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RADAR // 2.27.03 By the SAVANT Staff ON OUR RADAR ASTRO
CITY: LOCAL HEROES #1 It's been over two years since an issue of ASTRO CITY graced the stands. And boy, is it good to have it back. First things first. For those unfamiliar with the series, Astro City is writer/creator Kurt Busiek's examination of the super hero genre. The series is not an action story, focusing on what happens next or the big fights between heroes and villains. It's a story about a city, it's inhabitants, and how they are affected by the marvels that happen around them. It's about the heroes and villains and what happens in their lives AROUND the fights and the battles. Its an amazing, ongoing character study that seemingly never runs out of characters from Busiek's fertile imagination, and it would be easy to say that the absence of a new ASTRO CITY story over the past few years has made recollections of the series even bigger and more successful than it was. But that would be mistaken. LOCAL HEROES is a series of one-shot, single issue stories. This issue presents us with the tale of Pete Donacek, the bellman at the Astro City Classic.Hotel. He sees tourists come to Astro City for a variety of reasons involving the heroes that protect the city. Some are successful. Others aren't. This is not their story, although Pete weaves the tapestry of their lives visiting Astro City for us. Rather, it's Pete's story. What he did before journeying to Astro City, and how the events of that trip prompted him to learn about himself and decide to stay. This is his story and his journey. We're just along for the ride. If you've never yet experienced Brent Anderson's art, you're missing one of the quiet treats of the medium. Never a superstar but still one of the greats working today, Anderson infuses each panel with a quiet energy and enthusiasm that makes the stories feel authentic. The issue's biggest weakness is that it will seem very familiar to longtime readers. The introduction of an outsider going to Astro City for the first time as an entry point into the series is one Busiek has used before, and no matter how skilled the storytelling, it can't overcome the feeling that you have seen it before. Fortunately, its executed extremely well and is still a successful and compelling bit of entertainment. In addition to the story, Busiek also includes a nearly two page essay explaining the details behind his illness due to mercury poisoning, which is what has prompted the extended hiatus for this book. At a time when letters pages have been replaced by internet message boards and email lists, its refreshing to see a creator put himself on the line like that in a book and publish such a frank and open letter to the fans and retailers who supported his work all these years and have waited for this books return. That element of Busiek''s personality is probably what makes his work so accessible, and thus popular, with readers. ASTRO CITY is one of the rare mainstream super hero titles that is not just a good super hero yarn, but a good story as well. This book should be welcomed back with open arms, and if you're not one of the many who have tried it out, do yourself a favor and take a look. (Dave Potter) * * * MORTAL
COILS #2 A. David Lewis releases the second issue of his series MORTAL COILS, a Twilight Zone-esque book consisting of two standalone stories where reality is never quite what it seems, and with it Lewis takes a great leap forward. The first issue of MORTAL COILS was a little clunky, but Lewis comes much closer to the bullseye with his latest effort. In "What Gazes Also" drawn by Jason Copland, a TV exec visits the set of the wildly popular show Irreality Chasm. Created by the mysterious Don Fahrlindt, the show attains a wild cult status, and its popularity only seems to be increasing. The network wants to reign in the creator who has turned the studio where filming takes place into a massive compound, but when our business-minded exec goes to the chasm she finds more than she bargained for. The cleverly titled "Vaya Con Dios" consists mostly of a conversation between two men in a bar. Pro finds Manny for a chat and a shot, but the chain smoking Manny has news Pro doesn't want to hear. Their conversation turns toward loyalty, family and despair, but the truth behind their banter runs deeper than mob movie chit-chat. Evan Quiring provides the pencils and James Cosper handles inks. Both of Lewis' stories are based on solid, interesting ideas, but in both cases prefatory quotes from Nietzsche are enough to give away much of the surprise ending. Lewis is obsessed with the twist ending, which would be fine if he didn't telegraph them too soon. Much of the excessive foreshadowing in "What Gazes Also" comes from scores of blatant references to a film to which the story pays homage. The constants name dropping of his references would help Lewis keep his secret under wraps. Both stories, in particular the latter of the two, however, are interesting enough and executed in such a way as to remain interesting even when the punch ending runs out of steam. Even when the dialogue is a little overcooked with references and a bit heavy on the Mamet-style beats (Brian Azzarello does the same thing), the characters seem natural and the story flows. What sets MORTAL COILS apart from the rest of the self-published pack is the quality of production. Lewis should teach seminars on public relations, marketing and the comic book. When so many good comic stories are stuffed into cheap packages that beg you to overlook them, Lewis wraps his pages in a nice heavy cardstock cover featuring a nice, flashy piece from Maria Sundqvist. On the back of the book, below the review quotes, is a clever image that works as a tie-in to one of the stories and a perhaps a little gag about Lewis himself. This is an exceptionally well-made comic book, a high-quality product with professional art and an enjoyable, coherent story with easy to follow dialogue lacking in silly spelling errors. In the indie comic market, that's saying a lot more than it should. Lewis isn't the comic book equivalent of Rod Serling just yet, but he's definitely a driven writer and publisher whose talent is growing with leaps and bounds (Bryan Miller) * * * THE
