Guns In The Gutters: IT RHYMES WITH LUST

Written By Arnold Drake & Leslie Waller
Illustrated by Matt Baker & Ray Osrin
B&W Digest Format, Graphic Novel
St. John Publications, 1950
(Dark Horse Comics Edition 2007)

It Rhymes with Lust was originally published in 1950, and is considered by some comics historians to be one of the first – if not the first – modern graphic novel. Originally marketed as a "picture novel" by publisher St. John Publications, it was written by comics veteran Arnold Drake (The Doom Patrol) and novelist Leslie Waller (together using the pseudonym "Drake Waller"), with black-and-white art by Matt Baker (Sheena, Queen of the Jungle and Phantom Lady) and inker Ray Osrin. In co-author Drake's opinion, "I don't think there is much question that It Rhymes with Lust was the first graphic novel."

The edition reviewed here is a facsimile edition published by Dark Horse Comics, which includes an afterword by Drake, and biographies of Drake, Waller and artist Baker.

It Rhymes With Lust deals with the machinations of malevolent femme fatale Rust Masson, a seductive, red haired siren with an insatiable lust for power. Upon the death of her crimelord husband, Rust moves to take full control of the mining town Copper City – both its legal operations and its illegal ones. As part of her scheming, she brings an ex-lover, disillusioned and cynical reporter Hal Weber, to town and puts him into the Editor-in-Chief's slot at one of the town's two newspapers, hoping to use him as both a propaganda tool and intelligence agent. But, eventually, Weber tires of being Rust's patsy, and with the more wholesome love of Rust's own, blonde stepdaughter, Audrey, Weber finds the strength to stand up to Rust and moves to bring down her empire.

Drake and Waller have scripted a pitch-perfect noir potboiler, a story that deftly combines politics, crime and James M. Cain-styled sexual manipulation into one compact package. This is very much in the tradition of the pulp paperback fiction of the era. The dialogue is perhaps a bit too expositional and the captions a bit too weighty for today's tastes, but this was published in 1950, and follows the comics writing conventions of that era.

Matt Baker's art is exceptional. Known for his superior ability to render the female form, Baker proves to be the perfect choice to illustrate this tale of the archetypical femme fatale. With her short, mannish hairstyle and impeccable fashion sense, Rust is strongly contrasted against her idealistic stepdaughter, Audrey, with her lush blonde mane and soft features. All the characters are distinctive and instantly recognizable, and while the book is very dialogue heavy, Baker manages to keep it visually interesting through careful use of varying "camera" angles. It's superior work.

Overall, I liked It Rhymes With Lust quite a bit. My only criticism is that Drake & Waller's story is just a bit too talky and static. It really could have used just a little bit more action – another fistfight or firefight would have livened things up nicely. Definitely worth checking out, though.

Five out of Six Bullets.

Guns In the Gutters: FALLS THE GOTHAM RAIN (1992)

Written by Devin O'Leary
Illustrated by Jason Waskey
2 Color, Graphic Novel
Comico, 1992

This slender, 48-page graphic novel from '92 is a bit of an oddity. It's a 40's-styled film noir pastiche with subtle sci-fi overtones that possesses some minor similarities to Alex Proyas' 1998 motion picture, Dark City.

Trench coat-clad P.I. Vin Dressler searches for a missing girl in an unnamed city/police state divided into a red sector and a blue sector, where it "rains every day." Like the aforementioned Dark City, the town has numerous billboards scattered around, advertising luxurious, tropical vacations, but no one seems to have ever left the city, nor does there appear to be any world beyond its borders.

The plot is thin and straightforward, the script by O'Leary rife with captions and dialogue loaded with the stereotyped similes and metaphors generally associated with private eye voice-overs. So loaded, in fact, that it's almost a parody of the Raymond Chandler style, though I somehow doubt that was the intent. The writer tries for a Kafka-esque tone of surreality, but is only partially successful. It's not terrible, just kind of half-baked.

The art by Waskey, apparently rendered in black & white pastels with occasional spots of red, is nicely done, atmospheric and moody, although there's a heavy reliance on photo reference. In fact, various noir icons make appearances in the book – copied directly from classic film stills – including Peter Lorre, Ingrid Bergman and Alfred Hitchcock. Some panels (the heavily referenced ones) are nicer than others, but the overall effect is quite pleasing, and is the book's main selling point.

