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© Tim Lasiuta

Comic strip and book creators do not just fade away. They move on, and often never realize just how much we appreciate their work. This is your chance.
Viewed from my corner of the collecting field, illustrated mediums have got the short end of the stick. Whether it’s comic books, comic strips, or the graphic novel, story telling has become a lost art, and the practishoners, under appreciated.

That statement is not entirely true though, select creators have been singled out for acclaim, but they have had to stray out of the ‘juvenile’ formats. To keep work loads up, an out of work comic book artist was ‘in advertising’, or an ‘illustrator’. Respected creators like Jerry Robinson, Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Frank Miller, Frank Brunner, Creig Flessel, and even Harvey Pekar turned to storyboards, and advertising to practise their craft.

Jerry Robinson made his mark in comic books in the early 1940’s on Batman with Kane and Finger, but left an indelible mark with his Creators and Writers Syndicate. Recently, he has been honored with entry into the Comic Book Hall of Fame. Morton Walker, has been prolific in cartooning since the late 1940’s, and his leadership role in the National Cartoonists Society has led to his legacy, the museum he has nurtured for over a decade now will open in the Empire State Building in 2007. Not only has he been behind Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois, and Boners Ark, but he has written screenplays, and published over 50 books. Neal Adams has turned Continuity Associates into an international success story. Lew Sayre Schwartz ghosted Bob Kane during the 1950’s, and turned to film production, earning numerous Emmy nominations over the years. The prolific Will Eisner, who started his career in the 1930’s taught, produced work for the army, and mentored many students until his death in 2005.

Sheer talent is not enough. Drive is not enough. Timing is not enough. The term ’starving’ artist is more than accurate at times, yet it is what drives us creative types to produce. Pay us $200 a page, we’ll get by on fewer pages. Pay us $75, we’ll work just as hard, but produce twice as much. Appreciate us, and we’ll work like dogs and make sure you’re satisfied.

Back to the point of this piece. Writing, drawing, coloring, lettering, selling (our work) is WORK. Doing columns like this is WORK. Sometimes the ideas flow. Sometimes not. What makes it easier is the little things like fan letters. Having recently written many to comic strip artists, and writers, the most common comment I get and am told is that they are glad that people remember, and that fans make them like their work was important. The late Tom Gill told me that he was always surprised that people remembered.

How do you find these folks?

Glad you asked. Often you can find their addresses through their own websites, or companies like DC and Marvel. They do forward mail. If you want to get hold of comic strip artists, write to the syndicates. They will get their mail. Look for email addresses on the strips. If you have an idea of where they live, check 411.com, that works too.

As another way to help out the artist and writers is buy their work. Look for it at the various bookstores, online at their websites, or check out ACTOR. ACTOR supports those men and women who have produced the art we have seen for years and are not now financially stable.

Some email addresses that will help are:

www.creators.com

www.kingfeatures.com

www.unitedsyndicate.com

www.dccomics.com

www.marvel.com

www.darkhorse.com

www.ncs.com

www.ACTOR.org

www.accomics.com

These are only a few….search away. The men and women who make us laugh, cry, and shake our head in wonder will appreciate your words.

I remain,

A Fan of the genre.

Tim Lasiuta

This is a slightly expanded verson of Paul Gravett’s introduction to the first screening in the season of manga-derived anime movies launched on Saturday July 28th 2007 at 2.30pm. The season continues until September 29th. The full programme is as follows:

The British Museum Manga-To-Anime Film Season:
Jul 28: Naruto: Ninja Clash In The Land Of Snow
Aug 4: Porco Rosso
Aug 11: Nausicaä
Sept 7: Phoenix 2772
Sept 13: Barefoot Gen
Sept 14: Akira
Sept 21: They Were Eleven
Sept 28: Ghost In The Shell: SAC Solid State Society
Sept 29: Ghost In The Shell II: Innocence

Hello and welcome to the BP Lecture Theatre at the British Museum and the launch of the exciting Manga-to-Anime film season. Great to see so many of you here, from cosplaying devotees to total newcomers of all ages.

My name is Paul Gravett and some of you may have come across my book Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics or seen the manga South Bank Show last year. I’d like to thank Timothy Clark, Christopher Power, Margaret O’Brien and Rosanna Kwok for coming up with the idea of screening some outstanding examples of anime or Japanese animated movies. This is quite an historic occasion, a milestone, as this marks the first time that the British Museum has hosted a whole season and I’m honoured to be asked to select this.

