Lullaby: Wisdom Seeker #3

July 2, 2005

Quick Rating: Very Good

As Jim searches for Pinocchio, Alice and Red Riding Hood take up a new quest.

Writers: Mike S. Miller & Ben Avery
Art: Hector Sevilla
Colors: Ulises Arreola & Djoko Santiko
Letters: Bill Tortolini
Editor: Mike S. Miller
Cover Art: Hector Sevilla
Publisher: Image Comics/Alias Enterprises

With Pinnochio missing, Jim Hawkins continues his search for his lost friend. Meanwhile, Alice, Piper and Red Riding Hood continue on their search for the disturbances that have been wreaking havoc on Wonderland – and all roads lead to Oz.

As the story of Lullaby continues, the writing starts to sharpen. In the last two issues, one of the few problems was how abruptly the book shifted from one set of the characters to another. It was almost as if you were reading two entirely different stories with similar themes. This issue the writers blend the two stories much better, cutting back and forth between the various tracts, giving the whole thing a much greater sense of connectivity.

The individual stories are getting better too, as we see more and more how these versions of the characters differ from the classics, and how the stories flow together. Alice and her crew make it to a bridge with a trial-by-combat requisite for crossing… and the combatants are goats. Meanwhile, we see what’s become of Red Riding Hood’s missing grandmother, who is in the clutches of a very familiar villain.

Not unlike Bill Willingham’s Fables, much of the appeal of this title is seeing how so many familiar characters and concepts can be changed and mutated, and ultimately, how they are pieced together. With just one issue left, though, it’s hard to imagine that the miniseries will reach a satisfying conclusion. This isn’t too big a deal – the ongoing series that will follow this up has already been solicited as launching in September, but at the same time, you’d want an inaugural miniseries to stand on its own.

Hector Sevilla, artist and co-creator, is in top form here. I know some people are put off by the rather Manga-esque form the artwork takes, but as long as it’s on an appropriate project, that doesn’t bother me at all. He does a really fantastic job reimagining the characters, The designs are really clever and offbeat, and the scenery and backgrounds are just beautiful.

This is a wonderful little all-ages tale, the sort of thing parents and their kids could be sharing together. And who knows – if your kids enjoy the comic enough, maybe you can use it to get them to pick up a few books without pictures, too.

Rating: 8/10

Opposite Forces (2005) #3

November 16, 2005

Quick Rating: Very Good

What can Marty and Alexis do with their powers?

Writer: Tom Bancroft
Pencils: Tom Bancroft
Inks: Cedric Hohnstadt
Colors: Josh Ray
Letters: Greg Hardin
Editor: Sean J. Jordan
Cover Art: Tom Bancroft
Publisher: Alias Enterprises/Funny Pages Press

I seem to fall more in love with this title each issue. Tom Bancroft has taken all of the conventions of superhero comics and poked fun at them, but in a loving fashion that’s as entertaining as anything on the market.

Marty and Alexis, the neighbors who accidentally absorbed all the powers of Captain Dynamo, were stunned last issue when Marty’s dog, Bopper, started talking. Their pets got something from the power transfer as well, it seems, and the new super-genius dog begins explaining what really happened to them. Meanwhile, stuck in a hospital, Captain Dynamo struggles to break out and get his powers back.

Bancroft has really created a great comic book here. In addition to telling a funny story, he’s made his characters far more than the caricatures one may have expected them to be at first glance. Marty’s got a huge crush on Alexis, but he doesn’t think she’s flawless, either, and isn’t even so intimidated that he won’t crack a joke or laugh at one at her expense. Alexis has begun her journey as sort of a stereotypical pretty girl, but this issue we do see that she has the qualities of a real hero, even if they’re sometimes misplaced. The characters are actually layered, actually real, and that sets this apart from a lot of the superhero parody comic books out there.

The artwork, again, is wonderful. Bancroft’s background in animation really shows through, as his panels look wonderfully fluid and his character’s “acting” – those small poses and facial expressions that make a comic book look real – are absolutely wonderful.

The issue ends with a major cliffhanger to lead into the final issue in this miniseries, but the “next issue” box refers to the end of the “first story arc” – which really gives me hope that Bancroft already has plans for the next story starring these characters. They deserve it.

Rating: 8/10

The Imaginaries (2005 Series) #2

June 6, 2005

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Lost and Found Part Two

Superhero G learns the ropes of the Imagined Nation.

