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Reviews for 6/8/05
While regular Snap Judgments are on hiatus, I'll be doing these "spotlight" columns on indy books and graphic novels in my review pile. First up, two graphic novels and minicomics!
GRAPHIC NOVEL SPOTLIGHT
DR. TIM BOOK ONE
by Christopher Varian (Etompro)
Format: Graphic novel
Price: $12.95
Website: www.etompro.com
 Sometimes all you want from a graphic novel is a sense of fun and a few laughs, and for those times, I'd definitely recommend Dr. Tim: Book One. Christopher Varian brings to the page a wit that somehow hits the border between dry humor and wacky, with a few sci-fi genre inside jokes and plenty of accessible gags that require nothing more than a sense of humor on the reader's part. This graphic novel is done in one-page cartoons, some of them linked into short over-arching stories but most enjoyable on their own as one-panel gag strips. Varian follows the life of Dr. Tim, scientist, as his vast intellect finds him excluded from a jealous scientific community and on the run from a variety of dangerous foes who wish to misuse his intellect. This chase takes him all over the world, and then beyond it, as the last half of the book finds him teamed up with a sexy female bodyguard and then a hapless alien sidekick. It sounds like a crazy, meandering story, and in fact, it is, but the self-contained nature of the one-page cartoons and the likable energy that Varian brings to the page means that the reader never feels lost or bored.
Dr. Tim opens and closes with longer form stories, as the beginning is all about his origins and a deadpan mockery of the "glamorous" world of science and the end is all about Dr. Tim's adventures in space and the origins of his enemy Dr. Chid. All of these stories are enjoyable, and I especially got a kick out of the transformation that Dr. Tim undergoes in the latter half of the book, playing physically feeble straight man to more capable bodyguard Kat or absent-minded professor to alien sidekick Ushmoo, but the book is at its best in the middle, when Varian is just giving one-page glimpses of Dr. Tim's adventurous life. Varian presents Dr. Tim in encounters with various well-known monsters and scientific curiosities, as well as some hilarious panels where he endures the stereotypical challenges of an action movie (the shark gag is one of my favorites), telling full stories with one panel and a well-chosen caption.
There are samples of Dr. Tim Book One on Varian's web page, and I would encourage readers to check them out, as they give a better sense of the tone and style of the book than I can in this review. At any rate, Dr. Tim Book One is a whole lot of fun, an imaginative use of the one-panel cartoon for extended storytelling that provides plenty of laughs and likable characters.
STAN LEE'S ALEXA VOL. 1
by Stan Lee, Steven A. Roman, Dan Jurgens, John Royle, Chris Malgrain & Scott Hanna (iBooks)
Format: Graphic novel
Price: $6.95
Website: www.komikwerks.com
 Gotta be honest, my expectations for this one were kinda low. Stan Lee has written a ton of comics that I loved, but none of them were published after about 1969, and Steven Roman's other project Lorelei was, to put it mildly, not my cup of tea. Happily, while Alexa is not a ground-shaking reinvention of the genre or anything, it is a fun superhero concept with a spirit that reminds me more than anything of the "Little Piece of Home" episodes of Superman: The Animated Series. Amoral superbeings in a world that isn't used to them makes for good story fodder, and tying the story into the marketing and sales of a major comics company gives Roman another outlet for the story beyond just the superhero stuff.
Though I haven't read Stan Lee's Riftworld novels, it seems that this tale spins out of those worlds, as the story is about comic book writer/artist Alexa Moran and her strange ability to bring superbeings into the world. Despite my lack of familiarity with the novels, the book is perfectly accessible. The way it's presented is very Silver Age, and those without a tolerance for Silver Age style storytelling will find little to like in Alexa, but Roman and Lee generally do a pretty good job of presenting their new "superheroes" in a different light from what has been seen before. Sure, the characters are a little broadly drawn to be called "realistic," but the notion of the "superheroes" being much less noble and selfless as their gaudy costumed alter-egos is certainly a more real take on the concept. In addition, I like the touches of subtle alien invasion flavor that Roman gives the story, giving it a science-fiction edge to what is otherwise a straight superhero concept.
