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Casanova #1-- then and now


First up, my original review of Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba’s Casanova #1 from June, 2006.

Casanova Quinn loves his job.  He tells us that at the very beginning of his book.  Even with thoughts like outsourcing to keep his profit margins up and the occasional improvisation that leads to kidnapping, anytime he can stick it to his father is another opportunity for Casanova find joy in his job.  During the heist job to find the Seychelle Ruby, he ends up kidnapping Ruby Seychelle, a very curvaceous robot.  Things go from bad to worse as E.M.P.I.R.E. bursts onto the scene.  Casanova knows that something must be seriously wrong if his father, leader of E.M.P.I.R.E, has sent his drunken, psychopathic right hand man to round up Cass.  Learning that his twin sister is dead, killed in the line of duty, Casanova begins a quick plummet which includes a brawl at the funeral, casino games with a former-monk-now-three-face/mind-crime boss and a recruitment drive by his father's arch nemesis, Newman Xeno of W.A.S.T.E.


Writer Matt Fraction and artist Gabriel Ba are fearless.  They're not afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves.  Fraction goes so far as to point a few of them out in the text piece following the story.  Absorbing writers like Grant Morrison, Joe Casey and Warren Ellis and characters like Mr. Nobody, Luther Arkwright, Jerry Cornelius and James Bond, Fraction and Ba have thrown anything and everything together to with a calculated playfulness and then (to borrow an over-used phrase from Spinal Tap) cranked the amps up well past 11; more like 111.  


Casanova knows exactly what it is; a comic.  Like recent titles Godland and NEXTWAVE, Casanova revels in its comic-centric absurdities.  E.M.P.I.R.E. is Marvel's SHIELD, only with more bloodshed, drunks and multi-dimensional jurisdiction.  But instead of the giant Helicarrier-like floating fortress being E.M.P.I.R.E.'s top secret base of operations, it's a floating casino controlled by Fabula Beserko, the previously mentioned monks-now crimelord.  The top secret organizations are thinly veiled dopplegangers of any Marvel secret society; SHIELD, HYDRA, AIM, HATE.  The list is endless but these aren't the watered-down SHIELD currently posing in New Avengers or any other generic book.  This is the ultra, super-cool Jim Steranko short-lived SHIELD run.  The coolness just oozes from all the characters as they strike poses and posture on the page, almost waiting for just the right half shadow to add the correct atmosphere to the page.  You think it's easy being that cool?  Well, Casanova makes it look even easier.


Like Casey's Godland, Ellis's Nextwave or even DC's 52, you can't forget that you're reading a comic because these stories can only exist as comics.  They freely borrow and take our shared languages, cliches and experiences, rev them up and throw them back at us, reminding us how fantastic and silly they are all at the same time.  Godland borrows from Kirby.  Nextwave and Casanova borrow from old spy and Marvel comics.  But they're not parodying anything.  It's a fine line between parodying Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius or Byran Talbot's Luther Arkwright and taking them as your own and doing it your own way.  Fraction and Ba aren't belittling or tearing anything before them down.  They're adding to the books and stories that already exist; adding their own stamp to a tradition of storytelling that goes back to the earliest pulp spy novels of the past century.



Back to the present, with the Marvel/Icon re-release of Casanova #1:

Wow, how many times can I drop references to Godland and Nextwave in a review?  Both of those books must have really made an impression on me back in 2006.

I really, really liked the book back in 2006.  Now, in 2010, they’ve rereleased the issue in a new remastered edition.  In a move similar to putting out original Beatles albums in stereo, Casanova is now colored and relettered and it’s half successful.  Cris Peter’s new coloring on Casanova #1 is fantastic, almost creating a different pacing in this book than it had before.  Comparing the remastered edition to monochromatic hardcover, Peter really directs your eye and gives clarity to Ba’s exuberant action.  I kind of miss the original green hue to everything but Peter’s coloring is as unique as Ba’s artwork.

The new hand lettering doesn’t work as well but it’s getting there.  I’ve heard Fraction on many interviews say that he really prefers hand lettered comics as opposed to computer lettered ones.  I’ll admit, at first the hand lettering turned me off.  Whether I’ve been conditioned to believe that every “E” needs to look alike or just desensitized to most homogenous lettering, Dustin Harbin’s new lettering seemed terribly crude at first.  But now, as I look it over, it’s not that bad.  It’s rough but goes along with the rebellious nature of the book.  Casanova should be punk; it shouldn’t be made the same way that an establishment book is.  Now that Fraction and Ba work for the man (Marvel and DC,) I guess the lettering should be the one thing that maintains a punk DIY aesthetic.

