Stuck Rubber Baby

Writer and Artist: Howard Cruse

Publisher: Vertigo Comics

Stuck Rubber Baby is a fiction that reads like an autobiography. Toland is a young closeted man growing up in the 1960s American South. He makes friends with a group of liberal folk and finds himself socialising in the black and LGBT clubs of his town. He is drawn into the local civil rights movement and is forced to confront the truth of his sexuality, whilst racist and homophobic attacks are regular occurrences.

I Die at Midnight

Written and drawn by: Kyle Baker
Published by: Vertigo/DC Comics

What’s it about?
(from the back of the book:)"The Good News is Muriel has decided to take Larry back."
"The Bad News is Larry's just swallowed a bottle of pills."

Written and drawn by Kyler Baker for Vertigo Comics' pre-millennial "V2K series", I Die at Midnight is an original graphic novel mixing a bit of comedy, a dash of comedy and some romance in the background in a fast-paced well-animated story against the clock.

I Die at Midnight follows a man named Larry. The girl of his dreams just walked out on him. Left without any more purpose, Larry decides to kill himself. He empties an entire bottle of pills...

...But that is precisely when Muriel changes her mind and decides to come back!

And if that wasn't enough... did I mention this was all taking place on New Year's Eve?!

I Die at Midnight is a fun fast paced story set against the whole Year 2000 phobia (it does play a part in the story, at the end!) about fighting for a reason to live.

Doom Patrol - Rachel Pollack's run

Writer: Rachel Pollack
Artists: Various, see 'other information' section for more details
Publisher: Vertigo (an imprint of DC comics)
Issue 64 on the left, issue 87 on the right 

What's it about?
The Doom Patrol are the odd group in the DC Universe.  Members are typically thought of as freakish with strange powers.  They don't seem to fit in well or be accepted in other parts the superheroic or non powered world. Issues 64 to 87 are all written by Rachel Pollack after she took over from Grant Morrison, so Pollack is building on established continuity whilst carving out new stories for her version of the team.

This particular incarnation of the group has the following members:
Dorothy Spinner, a young teenage monkey-faced girl who can make her imaginary friends become real.
Cliff Steele, a man's brain in a robot body.
Niles Caulder, the boss of the group, previously a wheelchair user, now just a self-sustaining head.
Kate Godwin, a woman with coagulating powers
George & Marion the bandage people, made of sentient self replicating bandages.
Charlie, a living teddy bear with the head of a doll.

As for what they get up to, they live in a house full of the ghosts of those who died during auto erotic experiments.  There's a few issues dealing with Dorothy's powers and the dangerous beings she calls out of her head, there's Cliff trying to reconcile his humanity with his body.  There's wild girls and trickster gods using the Doom Patrol to settle old scores.  There's ideas about world building based on the Greek story of the teirasias and then it ends with a few issues exploring Jewish mysticism.  Throughout all this there are recurring themes of sexuality, gender and humanity - what it means to be you, and real.

So, you can understand that this isn't your typical glamorous superhero group.  The Vertigo imprint publishes adult, more mature (that isn't a byword for pornographic), more intellectual books than the regular DC titles.  So, when you combine that ethos with the Doom Patrol's premise, you end up with some really interesting work. 

Vertical

Writer: Steven T. Seagle
Artist: Mike Allred
Inks: Philip Bond
Lettered by: Ken Lopez
Colored and separated by: Laura Allred
Publisher: Vertigo Comics

What’s it about?
Vertical is a little original project from the minds of Steven T. Seagle and Mike and Laura Allred.
Part conceptual project, part life segments.

It is quite an innovative comic, which doesn't really to innovate as much as simply exploring the format.
It is a fun experience all in all. Telling a simple enough and straight forward story/content and having fun with its form.

Vertigo's story focuses on Brando Bale, artist and daredevil living in the city during the Cold War era.
It's the struggling life of young artists trying to get a sense out of live will tension, economics and war loomed over new generations.
Brando makes art by putting his life in danger, doing public stunts-happenings.
One day, he meets Zilly Zane, aspiring actress.
The forces behind his life's goal and dreams will finally meet a stop, as Brando will ponder at this crossroads of life.
He needs to either cease to put his life in danger and embrace life, or continue this useless quest...

iZOMBIE Vol. 1: Dead to the World

Writer: Chris Roberson
Artist: Michael Allred
Colors: Brian Buccellato
Publisher: Vertigo Comics

"Combine the two most horrible tastes you can imagine... like motor oil and someone else's vomit... and you won't even come close to this level of nasty. Yeah, I eat brains."

