Best Cinematic Comic Adaptation Tournament (Round 2)

My fellow nerds, in this time of contention and uncertainty, I want to assure you that YOUR VOTE MATTERS!

While there weren't a ton of surprises in Round 1 — a couple of 5-seeds over four-seeds, but no major upsets, despite Scott Pilgrim's best efforts — I can tell you that three votes prevented an All-Batman DC round. V for Vendetta defeated Batman Begins by two votes, and the Man of Steel held off the Dark Knight by only a single vote in the battle of franchise sequels (Batman Returns vs. Superman II).

While the campaigns go back to their war rooms for new talking points or the teams go back to their benches so the coach can draw up a new play, depending on which direction you want to take this metaphor in an election year, Round 2 begins.

Click to expand

Staff-favorite Dredd barely held off the spirit of Brandon Lee to make it to this round. Can it power through? Which funny Marvel movie is the better-suited to square off against either Cap or a team of mutants? Kick-Ass looks vulnerable. Can Red drop the fist on it? And our International Region is now fully subtitled, but not fully animated. Can the one standing live-action movie make it to the next round? These questions and more...or, actually, really just these questions...will be answered next Monday.

Previous rounds here and here.

Marvel Region

DC Region

Indie/Imprint Region

International Region

Kickstarter Spotlight: In the Dark

Every once in a while you stumble upon a Kickstarter that you simply must support.  You watch the video, read the background on the creators, examine the pledge levels, and have no choice but to open up your wallet.  In the Dark - A Horror Anthology is one of those projects.  Click here and I dare you not to back this amazing looking project.

The premise is rather simple, but astounding when you consider the talent associated with the project.  It is graphic novel comprised of 20 all new horror stories penned by Cullen Bunn, Sean E. Williams, Rachel Deering, Justin Jordan, Michael Moreci, and more.  Artists include Marc Laming, Christian Wildgoose, Andy Bellanger, and more.  As if that weren't enough to warrant a purchase, it also includes a feature from comic book historian Mike Howlett on the history of horror comics.

IDW is offering its services to help with the logistics of printing, etc. so you can rest assured that this book will be of the highest quality.  Most of the higher tiered pledges got scooped up quick, but there are still a few great ones if you are feeling generous.  If I had deep enough pockets I would have secured the original Artful Daggers story from Sean E. Williams.

At the time I penned this the Kickstarter was around $4,000 shy of its goal.  I feel confident that it will be funded and you should at least hop in at $10 for a digital copy of this gem.  I have high hopes and feel that this creative team will deliver a high quality book that will be the crown jewel of my bookshelf.  The hard part will be waiting until April to get my grubby hands on it.  Once again, click here to check it out yourself.

Microreview [comics]: Killing Pickman

Killing Pickman
Jason Becker and Jon Rea
Archaia Entertainment


The Meat

Killing Pickman by Jason Becker and Jon Rea is a mean comic with little redeeming value. So I read it twice.

The story opens homicide with detective William Zhu arresting child murderer Richard Pickman, at whose home scores of children have been murdered in satanic rites. The problem is that these worked, giving Pickman the power to fuck with people’s heads, driving them to enthusiastically murder one another and create general chaos. So, naturally, Detective Zhu has to kill him. Which turns out to be pretty difficult. Given the satanic rights and all.

In a very pleasing way, Becker and Rea’s book reminded me of some of the great late eighties and early nineties horror comics, as if Jaime Delano’s run on Hellblazer took place in the pages of Taboo. Their story is relatively stripped down and relentlessly paced. There are few reveals, few buildups. Just weirdness and violence for 140 pages. Granted, there was nothing terribly original about the story—see the late eighties/early nineties reference above. But it was a thoroughly enjoyable read. On the train, or the bus.

Jon Rea’s art contributed significantly to the British horror comic feel ofthe book, evoking Dave McKean (the found art quality to Rea’s pages) and Bill Sienkiewicz (chaotic, shakily penciled figures), which actually worked really well, giving the book a general creepy, sometimes unsettling, tone. Rea’s work is very impressive from a design perspective. However, his paneling was less than precise from a narrative standpoint, particularly in the violent scenes—of which there were plenty. 

