New Volume Of Public Domain Deepens, Enriches Tale Of Competing Creators
By Dan Brown Out this month, the second volume of Chip Zdarsky’s Public Domain graphic novel is a rare thing. It’s a sophomore collection that enriches the storyline of an ongoing comic series, putting the characters in new and surprising situations. Subtitled Build Something New, it grabbed my attention, then left me wanting more.If you haven’t checked it out, Public Domain tells the story of two aging comic creators.One, the writer, is lionized by fans of pop culture who adore him at comic conventions. The other, the artist, is held in high regard by comic purists but got shafted after helping to create an enduring character that has spawned a multimedia empire, including big-screen adaptations. If that sounds like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to you, that’s because it’s supposed to. Here the Lee figure is the crusty Jerry Jasper and the Kirby equivalent is Syd Dallas. The launching point for the first volume, collecting the initial four issues of Public Domain, was something like, “What if Jack Kirby had got legal control of the characters he drew for Marvel Comics in the 1960s?” Like Lee, Jasper’s talents as a scribe are questionable and his true talent is self-promotion. Like Kirby, Dallas was an influential artist but doesn’t get enough props for the pioneering work he did back in the day. A superhero named the Domain is the duo’s most famous creation. When the series begins, the Domain is the centrepiece of the Singular Comics empire, which includes any number of slick, special-effects driven motion pictures. The face of the actor who plays him is plastered on billboards, buses, you name it. The fact Dallas is forgotten except by the most diehard fans doesn’t sit well with his two sons. After a legal knife fight, Dallas gets the rights to produce Domain comics back, and having missed most of their childhood because he was metaphorically chained to the drawing table, Dallas wants to make the return of his Domain to the printed page a family affair. This leads to a situation that would have delighted many real-life comic fans: Both creators can publish their own versions of the character. In Build Something New, the reader sees the beginnings of a fresh battle, as the former partners prepare to go head-to-head. The second volume goes way beyond the initial premise. The story deepens, broadens, and gets even richer. As in the first Public Domain anthology, there are many twists, almost every one unanticipated by me – which I love. Zdarksy, a Canadian artist/writer, is firing on all cylinders here. His art is economical. His dialogue is lively. The established characters are well on their way to being fully fleshed out, so he introduces interesting new ones. Part of this volume takes place in the 1980s, and those segments had a melancholy-yet-energetic feel that, for whatever reason, reminded me of the flashbacks in the landmark DC series, Watchmen. And even though Public Domain was inspired by actual comics history, Zdarsky keeps the industry in-jokes to a minimum. If you’re at all interested in stories about the people behind the superheroes you love, you should read this new graphic novel. In fact, do yourself a favour: Get BOTH volumes of this engrossing series – the one just published and the previous collection as well. You’ll thank me. 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.