For fans of classic film noir, Falls The Gotham Rain is a decent homage, but offers very little in the way of anything new. Its sci-fi elements are so slight as to be easily missed, and have little effect on the story itself, effectively amounting to nothing. Still, the art is nice, it's a quick read, and its heart seems to be in the right place.

If you stumble across a copy in a back issue bin somewhere, its worth picking up.

Three out of Six Bullets.

Guns In The Gutters: YOU HAVE KILLED ME (2009)

Written by Jamie S. Rich
Illustrated by Joelle Jones
B&W, Hardcover Graphic Novel
Oni Press, 2009

Modern authors who attempt period private eye stories often end up turning out pale pastiche or unintentional parody. Or their stories are so heavily infused with the author's historical research that they read dry and artificial. What is often forgotten is that the private eye mystery - regardless of period - revolves around character more than plot. This is different from most other sub-genres of mystery fiction, where plot is all; a puzzle to be solved. In a P.I. story, it's all about people; their secrets, their motives, their passions.

Jamie Rich and Joelle Jones' You Have Killed Me is a private eye tale that remembers that, and is filled with deftly-drawn (in all senses of the word), richly-developed characters.

Private investigator Antonio Mercer is hired to find an old flame, a high society gal from his past, who has gone missing on the eve of her wedding to a down-on-his-luck gambler. It's no surprise that Mercer's investigation leads through smoky jazz clubs and dark back alleys, to various and sundry unsavory individuals, nor that it ultimately becomes very personal for our protagonist.

Rich's script is sharp, with terse dialogue and narrative captions that don't fall into the trap of trying to emulate Chandler's distinctive - and easily parodied - flair for simile. Instead, the first-person captions are employed sparsely and used to provide a bit of insight into Mercer's private worldview. The story treads very familiar ground, but that's okay - while familiar, it is feels fresh and is skillfully constructed.

Jones' art is clean and well-composed. Backgrounds are occasionally sketchy, but the characters are all distinctive and expressive, and her storytelling is clear and cinematic. Overall, it's beautiful stuff.

Oni Press has done a really nice job on the production of the book, with striking, attractive graphic design and high-quality paper and binding. It's a truly gorgeous book.

You Have Killed Me is an excellent period P.I. tale, extremely well told. Highly recommended.

Six Out of Six Bullets.

Recent Reading

Still on a spy kick. In the past couple of weeks, I've read the second Alex Rider teen spy book by Anthony Horowitz, Point Blanc, which I found to be a huge improvement over the first book in the series, Stormbreaker. Although it homages Ian Fleming's On Her Majesty's Secret Service (as Stormbreaker did with Fleming's Moonraker), the villain's plot is friggin' ingenious and original, and the use of a 14 year-old-agent makes a lot more narrative sense in Point Blanc than in the first book.

I liked it so much that I picked up the third novel, Skeleton Key, yesterday, and intend to read it just as soon as I finish the third – and latest – Young Bond novel, Double Or Die, by Charlie Higson... which I bought at the same time.

Sticking with the spy genre, last week I read the second "Mallory & Morse" spy novel by Forrest Devoe Jr (Max Phillips), Eye Of The Archangel, and found it too to be an improvement over the first in the series, Into The Volcano. I believe there's only these two M&M novels so far, but I hope Phillips writes at least one more and makes it a trilogy.

Other recent reads include Luck Be A Lady, Don't Die, the second "Rat Pack" mystery by Robert J. Randisi, and the excellent Hard Case Crime paperback original, Money Shot by Christa Faust. Speaking of Hard Case Crime, I've also got the Double Novel, Spiderweb and Shooting Star, by Robert Bloch, on hand to read soon.

I also read two Conan comics trade paperbacks from Dark Horse Comics, The Blood-Stained Crown & Other Stories, a collection of Conan stand-alone adventures, and Rogues In The House & Other Stories, writer Tim Truman's adaptation and expansion of the titular tale by Robert E. Howard. The first collection is mixed bag, story-wise, but has some really gorgeous art by veterans like John Severin, Rafael Kaynan and the aforementioned Truman, while Rogues was a solid adaptation with decent – if under-detailed – art by Cary Nord & Tomas Giorello.

It's been a while since I've managed this much recreational reading, and it's nice.

Back in the Gutters

Just a quick head's up: after three months of neglect, I've just posted a new review over in my crime comics blog, Guns In The Gutters.