I must also thank Hiroaki Saiki and Reiko Asai from Medianet in Tokyo and Marc Weidebaum and Jason Bergenfeld from Viz Media in San Francisco for allowing the British Museum to hold this special free screening. Thanks too to Helen McCarthy, Gemma Cox at Neo, Nargis Ahmad at Anime UK News, Sweatdrop Studios, Self Made Hero and everyone who helped publicise this screening.

My choice was to choose a mixture of major films, some older ones, some modern ones and a couple of brand new releases. Another of my criteria was that these movies would be based on the stories, characters or concepts from manga. This way the Manga-to-Anime programme can raise awareness of and enthusiasm for not one but two of Japan’s most vibrant modern artforms: the massive diversity and quality of manga or Japanese comics, which make up nearly 40 per cent of all publishing in Japan, and of the animated film adaptations derived from them, which are a huge pop culture industry in their own right.

This season coincides with an amazing exhibition at the British Museum entitled Crafting Modern Beauty In Japan, which celebrates over fifty years of incredible craftsmanship by artists who have been offically designated ‘Living National Treasures’ by the Japanese government for their artistry in ceramics, metalworking, textiles, wood and bamboo, lacquer, glass, gold and silver foil and even dolls.

Do please visit this exhibition. I was stunned by these extraordinary objects which somehow are traditional and modern, simple and complex, rustic and refined, peaceful and powerful, all at the same time. These works of craft and art seem to me to glow with almost an aura in their glass cases. They reminded me of some of the beautiful, imaginative costumes, swords, talismans, interiors and other artifacts from the past, present and future that we can see drawn and designed in manga and anime. There is a clear continuity here running throughout Japan’s unique culture. And do please also check out the Japan Galleries upstairs here in the Museum. You’ll find several items related to manga and anime including a piece
of original artwork featuring the classic robot hero Astro Boy by Osamu Tezuka - and it’s totally free.

 

So I’m thrilled that we have a capacity turn-out for this exclusive preview screening of Naruto: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow. How many of you know about Naruto already? [Big scream from fans in the audience]. How many of you watch the animated cartoons on Jetix or on DVD from Manga Entertainment? [More cheers] How many of you read the manga books, out from Viz in the US and on sale across the UK from September from Simon & Shuster? [And more cheers].

I can see we have quite a few people here who are new to Naruto so let me give you some background. Naruto debuted in the massive-selling Japanese boys’ comic Weekly Shonen Jump from Shueisha in 1999. The man who wrties and draws Naruto is Masashi Kishimoto. He first drew Naruto for a one-shot short story about witchcraft and fox-spirits in 1997 the special seasonal edition of Akamaru Jump. At first Naruto wore goggles and boots, but Kishimoto didn’t like drawing those complicated goggles so he came up with the ninja headband instead and gave him traditional Japanese footwear or Zori. And from there he elaborated the whole story. In fact it is still running today some eight years later every week.

Naruto, or Naruto Uzumaki is a small boy who discovers a terrible secret about himself. When he was born, twelve years ago, a giant nine-tailed fox demon attacked his village, where the world’s stealthiest ninjas are trained. After the fox demon is defeated by the Hokage, the village champion, its soul is sealed inside the body of a newly born human baby: Naruto. This boy grows up to be mistrusted and feared because of the evil spirit locked inside him and he becomes a troublemaker, a bit of an outsider, but burning with one ambition: to become the next Hokage and the greatest ninja his village has ever known.

To introduce some of the charscters I thought I’d quote from Kishimoto-san himself who explained some of his ideas in the American edition of Shonen Jump back in 2003: "Naruto starts out as a bumbling good-for-nothing, but he gradually develops into something. Sasuke is a contrast to Naruto: he starts out as an elite ninja. Naruto strives to achieve Sasuke’s expertise, both as a role model and a rival. Sakura looks like the standard cute girl character, but I wanted to create a more realistic girl. That’s why she’s my type. She acts reserved, but you only see a tiny part of her true nature. I think many women have this kind of dual personality. As for the theme of Naruto, I planned it around the idea of a ‘team’ story, emphasising the importance of those people who are close to you."

 

Naruto: Ninja Clash In The Land Of Snow is the first Naruto movie and was released in Japan on August 21, 2004. Here we are three years later, and it is finally getting shown in Britain. It is a problem not just for anime, or Japanese films, but for so many international films to get a proper cinematic release in Britain, when Hollywood’s output swamps our screens. Let’s hope that as the public’s interest grows, more anime movies can get shown in British cinemas.