RED STAR vol.2 #1 Splendour scares the crap out of me. A few months ago, I went to London with my fiance on a day trip and ended up in St.Paul's Cathedral. I've never seen so much information packed into such a vast space before, every surface covered with art, gilt or some form of decoration and every surface HUGE, orders of magnitude larger than anything else I've seen. What really got me though was the Whispering Gallery. It's a point two thirds of the way up the building where a gallery runs in a perfect circle around the dome. Supposedly, you can whisper on one side and be heard on the other the acoustics are so perfect. And I could barely deal with it. It felt like I was standing on air up on that gallery, looking a hundred feet down and about another hundred up. It was an idea on the verge of being too big to comprehend, leading to the base primal response of 'Too big. Can't cope.' There's a moment like that in this issue of RED STAR, their first under the CGE imprint and very much a running start. The story picks up exactly where Volume 1 closed, with the fugitive Sky Furnace still being harried by Imperial forces and fighting an increasingly desperate, increasingly brutal battle to escape. Due to what Team Red Star do, it would be easy to get lost in the artwork. The combination of CGI and painted work has never worked better than it does here, with the Sky Furnaces rendered in harsh metallic graphics and the characters desperately soft, painted faces trapped within them. It works especially well here due to the epic naval battle that takes up most of the issue. There's a real sense of these immense vessels being driven forward as much by the sheer will of their commanders and crew as any form of engine. It's vast, dreadful ideas moving against one another with savage force and as a result, it's fascinating and horrifying all at once. What makes this though, both as an issue and the point at which new reader sshould grab RED STAR with both hands are the character moments. Gossett never lets us forget that his characters are all soldiers, fiercely loyal, honourable to whatever cause they support and at the same time capable of astonishing savagery. There's a moment in this issue, that comes just before a point of sheer visceral impact, that sees a total change come over the protagonist, Maya Antares. In the space of a panel, Maya goes from a fugitive living one moment to the next to a fiercely effective and utterly ruthless soldier. She has a job to do, so she does it and people die on the way. RED STAR is a world quite unlike any other in comics. It's vast in scope but never loses sight of it's characters, the final scene here bringing the battle down from the histrionics of early pages to a look held between two men. It's big, it's clever and it's unlike anything else being published. Unmissiable. (Alasdair Stuart) * * * HOLDING PATTERN: PUBO
#2 (of 3) If there's one thing I've learned from PUBO, it's to never steal honeycomb from a bear Why? 'Cause a bear remembers and the bear will hunt you down, sensory unipolar morphology or no. Leland Purvis' look at the adventures of a genetically mucked-with little creature-man continues in the second issue of the three-issue mini-series currently being published by Dark Horse. Pubo is trapped in a forest after parachuting in last issue, and after getting on the bad side of an old and powerful man of the forest named One-Stone last issue, he proceeds to steal honeycomb from a bear named Kody, who is the other most powerful force in the forest. And two agents are fast on Pubo's trail, leaving the little guy without much of a chance of making it out alive. The whole book is pretty light-hearted overall, as the captions on the covers and the general style in which PUBO is drawn would suggest, but the jokes within don't always necessarily work as well as Purvis intends. The forest creatures perform a running commentary on Pubo as he leaps from one situation to another, and they have a betting pool on how long he survives and so forth. It's amusing at first, but a little much after a while. Purvis' art style, however, lends itself well to the type of action going on in the book, where events are very fluid and active, so the style is more loose and sketchy. At times, the work reminds me of MY MONKEY'S NAME IS JENNIFER's Ken Knudsten. Sometimes the action is a little unclear, thought, with skewered perspectives creating confusion as to what's going on exactly, like in a scene were Pubo's bird friend Jay scares off an owl, who happens to belong to One-Stone-a small, but relevant piece of story information. And it's a shame the interiors aren't in color, though, as the colors on both the front and back cover for the book look gorgeous. PUBO isn't as fun as I'd hoped it would be, but the conclusion coming next issue where it's looking like the agents, the bear and One-Stone will all catch up with Pubo at once could be the payoff this quirky book has hinted at these past two issues. (Wilson Moss)
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