After getting a sense of what Li’l Abner‘s creator was like, it’s time to meet Dogpatch, USA’s first family, the Yokums. Of course, readers are probably most interested in Li’l Abner‘s titular character so I’ll start with the big galoot himself.
Meet the Yokums: Li’l Abner Yokum
The heart and soul of Li’l Abner is, not surprisingly, the lovable and naïve Li’l Abner Yokum. Although some stories find Abner on the outskirts of the plot, no plot-line in the strip is ever free of the innocent and gigantic teen.
Capp deftly walks a difficult tightrope with his ongoing characterization of Li’l Abner. Longtime readers of the strip will be familiar with the way Capp poked fun at southern culture while simultaneously revering it. Li’l Abner may not be the sharpest tool in the shed but what he lacks in wit and charm he makes up for in bravery, loyalty, and unbeatable wrasslin’ skills, what he learnt from his Mammy.
Speak Softly But Carry a Big … Pair of Fists
Li’l Abner may be gigantic, but he doesn’t get violent often. His mammy taught him to use his head first and his fists as a last resort. Rest assured that if Abner has to “smack yo’ ’round a bit,” then yo’ deserve it.
Although Li’l Abner almost always does the right thing, he does have a blind spot. Li’l Abner’s relationship with women is decidedly outdated and relatively misogynistic. Li’l Abner sees “girls” as a bore, only reluctantly spending time with any but his beloved Mammy.
Southern Gentlemen Apparently Prefer “Po’k Chops”
“Oh, Li’l Abner…”
One girl Abner often finds hanging around, despite his suspiciously halfhearted attempts to spurn her, is the lovelorn Daisy Mae Scragg. Daisy Mae has to put up with a lot of crap over the first year of Li’l Abner‘s publication, including being psychologically manipulated by a suitor and enduring a fake wedding to Li’l Abner. Although their on-again/off-again relationship eventually culminated in a long-lasting marriage, Daisy Mae had to put up with nearly 20 years of waiting. Luckily, neither of them aged…
Noo Yawk
Although a number of plot-lines take place in the Yokums’ hometown of Dogpatch, USA, Li’l Abner is periodically called to New York by his Aunt Bessie, the Duchess of Bopshire. Abner’s well-to-do socialite aunt stands in contrast to the rest of his salt-of-the-earth family. Rather than taking the gigantic and lovable teen as he is, Aunt Bessie is always working on some plan to educate and refine Li’l Abner. In one such plot-line, Li’l Abner is called to New York to attend college so he might one day realize his Mammy’s dream for him and “be Presidunt.”
Where the rest of the Yokum family act as caricatures of southern hill-folk, Aunt Bessie acts as a caricature of bigwig New Yorkers whom Capp would’ve had much greater familiarity with as a New Yorker himself.
“Ain’t no place like Dogpatch!”
Li’l Abner’s trips to New York are bittersweet for his supporting cast: all are genuinely happy that the big dummy is trying to improve himself but things in Dogpatch just aren’t the same without him, especially for Daisy Mae. In addition to experiencing increased levels of romantic desperation during Abner’s absences, she continually finds herself at the mercies of one creepy yokel or another.
In true ’30s form, though, Abner’s absences only serve as opportunities to have hearty reunions. Abner almost always swoops back in the nick of time to wrassle whomever needs wrasslin’, but if he doesn’t then his Mammy’s always there to back him up.
“Mammy fix!”
Meet Mighty Mammy Yokum
Although Abner may have married Daisy Mae in 1952, his first real love was his pipe-smoking, ham-fisted, and po’k shop slingin’ Mammy. Check out my next article on the Yokum matriarch and the love of her life, the cowardly but tenderhearted Pappy Yokum.
The second issue of Livio Ramondelli’s “The Kill Lock” invests itself into the flaws and backstory of its characters as they seek a cure for their condition. Guided by absolutely phenomenal artwork, “Kill Lock” looks to be one of the most promising new series entering 2020.
Bonded by their Kill Lock, four robots search for a cure—a way to live, and die, independently. Their only clue is a bot known as The Axial, supposed to be a creator of the Lock and keeper of its secrets. Of course, the first thing they have to do is find her… without getting themselves killed!
Writing & Plot
Writer and artist Livio Ramondelli progresses the plot of his characters via their backstories and flaws in “Kill Lock” #2. The quartet’s journey takes them to a crime-riddled planet of debauchery and red-light districts. Ramondelli uses this environment to challenge each of the character’s weaknesses and personalities, placing them in some dicey situations that also keep the forward momentum of the main plot moving. Something truly special about the character work in this comic is that none of the four characters are stereotypes. There are of course hints of other archetypes in the protagonists (the psychopath, the faithful soldier, the innocent child, and the honest working man), but they manage to surprise the reader at almost every turn. The dialogue is plenty natural and well-paced, which may be slightly ironic given that everyone’s a robot, but that’s likely even more of the charm.
