Poison Thrower - by James Stokoe
With The Avengers movie coming out next weekend, it’s a good time for a funny-book in tights extravaganza! I’ve already written about the Ultimates, but if you’re looking for a good Avengers story, that is a good place to start (even if, in that story, the super-hero team goes by a different name).
Also, another Free Comic Book Day is coming up fast on May 5th, so I think it’s a good time to post some books that I’ve enjoyed over this last year… even though they won’t necessarily be free, they are worth checking out. In comics, just like in everything else, there is a lot of garbage out there. But I think what I’ve listed below are some real gems.
Orc Stain
Orc Stain is such a great book, with beautiful and intricate artwork, and a story and world that draws you in from the beginning. All about a rampaging horde, controlled by the Orc Tzar. The main character, a scrawny one-eyed thief who can find the weak point of anything, is a treasure hunter destined to destroy the barbarian society. Not for kids though, especially since the characters are very focused on cutting off other’s “Gronchs” and using it as currency. Written and illustrated by James Stokoe.
orcstain.wordpress.com
Rachel Rising
The story starts with an undead Rachel digging herself out of a shallow grave with no memory of how she got there. She goes and visits with her old friends, trying to figure out what happened to her, and the story just keeps getting weirder and weirder. This comic is written and illustrated by the great Terry Moore.
terrymooreart.com
Sixth Gun
Oh man, this is such a great series. Goes something like this: During the Civil War there were sig guns with all sorts of supernatural powers. The book focuses on a girl who inherits one of those guns from her father. She begins to see vision, and one of the guns previous owners hunts her down to retrieve his old gun so he will have possession of them all. Written by Collen Bunn, and illustrated by Brian Hurt, art and story are solid all the way through.
onipress.com/series/sixthgun
Invisibles
This series is definitely not for everybody, but I finally got around to reading it this year and loved it. If you like weird alternate Gnostic dimensions of time and the imagination then this series might be for you too! Writer Grant Morrison can be hit or miss for me, but when he is on, he is one of the best storytellers around. And he is at his weirdest and best in this series.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invisibles
grantmorrison.com
Weathercraft & Congress of Animals
Artist Jim Woodring is the author and illustrator for both of these books. Very surreal, very beautiful, but easy to follow. What makes it even more amazing to me is that there aren’t any word at all, the whole story is told through images, and it is even better for that reason. Woodring is a master, using beautiful images and line work to tell his stories.
jimwoodring.com
Forming
Forming started as a web comic that has been collected and published by Nobrow, although you can still read most of it online (click here). Written and illustrated by Jesse Moynihan, and I got to say, he knows his stuff when it comes to mythology. Told from a very irreverent and comedic slant, but very well informed and thought out. I love this comic.
jessemoynihan.com
Legion Lost
The Legion of Superheroes has been published since the 1950s, but I’d really never read anything before. For that reason, I am not completely sure why I decided to pick up their Legion Lost story arc. Probably because I was familiar with writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning from other stories. I am glad I did try this one. In this book, some of the Legionaries find themselves stranded in a distant galaxy trying to find their way home. I know that is a very brief summary, but believe me, this is a great story.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legion_Lost
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
I’ve owned all of the League comics for years, but had only read the first collection. Somehow, I lost the other three volumes in my basement, and didn’t come across them again until last summer. Since Alan Moore is one of my all-time favorite writers, when I found them, I had to read them. What a great series. And then, last fall, a brand new collection called 1969 was published. The League brings fictional characters like Captain Nemo, Alan Quartermain, Mina Harker, Dr. Jekyll and others together to fight crime and save the world (of course)! I love it.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_League_of_Extraordinary_Gentlemen
dodgemlogic.com
Geek out!
A dumb daydream, but if I were told I could own any painting by any painter, well… that’d be a hard choice. But I guess I’d probably choose a still life by artist José Victoriano Carmelo Carlos González-Pérez, a.k.a. Juan Gris. I am able to lose myself completely in his line, shapes, color, pattern and texture. Seeing his work makes me so damn happy. If I am actually able to come across his work in person, my eyes smile for months. It’s no secret that I love Cubism, and Juan Gris was a master of that style. In my opinion, Gris helped realize it’s visual potential as much as anybody.
Saying that may seem like a stretch, especially since Cubism was thought up, invented and originally developed by Picasso and Braque. They were the first pioneers of the artistic movement. Their early work, often called Analytic Cubism, broke their subjects apart into it’s most basic shapes and colors. Many other artists were inspired by these ideas and shapes. As the Cubism evolved, it became even flatter and often more simplified and, in a lot of cases, more colorful. These later Cubist works were often defined as Synthetic Cubism, and the artists who came after Picasso and Braque were sometimes labeled Salon Cubists. Even though early on in his career he painted in a more Analytic style, Juan Gris’ work as a whole is a fine example of a more evolved and fleshed out Synthetic style.
Gris was born in Madrid in 1887 but moved to Paris in 1906, where he became friends with Matisse, Braque, Léger, and later Modigliani. By 1910 Gris was serious about his artwork and developing his own personal Cubist style. I think it was Gris who began using bright colors in his compositions, which had a huge influence on what came after. Gris was fairly young when he died of kidney and cardiac problems, only 40 years old. What he left behind, to my eye at least, is perfect.
