Breakdowns #430

So here's the thing. I have always been a guy to sort of throw myself into something without thinking it through. What happened in the last couple days is I received an email from a student teacher who liked a Watchmen review I did once at Comic Book Galaxy and wants to teach the book to his tenth grade students utilizing some of my observations, which is really flattering and cool. Not sure how else to help him yet but I'm thinking about it. But this request led me back to looking at the very nicely designed old Breakdowns columns I used to do at CBG (also a year's worth or so at MoviePoopShoot though probably long gone from their archives). I actually kind of like reading that old stuff, though it's a little depressing realizing that I don't have that kind of design aesthetic here, nor have I really put that kind of effort into my review stuff here, for the most part. I mean, the reviews probably aren't all that different; I just don't have the snarky comics commentary anymore, which is probably just as well because it's embarrassing to look back at silly things like battling with Larry Young over this or that.

Anyway, having not only refreshed myself with some old columns (you can read more by substituting the number _401.html in the address above and going from there up to _429.html), I had a day off today and found I'd received a big box of graphic novels and comics, so add to that the pile of stuff I've read in the past couple months needing to be reviewed, and it seems like maybe a good time to do a sort of column again, at least on a semiregular basis. I can't promise there will be a lot of commentary because I don't pay as much attention to the industry as I used to and just don't have as much venom. But I do still like reviewing comics. So here goes:

I Am Going To Be Small by Jeffery Brown. Top Shelf Productions. $14.00 USD.
Picked this up in a recent Top Shelf online clearance sale; I think it's the only Brown book I didn't have. And, aside from that cute one for cat owners, this is maybe his worst. There are several amusing gags here, but then, there are hundreds of gags, so the hit ratio should be a lot higher. Unfortunately, Brown seems to know this is very lightweight material, many of the jokes being commonplace, so he throws everything in here with the only evidence of editing being to occasionally place similarly-themed strips side by side. To his credit, Brown does try a number of different approaches, sometimes hitting on some absurdist gags and some consumerist satire, but he's generally more successful in strips in which a version of him appears. In these strips, Brown sends himself up as a callow womanizer mining his relationships for his work. These strips are pretty funny, and also a lot more original and unique than the blackout gags involving vomit, dismemberment and anthropomorphic animals. Although not without its charms, this book is only for the hardcore fan.

Boy's Club by Matt Furie. Fantagraphics Books. $4.95 USD
After some creepy mini-comics in a more densely textured style, Furie goes in more of a surreal Gahan Wilson direction with these slight strips about four roommates, including a frog and an eyeless furry thing named Landwolf, who eat pizza, play videogames and smoke lots of pot. Love the art, but just making these characters animals doesn't actually give this work any more substance, so it's not really a bargain. If he can develop it a little more he might have something.

Justice Society of America Annual #1 Written by Geoff Johns/Penciled by Jerry Ordway/Inked by Bob Wiacek. Published by DC Comics. $3.99 USD.
When you've been reading superhero comics for at least a decade (three decades for me), you find that you will sometimes be faced with purchasing comics you're not all that interested in just because you like the artist, or the writer. Like, there's a good chance I'll buy almost anything with Bill Sienkiewicz, or Paul Smith, or Kevin Nowlan doing the art. Steve Rude hasn't had a really great book since Nexus--some good ones, nothing I would call great. Add to that list Jerry Ordway, who was never quite in the level of those guys, partly because he spent a longer period as a monthly penciler on crappy newsprint. But make no mistake, Ordway's always been an excellent superhero artist, and this annual is a wonderful showcase for his work, giving him the opportunity to draw the Earth-1 JSA/Infinity, Inc. crew. Delightful old school feathering in the inks, clear storytelling and nothing tawdry or gratuitous in the story. The story is piffle, and worse than that, a not-really-self-contained story that really just leads the reader back to the monthly JSA book, but Ordway makes if fun while it lasts.