Art Direction
Ramondelli combines a “used future” aesthetic with his almost trademark style of drawing humanoid machines. Aside from his fantastic ability to design individually distinct and original robots of all sizes, he also creates perfectly dingy or desolate environments for them to roam around in. The icy tundra from the prior issue is replaced by a grimy urban landscape for “Kill Lock” #2, and it manages to be appropriately claustrophobic. Ramondelli’s combat scenes are a treat as well, short as they may be. They don’t showcase any excessive posing or maneuvering, and everything happens very quickly. Regardless, they’re always a brutal and awesome sight to behold for the whole three panels it takes for the Wraith to disembowel an entire platoon.
“The Kill Lock” #2 is a chapter focused on the backstory and characteristics of the main cast. The environment Ramondelli places them in forces them to act on their own impulses (or lack thereof, for one), revealing more about the quartet of disgraced machines and their ability to work together. The script remains tightly paced with great dialogue. The art is absolutely breathtaking in every regard. “The Kill Lock” is a definite series to watch as we enter 2020.
The creators of Childrens Hospital unleashed a hilarious spinoff on Netflix called Medical Police, which takes parodying procedural dramas and spy thrillers to a whole new level. Lacing all the action and comedy with just the right underscore is composer Matt Novack.
Creators Rob Corddry, Krister Johnson, Jonathan Stern, and David Wain scored a hit with Childrens Hospital back in 2009. The short-form web series premiered on TheWB.com but was picked up by Adult Swim later, where it found a strong following throughout its seven seasons. Now, the team reunites to take their doctors into the spy game where many jokes about nefarious villains and un-killable heroes will undoubtedly fill the screen.
PopAxiom reached out to composer Matt Novack to talk about his road to making music for film and television, the Harley Quinn animated series, and making music for Medical Police.
Beats
Matt became interested in music at an early age. “My dad played a little saxophone. He was a jazz musician for a while before I was born. My mom played a little bit. They encouraged me to pursue music.”
During his formative years, the would-be composer admits he was “… obsessed with film scores early on … Star Wars, of course.”
Matt started off as a percussionist. “Drums and keyboard percussion,” Matt says, “My dad actually bought me my first drum set without running it by my mom first.”
At Northern Illinois, Matt studied “… percussion performance and composition … “ After graduating, Matt says, “I moved out to L.A. and went to USC’s film scoring program and then started working.”
Road To Childrens Hospital
Before Childrens Hospital, Matt worked for “Craig Wedren, as his assistant.”
The young composer also spent time “… working for a music library as an assistant and sort of jack-of-all-trades; composer, orchestrator, office manager.”
He explains a bit about what a music library does. “These are music houses for commercials, documentaries, stuff like that. Their main thing is that they’ll produce albums of music for licensing. Movie trailers, commercials, TV shows, mostly reality TV shows. It’s typically for productions that don’t hire a composer to work on the show. So it’s pre-produced music.”
About working in a music library, Matt says, “It’s a good gig to do between shows.”
Matt considers Childrens Hospital as his big break. “It was my first show on my own with my team. I scored it for seven years. It opened doors for everything else.”
About Medical Police
Medical Police released January 10th on the streaming giant Netflix. “It’s a completely different score from Childrens Hospital. The score was a parody of Grey’s Anatomy.”
Matt continues, “There are some hints of the Childrens Hospital score at the beginning of the season, but then the rest of it we are in full-on international thriller score.”
Where Childrens Hospital leaned heavily into the comedic score, Medical Police takes things in a different direction. “We wanted to make a score that could fit into a more serious version of this kind of movie. The score could be lifted from Medical Police and put into one those kinds of movies and work fine.”
Wrapping Up
Matt rattles off three names in quick succession when asked about influences. “Elliot Goldenthal, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith are all tied for how much they influence me.”
What would John Williams do? “Whenever I get stuck, I think ‘How would these guys do it?’ It usually helps me unlock my writer’s block. There’s so much to learn from them.”
In the age of remakes, what would Matt love to be a part of? “There was a Greatest American Hero pilot that didn’t go, but that would be so much fun. Maybe Gremlins. Growing up, I was obsessed with Gremlins and Goonies.”
Medical Police is out on Netflix and tickling funny bones, but there’s more to come from the composer. You can hear more of Matt’s work on “Harley Quinn on the DC Universe.”
Will you be watching Medical Police on Netflix?
