Comics Books Reviews: March 2011

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Top 10 Tuesdays - Ten Reasons To Buy Green Wake Next Week

Green Wake is a comic by Kurtis Wiebe and Riley Rossmo that launches next week from Image. It’s a five issue miniseries and I am flat out telling you all to go buy a copy. You will not be disappointed. Having read a preview copy, I can tell you this is going to be the best comic of the week, and easily in the running for year as well. There's a lot of chatter about Nonplayer and while that's good Green Wake is far superior on many levels. Image might be hitting plenty of home runs in 2011 but consider Green Wake the one that goes high up into the lights in a dazzling display of magic and truth. Hit the jump to get ten reasons why you must buy this comic in eight days.
Green Wake is a noir-horror comic that follows Morley Mack as he investigates a grisly murder in a town where no one knows how they get there and no one can leave. This is an unsettling vision of fate and guilt that chills as it entertains. Though dubbed as a horror comic, this isn’t about violence and gore, this is a simmering study of the terrible things people are capable of and the inevitable nature of man. It’s about the terror of guilt and forgiveness. But it also has Rossmo making with some damn intense violence and monsters.
This is the best comic I have read so far this year, it is definitely the strongest debut of 2011, and I want as many people as possible to trust me and buy this comic. I’m not spouting hyperbole, this book is insanely great. I just want more people to be able to discuss it with. I’ve never asked anything of you before but you seriously need to buy this comic. Just one lousy issue, you’ll see I’m right afterwards. Still unsure…here are ten reasons to pick up Green Wake next week when it drops. And I am running this feature now with reason, I want you to have a full week to be convinced. Next Tuesday just wasn't going to give you, the readers, enough time to truly understand that you need this comic in your life.

1 - Noir Like You Like It
I love a good noir comic but this uses the concept of noir and takes it to a completely new level. The main character is noir but so is his location. Green Wake is as much a character as Morley is and you distinctly get the feeling nothing here is going to end well, and nothing probably ever has ended well.
If this is a rollercoaster ride then it only goes down, and it just won’t stop.
2 - Torn Lips Off A Face
This comic opens with a murder in the town of Green Wake. The victim had his lips completely ripped off. And Riley Rossmo has no qualms about showing this in his own inimitable style. It’s a horrific moment but also one that’s completely and insanely awesome.
This is how you set the problem in a comic and make it feel visceral. This is how you raise the stakes. This is how you gain my interest. Then you keep me hooked by promising more disturbing imagery.
3 - Erudition On The Page
Some comics feel like they’re for kids. Some comics feel like they’re written to man-children. Then a few comics feel like you could teach them and you’d have more than enough content to fill your curriculum. Green Wake is a smart comic. It isn’t smart because it uses big words or tries to reference literary masters. No, Green Wake is smart in the way it sets up the narrative and delivers the story elements to you. It’s smart because it’s been well thought out. It already reminds me of being in a similar tone of some of the classic Alan Moore run on Swamp Thing. It's that good.
If you want a comic that’s serious and studious and is going to make you think about what happens in it then Green Wake must be in your pull list. We need more smart comics so vote with your wallets.
4 - Creator Owned Comic
Creator owned comics are important because the creators really rely on the funds brought in to pay their bills and feed their mouths. Creator owned comics need to be supported, especially good ones. Creator owned comics are the breeding ground for the next generation of amazing creators and if they don’t get the support now then they might disappear into other fields like carpentry, or the public service.
When you support a creator owned book by buying it in the monthly format you make comics, the environment, a better place. Be one of life’s good guys, pick up Green Wake.
5 - Kurtis Wiebe Is The Next Big Thing
You’re hearing it here first. This guy is going places. Remember when you picked up Gillen’s Phonogram, or Fraction’s Casanova, or Aaron’s Scalped? This is one of those moments. Seriously. If Wiebe can write a comic this good then he’s going to get headhunted very soon. He’s got some other pitches in the works and he’s got The Intrepids shipping as well, but this book is so great that he’ll be writing your favourite stories in a few years and you want to be someone who can say you where there when.
Get in on the ground floor. It’s so much nicer, and smug, in here.

