Showcase: DC Comics Presents

It's old home week at What Are You Reading today, as our special guest is none other than Graeme McMillan, who,  before he became a writer and editor for the sci-fi blog io9, used to pal around with us back when we were at that other blog that shall not be named for fear of ... something, I dunno.

Anyway, to see what Graeme and everyone else is reading this week just click on the link below ...

JLA: Strength in Numbers

Tom Bondurant: This week I read a couple of stories from the JLA: Strength In Numbers paperback: an Adam Strange guest-shot written by Mark Waid and pencilled by Arnie Jorgensen, and the Starro/Sandman mash-up "It" from the regular team of writer Grant Morrison, penciller Howard Porter and inker John Dell. Plot-wise, the Adam Strange story hinges on (surprise!) a novel way of using Zeta-Beam teleportation; but it may be more notable for Jorgensen's expressionistic take on the World's Greatest Super-Heroes. His Orion literally froths at the mouth, and at one point he zeros in on Adam's half-crazed expression like Steve Ditko on crystal meth. I could (and might) do a whole post on the religious overtones in "It," but for now I'll just say it's a scary, suspenseful, and ultimately sweet two issues.

Big week for Batman in the regular books. I read Scott Shaw!'s "Oddball Comics" entry on Brother Power last week, so I knew a little about him going into Brave and the Bold #29, and I also liked the story right up until the end. With his lament about "what have we lost since the '60s," JMS's heart was in the right place, but in story terms it felt redundant and preachy. I'm with Tim overall, though -- this was a definite improvement over last issue.

I hadn't been particularly impressed by Christopher Yost's work on Red Robin, so I only bought the first issue. However, I did like the conclusion of his Huntress/Man-Bat two-parter in this week's Batman: Streets Of Gotham #6 (drawn by the regular art team of Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs). In fact, the issue worked pretty well on its own: Black Mask gives a goon an invisibility suit and doesn't care who he kills, so he tricks a priest into thinking he's the Voice of God and Huntress and Man-Bat are beasts from the Pit. Not a bad setup for the anyone-can-die-at-any-time atmosphere which must permeate Gotham City, and the twist ending also makes good sense in that context. I'm not sure how well the twist works in terms of story logic, but on the whole, it was a well-told tale.

Flash Rebirth #5

Big week too for Geoff Johns. Flash: Rebirth #5 didn't quite live up to its "this changes everything!" hype, mostly because its shocking reveal wasn't particularly unexpected, considering Johns' affection for continuity. The rah-rah moments made up for it, though; and I liked seeing the assembled speedsters. (Too bad XS couldn't join 'em, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time ... uh, so to speak.) I don't have any big complaints about Ethan Van Sciver's work either, except for that one forced-perspective splash page.

Meanwhile, I bought Adventure Comics #4 dreading the return of Superboy-Prime, since I thought Legion Of Three Worlds had given him such a perfect ending. Nevertheless, this was a very fun coda. Superboy himself is none too happy himself about being part of Blackest Night, and to make matters worse he's being chased by Black Lantern Alex Luthor. The result, co-written by Sterling Gates and ably drawn by Jerry Ordway and Bob Wiacek, isn't that subtle (Luthor calls the Internet "a conduit for ... rage, and you continue to evoke quite a bit of rage"), but that's part of its charm. I mean, it's not like I love the little punk now, but this issue was a good bit of rehab.

I also bought the first issue of Ian Edgington and Davide Fabbri's Victorian Undead, ostensibly a Sherlock Holmes story but more a steampunk horror tale with some Holmes in it. For one thing, Watson isn't the narrator. That's not a dealbreaker, but it's not what I was expecting. Still, it might have avoided some problems with execution, like with the doctor whose speaking style and general demeanor initially led me to believe he was Holmes. When our heroes finally do show up, Holmes looks and acts rather like Reed Richards, which is to say a little younger and more action hero-y than I might have thought. Fabbri's art is like a cross between Mike Wieringo and Chriscross, so it's bright and energetic, and that's not bad but it too is at odds with the darker elements of the story. I will say this, though: it
didn't remind me constantly of Blackest Night.

Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer

JK Parkin: As Sean and Kevin pointed out this week, SLG is having a sale over on their site through Monday. So I thought it might be a good time to talk about two books I recently read from them that would be worth your time and money, should you decide to take advantage of the 40 percent discount.

First up is Pinocchio Vampire Slayer by Dustin Higgins and Van Jensen ... just in time for New Moon! Well, not really. This is a book that received a lot of press and praise before it even came out because of the simplicity-yet-brilliance of the concept -- the wooden kid whose nose grows when he lies, taking on creatures who die when you impale them with a wooden stake. Sometimes high concepts can fall flat in the execution, and I was happy to see that wasn't the case with PVS, which I liked a whole lot. There are some fun twists and a lot of heart in the book, and I'm looking forward to the second one.

Second is Weird Fishes by Jamaica Dyer, which collects her webcomic. It's good stuff, but don't take my word for it ... go check it out for yourself.

(Sean pointed out that Buenaventura is also having a sale, and you couldn't go wrong with picking up Fight or Run, or The Aviatrix, or any of their other comics as well).

Underground #3, by Steve Lieber

Tim O'Shea: Steve Lieber continues to cram an amazing amount of action into the caves of Underground 3 (. I don't know how long it took for Jeff Parker and Lieber to do this five-issue miniseries, but if they can spare the time (and their family budgets can take the hit) I would love to see these two collaborate again. As much drama as they have in the caves, the creators have built a great parallel tale outside the caves. And the shift outside the caves to the vibrant colors of the outside (colored by Ron Chan) is quite distinctive (but Chan is to be credited equally for inking the dark cave interior scenes as well).

The cover to Flash Rebirth 5 (please god let there never be a Flash Afterbirth) is a twisted reworking of Flash 123's (1961) cover. And fortunately that's the only sour note in this issue's read. I think there's three schools of superhero comic fanthought: 1) Toss out the status quo--explore new ideas with the corporate property; 2) Keep the hero the same age, the character/story dynamics-give me what pulled me in, in the first place; 3) Toss out some of the status quo, keep the stuff I like.

OK, maybe there's more than three schools of fanthought. But the bottom line, I missed Max Mercury and am glad to have him back in the Flash Family. After the wringer that Bart Allen has been run through by DC editorial in recent years, it was nice to see Bart reunited with Max. I wonder if Max will be put back on the DC universe shelf after this miniseries has run its course or if they have a gameplan to utilize him going forward. I'll just have to wait and see, but in the meantime this miniseries has become immensely more enjoyable.

Paul Azaceta drawing Spider-Man (Amazing Spider-Man 612) reminds me of when Bill Sienkiewicz did a mid-1980s stint on Fantastic Four. It's jarring, but it works for me. In an effort to keep the book on its intense (three issues a month) schedule, editor Steve Wacker is taking some inspired risks--namely this issue's use of the I Kill Giants (Image) team of Joe Kelly and J.M. Ken Niimura on the second tale. Back to the first tale in the issue, however, did Mark Waid really sneak in a Jimmy Webb/Glen Campbell reference into his representation of Electro's origin? ("I was a lineman for the county." Nice, Waid, nice).

After my worship of Waid in last week's column, no one will be surrprised that I got a huge kick out of the beatdown that Plutonian received at the hands of Charybdis in Irredeemable 8 (BOOM). Waid is good at surprises and the character path with Charybdis has taken a great turn in recent issues.

Last month I fairly well tore down J. Michael Straczynski's Brave and Bold 28, so I was heistant to pick up B&B 29 which features a team-up between Batman and Brother Power, the Geek. I do not know a thing about BP, but as dated
a character he clearly is -- JMS set up a modern day setting for his return that runs the risk of being one-note but fortunately does not. Crazy as this may read, I think JMS could build a great BP the Geek ongoing. Stop laughing. It could work. Saiz does a great job shifting from the 1960s to present day with his art. JMS' examination of Batman's history played off his reaction to BP is a quirky, but effective way to go--and I'm glad I bought the issue. It's a nice recovery after the last issue.

