Playing Catch Up v.2005
By Jonathan Ellis

The end of the year usually signals the heralding of 'Best Of' lists and though they mark an interesting view and stance on the industry and its cycles, I just can't do one. At least not properly to the tone of what occurred this past year. For one, it's hard for me to keep track of and remember what was new over the last several months and secondly, my reading habits just don't reflect what's new and hot at the time being, nor do my purchasing habits. I'm going to try and compose a proper list of my past year in comics here, but you may find it immensely more personal then some others. Don't expect to see BLACK HOLE or INFINITE CRISIS mentioned here because quite frankly, one of those I haven't read yet and the other one, I actually have read.

Manga

It's been a big year for Manga simply because of disputes over the very definition of Manga itself, leading to such terms as Original English Language Manga, as well as further book store growth and exposure and leaks as to the skewed contracts for publisher TokyoPop. But as for the books themselves, I'm forced to fall back on my beloved IRON WOK JAN. While there initially was a clear difference in quality as Dr Master Books took over ComicsOne [and there continues to be] there have been some improvement but the title alone continues to simply blow my mind. The drama of Cooking Kung-Fu is at its height and the information thrown head on at the reader is continuously smart and stimulating. Not only do I love the stories but I always learn something. IRON WOK JAN is a book I'll be sticking with year after year.

2005 saw some great breakthrough talent in Manga, specifically of the OEL variety with artists Felipe Smith [MBQ] and Svetlana Chmakova [DRAMACON]. Stylistically MBQ stands out more as the tone and art of the book range from a frantic electricity of emotion to a clean calm smooth flow of Zen greytones. DRAMACON however stands out as the best debut, not only does the infusion of her sense of humour to the drama and style of the book appeal to a wider audience but it's also a complete story that stands on it's own whereas the storytelling structure that Felipe has chosen for MBQ is one that will continue to unfold over future volumes of the series so it doesn't have the same sense of conclusion that the first volume of DRAMACON has. For more on the books check out our MBQ PopPreview, DRAMACON Review with a preview of Chapter 1 and Svetlana Interview with a preview of Chapter 2.

I still haven't read TOKYO TRIBES or DRAGONHEAD yet but I do have the first volumes sitting on my shelf. Though here's how my purchase of DRAGON HEAD went down at The Beguiling.

I had just picked up a stack of comics, a few months worth to be honest and I asked Chris Butcher, friend and Beguiling Manager, if there was anything else worth picking up.

Chris: Oh! I know what'd be good. DRAGON HEAD.

Me: Yeah?

Chris: Yeah I really liked it, Peter [Peter Birkemoe, Beguiling Owner and Toronto Independent Comics Mainstay] even liked it.

Me: Peter liked it?

Chris: Yeah, though I think he read it originally in French. But yeah, he liked it and [blah-blah] liked it and...

Me: No. O-Kay. Shut-Up. Peter liked it, that's all I need to know, I'll buy it.

Other then those I didn't really read a lot of Manga this past year, LOVE AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE from Oni is a series I'm sticking with, haven't picked up PUSH MAN yet, though I did get a copy of WIREPOP PAPERCUTS, a short story anthology by the fine people behind Wirepop.com, an online publisher and subscription site of Manga and Manga-styled English webcomics. Don't be surprised if you see many of those creators with their own books at TokyoPop, in fact, some of them already have.

CONTINUING SERIES & TRENDS

LUCIFER and HELLBLAZER are both two books I'll consistently buy in trade format, but unfortunately for the monthly sales that's really the only format I'm interested in buying them in, at least for now. Even though I've got tons of unread books just waiting to be cracked up, every so often I'll still grab a HELLBLAZER trade for a re-read. Sort of like comfort food, if comfort food were a bastard with a pack of silk cuts in a trench coat, continuously haunted by the ghosts of his friends and plagued by the stains of dried blood under his fingernails.

