Into The Woods

This past Saturday (the 8th of December) Newcastle City Library, much as it did last year, played host to the 2nd annual Canny Comic Con. I, much as I did last year, attended the event, had a really good time and spent far more money than I should have done.

In this post I shall discuss one of the many titles I bought at CCC, but UNLIKE last year, I'll do it before a month and a half has passed and everyone else has moved on. Never let it be said that I don't learn from my mistakes. Sometimes.

This years pick of the haul; meaning no disrespect to anything else I picked up but I read this first; is Into The Woods: A Fairytale Anthology (ed. Stacey Whittle). This book has actually been out a good while and I had intended to pick it up last year but one thing led to another and life got in the way. I figured, though, that if I went to an event organised in large part by the books editor and still didn't pick up a copy then I had no one to blame but myself. So I did, and I'm glad I did.

First thing you notice about Into The Woods is that it's a very handsome package; card cover (adorned with some rather lovely artwork by the team of Andy Bloor and Steve Howard) with a proper spine and everything, wrapped around good quality glossy paper throughout, which really allows the artwork of the various contributors to look it's best.

With 9 short stories across 46 pages of comic; all from different creative teams and between them spanning as wide a spectrum of styles and tones as the Fairy Tale remit will allow; I would imagine that there is something for pretty much everybody here, with nothing outstaying it's welcome either. In fact, if anything I'd say that a couple of these stories end slightly abruptly; if never unsatisfactorily.

Personal highlights for me were A Time For A Change (Ollie Masters and Valia Kapadai) which sees the deities of old coming to terms with their obsolescence in our age of reason; Changeling (Alexi Conman and Conor Boyle) which is just depressing as hell, in the best possible way (and has a killer panel on page 3 that made me laugh out loud; buy the book and guess which one I mean); and Samhain (Mathew Gibbs and Alice Duke), concerning the consequences for two young lads when they try to cover up a fatal hit and run.

I must confess that I didn't enjoy Samhain quite so much on first reading, and I blamed Duke's art for not doing enough to differentiate between the two protagonists, which made the whole thing confusing. Then I read it again and realised that they were wearing completely different outfits, so... and I wasn't even drunk.

The book is rounded off with an afterword from editor Stacey Whittle which is a trifle gushing; she is a girl after all; but obviously sincere and full of an infectious enthusiasm that makes you cross your fingers that this first excursion into the field will not be her last. Roll on volume two I say.

Just in case there's any doubt, I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone; comics fan, lover of fairy tales or just someone who appreciates a good story. You really can't go wrong.

In the event that I've moved you to want to buy this book, you can do so here. Go on, you'll thank me later.

If you do buy a copy though, I'd advise against visiting the editors blog, whittlewaffle, which is pimped on the back cover; a back cover which also has a beautiful piece of art on it, this time by Vicky Stonebridge, just to round out the package in style; because  I've been a follower of said blog for some time and it's all...pink and...girly and...full of posts about Strictly Come Dancing. *shudder* You have been warned.

House of Mystery: Love Stories For Dead People

Comics! With the pictures and the words and the coming together of the pictures and the words to make the stories happen! Yeah, you know what I'm talking about!

This week, we delve once more into the mysteries surrounding The House of, well, Mystery, funnily enough, to see how new resident Fig is doing, after finding herself trapped there in the first book.

It turns out, she's been moping, with occasional breaks to throw tantrums. Can't blame her though, it must have been an adjustment.

As you might expect from book 2 of a series, this is very much a bedding in tale. Having established the premise in the first book; certain lost souls end up trapped in the House of Mystery, serving bar and waiting tables for the clientele who are free to come and go at will; the writers now set out to give us an idea of who some of these characters are, beyond the archetypes they seemed to embody when we first met them.

So, we get a tale of The Pirate, Anne, and how she fell in love with a man who betrayed her, with violent consequences; or The Bartender, Harry, who's been in the house longer than any of them, and had adventures they wouldn't believe with some of the powers and forces behind the House's origins (and who sometimes hears the house talking to him, which is perfectly normal, thank you very much).

Harry meets Abel. Abel is cool.

 and of course The Drama Queen, who believes herself to be under a curse, with the story she tells to prove it having some inspired guest characters.

Writers Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges aren't new to this game though, and for every tidbit of information they give us, they leave twice as many mysteries still to be revealed. They're also well aware that a series of flashbacks and character monologues; however creepy, violent, intriguing, or combination of all three they may be; do not a narrative make and they tie the whole thing together with a good old fashioned quest, as three of our leads head off on an ill fated escape attempt, into the tunnels in the basement.

This escape, which spans the five issues collected in this book, isn't just a shoehorned in attempt to convince us there is a plot though.

The end of the journey. Miranda is *awesome*

No, it leads slowly and surely to a revelation, to a tragedy, and in the final instance to the introduction of a new character that will be sure to send the series in some very interesting new directions.

What it doesn't lead to (spoiler alert) is anyone getting out. The three intrepid adventurers are right back where they started at the end of the book, along with their new 'friend', but that's ok; this series has a long way to go yet, and they need to be there to play their parts; the time for happy endings will be later.

Maybe.

The Boys: Get Some

Comics this week, with Volume 2 of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's The Boys,  entitled 'Get Some', from the 4 part arc that opens the volume.

And what an arc it is! I've seen some criticism elsewhere on the internets, even from those who were complimentary about volume one, that this book sputters a little; that having used up all the obvious jokes in book one Ennis struggles to segue into an actual proper plot. I couldn't disagree more.

