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Mar 17 2014

East of West 10

east of west 10

Today, Taylor and Drew are discussing East of West 10, originally released March 12th, 2014.

Taylor: Anyone who’s been reading the news lately has been spoiled by a surprising amount of entertaining stories. The mystery of the vanished Malaysian airliner has captivated the world since each day new and more confounding information is released about its fateful voyage. Then there’s the ongoing political crisis in Crimea. Vladimir Putin’s bizarre quest to take back a former Russian province has set the Western world afire. With stories such as these making the news one would wonder why we need to read fiction since the real world seems capable of delivering enough entertainment on its own. As if in answer to this question, East of West 10 tells us why fiction and comics are important. This issue seems to hold a mirror up to the world and the reflection, while twisted, is all too recognizable as belonging to nothing but humanity.

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Feb 18 2014

Manifest Destiny 4

Alternating Currents: Manifest Destiny 4, Drew and Taylor

Today, Drew and Taylor are discussing Manifest Destiny 4, originally released February 12th, 2014.

I’m busier than you.

College, Traditional

Drew: I don’t know if it is true everywhere, but when I was in college, scheduling a meeting or asking someone to help with something was basically made impossible by everyone’s knee-jerk insistence that they were SO busy. I absolutely understand the importance of saying “no” when you really are busy, but the implication that someone was unwilling to make time for whatever group project that everyone else was making time for always drove me nuts. It was known around campus as the “I’m busier than you” game, which found its practitioners preemptively complaining about how busy they were in hopes of avoiding being asked to do anything. The best response I ever saw to these kinds of complaints was a friend insisting that he had just run a marathon with knives embedded in both thighs — something so over-the-top to (hopefully) give everyone a little perspective on how silly it is to complain about term papers or whatever. Of course, nothing we could come up with was quite as extreme as single-handedly fighting off a band of monsters WHILE PREGNANT, which is to say, Sacagawea (or at least the version of her that appears in Manifest Destiny 4) would have easily won the “I’m busier than you” game. Continue reading →

Feb 10 2014

Lazarus 6

lazarus 6

Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing Lazarus 6, originally released February 4th, 2014.

Patrick: Matt Groening had been writing and drawing his comic strip, Life In Hell, for five years before The Los Angeles Way of Death caught the attention of James L. Brooks. Brooks had received a framed copy on the strip and the simple message of the piece eventually lead him to mentor Groening, ultimately developing The Simpsons together. That’s a Cliff Notes version of their history, but that specific Life In Hell strip is notorious for all the right reasons — a quick, clear series of images that expressed the existential slog of living and working in LA, but without being beholden to any narrative, save that which the reader projected onto it. There are clever observations throughout — like that “Gun” and “Cop” are basically the same drawing, or that “Sea” and “Air” are both true and elemental (come to think of it, Fire and Earthquake would also fit) — but the most poignant panels are the last two: “Failure” and “Success.” Both are prisons in their own right, and the uber class system at play in Lazarus makes the similarity between these apparent opposites explicit. Continue reading →

Feb 3 2014

East of West 9

Today, Taylor and Drew are discussing East of West 9, originally released January 29th, 2013.

Taylor: When successfully writing a story about a fictional world, there is one thing the author must do if they want their work to be believable. It’s not necessarily high-flown concepts or a strong thesis, though those certainly help. Instead, it’s important for the author to create a world that follows its own rules and mythologies. The author must not break away from these or else the world he or she so deliberately built will come crashing down. In the land of comics where fantasy worlds become reality on a regular basis, Jonathan Hickman has established himself as a skilled observer of this rule with such titles as The Manhattan Project and of course East of West. In the latter, Hickman has created a bleak landscape where death roams the world, both literally and figuratively. The world Death inhabits, along with its inhabitants, is fascinating and dark, and learning more about it is part of the joy of reading East of West. Issue 9, like issue 8 before it, indulges the reader with world building which is both a delight and a little frustrating at the same time. Continue reading →

Jan 31 2014

Saga 18

saga 18

Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing Saga 18, originally released January 29th, 2014.

