Mr. Miracle (12 ish miniseries by Tom King) letter

Miracle Workers:

Mr. Miracle once again escapes the fetters of the market and graces DC pages! Wahoo! And, it has been a loooong time since I got a Mr. Miracle that I really liked. Thanks Mr.s King and Gerad. By the by, if Gerad ever gets sick of Mr. Miracle, don’t hesitate to give Derrington interiors; his covers are right in style for the slick costume and regality of New Gods stories.

I got in late, but caught up quick and I am really impressed with the design.  On one hand, I was concerned and heard comments to the effect, “I don’t want to spend twelve issues with no splashpage, long phone sequences, and little action.”

Ok, legitimate gripe. So, let’s take to some Gary Groth style critique. What works overall? Gerad’s work would benefit from a larger scale, but the panels are almost always clear, fully detailed, and render costumes and coloring that seem fitting to superhero comics tradition and New Genesis, Apokolips and Earth. Mr. Gerad, you are a hardworking man. It is obvious that by doing pencils, inks, and colors, you have a tremendous amount of control and have made what could have been tedium into something that reads well without oversimplification. Even your textures help by differentiating battle action and rest.

As for Mr. King’s writing; all my comic geek friends have been raving about your Superman and Batman, and I was curious how you’d treat my favorite hero. I am fully satisfied.  While you include much of Giffen’s near silly elements of the Barda-Scott relationship, you also allow for the grim nobility of their grinding ubiquitous war with Darkseid. #2’s opening sequence, with its increasing “jump-cuts” raises the stakes above the petty day-to-day that tends to drain the heroic from Mr. Miracle. The death of Highfather, and later, Orion, will be difficult to resolve in future New Gods materials, although, we all know and realize that DC owns these characters, so no one ever dies. As per “the trinity”, “He’s dead”, “You of all people should know that doesn’t mean anything.” I really enjoyed Orion as Highfather, but Scott Free now has something new to escape.

I was unsure of the nine-panel page design, expecting tedium.  And getting it. But what is the effect? It measures the time, moment by moment, a purposeful tedium that suggests and unending war, the wearing effect of continuous battle that grinds at Scott and Barda’s relationship, supercedes earthly conflicts and creates an eternal background for the New Gods. The aforementioned #2 opening sequences set the grim mood that informs even the lightest moments that follow. The sequence of Barda and Scott moving through the traps of Apokalips, while suggestive of  video games, added a bit of humor while recognizing the characters recognition of necessary duty. Ironically, Barda works most of the escapes. The layout works especially well in the treaty meeting scenes between Kalibak, a unique choice for a diplomat, and Scott where, again, the tedium reminds us just how difficult such discussions must be.

I would have enjoyed a few large splash pages, some release from the march, but still an audacious choice. You can get away with it in a miniseries better than an ongoing. Won’t keep me from getting the last two. All in all, I have thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Miracle so far.  Can’t wait to see how Scott doesn’t kill Darkseid! ‘Cuz you can’t.

We’ll see.

Griffin Mauser

Griffin.mauser@gmail.com

Kamandi Challenge Letter

Griffin Mauser

908 Stoneoak ln

78745

Kamandi-ers:

So here I am at the end of the Kamandi Challenge; one issue left, and by the time you read this, I will have read it. What do I love so far? Kamandi’s pride, independence, perseverance, sense of justice and fairness; animal men with their own naïve societies; monsters, ruins and ruined human survivors.

Each issue is a treat, a fun sort of game, and that is great, but, soon, there will be no more Kamandi. There is so much to explore here in an ongoing title!

The challenge strikes Kamandi on the nose in much of its content.  I like Kamandi’s naivete and childishness; he is, after all, a child that has, in a way, been indulged then released into a nonsensical world.  He will have learned and inculcated human values but will have the pride and patience of a youth. But Kamandi needs more consistency than was available in the challenge as well. I want Kamandi to have noble values and to struggle to maintain those standards in the face of almost universal prejudice.

