Off The Shelf: Concrete

Paul Chadwick's Concrete grew from a character first considered to be a rip-off of Marvel's early sulky incarnation of The Thing into a thought-provoking hero tortured by being unwillingly locked in a large, unwieldy body of stone. Instead of becoming a villain, because what else do you do when you're a giant concrete ogre, Concrete chose to be a low-key superhero who fought in very human arenas from environmental activism to political unrest.

Chadwick, who previously worked as an artist on Marvel's short-lived Dazzler series and also drew storyboards for Disney, wrote and illustrated stories that were much more slice-of-life by being focused on realistic situations rather than over-the-top fight sequences. His Concrete series, first published by Dark Horse Comics in 1986 won Chadwick the Eisner Award for Best Writer/Artist in 1989.

Chadwick is currently drawing a miniseries for DC, Seven Against Chaos, written by Harlan Ellison as well as writing for the MMORPG, The Matrix On-line.

References:

• Wikipedia, Concrete
• Concrete, Blogs
• Continuity Pages, Concrete

Off The Shelf: Full Metal Alchemist

The manga and animated series The Full Metal Alchemist has reached a level of international readership that only a few Japanese titles have achieved over the past 50 years.

The short list includes Otomo's Astro-Boy, Okamura's Fist Of The North Star and Ken Miura's Berserk. Each are undeniably in this world class of artist category. Today, Hiromu Arakawa, is the only female manga-ka artist to reach this level to date. She introduced the world to Full Metal Alchemist in 1999 in self-published books (Dōjinshi) and locally produced manga magazines (Tankōbon) published in Hokkaido.

Her graphic novel series ran from 1999 to 2011, faithfully reproduced by Funamation Studios as two animated series, featured the Elric Brothers in a European steam-punk country ruled by magicians. There are dozens of fully realized characters playing major roles in the series - from the evil Homonculi, the indomitable King Bradley, the fanatical rebel Scar and many, many more strange individuals and secret organizations that the Elric Brothers encounter on their unflinching search for a means to undo the magic that made them The Full Metal Alchemist.

References:

• Wikipedia, Hiromu Arakawa
• Wikipedia, Dōjinshi

Off The Shelf: Great

Life's savage turns are chronicled in Ryan Armand's American manga Great.

2007 Eisner Award Nominated artist Ryan Armand's American manga series Great features a 28-year-old man's life comically falling completely apart and eventually re-assembling.

Nibbish yuppie Lyle falls through the basement levels of his life, loses his job, his wife and is robbed repeatedly before finally being rescued from homelessness by a Ramen Noodle restauranteur's daughter. Soon after, he becomes determined to take up the self-help concept of being "Great" in all aspects of his life from creating a furniture based martial art to making soup.

The protagonist establishes a better way of life only after completely abandoning his old one. Lyle becomes a chef and new father while dealing with street crime and fatherhood - a far cry from the shallow, corporate and plastic life he once tried everything to save.

The theme of the graphic novel (available directly from the artist) is finding a sense of purpose and optimism in the face of an incredible amount of crushing defeats. By relentlessly pursuing this concept of dedicated determination, with a healthy does of humor and respect for family included, Armand examines the nature of superficiality, relationships between husbands and wives and personal bravery all while illustrating Lyle's many attempts to be great.


References:

• Kiwis By Beat, Store/Illustrations
• Smack Jeeves, Comic Archive
• Comix Talk, Armand Talks 2007 Eisner Nod

Screen Shots: Web Comics

Web comics are a relatively new internet phenomena. Web comics, at varying degrees of complexity, are growing in popularity. What was once the refuge of a handful of cranky cartoonists, with objectionable art skills and even worse social skills, is gradually becoming a recognized story-telling medium.

In 2011, even the powerhouse comic publishing companies of DC and Marvel have introduced new all-digital lines of web based titles to capitalize on their decades of back issues. This is much to the comic fan's advantage because some bygone titles are incredibly hard to find (Warren Ellis's Starjammers #1 for instance) and all of these comics stay in Mint condition.

The officiousness of the web comic began in 2005 with a new Eisner award category going to Brian Fies' painfully autobiographical Mom's Cancer. The following year in 2006, the publication of Gene Yuen's excellent American Born Chinese as a web based comic signaled that web comics were becoming legitimized and fast showing showing signs of becoming a medium-unto-itself.



