Monthly archives: March, 2007

Next up in our look into the comics from around the globe is the latest import by Nicolas Mahler, an Austrian cartoonist. Top Shelf, another of the best publishers in bringing foreign works to the U.S., put out Mahler’s slim book Lone Racer, a silly little racing romp. Very similar to another of Top Shelf’s best books of last year, The Tales of Woodsman Pete, Lone Racer leans far toward the whimsical side while packing a few emotional punches.

Lone Racer and Woodsman Pete are actually very similar books. Both are short, about 90 pages, and smallish in shape, about half the size of a standard comic book. Lone Racer has more of a direct narrative, though, telling a story that strangely mirrors Talladega Nights (even down to the ending, although Lone Racer has no references to little baby Jesus). In short, the main character, a race car driver, has fallen on hard times and lost his will to win. The book tells of his sudden decision to reclaim a last piece of glory.

Mahler’s style is bare to the point of childish. Characters have strangely proportioned bodies, perspective is always off kilter, there’s very little shading, all objects (especially cars) are drawn with a definite remove from reality and the panels are all quite simple. The only color is orange, used for Lone Racer’s uniform and for highlights throughout. While the style definitely isn’t for everyone, it’s certainly fresh and fits the story well enough that, after a couple pages of acclimation, I had no problem with it. By the end, I actually preferred the two dimensional shapes that almost seemed to swim on the page.
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Hell-o, everyone! Since Jean-Claude Van Doom didn’t buy enough comics this week to flesh out his regular Worst to First column, and since I neglected to bring you the Doomino Effect for last week (I still haven’t been able to bring myself to read everything I bought last Wednesday), let’s fill that void and bump up the regular Tuesday feature to Thursday. That’s right, it’s an early edition of The Doomino Effect, so let’s line them up and then look at them without knocking them down!

This week, it’s all about Hell. Hell coming to earth, Hell breaking loose, Hell Hell Hell Hell Hell.

I’m sure Doom DeLuise will elaborate further when he posts his weekly review, but 52 this week was all about our angry spocklike friend Black Adam unleashing some fury on those who would harbor horsemen, killing innocents left and right.

And speaking of Hell and killing innocents, that leads me to Ghost Rider #9. This series has a fantastic set-up that guarantees it can run as long as they want it to, and that is that Satan himself is loose on earth, possessing the bodies of the dead to raise Hell, particularly to make Johnny Blaze feel like a moron for letting him out of the big campfire downstairs. In this arc, he’s revived the recently-deceased Jack O’ Lantern and has unleashed Hell on a little town called Sleepy Hollow, Illinois, beheading teenagers and rallying the locals against a flame-headed villain. Of course, everybody assumes that Ghost Rider is the flamehead decapitating their children, so that spells trouble for Johnny Blaze.

It’s Ghost Rider at its best, with just the right doses of self-aware camp and horror, made all the more striking by Mark Texeira’s art. These issues have moved kind of quickly for me, but I think that’s a desire to read more as much as it is some major decompression. I’m guessing when these are released in trade form, you’ll be able to read through a book in about 10 minutes. It’ll be a very pretty 10 minutes, though.
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As mentioned recently, we at the LOD are going to be focusing more in the coming weeks on some foreign comics work, and I wanted to kick things off in style, with one of the most impressive books I’ve read so far this year. And that is Garage Band, the strange rumination on adolescence and music and garages by Italian creator Gipi. Originally published in France in 2005, the book now makes it’s U.S. debut courtesy of First Second books (and when it comes to finding great foreign comics work, they’re pretty much as good as it gets, but more on that later).

Garage Band follows four friends as they embark on the ambitious task of creating a great band. Their first big break comes at the book’s beginning as the father of the main character, Giuliano, allows the group to use his garage to practice. In their still-young minds, this all but guarantees their dreams of fame will come true. As Giuliano explains to his girlfriend, “We’ll get some songs ready, and then we’ll see. Everything’s different now we’ve got the garage.” The book varies harshly from any kind of expected foray into the well traveled lands of wide-eyed if naive youngsters challenging all the odds in the pursuit of success. Instead of a strong plot line carrying the teens through the story, the plot serves more as just an introduction into their surprisingly complex and troubled lives.
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Welcome part 2 of our discussion on 300, the movie adaptation of the Frank Miller / Lynn Varley graphic novel about the Battle of Thermopylae.

Be sure to read part 1 before continuing.

JIM DOOM: Okay, so let’s leave “character development” behind. Is there anything else you guys want to talk about?

FIN FANG DOOM: How about “the Frank Miller difference,” as Colonel Doom so eloquently put it.

DOOM DELUISE: What’s that?

JD: would you mind explaining that?

FFD: There were just certain instances inthe film that I thought “oh yeah, Frank Miller did this.”
Like the fat executioner guy.
Who by the way should have had a much larger role.

DD: Was he even in the graphic novel?

FFD: I don’t remember, I read it a long time ago.
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Welcome to another installment of Doom and Doomer, in which members of the Legion take a look at comics on the big screen. Tonight it’s Jim Doom, Doom DeLuise and Fin Fang Doom taking on 300, the movie adaptation of the Frank Miller / Lynn Varley graphic novel about the Battle of Thermopylae.

JIM DOOM: Well I’ve never read 300, so I can’t assess this movie as an adaptation. But as something that sought out to be a testosterone-fueled action and fighting movie, I thought it was awesome.
And as something attempting to bring the energy of comic book art to life, I thought it was amazing.

FIN FANG DOOM: 300 definitely succeeded as an action movie. The battle scenes were just great fun to watch. But I felt it was trying to be much, much more than just an action movie, and in that respect it didn’t live up.

JD: What did you feel it was trying to be?

FFD: Quite frankly, Lord of the Rings.

DOOM DELUISE: The movie to define a generation, as the commercials said?

JD: Hey, don’t fault a movie for what an overzealous PR firm said.

DD: I wouldn’t fault it for that. I’d fault it for a number of other reasons.

JD: Ok, please share.

DD: First off, let me say that I left the theater quite pleased. I was taken in by the action sequences, and I was thoroughly happy with what was a loud beat-em-up fluff movie.
But, after a few days, I was asked by a friend if I wanted to go see it again, and, frankly, I don’t care to ever see that movie again in my life.
There were no moments that made me genuinely connect with the characters on-screen, so it didn’t leave much of a lasting appeal.
Granted, the movie is an intense two hours of blood and shouting and slow-mo over-the-top action, but, beyond that, there’s nothing to it.
And the Queen is a whore!
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