Graphic Novels: Fangirl to Wonder Woman

Gail Simone had had it with all those "women in refrigerators": superheroines and other female comics characters over the decades who ended up murdered, crippled, carved up, and even stuffed into the refrigerator—yes, that happened to the Green Lantern's crush in 1994. So this longtime fangirl struck back with a laundry list of some 100 victims, now accessible at www.unheardtaunts.com/wir. The furor that followed in the comics industry led to her "You'll All Be Sorry" humor column on the Comic Book Resources site (www.comicbookresources.com), which became Simone's playground for jabs, satire, parodies, and commentary on comics and won her a substantial readership. Finally, the industry decided they wanted her on their side and hired her. Smart move.

Keeping her hairdressing job as backup, Simone was writing Simpson scripts for Bongo Comics when Marvel lured her away to work on Deadpool and, later, Agent X and the all-ages Gus Beezer comics. After a dispute with Marvel, she ended up at DC where, after contributing to numerous series, she took over Wonder Woman last year and became the first XX-chromosomed ongoing writer for the 66-year series.

Simone already boasted squads of fans for her fine plotting, clever dialog, deadpan humor, and skilled characterizations in several DC series as well as in Killer Princesses, an earlier, indie title from Oni Press. Princesses mashes intrigue noir with femmy-femme culture, starring three brainless and foulmouthed sorority queens who fit in kick-ass assassinations around painting their nails in rainbow patterns. Drawn in a manga style by Lea Hernandez, it's a fun title for older teens and adults.

All New Atom was an old series reworked and handed to Simone. Ryan Choi, a young immigrant college professor, comes upon a powerful bio-belt allowing him to shrink to tiny proportions. The plot centers on the conflict between the forces of science and magic and features aliens with humorously mangled English, slapstick plot touches, semicredible sci-tech jargon, and parents who don't understand our hero. For ages 16+, especially sci-tech wonks. Simone also took over Birds of Prey midstream (see review, p. 57), and she is known for that series perhaps more than any other until Wonder Woman.

Who could resist the villains-vs.-villains donnybrooks in Simone's version of the Secret Six series? When archvillain Lex Luthor attempts to weld together all of DC Universe villainy under his control, a half-dozen marginal demivillains won't go along and find themselves set against Lex and company as well as against the Justice League good guys and—all too often—one another. What can we do but laugh, feel for these contrarians, and cheer them on anyway? (The first of the new collections featuring the Secret Six is titled Villains United and is for ages 16+.)

The idea for Welcome to Tranquility (LJ 11/15/07) was Simone's own, and the two trade paperback collections show off her multiple skills: characters to love, wonderful dialog (and song lyrics, too), and masterly plotting in this quirky drama about a superhero retirement community. Appropriate for older teens up but most appealing to adults.

Simone drew standing-room crowds at the recent New York Comic Con, where she thanked happy Wonder Woman fans and announced that a continuation of the Secret Six series will start in the fall. Her Wonder Woman has been widely lauded as iconic yet relatable. The first paperback collection will be out in September, and Simone has announced an epic story arc soon to come.—M.C.

"You know what would be awesome?" muses Goth-girl Rosa. "If I could be a vampire.... I picture this vast network of dark, beautiful, intellectual and artistic people, living forever with only the best things." But not true, alas—Abel and Soria's vampires are caught in the capitalist system like the living, wage slaving forever in crappy night-shift jobs for jerkwad masters, hiding from the law their need for human blood, bursting into flames at the slightest sunlight. And so twenty something Dave works his dead-end job at the Last Stop convenience store, subsisting on plasma and blood-bank heists while pining for Rosa. His principles and his love prevent him from turning her into a fellow vamp, but macho scuzzball Wes, also hot for Rosa, has no such scruples. Hilarious and bittersweet, this story turns vampire clichés inside out with a compelling tale about alienation, friendship, love, being true to oneself...and compromise. Abel (La Perdita; Artbabe) and Soria deliver clever plotting and dialog, while Pleece's color art has a slightly hyperpedestrian quality well suited to the fantastically mundane life of these vampires. A sequel is reputedly in the works. Recommended for older teens and adults.—M.C.

