Tag Archives: vertigo comics

PUNK ROCK JESUS 6 REVIEW – The Power of Faith

Leave a reply

punk rock jesus 6 coverPUNK ROCK JESUS 6

WRITER & ARTIST: Sean Murphy
Publisher: Vertigo
Reviewer: Rob Patey (aka Optimous Douche – Ain’t It Cool News)

“The power of faith.”

I read PUNK ROCK JESUS 1-6 a few hours after Christmas Eve mass. As I traversed Murphy’s indictment of religion, reality TV and irresponsible science, the priest’s words prior to transubstantiation kept echoing in the back of mind. Murphy does a very clear job of reaffirming my belief in life as an agnostic, but he also made me finally understand the solace Mrs. Douche finds in the rituals laid forth by catholic dogma. Faith is not something seen, quantified or touched, it simply is. PUNK ROCK JESUS will test faith, but it also shows that perhaps faith is the road to salvation; it simply takes you on a myriad of blind paths before reaching your final destination.

A holy communion of characterization fuels this look at the day after tomorrow. The blood of the story that keeps the plot flowing over 19+ years is found in the clone that will never be king, Chris. Funded by corporate masters, the Ophis Channel, Chris is cloned from the Shroud of Turin and subsequently exploited for the masses in a Truman Story show called J2. The difference – at least Truman was allowed to believe he wasn’t being televised. Chris has no such luxury. The Eucharist, the substantive body of PUNK ROCK JESUS comes from Thomas McKael, the ex-IRA agent who serves as Chris’ protector and hired gun of the island on which J2 is filmed.  Even though the title is called PUNK ROCK JESUS, I would say this title is more Thomas’ journey versus the unexpected life of Mohawk Christ.

The overarching indictment on current society is a shot at my least favorite phenomenon in America today, reality-show induced celebrity. Chris’ mother is selected in an American Idol style audition tour-de-force. Once she is appropriately anorexic, bleached and teeth veneered, she is ready to be inseminated with DNA scraped off the most famous dinner napkin stain in history. Chris’ mother has no strong religious beliefs and no true qualifications for anything, other than a young fertile womb – you know, the same reason the Kardashian’s are famous. Murphy’s distrust of the corporate brain trust is self-evident from page one as we meet the anti-Christ, Rick Slate, an Ophis channel executive who is ready to exploit and manipulate the life of new Christ even before he’s born.  Is the DNA from the shroud or not?  The answer ultimately doesn’t matter, but in the early stages of J2 it’s essential to believe this for advertising revenue and the ratings that come from believes and non-believer vitriol.  There are many other indictments from cloning to global warming, but in the end all evil stems from our need to believe in is flase idols simply so we can believe in anything.

The new Jesus has no disciples in the traditional sense, but the cast of characters that raise and support him seem far more functional than the original Christ’s entourage. Sarah Epstein, the geneticist who wants to use her 30 pieces of silver from cloning Chris to create algae that saves the world is one and the ultimate heroin of the story if you need such black and white delineations. She also serves as a Mother figure to Chris after celebrity ultimately consumes his Mother’s soul. The aforementioned Thomas McKael is a Judas without the betrayal, he follows and protects Chris in search for redemption and the belief that Christ will one day return even if it’s not Chris. McKael’s story is fascinating as he atones for crimes committed during his  time with the IRA by killing  anyone and anything that could harm Chris, even if it’s Chris himself.

In PUNK ROCK JESUS nothing ends as it will seem. McKael’s “guilt” he’s been trying to absolve was never his to carry, but that ultimately doesn’t change what he’s done and who he is. The twin girl that was birthed the same time as Chris serves a much larger purpose than her initial implied fate. Even the name PUNK ROCK JESUS is indicative of the surprises in this story when ultimately Punk Rock is the only thing Chris is ever able to resurrect.

All of the above are merely the surface points of a story with more layers than Dante’s vision of hell.  Each character is more than a purpose, they come alive in the pages of PUNK ROCK JESUS and as a reader you will be affected by their sweet, sad and appropriate journeys.

There is no loss of faith in PUNK ROCK JESUS, even though the “miracle” is often debunked in its pages. Murphy clearly lands on the side of agnostic/atheist, but has enough respect for us as readers to leave the door of a second coming wide open. The only surety is that divinity doesn’t dwell in the deep recesses of DNA; it is and always will be a matter of faith.

