An Open Letter to Jeph Loeb

by VM

Oh Jeph Loeb, where did it all go wrong?

You started off so well in my estimation. THE LONG HALLOWEEN caught my attention many years back as a sharp, well paced, smartly written, intelligent and engaging murder-mystery. The type of story that you don't actually see that much of in the mainstream comics world, and especially not where it felt well enough put together that the reader doesn't feel cheated at the end. Yes, on the basis of this read I made a note of your name and decided you were worth following.

And you, sir, have betrayed my trust.

Your next projects were a mixed bag. I read DARK VICTORY which was, frankly, a half-assed rewrite of THE LONG HALLOWEEN, but one that had less internal logic and said nothing new about the characters or situation. Still, I followed it up with A SUPERMAN FOR ALL SEASONS which, whilst lightweight, had some really nice character moments and a general feel for the character of Superman that grounded the book. And of course in all these cases you were supported by the rarely-less-than-glorious Tim Sale.

At this point we probably could have gone either way. Sadly we hit your Marvel 'colour' book phase. None of which were terrible, but none of which were particularly good either. It was here that I learned your caption boxes were frequently more annoying than beneficial to a story. You appeared to have moved so heavily into spelling out exactly what a character thinks that you forgot one of the basic tenants of storytelling is not to tell a reader what a character is thinking, but rather show them. Good characterisation became, instead, long winded lecturing.

And then we have HUSH.

Now, frankly, I have to concede that HUSH was commercially successful. There are many people who loved the Jim Lee art, and the way it kept them guessing with all the twists and turns till the end. I concede this, and yet I must note that your story was complete and utter tosh.

There was no mystery, it was obvious from the start exactly who Hush was, the only surprise being that you actually went with the most obvious and cliched tact of making the killer the main character's never-before-mentioned childhood friend who has just mysteriously returned all of a sudden. Everything else was done for shock value and nothing else - from Poison Ivy getting her claws into Superman simply so that Batman can fight him (again) to Two face having reconstructive surgery. The whole thing was all style and zero substance. It was essentially the third version of THE LONG HALLOWEEN, except this time you had successfully removed all the remnants of a story that made sense.

You then followed this up with SUPERMAN/BATMAN which was yet more style over substance, only with even more over-the-top dialogue boxes that revealed just how much Superman and Batman like and admire each other. All the time. And it was a lot. They really, really like and admire each other. As you constantly reminded us. Of course, the plots were borderline nonsensical, but a veritable masterpiece compared to SUPERGIRL.

With Supergirl it seriously felt as though you no longer saw the need for a coherent plot or characters, and just felt it would be enough to string together a series of random events and moments. None of it made sense. If anything, I have to give you some credit: you successfully proved you could write something and sell it, even if it had only a passing resemblance to what would normally be considered a story. It read like bad fan-fiction.

And that's basically where you appear to have ended up. And are content to be. And that's what's sad. Because right now, your name appearing on a book is an instant sign that it is not worth spending my money on. You've gone from being a draw to a deficit in my buying patterns, and that's sad.

I don't question your success. I can certainly see why you'd feel that you had no reason to change - HULK and ULTIMATES 3 are the same brand of no-story-big-fight nonsense you devolved into selling by the time of SUPERMAN/BATMAN and they sell by all accounts like hotcakes. I do not question the monetary reward or popular success. And yet, I can't shake the feeling that you should be better than this. I think you're just stopped trying. LONG HALLOWEEN is still good. Very good. SUPERMAN FOR ALL SEASONS showed you can have a light touch. Hell, I'm writing this because I really, really think you're better than the last five years have suggested to me. I can remember picking up DARK VICTORY and expecting greatness.

I remember thinking you were good. I still think you could be. I'd really like you to start trying again Jeph. Please? Read more!

Watchmen has a Trailer

by VM

It's the biggest selling graphic novel of all time. It's commonly referred to as the greatest story every told in Comics. It's coming to the big screen and prior to that we now have a trailer. Are we excited?

And since it's Bat-Week, we'll ask his surrogate, Nite Owl.


