One-Punch Man: The Secret to Strength

I read One-Punch Man, Vol. 2

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Review: FIGHT CLUB 2 #3

FIGHT CLUB 2 #3
DARK HORSE COMICS – @DarkHorseComics

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITER: Chuck Palahniuk
ART: Cameron Stewart
COLORS: Dave Stewart
LETTERS: Nate Piekos of Blambot
COVER:  David Mack
VARIANT COVER: Cameron Stewart
EDITOR: Scott Allie
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (July 2015)

“This is Limbo”

Fight Club 2 is the comic book sequel to the 1996 prose novel, Fight Club, written by author Chuck Palahniuk.  Published by Dark Horse Comics, Fight Club 2 is also written by Chuck Palahniuk, drawn by Cameron Stewart, colored by Dave Stewart, and lettered by Nate Piekos, with cover art provided by painter David Mack.

Fight Club 2 focuses on the unnamed protagonist of Fight Club, who now calls himself “Sebastian.”  A decade ago, he had an army of men ready to take down the modern world.  Now, an assortment of pills and medications have taken him down.  Sebastian is married to Marla Singer, his former co-revolutionary, and they have a son, “Junior.”  All is boring, but an old friend, Tyler Durden, is back, and he may be the reason that Junior has been kidnapped.

Once upon a time, Sebastian led a revolutionary project/movement called “Project Mayhem.”  As Fight Club 2 #3 opens, Sebastian engages the current generation of Project Mayhem, with the ample bruises provided by Marla that will allow him to walk among this new generation.  The search for Sebastian's son begins, while Tyler makes new and even darker plans.

At this point, I can't pretend to be surprised by how good a comic book Fight Club 2 is.  I am enjoying it as much, if not more, than the novel, which I first read sometime in the last decade or so.  Now, I am suspicious of Chuck Palahniuk.  Of course, he is an acclaimed and successful writer of prose (novels and short stories), but his first foray into comic books should not be as well executed as Fight Club 2 is.

Of course, he does have the advantage of having as a co-author, the accomplished comic book artist, Cameron Stewart.  The graphical storytelling in this comic book tells this story set in the world of Fight Club subtly and with a sense of mystery, in a way the slick and hyper 1999 Fight Club movie did not.

And yet, once again, cover artist, David Mack, leaves his mark on this comic book with another striking painting.  His work on this series encapsulates the narrative's secrets and lies, and fosters the idea that this story is older than we realize.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

Review: STRANGE FRUIT #1

STRANGE FRUIT #1 (OF 4)
BOOM! Studios – @boomstudios

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITERS: J.G. Jones and Mark Waid
ARTIST: J.G. Jones
LETTERS: Deron Bennett
COVER: J.G. Jones
24pp, Colors, $3.99 U.S. (July 2015)

Suggested for mature readers

Strange Fruit is a new four-issue comic book miniseries from comics creators, Mark Waid (Daredevil; Kingdom Come) and J.G. Jones (Wanted; Y: The Last Man).  According to publicity released by publisher BOOM! Studios, Strange Fruit is “a deeply personal passion project” and is a “provocative examination of the heroic myth confronting the themes of racism, cultural legacy, and human nature through a literary lens, drawing from Southern folklore and tradition.”

Strange Fruit #1 opens in Chatterlee, Mississippi, April 1927, during what would become known as the “Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.”  The Mississippi River is rising, threatening to break open the levees and destroy Chatterlee, after already washed away the “God-fearing” town of Seeley.  The race to shore up the levees is also threatening to break open the racial and social divisions of Chatterlee and the surrounding area.  Into this roiling situation, a mysterious Black man falls from the sky.

Strange Fruit was already a controversial comic book months before its release.  I  imagine that it will draw ire from people who were perturbed by Quentin Tarantino's 2012, Oscar-winning film, Django Unchained.  Fiction like Tarantino's film and Strange Fruit draw controversy because of their subject matter and because of the settings of their narratives.  Another reason such works are controversial is because African-American critics see them as cheap entertainment and violent melodramas that exploit the troubled and painful history of Black folks in America.