DJANGO UNCHAINED 1 COMIC REVIEW – Assuaging My Adaptation Fears

Leave a reply

DjangoUnchained_TeaserPoster_Print.inddDJANGO UNCHAINED 1
Writer: Quentin Tarantino
Artist: R.M Guera
Publisher: Vertigo
Reviewer: Rob Patey (aka Optimous Douche – Ain’t It Cool News)

I usually shun comic adaptations of movies, TV shows, and video games.  Frankly I don’t have the level of undying fandom to ANY of those three properties that makes me want to relive them in non-moving or non-playable format. I like new, shiny and original, hence why comics have remained my favorite medium for thirty plus years. Comics have always been the most cost-effective way to unleash unbridled imagination. It’s why Comic Cons are now filled with producers and directors looking to boost material for delivery to the illiterate and spoon-fed masses. But when we regress properties back to comics, it’s usually a sad hollow version of the original source.

Of course my job as a reviewer sometimes necessitates breaking this cardinal shunning, and it usually ends as an exercise in frustration that makes me second-guess my fervor for the original property and the existence of a benevolent God.

When DJANGO UNCHAINED 1 dropped on my doorstep I was wary. One, I haven’t seen the movie yet, and I will cut the throat of any man, woman or comic company that ruins a Tarantino movie for me. Two, there was nary a creator mentioned on the cover. It certainly gave the cover a beautiful cinematic feel (since it borrowed directly from the movie poster), but I buy half my books these days based on creators versus a zealot devotion to a set of characters (except X-Men) or story. Three, could someone honestly be so arrogant to think they can capture the essence of Tarantino’s unique poetry in dialog for an adaptation? Wary…vewy vewy wary.

It was actually Mrs. Patey who after hearing my ridiculous theory said if I wasn’t going to open it, she would. Being the gentleman I am, I agreed to take the bullet for my beloved. She also whispered into my ear an epiphany I had known long ago, but since buried. “Didn’t you say when we first started dating Pulp Fiction dialog was written in comic styling and Kill Bill was comic violence come to life?”

Shit…why is she always right.

So I opened page 1 to be greeted by a message from Quentin himself. He talked on how DJANGO was inspired by his love of Western comic books as a kid. He also talked about how this comic series would deliver his complete vision for DJANGO UNCHAINED, the vision that doesn’t get watered down by Hollywood Suits, Marketing Morons and Flaccid Focus Groups.

Page 2 delivers the scene that’s burned in our brains since the first preview trailer.  The fateful meeting between DJANGO shackled in a chain gang and his savior, the Dentist turned bounty hunter, Dr. King Schultz. Page 2 also revealed whatwould squash my last lingering reservation about this adaptation, artist R.M. Guera. Guera is the master of bringing the dessert to life as he exhibited in Jason Aaron’s SCALPED. His use of shadows to convey scenes is bar none and I knew immediately he would rescue panels from pacing sluggishness that could easily come with Tarantino’s propensity for weighty monologues.

We’ve seen most of Issue 1 in the trailers, certainly not the deep dives of dialog, but the scenes were all certainly there – the rescue, the set-up to find DJANGO’S wife, the killing of the first men that took his wife and that beautifully blue dandy suit Django sports and why is all revealed.

High violence, characters that live 1,000 leagues beyond the page and expert pacing (I assume delivered by Guera) are what await you inside DJANGO’s meaty first 40 pages.

If you love Tarantino, and you love comics, unchain your prejudices against adaptations and grab this book.

 

AMERICAN VAMPIRE 31 & VOLUME 4 REVIEW: A Sadistically “Sweet” Tale

Leave a reply

AMERICAN VAMPIRE 31AMERICAN VAMPIRE 31 & VOLUME 4
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Rafael Albuquerque
Publisher: Vertigo
Reviewer: Rob Patey (aka Optimous Douche Ain’t It Cool News)

Hollywood rapes entertainment and hipsters are voyeurs to the crime. Case in point – vampires. All across the intertubes poser geekdom bemoans the lack of originality and the complete bastardization of Transylvania’s favorite bloodsuckers. Everywhere you look these faux intellectuals resound a chorus of “Twilight blows this and True Blood blumpkins that,” as if vampire entertainment begins and ends solely in moving pictures. And I guess for these lazy complainers it clearly does. They blame Hollywood for doing it’s job of appealing to the 98% who gleefully lick the jukebox begging to be taken advantage of, instead of simply logging their hipster asses off the internet for five minutes and looking towards some other medium of satisfying entertainment. You know, a form where originality still burns bright, where the story is a marriage of you, the author, and artist making the comic come alive by their design and your unique interpretation. Comics…I’m talking about comics.

