Customer Reviews

Tomorrow Stories (Book 1)

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Fans of EC comics should warm to this collection right away. It serializes five different characters with the same writer/artist team on each. ALL of the writing is by Alan Moore, who seems to be having so much fun creating new universes and characters in his America's Best Comics line.

JACK B. QUICK (the inventor) is illustrated by Kevin Nowlan and concerns the adventures of a midwestern farmboy genius. The art resembles the EC fantasy/science fiction line of the 50's while the stories are just as inventive as Jack B. Quick!

GREYSHIRT is drawn by Rick Veitch in a style resembling early crime comics, but chameleon-like as ever, Veitch changes the style from issue to issue. These stories definitely hark back to the golden age of comics, especially the work of Will Eisner on The Spirit.

THE FIRST AMERICAN reminds me of Bill Gaines and Harvey Kurtzman's MAD magazine in that it is playful, satirical, and hilarious. This serial looks at the superhero genre. Alan Moore's writing is extremely funny in these stories especially. It is illustrated very well by Jim Baikie.

COBWEB is illustrated by Melinda Gebbie. It is about a female crimefighter who definitely resembles early female heroines. Interesting, compelling reading, with excellent art.

Finally, SPLASH BRANNIGAN is an inky superhero looking to blot out crime. There are many in-jokes about comic art in all of the serials, but Splash is himself an in joke. Illustrated by Hilary Barta.

I say it looks back to go forward, because Alan Moore evidently loves all comics, and is constantly looking for ways to reinvent the genre. By looking to the golden age of comics, he and his collaborators bridge the gap between past and present, and then move forward into tomorrow. This series did not win the Eisner and Harvey awards for nothing. You will not be disappointed.

If you ask most people who read Alan Moore's America's Best Comics line, they'd probably tell you that "Tomorrow Stories" is at the very bottom of their list of favorites. For myself, however, I'd place it pretty near to the top. (Other titles under the ABC banner include "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", "Promethea", Tom Strong" and "Top Ten".) The thing is that "Tomorrow Stories" is an anthology, and, typically speaking, readers (American readers especially) don't like anthologies as much as they would a comic that contains just a single ongoing story with characters and plot that flow in the traditional way that most comics do.
Reading "Tomorrow Stories", I get a nice blend of Alan Moore's different writing styles every month: "Greyshirt" and "The Cobweb" fall under the category of basic superhero/crimefighter, "Jack B. Quick" is a science fiction tale about a boy inventor experimenting with the most bizarre laws of science. "Splash Brannigan" is a funny little strip to do with making comic books, and my personal favorite and possibly the funniest, "First American", a hilarious superhuman satire mixed with just a little good old American patriotism.
I've read almost everything that Moore has written for comics in the past two decades, and I've found him to be very, very versatile as a writer. The genres he explores in his work are vast. For mystery, there was "Watchmen", obviously, historical fiction: "From Hell", for horror, you have his incredible run on "Swamp Thing", "V For Vendetta" is a frightening political thriller, in Sci-Fi there's "The Ballad of Halo Jones", if you prefer superheroes, you can't forget his revision of "Marvelman" and later "Supreme", philosophy and fantasy with "Promethea", insane humor with "D.R. & Quinch" and "The Bojeffries Saga", his lyrics and poetry in "Songbook" and "Magic Words", the autobiographical "The Birth Caul", and even "Lost Girls", which falls in the category of erotic fiction. He writes everything! And with very few exceptions, he does it all amazingly well. I have yet to find something of his that I would consider just out-and-out terrible.
That's why I believe that "Tomorrow Stories" is majorly overlooked, especially among members of his fanbase. To my knowledge, its the only ABC title besides "Promethea" to win an Eisner. It showcases his many unique writing talents, but particularly his humor. If you'd seen a picture of the guy, you probably wouldn't think he have much of a sense of it. But,as the cliche goes: "You can't judge a book by its cover."

A lighthearted collection of half a dozen issues of this comics series.

Contained therein are parodies of several heroes, including Captain America, the Shadow, the Spirit, and others, as well as a couple of original inventions.

So, nothing overly amazing here, but a reasonable number of amusing moments.

In 1999 Alan Moore returned to superhero comics with a whole new line modestly called 'America's Best Comics'. While some products like the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen have gone on to fame, fortune and mediocre movies his short story anthology Tomorrow Stories got lost in the shuffle.

This is a shame because the book is brilliant.

Tomorrow Stories at first seems a mix of familiar superhero archetypes. We have the Greyshirt, a gentleman crime fighter in the mold of the Spirit. We have his sexy counterpart the Cobweb. We have the patriotic First American and his teen sidekick the USAngel. Finally we have two humor strips: 10 year old genius Jack B Quick and walking ink stain Splash Brannigan. Fair enough.

But that does not even begin to tell you what you're getting. Moore uses these familiar-seeming characters to really play with the comic book medium. Early on the Cobweb is transformed into a Barbie doll and the remainder of the story is acted out in doll-o-vision. Greyshirt has a story where the action is divided among 1999, 1979, 1959 and 1939 each decade taking up one panel on the page. The story can be read from top to bottom or left to right and still works.

The First American is an over-the-top parody of superhero comics and while sometimes the humor is flat or dated (Ken Starr jokes just don't work like they used to) overall it's fun. Quick's stories are short and clever, usually working on puns or obscure bits of science. Splash Brannigan is a lot like early Mad magazine, there's 10 jokes in every panel and while not all of them work there's enough of them to make you smile. And if a story doesn't work for you, 8 pages later you'll be treated to something completely different.

And of course the amazing thing is all of these stories, with their diverse styles, brilliant ideas and humor were all written by the same man. Who was also writing several other equally brilliant books at once.

If you like good comics and want something different you owe it to yourself to pick this up now.

Tomorrow Stories is Alan Moore's anthology series from America's Best Comics. This volume mainly focuses on Jack B. Quick, Greyshirt, The First American, and Cobweb stories, with Splash Brannigan showing up for a story at the end. I'll review the different characters individually.

Jack B. Quick is the reason to get this book. It combines super genius with lack of understanding in a little boy. The stories are mainly about Jack bending physics without thinking through the consequences, like creating a miniature solar system in his back yard or arresting photons for breaking the speed limit. The stories are fast and loose and funny.

Greyshirt is a noir crime comic with interesting art by Rick Veitch. The stories are pretty basic as the genre goes, but there is usually an interesting twist to them. The Greyshirt story from the second issue is a great example of using the comic medium to its fullest potential.

The First American stories are Alan Moore poking fun at superheroes and pop culture. It's funny, but nothing revolutionary. A lot of the pop culture jokes are outdated, losing some of the fun.

Cobweb is another crime series with Cobweb being a bit of an erotic character. Personally, the erotic quality is too subtle to be interesting and I don't like Melinda Gebbie's art. The one story that takes place in Cobweb's youth is the best one and works best with the artwork.

There's only one Splash Brannigan story in this volume, which is funny and contains good art, but doesn't really make a lasting impression.

This book is worth it for Jack B. Quick, but almost everything else is no better than filler.