An investigation into the death of a young man that the police are suspiciously keen to close the file on leads cockney psycho Butcher and fish out of water new boy Hughie to poke their noses into the world of high-tech costumed vigilante Tek-Knight and his assorted allies and enemies. Which couldn't come at a worse time for Tek-Knight, who's having some 'emotional issues.' Namely, he can't stop fucking anything vaguely resembling a hole.

Unlike the majority of superhero characters that we've met so far, Tek-Knight seems like a relatively decent chap at heart, who's genuinely torn up about these compulsions; one suspects that any of the supes we met in book one would have embraced it, or not even noticed the difference, so depraved have they allowed themselves to become, but TekKnight does everything he can to resist. The scene of him undergoing therapy is, while very much played for laughs; the incongruity of him in his huge suit of armour, hunched up in a very proper Doctor's office is comedy gold in itself; you can't help but come to like the guy, and sympathise with him.

Tek-Knight gets some help

The ending to Tek-Knight's story is one big sex joke, it's true, but it's also a genuinely stirring and moving moment. That it is instantly undercut by more gags is par for the course; Ennis doesn't let you wallow; but that doesn't change what it is.

That's one of the things the Ennis detractors continue to be oblivious to; he uses the smut and the gore and the creepy sex gags to lull you into thinking you're reading a juvenile bit of fluff, so that it hits you even harder when moments of true joy, true sadness, or true beauty come at you. The criticism that his work is just swearing and tit jokes could have had some credence in the early years, when he was writing Hellblazer or Preacher, because he hadn't yet shown, as he would as those series developed, just what was going on under the surface; that those criticisms are still being thrown at him today beggars belief. And they are; I read a recent article to that effect when looking up some stuff for this post.

Anyway, with the murder solved and the Tek-Knight story ended we get another arc, and if I tell you it's called Glorious Five Year Plan I should think you'd be able to guess where our intrepid heroes are headed for this tale. Need another clue? It's really cold, and they're fond of vodka.

This story begins to delve into the deeper political machinations that are going on behind the scenes and show us that while the bulk of the action is US based, these 'bad guys' have global intentions. It also has an incredibly bloody finale, with a truly massive body count, which is always nice, but the true joy is in new character Vasili Vorishkin, aka Love Sausage, Communist superhero turned bar owner. I mean seriously, Love Sausage.

As I say, this story delves into the deeper workings of the conspiracy at work in The Boys world but as this is only the 2nd volume it doesn't give us too many answers. What it does do is make it abundantly clear that the people we need to fear, the people who are the true 'villains' of this series are not the superheroes, arrogant abuse of superhuman abilities notwithstanding, but the humans; the corporations in fact; that are pulling their strings. There's probably a message there somewhere.

I adore this series, I'm not going to lie to you. It can be hilarious one moment, moving the next, and horrific the moment after that: then it'll throw in a moment that's all three at once, just to keep you on your toes. I'm reading nothing else like it, and I really don't want it to end. Lucky for me then that I'm so far behind, and have so much still to come.

Fables: Animal Farm

Comics again this week, and I continue my reading of story lines everyone else read 10 years ago with Fables: Animal Farm, the second collection of the ongoing Fables series.

After introducing us to the likes of, among others, Snow White, King Cole, Prince Charming and Beauty and her Beast in first volume Fables in Exile it's now time to meet those Fables who can't really be expected to blend in to a normal New York setting. Yes, it's off to The Farm, to meet giants, dragons, a certain 3 pigs, and of course some porridge loving bears; one of whom has a more than platonic friendship going on with a certain blonde haired petty thief. Yes, they go there.

Following her actions in the first volume, Snow White decides that Rose Red needs straightening out, so it's family outing time as she drags her wayward sister along for the ride on her annual inspection of The Farm. Before they ever arrive though, Snow is convinced that something is wrong, and when they are greeted by a populace acting very strangely indeed her suspicions would seem to be confirmed. But just what is going on with the non-human fables? And will Snow and Rose be able to set aside their differences long enough to sort things out?

It seems that some of the fables confined to the farm are a little fed up of their lot; if they can't live openly in this world, then they want to return to their homelands. The Fable government won't allow this, at least not yet, so there is only one thing for it; armed revolution.

Having the 3 pigs; or 2 of them at least; as revolutionary ring leaders is, one suspects, one of the easier choices Bill Willingham had to make in the writing of this story but his choices of who else to include within the rebel party may surprise. While some are already villains in their original tales, such as Shere Kahn of Jungle Book fame; or, as in the case of the monkey king from that same tale, at the very least mischievous; others are very much the heroes and/or heroines of their stories. Indeed, one such 'heroine' is portrayed as the biggest psychopath of the entire tale, and it is glorious. She comes this close to stealing the show.

For a story that features the 3 little pigs as major players and has Chicken Little as it's comedy relief, this is pretty dark stuff. The revolutionaries are not messing about, with one minor character from the first book being dealt a nasty death early on, to reinforce that fact, and a truly shocking moment at the climax of the penultimate issue contained in this collection that I guarantee will make you sit up and swear at the page. Not to mention the aftermath; we get a reminder that the worlds these characters come from are not the sanitised, whitewashed, Disney-fied worlds of today's fairy tales when the heroes flat out execute the captured rebels. This is harsh reading.

Snow learns the truth. Or some of it.

