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Reviews and commentary by Tony Isabella
"America's Most Beloved Comic-Book Writer & Columnist"
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TONY'S ONLINE TIPS
for Tuesday, April 22, 2008
From Comics Buyer's Guide #1641:
"If it's [a] negative [review], please don't bother. I have a pending deal that this could hurt."
- Name Withheld
What has always seemed obvious to me about this reviewing gig is clearly not obvious to everyone or I wouldn't have received the above e-mail. So there is no further confusion, let me state the truth of the matter as succinctly as possible:
I write reviews for comics buyers.
I don't write reviews for creators, though, of course, I wish most of them great success. I'm only human. There are creators I loathe. If I feel I must review their work, I take great pains to make sure my review is fair. I've tossed reviews that didn't meet that standard.
I don't write reviews for publishers, though I wish them great success, too...if only so they can better reward the creators they publish. When there are disputes between creators and publishers, I'll side with creators 99 times out of 100.
I write reviews for comics buyers.
Comics buyers are the readers who go to their local comic shop or bookstore or newsstand and buy comic books. Comics buyers are the readers who get comics via subscription service. Comics buyers are the comic shop owners and any others who buy comics to sell to their customers. Comics buyers are the librarians who order comics for their patrons.
To, a-hem, review:
I write reviews for comics buyers.
I write reviews because there's an awful lot of stuff for sale in today's marketplace and some of it is terrific and some of it is not so terrific. I write reviews because the leading catalog for comics buyers is only slightly less thick than the national budget. I write reviews to guide thee and me through the thousands of comic books and comics-related items published each month.
I won't lie. I like receiving hundreds of review items every month because I can't afford them otherwise. I like getting paid for reading and writing about comics. But the job does come with responsibilities and if, for one moment, I let whether or not some creator or publisher has a pending deal influence my review, that's the day I'll hang this gig up and commence writing cranky letters to my local newspaper instead.
"Name Withheld" was an idiot. He presumed that our friendship would trump my responsibility to you. He clearly didn't understand that I consider this gig to be important work, work that has to be done with clean hands or it becomes useless to my readers. He made it impossible for me to review his work, favorably or unfavorably, because he tried to compromise my review. He should have a long, happy, and hopefully smarter life, but, he should never ever pull that crap on me again.
As long as we're here, let me offer a few brief tips on how a creator or publisher can improve their chances of getting reviews in this column. Take them to heart.
Send them to me.
Because of the volume of items I receive, I will rarely review things I've borrowed from friends or bought myself. That's just simple fairness.
Don't send me works in progress.
I can't review something if all you send me are a few pages and your press release. I don't mind reviewing not-yet-published items from advance reviewer copies or photocopies of the works, but I have to be able to read the entire issue or book in order for me to write about it competently.
I don't review PDFs.
I understand it's much cheaper to e-mail me a PDF than to send me a printed copy. But, dinosaur that I am, I like having a comic next to me when I review it. It's how I do what I do.
E-mail me.
If you have questions about the above, ask them. If you want to politely remind me you sent me a comic, that's cool as long as you don't cross that fine line from reminding to bugging me.
I apologize for any unintentional grumpiness that slipped into my above comments. As for the intentional grumpiness, I'm actually kind of sort of proud of that.
Here come this month's reviews.
Sentences: The Life of M.F. Grimm by Percy Carey and Ronald Wimberly [Vertigo; $19.99] is arguably the best work to come out of DC's mature readers imprint in 2007. It's the autobiography of Carey, who has been a perpetrator and a victim of gang violence on his unsteady road to Hip-Hop success. Carey makes no excuses for the criminal acts and mistakes he's made in his life and seeks no sympathy for the prices he paid for them, including the loss of his brother, the loss of the use of his legs, and the years he spent in prison. His narration is generally honest - there are some things in his past he won't write about - and powerful and even lyrical on occasion. This graphic novel is worthy of award consideration and makes me want to see more Carey comics.
Wimberly's art is as powerful as Carey's script. He knows how to handle clear concise storytelling and when to break it up with something a little different. Lee Loughridge added the grey tones to the art, cementing the street-level atmosphere of this graphic novel. It's a fine-looking book.
Kudos are also due to letterer Jared K. Fletcher. I'm not fond of lettering that's supposed to look like handwriting. More often than not, it must be deciphered before it can be read. In this GN, Fletcher gives the first-person captions that personal touch while keeping the copy completely and easily readable.
Sentences: The Life of M.F. Grimm earns the full five out of five Tonys. Vertigo's mature readers advisory is of the "one size fits all" variety, but I'd rate this outstanding graphic novel as suitable for teens and up.
Who knows what evil lurks in The Shadow #13: Six Men of Evil and The Devil Monsters [Nostalgia Ventures; $12.95]? Well, having read this double-novel trade paperback, I can say that I know and I believe you'd likewise benefit from the acquisition of the dark knowledge lurking within this exciting and entertaining package. It's pulp-adventure fun at its finest.
