``x Chicks in leather
with guns - and a solid plot ta boot!

Writer: Devin Grayson with Greg Rucka
Artist: J. G. Jones and Scott Hampton
Trade Paperback
Marvel Knights 2001
$15.95

Now I’ll admit it. BLACK WIDOW wasn’t a “must have” because of the story. In actuality, I didn’t even consider it until I saw the nice little trade paperback sitting on the shelf: a tight little bundle of fantastic artwork by J. G. (MARVEL BOY) Jones and Scott (LUCIFER) Hampton.

I was instantly won over. I’ve seen these fellows’ work before but with WIDOW, they blew away every previous conception I had. It’s a damned pretty book with equally impressive stories.

The collection starts with a story by that batgirl Devin Grayson which shows Natasha Romanov (aka the Black Widow) hired by the US government to steal a deadly bio-toxin. The only problem is the Russians also sent in their Black Widow: Yelena Belova. Yelena is a graduate of the Russian Black Widow program - a smug "I've surpassed you at everything!” sort of girl. But Natasha says, “Oh yeah? Bring it on.” It’s all high kicks, bullets flying and splosions for the whole family.

Grayson shows off her talent for thinking, feeling characters, showing dramatic tension plus tons of action without the story losing integrity. Her scripting pulls few punches delivering a full blown spy thriller. Jones' women are beautiful; his thugs, ugly and oozing with stupidity. All this, coupled with his superb storytelling skills make for the best summer blockbuster flick you never saw.

Daredevil also makes a small appearance in this story, but I found Grayson’s DD to be a bit too dashing, too jocular for my taste. It makes him seem more useless than he really is.

Act Two of the book adds Greg (WHITEOUT) Rucka to the writing team and adds Hampton to the artistic side of the equation. I wouldn’t have thought that Grayson and Rucka would mix but they make a great team. Grayson once again shows her flair for interpersonal interaction and Rucka floods the script with spy lingo, completing the story.

This story puts Yelena and Natasha in a “Face-Off” type of situation. S.H.I.E.L.D. kidnaps Yelena and she wakes up with Natasha’s face. Her new mission: Kill Yelena Belova. Natasha, now with Yelena’s face, tries to find nukes stolen by her former boss.

On the whole the book is a great read. Grayson and Rucka do their best to upset Yelena’s world and still raise the stakes for Natasha. The stories move quickly and the loose ends are wrapped up in one sitting. And the lusch artwork makes it worth the price from the get-go.

RECOMMENDED for all who enjoy a good spytriller or just those who like pretty pictures.
``xEd Mathews``xruckus24@aol.com``xBLACK WIDOW``x1003298454,46357,Reviews``x``x``xReviewed by Brian Domingos``xBrian Domingos is a staff writer of PopImage. To him, everything is espionage. ``x ``x

Writer and Artist: Jordan Crane
Published by Red Ink, 2000
Original Graphic Novella
$8

There are so many comics today that vie far too hard for the viewer's attention by playing up the overblown, larger-than-life angle -- big illustrations, big ideas, very dynamic. They draw the eye, but they often go for the visual cheap thrill. Jordan Crane's THE LAST LONELY SATURDAY shows how absorbing a much subtler comic can be.

It is a little, squarebound comic about an elderly man who plans to spend his Saturday visiting his wife, or so we are initially led to believe. We soon discover that his plan is to spend his Saturday at his wife's grave, as she apparently died a while ago. A minimal enough plot, yet Crane is able to draw a full range of emotion through his simple and elegant storytelling skill.

As a matter of fact, THE LAST LONELY SATURDAY works partly because the plot is so understated. This allows Crane to emphasize the sheer emotion of the characters. As a result, expression through words becomes negligible. Which is probably why THE LAST LONELY SATURDAY is, largely, a "silent" comic.

The line used in the illustrations is organic and lush. As the plot allows the emotion to become more prominent, so too do the pictures themselves. Crane's characters, drawn in a very uncomplicated and almost elementary way, convey a wide range of facial expressions that easily capture a diverse spectrum of emotion. And the two-color (reddish brown and yellow) format in which it is printed gives the book a classic feel that does not overpower the other aspects of the story.

The story's layouts are genius in their lucidity. Panel to panel transitions are completely seamless and consistent. When something changes rather abruptly, it is because we are meant to notice it. There are several such panels where the border style shifts to a solid line to one that resembles the edge of a cloud, the reader automatically realizes that the panel is flashing back to a memory. Perhaps this has been done before, but in the context of the story, a minor detail like this impacts the reader right away. The reader can pick up on it, and continue absorbing the story. Just like that. Without pause.

The book is charming, something you can read over and over again, something that changes or evolves in meaning each time. Crane's work here encourages the reader to bring his or her own experiences to the fore when reading. Some readers may want more substance in a plot, criticizing the form-over-substance approach that many independent books take. I would still recommend THE LAST LONELY SATURDAY to those readers.

Recommended``xEd Mathews``xruckus24@aol.com``xTHE LAST LONELY SATURDAY``x1003298775,38966,Reviews``x``x``xReviewed by Paul Hanna``xPaul Hanna is Assistant Reviews Editor of PopImage.``x ``xRecently, I received a package from a Pepper Potts of the Stark Foundation containing a transcript of a long hidden telephone conversation. The pages revealed a fairly eye-opening account of one man's struggle with addiction... and another's struggle with the abyss before him. PHONE CONVERSATION: STARK ENTERPRISES 8/17/99: 9:35 AMSFX: (PHONE RINGING)

SENTIENT ARMOR: CAH-MON...

SFX: (PHONE RINGING)

SENTIENT ARMOR: HEE HEE...

[The receiver on the other end picks up; The next voice heard is that of Victor Von Doom, ruler of Latveria -- sworn enemy to the Fantastic Four.]

DOOM: YES?

SENTIENT ARMOR: GOOD MORNING... MAY I SPEAK WITH MISTER... DOON PLEASE?

DOOM: THAT'S DOOM, CRETIN. WHO IS THIS?

SENTIENT ARMOR: AH, GOOD MORNING, MY NAME IS RACHEL AND I WOULD LIKE TO TALK TO YOU THIS MORNING ON HOW YOU CAN SAVE UP TO TEN PERCENT ON LONG DISTANCE --

DOOM: BAH! DOOM HAS BETTER THINGS TO DO THAN THIS!

[The phone hangs up; sounds of the phone being dialed again.]

SFX: (PHONE RINGING)

SENTIENT ARMOR: (WHISTLING)

[The receiver on the other end picks up; The next voice heard is that of Victor Von Doom, ruler of Latveria -- sworn enemy to the Fantastic Four.]

DOOM: YES...?

SENTIENT ARMOR: GOOD MORNING, IS THE LADY OF THE HOUSE PRESENT?

DOOM: WHA- LADY OF THE... IS THIS SOME SORT OF JOKE?

SENTIENT ARMOR: (HEE HEE)... JOKE, SIR?

DOOM: WHO IS THIS? RICHARDS?

SENTIENT ARMOR: (LIGHT GIGGLING)

DOOM: WAIT A MINUTE... I KNOW THAT LAUGH...THIS IS YOU, STARK, ISN'T IT?

SENTIENT ARMOR: (HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER)

DOOM: MY GOD... YOU'RE DRUNK AGAIN, AREN'T YOU?

SENTIENT ARMOR: MMM...AYBE....

DOOM: MY GOD, MAN -- IT'S NOT EVEN TEN A.M. AND YOU'RE HALF IN THE BAG!

SENTIENT ARMOR: (DRINKING SOUNDS)

DOOM: STOP IT -- GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF... FOR GOD'S SAKE...

SENTIENT ARMOR: (DRINKING SOUNDS FINISH) OKAY, DONE. AHEM... HELLO, IS THE LADY OF THE HOUSE PRESENT...?

DOOM: WHA-? THIS IS INSANE. GET SOME HELP, STARK.

[The phone hangs up; sounds of the phone being dialed again.]

SFX: (PHONE RINGING) SFX: (BEER CAN OPENING)

[The receiver on the other end picks up; The next voice heard is that of Victor Von Doom, ruler of Latveria -- sworn enemy to the Fantastic Four.]

DOOM: THIS BETTER NOT BE YOU, STARK...

SENTIENT ARMOR: NO STARK HERE. ES SENOR MOJO.

DOOM: (SIGHING) LOOK, I DON'T NORMALLY DO THIS... BUT IF I LET THIS GO I'LL NEVER GET TO FINISH WATCHING THE MCLAUGHLIN GROUP. STARK... YOU HAVE A PROBLEM.

SENTIENT ARMOR: ES NO SENOR STARK. ES SENOR MOJO... SENOR MOJO ES HOMBRE GRANDE (GIGGLING).

DOOM: FOR THE LOVE OF ETERNITY... YOU'RE A GENIUS WHEN YOU'RE SOBER... YOU HAVE FAME, WEALTH AND POWER -- WHY ARE YOU SO DEPENDANT UPON A DEPRESSANT?

SENTIENT ARMOR: AH, IF I ONLY HAD A HEART.

DOOM: OH, FOR THE LOVE OF --

SENTIENT ARMOR: BESIDES -- HIC -- BIG TALK FROM AN ADDICT.

DOOM: WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN, CRETIN?

SENTIENT ARMOR: CAH-MON, VIC... YOU SPOUT OFF LIKE SOME SORTA, SORTA BIG TALKING SPOUTER... BUT KETTLES TALK BIG WHEN THE POT IS... (GIGGLING) ...POT IS BLACK...

DOOM: WHAT NONSENSE ARE YOU TRYING TO GET OUT?

SENTIENT ARMOR: SEE... YOU ALSO GOT A MONKEY ON YER BACK. DOOMY... YOU'RE ADDICTED TO RICHARDS.

DOOM: PREPOSTEROUS.

