Pulp of the Week - Tumor

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Written by Joshua Hale Fialkov
Art by Noel Tuazon
Hardcover book published by Archaia.

Nominee - 2011 Eisner Award Best Graphic Album-Reprint
Tumor, by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Noel Tuazon

Tumor is an "LA noir" written by Joshua Fialkov and tells the tale of private eye Frank Armstrong dealing with a missing girl and his inoperable brain tumor. Frank is slipping around in time and the events of the present are informed by the events of Frank's past and vice versa.

I picked up Tumor at Wondercon after talking to the wonderful Archaia employees and taking advantage of their buy 2 get 3 free convention deal.

Tumor is told in a two black and white styles. The 'now' portions are stark black and white inked drawings while the flashbacks are keyed to a greyscale washed style. This makes for an easy mental shift for the reader while Frank is reeling from his  confusing path of memory and reality.

The story is touching and rough shod, brutal and poignant. The take is wrenching for both the characters and the readers. I heartily recommend this bit of grit.

Tumor's original release was individual issues published digitally. It was released monthly (and did well) on Kindle and was then published as a hardcover, novel sized volume. The book has thick, cream colored, ragged edged pages and a stylish foil stamped cover. From the outside, the book looks like a Noir novel. On the inside, it is a can't-put-down read that I finished over the weekend.

Tumor is a great piece of detective fiction and a rewarding read. I give Tumor a 9 out of 10. This is great stuff.

Pulp of the Week - Batman / Doc Savage

Batman / Doc Savage Special
DC Comics
Written by Brian Azzarello, Illustrated by Phil Noto

Cover by J.G. Jones

Alternate cover by Rags Morales

This Review Contains Spoilers!

This one shot is meant as a publicity vehicle to promote DC's "First Wave" line of comic books. Unfortunately, despite beautiful art, the book falls flat. There is neither adventure nor excitement in this tale called, "Bronze Night." This story's sole purpose is to let Doc Savage and The Batman meet.

There is little else in this tale. As an introduction to DC's pulp universe, there isn't much happening. The art is lovely. There are some character bits with Batman and Doc, but these are expressed mostly in 1st person narrative. Doc and Batman find common ground - they have both lost their fathers and are crimefighters because of it. While Doc doesn't like Batman's methods, as long as Batman isn't a killer, he seems OK with it. Batman thinks Doc may not be as squeaky clean as his public persona.

Batman lives in Gotham City and Doc Savage lives in New York City. They are not the same in the First Wave Universe, so these characters may have limited interaction.

I like the way Bruce Wayne and Batman are handled here, Batman is a rookie, operating as a vigilante. He is packing twin .45s ala The Shadow and is a bit reckless.

Some of Phil Noto's incredible art

On the other hand, Doc Savage served in the War and has had some adventures. Doc operates with the cooperation of the police and has his five aids intact. I think that Doc was presented well, a person admired by many. He is the physical and intellectual peak of humanity. As in the novels, he has a dry sense of humor and is self depreciating. Doc is described as being "mixed-race", perhaps in tribute to a oft held belief among fans that his mother was Mayan.

Renny is the only one of his aids to appear in this story, and it is a brief appearance. Renny catches Batman searching Doc's hotel room and decks him.

This story doesn't alter the Doc Savage as much as many have feared. His character and mission seem intact. His father has just died at the start of this story.

In the back of the book are eight pages of character bios by Azzarello that are illustrated by the regular series artist Rags Morales that introduce of some of the other characters in the "First Wave" universe. Doc's Crew gets a full page. Their characters are described and I can only assume that their professions remain intact.

Only Long Tom is described by his profession - a master of electricity. Monk is assigned a bully role and isn't opposed to using lethal force. Monk and Ham retain their good natured arguing and status as best friends.

The Avenger and The Spirit share the next page. Richard Benson is described as a master of disguise and a man blinded by the tragedy of his family's slaughter.

The Spirit will appear as well as Ebony White who will be a "brash girl" in this series.

Black Canary is another New Yorker in this universe, and she is so enamored of Doc Savage that she goes out at night and fights crime.

Rima the Jungle Girl is a South American that is a mysterious "catalyst that drags the real main characters along to their inevitable fates." She may not be real...

The Blackhawks are the second generation, the originals have all either retired, or were killed in the war. They are ethnically diverse and are the best pilots from all over the world.

Finally, there are the villains of this world. They will be "diverse and come from different angles." "There should be major conflict between the crime factions." There are three main factions: The Syndicate, The Golden Tree, and No School.

Anton Colossi, Greek shipping magnate and war profiteer will be one of the main villains. He has a robot bodyguard and lives on the coast of Hidalgo in South America.

John Sunlight will also have some part in these stories.

All in all, I had feared that the changes to the classic characters may have been too much, but Doc Savage certainly is treated respectfully here, and I will buy the new books as they come out to see how the others fare.

Hopefully there will be more story and more adventure in the regular First Wave comics.