Becker and Rea wisely chose to emphasize eeriness and mood over blood and gore. The subject matter could have served as an excuse for unnecessary gore. (Of course, Pickman murders children, so no-gore was a foregone conclusion. But he could have murdered adults.) The supernatural aspect of the story was handled subtly. That is, it wasn’t over-explained, just some demons and such. The cop story was ironically clichéd, but then again cop stories are ironically clichéd about half the time. An excuse for the arrest, trial, and imprisonment of Pickman. And the killing.

So I read it twice. As should you.

The Math

Objective Score: 7/10

Bonuses: +1 for making public transportation less terrible.

Penalties -1 for not knowing who got shot

Nerd Coefficient: 7/10

Microreview [comics]: Rebel Blood

The Meat

Image Comic’s Rebel Blood, like a classic EC horror tale, ends with an ironic twist -- but I can’t tell you about it lest I ruin your reading experience. This presents some difficulty in reviewing it. What’s worse, Rebel Blood is a zombie story, the least interesting of horror subgenres. There’s really nothing much that one can do with it: the dead rise and survivors try to survive. But artist/co-writer Riley Rossmo and co-writer Alex Link manage to actually do something with this tired formula. But I can’t tell you about it.

Rebel Blood’s plot is pretty thin: Chuck is a troubled father working a firetower deep in the forrest. When zombies attack, he makes a mad dash to save his family from zombies, both human and animal. Then the story takes a turn. The end.

But Rebel Blood is really an artists’ comic and the story’s thinness gives Rossmo an excuse to deliver impressive artwork. Rossmo draws inspiration from the history of horror comics: the influence of Al Feldstein and Bernie Wrightson come through his moody facial characterization and figures. His art also evokes classic European styles. But Rossmo offsets this clearness with frantic, expressionistic inking --reminiscent of Eddie Cambell and Mike Dringenberg -- that, along with his moody colors, give the artwork a modern look.

Rossmo also deserves kudos for avoiding convention in his portrayal of zombies. His infected are bloated, almost fluid creatures sprouting tumors, tentacles, and second faces. Additional points are given for making zombies out of forest animals. The mere idea of a zombie squirrel terrifies me for reasons that I can’t altogether explain. (Jumping abilities and sharp buck teeth.) 

Rebel Blood’s creators focus on the psychology of surviving zombie apocalypse, highlighting the isolation, alienation, and existential fragmentation following the raising of the dead. It’s not simply a matter of telling the reader that our hero is losing his mind, but rather showing it. Rossmo and Link do this through the use of alternating flashbacks/foreshadowing and time-shifting panels as a narrative device to express our protagonist’s lunacy.

There are some drawbacks to this fragmented storytelling:  the constant jumps in time can get confusing, especially in the early issues. If I had read this monthly on an issue-by-issue basis, this lack of sequential clarity might have prevented me from following the series. Reading it in one sitting, however, allowed me to fully appreciate Rebel Blood’s disjointed narrative structure.

Nevertheless, Rebel Blood is still a zombie comic. Haven’t we seen enough of these? The Walking Dead has done in comics what 28 Days Later did for film: They both made any further zombie tales unnecessary. Need I mention the wretched Crossed series?

This one gets a pass and a recommendation. Like Shawn of the Dead got. 

The Math

Objective Score: 7/10

Bonus Points: +1 for Rossmo’s excellent artwork; +1 for an unexpected twist ending

Penalties: -1 for being a zombie comic

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10. “Well worth your time and attention.”

[Check my math here.]

Microreview [comics]: The Strain Volume 1 TPB

The Meat

I feel like a hack. I’m reviewing the comic adaptation of a novel I have neither read nor will likely read. After all, it’s a vampire novel. As a teen I read a few vampire books – this was Anne Rice's early nineties – but I never developed a love for the sub-genre. And visionary director Guillermo del Toro isn’t going to change that. (Though I’d watch another vampire film of his. Cronos, anybody?)

But I did read horror comics, including vampire comics. In fact, the first horror comic I read was Blood of Dracula. So I suppose my review has some validity – this is Dark Horse' comic adaptation of The Strain. I may not be a hack.

Hacks also get paid.

