Classic EBI #21: Down From the Shelf
EVERYTHING BUT IMAGINARY 7/30/03 -- DOWN FROM THE SHELF
Down from the shelf
Last week we talked about comics that no longer have their once-prized position in my pull folder every month. Books that must now suffer the scorn and humiliation of no longer being read by me. If that’s not enough to bring Uncanny X-Men to its knees, nothing is.
However, anyone who thinks I can just drop comics from my list without having anything to take their place is kidding themselves. I’m a comic book reader. There are always going to be a dozen titles I want to try out that will jockey for position with the ones I’m getting rid of. So this week I’m going to shine the spotlight on a few series that I haven’t always had a love affair with but that I eagerly await now. Here are a few solid titles that a couple of years ago I wouldn’t have given a second look to, but that now command a valued place in my folder. Here are some great comics that I’ve taken down from the shelf.
John Kovalic’s Dork Tower is one of the funniest books I’ve ever come across. I stumbled onto to the book when it was in the teens (it pays to peruse your shop’s comic racks after you’ve gotten your folder) and quickly scrambled for the trade paperbacks. This is a brilliantly funny strip. It’s ostensibly about a group of geeks who spend all their time gaming (role-playing games, computer games and the like) to the point where they exist in an almost fantasy world of their own making -- not unlike a lot of maniacal gamers many of us know. Indeed, most of the strips that you can read at www.dorktower.com and other websites follow this pattern pretty closely.
In the monthly comic, though, Kovalic takes the framework established by his already-funny strips and injects them with a sort of heart that really makes them accessible to anyone, gamer or non-gamer alike. Matt is the ordinary, straightlaced guy who keeps looking for love in all the wrong places. Kayleigh is his venomous ex-girlfriend he just can’t escape. Gilly is the girl of his dreams, even if fate keeps conspiring to keep them apart. Igor... Igor is just a nut.
Anyone who’s ever been in love -- particularly those of us who’ve fallen for the wrong people while waiting for the right one -- can relate to this comic. The stories are universal and topical at the same time, the dialogue is incredibly quotable (“Hey Marcia! Come see the Satanist!”) and the end of the most recent issue, #23, had me sitting around wishing my friends were as crazy as Ken, Carson and Igor.
If Charles Schulz had played “Dungeons and Dragons,” the result would have been Dork Tower.
Similarly, Scott Kurtz’s PVP is another wickedly funny online comic (see PVP Online) that has made its way to an old-fashioned paper publication. Set at a video game magazine, the strip mixes gamer humor with computer humor with office humor with relationship humor with comedy that sometimes simply defies description. Not surprisingly, I was introduced to this strip as a back-up in Dork Tower. If you like a good laugh and can get over any prejudices against black-and-white comics, these are two of the best comics on the market.
There’s something to be said for being scared too, though. Last year I met Tony Bedard at Wizard World Chicago and told him how much I enjoyed the first issue of the new Route 666 he was writing, which had just come out the previous week. Bedard told me in a very humble way that he had actually been afraid no one would read it at all. 13 issues later, I can’t believe there’s anyone who would pass on this book.
Cassie Starkweather was an ordinary college student until her best friend was killed in a horrible accident. Suddenly Cassie’s world was turned upside-down as she began seeing ghosts and monsters everywhere she turned. A bloody escape from a mental institution now has her on the run, trying to find out what happened to her friend’s spirit when she died and why creatures who look like rejects from a B-horror movie are after her.
Route 666 combines the campy with the creepy without ever feeling like it’s trying to be a throwback comic. It’s not as harsh or graphic as the horror comics we’ve seen from DC’s Vertigo line, but it isn’t meant to be. This is the sort of title that a smart 10 or 12-year-old could read and get the same sort of enjoyment as an adult.
In addition to having a really strong female lead, something CrossGen is leading the field in these days, Bedard has crafted a unique supporting cast of tenuous allies, misguided adversaries and outright enemies. He captures the flavor of a 50s horror flick while still keeping a modern sense of story pacing and structure. The book is often injected with a little dark comedy to keep it from drifting too far into the night as well.
Last week’s issue, #14, really threw me a loop by adding in a major twist -- and I’m not talking about the rather predictable J. Edgar Hoover joke. For a year now, Route 666 has been about a girl on the run from monsters. As of last week, though, it has become clear that the title is actually about something else entirely. It’s a story of redemption. And when stories of redemption are done right, they’re masterpieces.
The most recent addition to my must-read pile, however, is also the longest-running title on this list. When I heard Gail Simone and Ed Benes were taking over Birds of Prey for DC, I knew I’d have to check it out. I’m glad I did.
With all respect to the work Chuck Dixon did on this title (for a while there it seemed he was the Grand Master of the Extended Batman Family), getting a talented woman, especially a rising star like Simone, to write the book was a smart move. Two issues into the run, Oracle and Black Canary really seem to click not only as partners, but as girlfriends, an element many of us laden with a Y-chromosome just couldn’t nail down convincingly. Simone is also respectful of the history of the characters, alluding to something that happened during Mike Grell’s Green Arrow run without letting it dominate the story.
Benes, coming off a great run on the foolishly-cancelled Supergirl title, is the perfect match for this book, drawing beautiful women and nailing the creepy atmosphere of Gotham City. I still hate the Huntress’s new costume, proof that Jim Lee is not infallible, but Benes does the best he can with what he has to work with, and I don’t fault this book for that.
Man, what a good series. It’s too bad there isn’t a TV show or something. Oh well.
Now for my favorite part of this column -- the part where it’s your turn. What are some titles you may have discovered in the last year or two? I don’t mean just new books, either, I mean old series that you may have just stumbled across for the first time. Let’s get some suggestions, folks. We’re always looking for new things to read.
Of course, I’d have to drop some more books to make room, but then I could always get another column out of it.
Blake M. Petit is the author of the superhero comedy novel, Other People's Heroes, the suspense novel The Beginner and the novel-in-progress ”Summer Love” at Evertime Realms. He’s also the co-host, with good buddy Chase Bouzigard and Not-On-the-Internet Mike Bellamy, of the 2 in 1 Showcase Podcasts. E-mail him at Blake@comixtreme.com and visit him on the web at Evertime Realms.