Words: Brian K. Vaughan

Art: Pia Guerra

Publisher: Vertigo

This issue was published more than ten years ago (2002). Yet, what has it lost? Not a damn thing.  Not the exceptional artwork or the insanely good writing. It’s as fresh and exciting today as it was when it was initially released.

I find, rereading the series after all this time, that a central question remains, one that carries all of the characters, reader included, to a frustrating non-answer: Namely, is this a book of forgetting, or a book of remembering? I tend to lean toward the latter, as the former seems too simple, too overt, too typical. No, this is a story of humanity–or should I qualify that by saying, roughly half of humanity, and its ability to carry on, to fight through overwhelming odds and painful, bitter disappointment.

And I believe Yorick, the story’s main character, is just the court jester, exactly the mad clown, to take what’s left of the deeply scarred world by the hand and gently remind it both of the natural wonderment of eyes-wide-open optimism and of the bold fierceness of human conviction. Yorick seeks not to remind those closest to him and those he meets after the masculine cataclysm of things past–far from it; rather, he seeks to remind them that, although life has ended for 50% of the population, life has nevertheless continued for the other half.

Yorick is a clown, to be sure, and he plays his role well. But he is not guilty of allowing the world to hold him in its hand and remember the way things used to be. Yorick, for all his shortcomings, is a man of the fates, not unlike Odysseus, favored by some god to be alive, ill-favored of another to be lost at sea, desperately seeking the shoreline. He is a physical reminder that, though the twists and turns may be many and far-reaching, the plaything of the gods yet lives, and that he has not yielded to the fates.

The ultimate lesson of issue #1, then, is not one of loss of memory, or even of the loss of something tangible. The real rhetorical culprit is that of harsh reality viewed through the lens of hormonal success. Where one chromosome ceases to be, another ceases to be self-aware, and begins to seize hold of the future.

NB: This review touches a bit on events that take place in subsequent issues. Each issue reviewed going forward will be self contained.

Saga #6 is the final chapter in the first arc of this breakout Image Comics hit series from Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Lost) and Fiona Staples. What a ride it has been so far! Saga is one of the finest series to debut in all of comics this year. That is high praise and not hyperbole at all. Saga blends together elements of fantasy and sci-fi into a unique and epic story unlike anything else currently in comic stores.

Saga is the tale of two star-crossed lovers, Alana and Marko, from opposite sides of a galactic war between a race of technology users and magic users. Amidst the backdrop of a battle in which they fight on opposing sides, Alana and Marko fall in love and have a baby named Hazel together. In their effort to flee and find a better life for their child, pursuers are dispatched to prevent their escape.

After a long journey that has spanned most of the first arc, this issue opens up with our protagonists finally getting close to the “Rocketship Forest” that they hope will facilitate their escape from the planet. However, the Rocketship Forest looks like a slashed and burnt wasteland. Luckily their ghostly guide, Izabel, knows what must be done. Everything in this world has a price, and a sacrifice is in order to secure the young family’s escape.

The subplot revolves around Alana, Marko, and Hazel’s increasingly desperate pursuers trying to get back on the trail to find their quarry. With the young family blasted off for an unknown destination, what chance is there to capture them now? Don’t count out Prince Robot IV‘s ingenuity just yet.

This issue and first arc comes to an end with a wild curveball that I did not see coming at all. I will not spoil it here, but I most definitely can’t wait to see what happens next. Which brings us to the only negative aspect to Saga #6: having to wait until November for the next installment, Saga #7.

Saga is pretty much everything I look for in a comic. Brian K. Vaughan has crafted an amazing and original tale. The story is paced well and moves along at a brisk clip. The primary characters continue to evolve and reveal more of their personalities throughout the story. Don’t get too attached to the colorful secondary characters, as they are as likely to meet an untimely end as not. The dialogue is playful and comes off with a very organic feel. Fiona Staples’ art here (of which she is not only illustrating, but also doing colors, covers, and parts of the lettering) is clean, expressive and elegantly sparse. Staples’ art is the perfect balance to Vaughan’s story here. Even her backgrounds are getting stronger as the series goes on, with more of the world’s details starting to permeate the panel backdrops. The cover to this issue was my favorite out of all comics that came out the week Saga #6 was released.

