Comics

Rolling in like a slow, fuzzed-out guitar line from an Orange-brand amp, The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book lives up to the good vibes promised in its title.

Artist and writer Joe Daly's full-color graphic novel collects two stories starring best buds Dave and Paul, as they wander about Cape Town while fully under the influence. Dave has a genetic disorder he calls "monkey feet," where his feet have what appear to be opposable digits. Throughout the book, Dave tries to overcome insecurities stemming from this oddity, and Paul tries his best to compliment his friend's feet ("You're a lucky dude, Dave…I guess."). In the first story, Paul drops in on Dave, sheepishly asking to borrow money, but Dave's internal monologue betrays a bit of resentment from past experience. No clichéd flashbacks or expository dialogue break the moment, though, and it passes sharply. The duo share a friendship so realized that I wondered if I hadn't somehow missed an earlier volume or two. 

This may sound like a strange compliment, but the color separation in The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book is a highlight. It's clean, crisp, and exact. In one panel, Dave is in an apartment surrounded by frogs, each with individually-colored patterns and pigmentation. One leaps from a pool of water, giving off a splash that sends droplets of blue about the room and onto Dave. Daly is careful to separate this blue from the tint in the sky that lies behind Dave through an open window. The attention to detail only deepens as Dave and Paul cruise the city in Dave's "cool old car," past a shipyard, into a rainforest, and more. Cape Town feels and looks like Cape Town, so much that it is easy to take for granted as the story opens wide.

Having recently finished Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice and Jonathan Lethem's Chronic City, I couldn't help but consider The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book as a distant third-cousin to those titles. Daly's work includes the psychedelic mystery elements from Inherent Vice (the aforementioned apartment full of hallucinogenic amphibians and a quest to locate a capybara named "John Wesley Harding"--yes, named after the Bob Dylan album), and all the spacey dialogue from Chronic City ("That was a really great moment when Kermit the Frog and Ray Charles sang together on The Muppet Show, hey, dude?").

The bad news is that I could not find more Dave and Paul stories, but the good news is that I wanted to. In my search, I found that Joe Daly has an earlier book, Scrublands, and a new title arriving later in 2010 called Dungeon Quest: Book One (all of his books are from Fantagraphics). While waiting for the latter, The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book is a weekend read, best consumed with your feet propped up, opposable digits or not.

--Alex

This holiday season, are you looking for that perfect gift to give to the comics fan in your life? You have my sympathies. We are an admittedly obsessive, persnickety bunch. Our interests are byzantine, but there is a great equalizer in Alan Moore.  No matter the distance he has put between himself and mainstream comics of late, Moore's catalog is still unrivaled in its scope, reach, and influence. That said, when a body of work is as vast as his, even Alan Moore fans can play favorites. It's with this in mind that DC Comics wisely peppered the 2009 holiday season with a feast for all Moore fans.

If your favorite comics fan prefers the dystopian Alan Moore, a la Watchmen , then look no further than Absolute V for Vendetta, Alan Moore and artist David Lloyd's bleak depiction of a totalitarian United Kingdom in need of a revolution.

The Absolute V for Vendetta boasts over 100 more pages than the trade paperback, including an expanded sketchbook section, Lloyd's "silent" pages (collected here for the first time), as well as a slipcase, a new dust-jacket, and all the supplemental goodies (intros by Moore and Lloyd, and an long afterward by Moore) collected elsewhere. Plenty of ink went into the enlarged artwork here, featuring some of the best coloring I've seen of this story, and it's all presented on thick, durable pages.

If that favorite comics fan prefers his or her stories with a touch of magic, then you can't go wrong with Absolute Promethea: Volume 1. In an earlier Omni post, I recounted my love for this series in (embarrassing) detail, but I never thought I'd see this underrated story in the Absolute format. This is Moore's most personal and most ambitious work, and it all starts within this volume, which collects the first 12 issues on an oversized canvas. Artist J.H. Williams III's artwork can only be fully appreciated in such a package.