SENTIENT ARMOR: GESHUNDHEIT... (HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER; DRINKING NOISES)

DOOM: I AM NOT "ADDICTED" TO RICHARDS. THE MAN IS A VILE, INFERIOR REPLICA OF THE TRUE GENIUS THAT IS DOOM! SIMPLY BECAUSE I HAVE ENGAGED HIM IN A LIFELONG WAR OF THE INTELLECTS, AND LAUNCHED SEVERAL PERSONAL VENDETTAS AGAINST HIM DOES NOT MAKE ME "ADDICTED" TO HIM. I ALONE HAVE FOUGHT YOU IN BATTLE FOUR TIMES, AND SPIDERMAN MORE TIMES THAN I CAN RECOUNT. AND BESIDES... I CAN QUIT ANY TIME I WANT.

SENTIENT ARMOR: Y'KNOW, VIC... THEY SAY DENIAL AIN'T JUST A RIVER IN MISSISSIPPI.

DOOM: THAT'S EGYPT.

SENTIENT ARMOR: SO I FAILED GEOMETRY... SUE ME (GIGGLING).

DOOM: SIGH... LOOK... FINE... MAYBE WE BOTH HAVE A PROBLEM. WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO ABOUT IT?

SENTIENT ARMOR: WELL, I CAN ALWAYS HIRE DAVID CROSBY. WHO'S GONNA GET YOU OFF OF RICHARDS?

DOOM: MAN... I GUESS I BETTER CALL NAMOR. HE'S DONE THIS A FEW TIMES... JUST MAKE SURE YOU JOIN A TWELVE STEP PROGRAM, STARK.

SENTIENT ARMOR: SENOR STARK ES EL GONO. ES SENOR GALACTACOS GRANDE HOMBRE.

DOOM: SIGH... WHY DO I BOTHER?

[The phone hangs up; sounds of the phone being dialed again.]

SFX: (PHONE RINGING) SFX: (BEER CAN OPENING)

[The receiver on the other end picks up; The next voice heard is that of Magneto, Master of Magnetism -- sworn enemy to the X-Men.]

MAGNETO: GOOD MORNING, HOMO SUPERIORITY.

SENTIENT ARMOR: (GIGGLING) AH, GOOD MORNING, MY NAME IS RACHEL AND I WOULD LIKE TO TALK TO YOU THIS MORNING ON HOW YOU CAN SAVE UP TO TEN PERCENT ON LONG DISTANCE --

PHONE CONVERSATION: STARK ENTERPRISES 9/2/99: 11:15 AMSFX: (PHONE RINGING)

TELEPHONE OPERATOR: GOOD MORNING, SPRINT PCS.

TONY STARK: YES, HI... THIS IS ANTHONY STARK OF STARK ENTERPRISES. FOR SOME REASON MY LONG DISTANCE BILL IS OVER SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS THIS MONTH. NOW, I'VE BEEN... AWAY... OUT OF MY ...UM... CALLING ZONE, YOU COULD SAY. I'D LIKE TO SORT THIS OUT...

[transcript ends]``xEd Mathews``xruckus24@aol.com``xIRON MAN'S SENTIENT ARMOR: THE LOST TAPES``x1003896419,84694,Industrial``x``x``xby Neil Kleid``xNeil Kleid is the co-founder of Third Eye Publishing and the creator of STAND UP COMICS- a series of forums designed to get the comics medium out into the public eye. He is a graphic designer, actor and improvisational genius. ``x ``x
A Review of Twentieth Century Fox's Movie Adaptation of FROM HELL

FROM HELL, the movie, tells the tale of the Ripper murders, from the point of view of Inspector Abberline, a policeman who gets oracular visions which help him track down the killer. Unlike Abberline, however, the people behind this film seem to suffer from a staggering lack of vision. This movie manages to combine the intellectual depth of a Harlequin romance with the subtle, understated elegance of a sledgehammer to the head. Hollywood must be very sure that its target audience for this film consists of cretins, since it spells out everything in heavy, unambivalent terms. Good is good, bad is bad, and never the gray shall be.

The characters quickly devolve into a bunch of cliches, with little or nothing to give them their own voice. Abberline, the good, kind, always politically correct policeman, doggedly tracking down the murderer against all odds. Godley, the sergeant who's unswervingly loyal to his officer. Mary Kelly, the hooker with the heart of gold. The brutal London mob. The supercilious, class-conscious elite. Single-note stereotypes, all. Horror is depicted more by the addition of copious gore rather than any acting performance; subtlety is well and truly disposed of, as far as this film's concerned. The players
are reduced to solid black and clear-cut white, eliminating any silly, distracting hues of gray.

On the flip side, it does have some beautiful imagery; one particularly striking one was the Ripper's grapes, which (in Abberline's visions) begin pulsating, like the beating of several hearts. The settings are well-constructed, and the lighting effects excellent. The cinematography is, in fact, deserving of a much better plot than it's been dealt; the result being a movie that comes across as all style and no substance. There are also some decent acting performances from Ian Holm, Robbie Coltrane and Johnny Depp, working as best they can within the limits of the roles dealt them. However, if plot or characterization are of much consideration, then this movie probably isn't for you.

Viewed as a stand-alone movie, it's a hideously unsubtle plot, bolstered by some very pretty imagery. As an adaptation of the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, however, it fails colossally. In adaptations of books to cinema, it's not unusual to have some elements dropped, and others added, as the tale transitions between the two media. Here, however, the film alters its standpoint considerably, converting an elegant construct to a gory slasher movie;
and the elements of the book that did make it in stand out as garish, incongruous additions to the mix. They make little or no overall sense with regard to the theme of the film.

"If a gun is on the mantle in the first act, it must go off in the third." - Anton Chekhov

This adaptation suffers badly from trying to desperately squeeze in cool points of the original book, without necessarily seeing if it fits into the new framework of the film. Take the case of John Merrick, the Elephant Man. His appearance in the book served to further heighten the hellishness of that London and further, he served as a faux-Ganesha to mark an auspicious beginning to Gull's endeavours. In the film, his appearance serves no purpose beyond consuming a minute's worth of celluloid; aside from having appeared in the book, the sequence is an absolutely worthless appendage to the structure of the film.

The sole redeeming factor to this movie is that it will hopefully have added to the bank accounts of Mr. Moore and Campbell, and encourage them to produce more of their excellent work. By itself, however, it fails on almost every level save an example of "there-but-for-the-Grace-of-God-go-I".``xEd Mathews``xruckus24@aol.com``xThe Movie FROM HELL``x1003897275,28943,Reviews``x``x``xby Bala Menon ``xBala Menon is a contributing writer for PopImage.``x ``x
A Review of Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's FROM HELL

Alan Moore, long known as one of comicdom's finest writers, joins with Eddie Campbell to produce this tale of Jack the Ripper.

Here, Moore builds a tale that stretches in ripples across time, as he attempts his own explanation of the Ripper murders. Not a three-dimensional pattern across Whitechapel, but rather a four-dimensional pattern across time, with the effects (and causes) of the Ripper murders travelling across the centuries, one man's plan to transcend his own mortality, at once an act of personal worship as well as an attempt to exalt himself and finally attain the face of God.

Focusing, not from the point of view of the hunters, but of the Ripper himself, Moore analyzes the available information, chooses whom he believes to be the most likely Ripper, and projects the suspect's beliefs and motivations from what is known of his life. The result is an appallingly dark story, made even more horrific by the non-randomness, the callousness of the killings.

Immensely erudite, a rationale is presented for the Ripper murders. Not simply a hack-and-slash murderer, lashing out mindlessly at any woman who crosses his path, but rather, an intricate plan, aimed at specific targets, for a specific purpose.

FROM HELL Cover

Campbell, a noted storyteller in his own right ( Bacchus, Alec), lives up to Moore's highly demanding scripts, portraying the dark immensity of London, from the hulking cathedrals towering above the city, to the people running through the streets.

This is the Ripper's story. From his early beginnings as a child, curious to learn the inner workings of the cosmos; to his professional rise, to become the Royal Physician; to his vision-inducing heart-attack, and awakening to knowledge of his Master; and to his final quest to further exalt that Lord. Not quite the malefic slasher of stage and screen, but a logical, intensely faithful man, carrying out what he believes to be his self-appointed mission for God.

But it is also London's tale, a tale of the city of that time and her people. Of the horror that existence holds for the people of that city, of several simple, callous, unthinking cruelties, that slap you in the face for their very unexpectedness. Despite the grander themes shaping the flow of the story, we are never allowed to forget the basic humanity of these miserable players on the stage.

There is no character in this tale so depraved, so brutalized, but that Moore and Campbell make them touch our hearts, see some small spark of humanity that we might empathize with. And thus further feel the horror of their tale.

The People (and London's architecture)

Moore and Campbell's characters are living, breathing people, bringing the London of 1888 to vivid life in our heads.

Sir William Withey Gull is a fanatic, a man so lost in his own terrible vision, that he is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve it, twisting his associates' arms, preying on the fears of his superiors, using his own unshakable will to forge through all obstacles like a juggernaut. A stern man, raised to hold Duty above all, but his devotion to that Duty swathes him in rapture.

I am Sir William Withey Gull
Gull, alone, of all the characters here, rises above the demands
of the earth that he is rooted in, to seek out a higher, spiritual
plane. He maintains an ethereal attitude, striving to complete his
self-appointed task despite the frailty of his human tools, the
other players on this stage are very firmly rooted in their earth.

Moore takes a particular delight in parallels and double entendres, running through all his writing. In another of these, Gull is paired with Netley, an ignorant and unthinking man of the streets, a person conscious of nothing more than his desire to get ahead in life, a man very much of the earth, seeking higher knowledge only to aid him in this world.

Netley's shallowness, ingratiatingly servile nature and alarming stupidity make him the perfect unthinking tool for Gull to use.

Netley

Netley is a little man, all too conscious of it, and seeking power and advancement; yet, when he realizes the nature of the immense maelstrom he has gotten himself into, he panics, collapses. It's not the idea of murder that bother Netley; life itself is cheap in London of the time. No, it's the consciousness of being totally overwhelmed, enveloped by an all-encompassing power that is now an inextricable part of his daily life; it's Gull's staggering revelation that he always has been surrounded by this grand magic. Awakening produces terror here, rather than the grand enlightenment and vision provided to Gull. (Chapter 4 pages 36-37)

Abberline disappointed

Inspector Abberline is a man thrown back into a brutalized, decomposing part of London that he loathes, but is forced back into, out of political necessity.