Fraction’s story is a story written by someone who has nothing to lose.  In 2006, he was rushing to get everything out on the page.  Casanova #1 was an exciting book but back then, it needed to be.  Now Fraction is writing Stan Lee and Jack Kirby characters and I don’t know if we’ve seen this fearless writer since.  Also, looking at Casanova #1 you can see how far Fraction progressed as a writer in this series.  This is a fun #1 and hints where Fraction was going to go but his story took so many mind-bending turns in the second half, as his story starts to mean something more than just cool Steranko-like spy espionage.

This new #1 contains a new story, written by Fraction and drawn by Fabio Moon.  It’s a fill-in-the-cracks story, showing more of the effect of Casanova than showing Casanova himself.  Focusing on the dentist office’s night nurse from the main story, it shows just how prophetic she is.  One of the best lines in the whole series is when the nurse first has dinner with Casanova; “Surely this was the man who would burn the world.”  Fractions story shows just how he does that to her.  It’s a fun, sexy and dangerous little story made more so by Moon’s artwork.  

I’m glad that the original Casanova run is getting reprinted, hopefully to be seen by more people now that Fraction, Ba and Moon are established names.  Like Godland and Nextwave (see, I did it again,) Casanova is a book that is about stories as much as it is about plot; it’s about the characters we create in our fictions and in our lives.  Fraction was a young punk 4 years ago and Casanova is a punk book.  Now he’s writing the X-Men, Thor and Iron Man, not that it should mean anything but it does.  Can he still write about the character who should burn down the world when he’s writing about gods and superheroes?

@ Indie Pulp-- a review of 120 Days of Simon

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120 Days of Simon is a self-promotional comic disguised as an autobiography and travelogue.  Actually, this comic shares more in common with reality television than it does with most comics; it’s about a semi-famous person being semi-famous in Sweden, but the reader is never sure what he’s supposed to be getting out of it.  Maybe it’s a sense of living vicariously through Simon as he gets stoned and screws his way across Sweden.  Sure, there’s some background story about Simon breaking up with his girlfriend before his trip so he can be “free” to do whatever comes his way during the trip, but that’s about as deep or as personal as it gets.  Gärdenfors’ comic picks out only a handful of the people he met on his journey, usually showing either the girls he had sex with or the guys who gave him drugs.

You can read the full review at Indie Pulp.

A review link and a bit of disappointment over Batwoman: Elegy

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And please notice, I refuse to call this book "Batwoman: Elegy Deluxe Edition." 

It’s fascinating to watch how Williams III moves in and out of his art styles based on what part of the story is being told.  There’s one style for Batwoman, one style for Kate and another style for flashbacks but there are some wonderful moments where Williams merges the styles together, where he allows himself to be playful and show maybe how parts of Kate’s life are coming together.  When the story focuses on Batwoman, there’s a jagged quality to the panels, like they’re interconnecting to tell the whole story.  His pages are part puzzle, part kaleidoscope of action.  Generally, Kate’s pages are more simple and straightforward.  There’s one two page scene where at a charitable event, Kate dances with Maggie Sawyer, the captain of Gotham’s Major Crime Unit and Wiiliams lays out the dance like one of the action scenes.  Kate and Maggie’s dance twirls its way across the page like any of the fights between Batwoman and Alice.

You can read the whole review at Pop Syndicate.

The one thing I struggled with on this book and ultimately left out of the review is the bittersweet disappointment in it as Rucka's story is left hanging.  Originally, the 7 issues of this book were supposed to be followed up by 5 more issues by Rucka and Williams III that concluded their Batwoman story, and brought Kate and Alice's story to, if not an end, a satisfying point of closure.  Instead, Rucka leaves DC for now, but not before a subpar storyline written by him and drawn by Jock kind of dampens any enthusiasm for the book.  J.H. Williams III and Amy Reader Hadley are going to be taking over the upcoming Batwoman title and I think I'll enjoy that as the art by both of them should be lovely but the thought that I won't see a confrontation for now between Batwoman and Alice just makes this book seem a little bit lesser than it could have been.

