading nothing but CrossGen Comics, so I'm doing three quick looks to wrap up my coverage of their books here. The three I'm covering are all different styles of books, but have one thing in common that I think is what kept them from being all they could be.




Probably the best use of the sigil power was in The Path series. This samurai epic has lots of political intrigue and questions of faith. When a young priest sees his warrior brother struck down by his gods, for only being gifted with the power of the sigil which power threatens their mastery.

He vows vengeance on them, but first must deal with political intrigue at home when a mad emperor thinks to use the priest's power to further his own ends.




This series seemed to be the ultimate fakeout at first. Described in early PR as a sort of Holmesian detective world series, it instead turns out more like the old TV show Scarecrow & Ms. King with sharp banter between the two leads being the big appeal. While any mystery is just window dressing, which was disappointing.

The book makes a point of not having any sigil bearers in it, but is still very weighed down by the universe as a whole through the hints that one of its leads has the same glowing eyes as other like minded characters in their other sigil verse series.




Very much in the Jackie Chan line of movies, this martial artist devoted series follows a thief who gets more than he bargained for when he steals a mysterious ring.

Set on an alien world version of ancient China, this book is filled with madcap kung fu action, humor and a talking monkey. A light popcorn level read, that never really went very far but had fun with itself and its readers.

All of these series, and the ones I've covered previously this week aren't really that terrible in terms of quality. Some even have interesting explorations of ideas that if given more time could have led to something more substantial.

Yet at all of their heart was one fatal flaw. By trying to evoke certain time periods or story types, but not be able to be that. Mainly due to having to fit into the weak universe level sigil verse mess that Alessi had long ago decided was the heart of the company.

There really isn't much point to trying to capture a Victorian England detective story, or ancient China martial arts action, or even Japanese Samurai epic, if you must place them on these strange alien worlds. This cuts them off from the depth and history that such stories should have going for them naturally. And comes off as someone trying to claim to be wordly, because they visited the It's A Small World ride at Disney World.

This was a realization that CrossGen made late in the game, and tried to right with series like Route 666, El Capitan and others. Yet by then their die had been cast, and the initial push they had was gone.

Coming tomorrow, I look at how CrossGen began looking at their early PR and sharing my own experiences from when I won a trip to visit their headquarters. Then on Saturday I'll look at the apparent end of the company. So stay tuned!

Scion

This installment covers the sword and sorcery book of the CrossGen line, in Scion. Owing a lot of its roots to Prince Valiant, Scion follows a young prince named Ethan who when readying to take part in a ceremonial sword fight is unknowingly branded with the typical CrossGen sigil of power.

When the sigil activates during the sword fight and scars his opponent, it leads to an end to a long standing peace.

Thus leading to Ethan having to seek a way to rectify the situation. On his journey he meets the beautiful Ashleigh, who turns out to be the sister of the man he injured. The two start off roughly but over time build a bond between each other that leads to love.

When Ethan realizes that she is a proponent of a possible even more important struggle than the war, the freedom of a slave race that both sides have used and abused over centuries. The two join forces to try to resolve both problems.

The Ashleigh character is an interesting study of contrast of approaches. She is caring, compassionate and very emotional forward, that makes up part of very potentially great female character. Except that she is attired in very tight and revealing all leather outfits, that work to underscore a lot of her positives.

Ethan's is a basic all around good guy who always does what he feels is right. Yet when such actions put him at odds with his family. He must face the hard lessons of growing up about living his own life out of the shadow and framework of the family that had always been there for him.

The art when done by Jim Cheung did well in mixing the classic Arthurian era surface trapping with a high tech futuristic framework well. The battle scenes especially were very epic in feel.

In one respect this was probably one of the stronger CrossGen series, because it could stand very well on its own. While the sigil's presence does cause ties to the CG universe as a whole, it is pushed into the background and could have just as easily been ignored or done away with.

The core problem of the series was that its main storyline of the war between the various faction ended and had nowhere else to go. Even one of the characters realized this in an issue, asking its lead where they were going now that they had accomplished what they sought.

This is a problem in a lot of corporate owned series, the not knowing when is a good time to take a bow and leave the stage. Yet usually not to the extent that this series had.

