Austin360 blogs > What's Good > Archives > 2006 > June > 07
Wednesday, June 7, 2006
New Comics Day No. 1
This is the first of what will hopefully be a quick look at what’s in the comics shops right now, as Wednesday is, as they say, New Comics Day.
Best on-going book on the stands? “Scott Pilgrim” by Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni Press)
A series of manga-style, black-and-white graphic novels, “Pilgrim” strikes a surreal, fun-loving tone that too few comics can achieve, possibly because it’s tougher than it looks.
Scott Pilgrim is.. well, let’s let him tell it, from the Scott Pilgrim Web site:
“My name is Scott Pilgrim! I’m 23 and I live in Toronto with my cool gay roommate, Wallace Wells. I’m in a band called Sex Bob-omb (we’re not very good though), and I’m “between jobs.â€? Some of my friends say I’m a freeloader, but I think Wallace is just really nice! Anyway, I’ve been having some girl troubles lately. I kind of ended up dating this girl with, uh, seven evil ex-boyfriends, apparently? Her name is Ramona Flowers and she’s from New York, which makes her super extra-cool. Anyway, her ex-boyfriends keep showing up to fight me! It’s really extreme and extreme and stuff!! Girls show up from my past to make things more complicated, and it’s not like having a relationship is easy to begin with! I’ve got baggage and stuff, okay?!”
Yes, he has to fight seven ex-boyfriends (one of whom has vegan super powers, because if you have the willpower to be vegan, you’re probably psychic as well). It’s that kind of book.
Most comics about 20somethings and their navel-gazing issues bore me stupid (coughOptic Nervecough) because I don’t read comics to have my own life reflected upon. I lived it; I don’t need to read about it. “Scott Pilgrim” embodies all the doofy angst of 20something slackerdom and reminds you that at their best, comics play with narrative absurdities that look, well, still more absurd on screen.
Best graphic novel of this month and one of the best of the year? “Stagger Lee,” by Derek McCulloch and Shepherd Hendrix (Image)
In the tradition of “From Hell” and “Deadwood,” “Stagger Lee” is a 200+ page riff on the legend of “Stag” Lee Shelton, who shot Billy Lyons dead in the midst of a heated argument over a Stetson hat. Almost immediately, “Stagger Lee” became an weirdly indelible part of American folk tradition, a character in his own right and racial allegory who has stood in for everything from the “bad Negro” to the hapless victim of lynch mobs to the pimp/player archetype.
McCullock and Hendrix cut between a novelization of the real-life trial of Shelton, flashback on Shelton’s youth (the most compelling part of the book) and essay-style portions on the various Stagger Lee permutations. Outstanding work.
Best book of this week: Well, mainstream fans will glom onto Week Five of DC’s “52” and Marvel’s “Civil War” storyline, but my nod goes to the heartbreaking and revelatory “Luba’s Comics and Stories” #8 by Gilbert “Beto” Hernandez (Fantagraphics).
The comic draws a curtain on the current storyline involving Beto’s long-time protagonist Luba and her family, as the book’s writer/artist has said from now on, all tales realting to the sprawling Latino clan will be flashbacks to earlier, perhaps happier times.
Beto blew minds last month in the book’s companion title “Love and Rockets” when he lept forward six years in the on-going soap opera. It might seems like a quick and dirty coda to one of the most complicated and rewarding stories in modern comics, but the payoff - when the source of the oft-mentioned friction between Luba and her sisters is revealed - points right back to the magical realist series’ mythic beginnings. A typically brilliant, complex story from one of the best creators of our time.