Books like DAREDEVIL and LOSERS are two that I'll buy month to month [or more like every two or three months as I don't get out to my comic shops that often] but I buy them with the full knowledge that they're disposable, meaning I'll probably give away the books at some point down the line, and if I have a desire to come back to them, I'll just look towards the collections.

When it comes to the big two, Marvel and DC, lately there has been A LOT of books that just aren't appealing. But there were two series this past year that I found became interesting even though I had no particular interest in them, PUNISHER was one, I picked up one issue just out of curiosity and discovered that it's being written probably the best its ever been done and NIGHTWING which took a turn in direction with a seemingly mob related story as the character went undercover on the other side and really drove the title without a lot of tights time needed.

Whereas much of the big event stuff just wasn't that appealing, particularly when the hype of the book seemed to become more important then the actual stories and I think that alone contributed to some of the unappealing nature therein. One of the constant arguments of comics in this industry is that it's too difficult for a non-reader to just pick something up and be engaged, I've been reading comics for nearly two decades and there's still tons of books that are too inclusive for me to even jump into.

What makes any of these big event books stand out is its ability to stand on its own as well as play to forthcoming or underlying stories. VILLAINS UNITED and DAY OF VENEGENCE were decent little series [and particularly stood out thanks to the art of Dale Eaglesham and Justiniano] because they had their own story to tell, they weren't perfect but they were strong enough to stand on their own AND could be seen as part of the larger picture.

KABUKI: ALCHEMY, though only a few issues came out this year, it's still one of the best books there is being published right now. Not only is David a consistently amazing artist, but this new volume also shows a growing evolution in his role as a writer and an innovative thinker. Rarely do you see an artist pour their soul into their art the way David does, let alone a comic series.

The way he works I'm surprised he hasn't been grouped in with the likes of Alan Moore and Grant Morrison, maybe because he's just too pretty, a couple more years, a beard and some sunglasses and we'll see what happens then.

APPRENDIZ

One of my favourite pick-ups this year was issue 1 to 3 of APPRENDIZ by Adam Suerte. The story details his apprenticeship in learning to become a tattoo artist and he conveys those experiences spot-on. If you think that the recent crop of Tattoo television shows are in anyway accurate, they aren't. Suerte expertly recalls all the obstacles one must go through before ever even touching a needle. From constant cleaning to running errands to dealing with idiots to getting used to drawing with the weight of the machine and ultimately practicing on fruit (Typically grape fruits and oranges, though honeydew melons give you a bigger smoother surface). I loved reading Adam's story and his artistic style has a great flow while also paying homage to the classics of Tattoo art.

Adam was born and raised in South Brooklyn and has worked in and been influenced by several mediums, which lead to the Urban Folk Art Studios. UFA is an artist collective that supports itself by offering services such as silk-screening posters and shirts, as well as individual projects such as mural projects, self produced openings, teaching art, self published underground comics, etc. Adam's art is a blend of graffiti, comics and classical tattoo imagery making him a unique artist in each of those respective fields. Adam worked at All Souls Studios during it's first year and is now a partner in Studio Dep [aka Da Stewdeo]. Adam even has his own apprentice now, you may have heard of her, her name is Sophie Crumb.

HEARTBREAK

My other favourite pick up this year was HEARTBREAK issue 1 to 3 by Jonathan Rivera and Nick Destefano. Hilarious, heart wrenching, unbelievable, ridiculous, blunt, honest and just downright refreshing. Described as the 'world's greatest anti-romance' comic, these two write about the sort of stories that cause men to spend copious amounts of time at bars. HEARTBREAK is a collaboration between Nick and Jonathan showcasing both their best and most embarrassing relationship situations with the opposite sex, told in sweetly horrendous detail. Some will make you smile and some will feel like having a sympathetic knife twisted in your chest. But aside from the tragedies themselves it's also about the ability friends have to turn to each other in their time of need [without, y'know, getting all Brokeback Mountain together], heart wrenching though they may be, Nick and Jonathan have been able to look back at these moments with humour, pride and the cathartic heartache of putting these stories to paper.