I didn't bring this fact up in the actual review because it isn't that pertinent to whether this book is good or not (it is) but the experience also wasn't all that it could be.  Instead of looking forward to Rucka's story, I'll get Williams' story and it may be good but it's not what I would have wanted right now. 


@ Pop Dose-- a review of Wednesday Comics

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The biggest stumbling block in Wednesday Comics seems to be its traditional approach to comic book story. The weakest stories are the ones that look and read like they could have simply been a 12-page backup in a character’s book. Batman, Superman, the Metal Men and the Demon all feel like conventional stories — generally good, but conventional. But where the storytellers can really use the page, where they successfully adapt their storytelling and pacing to the page format, that’s when the story and art of Wednesday Comics is spectacular. Pope’s pulply Adam Strange, Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook’s Prince Valiant-like Kamandi, Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Connor’s Supergirl, Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck’s Deadman or the wonderfully sublime Metamorpho by Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred all successfuly embrace the format and create fantastic stories with the pages they’re given. These are the stories that make this more than just an oversized art book.

You can read the full review of Wednesday Comics at Pop Dose.

@ Pop Syndicate-- Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #3

The Return of Bruce Wayne #3 is the rediscovery of the detective.  Each issue has had Bruce Wayne re-connecting to a part of himself.  Morrison kicked off the series with Batman, the hero.  Issue #2 featured Batman, the man who cares too much about those he loves.  In #3, we see the detective, the man who’s able to read the clues and know just what he needs to do without fear or hesitation.  After the first two issues, Morrison finally shows us the Bruce Wayne who earned the nickname “Dark Knight Detective.”

You can read the full review here

The iPad, Digital Comics and the Lost Generation at Pop Dose

The short-term appeal of Marvel and DC’s digital apps which no one is talking about is how can they bring back readers who, for one reason or another, went cold turkey on comics and haven’t been back to their comic shop in years.  We always talk about the mythical “new reader,” but we hardly ever talk about how do we win back that audience who has disappeared over the years.  I think we just kind of assume that either they’ll be back or they won’t.  That’s where I think the brilliance of DC’s selection of experimenting with Justice League: Generation Lost comes in; it plays almost perfectly to the 35-40 year old potential fan of today who may just notice a bit of their childhood while skimming around, looking for something new to do with their iPad.  It’s not preaching to the converted and it’s not trying to reach the untapped; it’s going after the lapsed.

You can read the full article at Pop Dose.

I have a friend who I haven't seen in years but he used to be as voracious a comic collector as I was.  But, like so many people, he discovered other things and dropped out of collecting comics somewhere around 1990.  He picked up the occasional book now and again and I know he loved Astro City when he finally discovered it around 2001, but he never got back into comics on any kind of regular basis.  For some reason, I think that the iPad and programs like Comixology are just perfect for him. 

@ Pop Syndicate-- reviews of Guardians of the Galaxy V4 & Blacksad

On Blacksad:

The other thing you’ll notice is that Blacksad is a cat.  He’s not a cat that mews and curls up in your lap but a cat that walks, talks, dresses and fights like a man. He even loves and hates like a man. Juan Diaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido’s story is a cross between Art Spiegleman’s Maus (only without the historical and social metaphors) and Richard Starking’s Elephantmen, complete with the hard-boiled atmosphere and trench coat-wearing characters.  What Canales and Guarnido gain from the use of animal’s faces is an exaggerated expressiveness.  From a stoic polar bear to an authoritative German Shepherd, the faces and animals chosen convey so much expression without ever having to to overboard and exaggerate.

You can read the full review here.

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On Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 4: Realm of Kings:

Like its characters, Guardians of the Galaxy is a workman-like title.  This volume ends at where the series did before getting cancelled or going on hiatus before the next big cosmic event.  Volume 4 is actually a bridge between two events and Abnett & Lanning have always done a good job at keeping Guardians of the Galaxy involved in Marvel’s crossover events without ever getting really lost in them.  Volume 4: Realm of Kings deals both with the aftermath of the last event while setting up the next one but the writers keep it feeling natural and all part of the story.  They maintain their flow on this title,  making it feel like the events of this book are simply the next bad series of occurrences that happen to the Guardians.

You can read the full review here.

