by Anastasia
Blue Monday "Absolute Beginners" (W)(A)
Chynna Clugston-Major; Oni Press, $11.95, b&w, 128 pgs.
The follow up to Blue Monday's "The Kids
Are Alright" is a raucous mix of Pretty in Pink and Love
and Rockets, with a punk-rock dash of Veronica & Betty.
Relive the high school days of crushes on teachers, skipping
school and finding true friends. Or, if you were like me and
saw none of this, this could be a completely novice experience.
Bleu is the focus of this teen sex-comedy that begins on an
ill-fated night where a party ends with spilt wine on Bleu's
dress and leads to the hormone-crazed Alan & Victor getting
video footage of her taking a bath to remove the wine stench.
The chase goes through four chapters as Bleu and her best friend,
Clover, try to get the tape back before the whole school sees
it. To add even more complications, Erin, upset with the lack
of attention she's getting in all the mix, decides to stir up
the emotions of Alan & Victor and get both boys to chase
after Bleu, resulting in mixed signals and dates gone horribly
wrong.
It's not the deepest plot this side of War and Peace, but what
exactly was when you were 16? Everything then seemed life and
death; getting that much-lusted-for date just to find the object
of lust was a total ass could spell suicidal depression for
many. Thankfully, you survived that. (And, if you were me, you
survive the discovery that your object of lust turned out to
be gay ... after the prom, of course.) Chynna's art is honestly
enough to get me to buy anything, her manga stylings are rendered
with such a good hold on the subcultural influence. Expressions
are captured fully and she has a great handle on making the
characters look different, even in black and white. Trade paperbacks
are great, especially if you don't feel like hunting down all
four issues that a store may or may not have. It also means
you get the story all at once and usually some bonus stuff,
such as scripts to an unproduced Blue Monday animated serial.
The cover has new art; the book's only loss is that the covers
to each issue are reprinted in black and white inside, instead
of the great color on the original single issues, but this is
very typical of black and white trades. I do prefer the slightly
bigger format you get in the single-issue comics than the smaller
trade.
3 1/2 skulls
Veena, The Expanding Spiral (W)(A) Eric Theriault, Eric Theriault;
Press, $3.25, b&w, 32 pgs.
Veena appears to be a one shot that collects
a lot of smaller stories into one nicely packaged comic. The
first story is Veena, The Expanding Spiral, which doesn¹t
focus on Veena as much as it does on a guy who is relaying his
tale of time travel while they do shots at the bar. It's an
interesting mind trip that has an ending I certainly wasn't
expecting. The artwork is sometimes loose with the occasional
rushed panel, but Theriault still manages to capture the mood.
Veena seems to be the best story in there. It's followed by
a reprint of Major Valor's Weird Tales #74, from October 1953.
I'm not exactly well versed in comics from this time period,
but the story does seem a typical tale for the era, with a confrontation
between a super solder and Frankenstein's monster. Next is a
couple of two-page stories that resemble more a stream of thought
then an actual plot, one was even stated as being a dream Theriault
had. Perhaps he felt the need to illustrate it and, to his credit,
he did capture the feel of a dream, but I guess I missed the
point of publishing it. The comic's packed with many stories,
but the only one that was worth reading was its title story.
And I don¹t really feel that's worth the cover price of
$3.25. I would like to see a continuation of Veena. It was the
only story I felt I could even give a score to.
1 1/2 skulls
@thena Inc. "The Beginning" (W) Brian Haberlin (A)
Jay Anacleto; Image Comics, $5.95, color, 48 pgs.
@thena Inc. portrays itself as a high-tech adventure
of the top black ops agency that has created the perfect operative.
Through the magic of genetics, rumor has it developed by the
wicked doctors of World War II who were believed dead, this
assassin cannot be caught, for her entire appearance -- from
hair color, eye color and height, right down to fingerprints
-- can change once a trigger is thrown in her head. She won't
even have the knowledge that she's done anything. Although the
concept seems far-fetched, it wasn't beyond my suspension of
disbelief. I was quite excited when I picked up the book.
