Blogcritics Author: Dan Traeger

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Graphic Novel Review: The Architect by Mike Baron and Andie Tong

Dan Traeger — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 00:01:15 EDT

Scott Beiser, one of the great political cartoonists of our generation, is the general director of a maverick independent publishing company called Big Head Press. I first discovered Scott's work when one of my friends hooked me up with Scott's excellent adaptation of L. Neil Smith's Libertarian science fiction manifesto, The Probability Broach. Since then I've kept an eye on Scott's ever expanding stable of excellent graphic fiction, and I've rarely been disappointed.Last year Scott raked in a coup by getting comics master scribe Mike Baron to release a new horror story through Big Head Press. It was originally published on their website Big Head Press.com, and it now makes its debut as a graphic novel. You know, something that doesn't go away after you unplug it.The Architect is a horrific and fun tale of a master builder gone bad and the havoc he wreaks on his family. Baron excels at fast-paced, tightly plotted storytelling, and this story is no exception. The neat thing about The Architect is that it serves as a partial answer to the question most likely to annoy the piss out of your author of choice: "Where do you get your ideas?" In The Architect, the story seeds are obvious and it's a testament to Baron's strength as a writer that the tale doesn't just degenerate into a bad Twilight Zone episode from there. Anyone who has ever been in one of Frank Lloyd Wright's houses can tell you that they're often more than a little on the spooky side. There's nothing overtly wrong with them really, it's just a feeling that you get way back in the far reaches of your reptile brain when you walk around in one of them. The great architect was an oddball while he lived, and it often showed up in his work. It's no wonder that Baron decided to use him as the springboard for a horror story.The main character of The Architect is definitely not Frank Lloyd Wright. Roark Dexter Smith is a spendthrift, a black magician, and a mushroom worshiper (just go with it), as well as one of the greatest architects of his time. The story is a classic haunted house fable that involves the man's final, unfinished project. The house is inherited by his heir apparent, and a few days' stay at the new digs turns into a nightmare for him and his somewhat eccentric friends. Throw in the fact that the house is located on top of the largest fungus on the planet (which really exists) and you've got the makings of one really twisted horror story.The artist of the piece, Andie Tong is the regular artist on the UK version of Spectacular Spider Man. He does a phenomenal job of keeping up with Baron's frantic pacing. The end result is that the art compliments the story perfectly. Andie is a master of light and shadow work, and he's in top form here. Every sequence evokes a suspenseful mood even when the scene in play is tranquil. From his character designs to his stellar inking technique, Andie is a near perfect match for Mike Baron's powerhouse writing.The Architect is a tight, well-written story that makes a great case for equipping fungicide with your usual mace or pepper spray. Baron delivers the goods with a smart script, full of intelligent characters who either get completely blindsided by the bad guy, or who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time (you will think twice next time you have to use the toilet.) Nobody in this story walks backwards down the spooky, darkened hallway, and there isn't even a naked co-ed shower scene. The violence is pretty graphic though, (remember, Horror genre) so I really wouldn't recommend this to younger readers. Even young teens might need an adult to moderate. It's smart, tightly written, fast paced fun, and it will definitely give you a new respect for the lowly mushroom.The Architect is available from Amazon and at finer comics shops near you. If you enjoy a great horror story then give this a try. You won't be disappointed.

Dan Traeger has been a sporadically published short story writer and essayist for longer than he cares to admit. After finally caving in to external pressures he finally broke his long running and quite comfortable writers block and started his own blog. He's cranky and irritable, and hates stupid people, qualities which he thinks make him an excellent critic. He is also humble, mostly loveable, and almost never writes about himself in the third person.

Movie Review: 300

Dan Traeger — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 15:23:03 EDT

If you haven't seen 300 yet, you should drop what you're doing, call Mr. Moviephone, go get tickets, or whatever it is you do, and go see it. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. This movie kicks ass on so many levels, it's hard to decide where to begin. First, a bit of back story I think.In a nutshell, in 480 BC, Persia invaded Greece with what was at the time, the largest army ever assembled. What we know of the invasion, we get from several sources, but the most detailed account, and the one with the most interesting bits, is by the Greek Historian Herodotus. The great Persian God-King Xerxes made a play to conquer Greece by threat and bribery, and when the two great city-states of Athens and Sparta told him to get bent, he invaded. While Athens navy held off the bulk of the invading ships, Sparta, which was hamstrung by an outdated set of laws that required the King to get approval from their oracle before declaring war, did nothing.In a desperate ploy, the Spartan King Leonidas hand picks 300 elite soldiers to accompany him to a mountain pass known as The Hot Gates near Thermopylae. The mountain pass acts as a natural funnel where the Greeks can make a stand against an army whose numbers suddenly count for little. The rest is history as 300 Spartans and about seven thousand other Greek soldiers hold off an army of at least 100,000 strong, for three days. On the third day, the Persians are told of an alternate route around The Hot Gates. About to be outflanked, Leonidas orders the remaining soldiers into a retreat. He stays behind with his remaining Spartans and about 1,000 Thespian soldiers to cover the withdrawal.Later, Leonidas' martyrdom galvanizes Sparta into action, and together with their Athenian counterparts, they hand Xerxes a defeat that begins a downward spiral that will end 150 years later when Alexander the Great ends the Persian empire on a more permanent basis. And you all thought history wasn't fun!In 2003 the great comics writer and artist Frank Miller created a masterful retelling of this historical account. Setting up the characters with fully fleshed personalities and rendering them in his highly stylized trademark drawing style, resulted in a modern classic of the comics art form.Enter Zack Snyder, fresh off his success remaking George Romero's classic Dawn of the Dead, Zack dives into the 300 project headfirst.The result is 117 minutes of fun, and one of the best movies ever made. Because the Grecian topography has changed radically in the 2,500 years since the battle, location shooting proved impossible. Instead, Zack filmed the entire movie in front of a blue screen. The backgrounds and scenery were filled in later by CGI. While I'm not completely sold on this technique (previously used in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, as well as the Matrix movies,) in this case, as with the previous Miller adaptation Sin City, the CGI allows the cinematographers and the set designers the freedom to adapt the comic panel by panel.It's a perfect fit. Not only do the characters look and act true to Miller's work, but even the scenes that were added to pad the story for motion picture pacing, look and feel like they're right out of Miller's story.Gerard Butler is absolutely perfect as King Leonidas. He looks the part as do all the actors playing the Spartans. There are more six packs in this movie than at a frat house on pledge night. Butler turns in an Oscar worthy performance that makes Russell Crowe's Gladiator look like a little girl in a pink frilly dress. Leonidas opposite number Xerxes is played to absolute perfection by an almost unrecognizable Rodrigo Santoro.When these two fine actors are on scene together they bring every acting skill they've ever learned to bear, resulting in some of the most intensely brilliant scenes ever filmed. It's like watching a precision practice run from the George C. Scott school of caffeine frenzied scenery chewing. You will believe these two actors are opposing battlefield generals.The writing is dynamic and fluid, allowing plenty of breathing room for the battlefield action. Scriptwriters Kurt Johnstad and Michael B. Gordon, with an able assist from the director, should be commended for turning out an outstandingly tight script. It even has the requisite one-liners, several of which are right out of Herodotus. When the Persian field commander yells, "Spartans, throw down your weapons and surrender," King Leonidas retorts, "Persians, come and get them." The whole theater cheered. Of course, with source material this good, it's hard to go wrong.Larry Fong turns out a feast for the eyes, bringing his cinematography skills honed on several seasons of the TV show Lost. The combat is period specific, so there's lots of spraying blood and flying heads, but Fong shoots it all so well, that it hardly matters. Every scene is altered to look like it came right out of the 300 graphic novel, so it has the effect of making the gore more tolerable.300 is a violent story, so it's not for younger kids. There's a lot of on screen gore, but again, it's stylized so the effect is muted, and I would have no problem taking a teen to see this. Just make sure you're a good parent and you watch this with them in case you have to explain things. This movie earned its R rating so go see it with that in mind and you'll be fine. It's a terrific, grandiose spectacle of a movie, based on one of the most enduring stories ever told. It's destined to become classic fare, and it'll definitely be a must own when it finally comes out on DVD.

