Spider-Man 1602 #2

I've written a good deal at Robot 6 and elsewhere about comic-book cover art and design, but, unfortunately (for me at least), not so much in recent months. I hope "Comics, Covered" will remedy that, as each Saturday I select the six best covers -- the most striking, the most successfully executed, the most intriguing -- to grace the shelves that week.

This week's list is filled with three comics from Marvel, one from Image, one from DC's Wildstorm imprint and one that's technically not a comic at all.

To find out what made the cut, read on.

The Amazing Spider-Man #612, by Marko Djurdjevic

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane aside, I'm not sure I could tell you when I last bought a Spider-Man comic, or even which one it was. But Marko Djurdjevic's stunning cover for The Amazing Spider-Man #612 would call to me from the store shelf; I'd be compelled to buy it. The close-up of Spider-Man's mask doubles as an ominous blood-red sky, disrupted by a lightning bolt striking the Empire State Building. Even without the logo in the upper-left corner or the reflection in the mask's eye we know the story involves the classic supervillain Electro, whom I presume has become more deadly since ditching the goofy mask.

Underground #3, by Steve Lieber

For the covers of Underground, the Image Comics miniseries set in and around a cave in Kentucky, artist Steve Lieber smartly has been toying with negative space. But it's not until this third issue that he's really nailed it, using a mass of flying bats to form a background against which he sets the silhouette of protagonist Wesley Fischer. I also like that not all of the bats are in black, providing another layer of detail.

Nomad: Girl Without a World, by Rafael Albuquerque

Artist Rafael Albuquerque set out limiting himself to the colors of the American flag for this unlikely miniseries about the female Bucky from Marvel's mid-'90s Heroes Reborn experiment. Like Steve Lieber with Underground, I think Albuquerque finally hits upon the right combination of composition, color and subject in the third issue: There's drama, white space, and a pop-art element that can be viewed as a reference both to Captain America's shield and to Jim Steranko's legendary cover for Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #4. (Oh, okay, the red circles could just be a simple target, or comic-book shorthand for a telepathic attack. But I like my idea better.)

The Fir-Tree, by Lilli Carre

I find it difficult not to smile whenever I see Lilli Carre's art, even when it's for an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's depressing Christmas-themed fairy tale The Fir-Tree. There's something about her illustrations that reminds me of children's books from the 1940s and '50s -- the ones my grandmother shared with me when I was young. I love Carre's use of elongated, rubbery arms and her choice of this delightfully macabre scene for the cover (Andersen's story is told from the perspective of the little fir-tree, so his felling signals the beginning of his slow demise).

Spider-Man 1602 #2, by Michael Golden

Michael Golden crams (by my count) 20 figures into this illustration, giving the cover a sense of excitement and urgency. The artist masterfully drives the reader's eye to the lower-right corner, where young Peter Parquagh, at the mercy of these ruthless pirates, dangles precariously close to the water. I also like how the logo blends the familiar Spider-Man font and the "1602" wax seal.

Victorian Undead #1, by Tony Moore

Say what you will about the popularity of zombie fiction and the recent spate of genre mash-ups, but you can't deny that Tony Moore can draw the heck out of the undead. What's more, he can convey the high concept: With the deerstalker, the cloak and the pipe, there's little doubt that we're looking at the cheerful corpse of Sherlock Holmes. Unfortunately, however, someone at Wildstorm apparently wasn't content to allow the illustration to sell the first issue of Victorian Undead. So a Victorian-style font is paired with cliche horror scrawl and topped with blood splatter. And if that weren't enough, we're hit over the head with a B-movie poster burst shouting "Sherlock Holmes vs Zombies!"

It's a shame, too, because all of that clutter obscures the lovely period wallpaper and works against a wry and, despite all of the maggots and worms, understated illustration: Our decaying detective, seemingly oblivious to his state, could easily be sitting for a portrait. It might've been nice for the cover designer to have played it straight with the cover dress, avoiding the stereotypical horror trappings altogether. (In a case of perfect timing, Colleen AF Venable just addressed Victorian-inspired design on the First Second blog.)

Blood's A Rover

Welcome to What Are You Reading. I hope everyone had a nice Halloween and spent at least part of it reading comics.