What’s it about?

iZombie is a a sort of fantasy story taking place in an urban environment.
It takes places in our modern times and updates old movie monster archetypes.

The story is told from the point of view of Gwen, Gwendolyn Dylan, who works as a gravedigger.
She's in her 20s and is actually a living dead! A zombie if you will.
Her best friends are also other undead creatures. Ellie is a genuine ghost, she seems to come from the 60s and can't leave the places she visited. Scott, aka Spot, is a were-terrier.

Gwen as no recollection of her death and her memories of her past are slowly fading from her mind.
To stay alive, or rather undead, she needs to eat brains.

This comic isn't actually an horror story, but plays a lot with elements and tropes from the genre.
It is more of a detective series, mixed with some drama and romantic clues.

Finding out about monthly issues

On this here blog we usually talk about trades – those books that collect between 4 and 8 issues of a monthly comic.  We do this because we believe it is an easier way in for readers, but as big changes are afoot at DC comics I think it’s about time to talk about the monthly issues and where to find them.  We have briefly talked about the different publishing houses here, so this post shall serve as a bit of a reminder.

Northlanders: Sven the Returned

written by Brian Wood
illustrated by Davide Gianfelice
colours by Dave McCaig
letters by Travis Lanham
published by Vertigo 

What's It About?

It is 980 A.D. and the Norseman Sven has returned home to the Orkneys from Constantinople to claim his inheritance. His father is dead but as he enters Grimness Settlement he discovers that his ruthless uncle Gorm has claimed the inheritance for his own.

An outsider and a stranger Sven finds himself alone, fighting a one-man war to reclaim what is rightfully his and return to Constantinople with its warm, wealth and exotic women before the past he escaped long ago kills him. 

You Are Here

Writer and Artist: Kyle Baker
Publisher: Vertigo/DC Comics

What’s it about?

This book is the story of Noel Coleman. A successful painter who lives in the country just outside New York with his lovely girlfriend and endures her harsh mother everyday. But Noel isn't just a painter. He's also an ex-con artist and jewelry thief. Now he's back in NY City to sell his apartment and get rid of his past, all these secrets start catching up.

Once his fiancee arrives his problems are only starting...a serial killer starts chasing him, his friends get mixed up between a fiancee and a killer on his steps...

Will Noel be able to live to see a new day and future with his girlfriend?  Will he be able to tell her the truth?

Will they both survive?

Air: Letters from Lost Countries

Writer: G. Willow Wilson
Artist: M. K. Perker
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher 
Colors: Chris Chuckry
Publisher: Vertigo Comics

What’s it about?
The story of Air follows Blythe, a young woman who's afraid of heights but didn't let that stop her from becoming an airline stewardess.  As the story progress, we're introduced to a large colorful cast of characters and intrigues that might just turn a bit more dangerous than the skies itself:

Quickly, Blythe meets a very strange mysterious man, named Zayn (or is it..?), finds herself in the middle of terrorism plots lead by the Etesians, sky pirates/vigilantes and witnesses the discovery of the hyperpraxis, a new science, a revolution that might just change humanity's relation to technology itself.

Air is all about its characters and their relationships, all sorts of relationships!  It covers the relations we have with technology, and also the relations we form with myths, our world, pictures and words.
Air is all about the all encompassing air we share, the very space of it and the different sort of things that occupy it. Time. Memories.

Simply put, Air is a modern tale of myths and legends. As the story goes, the supernatural occupies more and more of the scene, fantasy elements enter and alongside this our main characters develop and grow.

Madame Xanadu

Today's review comes courtesy of Alexander Lyons.  Alex is a UK-based feminist theorist with a speciality in identity politics and poststructuralism in comics. He's got a weak-spot for Greg Rucka, Wonder Woman, and the obscure ramblings of Helene Cixous. You can find his own ramblings on Twitter. He has very curly hair.

Writer: Matt Wagner

Pencils: Amy Reeder Hadley, Michael Wm Kaluta, Joelle Jones, Marley Zarcone, Lauren McCubbin, Chrissie Zullo, Celia Calle and Marian Churchland

Inkers: Amy Reeder Hadley, Richard Friend, David Hahn

Colorists: Guy Major, Dave Stewart, Lee Loughridge

Letterer: Jared K Fletcher

Publisher: Vertigo (DC)

What’s it about?

