Joel Meadows, April 2010

TRIPWIRE gets back into the swing of things with a review roundup of a few graphic novels and trade paperbacks from DC Comics and Vertigo.

First we have Preacher Book One (Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon with covers by Glenn Fabry, Vertigo/ DC Comics, hardcover) It’s hard to believe that it’s been 15 years since we were first introduced to Jesse Custer, Tulip and Cassidy. Ennis and Dillon had just come off a highly-regarded run on Vertigo’s Hellblazer but it was plain from the start that Preacher was a very different series. A broadly supernatural series featuring Custer, a Texan preacher who found himself endowed with power that seemed to fall from Heaven itself. This hardcover collects the first 12 issues of the series and illustrates why Vertigo has such a reputation for occasionally creating fiction that really stands the test of time. Ennis doesn’t waste any time, introducing the main protagonists on the first page of the first issue, ably abetted by the simple yet brilliant art of Steve Dillon. Ennis has the admirable ability to write cinematic dialogue that manages to further the plot and characterisation. It is also the outsider’s perspective (a non-American writing about the US) that lends the series its unique voice. The trio of main protagonists have a rare chemistry that engages the reader while the threats at large here including Custer’s psychotic family, a New York serial killer and The Saint of Killers, the embodiment of retribution, all add to the overall sense that you’re privy to something a little bit different. DC has been representing many of its classic series in a durable hardback format and Ennis and Dillon’s work certainly deserves to be preserved for posterity. Glenn Fabry’s covers should also be mentioned as they set the tone for the series almost as much as Dillon’s interiors. Preacher is a darkly satirical slice of Americana, a fantastic road trip through the country’s black heart.

Tom Strong Deluxe Edition Volume One (Alan Moore, Chris Sprouse & Al Gordon plus various, Wildstorm/ DC Comics, hardcover). It’s been just over a decade since Alan Moore started his America’s Best Comics experiment over at Wildstorm and DC has decided that some of its output warrants the hardback treatment. Tom Strong was a great series: cut from the same cloth as pulp classic creations like Doc Savage and The Shadow but with a Victorian steampunk and a Golden Age superhero spin. Each issue reads like the creative team were having fun when they worked on them and this lightness of touch makes Tom Strong such a joy. Sprouse and Gordon are a magnificently talented artistic pair while the guest slots from artists like Art Adams, Jerry Ordway, Dave Gibbons and Gary Frank help to bring the world that Tom Strong inhabits to bright technicolor life. The series also has that feeling of familiarity that makes it accessible to readers steeped in comicbook lore. Tom Strong, raised on a South pacific island, losing his parents at an early age, is the perfect foil for Moore et al’s vintage adventure tales and visually the art pops to life in the larger format. Moore can be an inconsistent writer, taking himself too seriously on occasion but here he strikes just the right balance between pulp adventure and something with a little more depth to it. Tom Strong is a fun, rollercoaster ride of a comicbook…

The Nobody (Jeff Lemire, Vertigo/ DC Comics, hardcover) is an original graphic novel, something that Vertigo is doing more and more of these days. It concerns itself with a mystery bandaged man who finds himself in the small town of Large Mouth. Local loner Vickie gets friendly with him but just what is his secret? Lemire handles the pacing like an old pro even though he’s only been doing comics for the last five years or so and visually the stark black and white and blue works a treat. The Nobody is about trying to escape your past and redeem yourself and is a worthy addition to anyone’s library…

Fables Volume 1 Deluxe Edition (Bill Willingham, Lan Medina/ Mark Buckingham & Steve Leialoha, Vertigo/ DC Comics, hardcover) Fables has been a mainstay of Vertigo’s line since it was launched back in 2002. The series, that looks at what could happen in the real world if the characters from the world of fables lived here with the ordinary people, starts strongl with a murder mystery and then the second arc is about a revolution that begins up at the farm, where the Fables who couldn’t pass for human live. The artist on the first story, Lan Medina, is solid as is the man who follows him, penciller Mark Buckingham and inker Steve Leialoha holds it all together. Willingham’s conceit works well here and it is a very likeable comic creation.…

Batman: Death In The Family (Jim Starlin, Marv Wolfman, Jim Aparo and George Perez, DC Comics, hardcover). Forever remembered as the comic story with the publicity stunt (DC invited people to phone in to either save or damn Robin), the company has reissued it and its companion story, A Lonely Place of Dying, as part of their DC Comics Classic Library. Twenty years later, there’s an anodyne blandness to the storytelling that makes it hard to connect with the material. Starlin and Wolfman are solid writers but when the Joker bumps off Robin, it feels strangely anti-climactic. The Batman canon has contained a number of stories that stand the test of time, that fans and readers will enjoy for decades after their publication – the Englehart and Rogers run, parts of the O’Neil and Adams run, Batman: Year One to name but a few – but I’m not convinced that Death In The Family should be counted in that company.

Jonah Hex: Six Gun War (Justin Grey, Jimmy Palmiotti & Cristiano Cucina, DC Comics) Hex continues to be one of DC’s best-kept secrets. Since 2010 is the year the character hits the big screen, the profile of the title will grow. Six-Gun War sees the scarred western hero/ anti-hero go head-to-head with a man out for revenge after Hex killed his son. Helping the bounty hunter out are other DC western mainstays, the suave gambler Bat Lash and possessed bank teller Lazarus Lane aka El Diablo. It’s a gritty and exciting western epic with Palmiotti and Grey’s simple yet effective script matched by the dynamic stylings of artist Cucina. Jonah Hex is one of the most consistent mainstream comics currently published and DC’s line would be poorer without it. Six-Gun War is the perfect introduction to the series too…

Doc Savage: The Silver Pyramid (Dennis O’Neil, Andy Kubert & Adam Kubert, DC Comics) O’Neil is no stranger to bringing pulps to comics as he wrote the classic Shadow run that DC put out in the Seventies. So this collection of the miniseries published in 1987/ 1988 doesn’t change your opinion of him as a natural crafter of stories featuring these characters. DC have issued this because they’ve just launched their First Wave line, which incorporates Doc Savage, The Spirit and some of the other Street & Smith characters into a single universe. Here we see a generation of Savages battling an evil Nazi scientist with the original Savage seemingly out of commission. It’s pulpy, enjoyable material with the visuals of the Kubert brothers a solid marriage with O’Neil’s dynamic yarn. The colouring is a little garish so it would have been even more enjoyable if they had recoloured it but this is a minor quibble. The Silver Pyramid is an epic yarn that ticks all the necessary boxes…