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The 10 Best European Comics!

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Corto Maltese

Writer/Artist: Hugo Pratt

Corto Maltese was Indiana Jones and Han Solo before Harrison Ford was even invented. He’s Lupin III and Spike Spiegel and yes, even Carmen Sandiego. The character and his title are true classics, capturing and even defining not just a style, but the entire tradition of “action books.”

So it’s hilariously perfect that he shows up late to his own book for the same reason Star Wars doesn’t start at the Cantina.

Instead, it begins with a hilarious ruse. We start with an eighteen-year-old Serbian deserter named Rasputin, a boy having faced such hardship that only the internationally renowned adventurer, scoundrel, and bon vivant Maltese can help—a man so famous, it takes real-world literary master Jack London to bring the two together.

This is a bit like saying that if you want Spider-Man’s help, you have to go through Hemingway first.

The Corto Maltese books feel somehow both dated and contemporary. The tropes they invented are still very much in use, and Pratt’s style can still be seen in Moebius, Paul Pope, and more manga than I can count. It’s also behind the creation of Benedict Cumberbatch. [Read more…] about The 10 Best European Comics!

DC’s Earth One: You Can’t Go Home Again

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Earth One Box Set

Superman: Earth One v1

Michael Straczynsk • Shane Davis • Ardian Syaf

Batman: Earth One v1

Geoff Johns • Gary Frank

Wonder Woman: Earth One v1

Grant Morrison • Yanick Paquette • Nathan Fairbairn • Todd Klein

Earth One: Genesis

By 2010, Marvel was deep into its Ultimates Universe, their alternate universe for experimenting with modernizing their heroes and taking big swings. By the same token, DC was mostly past the failure of its All-Star line, which attempted the same approach and met some success, but ultimately never coalesced into a cohesive vision the way Ultimates had.

Earth One is an attempt at replicating the first and fixing the second. Like Ultimates, the line focuses on retelling the origins of popular superheroes now recast in the 21st century. And like All-Star, it tries to do that by giving DC’s top talent a ton of freedom.

[Read more…] about DC’s Earth One: You Can’t Go Home Again

Some Careworn Hustler’s Tomorrow — 100 Bullets Omnibus Review!

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They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.

And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.

And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.

And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:

Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.

— Carl Sandburg
“Chicago”

0. The Preface

100 Bullets Omnibus vol 1

Brian Azzarello, Eduardo Risso, et al

Collects: 100 Bullets #1-58, Vertigo: Winter’s Edge #3; 1376 pages total

$150.00

History loves its monsters. Our mad kings and queens; our despots and serial killers; tyrants, butchers, madmen, and thieves; these are the people who leave the most indelible marks on nations and people. Good men and well-behaved women, as the saying goes, don’t tend to make history in the same way. 

This is true everywhere you go. But nowhere more so than America, with our love of frontier outlaws, true crime podcasts, and gangsters. And nowhere in America is that more true than in Chicago.

We are Capone’s town. Blagojevich’s town. Big Bill Haywood’s town. Chicago is Rev. Billy Sunday playing center field in the “beer and whiskey” before cutting out on his contract to make more money as a temperance preacher. Chicago is its beating subway heart, a joint venture between a ruthless monopolist and the mob. It’s Richard M. Daily’s name in brass on every bridge (especially the ones he didn’t make).

It’s Brian Azzarello’s town. That’s why the story opens here… but it’s not the reason.

[Read more…] about Some Careworn Hustler’s Tomorrow — 100 Bullets Omnibus Review!

There is Only Doom | A Primer on The Greatest Villain of All Time

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Doctor Doom is a wonderfully complex character 

To my mind, he’s the first Marvel supervillain as he set the relatable, tortured archetype that everyone from Magneto to Gorr would follow after. And, rumor has it, he was a big inspiration on Darth Vader (it’s embarrassing to just realize, this year, that Vader’s weird mouth second on his mask looks a fair bit like Jack Kirby’s illustrations of DOOM shouting.) Not to mention Raul Julia’s M. Bison. Two equally great, enduring symbols of villainy.

It’s easy to see why so many have enjoyed Doom for so long. That iconic metal mask of his is utterly grotesque and ostensibly hides a face much worse. But then, the horror of the first only adds to the mystery of the second. Then there’s the whole “hooded cape over armor” look. Who the hell thought that would be evergreen?! Plus he’s got magic, crazy inventions, his own castle, the very best in names… the list goes on. At the top of the list of things we love about Doom has to be his dialogue, which is simply the best in the business.

No one speaks with the ridiculous pomp and camp of Doom. Yet, no one, not even Thanos, has his finality.

But these things are just ornamentation. Nothing more than armor polish and melted loved ones. Let’s see what matters. [Read more…] about There is Only Doom | A Primer on The Greatest Villain of All Time

The Great Pretenders: Regarding Wanda | A Look at the Character of the Scarlet Witch

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Do you believe in magic in a young girl’s heart
How the music can free her whenever it starts? (…)
I’ll tell you about the magic, and it’ll free your soul (…)
If you believe in magic, don’t bother to choose

The Lovin’ Spoonful
Do You Believe in Magic

For decades, the Scarlet Witch has been an enigmatic character. Her “hex powers” have made stories more interesting, her life is filled with drama, and she has got hands-down the best of Jack Kirby’s “weird headgear and stage performer” aesthetics going. But she’s also been a runaway powerhouse, smashing through the Marvel universe, its laws, and her own good-will with fans. She’s a character that can do seemingly anything… so why is it these pitfalls happen? Why can’t Scarlet Witch’s character get out of this madness-shame-power-up pattern? And how could it be fixed?

We’ll take a deep-dive into Wanda and find out. I’ll be citing my references, but fans may still want to take a crack at our reading order for the Scarlet Witch before we begin. [Read more…] about The Great Pretenders: Regarding Wanda | A Look at the Character of the Scarlet Witch