“There is a pattern in everything. Even the humblest speck of dust was once a mighty mountain. Seeing unlocks the patterns. And the tools of seeing are many…”

Madame Xanadu tells the story of Nimue; ancient and immortal daughter of the homo magi - a magical race of fairy living alongside mankind. She is the youngest of three sisters, and rival to her middle sister, Morgana, with whom she develops a conflict that spans centuries. Nimue is blessed with, among other things, the magical gift of divination, and uses her skills to predict and intervene in the fate of mankind. As the series proceeds, Nimue learns to use her powers to aid people in need, becoming a sort of supernatural heroine for people with extraordinary problems.

Sandman Mystery Theatre: The Tarantula

written by Matt Wagner
art by Guy Davis
colours by David Hornung
Publisher: Vertigo

What's It About?
In the decadent world of New York's post-Depression high society a sinister figure stalks the night glad in a trench coat and a gas mask. He is Wesley Dodds whose haunting prophetic dreams have led him to become the vigilante known as the Sandman. The Sandman is about to find himself on he trail of a murderer called the Tarantula, a trail that will lead him into the path of one Dian Belmont, a meeting that will change both their lives forever...

LGBT History Month presents The Sandman: A Game Of You

written by Neil Gaiman
pencils and inks by Shawn McManus
additional art by Colleen Doran and Bryan Talbot
additional inks by George Pratt, Stan Woch and Dick Giordano
colours by Danny Vozzo

What's It About?
Recently divorced, Barbie has moved to New York and now lives in a small, rundown apartment building. There she is part of a Tales Of The City-esque community of fellow renters: her best friend Wanda, secretive Thessaly, troubled couple Hazel and Foxglove and the downright creepy George. Broke and single, Barbie drifts with no particular direction in life. Its a simple life, if a trifle dull.

As a child she had a series of recurring dreams, a story that unfolded night after night. The dreams ended years ago but now they're back: the characters of her dreams have come to New York to find her. She has a world to save and there are forces out to stop her, even kill her. But is this other world real? And can you die in your dreams?

Sandman: Dream Country

written by Neil Gaiman
“Calliope” and “A Dream of a Thousand Cats” pencils by Kelley Jones, inks by Malcolm Jones III, colours by Robbie Rusch
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” pencils and inks by Charles Vess, colours by Steve Oliff with additional material by William Shakespeare
“Facade” pencils by Colleen Doran, inks by Malcolm Jones III, colours by Steve Oliff

What’s It About?

The Sandman, Oneiros, Morpheus, Lord Shaper, Dream of the Endless, he has had many names. He is the concept of human imagination personified, the well from which all stories spring. In his landmark series The Sandman Neil Gaiman created and used this central character to explore the very idea of stories.

This is a collection of shorter stories from the Sandman series. We have the Sandman commission a play from William Shakespeare, a cat who has become a preacher, a modern author who has imprisoned one of the legendary muses Calliope and an immortal who not only longs for Death but gets to have a conversation with her.

Death: The Time Of Your Life

Written by Neil Gaiman
Pencils by Chris Bachalo with inks by Mark Buckingham (pgs 1-47)
Pencils by Mark Buckingham with inks by Mark Pennington (pgs 48-88)
Colours by Matt Hollingsworth
Publisher: Vertigo

What’s It About?

Foxglove and Hazel were once poor and in love. Now Foxglove is a pop star, her career taking her around the world and Hazel is a stay-at-home mother to their child Alvie. Out in the world no one knows that Foxglove’s secretary Hazel is in fact her lover ,or that Fox is a second mother to Hazel’s child. Somehow, she doesn’t know how, Fox ended up in the closet and Hazel ended up alone for months at a time.

One rainy night, Death comes for Hazel and now Foxglove is following a vision back to LA in the hope of rescuing her. But how do you rescue someone from the single inevitability of life?

Transmetropolitan volume 1: Back on the street

Writer: Warren Ellis
Penciller: Darick Robertson
Inks: Keith Aiken, Jerome K.Moore, Ray Kryssing, Dick Giordano
Colour and separations: Nathan Eyring
Letters: Clem Robins
Publisher: Vertigo

What's it about?
Welcome to the future.  Here we have makers and base blocks to create anything you require, designer drugs that have no adverse side effects, newsfeeds a thousand times more pervasive than twitter, facebook or linkedin, and genome treatments to give you lizard skin or eagle feathers for a month.