Today I take a look at the 70's Atlas/Seaboard title, Police Action #1, featuring the hard-boiled exploits of forgotten crimebusters Lomax, NYPD and Luke Malone, Manhunter (by Mike Ploog & Frank Springer)!

I'll be making an effort to post reviews over there more frequently; I'm currently working on articles about James Hudnall's criminally short-lived series, Shut Up & Die!, and the late 90's Acclaim Comics miniseries, The Grackle, by Mike Baron and Paul Gulacy.

Check it out!

Busy Weekend

Found out on Friday that my short story, "The Beast of Bava Pass," has definitely been accepted for inclusion in the upcoming Moonstone Monsters prose anthology, Werewolves: Dead Moon Rising. The book is currently planned for an October, 2007 release – just in time for Halloween.

Obviously, it's a collection of new werewolf stories. My story is kind of a tribute to old late night monster flicks, very much in the Universal or Hammer Films mold... with just a tad more blood and sex. Hope people dig it.

I don't know much about this book – not even the names of any of the other contributors – but I do know that the cover is by Dave Dorman and the editor is Dave Ulanksi. I'll post more details when I get them.

Since the weather was so unpredictable and generally crappy this weekend, I spent most of Saturday and today re-designing my Atomic Pulp website. I had been fiddling around with a redesign much of last year, but was never very happy with it, and with everything that was going on, I never got around to finishing it. The version I've been working on the past few days is graphically more ambitious, yet also simplified in many ways. I hope to have it up and running in the next month or so.

At the same time, my beloved missus was re-building my DVD Late Show site in WordPress, which should allow me to update it again on a regular basis – at least as often as I can crank out new columns, anyway. You see, when I replaced my old computer last fall with a newer old computer, I lost some files and some software, including the program I had used to build the DVD Late Show site... which is why it hasn't been updated since then. Assuming that Brandi can work out the remaining bugs – and I'm confident she can – I hope to have the damned site a working concern again very soon.

Picked up the latest Hard Case Crime paperback – The Vengeful Virgin by Gil Brewer – last night, along with the Batman: Detective trade paperback by Paul Dini. For the most part, I was pretty pleased with Dini's work; strong, standalone stories that emphasize the Batman's deductive abilities, while simultaneously making him less of an asshole than he's been in recent years. None of the five stories in the book really knocked my socks off, but they were pretty good Batman tales... and that's rare enough these days.

When I wasn't working at the computer or reading, I was watching the second season of The Wild Wild West on DVD. This is season when everything really clicked into place: both leads were in their prime, the scripts were particularly sharp and clever, the production design was colorful and imaginative, the guest stars were great, and there was an omnipresent sense of sheer fun. What a wonderfully inventive and entertaining show!

Now... back to work.

Monday Morning Musings

I'm feeling considerably better this morning than I have in several weeks. My sciatica has finally improved to a point where I can once again relax in my recliner and spend long hours working at my desk – although riding in the car is still agonizing. Must be something about the angle of the seats in the Saturn. I dunno.

Starting to make some progress catching up on my work, at last. Turned in an overdue short story last week, and have been working on comic scripts the last few days. Now that I can watch TV and movies again, I figure that, not this week, but probably next, I'll have a new DVD Late Show column up over at Quick Stop. Also, my new crime comics blog, Guns In the Gutters, is going well, with a dozen reviews posted so far, and a surprisingly high number of hits. I'm having fun with it, too, which is always a plus.

There's a very good chance I'll be shutting down my MySpace account in the next few days. Every time I try to post a legitimate bulletin over there, it blocks my account and insists that it's been phished. I've had to change my password three times tonight, and I'm not sure it was worth the effort. I shall ponder.

Anyway, I'm busy as hell. This week, I've got Captain Midnight and Femme Noir scripts on my plate, with another short story and another comics script lined up right after.

Wish more of it paid, though. Money's tight and medical bills have mounted up. Insurance just plain doesn't cover everything, unfortunately, and it looks like our taxes are going to be a bitch this year, too.

Changing gears... Joe Staton sent me a copy of the recent DC trade paperback Huntress: Darknight Daughter, which reprints most if not all of the old Earth-2 Huntress stories that Joe and current DC publisher Paul Levitz did back in the Seventies. It's great stuff!

I mean it. All-ages superhero adventures with awesome art, plenty of action, solid chracterization and an appealing, attractive, moral heroine. My only complaint is with Levitz's introduction, where it sounds like he's apologizing for the quality of his work on these stories.

