As Sins of Sinister continues to pump out distorted glimpses of a possible future, this week sees the arrival of the flagship book, Immoral X-Men. Kieron Gillen is one of the writers taking the lead for this big event and he’s bringing some of his favorite mutants along for the ride. Mr. Sinister is front and center for this book, but he’s also joined by a vicious Emma Frost. So what happens when two power houses go up against one another? Issue one gives us a little insight into that. Joining Gillen on this issue are Paco Medina on pencils, Jay David Ramos and Chris Sotomayor on colors and Clayton Cowles on letters.
WRITING
For as much as this would seem like it’s a Mr. Sinister title, it’s also Emma Frost’s book as well. Gillen makes Emma the point of view character as we read through the issue. Gillen gives us her internal monologue, which is helpful in seeing how dark she’s turned in this reality. As charles makes heroes jump to their death, Gillen shows us that Emma considers Charles soft for not torturing them. It should be no secret that Gillen loves to write Mr. Sinister. He made good use of the character when he wrote Uncanny X-Men with Cyclops’ extinction team. For this issue Gillen has the opportunity to turn the villain into somewhat of a hero as he scrambles to reset the timeline. Gillen gives a Sinister at his most vulnerable. He’s finally met people who are as disturbed and sneaky as he is. Isn’t there a saying about being careful what you wish for?
ART
The pencils are handled by Paco Medina this issue. Medina is a pro always turns in a good performance on whatever book he works on. One of the most important things Medina does in this issue is give us a lot of emotion from Mr. Sinister. He goes through the emotional ringer this issue as he get angry, stoic and even a little flustered. All of these pages needed to have a different look and feel, and Medina accomplished that. There is a page where Sinister shows off some of his new Chimeras. This is an important page because Medina has to mash up a couple of different mutants and make them look cool. Medina of course does a wonderful job, and the mutants do look unique and interesting.
The colors are split up between Jay David Ramos and Chris Sotomayor. The pair have similar styles and it’s hard to differentiate between the two. The backgrounds in this issue are a big tell in how a scene will play out. In the first few pages, human survivors are attempting to stop the mutants. The background is a dark maroon which can signify danger. Another example is when Mr. Sinister is mad about being locked out of his secret lab, the background is a bright orange, which can signify anger. Characters are colored nicely, specifically Emma Frost, who spends a lot of this issue in diamond form. The colorists allow her to shine on the page just like Gillen allows her to shine in the issue. For a pair of colorist working on one issue, Ramos and Sotomayor do a wonderful job of blending styles and making the pencils pop.
The letters by Clayton Cowles are very good this issue. His sound effects are top notch as he utilizes them multiple times throughout the issue. As Mr. Sinister is banging his head off of the table in frustration, Cowles lays down three “THUDS” to signify Sinister is doing it multiple times. There is also a panel where someone melts. Cowles makes sure to distort the word bubble as the character yells “No” to signify pain. This is effective and helps as we read what the character says. Cowles enhances the reading experience with his effective lettering and makes the issue more enjoyable.
CONCLUSION
Immoral X-Men is certified hit in the Sins of Sinister event. Kieron Gillen is weaving a tale of intrigue and betrayal as the mutants fight among one another. The art goes a long way in helping this issue come to life as well. If this quality writing keeps up, the X-Men will be ushering in the next great era for the mutants. Immoral X-Men #1 is available at a comic shop near you!
VENOM #17 hits your local comic book store on March 1st, but thanks to Marvel Comics, Monkeys Fighting Robots has an exclusive four-page preview for you!
About the issue: BEDLAM AND BEYOND! Eddie Brock has faced down many monsters in his time, but few have been as terrifying as the one born of his own rage called BEDLAM! In this issue, witness Bedlam’s return to the Garden of Time, and see what’s become of Eddie Brock after DARK WEB!
The issue is by writer Al Ewing and artist CAFU, with colors by Frank D’Armata, and letters by Clayton Cowles. The main cover is by Bryan Hitch and Alex Sinclair.
Check out the VENOM #17 preview below:
Are you reading Marvel’s VENOM? Sound off in the comments!
BETSY BRADDOCK:CAPTAIN BRITAIN #1 hits your local comic book shop next week from Marvel Comics. Is this issue a must-buy or a hard pass?
The book is written by Tini Howard, with art by Vasco Giorgiev, Erica D’Urso is the cover artist, Erik Arciniega drops the colors, and you will read Arinna Maher’s letter work.
About BETSY BRADDOCK: CAPTAIN BRITAIN #1: THE CAPTAIN COMES HOME!
And she’s got a whole new mission! With Otherworld settled, Braddock Manor restored, and her brother Captain Avalon at her side, you’d think things look pretty good for Betsy Braddock. Only it turns out, good ole Britain doesn’t want her back. No one wants a mutant menace carrying the shield of Captain Britain, and Betsy’s made more than a few enemies along her way. Quest-less and country-less, Betsy must define a role for herself. A fresh take on a beloved character, don’t miss the latest Tini Howard extravaganza and fan-favorite artist Vasco Georgiev’s Marvel debut!
If you haven’t read Martian Lit’s Necropolitan yet, part of me really doesn’t blame you. Mike Phillips, Julian Darius, and Steven Legge’s vision of Hell is haunting. Calling a story about Hell “haunting” might seem a little obvious, but Necropolitan‘s way of unsettling you isn’t obvious at all. It sneaks up on you when you’re least expecting it. You’re likely not to sleep again after getting a peek at this particular underworld. Writers Phillips and Darius, along with artist Legge, hide the most disturbing facets of their take on Hell deep beneath the surface level death and torture. When you wade through all the blood and guts, what you find at the center of Necropolitan is a story about the lies we tell ourselves.
Writing
Phillips and Darius waste no time hitting you with the twisted wildness of their series. In the first page, we’re introduced to some poor sap who’s the newest resident of Hell. He’s being pushed out of a demonic birthing canal, tears streaming down his face. Before he can gather himself up, he’s mercilessly beaten by his soon-to-be guides, Jack the Ripper and Elizabeth Bathory. His hair is pulled and his throat is cut. The blood starts spraying right away in this series, and it rarely pauses for long. There’s torture, rape, murder, and characters who laugh and whoop in the face of all of these things. But believe it or not, these aren’t the moments that really stick with you.
