Recommendation: Comics (July '11)

The Story is Where its At...

So, during my vacation I have been reading a lot of comics. Not sure why, as I have a backlog of novels to read - but I guess I am in a mood or something.

I have two tpb/graphic novels to recommend based on some great dialog and amazing storylines:

DMZ is amazingly good. Its not funny (except in a darkly humorous way, and usually unintentionally). Its not beautiful. It is haunting and a damn compelling story. Its the story of Matty Roth, a rookie photojournalist that gets dropped into the middle of a warzone. The catch? This warzone is NYC after a militia gets the jump on the good ole USA and creates a defacto secession in New Jersey.

I initally stayed away from DMZ because the character concept of a photojournalist really didnt grab me and I thought the story would be preachy. There is an element of preachiness, but its subdued and takes a backseat to the very engaging story. As many of you know, I am a military-phile and would not enjoy a story that denigrates the military. DMZ doesnt do that, but it does try to take an unflinching look at what war in a modern post-apoco U.S. might look like. DMZ walks a tightrope between depicting the realities of a warzone and telling a comic-style story we want to read - and does so with aplomb. Its an amazing feat, really, and worth picking up.

The art is solid, but not great - though the pages are on that old style comic paper so it feels a bit different than all the high-glossy comics we have grown accustomed to (its more... substantial... to pull a phrase out of the air). Its a great read, and there are a TON of TPBs so you should be flipping pages for a while.

My next recommendation is the SPAWN: Endgame collection. I've been an on-again-off-again fan of Spawn since issue three way back in the day. I've enjoyed the mature storylines and the growth of the setting as the line developed. As Spawn moved away from its superhero cousins, it became a much stronger line. Who can forget the Billy Kincaid story? That was cutting-edge for the time, and would still find an audiance were it written today.

Well, the Spawn continuity gets a major kick in the pants with Endgame. Al Simmons is out of the picture, and a new soul is selected to be bonded with the Spawn costume and prepare the legions of hell. However, due to some other major setting shifts, this Spawn is left to his own devices without any guidance from Hell. Again, its a good story carried by some great writing. A word of warning - dont expect to be spoon-fed the specifics of the characters or the situation - there are mysteries here, about the nature of the new Sapwn, about the relationships of the characters, about the status of Heaven and Hell - and they dont have neat and tidy answers (as is befitting of a plot restart). This feels a lot like when I first started reading Spawn - since I have a lot of questions about the nature of the setting (and thats a good thing, since it makes the world seem more real).

The art is snazzy too (as always). Supposedly, for the TPB, they cleaned up some of the iconic panels... which I appreciate but can't verify. I'm enjoying this story and the dialog enough to be looking forward to the next TPB, due this week or next.