He's baaack. After mysteriously closing his Los Angeles Chinatown establishment at the end of the original Pet Shop of Horrors series, the elegant Count D has opened a shop in "Neo-Chinatown," an indoor mall in Tokyo's red-light district. Of Chinese heritage himself, Count D sells pets with alternate human personas to grant "every desire" but usually delivers bittersweet or unhappy—yet appropriate—fates to customers. The original series introduced a skeptical and hip American detective as D's foil, providing comic relief and contrast. In this series, the dour young manager of D's building plays the outsider heavy, looking into reports of D selling underage children. Whether the manager will prove as successful a counterpoint as the original remains to be seen. This volume's three poignant stories concern an abused ex-wife, an unknown novelist finding fame, and a pair of lovers fleeing yakuza pursuers. A side story stars Eva Braun wishing desperately to give the Führer a child. All find their desires realized but in unexpected and all-too-fleeting ways. The many fans of Count D will find Akino's shojo art as lovely as ever and D's wardrobe as swoon worthy. The new series is up to five volumes in Japan and still coming out. Rated for ages 16+.—M.C.

This latest collection drawn from Dark Horse's ongoing full-color Conan series includes a variety of fine, offbeat stand-alone stories illustrated by artists other than series regular Cary Nord, including some in which Robert E. Howard's famous barbarian swordsman is only a secondary presence. In "Storyteller," drawn by Eric Powell (The Goon), a village dreamer who relates tales of adventurers to unbelieving audiences gets his own chance for heroism. Timothy Truman draws a two-parter in which a royal advisor tries to influence a prince by rewriting one of the ancient tales of Conan that the prince has become fascinated with. Veteran Marvel Comics Conan artist Rafael Kayanan illustrates a vivid tale in which Conan and the formidable swordswoman Janissa separately battle against undead hordes for the same prize. John Severin, whose career stretches back to 1950s EC Comics (and a well-regarded run on Marvel's 1970s series featuring another Howard character, King Kull), brings his gritty realism to a story of Conan's lost horned helmet passing from owner to owner. Finally, Bruce Timm (Batman Adventures: Mad Love) draws a vignette revealing Conan's sense of humor. With minor nudity and some gore, this is recommended for older teen and adult heroic-fantasy fans.—S.R.

David's 1987–98 run writing The Incredible Hulk, collected in this series, is highly regarded by Marvel fans as both a highlight in the history of one of the company's longest-running characters and a sterling exception to the decline in quality and popularity that much of Marvel's output experienced through the bulk of that period. In most of his previous appearances, Bruce Banner transformed into the green-skinned, raging Hulk when he was angered. But when David (Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man) took over, the Hulk was gray in color and only came out at night, with less strength than in his green incarnation but greater intelligence and craftiness. Things begin conventionally in Volume 1, but this fifth volume (of an eventual 17 or so, if the series is completed) marks several turning points: the art improves with Keown's arrival; the Hulk first encounters the Pantheon, a superpowered group that will figure largely in his future; and Banner reunites with his estranged wife, Betty, who has recently miscarried his child. Finally, the green Hulk re-emerges, setting up a forthcoming story climax dealing with Banner's multiple personality disorder. Expect interest in the character with the new Hulk film; recommended for all collections.—S.R.

In this black-and-white autobiography, Dawson lives his life to the music of his favorite band, Queen—specifically, their operatic megahit "Bohemian Rhapsody," which provides the book's structure. The first section, "The Ballad," relates Dawson's childhood in England; his first exposure to Queen via, of all things, the video for "I Want To Break Free," featuring singer Freddie Mercury as a vacuuming housewife; and his family's move to the United States. "The Opera" details Dawson's emotional teen and young adult years, as he finds love and follows his interest in cartooning, and Mercury's death hits him hard. Finally, in "Hard Rock," Dawson revisits England, marries, and deals with a death in his own family. Beyond the autobiography, the book illustrates the roles music plays in a fan's life—as a background for other events and a trigger for memory but also as something that can mirror, affirm, clarify, and amplify our emotions; energize and inspire us; and tell us a story. Dawson's portrait of himself as a fan is easily relatable; his interesting play with the comics form more than balances a few dull spots. Recommended for all collections—likely to be of most interest to adults.—S.R.