Abberline's rage

Notice Campbell's depiction of the explosive frustration on Abberline's face, as he is transferred back to Whitechapel, the seat of his contempt; and contrast this to the disgust on his face when he realizes the true game being played within the corridors of power that he had coveted (Chapter 13 pages 8-11)

There's more than a small part of Abberline which empathizes with the denizens of Whitechapel; very much a man of the soil, it had been his home for fourteen years, and he knows it better than he understands the new realm of privilege that he has been drawn into.

Abberline's loathing

The prostitutes, Gull's targets, are perpetual victims, desperately trying to stay alive in a London that makes even day-to-day living difficult.

Look at Campbell's Chapter 5, where he visually contrasts the two Londons, Gull's London of privilege, and the hellish London of the poor. Soft grays ease Gull into his daily routine, while sharp cold blacks topple the women out of their peaceful sleep into London's cold.

The Ripper's victims are not particularly lovely women, and cannot said to be leading a happy life by any means. Observe the stark, hopeless terror of the prostitutes, faced with death or worse at the hands of the London mob (Chapter 3)

And yet Campbell never fails to sink in a needle to remind us of their humanity, time and again; Mary Kelly's calm, quiet smirk (Chapter 3, page 14) or the piteous misery of Annie Chapman (Chapter 7 page 5); or Kate Fellowes snatching a few moments of joy, in the midst of her drudgery (Chapter 9)it becomes impossible not to feel their torment, the sad, heart-rending despair, of a person condemned to this Hell through no fault of their own, and now unable to even conceive of an escape from it.

The piteous misery of Annie Chapman

London is no less a character in this tale, enveloping and shrouding the characters, driving them down its chosen path.

In the astonishingly powerful Chapter 4, we first see the grand plan drawn out by Gull, and the forces surrounding him that he capitalizes on to fulfil his task. Here, we see Gull's chilling revelation of his ultimate goal, made even more terrifying by the look of complete satisfaction on his face.

Gull's studies through Masonry have revealed to him the grand plan behind London's construction; the menacing constructions not only exalting the Deity but also stripping away the humanity from the little man; not bringing the man up to the level of the Deity, but
rather stressing the difference between them, making man far more acutely aware of how very little a thing he is. Every little detail, from the grand to the mundane, from the overpowering dome of St. Paul's, to the simple horse-brasses mounted on every carriage in London, bears witness to the grand magic mounted in this city.

Gull's plan

The city, an immense occult engine, prepared by occult architects and Masons through the ages, is now primed and targeted, prepared by a kill, and aimed at her Queen's foes by a fanatic willing to do anything for his Liege, and more, if it also serves his Deity. (Actually, serving his Liege is only incidental to Gull's higher plan, "the very tip of the iceberg". Victoria does not suspect what she has unleashed, in her attempts to protect her family's reputation.)

Gull's plan: the tip of the iceberg

As Hawksmoor built up the colossal London above, so too does Gull now build up his task in the streets below. London's innocents are expendable pawns in a plan to extoll the Gods, and thereby complete Gull's mission on Earth.

Magnifying and focussing London's darkness ...

For London is Hell ...

Strangely, the protagonist does not seem to cause as much agony and despair as the environment itself. Whitechapel, a Hellish nightmare to its poorest inhabitants, produces far more misery to its people than Gull. Campbell does more than justice to Moore's script, in producing an image of a Pit, its frightened inhabitants preying on each other, resigned to their fate, perpetually yearning for a better existence but without any real hope of one, desperately snatching at whatever small morsels of joy they can extract from the darkness.

This London is a very Hell ... and there are no happy characters here ... all of them suffering, in one way or another:

The Prince, confounded

A Prince, bullied and controlled by his Imperial mother, denied any chance of his own happiness;

Victoria's fear

The Empress herself, fearing revolution, living a cold and loveless existence;

Victoria alone

A shopgirl, robbed of her very mind, a pawn tossed about the
chessboard by forces beyond her control;

Annie

The prostitutes of London, cursed into an early life of despair, with little hope of improvement;

A Better Life

Sorrow

The Elephant Man, condemned to the Hell of his own body, but dreaming of the Heaven revealed to him by Gull;
Merrick, the Elephant Man Merrick Ganesa

Gull, himself, escaping a mortal Hell by an attempt to seize Heaven.

Gull's madness

The closest any of these characters ever come to Heaven is through their interactions with Gull; his casual words presenting the vision of a better world to John Merrick; and the few moments of childlike joy we see on the face of Polly Nicholls, a young woman robbed of her childhood, are those given to her by Gull, just prior to her death at his hands; a final contact with Gull's luminous Heaven, just before she passes out of the Hell that her life had become.

We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde

In Moore's book, the only person who is looking at the stars is Gull himself. All the others are so lost in the pain of the gutters of Whitechapel that they see nothing beyond; no hope left. An occasional desperate dream of escape is all that's left to them, followed by the inevitable and quick dash of reality, and a return to their hopeless lives. Gull alone sees the glory of his task, permeating all the world.

Finale

Gull's descent

In another of Moore's mirrors, note Chapter 14, where Gull simultaneously plumbs the depths of madness, as he rises towards his ultimate goal, far above the common rut.

This is Gull's final triumph ... escaping from the earthy surroundings, into the grander, larger design that surrounds him. Then further, outside even the three dimensions, into the larger fourth; and finally, into the face of God. And the power of that ascension casts ripples through time, as the strength of Gull's faith, the intensity of his belief, affects others in his wake. The completion of his grand achievement simultaneously hurls him into the heights of his final goal as well as into the depths of madness.

He is swept up in the rapture that envelopes him, but rapidly losing all connection with his earthly life.

As he has made use of the structures built around him over time, so too does he now create his own occult structure, one extending through time, and spreading its ripples down the years.

And the strength of his creation influences other minds across the years, reflections and imitators, shadows of the original Ripper, sympathetic minds walking the path first traced by Gull; the grand design arising in shallower circles (first a century, then fifty years, then twenty-five and so on), moving through time towards a convergence.

And Gull's ascension completes, his mind reaching eternity, finally escaping his earthen body.

Gull's ascent

Moore combines a skillful blend of research and fiction, not resisting the appeal of including several coterminous characters and vignettes (Crowley's presence in London, Hitler's birth) to bolster his tale across time. The detailed glossary of his research and annotations of his work in writing this book gives still more insight into the creative process behind it.

In the final appendix, Moore wryly makes note of the work done by prior Ripperologists, observing their effect on each other (including his own work).

He acknowledges the immense quantity of legend that has built up around the Ripper, and the extremely muddy line drawn between myth and reality (often crossing boundaries), and his own contribution to those legends (further muddying and blurring the waters).

This is easily one of the finest works in the medium, and well deserves a place on any reader's bookshelf. Richly detailed, the book rewards multiple reads with new insights into the tale.``xEd Mathews``xruckus24@aol.com``xFrom Hell: Architecture in Time``x1003901122,98601,Reviews``x``x``xby Bala Menon ``xBala Menon is a contributing writer for PopImage.
All images on this page (c) Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, and used under the Fair Use doctrine
FROM HELL (c) Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, 1989, 1999``x ``xThe Collected Editions area is of growing importance at the Marvel offices these days. Thanks to staff such as Ben Abernathy you can look forward to a well designed collection to fit on your shelf. Ben took some time to speak with us about upcoming events in the special projects department at Marvel.

What brought you to Marvel Comics? Is it something you always wanted to do?

That's a good question... what brought me here initially? Well, money and growth opportunity! I was working in the Creative Service Department at DC Comics, in a position virtually created for me by the wonderful Richard Bruning (one helluva guy!) and I was working with the WildStorm crew. Unfortunately, after about a year, it didn't seem like there was much in the way of growth potential. I knew that Marvel was hiring (well, considering they'd laid off so many people, it stands to figure they'd be hiring SOMETHING). I landed a job interview for another Creative Services position, although it managed much more responsibility and was a definite pay raise. So, leaving all the great people at DC behind, I entered Marvel, working with their biggest licensees for approvals and whatnot. It was fun in the beginning (I got to play test the first Activision PlayStation games!!) but it hit a plateau. So, by chance, Polly Watson decided to pursue other opportunities and I got a call from Bill Jemas.

Knowing my editorial background from Dark Horse and having worked with Dale Crain at DC (another great guy!) he asked me if I'd be interested in heading up Collected Editions. I think I thought about it for about one second and then jumped at it. It was somewhat of a dream come true, to be honest. I mean c'mon, MARVEL COMICS EDITORIAL! It's pretty darn cool no matter HOW you look at it. Plus, it was a great time. Joe had just taken over as EIC, Bill was having astounding success with his various ideas (like the Ultimates), and Collected Editions was a promising area of growth. Besides, look at me now - people actually want to interview ME!!!

That's very cool. What position are you holding at this point and what does it cover in editorial?

My position is officially "Special Projects Manager" which means I edit all the reprints and then take on other fun products like the upcoming Recharge Collectible Card Game, the Marvel Masterprints, maybe some CD-Roms WAYYYY down the road. The title "Special Projects" is pretty wide open right now, but I primarily am the reprint man!

Aside from editing, where do you stand in the decision making process? If it's a group effort, who else gets a vote?

I'm on the front line of the decision making process. The main people making the choices are me and my boss, Bob Greenberger. Joe and Bill give a lot of input, as well as the editors (mainly Tom Brevoort, who I can accurately say, the books wouldn't be where they are without his input and guidance - Marvel is FULL of great people).
The people under me, especially Matty Ryan, also kick a lot of input and ideas. It tends to be a very democratic process. I like to gauge as many sources as possible when putting these together because my goal is really to put out a superior product.

Which collections are you most proud of? Any trade editions published thus far that excite you from a personal, fan perspective? I have to say the appearance of X-Men: Vignettes blew me away.

The collections I'm most proud of? Well, there's a few... Probably the one that I am singly most proud of, would be EARTH X. Now there's a couple reasons: This was my first book. I put a LOT of work into making this the package it turned into, even changing the page count at the last second and juggling hundreds of pages of film. I was so afraid I would screw up my first book, that when it came back and looked great (I still think it's one of our better designed books), I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. It was sugar on top that Alex, Jim, John, and Bill all thought it turned out well. I made Alex Ross happy on my first try! Some of the other favorite books were the second DAREDEVIL VISIONARIES: FRANK MILLER V.2 (need I say more?). My older brother turned me onto Mr. Miller's DAREDEVIL in high school, so this one was especially close to home. It was the death of Elektra, man!