And how topical is the blue-eyed blond-haired white male suddenly upended into the bottom of society with all of his sense of entitlement, but stripped of even the hope of being treated specially. The tough question is, who can write so that Kamandi retains both its absurdity and humor while using it as a commentary on our own societies? I don’t know, but I do know who I would most like to see on the series: Steve Rude! While the other teams had so much going for ‘em that I won’t even go into it, Rude’s art was the most fun! His simplicity points up the four-color feel of Kamandi’s high adventure.

Here’s the plan: Pick teams like for SuperBatman, explore the societies of the animal men and meet new ones, any cargo-cults based on human artefacts, and keep all the craziness of the challenge, but let’s see Kamandi with a clear set of values and beliefs, have them continuously challenged by this new world, see him humbled again and again while refusing to compromise. When and arc ends, send in a new team.

We have the rest of the world, Ben Boxer and company, mutations, ruins, the whole cataclysm to explain, come on, for ol’ Jack, can we get an ongoing Kamandi?

    Still reading,  

Griffin Mauser

Sherlock Frankenstein and the Legion of Evil 1-4 Letter

Mx.s Lemire and Rubin:

Well, damn.

How can i not like an entirely new universe, as complex and full of superheroes as any i have ever seen as i marvel like a detective over my comics.  Black Hammer has drawn me in! Between Lemire’s obvious love of superheroes and the weird tack he has taken, and Rubin’s devil-may-care approach, I cannot look away.

This is superteam tragedy in grand guignol style lit by David Rubin’s primitive, brutally comicky pencils, inks, and colors. It may not work for everybody, but it stirs up many years of love of superheroes.  And Mx. Rubin can assemble a page and maintain a reading flow through spirals, across the spine, and even in parallel without misdirected view. I spiralled right down into the lower depths of the asylum, followed him all the way across pages before returning left and saw Sherlock Frankenstein in Lucy’s imagination as she researches his disappearance. Love GrimJim’s Britney Spears tee and ChthuLou’s almost Eisner-Spirit sequences. Looks like Mx. Rubin likes himself some Paul Pope villains, too.

This is my favorite Lemire; poignant to tragic, traditional and weird, tropy yet original.  And funny; come on, Barbalien! Like Robert Kirkman, Lemire has imbued tired ideas with a fresh energy and a unique perspective.  

Gentles, you keep writing it, I’ll keep reading it.  And as long as you’re at it, keep Mx. Rubin around too!

Ok to Print: Seven to Eternity 1-9

Remember Remender?

Fear Agent

Black Science

Deadly Class

Damn. I wish I had more time to read comics, cause with Low, Crawl Space, and Tokyo Ghost on the shelf, you are too busy for me, Mr. Remender.

So then I sit down to finally catch up and go 1-9 on Seven to Eternity. I keep wanting to slide into familiar patterns of adventure team narratives, to settle on the slippery ethics of the surviving mosak, to figure out whether the Mud King’s is beguilement or pragmatism. Unnerving and I have no freaking idea where you intend to go with this baroque monster epic!

I’ll wait as long as it takes and be ready to fall down the well of Jerome Opena’s hyper-texturized linework, dramatic composition, and broad imagination with Matt Hollingsworths deep moody meticulous coloring that drags me like a slide through some surreal glowing cavern while the twisted spine of Remender’s tale bounces from philosophy to choreographed violence to arcane magic and familiar but skewed creatures and peoples, touching genres from spaghetti western, to cyberpunk to Shaw Brothers-- and the crazy paradox of non-compromise like a string of bare-bulbed lights in the ceiling of a mine. Down the Rabbit Hole.

Just for clarification, of the Seven, do you remember who heard an offer and who accepted an offer?

10’s coming in. I’m a’ waiting

Judge Dredd: Mega City Two #1 Memorandum

Griffin Mauser

Citizen Jury

Memorandum: Judge Dredd: Mega City Two #1

000001

 Wolk

 Farinas

 Hill

 Long

 Tipton

 Wood

Gentle Citizens:

Regarding Judge Dredd: Mega City Two #1

I could not be more delighted! I like this Dredd: no sarcasm, all the tough and a Mega City straight out of Luc Besson! I think you have hit the judge in the lawgiver!