Our guest this week is Chip Mosher, Marketing Director at Boom! Studios, publisher of such fine books as Irredeemable and The Muppet Show. As the image above hints, Chip's been reading some rather interesting (and gritty) material, so click on the link below to discover what he and the rest of Robot 6 have been reading recently. Oh, and don't forget to let us know what you have been reading in the comments section.

Brave and the Bold #10

Tim O'Shea: My son really enjoyed the reversal of Atom's usual power in Batman: The Brave and the Bold 10. Meanwhile, I just loved the sheer infectious nature of the story. Landry Walker makes me yearn for more Johnny DC titles written by him. And Eric Jones' two-page spread (as Atom and a Mutant Giant Batman fight) is a sweet tribute to the old Godzilla films (nicely timed for Halloween).

Astra #2 (of the issue Astro City two-part special event) was more entertaining than the cumulative dragging sensation of Busiek's Astro City/The Dark Age work. Let me clarify, while reading certain issues of The Dark Age, I've been engaged and entertained--but seeing how much more ground that Busiek's been able to cover in two issues makes me partial to this quicker pacing. In terms of scope, I agree it's an apples and oranges comparison, but I still find myself craving more Astra-scale tales.

As Greg Rucka's Batwoman origin starts to play out in Detective Comics I'm slowly starting to appreciate why Rucka was so interested in developing Kate Kane. The final pages of this issue are some of the strongest I've seen from J.H. Williams III's already impressive run. Rucka's dialogue, mixed with Willams' use of darkness and panel layout, is elevated by Todd Klein's lettering particularly on the third to last page of the story. Did I mention Dave Stewart's colors? Because I really should. I'll be curious to see if and how DC collects Rucka and Cully Hamner's Question back-up feature down the road. As this particular arc wraps, I'm left wishing the Question pacing was different. The final installment opens with a great foot chase scene that I wished had more space to play out. And the story's conclusion carries an emotional closure that connects to the opening installment four issues ago. I think it would pack more emotional punch if I could read it in one sitting -- a situation that admittedly would still occur even if the story had the lead position and page number volume of the main Detetctive story.

Speaking of Hamner, I just reread Warren Ellis/Hamner's 2003 three-issue miniseries RED -- in preparation for an interview with Hamner. This is likely my favorite Ellis-written tale, mainly because of Hamner's exquisite work.

Finally, previous WAYR installments have sported me struggling with Jonathan Hickman's Fantastic Four. I struggle no more. Hickman's conclusion, while a smidge rushed, strikes a convincing and winning tone with me. (Though I must admit, it cracked me up in the heat of battle on the world of Reeds, when one Reed would say address one of them as "Reed" and the others failed to all turn around in unison, and ask "which one?"...). I could have done without the Val and Franklin subplot, but you have to give readers something to come back for next issue I guess.

Cat Paradise

Brigid Alverson: It’s Halloween as I’m writing this, so it’s appropriate that I’m reading Beyond Temptation, a horror story told from a teen point of view. It’s horror lite—there’s a hawt demon and some vaguely drawn histrionics, but mostly it’s that more surreal kind of horror — a girl saves a demon’s life, and he must repay her somehow. When he hears she needs money, he makes money magically appear in her pockets. It’s sort of a modern version of the magic porridge-pot, with a bit of Twilight-esque forbidden romance. The drawing is rather rudimentary, and the script has some spelling errors and odd usage—the story is set in Europe and I think this is translated from another language. Usually these two things send me running from a webcomic, but this has an unusually good story, so I’ sticking with it.

Back on the printed page, I’m enjoying the first volume of Yuji Iwahara’s Cat Paradise. I absolutely adored Iwahara’s three-volume Chikyu Misaki, a gorgeously drawn manga that has a lot in common with classic kids’ films. Cat Paradise is more straightforward — you don’t stop to admire the art as much—but it’s still mighty pretty. The story is a schoolgirl’s delight—our heroine goes to a school where students are allowed to keep a pet cat, and it turns out that the students and the cats must unite to battle monsters that are attacking the school. Everything is imaginatively drawn, and all the cats have distinct personalities of their own—in fact, they are more interesting than the students. This is more than a cat manga, though. I am not particularly fond of cats, but I like a good story, and this one delivers.

