Vertigo miniseries tour Part 27: Vertical; My Faith in Frankie; Midnight, Mass: Here there be monsters; Bite Club

Vertical was a one-shot by Steven T. Seagle, Mike Allred, Philip Bond, and Laura Allred. As the title implies, it was done in an experimental vertical format, with a six-panel grid on each set of facing pages. It’s half the width of a normal comic book, so a pair of facing pages gives the same amount of page space as a single comic book page. Brando Bale leaps off of buildings–always miraculously finding a way to survive the landing–and it is those splash pages that justify the format (the panel layout does make use of the format, but only the falling sequences actually require it as they were drawn). Otherwise it’s a love story set at the Warhol Factory of the ’60s, the center of Pop Art. Brando’s love interest Zilly Kane is a dead ringer for Gwen Price, the lead character in iZombie, a comparison that of course could not have come up at the time. I guess Vertical didn’t make enough of an impression on me to bring it to mind when I started reading iZombie.

The four-part miniseries My Faith in Frankie was written by Mike Carey and illustrated by Sonny Liew & Marc Hempel (Carey and Liew were co-creators). It’s about a young woman who has a personal god named Jerivan. The situation is helpful with most things in life, as Frankie has unbelievable good luck. But her love life is the exact opposite (jealous god and all that). Her first dates are afflicted with such bad luck that she never has a second date. Of course Frankie’s first serious love interest is pretty unusual. Her friend Dean was brought back from the dead by Jerivan. But he spent some time in Hell, so he’s got revenge on his mind, and is definitely not what he appears. The big climax explains the meaning of the title: Frankie has to save her god, instead of the other way around.  So it’s kind of a light treatment of some of the themes Carey was writing about in Lucifer at the time. The book is structured in short chapters (ten per issue), which helps to pack a lot of story in. Carey doesn’t have to write transitions: it’s like a series of cinematic quick cuts. In the end it was a fun read, much lighter than most Vertigo fare. It’s basically a Young Adult romantic comedy, but with gods and demons.

Midnight, Mass: Here there be monsters was the six issue sequel to John Rozum’s first Vertigo miniseries, illustrated this time by Paul Lee. As the title implies, the focus is more on the life of the monsters than famous paranormal investigators Adam and Julia Kadmon. It features the return of the messianic monster Magellan, who the Kadmons encountered in the first series. They barely survived that meeting, and now Magellan means to lead a group of monsters to take over an entire town, murdering all of the human inhabitants. Each part focuses on a different monster, some in league with Magellan, others acting as moles for the Kadmons. The climactic battle includes help from the still-formidable elder Grandmother Kadmon, and a surprise assist from assistant Jenny. In the end I liked this sequel more than I remembered from the first reading. The series was bedeviled by numerous minor printing and editing errors, which Rozum wrote about on the DC/Vertigo message boards at the time. Here they are for posterity:

Before you buy your copy of M.M.:HTBM #2, flip through the first few pages and if you don’t see ads for Wrestlemania or Metal Gear Solid, then your copy is missing pages. I got three copies that had this problem, which means there are probably more out there.

If you find any like that, let the store manager know so that some person after you doesn’t go home and think “This story makes no sense.”

If your issue is complete, and it still doesn’t make sense, here’s the place to chew me out.

Oh, and by the way, speaking of technical glitches–those black spots against the sky near the beginning are stars, not locusts. The art was supposed to be reversed, so those black dots were white on a black sky, but somewhere down the line it didn’t happen. [2/24/2004]

I’ll try and make this as spoiler free as possible. If you are worried about spoilers, read the story first and come back. There are a number of mistakes in issue #6, which I wasn’t thrilled about, especially with this being the last issue.

Here goes:

Page 1 – The title should be “Magellan,” not “Reprobus,” which was last issue’s title.

Page 4, panel 6: That should read “Incapacitation spell,” not “Incantation spell” which makes no sense.

