Dylan's Sequential Theology 10.24.2012

Dynamite has the bulk of my picks this week, but Dark Horse has the always excellent Dark Horse Presents which is full of content to the point that it's almost sensory overload. So in a way, it's a tie.

Chosen #1
Story by Chuck Dixon & Gotham Chopra, art by Diego Latorre
I tend to be a bit skeptical about books with covers that look like they were left-over art from Hot-Topic t-shirts, but this book worked quite well for me. A teenager in Detroit discovers he is the latest incarnation of the Buddha... well, possibly. An order of monks show up at his house when he is a baby and explain to his parents that he is the chosen one and destined for greatness. The parents send the monks away saying they are crazy bald headed freaks and their kid needs to enjoy the fruits of the Detroit public school education. The monks need their savior and return a few years later to kidnap the child and all goes horribly wrong. Flash forward again to the teenage Chosen One, and he is constantly getting into fights and doing poorly in school. He has the wisdom and steadfastness of the Buddha, but the inner rage of Ananda. He is vicious and does not know how to control his temper.
If this sounds familiar, it probably is. It's kind of like Little Buddha on steroids with a twinge of Fight Club. And to be honest, that's what I would expect from a Western reincarnation of the Buddha. Lots of pent up hostility, and a skepticism of authority. Chuck Dixon & Gotham Chopra actually do a great job of bringing the prophecy of the next Buddha to comics. It's been done before by Jodorowsky in his series White Lama, but this is much more of an urban machismo comic than a contemplative comic discussing the nature of reality. If you want a Punk Rock Lama, this will do nicely in your pull list. It will be interesting if it's somewhat over-the-top storylines ever balance, or if they continue to seem oddly comical, but it's still a fun ride all the same.

Dark Horse Presents #17
 This magazine is excellent. Getting this every month is such a treat. It's 80 pages of varied and excellent content for $8. You get to try out new series from creators before Dark Horse publishes them individually, and it also as reprints of old masters at an affordable price. This time around I wanted to highlight two stories I'm really enjoying.

Aliens: Inhuman Condition
Art by Sam Keith Story by John Layman
I put Sam Keith ahead of John Layman on this one because he is the star of this tale. Layman's story is excellent, and quite terrifying. It might be a little overcomplicated, and certain elements are impossible to resolve, bit it's quite chilling. All of this is amazingly augmented by Sam Keith's art. If you've never read the Maxx, here's a quick way to see the art of one of the greatest artists of "the Image revolution." His work is atmospheric and drippy, scratchy and frenetic. It hits you in young-primal part of your brain and feeds those pieces that barely understand what the human form looks like. And this tale of a woman shaken by a traumatic experience into a state child-like regression is the perfect place for his work. It should be collected in a hardcover sometime next year, and you should take a look at it.

The Deep Sea 
Story by Palmiotti & Gray, Art by Tony Akins, Paul Mounts
Palmiotti and Gray are doing an interesting take on the Fantastic Four in this story... or at least four people have had an accident while testing a bathysphere and wound up traveling fifty years into the future. The character moments in this story are incredibly touching. And the art has a similar look to the sentimental sequences in Creep. A little hazy, pastel pallet, but clean. Definitely a story that's worth your time.

Mind MGMT #6 

Mise en Scene by Matt Kindt

This ends the first arc of Mind MGMT. If you aren't reading this series, you should be. The further down the rabbit hole you go, the more you question everything. Are the Immortals even real? If Lyme can make anyone around him feel anything he wants them to, could they actually be a manifestation of his self-aspect that he doesn't want to deal with? I'm probably reaching, but when your main character has the subconscious drive to influence the thoughts and feelings of those around you to the extent that he doesn't know he's doing it, all bets are off to begin with.

