New Comics Day

I almost gave New Comics Day a pass this week, for a few reasons. One, I was sort of cranky from working 45 minutes of overtime doing someone else's job. Two, it was hot as all get out outside today in Santa Rosa, and it's Downtown Market night, meaning several blocks adjacent to the local comic shop are shut down right around when I get off work. Third and final reason: the only book I was expecting this week was 100 Bullets #62. I don't follow a whole lot of regular books these days, so it makes it much easier to skip weeks here and there. I know, what kind of fan am I?

But I decided to go anyways, mainly because I needed an excuse to bike somewhere. And I figured I could pick up something extra if there was nothing new and exciting.

So I ended up with my 100 Bullets, the new Shoujo manga issue of the Comics Journal (which I didn't realize was out yet, and which looks gorgeous), and a copy of Or Else #1, by Kevin Huizenga. I was sort of eyeing this book for a little while, after seeing it on the dust-collecting shelf hidden away near floor level next to the back issue bins, but behind you if you're facing the trade paperback shelf. Yeah, my local comics shop could learn a thing or two about merchandising. Ah well.

I'll have some thoughts about 100 Bullets later on, but I wanted to say a thing or two about Or Else while it's fresh in my mind. First off, it was the art that really drew me in. Huizenga has a style that looks like a throwback to the heyday of newspaper strips like Pogo, with some very deft linework, especially in a series of panels depicting passing scenery on a nighttime bike-ride. The figures have an iconic/cartoon-y look to them, reminiscent of TinTin, or Seth's work. The storytelling has sort of an odd rhythm to it that's confusing at first, but makes sense once you get a feel for the flow of the narrative. It was made more difficult by the fact that, though this is issue #1, apparently the main story, "Glenn Ganges," carries over from earlier minicomics and books by other publishers. Thankfully, there's a listing of related works in the Notes on the back over, so new readers aren't completely lost, and gives me another batch of books to add to my constantly growing wishlist.

The main "Glenn Ganges" story covers roughly half of the book, with a short intermission for a very Spy Vs. Spy or Krazy Kat -esque one-page abstract fight comic, and then a beautiful experiment in text/image combination, featuring the text of adoption papers juxtaposed with Hiroshige inspired Japanese landscapes, with lots of interesting implied junctions and breaks of the image between the panels.

Pretty solid score for a day that I didn't expect to bring anything too interesting...

And no, I didn't get All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder. But I'll probably pick up All-Star Superman when it comes out. At least the first issue, to give it a try.