No, the scenes that will keep you up at night happen in the quiet between instances of chaos. Roman orgies and gang wars won’t faze you as much as when Jack the Ripper chooses a woman to escort him home for the night. When you see people decapitated or shot up in battle, you’ll be able to shake it. You won’t be able to shake the way Elizabeth Bathory playfully taunts a woman who she’s planning to disembowel later. And soon, it’s clear that the main character of this series is just as self-deceived as the others. He thinks he was a good killer — a righteous man. Phillips and Darius almost seem to be asking us a question. “Waking up in Hell and still believing you’re a good person… that makes some kind of twisted sense, doesn’t it?” The heart-dropping, blood-freezing truth of it is: yes, it does.
Art
If you read Necropolitan without a credits page, you’d have to assume that the three issues were drawn by separate artists. The first issue mostly uses thin linework. It’s a fantastic style, but one that feels very detailed and anatomical. By issue #3, Necropolitan‘s art has taken on a much looser look. There are thicker lines, relaxed character designs, and an exciting push towards style over realism. The art of Necropolitan comes alive in a way it hadn’t before.
Every issue of Necropolitan is drawn by Legge, but the first and last issue came out several years apart from each other. Issue #1 came out in January of 2017, while issue #3 came out in the last month. It’s such a joy to see Legge’s art change and adapt in these pages, especially because the art starts in a brilliant and experimental place, as it is. In the first issue, Legge uses Roman archways as panel borders and has roads cut through the page layout to pull the story along. By issue #3, we have panels that teeter precariously through action sequences and pages that seamlessly blend one moment of time into another. Even the pages you ought to be shielding your eyes from — Legge renders them so beautifully, it’s impossible to look away.
Coloring
Donovan Yaciuk colors issues #1 and #2. Yaciuk’s creates a bleak and pale Hell. He uses a lot of browns, greys, faded blues, and unsaturated reds. His backgrounds almost look like there’s sand in the air. The greenish blue of the sky fades into a whiteish hue at the bottom of the page. With this, Yaciuk sets a lot of mood. Hell really feels like a place that the color has been sucked out of. Later, when the characters start traveling through a Roman section of Hell, Yaciuk gives everything a golden haze. It’s a perfect preamble to Phillips and Darius’ discussion of the “golden age” of the Roman empire that quickly follows.
Chris Chuckry takes over colors for issue #3 and the change is immediately noticeable. The first pages of issue #3 are a flashback, and Chuckry creates a great contrast between the characters and their environment. The characters look greyish blue and faded, while their environment is a warm mix of purple, red, and yellow. Throughout the rest of the issue, Chuckry often pushes the color palette into that warmer range. You get deep and bright colors. It perfectly coincides with the increase in pulpy action we see in this issue. But we also get the sense that our main character is starting to get used to his bleak atmosphere — maybe even seeing it a little differently. Both Yaciuk and Chuckry have great approaches to coloring this series, and the little ways that they set themselves apart from each other highlights the strengths of each colorist marvelously.
Lettering
Legge and Darius do the lettering for Necropolitan, and it’s clear they have lots of fun with it. Every sound effect looks handcrafted to fit the specific scenario it shows up in. All gunshots sound different, as do explosions or screams. Every sound has its own flavor. In the opening to the series, our main character gets a knee right to the face. The big “CRACK” we see fly across the page is written to look like glass that’s shattering. But it’s in issue #3 that all the stops really come out. The “GLUG GLUG” of Jack the Ripper downing some booze is perfectly fitted to fill the dead space of the panel. One page sees the sounds of bullets flying, windshields breaking, and cars crashing. Every noise is written in different fonts, colors, and angles. The resulting chaos is glorious.
Conclusion
Martian Lit’s Necropolitan is a meal to dig into. It may seem like your typical schlocky, shocking, gore-fest at first, but what’s hiding beneath that bloody façade is a narrative that’s deeply interested in the nature of evil. It’s thought provoking and disturbing in the best ways possible. You can get the first volume, collecting issues #1-3, from Martian Lit’s website, here.
The premise is simple: read one comic every day for the entire year. It seems like a simple task but there is no way that I read 365 comics last year, even if you count the individual issues in collections. So, this year, I am committing myself to this reading challenge, in the hope that I can broaden my reading habits and fully engage with my favorite hobby again.
No concept or organised plan for this week. Why don’t we just get straight into it.
It Rhymes With Lust (2007 reprint) Credit: Dark Horse Books
Comic Number 43: It Rhymes With Lust
One of the reasons I decided to do this project was to force myself to find new comics to read. Not new in the sense of ‘just released’ but in the sense that I’ve not read them before or, occasionally, not even heard of them until now. New to me.
I first came across the “picture novel” It Rhymes With Lust in a book about the history of comics. It was part of a discussion about the origins of the graphic novel. This reprint copy then came up for sale at a local comic shop and I thought it must be fate. Obviously, I bought it. Knowing that the term “graphic novel” first appeared in the mid 1960’s and was made popular by Will Eisner in the late 1970’s, I was expecting this picture novel to be more of an illustrated text, but I was so wrong. At 128 pages long, with only the first page featuring an illustration next to a block of text, this book is exactly what I would call a graphic novel. It is an original story produced for a one-off publication, in a book-length format, featuring page after page of comic strip action. And it was first published in 1950. The first American style comic book was Famous Funnies in 1934; this book wasn’t far behind.
It Rhymes With Lust is a good old fashioned crime drama with a central character who gets embroiled in a complicated web of crime and corruption, playing off a number of femme fatales and slimy politicians. It’s got noir cliches dripping down the dark alley walls and enough violence and bloodshed to boil the bones of the Comics Code Authority. The panels are constructed from detailed fine lines and clever fading to reduce backgrounds and promote the central characters or focus of the narrative. This perfectly complements the hard edged script which is equally to the point and focused.