...oh dear. He doesn't look happy does he? Still, onwards!


So what do we think? It's hard to know what to think from a trailer these days. Comic Book trailers are always a bit difficult to judge, especially from the perspective of people so close to the source material, plus it seems to be possible to make Anything look good for two minutes. And is there really anyone who can see something like this with fresh eyes if they've read the graphic novel? Can we hope to be even mildly objective about something we love?

So having admitted the bias first off I have to say... I'm optimistic.




It looks pretty. It looks dark, and grimy and potentially quite nasty. WATCHMEN isn't a nice story a lot of the time and it does appear that they're going with that; Seeing Dr Manhattan vaporising a Viet Cong soldier probably isn't that politically correct, but having it in the film indicates they're hopefully being pretty faithful to the source material. In fact, all the visuals - in a slightly stylised manner - seem to be in the right sort of place. Dr Manhattan in particular seems spot on.



Well, mostly. Silk Specter looks possibly a bit too kewl. And Nite Owl doesn't appear to be fat. And it's somewhat disappointing they've gone for a song over the whole thing - for something as grand as this could and possibly should be it's a shame there's no orchestral score sweeping around it. And what's with Comedian punching a hole in the wall? How is a normal man supposed to do that?



But despite these niggles, I'm inclined to be optimistic. Nothing leaps out at me as fundamentally wrong at this point. Certainly, there are obviously compromises but that was a given. What's possibly more important is that at this point I look at that trailer and think 'that could work'. It might not, of course and there's still the Alan Moore curse to contend with that seems to dictate none of his work will ever be adapted well for the big screen. But there are definitely reasons to be cautiously optimistic.

Now, go on. Go make up your own mind.
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Waited for the Trade: ACME Novelty Library 19

by VM

Man, life must be a really depressing place for Chris Ware.

I’m not talking about his personal life of course, since I know nothing of that. And by all accounts, his professional career is going pretty well; Jimmy Corrigan won awards, and ACME Novelty Library is one of those things that gets touted about as worthy wherever I cast my eyes in the direction of serious critical acclaim. “Masterpiece” is a word bounded about in connection with his efforts.

But judging by what I understand of his work, I’m forced into the conclusion that Chris Ware finds the world an empty and heartless place that slowly wears you down before you die. And nothing else.

There’s something very nihilistic, or at least very first-year-philosophy nihilistic about what he does. Bleak, heartless and cold. Depressing. And you’d think that this would appeal to me. I’m usually a big fan of things that show the darker side of existence. I’m habitually cynical about happy endings and the foolishness of the main thrust of humanity is something I’m pretty much certain of.

And yet, I find it difficult indeed nigh-on impossible to enjoy what Ware brings to the page here.

Actually that’s not entirely true. Ware’s art is something else. It’s a truly stunning and innovative graphical form, for which he deserves all the praise I can muster to give him. It’s resolutely simplistic, stylised and minimist in its representation of characters, but is nothing but all the more powerful in its execution as a result. It’s remarkable how he’s able to convey years of difference to a character’s life by the varying of just a few lines, and nothing short of fantastic what powerful emotions he can convey from those very same few lines.

The layouts are similarly a work of art in and of themselves. The variety of panel choices, the use of repetition and movement about a central theme – such things are nothing short of a masterclass. To read this book is to revel in the skill of a master craftsman at work. To then compare with a conventional super-hero book is to remind yourself how truly stagnant even some of the best people working there can be. And that’s not a comment that should be taken as being elitist or snobbish, but rather a tribute to just how fresh his work is that it can achieve that.

The problem I have is with the story he tells.

There’s almost nothing positive here. Almost every page, every penstroke, ever panel is dedicated to chronicling the small disappointments of life, miserable existence by a thousand tiny cuts. And after a while, it stops being affecting and simply becomes annoying. Ware chronicles the story of his female protagonist with such a downbeat air, punctuating it with such frequent despair that it ceases to be engaging and becomes simply routine- any impact lost in familiarisation.