Movie Review: Casino Royale (2006)

Dan Traeger — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 08:16:01 EST

I'll admit I was skeptical. I'd been burned by this whole Casino Royale thing before. The first Ian Fleming novel, and the worst Bond film ever made, (starring the painfully miscast David Niven) the original Casino Royale held the dubious honor of being the only utter failure of the entire James Bond franchise. (Though, that horrid re-make of Thunderball they called Never Say Never Again came awfully close.) Still and all, I'd read Casino Royale, and though it's one of Fleming's weakest novels, it's still brief enough and action-y enough to hold a film together. Hell, with the right scriptwriter, Judith Krantz's Dazzle could be a decent movie. (No, not really. Pick your jaws up off the floor.)This new Bond flick had me from the opening credits. It starts with a brief introductory piece just as they all do, except this time we get to see our man James qualifying for his 00 status, and it's an edge-of-your seat roller-coaster ride from there. Casino Royale boasts the best on foot chase sequence I've ever seen in any movie, and huge kudos to Daniel Craig for even being able to keep up with the stuntman who played his quarry.Craig plays Bond like an experienced field agent who is just coming into the next level of his spycraft. He's temperamental and brilliant, a bit impulsive and absolutely self-assured. Craig layers it all on, creating the best and certainly most human James Bond ever. At its core though, the story of James Bond is the story of a superhero. As believable as Craig makes his Bond, he never seems to lose sight of the fact that he's playing a super secret agent. He's more than equal to the physical challenge that that role demands.That's the thing about Craig. He's not classically handsome like Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan, or Timothy Dalton, and he's not cute like Roger Moore. Craig is a man who blends in fine in a crowd, and like the excellent actor he is, plays James Bond as equally at home in the back streets of a third world country as he does in the power casinos of Montenegro. He's in superior shape (plenty of rippling abs for the ladies, to be sure) and he moves like a hyperactive cat on amphetamines. You will believe this man is a secret agent.The direction on this movie is stellar. Martin Campbell, who got superb mileage out of Brosnan in Goldeneye and had the good sense to cast Halle Berry as the Bond girl, returns with a new cast. He proves unequivocally that he was the best choice to re-start the Bond franchise. Playing off of a letter perfect action script by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, Campbell shows us that he's become a superb cook by serving up the tastiest Bond Film since Dr. No. The elements, from the cinematography to the acting, blend perfectly. This is a seamless action movie that gives us a Bond for the new millennium, while still working in all the classic bits that the franchise fans know and love.The supporting cast is excellent. The character M is reprised by Dame Judi Dench. Jeffrey Wright is cast well as Felix Leiter. Though he doesn't have much in the way of screen time, he does make the most of what he's given. Eva Green is spectacular as Vesper Lynd, and she proves she's every bit Bond's match, even up through her inevitable betrayal. Special props go to Mads Mikkelsen who gives us the best Bond villain since Joseph Wiseman first threatened Sean Connery. The absence of jump-suited goons, a secret underground volcano lair, and even orbital laser beam death traps is not missed. Mikkelson plays Le Chiffre as a walking time bomb, seething with rage and desperation. He's the perfect counterpart to Craig's ice cold Bond.Ultimately Casino Royale succeeds as both a Bond film and as an action movie. That's twice what I expected with this franchise re-start. If you go see this movie at the theater you will not be disappointed. When it comes out on DVD you might as well buy it because you will want to watch it again and again.

