Category Vertigo

Jul 31 2014

The Wake 10

wake 10Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing The Wake 10 originally released July 30th, 2014.

They are our witness. Our memory. Our reflection staring back at us from the surface of the water. Challenging us to be unafraid, to take whatever leap we can.

Dr. Lee Archer, The Wake 10

Patrick: I let a lot of creative projects marinate in my imagination for long time before I ever express them to anyone. As a result, most of these projects never ever ever see the light of day. Half-formed ideas wither and die in my mind on a daily basis — exciting worlds, interesting characters, heartbreak, adventures, mysteries revealed. I know that ever single idea I’ve ever had would benefit from a second imagination’s scrutiny, so why would I let so many concepts suffocate inside my own skull? Because expression is scary. Admitting that you think an idea you have is cool is impossibly risky: literally no one else has ever weighed in on the idea before you. Actually expressing an original story you want to tell (or an original painting you want to paint or an original song you want to sing), requires the artist to be a narcissist and a champion of the unknown at the same time. That’s an incredibly naked position to be in, and that’s how Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy cast the whole of humanity in the final issue of The Wake. Continue reading →

Jun 23 2014

Fables 141

Alternating Currents: Fables 141, Drew and PatrickToday, Drew and Patrick are discussing Fables 141, originally released June 18th, 2014.

Drew: Long before I ever read a page of Fables, I remember thinking that populating a story with only folktale characters would be incredibly limiting. I had dismissed it as a total gimmick, doomed to occupy a very closed-off little world. Turns out, this couldn’t have been further from the truth. Indeed, the massive world-building that Bill Willingham seems to toss off in every single issue has quickly become my favorite aspect of the series. Every detail can support its own myth, creating a nested, telescoping world that seems virtually infinite. Those myths-within-myths can lend even the more mundane “putting the pieces in place” issues a great deal of action — though with Willingham crafting the dialogue, even the talking heads sequences in this issue are thrilling. Continue reading →

Jun 5 2014

The Wake 9

wake 9 Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing The Wake 9 originally released June 4th, 2014. Shelby: Death is a pretty easy way to end a story. In most mediums, you wouldn’t be wrong to say it’s the ultimate end of a story; dead is dead, right? We’ve learned time and time again, however, that comic books play by their own, messier set of rules when it comes to the death of a character. Usually it’s an eye-rolling sort of resurrection we all begrudgingly saw coming a mile away. Sometimes, like in Charles Soule’s last issue of Thunderbolts, we love the “just kidding, not dead!” moment despite knowing with complete certainty it was coming. Sometimes, though, the death/not death of a character catches us so off guard we don’t know where to go next. That shock is exactly what I got at the end of Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy’s penultimate issue of The Wake. In case you didn’t catch my drift (ocean puns!): here be spoilers. Continue reading →

May 27 2014

American Vampire: Second Cycle 3

american vampire 3Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing American Vampire: Second Cycle 2, originally released May 21st, 2014.

Shelby: Appropriately enough, I watched Bram Stoker’s Dracula last night. In the movie, Vlad the Impaler becomes a vampire after desecrating a chapel, denouncing God, and drinking the blood that pours from a cross he himself stabbed. That’s why crosses make them recoil and pieces of the Sacrament burn; their powers are derived from the Devil. Despite this connection, American Vampire: Second Cycle finds our blood-thirsty protagonist being hunted by the Devil himself. If you know the world Scott Snyder created with his first cycle of American Vampire, though, it’s not all that surprising. The American vampires have had a rebellious, outlaw streak in them ever since the first one came around.

Continue reading →

May 15 2014

Fables 140

fables 140Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Fables 140, originally released May 14th, 2014.

Patrick: As Bill Willingham nears the end of his fairy-tale epic, it appears the writer has endings on the brain. By the time it wraps up early next year, the series will have been in print for over a dozen years and spawned numerous spin-offs, original graphic novels and video games. It’s an enormous, multi-platform franchise that needs a compelling conclusion. The problem, and one that Willingham articulates exceptionally well in the two-issue Boys in the Band story arc, is that modern audiences might not know what we want from endings anymore. A happy ending? A mind-blowing twist? A meaningful loss? After over a decade, any real resolution feels cheap, even dishonest. Time will tell how exactly Willingham pulls it off, but he uses this issue to identify all the pitfalls he’s prepared to avoid. Continue reading →

May 13 2014

The Wake 8

wake 8Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing The Wake 8, originally released May 7th, 2014.