Comic-Con 2009 - FRIDAY

FRIDAY

It was a cool morning in San Diego and I got a few hours sleep at the Omni and was ready to go to the con. But there it was... Rover...

Inside the hall was crowded, but not packed. Not yet. That will be tomorrow. But here is the Black Beauty from Columbia's upcoming Green Hornet film. The second picture clearly shows that the guns can rotate back under the hood.

Edward James Olmos hugs a happy fan.

Hasbro has a massive display, but Heroscape is gone from Comic-Con.

Privateer demonstrates Monsterpocalypse.

Batcycle

A Kotobukiya sculptor works on a Wolverine sculpture.

In the main hall I met Anthony Tollin and discussed his pulp reprints. When I asked about why he is printing them out of order, he explained his reasons and they do make sense. With both Doc Savage and The Shadow he had a 2.5 year deal and wanted to be sure that he would have the best possible sales by printing some of the best stories.

Additionally, with the Shadow, the 60's paperbacks were printed in published order and he didn't want to end up reprinting the same stories if Condé Nast pulled the plug. And iconic Shadow pulp artist Edd Cartier was still alive and Mr. Tollin wanted to print the original art with the stories and wanted do Edd's stories while he was still with us.

I will get off my horse about reprinting the Doc Savage stories out of sequence. A little, maybe.

The panel about the animated film 9 (not to be confused with the musical Nine) was made up of producers Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov, director Shane Acker, and voice actors Elijah Wood and Jennifer Connelly. The scene presented was beautifully animated.

As with District 9's director Neill Blomkamp, 9's director Shane Acker had made a short film that caught people's eye and those films were later made into feature films. This should give hope to amateur filmmakers everywhere. Just remember to make your films brilliantly.

The Disney panel, in part, honored Hayao Miyazaki and hyped the upcoming American release of Ponyo. That film has already earned 182 million before its US release.

Miyazaki smiles with his Inkpot award.

Peter Jackson is flanked by District-9 director Neill Blomkamp on the left and star Sharlto Copley on the right. Copley was revealed to be a childhood friend of Blomkamps' with little professional acting experience. Panel moderator and KROQ personality (and Adam West Batman nut) Ralph Garman had screened the film on Thursday and complemented Copley for his excellent naturalistic performance. Blomkamp commented that much of the film was improvised within the structure of the scenes and story.

Later Jackson appeared with James Cameron on a panel and afterward met up with fellow "Rings" pals Elijah Wood and Dominic Monaghan .



All in all, a good day at Comic-Con. I got to shake Jim Cameron's hand and got sketches in my sketch book by Bill Maus, Daniel Panosian, and Andrew Kudelka. I will be visiting artist's alley again tomorrow.

Don't Forget Free Comic Book Day!!!

Freak Angels Graphic Novel

Since February 15th Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield have been posting 6 pages a week on their near future post-apocalypse London comic book. For free. They recently finished the first full story arc.

Ellis is best known for writing Planetary, Transmetropolitan, and The Authority. Duffield is relatively new to comics having won an award at the 2006 International Manga and Anime Festival (IMAF), for 'Rolighed', a three minute animated short. He also won Grand Prize in Tokyopop's first UK Rising Stars of Manga competition, for 'Falling Star', an 18 page short comic. He has an uncluttered but detailed line art style.



Freak Angels is about 12 people that were born in different parts of England simultaneously. The all seem to have the same pale skin and have manifested psychic abilities.

When the kids were 17 years old, their world was torn apart. Sea level rose 15 - 20 feet. Survival became a daily fight. The Freak Angels found each other and have formed a loose alliance to protect the Whitechapel district of London. How the rest of the world is faring, we do not know.

Six years after the flood is where Volume One begins. We get to know the Freak Angels and their piece of the world. There are rivalries and romances, moments of friendship and conflict. The story-telling is spare and unassuming. There isn't a lot of exposition or explanation. The story simply unfolds in front of us.

Warren Ellis kept me hooked with the interesting characters and the mystery of the world itself. What happened to Earth and why we do not know, but we do begin to learn about the Freak Angels. Sometimes Ellis can take many pages to get to the point, but I always want to know what is going to happen next.

Paul Duffield has a wonderful art style. Clean and uncluttered, yet rich with detail. The colors are from a muted palette, shadows give a richness and depth. Not all the art is brilliant, but the subtle anime influence has really grown on me. I think that Paul Duffield should have quite a career ahead of him.

The Freak Angels both intimidate the Whitechapel populace and keep them same. Life is slowly getting back in order when a new menace threatens the Freak Angels fragile status quo. I have also read Ellis' Planetary and there is a style of pacing and detail that Freak Angels shares with that book. Planetary has a larger scale, but the intimacy of character is common to the two. And it is free so give it a try.

I came across this fun comic in this months PREVIEWS. In a striking ad for the Volume One trade paperback I noticed that it said it was "from the acclaimed webcomic" so I googled Freak Angels and found it.

I am glad I did.

Start at the beginning.




© 2008 W. Peter Miller