SCC's Comics Talk

Ratings out of 5 stars. Mainstream comics available at Absolute Comics.    Mary Wept Over The Feet of Jesus Story/Art: Chester Brown Drawn & Quarterly The only comic you need to read this year. Chester Brown returns after Paying For It (about being a john and the pros of you know, paying for it) and you got to admire his one-track mind on prostitution. He makes a strong argument for it and now he brings out the big guns. It’s alright because the good book and the big man say so. Chester is a religious man in an unconventional way. These are old stories retold but he gets into the psychology of the situation, like why Cain is so unhappy. And Job is really pissed off. Art-wise, Chester is playing with the form without playing with it. Simply brilliant. Have fun reading the detailed notes which make up the last third...

Ratings out of 5 stars.   Providence Story: Alan Moore Art: Jacen Burrows Avatar Those who said Alan Moore is a spent force have no idea what they are talking about. The warlock has just started his sixth decade on this earth and the recent stuff is phenomenal. Many found Neonomicon disturbing and disgusting, but it’s some of the most fascinating stuff I’ve ever read. And scary to the balls. Providence is the sequel and prequel to that and there is more HP Lovecraft sh*t going down here – fishmen, incest, rape and murder. This hardcover collects issue 1 to 4 and is limited to 6,666 copies. (6.66 stars) Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic World of Jack Kirby Edited and with an Introduction by Charles Hatfield and Ben Saunders IDW/California State University, Northridge Art Galleries I have waiting to get my hands on this book since I read about the exhibition...

Ratings out of 5 stars. Mainstream comics courtesy of Absolute Comics (Plaza Singapura).   Patience Story/Art: Daniel Clowes Jonathan Cape The first all-new Dan Clowes story in over half a decade. Expectations are high here and I grab it from the shelves once it hit our shores. The story – love, regrets, and… time-traveling? 20pages into the story (total 178 pages), we jump to 2029 and things get really weird. It’s not quite what we expected. But what do we expect? More Ghost World, David Boring, The Death Ray, Ice Haven, Wilson and Mister Wonderful? You realized most of these stories were originally serialized in Eightball. So it’s time for Clowes to move on and tell whatever stories he want. Patience is it. And it is worth the wait. It’s weird, wacky and really life-affirming if you want it to be. Go buy!!! (4 stars) Back to the Future #6 Story:...

Ratings out of 5 stars. Mainstream comics courtesy of Absolute Comics (Plaza Singapura). Shipment only came in on Thursday this week. Through the Habitrails: Life Before and After My Career in the Cubicles Story/Art: Jeff Nicholson Dover One of the big comic news of last year was that Dover has entered the graphic novels market. What they did was to pick up titles that have gone out of print and reissued them. This has given many lost classics a fresh breathe of life. Through the Habitrails by Jeff Nicholson is one such seminal title. Jeff Nicholson is one of the pioneers of small press comics that no one has heard about. He started self-publishing in the early 1980s, drawing a parody of the Ulraman TV series called Ultra Klutz. He had enough bad experience in the small press that he did Jeff Nicholson’s Small Press Tirade (1989). The anger is seething,...

Ratings out of 5 stars. Shipment was delayed to Saturday, 12 March. Comics couresy of Absolute Comics (Plaza Singapura).   Dr Strange #6 Story: Jason Aaron Art: Chris Bachalo Marvel Dr Strange #1 was an impressive debut. The same creative team of Aaron and Bachalo continues and this issue marks the start of The Last Days of Magic crossover. The mysterious force known as the Empirikul have arrived on Earth to destroy all magic and mystical landmarks. Number one on their hit list is the Sorcerer Supreme. Others going down: Dr Voodoo, Scarlet Witch and Shaman, etc. Bachalo’s art has evolved over the years. For this series, he has adapted a style that reminiscent of Frank Miller and Mike Mignola. There is a backup story in this issue drawn by Mike Deodato and the story will continue in the Dr Strange: Last Days of Magic one-shot and the regular Dr Strange...

Ratings out of 5 stars. Shipment was delayed till Saturday because of bad weather in the US. The mainstream stuff are available at Absolute Comics (Plaza Singapura).   Broken Frontier Editors: Frederick Hautain and Tyler Chin-Tanner A Wave Blue World Lots of comics coming out on Kickstarter now, even though they eventually get published with Image. We first heard about the Broken Frontier anthology last year and it’s finally out. The good thing if you have funded this, is that you get the digital version first. This was sent to us two weeks ago – the traffic to download it was so heavy that it was suspended temporarily. But it is worth the wait. Broken Frontier started out as a web comic magazine in 2002 by editor-in-chief, Frederick Hautain. Later, it became a physical magazine edited  by Andy Oliver but that folded in 2014. Now, Hautain is back to co-edit this...

Shipment was delayed and only came on Thursday. Ratings out of 5 stars. The mainstream stuff are available at Absolute Comics (Plaza Singapura).   Second Sight #1 Story: David Hine Art: Alberto Ponticelli AfterShock Comics I’ve been looking forward to this new baby by David Hine. The British writer tells one hell of a ghastly story. Check out his cult book, Strange Embrace and his adaptation of Victor Hugo’s The Man Who Laughs. Second Sight is about Ray Palmer, a psychic who can see bad things happening. He calls it ‘remote viewing’. 20 years ago after his first sighting, he is divorced, his ex-wife had taken out a restraining on him, his daughter is running a blog exposing society’s elites and getting into trouble. For the life of me, I don’t know why he has the same name as the Atom, but Ray looks like the burnt out hippie who runs...

Ratings out of 5 stars. The mainstream books are available at Absolute Comics (Plaza Singapura). It’s the CNY weekend, go read more and something different.   Rosalie Lightning Story/Art: Tom Hart St Martin’s Press The death of a child – the most devastating book you will read this year. People have been talking about Rosalie Lightning and it will be in 2016 year’s end lists. But the accolades are secondary. It is the well of emotions that is evoked in you when you painfully turn the pages that you will remember. I didn’t know Tom Hart is married to Leela Corman. I didn’t know they named their child after a Brian Eno song. I didn’t know she died before she turned two. In December 2000, I spent a cold winter month in NYC and interviewed cartoonists, and how hard it was to make it there as an artist. The opening chapters...