Rants & Raves

INCOGNITO

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips are back with Incognito, the title that was introduced with a six-issue mini-series that finished in the summer of 2009. “It’s been far too long,” Brubaker admits in the inaugural issue of this, the next mini-series, sub-titled “Bad Influences.”

The star of the series is anti-hero Zack Overkill, a supervillain who, after the death of his cohort brother, testified to something or another and found himself living under the alias Overton in the witness protection program. That was then; now, as the new series begins, it’s been a year since he left witness protection to sign on with S.O.S. If I ever knew what the initials stood for, I’ve forgotten, but it doesn’t matter: it could be the FBI or the CIA or some other alphabet outfit. The point is: Zack is now ostensibly a do-gooder rather than a bad guy, and he’s sleeping with his boss, Zoe Zeppelin, who’d led the team that caught up with Zack in the first series. So he’s not too goody-two-shoes: as the narrator, he tells us things he’s up to that his boss probably wouldn’t want him doing.

A lot of this issue is devoted to explaining, or alluding to, Zack’s superpowered origins (he’s not exactly a clone but he was born in a test-tube) and the shadowy bad guys he’s battled in the past and confronts now when a bomb explodes in his apartment and an old man attacks him.

The old man, it turns out, is a relic of the laboratory run by Lazarus the Returned Man, who could die and come back the next day by transferring his mind to one of several bodies he kept waiting. Zack quips that he was one of those bodies.

The bomb and the old man are the completed episode in this issue. The cliffhanger tips up when Zoe tells Zack his assignment is to bring back a rogue S.O.S. agent named Simon Slaughter who is running a terrorist operation. Zack is perfect for the assignment, Zoe says, because, thanks to the bomb in his apartment, none of the bad guys can be sure anymore whether Zack is with the good guys or a freelancing bad guy.

Phillips’ Caniff-like visuals impart to Brubaker’s grim tale a gritty patina that suits the proceedings, which take place in the shadows most of the time. Brubaker’s narrative is terse and elliptical, and Phillips’ pictures, steeped in black, are equally evocative rather than definitive. Rarely do we see a face clearly: they are usually clouded with shadow that obscures distinctive features. Since we see so little, everything is ominous, sinister, adding to the menace lurking on every page of the book.

The “Criminal” series this pair have been collaborating on is, like Incognito, a compelling glimpse into unsavory lives. Incognito ramps up the proposition by incorporating a superpowered protagonist.

THE NEW YORKER CARTOON ISSUE

The annual indulgence from The New Yorker showed up a few weeks ago. Dated November 1, the so-called “cartoon issue” is, as usual, a mixed blessing at best; at worst, a grudging nod in the direction of the artform that keeps the magazine afloat—beguiling readers as well as filling coffers. Some years ago, the magazine’s management acknowledged that its Cartoon Bank generated enough income to tip the balance sheet from the red to the black. And even the effetely journalistic editors have sometimes admitted that most of The New Yorker’s readers skim through each issue to read the cartoons before getting serious with the articles.

Still, the blessings of the “cartoon issue” are mixed. On the one hand, it’s gratifying that one of the last two remaining major markets for magazine cartoons thinks cartoons are important enough to warrant an annual celebration of this sort; on the other hand, it’s disappointing that, after the promising 1997 beginning of the series that featured text pieces about cartooning and/or cartoonists, the magazine hasn’t subsequently been able to find much to write about in connection with the artform or those who practice it.

There’s more in this vein at the Usual Place (Rants & Raves, Opus 270), where we also consider the current status of the other of the last two remaining bastions for magazine cartooning, Playboy.

THE TRUTH AS TED RALL SEES IT

Ted Rall, gadfly columnist and raging iconoclast cartoonist, lately of the wilds of Afghanistan’s fly-infested deserts where he spent the month of August with two other crazed cartooners, Matt Bors and Steven Cloud, is back to plague his country with the Truth As He Sees It (several acres of which we share as common ground). In his journalist garb, Rall took to the pages of the venerable Editor & Publisher to assail the highly dubious practice of embedding reporters in Iraq and Afghanistan. Embedded reporters can’t report on Afghanistan, Rall said: they report only what they see “through the carefully monitored lens of the U.S. military.” Traveling with soldiers, they become battlefield buddies with the soldiers—a plus: they see the horrendous difficulty of the military assignment and ordinary acts of heroism; but they don’t talk to Afghans—a distinct minus: they can scarcely report on the status of the military mission, which is to win the hearts and minds of the country’s citizens, if they don’t talk to any citizens.

