Rachel Rising Vol. 1 The Shadow of Death

Title: Rachel Rising Volume 1 The Shadow of Death

Series: Monthly Ongoing

Publisher: Abstract Studio

Creative Team: 

            Writer & Artist: Terry Moore

Genre: Horror, Suspense

Rachel wakes up in a shallow grave.  She has no memory of how she got there or much of anything in the past couple days.  Her neck is bruised and her eyes are blood red where they should be white.  Rachel manages to find her way home.  She quickly enlists her Aunt Johnny and best friend Jet to help her try to unravel the mystery of what happened.  (If I ever make an anti-bucket list of things to avoid doing before I die, being buried alive will be at the top of it).  Rachel begins to wonder if she survived the incident that led to her burial or if she has died and come back.  If all that weren’t enough, Rachel keeps seeing a strange woman whose appearances always precede someone’s death.

This series is creepy.  It’s a smart kind of creepy.  These days in horror anyone can give you a jump scare.  It’s cheap and easy like a hot pocket.  Anyone can gross you out with the right sound or the right image (again, like a hot pocket).  Rachel Rising doesn’t try to give you gross, squishy, jump scare horror.  It is delivering something eerie, something that feels wrong and disturbing on a deeper level.  That is the kind of horror that I love.  It’s the kind of horror that’s much harder to pull off.  Moore delivers it like an old pro.  I don’t know if he’s written anything else in this genre before but he certainly has a handle on it.

Rachel is a little low on tact these days.

Aside from being great horror, Rachel Rising is an excellent example of how to positively portray women in comics.  In mainstream American comics, that’s sort of like finding a unicorn and a leprechaun having a splash fight in the fountain of youth.  Ok, it’s not quite that bad but it’s bad enough that finding a comic that features real women is still something to be applauded.  And by real women I mean, Terry Moore is not drawing ridiculously exaggerated girls who seem to be perpetually posing for Maxim.  But anyone who’s read Moore’s work before shouldn’t be surprised by his remarkable grasp on the female form.  It’s also the first comic I’ve reviewed that’s passed the Bechdel test.  And when I say pass, I mean it in the sense that Stephen Hawking would pass a high school algebra test. 

What is the Bechdel Test?  I’m so glad you asked.  Alison Bechdel is a comic artist/writer who wrote a comic strip called Dykes to Watch Out For.  It ran from 1983 to 2008.  As I understand it, it’s on hiatus right now and still may be brought back.  In one installment, one of the characters says that she will not watch a movie unless it satisfies 3 rules.  One: The movie contains at least 2 female characters.  Two: Those two characters talk to each other.  Three: When they talk, they talk about something other than men.  It is absolutely ridiculous how few works of fiction can pass this seemingly simple test.  The test is all about drawing attention to the flagrant gender bias that exists in fiction.  That all being said Rachel Rising has 3 strong female leads who after 6 issues have only talked about relationships with men for a couple pages at most.

Beyond passing the Bechdel test I get the feeling that Terry Moore is purposely drawing a gender line in the sand for his characters.  Most of the men presented in the first volume of Rachel Rising are portrayed as degenerate in one way or another.  There is really only one male character so far portrayed as a decent human being and he was only present for a page or two.  Beyond that we are presented with abusive, rage-filled, possibly necrophilic men.  Moore even goes so far as to have all female dialogue in rounded word balloons and all male dialogue in rectangular.  I have my theories as to why this is but it would be rather spoiler filled.

Like they say boys speak in rectangles, girls speak in ovals.

Rachel Rising is the comic I never knew I always wanted.  I don’t know how long Terry Moore is intending the series to run but if subsequent volumes are as strong as the first I’m hoping for a long exciting run.  Do yourself a favor and pick up this series to get your October started off right.

Grade: A+

Richard Stark's Parker The Hunter

 

Title: Richard Stark’s Parker Book One The Hunter

Series Type: Yearly Ongoing

Publisher: IDW

Creative Team:
            Writer & Artist: Darwyn Cooke

Genre: Crime, Noir

It took me about 10 pages into The Hunter to realize I had heard this story before.  Over a decade ago, I drove an hour out of my way to see Mel Gibson play this character (renamed Porter instead of Parker) in the movie Payback.  I know that movie may not have been the best received but I absolutely loved it.  I immediately bought the VHS (yep) upon release and eventually traded up for the DVD (No Bluray yet.  I’ll keep you posted).  I knew it was based on a book but over the years I had forgotten which one.  So there I sat only a couple minutes into Darwyn Cooke’s adaptation of The Hunter and I already knew I loved the story.  The only question was Cooke’s presentation.  Would he nail it or not?  (Spoiler alert, he nailed it).