Page 19, panel 2: The dialogue should be spoken by one of the guards instead of who is saying it.

panel 5: This is the entirely wrong character in that scene. the dialogue should be being spoken by the three-eyed goat character from back in issue #3.

Last page: We should see the occupants of the house.

I apologize, I’m not sure what happened. I was moving during the process of this issue being drawn and lettered, and did not see anything until the actual final printed copy. [6/24/2004]

Bite Club was a six issue miniseries written by Howard Chaykin & David Tischman, illustrated by David Hahn, with covers by Frank Quitely. It uses a crime family of Miami vampires as a metaphor for the immigrant experience. The story opens with the murder of family patriarch Eduardo Del Toro, and much of the action that follows centers around the inevitable power play that results. Eduardo’s final big surprise is delivered when the family learns that he had named his youngest son Leto to succeed him. Leto has entered the priesthood and been out of contact for a couple of years, so he’s as surprised as everyone else. After awhile he begins to warm to the role, but lacks the appetite for power displayed by his sister Risa and ex Carrie in the surprising climax. I enjoyed Bite Club on rereading, although I was struck by a few things that I didn’t notice when I was reading it month by month instead of all together. The first is the “Previously, in Bite Club” page that opens every issue after the first. It’s a great feature in a monthly, when it’s been a month since you read the previous installment. But it starts to become redundant when you’re reading them immediately. The second is how little vampirism has to do with the story. It’s basically a crime family story, where the family members just happen to be vampires. The illicit drug Plasmagoria is introduced early on as if it will play a major role, but winds up playing only a small part in the story.

Mr. Vertigo Reviews 15: Fairest Vol. 1: Wide Awake; iZOMBIE Vol.4: Repossession; American Vampire Volume Four

Fairest Vol. 1: Wide Awake is the first collection of the latest Fables spin-off. It’s off to a strong start with Bill Willingham doing the writing and Phil Jimenez on pencils (with Andy Lanning inking). It’s great to see Jimenez doing something non-superhero again: his work here is gorgeous. The motormouth little blue bottle imp in this arc is so much like Babe the Blue Ox from Jack of Fables that it’s eerie. Does Willingham have some kind of thing about diminutive blue characters? The setup of this series is quite different, though. It will be a series of stories featuring different female Fables, each illustrated by a different art team, making it more like a series of miniseries than a traditional ongoing title. Our heroine for the six-issue title arc is Briar Rose, aka Sleeping Beauty. She is awoken from her latest sleep (deliberately used as a weapon in her mission against the Adversary) by Ali Baba, Prince of Thieves. The Snow Queen is awoken at the same time, and she is not happy. The fates of the two women become further entwined when the powerful witch Hadeon the Destroyer shows up. Hadeon is the one who cursed Briar Rose with the sleeping sickness; she takes on the Snow Queen just because she’s spoiling for a fight. In the end Rose and the bottle imp hit the road together, so we’ll probably see them again.  The final issue in the collection is the one-shot “Lamia,” which fills in a significant bit of the history of Beauty and the Beast (written by Matthew Sturges, with art by Shawn McManus). It’s cast in the form of a noir detective story, which gives an indication of how varied the stories in the series may be.

