Athos in America. Jason (Writer & Art), Hubert (Colours), Kim Thompson (Tanslation). Fantagraphics Books (2011)

A mixed collection of stories , crime, science fiction, horror and apparent autobiography and drama, some of which work more effectively than others.
The art and layout of the stories is very distinctive, a four panel grid is used for every page and all of the cast are animal  or bird headed humaniods. The effect of the page layouts is to give equal significance to each panel, the normal ways that panels are used to suggest the passage of time or to give a additional dramatic context to the story are missing here, the content of the panel has to carry all the weight of the story and intent. Due to this the more successful stories have very strong plots that give the content the force needed to make the most of the restrictions Jason imposes on himself.
A Cat from Heaven, a story that features the messy  breakdown of a relationship and its aftermath of a comics creator called Jason who is identified in the story as the creator of several of Jason's own books is not served well by the storytelling process. It is too slow and even, it does not give greater emphasis where it is need to give the story a lift or give the conclusion some weight. The flatness imposed is not lifted enough by the content. The same applies to the title story, Athos in America where Athos, from the Three Musketeers has a conversation in a bar. The action has happened off screen and is being reported in the conversation, the layout does not give the room needed to involve the reader very much.
The other stories all have the virtue of clever, frequently very nasty plots, to drive the action and use the layout to lift the story.
The Smiling Horse is a very pared down story of the results of a kidnapping and it uses the enforced pace of the panels to superb effect, the inevitable gains weight and force as it creeps up to the conclusion.  On the other hand The Brain that Wouldn't Virginia Woolf , a horror love story mixes mad science and love with care and melancholy. The structure of the story is superb, nicely teasing the readers expectations.
Tom Waits on the Moon  does not quite work, the idea is clever and the structure is excellent, it just does not quite give the cast enough of a connection to make the finale come off as it should.
So Long, Mary Ann is a gem, hard edged and flinty it works on every level. A criminal escapes from prison and is going to seek out an old confederate to get his share of the loot. The story features a theatrically violent gangster and has a true noir spirit of damaged romance. The heightened content works because of the restraint of the art and layout , it packs a considerable punch.
A striking and enjoyable collection of stories.

Blacklung. Chris Wright (Writer & Artist). Fantagraphics Books (2012).

Interesting and ultimately unsuccessful pirate story. A teacher and a violent gangster find themselves kidnapped and taken on board a pirate ship where the gangster joins the crew and the teacher becomes a scribe for the captain. The captain is trying to commit as much evil as possible so that he is sure of joining his wife in hell while his crew, including a homicidal maniac, are along for the blood, cruelty and treasure. The story unfurls steadily and finally ends, some of the cast survive, some do not.
The structure of the story up to the point everyone is on board the ship is interesting and unexpected. The story of the gangster is told through the actions of others as friends and enemies talk about him and plot against him. It is an interesting way to introduce him, before he is a significant presence before he actually appears and so when he does he already has menace and weight. Unfortunately he is then quickly moved to a context where he is not the most dangerous person in the place, which is what he was being set up as, he cannot capitalise on the set up he was given.
The teacher on the other hand is the central character of his introduction, emotionally constipated and severely dutiful about his pupils, caring for them only as far as teaching them within the confines of the school and timetable are concerned he is deeply unsympathetic.
It would be possible to anticipate a story that followed a development of the characters of the teacher and the gangster as they are faced with the deliberate brutality and cruelty of the pirate ship, something that revealed more of who they are. Instead the story effectively comes to a halt on the ship and the balance of the book is a slow set of non-sequiters as the captain, the first mate, the homicidal maniac and others talk, maim, kill and die. The two main action set pieces are well staged but appear to be straining to mean more than just being action. It is not at all clear what the extra dimension might be as Chris Wright does not actually commit himself that far beyond the captain's mission to secure a route to hell. The story ends rather than concludes in any way.
The strikingly individual black and white art adds and subtracts from the book. Chris Wright has a very strong style, it is not at all naturalistic, the cast look a lot like hand made puppets rather than humans and while this makes the horrific violence easier to read it also distances the reader from the story. It is hard to engage with the cast, the physical cues that would normally come from body language and facial expressions are blurred by the artistic choices. At particularly at a critical point in the story where the captain is telling of what has lead to his choices the page design becomes difficult to read, if I had sufficient interest in the cast or story this would not have been a problem. As it was I was no longer willing to put in the effort to decode the pages and simply moved over them.
This is a comic that a reader will completely get or will not, I can recognise the talent in the writing and the art without every being engaged by it.