Naruto, like so many successful manga before it, made the leap from the printed page onto the television screen first as part of the enormous output of animation on Japanese TV for kids, families and adults shown throughout the week. After its success on the box, it was a logical step to be adapted into a big screen movie. This is a new original adventure is set just after episode 101 of the manga, but don’t worry, you don’t have to read over a hundred episodes to enjoy it.

In this adventure, Naruto and his pals are assigned to protect a famous movie actress, who is a depressed diva, jaded with stardom. She is contracted to play the role of the Princess of the Land of Snow, and when the director and crew whisk her off to this wintry domain to shoot on location, her true past and the secret of a amulet she wears are gradually revealed. The world of Naruto is a fantasy Japan where ninja schools, spectacular feats of power and fantastical machinery sit alongside a sort of everyday modern life. The style of animation here may not strike some of you as all that animated, as in making everything move relentlessly. Partly for budgetary reasons, some anime employs simplified animation techniques. The very lack of motion, where characters or scenes barely change, or the minimal shifts as a character opens her eyes or looks over, can actually help to emphasise the graphic, drawn nature of animated film, creating moments of atmosphere or mood, bringing the experience closer in a way to how manga themselves work by encouraging us to animate panels and pages ourselves in our imagination.

Naruto cosplayers who sat in the front row
at the Naruto screening on 28 July, 2007

Before we show the film, I want to remind you that there are lots more great Manga-To-Anime movies coming up in this season, continuing with two Hayao Miyazaki classics, Porco Rosso August 4th and Nausicaa August 11th. Both of these anime started life as manga written and drawn by Miyazaki himself. Then from September 7th I’ll be introducing further anime screenings for adults. Be sure to pick up a leaflet and book your seats now. They are already going fast!

I hope you enjoy the movie. Naruto is a ninja who never gives up, an underdog and outcast who proves himseld time and again. I think compared to other boy heroes in comics, like the British bully and prankster Dennis the Menace, Naruto is a spinky, spirited, inspiring role model himself and I’m sure that part of his appeal. I believe that in the future, Naruto’s creator Masashi Kishimoto, and many other brilliant designers and storytellers working in manga and anime today, will come to be recognised as ‘Living National Treasures’ themselves. Because, for all the computer technology and skilled assistants that help make these productions, Naruto really begins with one person having an inspired idea and putting pen to paper, or clicking their computer mouse, and creating something out of nothing, something that goes on to entertain and enchant the world.

I see a lot of indie comics and indie comic websites. Being the webmaster of Blambot means that I get dozens of e-mails each day from all kinds of indie comic folks, who like to show me their stuff. And that’s great! I love seeing other people’s work. You can’t be an artist without being an art fan. But many people are making similar mistakes. I’ve also had the opportunity to work with mainstream comic artists, and I’ve learned as much as I could from each of them. We all can do better. Now, I’m only going to say this once, and then I’ll get off my soapbox and you can either benefit from my experience, or disregard it completely. but I guarantee you, if you don’t learn from your mistakes, they will come back to bite you in the behind.

I WANNA BE FAMOUS!

      Forget it. If that’s your goal, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. It’s a remote chance. Do this because you love it. Period. There are thousands of people just like you who are doing what you’re doing, and some of them are doing it better…and lots of them never get famous. But it doesn’t mean you can’t hope for that someday. Before you even have a chance you need to learn…

 

BORING STORY SYNDROME

      A comic without a story is NOTHING. Sergeant Six-Pack jumping around with his UZI killing everything in sight will bore the heck out of 99% of your readers after issue 2. Only little kids and the immature really stick with comics that offer nothing but action and nudity. You NEED a story. And not just any story, but a really good story. With substance. And how do you get ideas for such plots? DON’T JUST READ COMICS. Read books. Watch movies. Listen to music. Comics in general don’t get the emotional reaction that a great novel or movie do. And to make a great comic, you must engage your reader’s mind and emotions. You can be sure that almost anything you come up with has already been done. What you need to do, is spin it in a direction no one’s seen before.

 

HOW CAN IT SUCK? IT TOOK A WHOLE WEEKEND TO WRITE!