O'Shea: Next Generation (aka my 10-year-old son) continues to enjoy Chris Giarrusso 's G-Man: Cape Crisis, which saw the release of issue 4 (out of 5) this week

X-Men Legacy: Salvage

Michael May: I just finished X-Men Legacy: Salvage and my main reaction is that it's about frickin time. Rogue's always been my favorite X-Man, but the tragedy of her inability to control her powers has gone on far too long. She was in danger of Wolverine-syndrome for me, by which I mean that Marvel kept Wolverine's true background a mystery for so long that I lost interest in whether or not they ever revealed it. By the time they finally did, I'd stopped caring. Fortunately, they got to Rogue in time and I'm thrilled that the woe-is-me part of her life is behind her. (Not that I expect her to be completely done with all drama, but you know what I mean...)

I also appreciate what Carey's done with Charles Xavier. I actually like Professor X again. I've been away from the X-Men a while, but I'm kind of excited about keeping up with their adventures again, if only in the collected versions.

Chris Mautner: Short and sweet this week cause I'm tired. I spent a good part of the week reading Goats: The Corndog Imperative, the second collected volume of Jonathan Rosenberg's Webcomic from Del Rey. I'm of two minds about the strip. On the one hand, I admire the attempt at world-building and extended storytelling Rosenberg is attempting here, even if it is more than a tad silly, and it's interesting to see him try to move beyond the traditional joke-a-day concept he began with. On the other hand, while he can be funny, I tire of the constant punchline/rimshot/punchline repartee that plauges the dialogue. No one can make any comment without someone offering a bit of surreal smartassery. It gets a little weary and it makes it hard to develop any attachment to anyone in the large cast. Still, he's trying something. God love him for that.

The Learners

Graeme McMillan: It's completely unintentional, but I've just gone through a few "real" books that've impacted how I'm reading comics these days. Two of them are kind of process books - John Ortved's "The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History" and Russell T Davies' "The Writer's Tale" - and the third is Chip Kidd's second novel, "The Learners," which is - like his first, "The Cheese Monkeys" - as much about graphic design as anything else. They've all got me thinking about how comics, especially mainstream superhero comics, are assembled, and
what their purposes are these days.

That train of thought has been helped by speeding through this week's "Showcase Presents: DC Comics Presents: The Superman Team-Ups Vol. 1," which was a really strange experience; I hadn't realized how many of the stories I'd read in reprints when I was growing up, so half the book had this unexpected nostalgia to it. It doesn't hurt that the book is full of the old school "Hello, chum!" quasi-professional, quasi-friends relationships between the characters that, were I somehow Geoff Johns for a day, I'd selfishly try and get back into the current line as quickly as possible. Also, that Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez art! Man, he's such a great artist.

What else have I enjoyed this week? The new issue of Phonogram, even though I think I read a different story from the one Kieron Gillen wrote, judging from his talk of villains in the backmatter.

The new Underground, which isn't just enjoyable on its own merits (Again, the book just looks wonderful, with Steve Lieber and Ron Chan doing some great work together; I love the limited palette in the cavern), but makes me feel like Jeff Parker is one of those Most Underrated Writers In Comics guys: Between this, Mysterius The Unfathomable and his Marvel work, he's put out some really, really good, and really varied, work this year, I think.

Superherowise, I was kind of disappointed by Flash: Rebirth #5, which seemed much lighter and stretched out compared with earlier issues, and Adventure Comics #4, which started like Ambush Bug and ended like... well, like a kind of generic superhero comic, really. That said, I'd still think about picking up DC Comics Presents: The Superboy Prime Team-Ups just for the cheap metatextual jokes, if someone wanted to make it happen.

The Cartoon History of the Modern World Vol. 2

For the past 30 or so years, Larry Gonick has been engaged in what has to easily be one of the most ambitious comics projects ever: The Cartoon History of the Universe. In four volumes (including Vol. 1 of The Cartoon History of the Modern World), Gonick has relentlessly relayed the history of planet Earth as we know it, from the big bang up to the the 1700s. That he's done so in such a consistently entertaining and downright funny fashion, is nothing short of remarkable, especially considering the plethora of dull, insipid nonfiction comics that have come out in the past few years.

Now, with the publication of the second volume of Cartoon History of the Modern World he's finally finished his magmum opus. I used the occasion as an opportunity to talk with Gonick over email about his new book -- which runs from the French Revolution to 9/11 -- and how it feels to finally be finished something that took up such a large chunk of his working life. Here's what he had to say:

How long exactly have you been working on this History of the Universe project? I know the first book was published around 1990, but you were serializing it as comic books long before that, correct?