One of the major villains gets away at the end; and it's my favourite, so I look forward to their future mis-deeds with some glee; but for the most part we see the status quo restored. One suspects this is a temporary measure however, because many seeds are sown that would seem to indicate troubled times ahead.

More to the point, we get a conversation that would indicate that a Fables immortality may well be linked to how powerful a hold they have over the public consciousness; so if your name is on every pre-schoolers lips and Disney are prepping a blu-ray of your animated classic, you can pretty much rest easy but if not... don't go getting into any duels any time soon. This conversation seems designed, at least to my tired and easily confused brain, to let us know someone major is going to die soon, and set us to guessing as to which major characters within the series are 'famous' enough to be safe. We'll see.

All told, this is another fabulous run of issues from the Fables team, and its easy to see from this just why the series has proven so massively popular over the years since; I for one am looking forward to seeing what new avenues will be explored, now that all of the characters, both human and non-human, have been introduced.

Join me here next week for, in a slight change of pace, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest. No pigs, bears, or beautiful princesses in that one.

100 Bullets: Split Second Chances

Finally time to start writing up my thoughts on the second volumes of the various comic series I'm reading in collected trade paperback form. First up, as before, it's 100 Bullets. (Book one is here)

It's hard when you're reading something as old as 100 Bullets; the issues in this collection are well over a decade old; to avoid spoilers but I've pretty much managed not to find out any specifics of plot. I don't know, for example, what anyone's motivations are, or when major characters are going to get killed off, or anything like that. What I do know, though, is that this series does not adhere to it's seeming anthology format for the duration of it's run. There is a lot going on under the surface, and many clues are being laid. Even knowing this, though, I didn't expect the major background story to erupt as early as this 2nd book.

Chucky Spinks

Of course, at first glance this collection seems much like the first. We open on a two issue arc about ex con Chucky Spinks who learns from Agent Graves; he of the irrefutable proof against those who wronged you and 100 untraceable bullets to do with that information what you will; that he had been set up, and just who exactly had done the framing.  After some soul searching, we see what he does about it. Just as with Dizzy Cordova and Lee Dolan in the first book, things refuse to play out how you'd expect.

After a brief one issue stop over in which Graves sits down for a coffee with an old colleague and we learn a hell of a lot about the world he inhabits, although one suspects not nearly enough to so much as scratch the surface of what's really going on, it's back to business as usual. Someone has been wronged, and Graves is here to help.

Recipient this time is Cole Burns, ice cream man and seller of knock off cigarettes who is given evidence of a certain local mob bosses culpability in the death of a loved one.

Cole Burns

Whatever will he do? I'm not telling, except to say that, well, it doesn't go well for him and things are looking bad. Until...

Lilly Roach

Lilly Roach is up next and her story is perhaps the darkest we've seen so far. Her daughter ran away from home, and Lilly doesn't know why. Or maybe she doesn't want to know. But Graves is going to make sure she can't hide from the truth forever. Lilly begins and ends her story in one issue.

It's at this point that the series takes the turn that I knew was coming but didn't expect anywhere near this early. We meet a reporter who has been investigating the shady figures behind Graves, and previous recipients of his 'help' start showing up again; at least, those who survived the events of their opening stories; Dizzy is back, just in time to receive a dire warning, Cole Burns seems to be taking to his new circumstances rather well, and Graves' adversary, who may not be quite so much of an adversary as we were led to believe, is beginning to show his hand.

All told, I have absolutely no idea where things are going to go from here. With one character going through some very weird Manchurian Candidate/Bourne style mind altering freakery, and the growing idea that some kind of uber-conspiracy may be essentially running everything, this could go anywhere. I'm definitely along for the ride.

Mr Branch. May have uncovered more than is healthy.

As is customary in my comics posts I shall now make my perfunctory 'I don't understand art but I know what I like' comment. I like this art. There, done. Eduardo Risso has, as you can see from the character panels above, a style which you couldn't really describe as 'realistic', but it complements Brian Azzarello's dark, twisty scripts, with their dark, twisty, tragic characters, to perfection. I wouldn't have thought it would, which shows what I know.

Next week; assuming I write a post, which lets be honest is never exactly a done deal; I shall be discussing The Outcast Dead, from the Horus Heresy series. Something for you to look forward to there. 

Hitman: A Rage In Arkham

COMICS! Because I haven't for a while.

Meet Tommy Monaghan. He kills people for money. It's a living.

Garth Ennis is the only writer to have two series in my graphic novel rotation at the moment; I spoke about current epic The Boys in an earlier post, while DC are currently collecting his 90's classic Hitman for what I believe is the first time; at least in the case of the later issues.

It's fabulous.

Tommy Monaghan is a hired gun, working freelance amongst the various feuding factions of the Gotham City (yes, that Gotham City) underworld. After a chance encounter with a not particularly friendly 'giant alien space vampire parasite' he gains certain powers that come in very handy in his line of work; namely x-ray vision and telepathy. He was already good at his job; now that he can see where you're hiding and hear what you're thinking, he's positively unstoppable. Or so he thinks.

Tommy first appeared in DC's The Demon comic, in it's second annual and then twice more before that title folded. This first volume collects the first of these appearances only, skips the other two, throws in Tommy's appearance in Batman Chronicles 4, and then launches into his own series, Hitman, with the first 3 issue arc. The completist in me might have balked at the two missing stories but in truth, I didn't know about them when I read this book and you'd never notice from the stories. Whatever happened in those missing tales, Ennis does a flawless job of giving you everything you need to know to dive right in.

