Down The Line - Previews review for March 2004 - Part Two by Randy Lander & Dave Farabee Turn your eyes away from that naked Baby New Year streaking down the street (at least, I hope it's Baby New Year) and focus in, because it's part two of the January edition of Down The Line, with Randy and co-host Dave Farabee. This time out, we're covering the back half of the Previews catalog, which is where a lot of the really interesting (and often very weird) stuff happens. The high concept of these Previews reviews and part one can all be found HERE. As with the first part, my comments will be the normal type, and Dave's will be in yellow. Pre-ordering is your friend. If there's stuff you want in March, letting your retailer know before the end of January is the best way to make sure you get it. INDY PICKS OF THE MONTH: The Complete Peanuts Volume 1: 1950-1952 HC (Fantagraphics) - RANDY: There are so many works out there that get reprinted over and over again, in different formats. Peanuts is one of the few that deserves every reprinting, but it does make it hard to get everything without just having tons of books that repeat stuff you've already got. That's just one of many reasons why I'm so excited about The Complete Peanuts from Fantagraphics. Over the years, I've lost most of my books that contain Charles Schulz's comic strips, and I can't wait to have a 25-volume hardcover set on my bookshelf that has everything Peanuts in it. When all is said and done, it'll be at least twelve years down the line and about $750 out of my pocket, but I think it will be worth the time and money. Kudos to Fantagraphics for what is sure to be one of the most important archival collections in comics history. DAVE: This is absolutely something to be excited about, especially since the earliest Peanuts strips seem to be some of the best. Also deserving of mention in this massive reprint project is the cartoonist Seth, who's handling the book design for the series. Seth's a phenomenal cartoonist in his own right and I really think he's going to do justice to the material. However... Since my Big Four pick of the month was a reprint volume, I think I'd be a little remiss to pick another reprint volume as my Indy Pick of the Month, so let's go with some new material: The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde Volume 4 HC (NBM Publishing) – DAVE: Sure, it's volume four, but you don't need the previous volumes at all to enjoy this amazing series of adaptations courtesy of P. Craig Russell. Russell's perhaps best known for his opera-related comics, including the recently completed, highly acclaimed Ring of the Nibelung, but the Oscar Wilde adaptations are probably my favorite projects from him. These are fairy tales of great wit, great imagination, strong morals, and very often, surprising darkness. Coupled with Russell's baroque, vibrant style, we get a phenomenal melding of art and story that's well worth the time of...well, of pretty much anyone who appreciates the medium of comics. Cerebus #300 (Aardvark Vanaheim) - DAVE: I guess this is about as big a landmark issue as they come: Dave Sim's final, 300th issue of Cerebus, first begun in 1977. Alas, while I try and keep apprised of as many notable comics as I can, I've never read a single issue of Cerebus, so for me it means very little. At the very least, though, I salute his great dedication to self-publishing, his contribution to trade paperbacks as a viable format, and his enormous prolificness. One of these days I'll set out to reading his material to decide whether I love him or hate his famously controversial work. RANDY: So long, Sim! Don't let the door to the nuthouse hit you on the ass on the way in! Sorry, I know the guy is an innovator as far as indie comics, and his commitment to his series is certainly laudable... but given that he's a misogynist, homophobic jerk and those views have filtered into the series as well as into his increasingly crazy, hate-filled rants in the back of the comics, I don't see myself ever completing my Cerebus collection. The Factor TP (About Comics) - RANDY: Several years back, creator Nat Gertler got together with a number of artists, including indie names like Carla Speed McNeil and Matt Feazell, and created a super-hero called The Factor through a series of short stories. The kicker was, the reader never knew who The Factor was, and we never saw things through his (or her) eyes. In fact, we didn't always even see The Factor. Instead, we'd get stories from the point-of-view of innocent bystanders, criminals, journalists, entertainment types, etc. that analyzed the super-hero as cultural icon. It was reminiscent of Astro City and that kind of thing, but it was more than that, too, and I'm glad to see Gertler reprinting these stories in a trade