Graphic-novel Gift Guide
By Dan Brown I love giving (and getting) graphic novels and comics at Christmas! As you’re shopping for family and friends this festive season, I’ve got some suggestions on which books to get the different people who made your list. Check it out! For the newbie graphic-novel reader: I would recommend a starter pack of Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns and Maus. Released at roughly the same moment in the 1980s, these are the foundational graphic novels – along with Will Eisner’s A Contract With God – that showed comics could be taken seriously. For the superhero fan: I would give this person Irredeemable from Boom! Studios. Written by Mark Waid, it takes a look at what happens when an all-powerful hero in the mold of Superman goes off the rails. For the fan of Canadiana: Maurice Vellekoop’s I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together is a gay coming-of-age story set in Toronto and includes a lot of history about the queer community in the Big Smoke. There’s also Kate Beaton’s Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, set in Alberta’s Oil Patch. For the fan of local talent: Derek Laufman has books like Bot 9 and The Witch of Wickerson for kids, plus titles such as Crimson Fall: The Shore Tower for mature readers. He recently published the first issue of The Rats of Ironwood and has taken over art duties on Skottie Young’s I Hate Fairyland series. A Byron resident, Laufman is as local (and as good a creator) as it gets. For the fan of overlooked gems: Get this person on your list anything Mouse Guard, Londoner Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Seconds, or Southwestern Ontario native Jeff Lemire’s The Nobody, the latter of the three being a re-telling of the H.G. Wells novel The Invisible Man in a small town. For the history buff: Maybe I’m in the minority, but I had not heard of Eadweard Muybridge, the pioneering photographer who was also involved in one of the most notorious murder trials of the 1800s, until Quebec graphic novelist Guy Delisle published this biography. A fascinating character whose story is told in a fascinating way. You could also try Scott Chanter’s Two Generals, about the D-Day invasion told from the perspective of two Canadian grunts. For the political buff: Are You Willing to Die for the Cause? is the first of a two-volume history of the FLQ, the separatist terrorists who are portrayed by veteran cartoonist Chris Oliveros as a bunch of stumblebums. For the art lover: I came relatively late to Dean Motter’s Mister X. Check out Mister X: The Archives or Mister X: The Modern Age, with its glorious retro look, billed as “a fusion of film noir, Art Deco and German Expressionism.” All of those elements combine to make a comic that will live in your imagination for a long time. And Los Bros Hernandez worked on some of the early issues of this Canadian classic! For the lover of the printed word: Anything, really, by Hamilton’s Joe Ollmann. If you want a starting point, try some of his short graphica, for instance Happy Stories About Well-Adjusted People. If you like what you read, move on to Fictional Father and The Abominable Mr. Seabrook. Don’t get me wrong, I love Joe’s art, too, but there are few comic creators whose voice comes through as clearly as Ollmann’s does. For the one who loved this summer’s Superman movies: The James Gunn film was based on a number of storylines, including All-Star Superman, Superman For All Seasons and Superman: Birthright. If you can find a compilation of John Byrne’s 1980s run on Superman, this person on your list will likely enjoy that one, too. For the one who loved The Fantastic Four: First Steps this summer: The Essential Fantastic Four Volumes 1-5 were the source material for this movie, with its retro-futuristic look. The new motion picture was dedicated to artist Jack Kirby, and these five volumes contain his entire influential run on the title with Stan Lee. For the one who is looking forward to Avengers: Doomsday next year: See my Fantastic Four recommendations. Also the Essential Super-Villain Team-Up Volume 1 and the individual issue The Invincible Iron Man No. 150 – in which Doctor Doom faces off against Iron Man. For the music fan: Scott Chantler’s Bix, Rush: The Making of a Farewell to Kings and David Collier’s Topp: Promoter Gary Topp Brought us the World. For the person who’s impossible to buy for: Why, a gift certificate, of course! So that’s it for my suggestions for this year. Are there any graphic novels/comics you are giving this year, or hoping to see under the tree? Let me know in the comments! Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 32 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
Here’s a Bunch of Mini-Reviews
