What I Bought 4/3/2023 - Part 1

We did not get any hail or tornadoes last Friday. Well, my dad got hail, so I have to venture there to help with another Rooftop Adventure this weekend, but nothing where I live. Sadly, as I type this Tuesday afternoon, we might get something Tuesday night. Hopefully not, though.

Six comics left over from March to hit. I knew going in there were probably two titles I was going to drop. And I was right, although only half-right about which comics.

Liquid Kill #2, by Max Hoven and Aaron Crow (writers), Gabriel Iumazark (artist/letterer) - Such a colorful cover, when the interior is not.

Most of this issue is focused on Jake, who is not the adoptive father figure that the ladies are trying to rescue. No, he is some sort of manager for the resort/hotel/creepy-ass rich people retreat that sits on top of where the guy who is to be rescued is being held. Jake don't seem to know anything about that, but doesn't blink when a large bald man and his lady dressed like Red Catwoman requests a serving tray full to the brim of milk. But Jake also isn't sure he wants to keep working here. Good news, then, that the ladies arrive and take him hostage at the end.

It's an interesting choice, to focus on this guy for an entire issue. I assume he'll be making a tough choice on which side to help at some point. And maybe it establishes the setting, although the hotel seems largely empty. Jake runs into a few people in the halls, and there's one gaming room that has a few more people around it, but it's not a thriving scene. Also, the color are so uniformly drab and dark, if this is supposed to be some weird debauchery party, wouldn't there be more lighting? Wouldn't people be dressed more colorfully? But even the Red Catwoman lady's outfit is muted, only standing out in contrast to the black and sickly grey-green all around. It's not pleasant to look at.

This issue feels as though it's trying to lay everything out for when things start to go boom later. Establish a sense of place, possibly hint at the notion these guests are expecting the all-lady kill squad as part of tonight's entertainment. But it hasn't succeeded in making me care why anyone is doing anything they're doing. The only one who got a personality was the guy being held hostage, who has only appeared in flashback. The characters I would have thought were the leads are barely cardboard cutouts at this point.

Immortal Sergeant #3, by Joe Kelly and Ken Niimura - Oh boy, it's Sergeant Buford T. Justice and his son, hot on the trail of that Bandit!

Sarge goes to his favorite bar gets drunk, and insults his son. Then he drives to the other bar. Michael eventually goes in after him and gets insulted some more until Sarge sees a guy connected to this case he's hung up on. Then he punches Michael in the face and chases the guy. Who gets on a bus heading for Atlanta. At which point Sarge convinces Michael to come with him by. . .insulting him.

Technically he says he needs Michael, but not until after saying this is Michael's chance to do something important rather than play his stupid video games. Being a husband and father? Unimportant. Help Sarge chase a guy who is probably innocent all the way to Georgia? That's important.

Of course, the next time we see them, Sarge is using the microphone is his car to harass some guy looking at his cellphone while driving. He does this until the guy gets so distracted yelling at Sarge he crashes his truck into those orange traffic barrels. As they are apparently going 80 mph, that guy is probably dead, but I guess I'm supposed to. . .what am I supposed to think? Michael made a terrible mistake? I already knew that.

I had an important epiphany when I finished this issue: I don't care what Sarge's deal is. It's irrelevant if he feels bad he didn't find the person who killed the girl that wore that shoe. It's irrelevant if he knows he was an abusive husband and father. I'm not sure he does, but if he does, he doesn't care. Kelly and Niimura may intend for Sarge to have some Paul on the road to Damascus moment in this. Or not. It may be all about Michael concluding that actually, his dad is awesome and he should be more like him! Doesn't matter. Sarge is a piece of shit. At a certain point, the "why"s don't matter.

If Kelly and Niimura had Michael take the offer and punch his dad in the face now, rather than in three issues or whenever the solicits suggested Michael might get his shit together (issue 5 at the earliest), I might have stuck around. This old guy shitting on everybody and getting away with it because either they're too scared to call him on it (Michael), just figure that's the way he is (the folks at the bar), or he just dismisses their criticisms (his ex-wife, Michael's wife Val).

Watching Michael still want his father's approval is just sad. I get the impulse in people to do that, I've seen it before. That doesn't mean I'll pay for a front-row seat to their humiliation.

What I Bought 2/26/2023 - Part 2

I saw Joe Mad announced the 10th issue of Battle Chasers will be out in June.

Yes, June of this year. Whoever had midway through 2023 wins the bet! I mean, believe it when you see it (if you care), but certainly not news I was expecting to stumble across.