Thanks to Matt Novack and Impact24 PR for making this interview possible.
Want to read more interviews like this? CLICK HERE.
Tartarus #1 hits your local comic book store on February 12, but thanks to Image Comics, Monkeys Fighting Robots has an excellent interview with the creators of the series Johnnie Christmas and Jack T. Cole.
About TARTARUS #1:
A new adventure series with all the sci-fi drama of Breaking Bad set in Mos Eisley! Promising young cadet Tilde is framed for crimes against the empire after discovering her mother was the ruthless warlord of the deadly colony Tartarus, a vital player in the galactic war. Now, Tilde’s only way home may be to reclaim her mother’s dark crown. #1 New York Times bestseller JOHNNIE CHRISTMAS (Alien 3) and artistic phenom JACK T. COLE (The Unsound) kick off this ongoing series with 44 big pages of story.
CHECK OUT THE INTERVIEW BELOW.
MFR: With a book like TARTARUS, how much world-building is involved?
JOHNNIE:On the writing side, quite a bit, in terms of history and setting. The tech that gave rise to the start of their civilization and its implications. But then I switch focus to the emotional arc of our characters and let Jack take the lead on designing the world. How those technologies evolve and how they’re implemented through his visual depiction of the world.
JACK:Quite a bit. There’s a lot of ideas that Johnnie and I will collaborate on to come up with, and then there’s a bunch of others that Johnnie comes up with, and I figure out how to render, and then another bunch that I figure out and put in to fill things in that I would like to see. For instance, on the space station the look of some of the computers that appear to be made out of a liquid is something that Johnnie and I came up with together, but Johnnie didn’t specify the look of the computers, or if they even needed to be these liquid computers, so it was up to me where to put them in and how they would appear and function in that instance.
Otherwise on my end I research buildings, objects, and styles before I get started on a drawing a panel or a character. Fundamentally world-building is just passive storytelling, so my goal with any world-building is to tell a story in the background that is concurrent with the main narrative and accentuates it. Storytelling like how people in the story dress, or what the advertising on their businesses looks like, or how their streets are designed. Things that your brain will pick up even if they’re not pointed out, and make the main narrative richer, ideally without distracting the reader in the process.
MFR: Johnnie, talk about your relationship with Jack since you are both artists. Are your scripts very detailed, or does Jack have a lot of room to play?
JOHNNIE:I have quite a bit of detail in terms of emotion and feeling. We have beats that have to be addressed on the road to where we’re going, for this arc and the series at large. But when it comes to a fight, action scene, or two characters having a long convo, we’ll switch to “Marvel Method,” and Jack fleshes it out. I won’t depict where each punch will land; I’ll write something like “Good Guy is fighting Bad Guy. Should feel desperate. Bad Guy wins but is missing a tooth.” and leave how that unfolds in Jack’s capable hands.
MFR: Jack, one aspect of your art that stands out is how detailed the world around the characters is. Why is that important to you?
JACK:Let’s say you see a really good picture of a forest, it will excite your imagination, your brain will want to know “What does the rest of the forest look like?” and in your imagination, you will continue the picture. Same goes for anything else, a good street scene you will want to know what the buildings look like on the street over, and your imagination will have a good idea of it. Or if you have an interesting object, your imagination will be engaged knowing that things like this exist in it, and other interesting things could be lurking nearby.
A detailed world when well done creates an experience that is larger than the sum of its parts and creates a space where the reader can go beyond what it is presented and in a way be a co-collaborator with the world.
MFR: Johnnie, with the first issue, how do you balance revealing enough to engage the reader and leaving enough mystery that the reader wants issue two immediately?
JOHNNIE:I try to focus on what motivates the characters in the moment. If it’s truthful, the moment to moment is interesting, since our characters have pretty strong desires. But all the while I’m planting seeds that will bear fruit that we’ll harvest in following issues.
MFR: Jack, can you talk about the vivid color palette of the first issue?
JACK:I was just coming off of THE UNSOUND, where I had been using color in abstract ways to heighten emotional tension and create odd moods. Additionally, I was sort of obsessed with comics from the 70s, 80s, and early 90s at the time and their color palettes, and how stark they could be, and how when the right palette came together it is genuinely divine. Issues 1 through 3 readers will see some more of the influence of this fixation, but recently I realized I had almost forgotten how to use brown and grey in my pursuit of this direction, so I’ve circled back around!
MFR: The title logo for TARTARUS #1 does not scream science fiction, what are the origins and meaning of the logo?