While the writing won me over, however, I can't really say the same for the artwork. Oh, it's not bad, and there are occasional panels which are quite good, as well as a generally solid level of storytelling that makes the work acceptable at the very least. Unfortunately, two pencillers, one inkers and one guy doing both chores himself, not to mention three colorists of varying skill levels, results in a variance in quality that is quite jarring. The general style is in the sort of realistic mode that Dan Jurgens is known for, but it has a bland quality to it that occasionally veers into just plain ugly. Again, it's not bad art, it just never really rises above average, and if the writing has Silver Age tendencies, the art design is pretty much mired in a '70s look that does nobody any favors visually.
MINICOMIC SPOTLIGHT
As noted in my Monitor Duty column last week, I'm putting regular reviews on a "sort of" hiatus so that I can dive into my ever-growing pile of comp copies and get to some long-overdue reviews for some very patient creators. I say "sort of" because there are enough new books coming out this week that I'll at least be doing a sort of modified Snapshots review of some of them, including the first issues of Flak Riot, Stardust Kid and Strange Girl (from Image) and the first issues of Gravity and New Warriors (from Marvel Comics), plus a few others.
It seemed like the easiest way to do this was to ease into the smallest pile, and that was the relatively small pile of minicomics that awaited me. To be honest, I approached these reviews with some trepidation, because you never know if you're going to get a lot of amateur skill mixed with enthusiasm when it comes to the small press, but the overall quality of these minicomics is exceptionally high. All of them are worth seeking out either on the web or at the next convention you attend where these creators might be in attendance, and one of them might even rank amongst my favorite minicomics I've ever read.
AND THEN ONE DAY #2-3
by Ryan Claytor (Elephant Eater Comics)
Format: Minicomic
Price: $2.00 (each)
Website: www.elephanteater.com
 And Then One Day was the second comic I read (Fuz was the first) after embarking upon my journey into the comp pile, and I've got to say, if this is what I can expect from the journey, I should have done this a hell of a lot sooner. And Then One Day is a delight, reminding me of the sheer joy I felt when I discovered True Story Swear to God (now one of my favorite comics) in minicomic form. The format of the books is terrific, with different colored fuzzy-feeling paper covers and yellowish paper that gives the whole thing a kind of quirky, stylish feel uncommon to a lot of minicomics. I mean, truthfully, a good mini is a good mini, and And Then One Day would be good as plain white stapled paper, but the fact that Claytor went the extra mile to make them cool little art objects as well is just another indicator of his talents and dedication.
Leaving aside the way that And Then One Day stroked my inner format whore, Claytor's autobio comics were just plain fun to read. Each entry is a different day, and Claytor does a great job of making the mundane events of daily life seem funny and engaging. The book has a light tone, and Claytor comes across as optimistic but not pollyanna, intelligent but not pretentious, fun but not overly wacky. Mix in a polished and attractive art style that could compete with the best syndicated comic strips and you've got a really fun autobiographical comics read. There are preview pages over on Claytor's website, and I'd definitely recommend giving them a look and then, if you like the style, ordering some of these babies. Can't recommend it highly enough.
FUZ: ONCE UPON A TIME
by Wayne Chan (Turtle Comics)
Format: Minicomic
Price: $7.00
Website: www.turtlecomics.com
 Fuz is an interesting little book that just barely fits the definition of minicomic, and is in fact more like a miniature trade. It's the story of a boy (Fuz) who finds, in short order, a turtle and then a crayon that allows him to draw things into existence in the real world. This crayon allows him to protect himself and to transport himself into other adventures, including one to free a bird from someone who would use a similar reality-altering crayon to make money, and he soon finds himself surrounded with allies to defeat this greedy villain, who may in fact be Satan himself. Here's the amazing thing about this bizarre story that I've just related: Fuz is completely silent. Chan expresses everything in his simple line-drawings and with speech balloons that contain other images, ala Andy Runton's Owly or the work of Lewis Trondheim. Chan's art style is simple yet very attractive, and his silent storytelling skills are top notch. Once Upon A Time is unfortunately sold out (yeah, this one's been waiting a while for review), but another volume, called "There Was A Boy Named Fuz," is available for purchase from Chan's website, and you can also view samples of his likable style there.