My best wishes to them both.

For more, including a few online stories, be sure to check out heartbreakcomics.com.

THE AMAZING CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN

The tale of Waterloo, Ontario's premier super team by Evan Munday. Never been to/heard of Waterloo? That's o-k, don't worry about it. The first volume of this series began as five issues printed on white paper at 7 3/4" x 11", and this past year saw Even moving up in format to a regular sized issue, with extra pages, a colour cover, and glossy paper stock for the first issue of volume 2. The premise for this issue began during convention season where Evan created a voting station at his table, encouraging attendees to vote on which Canadian celebrity would get kidnapped in a future issue of Amazing Challengers. The choices included Pierre Berton, Avril Lavigne, Don McKellar or David Suzuki. Avril won and appeared in the first issue, with al the proceeds from the sales of that issue being donated to the Regent Park School of Music. Clearly, this is a series Evan does out of love.

Now production wise, clearly there's some improvement needed. Some of the art is often cluttered and the inks can stand to be refined, the real strength is in the writing. Evan's work feels completely at home in a team hero book, I think he could easily move onto one of the 'brand' team books at either of the big two and be able to impress.

It's a labour of love, it's fun but it's just not for everyone. If you think it's for you be sure to visit amazingchallengers.com.

THE DEVILS MASK: DEATH TO DIABLO

This is a mini-comics series by Jonathan S. Kociuba about an assassin sent to steal the Spear of Destiny. It's an interesting premise that blends religion, the military, politics, the supernatural, action and mystery. It's the type of story you definitely want to see through to its end. Jonathan has a very stylized look to his art but also, a great design sense that allows him to play around with light and the dark, the beats of his panelization, the flow of his narration, as well as make some nice cover art.

Jonathan doesn't have a site set up just yet but when he does, expect to hear some more from us about THE DEVILS MASK.

STRANGE DETECTIVE TALES

Written by Jesse Bausch and featuring art by James Callahan and published by OddGod Press. It has that sort of greatness that makes you harken back to the days of Caliber Comics, y'know, those great black and white series by the guys who are some of today's top talent within the mainstream. The story follows private investigators Renfield and Vorlic in 1950's Los Angeles, it's comedic film noir with a penchant for Hollywood classics... Sort of like L.A. Confidential but with midget aliens and zombie brides.

Renfield [of Dracula fame] and Dr. Vorlic [Igor - the quintessential mad scientist henchmen] get wrapped up in a case involving an old flame of Renfield's which turns out to only resort in matters of horrid consequence. Not only is the book fun but also the art is great, I think of James' art as a mix between COOP and Seth Fisher [Not Seth Fisher, Fantastic Four Seth Fisher, more like the older Seth Fisher, Vertigo Pop: Tokyo or Green Lantern: Willworld Seth Fisher].

SMUT PEDDLER

I picked up the 3rd issue this year and while a good read I just wanted to say specifically, that from now on whenever I see Carla Speed McNeil I'll just have to think about how she's a naughty porn peddler. Oh Carla, we love you and your naughty naughty porn.

GRAPHIC NOVELS

THE FOUNTAIN is not without its faults but overall is a respectable story. It starts off a little shaky thanks to some unnecessary narrative during the first scenes, causing the story to break the 'show don't tell' rule of both film and comics. The book picks up as the other recurring stories start to blend together.

THE FOUNTAIN is the outcome of bringing together writer/director Darren Aronofsky [Pi, Requiem For A Dream] and artist Kent Williams in an original oversized hardcover, essentially creating a Director's Cut version of Aronofsky's plans for The Fountain feature film starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. The Story is experienced through three distinct time periods: 1535, during an ancient Mayan war; the present day, following one doctor's desperate search for the cure for cancer; and the far future through the vast exotic reaches of space. Interweaving these three periods, THE FOUNTAIN follows Tomas - warrior, doctor, explorer - as he feverishly tries to beat death and prolong the life of the woman he loves.

