SKRONTZ! » 2004

Planetary: Crossing Worlds

Marc — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 01:42:59 +0000

Planetary: Crossing Worlds is perhaps the least interesting of the Planetary collections. It contains three crossover stories in which the Planetary team meets up with The Authority, multiple incarnations of The Batman, and an alternate version of the JLA. The latter story is definitely not part of the Planetary storyline (it takes place in a different universe), and while the other two could be part of “our” Planetary, the stories stand apart from the Planetary series.The Planetary / Authority crossover is pretty straight forward. Both series inhabit the same universe, both are/were written by Ellis, and the story seems to mesh the basic attributes of each pretty well. In short, well done.

The Planetary / JLA crossover gives Planetary the Planetary treatment. In it, the team is re-cast as an analogue to The Four; they control the world by suppressing alien / emergent phenomena, then re-releasing it as their own. Opposing them is a faction composed of a naive Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent and Diana Prince.

The Planetary / Batman crossover starts with the Planetary team pursuing a fugitive in their Gotham City. The fugitive causes ripples in space-time, which allows the team to interact with various incarnations of The Batman. They are all here – Frank Miller’s Batman, campy TV Batman, standard 70s and 80s Batman - but tellingly, it is Bob Kane’s original pulpy Bat-Man who compromises with Elijah, thereby satisfying the Planetary theme.

Not a bad collection, over-all, but certainly not a necessary one.

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Planetary, Vol. 3: Leaving the 20th Century

Marc — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 17:41:54 +0000

Hmm. What can I say about Planetary, Vol. 3: Leaving the 20th Century that I didn’t already cover in talking about the first two volumes? It still has strong writing, still has great art and colouring, ummm… still explores the superhero and related genres in a terrific post-postmodernist fashion. Did I ever tell you how awesome the cover art is?Act 3 of the Planetary story art goes WAAY back. In this volume, we are treated to tons of back story. We see how Planetary gets started, learn what’s up with the Hark Corporation, get Jakita’s origin and the identity of the Fourth Man. We go back to the pulps and their origins several times, taking in Frankenstein, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, Jules Verne, Tarzan. Ayer’s Rock and the Dreamtime make an appearance. Not to worry, though, the Four are also here, and Thor’s hammer. Great stuff.

About that cover art. One of the things that I love about the cover art is that it is never the same. Each issue, the cover is remixed to give you some indication of the genre within. Are we going back to the pulps this time? Steve Ditko’s funky-psychedelic-secret agent-groove pads from the 60s? Attack of the 50 Foot Woman? It’s all part of the magic of Planetary, and another thing that makes this series one of my favourites.

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In The Shadow of No Towers

Marc — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:46:00 +0000

Damn! I’ve been putting off this review of In The Shadow of No Towers for so long, it’s become a form of writer’s block. You see, I was so impressed by Spiegelman’s work, so absolutely blown away by it and on so many levels, that I felt that any review I had to write had better fucking do it justice. Finally, I have come to the conclusion that there is no way I am able to acheive this, so I should just go ahead and write the damn thing anyway.
The first thing you notice about Shadow is the book itself. It is hard not to notice it, as the book is roughly twice the size of a regular graphic novel. The cover is a black-on-black illustration of the towers, with a bit of colour in the middle and the book is made from boards, like those ones you get for babies. This is a particularly good choice, since you wouldn’t want the large pages to be too flimsy as you flipped through them (though the originals were printed in broadsheet newspapers), and also because, all told, the book amounts to just 19 (oversized) sheets. I’m not complaining, though.

In The Shadow Of No Towers is Art Spiegelman’s response to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. Spiegelman and his family live in Manhattan, and so the attacks were very close, and very personal (in fact, his daughter was attending high school at the foot of the towers when they were hit). In the aftermath, Spigelman decided to exorcise the demons of paranoia and fear through his art, and this led him, paradoxically though completely logically, back to his love of comics. As he says about his “near-death realization:”

“I made a vow that morning to return to making comix full-time despite the fact that comix can be so damn labor intensive that one has to assume that one will live forever to make them.”

Spiegelman was given space in the German paper Die Ziet to do whatever he wanted, with no editorial control over him. What he did was to create a large-format editorial comic covering his response to the 9/11 attacks. It starts out as a fairly personal account, his version of Maus as he says, but morphs pretty quickly into commentary on the Bush administration’s co-opting of the attacks to justify the invasion of Iraq. He invokes the cartoons of New York Past to tell his tale, and the effect is quite stunning and, well, effective. And this is just the first half of the book.

The last part is support material, but this really sells the piece, in my opinion. Reprinted are a handful of the old comics, a Gasoline Alley, a Little Nemo, a Bringing Up Father, and so on. They play out all the fears of the day, which are the fears of today. They remind us that we have been through this wringer before, and that comics have always been political, even when they are the mainstream. You just have to keep your mind open to what they are saying.

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In The Shadow Of No Towers: A First Impression

Marc — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:20:23 +0000

In The Shadow Of No Towers by Art Spiegelman is the third book we are reading in the Hamilton Graphic Novel Book Club. I’m not ready to write about it yet, but though I would give you my first impressions, because this IS an impressive book.

The first thing I noticed about it was the size of the box Amazon shipped it to me in. Gigantic, with plenty of those free bags of air they send you with orders over $39.00. The book is twice the size of a standard graphic novel, which is awesome because it shows off the art as it was presented, in full size, newspaper broadsheet.

Far from broadsheet, though, this is a board book, similar in construction to the kinds of books you give babies to chew on. Though, I won’t be letting the baby at this one for some time, not until she learns to wash her hands before touching it.

I can’t wait to read this one!

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