Drew: What would you say Hamlet is about? “Hamlet” is the obvious answer, but would you consider it a character study, or is it really “about” its themes of powerlessness and despondency? Is it about Hamlet himself, or the events that follow in the wake of his father’s murder? Obviously, these options aren’t mutually exclusive, but how a narrative emphasizes its focus on any of these elements establishes a contract with the audience, setting up expectations that encourage the appropriately interested fans to stick around. Confusion about that contract can lead to disappointment (it’s easy to think of all those LOST fans who would have liked the final episode to focus on the show’s mythology rather than its characters), but may be essential for a mystery. Between its radical shifts in perspective and steady build-up of questions, it’s hard to know exactly what The Wake is about — the monsters? the characters? the plot? — which may make it difficult to evaluate its chapters until we know how it ends.

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Apr 23 2014

The Unwritten Apocalypse 4

Alternating Currents: Unwritten Apocalypse 4, Drew and PatrickToday, Drew and Patrick are discussing The Unwritten Apocalypse 4, originally released April 16th, 2014.

Drew: What do we need to talk about when discussing a work of art? Obviously, the answer will vary quite a bit depending on the art in question, but in the abstract, virtually every discussion needs to touch on the art itself, the artist(s) that created it, and the audience that observes it. We tend to focus on the relationship between the art and the audience here, believing that meaning arises when art is consumed, and that interpretation is the most important end-product of art. It’s an approach that keeps us from getting too mired in concerns over what the artist meant or what they might believe, but it might also prevent us from fully appreciating the art itself. The Unwritten Apocalypse 4, raises some interesting questions about the relationship between art and the artist that creates it, presenting it in the much more alluring (and knowingly meta) form of a story ripe for interpretation.

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Apr 18 2014

American Vampire: Second Cycle 2

american vampire 2Today, Scott and Greg are discussing American Vampire: Second Cycle 2, originally released April 16th, 2014.

Scott: Horror is a difficult genre for me. I have a tendency to avoid it because I don’t like gore. It’s to my own detriment, I’ll admit,  since I love the tension that only comes from good horror stories. I love that sense of dread, that pervasive fear of the unknown, the idea that something — anything — could emerge from the dark at any moment. That sort of tension is interesting to me, because it doesn’t imply that anything scary is happening, or even will happen, just that it could, at any moment. I swear there’s an episode in the final season of Breaking Bad with a low, ominous tone running through the whole thing, start to finish. It’s almost comical, really, but it made for a damn compelling hour of TV. Tension like that has to be earned, and when it is, it’s the best. American Vampire: Second Cycle 2 is at that level. For my money, this is as good as horror gets.

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Apr 4 2014

Trillium 8

trillium 8Today, Spencer and Shelby are discussing Trillium 8, originally released April 2nd, 2014.

Spencer: A good ending can make or break a story. While there are many stories that are beloved due to endings that managed to respect its themes, satisfactorily tie-up loose ends, or even just provide a thought-provoking twist, there are just as many rotten endings that manage to ruin everything that came before; look at the controversy over the recent finale of How I Met Your Mother?, for example. Going into the final issue of Jeff Lemire’s Trillum, we’re left with more questions than ever and almost no idea how things might wrap up or what a satisfying ending to this series would even entail; will the ending make or break Trillium?

Alright, I won’t keep you in suspense: it makes it. This is one of the best finales I’ve ever experienced. Continue reading →

Apr 1 2014

The Wake 7

wake 7Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing The Wake 7, originally released March 26th, 2014.

Anything could happen.

-Traditional

Patrick: Aristotle called it “peripeteia” — the conditions that trigger a fundamental change in what we understand about a narrative. We know it more colloquially these days as a “mindfuck,” and it’s simultaneously the most rewarding and most frustrating thing to experience as an audience member. We’ve all been there: suddenly you have to decide whether the leap has established a reality that you still want to experience. Is it fundamentally the same story once you know that Luke is Darth Vader’s son? No way. Is that new story worth experiencing? Oh, hell yes. Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy are fresh on the heels of one of the biggest shifts in storytelling since Psycho, and they’re already dousing the narrative in shocking new revelations. “Anything” has already happened — how the hell are they still surprising me?

Continue reading →