Judge Dredd in a second Mega City, similarly gigantic and overwhelming but with a vastly different philosophy toward the law.  This is gonna be great! What seems crazy is that Dredd will perform exactly as expected within the law and this new city will turn out to be much like home, at least as it applies to Joe and his job.  And, even better, he’s going undercover (I don’t remember him ever doing so before)! I can hear the gravel in his voice; Joe talks as he should, his tone, his patterns, the essence of Eastwood and Keitel. And he’s serious. He is the straightman.  Back in DC’s Legends of the Law, Joe Dredd actually made the only sarcastic remark I have read. I had to quit reading it. Dredd is never sarcastic; this is why when he tells a perp, “report to the iso-cubes”, perps do. It’s Dredd’s world that obfuscates, exaggerated and threatens.  Dredd is the axis of the law and never moves. I like what you’re doing!

Farinas is in his element it seems; if he has half as much fun drawing this stuff as I have reading it, I’m sure he feels a little guilty.  From his Darrowesque splash page (Mr. F, I have seen every line and read every sign) to closeups, Farinas controls the detail to match the shot.  Not afraid to draw a characters, hm thirty-two characters in that frame, but not married to crowds or detail. Sequences of plot are simple and straightforwardly presented without seeming empty and just around the corner will be another slice of frenetic Mega-City pie! And it’s just gonna get better! Already Farina’s figures are more individual than his beautiful work on Catalyst. And so much more to see!

Hill’s color work manages to create the garish decadence of Mega City Two without losing the signal in the noise.  Deft manipulation of a screaming loud palette, use of tonal gradations, and special effects like the flashback and television “filters” evoke the garish color of the old Eagle books, shows off Farina’s linework and makes perfect visual sense.

Citizen Tipton, please maintain the Dredd characterization, continue the historical and literary information about the Dredd books.  I now have an idea how much Dredd I want to find. IDW has impressed me with its respect for and dedication to existing properties. You guys really take the high road with your works and it shows.  Thanks for bringing such a good Dredd back to the table.

So there you are guys, All you have to do now is get even better.  Don’t screw it up!

Citizen Griffin Mauser

Mega City Weird

Austin Texas

HM287MusicLetter

Cum on Feel the Joys, Boys, its Heavy Metal Magazine’s Music Special!

Mega Concert featuring DJGrantMorrison and stadium liners Motley Crue, Nine Inch Nails, Rob Zombie, et al, and our man Morrison, his own mojo, dishing art and story and lyric and we drink it like mead. Kaboom! Sure it’s an easy sell! Sure you hit it on the head.

I got the concert cover and thought Engs mass ritual was pretty great (you guys watched Metalocalypse? Sure ya have), and the freind of Eddy in Riggs’ “Robot Death” seemed de riguer, like a kick ass tee! Robb Jones’ “Delilah” felt really fresh and new! Funny and musical over in a Marilyn Manson, NIN kinda way!

In each of this months offerings, excepting the excellent and continuing Inki Bilal, offered and individual interpretation of how to represent lyric narrative and Morrison obviously knows what he is doing as we could not have easily gotten such a broad range of expression without some kind of talent and resource.  I felt the furry threat and loss of identity of In Flames’ magickal apocalypse, “When the World Explodes”, smashed the Christmas Tree Ornament 80’s into splinters with Motley Crue’s “Wild Side”, thrilled to the epic savagery of Ozzy Osborne’s comic book destruction, shivered in existential angst through Vamps’ “Calling”, rolled with the post-punk brutality of Hollywood Undead’s “Origins”, lost myself in Boneface’s Gallery, tortured my own muse over Marilyn Manson’s rarified and erudite “Coma White”, revelled in Zombie’s “Living Dead Girl”, became subsumed by grudging determination in “The Way Out is Through/ In the Hills, the Cities”and indignant rage through Gojira’s “Shooting Star”!