Detective Comics #858

Tom Bondurant: The LCS had a sale today -- 20% off without costumes, 25% off with -- so most of us donned our costumes for a family outing. The "Let's Be Friends Again" guys were signing copies of their new collection, but the line was a little long and we still had to buy Halloween candy.

As for what I've been reading, I think I'll just stop counting the number of styles JH Williams III uses in Detective Comics. What a great series that is.

Amy Reeder Hadley returned to Madame Xanadu for this week's issue #16, in which Betty Draper is the victim of some very disturbing magical pranks. I really liked her work this issue, because I think it is an excellent fit for the clean lines of the late-1950s setting. Matt Wagner's script was tight and suspenseful too, in part because I wasn't sure exactly who was working behind the scenes.

This week also saw the American-comics debut of Congolese artist Pat Masioni, drawing the first of a two-part Unknown Soldier story (in issue #13). I found his work very similar to regular series artist Alberto Ponticelli, but that's hardly a criticism: it's expressive and efficient, and it kept writer Joshua Dysart's script moving. LIke Madame Xanadu #16, the story begins with a
peripheral character and takes its time to get to Moses. That helped draw me into the story, and I'm looking forward to the next issue.

Finally, appropriately enough, I worked my way through Showcase Presents Ambush Bug. I hadn't read his early appearances in the Superman books, and as it turns out I hadn't read the Nothing Special, so some of it was actually new to me, but all of it was entertaining. I think I appreciate Keith Giffen's sense of humor better today than I did when these books first appeared. Back then I was probably looking for the kind of gags which are many bloggers' bread and butter -- not that there's anything wrong with that -- so it was good to realize Giffen (and scripter Robert Loren Fleming) were in fact going for something a little deeper. Now, thanks to my LCS trip, I can read the final issue of Year None with an informed eye.

JK Parkin: The third edition of Matthew Loux's Salt Water Taffy series is, like the others, a lot of fun. In this one, Jack and Benny solve a century's old mystery and help out an old ghost tied to the town's history.

And since I've been loving Jonathan Hickman's Fantastic Four, I picked up the Dark Reign: Fantastic Four trade. It's a good intro to his work on the regular title, esp. the way he characterizes Reed. And the bits with Franklin and Valerie were worth the price of admission alone. Actually, there are lots of cool little touches in this, as Ben, Sue and Johnny are jumping through alternate universes where the FF are pirates, or cowboys or space rangers. Fun stuff.

Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows

Chris Mautner: Halloween seems like the perfect time to be reading Bernie Wrightson comics, so I'm glad IDW sent me an advance copy of the first issue of The Ghoul, his latest work with writer Steve Niles that I believe comes out in stores this week. Sadly, this issue feels a bit overly familiar. It's basically Hellboy with a little bit of Goon mixed in -- a trenchcoated police detective needs help solving a mysterious kidnapping, so he enlists the aid of The Ghoul, who works for a special supernatural, federal police force. Of course, it turns out the Ghoul is an actual monster, though quite the sardonic, kick ass tough guy as well.

It all has the feeling of walking down a well-traveled road. Certainly it's nice to see Wrightson doing comics again, and Niles' script is certainly breezy and competent enough. But unless there's some major plot twists or change in tone in the next issue, there's nothing here that isn't in a hundred other supernatural detective stories that seem to be flooding the market these days.

IDW also sent me the first issue of the new Locke and Key series, written by Stephen King's son, Joe Hill, and drawn by Gabriel Rodriguez. I'm not terribly familiar with the series, but if I'm reading it right, it's basically a haunted house story with some fantasy elements thrown in. The first issue is basically a fight between the ghost of a dead killer and the astral projection of an apparently even worse bad guy. Rodriguez frames the sequence rather well. I like his characters' burly, expressive faces. He throws in a lot of detail during the fight, but I never had a problem figuring out what was going on. The comic is a little too plot-heavy for me to start reading here, but I might go back and look at some of the previous trade collections.