      So you’ve got your plot… now you need a script. Now before you do anything, just chill out. I know you’re excited. THINK about it. Take a week, take a month… Think it all through. You’re young, you have time. Don’t just sit down at the computer and type without an idea of where you’re going with this. Make notes. Make a chart. Ask yourself the questions that a novel writer asks, "What is my point?" "Does the story have a solid intro, an engaging middle, and a great ending?" Ask youself if the reader will identify with your characters and situations. Ask if anyone will even care about these characters and what they’re going through. When I created ATLAND, I created backstory for the characters and setting for three months before I even wrote the first episode.

      Yes, there is a fairly standard way to write a comic script. It varies from writer to writer, but it’s very similar to writing a movie screenplay. Here’s what one looks like:

 

PAGE 1

 

PANEL 1- Int. Blambot Mothership arena. Cont. of Eddie and Gus are being pummelled by the monster. Closeup of the monster’s hand. Eddie is in it being squeezed in front of the monster’s face. He’s struggling…his eyes are suinted down. He’s in agony! The monster grins victoriously.

 

      1. Eddie thinking - ANY MINUTE NOW I’M GOING TO WAKE UP…

 

PANEL 2- Profile of the monster putting Eddie into his mouth.

 

      2. Eddie thinking - ANY MINUTE NOW…ANY MINUTE!

 

PANEL 3- C/U on Eddie, surprised.

 

      3. Voice from Off Camera - PUT HIM DOWN YOU INBRED SON OF AN INFOMERCIAL HOST!

——————-

      The panels and dialogue are numbered. The Editor (and letterer!) can diagram the page (called "balloon placements") with those numbers to make sure they know who is speaking and where it all should go. "C/U" stands for "Close up". Bold words are indicated by the underline, or in all-caps depending on the script method you prefer.

      Write more than one draft! When you’re done with the script, let someone else read it. They will notice things you might not. The story is crystal clear in your head because you wrote it, but the most important thing is that someone who knows nothing about your comic, must be able to pick it up and understand it. Write and re-write and re-write again. If you get stuck, put it down and go do something else. If that still doesn’t work, ask someone for their opinion.

      Learn to write good dialogue. Write through the personalities of the characters, and don’t overuse your Thesaurus. Again, read novels and listen to how REAL people speak.

 

OF COURSE I’M A GOOD ARTIST, I’VE BEEN READING COMICS ALL MY LIFE!

      …And that shall be your downfall. It’s great that you read a lot of comics, and admire certain artists. But if the sum total of your art history knowledge and training comes from reading comics, you will succeed only in regurgitating other people’s comics work.

       Most of the artists in mainstream comics don’t just read comics to learn how to draw. They’ve gone to art school, or they’ve had a lifetime of professional illustrating experience. YOU MUST know the rules of art before you can break them. There’s no way around it. Study classical art, art history, graphic design, movie directing, and every other visual art you can.

 

BACKGROUNDS

      OK, there’s only one way to say this…DRAW THE BACKGROUNDS! I see this problem every day and it’s just a symptom of laziness. I know it’s boring. I know the reader is only going to see it for 2 seconds, but it’s important. You don’t have to draw it in EVERY panel, but an establishing shot on a page that indicates to the reader WHERE a scene is taking place, MUST have a background. If you flip through some comics, you’ll notice establishing shots. You’ll also notice most action scenes have very little backgrounds unless the background is intrinsic to some part of the action. This is to keep your focus on the excitement, and to mimic the mind’s tendency to block out extranious info during intense moments.

I had the good fortune to talk to Walt Simonson when I was first starting out, and he gave me this advice: "You have to draw every cigarette butt, every trash can and every seatbelt because they are just as important as your main characters." And he’s absolutely right. You know how creative you are at designing costumes for your superheroes? That’s how creative you should learn to be with your backgrounds. Go outside and look around. Soak it all in. Remember how things look. Remember all the things you see on a street so when you’re drawing one, you don’t forget that, "Oh crap. I didn’t draw seatbelts in that car." (That’s what Walt caught me on!) Most important start a reference file! Collect pictures from magazines, take photos and go out and see everything you can. Use the internet too. I do that all the time. Need a picture of a rat? Search online? A firetruck? Seach online…

 

PERSPECTIVE

      Nothing ruins a good drawing more than bad perspective. Depth gives realism to your pages! Learn about 2-point, 3-point and all other types of perspective. When you get good at it you can cheat and do cool effects like mimicking the look of a fish-eye lense.