Seemingly suitable as a comic though as Thomas turns out to be of the big-dumb-man character set, so determined to fight for the life of his beloved he ends up spending more time fighting for her then actually being with her, and even then in the moments they share together, her words tend to fall on deaf ears. Throughout this thousand year struggle it's the female, Izzi, who truly evolves and is the real heart of the story. Not just about love, the book is about fear and acceptance, acceptance of life.

The film version may be the more evocative version with Hugh Jackman as Thomas, fighting for his love and Rachel Weisz' deep eyes looking towards the audience, but they're really going to have to surpass the Hollywood mainstream to compete with the striking art skills of Kent Williams.

Good, not great, perhaps not worth it for those with tighter budgets, but discounts on hardcovers are easy to find. Those who do take the chance and pick up this title will certainly find themselves looking back towards it, while Thomas is a very patriarchal archetype, his struggle is understandable and easy to relate to. Once you realize WHY he fights so hard, you'll realize why he doesn't have to.

WIMBLEDON GREEN

I love the fact that Seth has been breaking out of his shell and that he's not afraid to crack jokes. I think his recent stuff may be some of his best, including WIMBLEDON GREEN, designing THE COMPLETE PEANUTS and illustrating CHRISTMAS DAYS but particularly his collaboration with his father BANNOCKS, BEANS AND BLACK TEA. In the mainstream it's easy to gain the stigma of being a superhero artist, but it also works vice versa, Seth is one of the more recognizable artists who helped really define and broke out with the rise of the independent comics scene and he and his peers took on the stigma of being very serious black & white graphic novel artists. But with WIMBLEDON GREEN Seth has created a perfect Sunday afternoon read by creating a delightful adventure story that pays homage to the works of the past. Just thinking about it evokes images of kids with slingshots in their pockets, playing outside, reading silly comic books and creating mischief. Sort of a pre-Wertham portrait. The cover itself, green felt with gold metallic inks even evokes the idea of the book contents being inside of a tin canister.

WIMBLEDON GREEN is the story of the greatest comic book collector in the world, partly done in documentary interview style we learn the mystery of Wimbledon Green from both admirers and enemies alike. The story then evolves into a race to find the most prized collectors piece and discover who truly is the greatest collector in the world.

EMPTY WORDS

Empty Words is a graphic novel collecting the webcomic by Benjamin Rivers. Here's the rundown;

"Audrey's occupation as a nurse's aide in the local senior's care centre starts to feed her insecurities when one day a well-loved patient passes away. She comes across Greg, a local writer who is outlining a new project and sorely lacking the inspiration he needs. They form an unlikely bond as Audrey agrees to be the subject of Greg's next article in exchange for his confidence. When Greg's ailing grandfather undergoes a tragedy at the care centre, however, it becomes increasingly difficult for he and Audrey to keep their personal and professional lives separate."

While I encourage you to buy the book itself, you can read it online in full colour, and the symptomatic colours certainly do add to the story's strengths. In fact just to look at the art, his thick ink lines and his often evocative colours make me think of him as the bastard child of Bryan Lee O'Malley and Kean Soo, if their bastard child was a skinny white guy that is. The story itself is quite good and I hope some day he's able to collect the completed story in one full colour volume. One of the things I really like about it is that the characters are ahead in years. Meaning it's a much more realistic story of attraction then you'd usually see. If they're young they're usually horny and if they're wise they're usually old, but in Bens EMPTY WORDS they're real. They're much closer to real life then most stories dare to get, but it takes care to make a walk down the street or a cup of coffee interesting and Benjamin succeeds in doing so.

SURPRISE

Know who surprised me this past year? Ron Marz.