If Saga can keep the momentum and fan base it has build when it continues again in November, this series has the potential to remain one of the best in comics. The Saga: Volume One trade will be released in October for bargain price of just $9.99! If you have missed the single-issues, the TPB is the perfect time to catch up. I would bet that many will do just that, and Saga will likely have even more fans come November – and rightfully so.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Cleopatra in Space #2
Mike Maihack
http://www.cowshell.com/cleopatra/

I’ve talked before about how one of my favorite aspects of going to comic conventions is the chance to discover new artists/writers.  Not only do I just walk around the floors of the convention center, but I also spend a great deal of time looking through the list of names of people that are going to be there so I can see what they do before hand.  It just helps me budget to pick something up from them.  One of the artists/writers/comics that I discovered last year at Heroescon while doing this was Cleopatra in Space (I reviewed issue one here) and I was excited that Mike was coming back this year so I could pick up issue #2.  This is easily one of my favorite comics to keep up with and after a bit of a hiatus, Mike is once again updating the comic online (the current storyline will make up issue #3.)  The premise is that Cleopatra VII has been transported from 52BC to the far distant future, where ancient prophecies have proclaimed that she is destined to become the savior of the galaxy.  But first…she has to survive.

Cleopatra escaped the Xerc ship, got their new weapon…and now she’s crash landed on Hykosis trying to fix her bike.  And just when she and Khensu think they’ll be able to get away, bandits show up.  After a brief battle (where Cleopatra totally kicks their asses) the bandits run away.  Course they’ve also run off with the Xerc’s new weapon.  The weapon that Cleopatra was supposed to bring back to her planet in order to help save them.  What’s a girl to do?  Go after them and save the world of course.

I think the first thing that caught my attention about the comic was the artwork.  There are just so many little details to it that make it standout when looking at it.  I love the line quality of the drawings and it really helps create and sell the motion of the characters and bring them to life.  It reminds me in some ways of Scott McCloud’s comic Zot!  And in between chapter one (issue 1) and chapter 2 (this issue) Mike began adding color to the process, which just enhances everything in my opinion.  He still has a lot of nice detail to the drawings, but I love his color choices in this issue.  For example, in the panel shown on the left, I love the choice of the blues to illustrate Cleopatra.  It certainly captures how she must be feeling, but the contrast between the blue and the red background is just pitch perfect.  I also like how he isn’t afraid to use the gutter space or just not depict the borders of the panels entirely.  This is something that I see a lot of artists struggle with, but Mike makes the right choices using it with a deft touch to enhance the storyline vs. just going overboard with it.

Although I really like the artwork, the writing is what keeps me coming back for more wanting to know what will happen next.  Mike creates characters that live and breathe on the page, that grow throughout the story and show that they have faults, that they make mistakes just like us.  Most of all though I enjoy the two main characters, Cleopatra and Khensu, and just how they’re described.  Cleopatra isn’t a dainty, sit on her hands queen.  Nope, instead she’s a kick ass, gun wielding, energetic kinda gal that likes trying to do things on her own.  Granted it doesn’t always work, but hey she’s only 17.  And Khensu just wants to do what is best for his young charge.  Sure he’s a bit overprotective at times, but she maybe the center of the prophecy to save the world.

Even though the series is progressing slowly, this is a comic that I really enjoy and would recommend to fans of sci-fi, star trek, and adventure.  I really look forward to seeing where Mike goes next with the storyline and look forward to reading more about Cleopatra.

Zot! Book 1
Kitchen Sink Press
Scott McCloud

Way back when, before Scott McCloud wrote his seminal work Understanding Comics he created his own superhero called Zot.  Zot is rather unique in the comics world, in part because Zot is a teenage superhero, but mostly because of the critical issues that Scott explored between Zot’s world (a parallel earth) and our own world.  Zot and crew challenged assumptions and explored moral themes that were by and large not touched upon in most mainstream comics.  This isn’t comicsforge’s first look at Zot.   Way back when, almost at the beginning of comicsforge.com, Josh reviewed the Complete Zot which collects the adventures of Zot, Jenny, and the rest of the gang from issue 11 to the end. And what about those first 10 issues you ask?  They were collected separately in this first collection (out of print but can still be found used) on just how Zot entered into our world, how he met Jenny for the very first time, and why the heck Butch turns into a monkey everytime he enters Zot’s world.