In fact, even had they omitted Tommy's 'origin' tale from Demon Annual #2 and picked straight up with Hitman #1, this book would have been as accessible a debut volume as I've read. Literally everything you need to know to start following the character is laid out for you in the minimum number of pages, without ever seeming like rushed exposition, and we're propelled straight into Tommy's first 'mission'. Someone has hired him to kill The Joker.

Yes, the Joker. Elements of the Batman mythos are all over this book. The man himself is on the cover, not to mention the story, where he receives less than reverential treatment from Tommy (and Ennis); the title, A Rage In Arkham (the name of the first arc) refers to Arkham Asylum, home away from lair for all of Bats' myriad of foes; and as mentioned, The Joker looms large over events towards the finale. Or does he?

Kill The Joker? Fat Chance Mate

It's a sensible, and most likely editorially mandated, route to take. After all, if you're launching a new comic with an essentially all new cast, it can't help to play up it's links to one of your biggest characters. The assumption the reader makes is that, once the introductions are made and Tommy and friends are established in their own right, the Batman links will be pared back and phased out. These characters are strong enough to stand on their own and tell their own stories.

So what kind of stories are we talking here? Well, by virtue of being published as a Demon issue, the origin story is heavily reliant on the Supernatural, and the Rage in Arkham arc has as it's villains The Arkannone, a group of Lords of Hell, eager to recruit Tommy to their cause. However, there is nothing to suggest that the series will always focus on that aspect. One virtue of being set in the regular DC line is that there is a precedent for books of all genres. Superhero fare, gritty crime drama, war stories, and supernatural horror stand side by side in this world, and Tommy has a foot in all of those worlds. This series could go anywhere, and with Ennis writing, it almost certainly will.

Of course, this being the first book in the series, Tommy comes out on top and walks off into the sunset. None of his enemies are truly defeated though, and he's managed to make a few new ones along the way; it looks like there could be a very complicated road ahead for our hero.

And now for my traditional perfunctory appraisal of the art on offer; prefaced by the equally traditional caveat that no disrespect is intended, I just don't feel qualified to discuss art.

John McCrea is brilliant. His is a very cartoony style, which works wonders when the book is meant to be funny, which is often, but is also strangely well suited to depicting violent, bloody death.

In his introduction, artist Steve Dillon (frequent Ennis collaborator) talks of the 'acting ability' that comic book artists need to imbue in their characters, stressing that McCrea is very good at it. In my humble, unqualified opinion, he's absolutely right,as evidenced by Tommy's cheesy as hell grin when pretending not to know who Batman is. Taking the piss, and loving it.

And there you have my thoughts on the first Hitman collection. Another stonking start to what looks like being another stonking series from the always stonking Mr Ennis. Stonking.

Garth Ennis

John McCrea

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home

And so it came to pass that several decades after Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 9 launched, I didst sit upon mine writing stool and pour forth upon the page mine thoughts as to the worth of Volume One of... Season 8.

Yeah, I'm slow. What of it?

First things first, let's just get out of the way the fact that a) I'm an unapologetic gusher of superlatives (or I would be if I knew any; my thesaurus has disappeared) when it comes to the writing of Joss Whedon, and b) Buffy The Vampire Slayer is, in my opinion, one of the greatest television shows of it's, or any other, era. That said, I'd like to think I can put aside any lingering hero worship and read this material with my critical faculties intact.

IT WAS AWESOME! Ahem.

 Season 8, for those who don't know, is; or was, since it's long ended and it's successor is in full flow; an official, canonical continuation of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, picking up shortly after the events at the end of the 7th and final season of the TV show. Clue's in the name really.

The worry was that, for all the protestations from the publisher and Joss Whedon, who was on board to plot the 'season' and write pivotal issues, it wouldn't be real Buffy. Tie in comics rarely, at least in my opinion, achieve the true feel of the source material, and there is always the stigma of, 'if it's not on TV it doesn't count.' Hopefully Whedon's involvement would counter the first point, but the second would be harder to tackle; being, as it was, a perception ingrained in the reader for many years. Just ask the Star Trek TV writers how much they worried about contradicting the print stuff.

Luckily, we needn't have worried. At least as far as the first five issues are concerned; that being the material collected in this first volume; the feel is pretty much spot on. Characters sound like their TV counterparts, with all the laugh out loud moments of dialogue that come along with that, and while the storyline is on a much bigger scale to that of the TV show, it's in a way that makes perfect sense, given the way the show ended. After all, when last we waved farewell to Buffy, she'd just saved the world at the head of what was essentially a Slayer Army.

The events depicted in this book could never have happened onscreen. Casting logistics alone; a lot of old faces show up in rapid succession; would cause them problems but the budget... The very first scene in the book is of Buffy leading an assault team of Slayers, by sky diving from a helicopter. Yeah. Oh, and it also features dialogue about Nick Fury, which made me chuckle, given a certain modest little movie Whedon has just released.

We get a lot of plot in amongst the witty dialogue and the action scenes. A couple of old villains show up to cause trouble, another old villain cashes in his chips, the US military make their presence known in a much more overt way than The Initiative ever did and we get a few hints that none of them are  going to be the main villains of the piece, when all is said and done. Because that would just be too easy, wouldn't it?

Oh, and Dawn is a giant. Just because.