One I'm working on right now definitely has my fan boy stirred up: CAPTAIN BRITAIN! Working with Alan Moore and Alan Davis has been an INCREDIBLE experience! Alan (Moore) is the nicest guy you could ever meet, has been really supportive and helpful in the process. Alan (Davis) has always been one of my favorite artists (again, I can thank my older brother and those EXCALIBUR issues!) and he, too, is incredibly nice... I guess it's a British thing! The work these two gentlemen have done is amazing to contemplate and this particular work will wow new audiences for years to come... It's due out in December, so it's almost the anniversary of EARTH X... heh heh heh...

Any idea yet on how UNIVERSE X is going to be handled as a collection, considering it's roughly 20 issues?

That's funny you ask, as I'm working on volume 1 today... The first volume will collect UNIVERSE X issues 0-7 and the Spidey, FF, and Cap specials, as well as the relevant Appendixes, Intros, etc. Volume 2 will reprint everything else from the series, through issue X. They're going to be a great package and I'm excited about putting them together. Both Jim and Alex have been really helpful and supportive in the early stages of this, so I think it's going to turn out really well. I can guarantee any fan of the series that they will NOT be disappointed!

One of the topics covered at the Marvel panels during Wizard World 2001 was the need to make comics collectible again. Were the Collected Editions created as an answer to the greater story demands on the short term without going back to press for multiple printings, thereby diluting the value of the first copies?

That's an interesting question. I don't think the Collected Editions Department here was created for that purpose, no, although it does bolster the print-to-order/no second printings mandate by getting the trades out quicker. I think the purpose is more getting the stories that people want to read in a more affordable and manageable form. It's all about money, man! I could see how some might interpret what we're doing as an extension of that mentality, but I'd like to think we're a little more than that.

I really wanted to talk about a personal favourite of mine, the Visionaries trade program. Now that Marvel has finished Miller's DAREDEVIL, are there any other specific runs you guys are hoping to tap into somewhere along the way?

The only one really planned, at this point, is probably the start of a Peter David/Hulk Visionaries. Otherwise, there aren't many on the schedule yet for next year...

Odin's beard! How in the world are you guys going to manage that? We're talking nearly a decade, right?

Well, I don't think there's any plans to collect ALL of it... we're going to start with the first bunch of issues and go from there, I think. Although the possibility exists of going the Claremont-Visionaries route and making it more of a "Best Of". Wouldn't it be cool to get the complete run, though?

Absolutely! Unfortunately, I missed David's run as a kid. I've always wanted to see the run from the start, which is why I've shied away from the individual trades up until now.

Any chance for another volume of THOR: VISIONARIES: WALTER SIMONSON?

Probably no for the moment on a second THOR book. I do think the sale velocity of the first volume yet warrants a second printing, but maybe later next year... A lot of people are clamoring for it, but it's not in the foreseeable future!

I've heard the Essential program is by far the most profitable trade system Marvel has running right now. It's been a shock recently to see Essentials announcements like Howard the Duck, Fury & The Howling Commandos, and Ant-Man (Ant-Man?!?)... has the high profitability allowed Marvel to get more obscure with their collections?

The nature of the Essentials DOES make them a profit center for the reprint department, but that also means that a book doesn't need to sell crazy numbers to make money (due to the cheap printing). For instance, when we did the ESSENTIAL CONAN, it sold really well and surprised a lot of people. Most people wondered why we did Conan ahead of characters like Iron Man or Daredevil, but the sales backed up that decision! There are various reasons for doing the other Essentials. Part of it is variety - retailers and fans alike want more variety than just FF, Avengers, X-Men, and Spider-Man. I get more e-mails demanding random Essentials (like an X-Factor one) than for the next sequence in the multiple volumes. For the upcoming Dr. Strange and Ant-Man books, we are reprinting EVERYTHING so, like the Silver Surfer, everything will be in one volume. Also, in the case of Ant-Man, it's his 40th Anniversary and we have to do SOMETHING for him!

Speaking of those random Essentials... any plans for X-FACTOR or possibly even NEW MUTANTS? As for Ant-Man, nothing surprises me anymore. After all, Artisan licensed the property with Marvel as a feature film...

No plans for either Essential, sorry. We kicked around an X-Factor one for a while, but it fell behind suggestions like Ghost Rider or Punisher. Who knows, maybe when the next movie comes around there might be a demand for stories of the original X-Men...

Ben, I want to thank you for participating in this interview. I think you're at the forefront of what could be the most valuable and exciting aspect of Marvel today. It's been a pleasure talking with you.

I should thank YOU for the interview. It's been a pleasure! People usually don't care what the reprint guys have to say, but we are a growing area and if the rest of the world is any indication (since they traffic primarily in graphic novel form) we're going to be even bigger in the coming years. I think the sky's the limit when it comes to the trade paperback. Now, if only I could convince everyone who reads this to go buy a book or two! ``xEd Mathews``xruckus24@aol.com``xINTERVIEW: BEHIND THE PANEL WITH BEN ABERNATHY``x1003905433,7214,Industrial``x``x``xConducted by Drew Reiber``xDrew Reiber is a contributing writer for PopImage.
All characters, titles, images mentioned or shown
are copyright and trademark their respective creators.``xMarvel.com - Marvel Comics Online
E-mail Us. - Send us an e-mail, commenting on this article. ``xOne comic I will always remember having a huge impact on me is DAREDEVIL #250, "Boom." I can even recall the place where I bought it- the Plymouth Meeting Mall, and the comic I bought it with- TRANSFORMERS #36 (that godawful "Spacehikers" story, and Jose Delbo's first issue- but that's another story). Sure, it had Daredevil battling a supervillain, Bullet, but this was no simple hero-fights-a-new-bad-guy story. Bullet wasn't just a criminal, he was a government agent out to discredit environmentalists to help a chemical company win a lawsuit. Matt Murdock was trying to keep a law clinic together while working for the plaintiff on the same lawsuit. Plus, there was the story of Bullet's son, a kid obsessed with nuclear war.

"Boom" may be best known as penciler John Romita Jr.'s first issue, but to me, it was something different. And I never forgot who wrote that story: Ann Nocenti.

Starting out in Marvel Editorial in the 80's, Nocenti has to her credit a wide range of diverse titles such as MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS, KID ETERNITY, WOLVERINE, SPIDER-MAN, SPIDER-WOMAN, and the graphic novel collaboration with artist John Bolton: SOMEPLACE STRANGE. But Ann is probably best known for her four-year run on the man without fear: DAREDEVIL. She also co-created two of the most offbeat characters in Marvel history, Longshot and Typhoid Mary.

Ms. Nocenti has spent the past few years outside of the comics field, and is currently editor of Scenario: The Magazine of Screenwriting Art. I recently contacted her for an brief interview; I'd like to extend my deepest thanks to Ms. Nocenti for taking the time to speak with us.

Okay, how did you "break in" to comics?

I saw an ad in the back of the Village Voice for an assistant editorial position, and when I called up, the woman wouldn't tell me what exactly the company published. Natch, I assumed that meant it must be a porn joint. At the time I was fresh out of college with a worthless fine arts degree, and was slinging cocktails at some jazz club in the city... so I wasn't exactly qualified for anything much anyway. But I had just read a Henry Miller trilogy, the one that opens something like: "33 years old, age of Christ crucified, a failure in every sense of the word" and somewhere in there Miller is looking for a job, has no qualifications, and is intimidated by NYC's tall steel towers. But one day he impulsively enters a skyscraper, takes the elevator to the top, talks a blue streak of lies to some exec in a penthouse, and (almost) gets a job. So, thinking of Miller's chutzpah, I figured what the hell, see if you can bullshit your way into a job, even if it's just writing porn. When I got to the address, the first thing I saw a giant Captain America cutout. I'd never read a super-hero comic, wasn't really sure what they were let alone know they were a rich and complex art form, but I knew I wanted to work in an office with a giant cutout like that.

So, remembering the passage in the Henry Miller book, I went into the big executive's office and talked a blue streak of lies, invoking Nietzsche, McLuhan, Warhol, and anyone else I could think of that toyed with superhumans, pop art, or visual linguistics. On the way out a very nice woman named Virginia Romita said to me: "You don't smoke, do you?" So, adding one more lie to the pile, I said no. (Winstons, pack a day). I never thought I'd hear from them, figuring my bullshit was transparent as glaze on a donut, but Jim Shooter (who interviewed me) called the next day and hired me. Who knows why, maybe he thought bullshit was the best qualification to write comic books. So, I quit smoking and hustling cocktails, and began working for Marvel Comics.

And, ironically, it was sort of a porn joint. (Only kidding)

"Cripes, man! Hookers reading bibles!
I don't want to live in this New World..."

You started out at Marvel editorial in the 80's- what was that environment like, during Jim Shooter's "legendary" reign?

Life under Shooter's reign was like life in any benevolent dictatorship. At least he had a vision and was passionate about it, and underneath him the suppressed masses had fun in their insurgency meetings, and eventual revolt that overthrew the despot. Think Castro's Cuba -the guy's been espousing free elections for what, 40 years? But damned if he'll ever allow one.

Shooter loved comics, understood them pretty well, and the basic structural storytelling principles he imposed on them were very sound, but he was so damn maniacal about imposing them he forgot, in the process, that great individual artists and storytellers rise out of breaking the form, breaking the rules in interesting ways. So, principled as he was, he failed in that he tried to force his theories on very creative people in a dogmatic, dictatorial way. It reached a point, just before his fall, when you can pick up ANY Marvel comic of that year and find the "can't/must" panel, the one he inserted into every comic, the point at which the hero pauses to say, "I can't (fill in the blank) but I must (fill in the blank).

