Pastiche as art.
I finally found something that Warren Ellis has written that I actually, honestly, no-shit like: Planetary.
Yeah, it only lasted 27 issues, and it took eleven years to play out; but with Planetary, Ellis has finally hit my sweet spot of bleeding edge conspiracy theory and pastiches / mash-ups of previously existing fictional worlds. Planetary is a team of super-powered archaeologists of mysteries, searching for artifacts that provide clues to the secret history of the 20th century (and, indeed, of the universe), which is a clever set-up allowing Ellis to noodle with as many of his fanboy loves as possible. Starting out with only three field agents, they are funded and loosely directed by a mysterious, unseen "Fourth Man," who is perhaps the biggest x-factor of all.
Counterparts to Toho Studios' most famous daikaiju (Mothra, King Ghidorah, Godzilla and Rodan)? Check. A Doc Savage pastiche, Axel "Doc" Brass? Got it. An Edgar Rice Burroughs / A. Merritt pastiche? Yup. Shout-outs to Marvel Comics' Incredible Hulk and Fantastic Four? You betcha. (With the Hulk tribute-tweak, the humble gamma bomb is eschewed as an origin in favor of "description theory" -- called here "integral design theory" -- which Ellis introduced in the pages of Vol. 2 of Stormwatch: "Building a computer that was also a bomb. A brain that plugged into the machinery of the universe, and moved cogs and levers until something changed. He [David Paine, the analogue to Bruce Banner] could literally reach behind the scenes and monkey with the universe. He could make things go away. People. Cities. Countries." [Planetary preview story, pg. 4, panel 5 and pg. 5, panel 1]) Analogues to the mainstays of Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe (i.e., Tarzan, Fu Manchu, the Shadow, G-8, etc.)? That's a big 10-4, good buddy.
Planetary's not as good as Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series can be (I was a little disappointed in the final installment of Century, to be honest), but there's a reason why Moore himself wrote the introduction to the first trade paperback volume (All Over the World and Other Stories): Ellis and artist John Cassaday were digging in Moore and O'Neill's pea-patch.
About Planetary's art: John Cassaday's illustrations, as colored by Laura DePuy, are the shizz: as much as I've drooled over Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary's work on Ellis' The Authority, the art on Planetary is a quantum leap forward from that acme. Part of being a good comic book writer is knowing when to STFU already, and let the pictures do the talking, as seen in these scans from Planetary #3:
Herewith, the first 9 pages from Planetary #3, which, as a whole, is the best Hong Kong cops n' criminals movie never made (and there have been some damn fine ones, such as Election and Infernal Affairs, the template for Martin Scorsese's The Departed): script by Warren Ellis; illustrations by John Cassaday; colors by Laura DePuy with an assist from David Baron:
It should go without saying that this issue is far and away my favorite one collected in the first Planetary trade paperback. I mean, gah-DAMN.
Ellis and Cassaday also saw fit to do an homage to Geof Darrow's (he did the storyboards for The Matrix) cover to Hard Boiled #1. Here's Hard Boiled #1's wrap-around cover:
And here's John Cassaday's homage to same, from page 19 of Planetary #3; the woman bringing the speeding car to an abrupt stop is Planetary member Jakita Wagner:
Finally, one of the pastiches of Doc Savage Magazine, which first published the adventures of Doc Savage (Clark Savage, Jr.; and yes, comic book nerds, it's worth noting that he shares the same first name as that other fellow in the circus tights, and that Doc debuted a full five years before he did....) and his Fabulous Five, before they were reprinted in a celebrated series of mass market paperbacks by Bantam; this is page 10 from Planetary #5, art by John Cassaday, colors by Laura DePuy:
If the true test of artistic greatness is how badly the artist leaves you wanting more, then I'd have to say that Ellis, Cassaday, et al, are pretty effin' great here, because I would love to read more in this vein. Hell, it's better than any actual Doc Savage "novel" I've ever read.
