Daily Breakdowns 025 - Deadly Ears of Drop Fu
I never said I was a journalist, but this fact was really driven home on Wednesday, as I entered my local comics shop to find David (Mouse Guard) Peterson doing a signing. Even though I like the books (well, I liked the first one and haven't picked up the second yet, but will), I really didn't feel like asking him anything. It's too bad, because there weren't many people talking to him and the woman next to him (girlfriend, wife, assistant, editor, I don't know). I just wanted to pick up a couple books, pay, and meet a buddy for happy hour. Medieval mice and their creator just weren't in the plans.
However, with my impressive ability to eavesdrop on the one conversation he had going with a fan, I learned a few things:
1) She's an intern for Archaia Press.
2) She works on their message board.
3) Archaia doesn't want fans to know she's an intern, as they won't take her and the other interns seriously.
4) She is a vegan.
5) David Peterson is a vegan.
6) She likes Reese's Peanut Butter Cups a lot.
7) She likes Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs (the Easter version) better, because there's more peanut butter.
8) Her favorite may be the Reese's Stick, due to the addition of a crunch wafer. At press time, it has not been confirmed whether this is her new favorite or a passing fancy.
9) David Peterson has no dietary restrictions.
10) David Peterson is a patient and gracious man.
Why does ADD put so much effort into those 5Q's, anyway? 10 Thin, Non-Interactive Observations are the way to go.
So here are a couple of the books I picked up, without knowing of their prior existence:
Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu One-Shot (B&W) #1
Writers: Jonathan Hickman, Mike Benson, Charlie Huston, Robin Furth
Artists: Kody Chamberlin, Tomm Coker with C.P. Smith, Enrique Romero, Paul Gulacy
Published by Marvel Comics. $3.99 USD
For those of you out there still seething over comics prices going up to $3.99 for most monthly books of 22 pages of art and story, here's some good news. This one-shot gives you 48 pages for the same price. The bad news? It's mostly pretty lousy, so it's not like you're getting a value, and having it in black and white was not taken by most of the artists as a creative challenge.
Hickman writes the first story, which is really a Deadpool story with Shang-Chi shoehorned into it. Deadpool is hired by some thugs to keep a guy from winning a ridiculous annual motorcycle rally he always wins. That guy is Shang-Chi, because...he's known as a motorcycle rider? When? A guy who likes to compete for something other than honor? Again, when? It's confusing, because Deadpool and Shang-Chi alternate narrating, but Hickman chooses to write Shang-Chi as a chatty, amused guy not all that different in voice from Deadpool. If Marvel wants to bring back Shang-Chi in a regular series, that would be the venue to start revamping the character, but in a short story it's pretty distracting. And Hickman spends too much time on all the other bizarre competitors, as well as lifting a fairly well known stand-up comic's joke, to have much room for action. The story seemed to want to be Death Race by way of one of the Tarantino/Rodriguez From Dusk Til Dawn sequels, but just wasn't anywhere as good as any of them.
Benson's story is the best here, though he just delivers a very basic revenge story with a big fight sequence and lets Coker and Smith go to town with it. Shang-Chi is very Bruce Lee here, and the art reminded me of flashes of Paul Gulacy's best, except that Gulacy is someone whose art seems to be remembered more fondly than it deserves at times. Coker's style is much more photorealistic and so avoids some of the anatomical flaws of Gulacy.
Former Moon Knight writer Charlie Huston writes a very confusing story about Shang-Chi, in "classic" silly old outfit, fighting Midnight, an old enemy trained by Fu Manchu (I think) to fight him. Now, Midnight's memory is screwed up, so the fight is lame and ends on a corny note. It's a shockingly bad script, with Huston adding to a long tradition of horrible Marvel Universe cop dialogue with lines like, "All right, Hong Kong Fooey, how 'bout you climb off that car before ya put a dent in it. An' tell yer pally up there to float on down where we can talk to him." None of this is helped by Romero's art, which raises doubts that he's ever seen a Chinese man, a fedora (for some reason the flying Midnight was originally designed with a hat. Not Romero's fault, but at least learn how to draw one), or even how fingers work. Don't worry, though--neither the 1984 Corvette nor the 1984 NYC prostitutes were harmed in the melee.
