Top Five Picks This Month…Buy These Right Now.
1. Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing 1 (DC)
2. Locked Out: Compromise (Dark Brain)
3. 30 Days of Night: Night, Again (IDW)
4. Witchblade 144 (Image)
5. Vampirella and the Scarlet Legion 1 (Dynamite)
*********************************************************************
1. Swamp Thing rules…events and reboots…
I am going to suppress my Swamp Thing fetish and try to present a measured account of why you want to hop on to the Brightest Day after-the-fact mini-series that is Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing. The issue opens with John Constantine (Hellblazer) looking into a creepy message he got form Swamp Thing. Now see, here already we have two Vertigo characters from the horror side of the street showing up in a mainstream DC event. That’s news right there. Besides that, this little three-issue arc also includes Batman, Superman, and Zatanna, two of which are worth getting excited about. In the end, this mini probably does not many consequences for the DCU overall. However, for Swamp Thing fans, the real payoff is the plot that has Swampy separated from the identity of Alex Holland and therefore running rampant combined with the resurrection of the Dr. Holland himself. We can see where this ride is going, right? And we can see that it is a ride worth taking.
If I may start a rumor, weird rumblings are going on in the Hellblazer book this Spring – DC cancelled subscriptions to the title but continues to maintain it has no plans to cancel the comic itself. And now, Constantine shows up in the Aftermath poking around for Swamp Thing, a character that has not had a regular series of its own since 2006. And on top of that, DC has announced reboots to 52 books this September, including Swamp Thing, but the details are a little murky. Nobody believes (do they?) that all these books are the start (or restart) of new series. So what the hell is going on?
There have been a lot of events lately. DC has Brightest Day, War of the Green Lanterns, and Flashpoint. Marvel has Chaos War and Fear Itself. Even Image is working an event, Artifacts. These can all be explained in the usual way as marketing ploys to increase readership. For me the question is whether the companies are trying to increase readership or to slow down a declining revenue stream. Now and then the DC and Marvel universe have to be reset because of continuity considerations. This seems to be especially true of DC, or maybe DC is just more concerned about consistency than Marvel. The reboots are coming with increasing frequency these past couple of decades, you see, and what does that portend? Consider: How many volumes are we into Green Lantern now? Or Wonder Woman? Or my beloved Swamp Thing? Let me pick not only on DC – how about Iron Man? The Incredible Hulk? Ghost Rider? Is there fear rattling in the halls of the comics publishers? My guess is that we are seeing symptoms of the usual cycle of consumer behavior and the attempt to adapt to changes in technology. This is just a cataract on the wide river of comics history.
Well, whatever is going on it can’t be as bad as the earthquake we experienced the last time there was a big decline in sales. For my part, I could do without the big changes and reorientations, but that could just be my old man side talking. You youngsters with eagle eyesight who apparently like to read comics on your tiny smartphone screens are giving us more mature enthusiasts sharp spikes of pain right between our eyes.
2. Good reprints…
DC Comics Presents series has been releasing some excellent reprints in the last year. If you have been passing them up because you think they are old and boring it is worth your while to flip through them and take a chance. The most recent one I read is the exceptional JLA Black Baptism, which was originally released in 2001 as a four-issue mini-series and is now available as a $7.99 100-page one shot reprint. The story focuses on the magical portion of the DCU and pulls in a wide spectrum of JLA characters including the big four. It is a little more goofy than it is scary but it is a delight to see demons running around worrying superheroes and there are enough sinister moments to keep the reading tense. If you missed this when it was originally released you now have a second opportunity. Don’t miss out again.
{This is a little off the horror mark but I just have to mention one other DC Comics Presents reprint, the bizarre psychedelic Green Lantern story Willworld. To call this story weird is a cataclysmic understatement. If you have ever experienced altered states of reality then you will appreciate what J. M. DeMatteis and Seth Fisher have done here. Twisted and out of place, even though it is not a horror story you should read it for the personal growth opportunity it affords.}
3. Don’t forget about Image…
The Artifacts event has been enjoyable but it also has been slow in coming. I mentioned last time how this seems to be taking forever for the event to progress. These kind of slow-downs and set-backs are common at Image (think about the history of the Spawnbook, for example). It is easy under these circumstances to get frustrated and abandon the brand, but let me remind you there are great things coming out of Image and Top Cow. Two quick examples are Elephantmen 31 and Witchblade 144. The former has gotten a reboot in the past issue or two (I am trying to ignore that nagging sharp pain) and the latter includes in its 144th issue an aspect of the origin story that had not formerly been revealed. I have been an Elephantmen reader all along.Witchblade is a title I haven’t followed as closely but I always enjoy it when I read it. When you add to these The Darkness, Spawn, and The Walking Dead you get a bounty of horror reading. Don’t pass the Image rack without at least a cursory perusal.
