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RADAR // 3.07.03 Reviews by the SAVANT Staff ON OUR RADAR CHEAT This book knocked me on my ass last night. I'd love to just leave my commentary at that, because that's how great and affecting this work is, but that wouldn't be fair to the hard work writer/artist Christine Norrie must have put into crafting this wonderful novella length graphic novel about how a marriage gets lost in the humdrum crush of life and a single mistake quickly finishes unraveling what was there. Long-term relationships have ups and downs, ebbs and flows that are not always viable to the people outside the relationship, and sometimes to those within it. The story opens up in one of those points with Janey and Marc reaching what would be an exciting point, personally and professionally in their young married lives. They've just moved into a new apartment-their first real place-and their travelogue books are becoming so popular that they are rushing headlong from completing one into beginning another. But the stress is natural, telling, and both subtly and obviously played up by Norrie. Frequent travel keeps them apart. Janey feels like Marc expects her to be his secretary and doesn't value her contributions to their work. Their fights are stupid, frequent, and often unresolved as Marc's travel to research their books has him running out the door on a regular basis. Janey is mortally aware of the problem, noting that "Its not like you can have a fight at the office and leave it there". Although she doesn't say it, its also not like you can argue with your spouse and leave for work to get some time away to cool off. Into this situation is dropped their friend Davis, who is charming and married to their friend Anna. Davis and Janey spend a lot of time together, and right from the first panel they share, you can see an interest and attraction. There's no point to any will-she-or-won't-she-tension, since the title of the story is CHEAT. Norrie instead gives us a painful and believable slide towards the inevitable night of passion between them. You know what she's doing is wrong, and you can't help but sympathize and identify with her because she is obviously miserable in her relationship, and the misery echoes with familiarity. Almost everyone is confronted with similar situations at some low point of their relationship, and Norrie manages to make the book feel like we're watching two friends we know move toward a predestined mistake. The aftermath of the one night is where the book could easily falls apart but manages to shine even brighter. How the couples find out and react to what has happened shows the dangers and pitfalls of cheating, but particularly cheating out of a state of confusion about the status of the relationship you're currently in. Without judging any of the characters, Norrie presents complex emotions and situations that leave her readers free to make up their own minds, but more importantly, make up our own minds after feeling and seeing things from the point of view of the character. I can pay Norrie no higher compliment than saying, I've been in Marc's shoes. And CHEAT had me feeling bad for Janey and what she did one night, feeling low and having had a little too much to drink. But I probably still would do what Marc did. Haunting, compelling, depressing and flawless done. CHEAT is an instant classic. (Dave Potter) * * * THE
COURIERS There are comic books that move you. That show you the world in a way you've never really seen it before. That reveal emotions truer than anything you feel in your quotidian routine. That fuse words and images to reveal the existential pain of life in the twenty-first century. Books like JIMMY CORRIGAN: BOY GENIUS, GOODBYE, CHUNKY RICE, and MAUS, for example. THE COURIERS is not one of those books. It is, however, a really fun read. THE COURIERS is a kinda-sorta sequel to Wood's earlier work (with Brett Weldele), COUSCOUS EXPRESS. It features the return of "Urban Mercenary Couriers" Moustafa and Special, this time in the lead roles instead of in support. There's not really much to recount as far as plot: Moustafa and Special are given a job; they try to do their job; gunfights, car chases, and grievous bodily harm ensue. It's not something that requires a whole lot of thought to read, and if you're expecting another political work like CHANNEL ZERO or JENNIE ONE, you'd do well to look elsewhere. But for a quick, poppy, action-movie-buddy-picture kind of thrill, comics really don't deliver much better than this one does. Art comes courtesy of TEENAGERS FROM MARS artist Rob G, who can apparently do better work with his house burning down around him than a lot of industry types can when given as much time as they need. It's hard to imagine something other than G's manga-influenced art bringing Wood's violent-hipster script to life quite this well, and it's the art