Writers: Ben Avery & Mike S. Miller
Pencils: Mike S. Miller & Greg Titus
Colors: Lynx Studios & Greg Titus
Letters: Bill Tortolini
Editor: Mike S. Miller
Cover Art: Mike S. Miller & Greg Titus
Publisher: Image Comics/Alias Productions

The second issue in, I continue to find mmyself very impressed with Mike S. Miller’s newest Alias production, The Imaginaries. In the first issue we met Superhero G, the imaginary friend of a boy who outgrows him when his parents are divorced. G finds out the hard way what happens to discarded imaginary friends – they are cast to the Imagined Nation, a walled city where teddy bears rule with an iron fist and anyone who doesn’t comply is cast out into the sandy waste beyond the city, where they will be forgotten and eventually fade into nothing.

This issue we see more of the city, including the hierarchy of the imaginaries that exist there. The less well-thought out an imaginary friend is, the greater the likelihood that they will be considered a second-class citizen, something that doesn’t sit well with Superhero G at all. What’s more, we also get an explanation for why the teddy bears run the show. It seems like a goofy concept at first, something that the creator just conjured up because it’s such a bizarre idea, but as it turns out there’s actually a very good reason for the bears to hold the reigns of power.

We also see how the imaginaries cope with the world that cast them out through a kiosk that allows them to look into the “real” world at the humans that created, then abandoned them. As you can imagine, this is very much a double-edged sword, and creates great pain in some of the imaginaries even as they are unable to stop watching.

Superhero G is our star, our viewpoint character, but the book is less about him than it is about the world that Miller has created. The real drawing point here is seeing the different, bizarre creatures inhabiting this comic book, seeing how that world was pieced together from pieces of our own, and seeing how those two worlds relate to each other.

Miller and Titus do a nice tag-team job on the artwork, with one handling the real world and one handling the imagined nation. They’ve got great visuals on the various creations, especially the “Nazi Teddies.” The unusual juxtaposition of those elements is one of the things that really sells the comic book.

I’m enjoying it. I’m a fan. Can’t wait to see where it goes next.

Rating: 8/10

Lullaby: Wisdom Seeker #2

April 30, 2005

Quick Rating: Very Good

As Pinocchio faces a new threat, Alice may be meeting new allies.

Plot: Mike S. Miller & Andres Ledesma
Script: Mike S. Miller & Ben Avery
Art: Hector Sevilla
Colors: Simon Bork, David Curiel & Ulises Arreola
Letters: Bill Tortolini
Editor: Mike S. Miller
Cover Art: Hector Sevilla
Publisher: Image Comics/Alias Enterprises/DB Pro

Review: This new fantasy series from Alias Enterprises continues, and it succeeds on many of the same levels on the first issue. We open up on a strange, twisted version of Little Red Riding Hood, a girl who has somehow become half-wolf, and is now traveling the woods with the Pied Piper. Together, they come face-to-face with a rather hideous, porcine woodsman, as Alice looks on.

Meanwhile, Jim Hawkins and Pinnochio come to the rescue of a pair of familiar children that are lost in the wilderness. There’s a nice little battle scene, and we see more of what makes these characters different from their classic counterparts. (Halfway through the issue, for instance, it hit me why Pinnochio refers to himself as “it,” and it breaks the heart). We also get the first hint of the true menace in our prologue, as a mysterious figure (with a disturbingly familiar fashion sense) sets his sights on one of our heroes.

The first issue switched far too abruptly from one set of characters to the other. This issue is a little better about that, swinging back and forth between our two main groups of heroes freely, and helping the story feel more cohesive. It’s not perfect – there’s still not much of a hint as how the characters will come together in the second half of this miniseries (yes, an ongoing will follow from Alias after their deal with Image ends, but you’ve got to judge this on its own merits), and it’s never entirely clear what becomes of the children Jim and Pinocchio save.

Hector Sevilla, creator of the series, does a beautiful job on the art chores. While he does have some Manga flavor to his style, that’s clearly not his only influence – he has a lot of American superhero influence and does some really imaginative stuff for the monsters and creatures that are all over this book.

I’m still enjoying this comic book very much and highly recommend it for anyone who’s trying to lure in new readers, particularly young ones. However, I have to admit, I’m starting to suspect this is a story that will read much better in collected form.

Rating: 8/10

Opposite Forces #2

October 27, 2005

Quick Rating: Great

Marty and Alexis examine their powers.