To be fair to J.G. Jones and Mark Waid, anything set in the racist, police state that was the Deep South in the 1920s (and 30s, and 40s and 50s and 60s...) is bound to court controversy.  Also, Waid was born in 1962 in Alabama, so he spent his childhood in the vicinity of the troubled times of the Civil Rights movement.  [I don't know when Jones was born.]  Actually, I give Jones and Waid credit for depicting how Whites treated Black locals during the Great Flood (to say nothing of other natural disasters).

A well-known comic book artist once criticized members of his message board for using the term “boy scout” in a derogatory way.  He said that “decent people” knew that the Boy Scouts organization was a good thing.  I started to inform him (but didn't) about the story that during the Great Flood, some “decent people” in Mississippi had Boy Scouts point rifles at Black locals, who had been forced to fill sand bags to protect from a breach of the levee, in order to assure that they would keep working.

You see, many Black people had little or nothing, in the way of property, to lose during the Great Flood if a levee broke along the Mississippi River and washed away a town.  White land and property owners and businessman had everything to lose, and thus, treated Blacks like slaves who were expected to save business they probably weren't even allowed to patronize.  This also happened when fire threatened fields planted with crops, as was the case in early 20th century Louisiana when Whites used murder and violence to intimidate Black locals into fighting the fire.

Jones (who was born in my home state of Louisiana) and Waid are merely digging in the dirt of their birthplaces using myth and Southern folklore and tradition to examine their birthright.  That birthright is the human stain of the legacy of racism, slavery, a failed Reconstruction, Jim Crow, segregation, the police state, and extreme violence.

As for reading this series, I'm in.  Thank you, Mr. Jones and Mr. Waid.  I hope that Strange Fruit is the first of many such comic book series.  Maybe, comic book publishing companies, which are owned and operated by White people, will even have the vision to publish such material when it is created by African-Americans.  In my review of a future issue of Strange Fruit, I will praise J.G. Jones' utterly beautiful painted art to the high heavens.

A

www.boom-studios.com
#comicsforward

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

DC Comics from Diamond Distributors for October 21, 2015

DC COMICS

AUG150286     ASTRO CITY #28     $3.99
AUG150158     BATMAN AND ROBIN ETERNAL #3     $2.99
AUG150235     BATMAN ARKHAM KNIGHT GENESIS #3     $2.99
AUG150223     BIZARRO #5     $2.99
AUG150179     BLACK CANARY #5     $2.99
AUG150284     CLEAN ROOM #1 (MR)     $3.99
JUL150298     CONVERGENCE FLASHPOINT TP BOOK 01     $19.99
JUL150300     CONVERGENCE FLASHPOINT TP BOOK 02     $19.99
AUG150186     DOCTOR FATE #5     $2.99
AUG150224     DOOMED #5     $2.99
JUN150315     GET JIRO BLOOD AND SUSHI HC (MR)     $22.99
AUG150238     GOTHAM ACADEMY #11     $2.99
AUG150250     GREEN LANTERN THE LOST ARMY #5     $2.99
AUG150195     INJUSTICE GODS AMONG US YEAR FOUR #12     $2.99
AUG150166     JUSTICE LEAGUE #45     $3.99
JUL150313     JUSTICE LEAGUE A LEAGUE OF ONE TP     $19.99
AUG150198     MARTIAN MANHUNTER #5     $2.99
JUN150291     MULTIVERSITY DLX ED HC     $49.99
AUG150208     SECRET SIX #7     $2.99
JUL150316     SMALLVILLE SEASON 11 LANTERN TP     $16.99
AUG150219     SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN #22     $3.99
JUL150244     TEEN TITANS #12     $2.99
JUL150302     TEEN TITANS EARTH ONE TP     $14.99
AUG150257     TEEN TITANS GO #12     $2.99
AUG150164     TITANS HUNT #1     $3.99
JUL150342     WOLF MOON TP (MR)     $14.99
AUG150213     WONDER WOMAN #45     $3.99

DC COMICS/DC COLLECTIBLES

APR150335     BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES BATMOBILE     $99.95
APR150342     DC COMICS BOMBSHELLS CATWOMAN STATUE     $124.95
JUN150351     DC COMICS SWAMP THING AF     $39.95
MAY150283     GOTHAM TV JAMES GORDON STATUE     $129.95