Patrick: In the Season 2 episode of Community “Cooperative Calligraphy,” the group voluntarily sequesters itself in the study room until they can determine who stole Annie’s pen. Jeff eventually brings about peace by saying that he would rather believe the impossible — in this case, that a ghost stole it — than believe that one of his friends would subject the rest of them to this kind of psychological and emotional torture. It’s a play on the idea that we make ourselves believe all kinds of things that aren’t true in the name of love. We believe our friends and family to be capable of so much, exaggerating their talents or intelligence or compassion in our minds. Brian K Vaughan’s world has been punishing Marko and Alana for their love, but this issue tangibly rewards them for their blind faith in one another. It’s the metaphorical made real, and it’s absolutely beautiful. Continue reading →

Jan 27 2014

Pretty Deadly 4

Alternating Currents: Pretty Deadly 4, Drew and Greg

Today, Drew and Greg are discussing Pretty Deadly 4, originally released January 22nd, 2013.

Drew: One of the best pieces of writing advice I ever received was from our very own Patrick Ehlers: exposition doesn’t feel like exposition if the audience wants that information. He may not have been the first writer to observe that, but I certainly wasn’t the last who needed to hear it. Narratives should draw us in, not simply parade across our consciousness. One of the most direct ways to make the audience curious is to pose a question — it can be as central to the story as wanting to know who killed Laura Palmer, or as inconsequential as wanting to know who’s supposed to call whom Ishmael. Of course, it’s possible to overdo it with the questions — if there are too many the story stops being mysteriously alluring and starts becoming frustratingly confusing. Pretty Deadly has spent a significant time in that latter category, and while issue 4 may not fully succeed in changing that, it certainly takes some steps in the right direction. Continue reading →

Jan 24 2014

Zero 5

zero 5

Today, Mikyzptlk and Patrick are discussing Zero 5, originally released January 22, 2014.

Mikyzptlk: Zero began as a super spy, sci-fi thriller featuring said super spy, Edward Zero, seemingly going rogue after many years of faithful service. For four issues, we’ve seen Zero go on various missions, as we’ve learned more about where he’s come from and where he’ll ultimately end up. Along the way, we’ve been presented with important subjects related to war profiteering, corruption, brainwashing, free will, and more. Just as I begin to feel more confident about what this book is all about, Ales Kot drops one hell of a “WTF” ending effectively, and entertainingly, shattering my confidence in one fell swoop.   Continue reading →

Jan 21 2014

Rat Queens 4

rat queens 4

Today, Scott and Shelby are discussing Rat Queens 4, originally released January 15th, 2014.

Scott: Rat Queens is a perfect title for a comic, or for anything really. It’s an awesome dichotomy, one word evoking such filth, the other such poise. It’s repulsive yet powerful. Grotesque yet graceful. It’s also an incredibly apt descriptor for the series’ four main characters. They’re pretty unconventional, even by the standards of female mercenary squads. They’ll go do mushrooms in the woods one day, then unravel a complex murder plot the next. And I appreciate that they’re “Rat Queens” and not “The Rat Queens.” It’s not a title for their team, it’s just who they are. Rat Queens. This is a young series, and writer Kutis J. Wiebe has done an impressive job of building characters who live up to the title.
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Jan 20 2014

Velvet 3

velvet 3

Today, Drew and Greg are discussing Velvet 3, originally released January 15th, 2014.

Drew: It’s amazing how easily gender-bending a trope can force us to confront ingrained assumptions about gender. No matter how progressive our views are, watching a female character rescue a male, or seeing a guy in the kind of revealing clothing women are expected to wear as a matter of course, continues to feel incredibly alien. Spy stories, with their own unique set of gendered tropes, are a particularly ripe subject for gender-bending, and Ed Brubaker struck upon a brilliant one with Velvet‘s premise: what if James Bond (or any other beloved british spy) was a woman? It has allowed him to subvert many of the stereotypes we often accept as part of the genre (and its period setting), but issue 3 reveals that it also allows him a fresh perspective on the collateral damage of all that spying fun. Continue reading →

Jan 14 2014

Sex Criminals 4

Alternating Currents: Sex Criminals 4, Drew and Kyle

Today, Drew and guest writer Kyle are discussing Sex Criminals 4, originally released January 8th, 2014.

Drew: The first stage of the hero’s journey, according to Joseph Campbell, is the call to adventure: the moment where the hero is tasked with leaving the comfort of home behind, and heading off into the unknown. Of course, most stories spend a good deal of time in that “known” before any real action is taken — we need to be introduced to our hero, their values, and what’s at stake before any threats can really take hold. Often, the action they’re called to sounds MUCH more exciting than the quiet comfort they’re leaving, but every once in a while, I find myself so enamored of a fictional world that I don’t want to move on to the adventure. Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky have created such a world in Sex Criminals, so while I’m sure many folks are excited to move into the plot proper in issue 4, I find myself wondering why we can’t keep sitting around and sharing embarrassing sex stories. Continue reading →