I’m not saying the sheep of hate are wrong, there are flaws aplenty with the aforementioned properties of True and Twi (aside from being direct copies of one another in theme), but if the Internet complainers would actually crack open a comic for two seconds they would see that all of their complaints truly roll up into one overarching issue. For vampirism to truly matter there must be suffering and I mean beyond the bemoaning of teenagers looking to get their Bellgina Edcocked. Both vampire and victim must feel one another’s losses and laments and then sadistically feed upon those vulnerabilities – and I’m sorry, but the ending of a true vampire story should never be Asian massage.

This is why comic fans live in such solitude, we understand good entertainment doesn’t always end happily, actually the darker a piece gets the happier we seem to become. Oh we’ll revel in joy for a time, but then fully expect a piece to end with an atomic wedgey of the heart. This is the antithesis of formulaic Hollywood pabulum and why most comic properties end up losing a piece of their soul when moved to celluloid. 98% need their Price Charming, the 1% of pseudo intellectuals need to feed on the 98%, and us final 1% of comic fans are merely left to watch the animals consume themselves from our island of ideation and originality.

When Scott Snyder started AMERICAN VAMPIRE a few years ago I knew there was something special in the pages…well, at least half the pages. For all of Stephen King’s virtues, of which there are many, he is simply not a comic writer. Comics are not an exercise of littering a page with words; it’s a dance between writer and artist, both consuming the page in equal parts. King handled the exposition of America’s first vampire, Skinner Sweet well enough, but it was then unknown Snyder’s exploration of 1920’s aspiring starlet Pearl, which had me truly enthralled. I’m on record, Google it. It was eminently clear even then Snyder was in this story for the long haul. The seeds he was planting in those first few issues would clearly take time to flourish. I don’t think anyone guessed at the time he would rewrite the 20th century as he unfolded Skinner and Pearl’s stories, but that icing on the cake of complex characterization makes me wish he would slow the fuck down as the present story arc puts us well into the McCarthy era. Since it took three years for us to get from the Old West to the 1950s, I fear we’ll be at 2012 in no time. What then? Space Skinner? A Pearlonaut. Most definitely not.

AMERICAN VAMPIRE 31 is a pivotal issue for a few reasons: one we are fresh off Pearl and Skinner banging out their blood lust while Pearl’s decrepit husband was in a coma nappy. Two, we learn why Skinner really made Pearl. Basically it was to shift the old vampires’ jealously of Skinner’s ability to still get a tan on to Pearl so he could leave LA in peace and start-up Sin City. Three, Hattie Hargrove, the anti-Pearl returns on the last page as the grand puppet master of all 1950’s vampire troubles. I’m laughing right now because with her slashed psycho Marinette cheeks and freckles she looks like a demented puppet. I’m easily amused.

Disgust, betrayal, angst, longing – the emotions run as deep through AMERICAN VAMPIRE’S characters as Snyder’s exploration of American history. And VOLUME 4 of AMERICAN VAMPIRE is the perfect hard covered embodiment of this statement. Till this point Snyder has stayed pretty linear: He and Stephen King danced between the late 1800’s and early 1920’s in Volume 1, shifted to depression era for the tale of the Hoover Dam and Skinner turning the lights on in Sin City for Volume 2, splayed out both campaigns of WWII in Volume 3…but…but…but…now uses VOLUME 4 to play time travel roulette giving us a prequel of Skinner’s time in F-Troop fighting the injuns, a trip to a very bloody Happy Days, and a little racism song and dance south of the Mason-Dixon line. The thing that makes these stories truly sing is that Snyder truly captures the Zeitgeist of the time. The Indian extermination arc tests the merit of a man’s soul as Skinner and his Brother, like Cain and Able, decide whether winning this war requires the final solution. You can guess Skinner’s answer to this quandary. Our Happy Days arc explores the short-sightedness of youth as one “Rebel without a Cause” teen tries to exact vengeance against Skinner for slaughtering his family. Youth knows no consequences, which is the perfect armament is a war against a seemingly unstoppable foe. The final story focuses on a black taxonomist for the VMS in the Deep South when moonshine flowed freely and segregation was a law, not just a way of life.

Albuquerque’s art adds the perfect atmosphere for this book, his scratchy lines and ability to shroud a page in darkness without ever getting muddy or too obscure. I’ll admit, he took a while to grow on me, but now I couldn’t imagine anyone else in the driver’s seat.

Titles like AMERICAN VAMPIRE and NEW DEADWARDIANS prove that the vampire genre has not been bled dry. Despite the surface virtues of immortality and God like powers, Vampirism only works if writers remember that it’s a curse, not a blessing. While writers like Snyder give some of the vampire species an out from their traditional downfalls like sunlight and allows them to still feel human emotions, he intuitively counter-balances the blessings with great burdens of immortality and the insatiable thirst to feed on the sentient.