This is no utopia of peace, sun and dreams.  There's also machines high on hallucinogens and Ebola cola to rot your face and quench your thirst.  You can measure the wealth of a neighbourhood by the absence of litter - rich folks have makers, poor folks have garbage scavengers, really poor folks have litter.

In short, it's just like today, minus the pretence of respectability and with a lot more tech.

The Witching Hour

Writers: Jeph Loeb and Chris Bachalo
Pencils: Chris Bachalo
Inks: Art Thibert
Colours: Grant Goleash
Letterer: Richard Starkings
Publisher: Vertigo

featuring an introduction by Gene Simmons

What’s It About?
There are five witches: elegant Miss White, “combustible” Red, fatherly Gray, silent Blue and young Black who speaks in quotations. They move through the mortal world of New York seeking to do good and enact some justice in the world. They intrude on mortal lives for a moment, offering a precious second chance, a single wish, what a person does with that chance is up to them.

Green Lantern/Green Arrow volume one

Writer: Dennis O’Neil
Pencils: Neal Adams
Inks: Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Frank Giacoia, Dan Adkins and Berni Wrightson
Colours: Cory Adams and Jack Adler
Publisher: DC Comics

What’s It About?
Hal Jordan is the Green Lantern: a sort of outer space policeman dedicated to enforcing law and order on Earth and in surrounding space with a ring that can create any construct he can imagine. Oliver Queen is Green Arrow: once rich, now poor, he fights on the streets for the underdog armed only with his bow and arrow and a ready wit.

Forced to question his faith in authority, Hal begins a journey to discover the “real” spirit of America with Ollie as his guide. Accompanied by one of Hal’s superior officers, the immortal Guardian, they set off in a battered pick-up truck to cross the country and reconnect Hal with his own species after so long out in space.

The Books of Magic volume 1

 

Writer: Neil Gaiman

Illustrators: John Bolton, Scott Hampton, Charles Vess and Paul Johnston

Letterer: Todd Klein

Publisher: Vertigo Comics

What's good about it?
Timothy Hunter is an English 12 year old boy.  He is offered the chance to take magic into his life and become the greatest mage ever known.  He learns about the power of names, journeys into the past to witness the beginning of time, meets the greatest mages of all eras, visits faerie and the delights of the fairy market, travels to the future and sees a tarot deck made real.  Finally, a decision.

Creatures of the Night

As Valentine's Day draws near we at New readers... think you should be offered a variety of romance themed books to mark this particular day.  Being the kind of people we are, these won't be your typical boy meets girl stories, rather they will represent oddities and interests from among our comic collection.  Read on for the first suggestion....

Writer: Neil Gaiman

Illustrations: Michael Zulli

Letters: Todd Klein

Publisher: Vertigo

What's it about?

It's comprised of two tales, The Black Cat and The Daughter of Owls, based on Neil Gaiman's short stories of the same name.  They have a touch of the Gothic romance feel to them, despite not being about love or relationships.  Instead, these stories concern Good and Evil and the fight between the two.

The Black Cat concerns a family of cat lovers who discover a new stray amidst their lives one day, a mysterious black cat.  Soon they discover this feline coming home with unexplained injuries and as they seek to learn the cause of these they find that the fate of their family appears to be tied into the fate of the cat.

The Daughter of Owls is written in the style of John Aubrey and starts with a baby girl being found abandoned on the town steps.  She has no name, no family and is only clutching an owl pellet.  The townsfolk deem her unholy and lock her in an old convent to grow up alone.  As she grows older news of her beauty spreads and tragedy strikes.  Is she human or does she belong to the owls?  What befalls those who would harm her?

Incognegro

Incognegro

Writer: Mat Johnson
Artist: Warren Pleece
Publisher: Vertigo

What’s It About?
It’s the early twentieth century and Zane Pinchback is a reporter for the New Holland Herald, an African-American newspaper operating out of New York. Born with skin pale enough to pass as white, he works undercover to infiltrate lynchings and under the pen name Incognegro he works to expose the murderers who commit them.

His brother, his significantly darker-skinned brother, has been accused of murder. The murder of a white woman and in Mississippi, no less. The evidence is slight but the mob is ready and Zane knows its only a matter of time.