The Alcoholic Written by Jonathan Ames/Art by Dean Haspiel. Published by Vertigo Comics. $19.99 USD.
This graphic novel finds Haspiel, fairly fresh off Harvey Pekar's The Quitter, back in the role of depicting a writer's early days. In this case, Ames has added a thin layer of fiction--his Jonathan A character ends up writing a series of detective novels and presumably some incidents and characters are invented or exaggerated. But you wouldn't really know it, because Ames displays such an assured tone and some of the details are so peculiar they almost had to come from real life, like when Jonathan buries himself in sand under the boardwalk to hide from police, or when he wakes him naked in a trashcan. Haspiel is a good choice here because he's a clean storyteller who gives plenty of room for Ames' narration, but also knows how to really sell each scene with big facial expressions and body language. He gets the comedy across without being too goofy about it, essentially.

It is a story only partially about the hard-drinking life of a writer. To be more accurate, it's the hard life of a writer, with lots of drinking involved and making it harder. But Ames is very aware his difficulties are mostly self-created; he comes from a loving family of some means. The core of his drinking is his insecurity and pain over the end of his friendship with Sal back in high school. Though there are some very funny misadventures for Jonathan throughout the novel, it's this sincere, tender, mostly platonic love Jonathan has for Sal that makes the book so poignant. Not surprisingly, Vertigo has made little of this central theme of the book in favor of selling it as the wild times of a drunk author. One thing they've done well, however, is to package this like a real novel, with non-comics art and photography on the jacket and blurbs from respected writers and performers. This one has some real crossover potential.

Justice League International Vol. 1. Written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis. Penciled by Kevin Maguire. Inked by Al Gordon and Terry Austin. DC Comics. $24.99 USD.
The late '80s are often spoken of as the era of "grim 'n gritty" comics, with writers like Alan Moore and Frank Miller exploring the violent and sexual pathology of costumed heroes and villains in influential works such as Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns. But for every movement, there is an opposite movement, and into this darkening era stepped Keith Giffen, no stranger to darkness such as his work in Legion of Superheroes, and J.M. DeMatteis, known for grim and psychologically-themed work such as the "Kraven's Last Hunt" storyline in the Spider-Man books and the vampire tale, Blood. So while one might have expected a little more of the same, or at least something serious-minded when dealing with DC's big team franchise book, the writers instead went in a humorous direction, playing up the undeserved arrogance of Green Lantern Guy Gardner, and, well...that's most of what they get to in this collection of the first seven issues, at least as far as characterization.

That was the funny thing about reading this: I had remembered it quite differently after not reading these stories for the past twenty years. Sure, one remembers that Guy is a jerk and the rest of the League doesn't like him, and that Batman quite memorably puts him in his place with one punch. And Morgan Edge is a slimeball multimillionaire who seeks to control the League for his own aggrandizement, conning the heroes into accepting new members such as Doctor Light and Booster Gold. But a lot of it I'd remembered based on later issues. Here, Blue Beetle's insecurity and humor haven't developed yet, nor has the silliness behind the stoic Martian Manhunter been exploited yet. To be fair, the writers were not given their choice of team members and are just trying to find their feet and do the best they can to get a handle on the characters, but still, that doesn't completely excuse how little is done with Doctor Fate, Doctor Light, Mister Miracle or Black Canary, and how the charming naivete of Captain Marvel is mined for only an issue or two until he gets fed up and quits the team. That makes for a good story, but at the same time feels like an opportunity lost.

Mainly, Giffen and DeMatteis squeeze in lots of team member bickering and hammy villain shtick between some fairly standard but entertaining superhero plots. One story about a terrorist, where Batman shames the guy into committing suicide off-panel, rings a dark, out-of-place note for this series, and while there would be more deaths not long after, and tales such as the "Grey Man" story present a melancholic change of pace, the sense that the book's comedic aspects would take over is pretty evident early on.

Kevin Maguire was an unknown when given the reins of this flagship title. Seems amazing now, but one has to realize that at the time, the Justice League was coming out of a dismal period, and this relaunch was approached seemingly with the attitude that any dramatic change was good, or at least that it couldn't be any worse than what had just gone before. Maguire became a fan favorite virtually overnight on this book, doing action scenes well enough but his real weapon being his facility with facial expressions, most of them exaggerated but realistic, and just plain funny. It was a novelty then, just seeing a superhero chew on his lip or look as scared as a little boy, but the work holds up very well, especially in a time when many popular artists can only draw characters grimacing in rage and pain.

Although this volume does show a book going through growing pains and trying to find its tone and character dynamics, it still presents a number of solid superhero stories created with wit and flair and a feeling that all involved are really having fun sparking ideas with each other.