Artwise, the interiors (by Georges Jeanty) offer work in which you always know who it is you're meant to be looking at, without ever seeming like exact likenesses of the actors. I'm sure there's probably  a name for that, but I know nothing about this stuff so... The covers of the individual issues, though (by Jo Chen), all of which are included, are incredibly lifelike paintings, very obviously based on the cast's likenesses and in some cases creepily accurate.

Madame Xanadu: Disenchanted

Comics again this week, as once again we look at Vol.1 of an ongoing series. This week the focus is on Madame Xanadu; a long time minor character, apparently, in the DC Universe, Xanadu's time to shine has arrived as she gets her own series, penned by Matt Wagner, with art by Amy Reeder Hadley, coloured by Guy Major.

This first volume, entitled Disenchanted, collects the story first published in issues 1-10 of the monthly comic, published by DC's 'mature readers' arm, Vertigo.


Usual comics discussion caveats apply here; I'm not the most widely read when it comes to the big mainstream comics universes of Marvel and DC, and have next to zero interest in the seemingly endless Superhero titles that throng the shelves, choosing to mainly concentrate on self contained, often creator owned, serials. My DC consumption is almost entirely limited to Vertigo titles, because they are more likely to fit those criteria, and when they do tie in to DC continuity, as is the case here, they're on the periphery, and don't require a huge commitment to buying 97 titles a month. All of which is just to say, I've not read anything else featuring this character. And it didn't matter in the slightest.

Madame Xanadu is a mystic, a fortune teller, and a guide to those who need aid when supernatural threats come knocking at their door. But why did she decide to dedicate her life to helping others? More to the point, what are the origins of the powers she uses to do so?


With this, suitably epic, opening storyline, Wagner gives us as thorough an origin story for the character as anyone could ask for. In 2 issue jumps we get snapshots of Xanadu's life over the centuries, from the fall of Camelot (you'll never guess who she was in Arthurian myth), through the court of Kublai Khan, Paris in the days of the revolution, and London at the height of Jack the Ripper's spree, to New York City in the 1930's.


Along the way we see Xanadu at the highest peaks of her powers and at her lowest, near death ebb, and come to understand how she became the person she is today, and presumably will continue to be as the series continues. She has lived a long time, and has made a lot of mistakes over that time, many in regards to an equally long lived Phantom Stranger, and it would seem destiny requires her to make amends.


Hadley, ably assisted by Major, produces some absolutely stunning artwork here, and shows a remarkable range, given the wide scope of the settings. The contrast could not be more apparent than in the lush green of her woodland home pre-camelot, and the seedy, dark underbelly of London, as Jack stalks the fogbound alleyways; these disparate settings never derail the book, always managing to feel, for all their differences, like part of the same world. I sometimes struggle to discuss the art in comics, but as the cliche says, I know what I like. And I love this.


The story features a number of references to the wider DC world, but they're very subtle, never once intruding on the story or leaving me feeling that I lacked some obscure piece of canon required to understand the tale at hand. It actually would not surprise me to learn that many other references existed which I'd missed entirely; they are there for the faithful, but the uninitiated are welcome too. Indeed, if you are a relative newcomer to comics, looking for a place to start but put off by decades of continuity, you could do worse than heed the words painted on Madame Xanadu's shopfront; Enter Freely And Be Unafraid.

House Of Mystery: Room and Boredom

Well it's been about a month since I said I'd be back 'next week' with a post about House of Mystery, so I figured the time was about right to deliver.

Taking it's name and basic premise from a long running DC Comics horror anthology title from the 50's thru 80's, House of Mystery was launched by DC imprint Vertigo in 2008. The first collection, Room and Boredom, collects issues 1-5 of this new series, written by Bill Willingham and Mathew Sturges with art by Luca Rossi.


Cain; he of 'and Abel' fame; has long been established as the owner of the House of Mystery, acting as 'host' or narrator during the titles anthology years. This series opens with him returning from one of his regular visits to his Brother's House of Secrets, for a spot of tea and homicide, to find that the House of Mystery has disappeared. It's a fairly radical departure, beautifully handled in just two pages, that allows the writers to take the series, well, pretty much anywhere they want to.

We rejoin the house an indeterminate time later to find it operating as an inn; a resting place for weary travelers from many realms and realities. Most can come and go as their needs dictate, taking refuge and succor before moving on. Others however, cannot, and it is these souls, trapped in the house for reasons beyond their knowledge or control, who will be our 'heroes' and 'heroines' as he series progresses.

Why are they trapped? Who are the mysterious figures who arrive, without warning, to take them away one at a time, seemingly chosen at random, to an unknown fate? And what effect will the latest addition to their number, young Fig Keele, have on all their lives, not to mention the future of the house itself?

The mysteries are heaped on us in this opening book, and they serve to whet the readers appetite admirably for what may lay ahead. It's abundantly clear that all of the characters; The Bartender, The Poet, The Pirate and The Drama Queen, as the book jacket would have them named; have secrets, agendas, and divided loyalties of their own, and some might be far more interested in them, than the shared goal of escaping the house. Only time will tell which of them Fig can trust. Or indeed, whether they can trust Fig.

As engaging as the ongoing mysteries are, Sturges and Willingham have not forgotten the titles anthology roots, either. The 'sole coin of the realm' is the telling of a story, and each issue takes a brief pause as one of the bar patrons regales us with a short tale from their lives. From the process server who relates his assignment to deliver papers to a deep sea monster, to the mobster who can weasel out of any situation, and the wonderful little slice of life that is 'Jordan's Tale', the stories are as varied as they are twisted. I would venture, however, that the one most likely to stay with you beyond the closing of the book is the gruesome and heartbreaking tale of Hungry Sally and her less than blissful marriage.