American Tabloid

Chip Mosher: When I am not completely immersed in comics, I like to read crime and hard boiled mystery novels. Ross MacDonald, Jim Thompson, Carter Brown, Charles Willeford, Donald Goines just to name a few. And if you are familiar with those guys, well you know that all those authors have passed away. So... I like to read stuff by a bunch of dead guys about people getting dead, but, hey, when I want a change of pace and read books by someone who is living, I turn to James Ellroy. Ellroy is called the "Demon Dog" of crime fiction and he's damn good. Right now I am making my way through his latest "BLOOD'S A ROVER." I love Ellroy's muscular, clipped, staccato prose style and his labyrinthine plots. Reading his later work is like reading Kerouac poems, but about crime instead "the road", and cool instead of pretentious! Speaking, Ellroy's latest book's title is taken from a poem titled "Reveille" by A.E. Housman:

Clay lies still, but blood's a rover;
Breath's a ware that will not keep.
Up, lad; when the journey's over
There'll be time enough for sleep.

Which I thought was cool. (And, hey, might also be pretentious! Oh, well.) In any case, before I moved out to Los Angeles, Ellroy was fast becoming one of my favorite living writers, and since I have lived here I have had the opportunity to meet him several times; once doing a bus tour given by Ellroy himself! On that tour, we went around to the neighborhoods where he used to be do B&Es (that's breaking and entering to the uninitiated), scenes of infamous murders that he works into his novels, and ending right at the spot where fifty year previous his mother's body was dumped after she was brutally murdered (See Ellroy's memoir MY DARK PLACES). The Ellroy bus tour was probably the best Christmas present my wife has ever given me. But I am weird that way. In any case, I am crime freak, a book freak, a conspiracy freak, and a history freak. If you're freaky in the same way, I would highly recommend BLOOD'S A ROVER and the whole Underworld USA Trilogy, which includes AMERICAN TABLOID and THE COLD SIX-THOUSAND. It tracks the years from 1960-1972 and takes all the craziness of who killed JFK, RFK, MLK (but, hey, not MJK) and mixes it up in one blender of a bitchin' series. And if you get the hardcover you can dig on those deckle edges. I love me some deckle edges. Did I mention I was a book freak? I think I did!

WildCats #19 and The Authority #18 covers

Here's another item George Perez can check off his list of "comic book universes I need to draw" -- the artist of New Teen Titans, Crisis on Infinite Earths and JLA/Avengers provides two interlocking covers for WildCats #19 and The Authority #18.

Legal

Legal | Twin brothers in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, have been sentenced to three months in jail for possessing anime- and manga-style images depicting children in sexual situations.

David Scott Hammond and James Cory Hammond, 20, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography after police discovered the images downloaded on their home computer last November. Although David Hammond's attorney said his client didn't realize it was illegal to download cartoon pornographic images of children, the prosecutor asserted that, "Every one of these images involves the victimization of children. The victimization wouldn’t happen in the first place if there weren’t people there to look at this material."

Earlier this month, lawmakers in Alaska began considering a bill that would expand the state's child-pornography laws to include cartoons. And in June a U.S. appeals court upheld the conviction of a Virginia man who was prosecuted, in part, under a 2003 federal statute outlawing possession of cartoon images depicting the sexual abuse of children. [The Chronicle Herald]

Viz Media

Publishing | The San Francisco headquarters of Viz Media was closed for two days this week after an unexpected downpour on Monday caused storm drains to overflow, flooding parts of the city. [Anime News Network]

Publishing | Just last week we were reporting that Villard had acquired the rights to Fated, a graphic novel written by Michael Jackson and Gotham Chopra. Now comes word that the Random House imprint paid $800,000 for it. Illustrated by Mukesh Singh, artist of Virgin Comics titles Gamekeeper, Devi and Jenna Jameson's Shadow Hunter, the black-and-white book is due out in June. [Crain's New York Business]

Publishing | On the day of the release of the 34th Asterix album -- Asterix and Obelix's Birthday: The Gold Book -- and just a week before the series turns 50, Hugh Schofield asks whether it's time for the little Gaul to hang up his helmet: "... While The Gold Book will doubtless sell as well as ever, the continuing commercial success of the Asterix series masks a painful reality that many fans prefer to ignore: For the past 30 years -- ever since [writer René] Goscinny's death in 1977 -- the books have been frankly second-rate." [BBC News]

