The triumphant return of Love and Capes

This week marks the long-awaited return to comic shops the appearance of Love and Capes, Tom Zahler’s unique superhero, romantic comedy, comicbook. Formerly self-published by Zahler’s own Maerkle Press logo, it hits the stands now not only under the IDW imprint but as a monthly limited series. Zahler himself describes the title as a “Heroically Super Situation Comedy” which is perhaps the most apt description of the title that anyone has ever used.

The book follows the ongoing romance and relationship of Mark Spencer (secretly the Crusader, protector of Deco City) and the love of his life, Abby Tennyson (who knows of his dual identity and owns an independent book store). They were recently married (in issue #13 of the original run), and now they are moving onto the next phase of their mutual lives — marital co-habitation. Zahler writes this stuff with such an incredible ease that his story is (save for the folks running around in tights and flying and all), totally believable.

His dialogue is smooth and sharp at the same time, displaying wit and tone that isn’t always present in comicbook writing (which tends towards bland, two-dimensional characters, hence the term “cartoon characters”). While it is true that everybody’s dialogue seems more urbane than folks your likely to meet in real life, that is perfectly fine and fits entirely with the going-ons of the storyline itself. The rest of the regular cast consists of Abby’s sister, Charlotte (who is currently going to school in Paris, France, and used to date millionaire Paul LaCrox); Paul (who is secretly Darkblade, the dark protector of Chronopolis, and Crusader’s best friend), and Amazonia (who used to date Crusader, and is now dating Darkblade). The three heroes (along with several others), belong to a superteam called the Liberty League.

Each issue is (generally speaking), self-contained , so it is not necessary to possess all of the previous issues so as to be up-to-date with what is going on in the comic (although, after reading a single issue, you will probably want to rush out to purchase the other issues, simply because the series is that good). In this kick-off IDW issue (subtitled Ever After) begin with Abby & Mark getting used to married life, and looking for a new (larger) apartment. Then, in the middle of their search, Abby’s landlord raises her rent (twice), forcing her to consider a new location for her bookstore as well.

Added onto the tension of the newlyweds, is an invitation by Darkblade and Amazonia to have a couples night at LaCrox’s enormous estate (when offered a tour of the mansion, Paul musses that he hopes the Segways are charged up). This particular issue is a tad light on the superheroics part of the Love and Capes equation, but that is hardly a complaint, as the story is — as always — a gem.

Hopefully, with his new association with IDW (and its access to a wider distribution network), Love and Capes will get more of the recognition and acclaim that it justifiably deserves. The story is delightful; the artwork is bright, stunning, and vibrant, just the way comicbooks should be to reach outside of traditional marketplaces and bring new reader into the field. One can only hope.

New York Comic Book Marketplace

Saturday, February 19^th!

I'm thinking on going, how about you?

Carnage is the thing

 OK, so I'’m a Spidey fan, that much has already been established (yeah, no surprise, there, eh?) So obviously I’m not only going to be buying any comicbook with Spidey appearing in it, I’m going to be buying comics that have Spidey-related characters in them. Right?

So, a book entitled Carnage, in which Spidey appears is a given, eh?

Well, not so much. Unfortunately, the return of Carnage in his on limited series isn’t that much of a draw for me. I want to say that I’m enjoying the story, only I’m not. Not really. I mean, it is well enough written (by Zeb Wells), but the art by Clayton Crain just isn’t doing it for me.

The problem that I’m having with the art is that, well it is dark, muddy, and looks like it was inked in the dark, using only two or three colors, all of which were steeped in shadows.

No seriously, I  was trying to read this story, but the art is so dark and muddy that I was having the damndest time. I understand that Crain  was trying to go for mysterious and moody, but what he managed to achieve, was, well, mud. I totally understand that he was attempting to go for a mood thing, but it totally missed the mark,

The whole thing was simply printed too dark, and it not only reduced my overall enjoyment of the comic but it made the thing difficult to read and to even understand what was going on in the following issue.

I really wish that some consideration was given to what the end product was going to look like when artists start out on illustrating comics these days. So often it seems to me that comics (which I always have felt should be bright and colorful), wind up being dark and hard to read.

Still, someone must love this style of art, but I’m not one of them.

Neutron Girl

So, last October while I was at the NYComicon One of the tables I happened across was a couple of fellows hawking a comic called Neutron Girl. Well the comic was a tad off-beat which simply made it all the more appealing to me. the artwork was simple, yet attractive, and the story itself was, intriguing. I have just learned that the Neutron Girl comic is available at Amazon ($3.00).

