Vimanarama: written by Grant Morrison; illustrated by Philip Bond (2005/ This edition 2016): 18ish Ali is about to meet his arranged bride Sofia in London, England. But then Ali's baby nephew crawls off, down, and into a strange underworld that's opened up beneath Ali's brother's convenience store.
Ali and Sofia pursue. The baby accidentally opens the gates to an ancient prison, releasing Ull-Shattan and the Fire-born. The dark creatures steal a bunch of UFO-like ships stored in the underworld and start attacking London. Ali and Sofia manage to summon the Ultra-Hadeen. The battle is on!
Well, it's sort of weird but not without precedent. Morrison and Bond's Ultra-Hadeen are god-like superheroes who resemble figures from various religions, led by the Hinduish Ben Rama. They're not gods -- they're more in the line of Jack Kirby's Eternals or New Gods, powerful beings who we once took for gods, long ago.
Vimanarama (oh, look it up) is a clever, Kirbyesque action-romp that centres itself on the growing love between Ali and Sofia (look 'Sofia' up too while you're at it). Philip Bond does a terrific job delineating both the otherworldly and the mundane. He's one of the best when it comes to cartoonish but realistic humans, which makes the out-sized attributes of the Ultra-hadeen 'pop' even more by comparison.
I'd like the story to be a bit longer. Moreover, I think Morrison goes a bit astray when the satiric ultra-violence of the Fire-born takes centre stage for a few pages: it really stops the joyful weirdness of the narrative absolutely coldly and unpleasantly. One satiro-violent scene in particular seems like it arrived from another Morrison comic -- perhaps The Invisibles. It's jarring to say the least, but thankfully soon passes. Recommended.
Kill Your Boyfriend: written by Grant Morrison; illustrated by Philip Bond (1994/ This edition 2016): Kill Your Boyfriend came out at almost the same time as Natural Born Killers. And they're certainly similar. One of Grant Morrison's rare non-superhero, non-fantasy comics sets two young London lovers on a kill-crazy spree across England. Along the way, gobs and gobbets of satire and social commentary fill the page, along with a fair amount of bloodshed and some PG-13 sex.
Philip Bond's witty, humanistic cartooning helps keep things light, as does Morrison's relentless, anarchic characterization and commentary. It's certainly better written than Natural Born Killers, and both use as their foundation Terence Malick's distinctly non-funny, elegaic tale of Charles Starkweather, Badlands. Not for everyone, but recommended for those who like their satire bloody and colourful.
The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian Archives Volume 1: written by Roy Thomas, Lin Carter, and Robert E. Howard; illustrated by Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema, Tony DeZuniga, Pablo Marcos, Tim Conrad, Jim Starlin, and others (1971, 1973-75; collected 2007): This first reprint volume of Marvel's black-and-white Conan comics magazines that started in the 1970's peaks right at the beginning, with quintessential Conan comic-book artist Barry Windsor-Smith illustrating several tales. He's terrific on what's almost a vignette about a teen-aged Conan, "The Frost Giant's Daughter." And he hits an all-time high with an adaptation of the Conan novella "Red Nails." There's a reprint volume devoted entirely to Windsor-Smith's colour and black-and-white Conan work for Marvel, if you're so inclined.
The rest of the volume, almost entirely written by long-time Conan scribe/adapter Roy Thomas, is mostly high quality as well. Thomas' Conan was always more stereotypically heroic than Robert E. Howard's original, but he can still be a bit of a jerk at times. Highlights include the oft-imitated crucifixion of Conan from an adaptation of Howard's "A Witch Shall Be Born" and an original team-up with Howard's female barbarian Red Sonya. John Buscema, who penciled more Conan stories at Marvel than anyone else, gives us his older-looking Conan throughout, with Tony DeZuniga and others ably inking Buscema or drawing him themselves. It's too bad these volumes weren't reprinted at their original magazine-page size, though -- the art and lettering can get a bit cramped at points in the comic-book-page dimensions of the collection. Recommended.
Dr. Spektor Volume 1: written by Mark Waid; illustrated by Neal Edwards and Christian Ward (2014): Enjoyable reboot of a Silver Age Gold Key hero about whom I know absolutely nothing. Veteran scribe Mark Waid gives us a master of the mystic arts who's also a TV personality and a bit of a knob. The art is competent, though never particularly mystical or surreal. It's a book about a magician that could use an injection of the surreal and the non-representational on the artistic side. Lightly recommended.
Superman: Camelot Falls Vol. 1 and 2: written by Kurt Busiek; illustrated by Carlos Pacheco and Jesus Merino (2006-2007; collected 2009): Lengthy Superman story that appeared intermittently in about a year-and-a-half's worth of Superman comics gets collected here, with art primarily by Carlos Pacheco and story by Kurt Busiek. It's among the finest Superman stories of the last 25 years in both art and story. Pacheco is a clean, dynamic penciler with just the right hint of whimsy in his art. Busiek's Superman is forthright and stalwart though occasionally plagued by doubt.
Busiek riffs on a Superman story from the early 1970's, "Must There Be A Superman?", as Superman discovers that the presence of he and his fellow heroes will ultimately lead to the destruction of all human life on Earth. Or will it?
Busiek brings back Atlantean super-magician Arion to present a superhero-tinged version of Vico's cyclical view of history. There will always be a Rise, there will always be a Fall, there will always be another Rise, and so on, but the prevention of that Fall by Superman and friends will cause the Fall to build in power until when it comes, there will be no subsequent Rise again. Humanity will perish in the turbo-charged wave of darkness. Arion wants Superman to retire intentionally so this future won't come to pass. But if Superman won't retire, Arion will retire him forcibly and then start the next wave of darkness himself before it builds any further. To Arion, the ends justify the means, no matter how many billions must die to ensure humanity's survival.
It may sound grim, but Busiek keeps things hopeful throughout: Arion may be wrong. And Superman remains heroic and dedicated to preserving life, as he should. Busiek introduces a new villain for Superman, Khyber, who grows on one over the course of the story. He is in many ways an attempt to give Superman his own Ra's Al Ghul, an immortal enemy with designs on global domination and a patience born of immortality. Only the name, which seems to be an attempt to meld the historic and ongoing importance of the Khyber Pass with the sounds-similar 'Cyber,' is a bit vexing. Well, unless Busiek is playing with the Cockney rhyming slang construction of "Khyber Pass" as a stand-in for "Ass" (or "Arse"), which would be hilarious. In all, recommended.