Both of the writers involved with this book went on to have great careers, with Leslie Waller writing a host of novels and Arnold Drake making a name in comics, co-creating the Guardians of the Galaxy, among others. The same is also true of the artists, Matt Baker and Ray Osrin. There is an impressive amount of talent working on this book.
I have read the first two chapters today but know I will finish it within the next 24 hours. It’s exactly the kind of comic I like and I’ve learned a bit of comics history to boot.
From Origin Of The Hobgoblin Credit: Marvel Comics
Comic Number 44: The Amazing Spider-Man #238 and 239
Back to some classic Spidey action to start off the week, and I’m continuing to read through The Origin of the Hobgoblin. Whereas the first three chapters in this collection set the scene and introduced the characters, these next two chapters introduce the Hobgoblin himself, in all his orange glory.
Roger Stern continues to deepen the mystery and link the new goblin to Spidey’s archnemesis, the Green Goblin, through a series of break-ins at Oscorp warehouses. The identity of Hobgoblin is wrapped in secrecy and he is always drawn hiding in the shadows or only in silhouette. This imposing dark figure is also shown to be much darker in character, willfully disposing of anyone who knows his true identity. These two chapters give us the mercenary side of Hobgoblin and demonstrate that he is not just another costumed super-villain. Mainly because it highlights that he has no enhanced abilities (yet) and has to distract Spider-Man during their first fight so that he can escape intact, but also that he has an intellect for planning.
John Romita Sr and John Romita Jr work together to produce the high-octane action sequences, but this is still the era of good soap opera in the Spider-Man comics, and the artists are just as successful at illustrating loving moments between families and lovers spats that may impact future narratives.
Supergirl: Plain Sight Credit: DC Comics
Comic Number 45: Supergirl: Plain Sight
With all this chatter on Twitter (and elsewhere) about the new Flash movie trailer and how a small section of the “fans” seem to already hate Sasha Calle’s version of Supergirl, I had an urge to pick up some Supergirl comics.
Plain Sight, written by Jody Houser and Steve Orlando, collects the final six issues of DC’s Rebirth Supergirl, first published in 2018. The narrative follows a monster-of-the-week format with a larger story building in the background. Houser and Orlando keep a perfect balance between superhero action and family drama; this comic is never just about one aspect of Supergirl, but covers every part of her life. This struggle to maintain both identities is at the heart of this story and, at moments, reflect the Spider-Man/Peter Parker dynamic I’ve been reading a lot of so far this year.
The overpowered super-villains are just a reflection of the school bullies and cruel administration that makes Kara Danvers’ normal life so difficult. The penultimate chapter in the storyline almost takes a step out of the narrative to tell a different story. It is an emotional, heartwarming story about how Supergirl touches the life of a non-binary teenager struggling to come to terms with who they are. They are bullied at school and scared about what others will think at home. Supergirl is there for Lee, without judgement, and helps them to accept themselves for who they are. It is a strong story and the fact that the day is saved by the hero just being a friend, listening and talking rather than punching and killing, is a powerful statement. Orlando and guest writer Vita Ayala demonstrate that Kara’s true strength comes from compassion and inclusion. She is there to protect and save everyone, and stand up for those who need a helping hand.
I read Supergirl comics more than I read almost any other DC comic. I find that most runs tend to start really strong and then slowly drift towards a formulaic narrative structure with the title character used as a foil for characters in other comics, with crossover following crossover. And the most annoying thing is the obsession with “glam” covers which, more often than not, sexualize Supergirl, turning her into a pin-up girl rather than a superhero. But there are some great Supergirl comics out there worth tracking down. The DC New 52 run was very good, for example. I’ll probably get to some of them later in the year, when the Flash movie comes out and that small section of “fans” once again start hating on a character they don’t seem to know anything about.
The Vault Of Horror Podcast
Comic Number 46: EC Comics Presents… The Vault Of Horror (podcast)
Wednesday was a difficult day for me, on a personal level. It was the first day this year where I found it difficult to find motivation to read any comic. I looked at my to-read pile and just didn’t fancy picking any of it up. There was an emptiness that couldn’t be filled by the offerings I had at hand. There was an urge in me to read The Cage by Martin Vaugh-James, but my copy was being elusive, almost as if it was hiding from me, teasing me with its absence.
However, for my birthday this year, I treated myself to a subscription to Audible in an attempt to catch up on the hundreds of books I have been meaning to read over the years. I have this belief that I have more time for listening to stuff than I do for reading, ignoring the fact that I subscribe to two podcasts and am several months behind on both.
Anyway, while browsing Audible I came across The Vault Of Horror podcast: a radio dramatization of the classic EC horror comics. Each episode is hosted by the malevolent Vault Keeper, played by Kevin Grevioux, who gives an impressive over-the-top performance that is hilarious but, at the same time, holds a creepiness just below the jokes that reflects the gruesomeness of the tales. Grevioux perfectly captures the duality of the EC horrors, bringing out the light entertainment side while never drifting too far from the darkness buried in the human soul. Many of EC’s horrors were outlandish and gore orientated but many of them also had a more immediate message, a reflection of the society in which they were written, and this podcast manages to modernize the stories without having to change them in any significant way. From an adaptation point of view, The Vault Of Horror would make a fascinating study, as they have turned a very visual art, that of comics, into a drama without any visuals. At some point it would be interesting to make a comparison of the two.
This podcast from Pocket Universe Productions won several awards a few years ago, and after listening to the first four episodes, I can see why.
My Life Among Humans Credit: Oni Press
Comic Number 47: My Life Among Humans by Jed McGowan
I picked this little book up because there was something appealing about the simplicity of the cover. It seemed light-hearted and fun.
Published by Oni Press, McGowan’s book tells the story of a lone alien, sent to Earth to study humans and report his findings. Part of his mission is to remain a secret but this becomes increasingly difficult, as you would expect.