iZOMBIE Vol.4: Repossession collects the last ten issues of the series. If the title had continued this probably would have been two trade paperbacks, but I guess a single fat volume was a more cost-efficient way to do it (it actually doesn’t feel especially fat, due to the thin glossy paper stock). Nice that Vertigo finished collecting the series, anyway, especially considering how acrimonious the split with Chris Roberson became. As the collection opens the town is still recovering from the zombie apocalypse. The National Guard is still on the street, and the Dead Presidents and the Fossers are there in force as well. The first half comes right up to the point of the arrival of the world-eating demon Xitalu. One of the issues (“Mix It Up”) was illustrated by guest artist J. Bone. His cartoony style would have made an interesting one-shot, but it’s jarring to have a regular issue look so different from the rest.  Jim Rugg’s guest shot illustrating “Monsters of Rock” fares much better. It probably also helps that his issue leads directly into the final four-issue arc, appropriately titled “The End.” This is where we find out if Roberson and Allred can stick the landing: ending an ongoing series well is at least as difficult as beginning it well. Amon spends the entire arc trying to get Gwen to take all of the souls in town, so she can sacrifice herself to Xitalu and save the world. Meanwhile Galatea is attempting to harness Xitalu’s power for herself. The tension builds–and the stakes grow higher for Gwen with the arrival of her entire family–until she is left to find her own solution. Her resolution is the closest thing possible to a happy ending, but without resorting to anything that the previous story could not explain. We even get a short epilogue describing the fates of all of Gwen’s friends (which includes starting a nonprofit support network for the undead named “iZombie.”) The series may have been cut short, but it doesn’t show in the concluding issues.

American Vampire Volume Four opens with “The Beast in the Cave,” a three-part story illustrated by Jordi Bernet. It begins in Missouri in 1863, showing the early history of Jim Book and Skinner Sweet as Sweet becomes Book’s foster brother. It quickly switches to 1871 with the brothers serving in the infantry, fighting the Apache in the New Mexico Territory. Here Snyder creates an alternate explanation for the legend of Mimiteh, a goddess of death: she’s actually a vampire (of course). Book and Skinner only see the aftermath of her reappearance, so they don’t realize that they’ve met up with an early–perhaps the first–American vampire. “Death Race” jumps forward to 1954 California, where a stereotypical teenage delinquent turns out to be a vampire hunter. There are several surprises, but the one with the most potential future impact is the new relationship between Skinner Sweet and and the Vassals, which is apparently a result of the incident on Taipan. “Agent Sweet” has an interesting ring to it. The Epilogue gives Pearl a new shock to deal with.  ”The Nocturnes” shifts the focus to Calvin, another character we last saw on Taipan. He finds himself dealing with a small town controlled by a group of werewolves. The first issue of the arc was illustrated by new guest artist Roger Cruz, the second by Riccardo Burchielli: they both blend well with regular artist Rafael Albuquerque. With Volume Five just out, I’ve fallen behind on this title, but it’s great to catch up.

Vertigo miniseries tour Part 26: Fight For Tomorrow; Zatanna: Everyday Magic; Blood and Water; Beware the Creeper

Fight For Tomorrow was a six-part Vertigo miniseries, created by writer Brian Wood and penciller Denys Cowan (Kent Williams did the inking and covers). It features a martial arts fighter with a shadowy past, so shadowy that at first I wasn’t quite sure where the story was going.  Eventually we learn that Cedric Zhang is a Buddhist monk who was kidnapped as a boy and forced to fight in kung fu competitions. He formed a bond with Christy, a fellow prisoner. As the story opens she has recently left him, and while trying to cope he competes in underground mixed martial arts fights in New York City. He’s also trying to be a father figure to Little Brother, an orphan who lives with his sister. One dramatic weakness: Wood doesn’t fully explain Cedric’s back story until the middle of issue 4. That’s a long time for a monthly reader to wait, and I remember having trouble following it at the time. The cover dates say that it came out in six consecutive monthly issues, but I recall at least one delay towards the end. Eventually he discovers that Christy is now with Sivan, their tormentor in the camps. She’s there by choice, so his efforts to free her are in vain. It’s not Brian Wood’s best work. It was trying to be a story about human trafficking, but the main focus was on Cedric’s personal pain, which Wood never clearly ties to his past. We get flashbacks, but it’s far from a clear story. All of the fight scenes make it look like a martial arts book, but we don’t quite get that either. And the resolution wasn’t worth waiting six issues for.