The story presented is one of deeply emotive events. Some are far bigger moments than others (the book deals with an abortion at one point) but all are given a deep and lasting emotional resonance. Quiet tragedy is generated from everywhere, even some place as innocuous as a meal out or washing a car. And that’s to its credit; the skill with which Ware draws out pathos is quite remarkable. But for all this it has a tendency to ring hollow. Ultimately, it begins to read as nothing more than a list of the depressive horrors of everyday existence. Whilst reading I found myself asking why I was reading it. What was its point, what was it saying about the human condition? For something that has been so widely praised, I was quite surprised to find that I didn’t take anything away from it. It failed to make me think (other than making me mildly depressed). And that's the problem - for all its critical acclaim, the treatment this material gets is quite superficial.

For something tragic to have an impact, it needs to be tempered with optimism, or the promise of better things. It’s the truth of that old saying about needing the lows to appreciate the highs; the downside of existence is nothing without contrast. Like that friend who complains endlessly but never tries to change anything this book eventually dissolves into a litany of bad things that leaves the reader numb, rather than affected.

But it’s probably worth owning for the art alone. And that’s quite something.

Rating: B (Brainy)
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Sugar and Spice

By Vocal Minority

Strange things happen when you go without modern media for a while.

In my case it was only three days. But trapped in a flat with no TV, no internet and nothing to read I wound up impulse-buying at the bookstore in town to stave off a night of self-reflection. All of which is a round about way of justifying the purchase of two Manga-sized OGNs bearing DC's new 'Minx' branding.

In my defense, I didn't realise I was buying a pair of comics aimed at teenaged girls. I was distracted by the fact that Andi Watson was responsible for one, and Mike Carey for the other - a pair of writers I've enjoyed in the past. Whilst making the purchase I was unware that I was a chromosome and several years away from the target group of these projects.

Excuses aside, it was time to get in touch with my inner teenaged girl, courtesy of Clubbing by Andi Watson and Josh Howard, and Regifters by Mike Carey, Marc Hempel and Sonny Liew.



Clubbing is an odd beast.

It's the story of a trying-to-be-older-than-she-is teenaged goth who is exiled to her grandparents golf course in the countryside after a run in with the police involving fake ID. And for the first part of the story that's exactly what it is: a fish-out-of water story. And then it switches gears when a murder occurs. And then, well...

I don't want to dictate spoilers in this review, but suffice to say that this book shifts gears somewhat, and I'm not convinced it's a good thing. Watson writes excellent melodrama and engaging characters as ever, but here the plot rather takes over and the characters that were interesting on their own take a back seat to the action.

Which makes it doubly perplexing when you consider the audience this is supposedly aimed at. It does certain bits nicely; group rejection, budding romance and rebellion are all covered well and you can see it fitting nicely with an episode of whatever teen soap is currently popular. The shift and some of the subject matter late in the story is a deviation from these things which presumably sell to the market and moreover doesn't actually fit with the book that came before. I was interested in these characters, I was engaged in the story of their interactions - anything that means I got less of that is, ultimately, unwelcome.

A shame. But it's not without its own kooky charm, mostly for the character writing and fluid art.

B -



Re-gifters has its own problems.

The tale of a young Korean girl dealing with a major crush and an impending martial arts tournament in which she is expected to kick ass (it's ok: she's something of a bad-ass. She just has to get her focus back).

Where Clubbing became too unconventional, Re-Gifters is arguably too predictable. The main character is certainly well drawn, and you're pulled into a slice of Korean-American life that I for one certainly didn't know existed. But the characters on the whole are somewhat one-dimensional. The format of the story can be pretty much anticipated from the start and it doesn't really surprise, so we never get that invested with the rest of the cast - they're just going through the motions.

This feeling of been-there-done-that doesn't really help when some of the characters' actions follow the pattern without really being justified in the story itself. Again I don't want to give spoilers, but if you want me to think a character is nice, then you have to show me more than them doing one good act. Especially when that 'good' is actually rather selfish at its heart.

The writing has some merit at times, the art's certainly fun. But there's something about this that just falls flat. Not bad, not great. Just very middling and ultimately anonymous.

C Read more!