“Embedding is a dubious idea at best,” Rall said. “It magnifies the media’s inherent bias for the fighting men and women from ‘their’ side, and it exposes journalists to the accusation that they are shills for the occupation. ... Important stories—those that don’t involve U.S. military operations—never get covered.”

The embed program is not just bad journalism: it’s bad for the allied mission itself.

The Rall trio stumped the country unembedded. Unlike embedded reporters, they saw and talked with Afghans. “Not talking to Afghans is part of the reason the U.S. military is losing the war,” Rall said. “They don’t ask Afghans what they want. We did. Their answer was usually the same: ‘Please, no more soldiers. We don’t need them. We need help.’ By help,” Rall concluded, “they mean reconstruction and jobs programs.”

For more (much more) on the cartoonists’ Afghanistan adventure, visit the Usual Place, Opus 267 and Opus 270.

WUERKER WINS BERRYMAN AWARD

Politico’s Matt Wuerker won the Berryman Award for excellence in editorial cartooning. It’s been a stellar year for Wuerker, noted Michael Cavna at ComicRiffs.com: he won the Herblock Prize in April and was named a finalist for the Pulitzer. Said Wuerker: "I'm thrilled to get the Berryman Award. I share it with all the other ink-stained wretches out there doing such great work as political cartoonists. I only wish more of them were as fortunate as me to get to work with such smart, trusting editors like mine here at Politico. It's a dream perch for a cartoonist." According to the judges, "Matt's drawings blend satire, irony and the right amount of anger to skewer the politically powerful of all persuasions." (Well, yes—but don’t all good editoons do these things? You’d think the judges could say something about what makes Wuerker’s wuerk unique.) Honorable mention for this year's Berryman went to the Post’s Tom Toles; Daryl Cagle of MSNBC; and Jimmy Margulies of the Record (New Jersey). The Berryman comes with a $2,500 prize; honorable mention is worth $500.

MORT'S PLACE

Mort Walker went back to his alma mater, the University of Missouri in Columbia, to help with the festivities of opening an eatery in the new student union. Named Mort’s, the place honors UM’s famous graduate and the hangout he frequented when matriculating there, The Shack. Quipped Walker: “This new eatery has all the wonderful things The Shake had—tables, chairs, a ceiling.” He said he got a kick out of celebrating The Shack: “It’s like celebrating a dumpster.” Also in October, Walker was presented with the Cartoon Art Museum’s “Sparky” Award for 2010. Named after Charles M. “Sparky” Schulz, the award recognizes significant contributions of cartoonists who embody the talent, innovation and humanity of the Peanuts creator. Past recipients, listed in the September-October issue of the NCS Cartoonist, include Sergio Aragones, Gus Arriola, Dale Messick, Will Eisner, Creig Flessel, Phil Frank, Morrie Turner and Schulz himself.

THE CAT IN THE HAT ON THE TV

The Cat in the Hat, the wrecking-ball feline created by cartoonist Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss), debuted on public tv September 5. "The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!” kicked off a the fall season for juvenile viewers, reported Rick Bentley at the Fresno Bee, adding: “Geisel wrote The Cat in the Hat in 1957 because he believed American children lagged behind the world in literacy. Taking the characters from page to screen eliminates Geisel's original literary intentions but the author was thinking about other ways to use the Cat in the years before his death.”

 

So this perversion of Dr. Seuss’s purpose is therefore okay? Robert Lloyd, tv critic for the Los Angeles Times, notes that “the show, being made under the watchful eye of Mrs. Dr. Seuss, Audrey Geisel, is in the spiky spirit of her late husband's original — which it only sort of is.”

Lloyd continues: "The Cat in the Hat, after all, is the story of a home invasion, during which a fish is terrorized, a rake is bent, and twin Things wreak havoc ‘with hops and big thumps / And all kinds of bad tricks.’ The Cat does clean up his substantial mess, finally, but neither we nor the child-narrator nor his sister have any way of knowing this in advance. It is a tense time meanwhile. (It is also a book that illustrates lying to mom.)

