An older man in a black suit, a total stranger, approaches you on the street. He calls you by name and hands you a briefcase. Inside, you find irrefutable evidence that one person is responsible for everything wrong with your life, along with a gun and 100 rounds of ammunition. The man, who identifies himself only as "Agent Graves," tells you that the rounds are completely untraceable, and that the police won't investigate any crime in which those bullets are used. That's the premise of 100 Bullets, a Vertigo Comics series from Brian Azzarello with art by Eduardo Risso. 
At first merely a series of revenge tales, it develops into a head-spinningly confusing tale of conspiracy theories that makes the whole thing feel like The X-Files but with guns instead of aliens. 100 Bullets is plotted for 100 issues, and they're up to number 83. Only now is the picture starting to become clear as far as what is actually going on.
While you might find yourself lost (I know I did, on many occasions), the art is always top notch, the standalone stories are consistently compelling, and the cover artwork (pictured, top and left) is among the best in the business. Dave Johnson does most of them, and they're usually top notch.
As with many Vertigo titles, 100 Bullets features adult language, some occasional nudity, and a huge body count. So remember kids: don't buy this book without your parents' permission (or be prepared to hide it from them).
Monday, May 14, 2007
100 Bullets
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Pride of Baghdad
Pride of Baghdad is now the book I will give people when they're skeptical about comic books. That's pretty high praise, but I can't imagine a book more deserving of it.
It'll take some convincing to get nonbelievers to pick it up, of course. It's a comic book, and that's a big enough hurdle as it is. But even if you sell people on that, they might get to the first page and dismiss this as Disney-style trash, because, yes, it features talking animals. But this is not for kids, and it's not to be missed.
Brian K. Vaughan is easily my favorite comic book writer working today. He writes Y: the Last Man, Ex Machina, created Marvel's The Runaways, and also works for the folks at TV's Lost. Somehow despite all those commitments, he found time to write an original graphic novel. Inspired by the real life story of a group of lions who escaped after they were abandoned by zookeepers during Iraq War bombing, Vaughan crafts a deeply political story without being at all one-sided. Rather than a simple "the war is good" or "the war is bad," he presents four points of view, each given pretty equal time, and none declared right or wrong. But it sure makes you think.
I'm not the least bit familiar with Niko Henrichon's work before Pride of Baghdad, but his art here is fantastic. The lions appear remarkably human. Some of the credit for this goes to Vaughan, for his characterization, but Henrichon manages to convey the lions' emotions through facial expressions without the it looking at all silly. They still look like lions, but they also look scared, or happy, or whatever. That's pretty impressive. But even beyond that, every page is just plain beautiful.
The book is intelligent and accessible, funny and heartbreaking. I just read it yesterday, but I want to read it again.
Friday, March 9, 2007
*drool*
Over at Ain't It Cool News, they posted a super cool hi-res pic of Rorschach from test footage for Watchmen, 300 director Zack Snyder's next project based on the Alan Moore comic books. Personally, I loved the color palette of the comic, so I'd like to see it... it's hard to describe, colorful but dull. Like slightly darker versions of the bright colors you'd find in an old Superman comic. But otherwise, I love the shot. NYC skyline in the background, Rorschach's barely visible ink blot mask... and it's all cool looking.
And if they can make everything in Watchmen look cool and stay reasonably faithful to the story, that's probably good enough for me. I'm not one of the people who freaks out at Hollywood messing with the stories they love. I'm happy to see good stories exposed to mass audiences, and as long as they don't go crazy messing with things (like giving a happy ending where one doesn't belong), I'm happy to just go along for the ride.
Monday, March 5, 2007
Frank Miller's 300
With the movie coming out this Friday, it seemed like a good time to talk about the comic book on which it was based. Frank Miller saw a movie about the Battle of Thermopylae when he was a kid, and was apparently so fascinated with it that he decided to write his own version after becoming a God of comic books. The result was 300.
It's bloody, it's epic, it's cinematic, it's full of big pages of striking art. Not much dialogue, when people talk in this book, they get right to the point. Fitting, since most every character is a warrior, and giving them Shakespearean monologues would seem silly. But this is essentially an all-action book. There's a little exposition and then it's time to go to war.
And it works really well. The art brings life to Leonidas, which is important given the scarcity of words. The action sucks you in and - even if you know what's going to happen - keeps you wanting to charge through pages to devour it.
When reading it, I kept thinking it would make an excellent movie, if done right. And after Sin City, I started to think maybe Robert Rodriguez should take a stab at it, but it looks like Zack Snyder has done an excellent job. From the trailers, it looks like a lot of the scenes are extremely faithful to the book, so I'm very excited. I also like that it's a movie based on a comic book based on a movie based on historical events. The mind boggles.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Atomic Comic Collection Connection
Ex Machina Vol. 1: The First Hundred Days
by Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris.
Arnold Schwarzenegger runs California, Jesse Ventura ran Minnesota, why can't a former superhero run New York City? That's the idea here.