This edition, while slimmer than V, comes housed in a stunning slipcover (featured at left), and, in possibly a first for the Absolute line, without a dust-jacket. To be honest, I'm always worried about tearing the jacket every time I put them back into the slipcase. Plus, J.H. Williams III has crafted an all-new wraparound image for the hardcover, complete with a complex spot varnish, so who needs a dust-jacket? Bestselling author Brad Meltzer provides an afterword, but that's it for extras. Since this is only the first in a promised three-volume set, I have to believe that DC is saving the extras to pad the final two volumes.

[Note: In a conversation with DC, they confirmed that not only will Volume 3 feature the most extras, including the "Little Margie" stories and a section on the making of issue #32, but that Volume 2 will have approximately 25-30 pages devoted to an art gallery, plus pages of sketches, pinups, commissions, and more.  The breakup of extras across the latter two volumes was due to storytelling purposes.  So be good for goodness' sake.]

Let's say you are on a tighter budget, and your special someone has a flair for adventure--then allow me introduce you to Promethea's sister (or is that brother?) book, Tom Strong. Along with Promethea, Alan Moore created Tom Strong in a fit of creativity, where he devised an entire universe of linked characters and worlds (see also the Omni spotlight on the series). Tom Strong boasts a hefty cast, and this Deluxe Edition, Vol. 1 features put-'em-up! action and artwork by co-creator Chris Sprouse. The first 12 issues are rip-roaring and cheery, and Sprouse turns over the reins for flashback sequences by Art Adams, Dave Gibbons, Rick Veitch, Jerry Ordway, and more. Aside from the slightly oversized format, there is a light sketchbook section here as well, mostly notable for the teaser image of Sprouse's forthcoming 2010 continuation of the series.

There's a very select but vocal corner of fans who wickedly call Moore's run on Swamp Thing their favorite work. Be advised that this is adult material, not to mention Horror comics at their finest. As a child, I was mistakenly given one of these issues, and I think it’s the basis for some of the worst nightmares I still have (it involves a creature with its hand sewn into his back). Initially collected across six paperbacks, Moore's (very) graphic epic is getting the hardcover treatment from DC's Vertigo imprint. Now on Book 2, these hardcovers collect over 200 pages each, with art by series staples Stephen Bissette and John Totleben. To be released in early December, Book 2 features a newly-restored forward by Neil Gaiman, plus the famous, bizarre, Mature Readers-labeled "Rite of Spring" chapter. Book 1 is a must-have precursor to this second collection, and it features the never-before-collected first issue of Moore's run.

There isn't another comics creator who has a spectrum so fully covered this holiday, and for the Alan Moore fan who has everything, 'tis the season.

Amazon customers have spoken, and yesterday we announced the grand-prize winner of our Comic Strip Superstar contest.

Back in August, Andrews McMeel Publishing declared their search for the next big thing in comic strips, and we opened the floodgates to all hopeful artists looking for a break into the industry. We were thrilled at the response, and a panel of comic strip celebrities and industry experts had the tough task of narrowing the entries down to 10 finalists. Then on October 29th, Amazon customers had a chance to choose a winner.

Congratulations to Girl by Dana Simpson! Dana's prizes include a publishing contract with Andrews McMeel Publishing, a development contract with Universal Uclick and syndication on Gocomics.com.

As its title suggests, Girl is understated and centers around a young girl "who's awkward at school, awkward at home, and comfortable in the forest, where her friends all live. She has a name, but her forest-dwelling friends all just call her 'Girl.'" Dana Simpson has previously been involved in several independent comics ventures, but this marks the first time her name has been featured on a marquee of this magnitude. Below are a few samples that helped her win:

Dana hails from Kent, Washington, and plans to celebrate "with her fiancee, her cat, and the cartoon beings who inhabit her fever dreams." Looking forward to what those fever dreams produce next!

Thanks to all who submitted entries, our esteemed panel of judges, Andrews McMeel, and, of course, all the Amazon customers who voted.

--Alex

This year was an invigorating one for Comics & Graphic Novels, marked, notably, by the debut of a New York Times Bestseller list for the medium. All of a sudden, comics went legit, extending beyond True Believers and into mainstream literary circles. Our editors' picks for 2009's Best of Comics and Graphic Novels showcase the wide spectrum of critical darlings and sleeper favorites that made this year a rewarding one for comics readers.

