5
Jan
ISBN: 9781906584122
I was given this magazine for review.
Issue 8 of Murky Depths is chock full of tight, short tales of speculative terror. It opens with a poetic ode to the corporate head honcho bad guy, “The Majority Shareholder” by Edward R. Norden.
Then comes an end of the world tale where the most important character is a cat, David Tallerman’s “Peachy”, followed by another chiaroscuro graphic strip from Luke Cooper, “The Wrath of God part 1”. This time Cooper’s favorite characters, Halo the Nephalim and Goulding, the cop with a heart of an angel, literally, still can’t escape getting the weird cases. They’re facing a vigilante that’s decided killing Halo is the way to get back to Heaven. It looks to be an interesting new storyline in Cooper’s wicked noir world.
“What the Tongue Will Taste” by Sam J. Drane is a money-and-power tale of what men who have it all and have done it all do when they get bored. There are clones involved making this tale a fun little masturbatory fantasy, depending on how you look at it.
Geoffrey Girad’s “Collecting James” is also a tale of a rich and powerful man getting what he wants. In this one he wants the gifts others have he doesn’t, and takes them from his victims in the form of trepanning and discs of bone that retain their former owners’ memories. But the twist in this one is better than readers will expect.
“Hero in Hell” by James Johnson (the piece that inspired this issue’s awesome cover) is a great concept, a super hero finds himself in hell after death, but it suffers from the most common problem in these graphic shorts, there’s just so much more story to be told than can come out in this space. It was sad to see it end.
“Out of Time” by J Westlake is predictable, but the storytelling here is more about experiencing the story, which is a very accurate and interesting portrayal of depression. Readers can walk in the experiences of the depressed main character as his isolation and uncontrollable sadness take literal forms in the story world.
Following the mental illness theme (and the writer theme established with “Collecting James”), Christine Luca’s “My Muse Wears Army Boots” is a tale of hypergraphia, the compulsion to write, sparked by a sadistic and abusive muse. The interesting early set up of a wanna be writer who can read corpses is dropped in favor of the hypergraphia angle, making this tale feel like two in one. The plot line at the end is easy to anticipate, taking some of the umph out of the story, even if the visuals are strong.
“Recall” a graphic strip by Chris Huff follows, pitting eternal youth against fate. It’s immediately followed by a glimpse at another artist’s vision of Huff’s tale, as the first artist was forced to abandon the tale. It is interesting to see how two people visualized and affected the same story.
“The Undead” by Lawrence Buentello is the best of the issue, and the kind of story you want to point out to other people, saying “Read this one.” J T is suffering from the loss of his wife, but his lasting love with her leads to the power to bring back the dead—all the dead—within the vicinity of J T, except for the one thing he wants back. With a chilling, almost beautiful end it shouldn’t be missed.
“Endless” by Sylvanus Moxley is the second poem in this issue, and not altogether a dismal or depressing one. In fact, in a way, it’s an almost hopeful tale of a man trapped in a ship orbiting the moon.
“Monitor” by Richard Rippon delves somewhat into postpartum depression, except poor new mom Sarah is dealing with a truly evil little newborn. Uncomfortably creepy it’s also an excellent read.
“Nosing with the Four-Stroke Kid” by KC Ball is another short, spiky addition to this issue, the tale of a unique motorcycle and its rider. Finally comes “The Pilgrimage” a last graphic offering by Kristopher Barker, about a woman who will go to any means to find her path to salvation.
Another fine collection of tales, Murky Depths bears a resemblance to the classic Tales from the Crypt publications, only with significantly better stories.
“Big” Sized paperback: 1569712018, $14.95
In a modern (for the 90s) Tokyo, scientists, foolish with power, successfully recreate primordial ooze, only to discover it’s the perfect host body for an evil, Cthulhu-like (in mindset and motive at least) creature who breaks free and follows the trend of giant monsters rampaging on Tokyo. What’s worse, citizens discover after they’ve thrown everything at it from missiles and tanks to helicopters and super (prototype) boy robots, the creature isn’t just out to destroy humanity, it can infect them, turning them into mutant dinosaur creatures that can further spread the disease, destruction and chaos. In a last ditch effort commanders beg for help from the good old U.S.A. and from the sea comes the Iron-Giant-ish hero, The Big Guy.
All American, a true blue hero, the Big Guy is determined to defeat the evil creature, save the innocents mutated into monsters and uphold decency standards all the while. The prose is a bit pretentious at times, and a bit old fashioned other times, but both reinforce the character of the Big Guy and heroic feel of the tale.
The only bad thing to say is that this two part series went nowhere as a comic, introducing dynamic characters but going no further, and, while the Fox Kids TV show (a mere 26 episodes) was a hilarious, spot on blend of tongue-in-cheek jabs at mechs, robotechnology, speculations on the future, Godzilla-inspired disasters and superhero comics, reading this book is a reminder that the Big Guy and Rusty still hasn’t seen DVD release. Oh well, there’s Youtube.
