Great Covers: Nightwing #132

Jamal Igle, penciler

Jamal's a friend of mine and I remember seeing the pencils for this particular cover. It captures many of the things that make Nightwing so popular. The hero, making a daring, death-defying leap into open space, yet with not a care in the world, judging from the look on his face. Spectacular rendering of the Empire State Building behind him, and indeed, even the buildings closer to Nightwing, which have a character and texture all their own. Dick's physique is muscular, strong, yet not out of the realm of believability. And though it may not say a lot about the story inside, it's still a powerful enough image that it makes you want to at least take a look.

Jamal Igle's website
Jamal's blog
The Official Jamal Igle Fan Club
art gallery @ Comic Art Community

Great Covers: JSA #76

A new feature here at GBCB. Every week, I'll show some of my favorite covers, alternating between featured characters and featured creators. And what better way to begin than with this beautiful, Glyph Award-nominated Alex Ross rendering of Mr. Terrific, from JSA #76.

DC Comics Database entry on Mr. Terrific
Mr. Terrific's greatest hits

Sentences

Percy Carey, writer
Ronald Wimberly, artist

(3) I've always had a sort of love/hate relationship with rap music. One of the first records my father bought for me was Run DMC's King of Rock, and indeed, I enjoyed the early years of rap a lot. I don't think it ever occurred to me that this was still a relatively new musical genre; as a young kid, I did not have discerning tastes, so I tended to like at least 90% of whatever was on the radio. But I do remember liking bands like Run DMC, Whodini, the Fat Boys, LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, etc. I begged my father to buy me a Kangol hat and he did. With my glasses, I liked to pretend I was DMC.

In high school I discovered classic rock and heavy metal, and all of a sudden rap, for whatever reason, didn't seem as important anymore. I wanted to look cool to my rock friends, so I'd say I didn't like rap. Stupid, yeah, but that's the kind of thing you do when you're young and don't know any better.

In watching the evolution of rap music over the years, it has greatly disappointed me that much of it has been dominated by artists that glamorize the so-called "gangster" lifestyle, with an emphasis on violence, material wealth, and scantily clad girls. I realize I sound like an old fogey in saying this, but it's true: the early years of hip hop were much more fun. Much like corporate superhero comics, "grim and gritty" went from being the exception to the norm, and there's little room for diversity in the marketplace. In recent years, that's slowly begun to change a tiny bit from what I've observed, but it still seems like you have to be, as the British say, a "hard man" to be a legitimate rapper.

The life and career of Percy Carey, a.k.a. MF Grimm, is a textbook example. In his graphic novel autobiography Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm, he portrays himself as a smart kid with a penchant for finding trouble from an early age. He quickly grew attracted to the burgeoning hip hop scene and made a name for himself as an emcee, but at the same time he was caught up in its violent underbelly and lived an equally enticing life of crime.

Sentences portrays both sides of Carey's life, without excuses or apologies. Carey talks about honoring the "code of the streets" and the importance of remaining true to one's circle of friends, or "crew," even in the face of mortal danger. While this may sound like something out of a movie or TV show, Carey emphasizes it time and again throughout the book as the reality of living the life he chose for himself. While dialogue takes up a minority of the writing, Carey does an excellent job of reproducing the street vernacular. And though the book reads like most rise-and-fall-and-recover biographies, Carey paces the action well, picking his dramatic moments, and knowing when to pull back for the more visual moments.

Ronald Wimberly's art makes good use of tones to indicate fore- and background (credit goes to Lee Loughridge for that). Wimberly has lots of nice storytelling moments in his art also. He thinks a great deal about composition and spacial arrangements in his panels, and lays out his art accordingly. The exaggerated foreshortening in places is reminiscent of graffiti art, and indeed, I would not be surprised if that was an influence, especially given the subject matter.

Sentences does not ask you to like Percy Carey; in fact he does things in this book that are morally questionable at best, and reprehensible at worst. All it does is present the author's life, warts and all, which in itself can be considered an act of bravery.