The sharply drawn and scripted web based series "Sakana" by MAD.

This trend of creator-driven comics hasn't stopped wave after wave of "sprite" comics which do the opposite in kind of an homage to being 10 years old. The problem is most of these sprite comics are created by 40 year-olds addicted to television.

To be definitive, Sprite comics are: made up of badly swiped character art that has literally been ripped out of NES games and then plunked into the worst story-telling possible w/no original plot at all.


"Blake And Moon Light Enter a hotel". An example of a sprite comic by ZoneTh.

This is the low end to Gene Yuen's "high end". The difference being a much better level of artistic integrity, attention to craft and original story-telling. What is most interesting about web comics is found in the "middle level" of web comics. These web comics with their own raw or refined style capitalize on frenetic drawing ability, individual P.O.V. and sometimes really bad taste.

A worthy and hilarious selection of this "middle layer" of current web comics includes:

• Biggie Boobie Chan (PG-13) An outrageous manga "spoof" comic shabbily rendered in pencil with text punched in via computer that makes Family Guy look tame in comparison.
• The formidable KREETOR is a sword and sorcery epic with amazing art told in a Medieval Planet of the Apes setting.
• My Zombie Days is an incredibly well drawn Russian language zombie apocalypse told from the point of view of a man infected with a case of zomboid fever.
• Schizian is a truly, truly bizarre and stylistic story of a young woman's monstrous hallucinations.
• Toilet Genie is at the high end of the toilet-humor-w/dynamic-art-books with well over 3,000+ dutiful subscribers.
• Between Gears is a beautiful autobiographical account of an artist's life.
• GLOOM features the formidable art chops of David Newbold as applied to demons and vicious Dark Age battles.
• Instant Comics is a very original graphic novel with several stories about a young woman, aliens and her dreams. This last web comic easily bests most printed work in bookstores and shops today (that is, work that wasn't printed by Fantagraphics).

References:

• Wikipedia, Web Comic Awards

Off The Shelf: A Rough Guide To Graphic Novels

A Rough Guide To Graphic Novels, published by the U.K.'s Rough Guides Publishing in 2007 and released in 2008 in the US is a 312 page Danny Fingeroth (longtime writer for Spider-Man) book that features eight sections written by indie publishers and professional artists in the 'zine, graphic novel and comic industries. The book features some of the 60 biggest underground graphic novels since the 1940's years including Akira, Maus and Persepolis.

A Rough Guide contains also a section written by New Zealand born British cartoonist Roger Langridge. Langridge is a Harvey, Eisner, Ignatz and Reuben Award-nominated artist whose humorous work (Frankenstein Meets Shirley Temple, Fin Fang 4, Knuckles the Malevolent Nun, The Muppets and Fred The Clown) reference Warren, Creepy, Marvel, MAD and classic EC styles and themes.

In 2009, Rough Guide published two more books with a focus on Chinese and Japanese graphic novels and animation: The Rough Guide to Anime and The Rough Guide to Manga.

References:

• Rough Guides, Rough Guide To Graphic Novels
• Hotel Fred.com, Clown Quarters
• Hotel Fred Blog, Fred's Room
• Forbidden Planet, Propaganda Press
• Wikipedia, Roger_Langridge
• Web Comics Nation, Rave Of The Living Dead

Off The Shelf: Swallow Me Whole

Swallow Me Whole is a 216 page graphic novel by Nate Powell. First published by Top Shelf Comix in 2008, the book was the 2009 Eisner Award winner for Best Graphic Novel, winner of 2008's Ignatz Award for Outstanding Debut and nominated for an L.A. Times Book Prize.

The book deals with a family strained with dysfunction and mental illness. It's has gotten a lot of positive reviews from national and international reviewers. Forbidden Planet, a web zine in the U.K., calls Swallow Me Whole a: "- hypnotically dark tale that slowly, quietly and masterfully tells a story that will demand multiple readings. All the way through Swallow Me Whole there’s a desperate sense of lives spiralling out of control." The New York Times in a rare turn towards the accurate called the book: "Scaldingly dark ... Powell’s flowing, impressionistic artwork, with its ravenous expanses of negative space, swirls the reader’s perspective through his characters’ perceptions...".^[0]

Powell's art style uses a thin line to describe form and sparse color to create depth. He describes himself on his site See My Brother Dance as: " - born in 1978 in Little Rock, Arkansas... began self-publishing comics and zines in 1992 at age 14, and graduated from The School of Visual Arts (in New York City) in 2000." Today, Powell lives and works in the Bloomington, Indiana area and also play venues around America as part of an alt-rock band called Universe.

