Another December (2014) I Reads You to Remember

It's December 2014.  Welcome to I Reads You, a ComicBookBin web and sister publication (www.comicbookbin.com).  We write about the things we read:  mostly comic books, comics, and related books.  Sometimes, we’ll write about or link to other topics:  typically books, politics, and entertainment.

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I Reads You Review: WATSON & HOLMES #6

WATSON AND HOLMES No. 6
NEW PARADIGM STUDIOS – @npstudios

WRITER: Brandon Easton
ARTIST: N. Steve Harris
COLORS: Jay David Ramos
LETTERS: Wilson Ramos, Jr.
COVER: N. Steven Harris with Jay David Ramos
VARIANT COVER: Rick Leonardi with Jay David Ramos
28pp, Color, $3.99 U.S.

Rated T+

Watson & Holmes created by Brandon Perlow and Paul J. Mendoza, inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Sherlock Holmes”

I first came across Watson & Holmes when the 2014 Glyph Comics Award nominations were announced.  After Watson & Holmes #6 won four of those awards, I decided try the series, especially #6.  By chance, I was visiting a regional comic book store, when I spied a box of comics with a sign on the front that said “.25¢ each.”  I looked through the box and was surprised to find a number of interesting comic books.  That included Watson & Holmes #6, which is produced by writer Brandon Easton, artist N. Steve Harris, colorist Jay David Ramos, and letterer Wilson Ramos, Jr.

New Paradigm Studios' comic book series, Watson & Holmes, is a modern take on  the tales of “Sherlock Holmes” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  The series envisions Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson as Black men in an urban setting, specifically New York City’s famous Harlem district.  By placing them in a modern, American urban landscape, Doyle's legendary detective fiction characters can travel in story directions likely never imagined by Doyle.

In Watson & Holmes, Holmes is no longer the sole central character and shares the spotlight equally with Watson.  Dr. John Watson is now the African-America Dr. Jon Watson, a former para-jumper for the U.S. Air Force and an Afghanistan war veteran.  He currently works in an inner-city clinic helping the less fortunate, while dealing with the financial hardships brought on by a difficult divorce.  The African-American Sherlock Holmes is currently a private investigator and a consultant to the New York Police Department (NYPD).  Obsessive compulsive, Holmes had worked as a programmer for an Internet start-up that failed, which ruined his career.  That led to him becoming a PI.

Watson & Holmes #6 opens at night near the George Washington Bridge in New York City.  The next morning, the bridge is a crime scene when the body of Hazel Wainwright is found.  The NYPD brings Holmes into the investigation because this murder requires a great deal of discretion.  Hazel was the wife of prominent New York City councilman, Dexter “Dex” Wainwright.

Holmes strongly suspects that Dex murdered his wife, but Watson hopes against that, as Wainwright has led the revival of Harlem.  Holmes' research has uncovered the name of Dominique Jiminez, a woman who is somehow connected to both Wainwrights.   Watson and Holmes aren't the only ones looking for Jiminez, a woman who is also connected to a dark underworld.

I don't often come across self-contained, single-issue detective comic books; I rarely come across them as good as Watson & Holmes #6.  Not only is the story good, but it is also riddled with consequence.  Brandon Easton offers a story that is both real in a heartbreaking way and also really relevant.  Easton makes the Wainwrights and Jiminez matter because I cared about their dilemmas and conflicts, and especially their situations in life.

Artist N. Steven Harris has huge upside.  Although his compositions and technique are still developing, his storytelling has a strong sense of drama and makes Watson and Holmes' union and method of working together seem genuine.  Harris' drawings are stylish, defined by a sense of dynamism that permeates each panel.  The colors by Jay David Ramos strike the right tone, suggesting this story's quick pace, without loosing its crime fiction edginess.

I would like to see Brandon Easton and N. Steve Harris work together again, on Watson & Holmes especially.  But I'll take something else... like maybe an creator-owned title.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

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Spell of Desire: Enter the Black Witch Coven

I read Spell of Desire, Vol. 2

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin, which is seeking donations.  Follow me on Twitter or at Grumble.