Borderline Volume 3. Carlos Trillo (Writer), Eduardo Risso (Art), Maria Barrucci (Translation), Zach Matheny (Letters) Dynamite Entertainment (2009)

Pitch black dystopian science fiction, stripped down to the barest essentials for the story and illuminated by astonishing art. In the shattered ruins of a future Earth two groups fight for dominance, the Commune and the Council both struggling to capture the market for their competing mix of drugs and salvation. Ex-lovers, Emil and Lisa are employed on each side of the struggle.  Emil racked by guilt at having sols Lisa to organ harvesters to pay for drugs works for the Commune while Lisa, now known as Crash works for the council, to pay for restored organs. Her hearing and speech were not restored and remain scrambled, she can communicate freely only with a doll, Lara.
The longest story in the book concerns the search for a woman, a mutant who can sense future events. Such mutants are vital to the plans of Marshal Saki who rules both the Commune and the Council from his base on the moon. He uses the pre-cogs to know what his enemies are planning on and to stop them first, with the last one in his power dying the search for a replacement is urgent. The search pulls in both Emil and Lisa as the woman is hunted by combined forces of both the Commune and the Council. The best story in the book is a short episode where Lisa's doll is stolen by a virtual walking skeleton for an astonishing reason and in a clever and bleakly humorous episode Lisa's deafness is used as a weapon against a significant threat to the existing structure.
The stories are as bare bones as possible, sometimes there is extra information provided to make sense of the actions, Emil explains about his relationship with Lisa because the it will become important a little later. Otherwise there is the minimal amount of information provided, just enough to set the scene and give enough depth to the context so the cast are not actually moving through a vacuum. The cast of grotesques that race, rage and kill and sometimes rest are get all the attention, they are given a surprising degree of depth while all operating with very narrow emotional ranges. Carlos Trillo has managed to give them more than enough humanity to really pull in the reader and give the ferocious melodrama a considerable punch.
Eduardo Risso's luminous black and while art is breathtaking. It is genuinely black and white, there is no shading in the art, the definition and detail is provided only by direct contrast. This extreme approach is perfectly suited to the extremity of the story and the context, this is the end of the world, down in the ruins there is no room left for anything except the most explicit actions and motives. The cast are a range of astonishing grotesques, some human males and absurdly beautiful women who are more frequently undressed than not.  Eduardo Risso avoids the kind of sleazy coyness epidemic in comics by simply having half naked women because he wants to. This straightforward approach means that the female cast are not undermined as characters by having breasts, they are very much part of the character rather than being the character.
Using melodrama to shelter subtle points and unexpected character depth this is a great comic.

Kull: The Hate Witch. David Lapham (Writer, Gabriel Guzman (Art), Marino Taibo (Inks), Dan Jackson (Colours), Richard Starkings (Letters). Dark Horse Books (2011) (