Even if the identity of one 'mystery' character is all too obvious, that doesn't detract from what is, over all, a masterclass in hooking a reader, guaranteeing that they'll be back for more. And what more can you ask for from a Book One?

The Boys: The Name Of The Game

Comics again this week, which means two posts in a row, which kind of breaks the rules I imposed for myself but to be honest, I'm reading a lot more comics than books at the moment, so needs must, as they say. So what we have here is another example, after my 100 Bullets and Fables posts, of me looking at Book One of a series everyone else has already finished, or is waiting for Book 72 of. Like it or lump it though, because it's what you're getting.


Ah, Preacher. Preacher, Preacher, Preacher. When I was a young fella, way back in the dim and murky depths of prehistory (I think it was in the mid 1990's), the Judge Dredd Megazine was going through one of those 'We aren't making any money so we need to fill up on cheap reprint until we can balance the books. We'll brand it as a New Look and hope no-one notices' phases that it occasionally suffered, (I am not criticising this policy. It kept the title alive, when things were grim)and the result was that they took to reprinting Preacher, by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon.

It blew my mind and years later was the catalyst for my very first venture to a comic shop, when I decided to pick up collections of the many issues the Megazine didn't re-print. The rest is history. I suppose it's no surprise then that Garth Ennis has implanted himself as my most favouritest of comic book writers.

Sadly, his creations after Preacher were, for the most part, a collection of mini-series and one shots. Another major epic was conspicuous by it's absence. War Stories, Dan Dare, Streets of Glory, Wormwood; they were all awesome works, but they weren't showcasing just what a master of the long form Mr Ennis is.

Enter The Boys.

The Boys are a team of people, loosely affiliated with, but not controlled by, the US authorities. Their job, though it's more of a calling, is to 'police' the Superhero community. All done under the table and on the down low of course, because it wouldn't do to have the general public find out that the 'Capes' are anything less than paragons of virtue. And that's basically the plot, although in true Ennis fashion you know that not everything you see in these early, premise establishing stories, will be what it seems.


I'm not as versed in the 'behind the scenes' of comics as I am in the world of TV but even an amateur like me is aware of Garth Ennis' somewhat less than reverential attitude toward the big name superhero franchises that are endlessly churned out by Marvel and DC, so it's perhaps to be expected that his take on the subject would be somewhat irreverent but what we get here in this 1st volume is more than I think even his staunchest fans would have expected (or his staunchest detractors would have dreaded). Simply put, the man is merciless.

The first collection is entitled The Name Of The Game and collects the first two arcs, following the eponymous opening two parter with the four part 'Cherry'. 'The Name...' introduces us, in time honoured fashion, to the new man on the team, allowing us to become acquainted with The Boys through his eyes while over on the Capes side of town, a new girl is being inducted into the ranks of the big guns, giving us a handy introduction to those characters too. And they are most certainly not your Daddies superheroes. Even if they do look very similar.


You might, at first glance, think that he slays a few too many sacred cows in what is, after all, supposed to be a launching pad for an ongoing series; when you take down all the obvious targets and make all the obvious jokes, where do you go next? But therein lies the genius. By making the 'inevitable resurrection' gag at a superhero funeral; by making the Superman analogue an arrogant prick; by having the superheroes squabbling among themselves over who gets top billing; and by doing it all in the first few issues, Ennis has taken what many assumed to be the main 'gimmick' of the book and used it as shorthand to establish the world we're going to be living in for the next however many issues. Now, he can get on with what the series is really about.

And what is it about? Well if the hints we get here are anything to go by, it's about power, and the abuses thereof; it's about love conquering all (or not), in a Romeo and Juliet stylee; and it's about how the Black and White morality so beloved of our four colour heroes just doesn't hold a lot of water, when it's exposed to the 'real' world.

Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe it's just about 2 groups of sociopaths kicking seven bells out of each other. Either way, it's very very violent and very very funny. I love it to bits.

Now to the art and as usual when I discuss comics, I can only apologise to the artist for paying him short shrift and having no clue what I'm talking about.

Darick Robertson is the name in the frame and he's an artist whose work I'm unfamiliar with; and yes, for those of you who know about this stuff, that means I haven't read Transmetropolitan. It's on the list.

Wee Hughie
Robertson's art suits this book to a tee. Going from 'realistic' portrayals of people for the serious stuff, to a more exaggerated cartoony look for the humorous moments and into pretty bloody brutal for the violence scenes, all while never seeming to change that much at all (I'm not describing this very well), it never looks anything less than stunning. And since it seems to be the law that this fact must be mentioned, check out the pic of Wee Hughie in this post; Robertson draws a mean Simon Pegg.


Garth Ennis


Darick Robertson

Sugar Glider

A long time ago... well about a month and a half ago anyway, I attended an event called the Canny Comic Con, in Newcastle city library. I could wax lyrical about what a great day it was, but others more eloquent than I have already done that, and they didn't wait over a month to do it, so I'll just say I had a fantastic time and move right along to the purpose of this post.

It's a somewhat embarrassing confession, for someone who claims to be a comics fan, but I've never actually bought, or read, anything from the UK indie/small press scene. It's down in large part to the fact that, aside from 2000AD, and more recently Clint and Strip, buying individual comics at all has simply not been my thing; I'm a trade paperback man, all the way. That came to a definitive end at the con though, when I walked away considerably lighter in the wallet and somewhat laden down with some new titles to try; one of which I shall now waffle about for a while.