Six Men of Evil pits the Shadow against a criminal gang that turned hideous punishments at the hands of a hidden tribe to their criminal advantage. Written by Walter B. Gibson (as Maxwell Grant), the novel grimly details the villainy of these fiends and the Shadow's dogged pursuit of them. As with all the Shadow novels being reprinted in this series, the original pulp magazine illustrations add a classic feel to the stories.
The Devil Monsters is a story with a double life. Featuring more science fiction elements than most Shadow novels, it was also a 126-page serial running in eight issues of Shadow Comics in 1943. The comic-book tale deviates from and is more fantastic than the novel, but both were written by Gibson and both feature the brilliant-if-deranged Monstrodamus. It's a thrilling yarn with memorable supporting players and many surprises.
Series editor Anthony Tollin adds more value to this package via an introduction by noted pulp historian Will Murray; an article on the Shadow's autogyro, also by Murray; and Tollin's own terrific piece on the Shadow comic books. Noting for the record that Tollin is one of my oldest friends - we do full disclosure in this column - I recommend this double-novel treat to all of you. It earns the full five Tonys.
To order the Shadow books and their companion Doc Savage books directly from Tollin, go to:
www.shadowsanctum.com
If Daughter of Dracula by Ron Fortier and Rob Davis [Redbud Studio; $10] were a movie, it would be one of the all-time great Universal or Hammer vampire films. Set in World War I, this 112-page print-on-demand graphic novel tells of the epic romance between Marya, the beautiful daughter of the vampire, and Manfred von Richthofen, the celebrated and feared Red Baron. The book is intended for a mature audience, containing adult sequences and some nudity.
Fortier unfolds the Marya and Manfred romance brilliantly. They meet with a combination of cute and sinister. Their mutual interest grows with subsequent meetings. Their love is challenged by the Baron's discovery of Marya's true nature, but that love will not be denied. The story doesn't shy from war's horror or vampire's blood lust, yet it keeps our sympathies with its protagonists all the way to its satisfying conclusion.
Davis does a fine job with the visuals. His storytelling is always clear, always dramatic. He gives the characters, both major and supporting, distinctive looks. He captures the gothic mood of the era and the graphic novel's settings.
Daughter of Dracula is a first-rate graphic novel that delivers plenty of bang for your bucks. It earns a very impressive four out of five Tonys.
To order this graphic novel, go to:
www.indyplanet.com
Keith Knight is a multimedia presentation all by himself. He is one of the funniest cartoonists alive. He has a hip-hop band. He lectures and performs. I haven't had the pleasure of meeting him or seeing him perform, but his strips - The K Chronicles and (th)ink - are among my favorites. They make me laugh, but also make me think. I love that combination.
Are We Feeling Safer Yet? [Keith Knight Press; $12.95] is a 128-page compact collection of (th)ink panels. The screaming Bush - "Hey, Mother Nature...bring it on!!" - on the cover answers the title question, but the worst president ever is but one of the subjects Knight examines, dissects, and reduces to the proper level of derision. His political and social satire ranks with the very best of today's editorial cartoonists. Indeed, Knight's work is better and far sharper than that of most of the paleolithic pen-and-ink pundits in the mainstream newspapers.
Are We Feeling Safer Yet? earns four Tonys.
I have rarely seen a graphic novel with as impressive a non-comics pedigree as Cairo [Vertigo; $24.99]. G. Willow Wilson is a respected journalist whose credits include Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, and, from Egypt, Cairo Magazine. M.K. Perker has drawn comics, illustrations, and political cartoons since beginning his career at the age of 16. His credits include "almost every major publication in Turkey, as well as The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, MAD, and others.
Cairo is filled with intriguing and often contrary characters, exotic locales and deadly menaces both of our world and not, and a quest as thrilling as any Indiana Jones movie. Its heroes are an unlikely bunch: a Egyptian drug runner, a dispirited journalist, an American teenager fleeing her Orange County life in search of something more meaningful, a troubled Lebanese-American student who believes he's found a purpose to his life, an Israeli soldier struggling to find a way home, and, of course, a jinn...and a most dignified jinn at that. In this, her first graphic novel, Wilson puts characters through moments of revealing introspection and wild adventure. It's an exciting story and a very human one.
Perker's art is first-rate on every level. It's what I like from comics art: clear storytelling, distinctive characters, solid backgrounds, dramatic staging of both action and quieter sequences. If I have any complaint, it's that the black-and-white art could've been even more spectacular in color.
Cairo earns the full five out of five Tonys.
The whole time I was reading and enjoying The Highwaymen #1-5 [WildStorm; $2.99 each], I kept thinking this wasn't just a comic-book series. It was the storyboards for a movie, one I'd be willing to rent on DVD.