paperback. Well worth your time and the $10 that this 128 page digest will set you back. Baraka & Black Magic in Morocco GN (Alternative Comics) - RANDY: I'd be interested in this one if only for the name Rick Smith, the creator of the charming and unusual Shuck, but the subject matter really makes me sit up and take notice. I've found that the notion of comics travelogues holds a lot of interest for me, because it's a way to visit other countries and take trips without spending the money I don't have or facing the hassles that make for great comics stories but which are just annoying when you're actually subjected to them. At any rate, this autobiographical tale of Smith and his wife travelling through pre-9-11 Morocco should be fun, funny and informative. DAVE: I'm interested, too. I've never taken time to really look into prose travelogues, and outside the Travel Channel, you rarely see the genre brought to life in a visual format (for which it seems ideal). Comics provide an interesting meeting point of prose and film, though, and I'm hoping Smith makes the travelogue work for the medium. Street Angel #1 (Amaze Ink/Slave Labor) - RANDY: I happen to have a preview copy of Street Angel, and it's a lot of fun. It reads like a cross between Jim Mahfood and Ken Knudtsen, with a realistic street setting and outrageous elements like supergeniuses, ninjas and a badass 13-year-old girl who is the terror of evildoers. It's very difficult to properly describe, so I'll say only that it made me laugh, I really liked the artwork, and it has probably the funniest take on ninjas since The Tick. DAVE: Sounds good to me. I love the bit in the solicitation about the villain's evil plan to “re-Pangea-fy” Earth's continents. Best villain scheme I've heard of all year. I Hunt Monsters #1 (Antarctic Press) - DAVE: Rod Espinosa seems to be the breakout talent of Antarctic Press through books like Neotopia and The Courageous Princess, and while he's writing and not drawing this project, his name's still enough to get me to take notice. The premise involves all the monsters in the world's history being loosed at once, with one guy and his two babe companions looking to set things right. If it's got a good wit to it, ala Buffy, I think it could be fun. RANDY: I just recently read Neotopia, which was written and drawn by Espinosa, and I really enjoyed it. It's a shame that he's only writing and not drawing this one, but like you, I think the premise sounds like fun, and Espinosa's light-hearted fun style should be a good match for it. Nightjar #1 (Avatar Press) - DAVE: Alan Moore devotees will want to keep their eyes peeled for this one, a four part mini featuring concepts developed by Alan Moore and Bryan Talbot (as seen in Avatar Press's Yuggoth Cultures. I'm always dubious about stories that are only based on someone else's concepts, but apparently writer Antony Johnston is a frequent Moore collaborator, so maybe he's got what it takes. Bone Volume Nine: Crown of Horns HC (Cartoon Books) - RANDY: As I write this, Bone has two issues left to go, so I'm not sure if this hardcover will actually hit its planned April ship date or not, but whenever it comes out, I'll pick it up. Though the latter half of Bone isn't as strong as the first part in my estimation, it's still great cartooning, and I can't wait to have the collection of the entire series on my bookshelf in the slick hardcover format that Cartoon Books reprints them in. DAVE: Coupled with Sim's completion of Cerebus, Bone Volume Nine makes this a month of noted victories for the ballsy self-publishers of the comics world. Like you, Randy, I'm not as happy with the morose latter half of Bone as the first half – I'm even inclined to call it a noble failure, I'm afraid – but there's so much craft, so many good moments to the series, that I can't help but congratulate Jeff Smith on completing his undertaking. Noble failure or not, there's real greatness to the series and some of the best cartooning I've ever seen. Negation War #1 (Crossgen) - RANDY: I wasn't a fan of a lot of Crossgen's "Sigil-verse" titles, but I did like the evil alien race The Negation as a sort of looming threat, and it's nice to see some follow-through on that. I also quite liked the couple of issues of Negation that I read, so I'm curious to see what this creative team will do when they open up with a big huge crossover type story. DAVE: Like you, I've only really ever been drawn to CrossGen's Sigil-less titles, but I read a few issues of Negation too, and it was pretty solid sci-fi in the action-packed tradition of classic Star Trek. As CrossGen begins to draw many of their Sigil titles to a close, this big crossover will be a defining moment for their fans – have the last four years of tenuous links between all these