 

GRAPHIC DESIGN

      Whether the artist realizes it or not, 50% of each page is grapic design and 50% is illustration. The page has to flow and has to be aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Grab the script and do thumbnail sketches of each page, do a dozen if you want. A thumbnail sketch is a small, very quick drawing where you make some decisions about how you want to lay out the panels and maybe even the dialogue balloons. Use some cheap 8.5"x11" copy paper and a pencil and just do 1/4 sized layouts.

 

CINEMATOGRAPHY

      This is the advice I repeat most to amateur comic artists. Watch movies and study directing. When I first started doing comics, I was amazed to discover how closely setting up each panel of a page is to directing a movie. Study which angles suit the mood you’re trying to convey.

 

MEDIA

      People will tell you that you have to use a brush to ink, or you have to use this brand of paper, or you have to draw the comic at this size… you know what? You don’t. Use whatever the you want, BUT try out everything first. Have a working knowledge of lots of different media, you never know when you’ll be asked to use it by the writer or editor. The average comic artist works on 11"x17" bristol board, that has been ruled off to an area of 10"x15" comic dimensions. You can see those dimensions HERE.

 

LETTERING

      It’s just the visual representation of every audible clue and every line of dialogue in your book. Letterers are the graphic designers of the comics world. Lettering is important. It must fit into the graphic design of your pages and enhance the "feel" of your comic. Choose your fonts wisely, young jedi. If you’re hand lettering, more power to you. It’s a great way to learn the basics. With the advent of computer lettering, now everyone can have decent text in their comic.

 

PUT ON YOUR TIE, YOUR A BUSINESS MAN NOW

      So, your comic is done. Awesome. But guess what? No one can read it can they? Whether you’re doing it hardcore indie style, a la Xerox machine, or your having it professionally printed, you MUST learn how to promote your work, and get familiar with the politics of making comics. Use every avenue at your disposal: Build a webiste, Tell people, show people, get online and find out a few hundred comic shop addresses and send out fliers to them, get a distributor like Diamond, take out ads, convince your local shop to do a small book signing for you… the list goes on and on. but remember, don’t plan the rest of your life on the success of this book. Even if you put your very heart and soul into this… you probably will not be able to make a living doing it. Always have a "Plan B". That’s just the way it is. You must do this for the fun of it first, and the profit second…. speaking of which…

 

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU’RE POOR!

      If you’re doing a xerox produced comic, expect to spend a hundred or more dollars per 100 issues on copy costs, and who knows how much on promos. If you’re having it professionally printed, expect to spend about $1000 + per 1000 issues you have printed. Prices vary from printer to printer (and call them all!). Every penny you spend should be considered non-refundable. Go into this with the conclusion that the $3000 you just spent is GONE. Because you may not make it back in sales.

 

IN CONCLUSION

      With all this said, you may think I have a bleak outlook on self publishing. I don’t. I have the facts, and you just read ‘em. Remember: Do this because you love it. And if you love it, you owe it to yourself to do it the best you possibly can.

 

By Nate Piekos

(1946 - 1988)

Tintin was the Belgian magazine for realistic comics during the second half of the 20th Century. It brought forth legendary series such as ‘Blake & Mortimer’, ‘Alix’, ‘Ric Hochet’ and of course ‘Tintin et Milou’. The first issue appeared in 1946 and the magazine ran until its final rendition in 1993. The title character, ‘Tintin’, was created back in 1929 for Le Petit Vingtième by the Belgian artist Georges Rémi, also known as Hergé and was already extremely popular. The idea for a magazine came up after a meeting between Hergé and the Belgian publisher Raymond Leblanc. After dealing with the financial aspects, Leblanc founded the publishing house Lombard and one of Belgium’s most prestigious comic magazines was born. Soon a Flemish version followed, titled ‘Kuifje’.

Writer: Terry Moore
Original run: April 2006-June 2007, 32 pages, $2.95
by Shawn O’Rourke

When I first got my dream job as a clerk at the local comic book store, my friend and mentor was a man named Jeff. Jeff was a part-time substitute teacher and the store’s resident gaming expert. Everyone who walked in the door knew him and he knew every customer’s name. He taught me everything I know about customer service and taking care of your people. Yet despite the fact that he had worked at the comic store for almost a decade, he actually read very few comic books. While my reading habit continued to grow with wallet-straining fury, he managed to keep his spending under control. Despite the constant barrage of awesome must-read books I consistently threw his way, he always smiled and said he was content with the few titles he enjoyed. I knew he read Knights of the Dinner Table, but having never played Dungeons and Dragons the humor was lost on me. He also read Transmetropolitan and that book turned me into an immediate fan of Warren Ellis. The third and final book of Jeff’s was some indie black and white comic called Strangers in Paradise.