I enjoyed this quaint story and the relationship that McGown built between the lone alien and Will, the everyday Earthman. However, in places I found it to be almost bland. A combination of the art style, the often intrusive lettering, and the matter-of-fact alien voice-over, produced a flat, emotionless tone that was difficult to escape from. The book is about connections, but more often than not the reader has difficulty connecting with the narrative. I found myself reading the captions with a droning voice in my own head which is not a good sign. And there is a lack of emotion to many of the characters. They exist in the panels but it is difficult to get to know them, to understand who they are outside of what we are told by the aliens incessant voice over.
I picked this up because I liked the simplicity of the cover, unfortunately, for me, that simplicity flowed through the entire book.
From Origin Of The Hobgoblin Credit: Marvel Comics
Comic Number 48: The Amazing Spider-Man #244 and 245
More Spidey action, more Hobgoblin action, and more from Roger Stern. In #244, we see Peter Parker’s life get more and more complicated between his relationship with Black Cat, Mary Jane’s return to the city, and having to drop out of college in order to concentrate on photography to pay the bills. It’s lucky for Parker that he has Spider-Man to keep him distracted.
Spidey spends the issue chasing sightings of the orange villain, but the crafty Hobgoblin manages to escape him each time. Even his trusted spider-tracers can’t help him against this clever fiend. However, we readers are treated to information that Spidey isn’t a party to, and the mystery surrounding the Hobgoblin just gets bigger and bigger.
Sacrifice Play, the story in issue 245, is a classic misdirection narrative, leading both the reader and Spider-Man into a confrontation with the Hobgoblin that ends in revealing his face. But Spidey, and us readers, know that Lefty Donovan, the man Spidey un-masks, isn’t the man behind the villain. He is a patsy, a fall guy. And the mystery keeps on rolling.
I love this stuff. It’s classic superhero schmaltz. Roger Stern is so good at weaving Parker’s life around Spidey’s adventures and each issue is packed with story. Fight scenes stand out but the life dramas are where these issues excel. Love troubles, money troubles, career and education troubles; this is the stuff that made Spider-Man a popular title in the 1970s. The superhero element was always present but, by itself, it is nothing special. The excitement of reading Spider-Man lies in the soap opera and the mysteries. And John Romita Jr’s artwork is still bearable at this time, probably because he worked with other artists such as Dave Simons or Klaus Janson, who kept his style in check.
I’m nearly at the end of this collected Origin of the Hobgoblin but we all know that there’s more to come. So much more.
Star Trek: The Next Generation Credit: DC Comics
Comic Number 49: Star Trek: The Next Generation #33 (DC Comics 1992)
The new series of Star Trek: Picard has started (insert a meme of Kermit the Frog going ape here). So, what better time to drag out the few Star Trek comics that I own? Just like my favorite franchise, Doctor Who, I’ve never really got into the extended universe that surrounds these characters and their adventures, therefore my collection of comics is small. Issue 33, however, contains a whole bunch of my favorite things about TNG: Klingons running wild, Q causing chaos, and Miles O’Brien having lunch with Keiko. The writer of this issue — titled The Way of the Warrior (I’ve heard that title before) — Michael Jan Friedman does a really good job of capturing the characteristics of the Enterprise crew and boiling them down into a few panel snippets. The artwork by Kenneth Penders and Pablo Marcos isn’t quite as convincing, and if the various characters weren’t name-checked, it would be difficult to know who they are, especially when the transformation into Klingons happens.
However, the layouts are wonderful. The two-page spreads play with the normal directional reading that was, and is, still popular in mainstream comics. From the moment that Q shows up, the standard Z reading pattern is subtly altered to form S patterns, or N patterns, or a whole collection of lettered shapes. This inconsistency grows from the narrative and Q’s warping of the world around the Enterprise. As the characters are thrown out of their normal routine, so too is the reader forced to adapt to the new status quo. It turns an okay Star Trek comic into something more interesting, and more fascinating from a comics stand point.
And that was Week 7. I’ve nothing further to add except asking you to shout out in the comments below and let me know what you’ve all been reading. I’m always looking for recommendations, although access to comics is my biggest obstacle. Luckily, I have plenty of full boxes waiting to be re-read.
Next to me, I have a stack of comics that’s about a foot high. Volumes of Kill or be Killed, Criminal, Sleeper, and The Fade Out. These comics cover a range of subjects: a vigilante in New York being hounded by a demon, a seedy crime world that no one seems to inhabit by choice, gritty superheroes, the underbelly of old Hollywood… But there are two names that tie all of these stories together. Those names are Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Many would tell you that these two are the kings of noir comics. They would be right.
In fact, despite the size of the stack next to me, I can’t help but think about the comics they’ve done that I don’t have. That’s how good writer Brubaker and artist Phillips are. They’ll get you hooked, and you’ll spend the rest of your days waiting for Brubaker’s Substack newsletter announcing their next project. But what makes them such an effective creative team? Why is there almost something magical about their works?
Well, if you ask me, there are a few things that this team does that they seem to do better than everyone else.
The Sins of the Father
First off, one of the draws to the comics of Brubaker and Phillips is that they seem connected in a lot of ways. The stories may happen in different universes, across different time periods, in vastly different genres, but they touch on a lot of the same themes. Probably the biggest theme this team comes back to is the idea of how “the sins of the father are to be laid upon the children.” For instance, their anthology series Criminal follows a cast of characters that seem stuck in a life of crime. Part of the reason they’re all stuck is because many of them are second generation criminals. It was their parents who taught them the craft. Now, they don’t know anything else.
At the center of the events of Criminal stands Teeg Lawless — an abusive, self destructive wreck of a father. He’s the source of chaos and heartbreak even long after his death. But it’s not just in the pages of Criminal that we see these themes. In Kill or be Killed, we meet Kira, whose mother had orgies in front of her when she was only a kid. In The Fade Out, we see the innocence of children traded for roles in big movies. In Reckless, Ethan Reckless seems to define his whole life in contrast to that of his father.
But the way Brubaker and Phillips communicate the deep woundedness of their characters is surprising.
