STRANGE GIRL VOL.1
Written by Rick Remender and Drawn by Eric Nguyen
Published by Image Comics

STRANGE is the story of Bethany, a young girl always in trouble with her deeply fundamentalist parents. Sure, that might sound like Lori Singer in FOOTLOOSE, but Bethany is only about ten when the story really starts, and Lori was a slut. No, instead, Bethany’s parents turn out to be horribly, horribly right, as the Biblical Rapture arrives during the middle of a family conflict, and the poor kid is left behind to fend for herself against the hordes of Hell as they invade the neighborhood. Sort of like what you’d imagine it’d be like if Dennis Rodman bought a house on your block.

We then shift to the future to discover that Bethany is indentured under a ruling demon named Belial and tending bar in his swankiest establishment. But that’s not her ultimate goal, so with her guardian demon, a little blue fellow named Bloato, she sets off to try and find the last remaining gateway to Heaven left on Earth. And perhaps put some tough questions to God while she’s at it.

Part high-concept action romp and part philosophical debate, STRANGE GIRL is mostly an amusing collection of set pieces that don’t quite add up to something greater than their whole. That’s due in part to the fact that the volume ends on a sort of unsettled note, not truly at the end of what you’d consider an “arc.” We’re really just digging in to what the book is really going to be as the last chapter closes, and it doesn’t feel like a natural stopping point. That’s not to say that the book isn’t entertaining, because it is; but as a collection it isn’t as fun as the individual issues. Frankly, that’s so damned odd that I almost wonder if it wasn’t purposeful on Remender’s part.

As more collections arrive, that problem will fade away. In the meantime, you can still get plenty of giggles out of the positively diseased ramblings of Remender’s dialogue and the gorgeous and stunning work being produced by Eric Nguyen. This is a book that desperately needs stronger sales for its floppies, and I encourage you to pick them up; they’re worth the effort, and the story is never decompressed. STRANGE GIRL is, ultimately, something different from everything else on the racks. And isn’t that more of what we really need in the industry?

SIBAM?

Heh. Are you kidding?

Can you even imagine the outcry from the far right asshats who protest everything that doesn’t agree with their ridiculous dogma if this hit theatres? A movie that makes some light out of the Rapture? Even though the film takes Christianity and its tenets very seriously, the pissing and moaning would be out of control. I’m not sure there’s a studio with the balls to lay out the cash on it right now, thanks to the political climate in this country. Ten years ago, someone would have bought this for Christina Ricci and fast-tracked it as a summer tentpole release. Now Hollywood’s mostly gone pussy.

NOBLE CAUSES VOL.5
Written by Jay Faerber and Drawn by Fran Bueno
Published by Image Comics

Faerber’s superhero soap opera gets a new collection that serves two purposes: one is to bring together more of his relentlessly paced and breathlessly acted afternoon show paper. The other is to remind me that I never picked up a copy of volume four. Dammit.

NOBLE CAUSES reminds you of a comic from forty years ago, the way Faerber packs each issue with the maximum amount of plot and character movement he possibly can. Not decompressed, nor compressed, CAUSES tends to be super-compressed, never stopping to breathe or let you start thinking too much about what you’re reading. Faerber knows that it’s far more important to give you exactly what you’re looking for as a reader. He’s never made any pretense about trying to make the book an exercise in intellectualism. It’s supposed to be purely fun (look it up), and alternately diverting. In that, it almost always succeeds.

This volume squeezes in: robot duplicates, mind/body switches, demon baby births, faked miscarriages, marital strife, wayward parents, interdimensional invasions, a rampaging giant monster, and guns that teleport into your hand by voice command. And that’s not all of it. Ask anyone else to put that into six issues worth of comics, and they’d be stumped. For NOBLE CAUSES, it’s just another month on the stands.

ALISON DARE: LITTLE MISS ADVENTURES VOL.2
Written by J. Torres and Drawn by J. Bone
Published by Oni Press

This is my first exposure to this delightful all-ages book, and it left me with quite a smile on my face. Alison is the daughter of a famous archaeologist and a superhero, and since she cannot accompany them at all times, she attends an all-girls Catholic school where she constantly tries to make up for her parents’ absence by getting into adventures on her own. This time around, those adventures include the invasion of the school by some bad folks seeking a hidden map, and the rising of a cursed mummy.

Of course, that last one may not have actually happened.

Part of the real charm of ALISON DARE is watching the young heroine “expound” on her “adventures” to her classmates, and then reading successive chapters and seeing how the pieces of the story truly fell into place. It’s a clever storytelling conceit, and it moves the book away from a “kids only” feeling to more of one that an adult can enjoy as well. Either way, the book never talks down to the reader, demonstrating that Torres actually does know a little something about his intended audience. Bone’s art rounds out the volume in simple, clean fashion, making this a must-have for the young girl in your life.

GANGES #1
Written and Drawn by Kevin Huizenga
Published by Fantagraphics

Sometimes I’m a little late to the table. I have friends and colleagues who have been onboard the Huizenga train for a long time. Doane. Beaucoupkevin. McMillan. I’ve read their reviews and feelings on Huizenga’s over time, and by the time I was ready to sit down and read GANGES, I was fairly certain that when I finished, my bald spot would be gone and that disk in my back would stop slipping. It seemed promising.

“But Marc,” you say, “that sounds pretty cynical. No one ever said art cures cancer, just that it can be transcendent.” Yeah, if you want to be picky. Fine. I just get wary whenever popular opinion is strong in one direction. It almost always gives me the urge to feel the other way. So I cracked open GANGES. Goddammit.

The first story in this collection about Glenn Ganges is called “time traveling,” and it’s a rumination on the true nature of time as how it pertains to our perception of our self and our movement through life. Now, I have been obsessed with the nature of time since I was fifteen years old. Obsessed. So I was immediately in Huizenga’s hands. And as I got to the next story… and the next story… and the next one, he never let me go. Simple meditations on love, aging, the depth of song lyrics… there is a flow here that startles you, as you get inside Ganges’ head and find yourself spreading to his heart, caught up in the basic truths that define him and define us all. It is a remarkable sensation.

Enhancing these feelings is the wonderful packaging, as GANGES is yet another in the “Ignatz” line of over-sized books being produced by Fantagraphics. This is an outstanding book all the way around, and every bit worthy of the praise that has been heaped upon its creator.

See you in seven.

Review materials may be sent to: Marc Mason, P.O. Box 26732, Tempe, AZ 85285. You can also find me at Happy Nonsense and The Comics Waiting Room

E-MAIL THE AUTHOR | ARCHIVES