I've got news for you, Paul: this stuff is better than 90% of the cynical, overblown, depressing Hollywood wannabe shit you guys are publishing these days. If you feel like apologizing, apologize for that crap.

As for other recent diversions, those Michael Shayne movies were fantastic. Fast-paced, funny, and very well acted by some of the best character actors of the era – Lloyd Nolan, included. I hope Fox puts out the remaining ones in the series ASAP. I wonder who has the rights to the PRC Shayne films with Hugh Beaumont? Hmmmm...

So, I'm now hoping to get that Payback Director's Cut after Brandi gets the taxes paid. Hope we can swing it, and I won't have to put it off too long. We'll see.

Well, gotta get back to work. More later.

Guns In the Gutters

After posting my comments on Abuli & Bernet's Torpedo early this morning, it occurred to me that a blog focusing solely on reviews of crime comics would be fun to read. So I went looking for one, but came up empty.

So I started one myself.

It's called Guns In the Gutters, and along with a modified and expanded version of my Torpedo review, there's a new post on Moonstone's Pat Novak for Hire one-shot, too. The plan is to eventually re-read all of the crime, mystery and espionage comics and graphic novels in my collection and review them. I intend to hit them all – from Ms. Tree, Jon Sable, The Maze Agency, and Sin City to Tony Bravado, The Grackle, Last of the Independents, Dominique and Shut Up And Die!

Check it out.

The Art of Jordi Bernet's Torpedo

Pretty much my favorite crime comic of all – based on the relative handful of stories I've been able to read – is E. Sanchez Abuli and Jordi Bernet's Torpedo. The beautifully-drawn European comic chronicles the "adventures" of Depression-era New York hitman Luca Tortelli, alias "Torpedo," probably the nastiest piece of work to ever headline his own strip.

Utterly ruthless and amoral, Torpedo makes my own criminal comics protagonist, "Gravedigger" McCrae, look like a boy scout. In one of the few stories I've managed to read, Torpedo shoots a priest in the back, in church, and then washes his face in holy water before smashing open the alms box to snag a twenty. In another, he wipes out a bunch of thugs who've been hassling a fishmonger, and then takes his payment by raping the seafood merchant's gorgeous wife.

The guy's no role model, that's for sure.

Unfortunately, the English versions of the graphic album collections are long out of print, hard to find, and expensive when you do, so I haven't got many. I do have the four Torpedo comic books that Fantagraphics put out in the early 90's (under the "Hardboiled Comic" imprint), but those only whetted my appetite.

It's genuinely hardboiled, uncompromising crime fiction with some of the most beautiful art I've ever seen. Both Alex Toth and Joe Kubert have sung Bernet's praises, and it's no wonder.

Here's hoping that I'll be able to track down more of these books, eventually, or that some other enterprising U.S. publisher will have the balls to reprint them in English again.

I Like This Comic: The Iron Ghost

Gotta give Chuck Dixon credit: in The Iron Ghost, he not only gives readers his usual rip-roaring, action-packed comic book thrill ride, but he also manages to find an utterly and astoundingly unique "take" on the slouch-hat/two-gun pulp vigilante. Instead of another blatant Shadow or Spider rip-off (like my own Brother Grim), The Iron Ghost only superficially resembles those characters. Okay, he also employs their brutal, ruthless methodology, but the character's motives and – more importantly – the environment in which he operates, is truly something different in the genre.

Structured as a mystery story, The Iron Ghost: Geist Reich, is set in Berlin, 1945, as World War II approaches its end and Germany's inevitable defeat. The city is in ruins, pounded day and night by Allied bombers. Fires burn, and the civilian citizens of the crumbling metropolis struggle just to survive, foraging for food and water amid the rubble.

Into this smoking hell on Earth comes a masked figure in a pea-green overcoat, wide-brimmed hat and Iron Cross medallion; an imposing apparition with one, blazing red eye and a pair of highly unusual Luger automatics. He is The Iron Ghost, and he's hunting down and murdering prominent members of the Nazi party. The solving of those murders falls to two civilian police detectives, Inspectors Tannhauser and Volz, and their questions – and those of the reader – are the same: who is The Iron Ghost, why is he killing these particular Nazis, and why do his German Lugers fire American .45 caliber bullets?