The Strain, co-written by del Toro and Chuck Hogan (The Prince of Thieves) is a typical vampire story – so it’s hard to fault David Lapham (Stray Bullets) for his adaptation of it. In fact, I am fairly certain the novel is a modern retelling of Dracula, at least the first few issues read like it. If so, del Toro and Lapham get some points. Our Dracula’s transatlantic crossing takes on very modern, post 9/11 trappings, while our Van Helsing begins his career as a vampire-killer while imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp.

The Strain eventually employs many post-Dracula vampire gimmicks as well. There are ancient vampires, there’s a truce, there’s a vampire breaking a truce. Potential vampire apocalypse! You lose points for such standard lore, especially if you’re Guillermo del Toro. And there’s a potential for a divorced-dad-just-wants-to-see-his-kid subplot that could end up really pissing me off.

The vampires themselves were a bit distracting. The long tongues – think a tentacle with a talon on the end –  looked a bit silly. I’m all for non-sexy vampires – you can always go Nosferatu rather than Dracula, sometimes even pulling off something interesting. But, The Strain adds a long list of non-scary non-sexy vampires, a list that includes Eddie Murphy’s Vampire from Brooklyn.

Mike Huddleston’s artwork – though too often looking unfinished – and Dan Jackson’s moody colors are well-suited for a vampire book, just maybe not this one. It goes back to the tongue. I suppose Huddleston deserves some blame for it, unless he’s following from del Toro’s description. Since I don’t plan on reading the book, how could I possibly know this?

Ultimately, I was disappointed with the first five issues of the book. While there were a few intriguing elements – particularly using in the post 9/11 security environment as a setup – The Strain is frustrating because of who is involved in its making: del Toro and David Lapham. The involvement of these two, on the other hand, does mean that there may be a lot more story here, a story worth our reading.

Either way, it doesn't want to make me read the novel. But I may continue reading the comic.

Update: Apparently FX is producing The Strain a pilot. Still doesn’t mean I’ll read the novel.

The Math:

Objective score: 5/10

Bonus points: +1 for del Toro's and Lapham's involvement

Penalties: -1 for del Toro's and Lapham's involvement 

Nerd coefficiant: 5/10

[Need to see how we do things scientifically? Here's our formula.]

Thursday Morning Superhero

This is a new column I am trying in which I recap the comics I read on Wednesday, and tell you which ones I enjoyed and which ones I did not enjoy. The idea is like a Monday Morning Quarterback for comics.  The number of comics will vary week-by-week depending on what is out and what I can afford.  I think at this point minor spoilers are ok, but I will try to abstain from anything major.  Any suggestions as to what books I should pick up next week are welcome.  Comment away on how awful my choices are or how great of a human being I am.

Pick of the Week:

Walking Dead #101 – I was late in drinking the Walking Dead Kool-Aid and now I can’t get enough of this book.  While it doesn’t have the ending that #100 did, the emotion in the opening pages between Maggie and Rick is beautiful.  Rick and crew make it to Hilltop to drop off Maggie and Sofia, but return to see that Negan’s Saviors have attacked their safe haven in their absence.  This war is just getting started and I have a front row seat!  Well-done Kirkland.

Runner-up:

Classic villain Stiltman!

Daredevil #17 – Mark Waid’s current run on Daredevil has been delightful and earned him a well-deserved Eisner. Matt Murdock flashes back to when he first began working with Foggy and through this funny look back at classic Daredevil (Stiltman is in the flashback!) realizes that someone is trying to turn Foggy against him.  Full of humor and some old fashioned action, I am ready to see who has it in for the Man with no Fear.

The Not as Good:

Batwoman #12 – I have not read any of Batwoman since the New 52, but with this column and a new story line that crosses over with Wonder Woman I figured it was worth a shot.  While the art and style in this book are amazing, the story felt convoluted and didn’t hook me.

The Rest:

AvX #10 – finally we get to see Hope gain some power. I will keep reading this series, but it is far from my favorite.

Before Watchmen : Rorschach #1 – Very violent and very satisfying.  While torn on the idea of Before Watchmen, I really enjoyed this one.

Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe #3 – Cullen Bunn (The Sixth Gun!) writes it and Deadpool really does kill the Marvel Universe.  Fun!

Fatale #7 – Nobody does noir like Brubaker.  Chapter 2 begins with a great ending to an otherwise slow issue.