No review tonight

Time constraints and an allergy attack have made it impossible to cover the SCION series tonight as planned. Yet it will run tomorrow, as I'll double up to cover both it and The Path series.

Today I'm looking at CrossGen's Chimera miniseries, being only four issues it would be easy to pass by given that I mainly want to see why the regular series didn't work. Yet when reading it I was surprised by how it seemed to encapsulate many of CrossGen's strengths and weaknesses in its short run.

Chimera is a science fiction series owing a lot of its roots to things like Frank Herbert's Dune series. The story follows Sara Jenning, a smart mouth young woman who gains the typical deux ex machina of the the CG Universe sigil as a young girl during an invasion of her planet by the dreaded Imperium.

When attacked her power activates and she decimates the entire invading force, which sends her underground as a fugitive. When circumstances change, and her true nature is revealed, the Imperium comes after her again, and this time she must stand against the Emperor and his children themselves in order to live.

This plays well into the strengths of CrossGen's initial titles, the art by Brandon Peterson is attractive and full of life. A lot of attention is given to details of ships and the world around the characters. The space ships especially remind a lot of the way the early Red Star art in terms of its sophistication and beauty.

Sara is a likeable character that I couldn't help but root for, and her struggle was involving enough for me to be interested in it. Though it ends too soon for any real resolution to be had.

Yet the series relies a bit too much on knowledge of the sigil's origin in other series to follow. Which as too often with these initial series was a magic mcguffin that could do whatever the writer wanted it to do. This leads to a lack of danger, because the sigil bearers are shown as so powerful that little can stand up to them.

The pacing of the stories, as with most of these CrossGen series as I'm finding, is just too slow and padded out. Events that could have taken place in a page or two or drawn out over the entire issue or two.

I would come to the end of an issue and think "already over?" Not in a good way, but in a way of feeling like it wasn't a substantial enough read.

Also while Peterson's art is attractive, it can be a bit too pandering. Not only for Sara's "torpedo breasts" that can be seen on those covers, but for the huge amount of butt shots. I don't think it a coincidence that the sigil had the key placement of being just above her hip on her lower back

So all in all, it was an interesting idea for a basic series, that relied far too much on the CrossGen universe as a whole to be totally understood. The production values and artwork especially was high as usual, yet left some disturbing thoughts for directions it took.

Basically it was a project that had potential, yet never quite lived up to it because of its desire to be a part of a bigger picture rather than stay true to the smaller one. Too bad really as I could have used a good sci-fi series that wasn't just a cheap Star Wars or Star Trek ripoff.

Tomorrow: Scion

Quick note

The review of CG's Chimera will be later this evening, as I recover from giving blood at work today.

I did pick up some cool stuff before work today at Books A Million though, Sabrina The Teenage Witch #58(first Manga issue), Hikaru No Go(cool looking manga about a ghost possessing a young man), Remote (interesting new manga series following a female police officer) and Sensual Phrase #2. (cool new romantic series about a young woman's burgeoning relationship with a popular singer)

SOJOURN


Kicking off my week of coverage of some of the CrossGen Comics is their most "successful" title, in terms of sales anyway, SOJOURN. Following in the path of stories like the LORD OF THE RINGS series, SOJOURN is a fantasy quest series involving dragons, trolls, wizards and magic items of power.

The initial setup is that the "deux ex machina" power behind all of Crossgen's initial sigil based series grants its power to Mordath a long dead tyrant. Which brings him back to life, and he once again sets about taking over the 5 realms of the planet Quinn.

One of his troll armies kills the family of a female archer known as Arwyn, who vows vengeance on Mordath. She is given the bow of the famous hero of old who vanquished Mordath thousands of years ago, and along with her dog and a rogue known as Gareth sets out to gain the pieces of arrow that killed Mordath. For only its power has any hope of putting an end to Mordath's tyranny once and for all.

On the surface the book seems to follow Arwyn, given that it is her quest for vengeance. Yet the book is much more Gareth's as we see everything from his perspective, as the book uses his internal monologue for narration.

Which is interesting in the respect of showing the hero as someone else sees her, yet a little annoying as well since I never felt like I got to know Arwyn herself.