Finally, there is a text piece by Robin Furth as Shang-Chi, really just cribbed bits of the Tao Te Ching and other sources, with a pin-up and a couple of spot illustrations by Gulacy. While the original idea behind this one-shot seemed to be a good one--recreate the feeling of the old Marvel b&w magazines like Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu with modern talent and a wink towards the past (there's even a '70s style ad parody on the inside back cover, and in another possible joke, the otherwise attractive front cover has Shang-Chi in Chuck Taylors), the problem is most of the talent involved failed miserably, and in one notable case, didn't look modern at all. If not for Charlie Huston's involvement, I wouldn't have been surprised if that story hadn't been an old Marvel Comics Presents tale dusted off from 1987.
Underground #1 (of 5)
Written by Jeff Parker
Art by Steve Lieber
Published by Image Comics. $3.50 USD
Now here's a good comic book. Nice, unsettling dream sequence to start things off, foreshadowing a similar disaster to come. Strong introduction to the main character of Wes--we get her sweet, self-doubting side, before seeing her fire and principles later. Seth, the fellow park ranger with whom she slept with the night before, isn't as vividly drawn yet but we can tell he's decent and conflicted. Due to Lieber's art, the female lead, and the building of a less-than-familiar corner of the world, there's a hint of Whiteout here, but for now suspense is not the primary goal, though it's present. Instead, I found it more reminiscent of Paul Chadwick's Concrete, which unpacked environmental information in a similar way, and amidst similarly real, thoughtful characters. Both writer and artist seem committed to telling an intelligent, engaging, somewhat offbeat story for the simple reward of making something good. Hopefully the remaining issues are on this level.
Christopher Allen
However, with my impressive ability to eavesdrop on the one conversation he had going with a fan, I learned a few things:
1) She's an intern for Archaia Press.
2) She works on their message board.
3) Archaia doesn't want fans to know she's an intern, as they won't take her and the other interns seriously.
4) She is a vegan.
5) David Peterson is a vegan.
6) She likes Reese's Peanut Butter Cups a lot.
7) She likes Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs (the Easter version) better, because there's more peanut butter.
8) Her favorite may be the Reese's Stick, due to the addition of a crunch wafer. At press time, it has not been confirmed whether this is her new favorite or a passing fancy.
9) David Peterson has no dietary restrictions.
10) David Peterson is a patient and gracious man.
Why does ADD put so much effort into those 5Q's, anyway? 10 Thin, Non-Interactive Observations are the way to go.
So here are a couple of the books I picked up, without knowing of their prior existence:
Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu One-Shot (B&W) #1
Writers: Jonathan Hickman, Mike Benson, Charlie Huston, Robin Furth
Artists: Kody Chamberlin, Tomm Coker with C.P. Smith, Enrique Romero, Paul Gulacy
Published by Marvel Comics. $3.99 USD
For those of you out there still seething over comics prices going up to $3.99 for most monthly books of 22 pages of art and story, here's some good news. This one-shot gives you 48 pages for the same price. The bad news? It's mostly pretty lousy, so it's not like you're getting a value, and having it in black and white was not taken by most of the artists as a creative challenge.
Hickman writes the first story, which is really a Deadpool story with Shang-Chi shoehorned into it. Deadpool is hired by some thugs to keep a guy from winning a ridiculous annual motorcycle rally he always wins. That guy is Shang-Chi, because...he's known as a motorcycle rider? When? A guy who likes to compete for something other than honor? Again, when? It's confusing, because Deadpool and Shang-Chi alternate narrating, but Hickman chooses to write Shang-Chi as a chatty, amused guy not all that different in voice from Deadpool. If Marvel wants to bring back Shang-Chi in a regular series, that would be the venue to start revamping the character, but in a short story it's pretty distracting. And Hickman spends too much time on all the other bizarre competitors, as well as lifting a fairly well known stand-up comic's joke, to have much room for action. The story seemed to want to be Death Race by way of one of the Tarantino/Rodriguez From Dusk Til Dawn sequels, but just wasn't anywhere as good as any of them.
