Comic Picks By The Glick

The funny stuff is still funny and the sexy stuff is still sexy in this series.  So what’s left to talk about?  Well, there is the conflict that threatens to split apart Lisa and Ally’s relationship.  Though the volume begins with the former moving into the latter’s apartment with all sorts of romantic, sexual, and comedic hijinks ensuing.  While things are going great for a while, there’s the issue of friendship that keeps the two from taking things to the next level.  By that I mean Lisa keeps putting Ally in the friend zone whenever they’re together in public with or without friends.  Considering all that they’ve done for each other, it starts to eat at Ally after a while and the semi-platonic introduction of Annie, a tattoo artist who has a budding interest in S&M, to their circle doesn’t do a whole lot to alleviate her fears.  Things come to a head at a Halloween party where all this tension finally comes to the surface between Lisa and Ally, resulting in a lot of unwelcome emotional and physical pain for their relationship.

This should have resulted in a cliffhanger that makes the wait for vol. 5 feel agonizing beyond belief.  Except, as the present-day sequences throughout the series have made clear, everything works out all right for Lisa and Ally in the end.  So it becomes a question of “how” things are going to get better, rather than “if.”  Which is a little less dramatic.  I do have faith that creator Stjepan Sejic’s storytelling skills are up to the task of making that a compelling read as he skillfully develops the underlying issues that lead to the calamity at the end of the volume.  The whole “friend zone” issue encompasses a lot of little issues in Lisa and Ally’s relationship, and even when things seem to be getting better it’s still clear that some kind of reckoning is in the offing just from how the tone of certain scenes is pitched.  It might seem somewhat unbelievable that two women in a sexual S&M relationship who have just moved in together have trouble declaring their feelings for each other.  I get that, but it’s also clear that they’ve established this specialized, comfortable niche for themselves that they need to break out of if their relationship is going to continue.  I’m fully expecting to see that happen in vol. 5, along with all the resultant joy that’ll come along with it.  (And the lulz too, because it wouldn’t be “Sunstone” without that.)

At this point, Dark Horse has published more “Halo” comics for a longer time than when Marvel had the license to do so.  The one thing they haven’t done, however, is publish a hardcover anthology of short stories based in this videogame universe.  Well, that’s going to change this October when Dark Horse puts out the “Halo:  Tales From Slipspace” anthology.  Featuring work from the likes of John Jackson Miller, Jonathan Wayshak, Eric Nguyen, Kody Chamberlain, Dave Crosland and Simon Roy, as well as “Halo” comics writer Duffy Bordeau, and franchise staff Frank O’Connor and Tyler Jeffers, it should fit right in with the comics already being published by the company and its ongoing love of short stories.

Yet I remember when Marvel put out the “Halo Graphic Novel” and that was something of an event.  Not just because it was a full-on OGN from a company that had been staunchly averse to such things, but because it had an impressive and eclectic roster of talent for a licensed product.  The presence of artists like Simon Bisley, Moebius, and Tsutomu Nihei let you know that this wasn’t a project that was being handed off to whoever was in the Marvel offices that day and gave it a certain “must have” cachet in my mind.  Fortunately the end result turned out to be pretty good, given the talent involved.  That being said, this graphic novel also came out at a time when I had a vested interest in the “Halo” franchise and that time has long since passed.  “Tales From Slipspace” may wind up being good, but the (admittedly decent) lineup of talent Dark Horse has secured for it isn’t enough to rekindle my interest beyond typing this out.

Remember when creators Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque put this series on hiatus for a year so that they’d be able to work on all of the issues together and have them come out on schedule?  Yeah, that worked out real well.  It took Snyder and Albuquerque over a year to put out the six issues collected in this volume and now they’re putting it on hiatus again while they work out their respective schedules and work on other projects.  It’s a tough time to be an “American Vampire” fan with all this going on is what I’m saying here.  At least the goings-on in this volume make for a decent read as always, except I’m firmly convinced that it’s never going to get back that special flair it had in the beginning to make me think that it was more than just a clever horrorshow.  Fortunately, the narrative manages to avoid most of the silliness I was expecting from its “VAMPIRES IN SPAAAAAAAAAAACE!” storyline.

In which an astonishing array of international talent comes together to deliver a predictably uneven anthology.

This is a prequel of sorts to “Barakamon” in the sense that it shows what Sei Handa, the straightlaced calligrapher protagonist of that series, was like back in highschool.  As it turns out, he was even more uptight and neurotic when he was younger.  This is because Handa is convinced that everyone in school hates him and plots against him behind his back, which couldn’t be further from the truth.  Handa’s lone-wolf, detached yet impulsive persona has actually made him the idol of the entire school while his classmates are simply afraid to approach him because of (what they perceive as) the impenetrable aura of coolness he projects.

That should give you a pretty good idea of the kind of humor that we’re dealing with here.  All of the jokes in this volume revolve around Handa’s misconception of how he’s perceived by the people around him.  A love letter from a fellow classmate is thought to be a challenge.  His nomination for the position of class representative is viewed as a form of bullying.  A bullied student turned tough thug is won over by Handa’s reputation and cool nature.  You get the idea.