There are very few books with female leads, and of those even fewer that I would care about given the propensity of "bad girl" books that only care about showing the women's bodies.

Yet this book seemed to promise something deeper to its lead, and I wanted to know more about her. Yet the choice of narrative made that nearly impossible, as just as there is a separation between Gareth understanding her, so too do we as the reader not understand her.

Which I think hurt the book's potential in the long run, because I grew to not care what happened to her on the quest as time went on.

The quest itself takes the heroes to distant lands all gorgeously rendered by the art of Greg Land. Land's art is just simply gorgeous to behold in terms of its beauty in scenery and the way the people are drawn. Which is both a blessing and a curse at times.

The art is too pretty, in a world where evil is only a step away from total domination the beauty of everything made me feel like things were not as bad they should seem. The people too are just too perfect, even the trolls who should be scary horrible beings, have a sort of beauty and majesty about them.

Which made for a sense of detachment for me as a reader, nothing seemed truly horrible so nothing held a sense of danger. Because I couldn't cross the line to care about the characters or story just didn't involve me enough to make me want to read more.

I can see why this was a favorite so many of the CG faithful though. Land's art is enjoyable to look at, if not suited exactly for the story. The covers along show off how great of a pin-up artist he is, with many covers with Arwyn and other female characters in exotic locales and attire. And there are enough mixtures of the overall CG universe background to make readers involved in that happy

Yet it just never quite gets to the level of involvement that would require a casual reader to have the intense desire to come back for more. Which is a shame, as the basic setup has such promise, but it never quite gets there. And now with the series having ended and CG likely soon becoming a footnote, it will never reach it.

Tomorrow: Chimera

Why Blog?

That's a question every person who has one has to ask themselves at least once.

Do I think any of what I say here is unique or important to the history of comics? No. I sort of look at blogs as... well comics used to be known as disposable entertainment, so I guess blogs could be disposable commentary. In that they are relevant when you write them, but months or weeks or days or heck sometimes just hours later, what was said then doesn't matter much.

Still it offers me a forum for my thoughts that is there whenever I have time for it. With the busy schedule I'm living with as an adult, I rarely have the time to slog through the various online forums seeking those who offer something other than typical fanboy meanderings on whether the Hulk could beat up Superman or not.

And even when I do find those seemingly rare at times intelligent discussion, keeping up with it can be more than I am able to handle most days.

Yet there's still a part of me that feels the need to be creative, and yes I do feel anyone that posts about their thoughts on comics is being creative. Whether they are any good is another conversation though plays in to this as well. As I want to improve the craft of my writing, as the more I write the more I'll learn how better to express my thoughts. (I hope at least)

Yet lately I've been wondering a little why I wasn't quite happy with my blog. Then I realized why, I was taking easy ways out. Rather than being creative I was just linking to other bloggers work, which can be fun and interesting, but given that's all I was doing for the most part I wasn't being as creative as I had hoped to be.

So starting tomorrow I will start doing more original work here. First up, and awfully timely given the news that they have filed for bankruptcy, will be a week long look at CrossGen Comics. I'll take a look each day at one of their series, to see if I can get an impression on why they didn't take off.

Then towards the end of the week, I'll look at some of the original CrossGen PR push, I still have one of their first press kits! To see how they started, and how it compares to how things went and has brought them to the end they are now.

So if that sounds interesting, I hope you'll check back throughout the week.

Starting Next Week

Expect more original content here. Lined up starting Sunday will be week long rundown on various CrossGen Comics I've recently received as castoffs. I plan to look at them, see what had promise, what didn't work, and perhaps why the books never took off.

So please stay tuned!

India To Get Own Spider-Man

Marvel and their alliance partner Gotham Entertainment Group, I suppose I shouldn't laugh when I automatically thought "Marvel teams up with Batman?" with a name like that, have agreed to have a new version of Spider-man.

This Spider-man will be a young, Indian boy named Pavitr Prabhakar, a Mumbaikar. Whose adventures will all be based in India which "interweaves the local customs, culture and mystery of modern India, with an eye to making Spiderman's mythology more relevant to this particular audience,"

This is a pretty intriguing idea to me, I would like to think at times that the basic concepts of most of the big characters are universal. Yet at the same time the idea of taking that basic concept, and allowing the culture to put their own take and ideas is very interesting.