Zatanna: Everyday Magic was written by Paul Dini and illustrated by Rick Mays (with colors by Brian Miller). It’s kind of a cute version of Zatanna and John Constantine, which makes it an odd choice for a Vertigo one-shot. Although it does earn the Mature Readers tag by virtue of all the swearing and sex in it. Zatanna spends most of the story trying to have a normal everyday life (hence the subtitle), finally concluding that she’s only really at home on the stage. The big magical adventure comes from having to rescue Constantine from a curse laid on him by a rival female magician (due to a romantic entanglement, of course). Dini and Mays have a lot of fun with goth culture here, which makes it a bit subversive for Vertigo. Not that all Vertigo readers are goths, of course, but there’s a core group of Sandman fans who are. Dini gets the “charming rogue” aspects of Constantine right, but the portrayal is too light to be completely believable. These days DC probably would have slightly toned down the adult themes and published this as a DCU title.

Blood and Water was a five-part vampire miniseries written by Judd Winick and illustrated by Tomm Coker. It’s Winick’s only Vertigo work, and a creative approach towards the vampire genre. Winick’s vampires live forever, but they consume only animal blood; they have no vulnerability to crosses or sunlight; and they are stronger than normal humans, with more acute senses. It makes being a vampire look awfully attractive, especially when you are terminally ill like Adam Heller. When his best friends Nicky and Joshua turn him (which they do by having him drink some of their blood), he becomes vibrantly healthy. The three of them begin enjoying his new life, but something has awoken an ancient evil. It turns out that Adam has a genetic history tying him to an ancient race of super-vampires called the Tribe. Both times I read this miniseries I felt that Winick was pushing his version of vampire mythology a little too far. Something had to be there to create conflict, but I had trouble buying into this. Although upon reflection there have been a number of vampire stories that include ancient vampires with tremendous strength and unusual abilities, so maybe it’s not that much of a stretch. But I also had trouble with Adam’s sudden change of heart at the conclusion. He  goes from being a self-centered hedonist to admitting that he brought his health problems on himself by shooting heroin, and then resolves to be a better man after defeating the Tribe. It’s all a little too sudden, and too pat to be completely believable.

Beware the Creeper was a five-part miniseries written by Jason Hall and illustrated by Cliff Chiang (who also did the covers). It was the first lengthy, high-profile illustration project Chiang did after his assistant editor stint at DC. This Creeper is female, and the story is set in Paris in the 1920s, so there is no direct connection to the original Creeper created by Steve Ditko. But Zatara appears, so it is apparently set in the DC Universe. Twin sisters Judith and Madeline Benoir are at the center of the story. Judith is a flamboyant painter active in the Surrealist movement, while Madeline is a playwright (and the “sensible one” of the pair). The other key players are police inspector Ric Allain, who is in love with Judith because of letters she sent him during the war (which were actually written by Madeline); and Mathieu Arbogast, a would-be painter from a rich family. After Judith is raped by Mathieu a woman calling herself the Creeper begins to terrorize bourgeois Paris society, focusing on the Arbogast family in particular. The situation escalates as the Surrealists adopt the Creeper as one of their own, while the Arbogast family fights back. The identity of the Creeper is in question until the very end, when a twist reveals her identity and delivers justice at the same time. The historical setting allows for the appearance of characters like artists Andre Breton and Man Ray (with brief appearances by other Surrealist artists), as well as writer Ernest Hemingway. I enjoyed this series at the time, and it holds up well. I could have sworn I remembered a trade collection, but Amazon lists one due to be released on August 6, 2013.

