Overwhelmed

Sometimes I think the Gods of Comicdom are trying to kill me. Or at least cripple me financially. After the comics-purchasing orgy that was APE (see previous posts), I'm faced with a new comics day that, under normal circumstances, would have me jumping for joy. But, with my wallet still limping and gasping from the beating it sustained over the weekend, the overwhelming pile of new comics almost rises to the level of hardship. Almost. But really, including a coupe of books I'd missed in the last two weeks, I ended up with 8 floppies and one (remarkable budget priced) book.

Brian Wood's new graphic novel with Toby Cypress, The Tourist, looks pretty enticing. Only $9.99 for approximately 100 full-size pages. I haven't heard a whole lot about this, but between the gorgeous art (half Paul Pope, half Bill Sienkiewicz? Somewhere in that territory anyways) and Wood's typically high quality scripts these days, it was an obvious buy.

Speaking of Paul Pope, we also get the penultimate installment of his Batman book, in which a nameless future Dark Knight and crew delve into the murky dystopia of Gotham 2039, drawing equal comparisons to 1984, Dark Knight Returns, and Pope's own Heavy Liquid. The sheer manic desperation evident in each page of Pope's artwork is enough to keep me enthralled while a pile of loose plot threads sloooowly pull together.

The first story arc of Desolation Jones starts up, bringing an end to the saga of Hitler porn and other dark secrets circulating a community of exiled former intelligence agents to a close and launching us, I can only assume, into further stories of depravity and betrayal in the underbelly of Los Angeles. Also, Brian Wood's DMZ series begins it's next story arc, "Body of a Journalist". It's a timely story arc,but then again, it looks like the underlying concept, and it's central US/Iraq metaphor, will be depressingly timely for the foreseeable future.

Former Wood Collaborator (and another personal favorite) Becky Cloonan's series with writer Steven T. Seagal, American Virgin, sees it's second issue. The first was slightly rocky, with a few too many plot elements introduce all at once, and a couple of implausible escapes by our titular hero, but it's interesting enough to hold on and see if it finds it's feet quickly.

The wickedly funny X-Statix revival (pardon the pun) Dead Girl continues to impress with issue three, brimming with continuity-nerd in-jokes and completely off-the-wall concepts. This is the kind of book that X-Statix was at it's peak, totally irreverent without losing it's sense of drama, and it's a type that I think Marvel could stand to publish more often. As far as I'm concerned, it's really the only Marvel book worth reading at the moment. But that's just me...

100 Bullets and Y: The Last Man are both reliable, long-running entertainers, and it looks like Bullets is finally returning to it's roots, after an extended period dealing with the dense web of conspiracies and double-crossing that have piled up. That element is still present, but the original "mysterious briefcase" element returns, which seems to help ground the book in a more relatable, human drama. Y, on the other hand, seems like it could use a good shake-up these days. Still solidly written, but it always ends up in the same situations. The plot is chugging along slowly, with plenty of revelations lately, but none of them have really changed the status quo.

And finally, Shaolin Cowboy, Geoff Darrow's absurdist action comic. I almost missed this one,a s I wasn't expecting that ultra-distressed paperback -style cover. Darrow turns everything to 11 in this book, and the cover is no exception, with the cover image torn away to reveal what appears to be fragments of a Shaolin Cowboy pulp paperback. Probably one of the most consistently and pretentiously entertaining books on the shelf today.

Now I just have to get around to reading some of these...