If this proves successful, then perhaps it'll lead to the chance of other countries being given the same type of chance.

Advantage to Unflipped Manga Art

Stemming from a post on Johanna's blog the question of reading unflipped manga art has started me thinking on why I like reading it in that form now.

When I first encountered the right to left format it was a tough go, years of reading habits had to be unlearned in order to lose myself in the story. Yet eventually it became normal, though to this day I still have to concentrate when I read.

Which is good in a fashion, because it makes me pay attention to the art more. Something that I shamefully must admit I don't pay a lot of attention to normally in regular comics as long as the art is competent.

Yet because I have to concentrate I pick up on far more visual clues than I once did, and if I get lost I find it interesting to try to determine why I read things out of order. Most times it was because of word balloon placement, or slant of the panel that led my eye in a direction that it wasn't supposed to.

Yet still it can be a fascinating exercise, and has even crossed over a bit into my normal left to right reading now as well.

Shojo for girls and boys in U.S.?

Johanna questions why Shojo manga is described as being for both girls and boys in the U.S.

In my opinion it is likely described as such so as to not scare off male readers, some of whom may look at anything that says "targeted for girls/women" as reading "anti-boy."

Of course I'm weird and have always found the stuff supposedly targeted at boys --big explosions, women in little clothing, with little to no characterization or personal elements beyond "I'll save you from that horrible man/monster Jill/Johanna/Denise!"-- stuff sort of insulting to my intelligence.

While I look at the stuff targeted supposedly at girls/women --personal issues, world events, finding true love, interpersonal conflicts-- and gone "ooh interesting!"

Yet I know for many people, especially young boys, anything described as for girls can have negative connotations for them if a boy is interested in it. It seems more acceptable for girls in our society to be interested in typical "boy" targeted entertainment.

Likely due to the still overriding domination of male targeted entertainment in TV shows and movies, leaving them with very little choice in the matter. Though the rash of teenage girl targeted movies like "Mean Girls" and "Lizzie McGuire" may be changing that trend thankfully.

Yet boys interested in anything thought of as "for girls" are often derided, chastised and made to choose something else in most instances. Leading to a real defensiveness that can come out any time that is questioned. Ever try and describe a boy's G.I. Joe toys as dolls, to only be loudly corrected that they "are not dolls, but action figures!"?

Perhaps this view will eventually change, but for now it doesn't seem that likely.

Manga A Draw for Kids and Women

Carol Azizian reports for THE FLINT JOURNAL on manga's rising popularity with kids and women.

Such as with Clyde Houston Kelley a 16 year old who identified with the Japanese comic book character, Yugi. Who as a shy 10th-grader who's picked on by his classmates and spends time alone playing games took heart at the comic character who had similar problems.

At one point these type of stories were with fans identifying with American comic characters like Spider-Man or wishing they could be like Superman. Yet with today's move by DC and Marvel to make their characters and stories "more sophisticated" that level of relatability has been lost.

Female readers are also enjoying manga because of its diversity of genres. Suchas 27 year old Jocelyn Urmanic, who says in the article that she first got involved through the animation but then got into the books. "[She]admitted it was difficult to read them at first because of the unusual format. But she quickly "learned to go through the story and figure it out."

By 1995, she was buying both anime and manga at Comic Relief, where she later worked. She has a large collection of both as well as animation cels.

This line especially had to be most damning to DC and Marvel "American comics don't do a lot for me, I'm not too much of a superhero-type person. I love Batman. But I'm not interested in a lot of what Marvel or DC Comics puts out."

Can DC or Marvel ever recover from this? I'm not sure given that they continue to market books to the ever shrinking core audience in the Direct Market. Yet only time will tell.

Neat stuff at Wal-Mart

I was in Wal-Mart today getting some medicine to treat a sunburn, and noticed two great finds:


The Untold Legend of Batman

Written by Len Wein
Interior art by Jim Aparo and John Byrne
Cover by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Dick Giordano
$5.99



The Superman Story

Written by Martin Pasko
Art by Curt Swan


These b&w comics in paperback book form were originally published in the early 1980s according to their inside. With Tor now rereleasing them today, should make for an interesting read.