You all know that I'm a fan of Dixon's comics writing. His best work is unpretentious, visual, and story-driven, with strong enough characters that he doesn't find it necessary to bury the action in endless exposition. With The Iron Ghost, he's found a premise and setting uniquely suited to his strengths as a writer, and I can't imagine anyone else even coming up with the idea of this book, never mind writing it as well. From its intriguing opening chapter to its fiery climax, Geist Reich is one of the best graphic novels/miniseries I've read in the last three years.

Artist Sergio Cariello is a remarkable talent, a young artist with Old School sensibilities: an emphasis on clear storytelling, drawing fundamentals and research. There's no cheating here – the uniforms, clothing, weapons and vehicles are period-appropriate and look authentic to my untrained eye, lending the whole enterprise vital verisimilitude. Concepts and covers by Flint Henry are typically raw and striking and lead to my only complaint about the current trade paperback collection of this 6-issue miniseries from Image Comics: it does not include a gallery of Henry's astounding cover illustrations (like the one I posted above). Instead, they're reproduced thumbnail-sized on the back cover, which is a criminal treatment of Henry's detailed art.

Otherwise, though, the trade paperback is an attractive package for a powerful and damned entertaining pulp adventure. Obviously, I highly recommend The Iron Ghost: Geist Reich.

Recent Stuff

Got my review copy of the new BCI/Eclipse release of Space Academy – The Complete Series yesterday. The episodes look very good. Not pristine, but better than the Ark II episodes released on DVD a couple months ago.

Like Ark II, I'm finding the series better and smarter than I thought it would be, and that my memories of the show were remarkably accurate and vivid. I'm also still impressed by the special effects. Shot on a shoestring Saturday Morning budget, they still rival Brian Johnson's work on the much-more expensive contemporary series, Space: 1999. (Forget those IMDB readers comments that describe the FX as "cheesy" – I've come to realize that "cheesy" is just a modern-day euphemism for "crafted by hand and executed with talent and skill.")

The only disappointment in this fine DVD set is that neither Pamelyn Ferdin (Laura) or Maggie Cooper (Adrian) were involved in the reunion/documentary. It's a shame, because Ferdin was one of the most prolific and familiar child actresses of the late 60's-70's, and Maggie Cooper was... well, a babe.

I also received yesterday the latest Richard (Donald Westlake) Stark "Parker" novel, Ask the Parrot. It picks up literally seconds after the end of the previous series entry, Nobody Runs Forever, and Stark's prose is as sharp, lean and compelling as ever. I'm already more than halfway through the book. It's good. Really good.

It feels great to sit down with a novel again. Still remaining on my TBR (To Be Read) pile are Road to Purgatory by Max Allan Collins, Something Is Down There by Mickey Spillane, Mildred Pierced and Now You See Him by Stuart M. Kaminsky, The Peddler by Richard Prather, The Last Match by David Dodge, All the Flowers Are Dying by Lawrence Block, and Kull, Exile of Atlantis by Robert E. Howard.

Managed also to pick up a few *new* comics this week. Got a hold of the first issue of The Immortal Iron Fist by Ed Brubaker & Matt Fraction, with art by David Aja and others. Liked it quite a bit. I actually recognized Daniel Rand in there, and thought that Brubaker and Fraction had come up with a nice new angle on the chracter/concept. Plenty of story for a first issue, too. Also read the first issue of Matt Fraction's Punisher War Journal, which I thought was nicely drawn with a decent, well-written story, but – and here's the problem – Frank Castle was way out of character. Too bad. Won't be buying any more, even if I see them.

Although I recently said I haven't been able to follow any monthly comics for a while, there has been one exception. I've actually been reading She-Hulk for a few months now (thanks to the fact that they carry it at the local Barnes & Noble), since my pal Rick Burchett started drawing it, and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. writer Dan Slott is having a lot of fun with Jen and an extensive supporting cast of cast-off or obscure Marvel characters like the Two-Gun Kid and Stargod... and the fun is contagious.

Check it out. It's good.

Calling Dick Tracy!

Thanks to the generosity of an unnamed benefactor (Hi, CR!), I recently got my hands on IDW Publishing's The Complete Chester Gould's DICK TRACY, Volume 1, the first installment in an ambitious program to eventually reprint in beautiful, hardbound editions, the entire run of Gould's seminal newspaper adventure strip.