@ Pop Dose-- Phonogram: The Singles Club (tpb)

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So it seems that I’m doing some writing now for Pop Dose and, since it’s predominantly a music site, I figured I’d start with a comic book about music-- Phonogram: The Singles Club collection..

In fact, forget about the magic.  Gillen and McKelvie set up that rule as a guide more for the reader than for the characters in the book because the characters break it in almost every issue.  It was easy to get lost in the “magic” of Rue Britannia, to get caught up in the endless Britpop references, sigils and musical incantations and miss what the story was really about.  In The Singles Club, the magic is different; it’s not about the music but more about the experience of music.  The magic of music in The Singles Club is about how it passes through you, how you experience it and what it does to you.  In the pages of this book, music has the power to inspire people, to make them remember, to make them forget, to dream bigger than everyone else and to just plain have fun.


You can read the rest of the review at Pop Dose.  

I think Phonogram has been one of the most fascinating series in the last couple of years.  Almost all of the musical references that Gillen makes in both series go completely over my head (Pipettes?)  but like I say above, you've got to forget about all of the musical call-outs and the magic or, probably a bit more specifically, you just have to give yourself over to it; accept the way that Gillen and McKelvie's characters love the music and then apply that love to your own life, your own music or even your own comics.  Phonogram is about music but it's also about the love of some thing outside of yourself.  At least, that's my own interpretations of Gillen and McKelvie's book.

Even if it can't be another Phonogram book (and please say that the comic audience may be receptive to more Phonogram someday,) I hope that Gillen and McKelvie can continue to work together.  I don't know how many great writer/artist teams there are working in comics right now but I think these two could become one of them. 

@ Pop Syndicate-- Jonah Hex: No Way Back

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Jonah Hex should be an ugly book.  He’s an ugly character with a dark soul and he should never look like a Hollywood leading man with prosthetic scar added to ugly him up.  If there has been a glaring problem with the latest DC Jonah Hex series, it’s that too many of the artists can’t draw ugly.  Even Darwyn Cooke and J.H. Williams III, fantastic artists and storytellers, are still too pretty, clean and concise to really draw a Jonah Hex story.  Their stories have been wonderful but too neat and too crafted.  When I think of Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti’s current Jonah Hex stories, the artists I picture are Jordi Bernet and Cristiano Cucina, scratchy, dirty and rough artists who really capture the essence of Hex in every drawing.  And I also now think of Tony DeZuniga, the co-creator of Jonah Hex and artist on Jonah Hex: No Way Back, an original graphic novel that’s as compellingly ugly as Jonah Hex’s face is.

Read the rest of the review here.

Weekly Comic Shopping List 6/3/10

Adventure Comics Vol 2 #12 -- The second Levitz-penned Legion series begins.  This reminds me of the days of the baxter run running concurrently with the Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes.  While I understand the desire to have a clear history of the Legion laid out, I'd rather be getting solo or spotlight stories out of this series.

Jonah Hex No Way Back HC-- Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti's Jonah Hex has been a huge surprise to me lately.  I've picked up issues drawn by J.H. Williams, Darwyn Cooke and Jordi Bernet but it was for the art.  Now that I've gone back and started to get the trades, I'm loving their writing.  It's lean and dirty, the way Hex stories should be.  This graphic novel is drawn by Hex co-creator Tony DeZuniga, who's got such a distinct style that I never really paid attention to before.

DMZ Vol 8 Hearts And Minds TP--I need to get back into this series.  I love where it started out but it feels like it's gone on long right now. 

Sweet Tooth #10--This book makes me want to cry every issue.  But I don't cry because I'm a big boy and big boys don't cry.  That's all I have to say about that.

Darkstar And The Winter Guard #1-- As characters, I always liked appearances by these Communist heroes in Incredible Hulk back in the day.  And Darkstar was also a Champion so she's got that going for herself as well.  Add in that this miniseries is by the High Moon and Box 13 team, David Gallaher and Steve Ellis, and I'm really looking forward to this miniseries.

Freakangels Vol 4 TP-- Freakangels has been the Ellis book that I've enjoyed the most the past couple of years, other than the wrap up to Planetary. 

Tezukas Black Jack Vol 11 TP
Slam Dunk Vol 10 GN--  The manga fix for this week, two series that I really need to get caught up on.  I need a long weekend (another long weekend?) sometime soon just to go through all the books lying unread around the house.