Every time I would poke at the unknown book by some guy named Terry Moore and try to divine why anyone would read it when it doesn’t have Batman and wasn’t written by Alan Moore, Jeff would just, say “Read it.” I always resisted but one day after spending an idle moment on a quiet Sunday talking about life and movies, subjects that just go well together, Jeff nodded to himself as if making a decision, walked out to his car, and returned holding volumes 1 and 2 of Strangers in Paradise. He said, “Just read them.” Now I sit here seven years later writing a review of the final 10 issues of the series that I have come to love, with tears still fresh in my eyes from the sadness and joy at the final issue, and all I can think to say is “Thank you, Jeff.”

When I heard the news that Moore had decided to end his long-running indie powerhouse I reacted with a mixture of heartbreak and happiness; heartbreak because one of my favorite comics was ending and happiness because it would end on the creator’s terms by going out strong. While there was never a decrease in quality in the work it had become clear over the last few story-arcs that Moore was losing a little flexibility. It seemed that certain flash forwards and storylines projected into the future had reduced the type of stories Moore could tell. The decision to end the series, while painful for me to accept, came at the perfect time in the story. Many of the larger storylines revolving the lead characters, Francine, Katchoo, and David, had been resolved. While a handful of lose ends needed to be tied the only remaining issue was the question that had been on the minds of fans for years: Will Francine and Katchoo ever get together? While I was pretty sure that the answer would be yes, the question of how remained to be answered.

Moore begins his final arch by shattering the previously established status quo in order to bring all his storylines to a close. The first major change was the breakdown of Francine’s marriage to her rich doctor husband, Brad. Francine had spent most of the series riddled with self-doubt and looking for her knight-in-shining-cliché to come and rescue her from her life and give her the house and kids she always dreamed of. When she learns that her husband has been having an affair she doesn’t breakdown into an emotional wreck; she instead finally realizes that her true love has been there waiting the whole time. She maturely ends it with Brad and goes to fight for Katchoo.

Francine’s self-actualization at the end of the series is emblematic of one of Moore’s greatest strengths; character development. In the very first storyline of the series Francine has a complete mental breakdown when her then boyfriend, the crude and cheating Freddy Femur, has an affair with his secretary. Now many years later, Francine is able to suffer the same indignity at the hands of her ideal man, and does so with inner-strength and grace. While comic books as a medium have certainly come a long way, there is still a lack of substantive female characters being written. While there are a few exceptions it is sad to see how many women are still being reduced to one-dimensional archetypes. Francine’s development, like all the female characters in SIP, is a stunning example that it is possible to create complex and real female characters without reducing them to stereotypes or caricatures.

The next earth-shattering change comes from the death of the character David Quinn. David was a deeply complex person who managed to make room for himself in the hearts of Francine and Katchoo despite his troubled past. While he was my favorite character in the whole series, his death while tragic and powerful was also necessary. He was devoted to Katchoo and while he had reconciled himself to the fact that their love would never be exactly as he wanted it, his very existence as a third option for true love ultimately made him an obstacle in Francine and Katchoo’s ultimate union. This particular plot device is fascinating for a multitude of reasons. First of all it reinforces the idea that not all happy endings are without their tragedy. If Moore cured David of the brain tumor that eventually took his life, I feel that I would not be as satisfied with the ending. You can only have a happily-ever-after if you also have a point of tragic reference to put it into perspective.

With Francine at last ready to embrace the love she had previously feared and all other loose ends tied, the last issue ends with Francine and Katchoo, both pregnant, together at long last. It took a long time but the payoff was worth the wait. Moore concludes his passionate and powerful story with the ending it deserves. I will miss Moore’s book as a fan, but now that it is over I hope the series will be scrutinized by people within the comic book industry to gain a better appreciation of just how much it contributed to the medium. For the longest time I had dismissed the book as simply being the modern incarnation of those boring old romance comics. That was a mistake I freely admit as I know realize that for many years SIP has been the one true comic that tackled love with all its complexities and pain.

Comics, just as they have with women characters, have been notorious for reducing love stories to their most basic components. They were used as background drama to fill the panels between big fight scenes or at worst as plot devices that lead to the ruin of one of the characters. Moore was able to craft a series where the love story was central and all the plot and drama was subordinate to that. While I think this book is great for what it is, I believe that is also worthy of what it represents for comics as a whole. This book has expanded that range and ability of the entire medium to tell a love story without diminishing it. If the reader of this review will forgive a little melodrama, I would go so far as to say that Moore isn’t just a great storyteller, but in the larger realm of comics he is a visionary.