The title heroes are legendary couriers McQueen and Monroe. I see Ian McKellen or Michael Caine and a really good stuntman as McQueen, and Morgan Freeman or Danny Gibson and another really good stuntman as Monroe. Issues #2-5 of the book each start with a cool recap that goes something like this:
Two men. One shoots. One drives. Thirty years and a river of bad blood between them...until they are called back into service by the late President Clinton to make one final delivery. Their package: a young woman they know virtually nothing about.
For Grace Anderson, the young woman in question, I see Ellen Page or Summer Glau. But I digress.
Writers Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman have written a decent comic book here. The heroes are properly sympathetic, the villains appropriately nasty. The action sequences are wild and sometimes wacky, but they don't bury the characters. Artist Lee Garbett is also adept at balancing the big "things blowing up" shots with the character interplay. Colorist Jonny Rench should also be commended for his fine work on these five issues.
The Highwaymen might not be a great comic-book story, but it is solid entertainment. As such, it earns a respectable three out of five Tonys.
Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman also collaborated on Monster Attack Network [AIT Planet Lar; $12.95]. The setting is Lapuatu, a Pacific isle of uncommon beauty and proud tradition. It has a booming economy, marred only by the giant monsters who regularly attack the island, which, against all logic, strives to live in harmony with the very critters who knock down its buildings. That logic is more than a little hard to swallow.
Defending Lapuatu is the Monster Attack Network, which deals with these attacks, rescues the civilians caught in the rampages, and then rebuilds whatever the monsters destroyed. Nate Klinger is the leader of the MAT first-responders and he's a suitably heroic figure. Others who figure prominently in this graphic novel are a gorgeous new recruit and powerful American industrialist; each has their own secret agenda.
When I could ignore the insane monster-hugging premise, I did enjoy Monster Attack Network. It has exciting moments, some funny scenes, and a satisfying ending. Artist Nima Sorat brought a frantic energy to the visuals, but I didn't think it served the storytelling as well as it should have. His work is growing on me. It's just not there yet.
Monster Attack Network is cheesy monster fun. It's no award-winner, but it does earn three Tonys.
******
BLOGGY BITS
Thanks for your patience during TOT's unexpected hiatus last week. I hope that, at least, you got an occasional chuckle out of my space-filler columns.
My plan is to concentrate on reviews this week. But there'll be some other stuff as well, including an announcement of the first - and so far only - convention appearance I'll be making this year. It's not the convention you might expect.
I finished the gig I was working on last week. The good news about that is...I can concentrate on columns, proposals, and a book project. The bad news about that is...I have to start looking for another good-paying gig.
Ah, the carefree life of a freelancer.
******
TONY'S POLLS
It's Tuesday and that means new Tony Polls are posted for your voting entertainment. This week's questions concern the New York Comic Con, Dark Horse's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the recently-ended Legion of Super-Heroes animated series, the "Brand New Day" issues of Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel's Secret Invasion, and the brand-new Spectacular Spider-Man animated series.
As always, you can cast your votes here:
www.worldfamouscomics.com/tony/poll
Thanks to TOT reader Tom Duffy for sending me the Working Daze comic strip at the end of this section.
And thanks to all of you for spending some time with me today. I'll be back tomorrow with more stuff.
Tony Isabella
<< 04/21/2008 | 04/22/2008 | 04/23/2008 >>
Discuss this column with me at my Message Board. Also, read Heroes and Villains: Real and Imagined.
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THE "TONY" SCALE
ZERO: Burn your money before buying any comic receiving this rating. It doesn't *necessarily* mean there's absolutely nothing of value here - though it *could* - but whatever value it might possess shrinks into insignificance before its overall awfulness.
ONE: Buy something else. Maybe I found something which wasn't completely dreadful in the item, but not enough for me to recommend it when there are better comics available. I only want what's best for you, my children.
TWO: Basic judgment call. I found some value, but not enough to recommend it. My review should give you enough info to decide if you want to take a chance on it. Are you feeling lucky today, punk? Well, are you?
THREE: This denotes something I find perfectly respectable. There are better books out there, but I wouldn't regret buying this item. Based on my review, you should be able to determine if it's of interest to you. Let the Force guide you.
FOUR: I recommend anything earning this rating. Unless you don't like the genre, subject matter, or past work of the creators, I believe you'll enjoy this item. Isn't it uncanny how I can look right into your soul that way?
FIVE: Anything getting this rating is among the best comicdom has to offer. You should buy/read this, even if the genre/subject matter doesn't appeal to you. It's for your own good. Me, I live for comics and books this good...but not in a pathetic "Comic-Book Guy" sort of way.
Please send material you would like me to review to:
Tony's Online Tips
840 Damon Drive
Medina, OH 44256
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