The story opens with an A-class code cracker who narrates his
tale of discovered the m@nhunters, who, until his discovery,
were believed to be myths created by agencies to keep their
agents in line. It was rumored if you ever saw one of these
m@nhunters, it would be the last thing you saw. Marvin Winkler,
through a bored night of cracking codes and tearing down firewalls,
discovers @thena Inc., as well as proof that the m@nhunters
exist, and why. He knows he's being traced, but the fix of such
interesting information is too much to give up and he keeps
on. Marvin knows he's going to die now. He has it narrowed down
to the hour. He takes a long hot bath and, while chain smoking,
tells his tale to the audience in flashback. *spoiler warning*
Fast forward: Marvin gets shot, no grand exit involved. The
m@nhunter is a chick named Anna, who decides to go off to the
movies after her assignment, claiming to take someone named
Brenda with her. Anna is attacked in an alleyway, which makes
you think the m@nhunters aren't all that bright. You would think
a genetic creation might have some damn good hearing, not just
perfect aim. Once ambushed, Anna claims she'll have to call
Brenda. Brenda emerges from Anna, a bit like a split personality
except the physical changes are suppose to be extreme. Anna
is a brunette with pigtails; Brenda appears to be a frizzy-haired
blonde. Otherwise, they look the same. Brenda annihilates her
opponents, but is caught unaware (again?) by someone dressed
as a priest who claims she is not "the one" after
touching her face. The touch sets her on fire and she dies.
@thena Inc. sets up a great story that falls flat on its face
halfway through. What happen to the genetic creation that doesn't
even know it's an assassin? Seems the two "personalities"
are both aware of what they are and what they do. The artwork
is incredible, but knowing Anacleto's record on the Aria comic,
the next issue will either take eight months to come out or
they'll get a different artist to disappoint you with. $5.95
is far too much to pay even just to admire the artwork, much
less on a 40-page story that leaves you more interested in the
eight pages of ads that follow.
1 1/2 skulls
Catwoman, "Anodyne" #1 & 2 (W) Ed Brubaker (A)
Darwyn Cooke & Mike Allred; DC Comics, $2.50, color, 40
pgs.
Anyone who was a fan of the first Catwoman four-issue
series way back in 1989 is going to love the new incarnation
of everyone's favorite feline femme fatale. A return to the
sleek, short-cropped hair, as well as her beginnings in the
misunderstood world of hookers and "low lives." Bored
with the last Catwoman series, I was seriously off track of
what had happened to Selina Kyle, but don't worry: You don't
need any prior knowledge to get a hang of the new series. The
only reference made to her earlier incarnation thus far is that
she was rumored to be dead in the last story arc and is now
taking a break of sorts. But the only break it looks like she's
taking is from her old costume. She's back to bouncing off rooftops
in the pale moonlight, but she's not after jewels this time.
Instead, she's solving the crime of murdered prostitutes when
one of her hooker friends from the past shows up on her doorstep
looking for a safe haven. Gotham's finest isn't too concerned
with the dead bodies of prostitutes turning up in alleyways.
The artwork is different, and not totally reflective of the
covers, which are beautifully done. It's a simplistic style
that works mostly well. The story flows nicely, although I would
like to see more fleshing out. What is moving Selina to suddenly
act unselfishly when in the first issue she wonders when she
stopped helping others and just helped herself? I'm excited
to see the return of the Robin Hood heroine that was first seen
in that late '80s mini series, but it would be nice to know
why she's dropped the jewels to pick up clues in a murder case.
I'm also a bit disappointed to see such a flat portrayal of
a corrupt police force in Gotham, when it seems in the current
continuity of the Batman titles, all the corrupt cops took off.
And although the new commissioner is still new, she wouldn't
allow such rampant callousness toward the "lesser"
citizens. Not that there aren't corrupt forces, but it seems
an easy cliché. I've seen better stuff from Brubaker,
but I'll keep checking out the next few issues for improvements.
2 1/2 skulls
In Memory: Dan DeCarlo
Dan DeCarlo, most noted for his creation of Josie
and the Pussycats, passed away December 19 from a heart attack.
DeCarlo set the drawing standard for Archie Comics when his
work first appeared in 1952, giving Betty her trademark ponytail
and introducing brand new characters, such as Josie and Cheryl
Blossom. DeCarlo was fired from Archie Comics and thereafter
began a very long fight to prove that Josie and the Pussycats
was his creation, based on a comic strip in which he had named
the main character after his wife, Josie. His stand against
Archie Comics was a step for all cartoonists who were victims
of the greedy companies who claimed creations spawned by work
for hires and found creative ways to not pay the creators. Eight
days before his death, the Supreme Court dismissed his case
against Archie comics, basically saying he was 40 years too
late. And now he's gone. Archie comics took out a full-page
ad in "honor" of Dan DeCarlo. I suppose that was cheaper
than paying him what he was truly worth. This from a company
supposedly about "family values." We're gonna miss
you Dan.