JOHNNIE:We worked with the talented Rian Hughes on that. I gave him the series pitch, a synopsis, and sketches of what Jack had planned for the first issue cover. What became our final logo was in the first round of ideas. I liked the strength and authority connoted in the columns up against the delicacy of the flowers and the deadliness of the thorns. It says, “TARTARUS, tough but pretty.”
MFR: How hard is it to create a main character that readers can connect with, and is Tilde on a “hero’s journey?”
JOHNNIE:I guess I’ll see how well they connect with readers eventually, ha. But I think by giving our cast simple relatable desires is the key. Surka wants out of the clink. Tilde wants to go home to take care of a sick loved one. Klinzu wants to go on a hot date with a cute person, and Sevno wants to be good at his job. Stuff everyone can understand and relate to. If we follow what they want in a truthful way, then I’m hoping it’ll connect with folks. At least that’s the plan. And Tilde is kind of on a hero’s journey, to begin with: She starts in the normal world, there’s an inciting incident, she begins her journey, then the descent into the cave. And that’s where things may start to diverge from the usual hero’s journey. The cave in TARTARUS is very deep.
JACK: It’s tough to know the extent a character will connect or not until people actually read it and a whole variety of complex factors come together. On my end, I try to come up with designs that have some appeal, and give the characters different sets of gestures to help convey their “character” and hope that readers will connect with it.
MFR: TARTARUS is an ongoing series; how far do you have the story outlined?
JOHNNIE:Just because I like to know where I’m going, I have a scratchy outline for the first four arcs. If we get there or beyond is entirely up to reader reaction. We also know the endpoint of each character’s narrative. Though sometimes characters have a mind of their own and decide to go their own way…
MFR: Independent publishing is a tough business. How will you measure success with TARTARUS?
JOHNNIE:Readers. They are the Alpha, the Omega, the measure of success. If they love it, if they buy it, if they talk about it with their friends, everything else will take care of itself.
JACK:If we have enough of a readership that allows us to sustain the story, that’s definitely a big success!
MFR: Thank you again for your time, and best of luck with TARTARUS!
JOHNNIE:Thanks so much for talking to us!
JACK:Thank you!
What did you think of the interview, are you going to add Tartarus #1 to your pull list? Comment below with your thoughts.
Tartarus #1 will also be available for purchase across many digital platforms, including the official Image Comics iOS app, Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, comiXology, and Google Play.
Marvel Comics have announced that more X-Men comics are due out this year, and a planned Crossover event is scheduled for December.
Yeah, massive X-citement for the X-Men.
With five titles currently on the roster (six if you include Fallen Angels, however, that is due to finish at issue 6 with no firm announcement of restarting) and more titles announced, that’s a lot of X-Men comics for fans to get their teeth into.
So why, then, am I canceling my orders after the sixth issues are released? Simply put: there are just too many.
As Eric Stephenson states in his interview with Newsarama, there are too many comics released every month. With each fighting for readers’ attention and money, this can ultimately be damaging to overall comic sales.
One X-Men comic will sell well, especially with the right creators on board. Add another into the mix, and the chances are that they will both have good sell-through. However, have six titles on the go, and start to add more, and all you are doing is diluting your audience or taking readers away from other titles.
Cover Art fro X-Force from Marvel: Another X-Title to add to the mix
An extra complication is that all of the new X-Books are linked. Not massively, for the most part, you can read Excalibur and not read New Mutants, but there is an underlying story running through it all because that is how Jonathan Hickman works. With no clear idea, at the moment, what that story-line is or which comics best serve what is coming, there is an urge to collect and read them all.
However, not everybody can go all in and buy everything. Financially, it’s a big spend every month, especially as the release rate is more than one issue a month. Since the House/Powers of X comics started last August, Marvel will have released 44 single comics before February. That’s over 7 per month, and it’s just going to increase. March Solicitations contain 12 single X-Men comics.
You could cut down to one or two titles, follow your favorite creator, which is always a good piece of advice, but what of this crossover that’s looming at the end of the year? Which comics do we need to read to follow that, or doesn’t it matter? At this stage, we don’t know, so it’s a risk if you don’t pick up every X-Men comic on the shelf.
In essence, what Marvel is doing with so many X-Men comics on the shelf is alienating a proportion of their readership. An elitist group of people who can, and will, buy all the titles will have an advantage over those who can’t. It also forces some people, like myself, to give up on the entire collection of comics because it is easier to do that than choose between them.
A number of times I’ve been committed to a comic only to get screwed over when it comes to the crossover event. Suddenly I have to buy 20 more comics and catch up on several other titles for the last 6 months to understand what is happening to the characters I enjoy.