Jenny is your typical normal girl…well she is a bit lonely, but that’s just because she moved to a new town.  And then…a portal opens and Zot, a young teenage superhero from an alternate world appears chasing a troop of robots in pursuit of a key.  After helping Zot, Jenny accompanies him back to his world (along with her older brother Butch) and see the wonders of this new place.  They meet new people and robots that work!  And Butch gets turned into a monkey!  And Zot and crew continue to unravel the mystery of the key to avert a war and to save a world (and perhaps more.)

One of the things that is special about Zot is that he is not your typical superhero.  He’s a young teenage boy, full of altruism and hope, and the fallacies of believing he can do everything.  In this collection we get to find out so much about him and what makes him tick.  For me these first 10 issues don’t have quite the impact that the rest of the Zot series does. In part, because McCloud is still finding his voice and the story in these early issues. But…the stories told are still fascinating look at an alternative superhero. One that defies the traditional one in some ways in that he’s not afraid to show his weaknesses, he isn’t afraid to admit when he made a mistake, and he isn’t afraid to let his emotions show. Even early on McCloud is still a masterful storyteller captivating the reader with the tales of Zot, Jenny, and Butch and their adventures. McCloud is able to capture people as they really are…their emotions, the way the move, the way they speak all accurately captured within these pages. And that’s the highest compliment I can offer to this series.

One of the biggest differences in these first 10 issues, besides Scott finding his voice, is that these issues are in color vs. the black and white of the later series.  It’s a more typical style of the comics of the era and to be honest I much prefer the black and white series.  While Scott’s line work remains the same, the color in some ways dampens and hides some of the details that show up in the later series.  That being said Scott still creates powerful expressions on the characters faces, ones that are easy to read and give deeper meaning to the story at hand.  One of my favorite pages (which I’ll be honest in enhanced by the color) is right near the end, where Zot’s face is depicted out on hundreds of television screens and people are rejoicing, bowing, praising, etc. in front of the screen.  It’s powerful and heartbreaking all at the same time.  No words are ever said on these two pages and no words are needed.

If you like comics that are a bit different, ones with depth and humanity to them then I highly recommend that you pick up the Zot series.  You won’t regret it at all.

Written and Drawn by Jeff Smith

Self Published I think

When last we were with interdimensional hopper RASL it looks like he’s been cornered by agents of the government. It also looks like there are people in the government who think that alternate universes are nothing more than shadows that should be destroyed. Of course, we learned some issues ago that the many universes of RASL appear to be unraveling. It’s not entirely clear if that’s because of government experimentation or if dimension hopping tears apart the fabric of the universe itself.

We do know that the crow faced cop, he looks like the villain (Fritz Campion must have had it right…),
wants to destroy all the alternate worlds.  I imagine that would be murder on such a vast scale that it would be unthinkable. Here’s a scene:

I notice that crow faced guy talks like a cultural conservative. When he criticizes Rasl for believing in nothing is he criticizing him for being one of those Dawkins type atheists? For daring to create a reality that’s more complicated than the one that he thought he was in? Stay tuned to what I’m sure will be the very violent finale.

One more thing: the scary little girl makes another appearance in the last panel.

She just creeps me out.We think she’s the face of God and considering the state of the universe (s) we live in then I would say that would be a pretty good bet. There are a lot of questions to be answered in the next and final issue? How does Rasl save the universe or all the universes? What is the significance of this recurring scene of the droplet of water?

Why does Rasl lock up the crow-faced guy in a freezer instead of killing him considering how terribly violent this guy is? How many versions are there of Maya, his sometimes love interest, and are any of them dangerous?

Final verdict: 4.6 out of 5 stars. I can’t wait for the movie.