Saga: Chapter 6 – Fiona Staples draws a beautiful book.  Throw in Brian K. Vaughan. It works. 

What I missed:

Wonder Woman #12 – From the reviews I read I should have opted for this instead of Batwoman

Nightwing #12 – Robin guest stars in what sounded like a good one I could have picked up.

Microreview [comics]: Rachel Rising

The Meat


When devising a horror comic, most creators go one of two routes: they choose either to either fill their books with scary monsters or with gratuitous gore. Or they do both. The truly gifted comic auteur, however, chooses the path less taken. They go creepy -- which is not easily done in a comic. That’s why there been so few From Hells and Black Holes. It takes a mature storyteller, one at the peak of his or her career, to pull off creepy .

Terry Moore of Strangers in Paradise and Echo fame has done just accomplished this with Rachel Rising (Abstract Studio Comics). It’s a creepy story that I can’t get enough of.

Rachel Rising takes place in the small town of Manson, where the normal operations of life and death have gone sideways. People die, but they won’t stay dead. A mysterious and potentially demonic blonde haunts the town, causing a little girl to engage in some seriously f'ed up acts of violence. And, our eponymous heroine finds herself at the middle of this creeping apocalypse. Because she's pretty dead and can’t seem to get any deader.

If the above depiction seems a little short on detail, that’s due in large part to the deliberate pacing of Rachel Rising: eight issues in and we haven’t been told much more than this. In contrast to the hyper-kinetic, overly verbose plotting that Brian Michael Bendis has made the hallmark of comic book storytelling these days, Moore takes his time. Scenes go on for pages, panels are allowed to be uncluttered by word balloons and pointless dialog, characters are developed subtly, images tell the story as much as do words. The event that kicks off the series -- Rachel’s rising from a shallow grave -- goes on for 12 pages, half the first issue. There’s a certain sparseness to the story that is utterly mesmerizing. Moore allows his story space to evolve and grow, with each issue centering on a single revelation or development.

And this makes the reader want to come back for more. The reader being me. And you, if you like things that are great.

The book is creepy, Vincent Price creepy. But Moore does not let eeriness take over the book. The dark, gothic themes are balanced by lightheartedness and actual human emotion. The book's undead aren’t zombies, but human with a dying problem.. Rachel isn’t a morose, brooding Lestat, but a confused young woman who’s trying to get on with her life -- even though it has apparently ended, at least in the conventional "we got a pulse" sort of way. The dialog in Rachel Rising stands out. It's is funny, at times tender, counterbalancing the horror of the story perfectly. The book doesn’t take itself too seriously, an all too common shortcoming of horror stories regardless of media.

Moore’s art attains a similar sparseness and balance. There’s a simple, almost intentionally rushed quality to his pen-and-ink work here, a deft use of black and white that evokes both the beauty of his landscapes and the smallness of the town, serving to heighten the dread that drives the story. Like his plotting and dialog, his artwork looks almost intentionally uncluttered, but not without detail and realism.

Moore pays careful attention in particular to facial expression. His characters say more with their eyes and frowns than most comic writers manage with endless hackneyed dialog.

Some mention must be made of the violence in Rachel Rising, of which there is plenty. A murder in issue 2 is more chilling, more brutal, and more disturbing than anything Garth Ennis will ever imagine up. By and large, though, violence occurs off page. It is suggested, rather than thrown in our faces. This lack of gratuitous violence is refreshing, given the amount of gore that so many use in penning horror comics. Let’s face it, since Faust and Hellraiser, gore has been boring.

Terry Moore has said that he imagines Rachel Rising as more akin to TV show than to film. And the deliberate pacing of the first eight issues attests to this. He’s clearly taking his time, giving us only hints and suggestions of the larger plot that he’s developing. My only fear is that the series will go the Lost route, giving us only questions and more questions -- and very few answers. I sincerely hope he has the story planned out, that he’s not making it up as he goes along. Because I’m in for the long haul.

The Math

Objective quality: 8/10

Bonus points: +1 for cute girls

Penalties: None...yet. Don't go Lost on us.

Nerd Coefficient: 9/10 "Very high quality/standout in its category"

[Read about our non-inflated scoring system, where anything above a 5 is more good than bad, here]