Shooter thought this would add instant conflict to every comic produced, but those imposed panels are just tumorous growths in otherwise healthy, unconflicted stories. But, that said, he was often very brave... I remember I wanted Bill Sienkiewicz to do a series of "experimental" painted covers on the NEW MUTANTS, and he supported me on that, and in many other things I wanted to try. Anyway, since the staff was unified in their anger at his bully methods when it came to story, many days at the office were a kind of fun complicity of rebellion.

The place was packed with creative editors: Mark Gruenwald, Louise Jones, Mike Carlin, Al Milgrom, Archie Goodwin, Larry Hama, Ralph Macchio, and many others, most of them witty cut-ups and pranksters that keep the office a very lively place. Plus, Steve Ditko, Bill Sienkiewicz, Walt Simonson, etc. etc... All these guys would visit and tell wacky stories and you could basically get through the day without working too hard. Anyway, it was a fun era (until it wasn't) and even though, during the years I was the editor of the X-MEN and all the "mutant" books, Shooter and I fought like hell, I always respected the guy for his passion for comics. And, as it turned out, the dullsville regime that replaced him makes him look practically open-minded in comparison...

Your first comic work, as I understand it, was a rather bizarre four issue run on Spider-Woman ending in the heroine's death. What was that like, having your first ongoing assignment leading to you killing your lead character off?

It was a wacky bit of fun, but I was too new to the game to understand that killing off beloved characters is a rotten thing to do. Looking back, I guess I was hoodwinked. I think Mark Gruenwald, who was the editor of the book, might have had some kind of personal agenda going on there, but I don't what, really. Maybe I don't want to know? Well, I was glad he gave me the work, and I had fun working with him, he was a very creative guy.

Actually, that wasn't my first job, my first comic work came from Denny O'Neil. He asked me to write a story for his BIZARRE ADVENTURES mag, and I think I wrote about a guy who "chased the bitch," as they say, chased lady luck too hard in the casinos. He beat the odds, but I can't remember how it ended for him, badly I think.

Longshot- where did this guy COME from? Reading the original miniseries, it seems at first he's coming from traditional fantasy roots but later on it becomes apparent he's from something entirely different- Mojoworld, 57 channels and nothing on. Did the character evolve as you were writing him?

I don't really know the answer to that one. I never read much fantasy or sci-fi, so he didn't come from there. I think I had some kind of muddled existential idea, that the Mojoworld was a funhouse version of our own media-obsessed world, Mojo produced completely manipulated beings, drenched in the tepid lukewarm bath of "culture", and Longshot stood outside that as a blank slate that had to create himself. Like, what is a human being if you could remove him from his world? Or something like that.

I don't think any of it was very planned or conscious, I just started at page one and had fun. I do remember when I came up with the glowing eye thing. It came from a one-eyed cat I was living with at the time, and how the one eye would glint in the dark at night. I thought that was so cool and eerie, I gave it to Longshot. I remember the editors I pitched it to (Carl Potts and Louise Jones), who were just amazing, very supportive of the whole project, but Carl was like, what do you mean, his eye glows? How can that be drawn? Why does it glow? Louise Jones was more like, who cares what it means, it's cool. But it worked out in the end, since Art Adams drew it so well, no one questioned it. And it seems to have caught on, 'cause years later there were dozens of characters with one eye glowing. I do know that Longshot's odd charm and innocence came from Art Adams... from the way he interpreted and drew him. Even though the writer does all the groundwork for a new character, they really don't come alive until they're drawn, so your question about did the character evolve, the answer is yes, most strongly influenced by Art. His work on Longshot was just so damn delicious, every new page was a thrill. When he designed Ricochet Rita, and Spiral (WOW!) and that little pup, I forget what I called him, that little puppy that grew and grew! You can't imagine how wonderful it was to be working with Art Adams.

You wrote DAREDEVIL for a very long period of time, issue #236, not too long after Frank Miller's "Born Again" storyline, to issue #291, with very few breaks in between. It's rather amazing, especially when compared to today's superhero comics, how much social commentary and smarter-than-average themes you were able to cram into Daredevil, and pretty much every other superhero comic you've done. Reading "Boom" (DD #250) or "The Billion Dollar Ashtray" (DD #273) were rather eye-opening experiences at my age.

Was the impression at Marvel that since the character doesn't sell unless it's got Frank Miller's name attached, you could pretty much do whatever you want?

Those Daredevil stories were a blast to write, and I always had great artists on that book, but the stories maybe could have used more breezy fun shit and less smartypants stuff. I haven't looked at them in many years, but if I read them again today I'd probably think they had too much politics and "social commentary." I just always had a problem with how the stories in super hero comics built to a violent conflict, and that's how the stories were resolved. Real life is very complex, and the way out of a conflict is just as often not violent. So, the fights were like tumors in the story, to me. On one level the fights are what make comics exciting, since action is cinematic and flows well from panel to panel, but it gets boring to build every story that way. So I'd try to mix that up by introducing stories where the conflict wasn't just a big bad villain or a monstrous threat to the planet - it was a little more complex, so the resolution was more complex than a simple fight.

"The sky exploded!
Daddy! This is IT! The end of the world!
Daddy! That was a nuclear explosion!
Back up! Radiation's coming!"

I think maybe it worked great sometimes, like with the Bullet character and his little son Lance in the bomb shelter, but sometimes the stories were crammed with too much talky shit, and they ceased to flow like cinema. Too much Oliver Stone, not enough Kurosawa. But, the reason I was able to do those stories was that Ralph Macchio, the editor, was a smart guy who liked smart stories. He was very supportive of everything I did, and we always made sure the stories were rockin' and kick-ass enough to keep the sales healthy.

Typhoid Mary. You could argue that no one has ever created a more fully realized female villain in comics. Where did you get the first idea for the character?

I guess I was sick of the girls in comics. They were the sweet hapless girlfriends of heroes, or they were bitch queens or evil witches, or the holier-than-thou goddesses, or whatever, but they bugged me. I wanted to shatter the female, and have all the shards form one woman. So Typhoid was partly the sweet hapless Mary, but was she so hapless? She was also the queen bitch, but was it men she liked to make squirm, or the innocent Mary inside her, forced to watch and participate?

Bloody Mary was the extreme feminist, so much that it was as if she was annihilating herself. On the surface, Typhoid always related to men, had her attention on men. But really, it was a bunch of women in conversation with each other.

Anyway, any "mode" Typhoid was in was always supposed to be seen in relation to the sides that were suppressed. I tried to get you to feel the haunting, watchful, pained presence of the "others". Again, these characters were not created so consciously, but more intuitively. I'm sure a "real" feminist could rip apart Typhoid, take me to task for her. Yeah, Typhoid's over the top, but she's so much fun to write... I'd love to do another story with her someday. But who knows, maybe they've killed her off by now. I haven't really been paying attention.

"sssh. Listen."
"What are you listening for?"
"For what I know is always out there -
- human nature's dark side."

I recently came across a 1996 interview with James Romberger where he said a graphic novel project you had been collaboration with him on, JEZEBEL'S VIRTUE, had been canceled by DC before it was finished. What was this project about, and more importantly, what the hell happened to it?

JEZEBEL'S VIRTUE came out of a piece of journalism I did, about a serial killer who was killing prostitutes, but the cops didn't consider them murders worth investigating, since they were "just whores". Eventually, the guy killed an upper middle class white girl in suburbia, and only THEN did they investigate. I did a lot of research, went to PONY meetings (an organization to help prostitutes,) interviewed a lot of girls before writing the story. I think it's the best thing I ever wrote, but just when it was supposed to be published, like in 1994 or something, was when both DC and Marvel got hit with drops in sales and big cutbacks. So Jezebel's Virtue got cut along with A LOT of other stuff. As for what happened to it, it's sitting in a drawer in DC's offices, and maybe they'll print it someday, I hope so. It really is a great story.

The 1995 Typhoid miniseries was a fine comic that sadly didn't get the attention it deserved, I think. Still, it's one of the best books Marvel published in the past decade. What was the genesis of that series?

Sorta the same answer as above. The Typhoid miniseries is where I did the actual story of the prostitute killings case, whereas Jezebel's Virtue was more a "day in the life of a prostitute" tale, that used a killing as a springboard and went off in a different direction. Jezebel was inspired by some of the girls I interviewed, and the stories they told me. As for the Typhoid miniseries, that got made because Marie Javins and her assistant Polly liked the character, wanted a story, and suggested John Van Fleet once I pitched a noirish type crime tale. They were right, the mix was perfect. John is brilliant. He really understood the story and added a lot to it. My favorite, of all the great pages he drew, was the scene where Typhoid makes a cop eat his own gun. (Wow!!!) I hope to be doing a Batman/Poison Ivy series with him next year.

"I don't like men who suck lollipops"

Finally, give the viewers at home the answer we've all been waiting for: Where the heck has Ann Nocenti been and what is she doing lately?

So, since I left comics...

I was an editor on Prison Life Magazine. We published the fiction, art, and journalism of convicts, and offered an eclectic view of life "behind the walls." My first hand exposure to the US prison system was a large part of the content in the Prisoner X novel I wrote that featured X-Men. The past decade I've also written quite a bit of journalism, essays, and short stories for various mags, and also wrote a couple plays, both of which were performed, one at the Lincoln Center "Out of Doors" series. I sold a few screenplays, and then took a job as the editor of Scenario Magazine (www.scenariomag.com). For that mag, I interview directors and screenwriters. My latest film scripts, "FULL TILT" and "HOTLINE," one sold, one optioned, are both in early pre-production. I'm in the process of writing a couple Batman and Catwoman projects for DC Comics, as I still love comics.

Thanks Ann.

For those interested in seeing more of Ann's work, well, you could start a letterwriting program to Marvels Trade offices and see about getting the TYPHOID mini-series collected - if they haven't already begun to do so that is. Also coming soon: check out SOMEPLACE STRANGE over at coolbeansworld.com. ``xEd Mathews``xruckus24@aol.com``xINTERVIEW: ANN NOCENTI``x1003908116,1971,Industrial``x``x``xConducted by Dan Coyle``xDan Coyle is News Editor for PopImage.
All characters, titles, images mentioned or shown are copyright
and trademark their respective creators.``xE-mail Us. - Send us an e-mail, commenting on this article. ``x FADE IN:

EXT.PUMPKIN PATCH - HALLOWEEN NIGHT

SALLY
I can't BELIEVE you're doing this AGAIN!