titles been worth it or not? As a general fan of any company that brings in new comic readers and boldly breaks away from superhero conventions – and CrossGen has done both - I hope so. R.A. Salvatore's Demonwars Vol. 2: Eye for an Eye TP (Crossgen) - DAVE: I really enjoyed the first Demonwars miniseries, but CrossGen did such a phenomenal job in packaging the trade that followed that I decided to wait for the trade on the next Demonwars story. Just from flipping through the issues, I know the art is terrific, and as the writer remains the same, I expect a good story. This is one of the stronger fantasy franchises in comics, and readers still high on Return of the King would do well to give it a shot. RANDY: I actually thought the second Demonwars miniseries, the one collected here, was stronger than the first. Certainly the artwork by Greg Tocchini was terrific, and the sort of Arabian nights setting was a lot of fun. Here's hoping the trade collection has some of the same cool extras as the first Demonwars trade. G.I. Joe Reloaded #1 (Devil's Due) - DAVE: A new G.I. Joe team for a new generation of fans - Ultimate G.I. Joe if you will. It'll have to be really good to reignite the juvenile love for the old franchise that has me happily re-reading back issues of the Marvel series a few times a year, but I'll at least give it a look. John Ney Reiber's the writer, and he's at least turned up a few pretty cool moments in the Transformers/G.I. Joe miniseries. Artist's unknown, painted covers look great. G.I. Joe Frontline: Icebound TP (Devil's Due) - RANDY: Both Dave and I are off the nostalgia bandwagon for the most part, but we also both really dug this action/horror movie style tale of a small G.I. Joe team investigating a massacre at an Arctic research base, with art by Wonder Woman artist Drew Johnson. DAVE: It's kind of like "G.I. Joe meets John Carpenter's The Thing," in atmosphere if not in the nature of the monster. Unfortunately, the ending was a little weak, but ain't that so often the case with horror stories? Nevertheless, there was lots of goodness getting there, so this is probably the one trade from the G.I. Joe relaunch I'm likely to buy. Street Fighter Vol. 1 TP (Devil's Due) - DAVE: Shit, not two entries past Randy's "we're off nostalgia books" comment and I have to point out that Street Fighter is actually a pretty damn fun series. Utterly vacuous, yet jam packed with the energy and cool fight scenes of the Street Fighter video games, I'll actually recommend the series to folks who are fans of the games (or fighting games in general). I'm considerable less enthused that the series is being reprinted in digest format, though. I know they're out to capture the manga crowd, but it's one thing to shrink black-and-white art, quite another to scrunch down the vibrantly colored art of UDON studios. The size alone may keep me from buying this book, which might otherwise be a fun guilty pleasure. RANDY: Street Fighter is an exception to the nostalgia books rule, because it's based on a videogame, not an '80s cartoon. Huh? Huh? OK, fine, I'm a hypocritical nostalgia whore. Because I really enjoy Street Fighter, it's a good little action book that captures the fun of the videogame, and has really nice art. I generally enjoy the digest size, and though I'm worried that the art by Udon might not reproduce as well at this smaller size, I think it was really the only way they could go in order to make this appeal to the bookstore market, where there's probably a decent-sized Street Fighter crowd. 30 Days of Night: Return to Barrow #1 (IDW) - RANDY: I remain kind of surprised that 30 Days of Night, which was based around something of a gimmick premise, has the kind of legs to support sequels. But what I read of Dark Days was as entertaining as the original 30 Days, and the tease of finding out what happened to Barrow, Alaska in the wake of the vampire attack depicted in 30 Days holds a strange allure as well. Spookhouse Vol. 1 TP (IDW) - RANDY: I've always liked Scott Hampton's painted work, and seeing him adapt stories by Clive Barker and Robert E. Howard (among others) with a common theme of ghost stories sounds interesting. DAVE: Likewise. My fear is that these stories, however beautifully illustrated, will lack the creepy atmosphere of the best manga horror comics (which have been spoiling me lately), but that won't stop me from checking this out. Johnny Raygun Quarterly #1 (Jetpack Press) - RANDY: I read the first issue of Johnny Raygun recently and found it to be fun and exciting, a tribute to pulp science-fiction and super-hero tales that was clever and funny. So I'm happy to see it returning as a quarterly series. DAVE: Remind me to check this out when it hits, Randy. I love old Alex Raymond Flash Gordon strips and