Flying the Standard: WHAT IS RIGHT WITH COMICS . Issue #6 – Trains: The Cross Country Underground Comics Experience

Flying the Standard: WHAT IS RIGHT WITH COMICS
Issue #6 -
Trains: The Cross Country Underground Comics Experience
By DAMM
Images used by permission from their owners

If there is an appropriate time to give new and unshowcased indie comic books a read it is alone on a nearly three day cross the U.S. train sojourn. Trains offer this timeless transient and tan pictured image in the cerebellum and offer the perfect breeding ground for new tales and new approaches. From the offbeat and homage to the inspired or the wacky, trains seem to liberate your mind for 1st shots, and as some are more advanced in the process still all need looking at if you want (like I do) to get the full spectrum of what is available in illustrated art.

I have been looking at these titles for a while always waiting to tell you about them and always at constraints of time or space, but titles like Nazi Werewolves from Outer Space and Zombie Outlaw decry action and fun while Unknowable and Faceless sound ominous or full of mystery and the cosmic level geek in me always succumbs, sleep and work be DAMMed…Well I can combine them all, I am sure of it, to some logical redeeming value.

It will be my first trip to the NYCC and the Big Apple itself and when finally on the train it was a little daunting. The New York City Comic Con is stacked to the gills with comic book royalty from Frank Miller and Geoff Johns to Chris Claremont and Stan Lee. There is a gamut of indie press in a mind blowing example of the talent and artistic competition only these large Cons like SDCC and Dragon Con can bring. Odds are the next big book will be here already, waiting to hit a chord with a large audience Like 30 Days of Night or Walking Dead. (It’s October after all) But being fortunate enough to be at Denver ComicFest and Montreal Comic Con – not to mention the Twitter/Facebook and email contacts by ambitious and talented creators with which I had conversed – I knew something going in. New York hadn’t seen the fistful of books I was bringing from the smaller cons and emails and maybe the next big book is here on the train with me.

Barreling through Iowa at a mirror twinkle pace against an early morning mist on fall coated leaves and post-harvest fields on an eastbound passenger train I get Traumatized.
(Take that Conjunction Junction!)

NAZI WEREWOLVES FROM OUTER SPACE #1

Trauma Comics

Simon Sanchez/Dean Juliette/Don Marquez/Jason Flowers

Available at www.indyplanet.com

nazi

That is correct. You read the title right. Nazi Werewolves from Outer Space has landed from Trauma Comics. It is the first issue of their first title and it kicks off with a whip crack. But there is a catch (isn’t there always – the curmudgeon that I tend to be?)

I had a hard time with this for a couple reasons. First, it has the word Nazi in the title. It is instantly inflammatory and nearly always about to offend if not blatantly offend someone. There is this as well – are you perhaps insulting the victims of the Nazis by making them pop villains and not showing the atrocities in full? There may be some of this or maybe not (I don’t know if I am qualified to say) BUT – let’s face it folks – the Nazis have been the bad guys in TV movies and books since they were pure evil in real life. They are also represented everywhere in a variety of ways from the stumbling dolts of The Producers to Ian McKellan’s Apt Pupil performance still chilling to this day. Then Schindler’s List and the “based on a true story movies” like Hiding Place. Yet many claim these too are unfair representations because they do not show enough to be accurate for the sake of having any audience to show it to.

What I’m saying here is I don’t have all the answers but I read comics for a living and I want to say up front I am glad I read this one. But I also had to get that out of the way so I don’t get a bunch of emails saying I didn’t stop to consider featuring this. I did.

With that resolved there was this concern. Artistically when you use Nazis it can be a cheat. It can establish the villainy beforehand and a tone that lets the creator off the hook for coming up with new villains or developing a background for them which paints them evil organically while growing the characters.

OK let’s not overthink this. It is werewolves from outer space too, I knew going in what this book wanted to be. The only real question is did it pull it off?

Pure fun. It is throwback homage to the 50’s and 60’s sci-fi and completely tongue in cheek relevant for today’s readership of classic monsters and. A night time read with a Saturday matinee ambiance. It feels like you sat down in a time machine for a drive in double feature but in a more familiar modern storytelling.
One must use the most careful presentation and kid gloves when handling Nazis, in tone and content. No worries here. They are the bad guys plain and simple and like any good monster or zombie property are in serious need of killing. No redeeming traits, no hidden humanity just alien Nazis werewolf baddies bent on destruction and conquest. The lines are clear and while no one is suggesting Nazism is fun or light, the tone of this book suggests that killing them would be a really good idea.

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From the startling menace and perfect understanding of what lies ahead on the cover to the clear concise linear action of the interior art that moves the story well, NWFOS is a solid first book. Consistency in the figure illustrations are work in progress here but, facial expression and mood are done superbly. What stood out though was the obvious grasp of layout and paneling. Although as with most first efforts and first issues too there are bugs the plot and script are both well executed examples of genre defined characterizations and consistent tone. It was fun, exciting and a little brilliant because we all hate Nazis, and c’mon who really likes Werewolves they are vicious killers too? Make ‘em aliens and remove all humanity from them…BOOM! Classic monster book. It feels good to let go and watch evil die.