Graphic Novel Review: Shatter

Dan Traeger — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 12:27:57 EST

Most scientists agree that there are four universal forces. These are the most powerful forces in the universe, starting with strong nuclear force which is the most powerful but affects things over the smallest distance. The middle two are weak nuclear force and electromagnetic force, and these are followed by gravitational force, which is the weakest of the four, but affects things over the longest distance. Coming in just under gravitational force, however, is an unspoken fifth universal force that is the true glue that binds the universe together. Gravity be damned, that force is nostalgia. Anyone who doubts this can go find out about Michael Bay's newest project, then get back to me.Writers as varied as Garrison Keillor and Michael Chabon have built their careers on nostalgia. Artists like Alex Ross and Steve Rude have careers steeped in it, and let's not even get into the careers of Norman Rockwell, Stan Lynde, or Charles M. Russell.Nostalgia is everywhere. Sometimes it's a force for good, like Palisades Toys re-introducing Micronauts, and sometimes it's pure evil, like the aforementioned Michael Bay project. In comics, that unrelenting need to recapture a bit of history is obvious in works like The Watchmen, The Dark Knight, Maus, The Sandman, Acme Novelty Library... I could do this forever.Back in the '80s there were several comics that I followed with the fervor of a hyper-motivated religious zealot. I tried never to miss an issue. For the record they were American Flagg, Badger, Nexus, Grimjack, Mage, Cerebus, Starslayer, Miracle Man, and of course The Legion of Super Heroes. I'm sure there were others -- The Rocketeer when it came out, Mars was periodically entertaining, occasionally Dynamo Joe and The Elementals. I'm getting misty-eyed just thinking about them.Then there was Shatter. My best friend Will followed this thing devotedly. He bought every issue, and even followed Mike Saenz on to Donna Matrix. It took nearly a year of his browbeating me with this series before I finally gave it a chance. It was good. It didn't exactly blow my socks off or anything, but I liked it well enough. Peter Gillis' plot was a bit pedestrian, a futuristic crime noir complete with the cliched hardboiled hero and the femme fatale. It was obvious that Gillis was a Blade Runner fan, and that was just fine by me.From a story standpoint, Shatter didn't exactly set my world on fire, but the artwork was a different story. Working with an Apple MacIntosh and a dot matrix printer, Mike Saenz made magic. He pulled light, depth, and shadow from a device that only a few years before could barely repeat the word "run" on an endless loop until you hit the escape button. This was something new, exciting, and endlessly interesting. It was the first time a comic had ever been produced using a tool that 22 years later is an integral part of the art form.I liked Shatter. It was unique for its time. Over the years I've gone back and re-read those issues several times. It has always held up as a nostalgic reminder of one of my favorite eras in the history of comics.And that's why I was happy to see AiT/Planet Lar publish Shatter as a graphic novel. It had been several years since I'd read the comic, and seeing it on the shelf at my local Borders was like welcoming back an old friend. Larry Young and Mimi Rosenheim understand all to well that fifth universal force, and they definitely know quality work when they see it. The new Shatter package is excellent. It's faithfully reproduced from the original black and white art, and the modern color process on the covers takes the artwork to whole new levels of excellence. It's got essays by the writer Peter Gillis, and by Mike Gold (the genius responsible for most of what was good from First Comics, Shatter's original publishing house.) There's a couple of other essays by luminaries who are fans of Shatter, and only Mike Saenz is conspicuous by his absence. It's a nice package, and a fine addition to the AiT/Planet Lar cannon.Looking back at 1984, the year Shatter was published, it was a watershed year for science fiction. Blade Runner was only two years old, and everyone was still on the fence about its importance to the genre. Howard Chaykin was working on his science fiction magnum opus, American Flagg. Later that same year, a little book called Neuromancer would plow into the metaphorical forearm of the genre like a cybernetic heroin overdose, leaving us with permanent track mark scars of chrome and neon.Taken in that context, Shatter becomes all the more important for what Peter Gillis accomplished with his story. To swipe a turn of phrase from Larry Young, like fine sippin' whiskey, Shatter just gets better with age. The artwork suffers a bit with the passing of time, especially considering what we're used to in these latter days of 2006, but it still rocks. Hopefully one of these days Mike Saenz will revisit this project and apply some of our modern coloring techniques. Shatter's artwork almost begs for it, and the addition of color would definitely alleviate some of the "dated" feel it has for today's comics readers, spoiled on a diet of digital processing.For now though, Shatter works just fine the way it's presented. It's a nostalgic trip back to a fun time in comics. It was a time when a comics company that was neither Marvel or DC would take a chance on something that had never been done before. It was an era where that same upstart publisher took on the big two with a murder's row of indy titles, and actually managed to shake the pillars of heaven, for a time.

Book Review: Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughn and Nico Henricson

Dan Traeger — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 17:05:34 EST

It takes a special kind of writer to regularly splatter their brain children over 20-odd pages of cheap newsprint. For those few writers that have the talent and the creativity, the rewards of making a living cutting brand new worlds wholesale from personal mental firmament are minimal, so they'd better love what they're doing. In the tiny ranks of these comic writers who love their job, there are even fewer who stand out as supernova bright as Brian K. Vaughn.Brian is the scribe responsible for Ex-Machina, which blows the doors off The Watchmen as an attempt to portray superheroes in a real-world setting. His teen superhero series Runaways offers a fresh and infinitely interesting spin on what it takes to be a hero, even as it blurs the lines between good guys and bad guys. His science fiction series Y The Last Man is a twisted journey of self discovery. Drawing equally from Stephen King's The Stand and James Tiptree Jr.'s The Screwfly Solution, it beats them both in the grand smackdown of post apocalyptic speculative fiction.It's no wonder that his stand-alone graphic novel Pride of Baghdad turned out so remarkably well. The genesis of this little high-concept gem was a news report about a quartet of lions that escaped from the Baghdad Zoo during the U.S.'s 2003 bombing of Iraq. The lions were starving, frightened out of their minds, and half-dead from exhaustion and exposure, so the U.S. Army mercifully put them down. The twist to this comic is that the story is told from the lions' points of view. This seems like a stupid idea. I'm always wary of anthropomorphising animals. If taken too far, you get extremist terrorist organizations like P.E.T.A. and its hyperviolent sock puppet A.L.F.. Conversely, it can end with regurgitated pabulum like Barney the Dinosaur or with stupid, rich, idle people dressing their pets in leather bomber jackets and Harley Davidson paraphernalia. However, anthropomorphization done right can result in fine religious allegory, such as Richard Adams' Watership Down and Neil Gaiman's Dream of a Thousand Cats. It can also facilitate a masterful deconstruction of revolution, as in George Orwell's Animal Farm.Under less skilled hands, this comic could easily have been just another political screed about how bad the United States is. It could have focused on an evil American Military cold-bloodedly gunning down four poor defenseless animals. It doesn't. Instead, Pride of Baghdad is a well crafted, impeccably told tale that is entertaining, poignant and tragic.The story of Pride of Baghdad works well. As Brian walks the lions through the wreckage of Baghdad, the Pride keeps a running commentary that explores heavy ideas like the fate of civilians during a war, the price of freedom, and the loss of caregivers.The scene that resonated most with me was when the lions came across a turtle who recounted the ecological disaster that the Hussein government unleashed during Operation Desert Storm. I participated in that operation from Saudi Arabia. I can tell you that this turtle's story doesn't even scratch the surface regarding the devastation that occurred outside the Iraqi and Kuwaiti oil fields.But that's what I like about this story. Brian doesn't browbeat you with the obvious, nor does he ever give in to the often overwhelming urge to preach. As we read the story we get the point: war is bad. He leaves it at that, preferring concentrating on giving us believable characters and a great story to preaching.The other half of Pride's creative team, Nico Henricson, is relatively new to American comics. His first graphic novel, Barnum, was well drafted, if a bit stiff. With Pride of Baghdad he pulls out all the stops. There are no substantial humans in this tale, but they're not missed. Nico gives the animal characters a wide range of expression and movement that brings out their human qualities. At the same time, he keeps the lions true enough to source material that they are believable as animals and the story can retain a realistic feel.The backgrounds and landscapes of Pride are phenomenal. Nico is a master of stylized detail and it's on full display in these pages. He gives us a guided tour of a little slice of hell on earth, and we come away the better for it.There's no colorist credited, so it's a pretty safe bet that the color choices are Nico's. He applies a bit of a fade to the dull browns and oranges in the outside scenes, which gives the story an effect recalling some of Ridley Scott's lens choices in Black Hawk Down. It's a great implication a sort of martial haze. It evokes a feeling of unease that is suitable for this type of story; you have the idea in the back of your mind that there's danger around every corner.Pride of Baghdad is solid work by a team that meshes well. It's an intense, sad story that is intelligent, relevant, and superbly drawn. It's a short film on paper that's worthy of an Oscar, or in this case an Eisner. Pick it up and give it a try. You will absolutely not be disappointed.