Immortal Sergeant #2, by Joe Kelly and Ken Niimura - I thought the vehicle of fine American steel was not a park bench for dumbasses, yet there he is using it like a footstool.

The theme of this issue seems to be how comprehensively Sargent has fucked up his son Michael, as most of what we sees is Michael's life. He designs games, but he never finishes any of them. He's disorganized, incapable of dealing with his daughter's cut finger, incapable of standing up for his wife when his father insults her over speakerphone. From the bits we see in flashback, the fact his dad would not ever listen to what Michael thought or wanted seems to be part of it.

When they meet up, Kelly and Niimura present it as a double-page splash where Sargent dominates the left page, while Michael is consigned to less than a fifth of the right page. his dad's hand extends onto his "half", and his father insults his clothes by asking if the t-shirt comes in men's. 

Describing this guy as Eastwood's character from Gran Torino was giving him too much credit. Eastwood was mostly grouchy and silent with his family. This prick actively insults his daughter-in-law (who is also a defense lawyer, so lawyer + cop who thinks Miranda rights are stupid = real fire + gasoline combo there), his son, his ex-wife, his ex-wife's new wife. Michael makes a couple of attempts to keep his father from describing crime scenes of murders to the kids, but Sarge makes him look like the asshole for it.

It's probably meant to be something about how the cop deals with the things he's seen, but as they put it in an episode of M*A*S*H, he's such a remarkable example of walking fertilizer, it's hard for me to care. Niimura's very good at giving Sarge an especially irritating, shit-eating grin. He looks so gleeful as he fake-apologizes to his ex-wife's wife for his multiple homophobic slurs. Having the time of his life being a dick.

Nature's Labyrinth #4, by Zac Thompson (writer), Bayleigh Underwood (artist), Warnia Sahadewa (colorist), Rus Wooton (letterer) - Into the wastelands.

The guy with the flamethrower (still don't know how he's alive) and the guy with the katana carve up most of the guys in the hazmat suits. Jay escapes into the desert, which immediately turns back into the labyrinth. Nasir and the girls run into a trap, which mangles one girl's arm and dumps Nasir to his apparent death. But whatever's in that bread the girls ate has made them both a little weird and possibly impervious to pain. So when Jay tries to take them on she gets her ass kicked. Ladies busted out some Street Fighter moves, until they started bickering and got blown up by some cat doll the weird hunter guy left behind.

It also looked like Sofia cut Jay's arm with the combat knife, but there's no wound or bleeding, so who knows. Injuries are extremely inconsistent in this book, between this and Jay slicing open Flamethrower Boy's neck a couple of issues ago. I'm not sure it's by design so much as a lack of communication between the creative team.

End result, as far as the folks running this know, it's down to Jay, Flamethrower Boy and Katana Dude. Look, Thompson has given me no reason to care about them enough to bother to remember their names or the stupid titles they got, so I'm not gonna bother checking an earlier issue. Guess we could call them Mayhem Bros. Jay's got to go the whole way back through the maze, which is probably going to lead to a run-in with the Mayhem Bros. But Nasir survived falling, 'several hundred feet' largely unharmed, so he's a wildcard. Assuming the feral kid doesn't get him.

What I Bought 1/28/2023 - Part 2

I attend a conference later this week. Will it be fun? I hope so, or at least not a waste of time. They awarded our unit this set amount of money for the next few months to spend on "trainings", so my boss was very encouraging I attend as a way to use some of it.

OK, the other two books from January, including one by a creative team we just looked at yesterday!

Immortal Sergeant #1, by Joe Kelly and Ken Niimura - I kept thinking Niimura was emphasizing his upper lip, but no, the guy has a mustache.

James Sargent's retired from the force, though it's mandatory rather than voluntary. And he's got one case he can't let go of - you know how that goes - involving a child's shoe, which he has in its evidence bag in his early-70s Cadillac. He's also somehow equipped the car with essentially a taser to use on kids who loiter on it, and opines that being alcoholic doesn't make you bad, just weak. This while he's knocking back drinks at a bar before driving to another bar in a different part of town. And his son and his family are coming to visit, which Sargent may not be happy about. Or he's not happy about the food the mysterious "R" left for him. Either/or.

Niimura's going with a simpler style here than on I Kill Giants. Not necessarily stronger lines - the background characters often have a indistinct look, but Sargent probably doesn't care about them so that tracks - but a lot fewer lines. Characters pared down to a bare essence. Sargent is glasses that hid his eyes, the thick stripe of that mustache framing a smug grin. He likes his power and authority and likes throwing it around. Maybe not as racist as Eastwood's character in Gran Torino, but strong "get off my lawn" vibes.