Benson's story is the best here, though he just delivers a very basic revenge story with a big fight sequence and lets Coker and Smith go to town with it. Shang-Chi is very Bruce Lee here, and the art reminded me of flashes of Paul Gulacy's best, except that Gulacy is someone whose art seems to be remembered more fondly than it deserves at times. Coker's style is much more photorealistic and so avoids some of the anatomical flaws of Gulacy.
Former Moon Knight writer Charlie Huston writes a very confusing story about Shang-Chi, in "classic" silly old outfit, fighting Midnight, an old enemy trained by Fu Manchu (I think) to fight him. Now, Midnight's memory is screwed up, so the fight is lame and ends on a corny note. It's a shockingly bad script, with Huston adding to a long tradition of horrible Marvel Universe cop dialogue with lines like, "All right, Hong Kong Fooey, how 'bout you climb off that car before ya put a dent in it. An' tell yer pally up there to float on down where we can talk to him." None of this is helped by Romero's art, which raises doubts that he's ever seen a Chinese man, a fedora (for some reason the flying Midnight was originally designed with a hat. Not Romero's fault, but at least learn how to draw one), or even how fingers work. Don't worry, though--neither the 1984 Corvette nor the 1984 NYC prostitutes were harmed in the melee.
Finally, there is a text piece by Robin Furth as Shang-Chi, really just cribbed bits of the Tao Te Ching and other sources, with a pin-up and a couple of spot illustrations by Gulacy. While the original idea behind this one-shot seemed to be a good one--recreate the feeling of the old Marvel b&w magazines like Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu with modern talent and a wink towards the past (there's even a '70s style ad parody on the inside back cover, and in another possible joke, the otherwise attractive front cover has Shang-Chi in Chuck Taylors), the problem is most of the talent involved failed miserably, and in one notable case, didn't look modern at all. If not for Charlie Huston's involvement, I wouldn't have been surprised if that story hadn't been an old Marvel Comics Presents tale dusted off from 1987.
Underground #1 (of 5)
Written by Jeff Parker
Art by Steve Lieber
Published by Image Comics. $3.50 USD
Now here's a good comic book. Nice, unsettling dream sequence to start things off, foreshadowing a similar disaster to come. Strong introduction to the main character of Wes--we get her sweet, self-doubting side, before seeing her fire and principles later. Seth, the fellow park ranger with whom she slept with the night before, isn't as vividly drawn yet but we can tell he's decent and conflicted. Due to Lieber's art, the female lead, and the building of a less-than-familiar corner of the world, there's a hint of Whiteout here, but for now suspense is not the primary goal, though it's present. Instead, I found it more reminiscent of Paul Chadwick's Concrete, which unpacked environmental information in a similar way, and amidst similarly real, thoughtful characters. Both writer and artist seem committed to telling an intelligent, engaging, somewhat offbeat story for the simple reward of making something good. Hopefully the remaining issues are on this level.
Christopher Allen
Labels: Charlie Huston, Deadpool, Enrique Romero, Jeff Parker, Jonathan Hickman, Kody Chamberlin, Mike Benson, Paul Gulacy, Shang-Chi, Steve Lieber
posted by ChristopherAllen at
1:24 AM
3 Comments:
How can #5 and #9 both be true? Does he just think he's vegan? This contradiction could threaten the multiverse.
10 Thin, Non-Interactive Observations are a great new column and you should cover more than comics. You could in fact, do any medium or event.
Mick, I think he meant his dietary restriction against meat was self-imposed, but he had no peanut allergies? All I know is I heard the phrase, "We have no dietary restrictions," which I think included the woman next to him.
Alex, I like to make my thin, non-interactive observations without calling them such, and without the strictures of having to come up with ten ;-)
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