Graphic Novel Review: Moped Army by Paul Sizer

Dan Traeger — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 10:01:51 EDT

For those of you who don't know what a moped is, check out the Moped Army <a href = "http://www.mopedarmy.com/">website</a>. Basically, a moped is a reinforced bicycle with a 50cc engine that cruises you around at a top speed of about 30 miles per hour, and it has pedals in case the engine stops. If you don't know the difference between a moped and a scooter, it's really easy. Mopeds are bad-ass bicycles while scooters are motorcycles for pussies.At Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo in 1997, three students got together and formed an organization. Part biker gang and part fan club, they named themselves The Decepticons after the Transformers toys, and the Moped Army was born. Simon King, Daniel Robert Kastner, and Brennan Sang, the originators of the Moped Army, have seen their brainchild blossom into a national moped club, with chapters from Arizona to Washington State. But this is merely back story.In 2003, comics creator and fellow WMU student Paul Sizer started working on his newest project. Sizer tabled his ongoing series Little White Mouse, in favor of the less demanding schedule of a graphic novel, and thus was born the subject of this review.Paul Sizer takes well to the graphic novel format. Moped Army is a graphic gem that is impossible to put down once it's started. Sizer is that rare talent of a storyteller that can take the most innocuous of ideas and make them sing with magic, wit, and power. In this instance the plot hook is a spoiled little rich girl who has a crisis of conscience and falls in with the right crowd. Deeper beneath the surface of this slightly cliched plot hook, lies a study in class warfare and a revelatory tale about what happens when those societal lines are crossed.The story is laid out for us by Simone. She's part of the upscale rich who have built their lives, literally, on the wreckage that they've left behind for everybody else. Through Simone, Sizer gives us a guided tour of their spangled misery, as we learn that being uber-rich doesn't really save us from our all too human emotions. Simone's life changes when an evening joyride with her asshole boyfriend and his gang, crashes head-on into The Moped Army. Tragedy ensues, and later Simone starts to alienate herself from her shallow, vapid "friends" as she tries to find some sort of redemption by "slumming it" with the people that live below her city in the sky. Eventually she finds acceptance and possibly even friendship as she's adopted by the very same people that she'd earlier stood by and watched as they were terrorized.Sizer's well-honed grasp of characterization serves him perfectly as he effortlessly mixes Simone, his redemptive character, into the stew of wildly different personalities the moped army represents. More than just mere character archetypes, the different army members quickly establish their own personalities, and Sizer layers in countless seeds for future stories as bits and pieces of their histories are revealed.While Simone searches for some sense of self-worth, we are treated to stunning visuals of life in the year 2277, courtesy of Sizer's amazing pencils. He combines the stellar design work of a veteran graphic artist with an amazing knack for facial expression and movement. He gives us everything a speculative fiction fan could want, from grandiose cityscape vistas, to a rotting dilapidated under city, to insanely neat gadgets. In one sequence, Sizer brilliantly pits a futuristic air car against a 20th-century moped. It's a scene reminiscent of the freeway chase in The Matrix, and it's absolutely brilliantly drawn.Sizer's greatest strength as a writer and an artist is his ability to create deep, fully believable characters. He brings that talent full throttle with Moped Army, creating a large cast of characters where even the bit players are interesting and absolutely believable. He takes fewer risks with his artwork in Moped Army, preferring instead to concentrate on designing believable characters, and making the cityscape as realistic as he can. It works well enough to give the story a cohesion and a sense of familiarity that has the effect of putting you at ease in the midst of an uncomfortable story.As a graphic novel, Moped Army is a sweet package. You get 120 pages of story, galleries, sketchbook pages, plus short bios of Simon King and Daniel Robert Kastner, the brains behind the real-life version of the moped army. It's an expanded dance version of a DVD, and it's well worth the measly $12.95 Sizer's charging for it. The graphic novel is rated Mature(16+) because it has some language, and a bit of sexual content, but it's nothing your average teen-ager can't handle. Moped Army is available online from Paul's website or from finer comic book stores near you.