First there was SAMURAI: HEAVEN AND EARTH, which sort of looked like the Crossgen comic that never was, or like a movie pitch done as a comic. It's a story about a Samurai whose lover was taken from him, which causes him to take chase after her, moving from Japan to China To Europe and eventually France, where he happens to have a run in with some musketeer-like gentlemen. It had a very clean and polished look, it really is some of Luke Ross' best work to date though it lives on the verge of being almost too polished, and thus runs the risk of being bland. But it works, it may be more suiting for an illustration art style then a sequential style but despite the initial look, it works. Marz and Ross also set a very steady pace, so the rhythm of the book sort of matches that of the character. Calm, collected, able to do extraordinary acts without breaking a sweat. I think there are times where it would've of worked to their advantage to break the rhythm, to become a little unpolished and thus become more of a comic and less of a movie pitch. It's an interesting read but what made Marz really stand out to me was, believe it or not, WITCHBLADE.

Now what I know about WITCHBLADE you could probably fit on the head of a pin but I came across a recent issue which featured art by Chris Bachalo... intriguing, so I take a look, and what do you know, it just happens to be a perfect jumping on point. So all you really need to know is that there's the main character Sara, she's a detective, she just moved into a new precinct and has to adjust to new people and a new environment and just happens to have this weapon called the witchblade attached to her that she doesn't seem to know shit about except that it keeps drawing strange supernatural crap her way. Marz stripped away the excess and basically created a cop drama with slight supernatural leanings. One of the best issues he did was simply about Sara searching for a missing child. On the outside it's still a T&A book but on the inside, you might be surprised.

Another surprise was seeing the character of Dr. Light on a CHILDREN'S animated television series:

"Go! Teen Titans, Go!"

"No seriously! GO!"

"FUCKING RUN!"

"PROTECT YOUR ANUSES!"

Seriously, Dr. Light on a children's cartoon show... it's like a bad joke straight out of The Aristocrats.



2006: Predictions

Something I've noticed this past year, is that a lot of artists are taking on a lot of work. The likes of Adi Granov [IRON MAN], Ramon Perez [SPELLGAME], Atilla Adorjany [BEOWULF] and Frazer Irving [IRON MAN] are all doing the art for books on their own. Some may have assistance (or assistants), but from pencils to inks to colours [and sometimes even lettering as well], that's a lot of work relegated to one person and I wonder if we won't be seeing this trend continue throughout the year. On one hand I'm glad that it means more money for the artists [depending on how the companies pay their artists that is] but on the other, it's sad to see the artists having to do so much and still be expected to maintain a monthly schedule. This amount of effort is usually relegated to graphic novels, but when it's a series of books there's a lot more expected, particularly in terms of deadlines.

Up & Coming in the mainstream, I would keep my eye on writer Shane McCarthy. Having just read the latest issue of DETECTIVE COMICS written by Shane, I look forward to seeing more. Well written, good set-up and he even makes Batman seem like a bit of a bitch while at the same time building up the characters of Bruce Wayne and Alfred, as opposed to a solely tights and action piece.

Look towards the convention scene for a few games of up-man-ship, with the NY Comicon debuting, warring conventions across North America, and the media aspect expanding through many of those events, it looks like cons will spend this year hitting up as many big names creators as they can afford as well as already planning on continuing this trend even more so in the following years. You'll see this in particular for the media cons as more and more creators from other mediums move towards comics, expect a big LOST push this summer and just wait until Stephen King starts hitting the con circuit, should be interesting to see which big event will land him first.

By The Way, I've got it in the back of my mind to go to the NY ComiCon at the end of February but have yet to make any official plans - if you think I should go, e-mail me and convince me.

I also still have SPX photos that we never really showed you, even though a good deal of time has passed, if you think I should put them up for you all to see then be sure to e-mail me and demand SPX photos.

Well folks, it's time for me to start wrapping this up before I start remembering or come across any more to write about. I'd just like to say thanks to all of you who've stuck around this year and checked out the site, we're all here for a simple love of the medium and we appreciate being able to share that with you.

Cheers.

Playing Catch Up is an irregular column used by Co-Editor in Chief Jonathan Ellis to remember and remind readers of worthwhile works.


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