Kicking off our list is David Small's graphic memoir, Stitches, which recently caught a few eyes thanks to a National Book Award nomination. Amazon editor Anne Bartholomew, however, was an early fan and picked it as her Best of the Month selection for September. Stitches marks the first time an original graphic novel has ever cracked the Top 10 of Amazon's Best Books of the Year.

The medium, however, received no greater love letters than our No. #2 and #3 picks: Seth's George Sprott:(1894-1975) and David Mazzucchelli's Asterios Polyp. Utilizing intricate and dizzying panel layouts as well as painstaking design--not to mention stories filled with heartbreak and challenging concepts, these are the graphic novelist's graphic novels.

This isn't to say that comics forgot where they came from, and 2009 had its share of superhero stories, including Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's end to their multiple Eisner-award winning run on All Star Superman. Together, they proved a Man of Steel can go home again.

But back on Earth, R. Crumb, underground comix extraordinaire, chose an auspicious subject for what many assumed would be his trademark ire: The Book of Genesis. What the project blossomed into, however, is a fairly straight-faced approach for Crumb, although it's told through his signature pencils. The Book of Genesis never looked so indie, yet it stays true to The Good Book's dense and complex storytelling. 

But our bookshelf runneth over. The Best of 2009 Store contains more graphic novels that made this a banner year for the medium, plus plenty of other top picks to explore.

Editors' Top Ten Picks in Comics & Graphic Novels

1. Stitches: A Memoir
2. George Sprott:(1894-1975)
3. Asterios Polyp
4. All Star Superman, Vol. 2
5. The Umbrella Academy: Dallas
6. Locas II: Maggie, Hopey, & Ray
7. The Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders
8. A Drifting Life
9. The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb
10. Masterpiece Comics

Customer Favorites in Comics & Graphic Novels

1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw
2. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
3. The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb
4. Mercy Thompson: Homecoming
5. Star Trek: Countdown
6. Time of Your Life (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Vol. 4)
7. Asterios Polyp
8. Batman: R.I.P.
9. Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
10. The Walking Dead, Vol. 9: Here We Remain

I’m avoiding the costumed crowds this year in favor of getting into the Halloween spirit at home with some of my favorite festivities: watching scary but funny movies (The Monster Squad), listening to creepy, tongue-in-cheek music (Type O Negative), and reading Horror comics. The latter is especially inviting, as Dark Horse Comics released three frightfully king-sized collections in time for All Hallow's Eve.

Volume 3starts off with Hellboy encountering cult-fave Lobster Johnson for the first time, and it doesn't take long for Hellboy to run into ancient mutant amphibians, talking-pig demons, and giant, evil worms. It's a crazed blend of Sci-Fi and Horror--and one that manages to satisfy both appetites. Senior Managing Editor Scott Allie offers a new introduction, calling this stage in Hellboy's career "the turning point, in every way," and director Guillermo Del Toro's intro is republished here as well. New to the bundled stories are over 30 pages of creator, writer, and artist Mike Mignola's sketches, pencils, unused panels, and designs.

Worth noting: The pages are not only heavy enough to lie flat when opened, but they also have extended margins so that the artwork doesn't curve down into the spine. Mignola's canvas is on full display in this oversized tome. 

Just in case readers have too much fun with the above and forget to switch on a nightlight this weekend, The Marquis: Inferno might very well be hiding under the bed. This dense paperback comes from not only the pen but also the mind of Guy Davis (B.P.R.D.), who has conjured up a legitimately terrifying and thoroughly disturbing eighteenth-century nightmare. Not for the squeamish, The Marquis: Inferno is a historical fantasy set in Venisalle, where citizens hide their sins behind lurid, distorted masks. Vol de Galle, a paranoid man battling spiritual doubt, receives a hallucinatory vision where he is granted special sight through a mask of his own. As The Marquis, he sees devils parading as humans, and he is charged with sending them back to Hell. Much of the fun of the early half of the book is trying to unravel if de Galle is truly on a higher mission, or if he's a schizophrenic serial killer. Davis avoids the traditional devil imagery of horns and wings, and breeds his own appalling vision of damnation with plenty of gnashed teeth and tentacles. Keep the flashlight close.