Just ditching the event is an option, but one that usually doesn’t work with Marvel or DC because everything leads up to and is resolved in the event. For example, take DC’s New 52 Animal Man and Swamp Thing comics from 2012. Each title had critically acclaimed starts, with Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire proving there was life in the old Vertigo characters. After a year and a half, both titles came together in an overlong crossover event, Rotworld. It was a disaster.
But more than just being a terrible end to two excellent comics, it ruined potential re-reads. As everything was working towards the events in Rotworld, with the stories that started in issue one concluding in the crossover, the disappointing ending diminishes the prospect of re-reading. Why read so many comics when you know you’ll be disappointed at the end. You could stop reading before the end, but then everything is left open with no conclusions. Either way, you are less likely to pick them up over other comics. In fact, I recently gave my copies away because I doubt I will ever read them again.
Therein lies the worry with the current X-Men. If the crossover doesn’t satisfy, for any reason, then the 18 months of comics leading up to it will sit unwanted, on shelves or in boxes. And Marvel Crossover events have not been critical or satisfying successes in recent years, even the last one written by Jonathan Hickman.
With so many titles on offer, it may be better to trade wait, but that prospect isn’t necessarily any brighter. Based on current solicitations, Marvel is releasing the comics in two different ways. The first is the Dawn Of X collections, with each volume including one issue of each comic, and the second is individual trades collecting six issues of each title. So the choice, in essence, is still the same: All or nothing.
A collection of X-Men comics from Marvel
The X-Men comics are definitely the best they have been for years, content-wise, but the comics market is more than just content. The publishers have several other considerations, and the current trend for flooding the market with as many comics as possible can not continue. The quality of the comic becomes irrelevant if the audience struggles to buy them. A streamlining of the series might even create more demand, selling a higher number of a single title.
But then, maybe not. Maybe the majority of X-Men readers are reading the ‘main’ title and picking up only one or two of the others. This would mean that losing the outlaying titles won’t affect the sales of the leads. In some ways, the sales figures for November and December seem to suggest this. Therefore, Marvel will probably see this as losing out if they cut the number of titles.
If only the obsession with ‘shared universes’ and ‘crossover events’ wasn’t such a big thing. That way, each X-Men title could be its own thing and self-contained. Readers could then pick what they want without having to worry about missing out on essential story elements from other titles.
Cyclops gets it. Credit: Marvel Comics
I do not doubt that this year is going to be a big hit for Marvel’s X-Men range, and part of me wants to be along for the ride. The quality of the comics being released are all of a high standard at the moment, with some very interesting ideas. Unfortunately, I can only buy and read so many comics. There are many other stories, from some other publishers, worth discovering, which is why I don’t want to put all my eggs in one basket.
Are you reading them all or picking and choosing? Why don’t you let us know how you do it in the comments below.
Markets Of India in Hit Girl #9 Credit: Image Comics
If you want to set a tone or produce an identity for a location, one of the most immediate and noticeable ways of doing this is through the coloring. The choice of coloring style can make the difference between a comic leaping out at you from the page turn or sucking you into a specific panel or narrative moment.
Frank Miller used color sparingly to highlight a character or an action in Sin City. The rest of the artwork was solid black and whites, emphasizing the grim world that the characters inhabit. In contrast, the majority of modern Superhero comics are inundated with color. Often bright, primary colors mark out the characters against well lit but more subdued, realistic backgrounds.
Changes in color, sometimes subtle but sometimes not, can affect the reader’s understanding of a situation or scene. The coloring in Supergirl #37, for example, is fairly naturalistic, but Cris Peter enhances tones in the background to reflect the mood of the foreground narrative. It can be subtle, and the effect mostly subconscious on the part of the reader.
Jordie Bellaire’s color work is usually more obvious and emotional. Full panels and, often, entire pages are washed with a single base color with the details picked out in dark or light hues. The color is primarily used to create mood and emotional responses, with very little attention towards realism. A quick flick through Days of Hate gives the reader a sense of the narrative on each page and the relationship to previous scenes/chapters.
Background color changes in Supergirl #37 Credit DC: Comics
The Streets of India
In the latest chapter of the Hit-Girl world tour, where the Millarverse character hits the streets of India, Triona Farrell has been producing some of the most elaborate and effectively colored pages in modern American comics.
A quick glance at the first page of issue 12 (below) tells you everything you need to know about the coloring in this comic and, more importantly, the setting of the story. The city of Mumbai is full of life, bursting from the streets in amazing technicolor. It is vibrant, intense, but also violent.
Opening page of Hit-Girl Season 2 #12 Credit: Image Comics
The way that Farrell reflects the violence is interesting in itself. The explosions of blood in the second panel resemble flowers in bloom. Later in the comic, the blood flows like waves and scatters like seeds. The consequence of the violence has a natural feel to it, almost as if this is something that is accepted. It’s shocking, at the moment, but then dissipates into the scenery. Just another part of life in the Indian city.