I had a great time!

Thanks Gents! BadAss Show!

Griffin, like the monster.

HM288WeirdLetter

Hot Damn so F’n HM!

Uh. mm.

Weirdos:

288 the best expression of themes so far! Make it a regular! I mean, come on, wierd is our little sister around here and already describes half the metal fare, but, standouting! Made me shiver!

Ya see, at first i was confused cause my cover was a reprint of Death Dealer; i was delighted immediately, but it wasn’t weird. Shark Toofs sharks over a forest fire qualifies and who doesn’t love to see a Shark Toof? Well, not me.  Juxtaposed with HM, ya get a sense of each. But its Natalie Shau issue Queen Wierd: Choice gallery! Teasing innocent and darkly unreal indefinable threat. Its a “bondage cover” and utterly unique.

“House of Hearts Desire”--weird magicky--appreciate the brutal and splintered affect that zip-tone itch. About as weird, “The Bleeding” Bisley’s agonized anatomies, saturated color, and texture make everything he does intriguing. Feed him good stories!

“HELLRAISER: The Test” is standard weird; and PinHead gets all the good lines.  Enjoyed Torres’ realism and detail; its clinicality makes HELLRAISER’s creepy, eerie, weird.

Corben almost always creeps me out, so weird is just a happy accident for you guys on  Murky World (remember Bowzer and Hard John Apple’s Nuclear Hit Parade?)

Weird recipe: start with Peach Momoko! Bring on some psychedelia, asian compositions, concepts, contexts in HM like a hypo in the eye and then let us swim in the graceful narrative “Shaman Himiko”. Creepy Weird--Strangely Compelling.

“Mouth Baby”

Damn, that hurt my belly; King Crown Weird! Repulsed, Engrossed, Overwhelmed, by stark spare pallet and image wielded like brass knuckles over every expectation, dizzying braiding gender-tropes, trippy humor, contained chaos of ideas and deeply cynical, though practically realistic, conclusions. That Shit is Weird.

That’s the way to edit Heavy Metal, Mr. Morrison! These are the issues I wait for!

Griffin like the monster, Mauser like the gun

HM286 Magick Letter

Oh Hi Priests Hurlant:

Yahoo! Frank Frazetta! Though I most liked the Atomahawk cover, who can complain about Frazetta, especially with the little tidbit regarding this painting inside!

Overall, the Magick Special is a solid issue, though starkly divided between thematic works and the ongoing elements.  I like the rough and brutal stylizings of Lighting the Way and The 1000 Deaths of Harry Houdini. While I thoroughly  enjoyed both tales, Oeming and Soma take this issues prize for most interesting plot. A Magician and a Wooden Box’ blend of killer creation tropes and Eastern European marionette tradition was a welcome return to familiar horror while managing to twist one more variation on a theme.

Herald, one of the less magick tales, still fit well within the Heavy Metal fare we are used to with its own brand of weirdness. Diego Agrimbau and Martin Tunica produce the best short piece in 286, Air. A spare pallette, minimal line work, and a tight plot create a punchy bit of progressive HM scifi; keep these guys around for more.

Didn’t really care about Clive Barker’s works, but I did like the Ars Goetia with its attenuated narrative, and I continue to enjoy Atomahawk, Zentropa, Lil’ Charlie and The Smile of the Absent Cat, especially Gerhard's homage to all the toon cats in pop culture. This work really has a different feel than most of HM and I am glad you included it, if only as evidence that HM is about more than titties.

The Sword of God is what really turned me on! Like some gorgeous Corben and painting in smoke, Edgar Clement has gotten my attention and I can’t wait to see what new imagery comes in the next installment.  With any luck, this interesting introduction will pay off in more gorgeous images and a fine tale.

Acolyte Griffin, like the monster

            Mauser, like the gun

HM285LoveLetter

Beloved Hurlers:

The Love Issue: oolala!