Notes:
[0] = Quote directly from Douglas Wolk's 2008 review of Swallow Me Whole for The New York Times.

References:

• See My Brother Dance, Art + Comics by Nate Powell
• Blogspot, See My Brother Dance
• Top Shelf Comix, Swallow Me Whole
• Forbidden Planet, Tales of Extraordinary Madness
• Daily Crosshatch, Nate Powell Interview

Off The Shelf: Much The Millers Son

Click the image above for a preview of Much The Millers Son: Book II.

After storyboarding for Ed, Ed and Eddy for Cartoon Network from 2005-2008, Vancouver comic artist Steve LeCouilliard is taking on independent comic production. LeCouilliard is currently publishing a comic adventure set in Medival England, Much The Millers Son.

The book is LeCoulliard's own version of PG-13 version of Robin Hood featuring Much an obscure Merry Man in Robin Hood's gang. Much The Millers Son combines aspects of Groo The Wanderer and Sergio Aragones with Mad Magazine's art style and Monty Python's irreverence while nodding his feathered cap, monk's hood or armored helmet in the direction of animator Ralph Bakshi's raunchy and grim themes.



According to the latest from LeCouilliard's web sites Much The Millers Son.com and his blog the book series is currently in production and slated for release in 2010 or 2011.

References:

• Whaddaiwannablogfor, Much The Millers Son
• Much The Millers Son.com, Ye Olde Shoppe
• Cloudscape Comix, Steve LeCouilliard Speaks
• Wikipedia, Much The Millers Son (character)

Off The Shelf: The Stand

Beginning in January of 2010 Marvel Comics started the process of releasing Stephen King's classic 1985 horror masterpiece, The Stand, as a limited edition mini-series. This series features all of the characters that made the original book a classic with breathtaking, detailed artwork, work that's on a whole other level for comics - mixing photorealism with the abstract, reflecting the source material perfectly.

The Stand is being released 16 years after a doomed attempt by ABC in the mid-nineties to bring the series to life on the small screen. This attempt left fans reeling with disappointment due to wildly unbalanced casting, including an aging "surfer dude" Jamey Sheridan as the central character. Sheridan fumbled his way through the part of Randall "The Dark Man" Flagg enough upset a lot of people - Sheridan's next dramatic turn would be in a made for tv movie My Breast starring Meredith Baxter Birney, go figure. The series also starred Gary Sinese as Stu Redman and Rob Lowe as Nick Andros. However, 16 years later, The Stand is now coming to an electrifying life as a mini-series from Marvel as artists Mike Perkins and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa apply an amazing amount of detail to King's vision of the American Apocalypse.

References:

• Gargantuan Media, Full Variant Cover
• Amazon, The Stand: The Graphic Novel

Off The Shelf: Hard Rock Heroes

This 240-page graphic novel was released in March of 2010 by Blue Water Productions who also published Female Force: Margaret Thatcher, Logan's Run and have a Joan Jett comic coming out in June. This Hard Rock book features the biggest, dumbest bands in mainstream rock from 1980 to 1990.

This book, based on the unauthorized biographies originally put together by Todd Loren who was killed at age 32 in San Diego in 1992, covers that special time in music when big hair and men-in-women's make-up ruled mainstream rock with a curling iron, mopey choruses and dopey-eyed fans who affirmed the fact that yes, every rose really does have a thorn, player.

While this humble writer (and a few others) ran screaming from Glam Rock to bands like Dinosaur, Slayer, Ministry and the Butthole Surfers - America was dominated by bands featured in Hard Rock Heroes: Skid Row, Poison, Guns 'N Roses, Megadeth and Tesla - the absolute worst of cock/glam rock scene.

The book is terrible, but it's terrible in a way that will make your sides aches as you watch Ozzy mistakenly scarf on a live bat in Iowa or the boys from Poison "show just how much heart a band can have". There are also a few treats/fun facts for fans of Metallica, Faith No More and Pantera in the book which has art by many different artists including Dave Biggs (Megadeth), Lyndal Ferguson (Snotley Crue) and Mark Erickson (Black Sabbath and Ozzy).