On and off, since 1978. That's when the first Rip Off Press edition of #1 came out. But not full-time. I fitted quite a few science books in there too. Rip Off (best known as publishers of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers) did nine 48-page comics, which ran through the first installment about ancient China. Even though I stopped doing the individual comics, I kept the 48-page volume structure, both as a discipline for myself (it helps structure the narrative), and I suppose because it still holds out the possibility of bringing them out as individual comics again.

Now that you've finally completed this lengthy project, how do you feel? Are you happy to be finally done or a little sorry that it's now over?

Proud and exhausted. It's a weird feeling, knowing that a "lifetime project" is done. Like, what's supposed to happen to the rest of the lifetime?

It seems as though one of the major themes of this final book is colonialism and imperialism and its effect on the modern world. Was that a conscious thread you deliberately brought to the fore or did it just claim dominance naturally as you worked on the book?

You are correct, it's a major theme, consciously chosen. It would be hard to imagine a history of the modern world without it. After all, before 1500 Europe was just one small end of one big continent. By 1750, Europe dominated the Americas and India. By 1850, China. By 1880, Africa. At the same time, European ideas, both political and economic, spread around the world. If that's not the story, what is? Then came decolonization, beginning with the American Revolution, and slowly making its way to all the protectorates and subject territories everywhere, with a final acceleration after World War II. Despite the loss of overt political power, though, western nations maintained economic sway over the Third World, and now, today, I think we're seeing even that eroded.

Can you talk a little about the research for this book and how it compared to past books in the History series? I would imagine, for example, that you had considerably more visual reference to go on than previously.

More visual references and more textual references — and on the Worldwide Web!!! It's so much easier to do research now than it used to be. I love Wikipedia so much, I want it to have my baby. Of course, the presence of this great mass of stuff just means I have to throw away more. People who are used to seeing book-long treatments of World War II may be disappointed that I whizzed through it in "only" 6 pages. But I was trying to keep something like the pace and level of detail of previous volumes. Just because something is recent doesn't mean it's bigger. It only looks that way because, well, because it's closer.

Apart from the issues of imperialism and colonialism, were there other themes that you wanted to explore in this final volume?

Well.... it's funny. When I organize the material, I'm not thinking so much about themes, at least not in any organized way. Mostly, I'm looking at narrative coherence and storytelling. However, I must have been thinking about something, because I gave so much space, for example, to slavery and its abolition. I think we can tease a couple of themes out of that topic.

One is the idea—and reality—of progress. Abolitionists, while they were often motivated by moral considerations, lived in a time when the society at large was receptive to their message. Somehow, the advance of science and technology, the wealth that came from factory production and overseas trade, and the development of enlightenment ideas about human nature—essentially sociable and good, not the victims of Original Sin—produced a government that saw abolition as good policy. I tried so show how these threads were woven together by describing the origins and progress of the abolition movement itself, along with an account of how Britain was able to afford to do it: by banning the trade to all nations, Britain was displaying its power on the open seas, and when slavery itself was outlawed in the British Empire, the profits from the opium trade with China were enough to buy off nearly every slave owner in the West Indies.

Progressive ideas also include what I called the "sciencey" ideas like Marxism, Freudian psychology, fascism, and free-trade classical liberalism.

Another theme would be the movements that appeared atavistic to people who considered themselves modern: "reversions" to ethnic nationalism and religious politics. Progressives never cease being surprised by that stuff, even though it never really went away.

What, if any, themes, other than the thread of human history, do you feel draw all these books together. Is there any overarching idea or issue that ties them all up in a neat bow?

Oh-boy. Something like what I just said: that ideas and material and social conditions are all balled up together. That nobility and self-interest are often fused. And above all, that those historical figures you read about in boring old history books were living, breathing, fools like the rest of us. I want to dispel what you might call the Historical Fallacy, which is to view past actors as if they knew what was coming next.

What was the toughest era or event to portray? I imagine there were plenty of times where, when faced with a particular event you thought "How am I going to draw that?"