By Dan Brown Here’s the lowdown on a stack of comics I bought recently. There’s no logic to the choices, other than each cover struck my fancy while I was browsing the new-releases wall at L.A. Mood. Fantastic Four No. 29: Perhaps I have a case here to sue Marvel for bait-and-switch. I picked this one based on the cover, which promises an out-of-continuity tale answering the question, “What if . . . Mickey & friends became the Fantastic Four?” I was intrigued by the idea of Goofy switching places with the ever-loving Thing. As it turns out, it was a variant cover. Instead, I got a Ryan North/Cory Smith joint titled The Dream Team about Doctor Doom taking over . . . everything. This looks to be Marvel’s event series this summer, One World Under Doom, and I applaud the House of Ideas for taking this one on, if only because they are going to get so much blowback from Trump fans claiming it’s a metaphor for the current situation in the U.S. The FF goes to bat for the downtrodden . . . who in this case are vampires left over from the previous event series. Doctor Doom & Rocket Raccoon No. 1: I love the movie Rocket more than the comic Rocket, so in my mind I read his dialogue in Bradley Cooper’s voice. I haven’t read a J. Michael Straczynski-penned story in a long time, and this one is long on philosophy, short on action. Doom partners with the genetically engineered rodent to help him delve into the origins of . . . everything. Essentially, the Latverian ruler wants to travel back in time to a time before time. That is, before the Big Bang. I give Doom props for recognizing that a lowly raccoon is almost his mental equal. And one page features a Jack Kirby-esque collage, which is a bonus. What do they discover in preshistory? “The purpose of the universe is to understand the purpose of the universe.” It’s one of them paradoxes. Godzilla vs. Fantastic Four No. 1: This is easily the best-illustrated issue among my purchases, featuring John Romita Jr. art based on a Ryan North script. Marvel takes the existing Marvel continuity and fuses it with the Toho storyline, as happened with the original Marvel series about the fire-breathing unfrozen dinosaur. Reed even tips his hat to Dr. Daisuke Serizawa’s oxygen destroyer in the opening panels. One cool concept in this issue sees Godzilla foe King Ghidorah taking on the power cosmic in his role of herald of Galactus. And yes, it’s all leading up to an eventual battle between the Tokyo-demolisher and the world-devourer. Godzilla Heist No. 1: If you’re a fan of Godzila, this is truly an awesome time to be alive because you can read about him in more than one company’s comics. This IDW-published series reads sort of like what would happen if Quentin Tarantino directed a kaiju flick. As powerful as Godzilla is, here his rampages are just a massive distraction for a ring of human thieves who, naturally, don’t know which one of them might betray the others.The story begins with the big G destroying a casino, which is certainly one way to make sure the authorities don’t pay attention to your scheme to plunder their treasures. Godzilla vs. Chicago One Shot: As part of the Godzilla vs. America series, local creators get a stab at fitting Godzilla into their own community’s neighbourhoods, politics, and culture. Also part of IDW’s current offerings, it’s really just an excuse to pay tribute to old-school comic sound effects such as:Dong donk!Zang!Zong!Choom!Fwomp! Fwooosh! Shreeonk!What can I say? I know what I like. Daring the Sun No. 2 by Forest City creator Scott Brian Woods: Called Crash Down, this tale of an astronaut traveling through the heart of a sun is “inspired by imagination comics of the past, science fiction, and a deep love of old-school adventure, sci-fi fantasy space operas.” The Kirby Crackle on the opening splash page jumped out at me, and the drawing on the back cover shows the pilot in a Flash Gordon-esque outfit with an old-school raygun. Somehow, he is connected to a warrior named Vala, who fends off dinosaur-like aliens in a barren landscape. If you like classic George Lucas intercutting, you will love the structure of this piece, ending naturally with a cliffhanger. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 10th Anniversary Special No. 1: I don’t know how, exactly, Lunell Lafayette got a hold of the ultimate nullifier, but it’s one of the items she brings to her surprise 10th birthday party in New York. A back-of-the-book story flashes forward to when Moon Girl has grown into Moon Woman, and she visits Earth from the orbiting satellite. Senior Marvel Editor Mark Paniciccia says the series has lasted a decade because “it’s inspired young readers to embrace their individuality and believe in their potential.” Or maybe they just really like to groove on the blood-red T-Rex who is Moon Girl’s constant companion. What comics or graphic novels have you been reading lately? I’d love to hear about it in the comment box below! Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 32 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