anything in that genre, so a lighthearted tribute might be up my alley. Three Strikes TP (Oni Press) - RANDY: Thanks to various scheduling mishaps, like being in San Diego or taking a break for a week, I somehow missed reviewing almost every issue of Three Strikes, the follow-up project from the creative team of Skinwalker. So let me say now for the record that I loved the series, a dark tale of a bounty hunter and his target, a young man who makes one little mistake (on top of older, bigger ones) and finds his life spiralling out of control. This was powerful stuff, well-written with exquisite art by up-and-comer Brian Hurtt, and one of the best things Oni published in 2003. Julius GN (Oni Press) - RANDY: The second in Antony Johnston's slate of upcoming original graphic novels from Oni, Julius is a modern-day remake of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar set in the criminal underground of England. Though I'm not a fan of Shakespeare in general, I can't deny that the stories in his plays are good ones, and I suspect I'll wind up liking this crime version of Julius Caesar better than Shakespeare's actual play. Is that literary blasphemy? DAVE: Yes. And for your crimes I will gouge out your eyes. "Out, vile jelly!" (Duke of Cornwall, King Lear, Act III, Scene VII) Now where were we? Oh yeah – Shakespeare. Love the guy, and Julius sounds like an inspired idea for an adaptation. And good luck with your newfound blindness, Randy. RANDY: Who said that?! Queen & Country Vol. 5: Operation Stormfront TP (Oni Press) - DAVE: Another fine Queen & Country tale, this time seeing heroine Tara Chace at her most hardboiled. Carla Speed McNeil's art took a bit of time to warm up to – I think she was getting her bearings as well – but by the end I was quite happy with her work. Queen & Country remains one of the premiere books on the market. RANDY: I was a little let down by McNeil's work on Queen & Country, but it was more because it didn't stand up to comparison to the other artists on the book for me, rather than McNeil's art having anything particularly wrong with it. At any rate, it's another good story, and well worth adding to your Queen & Country collection. Para #1 (Penny Farthing Press) - RANDY: Stuart Moore's newest title from Penny Farthing Press sounds like the kind of thing Warren Ellis would have come up with: An enormous, abandoned scientific failure that killed people when it malfunctioned is being explored by the daughter of one of the men who died and her team. It's great high-concept science-fiction movie type stuff, and having seen a preview of the color artwork, I know it's going to look gorgeous. Exit 13 Volume 1 (Repressed Press) - RANDY: Another book that I've got in preview format and have skimmed if not had the chance to sit down and read, Exit 13 is an anthology from NYC newcomers. It's got a very alternative feel to it in general, and is definitely worth a look for folks who enjoyed the various Monkeysuit volumes or Rosetta. Though comics in this vein are not always my thing, even a quick skim through Exit 13 confirms the talent behind the project, and I bet this won't be the last time you see these names. Stonehaven GN (Stickman Graphics) - RANDY: Modern-day crime and politics meets fantasy characters like elves, dwarves and ogres in Stonehaven. This type of genre blending isn't as new as it once was, but there's still plenty of room to play around there, and Kevin Tinsley's previous effort, Festering Season, was an entertaining mix of horror and politics, so I'm guessing this will be a good read as well. It also uses an unusual 2-color process that is very eye-catching. DAVE: As the resident fantasy dork, I'll probably check this book out. The concept sounds interesting, the preview art looks good – next step: does the execution work? Classic Dan Dare: Voyage To Venus Volume 1 HC (Titan) – DAVE: This is a reprint collection taken from a famous British comic of the '50s that most Yanks like me haven't read. I've researched it a bit, though, as it seems to be from the same school of space opera as Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, and it looks like a blast. What impresses me most is the astounding art by Frank Hampsom. Quite honestly, it puts American comics of the same era to shame, and a Google search on the artist's name is sure to impress anyone. Van Helsing's Night Off GN (Top Shelf) - RANDY: Nicholas Mahler is an unfamiliar name to me, but the Top Shelf brand has credit with me, and the notion of silent, humorous stories using the archetypes of the mummy, vampire, wolfman etc. sounds like fun. DAVE: Agreed. That the solicit likens the work to the macabre cartoons of Edward Gorey only makes me more interested. Email Randy Lander and Dave Farabee comments about this review.