Mitchell Hundred gains the power to speak to machines, hear their thoughts, and, most importantly, tell them what to do. Some of his friends convince him to be a superhero, so he runs around fighting crime for a while, but then decides he could do more good in politics, hangs up the helmet and jetpack, and launches a long-shot campaign for Mayor of New York City. A catastrophe leads him to don the superhero getup one last time, and his headline-grabbing heroics propel him to victory in the election.
But that's just where the story starts. Hundred is an independent, narrowly elected, the press is skeptical, the city council doesn't much care for him, and running New York City causes a whole host of problems. And there are constant questions about his powers and his history as a vigilante.
The book mixes West Wing-style politics, random tidbits of New York history, and flashbacks to superhero action. The dialogue is fun, the political discussion is interesting, Harris' art is top notch, and the plot is often surprising.
And having previously mentioned Y: the Last Man, also a Brian K. Vaughan book, I obviously like this guy's work a lot. And he keeps a blog, which is worth a look, if you're also a fan.
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Atomic Comic Collection Connection
Watchmen
by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
So anyone who knows anything about comics is already familliar with Watchmen, the 12 part alternative history/super hero/sci fi/psychological drama/all around awesome graphic novel in 12 chapters. Anyone who doesn't, probably will in a couple of years, since it's reportedly being adatped into a movie by Zack Snyder, who directed the upcoming badass looking 300 film (itself an adaptation of Frank Miller's work). But I expect the movie to pale in comparison to the graphic novel (a term I usually hate, because it reeks of poseur BS, but Watchmen is so dense it reads like a novel... a good one).
The basic premise is... hard to describe. It takes place in 1985. Except that superheroes are real. Or they were, until they were outlawed. And they're not all that super, they don't have powers. Except one blue guy who does have powers. Also, the US won decisively in Vietnam. And Richard Nixon is still president. Because of their legal status, all the superheroes have retired (either by unmasking themselves or disappearing), except for a few who either ignore the law or work for the government. But the action begins when The Comedian, one of the government employed heroes, turns up dead. Murdered. And Rorshach, one of the outlaw heroes, becomes convinced that a conspiracy is behind it. His argument is pretty convincing, except that he's also crazy and sees conspiracies everywhere.
That setup sounds complicated and confusing and kind of stupid, I admit, but that's only because I'm not Alan Moore. He draws you into the world very slowly, leaving enough details to keep you intrigued and keep you from getting lost, but not so many that you're overwhelmed. The characters have texture, they seem like real people even though they run around in goofy costumes. The art is inspired by early comics with a basic color palette, but given a darker tone than the primary colors of old, but each frame is filled with details. Graffiti in the background, newspaper headlines visible, characters given real depth by things as simple as their posture.
So basically, read Watchmen if you haven't already. And read it again if you have.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Atomic Comic Collection Connection
Y: The Last Man
Volume 1: Unmanned
by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra
This is the first trade paperback collection of the series.
For reasons unknown, every man on earth dropped dead simultaneously, except for Yorick Brown. Every male animal on earth dropped dead too, except for Yorick's monkey, Ampersand. All the women survive, which sounds like a classic male fantasy, but it doesn't work out that way at all.
Aside from Yorick, the story follows 355, an agent for a secret government organization assigned to protect Yorick, Hero, Yorick's sister who took the loss of the men especially hard (as in, she goes kinda nuts), and Alison Mann, a geneticist who might be able to figure out why Yorick survived.
The art is pretty simple in this one, with a sort of dry color scheme, but it fits well with the post-apocalyptic setting. If you're looking for pretty shiny pictures though, this is not the book for you. However, if you're looking for interesting stories, solid dialogue, and good characters, it's a winner.
I mention this one today, not just cause I bought and read it recently, but also because creator Brian K. Vaughan joined the writing staff at Lost for the second half of this season, which premieres tonight.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Atomic Comic Collection Connection
The Ultimates, Vol. 1
Oh sure it's a few years old, but it's still awesome. Marvel's Ultimate Universe re-imagines classic Marvel characters in a more modern setting. In The Ultimates, Mark Millar and artist Bryan Hitch took on the super hero team The Avengers, featuring Captain America, Iron Man, Nick Fury, and a host of others. The result is highly entertaining.
For comic fans familliar with the characters, Millar has twisted around origins and abilities in creative ways that keep you interested without betraying the core of the character. For newcomers, everyone gets introduced and you don't have to know anything else to figure out what's going on. His dialogue is pretty sparse, but that's mostly to make way for the action.
Hitch's artwork is big and cinematic. Lots of big full page drawings to capture the action, and there's plenty of it. In the most positive sense possible, the book feels like a big Hollywood summer blockbuster. Marvel animation did take a stab at adapting it into a movie, but the Ultimate Avengers Movie was a miss.
This version is a hardcover collection of the 13 issues of volume 1, with a foreword by Joss Whedon. It's priced less than the two trade paperbacks it collects (at least on Amazon), so I figured it was a steal and picked it up. It's a quick read, and as I said, a big ball o' fun.