Writer: Tom Bancroft
Art: Tom Bancroft
Colors: Josh Ray
Letters: John Trent
Editor: Sean J. Jordan
Cover Art: Tom Bancroft
Publisher: Alias Enterprises/Funny Pages Press

The second full-color issue of Alias’s re-presentation of Opposite Forces is here, and every bit as impressive as the first. Taking up the story just seconds after last issue ended, Alexis is trying to shake off the electric shock she received with Marty and going off to work. That turns out to be a bit harder than she expected, however, when she find herself unable to control her newfound incredible strength – not to mention her new tendency to lift right off from the ground.

Marty, meanwhile, is drifting away on his own, and when he and Alexis come together again, they start to piece together the accident that transferred Captain Dynamo’s powers to them. What neither of them realize is that they may not be the only two who were affected by the jolt.

Bancroft’s comic continues to impress – he fleshes out his characters a good bit in this issue. Marty’s crush on Alexis isn’t quite as blind as it initially appears, and Alexis doesn’t immediately lose her reservations about her neighbor, but at the same time, seems genuinely flattered by some of his attentions. In other words, they both behave more like real people than caricatures.

What’s more, the artwork on this comic is nothing short of fantastic. Alexis feeling flattered, for instance, isn’t borne out by anything in the writing, but rather by the look on her face. Bancroft has a very good, very animated style, and his facial expressions are one of his absolute strongest parts. More than that, though, he knows how to lay out a page and how to tell a story, something a lot of artists these days are rather clueless about.

This comic is pure fun. It’s extremely enjoyable, a blast of joy in a comic market that seems to dwell on the grim far too often, and I for one really hope that Bancroft has plans to bring it back after the initial four-issue miniseries is re-presented.

Rating: 9/10

The Imaginaries (2005 Series) #1

April 16, 2005

Quick Rating: Great
Title: Lost and Found Part One

Where does an imaginary friend go when a child no longer needs him?

Writers: Ben Avery & Mike S. Miller
Pencils: Mike S. Miller & Greg Titus
Colors: Lynx Studio & Greg Titus
Letters: Bill Tortolini
Editor: Mike S. Miller
Cover Art: Mike S. Miller (Cover A); Greg Titus (Cover B)
Publisher: Image Comics/Alias Enterprises/DB Pro

A few weeks ago I reviewed another Mike Miller/Alias Enterprises comic, Lullaby: Wisdom Seeker, which was a great combination of classic children’s books. With this second Alias production, this new studio is really poising itself to be a leader in all-ages comic books. This is one of the best new comics I have read in a very long time, and like Lullaby, it’s one that adults can read, appreciate, and then share with their children.

To cope with his parents’ marital troubles, a young boy named Tanner takes up the adventures of Superhero G, a character his father dreamt about as a child. When he grows older, though, and life gets harder, Tanner abandons the hero. Superhero G then finds himself in another world, stranded on the outskirts of a great walled city in the midst of an unforgiving desert. He has been sent to the Imagined Nation, home of imaginary friends that children no longer dream about, and unless he finds a way into the city, he will soon be no more.

I am a sucker, I will admit, for stories about the power of imagination, and this is one of the best such stories I’ve come across. While the story is about a child growing older, for a younger child it will reinforce the power of their own creations, make them more real rather than less.

Miller and Titus do an equally strong job with the artwork. The “real” world looks like the sort of art style you’d find in a strong superhero comic, which is interesting since the superhero doesn’t show up at all. We also get a few pages in a child’s crayon style before moving on to the “imaginary” world, where the art makes a minor shift. While the shift isn’t so drastic as to be jarring, things do become a little more cartoonish, and not just because we’re faced with living snowmen and talking bunny rabbits. Body structures become more exaggerated, faces elongated, and we feel like we’ve fallen into a Saturday morning cartoon or – more appropriately – the imagination of a particularly vivid child.

Is it fair to say that, with just one issue, I’m in love with this book? I think so. This is the kind of stuff that I just eat up, and if you’ve got kids that you want to bring into the world of comics, Alias Enterprises now has not one, but two fantastic entry-level comic books. Check this out.

Rating: 9/10

Opposite Forces (2005 Series) #1

August 6, 2005

Quick Rating: Great

If Captain Dynamo loses his power, who can save the city?

