A SUGGESTION
By Alex Ness
WHY REVIEW?
In the past I took criticism here as being largely a matter of people
wanting something I am not about reflecting upon or creating. So I
didn't mind. Some folks don't like your outlook, how you present it, or
the content you cover. That is life. But some people seem to only
complain. They don't do it better, they don't do it, they just
criticize. I understand that too, but I don't need it. I'm well aware of
my flaws and mistakes in this life. People who only criticize don't
seem to enjoy life. I deal with depression and perhaps a hell of a lot
of other flaws. I don't always seek joy, but I prefer that. I think
humanity has reached a place where everything we do or say or think
whatever the quality of that content, is open season on our
dissatisfaction with existence. We feel entitled to complain. As a
matter of the fact, middle class Americans in various eras were taught to always seek the
bright side. To not speak unless you can speak well of whatever you
speak about or who you speak about, crap like that.
But I was not someone who liked to force a smile in pics, when I was told to smile it made it twice as hard to fake one that would make the other people happy. I also thought if you are not allowed to reply honestly why do people ask how I am doing? It seemed to double down upon the lie of reality.
I was only for a short time
on a group blog that was peopled with three seekers of joy, and eight haters of
all. I left after a while, not because I hated it, but because working
with the others depressed the Hell out of me. At the time I was also
going through cancer, and other illness, but it would be most true to
say, I can't maintain my weak grip upon hope surrounded by those who
mock those who do. I produced 90% of the content of a group blog than
the whole of the group that had invited me to be there. As such when
those blog members began criticizing my being always on the front page,
astounding me, I said to myself, OK, let us see how they do if I do not
produce. And that group blog died from lack of articles, and a bitter
way of looking at the entire world, but particularly, comics. I've not
been contacted by any member of that blog since 2014 or so, nor do I
wish any to contact me.
But that's life.
NEW (to me) BOOKS YOU SHOULD READ
The Architect
Date 2007
Mike Baron: Writer
Ande Tong: Artist
Publisher: Big Head Press
I am used to Mike Baron writing good or great stories. Here he is teamed up with an artist who seems to be really good, but made me wonder about the ability for the two to work together. I am not saying anything bad about either. From page one I appreciated both art and story. It isn't always about the individual parts, or how they work together, it is about the story and how the story feels real, or feels less than real.
Born to different parents than those who raised him, a man grows up to a different life than his ancestor. Gil Hopper grows up, seeks normal, feels normal, until he learns of an ancestor who will change his course of life. He starts that by a buildings of a brilliant creator, an architect, and somewhat eccentric who does more than design buildings, he creates. In his drive to know all and design the world he lives in Roark Dexter Smith is more than human, he is a template for an ubermench, and is clearly an homage or analogue for the mind or life of Frank Lloyd Wright (or Joh Federson, Master of Metropolis). Gil Hopper wants to make use of what he inherits in the enormous and famous estate. The curses and subterranean creatures and dangers eventually come to change his mind about the work he receives.
There is a great deal that by including would spoil the work. Baron's effort is not to grab you by the throat and dictate to you the terms by which you will know the story, that is, he creates a horror story that is subtle, open to interpretation, and insists on further study. It is understated, and relatively dark and grows more so by the understanding the events that follow. Roark Dexter Smith is a dark soul, and the works of his mind follow after his darkened mind and life goals.
I did like all of the story, and it does contain art that is well done, writing that is masterful, with an end note that leaves the reader satisfied. However, while the story told is intriguing, the telling of this story feels to be less quality than the sum of its parts. I think it is well done but, there is a feeling that I can't shake that certain artists have a style more appropriate than the manga/anime inspire Tong's style. As such, I was still left wanting more of this story and setting, but wonder if a different artistic approach would have helped.
