The Private Eye by Brian K. Vaughan & Marcos Martin

I'm still surprised just how few people, i.e. comic readers and fans of the medium, are aware of Private Eye given the immense fanbase of Vaughan for comic series such as Ex Machina, Y: The Last Man, Runaways, and currently with his Fiona Staple's epic space opera: Saga (which is phenomenal btw). Vaughan is also a working writer in Hollywood having written for Lost, and currently writing for Stephen King's Under The Dome.

See what I mean?  You should be reading this guy's stuff!

Tangent:  I read mostly digital comics these days because I've asked my wife and friends to schlep countless longboxes of comics in and out our houses as we've moved over the years.  They're also a pain in the ass to store.  They take up So. Much. Room.  It's like having another child.  I also read comics digitally now because of another key element: access.  I don't have to pull down 1400 comics in 4 boxes just to get to the box I need, only then finding myself having to pry comics out that are pressed so tightly you can barely fit your fingers between them.  The whole ordeal of bagging and boarding comics, alphabetizing them as well as filing them chronologically by publishing date... I don't miss it at all.  At. All.

Now, I bring up digital comics for a good reason, that being that The Private Eye is only published online and, according to the creators, it will always only be available online.  On top of this absolutely abnormal publishing scheme the price of The Private Eye is determined by the one person who never usually gets to decide how much they'll pay for a comic:  The reader.  When you go to their website Panel Syndicate you can pay market price of an average comic these days ($3.99 US), you can pay $1, or you can pay nothing.  It's totally up to you.  The creators are saying that this delivery method is working out just fine for them, as people are generally good natured and know that if they like it, and want more, then they're going to have to cough up some greenbacks.

Back on track, aside from the interesting delivery method and pricing, the book is a work of art.  A lot of times a book gets off to a shaky start and might have to find it's legs.  It's normal.  You can't usually have real drama without getting to know the characters a little, and that takes time.

The Private Eye is not your "normal" book by any means.  It comes out of the gate fully formed and racing away from the starting line, complete with characters that have real genuine emotions, backstories, and not to mention the fact the whole world of Private Eye is a futuristic, alternate reality where the internet told everyone's secrets and where EVERYONE now has a secret identity.  And personal information is the most closely guarded secret.

The protagonist is easily one of the most interesting new characters I've read about in 5 years.  The story takes place in the near future, but the protagonist is deeply infatuated with the 20th century.  Posters of The Maltese Falcon and vinyl by The Flaming Lips and other remnants of our time adorn his office and I'm sure a lot of his thoughts.  And he's your guy if you want pictures of someone without their disguise, or someone's real name and address.  Oh yeah, and private detectives are illegal.  That just adds to the fun.

I'd be remiss without talking about the fantastic art by Marcos Martin.  Not only is his cartooning some of my all-time favorite, but his art exceeds the norm.  His creativity is unchecked and it shows in every line of his art and every panel and layout of this book.  This guy should be a flippin' comic rock god.   A household name!   There's not a lot of people working in the industry today that are immediately recognizable and as unique as Martin.

Speaking of that, you can buy prints of his work from Private Eye on the Panel Syndicate site and they look amazing.  I haven't yet, but I've got to get at least one for my wall.

The first arc is the first 5 issues and I won't say too much about it plot-wise, as it is a mystery, but it reminds you immediately of The Big Sleep and Little Sister and maybe a dozen other hard boiled detective stories, all the while being very much it's own thing... and crushing it.

The series is supposed to run 10 issues and I think it would be a real shame if we only got that many. There are so many places I want to see this book go, so many stories they could tell, so many issues just waiting to be hatched.  But if we just get 10... they're going to be some of the very best issues you can find.

I'd also be just fine if they decided to put together a nice hardcover I could put on my shelf eventually. I read digital, but I'm not a soulless robot!

This series is something you can spend a lot of time with, making it worth far more than the $0.00 you could pay for it and a series that deserves your attention.

Battling Boy by Paul Pope

 

Hallelujah!  

Paul Pope has delivered unto us, the huddled,starving comic-loving masses, yet another epic, astounding effort into our favorite medium and I couldn’t be happier.  

Me = Pig + Poop.  

Now, full disclosure, I’ve liked most everything Pope has done so far; 100%, Heavy Liquid, THB, Batman Year 100, and One Trick Rip Off/Deep Cuts... but this might be my favorite.  It has something a lot of those other works don't seem to have, or maybe it just has more of it than I've seen before. Regardless, this book is a must read.

For starters there is Pope's art. I love every line he lays down in this book. This guy is my art hero.  His level of cartooning and use of the medium in this book alone mark him as one of the greats in my opinion. The book is just beautiful.

The only thing wrong is the guy just doesn’t seem to put out enough work to make me happy, much like Frank Quitely, another great.  This might be because he’s slow (or slower than the average comic artist), or maybe he’s just choosy with what projects he finds the time for.  I don’t know, and I don’t care.  I just need more.  Like right now.  I needed more right after I turned the last page on this undersized little book full of immense talent.