Read Grumble Chapter One, Page 5 Ahead of Page 6

Page 5 is here: http://www.comicbookbin.com/grumbleonepage005.html

I Reads You Review: FANTASTIC FOUR #262

FANTASTIC FOUR #262
MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel

WRITER/ARTIST: John Byrne

COLORS: Glynis Wein

LETTERS: Jim Novak

32pp, Color, .60¢ U.S., .75¢ CAN, .25p UK (January 1984)

Rated “T+”

“The Trial of Reed Richards”

A high-ranking Marvel Comics person once said that most comic books published before 1992 were bad, although Marvel is thriving largely due to pre-1992 publications and creations. I know for a fact that one comic book series that was no-ways-bad was Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four comic book series with John Byrne as both writer and artist. After Byrne left the series in 1986, the Fantastic Four (sometimes referred to as “FF”) was never the same. There have only been a few brief runs since then in which the series has approached the quality of Byrne's work on this seminal Stan Lee-Jack Kirby creation.

For some reason, I recently remembered something called “Assistant Editors' Month.” Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter and Marvel's primary editorial staff had taken a month-long trip in the late summer of 1983, supposedly. This meant that the assistant editors were the acting-editors of Marvel's regular titles for at least one month. The result of this was that Marvel's superhero titles with the publication date of January 1984 would drift from the status quo, at least, a little bit. [I think the Avengers met David Letterman in their title.]

Because I have many issues of Byrne's run on Fantastic Four, I also happen to have the Assistant Editors Month issue, Fantastic Four #262. The conceit of that issue is that Marvel Comics exists in the same universe as the Fantastic Four. John Byrne, as current writer-artist of the Fantastic Four, often uses the adventures of the real Fantastic Four as the basis for his Fantastic Four comics.

As Fantastic Four #262 (“The Trial of Reed Richards”) begins, Byrne is having a telephone conversation with Michael Higgins, the assistant editor of the Fantastic Four comic book and the person currently in charge of getting the book finished while the regular editor is away. Higgins is pressing Byrne to deliver some pages, but Byrne is pressed against a deadline because he cannot get in contact with the Fantastic Four.

Lucky him, The Watcher appears and takes Byrne far into the cosmos. The Watcher says that Byrne, as the “chronicler” of the Fantastic Four's adventures, must bear witness to the trial of Reed Richards. Why is Reed, a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic, on trial? He saved the life of the planet-devouring Galactus, and now, victims of Galactus – old, new, and ancient want to punish the man who kept Galactus living.

I had not read “The Trial of Reed Richards” in ages. I first heard of it from comic book fans who swore to me that it was a classic. It may be, but taken as part of the entirety of Byrne's run on the series, it is one good comic book among many.

Byrne has previously stated that some comic book writers, artists, editor, and publishers “don't get it,” meaning that they do not understand what made certain classic comic book creations work – what made them “classic.” In the case of the Fantastic Four, not only in the comic books, but also in the movies and in television appearances, the writers, artists, and creative types don't get it.

Many people focus in on the Fantastic Four as a team that is also a family, and Stan Lee has bolstered that every time he talks about creating the FF. They're right; the team is a family. Whatever pulpy roots and TV family examples inspired him, Lee did create a familiarity amongst the lead characters that was, at that time, new to comic books.

However, comic books are a graphics-based and visual storytelling medium, and in the hands of and by the pencil of Jack Kirby, Fantastic Four had a second distinctive and crucial feature or trait. This comic book was grand and big in its scope. The monsters were not just big like those that appeared in Marvel/Timely's monster comics; there was also something bigger behind FF's monsters and creatures. It might be tragedy, or a warning, or even a message. When the Mole Man appeared in Fantastic Four #1, he was not just a monster wrangler or boss of monsters; he was a leader and a protector. His mission wasn't mere destruction of the human world, but the grand notions of the survival and the prosperity of the creatures that lived below the human world.

