Indie Comics Roundup – October 2007
Posted by: Hal Johnson on October 21, 2007 at 12:37 pm
What can we say? Here at Indie Comics Roundup there is nothing we love as much as hate, but sometimes, no matter how hard you seek that which is hatable, all you find are good comics. We really tried, we even read an Image book. Perhaps later we can find something from Avatar to make our bile rise…
Superspy
Matt Kindt/Top Shelf
I don’t know how many people habitually peruse the copyright page before plunging into a book, but if you do you’ll find, right above the copyright information in Superspy, the explanation: “A Note on the Book: The chapters are arranged in a nonlinear format in the order that the author intended that they be read. However, it is possible to read the chapters in the order that events actually took place by using the dossier numbers as a guide.” This is incredibly cool, and, sure enough, each chapter comes with a seven-digit number paperclipped on…
I Killed Adolf Hitler
Jason/Fantagraphics
Jason is that rarest of birds, an artist with bona fide indie “cred” (for God’s sake, he’s even European) who also has a mainstream-friendly esthetic. His stories revolve around gunfights and zombies and love, which is pretty much what I assume primetime TV looks like nowadays. I Killed Adolf Hitler is about a contract killer who goes back in time to kill the Fuhrer, and if that’s not a zillion-dollar movie idea, I don’t know what is…
Robot Dreams
Sara Varon/First Second
Robot Dreams appears at first to be an example of Kochalkaesque whimsy, but, fortunately, it also possesses a deep undercurrent of cynicism that saves it from being cloying. It’s the story of an anthropomorphic dog who builds a robot and then abandons him at the first opportunity. The robot dreams of his lost dog friend…
Where’s Dennis?
Hank Ketchum/Fantagraphics
There are plenty of gag panels that garner critical acclaim, and there are plenty of comic strips with recurring characters that are similarly respected, but the combination of the two–a gag panel with recurring characters–is generally the bottom of the barrel of the comics page. This is where Family Circus, Marmaduke, and Ziggy, the three horsemen of crap, reside; the mediocrity of Heathcliff looks like quality by contrast, but that’s really damning with faint praise. I suppose it’s a problem of dissonance between medium and content: strips lend themselves to character-driven humor, while panels lend themselves to the pure gags of Arno or Addams, and trying to shoehorn characters into one panel a day is comic poison. The prime exception is Hank Ketchum’s Dennis the Menace…
Age of Bronze #26
Eric Shanower/Image Comics
Age of Bronze, which retells the story of the Trojan War from start to finish, is shaping up to be one of the two or three best comics of the decade, but it’s also a recurring warning of one of the weaknesses of the comic book “pamphlet” form. In this issue, the penultimate installment of the “Betrayal” story arc, the Achaean envoys to Troy seek a peaceful settlement, get rebuffed, and slip away from Troy with an angry mob at their heels, after a Trojan woman secretly seduces one of the envoys…
Miriam #1
Rich Tommaso/Alternative Comics
Standing on its own, Miriam is a nicely designed, engaging comic. But Miriam does not stand on its own. It is a look-and-feel lawsuit waiting to happen. Miriam is what you would produce if you came from a culture that had the last few issues of Eightball and no other comics. It’s not a swipe, and it’s not plagiarism; but it’s probably the most blatant comics homage since Top Notch Comics appropriated Chris Ware’s esthetic in 1998…
Lucky #1
Gabrielle Bell/Drawn & Quarterly
Lucky #1 is a neat little comic with a unique premise. The first half of the book is a straight autobiographical account of author Gabrielle Bell’s experiences giving slideshow readings of one of her dream comics. The second half is the dream comic. It’s a little like Chester Brown’s “Helder”/”Showing ‘Helder’” from Yummy Fur #19 and 20 in reverse…
Shitty Art Book
Nicolas Mahler/La Pastèque
An art book is not really what you want from Nicolas Mahler. You don’t want it because you know it will be shitty…
The Annotated Pilgrim
Brian Lee O’Malley/self-published (presumably)
This is not a comic, per se, but a series of notes about Scott Pilgrim, the widely revered but chronically late Oni Press series. References explained, “how I came up with this,” what’s based on reality, etc.: trivia, essentially. Whether you want to read this or not depends on how obsessed you are with Scott Pilgrim. You’ll either be delighted or bored, and you know who you are…
Jason Michelitch October 25th, 2007
Can SCOTT PILGRIM really be called “chronically late”? It isn’t on a regularly monthly schedule or anything…am I missing canceled solicitations? My impression was that Oni was putting out a book whenever O’Malley finished one – and never pretending otherwise. That would make the book always on time, in my mind.
Rachid January 20th, 2008
Thanks for the info, i’m new to non uk indie comics!
BTW, http://www.indiereview.co.uk are looking for people knowledgeable about USA indie comics so if anyones interested let us know on admin[at]indiereview.co.uk