Mr. Vertigo Reviews 14: Northlanders Book 7: The Icelandic Trilogy; Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland; B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: Russia

The final Northlanders collection, Northlanders Book 7: The Icelandic Trilogy tells the story of the Norse settlement of Iceland. Each of the three-issue arcs was illustrated by a different artist: Paul Azaceta is the first. It covers 871 – 886, the period of the first emigration from Norway. It’s a hard life, and Val Hauker toughens up his son Val Hauksson to cope with it. Perhaps too much: Val kills his mother, and eventually sends his father into the wilderness. The second arc  jumps to the fifth generation in 999-1000, as society adapts to the introduction of Christianity. This one was illustrated by Declan Shalvey, whose work I haven’t seen before. It suits this series well. The third arc is set in 1260, with a tenth generation Hauksson and his eleventh generation son. There are rumblings of a takeover by the king of Norway, and son Oskar pushes his father aside so he can wage war on the other clans. This turns out to be a horrible decision, and it ends with the near-annihilation of the clan, making the entire trilogy the story of the rise and fall of the Hauksson family. The ever reliable Danijel Žeželj returns to illustrate this arc, a splendid choice to end the series.  I note that DC’s cover blurb describes the series as “the modern classic,” which is a pretty ironic thing to say about a series they cancelled rather abruptly.

Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland is set during the period that Mister Dark had taken Fabletown, so Bigby Wolf is scouting for a new Fabletown location. Definitely not as free-standing as the previous OGN Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall (which was a prequel), although the current condition of Fabletown is just background to this story. There are frequent flashbacks to Bigby’s experiences during WWII, which was the genesis of the heartland werewolf community.  Bigby was operating as a freelance spy/terrorist against the Nazis, and was recruited by an American secret service operative. When he is captured by the Nazis, it turns out they lured him there specifically for a secret project: to use his blood to create an unstoppable werewolf regiment. That plan does not pan out, but in the process his war buddy Arthur Harp and the Nazi scientist in charge of the project both become infected. The science here probably does not bear close examination. It’s the only instance I can think of where a Fable affects Mundys directly, so best to just accept it and move on. The infected couple finally pair up and make their way to the United States, where they found a werewolf colony in a town in Iowa called Story City. This is the community that Bigby encounters, initially with no idea that there is a personal connection.

The present day story revolves around a power struggle for control of the town, with both sides attempting to use Bigby as a pawn (or kill him). Unfortunately that story is far less interesting than the wartime exploits. The artwork becomes a significant weakness towards the end: there are pages so sketchy that they look half-finished. I can’t imagine how there could have been a rush, as the book was in the pipeline for years. I have scanned a sketch of Bigby from my sketchbook that Craig Hamilton drew during HeroesCon 2011, and he said he had been working on it for months already. The story was a bit inconsequential, too: the sort of thing that would have made a good standalone issue for the monthly series. A disappointing entry that is not up to the high standards of the Fables series.

Getting back to B.P.R.D. with B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: Russia (Vol. 3 of the new series). Tyler Crook is now the full-time artist, after taking over for the second arc in the previous collection. The big cliffhanger was Abe Sapien’s injury, which initially is only mentioned briefly (but things don’t look good). Kate Corrigan and Johann Kraus have gone to Russia to look into an outbreak of walking dead and some kind of possession, both of them the apparent result of a contagion. There’s some great fight scenes, an interesting Russian paranormal B.P.R.D. counterpart is introduced (Iosif, Director of the service and a resurrected dead man in a containment suit much like Johann’s), and some changes to the B.P.R.D. itself. Johann acquires an improved containment suit, and Abe seems to be transforming rather than dying. Andrew Devon appears briefly, still following the charismatic young woman from the previous collection. Finally, Iosif reveals a surprise guest at the very end, a character who has not been seen for awhile. The collection also includes the short story “B.P.R.D.: An Unmarked Grave,” a lovely little piece about the death of Hellboy from Dark Horse Presents #8 (illustrated by the incomparable Duncan Fegredo). The Sketchbook section reveals that some of the initial character designs were created by Guy Davis before Tyler Crook came on board, so in a sense we still haven’t seen Crook flying solo.

Vertigo miniseries tour Part 25: War Stories, Series 2

Garth Ennis’s second series of War Stories came out about a year after the first group. The format was again a series of four 56-page one-shots (with a cover price of $4.95). Although well done, for some reason I found them less memorable than the first series. Perhaps it was due to the rather obscure corners of war explored here. The focus is still on the individual soldiers being profiled, and they are a varied lot.