Can't wait till the remaining Planetary TPs come in via inter-library loan.
Yeah, it only lasted 27 issues, and it took eleven years to play out; but with Planetary, Ellis has finally hit my sweet spot of bleeding edge conspiracy theory and pastiches / mash-ups of previously existing fictional worlds. Planetary is a team of super-powered archaeologists of mysteries, searching for artifacts that provide clues to the secret history of the 20th century (and, indeed, of the universe), which is a clever set-up allowing Ellis to noodle with as many of his fanboy loves as possible. Starting out with only three field agents, they are funded and loosely directed by a mysterious, unseen "Fourth Man," who is perhaps the biggest x-factor of all.
Counterparts to Toho Studios' most famous daikaiju (Mothra, King Ghidorah, Godzilla and Rodan)? Check. A Doc Savage pastiche, Axel "Doc" Brass? Got it. An Edgar Rice Burroughs / A. Merritt pastiche? Yup. Shout-outs to Marvel Comics' Incredible Hulk and Fantastic Four? You betcha. (With the Hulk tribute-tweak, the humble gamma bomb is eschewed as an origin in favor of "description theory" -- called here "integral design theory" -- which Ellis introduced in the pages of Vol. 2 of Stormwatch: "Building a computer that was also a bomb. A brain that plugged into the machinery of the universe, and moved cogs and levers until something changed. He [David Paine, the analogue to Bruce Banner] could literally reach behind the scenes and monkey with the universe. He could make things go away. People. Cities. Countries." [Planetary preview story, pg. 4, panel 5 and pg. 5, panel 1]) Analogues to the mainstays of Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe (i.e., Tarzan, Fu Manchu, the Shadow, G-8, etc.)? That's a big 10-4, good buddy.
Planetary's not as good as Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series can be (I was a little disappointed in the final installment of Century, to be honest), but there's a reason why Moore himself wrote the introduction to the first trade paperback volume (All Over the World and Other Stories): Ellis and artist John Cassaday were digging in Moore and O'Neill's pea-patch.
About Planetary's art: John Cassaday's illustrations, as colored by Laura DePuy, are the shizz: as much as I've drooled over Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary's work on Ellis' The Authority, the art on Planetary is a quantum leap forward from that acme. Part of being a good comic book writer is knowing when to STFU already, and let the pictures do the talking, as seen in these scans from Planetary #3:
Herewith, the first 9 pages from Planetary #3, which, as a whole, is the best Hong Kong cops n' criminals movie never made (and there have been some damn fine ones, such as Election and Infernal Affairs, the template for Martin Scorsese's The Departed): script by Warren Ellis; illustrations by John Cassaday; colors by Laura DePuy with an assist from David Baron:
It should go without saying that this issue is far and away my favorite one collected in the first Planetary trade paperback. I mean, gah-DAMN.
Ellis and Cassaday also saw fit to do an homage to Geof Darrow's (he did the storyboards for The Matrix) cover to Hard Boiled #1. Here's Hard Boiled #1's wrap-around cover:
And here's John Cassaday's homage to same, from page 19 of Planetary #3; the woman bringing the speeding car to an abrupt stop is Planetary member Jakita Wagner:
Finally, one of the pastiches of Doc Savage Magazine, which first published the adventures of Doc Savage (Clark Savage, Jr.; and yes, comic book nerds, it's worth noting that he shares the same first name as that other fellow in the circus tights, and that Doc debuted a full five years before he did....) and his Fabulous Five, before they were reprinted in a celebrated series of mass market paperbacks by Bantam; this is page 10 from Planetary #5, art by John Cassaday, colors by Laura DePuy:
If the true test of artistic greatness is how badly the artist leaves you wanting more, then I'd have to say that Ellis, Cassaday, et al, are pretty effin' great here, because I would love to read more in this vein. Hell, it's better than any actual Doc Savage "novel" I've ever read.
Can't wait till the remaining Planetary TPs come in via inter-library loan.