Cla$$War

Publishing | Ben McCool talks to publishers Eddie Deighton and Ben M. Shahrabani about the return of Com.x, a company that launched with a bit of a splash in 2002 with Cla$$War and Razorjack before fading away a couple of years ago. [Publishers Weekly]

Retailing | Dragon's Horde, the only comics and used-paperback store in Danville, Illinois, will close on Nov. 20, a casualty of the recession and a 2007 fire that wiped out most of its inventory. "I decided two weeks ago that I could close the store now on my terms, or close it soon afterwards because I just couldn't pay my bills," said owner Richard Garrison. [The News-Gazette]

Retailing | The Village Voice has selected Brooklyn store Rocketship as New York's Best Comics Outpost. [The Village Voice]

Naruto, Vol. 46

Sales charts | I somehow missed the debut of the 46th volume of Naruto on last week's USA Today's bestseller list. But this week Masashi Kishimoto's wildly popular manga series slips 29 places from No. 110 to No. 139. [USA Today]

Conventions | The first Bellingham ComiCon will be held on Saturday at the Hampton Inn near Bellingham International Airport in Bellingham, Washington. Guests will include Paul Chadwick, Michel Gagne, Bob Smith, Brandon Jerwa and Eric Trautmann. [Bellingham ComiCon]

Conventions | Sarah Morean posts her report from last weekend's Alternative Press Expo. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Creators | R. Crumb talks about his much-publicized adaptation of The Book of Genesis:  "I don't think Genesis is a good place to look for spiritual guidance or moral guidance. I don't believe it's the word of God. ... At the same time, I think the stories are very powerful. I'm not out to ridicule them or belittle them." [The Associated Press]

North 40 #5

Creators | USA Today gives a boost to Wildstorm's North 40 miniseries by way of a Q&A with creators Aaron Williams and Fiona Staples, and a seven-page online preview of Issue 5. I hate the interface -- the same one used for the serialization of the Superman strip from Wednesday Comics -- but the interview is pretty good. [USA Today]

Creators | Geoff Boucher profiles Adam Byrne, "producer"/cover artist of The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft. [Hero Complex]

Welcome home, Paul Levitz

Jim Lee and the Wildstorm office collaborated on this wonderful Legion of Super-Heroes piece for Paul Levitz, the former president and publisher of DC Comics, as well as once and future writer of the Legion. The framed version, which looks like it has messages written on it from the Wildstorm folks, can be found at the link above.

Grumpy Old Fan

Obligatory Tardiness Joke: I was going to wait a year or so to discuss Planetary #27, but you know....

[crickets]

Ahem.  My most recent trip through the Planetary series was a couple of weeks ago, on a Sunday afternoon. I read the first two Planetary paperbacks before dinner, and finished off issues #13-26 after "Mad Men." After years of waiting interminably between issues, it became almost compulsory for me to read the next one immediately, regardless of how late it was getting. Taken as a single extended storyline, Planetary starts slowly, but before too long has gained considerable momentum.

Planetary's initial charm comes from its familiar genre pastiches, reconstructed faithfully by writer Warren Ellis and artist John Cassaday and investigated by their heroes, Elijah Snow, Jakita Wagner, and The Drummer. The notion that modern society has been shaped secretly by various groups of superhumans -- from Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula to pulp-hero analogues to an evil version of the Fantastic Four -- is incredibly appealing. Add in Japanese monsters, Hong Kong gangsters and 1950s' B-movie paranoia and the setup becomes even sweeter.

However, the nature of that setup means that many of the fantastic sights the Planetary team investigates are appreciated too late. The series mourns its world's lost potential, stolen by the Four for their own selfish ends and likewise denied us readers. The more familiar the honorees, the harder they seem to have fallen, as with the monster-corpses in issue #2 and the brutal murders of superheroes in issue #10. Eventually this turns Planetary away from its archaeology-of-the-impossible beginnings and into something of a revenge fantasy, as Elijah Snow and company visit their own brand of retribution unto the Four. Jog described this over-arching plot as "… reductive, stuffing the complexity of one hundred years of pop culture into this damsel in distress role, and then declaring the white hats triumphant gatekeepers of a better, changed, complex, enlightened world, basically by virtue of having hit the bad people to death."