Writer: Tom Bancroft
Art: Tom Bancroft
Colors: Josh Ray
Letters: John Trent
Cover Art: Tom Bancroft & Cedric Hohnstadt
Publisher: Alias Enterprises/Funny Pages Press

This new Opposite Forces series, premiering this week from Alias, is actually a full-color reprint of a black-and-white miniseries from a few years ago, and with the bargain introductory issues Alias does, there’s no better use for your 75 cents this week. I loved every page of this comic book.

Captain Dynamo is a superhero. A pompous, arrogant, attention-seeking superhero. And his second biggest fan, unbeknownst to both of them, is living in his own apartment building. Marty Knopf is a sweet, solitary guy who spends his time watching Captain Dynamo, hanging out with his dog Bopper, and nursing an unrequited crush on his neighbor, Alexis. He doesn’t think she knows he’s alive, but he’s wrong – she just happens to think he’s a creepy guy from across the hall.

On the day Marty finally finds the courage to make his move, an armada of aliens are preparing to enact their plans to render Captain Dynamo helpless. The aliens, an elevator mishap and a pot of matzo ball soup all converge to bring Marty and Alexis together in a way neither of them ever would have expected.

Bancroft is a former Disney animator, and it shows in both the story and artwork – both have a sort of charming, wholesome quality that one generally associates with Disney (although to be frank, this is a lot better than the stuff they’ve been turning out lately. They should have kept Bancroft on staff and made Opposite Forces into a movie.) You immediately feel a connection to Marty, because let’s face it, he’s got elements of just about all comic book fans in them. Alexis comes across as slightly shallow at first, but she also shows a willingness to grow that makes you want to watch her over the next three issues.

The artwork is just wonderful. It looks like the storyboard for a cartoon, there can be no doubt that this is the work of an animator, and I mean that as a compliment. The action, even in “normal” apartment scenes, is extremely fluid and energetic. You can picture the characters moving as though you were watching a cartoon. I rather like Bancroft’s designs as well – and a few concept sketches he shows you in the back pages shows he definitely made the right choices with the designs he selected.

I heard about this comic the first time around, but I never managed to find a copy, so I’m really happy that Alias is reprinting it (in color for the first time). I’ll be even happier if Bancroft comes back after these four issues are up and makes more. This is a fantastic comic, and if you pass up this bargain first issue, you’re making a huge mistake.

Rating: 9/10

Lullaby: Wisdom Seeker #1

March 25, 2005

Quick Rating: Very Good

To protect Wonderland, Alice sets out to the other realms of the imagination.

Writers: Mike S. Miller & Ben Avery
Art: Hector Sevilla
Colors: Simon Bork, David Curiel & Ulises Arreola
Letters: Bill Tortolini
Editor: Mike S. Miller
Cover Art: Hector Sevilla
Publisher: Image Comics/Alias Enterprises/DB Pro

This book really succeeded for me. It’s a fabulous mixture of fairy tales and great children’s literature, a sort of younger cousin to the likes of Fables or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, throwing together all of the fantastic characters we read about as children into one book together.

Alice is a young girl from another world who was mysteriously transported to Wonderland and raised until she was the right hand of the Queen of Hearts. As a war hero, Alice is much beloved, but troubled by dreams of her former life, and by words of disturbances in neighboring fairylands. She sets out to travel from land to land to find the truth behind the disturbance.

In a neighboring land, a young pirate lad named Jim Hawkins is tossed from his ship by a captain who fears he’ll one day take command away from him. Jim and his mate,, a little wooden boy who once was human, decide to set out on an adventure of their own.

This issue is largely set-up. We’re introduced to many of our main characters and many of the fantastic settings this title will use, but things aren’t brought together yet. Alice is on her own, and while Jim and Pinocchio are together, they’re all worlds apart.

I love children’s fantasy. I think the worlds of L. Frank Baum and Lewis Carroll are among the richest and most incredible ever dreamed by the human mind, and it’s incredibly exciting for me to see all of them pulled together in a title that’s written this well.

And the art, by creator Hector Sevilla is absolutely outstanding. There is a little of a Manga feel to it, particularly in the clothing designs, but it’s not so much as to turn off someone who doesn’t care for that style. Mostly, it’s just a very well-drawn, well-designed and beautifully colored fantasy comic book.

I picked this up because, as I said, I love children’s fantasy, and because I’ve become quite a fan of Mike Miller. I’m not disappointed in the least. This gives me a lot of hope for Alias’s future projects, both through Image and on their own.

Rating: 8/10