Byrne's trial of Reed Richards isn't just a trippy trip through the cosmos. It is a simple story about existence, reality, and the natural order, but it was a story spun on a grand, cosmic scale. Like Lee and Kirby's Fantastic Four, Byrne's is not hard science fiction, but it embraces the sense of wonder about the great big unknown beyond the planet, beyond the stars, and beyond myriad dimensions.

Supposedly, sales of the Fantastic Four comic book has been floundering for years, and the series is reportedly headed for cancellation. Whatever the politics behind that cancellation, the Fantastic Four has been a shadow of its former glory for decades, for the most part. No one has done the Fantastic Four like Byrne did it since he did it. I am glad I thought of reading Fantastic Four #262 because it was part of the “Assistant Editors' Month” gimmick. Thank goodness for back issues, trades paperbacks, and Artist Editions that we can still read the new classic that was John Byrne's Fantastic Four, after the original classic FF of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

Black Rose Alice: Four Vampires and a Funeral for Your Old Life

I read Black Rose Alice, Vol. 2

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin, which is seeking donations.  Follow me on Twitter and at Grumble.

Review: WAYWARD #4

WAYWARD #4
IMAGE COMICS – @ImageComics

STORY: Jim Zub – @jimzub
ART: Steve Cummings – @stekichikun
COLORS: Josh Perez and Tamra Bonvillain – @dyemooch and @TBonvillain
LETTERS: Marshall Dillon – @MarshallDillon
COVER: Steve Cummings and Ross A. Campbell
VARIANT COVER: Philip Tan
28pp, Color, $3.50 U.S.

Arriving in comic book stores today, Wednesday, November 26, 2014, is the fourth issue of Wayward.  This is the fascinating new fantasy comic book series from writer Jim Zub (Skullkickers) and penciller Steve Cummings and published by Image Comics.  Wayward focuses on Rori Lane, a half-Irish/half-Japanese teen girl.  Rori is trying to start a new life in Japan with her mother, Sanae, only to find herself connected to the magic and ancient creatures that lurk in the shadows of Tokyo.

As Wayward #4 (“Chapter Four”) opens, Rori is trying to keep doing the mundane things in life (like attending school), even after experiencing so much of the supernatural.  She gathers her “gang” of fellow supernatural types:  Ayane, Shirai, and Nikaido for a supernatural pow-wow.  Their meeting is centered around answering the question, “What does each of us know about the supernatural?”  In the decommissioned subway tunnels beneath Ueno Park, Rori finds the kind of answers that are really just more questions.

The ComicBookBin received the advanced review PDF copy of Wayward #4 that writer Jim Zub sent to reviewers.  It's much appreciated, but do I feel obligated to give Wayward a good review because Zub gives me a chance to read one of my favorite comic books a little early?  Actually, I feel obligated to break into Zub's house or into the Image Comics offices, whichever one allows me to read future issues of Wayward now.

Seriously, I like Wayward... a lot.  Instead of comparing it to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I compare it to Harry Potter in the following way.  Potter was essentially a series of mystery novels, in which the hero and his allies traveled to unknown, but fantastic places; they dealt with a growing cast of characters, each character having shifting alliances and secretive motivations.  The endgame was not just to discover a villain, but to also unravel a far-reaching conspiracy that was born in the past and could determine the future, as well as the fate of countless people.

Wayward offers a mystery that is as unknown as it is alluring.  Like Rori following the glowing threads that guide (or lead) her, we don't know where this mystery will take us, but let's follow!  Rori is not so much Buffy fighting monsters as she is like Harry Potter guiding us into a fantastic labyrinth of conspiracies and old secrets.  Let's keep going Wayward.

A

[Wayward #4 contains the engrossing essay, “Tokyo Underground,” by Zack Davisson (@ZackDavisson), with art by Steve Cummings.]

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.