This crime noir story was inspired by the real-life Walter White, who passed as white in the Deep South to sleuth out lynchings in the 1930s. Johnson's journalist is Zane Pinchback, writing a Harlem "Incognegro" column that similarly exposes racist atrocities. Zane is about to trade his column for an editor job when he hears that his brother has been set up for murder in Tupelo, so he heads south one last time for an investigative gig too close for comfort. And when jive-ass friend Carl invites himself along, Zane knows the affair could get even more complicated. Then the murdered woman turns up alive, and Zane thinks he can clear his brother's name, but a furious Klan leader and a heartbroken sheriff enter the mix and Carl's posturing as a foreign cognoscente tips Zane's plans into chaos. Heavy-handed at times, the fast-paced plot features multiple twists and a tragic resolution. Pleece's black-and-white art gives a sometimes too static, old-newspaper-photo feel, but his action sequences work well. This would be a fine addition to curricula and African American period studies, conveying the chill of serious racism as no textbook can. Rated mature owing to strong language and violence but still appropriate for older teens.—M.C.

In the excellent 1984 cult film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, the renowned Dr. Banzai—brilliant physicist, surgeon, musician, and gun-toting explorer of the eighth dimension—led his Hong Kong Cavaliers against the evil Red Lectroids from Planet Ten, whose leader, John Whorfin, had inhabited the body of pioneering scientist Dr. Emilio Lizardo. Creator Mac Rauch has wanted to tell more Buckaroo tales ever since but was stymied by legal and other hassles (detailed here in an appendix) until Moonstone produced this graphic novel based on a never-filmed TV script. Lizardo and his Lectroids, thought dead, resurface and join forces with the World Crime League—led by the notorious Hanoi Xan, who had Buckaroo's fiancée murdered—to threaten the world with a giant seismic resonator powerful enough to shift the Earth's orbit. Buckaroo's loyal assistants Reno, New Jersey, and Perfect Tommy appear along with some new Cavaliers, including the alluring, tough Lady Gillette. Although the story could have used more room to breathe, it faithfully re-creates the film's combination of loopy science, heroic action, and off-kilter humor. Language and sex-related content mark this for midteens and up. Recommended, though the film is almost a necessary prerequisite.—S.R.

With Peter Lorre as a whistling pedophile serial killing his way through German children, Lang's classic film tops the horror-thriller hit parade. Tension mounts as the police and the criminal underground compete to catch the killer; the ending poses questions of personal responsibility for crime and calls for constant vigilance against such threats to the social order. Muth's photo-impressionistic technique relied on posed models to create dusky, mostly gray-sepia images, imposing a dreamlike blurring of the action that is designed to heighten suspense graphically, in place of what sound and motion contribute to a film. Indeed, Muth's finely worked paintings shimmer hauntingly through Lang's plot. But there's a static, frozen quality to many of them, and their visual muddiness makes the story difficult to follow if you're not familiar with the film. Much worse is the dialog, adapted from the screenplay. As spoken in the film by actors conveying individual voices and emotions, it works well; but in comics, it lies flat and wooden, with little characterization inside badly designed speech balloons. Muth's M was originally published as a four-issue comic book miniseries in 2000. For adult collections, with cataloging tied in with film studies and artistic techniques.—M.C.