Enjoyable sword and sorcery story. Kull is visited in Valusia by an old enemy from Atlantis, the Hate Witch. She is the last survivor of an ancient race that ruled in Atlantis and she sees Kull as the key to her revenge on humanity. Kull is forced to chase her back to to Atlantis, where he is a hated enemy and exile, and where the Hate Witch can fulfill her plans. The reveals are smart and the action is fast and sharp.
Sword & sorcery is by its nature a straightforward genre, dealing in big ideas and loud action, it is possible to be too straightforward and this book is an example of that. Kull is a barbarian king of an old empire, ruling a restive population that do not fully accept him and surrounded by the constant possibility of revolt. Diplomacy is not his strong suit and the administrative aspect of ruling bores him. The opening of the book takes advantage of this as the Hate Witch starts to murder people to draw Kull into her plans. The existing fractures in Valusia are put under great pressure forcing Kull to return to Atlantis and deal with the threat.
Once on Atlantis the story looses its nice complexity and become a very straightforward hunt and kill, the return of an exile stirring up memories and more. Unlike the situation in Vaslusia where there is a nicely complex web of loyalties and jealousies simmering all the time, the action in Atlantis is just too simple.
The fact that Kull is exiled from Atlantis does not have enough present significance for the situation in Valusia for it to really matter much, so a story where it is central feels like a detour from the main action. While it does give some background and the Hate Witch is a first rate foe it is just too far from the central premise of the whole Kull saga to have much weight.The art by Gabriel Guzman and Mariano Taibo is lovely throughout the book, action or court dispute are given care and detail that make them a pleasure to read. For a story where physical presence and action is vital the cast move with in the context with force and energy. The facial expressions and the body language are clear and engaging, the cast are individual and feel like they are really on the adventure. The colours by Dan Jackson are superb, they draw out the details of the art without ever drowning it. Richard Starkings provides great sound effects and letters that give the words nuance and tone.
A minor well told Kull story is still a pleasure.

The Rainbow Orchid. Volume 3. Garen Ewing (Writer & Artist). Egmont (2012)

Clever and very satisfying conclusion to the story, the cast and plot are excellent, the whole story executed with great style and flair. Julius Chancer, recovering after the savage attack on his group by Evelyn Crow that lead to the death of Nathaniel Crumploe decides to abandon the search for the Rainbow Orchid. As Julius amnd Lily Lawerence are about to return to their camp to search for Nathaniel's body, he appears along with Julius's boss Sir Alfred and Mr Dubbin from the Empire Survey Branch. The search for the orchid is resumed and the journey to the hidden valley where it may be located started. Evelyn Crow, displaying admirable commitment to her task of stopping the party continues in pursuit. At the same time in England the plot involving Urkaz Grope and why he wants to win the Trembling Sword of of Tybalt Stone becomes clearer. In the mountains a forgotten civilization is found and twists and turns of the story continue. The reveals are very clever, the action dramatic and the conclusion entirely satisfying.
Garen Ewing has managed to subtly update the adventure stories of the British Empire without ever loosing or compromising the elements that make them distinctive. The quest by Europeans for a plant that has critical importance to a hidden civilization, the return of a native that opens old political and romantic wounds, the secret agenda of an agent of empire and most of all a really committed, effective and resilient villain are deftly woven together with a light touch. The expectations that the form sets up are neatly and satisfyingly undercut as good more or less triumphs and evil more or less is defeated but triumph and defeat are mixed.
The art is outstanding, suitably old fashioned it captures the spirit of the story and at the same time is entirely contemporary in its story elements. The cast look the part, they fit the historical context and the genre ideas with ease and carry off the sharper modern action with force.
Clever, engaging comic storytelling of the highest order, the whole Rainbow Orchid saga is a treat right to the nicely biting end.

Is That All there Is? Joost Swarte (Writer & Artist). Johannes Van Dam, Art Spiegelman, Frabcoise Mouly, Kim Thompson (Transalation). Fantagraphics Books (2012)