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A quiet peaceful normal earth day becomes a horrible massacre as giant Swastika emblazoned space ships land at a mall, and everywhere else on earth. When the door opens the Nazi Werewolves emerge killing most capturing others for their secret experiments. Jack is on his way to breakfast in the kitchen before school. Nazi Werewolves decide breakfast would be better spent abducting Jack’s parents. Jack has a shotgun, a kickin’ car and a best friend and his father – he needs weapons to break out his folks. The story has some really genuine opening issue surprises I won’t ruin here but it involves apes, Hitler’s head and zombies!! Try that in your mainstream comic conversation! All in all Nazi Werewolves from Outer Space is a great monster comic with action over tones and a ton of heart. Is this a perfect book? No. But there is one coming in this series I assure you. The stock, color and page texture are first rate already. For a self-published first run issue it is a must have for fans of monster sci-fi genre and indie books.

Zombie Outlaw #1
Brian J. Apodaca and B.Paul Jordan
Available at www.ZombieOutlaw.com
Also Available at www.Comixpress.com

zombie

OK let’s be clear. The market is flooded with zombies, vampires and werewolves. It is flooded because – complaining or not – people like it and are buying it. But at the same time it is becoming humorous. The number of books featuring those monsters is frightening. So any significant change to make the stories actually work (like above) usually involve an element of humor.

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Zombie Outlaw is a fun undead romp through college into the undead avenging underworld. This book is in fact so unique that I am ready to call it AoD for Buffy fans. Yet this first issue is also beautifully illustrated in a style that is casual and friendly but able to carry the story in a convincing way. It is fast paced and clean. When reading this book you are simultaneously learning the characters and being swept away into a mish mash of genres that remains easy to grasp and fun to the point of squealing. This is a deconstructed superhero in a fresh new setting for a western comic…the present day.

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Irvine State University student Matt is enamored by a girl. K.T. makes his heart palpitate and his skin flush. But Matt is not the most suave guy with the ladies and so he seeks the help of the smartest guy he knows – Resident Advisor Will Simers. Will agrees to help Matt get the girl but first he must help Will achieve his objective. Will wants to learn the secrets of the University and in particular get past the librarian to read western occult history tome of gold which contains the legend of the Zombie Outlaw who we discover has the name Edward Dransby an outlaw and scoundrel thrust into defending old west Irvine from a zombie horde. Setting Will on a mission to learn more. Meanwhile Matt is having problems with K.T., a muscle bound freak job named Tad and watching Will smooth talk the librarian instead of helping him with K.T. Still, he helps Will find the secret passage and awaken the Zombie Outlaw, who quickly bites Will and turns him into the new Zombie Outlaw!! Tad is no longer a problem, Matt rescues K.T. and we get our first glimpse at the star of the series. I can’t wait to read #2.

Zombie Outlaw is a fantastic thrill ride and is appropriate for a large audience (the violence is cartoonish and offensive in no way) and I look forward to more from this talented team.

FACES
Jay Paulin/Kristina Neuman
Available at www.Comixpress.com
Follow on Twitter @inkdwellcomics

faces

I have been fortunate in my journeys on this cross country train ride to encounter not one but two really special books. In this great adventure and lifelong dream, I return from NYC with so much new information and perspective that there are changes that inevitably will follow. The change is the point of the trip. While the above books were fun and a return to Saturday matinee fun and action packed thrills the next two are more of the contemplative and still type…and yet. There is a depth to the stillness that meets heart and head in a mutually beneficial deference to make it more than its parts too.

faces

faces

In the case of Ink’d Well Comics Faces there is a rich feeling of connection in the sharing of what we all never mention, but invariably all experience. The ease achieved by “vocalizing” this phenomenon is cathartic. It is profound and it is interesting. There are three words I rarely use for any comic book. So in the creation of his second series for Ink’d Well Paulin and his team have improved in bounding amounts in the art quality but retained the truly unique point of view and storytelling strengths of his previous book Messiah with Julie Heffernan. Messiah is a worthwhile read as well but is not Faces. Faces is a short book with an artistically aware concept. It is beautifully rendered with simplicity and conveyed with what can only be described as deep subliminal content. You see Faces is about how in the whole world wherever you look there are faces. And there are hundreds of faces imbedded naturally in the art. They are placed both to be seen and to be hunted for and the conclusion of the book is a statement as to perhaps why and perhaps the intent of this unspoken shared phenomena. I read it twice in a row and then I just sat there. I felt unburdened and disturbed yet I was better off for having read the book. That is the very definition of a good piece of art to me. I await more from Paulin and Neuman and will keep you posted. Go find, buy and talk loudly about this book.

UNKNOWABLE
Craig Stuckless
Availavble at www.StucklessPortfolio.com

stuckle

If you let it, this book will change the way you approach reading comics. It is a silent wordless mini comic that any kind of explanation has potential for destroying the experience. It is about what takes place in simultaneous moments. It is a book for the intuitive mind and works in the subconscious and in the art parts of the brain. Craig Stuckless has an entirely unique vision in an entirely unique book. It is a black and white telegram to the innermost workings of the psyche and each reader will take the voyage differently but arrive at the same mind blowing ends of both emotion and evaluation. I cannot (yeah even me) expound any further without stealing the joy that comes from this innovative blast. Get this book if you like fine art or if you like relevant stories. This is the shortest review I have ever written and the most eager to share. Phenomenal work. Watch for this guy.