While I no longer officially work at a comic book store, I frequent my friends quite regularly and whenever someone comes to counter and asks for something different or new Strangers in Paradise is one of my regular recommendations. I’m not always successful in turning on the superhero fans onto something different, but there have been a few notable exceptions. Just like I thanked Jeff at the beginning of this review for recommending SIP to me, I have a handful of fans who still thank me as well. Yet I think I speak for all of us when I say that the real thanks belongs to one man in particular. So thank you Terry. Thank you so much.

(author) Itai Rosenbaum 

This is, for all intents and purposes, the last issue of Sensational Spider-Man. While issue #41 will be hitting store shelves, it will be as part of the One More Day cross-over, so I’m counting it as an issue of Amazing. So, for the purpose of this review, I’m looking at the last issue of this book, so some words on that are required.
 
Out of all the Spidey books available (with the exception of Ultimate Spider-Man), this book was always the one I looked forward to the most. While Amazing is the flagship title, and thus, the most important one, I believe this fact only helped this book. Being out of the spotlight, the book didn’t have to focus on things like Spidey joining the Avengers, or Civil War. It could tell its own stories, without owing anything to anyone.
 
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, ever since coming on the book (and the time when Sensational officially started, as before it was called Marvel Knights Spider-Man), has injected the book with a strange, unique element, not found in other books. Ever since the first storyline, you could tell this book was not your run of the mill Spidey book. It didn’t try to reflect the Marvel Universe as we see it today, and was not grounded in reality. Instead we were treated to fantastical plots, involving weird, rage-inducing stones, Super-Villain team ups and the first appearance (and one of the best) of Eddie Brock in years.
 
The last issue serves as a perfect coda to a great run. Aguirre-Sacasa uses a plot element that has been used to before, particularly in an “ending” issue. Spidey meets god and has a heart to heart conversation with him. While this type of plot isn’t groundbreaking or new, Aguirre-Sacasa’s riff on it is fresh and pulled off excellently. His characterization of the Lord Almighty is handled quite well, and if the Man Upstairs really does act and sound like this comic, several things are a whole lot clearer to me now.
 
Clayton Crain’s art, as always, is spectacular. His painted style has this otherworldly feel, which goes hand in hand with the otherworldly story. His painted figures are excellently portrayed and his depiction of God is amazing. In some instances he uses photo backgrounds and while I am not a fan of this technique, in this instance it just works.
 
Overall, this was a great final issue to an excellent series. I will miss this series very much, and I hope to see more from everyone involved in this book, in particular Aguirre-Sacasa, whom I’ve grown to like throughout the course of this book.
 

(author) Itai Rosenbaum 

Say what you will about the issue, but X-Men #202 proves one thing - X-Men books are fun again.

To me, X-Men is the one franchise where creators should go all out, crafting weird plots, with outrageous art. In the world of the merry mutants, anything goes.

Mike Carey’s adjectiveless X-Men has been a prime example of this. Ever since he stepped on board the title, Carey has bombarded us with one freaky concept after another. From the Children of the Vault to the Hectatomb, Carey’s high concepts have been some of the most imaginative concepts to come upon the X-Men in years. Now, with the most recent storyline, Blinded by the Light, Carey has scaled back on weird villains only to supply us with an onslaught of classic villains, some which we have not seen for a very long time.
 
In part 3 of the four-part storylines, we finally find out why the Marauders and Acolytes have hit the X-Men so hard in the past two issues. Some will say that this entire arc feels like set-up for something further down the line, but let’s face the facts - that’s exactly what it is. We all know Messiah Complex is right down the line, so it’s pretty obvious this arc leads into that. Once you accept that this entire arc is just a fun romp through X-Men history. The most important thing about this book is that it’s just plain fun. We don’t have heavy, emotion-laden dialogue. Instead we get about 7 different fights. And then we get Mr. Sinister. Let the good times roll, I say.
 
Regarding the art, there are many people out there who dislike Humberto Ramos’ exaggerated figures and expressions. I have to say, I’m not one of those people. Ramos’ art is so over-the-top is suits the mad, chaotic action going on perfectly. I am also a fan of the more cartoony artists such as J. Scott Campbell, Mark Bagley and their ilk, so Ramos is right up my alley.
 