RANDOM INK
by Seth Wolfshorndl & Elton Gahr (Three Trees Studios)
Format: Minicomic
Price: $1.50
Website: www.threetreesstudios.com
 Here we have a minicomics anthology, featuring four comics tales and one illustrated prose story. The illustrated prose, a collaboration between Gahr and Wolfshorndl, isn't my thing, a bit of a hokey science-fiction/fantasy blend with clunky, overly simplified prose that I couldn't help thinking would have been more engaging as comic panels. The rest of the book, though, I quite enjoyed, as Wolfshorndl runs the gamut, creating stories as varied as the hilarity of a nursing home vigilante (and a surprisingly hip granny), a two-page meditation on a falling leaf, an engaging story of blues musician "Blind Willie Johnson" and a fun three-pager wherein a martian runs afoul of an automated lander. Wolfshorndl shows a gift for stories with heart as well as stories that encourage laughs (I laughed out loud at "The Last Martian" and "Bullets and Bedpans"), and his artwork has a clear, likable style as well. Definitely one to watch.
STARFISH
by Marc Sobel & Leigh Gallagher (Autopsy Press)
Format: Minicomic
Price: $1.50
Website: www.autopsypress.com
 This is a truer version of the minicomic than Fuz or And Then One Day, a basic black and white 12-pager that looks like those "ashcan" editions you sometimes see at comic conventions, or that were all the rage during the mid-'90s. What it shares in common with those other two minicomics is a professional quality that belies its humble packaging. Starfish is a short story in the Twilight Zone vein, about a self-help workshop that is turned into something far more horrific and far-reaching by an unexpected nuclear holocaust. Sobel leaves plenty of questions in the reader's mind as to specifics, enough so that Starfish could easily be fleshed out into a full-fledged graphic novel or other media adaptation, but nails the basics of the story perfectly. It reminds me of when I used to read science-fiction short story anthologies as a teen, and I would come across one or two that would just stick with me, even to this day. The artwork is by Leigh Gallagher, late of Vertigo's The Witching, and while his work here is considerably more sketchy than the work done on The Witching, it definitely captures the creepy mood of Sobel's story and tells the story effectively in stark black and white.
WINGNUT AND FIDGET SPRING 2005 ONE-SHOT
by Brian Clopper (Behemoth Books)
Format: Minicomic
Price: $3.00
Email: bclopper.nc.rr.com
 I've been following Clopper's work for a while now, but it's been a while since he's had a new project, which is explained in this ashcan as a major move that kept him out of the studio for six months. Wingnut and Fidget is Clopper's return to a couple of characters he's written before, although he seems to have started from scratch as far as the characters go in this mini, providing a solid jumping-on point even for those who aren't familiar with Clopper's odd couple bounty hunters. The story here is of the first meeting of Wingnut, intergalactic bounty hunter, and Fidget, his new and somewhat inept partner due to a bargain with a Jabba the Hutt-esque crime boss. It's a lot of fun in an all-ages vein, the kind of thing Clopper does well, and while the Star Wars homages got to be a little bit too much for me, the book does have a wide-eyed sense of adventure that's hard to dislike. Clopper's art has always been solid, but he's definitely improved since the last time I saw him, and this book is probably the strongest art I've ever seen from him, full of detail and the same imaginative creature design he's always had. Steven Grant called it a Mignola/Wally Wood blend, and that's as good a description as any, as Clopper's artwork just brims over with a simiilar love of monsters and alien locales.
Email Randy Lander comments about these reviews.
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