----------------------------
DC/Vertigo, pp, B&W, $19.99 HC
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1046-5
Winner, 2 Glyph Comics Awards, including Story of the Year
AMAZON LINK TO BUY

Also:
Percy Carey website
MF Grimm CDs @ Amazon
Ronald Wimberly @ D-Pi.com

Why I Hate Saturn

Kyle Baker, story and art

(1) Kyle Baker is revered as one of the industry's best cartoonists, but his writing skill is rarely talked about as much. In his earlier creator-owned comics, his wit was what attracted me to his work, and one of the best examples of this can be found in Why I Hate Saturn, an 80s romantic comedy-cum-"Odd Couple" buddy story.

In a 2007 interview I did with Baker for UVC Magazine, he talked about the marketing factors that went into creating a book like Saturn:

"This is sort of a basic book marketing thing: If you wanna do a book that's gonna sell, you just pick a subject that sells... If you wanted to sell something in the 80s, you wanna sell a book in the bookstores, let's look at what's selling in the bookstores. Slaves of New York, Less Than Zero - it was all these books about young people partying in the city in the 80s. That just happened to be what was going on at the time. If I did it today, it would probably be a Da Vinci Code rip-off. You know what I mean, if I was trying to reach that audience again."

Saturn focuses on a pair of sisters, Anne and Laura; the former a crabby, alcoholic writer, the latter a chipper, neo-hippie, save-the-earth type. Laura re-enters Anne's life after a prolonged absence and makes life hell for her as a result when they live together. When she leaves as suddenly as she enters, circumstances force Anne to go cross-country looking for her and they end up learning more about each other than they would've imagined.

It's a testament to Baker's writing that even though the pop culture references date this book pretty badly (21 Jump Street, Milli Vanilli, among others), the overwhelming majority of the funny stuff does not hinge on knowledge of those references. Modern romance is a major theme in this book, and observing the relationships of Laura, Anne, and Anne's pal Ricky unfold - and more importantly, their attitudes on relationships - provides great insight into not only their characters, but life in general. The back-and-forth banter between the three, as well as Anne's running narrative, goes for the head as well as the heart, and it's so much fun to read because it's not pandering or juvenile like so many rom-com films today.

Sprinkled in with the romance humor is a helping of social commentary as well, and it's while it's treated seriously, it's approached with a light touch. Ricky, who's black, is the source of most (but not all) of the observations about black culture and politics, though there's much more to him than that. I remember easily identifying with him from the first time I read this book. I daresay one or two ideas in Saturn might even seem controversial, but have an open mind and you'll be rewarded in the end. And there's a fair amount of straight-up goofy humor too.

Baker has always been versatile as an artist, but if one looks closely, one can find a certain consistency throughout his work. The fluidity of his line is one example. Here, in the earlier years of his long career, it's a crisp contour supported by swaths of solid black and indications of tone. The looseness, the spontaneity is there, even though it's in service of a semi-realistic look. I like to think of his artwork here as a transitional stage from his superhero work at Marvel into the ultra-cartoony style he's now known for.

His layouts in Saturn are worth noting, as they have the feel of movie storyboards. As in all his creator-owned material, words and pictures are completely separate, no word balloons or captions. The words run across the bottom of the panels, positioned according to who's speaking in the corresponding panels. The compositions here rely greatly on the physical relationships between the speakers and even their environments. A scene in a loud, crowded bar, for example, will have Anne and Ricky in extreme close-up, yelling in order to be heard. The way characters sit and stand also provide insights into their character. And a well-placed line in the right place is all Baker needs here to indicate facial expression.

Don't let the 80s milieu put you off: the best things about Saturn go beyond the time period it's set in, and it's those things you'll remember after you put the book down.

