DC Comics Classics Library: Justice League of America by George Perez Volume 1 (1980-84/ Collected 2009): written by Gerry Conway; penciled by George Perez; inked by Frank McLaughlin and John Beatty: The big flaw with DC's quickly cancelled DC Comics Classics Library was their ridiculously high price for what was often less than 200 pages of reprints. This volume is a pretty good case in point.
George Perez drew fewer than 12 issues of the Justice League of America back in the early 1980's. That should be one reprint volume. Nope. The DC Comics Classics Library broke that up into two volumes, padding this first one with Perez JLA postcards from the mid-1980's. The quality of the reprints is fine, though. And I bought this one for about 70%-off Canadian. So I can't complain about my deal.
Gerry Conway's scripts are cosmic and very much Marvelesque in the amount of bickering among JLA members. Perez's artwork is already detailed as Hell and extremely strong in the characterization and action departments. He also assays a very nice two-page spread of Metron of the New Gods and some other nice visuals in locations that include the planet Apokolips, the JLA satellite, and Siberia.
Perez's introduction notes that he didn't think either of the inkers assigned to him were a good fit. He's right, though neither John Beatty nor Frank McLaughlin is terribly misapplied. At least DC didn't assign Vince Colletta to ink him. It's an enjoyable, too-short voyage into superhero adventure. We even get a continuity-heavy explanation of super-android Red Tornado's secret origin. Bonus. Recommended.
Adventures of Superman: Jose Luis Garcia- Lopez (1975-1981/ Collected 2013): written by Martin Pasko, Gerry Conway, Elliot S. Maggin, David Michelinie, Len Wein, and Denny O'Neil; illustrated by : Jose Luis Garcia- Lopez with inking on some stories by Vince Colletta, Bob Oksner, Frank Springer, Dan Adkins, Steve Mitchell, Joe Giella, and Dick Giordano:
Jose Luis Garcia- Lopez became the marketing face of Superman for a long time beginning in the early 1980's -- if it's a paper plate or place mat or bag of French fries with Superman artwork on it released between about 1980 and 1995, the artwork is probably by Jose Luis Garcia- Lopez. He also did a nice job on the early 1980's Batman/Hulk team-up.
Jose Luis Garcia- Lopez is also one of a handful of the finest Superman artists of the 1970's and 1980's. There's a fluidity, grace, and lightness to his superhero work that's a rare treat. He didn't always get the best inkers (he was really best inked by himself), but his work still comes through. Collecting stories from his early days as a recurring Superman artist, this volume also collects the enjoyable, rare Superman vs. Wonder Woman tabloid-sized comic from the late 1970's.
There are a lot of other stand-outs here, including a three-parter in which writer Gerry Conway really tried to Marvelize Superman (for awhile, the Man of Steel even believes he's really a mutant) and a nifty two-part team-up with the Flash. Through it all, Jose Luis Garcia- Lopez draws everything with grace and precision and a balletic approach to action. Highly recommended.
Batman, Inc. Volume 1: Demon Star (2012-2013/ Collected 2013): written by Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham; illustrated by Chris Burnham and Frazer Irving: Confusingly, this is really the second volume of Grant Morrison's Batman, Inc., but the first after the Flashpoint line-wide reboot of DC Comics back in 2011-2012. As the whole magilla is one storyline, this is not a beginning but rather a middle. And Batman, Inc. actually involved an overarching story that went all the way back to Morrison talking over the writing reins on Batman in 2006. This lovely fellow explains the seven years of the Bat here . In short, Batman, Inc. is really the end of a seven-year Batman story. Hoo ha!
If you're going to read the whole Morrison Batman run, then you're going to have to read this volume. By this time, the zany pomo Scotsman seemed to be running out of serious steam: this whole volume feels like about two issues stretched out to interminable length. It's still enjoyable enough, I guess, and Chris Burnham's art is mostly swell in its occasionally odd melding of Frank Quitely and Geof Darrow.
That the overall arc straddles Flashpoint requires one not to dwell on the absurd continuity ramifications of this: Flashpoint said that what appeared to be about 15 years of the Batman when the previous continuity ended was now five years. But Morrison kept everything -- every previous Robin, every Batman imitator in a foreign country -- for that new five years. So don't think about it. It's too absurdly crowded to imagine. And DC's new, ultra-successful Rebirth reboot scrambles all that up anyway. Lightly recommended, but don't read it until you've read the previous volumes of Morrison's Batman.
The Tale of One Bad Rat: written and illustrated by Bryan Talbot (1994-95/This edition 2010): Writer-artist Bryan Talbot's tale of abuse and recovery as filtered through a young woman's interest in both Beatrix Potter's life and work is a lovely, tough comic that actually appeals to people who don't normally read comics. As the afterword to this new(ish) edition notes, the book now shows up a lot in middle schools and high schools and counselling centres.
It isn't a boring pamphlet, however, but a sad and funny bildungsroman (and, indeed, a kunstlerroman) about teen-aged Helen's efforts to deal with the trauma of her sexual abuse at her father's hands. She runs away, first to London, England and then elsewhere as she pursues her vision of Beatrix Potter's life and works all the way to the Lake District where Potter (a pen-name) wrote her famous and influential children's books.
Helen's accompanied by her pet rat for the journey. The demonization of the rat in Western culture resonates with Helen's own experiences as an abused and otherwise unwanted child. Helen also grows towards having her own artistic voice to express her pain and anguish, at first by copying and recopying Potter's illustrations from memory. Gradually, Helen begins to draw new material of her own.
The Tale of One Bad Rat is a moving graphic novel, beautifully illustrated throughout by Talbot whether the scene is a vista in the Lake District or a grimy London house where various runaways are squatting. Highly recommended.
Nameless: written by Grant Morrison; illustrated by Chris Burnham and Nathan Fairbairn (2015): Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham forge a weird, somewhat non-linear journey into neo-Lovecraftiana in this six-issue Image Comics miniseries. Surprises are part of the package, so we'll stick with a bare plot description: something ancient and terrible is falling to Earth inside an asteroid, and only the eponymous Nameless and a crew of private astronauts can stop it.
Nothing is really that simple, of course, as the graphic novel bounces off everything from Mayan mythology to the Arthur Machen horror story "The Black Seal" on the way to an apocalyptic climax.
Why Nameless is literally Nameless (or, as he notes, 'Nameless is a name!') is only one of the mysteries that may or may not be answered by the bulk of the miniseries. Morrison plays with narrative unreliability here, while artist Burnham does a nice job of illustrating moments of extreme grue, normal city streets, and the occasional squirmy Lovecraftian God-thing. The ending is tricky, like everything else, so pay close attention to what's happening in the concluding panels. Recommended.