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Click to Buy
Warning, this review will contain spoilers.
Trade Paperback: 978-0-930289-23-2, $19.99
Let’s get right to the point with this one; I just didn’t connect with this story. I found it slow, with more than half the book being world set up and a series of convoluted flashbacks. I found none of the characters sympathetic, save for Jon (and possibly Night Owl), and in fact greatly disliked many of them. I had to wonder why the whole book was spawned off the death of The Comedian, who was a rather atrocious person, and centered on Rorschach whom I strongly suspect is related to Jesse Custer.
Furthermore, I found all the stories within stories (newspaper clippings, book excerpts, the overlapping comic-within-a-comic etc.) quite distracting and mood breaking. And I admit I had a real problem with the constant reminder of the world’s prejudice and concern with Jon, spun from the fact that no other supernatural creatures existed at all and all the “masked adventurers” were merely human, when the entire climax of the story is dependent on psychics (who didn’t exist up until that point in the story.)
I also found a lot of little gripes, like Veidt’s superiority complex (specifically the idea that even though he was highly educated and raised quite privileged that by giving all his inheritance money away he somehow started his adult life on an even playing field as the rest of us), the original Silk Specter’s confusion about her near rape (okay, I’ll be honest, next to the Comedian I hated this character the most) and the second generation Silk Specter’s complete forgiveness of her mother’s constant manipulations and disapproval. While the tension of a nuclear war added to the over all world building and tension Veidt’s political and environmental psychobabble felt clichéd and, in the end, the story was not at all about politics, human evil or environmentalism, but instead was about what it means to be God and what it costs to play God.
So, all the bad stuff aside, I can see why people have been draw to this story. The sheer unlikeability and humanity of the characters is a draw (and if you’ve read my essay on Superhero Psychology you’ll know that I am draw to very flawed, very human heroes who fight to become something more). The world feel, which I would argue could have been sacrificed for more character building of the Watchmen, however I admit something would have been lost, is full and unique, stark and trying (but failing) to be beautiful. There are some striking images, but far less than in modern comics, and none as impacting as the smiley button with a drop of blood that graces the cover.
And finally I have to give the book props because it was revolutionary when it came out and it’s highly likely that part of my failure to connect was because I’ve read a lot of comics likely influenced by Watchmen and am unfairly used to many of the storytelling tools used to make Watchmen stick out.
In the end, Watchmen is a piece of classic comic culture. It’s a genre-specific equivalent to reading Shakespeare or To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Even if you don’t enjoy it, it does help build a wider view of where the genre came from and how it’s evolved.
15
Jan
All indications are that a settlement has been reached in the Fox lawsuit over the Watchmen movie. Details c/o G4. We’re pretty much just waiting for a public affirmation at this point.
25
Dec
According to ReelComix.com a judge has ruled that the rights to The Watchmen belong to Fox and not Warner Brothers (who just made the movie). Why this is all coming out today, while much of the world is drunk on either revelry or depression, I’m not sure, but rumor says that Fox wants to shelf the project, killing the movie and the buzz in one fail swoop.
To me, this makes no sense. Why wouldn’t you want to put out a product that’s going to be a blockbuster when you didn’t have to do any of the work? So are The Watchmen trailers doomed to be the greatest what if in 2008 geekdom? Or will some kind soul leak bootleg copies to the hungry masses?
15
Sep
The good news is that this graphic novel offers exactly what I loved about the movie. HellBoy is a devil summoned by a mysterious Nazi who wants to unleash cthulhu-like elder gods upon the world. He’s got an anger problem, he’s a smart ass, and he calls himself the World’s Best Paranormal Investigator. The art is dark, yet HellBoy’s attitude adds some levity to the atmosphere.
The bad news is that there isn’t much in this first volume that you don’t know from watching the first movie. Having started with the movie that’s to be expected, but it did make the short promo strips included at the back of the volume the most interesting bits. Because I really enjoyed those, I believe if this had been my first HellBoy experience I’d have been won over. (In other words, if I wasn’t already a fan, I would be after reading Seed of Destruction.)
Not only is HellBoy a paranormal tale, and intriguingly so, but it is also carried by an anti-hero of sorts (as the impression readers are given is that HellBoy isn’t supposed to be the hero, he’s supposed to end the world) and one of my favorite character types, the intelligent, more-human-than-humans monstrous creature(Abe). It’s a combination that, when it works, will always get my interest and likely my dollar.
20
Jul
24
Mar
In a world of superhumans, both heroes and villains, Devil’s Cape is a violent and corrupt city, founded by a pirate, that eats superheroes alive. That doesn’t stop Argonaut, Bedlam and (the fourth) Doctor Camelot from coming together to save those they love and forming their plans to stop the evil of the city.
Full review at MonsterLibrarian.com