The resemblance is all in the thick eyebrows.

The Hunter is the first in a series of comics by Darwyn Cooke adapting Richard Stark’s Parker Novels.  As I understand it, there are 16 novels by “Stark” about the Parker character.  So far Cooke has adapted 3 of them.  Richard Stark is one of the numerous pen names for the rather prolific, Donald Westlake who passed away about 4 years ago.  I haven’t read any of his novels (under any pen name) but I’ve really enjoyed the adaptations I’ve come across so far.  So hats off to Mr. Westlake and hats off to Darwyn Cooke and Mel Gibson for bringing him to my attention.  However, my “To Read” pile just increased by about a dozen and half.  Worse things have happened.

Parker hates when people try to talk to him when he's on the phone.

On to the story with minor spoilers!  You have been warned.  The Hunter is about a man named Parker.  Parker, like Madonna or Prince, is long past the need for more than one name. Parker’s story in the Hunter is about as basic as it gets, revenge. Someone tried to kill Parker and made the mistake of not finishing the job.  Before you go feeling sorry for Parker I have to say that he is a
bastard.  If there’s anyone that probably deserves to die it’s Parker but that’s sort of the fun of the story.  For a tale like this to work the people Parker is after have to be worse than he is.  They are worse, to be sure.  But fortunately for Parker while he is no worse than his prey, he is clearly smarter.  To say anything more than that would spoil the story. And in all honesty, saying even this much spoils the near wordless cold open just a little.  (There’s the minor spoiler you were warned about). So I’ll keep my mouth shut on the plot and move on to the quality.

First off, you can get each volume of Cooke’s Parker novels in trade form or in hardcover.  Do yourself a favor and buy the hardcover.  IDW has put out a very slick looking package.  Cooke’s art has always had sort of a Bruce Timm-Batman the Animated Series look to me.  Since all of those DC comics superhero shows always had a wholesome feel, it’s a little jarring to see that sort of style used to depict a world of violence, drugs, and prostitutes.  After regaining my bearings I have to say that I really enjoyed that art.  The characters are well rendered and I mostly could tell who everyone was just from faces.  The white, black, and blue color scheme served the story well.  I have to wonder if Cooke will shift his third color from volume to volume.  The black and blue look worked well with this very bruised feeling story but maybe red or green would fit the next story better.  I don’t know.  I guess I’ll have to wait and see.

Cooke does a great job of sitting back and letting his art tell the story.  A picture is worth a thousand words, yet some comic writers still attempt to describe what you’re looking at.  I think this happens a lot more in non-fiction indie comics.  So I was pleased to see Cooke knows when to draw and when to write.  It’s hard to properly pace a comic with several wordless pages but Cooke pulls it off with finesse.

After seeing Mel play the character in Payback all those years ago I’m glad to find out there is more to Parker’s story.  I’m excited to see where Parker’s path of destruction leads next and I’m happy to have Darwyn Cooke to lead me there.

Grade: A+

The Massive 1 - 3

Title: The Massive
Series Type: Monthly Ongoing
Publisher: Dark Horse
Creative Team:

Writer: Brian Wood
Artist: Kristian Donaldson
Colorist: Dave Stewart

Genre: Environmentalism, Post-Apocalpyse

Ninth Wave's The Kapital and The Massive

The Massive is quite honestly a cross section of things I don’t know much about and ideologies that I haven’t spent much time considering.  To me that’s the fun of fiction.  I love a good story but a good story that challenges me to learn more, to research, to critically think; that’s infinitely better.  It is a bit of a double edged sword though.  Since The Massive is so far out of my personal experience I am often left wondering about the accuracy of the concepts being referenced.  Be warned there are minor spoilers from here on.