Written by Daniel Clifford, with art from Gary Bainbridge, Sugar Glider is set in and around the city of Newcastle, and even someone like myself; who visits the city only semi-regularly and pretty much keeps his head down on the trudge between the 3 or 4 shops he visits (I'd only just discovered the above mentioned library's existence a week or so before the con was announced, and it's not exactly a small building); was able to recognise a few landmarks in the art which, sad though it may be to admit, did add a certain frisson to the reading experience; akin to seeing your home town on the telly, I suppose.

The story is that of Susie Sullivan (Clifford is obviously a Falcon Crest aficionado), a young girl struggling to figure out her place in life while all around her seem so sure of themselves; and have some pretty set ideas about her, too. In an attempt to escape the boredom and rigidity of the life her family is so keen for her to live, she adopts the identity of Sugar Glider, and becomes Newcastle's very own vigilante protector.

I'm not a big fan of superhero comics in general but Sugar Glider won me over instantly, and not just because of the 'home town' novelty. Susie is an engaging and endearing lead, not least because her own insecurities match so closely my own at her age; minus the sporting career of course, because let's not get carried away; and the supporting cast on the domestic front are all instantly recognisable to anyone who's ever, well, had a family. What teenager hasn't chafed at the confines of babysitting duty? Whose Mother didn't routinely stamp up the stairs with the familiar "I'll kill her/him" refrain, spilling from their lips? And what teenager hasn't had that one friend, who could so easily become that little bit more?

These characters and Susie's relationships with them, so effectively and economically presented to us by Clifford, are what make the comic come alive. Susie isn't distanced from her charges by wealth or status, like your Batmans, or the lack of same like Spider-Man, or by pure dint of biology like Superman or your X-laddies; she is, in a very real sense, one of them.

It will be very interesting to see where the 'soap opera' aspect of the series goes in future issues. The comic certainly wastes no time playing with it, giving us a moment at the end of #1 that I suspect most series would have teased and withheld for months or even years, resulting in a very different 'staus quo' for #2 than we might have been expecting.

Family life aside though, what of the heroics? One of the 'back of my mind' worries about buying single issues was always the threat of long breaks between releases; something compounded in the case of small press comics by the fact that these people obviously have day jobs to be dealing with; and so the possibilty of losing the thread of the tale, but the format they've chosen for these issues is the 'case of the week with a bit of world building in the background' model and it works really well, neatly sidestepping that problem by giving us a complete tale in each issue.

Tales which, costumes aside, are as rooted in the day to day as the soap opera elements. The 'villains' are as out of their depth as Susie is, pushed to their actions by their dissatisfaction with their lives and the world around them. There's no Doctor Octopus or Viktor Von Doom here, nor even a Kingpin or a Lex Luthor; just ordinary people forced to extremes. There are hints in #1, and much bigger hints in #2, that this may change in future stories, but for now it's refreshing.

I've talked a lot about the story so far, because frankly I always feel a bit out of my depth when I discuss art in comics. I am very much the embodiment of the old 'I know what I like' cliche, but seem to be totally incapable of putting into words just why I like something.

So, I hope Gary Bainbridge can forgive my apparently giving his contributions short shrift, because I can assure you that his work is as much a part of why I loved these issues as Clifford's story was. It's not the cleanest art, and it has a very cartoonish style which I think normally would have put me off (if pushed on my art preferences, I usually offer up 'I like realistic stuff better' as a half hearted response), but in this instance it works brilliantly. For me, anyway.


So, engaging characters you want to spend time with, exciting adventure stories you can actually enjoy without waiting months for the ending, and really nice artwork (even if I can't tell you why it's nice). All in all, I can't recommend this title enough. You can find out more about it here and if you're so inclined, you can buy it here. You can thank me later.

Fables: Legends In Exile

The Big Bad Wolf teams up with Snow White, both under the employ of Old King Cole, to investigate the disappearance and possible murder of Rose Red.


Suspects include Bluebeard and Jack (of Beanstalk fame, amongst other things). Oh, and Snow White herself, for a while.

The pair are distracted by; the return to town of Snow's ex-husband Prince Charming, her having to deal with the marital problems of Beauty and the Beast and him having his sofa invaded by one of the Three Little Pigs; and numerous other bumps in the road.

Are you laughing yet, shaking your head in disbelief at the notion that this story was ever written? I'm sure that was the reaction of many people when the Vertigo comic series Fables was first launched, all those years ago; I know I certainly had less than positive expectations when I first heard about it. Happily though, I am a terrible 'trade-waiter' when it comes to comics and not even a particularly efficient one either so by the time I came to thinking about adding a new series to my reading list Fables had been around a good while and the almost universal praise being thrown it's way convinced me to give it a go. I adored it from the off.

SNOW WHITE
All of these characters, and many more, are being forced to co-exist in a small immigrant community in New York because they have been forced from their respective homelands by a fearsome all-conquering enemy known only as 'The Adversary'. Far from a cohesive race, they are constantly dealing with a lot of old tensions, that no amount of general amnesties can expunge. This means that despite his working as the Sheriff, 'Bigby' Wolf is still mistrusted by many of those he wronged in his days as 'Big Bad Wolf'; the thought of Rose Red having a relationship with Bluebeard (he of the unfortunate wives) rubs Snow White up the wrong way; and the wicked old witch of yore is questioned, lest she have 'grown tired of the taste of gingerbread'. As who-dunnits go, it's a doozy.

