Ten Thousand Years in Hell (Action)

 

by M. Tillieux (Author) & Jenna Allen (Translator)

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fantagraphics; 1st edition (August 1, 2017)

 Hardcover, 96 pages

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A classic series finally translated into English. Often when the greatest artists, writers, and series of European origin are discussed, the name Tillieux and the series Gil Jordan are mentioned. High praise is heaped upon these two, but alas myself being an ignorant American and cannot read French - mostly by personal preference - I haven’t been able to read any of it.  By the way the protagonist’s surname is spelled Jourdan in French, but when translated to English they changed it to Jordan. Not sure why. 

This book contains two albums of the series, which were originally published in 1960 and 1961 respectively in the Belgium comic Siprou during its golden age. Gil Jordan ran from 1956 until 1978 when its creator died. Essentially similar to Tin Tin only with a more adult edge, Gil Jordan worked as a private investigator. His stories involved him being hired by people to solve crimes and mysteries and generally getting himself into trouble.  

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In the first story, “Ten Thousand years in Hell”, Jordan and his trusty sidekick and comic relief, Crackerjack, journey to a South American dictatorship in order to find a kidnapped weapons designer. Arrested on trumped-up charges of espionage, they are taken to the prison-mines of Xique-Xique, located in the middle of a scorching desert and from which escape is said to be impossible. This is the better of the two tales and contains some decent action and a tension-mounting chase scene, which is really excellent. 

For the second, “Boom and Bust” Jordan receives a threatening letter which is actually addressed to someone else. Intrigued, he and Crackerjack go to see the letter's intended receiver in another city. There, they become embroiled in what would be a ridiculously complicated bank heist. Too much of this story depends on luck and the main characters just happening to run into things, which fit the plot together. 

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Cruel Summer (Crime)

by Ed Brubaker  (Author), Sean Phillips (Artist), Jacob Phillips (Artist)

Publisher ‏: ‎ Image Comics; Illustrated edition (August 18, 2020)

Hardcover, 288 pages

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For those who were looking forward to some more Criminal action, this story is the answer to their prayers. It travels back in time to the original anti-hero of the series, Teeg Lawson, to demonstrate how he lost everything and became the foul jerk from the original series. This book collects issues 1 and 5-12 of the third volume of Criminal. It is just as brutal, amoral, and heartbreaking as every other arc in this series - Perhaps more so, as long time readers already know each of these characters are already doomed.

Taking place in the summer of 1988, the narrative flips position with each issue, giving every character a chance in the limelight and to add their voice. The technique gives depth to that character’s action in other stories, where they are relegated to a minor appearance. Thus this straight-forward tale is expanded in ways which would be impossible had the story been handled with only a single main character. In this case every character is the protagonist and antagonist simultaneously.

The plot revolves around one of our previous heroes, Teeg Lawless - well named - falling in love and straightening out his life. Not to say he goes straight, but his new love teaches him a better way of life, this making him a much better and more careful thief. However, his new ladylove causes more problems than she solves. The plot is excellent, the art is as well. The only niggling difficulty I have with this book is that the motive of the private investigator seems a little thin, more time should’ve been taken to show him as a mentally disturbed individual. 

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Project Superpowers: The Owl (Superhero)

 

by J.T. Krul  (Author), Heubert Kahn Michael (Artist), Alex Ross (Artist)

Publisher ‏: ‎ Dynamite Entertainment (January 4, 2017)

Softcover, 166 pages

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This is part of Dynamite publishers Project Superheroes line where the writers took nearly every single public domain superhero from the forties and fifties and shoved them all in the same comic, creating an instant universe with a self-built backstory. While the line is almost defunct, if not actually defunct by this time, it managed to reassert a lot of old characters who were left out in the cold. The problem that a lot of people seemed to have - based solely on what I’ve read online, none of my friends even heard of it, but then they’re all illiterate - is that most of the characters had been in limbo so long, most modern readers had no idea who they were. Second, a lot of them had redundant powers, backstories, and even costumes. I remember the original series lacked differentiating one from the other - in fact most of the time they didn’t even try to give some backstory.

Which is where I supposed these spin-off volumes come in. To tell and reflect on the personal tales of those characters involved in the bigger picture dynamics. The Owl is their latest, and probably last, addition to this group. The character of the The Owl was first published by Dell comics in Crackajack Funnies #25 and had a brief popular flourish for about three years, before being dropped and forgotten for decades.

The character was really a generic makeup of other superheroes. A policeman who found being a vigilante foiled crime much easier than following the law. He was fitted with tons of gadgets, including a “black light” which threw darkness instead of light, and a specialized Owl Car. His girlfriend discovered his secret identity and then joined him as Owl Girl. I mean, how many other superheroes fall into this category? In reality, The Owl comes across as a poor man’s Batman and that is nearly impossible to shake off, but the tale in this book does raise some interesting questions about moral absolutism.

The story presented in this volume, deals with The Owl being literally a man out of time. All the heroes having emerged from their magical prison after eighty years, threw him for a loop. He especially misses his fiancée, Owl Girl, and then discovers that her granddaughter has become the new Owl Girl. Unfortunately, her style of vigilantism does not match his. This new owl Girl is violent, nearly unhinged, and plunders the crooks to support her lifestyle. Worst of all, she does not hesitate to kill.  The Owl has a difficult decision ahead of him.

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Excalibur: Weird War III (Superhero)

 

by Michael Higgins  (Author)

Publisher ‏: ‎ Marvel Books (May 1, 1991)

Softcover, 64 pages

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This is a spin-off graphic novel from the Excalibur series from the 1980s, which itself was a spin-off title from the X-Men after the Mutant Massacre event, where it seemed a lot of the X-Men died, but they were really just hiding. Personally I always thought the Excalibur was an excuse for Chris Claremont to play around with a lot of Alan Moore’s ideas from his run on Captain Britain - those first twenty issues and the initial graphic novel certainly used a lot of his ideas. It was made up primarily of Shadowcat, Captain Britain, Nightcrawler, Phoenix, and the rest. 