It’s all amusing enough, but the one-joke note of this setup feels even more limiting than “Barakamon’s” brand of culture-clash comedy.  While that series isn’t the funniest thing I’ve read, it managed to establish a larger and more interesting cast along with a potential for a rather broad range of comedic situations in exploring the culture of the region.  Also, Handa in that series is at least allowed to grow a little while any kind of growth on his part here will mean that the series is now over.  If nothing else, I still feel like I got my money’s worth with this first volume of “Handa-kun” as I downloaded the digital version for three bucks.  Even though subsequent volumes are still relatively cheap at seven dollars each, I still feel hesitant to pick up the next one to see if there’s more potential to this series than what’s on display here.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

It bills itself as the best superhero title in the universe.  So why would “Invincible” ever consider doing a reboot?  Mainly to freak out fans at the possibility that Robert Kirkman’s long-running superhero title might be giving in to the compulsion that has gripped the Big Two for the past few years.   Naturally, that’s not what happens here and the end result is that the title arc winds up being just a fun little diversion that sets up the next round of drama in Mark Grayson’s life.

Now this is more like it.  Writer Fred Van Lente has yet to truly distinguish his run from previous “Conan” writers, but he turns in a tale with more variety and energy than the one he delivered in the previous volume.  In order to obtain the treasure hoard known by the mute slave girl Diana, Conan has pledged to rescue her sister Natala from the walled city of Nippur.  While his comrades in Amra’s Bastards would normally be enough for the job, circumstances force them to team up with the mercenary forces led by the foolish Prince Almuric to assault the city.  As it turns out, rescuing a slave girl and pillaging a nigh-impenetrable trade city is the easy part of this operation.  The path Conan and his fellow warriors follow takes them deep into Stygia where they face chariot archers, a magic plague, lakes of lava, and the wrath of none other than Thoth-Amon.  All of this is worth the untold riches this hoard is supposed to contain, right?  I mean, it’s not as if the title of this volume is referring to a “Damned Horde” waiting to be awakened from their cursed slumber.

In addition to the above, we also get to see the title character mix it up with cannibal wildmen and their leader Eamon the Flayed, order scalding gruel to be poured on some cowardly noblemen, headbutt a snake and then kill it with its broken fang, and create a miniature eruption of lava by stabbing the ground hard enough with his sword.  Yes, it’s safe to say that Van Lente has Conan’s badass credentials well in hand.  More of the irreverence I was expecting from the writer finds its way into the narrative here, mainly in the way that his Conan simply will not stop trying to take on those who get on his bad side.  Even if it comes down to just spitting at them when he’s infected with the plague.  

This is great because it’s things like that which carry the volume.  Once again, the story is fairly standard issue by “Conan” standards, and the title basically gives away its only twist.  While the reappearance of Thoth-Amon should’ve been a big deal, it kind of falls flat.  Though Van Lente makes a decent effort to show the sorcerer as being out of his depth here, it feels like he was brought in for a bit of villain stunt casting rather than because the story needed an antagonist of his caliber.  Finally, Brian Ching does solid work here even if it’s becoming increasingly evident that we’re not going to see art on the level of his “Star Wars” work in this title.  So it’s not a great read, but “The Damned Horde” is still a good one for anyone who has been following Dark Horse’s “Conan” series for as long as I have.

Up until the end, this latest volume of the weird adventures of Lewis and Clark is another successful round of high adventure on the untamed American frontier.  This time around the explorers see one of the mysterious arches in the distance and two weird things for their trouble.  The first is a blue-feathered, smart-assed, Muppet-like tribe of creatures known as the Fezron who have a taste for humans even as they offer up sacrifices to keep the other bit of weirdness in this story at bay.  That would be the “Chiroptera” of the title, and it winds up being a magnificently brutal and creepy thing for our heroes to face off against.  Along the way, we get to see how Lewis deals with a potential mutiny, find out more about Sacagawea’s history, get to know how one of the younger members of the crew found himself in this mess, and start to learn just where all of these strange creatures are coming from.  It’s the usual great storytelling I’ve been led to expect from writer Chris Dingess and artist Matthew Roberts.

Then you get to the ending and HOLY CRAP was that brutal!  Without giving too much away, the ending shines a harsh light on the other reason behind Lewis and Clark’s expedition.  While exploring the frontier is a big part of it, they’ve also been charged with making it clear of danger.  Some may see the actions of the cast as being irredeemably harsh in light of events in the story up to that point, but I actually think they were necessary.  Dingess and Roberts don’t shy away from the grisly details of their characters’ work, which actually makes their point hit that much harder.  I also get the feeling that it’s not entirely dissimilar from the hinted-at days that our protagonists spent killing Native Americans in the name of making the frontier safe.  This may have been the right choice, against creatures who were shown to be a clear threat to humans.  Yet now I’m left wondering if the choices the characters face will always be this easy, or even shown to be the right ones over time.  I look forward to finding out!