Escape
Issue 1, Volume 1
Date: 2025
Rick Remender: Writer
Daniel Acuña: Artist
Publisher: Image
This is an amazing and painful work to read. Focusing upon a bomber strike on the enemy heartland, a crew of speaking animals people lead the reader to appreciate and understand that the story will be one about the horror of war. So many are lost in the endeavor, for every plane, and for every civilian on the ground, as well as the enemy defense corps. It reminds of the films Memphis Belle, 12 O'Clock High and The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress. When the bomber is so injured that the return home is impossible, the pilot chooses to fly on to the target, and by the time he does, the crew is mostly dead. He parachutes out, and learns, he is now on the run, in the heart of the city he just bombed.
This work is amazing in the way it presents such a sacrifice of lives for results of destruction. Both sides are left bleeding. Chatter among crew shows they are bright and duty bound, rather than the murderers that propaganda would show. Only now, on the ground amidst the destruction and fires. It isn't a hard read in as much as it shows war in a comic story. But that is something few willingly enter. That it is a hard read for what it discusses, makes the reward of sympathy and understanding that much more worth doing.
Remender is fine writer, and I've not read anything by him that wasn't good. As a result I am not surprised by how powerful it struck. The art was amazing, it was neither too simple or nor did it appear as caricature or satire. It truly worked in ways that went further than most such efforts.
I haven't read further, but know some of those issues have come out. It will no doubt be collected, but issue by issue will no doubt be harrowing, due to the time between episodes. No matter that, buying singles as they appear help the creative team to find their work collected.
Spider-Man Noir: The Gwen Stacy Affair
Issues 1, 2
Date: 2025
Erik Larsen: Writer
Andrea Broccardo: Artist
Publisher: Marvel
I read issue #1 quickly and chose to let it simmer, until #2 came along.
Since I am friends with Erik some might say I am biased, but really, back when I thought I could write comics I came up with a bunch of concepts and mock covers, but most rarely went anywhere. In the present I rarely do this because as a poet, as a journalist for popular media, and a historian, most of my life is about reporting what I feel, think, do... I showed many of these to Erik and he said they were amateurish. Damn right they were. But I appreciated knowing. Good relationships in general don't flourish with minced truths and vagaries. If my work ever had a reason to happen, I'd hope he'd see the change and maturity.
I know all that wasn't necessary, but you are reading this for free, so scroll to this point and get right into it. Noir is a special genre. The normal orientation of hero being good and villain being evil isn't always the case. It doesn't always feature a night scene with deep shadows. It doesn't always involve hustlers and junkies, prostitutes and private eyes but it can. However, it does involve a period of time, it has guns and criminals, people crossing lines of class, race, legality, and more. It also has a crime or many, and someone trying to figure out who did what to whom. Fatalism is present, often. Morality is not a concrete subject. Cynicism is present, but not so much that it disallows kindness or good choices. Those just come for the subjects at a higher cost.
It is 1939, and the world is a mess, and it is also pregnant with opportunity and change. NYC is a beehive of activity and Peter still features crime and solving of them. As such, the flavor of the work is perfectly done for me. I think of the voice over narrative found in a great many Noir works. Peter Parker in this setting, is a private detective, and when he hunts the bad guys, he does so at night as Spider-Man. As such, the punchy narrative, with humor and points of plot furthered by the chatter.
Issue #1 begins with a variety of possible cues about the direction this will take, but when Peter is in office, an attractive woman comes into office door view. She wants to hire Peter to look into the death of her father, George Stacy, Police chief of NYPD. Yes reader, the attractive young woman is Gwen Stacy. Peter is certainly moved in more ways than one. However, before it all goes much further, the visit to the Archive of the NYPD reveals that there is information that more than points to the George Stacy case, it reveals that Spider-Man has been implicated in events of a criminal nature. How this could be is not yet resolved, in fact, it suggests events that are not exceptionally known to Peter. And that means, many possibilities. Was there an impersonation, as someone other than Peter Parker in the costume? Were there people in view who might have taken part in the killing of George Stacy? In fact Peter learns a lot that drives him to find the unpleasant truth, and it does involve him.