Sidelined from her beloved Batgirl persona by the Joker's bullet to her spine, paraplegic former librarian Barbara Gordon reinvents herself as all-seeing hacker-meister Oracle and teams up with Dinah "Black Canary" Lance. Simone took over the series in 2003, penning the definitive superheroine-team saga until moving to Wonder Woman. Through seven paperback collections, Simone's Birds grew to incorporate regulars Huntress, Lady Blackhawk, Big Barda, and Misfit, with numerous other DC characters dropping in and, of course, a rogue's gallery of villains. This last volume expands the team further as Katrina "Spy-Smasher" Armstrong directs them in an anti-Soviet op that leads to a battle with those not-quite-villains, the Secret Six. Simone delivers consistent appeal with the emotional resonance of the characters and the depth of their relationships as well as with clever narrative twists, catchy dialog, and plenty of action. Indeed, she makes femme-fighting grounded and believable, and Scott's art for this volume shines. Recommended for ages 16+.—M.C.

"The Chronicles of Conan" series from Dark Horse is reprinting Marvel's 1970s comic books featuring Robert E. Howard's mighty barbarian swordsman, Conan. This new series collects Conan's appearances in Marvel's line of black-and-white magazines from the same period. These rousing tales of fierce combat, beautiful women, devilish sorcery, and supernatural monsters are all well scripted by Thomas and illustrated by various artists. Some stories are original; others adapt Howard's tales or Conan pastiches by others; some are unrelated Howard stories rewritten to feature Conan. One is based on a plot by novelist John Jakes. Though the artwork here has been reduced in size, the mostly excellent printing faithfully reproduces the exquisite line work of Windsor-Smith on Howard's classic "Red Nails"; the ornate brilliance of Alex Nino on "People of the Dark," in which a modern man goes back millennia in time and inhabits Conan's mind; and the remarkable, fluid, realistic work of John Bucema on several stories, including "A Witch Shall Be Born," in which Conan survives crucifixion. Other art greats featured include Gil Kane, Neal Adams, and Jim Starlin. Intended for adults; some stories here feature nudity. Strongly recommended for fans of heroic fantasy adventure.—S.R.

Wife-husband team Abel (Life Sucks, reviewed on p. 55) and Madden (99 Ways To Tell a Story) have taught cartooning for years at New York City's School of Visual Arts, and when they couldn't find a good textbook, they wrote one. Fifteen lessons take students through single panels and strips, transitions, penciling, layout, lettering, inking, story structure, character development, page composition, creating a believable world, brushwork, and reproduction (not, however, coloring). Each lesson includes exercises, readings, homework, and "extra credit" activities. Appendixes cover supplies plus how to make your own self-published comic for short-run reproduction ("minicomic"). Additional resources, lessons, and guidance are to be available via the book's web site. This "virtual classroom" course in comics is designed for instructors and for college-level learners but is friendly to sophisticated teens and any adult; each chapter also includes tips for the "ronin," or solo learner. The complete book offers step-by-step entry into a complicated series of skills in a nonscary and approachable way. Highly recommended for public, academic, and high school libraries.—M.C.

Like Brenda Starr, Torchy Brown hit the comics pages as an independent woman with a career, adventure, and romance. But appearing exclusively in African American-targeted newspapers, she is not so widely known. Torchy Brown: Dixie to Harlem ran in 1937–38 and introduced Torchy as a feisty teen seeking stardom up north. A more mature Torchy appeared in 1950 as a nurse finding true love and fighting for racial equality and environmental causes. Ormes (1911–85) broke new ground as an African American woman cartoonist blending social commentary with pin-up glamour. Her best-known and longest-running strip was Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger, starring a mouthy youngster who wisecracked on the Cold War, racism, and popular culture in one-panel cartoons that could have run on the editorial page. The only woman listed on Tim Jackson's web site, Salute to Pioneering Cartoonists of Color, the Chicago-based Ormes was active with her husband in social and political causes. Doll historian Goldstein has produced an excellent introduction to this overlooked pioneer, setting her life into the background of her era and including substantial selections from strips not collected elsewhere. Highly recommended for graphic arts, journalism, and African American studies collections in public and academic libraries; good for teens, too. Ormes's name lives on today in the recently founded Ormes Society, an organization of African American women in comics (theormessociety.com).—M.C.