From RECKLESS
Playing Against the Moment
Instead of telling us how sad they are, the characters in Brubaker/Phillips books tend to do quite the opposite. They tell us they’re okay. They assure us that they’re fine.
Perhaps the best example of this is Kira from Kill or be Killed — as mentioned above — recalling her mother’s orgies. She doesn’t say it scarred her to see her mother surrounded by a mass of twisting, naked bodies. No, Kira says how beautiful and serene her mother looked. She talks about that moment as being a moving thing. Brubaker’s narrations are always full of people downplaying or putting a positive spin on their trauma. You can’t really judge them for it, though. Don’t we all do that?
Phillips draws Kira’s preteen face with a gentle smile. She looks intrigued and unbothered. She’s resting her chin on her knee, two braids framing her face. You’re completely aware of the fact that this is a child witnessing all of this. The opposite page, Phillips populates with the overlapping naked bodies of people who almost don’t seem to notice the others are there. They’re a means to an end to each other, with no emotional connection happening between them. In the pages of Kill or be Killed, we see Kira disastrously take this view of love into her adult life.
From KILL OR BE KILLED
There are plenty more characters like this. Characters who don’t want to face the pain or abuse they’ve learned to live with. And after Brubaker has them persuade us that they are undamaged, we see them do all kinds of things that they know is bad for them. They live their lives at the bottom of a bottle, shoot up with heroin, or have soulless sex with people they hate. Phillips depicts their faces as emotionless or distant. Many of them will only ever show anger in their expressions, if that. A smile, or even the honesty of a frown, is rare. They’re self-destructive and their actions prove their nonchalant inner monologues false.
Celebrations in Style
But that’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to a Brubaker/Phillips joint. Their comics are as entertaining as they are moving. The vast majority of the time, you can count on one of their books to include an unabashed celebration of pop culture. Several of the arcs in Criminal reference other kinds of comics to tell their story. The main character of the arc Bad Night is a cartoonist who does a comic strip that looks exactly like Dick Tracy. The Tracy-esque character pops up throughout the story, talking like your typical private eye. In The Last of the Innocent, half of the story is told like an Archie comic. The childhood memories of the characters are shown in the sunshiny simplicity of a Double Digest. Reckless and The Fade Out are full of references to old movies. Sci-fi magazines show up in Kill or be Killed. Pulp celebrates the old dime novels of the 30’s and 40’s.
And one of the things that’s so cool about these references is that they’re deliberately obvious. Brubaker and Phillips aren’t trying to lift things from Bob Montana or Chester Gould. They’re reminding us of how cool these works are. They’re showing us that you wouldn’t be reading the comics you’re reading now if these creators hadn’t paved the way.
From CRIMINAL: THE LAST OF THE INNOCENT
It’s also so cool to see Phillips jump around in these styles. The fact that he can go from the gritty feel of his usual art to the cartoony splendor of an Archie reference without skipping a beat shows what a versatile and capable artist he is. I’ve spent plenty of time scouring the pages of some of these books — looking for other artists in the credits, convinced there’s no way these pages were drawn by the same guy — only to find that it was all indeed done by Phillips. But even in his usual forms, Phillips has a brilliant juxtaposition of style going on. The thick linework on the faces of his characters is often contrasted to the thin pencils of their shirts or the painted atmospheric look of their environments. Phillips, for lack of a better way of putting it, is the best show-off in comics.
Conclusion
If you somehow haven’t begun reading the works of Brubaker and Phillips, I honestly envy you. There’s so much to discover. And in the mountains of work that they’ve done together, I can’t think of a single book that feels like a dud. Even their one-off singles in stuff like Hawkman or Batman stand out as incredible examples of what a comic can be. So please, do yourselves a favor and check these guys out if you haven’t yet. Or dive back in if it’s been a while. Brubaker and Phillips are an addiction waiting to happen.
DEADPOOL #4 hits your local comic book store on February 22nd, but thanks to Marvel Comics, Monkeys Fighting Robots has an exclusive four-page preview for you!
About the issue: BETRAYED! Lady Deathstrike cruelly betrays her recent partner-in-assassination Deadpool! Or wait… is it that Deadpool has casually betrayed his reluctant murder buddy Lady Deathstrike? It’s all gonna depend on whose version you believe – but either way, it’s time for bloody reprisal!
The issue is by writer Alyssa Wong and artist Martin Coccolo, with colors by Neeraj Menon, and letters by Joe Sabino. The main cover is by Coccolo and Menon, and the book’s design is by Tom Muller.
Check out the DEADPOOL #4 preview below:
Are you reading DEADPOOL? Sound off in the comments!
Welcome to Self-Published Spotlight, a regular interview column where I will be highlighting self-published comics and the creators and small print publishers who make them.
When you read as many comics as I do it’s hard to find something that challenges you, seems totally fresh and makes you see comics and creativity in a new light. Sure I love a lot of comics, but sometimes even the best of them can sometimes be easily compared to something else or pitched in one sentence. The Transmigatory Adventures of Phillip K. In The Land of The In-Betweeners is not like that. It’s a book that really does defy category and genre, a description that can also be applied to its creator, Sam Tsohonis. I’ve never read a comic quite like this one nor have to a creator like Sam. His book is as awesome as he is. Reading it and talking to him were both trips completely worth taking. So read this fantastic chat and more importantly check out The Transmigatory Adventures of Phillip K. In The Land of The In-Betweeners, because you will not be disappointed!
Monkeys Fighting Robots: Sam, what’s your comic book origin? How did you discover comics? Sam Tsohonis:The first stuff I got was off the newsstands, as a kid back in the 80s. First the occasional Marvel Star Wars books, and then GI JOE—which I was mostly into just for Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. Then everything opened up when I discovered Wolverine. I think it was either Uncanny X-Men #239 or Wolverine #1 (the ongoing series) that I bought first, and I was hooked on X-books after that. I’d always been onto drawing, but that was when I first began to take the idea of developing the skills to do comic book art seriously. In high school I got into music, and I wanted girls to take me more seriously—and like a lot of fans who were reading comics at the time, I got a little disappointed after following my favorite creators over to Image, as the stories weren’t quite as good as they were at Marvel. But I was also disinterested in Marvel books, after all the Image crew had left. But mostly because I was associating my artistic impulse with my inability to get girls as a kid, I stopped reading comics and drawing for some time. Of course many of us still remember, society was fairly rough on comic geeks back then! I came back after somebody convinced me to check out Preacher. Then I became more interested in Vertigo books and stuff like that.