Some people loved this title, some hated it. It certainly tended to be a lot more light hearted and tongue in cheek than most  X-titles - which was not a bad thing. This story is an addition to an early Excalibur story line, The Cross-Time Caper, which ran from issues 12 -24. Apparently it was originally slated for nine issues, but another three were tacked on, along with this graphic novel. In the original Cross-Time Caper, the heroes mainly fought with their alternative universe - Earth 593 - counterparts from a world where the Nazi’s one and Charles Xavier was one of Hitler’s top men. 

In this story, somehow both universes - 616 and 593 - are merging and Excalibur finds their personalities fused with their evil counterparts. The team must first discover what is happening to both worlds, and then discover a method of separating the realities. The art is great, kinetic, and full of energy, but the story has a few plot holes and seems a bit rushed. They could’ve used another ten pages to make things really flow. But it was still a decent enough story, just not the most memorable one. 

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Will Eisner's The Spirit Book II (Superhero)

 

by Kyle Baker (Author, Artist), Darwyn Cooke  (Author, Artist), et. al.

 Publisher ‏: ‎ DC Comics; Assumed First Edition (October 1, 2008)

 Hardcover, 176 pages

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This is the second volume of DC’s attempt to revive the Will Eisner’s classic - and I mean classic as in having been created in the Golden Age of the 1940s -character The Spirit. It collects issues 7 - 13. Unfortunately, the other 19 issues of this series was never collected into graphic novel form. But they are all available from My Comic Shop for a relatively cheap price - less than cover price. 

I think D.C. paid a lot for the rights to this character because I remember them pushing this comic hard, as well as an abortive attempt at an alternative universe called Firstwave. This was put out, I believe in connection with that absolutely awful 2008 film, The Spirit, which proves once and for all Frank Miller can’t direct. This comic is heads-and-shoulders above the film however, with Denny Colt returning from the dead - wink wink - to fight crime as the domino masked hero, The Spirit. 

A certain percentage of critics have hated on this series, claiming that it was not as good as the original. I have to stop them there. In my opinion, and I have read the bulk of Eisner’s work, these stories are just as good as the originals. Granted, most of the characters are recycled from Eisner’s work, so it is still dependent on the creator’s ingenuity. In fact the story, Sand Serif - originally created for Eisner’s aborted character John Law, then rewritten for The Spirit - simply retells the same story, only with new art. 

And the art here is phenomenal. How could it not be with talents like the late Darwin Cooke, Kyle Baker, Eduardo Risso, and Chris Sprouse, among others, working on the stories? They succeed in retaining the action and tension of the original series, as well as putting their original stamps on classic material. Well worth a look. 

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The Rattler (Crime)

 

                 by Jason McNamara  (Author), Greg Hinkle  (Artist)

Publisher: Image Comics (March 29, 2016)

Softcover, 104 pages

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This graphic novel is a little like The Vanishing - the Danish original from 1988 - mixed with John Walsh’s story, with the added spice of a supernatural element sprinkled in. A man and his girlfriend break down on the side of the road in a rural area - which one is unspecific - and a woman drives by with a pickup. Long story short, she drives off with the man’s girlfriend, never to be seen again. Flash-forward ten years later, the man has built his entire business around finding missing people and tracking convicted felons. The game becomes afoot when, after a paroled felon attacks him at his home and he is forced to kill the criminal, the man hears his former girlfriends leaking from the dead man’s mouth, telling him where she is. 

The story is a fast paced thriller, filled with weird backstabs, fake-outs, red herrings and some brutal violence. The choice to color everything in grayscale except for the blood was a very stylish choice adding to the grim nature of the topic and the shades of un-likability each character displays. The protagonist, Stephen, even though he acts for a righteous cause which ultimately acts for the good of society is an impossible character to feel for. He is too rigid, allowing his tragedy to make him a bitter human being, incapable of love or being loved. The rest of the characters are any better, but Stephen is by far the most interesting one and the psychological core of the novel. This is a nasty work, with an unhappy ending, but it is also a book I couldn’t put down and ended up devouring it in one sitting.

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The Lore of Love (The Enchanted World)

 

               by Ellen Galford (Editor) & the Editors of Time-Life Books

          Publisher : Time-Life Books; First Edition (January 1, 1987)

                                         Hardcover, 143 pages

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“Love engendered dreams and nightmares, begat ecstasy or madness, inspired poetry and madness in equal measure. The human heart was its playground and its battlefield, but few folks were foolish enough to imagine that the human will was its master. Young people passed on charms that would, they hoped, enabled them to see the face or hear the name of a future mate. But they knew full well that they had no power to change what was thus disclosed to them.” 

As you might be able to guess, the theme of this volume are love stories, or trysts, which intersect with the macabre, the divine, or magic. Because of that a lot of the stories are very similar Boy A sees Girl B (or vice versa), falls in love, and either connives to win the other’s love, or the pair are in love but then separated for some reason. The denouement being the pair end up together, if not in this life, then the next. The art is superb as always, perfectly complimenting the stories with lush touching material. 

Love stories are ubiquitous. Tales from all over the world are here. From Heroic India, to Arthurian Legend, to Ancient Greece, to Aztec times, to Imperial China, to old Persia. Familiar ones such as the story of Narcissus to wild and odd tales like The Aztec’s Couple Reunion in Flames. Every story here is worth a gander. Volume seventeen here of The Enchanted World series is a treasure. 

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