Reading backlog: the comics

I have a mega-backlog of reviews to give you. And it’s the holidays. So here’s some ones that stood out for me over the last few months. I’ll start with the comics, and do separate posts for different sorts of books.

There’s this new imprint called Minx. I guess it aims at comics for girls. Well, I like them anyway, despite not being in the target demographic.

Re-Gifters features art by Marc Hempel and script by Mike Carey. It’s sort of like Karate Kid the Korean Girl version, with Jen Dik Seong aka “Dixie” caught between cultures and boyfriends. The art is typically wonderful Hempel — loose strokes, often just suggestions. And it’s ncie to see Carey’s versatility here.

The Plain Janes is about a group of girls named Jane who decide to form a group that commit random acts of art in their sleepy small town. Their leader and instigator is a girl who survived a bomb attack in the big city; now her parents have moved out of the city, and away from the counterculture art scene she loved. She also has a strange bond with another survivor, who has remained in a coma…

Clubbing is easily the most lightweight of the bunch, a straightforard goofy tale of another fish out of water, a club-going London gal who ends up staying in a classic creepy English village with her grandparents. There’s a cult and Cthulhu-like monsters involved.

Confessions of a Blabbermouth is also by Mike Carey — and also his daughter Louise. That may be why it is the only comic here that acknowledges the existence of the Internet. Tasha’s a blogger, and now her family is getting larger as her mom finds a new boyfriend — and she gains a sister she kind of despises. At first, anyway. That’s not as soap opera as it sounds — instead, it’s a wickedly funny take on high school life.

Good as Lily is a weird one. Grace Kwon gets hit on the head with a pinata at her surprise 18th birthday party. The result is that multiple versions of herself start showing up to mess with her life. There’s the annoying little version, the somnewhat older but no wiser adult woman version, and there’s the old lady version, who is a walking inducement to suicide since it’s clear that Garces life went… poorly. Naturally, these all have something to teach her.

The Complete Bite Club seems hopelessly nihilistic — Scarface with vampires. Literally — the story of a Miami crime family in an alternate world where there are vamps. Just when you get attached to a character, they do something compeltely depraved. The first story arc is dark, dark, dark. It’s not until the latter half of the book, where the second story arc begins, that we start to get a glimmer of just deserts for some people — and also meet a character who is actually plausibly a good person.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Volume 1: The Long Way Home made me realize how much I missed the TV show. And it really does read like a direct continuation of the series — complete, even, with a massive (no pun intended) change involving Dawn.

Also worth picking up if you’re a Buffy fan are the Omnibus volumes collecting issues and arcs from the very uneven Dark Horse series. Some of the stories are kind of not “right” in terms of tone, but some are dead on.

Crossing Midnight is an intriguing new series, also by, you guessed it, Mike Carey. It’s set in Japan, and it’s basically about the eruption of kami into the modern world. A pair of twins are consecrated to the kami before birth, and born “crossing midnight” — one on each side of 12 o’clock. When they grow older, they can see doorways to other places, and interact with the kami — one of whom comes claiming ownership of the sister. I am looking forward to the next volume.

The Other Side is a stunning anti-war comic set in the Vietnam era. Two soldiers — one from each side — are followed from home through training and into war. One kills the other. The other goes home. To say more would be to rob the comic of its truly immense power. Highly recommended, in that grim Grave of the Fireflies sort of way.

DMZ is also unquestionably an anti-war comic. Last year my favorite “mainstream” series comic was Y: The Last Man (now up to Vol. 9: Motherland). This year, it’s DMZ. There’s three volumes out so far, tracking the story of a rookie photojournalist in a war-torn Manhattan. He’s betrayed by both sides of the conflict (and really, who can tell what the hell they are fighting over)) and he’s betrayed by his news outlets. He decides to try to tell the story of the ordinary people, the survivors and citizens who try to live in the blasted streets and avenues, a target for everyone. It’s gritty, dark, and incisive.

Oh, before I forget: the story of Rose and Isabel is complete at last; not available on Amazon, but you can get it from Ted Mathot’s site at the link. And also, don’t forget to support webcomics, and pick up copies of Truth, Justin And The American Way and Girl Genius. (Vol 6 is out).