There's not a lot else to say. Kelly and Niimura spent this issue establishing Sargent's character and hinting at a few mysteries. Like, what's with all the inflatable animals on his lawn? What kind of a number did he do on his son, the way the guy stammers through a voicemail? What's the significance of the second bar, where he was the only white person there (although he seems to be a regular)?

Nature's Labyrinth #3, by Zac Thompson (writer), Bayleigh Underwood (artist), Warina Sahadewa (colorist), Rus Wooton (letterer) - Time for a little post-urban exploration.

Jane and Nasir reach an information booth, where Nasir apparently ignores everything the animatronic cat tells him in favor of bitching at Jane about not being honest with him. They reach a safe zone where they have to wait six hours. The guy with the sword and the two girls both show up, as well as the guy with the flamethrower and I call bullshit. Jane cut his throat open then dragged his face down rusty metal last issue, and while he is missing half his face, he's otherwise fine.

Then all the people who were crew on the cruise ship pop up from underground with guns because they're playing for a chance at big money. At first I thought the goal was to kill the surviving players, but I think they have to kill each other as well. And Nasir takes this time to ditch Jane and team up with the two girls.

This after the cat explained one of them is heir to a crime family and the other runs a trafficking ring. The latter garrotes flunkies, the former killed her uncle with an icepick. These are not safe people to travel with (if there is such a thing)! On the other hand, the cat also said everyone was supposed to play on an empty stomach, and Nasir didn't eat the bread the girls offered. Instead he used it demonstrate how he could get them out. I'm pretty sure they don't need a computer programmer to pull a Hansel & Gretel. Maybe he listened amongst his bitching, but he's still an idiot.

I still don't know if the people behind this have anything larger at mind than entertaining themselves or not. It seems like a lot of work just to kill some people. An entire village of talking animatronic animals that I'm sure only look clunky and awkward? The village itself looks like it's been abandoned, some farm community or old mining town, but it really feels like something done for effect.

I'm pretty sure the feral kid Safari Bob is dragging around is related to Jane somehow. Underwood is keeping the kid's face behind a wooden mask, but the long hair looks very much like Jane's in color and style. Which might explain why Jane's here, since we haven't gotten much more of that than Nasir.

Sunday Splash Page #256

 

"Bestrides the Narrow World," in I Kill Giants #6, by Joe Kelly (writer), JM Ken Nimura (artist/designer)

Released in 2008, I Kill Giants was a 7-issue mini-series about a young girl named Barbara who claims to kill giants. The other kids at school and the teachers aren't sure what to do with her, as she's generally prickly, impatient, and has no real time for them. Outside of tabletop RPGs, her main interest is in hunting and killing giants, to protect people.

For most of the issues, the book occupies that same sort of quasi-magical realism as Calvin and Hobbes, albeit substantially darker in tone. Instead of questions about whether Hobbes is a real tiger that looks like a stuffed toy or not, it's the question of whether Barbara is really talking with fairies and building traps for giants (and whether they exist), or if she's collecting roadkill as an escape from the troubles at home. Her father is nowhere to be seen, her older sister seems to be working to support Barbara and her brother (and breaking under the weight of it), and her mother. . .

Well, her mother is an off-limits topic, and there's something upstairs in her house that fills Barbara with terror. The first time its referenced, Nimura zooms the panel in on the huge round frames of Barbara's glasses and flips the colors, so they're dark voids. This sort of motif recurs through the book, and is actually amplified the further it goes. There's always light shining through the window on the landing halfway up, but Nimura tilts the angle to make it look steep and ominous. The same outlines of jagged-toothed faced Barbara sees in the clouds as portents start to appear in the shadows that border that band of light on the stairs.

Kelly writes Barbara as a child - intelligent, cynical, but still a child in a lot of ways - struggling to impose control on a situation where she feels she has none. She sets limits, makes rules only she knows for how people interact with her, and is blunt with those who cross them. Her tentative friendship with a new girl in class, Sophia, is almost torpedoed because Sophia thinks encouraging Barbara to share her interest in baseball with their gym teacher will smooth over troubles. Things spiral from there, and sooner or later, Barbara has to face the music.

The fights are all wild energy, panels tipping on their sides, limbs just a blur. When the storm arrives, its roar fills half the page from top to bottom, with the other half devoted to a series of panels showing Barbara and the other girls, or even houses, being nearly blown away by the magnitude of its voice.