The first volume covers the years of 1931 to 1933, and includes nearly 600 daily and Sunday comic strips.

Now, I love crime comics, so I'm automatically a Tracy fan, but I can't claim to any great authority regarding the actual strip. It never ran in any of the local Maine papers while I was growing up (still doesn't, actually), so my exposure to the character is limited to a few random comic books, the Republic serials of the 30's, the RKO B-movies of the 40's, a couple of reprint volumes... and the Warren Beatty film (which I actually like quite a bit, despite its weaknesses). Of course, I've also read Max Allan Collins' Tracy novels, which spun out of that film's merchandising.

Therefore, this is my first exposure to the early strips, and... wow!

No political correctness here! Heinous acts of bloody violence are carried out on almost a daily basis, frequently occurring on-panel. Even the origin story is surprisingly grim: Tracy begins his legendary law enforcement career after his girl, Tess Trueheart's, father is shot, and she is kidnapped by mob boss Big Boy's hoods. All the more shocking, Tess is then pressed into service as the gangster's reluctant moll! Tracy joins up with the police department (being immediately made a plainclothes detective!) to find his abducted girlfriend and avenge her father's death!

Great stuff, and IDW's presentation is astounding. The artwork is clear and crisp, as if shot directly from Gould's original art (and for all I know, it may have been!). There's a fine introduction by the aforementioned Max Collins, as well as a vintage interview with Gould, conducted by Collins and Matt Masterson. The book also includes Gould's original try-out strips, which he called Plainclothes Tracy. ("Dick" was the syndicate's idea.)

I only hope that this first volume sells well, that IDW can continue publishing the series, and that I can somehow keep getting them!

Check 'em out for yourself.

I Like This Comic: Claw the Unconquered

I love sword & sorcery fiction, and am a big fan of the genre in comics, too. Conan, of course, but I also dug all the other S&S comics from back in the sword-slingin' Seventies: Atlas’ Ironjaw and Wulf, Marvel’s Kull, Red Sonja, and Skull the Slayer, DC’s Warlord, Beowulf, Stalker… and Claw the Unconquered.

In fact, while black-haired barbarian Claw was by far the most blatant rip-off of Marvel’s version of the Robert E. Howard Cimmerian swordsman (even to the point of being drawn by Ernie Chua, the most prominent inker of John Buscema on the Marvel barbarian book), I always found something distinctive and appealing about the character. Probably it was his grotesque, twisted talon of a right hand, clearly demonic in origin, sheathed in a heavy crimson gauntlet – a unique defect that hinted at great evil in the character’s past and future.

In fact, when Conan made his triumphant return to comics, courtesy of Kurt Busiek, Cary Nord and Dark Horse Comics, followed soon after by the successful reincarnation of the flame-haired Sonja by yet another publisher, it looked like S&S was back... big time. Hoping to capitalize on it, I contacted an artist friend of mine about working up a Claw pitch for DC. Simply titled Unconquered, the proposal teamed the raven-maned mercenary up with several other obscure DC fantasy heroes in an Alamo-like last stand against a cosmic necromancer and his unstoppable, interdimensional army of the undead.

For various reasons, it never made it onto the desks of anyone at Detective Comics Comics (like, for example, the fact that no one at DC has any friggin' idea who I am!), and eventually, thanks to the online news sites, I got wind of a Red Sonja-Claw team-up miniseries (which I still haven't seen), followed by the battling barbarian’s own, brand new solo series from Wildstorm. It was difficult to be bitter about missing the boat, though, as the new Claw series was placed in the skilled hands of Chuck Dixon, a writer I rate very highly. In fact, for my money, he’s one of the top two pure action-adventure writers in the medium, coming in just behind the late Archie Goodwin.

Now, as we’ve established in earlier blog posts, I read very few new comic books, but last Friday evening, I happened to be in a comics shop for the first time in about a year, and they had the first four issues of the new Claw the Unconquered still on the shelves.

Needless to say, I picked them up.

While I thought the first issue was just a bit too Crossgen-lean, the script picked up and filled out with the second issue, and I was ultimately quite impressed and satisfied by the writing. Dixon, as usual, deftly delivered action, mystery and characterization in well-chosen doses, and the plot itself was pure, no-bullshit, Gardner Fox/Lin Carter-styled sword & sorcery. And that’s a compliment.