                               LINUS
                     Quiet, Sally! You'll scare away the
                     Great Pumpkin!

                               SALLY
                     "The Great Pumpkin." "The Great
                     Pumpkin." There IS no Great Pumpkin!
                     It's just some strange ritual you go
                     through every year that oddly resembles a
                     subtle indictment of organized religion!

                               LINUS
                     NO! There IS a Great Pumpkin! And he's
                     going to fly forth from the pumpkin patch
                     and give toys to all the good little
                     children...with a little help from me!

                               SALLY
                     What do you mean? And what's with that
                     weird book you're holding, the "Nee-Kro
                     Mon-I-Khan"...?

                               LINUS
                     I found it on Amazon.com! According to
                     the site, it can summon forth ALL the
                     spirits of Halloween! Um, do you have
                     any goat's blood on you...?

SALLY
Ask Lucy.

                               LINUS
                     Oh, it'll probably work without it...now
                     to read the spell..."Dark forces beyond
                     the veil of reality...wizened spirits of
                     Astograth...executives of the NBC
                     television network...summon forth the
                     black-hearted spirit of All Hallow's Eve,
                     and let him give me candy and toys!"
                         (pause)
                     I added that last part myself.

SALLY
Look!

            The sky SPLITS OPEN! Ancient spirits scream the SCREAMS OF
           THE DAMNED! "Inside Schwartz" actually becomes WATCHABLE!
           And from the sky comes...

                               LINUS
                     It's him! It's finally him! It's the
                     Great Pumpkin!

SALLY
I don't believe it! You were RIGHT!

                               GREAT PUMPKIN
                     HA HA HA! AFTER THESE COUNTLESS
                     MILLENNIA, THE DARK LORD SAMHAIN IS FREE
                     AT LAST!

                               LINUS
                     Great Pumpkin! Down here! I never gave
                     up on you! Could I have some Jolly
                     Ranchers?

                               GREAT PUMPKIN
                     FOOLISH BLANKETED MORTAL! DO YOU
                     COMPREHEND THE AWESOME POWERS YOU HAVE
                     UNLEASHED THIS NIGHT OF INFINITE TERROR?

LINUS
Um...what about a Snickers?

FHWOOOM! The Pumpkin INCINERATES Linus with a blast of
FLAME!

SALLY
AAAAAHHHH!

                               GREAT PUMPKIN
                     I GROW WEARY OF YOU IRRITATING YET ODDLY
                     PRECOCIOUS MORTALS! I SHALL FIND OTHER
                     REALMS IN WHICH TO WREAK HAVOC!

INT.FAMILY CIRCUS - DAY

PRIEST
So why did you call me, Mr. Keane?

                               DAD
                     I think...I think my daughter may be
                     possessed.

PRIEST
What makes you say that?

BLAAAAARG! A wave of GREEN PUKE is hurled on them!

PRIEST
AAAAAAAAHHHHHH! Who did that?!

                               DOLLY
                         (tied to a bed; giggling
                          insanely)
                     Not Me...Not Me...Not Me...

DAD
Dolly! Put down that crucifix NOW!

INT.DILBERT - DAY

                               DILBERT
                         (roaming the office halls with
                          a shotgun)
                     Heh heh heh...need more toner...need more
                     toner....

                               POINTY-HAIRED BOSS
                     Dilbert! Stop that! Lunch break was
                     over ten minutes ago! You can shoot
                     people when you're OFF the clock!

INT.LITTLE NEMO IN SLUMBERLAND - DAY

                               LITTLE NEMO
                     Oh! Um! What a funny dream I had! I
                     dreamt that there was a horribly burned
                     child-molester with razor fingers coming
                     after...AAAAHHHH!

                               FREDDY KRUEGER
                     Sweet dreams, kiddie. Hey, wasn't this
                     strip cancelled like a hundred years ago?

INT.FUNKY WINKERBEAN - DAY

LES
Oh no! I'm being EVICTED!

LISA
Oh no! I have CANCER! Again!

                               FUNKY
                     Oh no! I'm about to fall off the WAGON!
                     DAMN YOU GREAT PUMPKIN!!!

                               GREAT PUMPKIN
                     ACTUALLY, I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING TO YOU.
                     YOUR STRIP IS ALWAYS THIS DEPRESSING.

FUNKY
Oh, right. Got any Scotch?

INT.PEANUTS - DAY

CHARLIEBROWN and the GANG are TRICK-OR-TREATING!

                               CHARLIE BROWN
                     Why do people always give me nothing but
                     rocks?! I mean, I'm wearing a COSTUME!
                     Do they just automatically hate me for no
                     rational reason?

LUCY
Your life is so oddly existental.

SuddenlySALLY runs up!

SALLY
HELP! HELP! IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN!

LUCY
Good grief. Not this again.

CHARLIE BROWN
Sally, there's no such--

GREAT PUMPKIN
HA HA! DIE, PREMATURELY BALD MORTAL!

ZAPPPPP!!!! A BLAST knocks the Pumpkin away from the Peanuts
gang!

CHARLIE BROWN
Who did that?

                               JASON FOX
                     Oh, hey there. I'm Jason from "Fox
                     Trot." My prodigious supergenius has
                     enabled me to construct anti-pumpkin
                     weaponry to take down this demonic force!

                               LUCY
                     You know, this sort of thing never
                     happened to Calvin and Hobbes.

                               JASON FOX
                     Bad news though -- I can't hold the
                     Pumpkin off forever! If we're going to
                     take him out, we need to put out the
                     magic candle inside his pumpkin-head! If
                     only we had something we could kick up
                     there, like a football...

Everyonelooks at Charlie Brown.

CHARLIE BROWN
Ohhhhhhh no!

JASON FOX
Come on!

                               CHARLIE BROWN
                         (sighs)
                     Look, I'll kick it...but Lucy, you're
                     going to have to hold it still this time!
                     The fate of the world is in the balance!
                     You CANNOT pull away the football!

                               LUCY
                     Charlie Brown! Of COURSE I'm not going
                     to pull it away! Don't be such a
                     blockhead! Now go on and kick it!

Sheputs the football down...Charlie Brown gears up, runs...

GREAT PUMPKIN
HA HA HA! I WILL DESTROY YOU ALL!

                               CHARLIE BROWN
                         (to himself)
                     Okay, this is it...got to do this...can't
                     miss...can't miss...

INT.FLAMING PITS OF TARTARUS - FIVE MINUTES LATER

                               SCHRODER
                     Lucy, you couldn't let him kick the
                     stupid ball just ONCE?

                               LUCY
                     Okay, I'm just going to admit it -- I
                     think I have a problem.

                               CHARLIE BROWN
                     WOW! This place is GREAT! For once, I
                     don't have to worry about being rejected
                     by the little red-haired girl, losing
                     baseball games, getting a kite stuck in a
                     tree or everything else in my life going
                     wrong, because I KNOW it will! I'm...I'm
                     HOME!

SALLY
Good grief.

FADEOUT.

THE END.

``xEd Mathews``xruckus24@aol.com``xSTARVED FOR ATTENTION: THE GREAT PUMPKIN RETURNS``x1004506471,55949,Industrial``x``x``xby Zack Smith``xZACK SMITH (zacharymsmith@hotmail.com) would like to wish everyone a happy Halloween! And special thanks to Kelley Jones for the Pumpkin art! Go read THE CRUSADES, which is a hella-creepy book, and one you should be reading! And extra special thanks to Marc McKenzie for that sweet coloring job! YAY MARC!``x ``xLocal boys make big, come on the scene with new Original Graphic Novel.

I think the most important thing, about my interview with freshman creators Marc Bryant and Malcolm 'Mal' Jones is that Marc was late getting there. It's true. Mal, in his dorm room at art school, apologized for him twice before he showed up too. Where was Marc, you might ask? Out at the movies, with his wife. And to me, that really is the most important thing about the interview. Marc and Mal have lives, interests, and influences outside of the comics industry. It's that freshness that's so readily apparent in their new graphic novel, OVERTIME. They're comic fans, sure. But Malcolm draws from a wide variety of artistic influences, from classical to commercial. And despite having read maybe ten different stories that Marc has written, not one even flirted with superheroes. They're two very unique, very fresh voices, and OVERTIME is bound to be a very auspicious debut. I'm proud to bring you this interview with two friends and to show you how two PopImage kids made good.

POPIMAGE: First off, please introduce yourselves.
Marc Bryant: I'm Marc Bryant, writer and co-creator of OVERTIME.
Mal Jones: I'm Mal Jones, artist on OVERTIME
Marc Bryant: …and co-creator.
Mal Jones: …and co-creator!
Marc Bryant: Damn straight

POPIMAGE: That's interesting that you credit Malcolm with co-creation. Originally, you had started OVERTIME with a different artist hadn't you Marc?
Marc Bryant: Yeah, a very talented guy named Sherard Jackson. He did some of the design with me, when it was still an illustrated prose story at OPI8. Now, though, its gone through so many changes, it's as much Mal's show as it is mine. With Sherard's blessing, I might add.
Mal Jones: Sherard's stuff is so lovely.

POPIMAGE: Mal, how was it for you coming into a project which had begun with a separate artist?
Mal Jones: I had no problem with it, honestly. By the time Marc and I started working together on Overtime, we had already worked together on a few shorts (Afterbirth at NextComics and Date Night which will be in Cyberosia's Revolving Hammer). So we were vibing really well and Overtime had moved from prose to sequential art and was really becoming a new beast.
Marc Bryant: Mal took to it like a fish to water. He really knew what the story needed from day one.

POPIMAGE: Tell the nice readers a little bit about how you work together. Is it full script to artwork, or a little bit of give and take?
Marc Bryant: That's part of the miracle of the internet-we both chat a LOT during the day, so I'd send bits and pieces of what some people might call 'full scripts' then we'd riff on that until we had a scene or page that we were both pleased with. I can't believe I just said 'miracle of the internet'.
Mal Jones: Yeah, Marc sends me bits and I doodle out lay outs, send them to him, he adapts the scripts, I adapt my pages. It was an evolutionary style of creation.
Marc Bryant: At this point, between what we've done, and what we're working on, we have our own little 'virtual studio'.
Mal Jones: I would say Marc and I talked for at LEAST an hour a day during Overtime's creation. It was always changing and shifting. I have piles of unused pages and sketches.
Marc Bryant: At least an hour. Usually a lot more.