 “There is silliness here [in the tv adaptation] but no danger, and little children Sally and Nick ask their mothers' permission before flying off with the Cat (and Thing 1 and Thing 2 and the ever-fretful Fish) in his super-convertible Thinga-ma-jigger. It is always a little sad when a wild thing is tamed, but that is not a thought liable to distract this show's intended audience — and the Cat was about incidental education anyway.”

On the same day, reports Hero Complex contributor Noelene Clark at latimes.blog, Mad debuted on the Cartoon Network. "Spy vs. Spy" and other Mad magazine classics will join a host of new animated sketches—such as "CSiCarly," "2012 Dalmatians" and "Batman Family Feud"—in "MAD," a new 15-minute animated series based on the irreverent humor magazine.

THE WALKING DEAD

“The Walking Dead,” the new series on AMC that has just concluded its inaugural 6-show season to rave reviews by critics and fans, is based upon the comic book of that name from the so-called mind of Robert Kirkman, who, contemplating the next season of the tv version, cautions funnybook-spawned fans of the tv series: “You may not have the insider knowledge you think you have. Things may play out differently with Rick and Shane. And that’s great.”

SPIDERMAN CRASHES

Broadway’s Spider-Man, “Turn Off the Dark,” did not exactly flop on its “preview” night, November 28, but it fell short of the promise implied by the extensive treatment it received that night on “60 Minutes.” The $65 million stage production attempts to do with wires from the ceiling what the Spider-Man movies do with special effects — make the Webslinger swing into action, flying through the air with the greatest of ease over the heads of the audience, which, on this auspicious occasion, numbered 1,900. But the machinery was balky and the show stopped for various adjustments four times, with actors dangling in mid-air for minutes at a time.

The mechanical failures, however, apparently had no effect upon the audience, which, for the most part, endured interruptions patiently and with warm understanding — and did not, in noticeable numbers, demand its money back for tickets that cost as little as $140 and as much as $375. Nor was the potential audience much influenced. According to report on “NBC Nightly News” the next night, most of those who planned to see the show are still eager to witness the most expensive production ever mounted in American theater, an attraction that prevails whether the machinery works or not. The show is scheduled to open January 11; but don’t hold your breath: delays have been the history of this production. As of December 5, at least three of the show’s actors have suffered injuries severe enough to keep them off-stage.

DC ENTERTAINMENT MOVES WEST

DC Entertainment is moving its administrative, multi-media development and digital production— operations that focus on feature films, television, video games and other media — to the West Coast, a move that will cost dozens of staffers their jobs according to ICv2.com. “DC has so far refused to comment on stories concerning the number of employees that will be let go. The Los Angeles Timesreported earlier that 20% of DC’s workforce of approximately 250 would lose their jobs as a result of the move, a report that was met with considerable skepticism and criticism from some industry observers. It does appear to be too soon to put any definitive figure on the number of employees who will lose their jobs, simply because many of the 80 who are affected by the shift may not yet have made a final decision on whether to make the move to California.”

The New York Times announced that DC named as its new editor-in-chief Robert Harras, a veteran editor there who had also spent five years as the ed-in-chief of rival Marvel Comics. In a press release, DC said Harras will oversee editorial for its comics as well as Mad Magazine and its Vertigo imprint, and will work from the company’s New York offices.

SAVED BY SUPERMAN

Superman has come to the rescue again. A couple facing eviction from the home that had been in their family since the 1950s found a copy of Action Comics No. 1 in good condition when sorting through “junk” in the basement of the house. PRNewswire reports that online research led them to ComicConnect, “and the rest is the stuff of fairy tales.” ComicConnect has thrice auctioned rare comics of this ilk for over $1 million.

FRAZETTA

Dark Horse Comics and Vanguard Publishing have conjured up a treaty that will resolve the confusion over which company will publish Frank Frazetta's White Indian comics. The companies, reports ICv2.com, had reached separate agreements with different members of the Frazetta family to publish the material. “Vanguard will release the Complete Frazetta White Indian Collection, while Dark Horse will publish a second volume collecting all the post-Frazetta (“not Frazetta”) material featuring Dan Brand aka the White Indian. Initial direct market orders on the previously announced Dark Horse Frazetta White Indian Collection will be filled with the Vanguard volume following notices to retailers from Diamond Comic Distributors.”