As you might expect, that is all over now, and issue #27 offers a coda to their efforts. I suppose issue #27 is therefore the series' last opportunity to emphasize the Planetary team's constructive behavior, as opposed to the aforementioned violent retribution … but I'm getting ahead of myself.

It's possible as well to see Planetary as a sort of polemic against "realism" in superhero comics, although you'd think there would be better choices for "realistic" superheroes-gone-bad than the almost-fifty-year-old FF. Besides, Ellis pretty much took apart most of the Marvel characters in The Authority's hard-to-miss blunt-force satire.* If Planetary is about returning pop-cultural diversity and "strangeness" to the world, building up DC while attacking Marvel is an odd choice, sort of like picking ABC over NBC or Warner Bros. over Paramount. Perhaps it's because DC's signature characters, like the pulp heroes which preceded them, are each products of different creators, and thus represent greater diversity; whereas most of Marvel can be traced back to Stan & Jack & Steve (themselves not quite "The Four"). Still, that's kinda thin.

Regardless, if we are to blame Marvel, the FF are probably the most appropriate villains. One could make the case for Peter Parker, Hank Pym, Tony Stark, and Bruce Banner, but the FF were there first; and the start of the "Marvel Age Of Comics" is arguably the point at which comics either stopped being so stodgy or stopped taking themselves so seriously (depending on how you look at it). If Marvel's unifying theme was that super-powers only create their own set of problems, well then brother, you ain't seen nothin' like the problems this super-powered quartet can cause. Marvel-as-mercenary, willing to stop at nothing less than total domination, becomes even more horrific once Planetary twists around its flagship team.

Again, though, that's an awfully superficial reading of the series, not least because versions of both Thor and the Hulk are killed off along the way. If Planetary had been a Marvel book, I don't think it would have suffered by having the Justice League as the villains with the Avengers (and/or the FF) dying in issue #1. For me (not particularly an Ellis scholar), Planetary is probably most like Nextwave in its love of the weird and the obscure. (Also the violence -- "healing America by beating people up," as it were -- although the two series clearly use different tones.) Where the latter played things like Fin Fang Foom and Forbush-Man for laughs, Planetary celebrates them, perhaps to the point of excess. That threatens to oversimplify the series and obscure its nuances under a fog of sentiment.

Indeed, right from the start much of Planetary is about the clash of genres -- not just the Four versus everyone else, but issue #1's pulps-vs.-JLA fight and the "real-world" concerns which end up killing characters like the Hulk-analogue (in the preview story). As such, Planetary describes a world devoid of a certain imaginative spark; and it's eminently appropriate that the only surviving good-guy superhero is an analogue of the pure-in-heart Captain Marvel.

SPOILERS FOLLOW for issue #27...

4

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1

It's also appropriate that the opening pages of Planetary #27 find the world enjoying the somewhat predictable, but still gratifying, fruits of the Four's downfall: a cancer cure; cheap water, food, and power; interplanetary travel; etc. The bulk of the issue concerns Snow's efforts at a more personal victory, namely bringing his colleague Ambrose Chase back to the land of the living. Although the science involved warns of a small-p "planetary apocalypse," it -- like "Captain Marvel's" revival -- is a rare chance (in the context of the series) for Snow to do something positive, instead of cleaning up after the Four. The Drummer is pessimistic, but Snow is determined; and this reader felt as though anything could happen. What indeed would be the consequences of dipping into the timestream, tapping the power of Planet Fiction, and attracting all manner of undue attention? Would issue #1 play out all over again, only this time with Snow, Jakita, and Drummer having to fight off an even greater interdimensional menace?

Well … as it turns out, nothing so dire. The world doesn't end, Snow gets what he wants, and the future of Planetary looks brighter than ever.

