OK, so I missed the boat on Apparat, despite seeing it coming in Previews and being intrigued by the notions. Then they missed their ship dates and trickled out instead of hitting on the same week as planned and I just figured, hey, Avatar stuff usually isn't up my alley anyway, right? Cue a few good reviews and word of mouth from people I trust, and I give Apparat a look, and not only is it good, it may be the best thing Warren Ellis has produced recently, at least as my tastes go. These are four very different books, all based on the conceit of what might have happened if the pulps had influenced comics more directly than they did and superheroes had just sort of been skipped. Had that happened, I'd be deprived of a lot of books that I really love, including Warren Ellis's own Authority and Planetary... but if the rest of them were like the Apparat books, I might not have been disappointed.
One of the most interesting things about Apparat is the very concept, and Warren Ellis has presented a text piece at the back of each book to spell out what that concept is. To some extent, this feels like cheating, laying out what the reader was supposed to get out of the book instead of putting it down on the comics page, but Ellis and his artists do both, and so the text pieces after read more like analysis of the work, a context in which to put what you just read. Ellis's prose is always entertaining, and his mad, spiffballing of ideas and how the Apparat books came to be is no exception. I'd almost recommend Apparat only for these essays, which are laugh out loud funny, cynical and yet full of wonder for the pulps that inspired them.
There are some familiar (and you know what they say familiarity breeds) Ellis stylistic tics in these books, and it is those tics that are the weak points. The sarcastic and yet always two steps behind female assistant pops up in Simon Specter and Frank Ironwine. Angel Stomp Future is essentially a louder, crazier take on Transmetropolitan with a female protagonist. Most of the lead characters speak with that fast, perfect dialogue laden with imaginative curses and "nobody really talks like that" patter that is an Ellis staple.
However, for the most part, these familiar elements work as well, in no small part because the frameworks have more originality and more life in them, and also because, familiar or not, Ellis's dialogue is usually pretty entertaining. At its best, though, Apparat feels newer, different than Ellis's other work. Simon Spector is the best example, very obviously based on the thinking man tough guy pioneered by Doc Savage, but the quiet, introspective nature of Quit City is also very off the standard Ellis beaten path. Even Frank Ironwine, while owing a debt to Ellis's work on Hellblazer or any number of sarcastic cops, seems sharper and fresher than the thinking tough guy hero who seems to dominate so much of Ellis's comic work. Only Angel Stomp Future feels too familiar, much more like Strange Kisses and the other grossout, extreme boundary-pushing stuff that Ellis has done at Avatar, albeit paired with an artist he's not previously worked with in Juan Jose Ryp.
So... specifics. My favorite of the bunch is Simon Spector, about a man who takes mind-expanding drugs to solve crimes, with art by Jacen Burrows. Burrows's stuff reminds me pleasantly of Steve Rolston, and the sequence where Spector theorizes and analyzes the possible locale of his nemesis is a visual challenge that Burrows absolutely nails. That he and Ellis follow it up with a fantastic action sequence, complete with brutal finale, is even more impressive. Coming in just behind is Frank Ironwine, about a modern day Sherlocke Holmes whose purview is emotion rather than logic, and which derives its style as much from CSI (or reaction against it) as any of the pulp detectives. This one features art by Carla Speed McNeil, and it may be the best work she's ever done outside of her own series Finder, especially her work in getting across the smartass nature of Frank Ironwine in his pinched, ever-grinning face. And you have to credit Ellis with side-stepping the innumerable "tough guy gets a confession" scenes that we've seen with a very different interrogation, one of the best ideas in the entire Apparat line.
The other two books are hit and miss for me. At first, I wasn't sure what to make of Quit City, which is a quiet affair about a woman returning to her old town, but the essay in the back put it in a new context for me and when I reread it I liked it a lot better. Essentially, it's Ellis doing aerial adventure fiction as a slice-of-life tale, and in that sense, it works, especially thanks to Lauren McCubbin's strange, photo-collage style artwork that makes it all feel so real and true to life. It lacks the imaginative scope and wonder of the other Apparat books, but the difference of style is certainly a valid one.
Only Angel Stomp Future really let me down, and that's largely because it felt like the kind of thing we've seen before. Which I know sounds odd when you're talking about a book about women turning themselves into grotesque cyborgs or people killing themselves by leaping off space platforms onto something sharp, but with Ellis, that kind of thing is expected. It reads very much like the early days of Transmetropolitan, when Ellis was still setting up the future world around Spider Jerusalem rather than focusing on the political plot that drove the book. Of course, I like that kind of thing, and there are some intriguing ideas here, but it's also trying a bit too hard to shock and gross out. The artwork by Juan Jose Ryp is astoundingly detailed, reminiscent of the insane detail that Geoff Darrow puts into his work, but in black and white, it does have a tendency to all blend together, and I can't help thinking Ryp is an artist who would really benefit from a top-notch colorist to really become the A-list artist I think he's capable of being.
At any rate, the Apparat books (even Angel Stomp) are well worth a look for those who want a taste of something new. Even if (maybe especially if) the rest of Avatar's output isn't your thing, give these books a look. They're all one shots, but if Ellis and company decide to bring any of them back or do some follow-up thematic one-shots, I definitely won't miss the boat next time. 9/10