REPUGLICANS

Nothing will prepare you for Pete Von Sholly’s deliriously biased portraits of Republicans on display in Repuglicans (128 6x9-inch pages, full color; Boom! Town paperback, $14.99), a gallery of some of the better-known Gabby Old Pachyderms (and a few non-GOPers), converted by Von Sholly’s fevered imagination (and Photoshop, I suspect) into vampires and zombies and various breeds of rotting corpses. Visual name-calling at its most refined. But words fall far short of adequately describing what Von Sholly has done, so we resort to posting a few of his fiendish works herewith. Left to right across the top, you’ll immediately recognize Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, and Mitt Romney; across the bottom, Joe Lieberman, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Grassley, and the ever ebullient Sean Hannity. Von Sholly’s ghastly renderings (pun unintended but relished) of 53 more of them appear in this volume, each on a right-hand page and on the facing page, short expository effusions by Steve Tatham (stand-up comic and author of 1001: A Video Odyssey, Movies to Watch for Your Every Mood). Here’s his opening annotation on Rush Limbaugh: “A high school dropout, drug addict, and big tub o’goo, the bloviating windbag has undoubtedly done okay for himelf thanks to an army of hypnotized zombies that hang on his every word when they’re not busy gunning down abortion doctors or putting Jesus fish stickers on the bumpers of their SUVs.” And so forth. For Joe Liberman, Tatham resorts to Seussian verse: “I do not like that man named Joe. / I never know which way he’ll go. / He was a friend but then no more. / Seems he’s very much a whore. / Is he right or is he left? / Of true allegiance he’s bereft. / A man of lousy etiquette / A Grinch who stole Connecticut.”

When the publication of the book was announced last February, accompanied only by a reproduction of its cover (depicting Sarah the Palin as a vampire with blood trickling out of the corners of her lips), it was immediately and hysterically denounced by adherents of the GOP, who mustered a catechism of opprobrious adjectives and other parts of speech (sez Tatham) to describe it: stupid, unoriginal, juvenile, infantile, lame, cowardly, a monstrosity, horrible, ignorant, dumb and tiresome. Tatham continues: “Now, I’m not saying that it isn’t all those things; I’m just saying those criticisms were lucky guesses. None knew what was depicted or written on its pages.” Only the cover had been released, remember. “Apparently,” saith Tatham, “you can judge a book by its cover.”

THE RAWHIDE KID

I’ve long been an admirer of Howard Chaykin’s work, but with the Rawhide Kid mini-series, “The Sensational Seven,” just concluded at No. 4, he has fallen far short of his usual mark. Rawhide ends rudely. It’s Ron Zimmerman’s story, in which the gay Rawhide Kid sets out to rescue the Earp brothers, Wyatt and Morgan, who have been imprisoned by the unrepentant and irredeemable Cristo Pike. To this purpose, ol’ Rawhide assembles six helpers, Old West legends Annie Oakely, Doc Holiday, Kid Colt, Two-gun Kid, Billy the Kid, and “the noble savage Red Wolf.” The story unfolds in two giant wrinkles as Zimmerman leaps back and forth between the cell holding the Earps and the recruiting efforts of ol’ Rawhide—the former full of sibling venom, the latter seasoned liberally with homosexual and heterosexual innuendo. Amid the flipflopping, Pike recruits seven of the old West’s most notorious bad guys to face Rawhide and his compadres. Not unexpectedly, this encounter consumes most of the final issue of the 4-issue series, and, also not unexpectedly, the Sensational Seven (that is, Rawhide’s gang) wins each individual match-up.

Zimmerman’s tale is a fairly routine, even predictable, yarn albeit with occasional flashes of sexual innuendo that he supposes passes for wit. Meanwhile, Chaykin, abetted by colorist Edgar Delgado, is busy undermining the story with the sloppiest artwork by a usually polished professional that I’ve seen this season. His stylistic adoption of boxy anatomy gives his characters an unyielding stiffness that prevents them from moving with any liveliness and often distorts proportions. He also achieves the impossible: many of his characters look so much alike that it’s impossible to tell one from the other yet when drawing a single character, the individual’s face is seldom the same from one panel to the next (in one ludicrous pair of adjoining panels, Pike’s nose is distinctly different from one to the other). Page layouts in which Chaykin alternates tight close-ups of faces with distant pictures of characters at full height are so routinely repeated that, instead of enlivening the proceedings, they become boring.

Flawed story; clumsy drawing. Too bad.