My darlings since 1979, with me so rockily, here and gone, but always subscribed together, you offer me formally your love. Yes, Heavy Metal, I love you right back.  Kinda like Grant Morrison, too. Anyway, I got the Florian Bertmer andman, it was the sweetest of frosting on my Valentines cupcake. Amazing texture, line control, all that fine detail regimented into negative space. Absolutely beautiful; and then i go inside the content page and almost cry ‘cause i couldn’t have James Jean as well. So Suhweet!

Let the grand romance guignol, the love slaughter, begin with the torturer, Liberatore! Thank you, thank you, thank you, what a treat. “The Lure” renews an springboard from monster comics and still manages to twist the ending in unexpected and empowering trajectories. Dean Haspiel plays Berni Wrightson for “Frankenstein Unrequited” and spanks it into topical modernity (He can do anything). Baldo’s “Happily Ever After” really wasn’t so much, eh. Makes me think of Wally Wood. Human love sucks. Heavy Metal love rumbles. Ooooo, rumbles.

Ok, Gutt Ghost is funny. He’s Everyman, only dead, and a ghost, with guts hanging out.

Both galleries seemed to seek out unusual artists and succeeded.  Ruben’s LP made me want to paint the walls of my house; Brandon Chiesa’s work evoked victorian storytelling, Asian pop, and cyberpunk with a woody charm with bubblegum overtones. And James Jean is the single most sensual painter I see; his figures seem fluffily soft and increasingly difficult to resolve with the apparent eroticism, alienation, and incongruity of the contents. I could look at this all day.

“Sword of God” and “Herald” don’t fit theme so well as they present worthy objects for attention. Clements smoky gold, silver and ash images caress my mythbone (stop it) and make my imagination sing.  Grebol and Piriz offer a welcome tale of “future-noia” and I expect to see more of them.

I see you being all meta in “Mythopia”, and, while that was pretty easy Mr. Morrison, don’t let me stop you from plugging in these smaller bits. Belanger and Estevez create a very retro feel, like Bashki’s Wizards. Got any more?

Gerhard! In Heavy Metal? Whodathunkit? Morrison, that’s who.  I am so pleased with The Smile of the Absent Cat! Gerhard needs to have pages out there; this work is so textured and tonal its interactive.  It feels like its drawn on papyrus in my eyes. And what a match for the story! Nice choice; which came first? Story or artist? Can’t wait to see more!

Still riding that Salsa Invertebrata-, Atomahawk-, Inki-Bilal-triple-threader-train; well balanced issue, and i felt the love.  

Griffin, like the monster

Mauser, like the gun

HM284MythicLetter

Great Hurling Metal!

Thanks Grant Morrison and Heavy Metal for kickin’ energy into good ole HM! I am loving the multiple covers, though wanna see em all in the mag so i can compare immediately! I’m a stubborn subscriber! I got Taarna! And lovin the new swag at the website; that huge Kirby all-over and the cover contest entries! Finally, lots of great tees at HM.

Yessir, Savage Sword of Jesus Christ! Yahoo! Man, that was some hard work; taboo obliteration in the tradition of “stradivarius” HM. Guess I will have to buy it. Peter Mohrbacher’s “Binah” departed from plain ole tattooed and pierced babes into wierd and evocative images.

I didn’t want to like Atomahawk, but I was wrong. I forgot how Heavy Metal this is. Everytime I see it I am reminded, wait, this is really heavy metal. Ready for act 3.

I loved Taarna in the first film; and her Arzach-like world in a few HM by Moebius. I am eager to see where De Campi, Parker, and O’grady go. I always enjoy the decadence of worlds Taarna visits; filled will disgusting villains who can be destroyed in good conscience. That’s fantasy.
Well, you guys hit all the nails. Drive em in.

Zentropa. You pissed me off, ‘cause I really like the atmosphere, the movement, the metallic glowing pallet, layers of image, illusion, and page breaking in sparse yet generous detail. Its like candy. But dey ain’t no narrative to speak of. When I went back and read the authors intro, I figgered, ok, I will wait it out; I was just being stubborn. Eventually, there will be an end. Its like waiting for Inki Bilal stories to materialize; worth waiting for. Besides, its classic HM to make such an offering. Keep up the strategy.