None of it would have happened without opening the Four's vaults, from whence the time-travel basics come.** Although this inverts the Four's secretive practices, the issue doesn't openly acknowledge that its new utopia depends on having terminated the Four with extreme prejudice. At one point Jakita reflects on the fight they've won, saying she's "shallow" because she doesn't "have anyone to hit." She explains further that "… it feels like all the adventure is over, you know? Like we won the war, and I've been at war so long that I don't know how to do peace." Having spent most of the series imagining creatively brutal ways to dispose of the Four, many readers likely sympathize. Because the Four were built up as the series' ultimate villains, the series couldn't exactly go back to genre-of-the-month stories once its baddest bad guys were defeated.***

The battles with the Four, and the early conspiracy involving Snow's past, made Planetary one of those series which invited readers to make something cohesive out of all the details. I'm not sure how far issue #27 goes in that regard, because it definitely leaves one hanging subplot open. Snow observes they'll "probably never" learn what happened to the one person who returned from Planet Fiction. "There's no reason to believe he'd have to stay here," Snow says. "We're all living on two-dimensional planes of information…. He could be living in other stories now. Slipping between the turns of pages. Surfing down through a rack of books." Snow looks almost wistful as he says this, presumably happy that the Four no longer control the "stories" into which this mysterious person could travel.  Later in the issue, it's suggested strongly that Snow's personal feelings can affect an uncertain outcome.  Truly, the world is as we might wish it to be.

Speaking of Snow's expression, I've been remiss in not mentioning John Cassaday more. His work here is elegant as always, as usual enhanced by Laura Martin's subtle colors. This is an extra-sized issue which involves a lot of talking, but under Cassaday's direction, the conversations have life and the action sequences are suspenseful. Cassaday does particularly well with Jakita, helping make her an important presence in the issue despite her not having much to do beyond reacting to dialogue and events. Cassaday is at least an equal partner in this venture, and Planetary would have been a lot poorer without his considerable skills and talent. When a character says tantalizingly that "the good stuff hasn't happened yet," I picture that good stuff as drawn by him.

Planetary has been easy to appreciate, both for its eclectic approach to pop-culture fantasies and its play-fair-mystery atmosphere. Now that it is complete, I expect a new round of analysis will begin, once again trying to organize all of the series' minutiae, this time in light of issue #27's events. It's a shame we won't see the Planetary team rebuilding their "strange world" (and then keeping it that way).

Nevertheless, Planetary goes out on a high note, perhaps trying to counterbalance all the grimness it had endured to get here. Debuting in an atmosphere of premillennial anxiety, when The X Files was peaking and the future was uncertain, Planetary played on those fears by showing that the old fictional icons were also gone for good. With Planetary #27, Ellis, Cassaday, and Martin reveal that the world's destiny (and that of our heroes) has been righted. The sky's the limit, as it should have been all along. Issue #27 may not tie off all the series' loose ends, but after this long, at least Planetary has its victory lap.

+++++++++++++

* [EDIT:  actually, as alert commenter James points out, The Authority #s 13-16 (May-August 2000) were written by Mark Millar.]

** [In fact, the "loop of light" at the heart of the time machine is essentially the same shape as Galactus' home planet/space station, where the Human Torch found the Ultimate Nullifier 'way back when.]

*** [I would love to see Planetary/Santa Claus, but I have a sinking feeling the Four offed him too….]

Planetary #27

In what he bills as the first part of "A Planetary Restrospective," Funnybook Babylon's Chris Eckert goes all Nate Silver on the Warren Ellis-John Cassaday series, which concludes this week after 27 issues ... and more than 10 years.

Eckert isn't fooling around, either: He has a pie chart -- one that breaks down Cassaday's page output over the past decade. A pie chart!

Take us back to Feb. 3, 1999, the day the first issue of Planetary was released, Mr. Peabody Eckert: "Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Geoff Johns and Greg Rucka were all newcomers to mainstream comics with a smattering of 'Big Two' credits between them. Mark Millar was best known in America as Grant Morrison’s writing partner. No one had heard of Bill Jemas or Dan DiDio, and when people thought of 'comic book movies' Batman & Robin or Spawn came to mind."

Simpler times, indeed.

But back to the pie chart: I'm not sure what it really tells us, other than Planetary and Astonishing X-Men comprise about three-quarters of Cassaday's interior work since 1999. Still, though, everything's better with pie charts. And pie.

Yaoi Press

Legal | Yaoi Press Publisher Yamila Abraham was arrested Monday in Las Vegas on federal fraud charges related to online sales of an "herbal" alternative to recreational street drugs. Authorities claim the product contained no herbal supplements and was actually composed of dextromethorphan hydrobromide (DXM), the active ingredient in over-the-counter cough suppressants. The charges date from 2005 and 2006, when Abraham operated the mail-order website Pleasureherbs.com.