Happy Halloween!

--Alex

The hunt is on for the next breakout comic strip talent, and it's up to Amazon customers to help pick who will be the grand-prize winner.

In late August, Andrews McMeel Publishing, the publisher of contemporary comics classics like Calvin and Hobbes, The Far Side, Zits, Foxtrot, and more, unveiled their plan to bring fresh ink to the newspaper funnies, and Comic Strip Superstar was born. The floodgates opened, and budding talent answered the call. A panel of celebrity judges and industry experts then narrowed the list down to 10 Finalists, and now it's your turn!

Help us decide who will win the grand prize: a publishing contract and the opportunity for comic strip syndication with Universal Press Syndicate. Amazon customers can visit the contest page, log in, and vote for the winner. Here's a quick run-down of the 10 Finalists with links to samples of their respective strips:

• Belle Plaine by Eric Gapstur
• Büni by Ryan Pagelow
• CounterCulture by Kory Merritt
• Evil Twin by Alexander Matthews
• Girl by Dana Simpson
• Hemlock Heights by Todd Machen
• Joe 6-Pack by Mike Floyd
• Lil Witby Andrew Paavola
• Nutz n' Doltz by Michael Underhill
• Thatababy by Paul Trap

Important Note: The deadline for voting is Friday, November 6. For synopses of all finalists, creator bios, contest details and rules, plus videos from our judges, head on over to the contest page. Place your vote and let us know which strip should be the next big thing in comics.

Richard Sala's Cat Burglar Black is a charming and stylish escapade replete with homages to the Nancy Drew series, The Secret Garden, and even, in my opinion, the set-piece capers in the Tintin adventures. Teenaged K. is sent to Bellsong Academy after being raised by a cruel matron in an orphanage where she learned dubious skills like how to be a pickpocket. Once at Bellsong, K. soon learns that perhaps stifling orphanages have nothing on private prep schools for sheer eccentricity. Sala takes great delight in giving readers a host of strange and quirky characters, including the headmistress (who seems both sympathetic to K. and oddly hostile) and the somewhat nuts Dr. Kuvac. Soon K. is using her burglar skills to uncover the mystery at the heart of Bellsong Academy. Who are The Obtainers? What do Barbary Pirates have to do with it? Who is behind the talking statue?

I must admit to having a soft spot for mysteries set in schools--the principal appeal of the first three Harry Potter novels for me--and Sala's taken the best part of such childhood memories as Bugs Bunny or Abbott & Costello creeping through haunted mansions and wedded it to fond-remembered scenes involving the Thompson Twins (not, dear Misguided Ones, the pop band) and even, dare I say it, Scooby Doo.

Sala's rich colors and detailed but never cluttered compositions serve the story well, and his teenagers are neither too cloying nor too bratty. The mystery is complex and at times devilish. When you've finished, you remember with fondness nights as a child curled up with a book and a hot cocoa on the couch. The book might be aimed at a younger age group, but adults should get a nostalgic smile out of it.

One revelation before I leave you to your normal Friday perambulations: Growing up, I started out on the Hardy Boys--we had inherited the whole series from someone--but when I ran out of those I bit the bullet and started in on the Nancy Drews also in the box. I must confess I found them equally engrossing.

A rare honor I could still earn: Tongue sorta in cheek, Slate names their annual "80 Over 80" list of the "most powerful octogenarians in America." Among the writers on the list: Noam Chomsky (80, #5), Mary Higgins Clark (81, #9), Maurice Sendak (81, #13), Edward Albee (81, #16), Stan Lee (86, #45), Maya Angelou (81, #48), W.S. Merwin (82, #52), Gore Vidal (84, #57), Louis Auchincloss (92, #61), Cynthia Ozick (81, #64), Elie Wiesel (81, #64). My first reaction: Cynthia Ozick's 81?!? (Via TNC)

Everyone's an author: Everybody's writing; is anybody reading? In Seed, Denis G. Pelli and Charles Bigelow chart our path toward universal authorship. (Via Second Pass)

Crumb and Chick: Maud Newton says R. Crumb's new Book of Genesis sends her back to the "frightening, ill-reasoned, and weirdly campy" Jack Chick tracts of her fundamentalist youth. (For more on the Chick phenomenon, see the second issue of Daniel Raeburn's excellent comics-criticism occasional, The Imp.)

