American Jesus Volume 1: Chosen

American Jesus Volume 1: Chosen by Mark Millar and Peter Gross is hysterical, but not quite as outrageous as I thought it was going to be.

At least that was what I thought until I got to the last like three pages.

I’m not going to ruin the surprise.

I’m just going to tell you that you really should run out, buy this and read the fuck out of it.

Ever wonder how many cocks Satan has?

Apparently, it’s 5.

But that’s all I’m saying.

Go read this.

Jenny Finn: Doom Messiah

Jenny Finn: Doom Messiah by Mignola/Nixey/Dalrymple is one of the best graphic novels I’ve read this year, so why can’t I really think of much to say about it?

The artwork is amazing and the characters are fascinating and creepy as hell.

Antman

The Irredeemable Ant-Man Volume 1: Low-Life Digest by Robert Kirkman & Phil Hester is not nearly as funny or outrageous as it wants to be, but it’s entertaining enough to serve as a diversion.



Not really much to say about it.

Guy gets ant suit, becomes superhero and uses his new powers to try and get laid.

The idea sounds better than the actual product.

Clever enough to finish reading it, but not enough to buy the next installment.

Hellshock

Hellshock by Jae Lee is your typical girl meets boy during her internship as a doctor in a madhouse, boy is delusional, girl falls for boy, boy goes into a persistent vegetative state, girl thinks boy might be an angel, girl takes boy out on the roof, girl flies away with her new boy, girl and boy, in reality, have just jumped off a building, boy breaks his neck and dies, girl gets committed and lives out her days as a split person, half her own doctor, half her own patient story.

Actually, I really loved this book. The story is haunting, touching and remorseful and the artwork is frequently breathtaking.

1602

1602 by Neil Gaiman is an intriguing concept.

What if there were superheroes during the Spanish Inquisition?

Of course, they’re burned, drawn, quartered, beheaded, sodomized, etc.

(sodomized figuratively, not literally)

(I’m not really sure what I mean by that.)

Magneto and some of the X-Men make the transition into historical allegory naturally, but alas, even Neil Gaiman can’t make the Fantastic Four interesting.

Not a bad read, but nothing memorable.

Therefore Repent

Therefore Repent by Jim Munroe& Salgood Sam is a really good idea that’s executed with a perfect blend of humor, philosophy, social criticism, and just flat-out sickness.

Apparently, after the rapture, those who are left behind develop powers.

Some try to kiss God’s ass in the hopes that Christ will return yet again to collect these most recent faithful while others start what is essentially a guerilla army to resist the powers of Heaven.

I just fucking loved this book.

From the depiction of angels as an invading force to the mutations those ‘left behind’ go through to the absolutely perfect and hysterical ending that I wouldn’t dream of spoiling.

30 Days of Night & Dark Days by Steve Niles & Ben Templesmith

30 Days of Night & Dark Days is a collection of the first two series from 30 Days.

I really fucking loved it. It is a very simple, very familiar story.

There's not as much to talk about as with other graphic novels like Watchmen, the Sin City series or Wanted, but that's not to say that it wasn't memorable.

The artwork especially sticks with me. It’s not realistic at all, but it’s brutal and very disturbing. Ben Templesmith is truly a genius of the horrific.

Highly recommended.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi: A Study in Freedom and Irreverence

Okay, if The Shadow of the Wind is the most elegant and graceful book I’ve read in a long time, The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is certainly the most irreverent.

And yes, that really is a compliment, especially when you see how her criticism of authority and general sarcasm never turns cynical.

Satrapi retains her respect and affection for all her characters, even the ‘bad guys.’ She refuses to paint them as caricatures or monsters, never letting them off the hook by constantly reminding us that these are thinking individuals who make choices.

After all, a monster can’t be held responsible for behaving like a monster and she does insist on holding the people who've oppressed her country to account.

Satrapi doesn’t spare herself either.

At one point, I found myself thinking, ‘wow, what a selfish bitch’ only to find a couple of pages later that her grandma tells her that she’s a selfish bitch and Satrapi openly and apologetically admits that she found herself behaving in an unconscionable way.

I have no doubt that when you read this, you’ll know exactly which part I’m talking about.

We see Satrapi growing up under the Shah, going through the revolution and then experience the disillusionment that comes when the people of Iran find themselves just as repressed as they were before they overthrew the Shah.

What we see here is the end result of too many revolutions in which the ‘liberators’ turn out to be as or more oppressive than the tyrant they fought to overthrow in the first place.

This book also serves as a caution against painting an entire nation of people with a broad brush. Doing so isn’t only naïve, it’s dangerous.

But what stands out is that Satrapi never comes off as sanctimonious or preachy. Any political point of view rests comfortably in this bed of humor and sarcastic irreverence.

Seriously, read this book.

The Hard Goodbye by Frank Miller

For those of you who’ve seen Sin City, The Hard Goodbye is the one with Mickey Rourke.

It’s my favorite of the film's three segments.

Marv is just such a compelling character. He is sympathetic and terrifying at the same time.