References:

• Blue Water Productions, Home
• Amazon,Hard Rock Heroes

Off The Shelf: Torso

In Depression era Cleveland circa 1935, a series of unbelievably grisly murders took place that to this day have never been solved. The killings involved the brutal dismemberment of 14 men and women who were reduced to anonymous torsos. Many of the "Butcher's" victims were known only as John Doe. A total of seven John Doe torsos were recovered in the Cleveland, Ohio area never to be identified.

Brian Bendis and Marc Andreyko re-create the story of The Cleveland Torso Murders by focusing on investigator Elliot Ness, famous for going on the offensive against organized crime in Chicago and hired as a Public Safety Officer for Cleveland. Elliot Ness spent the final years of his career in law enforcement futilely attempting to solve the Cleveland Torso Murders. The mini-series won the 1999 Eisner Award for Comic Book Excellence.

The six comic mini-series was originally published by Image/Jinx in 1998 and 1999 and is now available in one complete 280 page collection at Amazon. Additionally, two new books dealing with the Cleveland Torso Murders, Murder Hath No Tongue and Broken Rosary, are schedueled for 2010 releases.

References:

• GCD, Jinx: Torso
  
• Comic Reader, Torso Collection


• Prairie Ghosts, Torso Killer

Off The Shelf: Bone

Jeff Smith is an artist who self-published his popular indie title, Bone, from 1991 to 2004. The story follows the adventures of anthropomorphic creatures rendered in a rich curving style that isn't derived from either Marvel or DC artists but much more consistent to Disney's Pogo but with storylines that drift towards the mysterious.

Smith's stories and scenes are painstakingly crafted with a tremendous amount of skill and heart. The books are equally accessible to adults or kids. To date, Smith's Bone has won him ten Eisner Awards for Best Serialized Story and Best Continuing Series as well as eleven Harvey Awards for Best Cartoonist in 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1997.

Recently, Smith's embarked on RASL (wrassle?) a title more focused on the Love and Rockets young adult to adult crowd. And in March of 2008, Warner Brothers announced they had retained the film rights to Bone with plans to create a Bone film series.

References:

• Wikipedia, Bone
• Daily Cross Hatch, Jeff Smith Interview
• B o n e v i l l e, On-line Shop

Off The Shelf: Foolkiller

In 2008 MAX, an imprint of Marvel, recruited a band of artists and writers including Gregg Hurwitz, Paul Azaceta and Tomm Coker. Together, they revamped a forgotten minor Marvel villain whose first appearance was in Man-Thing #3 way, way back in March of 1974 into a bad ass in 2008.

In Foolkiller's previous 70's incarnation, "Tricky Dick" Nixon was pretending to be President, Viet Nam was raging and Marvel had been generally "toned down" to appeal to the kiddies.

In 1974, Foolkiller was an early proto-type for the anti-hero - a figure closely resembling the Ballisk-snuffing Scourge(s) and the character that Frank Miller's Punisher eventually became - but with noticable differences. In his original incarnation, Foolkiller was a wide-brimmed hat sporting, Bible-banging annihilator of humanity who killed fools with his trusty "purification gun" - a laser powered by Jesus beams.

This first Foolkiller, aka Ross Everbest, was inspired by a faith healer named Reverend Pike who had cured Everbest of his childhood paralysis. As a result, Everbest became an evangelist with the Reverend as his mentor. Both soon became very popular.

However, things took a bloody turn when, after catching Reverend Mike in a drunken orgy, Everbest killed his former hero and mentor then preserved the good Reverend's corpse in formaldehyde. Everbest then went about using the two-faced preacher's money to fund his own vigilante activities. First step, don a flamboyant Zorro-like costume. Second step, kill fools. Simple. Step two went pretty OK for awhile until Everbest was killed when his mentor's glass preservation container exploded, sending glass shards into many of his vital organs. Youch!

Now in 2008, Foolkiller is Mike Trace, a man who trudges through a series of rat's nests populated by brain-damaged narcotics addicts, white supremacy groups, and so-called modern "superheroes" who are in the city for lucrative Hollywood movie contracts. In the modern Foolkiller's world, deserving criminals are executed in ironic Saw-type ways with semi-clever notes left behind for the police to decipher. Not a bad read at just $3.99 American a pop.