The vibrancy and energy of city life come across on every page. Even when the action shifts to a night scene or takes a character into a physically darker place, the array of color is still there. Lights flash in the background, and the shadows change to deep purples and blues. Even in darkness, there is an abundance of life, represented by the color.
The most notable element of the comic that Farrell highlights is the character costumes. The beautiful designs by Alison Sampson are brought out of the page by depth and varied color. The differences in character’s lives become a part of the color palette with the street kids contrasting against the opulent criminal gang members. The rich tapestry of Mumbai society is featured within the pages as the character extra’s move through the marketplaces.
Crowd Scene artwork in Hit-Girl #9 Credit: Image Comics
Hit-Girl
And, one character stands out amongst them all: Hit Girl herself. Her costume, almost entirely violet in color, makes her a focal point on the page. The almost lack of purple coloring within the other costumes means that she is separated from everyone else. Mindy stands alone as a character in a strange land, an interloper into this complex underworld of India.
The central story is about Hit-Girl, so Farrell makes it easy for the reader to follow her through the narrative. However, there is so much more going on. Farrell packs each panel with color and life so that it is almost impossible not to become distracted and admire both the artwork by Sampson and the numerous storylines written by Peter Milligan.
Follow Mindy in Hit-Girl Season 2 #12 Credit: Image Comics
Hit-Girl: India published by Image Comics is a beautiful looking comic, despite the violence that it contains. Farrell brings out the themes of the narrative and the intricate design work, holding nothing back on the color front. She produces an aesthetic that captures the spirit of Mumbai and reflects the complexity of the characters and their interactions. Color can be used for many things; in this comic, Farrell uses it for all of them.
Image Comics releases Hit-Girl: India (Vol. 6) on 19th February.
The final issue of David Dastmalchian and Lukas Ketner’s “Count Crowley: Reluctant Midnight Monster Hunter” is here, and it’s riddled with emotion and foreshadowing. Dastmalchian places the monster conspiracy in the background to bring Jerri Bartman’s heartbreaking story to the forefront and bring peace to the chaotic protagonist. The cathartic plot coupled with series-best artwork makes this finale the absolute high note of the story.
The end is near! Jerri Bartman is battling the bottle, supernatural beasts, and a compulsory knack for self-destruction. If she’s going to survive, she’ll have to stay sober long enough to put up a good fight, learn a thing or two about killing a monster, and face the most frightening fiend of all . . . her past.
Writing & Plot
Writer David Dastmalchian has a tight focus this final issue on resolving the immediate monster threat and developing Jerri into an even more sympathetic and complex character than what we’ve seen so far. This is actually the first issue since the beginning that Jerri isn’t wearing her Count Crowley makeup. This small detail is actually a considerable plot symbol given what the audience discovers about her traumatizing past, as well as what she decides to do for her own development. Without entering spoiler territory, it should be said that there are very (very) few male writers who could pull off what Dastmalchian does with Jerri’s backstory and actually make appropriately sensitive. The character writing for Jerri is emotionally cathartic and emotionally compelling, and it proves that Dastmalchian knows what the hell he’s doing as a character writer. Unfortunately for B-Horror fans, the monsters take a backseat to the character development. While there’s still a fun melee to be had near the end, most of what wraps up this series’ main exterior struggle is expository dialogue about what types of monsters our favorite television host is up against. This is a minor mark against an otherwise fantastic script.
Art Direction
Lukas Ketner somehow manages to top his already stellar work on “Count Crowley” with what is without a doubt his most impressive art in the series. Ketner’s ever-present focus on character detail increases ten-fold to deliver on Dastmalchian’s crushing-then-uplifting script. Watching Jerri’s struggle from the top to rock bottom because of what she endured is made so heartwrenching because of Ketner’s incredible facial drawing. His environments and characters are as good as ever, but his work on facepaint-less Jerri is genuinely near-perfect. Lauren Affe‘s colors provide no small degree of daunting atmosphere to the flashbacks, as well as the grainy B-movie aesthetic to the rest of the comic. “Count Crowley” comes to an end with some of the most consistently appropriate and rock-solid artwork in comics of the past year.
“Count Crowley, Reluctant Midnight Monster Hunter” #4 wraps up one of the most fun and surprisingly compelling comic series of the past year. The choice to end on a character-focused high note comes as a minor cost to the movie-monster plot’s pacing, but Dastmalchian has dropped numerous hints that we haven’t seen the last of Jerri Bartman as Count Crowley. Artists Lukas Ketner and Lauren Affe deliver their most impressive work in an already superbly made series. The trade paperback collecting all four issues is scheduled to drop in May, so do yourself a favor and order it from your local comic shop for and get ready for some monster-laced and bourbon-soaked feels!