No, drawing events is rarely hard. Comics is designed for drawing events. You have characters, setting, and action. It's making drawings to illustrate abstract ideas that's hard. My one-page account of Das Kapital, for example. I have to confess that though I think it goes some way towards doing the job, it could be better. Anyway, it was a challenge.

I know in my high school history classes as we got closer to modern times the faster and more generalized the lessons would become, usually because we were nearing the end of the semester. Were you at all concerned about covering too much ground too quickly, and if so, how did you attempt to compensate for that?

I wasn't so concerned about it (tho I probably could have used about 35-50 more pages), but I expected some complaints. That's because people are used to reading big fat books about recent events that loom large simply because they're close to us. (It's like perspective, isn't it?) I wanted to maintain something like the same pace that I'd used throughout the series: give ample space to selected topics, like the abolition of slavery—because it was just about historically unprecedented—and whiz by others with a summary. So I did World War II in six pages, which is actually a lot for a war in the Cartoon History, but it probably looks paltry to a modern reader.

In doing your research for this book, was there anything you came across that surprised you or challenged your preconceptions? Was there anything you weren't initially planning on putting in the book, but, upon discovering it said "Oh, that has to be included."

What preconceptions?

Either I'm so old that my world view is fossilized, in which case challenges bounce off like ping-pong balls, or else it's become so plastic and squishy that they sink in like a fly into a blob of tree sap. No, nothing major.

One thing that had always baffled me was why World War I should have started in the Balkans. No offense, Serbia, but who cares about Serbia? As usual, this mystery is cleared up once you include the Turks in your history (as traditional history rarely does enough). The Balkans were the Austrian/German link to Asia, and in particular I had no idea what a furor was raised by the prospect of a German-built railroad from Constantinople to Baghdad. In the end, of course, the railroad was built, and after World War I it became the famous Orient Express, but not in German hands!

Conversely, was there anything you wanted to get in the book but weren't able to due to space constraints?

Too many things to name.

Do you have a particular favorite character or period in this book? It's natural for cartoonists to be skeptical but I was wondering if there was anyone you felt was worth their reputation?

I enjoyed dusting off my Nixon. It had been a while. But he doesn't get much play here. Of the truly great, I'd have to put Gandhi at the top. The anti-slavery activist Granville Sharp was pretty amazing too. But I also like drawing characters with mixed motivations. Here Napoleon comes to mind. It was never hard drawing a panel with Napoleon in it! And Bolívar.

Now that you've finished this immense project, what are you doing for an encore? More history books?

Right now I'm trying to figure out how to spend the rest of my life, and working on The Cartoon Guide to Calculus during the breaks.

Does history present different sorts of challenges as opposed to doing a book on calculus or science? Are there different sorts of things you have to keep in mind depending upon what sort of nonfiction subject you're tackling?

Sure, there are differences. History comes naturally, because it's mostly stories. In science, the material has to made "storylike." In mathematics, as I'm discovering now, it's especially challenging because there's not much you can make into a character. At least in chemistry there are atoms and molecules! In math, there are mostly formulas and diagrams.

On the other hand, there are similarities too. I'm always trying to make everything as clear as possible.

What kind of reaction has your History series gotten outside of the comics world? Have librarians or teachers noticed it at all? What about historians? Or the general, noncomics reading public?

Very positive. As a matter of fact, there's a new school of history called Big History or New World History, some of whose practitioners hark back to the Cartoon History of the Universe as inspiration. As one history professor wrote (by email, today, in fact!), "you understood early that world history needs to start with the Big Bang." On my web site, you can find a partial list of academic institutions that have used my books. As for reactions from the public, it's hard to say whether any given fan reads other comics or not. I do know that some readers weren't comics fans originally, like, um, Jackie O, my editor at Doubleday.

When you started out doing this, no one was tackling nonfiction, let alone history, in comics. Now it seems like every publisher under the sun is coming out with a graphic novel biography or "how to" guide of some sort. What do you make of this surge of interest in these types of comics? Do you see your influence in any of them?

When Doubleday was considering whether to publish the first Cartoon History of the Universe collection back in about 1988, the sales department was extremely skeptical. Since then, I guess the industry has decided the medium has some potential! I don't know if my precise style is influencing many other cartoonists, but nonfiction comics do seem to be shouldering their way onto the shelf.