Graphic Novel Review: True Story, Swear To God by Tom Beland

Dan Traeger — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 02:16:47 EDT

I have this thing in my head. It's kind of my own personal version of a computer installation wizard. You know, the one with the annoying little messages that say things like, "Do you want to proceed?" "Are you sure you want to proceed?" "Well, if you're really, really sure..." "Okay, last chance, are you really, really, really sure?" Sometimes the bastard gets stuck and years slip by while the article, story, or review I originally wanted to write sits on my mental backburner, smouldering and burning around the edges. Lately, I've developed some mental pot holders so I can now grab this baby off the backburner, scrape the crusty stuff off the edges, stir it up a bit, and serve it up with some sort of frilly garnish. Yes, tonight I'm giving you all something out of my very own mental crock pot.Try not to think of it as leftovers, and I'll make it as tasty as I can.Reviewing Tom Beland's work is a daunting task. He's got marvelous reviewers like Johanna Draper Carlson who does the Comics Worth Reading blog, Randy Lander and Don MacPherson from the late and much lamented The Fourth Rail webzine, and Andrew Arnold who writes the Comics Love column for Time frikkin Magazine Online, planted squarely in his corner. The guy tends to be a perennial critical darling. He's been nominated for the Eisner Award. He's got his magazine coming out from Image Comics now, and a high-profile writing gig for Marvel Comics coming up. He doesn't need my little ol' opinion of his work floating around out there. Then again, it never hurts to have one more person in your corner pitching for you.My composition and rhetoric professor, the man who taught me the Montaigne style essay, and quite a lot about the critical review, once told me, "While you're writing, you must remember this one truism. Just because it happened to you, doesn't make it interesting. If you can consistently break this rule you will never fail to entertain."Tom Beland breaks this rule with marvelous style, grace, and precision. The core story of True Story, Swear To God is elegant in its simplicity. Tom meets this girl Lily while waiting at a bus stop at Disneyland. The two hit it off and this chance meeting quickly turns into a long-distance relationship. Lily is a popular morning show radio host in Puerto Rico, Tom is a newspaper columnist and cartoonist in Napa Valley, California. After several abbreviated visits and a category five hurricane, Tom decides to move to Puerto Rico. That pretty much catches you up on the story so far.True Story is an absolutely perfect love story at its heart. Beland proves himself an impossibly perceptive observer of human behavior. He's introspective to a fault, and he uses that amazingly precise internal eye to splay glimpses of his life on to the comics page. His family is slightly dysfunctional and extremely loving. Tom himself is by turns insecure and mildly neurotic. Only the character of Lily is seen without much in the way of flaws. I suspect that what Tom is doing here is filtering his perception of Lily through that initial haze of new love. Either that or she really doesn't have much in the way of flaws, in which case Tom is in real trouble in future episodes.One of the most amazing scenes is the first time we actually see Lily get angry. Tom and Lily set up a dinner party to introduce Tom to Lily's parents. The planning stages leading up to it are a little slice of new couple's hell wherein everything that can possibly go wrong does. They make it through and dinner goes off without a hitch, and at the end of it all as they're saying goodnight, all Lily's mother can do is admonish her for not wearing earrings. It's a priceless moment. We've all been there with our own relatives and Tom walks us through it all again, deftly giving us his perspective. Lily's reaction humanizes her and Tom's reaction to her makes us love them both that much more.The capstone to Tom's story so far takes place during the Vieques demonstrations. He's delivering an artwork assignment. It's a freelance cartoon for one of the local papers. Two of the demonstrators, one of whom was wearing the Puerto Rican flag as a headscarf, spit on him as he passes by. Tom is, after all, a gringo, and therefore part of the problem at Vieques.He goes home in shock, and when Lily arrives, he has a breakdown right in front of her. All the pressures and frustrations, the culture shock of moving to what amounts to a new country, all of it comes out in a rush. The next morning, Lily lays out what happened to Tom on her morning radio show, complete with the kicker revelation that the artwork Tom was carrying was a political cartoon that supported the protestors' cause.The resulting outpouring of sympathy and apalled shock from Lily's listeners is as amazing as it is heartwarming. As a result, Tom suddenly finds himself adopted by an entire nation. You can't make up stuff like this. If it isn't true, it damn well should be.To sum up the totality of True Story by calling it a "chick flick on paper" is perhaps an accurate description. If that label is to be applied, it must take its place alongside classic fare such as When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless In Seattle, and The Princess Bride. Yes, it's that good.Beland is a fabulous writer. He combines spot-on dialogue with some of the most gorgeous exposition I've ever read: "She's sleeping. Her body's so close, I can feel it move as she breathes.""Here.""In my arms.""I feel a sense of serenity that I've never felt before with others.""If my feelings are a painting... this moment would be the frame."Within these five simple, elegant sentences he brilliantly sums up the unquantifiable feeling of being in love.The artwork on True Story is, on the surface, deceptively cartoony. The characters are caricatured simply, but that merely adds clarity to the story. Beland's backgrounds are where he really shines. He gives us super-detailed establishing shots to frame the location, then abandons them as the characters take the stage. This has the effect of making the dialogue jump off the page, and draws the readers' eyes to the characters, which are the most important parts of the story. It's a visual trick that Dave Sim and Gerhard used masterfully well in Cerebus, and Jeff Smith used to impressive effect with Bone.Together, the writing and the art make for a story that will have you crying and laughing out loud, often at the same time. It's brilliant, essential reading for anyone with a passion for meaningful human interest stories, chick flicks, or just a damn fine read.True Story, Swear To God is available from any local comics shop that has even a marginal clue. The first and second trade paperbacks are still available from AIT/Planet Lar, along with the 100 Stories collection of Beland's original mini strips. Recently True Story made the jump from Tom's own imprint Clib's Boy Comics, to Image. The first issue is out now, and it's a pretty good assumption that future graphic novels will be released with Image as well.

From The World of Comics: Why I Hate Gail Simone!