---------------------------------
DC/Vertigo, 208 pp., B&W, $17.95
ISBN-10: 0930289722
ISBN-13: 978-0930289720
BUY DIRECT @ KYLEBAKER.COM

Aya

Marguerite Abouet, writer
Clement Oubrerie, artist

(1) My sex life as a teenager was hardly anything out of a movie. While I certainly had crushes on certain girls, I wasn't the type that got into a series of improbable romantic escapades which inevitably led to a Life Lesson that carried me into adulthood. I was awkward and insecure when it came to love and while I may have felt something for the girls I was attracted to, there was nothing there to suggest it was anything serious...

...until 1989, halfway into my junior year. I met a girl who started out as a friend, one who I liked hanging out with because we had quite a bit in common. (As fate would have it, she was the one who was the big comics geek, not me. I had given up comics at the time.) We were close enough to be considered boyfriend and girlfriend by some, but I vividly remember thinking that there was nothing romantic about our relationship. One night that dramatically changed.

We were at her place, watching, of all things, Batman, on video. It was cold outside, but we were fairly warm inside. We snuggled together on the couch in the living room downstairs, and after it ended, we put the radio on. I remember it was on the far end of the room, so it wasn't very intrusive; it was just part of the background. Something about those circumstances, combined into one moment in time that can never, ever be repeated, led to us kissing.

I remember seeing her in a new light. It was as if a switch had been thrown, and suddenly she was no longer my good buddy - she was a beautiful girl on the verge of becoming a woman... and I found myself hungry for her. I wanted her, and she wanted me, and it was as if I was a different person as well. At one point she whispered "Be gentle," and like that, the spell broke. Suddenly, I was aware of who I was, where I was, what I was doing, and though I continued kissing her, a part of me felt detached from it all, like I was looking at myself and her from a distance. Afterward, I felt afraid and a little guilty. How did this happen? Why? She was my friend, why all of a sudden am I feeling these things for her? She said she didn't regret a thing and that she wanted it to happen. And as I looked into her eyes, so full of love and joy and contentment, knowing that I was the source of that contentment... I found that that was all the answer I needed.

The characters of Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie's Aya go through no such epiphanies. For them, love is a fleeting, ephemeral emotion quickly given and just as easily lost, and though it may make them act silly, and even get them in trouble on occasion, it's a natural part of their lives. Set in the Ivory Coast during the late 70s, this book provides a wonderful look into a culture rarely seen by Westerners, at least in such a context.

Aya and her family and friends live in Yopougon, a working-class village. Aya is the smart one in her circle of friends, and she is occasionally ostracized for it. At the same time, though, she is not as easily led astray by her hormones, and is able to worm her way out of encounters with horny boys or leering men. Abouet plays up the comedic aspects of the romantic subplots with glee, and indeed, the use of musical lyrics, physical slapstick, mistaken identity, social gatherings, and the ever-present parental threat makes this feel like a John Hughes movie. One character even breaks the fourth wall for a brief moment.

Oubrerie's art captures the environment of Yopougon very well. The buildings, the clothes and the streets have a fair amount of detail to them and do a good job of grounding this story in a locale that looks and feels consistent and believable. There's one scene where one of the girls shares shocking news with her beau, and Oubrerie bathes the panel in rose red to underscore the drama of the moment and the boy's reaction. I would've liked to have seen more of that - color as indicative of emotion, but that's the only place he uses it. The first few pages of the book are tinted in a nostalgic sepia, which transitions into full color abruptly. I would've preferred a more seamless segue. My only real complaint with the art is the sketchy lines he uses for shadow.

Aya is the first in a series of graphic novels. Given the large cast, one can easily imagine many stories that can be told with these characters. Hopefully the creators have more stories to tell.