MFR: Preacher is a goodone, it’s what brought me back to comics also. ST: Yeah, it hits a lot of good spots!
MFR: When did you decide you wanted to create comics? Was there a specific moment or book? ST: Yeah I think it was Marc Silvestri and Dan Green’s work on Uncanny X-Men, followed swiftly by Lee and Williams when they took over. I felt an immediate kinship to Silvestri’s style. It felt fast and furious, and he didn’t worry if a leg and foot were somewhat rough or suggestive. I see now that it helped me to access my own gestural energy when I was drawing. But soon I would be agonizing for a while as a kid over my inability to understand how to do the Lee/Williams feather-shading and linework, and trying to challenge my inner architect to surface, get things precise and clean and accurate—and that’s remained pretty strong, except for when I get bored or in a hurry. I can redraw a figure a million times before I settle on what I want. I also dug Liefeld and McFarlane a ton, and I was also checking out Ron Lim’s stuff. Sam Kieth was another big inspiration, though more for his rendering than the exaggerated forms he drew. I remember not liking BWS as a kid because he drew noses too long, which I saw as an especially embarrassing weakness because I’d already become aware that was a tendency I had, too. And Art Adams always felt like he was drawing action figures or something—and it’s funny because now those two are some of my favorite artists! I was an arrogant little kid! Like, I just stare and stare at Art Adams’ work, now. He has such a gorgeous style, the way he uses crosshatching with such subtlety and control…
Art by Sam Tsohonis
MFR: When did you create your first comic? ST: In college I started working on a postapocalyptic thing called Easterwest, which I ended up finishing 24 pages of in 2004. It was black and white, and I was smoking a lot of pot and the ink work turned out REALLY sloppy, while I remember having taken some real time to carefully draw the pencils. I think I got in a hurry to get it done and sorta ruined it. Then it was maybe five years before I gave it another go, and I did about 12 pages in color and sent it around but got no responses, and sort of gave up for a while to do some different creative projects. That was 2009. I still want to do that story, but since then ‘East of West’ has become a property, which is too close to Easterwest, so now I have a different title in mind. I started drawing Philip K a few years before I started working on those early Easterwest pages, though. Except I always thought it would be an animation. The first drawings I did of Philip K and his pals were in colored pencil in fact—I think I might get Sam J Royale to do a cover when it comes time to do the graphic novel compiling issues 1-6, because his style of rendering is actually really close to what I first envisioned, though I wasn’t really very skilled with colored pencils.
MFR: So currently you are at the tail end of a Kickstarter for issue #3 of your excellent comic, The Transmigatory Adventures of Phillip K. In The Land of The In-Betweeners. For those folks who haven’t read the book yet, what’s your elevator pitch for it? ST: Well, it’s ‘Defending Your Life’ in Toontown. Basically a guy dies and he gets to this ‘other place’, a different reality so to speak, but it ain’t Heaven or Hell. and he’s ultimately working out the issues that affected him in life, but he has a sort of vague connection to what life was before—hence the sort of generic elongated smiley face he has.
MFR: From reading your backmatter in the first issue, I loved reading about the journey of creating the story as well. Can you share that with our readers?ST: Well, that really is a long story. In this first story arc I’m doing I’ve doubled down on the woo-woo stuff, but the original Philip K story in my head always involved him and a girl, and trying to impress her. Before it was really a story, though it was a song. I had a cassette four-track recorder in 1997, and my friend Jozef and I started recording tunes together in my parents’ garage under the name ‘Purr 17’. I had been drawing Philip and one day started making a song about him. I don’t think anybody else played on that four-track tune, even though it appeared on our first cassette release ‘Eunuch Dong’ and we played it live, the handful of times we played concerts. At that point it was just about ‘Philip in the Land of the In-Betweeners’. And in the original lyrics he’d actually killed himself, out of sheer curiosity about what happens when you die. It’s significant to issue 3 in particular because a big inspiration in my life at the time was this guy Pythagamus Toadstool (he’d legally changed his name), who’d introduced me to the Church of the Subgenius and a lot of other fun, weird stuff. He was also releasing lo-fi albums on cassette; had just moved to my hometown Wenatchee, from Los Angeles. I think I was reading the Book of the Subgenius when I first started drawing and imagining Philip K, and now the Subgenius mascot/figurehead J.R. “Bob” Dobbs is appearing in issue 3 as a character! Throughout college I was drawing Philip K in ballpoint pen a lot, and writing little entries in my sketch journal when I had new ideas about the plot. Most of the projects I did in the couple years of Animation studies I pursued in college featured Philip. Although on the first day of animation class at Evergreen, my professor Ruth Hayes told us all that while she was going to teach us how to animate our drawings, if we wanted to tell our own stories through animation we needed to learn how to WRITE. My undergrad career was a drawn-out smorgasbord of different creative studies, but I did take a significant amount of Creative Writing courses throughout the span of it. I would come back to it throughout my adult life, when inspiration hit, but it wasn’t until years after college when I finally wrote a couple of drafts of a screenplay for a full-length animated feature of Philip K—the first in 2014, when after ditching my failed graphic design career I was hopping trains and hitchhiking back and forth between Los Angeles and Albuquerque, and working for my bed in hostels (sounds like a story of ruin but the year was actually incredibly therapeutic). The original script barely has any resemblance to what has happened in issues 1-3, other than his trippy death sequence, the desert and meeting Big Fish at Small Pond. I think that all happened in the first 15 pages, in fact! And the only mystically- or spiritually-oriented figures he encountered were other tweens, who had no reference to the culture of the real world (or the Great Before-It-All, as it is known in the Between-Lifes). It was more about this princess who he’d become obsessed with, and whose only interest in him was to use him when it suited her. And a different girl he completely ignored, that was actually good for him. And a whole bunch of other cool, silly stuff. And while my intent is definitely to get into a lot of that content, eventually, I wanted to take more time if I was going to do a comic, and stir up the idea of ‘Gods and Heroes (and even fictional characters) walking among us’, and just give it a more mystical sort of foundation before delving into this other stuff, where he chases around a rather abusive and manipulative princess, and gets in trouble from her dad, and gets in trouble from Judge Knott, and the Council of wise Guys, and constantly has these red balloon manifestations harassing him and pissing other Tweens off. By the end of issue 6, my plan is to have him in a position where he can start having some version of the adventures from that script, and maybe by that point, I’ll be able to get the book with a publisher, and maybe pay some people to ink and color so I can get it out on a more regular basis!