Salsa Invertebrata is another slow burn; I am intrigued, the poetry in simple elegant verse, softly informational, but it romances the creatures here into knights, warriors, acrobats, strongmen, and we are listening to our bard-guide through the small underworld of Salsa Invertebrata.  I can tell it’s going somewhere, so gimme, gimme!

Maybe not so much mythic as terrific horror considering these three stories! Dean Haspiel’s kind of a Lon Chaney of graphic narrative, his work adjusts to lend tone and texture while remaining uniquely Haspiel; Bruce Timm does it, Michael Oeming. I like the spare pallets and dry brush that energizes and animates Hall’s tale of despair that could just have easily ended up in Creepy or Eerie.  “Snow Blind” sounds like it came straight out of Bill-Gaines-style springboards; great textures, classic story setup! Finally, Jok’s “The Rabbi” coarse stylization and almost Moebian line deliver with a minimalist pallet.

So, spectacular taboo-breaking, short vs long, really Heavy Metal, compelling wierdness and EC comics! Lovely! See you in HM285!

Griffin, like the monster

Mauser, like the gun

HM289ScifiLetter

Mr. Morrison et al;

Re: HM 289

Oh I love seeing a magazine in the mailbox; that’s HM! And I was giddy about and greedy to read this scifi special. I like the themes you’ve been using; seems to add a bit of energy to the work that you select.  I got the “The Artist” cover (keep including alternate cover images in the TOC!) and was pleased to see the regulation science-fiction-fantasy pinup girl, though my favorite was the Rob Shields, like Patrick Nagel and Jamie Hewlett had a baby. The “Same Old Fears” cover, with its great blank robot head makes a uniquely powerful impact as well.

My three favorites this ish are Escorza and Moreci’s “The Door”, Goodenough’s and Oliver’s “Chimeran”, and Tony Leonard’s “The Womb”.  Classic Hurling Metal fare!

Pure paranoia reigns in “The Door” made claustrophobic by industrial detail and surreal draftsmanship. Eager to see more! “Chimeran”, with its soft-edged forms, felt warm and human, and all the more poignant. But the energy, power, and fire of “The Womb” top out this offering! Tony Leonard brings a Romita-esque texture to a story with the same mythic impulse as Druillet’s “Lone Sloane”! Big, like Kirby! Gigantic full-bleed pages of saturated color, intense, electric linework creates overwhelming chaos, power, and violence in Leanord’s legend.  Let’s see some more of that!

After going back to “Animalz” and “Julia and Roem” over and over to figure out what the hell is Enki Bilal doing, I was glad to see the stories begin to converge with “The Color of Air”.  Reading Bilal is like reading manga, sometimes you feel you have no idea what’s going on, so you go back, you research the web, and sure enough, it’s exactly what it seemed like. So, alright, this is really heating up now, been a slow burn so far, but I am bated for next installment.

Keep Richard Corben working, especially horror.  He is always welcome to my tastes! “Murky World” is pretty typical output, but it’s still funny.  

Beeple’s moody, dark, subtly-referential work seems solidly within any scifi tradition with a refined sense of content that seems new and fresh but still connected to pulp scifi covers from forever.

Keep up the mix of one-shot, single-page, and installment stories; as long as there’s a balance the long stories are worth waiting for and the short peices are very satisfying and will hold me during that long dark teat time of the soul between issues.

I have two requests: first, can you publish or post an accurate listing of cover images and numbers? I’m one of us, and have been trying to catalog a complete run of HM. Can’t find a listing that matches my own books. Second, please put a lettercol back in the book. On the web, HM has no obvious social media sight for readers and editorial staff, and, of course, neither does the magazine.  Nothing like seeing your name in a message from Heavy Metal.

Griffin, like the Monster.

PS Could somebody look at reprinting Kirchner’s “The Bus”?