Shadow #6
Story by Garth Ennis, Art by Aaron Campbell
Normally I'm not a fan of Alex Ross covers, but his cover for this issue is excellent. A great riff on the old pulp covers of George Rozen.
Until the past two issues, this series hasn't really done much for me. Margot Lane has been a non-entity, Cranston isn't likable in the slightest, and everyone walks around explaining their plan, and how their plan suddenly won't work because someone has ruined it. But Garth Ennis now seemed to be at a place where he knew what he was trying to do, instead of just paddling out to sea hoping he'd find land eventually. And the beach his boat lands on, is pretty exploitative. Ennis makes The Shadow's visit to the Orient the major turning point that gives the Allies the tools they need to fuel the atomic bomb. It's a clever piece of misdirection on his part. He sells you on the idea that the Japanese have built a hokey death ray a-la a Republic Serial, but in fact, their invention can be used for something more terrifying. Who knew? THE SHADOW KNOWS!!!
But I shouldn't be shocked by this somewhat blunt use of history. It's expected not only of Ennis, but the Shadow as well. Fans of the Helfer series from the 80s may remember the first annual (drawn by the great Joe Orlando) which featured a woman having sex with her radiation poisoned husband, who survived a brush with the atomic bomb, because she thought their child would become the Atomic Jesus. Say it with me, "Atomic Jesus!"
Ennis doesn't shy away from the blood and guts of the pulps either. Instead of being theatrical with his powers as he is often portrayed. The Shadow shows up and mows down everyone, laughing while he does it. A quirk that Ennis pins on his psychopathic distance from humanity, instead of an affectation designed to scare his opponents. There's more going on under the surface in this series, but it's rather decompressed. Considering this is Ennis' last issue before Victor Gischler takes over next month, it's an epic ending, but might have been a lot better if his story had been plotted a little stronger.

That's it this week. Thanks for reading. And as always, if you disagree with me then prove me wrong.

Dylan's Sequential Theology 07.18.2012

As if it wasn't Dark Horse heavy last week, this time around it's all Dark Horse. But it's all excellent stuff. While you're at your local comic book store this week, or buying comics on your tablet during your lunch break, don't miss out on these.

BALTIMORE: DR. LESKOVAR'S REMEDY #2
Story by Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden, Art by Ben Stenbeck
Many years back, I read the first volume of Hellboy and was so bored to tears by John Byrne's writing, and a little unimpressed by Mignola's art that I decided to write the series off completely. But I've been tired of hearing people say, "you're missing out," so I've been trying to dive into the Mignola-verse and devour as much as I can to make a more informed decision.
As a second foray into Mignola's writing, this was much better. A peg-legged vampire-hunter, spouting concerted one-liners while traveling through post-WWI Europe fighting evil? Yeah. I'd read more of that. Lord Baltimore feels like Wolverine mixed with Van Helsing with a touch of Blade thrown in for good measure. That sounds terrible, but it's really not. I doubt Mignola was thinking of any of those characters when he and Golden were writing this book. It's got a strong classic supernatural feel that will please any gothic horror fan in the mood for adventure.
Ben Stenbeck's monster faces cast in silhouette feel like they are doing their best Mignola impression. The people have a much more cartoony simplistic look that sounds tonally off, but actually works quite nicely. Where Stenbeck really shines on this book is the locations, and the hordes of monsters attacking this tiny village full of all kinds of ravenous fiends. 
Also, this trio's combined efforts have made me scared of crabs.

CONCRETE: THREE UNEASY PIECES
by Paul Chadwick

This was my first exposure to Concrete, and I have to say, I will be buying more. The basic concept is that a man was abducted by aliens and they changed him into a being made of living concrete. And it's a big Jack Kirby-esque mountain of concrete. Now the main character searches the world solving environmental crises, small domestic disputes, social injustice and searching for answers to his transformation. But his figure is more a means to an end in an otherwise realistic world. When Concrete attempts to solve the town's excessive drunken population by hugging the criminals into submission, he quickly realizes that no one man (no matter how invulnerable) can do this job, and another fix must be found.
I adore how simple and quite Chadwick's world seems. These people are perfectly at ease with Concrete, and yet he is the only one of his kind. The art is excellent and, from what little I've skimmed in used bookstores, does not seem to have dipped in quality since the book's first appearance on the comic book stands. It's beautiful stuff. It reminds me of the line focused work of old Lord of the Rings illustrations. But yet it's in a completely contemporary setting... Well done Paul Chadwick, you have another convert.