Dan Traeger — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 08:21:17 EDT

I know what you're all thinking. Some of you are wondering who is this Gail Simone and when did she piss in Dan Traeger's Cheerios. Others of you are wondering how I could possibly hate one of the nicest comics writers on the planet, and some of you Bendis fans are cheering me on to a frenzy of Gail-bashing goodness. Well...Okay, you got me. I really don't hate Gail Simone. I just used that as an intro to sucker you all in here. In point of fact, aside from a somewhat unhealthy obsession with fish nipples, the color purple (that's the color, not the Spielberg movie), Disney stuff, and Canadians, she has always seemed quite congenial to me. I have been told that, on occasion, she eats live kittens and that she killed and ate an Internet journalist to get her Villains United gig, but the source is highly suspect. Gail is in point of fact, one of the nicest writers I've ever met.What makes Gail unique is that she started her writing career on the Internet, and she still takes great pains to maintain a strong Internet presence. Over the years I have been lucky enough to correspond with her. Sometimes at length, other times just a quick, "Hey, nice article," but it's always nice to hear from her. For the record, Gail Simone is endlessly patient with her fans and eternally graceful to her detractors. She's funny, waaaaaay too self-effacing, and if it weren't for that whole Internet journalist incident, she'd have long since been nominated for sainthood.So, my children, we gather here today in this small, overly cramped side room in the largest convention center in the world, to sing hosannas to the stunning creative talent that is the great and terrible Gail Simone. Beer and kittens are optional.Gail Simone announced her presence on the Internet with the authority of a born superhero fan who had the intestinal fortitude to ask a question that disturbingly, no one had really asked before. It was discussed in hushed whispers at the local comics store and pondered over by the occasional casual reader of comics, but it was never discussed out in the open and definitely never brought up in front of the potentially limitless audience of the Internet.The springboard was a Green Lantern story by the great Ron Marz, wherein the hero's girlfriend ends up dead and stuffed into his refrigerator. Gail posited the question, "Why?" To paraphrase, "Why is it that comic book women always seem to end up raped, humiliated, folded, spindled, and mutilated in a wide variety of strange and interesting ways?" The answers she got to that simple question run the gauntlet from the simply asinine, "As regards the female characters thing, I'm afraid I think it's giving male creators a bum deal." The list does read pretty shocking at first until you think of everything the male heroes have gone through, too, in terms of deaths/mutilations/etc." to the downright disturbing, "Well, I think part of the problem for female characters is that, since our readership is dominated by males, they aren't perceived as having the same economic viability as many male characters." The whole sordid story is hosted for anyone who wants it at Unheard Taunts, among other places. It's called “Women in Refrigerators,” and it's one of the most important essays ever written about the culture surrounding comics.The next time the amazing Ms Simone crops up is with her ongoing column for Comic Book Resources called, ”You'll All Be Sorry”, or YABS in the common Internet parlance. With “You'll All Be Sorry,” Gail got the opportunity to prove that not only did she have a master's grasp of impressionistic writing, but that she also had some remarkably professional comedic chops. YABS became an Internet darling and proved implicitly that Gail Simone could competently skewer every writer, artist, journalist, and fan on the planet, from her dead accurate parodies of icons like Frank Miller and Mark Millar, to easier targets like Dave Sim and John Byrne.My personal favorite is her spot-on parody of Planetary, wherein the three major players unearth the remnants of a certain modern stone-age family. It's written in near perfect Warren Ellis style, and it's absolutely hilarious. The “You'll All Be Sorry” archives are located on Comic Book Resources, and they're well worth a read or two, or three, or 20.At the gentle urging of Scott Shaw (I suspect something involving a flamethrower, wet spaghetti noodles, and a rusty ice pick), Gail submitted a script to Bongo Comics. The script in question was for their Simpsons line, and a writing career was born. Gail's work for Bongo Comics is a testament to just how strong her writing skills really are. The most difficult aspect of writing a comic based on a popular cartoon is that you do it without the benefit of the voice actors. The readers come to the comic with a pre-set notion of how the characters sound. This requires letter-perfect dialogue from the writer and plotting that doesn't seem out of character to the audience. Gail succeeded admirably well with both these aspects, while still remaining consistently funny. Stand-outs from Gail's tenure at Bongo include: "Maximum Bart!" from Bart Simpson #2, "Battle of the Boy Bands" from Bart Simpson #3, and "Tales From The Kwik-E-Mart" from Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror #8 (which will make you think twice about your beloved breakfast cereal mascot. *shudder*)Her next project was a three-issue mini-series for Oni Comics called Killer Princesses. Coupled with the phenomenal writer/artist Lea Hernandez, it was a perfect match. The synergy between these two creators is obvious on every page of this comic. To this day, there has yet to be an artist that Gail has worked with that has complimented her writing style as well as Ms Hernandez. Killer Princesses is a wild action movie on paper that oozes with black humor. If you think of the Charlie's Angels movies (if they had a creative production team), then smack yourself upside the head with a gold brick wrapped in a slice of X-Men, you've about got it.One of Gail's fans from her YABS days happened to be Joe Quesada, who obviously knows talent when he sees it. As Marvel Comics editor in chief, he extended her the offer of taking over their floundering Deadpool title. Gail jumped in with both feet, bringing Deadpool a relevant hipness and a return to black humor not seen since his Joe Kelley days. Five issues into her run, Deadpool was cancelled out from under her and she was asked to re-imagine the book from scratch. The result was Agent X, which was fun, but it wasn't the same Deadpool goodness. Gail left the series after seven issues over "creative differences" with the editor of the series.I'm sure there's some juicy dish there somewhere, but Gail has been nothing but gracious about it in public. Though she would return a year later for three issues to wrap up the series which died in her absence, Gail would eventually sign an exclusive contract with DC, and to date she has yet to do anything more for Marvel. Shortly before she jumped ship to DC, Gail created The Marvelous Adventures of Gus Beezer. Gus was Peter Parker's nephew, and though he had no super powers, his imagination was good enough. Gus Beezer debuted in a series of three one-shot issues, and though it was geared towards younger kids, it still benefited from Gail's multi-layered scripting, which worked equally as well for adults. Gus would receive one final one shot before his creator defected to the competition. Any further adventures will probably be directed by much less skilled hands.This brings us to Birds of Prey. Gail took over the BoP series with issue #56. She followed the footsteps of Master action series writer Chuck Dixon. With an extremely tough act to follow, and tons of negative press surrounding the horribly inept Birds of Prey television series, Gail slammed into the comic series full force with a story that set the Birds against a criminal mastermind that captured the Black Canary, got the better of Oracle, and nearly defeated The Huntress. Gail's run on Birds of Prey proved to be immensely popular, and she continues her work on the series to this day. Now coming into her fourth year on the series, she continues to deliver consistently excellent stories, occasionally shaking up the status quo, and always maintaining her exceptional sense of humor. My absolute favorite story is her arc from #62-#65. Black Canary returns to China to visit her old Sensi who is dying. Unfortunately, Sensi also instructed master assassin Lady Shiva. Mayhem ensues when Canary and Shiva form an uneasy alliance when they discover their Sensi has been murdered. The story brings together all the great elements from Hong Kong action films and establishes Black Canary as one of the pre-eminent martial artists in the DC universe. Gail was actually confronted at San Diego con this year by a fan who asked, “If Black Canary is the number three martial artist in the DC universe, who is number one and two?” Gail gave the standard dodgy answer, but I'll go out on a pretty safe limb here and say one and two are Batman and Wildcat, in that order.Gail's other work for DC has included stellar runs on Legion of Super Heroes, Justice League Classified, her Rose and Thorn mini-series, a fabulous run on Action Comics, and two issues of Teen Titans, which marked the controversial return of artist (and I use the term loosely) Rob Lifeld. She shows no sign of slowing down this year, writing the Villians United part of DC's big crossover event, and its spin-off series, Secret Six. She's also starting work on the All New Atom series with her Action Comics artist John Byrne, and she's kick starting Gen 13 for the Wildstorm imprint.Nearly all of Gail's work for Bongo and DC has been collected in Trade Paperback form and may be found everywhere from Amazon.com to Borders and Barnes & Noble, and even better from your local comics store. Her Marvel work is a bit harder to get, but with a little digging you can easily turn it up. Gail Simone has established herself as a brilliant and funny writer with an already impressive comics resume. The best part of all this is that she'll only get better as time goes on. By the time she's been at this as long as Alan Moore or Frank Miller, she'll have long since established herself as their equal in the megastar pantheon of comics writers. Personally, I think she belongs there now, but I'm giving the rest of comics fandom a chance to catch up. They've got a lot of great reads to go through and we probably shouldn't disturb them while they're deciding on legendary status. If you want more Gail Simone goodness on the net check out The Gail Simone Index, Gail Simone's Blog: Bloodstains On The Looking Glass, and The Gail Simone Wikki.

Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest

Dan Traeger — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 10:26:02 EDT

I sincerely hope Gore Verbinski's career doesn't end up swinging from the yardarm of what has become his Pirates' trilogy. This franchise, when all is said and done, will end up making more money than any three movies in history, and it will definitely be a life changing experience for him. He'll either end up doing Disney movies for the rest of his life, or he'll beat the odds and end up becoming this generation's Francis Ford Coppola, turning in a string of finely-tuned independent films that make absolutely no money, but are very good anyway. Only time will tell.The first movie was a grand adventure encompassing three of my favorite things. It had zombies, always good. It had pirates, mostly always good, unless they are in any way associated with Roman Polanski. (Not that I dislike Roman's work, it's just that even he makes the occasional expensive piece of crap. Also, while I'm on a roll here with this long sidebar, a special slap upside his pointy little head, and a hearty "What the hell were you thinking?!" to Steven Spielberg for Hook.) Anyway, the other thing the first Pirates movie had was the monkey. Best of all, Verbinski had the genius idea to combine all three elements to make a zombie pirate monkey. I was in heaven; the only thing missing from that movie was ninjas.Of course, the monkey is back, and still operating under the curse of the Aztec gold, which makes for some satisfying minor mayhem. Everybody else is back too, for much, much more of the same. Two and a half hours of more of the same, to be exact. Verbinski could have easily chopped 45 minutes out of this film and it would have worked just fine. The principles are all in different places in their lives...sort of. Elizabeth and Will are set to be married – big shocker there – and Captain Jack Sparrow is still...well, he's still Captain Jack. There isn't a lot of character development in this one, and that's a shame. After all, the movie was two and a half hours long, plenty of time for some character building. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man;s Chest seems to know it has a winning formula, and it sticks to it like a barnacle to the underside of a ship. Will is appropriately noble, Elizabeth is appropriately bold and brassy and willing to do what she feels is necessary to save the day, and Jack is...well, Jack.The action and the special effects are appropriately amped up in true Jerry Bruckheimer fashion. I had problems with the triple swordfight scene, which suffers from a disturbing lack of witty banter, but it's still interesting. ILM takes a giant leap forward in its neverending quest to replace pesky actors by turning in some of the best motion-capture CGI to date. Bill Nighy joins Andy Serkis as the best actor not appearing in this film, as the frightening, tragic, and completely CGI Davey Jones. The best part of the movie, in my book, is the introduction of Tia Dalma, the voodoo witch who somehow convinced the Disneyland park rangers it was okay for her to take up permanent residence in the Blue Bayou ride. (When I mentioned moving in, they just chuckled nervously and asked to see my entry receipt. Good thing for them I don't know any voodoo.) Played by Naomie Harris (who is just as foxy in 28 Days Later, except with better teeth), Tia gets to be the confident and wise sage, and gets to set everything up for the next film. I like the introduction of the voodoo element to the Pirates mythology. I've always felt voodoo and pirates go well together, and it's nice to see that Ted Eliot and Terry Rossio, the crack commando scriptwriting team, agree with me.The ramp-up of the Will-Elizabeth-Jack love triangle is just weird. It doesn't play well, mostly, I think, because of the actors involved. Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom have an on screen chemistry that's spotty, at best, and unfortunately, they're up against Johnny Depp, who has excellent chemistry with Orlando, Keira, Naomie Harris, almost all of the incidental characters he interacts with, and the big jar of dirt. Hopefully, the third movie will give Will and Elizabeth a bit of time away from Captain Jack, and enough time to work out their issues, or even better, kill one of them off. Either way, I have no doubt once I see the third Pirates movie, I will be firmly convinced this is most likely the best movie trilogy ever made.Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is not the best movie, especially when compared to the first one. However, it is a passable second act of a trilogy. I wasn't happy with The Empire Strikes Back, The Two Towers, Scream 2, The Matrix Reloaded, or Back to the Future 2, either. Trilogies are tricky things and I've found it's usually best to hold off final judgment until all the dice are on the table. Having said that, I'll give Pirates DMC a big, "we'll see" until after I've seen World's End. I doubt I'll be disappointed. After all, it'll still have pirates, zombies, and monkeys. Hell, if they can squeeze a ninja in there somewhere, it really will be the perfect movie trilogy.