MFR: One of the most interesting things that stood out to me was the juxtaposition of Phillip K., who I read as a very innocent and sweet character flung, violently I should add, into this bizarre world. That pairing works so well. Did you intend for Phillip to come across as innocent and if so, what made you make that decision? ST: That’s definitely the case, although I hope to reveal greater complexity as the story goes on—like, the Meanie-Balleenies, these little red balloons that show up in issues 1 and 3, they’re manifestations of his anger, which he’s always bottling up for the sake of remaining positive. There’s a subtheme there that is sort of known to me, but I’m also letting it play out. He might find by the end of his story that he’s not as perfectly good as he thought, not that I would have that read as any kind of condemnation, or anything.
MFR: There is also a free-flowing, almost dreamlike path the narrative has. Do you use dreams or other meditative thinking to explore or help create your stories?ST: In my late teens and early twenties I spent a lot more time trying to meditate, and maybe during the era when I originally started drawing him I was having some kind of uncanny dream experiences that stuck with me. And since High School, I’ve been an off-and-on indulger in psychedelic substances (or Entheogens, as we say when we want to sound sophisticated about it), which have definitely influenced the way I perceive the world and its shape. Although I have been on a hiatus from that stuff, in hopes of opening up again to more significant experiences in dreams—sometimes I feel like maybe the two paths are at odds, you know, the path of augmentation or that of purely internal mystical self-reliance.
MFR: Also I love how Phillip K, with his elongated head, is a drastically different visual than any of the other humans we see in issue one. Was this always the case, for Phillp to, for lack of a better term, have a more cartoony look? ST: Yeah, it was always my intent to have him like that and then to have all the other characters fill in the spectrum from realistic to their own version of cartoony. Some tweens are sorta boring and lifelike, not very changed from their original living form. And some are straight-up comical in the way they look. Sammy Sourpuss is a character with a lemon for a head, and he’s a bit of a wet blanket most of the time. There will be other characters that have a similar structure to Philip. the princess does, and then the apple of her eye—basically just a much cooler version of Philip named ‘Wavy Phil’. They should both show up, at least briefly, by issue 6 but they’ll play a big part of the story as it goes on from there.
MFR: Also I love that you include backmatter, letters from readers and process notes and art in the book. Not enough of that in comics. What made you want to throw that stuff in? ST: I guess it’s just that self-indulgence one gets up to when they have finally put together a real comic book for the first time—I just wanted to have it feel like the trappings of all the comics I grew up loving as a kid. I hope to get more stuff like pinups from other artists, etc, but the last year has been economically challenging to me, to say the least, so I couldn’t really solicit any of that. I’m a bit bummed that I didn’t receive any letters from issue 2, but I’ll write something on that letters page, all the same. Issue 3 will have a couple character sketches I did of Z-Ra and Mano-Man, who cameo in the end of issue 2 but play a bigger role in 3. They’re actually based on my friends Chelan and Israel’s kids up in Seattle. Chelan backed the Kickstarter of issue 2 with the option to have a character appear based on somebody from life, so they’re astrally projecting into the Between-Lifes. And I’ve been sending comics to Dave Sim to get his take, and he responded to a drawing I sent of Philip and Cerebus hanging out together with his own drawing of the two, so that will also appear. I’m not very closely aligned with a lot of Sim’s takes on the world, but I was definitely inspired by some of the earlier Cerebus stuff when I started envisioning Philip K, so to have a drawing of my character by one of the most accomplished indy creators of all time is pretty exciting.
MFR: Speaking of process, what is yours? How do you put pen to paper? Is it digital? Analog? What tools do you use? ST: presently I’m doing pencils and inks of linework and lettering on paper, and then coloring in Photoshop. I have this 13″ XP-Pen tablet hooked up to a 2010 Macbook stuck in El Capitan (which is maybe getting ready for the glue factory), and there are some buggy-ass things that tablet does, but so far I’ve made it on the gear I have. I got in a hurry with issue 3 so I didn’t pencil as thoroughly as I wanted to but with issue 2 I really took time going through drafts of pencils, beginning with thumbs and then roughs at comic size, and then a final set of pencils on 11×17 printer paper. For each stage of the pencils I would scan in, render in blue line, print out on the next size and tighten pencils in graphite over the blue. And finally, I printed the final pencils onto the Strathmore 11×17 bristol for inking. I REALLY liked the way inking went with that because I have a hard time keeping the page from getting messy with pencil smears and half-erased lines. It was the most aesthetically pleasing inking experience I’ve had to date. It does suck though that an issue of blue lines seems to go through an entire Cyan cartridge in my Epson WF-7280. For Inking, I’m mostly using a Hunt 102 nib, and a pentel pocket brush for fills. I use a lot of the ’10’ size white gel roller pens that are out there, but the smaller sizes never seem to work like I want. I’ve also gotten into using a brush with DR Martens pen-white but I only like to use that as a final touch, as it doesn’t take a crowquill very nicely at all if I want to run black over it again. I’ll probably get some white acrylic paint at some point, as I gather that’s where a lot of artists end up with the quest for the right white media.