Heroescon
Day 1

OK yes Heroescon took place this weekend (6/22) to be exact but this is the first day that I’ve had consistent internet access that I didn’t have to worry about paying for.  And yes this was my third comic convention of the year (thus far), but this is the one that is closest to me and one that my dad and I can go to together.  But even more than that last year’s Heroescon was my first every comic convention and I was blown away by just how well run the con is, the range of guests, the panels, and just how easy it was to navigate through the con without feeling like I was swimming up a waterfall.  And this year was Heroescon 30th anniversary with some rather big name guests.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with it Heroescon is held in the Convention Center in Charlotte, NC.  It’s a relatively small con compared to something like Emerald City Comicon in terms of number of people that attend, but…for me that’s one of the things that makes it so great.  It makes it easier to navigate and actually stop and talk to an artist/writer and as one person told me this weekend, people just seem friendlier.  They tend to be more mindful of their surroundings when taking pictures, they apologize for stepping on you or blocking your path by accident, and it just seems more…cheerful which in large part I attribute to the con staff.  There were a few hiccups this weekend, but by and large the con staff and volunteers were well organized and easy to find and ask questions about where some booth was.  It’s also a really affordable con ($30 for three days) with some really cool perks–like if you preorder your pass you get in to the con 30 minutes early each day and you get a limited edition print which this year came presigned.  No extra cost.  How cool of a bonus is that?

Even though it’s a smaller con they’re able to get a pretty wide range of artists from comic books to graphic novels to webcomics to artists/illustrators showing what they can do to the rest of the world.  And this year since it was their 30th anniversary they went out and got two of the biggest names in the comics world–Stan Lee and Jaime Hernandez (who designed the poster at the top of the post.)  I’ll write more about Stan Lee on Day 2′s post, but Jaime impressed me greatly.  Not just because he’s a fantastic artist, but because he was genuinely happy to sign stuff for fans and you could see his eyes light up when he was talking to fans.  The thing that impressed me the most was a dealer/gallery owner that wanted to get a bunch of drawings and get stuff signed to sell and Jaime said something along the lines of “ya know I’m really here to meet the fans.”

The second best moment of this first day, stopping by the Team Cul De Sac booth.  If you aren’t familiar with Team Cul De Sac it was put together to honor Richard Thompson (one of the best artists/writers out there and nicest) and to raise money for the Michael J Fox foundation to battle Parkinson’s disease.  They did this by having artwork contributed for an auction and a book and you can tell that Richard is well liked and thought of by the number of different artists that did pieces.  I mean seriously there’s fan art, there’s art by Danielle Corssetto, pieces by other comic strip artists, and even a piece by Bill Watterson of Calvin & Hobbes fame.   I picked up my book from the booth from Chris Sparks (who organized the entire thing and is also one of the nicest guys out there) who wrote a great little inscription in it for me and even remembered me from last year.  This is just an absolutely beautiful book and one of the coolest things ever.

I also got to meet other great artists, such as Jeffrey Brown!  Who did stuff like “Cat are weird and other observations” and “Darth Vadar and Son.”  I got to take a moment and ask if him if George Lucas got a copy (answer was yes) and if he liked it (also yes) and he hinted that perhaps we’ll see a second book in the series.  And my mind is blanking on who else and what else I did this day but be assured it was awesome.

Avatar the Last Airbender: The Promise Part 1
Dark Horse Comics
Gene Yuen Lang and Bryan Gurihiru

Avatar the Last Airbender was (and still is) one of my favorite cartoons of all time. I mean it is seriously awesome with great character, great writing, and the animation was fantastic. And while I was a bit sad it ended I knew it would live on at least in my head (and the sequel.) Then it was announced that they were doing a graphic novel continuation of Aang and his friends and I looked at it with trepidation. I had read a couple of the graphic novels already based upon the series and I wasn’t all that impressed with them. Then I started hearing details…the creators of the show had helped set out the plot points and Gene Yuen Lang (American Born Chinese) was writing it! And suddenly things sounded promising…a lot promising.