Graphic Novel Review: The Crow

Dan Traeger — Thu, 6 Jul 2006 07:14:39 EDT

There are places in our hearts we don't often visit, dark corners that wall us in during the early morning hours. You've been there, just as I have. You snap awake and the room that should be familiar is strange and you're unsure of yourself, shrouded in twilight memory, slipping into blackness. The void calls to all of us.I bought The Crow graphic novel again. This will be the seventh copy I've either worn out or given to a friend. Maybe I'll hold on to this one awhile. It has been too long out of print. It's back now, like an old flame you haven't seen in a long time. Someone who shares secret things with you, things that you keep locked away in the dark corners of your heart, tucked deep within the places you don't like to go. Everybody knows tragedy of some form. The void calls to all of us.I can't tell you much of anything about James O'Barr's masterpiece that you don't already know. After the movie came out, everybody read it. Everybody reviewed it, dissected it, and reinterpreted it. The Crow captured the hearts and minds of everyone it touched, leading us up from the dark places in our souls by giving us revenge and more importantly release.The movie, Brandon Lee's tragic death, and the endless sequels have all become grist for the mill of public consciousness, the comics likewise. There is no point in giving you yet another review of a story you know. Tonight, I offer instead a story told in snapshots. I offer a bit of tragedy locked away within a dark corner of my own heart, which, in the final analysis, illustrates perfectly why we are all so touched by The Crow.It's early morning, about three by my clock radio. Green neon numbers stare impassively at me, admonishing me. I should be asleep. The room is cold and abuzz with the quiet hum of our air conditioner, the purring of our three cats, and the soft snoring of my girlfriend and our dog. Tonight I draw no comfort from these familiar sensations. I'm awake, dancing with the ghosts of my past. Eric Draven's cold raging eyes stare up at me from my nightstand, and I pick up my new graphic novel. Twice in my life, this story has helped me when I needed a hand up from the depths.Tonight I'm thinking about Katie. It's not something I do much any more. She's been gone for a long time and her ghost has faded from my life. But tonight, a flickering of memory brings her back to me, and I hear the sound of wings.We first meet in a comics shop. I'm living in Santa Cruz, two months out of the Air Force, still recovering from military programming. I'm staying with my friends, Shane and Debbie. Shane is teaching me how to surf, and I'm enjoying not having a job. Katie and I both frequent Atlantis Fantasyworld. We run into each other on new comics day. We say hello. We always make it a point to check out what the other is buying. We often get into good-natured arguments. She's a freak about superhero comics. I think the genre died in the early eighties. She's warm, funny, and she never looks up when she's listening to you, which drives me crazy.It's early on a Saturday, and I'm hanging out, chatting up the guys at the counter. The topic of the day is some inane bullshit about David Sim and Cerebus. I'm in mid-rant and I'm stopped cold when a 5'6", gorgeous, redheaded vampire bounds across the room and bites me full on the neck. I short circuit. It's one of the few moments in my life where I have absolutely nothing to say. Later, we're out having coffee, and I ask her why. She laughs and remarks that it was the only way she could think of to shut me up. From that point on, we're inseparable.And it's six months later. We're living together now. We're a couple, and it seems to agree with both of us. Shane and Debbie adore her and for some bizarre reason Katie's parents like me. We're not perfect. We fight occasionally, and one time I inadvertently make her cry. Most of the time though, we're good together. We love each other, and we're happy.And it's a week into our seventh month together. Katie leaves to pick up her sister from her parents' house in San Jose. She makes it there okay, and she calls at about noon. She tells me she's going to stay for dinner, and she asks if I could join them. I tell her yes, I'll be there directly after work. I'll join them at the restaurant. Our conversation ends happily enough with my cracking wise about her mother's stubborn refusal to cook, even though she's a professional chef. I love you, and I'll see you soon.Then the void opens up and swallows Katie whole. The next time I see her, she's small, pale, and lifeless. She's smiling peacefully. It's a look that will haunt me until I die. Her parents and the police lay it all out for me later.She had a headache that afternoon. There was no Tylenol in the house, and she was stubborn about not using anything else. There was a market close by, so she walked. On her way back, a young man who had made a bad judgment call lost control of his vehicle. It careened through an intersection and into the crosswalk, just as Katie was stepping off the curb.And it's a week later. Her funeral is rainy and cold.And it's a week later. I've withdrawn completely into a dark place.And it's three weeks later. I've long since been fired from my new job. I've been thrown out of every bar in Capitola. I'm still trapped within the void, drowning in a bottle of the same thing that killed my girlfriend.And it's a week later. I'm still miserable, but I'm starting to think that maybe I should go get some help. I'm sitting on the beach at Capitola by the Sea, staring off into the bay. Shane is sitting beside me. I have no idea how long he's been there. I haven't seen him since the funeral. I've done my best to push everyone away and disappear down a bottle of mescal. Shane knows me; he knows where I am all the time. He's been checking up on me, marking time and holding my place in the world open for me. He sits beside me for a while, long enough, I think, to be sure I've started to bring myself up from the dark place. Finally, he hands me a stack of comics and he says, "Here, these might help a little. This guy went through the same thing you just did, and he did a comic book about it. When you're done being alone, come home. We miss you and we want you back."Sitting in the sand at the edge of Monterey Bay, I read The Crow for the first time. It hits me like ice water as I see every ounce of pain and rage that I feel at the world spread out on the pages before me. It forces me into a moment of clarity. Eventually I work through the pain. I continue on.And it's seven years later. Time has dimmed the pain, as it always does, and I no longer wake up with Katie's name on my lips. The void doesn't call to me much anymore. I'm comfortable, a bit more settled. I'm half a world, and six years away from Santa Cruz.And the phone is ringing. There's an unwelcome sense of foreboding as I pick up the receiver. It's Debbie. She's telling me that Shane is gone, swallowed up by the ocean that he loved so much. The void opens up before me. Once again I pick up The Crow and read it through.I can't go to the funeral. I have responsibilities, work commitments I can't break. I ask Debbie what she needs, and she tells me she wants to go home. I make the arrangements and I send her a plane ticket to Seattle. As an afterthought, I grab up those four original issues of The Crow and send those along too. I write her a brief note that reads, "Here, these might help a little. Shane once gave me these at a time when I really needed them. When you're done being alone, go home to your family. They need you. We all need you. The world is a much better place with you in it."And it's two years later. I'm awake, it's late and I'm staring off into the black void of my past. And it's okay because I'm not alone. For the first time in my life I finally realize I was never alone. I reach over and I stroke my girlfriend's hair just slightly. She murmurs and stirs a bit. The cats snuggle in closer, sucking in body heat against the chill of the room, and all is well.The Crow graphic novel is now being kept in print. The original four issues remain undiluted, expanded into graphic novel, but unchanged in form and substance. They are still an affirmation of life and what it means to have to be the one who goes on living. James O'Barr has given us a tether to help bring us out of the dark places. We will always have The Crow to show us that we are never alone when the void reaches out to us.