6 - Rossmo’s Art
If you’ve ever read Proof or Cowboy Ninja Viking, both from Image, then you know how good Rossmo’s art is. It’s somewhere in the same vein as Ben Templesmith and Chris Ryall and yet something still completely on its own. Rossmo brings his distinct style to Green Wake and yet manages to make it look like he’s doing something new. This comic looks gorgeous but feels like no other story I’ve ever read. This book could almost become its own catch phrase for a story type or tone. It reminds me of back when David Fincher was a hungry young director wanting to break the system in two, this book does a few new things but is still comprehensible.
How often do you get such a marriage of great writing with amazing art? Why wouldn’t you want to support that with your money?
7 - A Culturally Informed Text
In the press materials, Kurtis Wiebe mentions Green Wake being influenced by Twin Peaks and The Dark Tower. Those are two very interesting choices and they bring plenty to the table but there are also more influences to find in this comic. It’s very much a pulp noir tale, it’s Lovecraft meets Philip K Dick in the most Spartan of both authors. There are shades of Jeunet’s The City of Lost Children as well as hints to underground cinema of Canada and Italy. This comic is informed by many things but it never once feels like a rip off, or even a heavy handed homage. Green Wake is only Green Wake, the rest are just steps to help your mind adjust.
8 - A Chilling Reflection
This comic doesn’t have to work to scare you. Instead, it just unsettles you. Rossmo’s art lures you in as much as it repulses you. The town of Green Wake itself feels comfortable but in a bad way – like a bad habit you can’t break because it’s easier to continue. The mysterious murders are scary but not as much as the prospect of being lost in this town. This is pitched as a horror comic and it nails this tone perfectly. The worst part being, the worst aspects are simply the truths Wiebe puts into the page. The terrible way we see the world, and others in it, is exactly what leads to people ending up in Green Wake. If you've ever been in a relationship then you'll find plenty on offer to sympathise with on these pages.

I'd almost say this book is the perfect break up book, like a song you remember or a smeel, it's about what it draws out in you more than what it actually is. But don't be confused by some of the gore, Green Wake isn’t a slasher book, it’s a horrific document of the mind.
9 - Unlike Anything Else
This is a good thing not just because it’s different but because it is tapping a narrative vein that hasn’t been accessed before. This is like nothing else before because nothing has ever tried what this is doing. There are hints here and there but Green Wake assembles something you haven’t seen before and in a way you haven’t thought to want and demand. But you want it, and you need it.
Your soul will not be complete without Green Wake. Feed your soul.
10 - Amazing Quality
A-MAZ-ING-LY GOOD! This first issue is the debut of the year. Green Wake has the potential to be one of the best miniseries of the year and this issue gives you more than enough reasons to believe it can do it. The writing is pitch perfect and the art compliments every story beat. The characters are intriguing, the central mystery is engaging, and the town of the tale is going to ensnare you, as it does everyone, and make you a prisoner.
This is going to be one of the best comics of 2011, without doubt, so get in on the ground floor now. Don’t come see me when the trade hits and say I didn’t give you a heads up. This is history in the making in five monthly instalments.
Conclusion

I have fallen in love, and her name is Green Wake. This horror comic from Kurtis Wiebe and Riley Rossmo is unlike anything I’m reading at the moment, and it’s exactly what I’ve been waiting for since I started reading EC horror comics as a kid. This is a tale to unnerve and delight in just the right magical portions that make for a noir-horror tale you will not forget. Invest $3.50 next week and thank me in any way you want but thank yourself for being smart enough to buy a comic that is so flat out brilliant as this one.

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My name is Kirk Warren and I’m a full time comic fan blowing my pay cheques on way too many comics every week.

Back in the early 90's, my mother bought me a Spider-Man comic to shut me up on a trip. I didn’t know it at the time, but that moment changed my life. Since then I've become a full blown comic fan and now purchase well in excess of 20 comics per month plus trades and other comic related goods.