POPIMAGE: Mal, you've got a really unique graphic style. Was it a challenge adapting to what Marc was looking for on Overtime?
Marc Bryant: Hahaha…
Mal Jones: Hahaha… DAMN CROWD SCENES!
Marc Bryant: See, you're getting ahead of yourself again. :-)
Mal Jones: Honestly? Yes, it was hard. Overtime was my first "major" project. It had scenes where I had to draw 100's of people. Scenes where I had to evoke mood and tone in just a few panels of talking heads. Marc was INCREDIBLY patient with me. I was truly learning on the job.
Marc Bryant: And I'm pretty 'hands off' with artists in most cases. I left him to his own devices a LOT, which may have actually been frustrating for him at times.

POPIMAGE: Marc, this will be your first big project too, won't it?
Marc Bryant: Yes. By a long shot. Not the first feature length story I've written, but the first published.

POPIMAGE: Any sense of nervousness involved in the project for either of you? This is your first shot at really putting yourself out there, one would imagine it would be a little frightening.
Marc Bryant: Not as much nervousness as I would think. I was much more nervous pitching the book, than I am seeing it published. I always figured that would be the other way around.
Mal Jones: I feel the same as Marc. I mean, it's going out there in to the world like it should. It's not a story that is meant to be hidden away in the corners of closets. It should be in shelves, in homes. That's why we made it. It's just going out to where it belongs.

POPIMAGE: So what WAS the pitch process like, guys? Long and involved, and how did you end up with Cyberosia?
Marc Bryant: I met Scott Brown, ironically enough, when I was an editor at...Pop Image! We kept in touch, and met at the SDCC in 2000. He became interested in OT when it was still at opi8. When Mal and I hooked up after Sherard moved on to other projects, Scott and Kristen REALLY got interested in it. We pitched it at San Diego this past summer and now we're just a few months from seeing it published. The pitch process was relatively painless. Cyberosia know exactly what they're looking for in a book, and part of what they want is a book that is very true to the creators' vision.
Mal Jones: Painless?? The suspense was KILLING me! I'm so impatient
Marc Bryant: Well, you're young yet… You don't know long pitch process yet junior ;-)
Mal Jones: For me the pitch process was just part of the natural progress so you could say it took 8 months to pitch the book if you wanted. Marc and I hooked up in January, got to work, finished the book in the summer, pitched it at San Diego, and bam... one year after we started we will have a book in our hands.
Marc Bryant: Pretty good turnover rate for an OGN, even a shorter one, in this day and age I'd say.

POPIMAGE: Recently there was a post at the WEF where a creator was discouraged about pitching his project, as it didn't seem to be what the industry wanted. Yours is a science-fiction, original graphic novel. Not exactly a genre or form that's setting the world on fire. Was that a concern?
Mal Jones: Hell no. A story is a story. At least from my point of view :-)
Marc Bryant: I have to agree, and really, OT is a crime comic, disguised as a sci-fi piece. We've really tried to present it as such to. As far it being an OGN, I think people like AiT/PlanetLar and Top Shelf are seeing to it that OGN's DO start a fire. At least a small one.
Mal Jones: OGN's are such a great format. They look nice on bookshelves, stand up to time better then floppies. And OT's sci-fi elements are simply a setting for it to be a good crime story, akin to the type of thing one would see on Law and Order or Homicide. So the genre worries were pretty much non-existent to me.

POPIMAGE: Can you discuss some of your individual influences? Was there anything that specifically influenced this project?
Marc Bryant: The work of people like Brian Bendis and Ed Brubaker has had a big influence on the mystery aspect of the story, at least from my perspective. I'm a big fan of shows like Homicide as well. Originally, years ago when I had the idea, it was like a road story/romance set in the present day – except for the fact that everyone was immortal, it was a bit of a slice of life type thing. That idea didn't really have legs on it.
Mal Jones: I still like that idea.
Marc Bryant: Though, and little by little, it evolved into what it is now. I honestly don't remember WHAT my influences were at the start.
Mal Jones: My influences range from Monet and Manet, the impressionist school of painting, to Dave McKean and Bill Sienkiewicz.

POPIMAGE: Were there any significant changes made to the story between it's inception at OPI8 and the Original Graphic Novel coming in January?
Mal Jones: Yeah, Marc had to deal with my fine art lovin' artistic stylin'! :-)
Marc Bryant: Not really. I was in the process of writing it, as it 'aired' at OPI8. There were a couple changes (as far as the opening), and I made significant changes to Cafferty's character, but otherwise we finished up with the story I set out to tell.

POPIMAGE: You didn't find any difference between telling the story as illustrated prose and comic format?
Marc Bryant: Well, I haven't really written much prose, but that's what Chad wanted, so I was adapting my scripting style to prose from the beginning. The transition was very smooth.

POPIMAGE: Okay. I asked this question of Warren Ellis, and I'm asking it of you. What's more important to you, creating, or creating comics?
Marc Bryant: Ultimately, its creating. But if I have my say, comics will always be where I do the most work.
Mal Jones: Creating. To me creating is essential to my life. If it is in comics, then that's awesome. If I'm creating websites, awesome. If I'm making paintings, awesome. However, that said, comics as a form is intriguing and such a challenge that I don't think I'll ever not be trying to work in them.

POPIMAGE: Marc, what's the allure of comics to you?
Marc Bryant: I really did learn to read on comics. Its so hard to say what it is that attracts me to the art form, other than sentimentality. But it is such a fresh medium, and the possibilities are endless. Its been said time and again that you have a limitless special effects budget doing comics, and that's so true. You have a better shot of getting your own ideas in front of an audience, however small, than in any other medium really. I love comics. What else can I say?

POPIMAGE: You've mentioned that you worked very closely on the net, chatting back and forth. A lot of creative teams find the internet an obstacle in their communication, difficult to really feel out the other partner. Did any of these problems plague you?
Marc Bryant: In no way whatsoever. This book couldn't have been done without the internet. Its how we met, it's how we worked together, and it played a huge part in selling the book to Cyberosia.
Mal Jones: Nah, not that I've noticed. I mean, Marc may be sitting in his castle in the backwoods of Tennessee with a shotgun for all I know ready to blow my head off for what I did to his book. But that's the price of the internet, right? Seriously, no. Without the internet, OVERTIME would not exist at all.

POPIMAGE: How DID you hook up anyway? I don't think you mentioned how Mal came to be working on the project.
Mal Jones: I honestly have no idea how we hooked up.
Marc Bryant: The best I can recall, we met in the WEF chat one night, started talking, and then exchanged AIM screen names. The whole thing went from there. We knew each other's names from the WEF anyway.
Mal Jones: It was definitely through the Warren Ellis Forum, yeah. We did Date Night and then Afterbirth, and just putzed around with a couple of projects, and suddenly we started talking about Overtime and it just came together.

POPIMAGE: What have you got coming up? Anything you can discuss?
Marc Bryant: We have a short story, DATE NIGHT, in the upcoming anthology from CYBEROSIA, REVOLVING HAMMER. I have an article in the PopImage collection from Cyberosia. I also have a short strip in the works for NextComics, a couple of projects with Mike Norton, of THE WAITING PLACE fame, and Mal and I are already starting on another OGN. The working title is HAIL SUSAN.
Mal Jones: Well, as a pair we have Date Night, a short in Cyberosia's REVOLVING HAMMER, and I did the art for another short called MOMENT OF SILENCE written by Scott O. Brown that will be in it as well. Other than that I have some things that I'm writing and drawing myself that aren't worth mentioning more then that, and HAIL SUSAN with Marc. All that plus graduating from the University of Maryland means I've got a full plate.

POPIMAGE: Speaking of OGN's, why was it important to you that OVERTIME be in this format?
Marc Bryant: The main reason for me, was for it to have more appeal to non-comics readers, and to give a longer shelf life than if it was a serialized miniseries.
Mal Jones: As a fast paced crime story, it has this pacing, this structure, that just works as one solid read. The OGN is also viewed in a COMPLETELY different light by non comic readers.

POPIMAGE: What have you read recently that's really turned your crank?
Mal Jones: Well sitting on my desk right now is NON #5 from Highwater Books, SLOW JAMS from David Choe, ELEKTRA: ASSASSIN, and the DEADENDERS trade paperback.
Marc Bryant: I've gotten into a lot more 'indie' comics lately-PISTOLWHIP and MEPHISTO and the EMPTY BOX kicked my homesick ass. I also really liked Brian Ralph's CAVE-IN and Scott Mills' BIG CLAY POT. I'm also loving everything by Brian Azzarello, most of Bendis' work, COUSCOUS EXPRESS, and, surprise surprise the whole CROSSGEN line.
Mal Jones: Indie books eh, Marc? You've been hanging with me too much.
Marc Bryant: Please, I was reading comics when you were an itch in your daddy's rosy palm.

POPIMAGE: Crossgen, really? What do you like about it?
Mal Jones: I always enjoy the WAITING PLACE, the AiT/PlanetLAR series... my tastes are VERY wide so it's hard to really pick what I like a lot. Plus I haven't gotten new books in ages, so...
Marc Bryant: I like the fact that the CG books are first and foremost about the STORY, not the creators, not a franchise, not the company. About telling a good story. And the production values are top notch.