As an addendum to that, do you still get people who find your work a novelty ("gawsh, a comic that isn't about superheroes") or do you think we're finally past the whole "Comics as legitimate tool? Who'd have thought" phase?

Yes, there are still people like that. The reaction that always galls me is "These are great! why haven't I ever heard of you?!" Of course, it's a thrill to be admired, but I can't help feeling that there's something about my particular approach that bypasses those Serious Commentators who want their Literature Serious, even Morbidly Serious. Let's be frank. Why isn't somebody at, say, the New York Times saying, "This is one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of comics"? Because (he said modestly) isn't it?

The Meanest Man in Town by Milt Stein

Bio-Diversity by Christopher Niemann

Camel ads

Valley of the Dangerous Dreams by Alberto Giolitti

Der Grosse Mordillo

Little Dynamite by Jack Cole

Minimidget

Taking the name from the Fantagraphics book, Will Elder, The Mad Playboy of Art is a 20-minute documentary on the famous cartoonist and Mad artist. Part one is above, part two is below the jump. (via)

Downloading Optimism by Lucy Kinsley

Antisocial Personality Disorder by Darryl Cunningham (while you're at it, go read the rest of Cunningham's Psychiatric Tales)

Mannikinland by Mark Fenderson

Marvelous Mike by Bob Kuwahara

Sausage Pilot! by Hank Chapman and Irv Novick

Andy Pandy by John Stanley

Jim Bowie

Remote Control Jimmy by Mike Fontanelli and John K. (possibly NSFW)

Submarine and The Invincible Enemy by Jack Kirby

Toni Gayle by L.B. Cole

Pim & Francie In Golden Days

• The Comics Comics crew are having another cage match, although this time they're calling it a round table, about Al Columbia's Pim & Francie book.

• Curt Purcell continues his examination of the Blackest Night event, this time looking at some of the tie-in books.

• Ng Suat Tong examines the pleasures of owning original art and how that can change our appreciation for a particular cartoonist.

• Also at HU, Noah Berlatsky looks at the psychosexual underpinnings of the superhero genre, and how it's shifted over time.

• NPR's Glen Weldon talks about why Neil Gaiman's Sandman series matters: "[It] remains one of the most literate, imaginative and intricately plotted accomplishments in long-form comics storytelling out there."

• Sandy Bilus recommends Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms: "The book never feels preachy, but it certainly forces the reader to focus on this issue and raises his or her level of understanding about what the people of Hiroshima have endured."

• Joe McCulloch compares/contrasts the new Astro Boy movie with the original Tezuka manga.

• Johanna Draper Carlson reviews the first volume of The Lizard Prince: "This manga, a romance in a magical fantasy setting, has enough humor to make it an enjoyable read for the young and young-thinking."

• Tangognat on Vol. 5 of 2oth Century Boys: "Everytime I pick this series up I’m reminded again how great it is."

Slorge!

Want to re-enact Johnny Ryan's Prison Pit in the comfort of your own home? God, I hope not, but just in case you do (you disturbing person you), Ryan fan Andrea has made this little slorge doll, completely with lace-up hindquarters. Have at! (via)

Today we're looking at the collection of Rick Lacy, who with Phillip Gelatt is the co-creator of the Oni Press series Labor Days.

Before we begin, however, let me do my usual plug and encourage -- nay, implore -- you to send your collection pics to me at cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet. The Shelf Porn well seems to be drying up very rapidly and may hit bottom soon unless a few brave souls out there opt to contribute.

But enough with the sob story. Let's check out Rick's shelves:

I've just moved into a new apt so a lot of things are still in boxes and beg to be shelved. The rest is stacked on my drift wood cabinet, adorned with my Venture Bros. poster trophy for working on two seasons at the time. Most of my comic collection nowadays seems to be made up of Oni press comics, the publisher that puts out my OGN, Labor Days.

Comics McCormick and Marvel Maid by Ed Wheelan

Firehair by Joe Kubert (one and two)

Sherm! by Bud Sagendorf

Punch and Judy by William Steig

The Witch of Terror

Early Bernie Krigstein

Tall Tales by Al Jafee

The Prophecy!