The series begins with “The Reivers,” illustrated by Cam Kennedy. It’s about an SAS unit fighting Germans in the North African desert during World War II. They are led by two very different officers, who disagree on many things.  The story takes its title from the border reivers, guerilla fighters who lived in The Marches, the border area where Scotland and England meet.  When the unit adds a secondary target to a mission to destroy an airfield things quickly begin to go wrong. The reiver description of “hard men who come out of nowhere, strike fast, give no quarter, disappear again” applies…except for the “disappear again” part.

“J for Jenny” was illustrated by the ever-dependable David Lloyd. It tells the story of a World War II British bomber making runs into Germany. Some crew members have begun to question the morality of bombing civilians, despite their own hard memories of the German Blitz. But flight lieutenant Ronald Page is completely bloodthirsty, apparently seeking nothing but revenge for the loss of his family. When his bomber is shot down during a mission, Page stays at the controls. His flight engineer tries to prevent a final homicidal act, realizing too late that Page was trying to save the lives of the German civilians in the town below. A striking twist ending, one of the best in either series.

The third tale, “Condors,” was illustrated by Carlos Ezquerra. It’s set in the Spanish Civil War for a change, but it looks backward to World War I as well as forward to the upcoming World War II. Four soldiers from both sides of the conflict have taken refuge in a foxhole, and they while away the time until nightfall by telling stories about how they got there. They are a diverse group–English, Irish, German, and Spanish–and in addition to the war stories (theirs and their parents’) the conversation touches on other matters like the Irish conflict and the rise of Nazism in Germany. The story title comes from the Spanish soldier’s description of the others: he compares them to vultures hovering over the battlefield, each taking what they want from the carnage. It’s arguably the richest of any of the War Stories, even if it is talkier than most. I did think the bleak epilogue describing the eventual fates of the four soldiers was overkill. I would have been happy to leave it at them dispersing at nightfall, hopefully wiser for the experience.

The final War Story in the second series was “Archangel,” illustrated by Gary Erskine. It tells the story of an R.A.F. fighter pilot who gets volunteered for a new experimental CAMship. CAM is an acronym for “Catapult Aircraft Merchantmen,” which uses a catapult to launch a fighter plane from a merchant ship, giving a convoy air protection without having an aircraft carrier. I confess that I had never heard of the program. It’s just crazy enough to look like a comic book invention, but like everything else in these stories it is based in true history. Despite his reluctance going in, flight officer McKenzie performs brilliantly on his first catapult mission. The triumph is muted by the reminder that he’ll have to go back and do it again. As long as the war continues, no victory in battle is final, as Ennis reminds us over and over during the course of this entire series of stories.

Mr. Vertigo Reviews 13: Hellblazer: The Devil’s Trench Coat; Fables Vol. 17: Inherit the Wind; The Walking Dead Vol. 17: Something to Fear; Thief of Thieves Vol. 1: “I Quit”

Peter Milligan/Giuseppe Camuncoli/Stefano Landini (Vertigo, 2012)
John Constantine, Hellblazer: The Devil’s Trench Coat