I personally felt that Andy Smith’s art was a little inconsistent (and maybe a bit too imitative of Dark Horse’ Conan book, with uninked pencil art being directly colored on computer; I think Smith would benefit from a skilled inker embellishing his pencils), but overall, it served Dixon’s script more than adequately.

Unfortunately, I understand that the series has been cancelled with Issue #6. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get my hands on those final issues without too much difficulty, as I can't count on Wildstorm reprinting this in trade. I still haven’t been able to snag a copy of the last issue of Dixon’s Iron Ghost miniseries from last year, and no trade of that excellent title appears to be forthcoming, either.

On a related note, I also picked up the first two issues of the Dixon-written DC title Rush City. You may have heard about this: it’s a co-publishing venture between DC and Pontiac, featuring a heroic wheelman who drives a customized Pontiac Solstice GXP. I was dubious initially, but Dixon’s great at this sort of stuff. With luck, DC will collect this eventually.

One has to have hope, right?

Go, go Godzilla

Driving to Free Comic Book Day at Casablanca Comics in Portland, Maine last Spring, I told Brandi that there was only one trade that had come out this year that I really needed to pick up (of course, I couldn't afford more than one!), and fortunately they had a copy in stock – Marvel's ESSENTIAL GODZILLA.

What a great book! From the days when the Marvel Universe was a wild and wooly place, fun, and anything could happen! (Am I the only one who misses those days?)

Heavily restricted by Toho Studios in regards to what they could do with the character, Doug Moench and editor Archie Goodwin slightly revamped the big G's origin (although not dramatically) and had the saurian supreme emerge from the North Pacific to take an American tour, pursued by Dum-Dum Dugan and S.H.I.E.LD. As Godzilla crossed the continent he ran into the Champions in San Francisco, battled the evil Dr. Demonicus and his monsters, fought a giant robot and giant Bigfoot in the Grand Canyon, was harassed by cowboys, trashed Las Vegas, beat up a trio of alien monsters, was shrunk by Henry Pym's shrinking gas, tossed back to the time of Devil Dinosaur (via Doc Doom's time machine), battled the FF and the Avengers... and then disappeared into the Atlantic, never to rear his scaly head in MU again.

Herb Trimpe did a great job on the art, with Tom Sutton turning in a nice two-parter, as well. Kinda surprised, considering that with Moench and Trimpe were the creative team, that Godzilla never ran into the Hulk, but maybe if Marvel had sprung for another year's license, they would have gotten around to it.

A lot of G-Fans complain about the book, annoyed with Trimpe's rendition of the character and Marvel's decision to make him green, but the tone of the series is actually very close to the films that Toho was making in the Seventies. And reading these now (I have a few issues in my collection, but not a complete run), its clear that Moench was having a grand time... and his fun was contagious!

A big "thank you" to Marvel for dusting these off, paying the license fee, and making them available again!

I Like This Comic: COBB

I don't buy any new comics. I'm currently living far from any decent comic book stores, and, as a struggling freelancer, I have very little money to spend on non-necessities. For a while, a comics retailing buddy was sending me books, but I owe him so much money that I asked him to stop.

So, since I don't buy any new comics, I don't read any new comics.

But... Chris Ryall, the high muckety-muck over at IDW is a pal, and he recently took pity on me and sent me a package of IDW books. In that package were the first two issues of Beau Smith and Eduardo Barreto's Cobb.

From everything I knew about this going in, I knew that I would probably like the book. Eduardo, besides being a pal and one of the coolest creators I've ever worked with (I've got one of his Mike Danger originals on my wall) is also, for my money, the best comic book artist alive, and Beau well, he's Beau. I've been aware of him since he was filling lettercols with missives and signing all twenty of his names to 'em, and I became a fan when he showed up kicking ass in Scout. I haven't liked all the comics he's done, but he's generally good at the two-fisted, action/adventure stuff.

But both these guys exceeded my expectations. Two issues in (I've yet to get my grubby hands on the third and final issue, but I will), and Cobb is my favorite comic book in years. (Well, aside from Gravedigger, of course.)

No "decompression," no navel-gazing, just contemporary hardboiled storytelling and deftly-defined characters of the type I strive for in my own work. Straight-forward, well-drawn artwork that serves the story and not the artist's original art sales (although I'd gladly buy any page of this).

Great stuff.

Eagerly looking forward to the concluding issue.

If you liked what Rick Burchett and I did on Gravedigger: The Scavengers, you'll like this, too.