If convicted, Abraham, 34, could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each of the seven counts of mail fraud, up to one year in prison and a $250,000 fine on one count of misbranding a drug, and up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine on one count of introducing goods in domestic commerce by means of false statement. She also could be forced to forfeit property from the proceeds of the crime up to $186,680 and any equipment used to make the drugs.

On the Yaoi Press blog, Abraham asked for everyone to "please keep a cool head, and have faith. This situation is not going to end Yaoi Press. Don't believe the hype." She stressed that she will continue to appear at conventions, including this weekend's OtakuMex in Albuquerque, New Mexico. [Las Vegas Sun]

Disney and Marvel

Business | A Disney regulatory filing lays out a timeline of discussions and negotiations for its proposed $4-billion purchase of Marvel that dates back to February, when Disney CEO Bob Iger first mentioned the idea to Marvel Studios Chairman David Maisel. The documents, filed Tuesday, also disclose how much top executives at both companies will receive because of their stock options. Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, which advised Marvel on the deal, will draw a $20-million fee from the comics company. [Los Angeles Times]

Business | Disney Channel President Rich Ross appears to be the frontrunner to replace Walt Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook, who abruptly left the company on Friday. [Los Angeles Times, Deadline Hollywood]

The Toon Treasury

Publishing | Brigid Alverson talks with Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly about assembling The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics. "Our ideal audience is a kid walking into a library or opening a Christmas present and having this wealth of materials he can dive into, the way Uncle Scrooge dives into his money," Mouly said. [PW Comics Week]

Publishing | Viz Media Editor Nick Mamatas discusses the publisher's new Haikasoru line of Japanese horror, science fiction and fantasy novels. [Omnivoracious]

Retailing | Mike Musgrove reports on the closing of Big Monkey Comics in Washington, D.C., which owner Scipio Garling attributes to the economy. However, some of the store's competitors aren't so sure. "It's a sad thing to see it go," says Matt Klokel, co-owner of Fantom Comics. "But to blame the economy alone is doing a disservice to the remaining comic book stores. He seems to be saying that comic books are dead and it's just a matter of time before all comic book stores are closed. We have new customers coming in all the time." [The Washington Post]

Conventions | Brian Heater compiles a list of comics set to debut this weekend at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Scalped #35

Creators | Writer Jason Aaron announced he has extended his contract with Vertigo for Scalped for another 12 issues, taking the series up through No. 48: "Just seeing that number got me all excited, thinking about a fiftieth issue, thinking of how far the series had come, despite the odds being stacked against it. Makes me wanna say 'thank you' once again to all the people out here who pick this book up, whether in issues or trades, to all the people who blog about it, to the retailers who hand-sell it, to all the people who bring their friends to see me at cons and talk them into buying the book. You people are awesome. Scalped wouldn't still be here if it wasn't for you all going the extra mile." [Jason Aaron's blog]

Creators | Collaborators David Tischman and Philip Bond discuss their Wildstorm miniseries Red Herring. [PW Comics Week]

Creators | Jim Lee chats briefly about his involvement with the DC Universe Online game. [Game Informer]

Creators | Artist Brett Weldele talks to a local TV news station about The Surrogates comic and movie. [Montana's News Station]

Internet | Tucker Stone breaks down "the entirety of the comic Internet cycle" into three specific categories. [ComiXology]

Music | Don't expect that graphic novel from singer Aimee Mann anytime soon. [LA Snark]

Astra #1

I thought this cover for the first issue of the upcoming Astro City: Astra Special was pretty striking when it first popped up on Wildstorm's The Bleed blog in July, but I really love what Comicraft did to make it look like a magazine. Very cool.

The book comes out at the end of September.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 #1

Today's DC solicits confirmed what Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling tweeted over the weekend -- that Wildstorm has picked up another video game license, this time for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The most interesting part of the news, though, is that the book will be written by David Lapham, of Stray Bullets and Young Liars fame. Kevin West will provide the art, with Federico Dallocchio on covers.