The Mask, after twenty years, is back in comics and people’s minds. Unlike the Jim Carrey movie, which plays up the comedy factor, the comics tend to fall into cultural outrage. Even the initial title Masque was starting to become very political with commentary on the Vietnam war; so much so original creator Mike Richardson had to make it stop. Unfortunately for Richardson, after a while, political commentary seems too good to pass up. With today’s political climate, is it any wonder I Pledge Allegiance to the Mask comes out? Even then, what is the mask supposed to be if not outrage? Minor spoilers ahead!
“The Mask” Debut
Outta the way Troll Face!
Richardson might not be big into politics, but he doesn’t want his idea to go away either. The concept is, what would happen if people remove their inner inhibitions with the power to do whatever they want? That concept allows a revamp with a new design by Chris Warner. Series writer John Arcudi develops a story around the titular mask and how whoever has it wreaks havoc. Starting with the neurotic Stanley Ipkiss and his life in a bad town (Edge City), it shows how tragic the character’s fall is.
Stan starts sympathetic since he doesn’t have much to live for except his girlfriend, Kathy. The mask itself begins as a gift to Kathy, one that Kathy reveals is just a way of making up with her. Unfortunately, when Stan wears the mask and removes his inhibitions as Big Head, he slowly shows he’s another product of his environment. Stan becomes verbally abusive to Kathy and becomes addicted to the power of Big Head. Kathy later wears the mask to remove her inhibitions toward Stan and kill him. Does this mean the mask makes everyone evil? No, Arcudi reveals in later stories that this isn’t the case.
Getting Political… Again
The Mask’s real power is to remove people’s limitations, physical or mental. Meaning that rather than let reality or feelings get in the way, Big Head allows people to cut loose. People are products of his or her environment, and depending on their settings, there are forces out of their control. When circumstances allow some unsavory people to flourish while others did nothing wrong, these others want to lash out. In the second half of the original run, police lieutenant Mitch Kellaway has some of these problems.
With mafias and drug dealers getting free thanks to a corrupt district attorney, Kellaway is up against a wall by his captain. The use of the mask allows Kellaway to work outside the law. Because it looks like the FBI wasn’t cracking down mobs in his city. Unfortunately, when the outrage threatens the people closest to you, there will be problems. Kellaway almost kills his only friend in the force (Lionel) but resists Big Head’s temptations. This ends up being a common theme in series runs after Arcudi.
Phasing Out
How did Joker get the powers when he’s already crazy?
Most runs after Arcudi follow the same formula of people who were oppressed by powerfully corrupt people. The Mask allowed the wearer to go on sprees that are intended to help the people closest to them. Because who doesn’t fantasize about raging against your worst enemy? When things get out of control, it’s the wearer’s ties to their loved ones that keep them from going insane. By this point, The Mask is mostly seen in small appearances or crossovers like with the Joker. To get on Richardson’s nerves, we can guess that the reason for this hiatus is due to people’s focus outside the US. After 9/11, people out of the borders seem to take more precedent than inside. That is until people start to outrage over political ideologies post-2016.
Return of the Mask… Through Politics
It looks like nobody’s going to get over how ugly the 2016 election was; when two presidential candidates prove to be untrustworthy, outrage sparks. Appearing in time for the 2020 elections, Big Head decides to parody power against the court of public opinion. The Big Head candidate (Abner) uses the persona’s infamy as a platform to get himself across. Not unlike how President Donald Trump uses controversy as a financially friendly means to spread his campaigns. Nobody even seems to care if the candidate could be an insane murderer.
At the same time, Big Head doesn’t merely (and literally) kill his competition, he reveals their shady backing. Even Kathy, now Edge City’s mayor and presidential candidate is threatened by her backers. Naturally, it’s not enough to reveal people’s ulterior motives but to encourage the public to act more like him. Because when things aren’t going people’s way, the only thing they really listen to is their outrage. It’s no secret that movements like Three Percenters and Antifa rise in reaction to the presidential elections. Their policies for direct action over legal proceedings perfectly encapsulates The Mask’s goal to cause chaos. You can’t call this a comeback for Big Head, however, the outrage was always there.
Conclusion
People always have something to rage over; some people just know how to hold it in better. It’s just a matter of time before that tension explodes. As long as there is outrage in one form or another, there too will be a Big Head. That is the reason Death Battle hosts Wiz and Boomstick sick the Mask on Deadpool.