Moving and shaking: Our own Jeff VanderMeer's new guide to the writing life, Booklife, surfaces at #6 in Movers & Shakers (and #352 overall), thanks to--well, I'm not sure. Something's working for you, Jeff--what is it?

--Tom

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox; directed by Michael Bay)--Critic-proof sequel is the highest-grossing film of the year ($402 million domestically). Our reviewer says: "Think of Transformers I on crack." (Available on two-disc, single-disc, and Blu-ray)

Cheri (Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Friend; directed by Stephen Frears)--Pfeiffer stars as a Parisian courtesan who has an affair with a man half her age. Our reviewer says: "A comparatively somber affair that comes recommended more for fans of the actress, who gives the role her all, than for fans of the filmmaker, whose direction feels perfunctory, particularly during the blink-and-you'll-miss-it epilogue."

Also out this week: Blood: The Last Vampire (DVD and Blu-ray); Peanuts 1970's Collection, Vol. 1; The L Word: Final Season; Hawaii Five-0: The Seventh Season; Numb3rs: The Complete Fifth Season

--Ellen

There are anticipated comics, and then there are anticipated comics.  Apocalypse Suite, the debut volume of The Umbrella Academy, won the 2008 Eisner for Best Finite/Limited series, and gave notice to fans that big things were brewing (and we named it our No. #1 pick for Best Graphic Novel of 2008). But writer Gerard Way and artist Gabriel Bá left big shoes to fill for their encore.

I'm happy to say that, yes, Way and rising-star artist Gabriel Bá have silenced any doubts of a sophomore slump. Umbrella Academy: Dallas fires up the action, humor, and intrigue, while throwing in a little time travel. New villains are introduced: the frighteningly violent but aloof Hazel and Cha-Cha, two hired guns with giant heads that look like something out of a sports team mascot's worst nightmare; an origin is revealed: we finally learn the secret(s) behind Number 5; national monuments are once again razed: this time, the team battles the Lincoln Memorial; and did I mention time travel? Members of the Academy mistakenly wind up in 1960s Vietnam, where they have to wait three years before they can travel to Dallas in an attempt to prevent JFK's assassination by one of their own. It walks a fine, manic line between full-tilt storytelling and tact.

To celebrate the return of the series, Dark Horse Comics has released the Dallas collection in two formats: the standard trade paperback and a limited edition, slipcased hardcover. Collectors will note that Apocalypse Suite received similar treatment, but the first volume's limited edition sold out so quickly that few were able to take advantage of its deluxe treatment. The limited edition for Dallas is no less impressive: oversized with 40 extra pages, including a new piece of artwork commissioned only for this edition, plus an extended supplemental art section, featuring work by both Way and Bá, as well as promotional materials and a sewn-in bookmark.

On this enlarged canvas (think DC's Absolute editions), Bá's artwork is consuming. His crowd scenes and backgrounds are full of tiny details, while his more splash-y pages are vibrant and kinetic [click pic at left for a magnified image from the limited edition]. Dave Stewart's colors do both the story and art many favors, especially in the Vietnam scenes and Spaceboy's dream sequences.

All that said, the standard edition is no slouch. It contains an introduction by Neil Gaiman and separate afterwards by Way and Bá, as well as a backup story, "Anywhere But Here," which fleshes out the relationship between The Kraken and Vanya (all of which are also included in the limited edition).

It's so refreshing to see a series like this continue to reward its readers. Way breathed fresh life into the concept of a "superhero team book." Dallas ups the ante again, while deftly avoiding any obvious attempts to outdo it predecessor. Way and Bá have already announced a third installment, Hotel Oblivion, for 2010, and the anticipation continues.

--Alex