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Start reading now: Shaman noir

It’s as if someone took a Mike Hammer story and relocated it to 16th-century Siberia: Terry LaBan’s Muktuk Wolfsbreath, Hard Boiled Shaman is the story of a lone shaman-for-hire, written in a style that is strongly reminiscent of hard-boiled detective stories, right down to the beautiful woman appearing out of nowhere to hire him. (“I can take a look. But it’ll cost you a pound of caribou.”)

The webcomic is apparently new, but LaBan has written several Muktuk stories before. The first one appeared in his alt-comic Cud, and it was followed by a three-issue miniseries for Vertigo, illustrated by Steve Parkerhouse. But that was over 10 years ago; it’s 2011 now, and Muktuk has made it to the web. The comic is just 11 pages long at the moment, so it’s a good time to jump on and start reading.

(Via Scott McCloud.)

March 28, 2011 @ 08:37 AM by Brigid AlversonTagged: Terry LaBan, Vertigo, webcomics

Support Japan by buying artwork from Periscope Studios

Akira by Dustin Weaver

The artists associated with Periscope Studios regularly post some pretty awesome artwork on their sketch blog, to the point where you kinda have to wonder how they could make it even more awesome. Which they have.

Last week Dylan Meconis, Colleen Coover, Dustin Weaver and several more of their artists created pieces that they’re auctioning off on eBay to benefit Peace Winds Japan, an organization providing emergency relief efforts in the earthquake and tsunami-ravaged country.

“I had pretty much told myself that I wouldn’t be participating in many more Periscope sketch challenges for a while because I need to be focused on work,” Weaver wrote on his LiveJournal. “But when the idea of doing a Japan week was suggested I was immediately on board. There are probably a lot of artists who feel this way, but for me this is a chance to give a little back to a country that has given me so much. Many of my greatest artistic inspirations are Japanese.” Weaver’s piece, above, should look familiar to fans of Akira.

You can find all the pieces up for auction on the studio’s eBay page.

March 28, 2011 @ 10:30 AM by JK ParkinTagged: Akira, charity, comic art, dustin weaver, earthquake, ebay auctions, Periscope Studio

Grab yourself a horror-comic bargain from Xeric winner Lane Milburn

from Death Trap by Lane Milburn

Wanna get your hands on some pulpy, creepy, weird, funny and, at times, genuinely harrowing horror comics? Allow me to introduce you to Lane Milburn, who’s got the deal for you. Milburn, a member of the Baltimore-based Closed Caption Comics collective, is offering two of his collections, the Xeric Grant-winning Death Trap and the screen-printed “mini”comic The Mage’s Tower, now on sale for the low low price of $12 total.

The cool thing about Milburn’s comics is that you can never quite tell where they’re headed. The title story in Death Trap seems like your typical slasher/Texas Chain Saw set-up, with a quartet of drunk teens stumbling into some bad craziness in the woods one night, but the killers they encounter are far, far stranger than the ones in the midnight movies of yore. Meanwhile, the other collection’s quasi-title story “The Mage’s Tour” (tour, not tower) starts like a fantasy novel about a pair of monks sent to liberate a tower from the clutches of an evil overlord, takes a left turn into comedy when it’s revealed that said overlord has turned said tower into a modern-day tourist trap complete with middle-aged moms who can’t work a cameraphone, and then shifts yet again into a stunningly dark depiction of violence. Milburn’s muscular, crosshatched art style can have you laughing one moment, cheering through an action sequence the next moment, and leave you shaken and disturbed when all is said and done. Highly recommended.

The Late March Mayhem sale only lasts until April 1, so order now!

this can't end well

March 28, 2011 @ 01:17 PM by Sean T. CollinsTagged: Closed Caption Comics, horror comics, Lane Milburn, sales

FREE Comics Manga Download

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Top 10 Tuesdays - Ten Reasons To Buy Green Wake Next Week

Start reading now: Shaman noir

Support Japan by buying artwork from Periscope Studios

Grab yourself a horror-comic bargain from Xeric winner Lane Milburn