------------------------------
Drawn & Quarterly, 132 PP. color, $19.95
ISBN: 9781894937900
Winner, 2 Glyph Comics Awards
BUY DIRECT @ DRAWNANDQUARTERLY.COM

Also:
Abouet interview @ Bookslut

Give Me Liberty

Frank Miller, writer
Dave Gibbons, artist

(1) Earlier this year there was a tremendous controversy within the sci-fi blogging community that started with a post by a noted white sci-fi writer about writing "the other," i.e., someone that does not look like you or share your life experiences. It led to a great conversation amongst bloggers and other writers - many of color, some not - about their experiences, frustrations, and expectations with reading and writing minority characters in sci-fi. Dubbed "RaceFail," it provided an opportunity for the ongoing dialogue about race in science fiction to be taken to the next level. It remains to be seen where the discussion will lead to.

One of the salient points brought up in the back-and-forth conversation is that it is not enough to introduce a minority character in a story and write him or her no differently from the white ones. Cultural aspects and experiences should also factor into the minority character's personality if a minority reader is to identify with and invest in him or her.

Frank Miller, the controversial comics creator turned filmmaker, is not known for his portrayals of minorities in his work, but in at least one case he hit it out of the ballpark: Martha Washington, the protagonist of the graphic novel Give Me Liberty (and its sequels). Set in what was the future at the time it came out (the bulk of the narrative takes place over three years beginning in 2010... so I guess that's still the future after all!), what Martha is - a black woman - factors into how she's treated by others, but ultimately who she is matters more, because it gives her the strength to survive and thrive in a world that has stacked the odds against her from day one.

Born in a Chicago slum literally walled off from the rest of the world, declared mentally insane and locked up in an asylum as an adolescent, Martha sees the U.S. military, the PAX Peace Force, as her ticket out of poverty. She quickly ascends the ranks, but a privileged senior officer looking to profit from war sees her as a threat. When he takes advantage of a government fallen to pieces, it's up to Martha (with help from some unlikely friends) to stop him.

Miller sets Liberty in a society that, like his groundbreaking comic The Dark Knight Returns, is decadent and corrupt from the top down. The president has rewritten the constitution, allowing him to stay in office for more than two terms. The economy is heavily invested in military intervention at home and abroad, at the expense of the poor and the environment, and as a result, America is fractured into a number of territories seeking autonomy. Throughout the book, Watchmen-like excerpts from magazines and television reports provide the exposition needed to further flesh out this world. Liberty is full of bizarre and at times over-the-top characters and imagery that serve to underscore the absurdity of war and the people who wage it (one example among many: a giant robot of a fast-food mascot attacking PAX troops in the Amazon jungle).

Amidst all of this comes Martha who, although she is born into a segregated community specifically designed to keep her and everyone like her (read: blacks) in, she finds a way out (albeit unintentionally), and once she joins PAX , she's smart enough to rise in the ranks and eventually improve the quality of life for her family and neighbors. Miller's trademark pseudo-noir, angst-ridden narration is on display here, along with his propensity for repetition ("Nobody's laughing at the Aryan Thrust. Not now. Pointing your own cannon right down your throats. Right down your throats. So nobody's laughing"). Like Dark Knight though, it all feels like an integral part of the absurd nature of this world, where blonde muscular clones, masochistic doctors, Indian freedom fighters and gay Nazi terrorists point giant phallic laser cannons at each other and engage in political assassinations.

Martha, at times, seems aware of the craziness but it doesn't keep her from doing her duty, not even when Moretti, her commanding officer, gets in her way. Moretti, a rich white male looking out only for himself, manipulates the system and maneuvers himself into a position of power and influence, while Martha must fight for everything she earns. The contrasts between the two speak directly to the black experience in America throughout history, in which a white person usually can get advantages a black person can't, regardless of whether they're earned or not. In this instance, Martha's strength of character, her resiliency, and her intelligence prove to be more than equal compensation.

Dave Gibbons is one of the all-time great comics illustrators. Here, as with his work on Watchmen, his layouts are clean and sharp, his figures have weight, variety and emotion, and his black people actually look like black people, not whites colored brown. The splash page in the first chapter where Martha defiantly wipes away her tears is a knockout and speaks volumes about who she is.