A (nearly) complete collection of the comics of Joost Swarte. This is a curious and engaging collection of comics that are striking, individual and frequently funny. Joost Swarte has a deliberately anachronistic art style that sets up expectations that are neatly confounded and confronted by the actual content of the comics.  "Waiting for Reinforcements" is a story of the destruction of a small force lead by a white European by the Berbers, short, violent and funny it raises some interesting questions. The images of the Berbers, similar to all the non-European characters in the stories are grotesque caricatures. It is entirely a part of the art style of the early 20th century that Joost Swarte uses, in a contemporary context the art  has a distinctively different impact. Artists make choices and so do readers about how to interpret those choices, in this case I think the images can never escape their racist roots and cannot be cleaned or recycled with any amount of irony.
Some of the stories feature Jopo De Pojo, a man wearing Tintin trousers and a fabulous, gravity defying mohawk. Jopo is never lucky, his adventures move in odd directions, often swirling around him without his noticing. In "One Chance in One Hundred Thousand" Jopo becomes unwittingly involved in faked kidnap plot, and finds that rewards are not all they seem.
"Goodbye" is about a police investigation of a rash of suicides, it is consistently unexpected, funny and very sharp. "Babel Revisited", a science fiction story is my favorite in the collection. It is clever, nicely set up and has a great mad science idea all delivered with restrained art that makes the the most of the ideas.
The range of stories is impressive, from long awaited revenge to a crime story about the return of a criminal overlord to the adventures of a used condom.
What unites the collection is Joost Swartes's beautiful art and astonishing design sense. The old fashioned art is done with commitment and care, it is clearly a wholehearted artistic choice. What elevates the art is the way that each panel is filled with details that never crowd out the space or dilute the intended impact of the panel. The way that the art is designed within each panel, the panels designed together and the pages work as a whole is unobtrusively brilliant. All of the elements, other that the visible story elements, do not call attention to them selves, yet they all add depth and clarity to the content, giving strong physical contexts for the action. A whole world is comprehensively conjured up in a single panel at the start of "The Clock Strikes" , the cast at the nightclub are expressive and complete in themselves. It creates exactly the right  tone for the shifting tones of the story that unfolds.
Joost Swarte is a superb comic creator, this collection is a pleasure to read, linger over and savor in spite of some very questionable choices.

Valen the Outcast. Volume 2: Death Eternal. Michael Alan Nelson (Writer), Matteo Scalera (Art), Archie Van Buren (Colours), Ed Dukshire (Letters), BOOM! Studios (2012)

Superb conclusion to a story that puts heart into sword and sorcery without ever compromising on the action. Valen Brand, undead ex-king of Oakhaven is on a journey to recover his soul from the necromancer Korrus Null with his companions Zjanna and Alexio Cordovan. After an encounter with Furies who hate trespassesr on thier seas and a battering meeting with the ghost of his wife, Valen and the other finally make landfall. Their troubles, of course are only starting as the threats they face, including a skulk, a group of women warriors who Zajanna used to belong to, are nothing to the danger they face when they arrive at the court of Korrus Null.The action never flags, the reveals are clever and meaty, the finale surprising and very fitting.
What had started out as a great sword and sorcery action story with a smart plot, engaging cast and tremendous action develops in a most unexpected and satisfying way. The action is as fast as ever, what changes is that as the plot reveals itself it also adds depth and force to the cast, giving them a more resonant context for their actions and reactions. The story becomes more than straightforward recovery and revenge, love,loss, grief and the depths of friendship all come to the fore without every being plastered onto the the story. They arise naturally from the cast and the way choices they make under dreadful circumstances.
Sword and sorcery trades in simple big stories and concepts and Michael  Alan Nelson has a confident sure grasp of this, at the same time he has realised that action give you the room for more subtle moments that add force to the swordplay.
Matteo Scalara'a art is angular and explosive where required and great at the detail as well, This range means that the full scope of the story can be shown, the action when it comes is not just physical, it is a reflection of the character and their choices. The is a great deal of interplay between the cast that gets the sly detail of face and body language to get right and Matteo Scalara provide it.
Archie Van Buren's colours glow and are simply fantastic, they give an extra dimension to the whole story, they highten the contrast where needed, the pick out details and give definition to the context. They capture the heightened  and deliberately alien context that sword and sorcery works best in. Ed Dukeshire's letters are unobtrusive and effective when required and smashingly effective when just the right sound effect is called for.
The women of the skulk are dressed in the usual skimpy garments that are absurd for any fighter, there is minimal protection and maximum exposure. In a small and very telling moment a smart explanation is provided for it. The whole combined story resonates with this kind of thoughtful respect for the reader, small details that take the cast and the story seriously enough so that the reader is taken seriously too. A great story and a wonderful comic.