I also just discovered (from reading the background on Amazon) that the comic Neutron Girl is actually connected to an independent film entitled , Water Falls in Manhattan. The comic, which is written by Brian P. Katz, is apparently the same comic being written by the character in the movie. The character in the movie —Anthony Eivers — writes Neutron Girl — a fantasy that is based on his life with his girlfriend, Sonya. In the comic, Sonya is the eponymous superhero, Neutron Girl.

I’m not sure if the Indie film was ever made (I can't seem to find any info on it), but the comicbook itself is kinda cool.

Warlord of Mars

I first discovered Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter back in 1977 when it appeared in a Marvel Comic. and remember enjoying it quite a bit. I really dug the four-armed Martians. It wasn't until much later on that I realized that this character had a long, rich literary history in comics (I was aware of his connection to Burroughs right away). Well, in the years since, the character has appeared in other comicbook incarnations (including DC & Dark Horse).

Oh, and for those of you paying attention, the character “John Carter” who appeared on the TV program, ER was actually intentionally named by series creator, novelist Michael Crichton (The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park), after the Burroughs character in tribute to the master storyteller.

Well, recently, Dynamite Entertainment has begun publishing a 12-issue series entitled Warlord of Mars. The first two issues serve as a prelude story, issues 3-9 will adapt A Princess of Mars, and issues 10-12 will be an original story. The great part of this is that issue #1 has a $1.00 cover price, which — as I’ve often said — is always a great way to lead into a new series. This first Dynamite issue (by Arvid Nelson & Stephen Sadowski) is really very good, and I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

Dynamite also has a Warlord Of Mars Deja Thoris series planned as well that will give some background to Carter’s Martian love. I’m looking forward to both series.

(Not so) Scary comicbook

Not nearly as frightening as it perhaps
should be

So, because I've been contributing short stories to a number of small press publishers for the past few years, on occasion I’ve pick up some other horror anthologies (books to which I’m not contributing), and have been — well — seriously underwhelmed by what I’ve seen. The stories I’ve read, itn the anthologies I’ve seen keep going back to the “Uncle Creepy”/EC style of “gotcha” ending that I’ve been reading all of my life and, well, it just isn’t frightening any more.

Yeah, yeah I know that when I was 10, this stuff was scary, but I’m not 10 any more, and even if there were 10-year-olds reading comics these days, the crap that publishers are throwing at us just don’t do it, plus so much   of  of the art is simplistically bad and the stories themselves are just bad. That I have to wonder how these writers and artists (and editors) can get work.

I hate to sound arrogant, but seriously, not only is my stuff much better than what I’m reading, but so is the work of my fellow creators whose work appears alongside mine in these anthologies is also way much better than what I’m seeing in other anthologies.

To this end, I want to direct folks to the Atlas Unleashed titles to which I contribute, Free Lunch Comics, and to Main Enterprises. Three examples of most excellent work.

International Heroes

Some time back I became turned on a Kuwaiti comicbook company that initially entered into the US marketplace by licensing Spider-Man to publish in Arabic for the Mid-East. Teshkeel Comics then moved into a new area by introducing their own characters, The 99. The comic (written by Fabian Nicieza) centers around a group of teenagers who have certain aspects of their personality “augmented” by bonding with several “enhanced” Noor gem stones that have been imbued with one of The 99 special traits of Allah, and then passed these traits each of the individuals. If this sort of sounds a little like the X-Men it is probably because Fabian is a former writer of that team.

Given this double connection to Marvel, it sort of makes the next part of this post even more interesting. The 99 Have recently teamed up with the JLA. Yep, DC’s Justice League of America. Now I’m not sure why this first team-up happened with DC, and not Marvel, but — on some level — I really don’t care, so long as these very cool characters become introduced into the American Audience.

It is one of the goals of Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa (a UNESCO award-winning author and the creator of the 99) to present a positive image of the Arab world and Islamic beliefs, and both the comic itself and his editorials in each issue reflect that approach. Dr. Naif was quick to point out that there is no overt religious message in The 99, nor is he attempting to present a religious image of either Allah or Islam, as that would be something to difficult to attempt. Rather, the comic should be viewed as a typical superhero comic that just happens to take place with a cast of characters that is largely Islamic.

As of yet, I haven’t read the JLA/99 series (for of the planned six issues have already hit the stands), but I’m looking forward to doing so as I have read the first 12 or 13 issues of The 99. The team-up is co-written by Fabian  and Stuart Moore.

Personally, I can only think that this kind of inter-company team-up can be beneficial to both companies by introducing the characters of each to the readers of the others. To be sure, the DC characters are more widely known, but it certainly couldn't hurt to have them favorably introduced into the largely Islamic audience that reads The 99, nor would it be bad for the primarily U.S. audience to get a more favorable understanding of non-threatening Islamic characters.