But when the American Bund launches the German Man-Bat to take down Spider-Man, we get the hint that there will be certain potential Nazi villains coming into view. Or not, they might not be part of the search for the killer of George Stacy. I find a mystery left at a point to be unsatisfying, but in a five part series, you don't likely have long to wait.
Issue #2 A gang war takes place here, but with Spider-Man so often shutting them down the Scorpion gang teams up with the Nazi gang led by Hardboil to bump off Spider-Man. But Peter manages to survive, even as Gwen Stacy seems to be attracted to Peter, despite his desire to resolve what he doesn't yet know the answer to. Also, the Nazi rally he attended by mistake, seems to suggest, there are more Nazi spies, agent provocateur, and people just prone to be Nazi in outlook, than anyone would suspect, except that the actual war begins September 1, 1939. As Hitler and his minions suspected, America is too wrapped up in the depression, their desire to be neutral and not drawn into another European war to notice the danger that approaches.
These two comics had a lot of info in them, and the art was perfect for the story, and didn't resort to excess shadows, but the answer to the question will involve violence, which seems to be a must in noir crime stories. I think actually, there is a clarity in the art that feels like an older comic, in a good way. As such, it is really lovely work, not totally consumed by those damn words and thoughts! But then again, here comes the violence...
Erik Larsen's writings do two things I think that make the comic well worth reading, he made Peter the civilian at similar man we know as Peter Parker 2025, or whenever your reading journey began. He wrote his character in ways to draw you into, an as yet solved mystery, with characters you might recognize. The works do not feel overly connected to the real world, of current Marvel, the story actually builds so that a greater story can be seen approaching. If you write a story like this and do not remind the readers of where they are, you better start now or it is a pointless venture if no one associates this guy with the guy they know and love.
I don't often let alone regularly read Spider-Man. I did when Mr. Larsen wrote it and drew the dang thing. I think I am here for the reader who doesn't live or die knowing all the facts and events of the Marvel Universe, but is always open to an escape into the same. And this was 9 bucks or so of great fun.
HUMOR
I was recently asked what are the funniest comics that one might search for. I could answer with those comics shown below, as they make me laugh a great deal. But, I have always felt that humor is very much contextual to the times, and of course, even more so as context by each reader's life experience and native outlook. I enjoy the clever but more, the exuberant silly that is reflected in those shown here.
REAL WORLD COMICS/Graphic Novels
Know that, dark real life comics adapted into comic form can fail at times. Not because of any portion of the creative book that results. Brought to light showed a world where America's secret police sold drugs in urban areas to fund black ops. Americans, therefore, were made to pay for the actions that they might not approve, and in doing, sent many urban living Americans to jail. Breakthrough was a beautiful book exploring the power of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Pyongyang is eyewitness to life in the world's most oppressive dictatorship. El Salvador tells the story of the secret war and civil war there that the early 80s could not fully explore due to censors and mainstream media short attention. It is exceedingly well done. Real War stories told the stories of the often misrepresented facts and personal experiences of those who went to war. It is biased, but it is also not ashamed to say what it is. King is a biography that according to some was biased towards the left. If it is, most Americans have a personal outlook on King that is also likely to be biased by their own politics. Plutocracy: Chronicles of a Global Monopoly is a work that shows how profit based economic policies can lead to a government and society that is not actually merit based, but profit based. It is an unfortunate family that grows up together in such a place. This isn't all the comics based upon politics, but politics in definition means the means of governing a people. So, it is bears fruit to read works that disturb and challenge you.
LINKS:
MY POETRY: AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com
HERE: Poplitiko.Blogspot.Com
MY PUBLISHED WORKS
Social Media:
https://bsky.app/profile/alexanderness63.bsky.social
https://x.com/alexnesspoetry
https://www.facebook.com/alex.ness.549436