I absolutely love the guy, but he scares the fuck out of me.

We’ve all heard about the hooker with the heart of gold, well, here we have the sadistic killer with the heart of gold.

Miller’s work, all of it, the story, the dialogue, the characters, the artwork all comes together so beautifully.

Best line: "I love hit men. No matter what you do to them, you don't feel bad."

Christ, Marv is so bad-ass.

The Hard Goodbye is the rare occasion where the perfect story finds its perfect medium.

For those of you who’ve seen Sin City but as of yet haven’t read any of the books, The Hard Goodbye is a great jumping off point.

300 by Frank Miller & Lynn Varley

There isn't a whole fuck of a lot to say about this book.

If you’ve seen the movie, you pretty much get the point.

I actually enjoyed the graphic novel more than I enjoyed the film which I thought was entertaining, if over hyped and more or less forgettable.

If you liked the movie, you’d probably enjoy reading the book. If not, I’m not sure it’s going to win over any new converts.

Buffy the Vampire Season 8: The Long Way Home.

Dear Lord, if you do in fact exist, what the hell is up with you?

Sex and the City gets a movie but not Buffy? What the fuck, dude? Not cool.

Please stop falling asleep on the job. Amen.

Okay, for what we got, which is a series of comic books for Buffy season 8, this compilation is very entertaining.

Joss has not lost his sense of humor or his ability to surprise us. He has an amazing ability to follow a story arc, not just through a single season, but through the entire series.

His gift for foreshadowing without disappointing in the payoff is staggering. Yes, I would rather have more episodes to watch or even a movie, but Joss is a master storyteller and at this point, we’ll take what we can get.

The story here for season 8 is very compelling, moving, frightening and funny.

Plus, bringing back Warren, the one villain we have absolutely no fascination with (Adam, the First, Gloria) or any affection for (the Mayor, Faith) sounds like a bad move, but in fact, it is a master stroke.

The only thing we have ever wanted in Buffy’s dealings with Warren is for him to die and die horribly. Whatever is in store for us, it's bound to be fun.

The Last Temptation by Neil Gaiman & Michael Zulli with inspiration & cooperation from Alice Cooper.

Okay, this book is just creepy as hell. You would think that a villain who looks exactly like Alice Cooper wouldn’t be so menacing, but you’d be wrong.

Even after Wayne’s World and hanging out with Alice Cooper myself at a concert that Joia produced (one of the perks of her job) I was still scared fuckless by Cooper’s Master of Ceremonies who may or may not be Satan.

Okay, sidetracking to the funny story about hanging out with Alice Cooper.

So, we were talking about our backgrounds, and how similar they are, me being a pastor’s kid and he also being a PK.

He told me that I should seriously consider going back to church because it would provide peace and guidance.

Walking away, Joia just started laughing her ass off. When I asked what was so funny, she said, “How fucked up do you have to be for Alice Cooper to think you need Jesus?”

So, that was fun.

Back to The Last Temptation, the black and white artwork is by turns horrifying, sickening and gorgeous and the story really adds a lot to the too-often re-treaded fable of Faust.


Gaiman draws a convincing parallel between the interaction between Cooper’s Showman and the young Steven and the temptation of Christ in the wilderness by Satan himself.

Particularly haunting is the attempt to seduce Steven through Mercy, a troubled, beautiful and perhaps imaginary showgirl.


As we've come to expect from Gaiman, what we’re left with is more than just a morality tale or a horror story. The Last Temptation is a fresh, unsettling take on a familiar story. Buy this book.

Soulwind

This is a series of 5 graphic novels, and they’re pretty short. These are not great, but not a complete waste of time. There are enough good ideas to justify the time I spent reading them, but that’s really the only good thing I can say about them.

Bad Blood by various writers & artists

This is actually an anthology of three different graphic novels, Sweetmeats by Steve Tanner & Pete Venters, Sugar Virus by Warren Ellis, Martin Chaplin & Garry Marshall and Night Vision: Intermezzo Bette Noir by David Quinn & Hannibal King. Then, there’s some naked vampire artwork by John Bolton thrown in at the end and you know, you just can’t go wrong with that. Sweetmeats, the first in the anthology is by far the best of the bunch. We follow a young vampire from her days as a child prostitute (don’t worry, the would-be sexual predators ended up getting more than they bargained for) through her adolescence in an asylum to her liberation by a young doctor. The characters are very complicated and interesting and the story has several effective surprises.

Sugar Virus leaves a lot to be desired, from a storytelling standpoint. It’s more than a little muddied, but the artwork really makes it worth checking out. At one point, we get to see what happens when somebody tries to see just how far he can go in torturing a vampire while keeping her alive. (Okay, since we’re talking about vampires, alive really isn’t the right word. Animated probably fits better.) At any rate, the pictures of that poor, tortured vampire are the stuff that nightmares are made of. Very chilling, disturbing imagery.

The third story, Night Vision just isn’t very good at all. But, Bolton’s naked vampire art at the end is definitely worth looking at.