MFR: Let’s get into issue three. What can we expect? And did anything change in how you created each issue, especially this one? ST: Well, like I said I got in a bit of a hurry with this one. Some of the pencils were somewhat loose this time, and I did them live on the final inking surface as opposed to the method I described from issue 2. And I used crow quill to letter instead of a micron—I just end up erasing too much when inks are down to use tech pens, they almost inevitably get half-erased and need to be redrawn when I use them. As far as content, there are a lot of dead celebrity cameos, and a lot more characters interacting in general. I reread issue 1 and it feels very slow and still, compared to what I’ve been doing since. But I sort of wanted that feeling for the beginning, when he’s wandering the desert. I think it will make the collected version of 1-6 read with a more dynamic sense of pacing. Even though the pencils were looser I think I did even more detailed rendering in much of the inks, and in general issue 3 seems to continue the trend of tightening up the art, as I’m finding my real style and flow as a comic illustrator.
MFR: What’s the status of the new book? I know the Kickstarter campaign just hit its funding, so congratulations on that. But where are you as far as the creation of the book? ST: I’m coloring it now, with the goal that by the time I see the money in my account it will be ready to send to the printer—I’ve come to the point where that seems a workable point from which to launch, although I think my Kickstarter campaigns could look flashier if I had color images of the pages to share! I might still be coloring another week or so after the campaign ends, realistically, but I don’t probably have to tell your readers what a slog it is doing every goddamn piece of the work yourself! I try and keep a regular routine going on but I must admit allowing myself to get distracted by what I have playing on the TV sometimes. I think I’d go a little nuts if I didn’t have that going, though—It’s funny because when I write, I just like to have instrumental music in the background, and I can go for hours on end that way, but when I’m drawing I really crave that narrative content on a screen, even if I’m not looking at it.
MFR: And finally, where can people find your work outside of the comic? ST: I’ve done a lot of different stuff over the years, but only so much of it is very available to view. The main thing is, people should check out the issue 3 Kickstarter here—there’s also some original art for sale at my portfolio site, tsohonis.com (and you can find links there to other stuff I have going online) and back issues of Philip K for sale at mnemoniccomics.com.
BULLS OF BEACON HILL #2 hits your local comic book store February 22nd, but thanks to AfterShock Comics, Monkeys Fighting Robots has an exclusive five-page preview for you.
About the issue: Boston Surgeon Christopher Boldt is getting more famous by the day – but that’s the problem. Chris’ secret doesn’t just threaten himself, it threatens the person he’s ashamed to say he’s related to: his mobster father, Orin Paige. After all, in the hyper aggressive world of Boston crime, Orin having a gay son makes him look weak. So, he does the unthinkable, and puts a hit on his own son. But he never expects the hit to fail.
The series is by writer Steve Orlando and artist Andy MacDonald, with colors by Lorenzo Scaramella, and letters by Carlos M. Mangual. The main cover is by MacDonald.
Check out our BULLS OF BEACON HILL #2 preview below:
Did you check out the first issue of BULLS OF BEACON HILL? Sound off in the comments!
M. Night Shyamalan has returned with another thought-provoking piece, Knock at the Cabin. A film that relishes in building tension while also providing viewers with a great group of characters to invest in. Shyamalan has garnered a reputation for being hit or miss but as a fan of his work, I’m proud to say this was one of his best outings since Split. In true Shyamalan fashion, Knock at the Cabin keeps you on edge and makes you feel every emotion.
Based on the novel by Paul Tremblay, Knock at the Cabin is a terrifying exploration of humanity, faith, and trauma. Three ingredients one would tend to find in any Shyamalan project. On a technical level, Knock at the Cabin is almost perfect, but the story can sometimes drag. Thankfully, a talented group of actors enhances the narrative that unfolds, especially Dave Bautista. Knock at the Cabin follows a young girl named Wen, and her two fathers. During a getaway, Wen and her parents are confronted by four strangers that want their help to prevent the apocalypse.
Shyamalan co-wrote this terrifying story alongside Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman. Knock at the Cabin stars, Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rupert Grint, Abby Quinn, and Kristen Cui. Cui stars as Wen, a young child who is forced to face an unfortunate reality with her parents. Eric and Andrew, played by Groff and Aldridge, are Wen’s parents. Together they must choose which one of them will die to stop the apocalypse. Up until that decision, the film does a great job at developing this trio. Eric and Andrew both have different outlooks on humanity, and we learn this through various flashbacks.
There are enough layers pulled back that help give their decision emotional weight later on. As for our intruders, Bautista plays Leonard, a school coach who has a big heart but must make an unforgivable choice to save humanity. Leonard has brought three other individuals with him. Redmond (Grint), Sabrina (Bird), and Adrienne (Quinn), all appear to be sharing a delusion. Shyamalan is able to tell a compelling story that challenges your perspective with each new possibility proposed by Andrew, who doubts that the apocalypse is near. There are some twists that don’t completely work but do provide more depth to our trio.
A few exposition dumps can weaken the tension because it contradicts previous events. The film can feel tonally uneven, specifically early on during comedic moments that don’t fit. Once those are gone, Knock at the Cabin becomes a tense and stressful experience to endure. Perhaps the constant closeup shots might grow tiresome, but the camerawork overall is very impressive. Bautista’s performance is tremendous from start to finish. Leonard’s inner sorrow and regret are conveyed in a profound way that makes him easy to feel sorry for.
It’s also what continues to challenge whether you believe these intruders. Shyamalan was also able to secure yet another excellent child performance. Cui, Aldridge, and Groff all had terrific chemistry that made their family dynamic believable. When the movie isn’t becoming incoherent with its desire to explain, the family at the center keeps the story afloat thanks to the performances enhancing the characters. The pacing isn’t perfect, but the important sequences are able to breathe, letting the viewer feel the emotions involved with the story.
Knock at the Cabin is sure to be divisive like several other Shyamalan projects, which is fine. A new Shyamalan film always sparks a discussion amongst moviegoers before and after its release. This latest outing is an effective exploration of humanity, drenched in constant tension that swells to an emotionally draining conclusion. I’m certain the symbolism that exists throughout the film will allow it to be considered a hit by most viewers.