The war has ended and Zuko is now Firelord. He’s dedicated to restoring peace among the nations with the help of the Avatar and friends. His first step is the Harmony Restoration Movement, withdrawing the Fire Kingdom settlements from the Earth Kingdom. But trouble soon arises as some of these colonies have called these places home for generations and have even intermarried! Of course they don’t want to move, but other places within the Earth Kingdom want them gone. What’s Zuko to do? He’s torn between the plight of these families and the healing that needs to be done to help rebuild the nations. So Zuko calls off the movement as he ponders what to do. Aang and his friends though are going to have to work fast to prevent war from overcoming the world once again. And decisions need to be made soon.

Gene Luen Yang, author of American Born Chinese, is one of my favorite graphic novel writers out there today. American Born Chinese is still one of my favorites and shows just how well Gene can tell an amazing story. I did wonder as an outsider to the original series (or even in any of the comics) how would Gene approach the relationships in the series? How would he approach Aang and Zuko growing into their roles? But with the story that Gene crafts here he shows that he really is a fan of the series and he’s accurately captured the characters and their movements within his writing. This well crafted story feels just like an episode (ok multiple episodes) of the TV series. I really like how he’s approaching the Zuko/Ozai relationship. At the end of the cartoon series we’re left with the image of Zuko asking about the whereabouts of his mother and Gene deftly weaves this interaction into the story to give the reader more information. And he captures that sense of humor of the characters just right, especially with Sokka, in the scene where Sokka sees Aang and Katara kissing and shouts out about how it’s oogie, it’s just so him.

The artwork is absolutely fantastic and blew me away. I don’t think Bryan Gurihiru worked on the actual series, but man does he capture the characters perfectly. It’s like looking at a print version of the cartoon. He’s able to capture their expressions, even their very movements down to the last detail. I mean take a look at the image on the left. Bryan perfectly captures the expressions and the movements of the Earth King. And the colors are absolutely pitch perfect. Compared to some of the comics I’ve seen that came out based upon the series this art just nails it. In my head when I’m reading the comic it’s like watching the cartoon.

All in all this is the absolute perfect combination of writer and artist to work on this series and continue it for fans. For fans of the series this is just what you’ve been waiting for. It feels like Aang and crew never left. And if you’re new to the series…why are you starting with this book? Go watch the original series and get hooked on it and then come back and read this title.

Written by Joshua Dysart

Art by Khari Evans

Cover by Mico Suayan

Letters by Rob Steen

Printed by Valliant Comics

This is a new start for Valliant Comics, and back in the day, the 1990’s Valliant was known for some very interesting comic books like X-O Man of War, and Harbringer. This is a new edition, new printing, and new story line that basically wipes everything off the map and revisions the Harbringer Character well beyond its 1990’s roots. It is good to see Valliant coming back, but in the longer run I am not sure that this is the comic book that is going to bring them back to the forefront of independent comic books.

In this first issue we get slacker teenager Peter Stenchek who is totally out of work, out of luck, and on the skids. But he is also one of the few that has the psionic Harbringer power, with the potential to influence the people around him, and consequently the decisions and actions that those around him will make. Now if he just happened to be around the rich and powerful he would be in awesome shape. But being a listless and non-ambitious teenager, you know how this is going to go. Bring in Toyo Harada, a businessman, philanthropist, and also a Harbringer. But young Peter could give Toyo a run for his money, and Peter needs a mentor and guidance to ensure that his powers are not used for evil.

Is there a chance for redemption here? Or is Toyo going to lead Peter down the path of evil, manipulation, and total world domination. Then there is the generation gap between Toyo and Peter, so there is some potentially interesting ways of slicing and dicing this story line for the next couple hundred editions. But is Valliant Comics up for this one? Coming from being a comic book company to a holding company and back to a comic book company are the customers going to come back?

In a lot of ways this comic is classic Valliant, but the market has changed since they were last selling comic books. The independent comic book market has some well represented and good selling titles. Marvel and DC have consolidated their own markets, and survived or been bought out by much larger companies. Many more people are buying independent comic books, and this one should be bought and read and pondered on. But I don’t know if they will make it, but knowing me, and knowing my love for some of their earlier stories we will be covering Valliant not just as a place to get awesome comics, but as a company as well. This company could be a great comeback contender. And if they continue to put out very well drawn and developed comic books like Harbringer we might just get lucky.

I am going to rate this one five of five stars, I want them to do good, this comic is awesome, and I am dying to see what they do next.

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