In what now appears to be the penultimate Hellblazer collection, John Constantine, Hellblazer: The Devil’s Trench Coat opens with the title arc. Gemma has sold Constantine’s storied trench coat on an Internet auction site, and the coat appears to have a demonic self-awareness. Very bad things start happening to everyone who comes in contact with it, and unexplained magical events are impinging on Constantine’s life as well. The second story arc, “Another Season In Hell,” was set up at the end of “The Devil’s Trench Coat.” Gemma had begun sleeping with Epiphany’s father Terry as leverage. To get her to stop we see a classic Constantine trip to Hell, this time to get his sister Cheryl out of Hell and satisfy the burning question Gemma has about why she’s there. Knowing that the series is about to end, I can’t help seeing this as part of the unfinished business Milligan is getting to before the final curtain. Visits to Hell always seem to result in complications, and this one quickly spirals out of control. Constantine does get his sister out in the end, but not without injury and death to those close to him. The epilogue “Dark Magic” seems to have finally put his dark twin to rest, so that’s one less possible plot complication as the series heads towards the end. It also features the magician Angie Spatchcock, a former lover who reappeared at the wedding. She was originally introduced in 2002 during Mike Cary’s run, so this is an instance of Milligan actively bringing in some previous continuity (which has been relatively uncommon in the entire history of the title).

Bill Willingham/Mark Buckingham/Steve Leialoha/Shawn McManus (Vertigo, 2012)
Fables Vol. 17: Inherit the Wind

The latest collection finds Bigby & Snow’s cubs being tested to decide which will become the next North Wind, while Bufkin leads a ragtag group fomenting revolution in Oz, and the rest of the Fables return to the Farm and find it relatively untouched by the late Mister Dark. The series seems to have settled on the format of switching between several different continuing story lines in each issue, with occasional breaks for one-shots. The conclusion of “Inherit the Wind” brings the search for the new North Wind to a surprising conclusion, although the story is far from over. The other ongoing threads don’t get the same: Bufkin’s adventures in Oz end with a cliffhanger; life at the Farm resumes normality in time for Christmas; and in Fabletown the former Nurse Spratt waits for the return of the Fables with some sort of revenge in mind. The Christmas issue features Rose Red in a Dickens variant: they were bound to get to that eventually. She makes a pledge to a ghost who sure looks like Boy Blue to me, although she doesn’t see it. The final “In Those Days” issue is a collection of short stories about Fables past, illustrated by several interesting guest artists (Rick Leonardi, Ron Randall, P. Craig Russell, Zander Cannon, Jim Fern, Ramon Bachs, and Adam Hughes). One of them tells the story of how Fabletown was ignored by the Empire for so long, a clever bit of back story.

Robert Kirkman/Charlie Adlard/Cliff Rathburn (Image, 2012)
The Walking Dead Vol. 17: Something to Fear

This collection includes the famous blockbuster issue #100 that I had to avoid all discussion of at the time, the most difficult spoiler avoidance I can recall. That issue was indeed horrific, but in the context of the series I’d have to say that it’s not especially unique: basically it’s The Governor turned up a notch. It would have been more impressive if Kirkman had found a way to make the big climax something other than the death of a major character, which long-time readers have almost come to expect. The entire story arc in this collection is surprising, though. The previous collection introduced a new walled community called the Hilltop, and a new villain named Negan, who leads a protection racket called the Saviors. We’re expecting Rick and the group to plan an attack on the new threat, endure some complications and losses, and ultimately be victorious. But it turns out to be considerably more complicated than that. The Saviors are a much larger group than expected, and they are absolutely ruthless. Rick makes the surprising decision not to resist them, fearing the loss of his entire group. But he sends their new Hilltop ally Paul out to scout out the Saviors as the collection closes, so he clearly has another long term plan.

Robert Kirkman/Nick Spencer/Shawn Martinbrough/Felix Serrano (Image, 2012)
Thief of Thieves Vol. 1: “I Quit”

This first collection includes the first seven issues of the series, enough to introduce the characters and setting and get a good satisfying chunk of story telling in as well. It’s doing a pretty effective job of alternating between the present and flashbacks that reveal the relationships between the major characters. Robert Kirkman created the series (and is credited with Story), but Nick Spencer is the writer (art by Shawn Martinbrough). I haven’t read enough Kirkman outside of The Walking Dead to figure out how much it reads like a Kirkman book. I’m enjoying it, though. It occurs to me that if master thief Redmond actually succeeds in quitting, then he won’t be a thief any more! Seems like a basic issue with an ongoing title about a thief, unless you’re going to have all the thieving occur in flashback. Amazing multilayered twist at the end, which may demonstrate how the ongoing will work. He keeps trying to get out, but they keep pulling him back in… It could be argued that too much of the twist is hidden from the reader: there’s no way to anticipate any of it, as we’re just as much in the dark as the characters are. But it’s not a classic mystery story anyway, more like a crime procedural. Redmond proves to be a brilliant strategist, which opens the door for lots more complex heists in future issues. He also possesses a remarkable talent for making women angry, which I suspect will be another continuing theme.