Martha Washington could've been a white heroine, but in choosing to make her black, Miller and Gibbons dug a little deeper and explored the consequences of being black in a world like this - and then they built her personality around that. The result is an utterly unforgettable character and an expertly crafted tale.

--------------------------
Dark Horse, 216 pp., color, $16
ISBN-10: 0440504465
ISBN-13: 978-0440504467
AMAZON LINK TO BUY

Also:
Martha Washington entry @ Wikipedia

Static Shock: Rebirth of the Cool

Dwayne McDuffie & Robert L. Washington III, writers
John Paul Leon, artist

(1) I first heard about Milestone Comics from my father. In 1993 I had only just gotten back into comics after a long hiatus. The death of Superman was what drew me in initially, but following the subsequent story arc throughout several titles at once got confusing and convoluted after awhile, and so I started looking for other stuff. DC's brand new mature readers imprint Vertigo was one thing that attracted me. Another was this. My father read in the newspaper about this new line of multicultural superhero comics founded by a group of black men and, knowing that I was not only a comics reader but an artist as well, told me about it, suggesting that maybe I could get a job with them.

Milestone faced a long uphill climb in the beginning. Image Comics had formed a year ago and was dominating the industry in a way no one had seen since the birth of Marvel. Also, black comics in general were experiencing a bit of a renaissance, as books like Brother Man and Tribe provided a measure of competition. And the speculator implosion a year later would cripple the industry for the rest of the decade. Still, in the four years the comics branch was active, Milestone made a positive impression and launched the careers of a number of creators still active today.

One character in particular, though, was poised to become a breakout star: the teen hero Static. A lovable geek in the mold of Spider-Man - secret identity, girl problems, rogues gallery and all - his adventures started in the comics and continued in an animated series on Kids WB that, under the supervision of co-creator Dwayne McDuffie, would go on to win awards and inspire millions of youngsters who would watch him on Saturday mornings.

Static Shock: Rebirth of the Cool collects the first four issues of the original series from 1993 as well as the four-issue mini-series made during the height of the TV show's popularity. Virgil Hawkins is a good kid who gets talked into making a bad mistake: sneaking onto the site of a gang war in order to take revenge on a school bully. The police intervene with an experimental gas designed to pacify the gang members, but the ones it doesn't kill it mutates into superbeings instead - including Virgil. Now, he uses his electricity powers to defend his hometown of Dakota as Static.

McDuffie and Robert L. Washington's script is very much in the spirit of the early Marvel comics of the 60's. It's light with enough gravitas that it can be taken seriously, without descending into the grimness that has pervaded corporate superhero comics throughout this decade. Static cracks wise in a corny, nerdy manner, yet he's able to out-think his opponents and learn from his mistakes. While the book is written from a black perspective - witness the chapter with the freelance mercenary Holocaust and how he appeals to Static's sense of black solidarity in order to gain his confidence - it is not a theme that is constantly up front. Who Static is always takes precedence over what he is.

At the risk of sounding like I'm name-dropping, I went to school with John Paul Leon. I remember when he got the Static gig and I remember seeing his penciled pages for the early issues. We were more acquaintances than friends, though he might remember me if I reminded him. I bring this up because we shared several of the same teachers, so I can appreciate better than most how he developed his style, at least in the early days. He always had a talent for making his pictures communicate. His compositions are usually well-balanced, with a nice sense of space. And it's my humble belief that the only other active artist who uses shadows better than him is Hellboy creator Mike Mignola.

Recently, DC brokered a deal with McDuffie in which the Milestone characters, which had been created within a separate continuity, would be integrated into the DC Universe and interact with Superman, Batman and the rest. However, after a much-ballyhooed debut in the pages of Justice League of America (written by McDuffie) and scattered appearances in other titles, DC executive editor Dan DiDio announced that Static is the only character they plan to continue using for the foreseeable future, despite past reassurances that the Milestone stars would appear throughout the line and take part in major events. While Static is a terrific character and should benefit from the exposure, if what DiDio says is true, not using the other Milestone heroes and villains would be a shame, and a great waste. I believe that this state of affairs will change, however. It's only a matter of time.