I must add a word about the Endangered Species back-up feature - the word is “snore”.
 

 

 

Writer: Cecil Castellucci
Artist Jim Rugg:
Publisher: Minx/DC Comics
2 May 2007, 176 pages, $9.99
by Jon Kirby
 

Relevance has long been prized by the comic book industry. During the Depression, then-young superheroes like Superman and the Green Lantern spent most of their time trust-busting and cheerleading the New Deal, rather than trouncing interstellar foes. And by the 1970s, Green Lantern/Green Arrow had tapped the cynical zeitgeist, while Stan Lee bucked the Comics Code to release a three-part Amazing Spider-Man story about drug abuse, a taboo subject under CCA guidelines.

 

Of course, we’ve seen plenty of fantastic exploits along the way too, but comics as a medium have always exhibited an acute sensitivity to the real world. And 9/11 and the ensuing War on Terror have brought new challenges for funnybooks to face up to: Spider-Man stood in shock at Ground Zero, and Captain America took the fight to the terrorists, while the Vertigo series DMZ has taken to depicting the realities of life during wartime by staging a divisive civil war on American soil—to say nothing of Marvel’s own Civil War, where the usual metahuman fisticuffs served to dramatize anxiety over vanishing civil liberties.

Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg’s graphic novel The Plain Janes (published by DC’s new Minx imprint) takes a more subtle approach. In a similar slice-of-life indie style as comics like Ghost World and Teenagers from Mars, The Plain Janes tells the story of Jane, a well-adjusted girl from Metro City whose family retreats to the placid suburb of Kent Waters following a terrorist attack that nearly claims Jane amongst its victims. In the aftermath, Jane manages to rescue an unidentified male victim whose only possession is a notebook with a cover that reads “ART SAVES”—a notion that Jane spends the rest of the story putting to the test.

The Plain Janes revolves around P.L.A.I.N. (People Loving Art in Neighborhoods), the titular guerilla group of similarly-named girls—plus, later on, a gay boy named James—who resolve to bring art out of the galleries and into the streets of their hum-drum hometown. It’s the kind of trickle-down Situationism that any artistically-bent teenager can love, and like a lot of activism it doubles as psychotherapy for the Main Jane: by detouring terrorism’s extra-legality into a mission of beautifying and inspiring her community, she hopes to exorcize the painful memories she carries with her from the attack.

At first, the world of The Plain Janes seems as flattened out as Thomas Friedman’s, and as black-and-white as its own stylish artwork: The Big City stands as the arbiter of all cultural value, while Jane’s high school ("Buzz Aldrin High") is split down the quad, as a Popular Front of geeks and artists stands against a junta of cheerleaders and footballers. Jane, an ex-blonde, actively rejects the popular kids for the pariah Janes, who initially rebuff her; it’s a twist on the Heathers/Mean Girls approach, where the sensitive protagonist somehow finds herself on the side of darkness. But the more you read, the more complexity and nuance Castellucci and Rugg ladle on—and the more you remember that when you’re a teenager, the world often does resolve into a high-stakes hormonal clash between Good and Evil.

And more to the point, The Plain Janes uses its moral landscape to underscore its central point: for the average person faced with the cruel reality of terrorism, the choice isn’t between anything so grandiose as freedom or tyranny (since adults have their own dualisms to throw around) as much as deciding whether or not to live in fear. The attack on Metro City spooks Jane’s parents into fleeing to the suburbs, while Jane, who after all was closer to ground zero than anyone else in the story, realizes that no place is really safe (one of the story’s deepest conflicts is also one of its most immortal, that of the young against their elders). But despite her gutsy resolve, Jane carries her own psychic scars, and she acts out of the hope that the dictum from John Doe’s notebook ("ART SAVES") can redeem her along with her button-down surroundings.

Many comic book bids at relevance have stumbled, with all the complexity and moral ambiguity of the real world varnished into easy answers and neat solutions as clean-cut and unrealistic as the capes fighting over them. But The Plain Janes spins a story of outsider-dom with affecting charm and poignancy, thoughtfully confronting the emotional costs of terrorism without becoming a humorless polemic. It reminds us that the present is, as ever, full of grim challenges eager to seduce us into shutting the world out and locking ourselves up from it—but The Plain Janes, like its eponymous heroes, is an endearing inspiration towards overcoming that fear. As Raoul Vaneigem once wrote: “Suffering is the pain of constraints. An atom of pure delight, no matter how small, will hold it at bay.”