best-suited to Wood's writing since Wood illustrated his own work on the original CHANNEL ZERO. And, of course, the packaging is gorgeous, with G providing art for a Trainspotting-homage cover designed by Wood. I should be clear: I haven't been head-over-heels with much of Wood's recent writing. FIGHT FOR TOMORROW and JENNIE ONE pretty much left me cold. This, however, is a lot more enjoyable. It's nothing that's going to change the public perception of comics, nor anything that will change your world beyond imagining, but that doesn't seem to be what Wood and G set out to do. Basically, if you've got some extra cash and you're in the mood for something of this nature, you won't be disappointed. And if nothing else, hell, it's always a pleasure to get a full comic book story in one 75 page hit. (Matt Terl) * * * DEADTREE
#5 and #6 Anthology books are a pain in the ass to review. You love one story, you don't like another one, there are fifteen different artists and writers. I've got a mind like a steel trap-an old, rusty steel trap that never really worked properly anyway, the kind of steel trap that would make woodland creatures lapse into fits of woodland creature laughter when they saw it lying around. But anthology books are a hoot to read, and you could do a lot worse than DEADTREE BOOKS, a mini-comic anthology with a single theme running through each issue. For two bucks you get a nice set of stories set between fantastic-looking cardstock covers. These are eye-catching books, nicely put together. Both issues feature a beautifully drawn but rather awkward segment called "A Darker Side." Most of these pages are solid blacks with characters drawn in ethereal white creating a moody, gothic feel. Beautiful stuff, but mostly incomprehensible, unfortunately. DEADTREE is at its best when working with humor; these guys know funny. While segments like "Fenix Orpheo" and "P.A.B-L.O.W." from issue six amble along, the gag strips like P. Williams' "Robot Clone" are a hoot. A hoot, I tell you. Williams also does a one-page story, excessively and needlessly crude, about a giant breast monster that's smutty and simplistic and hilarious. If Phillip Roth circa 1960 wrote anime, this would be it. The
best bit of DEADTREEE #5-and in fact the best of both issues-is
a hilarious parody of detective stories and English murder mysteries,
"Pickled Eye the Private Eye vs. The Herbitron 4000."
The humor in this story is so dry it gave me a goddamn nosebleed.
It's mostly a one-gag story, but the gag is played perfectly. The
art is some bastard combination of Ralph Steadman and Jim Mahfood,
and it fits like a glove. DEADTREE is a solid anthology book. The dramatic stories may fall a little flat, but stories like "Mutant Joe" and "Pop Culture Man" are so fast and funny and breezy you'll have to pass them around the room or the bar or the free clinic. Hey, wait, what do you mean you don't read comics in bars? (Bryan Miller) * * * HOLDING PATTERN CHIMERA
#1 Continuity gives me the fear, always has. The thought of having to know the events of another comic altogether or to have been collecting one for years just so you can understand who the bad guy who's back from the dead is really does bring me out in a cold sweat. I like my comics standing alone thank you very much, with a beginning, a middle and an end. Which is why, about four pages into CHIMERA, a chill went down my spine. You see, four pages into CHIMERA, you get a good look at the main characters' back and it's marked with a Crossgen Sigil. Now whilst the Crossgen sigil is 'continuity-lite', it still bothered me. Still does, although it's almost the only thing about CHIMERA that did. It's very very easy to do science fiction abysmally badly. All you have to do is turn out a STAR TREK, STAR WARS or X-FILES knockoff and try and persuade your viewers and/or readers that it's something new. It's lazy, predictable writing that afflicts the genre almost everywhere it goes and it makes the few times it rises above this all the more impressive. Paul Cornell's novel SOMETHING MORE for example is a startlingly good book which happens to be science fiction. It's not ashamed of that fact, doesn't try and dress itself up as literature, it's just what it is. PITCH BLACK is much the same, a look at redemption, sacrifice and responsibility that happens to be set on a world inhabited by nocturnal predators. CHIMERA, isn't that good. But it's damn close. What we've got here is a combination of some of the major stylistic movements in science fiction, especially comic science fiction. Peterson melds painted artwork with computer generated elements in much the same way as Team Red Star or Fred Beltran does and enjoys a similar level of success. The computerised elements are occasionally very noticeable, but for the most part are subtly placed, well produced and gorgeous to look at. The scenes inside the miner's quarters especially