----------------------------------
DC/Milestone, 192 pp. color, $19.99
ISBN-10: 1401222625
ISBN-13: 978-1401222628
AMAZON LINK TO BUY

Also:
Dwayne McDuffie site
The Milestone Rave, a fan site with plot summaries and credits on all Milestone comics
Static Shock: The New Kid DVD, containing the first six episodes of the cartoon

Narcissa

Lance Tooks, story and art

(1) I spent the summer of 1993 in Barcelona, Spain. It was a remarkable experience, easily one of the great moments of my life. I was there as part of a summer program of art classes provided by my college, and I was one of a group of art students from around New York and elsewhere, taking a painting course.

It was intimidating for several reasons: not only was it my first time out of the country, but at 21 I was the second youngest member of a class whose average age was 35, and which included a lot of older people. And then there was the fact that I was the only black person in the group. In the end, none of this mattered. The exotic atmosphere, combined with the shared purpose of going there to practice art, led to me having a splendid time and making many friends, one of whom I count among my very best.

The Spain of Lance Tooks' Narcissa is an abstract construct, combining computer-manipulated photographs with basic geometric shapes and sophisticated arabesque patterns to create an atmosphere that is as much imagination as reality. Indeed, the entire graphic novel reflects this unconventional visual style. There are no traditional panel borders; images bleed into and out of each other seamlessly and the dialogue spills out of the word balloons. The effect is evocative of the great abstract expressionist painters of Europe, like Picasso and Matisse, yet it remains completely original and far outside the realm of what many people think a comic is "supposed" to look like. There are no Kirby-inspired poses, no McFarlane-like detail to be found here. So many American cartoonists within the past thirty years have grown up with the same artistic influences, and while it can and does produce great art, it's rare to find someone who looks outside comics to find their individual voice - which is why Tooks is such a find.

The title character and all the other black people in the story are given ink-black skin with white lines describing the face and muscles, like a negative-image photograph. Narcissa is lovingly rendered with thick ink lines to describe her hips and belly and chest. Tooks' characters, particularly the black ones, encompass a wide spectrum of hairstyles, body types and clothing that's closer to Versace than Roca Wear. When one is used to seeing such a narrow selection of what constitutes black fashion in America, the images here are a welcome departure.

Narcissa is an independent filmmaker desperately finishing her debut feature when she discovers she's about to die from some unnamed malady. Unable to cope with the situation, she impulsively hops on a plane, not caring where to. As it happens, she goes to Madrid, where the foreign locale and the people she meets help her come to terms with her condition. There's some terrific commentary here on Hollywood and its traditional depictions of blacks in film. Narcissa's movie is an artsy one (think Daughters of the Dust or To Sleep With Anger), and there's a great scene where she has an art-versus-commerce argument with her sleazy producer over what constitutes black cinema. Sadly, it's still relevant today, seven years after this book was made.

Narcissa is a sexually aware, self-confident, militant black woman, but the twin crucibles of making her film and dealing with her premature death sentence test her in a way she never has been before. Haunted by the memories of her mother (who also died before her time), and her Bible-toting father, Narcissa's deep-seated insecurities slowly bubble towards the surface, and the thought of dying young seems less romantic than it once did.

Narcissa is a fascinating character study, the kind one sees little of in mainstream black media. Tooks, like Tyler Perry, makes work that uses black women as the centerpieces to express their worldview. Narcissa is no Medea, however; far from it. And while Perry has done much to widen the image of black people in the media, stories like Narcissa would expand them even further.

---------------------------------
Doubleday, 208 pp, B&W, $15.95
ISBN-10: 0385503423
ISBN-13: 978-0385503426
AMAZON LINK TO BUY

Also:
Lance Tooks website
interview @ Sequential Tart