Lady Mechanika #0 (Benitez)
From 2014.
Here's another of those pleasant surprises. Maybe I don't know Joe Benitez well enough, but seeing him kick around without having previously secured a true spotlight (he's writer and artist here) is surprising having read this. The concept is steampunk, a woman with mechanical parts who comes across a creature who turns out to be a figure from her forgotten past, clues to her origins, murdered before it can reveal them by an enemy who could be a friend but goes the other way. Anyway, it's not really the concept but the competent execution, which is rare indeed, that's such a treat to read. If you're looking for something new, Lady Mechanika would be a good pick. Benitez has a strong voice as a writer, and excellent characterization. His art is much as you'd expect from someone who has worked extensively with Aspen and Top Cow, but he's doing better work here than you'd typically find with them.
The Legend of Bold Riley (Northwest)
From 2012.
It's a little hard to know what to make of Bold Riley. On the one hand, there's a lot of competence behind it creatively. On the other, it seems like Weathington borrowed a lot of Indian folklore to create her stories, and kind of needlessly created a fictional version of India to do it.
So, what's wrong with that? For one, Weathington creates a bunch of difficult-to-pronounce names, or just plain difficult. Which in depicting another culture is fine, but she immediately undercuts that by giving the lead character a distinctly English nickname that once bestowed is clearly meant simply to make things easier for the reader. But the thing is, if Weathington hadn't created all the fake Indian names in the first place...
And that about sums up what's wrong with otherwise better-than-decent material: there are too many gaps in the logic. Because this is a series of somewhat-related stories, the individual parts work well enough, but taken as a whole, Weathington clearly left the wider vision of her main character unexplored, an empty template to be plugged into whatever's needed at the time. And that drags down the product as a whole.
If you're a reader who doesn't have a problem with any of that, then you should enjoy Bold Riley without much reservation. But to me, it's a way of saying, Weathington could do better. And hopefully does, elsewhere.
The Legend of Oz: The Wicked West #1 (Big Dog Ink)
From 2013.
Yeah, so...An inexplicable variation on The Wizard of Oz, as a Western. The title suggests that much. Doesn't explain how poorly it's conceived and executed otherwise. But there you are. It sucks that there are so many bad Oz comics out there. I mean, what gives? At least there are the Shanower/Young adaptations...
The Life After #1 (Oni)
From 2014.
Huh. By the time you finish this issue, your perspective kind of completely changes. Because now you know what it's about. I'm somewhat familiar with Joshua Hale Fialkov (Elk's Run), but maybe not well enough. For most of the issue I was thinking this was a variation of The Adjustment Bureau, and that was after I thought it was a variation of The Truman Show. But as the title suggests, this is in fact an afterlife story, but how exactly isn't very clear from the start. But then it is, and so now I've got to...reevaluate. It's actually pretty clever. I mean, the reader should be as confused as the main character. But then he meets Ernest Hemingway, who explains what's really going on. Which in the interests of keeping the surprise intact for anyone who doesn't know and is maybe interesting in finding out, I will keep a secret. Fialkov is doing another high-concept comic in The Bunker, so that makes him one of the more interesting creators out there at the moment. It would be better if this weren't still such a well-kept secret...
Life Begins at Incorporation (Matt Bors)
From 2013.
So as to not get into political talk, I will simply remark that this collection of editorial cartoons of the kind you'd find in your local free alternative news weekly features funnier stuff than I had in the one I read while living in Colorado Springs, but somewhat oddly features more essay material than editorial cartoons. Or it certainly feels like it.
Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland #1 (IDW)
From 2014.
Speaking of Eric Shanower (just a few comics ago), here he's adapting classic comic strip Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland for modern audiences. Modern audiences, ah, had more recently, Calvin & Hobbes, which did the same thing Little Nemo did but, ah, better. Shanower sticks to the original formula, with a boy constantly falling out of bed after his adventures getting, ah, near Slumberland. Readers who know Shanower better from his Oz adaptions than his original Oz work, much less Age of Bronze (which hasn't seen a new issue in two years) might be disappointed to see less of the creative spark than they might expect (because that spark came from, ah, L. Frank Baum) can see signs of life here and there, but the reverse of his Oz adaptions is true here: he's too faithful. And smothers his work for it. But it's still pretty good.
Lola XOXO #1 (Aspen)
From 2014.
Technically this is better and more nuanced than typical Aspen material, and you can imagine how the company came up with it, by pretty much saying exactly that to itself. The art is recognizably Aspen, but classed up a little. And the story is topical, or in this issue tries to be, in the 9/11 era. But yeah, things quickly even out. But it was pretty neat, reading this directly after reading the above, because the issue opens with dreams on the brain. If it gets better than this, I would have asked for the better material first...
Lost in Space Anthology #1 (Titan)
From 2015.
As anthologies go this (issue) is pretty good, though the title is taken pretty literally, as every story ends exactly that way (a nary a Dr. Smith to be found!). I like the dog (poor dog!), monkey (love monkeys!), and opening (twisted tale about reluctant hitchhikers that's easily the one I'd love to read more of) ones best. Good mix of styles, too, if that's what you like in anthologies, a true "something for everyone" vibe.
Lumberjanes #1 (Boom!)
From 2014.
This is another one that I totally got only as I got further into it. At first it looks like a bunch of nonsense, but then it gets good. Like all the comics based on all the cable animated series try to be (as far as I know, this one isn't based on a cable animated series), off the beaten path and following the beat of its own drum as it explores childhood, in this case a group of girl scouts known as Lumberjanes who (in this issue but maybe all of them, too) are camping, have some adventure, are caught by their troop leader (which is my favorite part of the issue, as she pompously marches them to the Lumberjanes leader herself, lecturing all the way). Anyway, you don't have to be young, or a girl, or a scout to enjoy this.
I'm going to try something new again, which is rank the material read in this edition:
- The Life After
- Lady Mechanika
- Lumberjanes
- Lost in Space Anthology
- Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland
- Life Begins at Incorporation
- Lola XOXO
- The Legend of Bold Riley
- The Legend of Oz: The Wicked West
I remember Life Begins After Incorporation. It made some good points.
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