4. And then there is Darkhorse…
A couple of recent Darkhorse titles have caught my eye, namely Baltimore: The Plague Ships and Angel Omnibus. Let’s take these in reverse order.
I never saw the Angel television show and I only read a couple of the comic books until I grabbed a copy of this nearly 500-page collection. I was pleasantly surprised at how engaging and fun the writing and artwork turned out to be. Written at about a PG-13 level, this collection is a cost effective immersion into Angel. The omnibus collects the first 14 issues of the series, the Long Night’s Journey mini series, and several other Angel stories. This is an excellent title for demon lovers.
Although set around World War I, Baltimore: The Plague Ships has a very gothic feel to it. Written by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden, this graphic novel takes off from the authors’ previous work on Baltimore. The war was ended by a plague and now the continent (Europe) is swarming with vampires. Our hero is trying to get to the source of the nightmare driven by an obsession to rival Ahab’s fascination with the whale. Ben Stenbeck’s dark artwork is the perfect visual presentation for the brooding story. This book is one of the best I have read in the past year.
**********************************************************************
Buy This Stuff Too …
The Top Five Picks at the top of the column is a nice, manageable command, often unsupported, to buy sight unseen comics I think most people who might actually read this spot on HorrorWorld will like. The Buy This Stuff Too section is the same idea but with minor elaboration at the end of the column for those of you who have hung in there and fought the good fight to the bitter, bitter end. Here we go.
Spawn 208 (Image). Todd McFarlane didn’t write the script for this one but he does seem to be supervising fairly closely. Szymon Kudranski’s artwork is creepy and effective. This issue is the meaty portion of the four-part “Q&A” arc and is a stand-out performance.
Ghost Rider 0.1 (Marvel). This issue is a prequel to the new volume of Ghost Rider, a series I have enjoyed in the past, maybe a little bit too much. The newest incarnation is too young to call clearly but I can say this: there is a lot of fire in the story.
Godzilla Gangsters and Goliaths 1 (IDW). Ridiculous, pointless, absurd daikaiju action. I love every frame. I understand not everyone is a Godzilla fan. I don’t understand why some people don’t like Godzilla, but I do acknowledge the fact that Godzilla dislikers exist. If you are one of the rarified individuals who can pass by a Toho character then I guess you might as well not buy this book. For everybody else, jump in with both feet.
Vampirella Masters Series Volume 4: Visionaries (Dynamite). This slim volume collects a bunch of very short bits. It is worth buying just to get two of them if you don’t already have the comics: “The New European” because it was written by Alan Moore and “Vampirella of Drakulon” for the stunning paintings by Mark Texeira (along with the Frazeeta cover). OK, three – “Ink” written by Phil Hester and illustrated by Stephen Segovia is also amazing. The whole book is a fun read but these three pieces will knock your fillings loose.
**********************************************************************
Notes…
If you have review material or suggestions you can contact
me at [email protected].
The publishers can be found here:
Darkhorse. www.darkhorse.com
DC Comics. www.dccomics.com/dcu
IDW.
www.idwpublishing.com
Marvel
Comics. marvel.com
Vertigo. www.dccomics.com/vertigo
Dark Brain.
www.darkbrain.com
Dynamite.
www.dynamiteentertainment.com
Image.
www.imagecomics.com
- NIGHTMARES ILLUMINATED. The column for horror evangelists. 068 The lessons of history and the examples of now - April 16, 2017
- NIGHTMARES ILLUMINATED. The column for horror evangelists. 067 Honeydripping buckets and pots ahead of the Ides - March 4, 2017
- NIGHTMARES ILLUMINATED. The column for horror evangelists. 066 Overloaded Overlord(ed) - December 29, 2016
- NIGHTMARES ILLUMINATED. The column for horror evangelists. 065 Talk about nightmares… - November 18, 2016
- NIGHTMARES ILLUMINATED. The column for horror evangelists. 064 When Ice Was Ice - February 19, 2016
- NIGHTMARES ILLUMINATED. The column for horror evangelists. 063 Winter Is Not Coming? - February 5, 2016
- NIGHTMARES ILLUMINATED. The column for horror evangelists. 062 Purple Prose Blackened, or, Happy New Year - February 1, 2016
- NIGHTMARES ILLUMINATED. The column for horror evangelists. 061 The real, the hidden, and the really hidden - December 5, 2015
- NIGHTMARES ILLUMINATED. The column for horror evangelists. 060 And Then They Looked Away - November 7, 2015
- NIGHTMARES ILLUMINATED. The column for horror evangelists. 059 The Pros and Cons of Treacle (or, Happy Halloween) - October 30, 2015