DARK HORSE PRESENTS #14

Dark Horse presents was recently revived a little over a year ago and it's definitely changed tact from "See the pioneers of the Bronze Age working again" to "we do it all and we do it awesomer!" This magazine has everything comedy, superheroics, horror, sci-fi and a haunting piece of dream logic that I can't stop thinking about. As I've said before, I love the anthology format and it's even more impressive when a company packs this much story into one issue. This one is definitely worth the higher price tag. If you've been feeling like your comic reading's been in a bit of a rut, put back three DC books, or two Marvel books and check out this series. Worse comes to worse, you might find some more creators to look into. I'm only going to highlight 4 of the 15 stories contained within this issue, but hopefully, that's enough to get you to pick it up.


ALIENS: INHUMAN CONDITION story by John Layman, art by Sam Keith
I always forget how nice it is to see Sam Keith's work. DC seems to have difficulty coloring his stories, and so I tend to be disappointed by his recent Batman series the past decade. But in this installment, he really brings the horror. Several scientists and representatives of Weyland-Yutani look on as a xenomorph fights a synthetic human. This somehow grizzly spectacle causes a woman who helped design the Artificial Combat Unit to remember her time spent trapped in a facility for weeks with one of these aliens. After the simulation is over, one of the scientists visits her in her room and we learn more about her past all while these memories keep invading her mind. She is broken and trying to behave rationally when she is constantly confronted with the creature that took her life from her. And Sam Keith portrays her closed down psyche with the same power he brought to the Maxx back in the 90s.

HELLBOY vs. THE SABERTOOTH VAMPIRE by Mike Russell
Everything you need to know is in that title. And possibly this photo.

BUDDY COPS story by Nate Cosby, art by Evan Shaner
This is a new series by Nate Cosby and Evan Shaner starring (you guessed it) two partners policing the city. T.A.Z.E.R. is a by the book android, and Uranus is an over-the-top intergalactic superhero who has been "demoted" to the more traditional channels of law enforcement. Uranus' sheer joy at wanting to wreck things with no sense of consequence had me laughing nonstop. And while T.A.Z.E.R. might be a typical android straight-man to Uranus' wacky hijinx at this point, I'm still excited for what else these two have in store as the series progresses.


A SPY DREAM by George Schall
This story was hands-down the best thing I read this week. I had to read it twice, and continue to have questions, and enjoy falling in love with George Schall's art all over again. His style is in that magic sweet spot between cartoon and realism that makes me swoon. It reminds me a lot of GB Tran's work actually. George's sense of motion is impeccable, and his anatomy never falters. The way he breaks down time into panel increments and his layouts really help reinforce the dream concept. My only complaint, is how he renders facial hair. They look like they are drawn on instead of being actual facial hair but that's a personal pet-peeve.


And those were just my favorites from this issue. This particular issue is EASILY worth its $8 price tag. 

DARTH VADER IN THE GHOST PRISON #3
Story by Haden Blackman, art by Agustin Alessio

Chris may have already covered this issue on his column, but it bares repeating. This series is excellent. If you have been dying to see Vader at his most stoic and have found it increasingly hard to take him seriously, Haden Blackman brings him back to that tortured soul we used to know and love. And Augustin Alessio manages to not only make him imposing, but the Prism, the Jedi Guantanamo Bay, feels quite cold and foreboding. What has impressed me about the Star Wars comics today is their analysis of the Dark Side of the force and how its leading to entropy is never just a product of evil, but a manifestation of human common human attributes.
It's also nice to see a writer casting the Jedi in a darker light. Their motives for building the prison make sense, but it also has to be considered if their seeming hypocrisy was the right thing to do or if they had become the thing they are trying to defeat. It makes you think that maybe Vader wasn't wrong for going to the Dark Side, and that it wasn't just the adolescent whimpering of a hormonal teenager.


Not impressed? Tell me I'm wrong.