BIGBY WOLF
The key to the whole thing is that it is played totally straight. We all know, as readers, that the premise is ridiculous, but this series works because the creators say "yes, it is a ridiculous premise but if it weren't; if these characters were real, what would they be like and if they were forced to live in secret among normal folk, what effect would that have on them? Personally, I'm a big fan of taking the ridiculous seriously; two of my favourite TV shows had premises which, when you read them on paper seemed like something you'd see in a half hour kids slot but when produced, by a team that took them seriously, became fantastic mature drama. I speak of 'the college student who is really a secret agent for the Government' (Alias) and 'the High School student who is actually a crack PI' (Veronica Mars). With that in mind, I probably should have given the creators of Fables more of the benefit of the doubt from the get-go but, you know, we all have our lines in the sand.

This 1st storyline, which comprised issues 1-5 of the ongoing comic, and is collected in the trade paperback Legends In Exile, is a pretty much textbook example of how to kickstart a 'hopefully' long running series, the who-dunnit aspect allowing the reader to be introduced to all (or most; my personal favourite makes her debut in the 2nd arc) of the major players because they are all investigated at one point or another. That aside, it also works as a standalone story. The who-dunnit works as precisely that, with a mystery to be solved, a cast of characters to choose from and a 'while I have you all here' denouement that is not only funny and charming, but also makes perfect sense. All the clues were there (some of them on page 1, you'll kick yourself), the story hangs together nicely, and it's clear that this is a writer who knew exactly what he was doing from the outset.

So, if you can put aside any anti-comics prejudice, and put aside any anti-fairytale prejudice, you could do an awful lot worse than check out Fables: Legends In Exile, for a proper, meaty, clever thriller. And do stick around, because things only get wilder in the 2nd arc.

100 Bullets: First Shot, Last Call

I recently began a re-read of all the Graphic Novels in my collection that are part of series I never finished, with the intention of getting reacquainted with the various characters and storylines before delving into the new volumes which I can now afford to resume purchasing. First series on my list was 100 Bullets, by Brian Azzerello (writer) and Eduardo Risso (artist).


100 Bullets begins simply enough, with a young girl (Isabelle 'Dizzy' Cordova) being released from prison and returning to the neighbourhood she grew up in. There, she learns that little has changed since she went inside. The players may be different but the rules are the same; the gangs still rule, the cops are still the enemy and a persons greatest weapon is still their reputation. The biggest change she finds is in herself; despite only being in her early 20's, Dizzy has grown old; too old, possibly, to ever walk these streets the same way again.

Dizzy
Not long after her return home Dizzy is confronted by mysterious black suited stranger Agent Graves. Offering her irrefutable evidence of the identities of those responsible for her greatest loss, and an untraceable gun with an equally untraceable 100 bullets to do about it what she will. Use this weapon and no law enforcement agency will touch her, she is told.

Will she use them,and in the process surrender herself to the life of violence she has paid lip service to leaving behind? And just as importantly, how will this seemingly small and personal conundrum support an ongoing comic book for any kind of lengthy duration? It is, after all, a fairly finite premise.

Agent Graves
The answer to the first question, and the journey Dizzy goes on to arrive at her decision, forms the meat of the story of the first three issues of 100 Bullets. It's a fairly straightforward tale of revenge and redemption that serves as a neat introduction to the concept behind the book and while the identities of the villains and certain revelations concerning Dizzys nearest and dearest are unlikely to surprise many hardened thriller readers it still manages to grip you throughout.

Sometimes the journey is King and the destination just an excuse to go on it and this journey is about the people; people caught in a cycle of violence and deprivation that they are powerless to escape from, short of going to jail or the grave. There is a moment in a park, with Dizzy and her old group of friends, as Dizzy realises that her generation are considered past it - "We old...We all in our twenties, we got our babies, we old girls" - that serves to remind us of this. These girls are stuck, and the truth is, some of them wouldn't have it any other way, because they don't know any other way.

The answer to the second question - How will this small, personal story propel an ongoing comic book? - is that it won't, this series is shooting for bigger things than that. In issue 4 we meet a new protagonist - we've left Dizzy behind for now, but I'm sure she'll be back - with his own tale of woe, his own cross to bear and his own revenge to take, should he choose to accept Agent Graves offer of those oh so tempting 100 bullets.

Lee Dolan
Lee Dolan, once successful in business and with a happy family life, is now living working as a bartender in a slum bar, a shell of his former self, his business gone and his family having disowned him. All of this because someone else, someone much more powerful than he, decided to play games with his life. Graves points him in the direction of the person responsible, one Megan Dietrich, and lets him make his own mind up what to do about it. Dolan makes much the same decision as Dizzy did, but his enemies are of a different nature to hers and events have a very different outcome.

Megan Deitrich
Hints are dropped that Agent Graves has an agenda totally apart from helping his bullet recipients and there is obviously a lot more to Dolans tormentors than meets the eye, so we leave issue 5 - and this first trade collection - with the sense that the world of 100 bullets is much vaster and much scarier than Dizzy Cordova or Lee Dolan have ever dreamed, and that they and no doubt plenty of others, are mere pawns in the games of some very powerful people. I for one am champing at the bit to see what the next move is.

Brian Azzarello

Eduardo Risso