References:

• Wikipedia, Foolkiller
• The King of Comics, Foolkiller: White Angels #5
• Marvel Universe Appendix, Foolkiller I
• Marvel Wikia, Foolkiller II

Off The Shelf: Comics Are For Idiots!

Johnny Ryan lovingly demonstrates his life-long respect and admiration for comics.

Los Angeles based comic artist Johnny Ryan's regurgitation of vapid pop culture comes in the form of a heartless send-up of indentity with his character Blecky Yuckerella who exists at the opposite end of a Cover Girl ad and tackles sexual dysfunction by turning a humble father into a robotic "Rape Tank" in his comic Angry Youth Comics published by Seattle based Fantagraphics.

All of Ryan's work is a genuine reflection of the callous perversity of mainstream American culture. It's the style that makes his work so biting and hilarious as men are comedically crippled, friends and family suddenly turn viciously rabid while medical professionals indulge in sadistic thrills while they are supposed to be doing their jobs.



References:

• Johnny Ryan.com, Weekly Strip
• Spray Blog, Johnny Ryan Interview

Off The Shelf: The Rampaging Hulk

The Rampaging Hulk was a comic title in magazine format featuring the Green Goliath released in 1977 by Curtis Publishing (an imprint of Marvel Comics) and ran until 1981.

The Rampaging Hulk was first released with a full-color cover and black-and-white interior in magazine format. It featured full-length stories dealing with a more realistic depiction of violence, death, loss and alienation - subjects intended for a more mature audience. The title veered away from the mindless and sulking "Me Smash" Hulk that ol' green jeans had sadly devolved into since the good old days. The Rampaging Hulk was a return to the darker original character of the Hulk in the tradition of Tales to Astonish - a science fiction anthology that, after the first Hulk book was canceled in 1963, developed the Hulk as a raging, atomic super-mutant. In fact, many of the Rampaging Hulk stories were originally intended for the defunct Tales to Astonish title.

When the whole magazine went full-color the title featured interviews with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno while the Incredible Hulk TV series was in full swing on CBS as well as the art of a young John Romita Jr. at 19 (he later a became a writer and artist on Amazing Spiderman) and his father John Romita Sr. one of the original Marvel Bullpen.



References:

• Wikipedia, The Rampaging Hulk
• Wikipedia, Incredible Hulk TV series
• Comic Covers, The Rampaging Hulk
• Amazon, Essential Rampaging Hulk, Vol. 1

Off The Shelf: Monkey King

Gene Yang is a artist who started self-publishing comics as Humble Comics in 1996 and received a Xeric Grant in 1997.

One of his best books is the Monkey King. In Yang's re-telling of the Chinese folk tale, the Monkey King is a power-hungry and arrogant minor deity. The demi-god threatens, at least in his own mind, the power of the rulers of Heaven. When he is punished for his arrogance, the Monkey King is forced to do penance by helping a pious monk stay alive in ancient China.

Besides making comics and graphic novels, Gene Yang works as a teacher of computer science. He lives and works in Fremont, California with his wife and kids.



References:

• Lambiek, Gene Yang

Off The Shelf: James Kochalka

James Kochalka is a alternative comic artist with a growing body of work.
His black and white artwork, as seen in Bogus Undead, is unusually layered thematically and rendered very simply. His work explores angsty personal spaces with saccharin soaked characters. They conduct these grim, self-effacing conversations voiced through characters such as "Elf-boy" and a strange re-interpretation of Japanese "spoof" characterization, Boo - whose special ability is ... Tinkle Power?

The books are very funny, personal and genuine. The style resembles South Park's Towelie and the work of Chuck Burns but w/out the sardonic and bitter overtones.

Off The Shelf: Witch Doctor

Witch Doctor: First Incision is a brilliant 16-page medical horror comic introducing the Witch Doctor universe, written by Brandon Seifert and illustrated by Lukas Ketner.

You can help support underground comic artists by being the helpful sort and Buying Here.

The Art of Michela Colette: Cute Art Brut Meets Bullshit Frank

Michela Colette is a young artist and Rhode Island School of Art and Design (Riz-dee for short and Sheppard Fairey's alma mater) graduate who regularly self-publishes her own uniquely themed comics and posters for venues like the Cake Shop in NYC.

Oh Shit, Frank Miller

Frank Miller to 1982 America: "Please don't ask me to draw any more X-Men".

• Labiek, The real dirt on Mr. Frank Miller
• Hang A Right, Dirty Dirt!