If I have a complaint, that’s it: the format.  Why would anyone want to squeeze this beast of an artist into the tiniest cage possible?  It doesn’t do the work any justice, and I really do believe, as much as I enjoyed Battling Boy, I would’ve loved it even more if it had been regular sized or even larger like it deserves.  I know there are publishers out there (Oni, old Tokyopop, etc.) that believe comics should be "hipper" and come in smaller sizes, like someone is going to stuff them in a pocket or something, but that is just ridiculous.  Nobody has pockets even that big. Digest-sized comics might be okay for some people, but I prefer to be able to see and appreciate the art that someone like Paul Pope obviously labors over, and not be forced to look at some tiny thumbnails with text so small it’s almost illegible.  This format is an F- stain on an otherwise A+ grade book.

Now apparently Pope announced this project quite a while ago and there are some readers and proposed comic connoisseurs who think this matters.  It doesn’t.  Especially when you look at this guys art.  His line work looks so effortless, so free… I’d love to see him actually physically draw something.  It must be a thing of beauty.  I don’t know if he attends conventions, and given the air of rock n’ roll artist that I’ve heard he puts off or is put upon him, he probably doesn’t, but I’d like to shake the guys hand at one someday and just say thanks for all the hard work.  Man, he really does set fire to a page!

So now that I've gushed over the art lets talk about the writing.  

Not every artist we like can write a decent story... but Pope can and does in this very book. And it seems like he is pulling from all the things he (and the collective we) love. In this one book he gives us elements and homages to Akira and Moebius and the Batman TV show and Astro Boy and 80’s cartoon super powered t-shirts and a Kirby-like take on Pulp Heroes and Norse Mythology and all in what seems to be a semi-dystopian ragtag maybe-future... but is still recognizable and relatable.

Our her Battling Boy is being sent "rambling" to Earth on his "turning day", or a planet close enough to this one, by his father, a celestial godlike hero who might be who the Thor mythology is based around. This Thor is basically forcing Battling Boys origin story upon him as a rite of passage, one which Bb is kinda apathetic about at first but eventually warms up to. So this book is Battling Boys origin story in effect.  This is his call to adventure and although it’s force-fed to this unwilling would-be hero, it's a fascinating one. It's his job to clean up the monsters of Arcopolis.

This book is action packed, but not with the in vogue widescreen violence popularized in the last decade, this is more akin to rock 'em sock 'em silver age fisticuffs with a twist. Battling Boy is a straight-forward, take no crap, super powered t-shirt having kid who’s actually written and drawn as a kid, not an adult with a kids body, or a kid acting like no other kid would ever act ever… but a kid. 

In the end it's just a great romp and I would have no problem giving this to my 10 year old daughter to read. She's going to love it, and I think you will too if you pick it up and give it a chance.

MIssion Statement / Nerd Alert

I had a couple of reasons to start this blog really, maybe three.  Here goes.

Lets call this my New Year's resolution for 2014:  One post a week or so on a comic that I think needs me to sing it's praises to whoever might accidentally land here and feel like listening because it might not be catching enough eyes on the shelf...

So here's my secret origin, so you'll know who is trying to get you to spend your hard earned bit coins.

My name's Douglas and I very recently moved to an small, rural eastern Kentucky town.  And that is the nicest way of saying I'm easily more than an hour away from... just about anything and anyone I have any kind of relationship with aside from my wife and my 3 little girls.

Long origin story short:  My wife was offered a position at a local College, hidden away in a virtual Mayberry, as a Professor and a Librarian.  It was a College we have both always held in very high esteem for it's commitment to providing social mobility to those who would be unable to afford it so it was just an impossible opportunity to pass up.  It's a pretty awesome place to be a part of and I'm really proud of her.  It's also hands-down where we want our three little girls to go to college.

As an added bonus, I was also able to transfer and pursue my Criminology degree at a much more prestigious University with a great Criminal Justice program.  It was a no-brainer.

So as a side-effect of that move, I've ended up leaving my local comic shop, and all my nerdy comic book and movie film freak friends behind.  And it's rough.  ROUGH.  I'm the kid with nowhere and nobody to sit with in the lunchroom of life here now.

These girls I live with just don't seem to care about my views on Prometheus or how badass Brandon Graham is at writing / drawing Prophet.  They don't "get it" when I describe how Ready Player One was sent from the future to kill my bookshelf boredom.  They just don't care.

I've been reading comics regularly since I was 4 or 5 years old.  I don't think it's a habit I'm capable of breaking or one that I'd want to break... ever.  But part of the fun is sharing and discussing all the awesome tidbits, the ephemera, the minutia of it all.  And I've officially lost my comic book support group.

That's where this blog comes in... A HEROIC DOSE of all the things I think are badass and deserving of attention.  And an excuse to talk about it.

Hope to see you around, and make sure to subscribe!