From Left to Right: Callum, Mary, and Mag

The Massive is the story of an environmentalist group known as Ninth Wave.  Ninth Wave consists of two ships; The Kapital and The Massive (Hey, that’s the title of the series).  Ninth Wave was founded by an ex-mercenary named Callum Israel.  Along with Callum, Ninth Wave is populated by mostly pacifistic volunteers from a variety of countries.  The most prominent crew members are Mary and Mag.  Mary is a seasoned environmentalist with whom Callum is currently in a relationship.  Mag served as a mercenary alongside Callum several years previously.   However unlike Callum, Mag seems to have retained his willingness to get his hands dirty when necessary. During the past year, a laundry-list of natural disasters have occurred all around the world leaving the Earth’s socioeconomic and environmental landscapes in ruin.  These disasters have included things like tsunamis, earthquakes, blackouts, and mass extinctions.  The question Ninth Wave now has to answer: What does it mean to be an environmentalist when the world has already ended?

One of the many odd catastrophes facing the world of the Massive

Brian Wood’s writing on the series has been quite good.  The Massive is clearly the work of a well researched and intelligent individual.  The dialogue is good and the characters have very detailed back stories (which I feel is apparent even though we don’t get to look behind the curtain too much yet).  Sometimes Wood’s writing is a little too text book.   It’s like he spent so much time figuring out this new world scenario that he couldn’t wait to get it out in the story.  It’s interesting to hear what’s gone on but it does slow down the main narrative quite a bit.  Not a lot happens to or with our main characters in these first three issues.  Still I’m excited enough about the series to stick with it and see where things go.

The narrative of each issue so far jumps back and forth between the past and the present.  The flashbacks usually come in 2 flavors; dry documentary style cataloging various catastrophes and character driven moments usually focusing on aspects of the world that have changed.  Dave Stewart does an excellent job of shifting color palettes in order to help the reader juggle the various non-linear narratives.  In a complex story like this, jumping around in time could be very messy but Brian Wood’s writing and Stewart’s colors keep things clear.  

An example of the coloring used to transition between past and present.

Kristian Donaldson’s artwork is excellent.  The characters are very distinct and the varied locations are always sharp and heavily detailed. I can’t stress enough the impressiveness of distinct characters in a series like this.  There are too many monthly comic artists who rely on the crutches of costumes and hair color to help the reader keep characters straight.  Kristian has no need for such things.  If I had any complaint at all about the art (and it is a bit nit-picky, I admit) it would have to be the covers to 2 - 4.  Issue 1’s cover is gorgeous (it’s my wallpaper on my work computer) but there’s a sort of sketchy unfinished quality to rest of the covers.  If the interiors looked like those covers (especially 3) I think I might be a little turned off to the series.

Overall, the artwork is excellent, the writing is thoughtful, and I’m excited to see where things go.  

Grade: A-

Beginning the Exploration

Comics aren’t just about superheroes.  It’s an easy mistake to make.  And I don’t mean in the sense that Watchmen has superheroes but isn’t really about superheroes.  There are lots of different genres within the comics medium.  Name your favorite comic book movie. 

Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Was it a movie in the Avengers universe?  Maybe one of Nolan’s Batman films.  Maybe you really liked Hellboy.  You might be surprised to find that your favorite movie based on a comic is actually Road to Perdition, The Crow, Whiteout or Red.

Comic book movies without the capes and tights!

I know there are a lot of things that keep people from reading comics and I’ll post about those another time but I think the major element that keeps people from comics is a seeming lack of genre diversity.  Plenty of people think that if they don’t like superheroes then there’s not much point to reading a comic.  And to be sure the medium of comics isn’t as diverse as television, movies, or books.  There are reasons for this (again perhaps the subject of a later post) but comics are diverse enough that I’m certain there is something for everyone.  The trick is to find comics that speak to your interests.  And without too much long windedness we have arrived at the point of this blog.

Physists, Teen Girls, Serial Killers, and Slackers
are just a little of what's waiting for you in the land of comics.

There are numerous websites devoted to making sure you know what Spider-Man and Batman are up too but not nearly so many that point to what else is going on in comics.  Each week I will post a review of a comic (whether ongoing or finite) that focuses on something other than the cape clad clan.  Aside from that I want to address some of the myths that often surround comics (IE: Comics make you nerdy, comics are for kids, Graphic Novels aren’t comics).  If you’ve never read a comic before I hope to change that and if you have I hope to point you in the direction of some comics you might have over looked.  But mostly, I hope you enjoy the ride.