Marvel Comics from Diamond Distributors for October 21, 2015

MARVEL COMICS

AUG150669     1872 #4 SWA     $3.99
AUG150674     AGE OF APOCALYPSE #5 SWA     $3.99
AUG150712     AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #2     $3.99
AUG150724     ASTONISHING ANT-MAN #1     $3.99
AUG150902     BUCKY BARNES WINTER SOLDIER TP VOL 02     $17.99
AUG150887     CAPTAIN AMERICA AND MIGHTY AVENGERS TP LAST DAYS VOL 02     $15.99
JUL150777     DARTH VADER #11     $3.99
NOV140863     HAWKEYE BY MATT FRACTION AND DAVID AJA OMNIBUS HC     $99.99
AUG150650     INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #2     $3.99
JUN150832     JESSICA JONES TP VOL 02 ALIAS (MR)     $19.99
AUG150866     JOURNEY STAR WARS FASE #4     $3.99
AUG150782     KARNAK #1     $3.99
AUG150851     MARVEL UNIVERSE ULT SPIDER-MAN WEB WARRIORS #12     $2.99
AUG150912     MOON KNIGHT EPIC COLLECTION TP SHADOWS OF MOON     $39.99
AUG150662     SECRET WARS AGENTS OF ATLAS #1 SWA     $4.99
AUG150684     SHIELD #11     $3.99
AUG150914     STAR WARS LEGENDS EPIC COLLECTION TP VOL 02 EMPIRE     $39.99
AUG150831     UNCANNY INHUMANS #1     $4.99
AUG150673     WEIRDWORLD #5 SWA     $3.99
AUG150774     WHAT IF INFINITY GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #1     $3.99

IDW Publishing from Diamond Distributors for October 21, 2015

IDW PUBLISHING

AUG150320     BACK TO THE FUTURE #1 CVR A     $3.99
AUG150323     BACK TO THE FUTURE #1 CVR D ARTIST ED BLANK SKETCH     $3.99
AUG150321     BACK TO THE FUTURE #1 SUB A CVR B     $3.99
AUG150322     BACK TO THE FUTURE #1 SUB B CVR C     $3.99
AUG150441     DANGER GIRL RENEGADE #2     $3.99
AUG150412     DONALD DUCK #6     $3.99
AUG150333     FISTFUL OF BLOOD #1     $4.99
AUG150375     GODZILLA IN HELL #4     $3.99
JUN150406     JOE KUBERT RETURN OF TARZAN ARTIST ED HC     PI
AUG150403     MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC #35     $3.99
AUG150404     MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC #35 ARTIST ED BLANK SKETC     $3.99
AUG150350     STAR TREK ONGOING #50     $4.99
AUG150338     TMNT AMAZING ADVENTURES #3     $3.99
AUG150359     TRANSFORMERS #46     $3.99
AUG150369     TRANSFORMERS MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE TP VOL 08     $19.99

Dark Horse Comics from Diamond Distributors for October 21, 2015

DARK HORSE COMICS

AUG150009     BPRD HELL ON EARTH #136     $3.50
AUG150037     BTVS SEASON 10 #20 MAIN CVR     $3.99
JUN150010     CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT TP VOL 06 MARKED DEATH REIGN ARCHON     $14.99
AUG150042     DARK HORSE PRESENTS 2014 #15     $4.99
AUG150055     GROO FRIENDS AND FOES #10     $3.99
APR150079     HALO UNSC INFINITY 9 INCH REPLICA     $49.99
JUN150035     HE-MAN & MASTERS OF UNIVERSE HC MINICOMIC COLLECTION     $29.99
JUL150078     MIDNIGHT SOCIETY THE BLACK LAKE #4     $3.99
AUG150047     PAYBACKS #2     $3.99
JUL158434     PLANTS VS ZOMBIES HC BOX SET     PI
AUG150064     PLANTS VS ZOMBIES ONGOING #5 GROWN SWEET HOME     $2.99
AUG150056     POWER CUBED #2     $3.99
JUN150034     PROMETHEUS HC COMPLETE FIRE & STONE     $49.99
AUG150039     ROOK #1     $3.99
JUN150057     SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN TP VOL 20     $19.99
AUG150026     STEAM MAN #1     $3.99
AUG150053     USAGI YOJIMBO #149     $3.50