Vertigo miniseries tour Part 24: Vertigo Pop!

In July, 2002 Vertigo launched a series of three four-part miniseries called Vertigo Pop! with the rather broad theme of “capturing the pulse of pop culture.”  In practice this resulted in comics with very little in common between them, apart from the logo on the cover. July 2002 was an interesting time at Vertigo. Y – The Last Man was launching, Fables was on its third issue, and Transmetropolitan was just about to wrap up.

Vertigo Pop! Tokyo by Jonathan Vankin & Seth Fisher began the series. This is even stranger than I remembered. Steve, a lone American, has relocated to Tokyo in search of cutting edge consumer technology. But he quickly becomes involved with a Japanese teenager who is obsessed with a Japanese rock star. All sorts of complications ensue: it’s like a screwball comedy, with Yakuza (Japanese gangsters). Seth Fisher’s art is a unique amalgam of Japanese manga and American comics, and there is enough Japanese language employed in the dialog that most of the issues include a Glossary. These creative choices combine to communicate Steve’s confusion and disorientation directly to the reader. They do so quite effectively, so I have to give Vankin & Fisher points for that.

Vertigo Pop! London by Peter Milligan and Philip Bond (with additional help from Warren Pleece on issues 3 – 4) was the second four issue miniseries in this series. There is a connection with the Tokyo story, in that they both feature a male rock star, but the tone is quite different. In this one the rock star (Rocky LaMont, whose band Idle Hands is contemporary with the Rolling Stones) is sixty years old, and is nostalgic about his youth. He watches a film message from his thirty year old self, which shows him how to switch bodies with someone else. He finds a young wannabe rock star and makes the switch. Despite careful planning (done with the encouragement of his ambitious second wife), complications ensue. It seems the young protege resents having his personality moved into a much older body without his consent. Who would have thought? In the end Rocky finds wisdom and accepts the aging process, making for a much richer story.  I remembered this as the best of the three, and I really enjoyed it on the second reading. Milligan & Bond: how can you go wrong?

Vertigo Pop! Bangkok was again written by Jonathan Vankin, illustrated this time by Giuseppe Camuncoli & Shawn Martinbrough. This story is so much darker than the other two that it’s hard to see them fitting under the same banner Pop! title. It involves an American tourist couple that becomes embroiled with the Bangkok sex trade. They also attempt to save an elephant, which provides additional plot complications, as well as a bit of comic relief. The plot has the same sort of twists as the others, except this one includes pedophiles, sex clubs, prostitution, kick boxing, and corrupt police. There is a serious consideration of the cultural differences between Thailand and the United States: is the sex trade actually a positive choice for young Thai women from the poor provinces? It could be argued that this is the most mature story of the three. It deals with serious social questions, and does not sugar-coat the results that arise from the choices the characters make.

DC chose to print one collection from these miniseries. Vertigo Pop: Tokyo Days, Bangkok Nights collect the Tokyo and Bangkok stories. It’s a sensible combination in a way: they were both written by Jonathan Vankin, and were both set in Asia. But they’re radically different tales. If you wanted to keep to the “pop” theme, it would have been better to combine Tokyo and London. I’ve seen commentary that questions the realism of Vankin’s stories. So it’s probably worth mentioning that he lived in Japan during the mid-1990s (as did Seth Fisher), and visited Bangkok during that period.