POPIMAGE: Interesting. OVERTIME is sci-fi/crime. What kinds of genres are you interested in working in? Anything in particular?
Mal Jones: Quirky Slice of Life. Anything really. EXCEPT superheroes.... at least not ones that wear tights. It's not that I'm this big ANTI superhero guy... I just don't enjoy drawing the damn things.
Marc Bryant: Right now, I'm leaning towards stories that fall outside of your usual genres. I'm interested in stuff like the Cohen Brothers do, or Wes (RUSHMORE) Anderson. Quirky, funny character stories, with a lot of suspense, and a lot of heart. Though I'm not above the occasional car chase. ;-)

POPIMAGE: Hypothetical: Marvel Comics comes to you tomorrow and asks you if you're interested in working with them. What would the answer be?
Mal Jones: Sure, why not, right? Marvel, no matter what anyone says about them, is a beast in the world of Comic Making. If they were willing to let me loose on one of their properties I would be too curious to say no.
Marc Bryant: My answer would be a resounding yes. The Marvel characters mean a lot to me, on a sentimental level, and I couldn't pass up my shot to make my mark on them, however insignificant. Plus, doing a Marvel book would put my name out there and help me build a following in a way most independent projects never could. If I could bring 20,000 people to something like OVERTIME by writing SPIDER-MAN, I would in a second.
Mal Jones: Of course, I'm going to do my best to bring 20,000 people to Overtime anyway, of course. I mean, come on, Jim Mahfood is doing the Fantastic Four! That's just smooth …

POPIMAGE: What do you think is the most important challenge facing the industry today?
Marc Bryant: Getting new readers, which ideally means creating books that can hold their own against other mediums, and creating the means to promote those books.
Mal Jones: The perception the "mainstream" has upon on comics. I mean, that's the problem right there... the fact that I have to refer to those that don't read comics as the mainstream. Comics are making headway in that area, but they still have a long way to go I think.
Marc Bryant: Can I add here, that Mal and I like working together so much, that we've formed an official partnership? It's called Overtime Comics, naturally enough, and we'll be launching the site soon. We intend to always be working on something. It's not a publishing venture, but its a creative partnership, that will inform and support everything we do creatively-together, separately, or with other creators.

POPIMAGE: What would be your dream project?
Marc Bryant: My dream project would be a feature length graphic novel, something like FROM HELL, published and distributed in the mainstream book trade, in hardcover and in color. Owned by myself and my collaborator of course.
Mal Jones: I don't have one, honestly. Any project that forces me to learn and adapt and grow as an artist is a "dream" to me. I'm not in comics for the money, heh. I'm in it for the craft.

PopImage would like to thank Marc and Mal for consenting to this interview. Just a reminder to check out their comparitively inexpensive Original Graphic Novel OVERTIME in January. For more on the series, please visit http://www.overtimecomics.com or the publisher's website at http://www.cyberosia.com .

``xEd Mathews``xruckus24@aol.com``xINTERVIEW: MARC BRYANT AND MAL JONES``x1004506971,92880,Industrial``x``x``xConducted by Christopher Butcher``xChristopher Butcher is Assistant Editor of PopImage.``x ``x

FELON #1
Writer: Greg Rucka
Pencils: Matthew Clark
Inks: Ray Snyder
Eight Issue Mini. Minotaur/Top Cow/Image 2001
$2.95

FELON is the second release from Top Cow’s new Minotaur imprint and follows the newly released Cassiday, out of prison and going after what is owed to her. She’s a con woman of obvious skill and Rucka does a great job of showing us this. My beef with FELON is that it stinks of a Top Cow book. The art work, while tightly following Rucka’s pacing seems very ‘1997’ in its composition. The storytelling is sloppy at times, leaving you with indiscernible panels at times. The colouring doesn’t help too much either as it carries the TC ‘House’ tinge to it. It’s earthy and muddy and draws a very heavy feel to it. I doubt I’d pick up another issue, but it might work for HardCore fans of Rucka’s crime work. (BD)

FOUR WOMEN #1
Writer/Artist: Sam Kieth
Additional Inks: Jim Sinclair
Five issue miniseries Homage/Wildstorm/DC 2001
$2.95

I’ve never really been a fan of Sam Keith’s work, but I usually find him interesting enough to at least give everything a shot. FOUR WOMEN is his most recent work since last year’s ZERO GIRL, also published by Wildstorm. FW follows, you guessed it, Four Women on the way to a reception and is narrated by one of the Women, Donna, as she explains the story to a now-anonymous outside person. The story is mostly the women sharing stories and talking in the car ride as they head to their predetermined destination. The thing is, though, it’s really quite boring. I actually put the book down a few times only to come back to it later because I couldn’t take it in one sitting. I had a lot of trouble getting into the characters. The issue ends with a horrific tragedy framed with panicked dialogue and subtle artwork. I just didn’t care terribly much. (BD)

NOBLE CAUSES #1
Writer: Jay Faerber
Penciler: Billy Dallas Patton (I), Patrick Gleason (II)
Inker: Damon Hacker (I), John Wycough (II)
One-Shot
Image 2001
$2.95

Jay Faerber has finally made his way into the realm of creator-owned books with NOBLE CAUSES, a soap opera-esque book about a dysfunctional family of super-heroes immersed in the public eye. I respect Jay as a creator for his integrity and professionalism, and I generally enjoy his work so I thought I’d give him the much deserved shot. The script comes across as a bit trite at times, but he’s doing something new and finding his niche. He’s taken a big step and one in the right direction. The book is structured in two different parts; one with the main story and the second with a small back story that fills in obvious blanks. The characters are pretty straightforward and the artwork is cartoony with a tinge of flash to it. As the series progresses this could turn into a top-notch book. I’m enjoying it so far. (BD)

JOKER: THE LAST LAUGH #1
Writers: Chuck Dixon and Scotty Beatty
Penciler: Pete Woods
Inker: Andrew Pepoy
DC Comics
$2.95

There's been a lot of flack about this crossover around the internet; frankly, I've never been so into comics that I cared enough. I bought the first issue to check it out and my purchasing it or any other will be based on its quality. As much as I've enjoyed Joker in movies and a few comics (THE KILLING JOKEis essential reading for any comic fan in my opinion); I'm not a huge fan. So convincing me to read a mini series about a near-death Joker who is looking to go out with a bang is an uphill battle. Writers Dixon and Beatty are still a long way from the top with me.

While there is a nice B-plot with Nightwing and Oracle on a well-scripted date, the actual story of Joker turning everyone else into joker-type people really doesn't enthuse me. Pete Wood's art is nice for the regular humans, but not nearly menacing enough for the Joker - a character I've found best depicted as a mix of cartoonish elements and horrific undertones. But cover artist Brian Bolland has it down; this story would have benefited from his work in the interior art. All in all, there isn't much to get worked up here one way or another. And I'm not going to buy issue two. (MS)

ICEMAN: ICONS #1
Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
Aritst: Karl Kerschl
Marvel Comics
$2.50

Iceman's a interesting character to me; one I found myself a fan of for no reason I can place. Puns about his coolness aside, he's usually a well-written minor character; plenty of funny lines, but not much to him when you get down to it. I suppose this comic, if it has a purpose besides just selling more books to X-MEN fans, is to add some substance to the character.

Interestingly, we find this character already with more background than I realized; this issue follows Iceman's trip to Hong Kong to visit a son he's fathered with a woman there. I must admit this is far from anything I would have expected for an Iceman mini, and the end result is fairly satisfying. Still, the book follows the rather unpleasant recent trend of starting mini-series with an issue that sets up everything, with little of anything aside from exposition, then throws the reader an exciting last page to get you to buy the next issue. Yeah, it makes you want to read issue two, but I paid money to get a good story now, not in a month. So while I am intrigued by the last page of ICEMAN, I wish that the rest of the pages had had that much energy to them.

I did enjoy the art by Karl Kerschl, whose work I am unfamiliar with. His slightly manga-influenced style (jeez, is every artist right now "slightly manga influenced?") works well with the book's tone and is well complimented by a clear and clean coloring style. (MS)

DOOM PATROL #1
Writer: John Arcudi
Artist: Tan Eng Huat
DC Comics
$2.50

The cover of DOOM PATROL #1 volume whatever (three at least, I think) is a close-up of good old Robotman with a disgusted look on his face, the reflections of the rest of a new team shining on his forehead. A thought bubble reads, "We're doomed." Prophetic words indeed. I don't know how long this book can last in this state.

While I've read and admired Grant Morrison's early run on the book (collected in the trade CRAWLING FROM THE WRECKAGE), I've never been so attached to it that I couldn't imagine reading and enjoying a new version of the team. And John Arcudi is a writer whose work has really worked for me on a few occasions. Here, we get a new team, including old Cliff Steele, who wind up together after a few twists of fate. Along the way there is humor (none of it as funny as any issue of BARRY WEEN for example), and a little bit of rather lame super-hero action. I don't quite know what I was wanting out of this book, other than to be reasonably entertained. And I was not. It all felt rather tame and weak. I have little invested in these new characters, and there was little reason given why I should start caring about them. Art by newcomer Tan Eng Huat is not particularly exciting, but it does match the tone of the book well. If this book is to survive, I think it needs to get bigger and smarter, and give us a reason why we should care about these goofy characters who aren't all that funny. (MS)

``xEd Mathews``xruckus24@aol.com``xFIRST IMPRESSIONS``x1004507673,12327,Reviews``x``x``xAll reviews this time by Brian Domingos (BD) and Matt Singer (MS). ``xFIRST IMPRESSIONS runs every other week at PopImage.com. All artwork copyright it's respective owners and creators, used for purposes of review. ``x ``xReality, dream, god, redemption, love, tragedy, universal truths, Sinatra and more. You can't chat with J.M. DeMatteis without mentioning these.

From SPECTRE to SUPERGIRL to BATMAN, these are just some of the projects he is currently developing. Read ahead, maybe you'll learn something.

I see Spectre has a strong sense of family, do you feel your own experiences as a family man has had a strong baring on your recent writing? One minute you're reading Alice in Wonderland to your kids, the next you find yourself inspired to write a whole new arc.

All my experiences feed into my work; but, of course, my family being such an intimate part of my life, they can't help but have a profound influence. I'm sure there are aspects of my relationship with my daughter in Hal's relationship with Helen (not that I'm doing it very consciously).

Joker. Our Worlds at war. Do you find big inter-company crossovers have a negative effect on your storylines? Interrupting set plans with special tie-in issues and so forth?

To be honest, I've always HATED these Big Crossovers. Find them nothing but an annoyance. That said, I always try to do my best to come up with as good a story as I can within the context I'm presented with. But, if I had a choice, I would NEVER participate in these things.

Speaking of Joker, I know you're a Batman fan - but I see Joker as a particular constant with you. Do you feel you're drawn more towards the chaos in characters?