Flook by Trog

Cold Heat 7/8

Cold Heat 7/8
by Ben Jones and Frank Santoro
PictureBox Inc., 48 pages, $20.

This may be my favorite issue in the series so far, and I'm not sure I can easily articulate why. It's hard at times for me to talk about this series without coming up with empty, awkward phrases and stumbling cliches. There's something about hitting the time travel/memory wipe/reset plot button that appeals to me though, as protagonist Castle finds herself back at home and romancing a overly eager British music critic, though little has actually changed and dangerous aliens and evildoers are still lurking about.

Hitting that button must appeal greatly to Jones and Santoro as well, as they seem to be firing on all cylinders here. There's an ever so slight shift in tone that brings plot and dialogue a little farther up center than it had been before, though little of the series' sublime weirdness has been abandoned. Santoro offers some of his best compositions yet here; there's more than a few pages here that are quite striking. I like how he tries to think of the page as an entire unit and not a collection of separate tiny panels that tell a story. Too few contemporary cartoonists, indie or otherwise, follow that example. I also like how he uses overlapping lines to suggest a character's inner emotional state or provide different perspectives of the same scene. Meanwhile, Jones continues to show off his gift for hilarious, idiosyncratic dialogue. Twenty dollars may seem like a high price point (it's due to a limited print run) but you know what they say about no good comic being too expensive? It's true here.

Reviews of Dungeon and more after the jump.

Dungeon, the Early Years Vol. 2

Dungeon, the Early Years Vol. 2: Innocence Lost
by Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim and Chris Blain
NBM, $12.95.

What really strikes me about this series is how it's steadily and almost imperceptibly moved from light parodic farce to dark melodrama. The more we learn about the characters and the more we see of their eventual futures, the more the characters' initial sunny disposition and smart-ass attitude seems like foolish naiveté.

In this case, said naivete belongs to Hyacinthe, the first keeper of the Dungeon. Having donned a dashing secret identity in the first Early Years volume as the Errol Flynn-ish Night Shirt, he quickly finds his ideals compromised again and again as he's placed in one difficult ethical dilemma after another. By the end of the book he's become a corrupt official who secretly leads a dangerous guild of assassins by night, while inadvertently bringing about the destruction of the city he's supposed to protect by day.

If I've made this sound like a dour slog, my apologies. It's anything but. The Dungeon series remains a thrilling, sharp read, in this case thanks largely in part to Blain's stunning art work. Certainly this isn't a good jumping-on point for newcomers, but it's well worth getting through the series to arrive at this point. You'll be surprised where the journey takes you.

Fat Freddy's Cat Omnibus

The Fat Freddy's Cat Omnibus
by Gilbert Shelton
Knockabout Press, $29.99.

For Shelton/underground comix completists only. It's basically a thick collection of one-page cat jokes, a little saltier than your average Garfield to be sure, what with the constant references to litter boxes and defecating in shoes, but it's cat jokes all the same. The longer stories are the best, as Shelton gets to engage in a bit of satire that's notable mainly in the way it careens from subject to subject like a pinball. I liked, for instance, how a story about the cat's battle with the apartment cockroaches becomes first a cold-war satire, then whiplashes to Hollywood, then just goes balls-out crazy. That was fun. But in between those fun stories are a lot of tired cat jokes. And I'm honestly not that crazy about cats.

Joe and Azat
by Jesse Lonergan
NBM, 104 pages, $10.95.

A young peace corps volunteer heads to a vaguely authoritarian Central Asian country and becomes friends with one of the locals, an ever-optimistic schlub, who's always coming up with get-rich quick schemes. And, as you might imagine, it's through this relationship that the volunteer learns about himself and the wide world outside his safe home.

The book suffers somewhat from Longergan's vague descriptions of the country and culture, so that no real sense of place is ever conveyed, and Lonergan isn't a skilled enough artist to provide a lot of background detail that might enrich the story's telling.

That being said, this is still an entertaining book, mainly due to Longergan's deft characterizations, both with Azat and his extended family, especially his abusive drunkard of a brother. Lonergan may be vague on a number of details, but the dialogue nevertheless rings true. The fact that it doesn't overstay it's welcome helps too. It gets in, makes its points and leaves. I wish more comics would follow that example.