are stunning, giving a sense of both the immense size and cramped confines of the base perfectly. Similarly, Marz's script is a tight, controlled story that's told through actions as much as anything else. Sara, the main character is cut from the same cloth as Fry from PITCH BLACK, a woman on the run from her responsibilities who is faced with the very real possibility that blood is on her hands. She's an interesting character, fallible and more than a little unsympathetic. Likewise, her erstwhile sidekick Jason Bryce has an edge to him that this sort of character usually lacks. Whilst he's every inch the wisecracking loner, Bryce has a touch of the sinister to him that's not easily dispelled. The overall story, again a little stock, is delivered with similar energy and some nice touches. A totalitarian empire is maintained by a single family who have obsessively mined and enhanced the human genome. Now with the emperor's health fading he begins obsessively searching for viable donors for organs and genetic material. Which is, of course, where Sara and Bryce come in. What part they play, we don't know yet but it's very difficult not to care. This is science fiction adventure at it's near best and it rattles along at a fair old rate. Or at least it does, right up until the point where it hits a brick wall. A scantily clad brickwall. At around the halfway point of the issue, Sara goes to bed. Which leads to a nice little scene with her talking to her robot, which helps the reader get inside her head a little more. Which is good and helps with the character. Her underwear, however, does not. It's the equivalent of the contractually obliged moment in THE CELL where Jennifer Lopez's arse is shoved into the camera. You can almost hear the sirens going and technicians sprinting down badly lit corridors because someone forgot to put the lingerie scene in, almost hear the CLANK! as it's dropped into the script. It's unnecessary, out of place and plays to every stereotype the comic has refused to up until that point. Which isn't to say that CHIMERA's not good because it is, very good in fact. If later issues can drop the stereotypical moments then it should be a deserved success. It just shouldn't need the cheesecake to get that success. (Alasdair Stuart) * * * INVASION
#1 Time was, I was a UFO nut. I'm not ashamed to admit it either, now, considering that most everybody seemed to be swept up into it during the late '90s. At one point, my friends and I even organised a syndicate to buy UFO videos. The plan was we'd all chip in a pound or so, order the tape and then before we knew it we'd have an invaluable library of paranormal phenomena. It would also, we thought, make us look weird and interesting and girls would flock to our sides. I come from a small island in the middle of the Irish sea. This is the only defence I can offer. Anyway, I was reminded of this time in my life all the way through INVASION #1. Not in a bad way either, because what's presented here manages to play on what fascinated people about UFOs and at the same time present events in a pragmatic, literally down to Earth manner. Triangles hover above every major city, and the world has new masters. Floggings and executions are daily news and Vince Bastamon, a teacher and our would be hero couldn't care less. Issue 1 follows Vince as he struggles through his morning routine and gets drawn into his memories of the day everything changed, and the aliens arrived. Anyone looking for X-FILES-style ambiguity is going to be disappointed, because INVASION's aliens live out in the open. They own the planet, talk to Vince through his tv and have a casual disregard for everything that's gone before them. They're also remarkably chatty, and hints are dropped that Vince's role as a teacher may mean more than we're shown in this first issue. As it stands, the combination of a resolutely normal, flawed man trying to deal with his day and the stark, blank terror of the aliens' arrival is a very well observed piece of character writing and gives INVASION a unique sort of English menace. However, not everything here works. Whilst the artwork, all manipulated black and white photos is both unique and expressive, there's precious little of it or the story. Weighing in at twelve pages, eleven of INVASION and one of back up strip 'Imagine the Damage Done', INVASION isn't exactly value for money. Similarly, there's a sneaking feeling that some of this is weird for weird's sake, a fact born out by the over used voiceover and 'Imagine the Damage Done'. Whilst it takes the same basic concept as INVASION, the mundane things of life running full tilt into the supernatural, it seems like space filler. An amusing one, but space filler none the less. Despite these problems, INVASION is a genuinely interesting debut and well worth seeking out. (Alasdair
Stuart)
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