What do you all think? Is the Mask an embodiment for outrage, or are we just leaving targets for apolitical readers? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
Bang! #1 from Matt Kindt and Wilfredo Torres hits your local comic book store on February 19, courtesy of Dark Horse Comics. Keanu Reeves is promoting the book, so the hype is real; bug your shop before January 27 if you want a copy. Dark Horse gave Monkeys Fighting Robots the exclusive on the cover art for issue three by Kindt and Torres, check it out below.
About Bang! #1:
A best-of-the-best secret agent with memories he couldn’t possibly possess, a mystery writer in her 60s who spends her retirement solving crimes, a man of action with mysterious drugs that keep him ahead of a constant string of targeted disasters, a seemingly omnipotent terrorist organization that might be behind it all…
And they’re all connected to one man: a science-fiction author with more information than seems possible, whose books may hold the key to either saving reality or destroying it.
A mind-bending story that ties in with past Kindt works (Revolver).
Action, mystery, and altered reality!
Dark Horse released the trailer for the series yesterday
Bang! is written by Kindt, with art by Torres, Nayoung Kim adds colors, and you will read Nate Piekos’ letters.
Rom: Dire Wraiths #1 is a sci-fi throwback with a modern feel and IDW’s latest title for the legendary Spaceknight, Rom. The double-sized issue contains two stories, both written by Chris Ryall and lettered by Shawn Lee, with Luca Pizzari (pencils/inks) and Jim Boswell (colors) providing the art for part one and Guy Dorian Sr. and Sal Buscema (pencils/inks) and Ross Campbell (colors) doing the work for the second tale.
The first half of the book sees an alternate Earth where the American moon landing of July 1969 is altered somewhat. While there are still three astronauts making what the world believes to be a historic first contact with a new celestial body, there’s already a space station called Adventure-One located there. Adventure-One is manned by an international (and diverse) team of heroes looking for possible alien/monster activity in the area.
Cut to a quartet of our titular villains hiding on the moon, waiting for the Eagle to land so they can hijack it and travel to Earth to begin their takeover. For those unfamiliar with the Wraiths, their primary ability is to inject themselves into a target, not only to absorb their victim’s essence but actually becoming that being physically with their memories and abilities intact. The Wraiths were traditionally a Rom antagonist, but for me, their best outing was chronicled by Chris Claremont starting with Uncanny X-Men #185, the arc in which Storm lost her powers. The highlight was the following issue, the brilliant “LifeDeath” story penciled by Barry Windsor-Smith, who drew them as no one had before or since.
(Well, for another second or two, anyway.)
Ryall’s handling of the bad guys is a fun look back at the sci-fi comics of the Silver Age, which is appropriate given the story’s timeline. Instead of evil aliens bent on annihilation solely for its own sake, these Dire Wraiths are given human traits. Depicted as monsters with a desire for conquest, they also bicker and snipe at one another, giving them enough “humanity” to not necessarily empathize with them, but to at least have an understanding of what they’re about.
As the Adventure-One crew heads to the moon to meet the Americans, the Russian—the only one with experience fighting monsters—complains she isn’t going down there without a weapon. The rest tell her she’s paranoid. You see where this is going. Back on Earth, the team at Kennedy Space Center in Florida realizes they have a problem, and that’s when the fun begins.
Pizzari’s art is superb, combining a modern realistic flair with just enough of a Silver Age vibe that gives it an EC Comics touch. It’s a strong callback to the famous and controversial “Judgement Day” story from Weird Fantasy #18. His work is complemented by Boswell’s colors, continuing the feel of the modern and the Silver Age with both crispness and a look that doesn’t give the story a dated feel. The lettering done by Lee is solid. Strong lines providing a steady read, but nothing outlandish that detracts or distracts from the story.
The second story is a flashback of the events leading to the first one, showing how the Wraiths got to the moon in the first place and their battle with Spaceknight Dhorian. This story is darker, and we have our first appearance of Rom, along with the bear-like Spaceknight Nikomi. While we see the Wraiths kill in the first half, Ryall uses this second story to give some real insight into how evil and bloodthirsty they really are. The final panel provides a disturbing harbinger of things to come.
(The Spaceknight physical tends to be pretty invasive.)
I’ve always had a weakness for Buscema’s pencils, going back to his mid-80s run on the Avengers and his partnership with Dorian continues the book’s mixture of old-school and modern. Campbell’s colors work in perfect concert with the art.
Rom: Dire Wraiths #1 is a great book that feels big based on the characters and story but has enough of an indie vibe to harken back to the great sci-fi comics of the past.
Are you excited to see the return of Rom? Let us know in the comments below!
