Palookaville #20
Seth, Drawn & Quarterly, $19.95 (88p) ISBN 978-1-77046-018-8
The first volume of the long-running Palookaville series to be published in hardback, this gorgeous compilation underscores Seth’s status as a cartoonist, illustrator, and now installation artist. In part four of the ongoing Clyde Fans saga, set in 1975, the fan company--owned by brothers Simon and Abraham Matchcard--and its supplier are on the verge of bankruptcy. As workers at the Borealis Business Machines plant strike for higher wages, Abraham realizes that the company his father built decades ago is crumbling. The sequence of nearly wordless panels as Abraham leaves the plant, knowing the men have lost their jobs, is heartbreaking. Seth devotes the volume’s middle section to his own multiyear project creating a fictional Canadian city he dubs Dominion. Though it began in his sketchbooks, Dominion soon took the form of elaborate cardboard models, which were displayed at several galleries across Canada. The miniature streetscapes and enlargements of Seth’s sketchbooks detailing his planning stages for the city reflect the same elegiac tone as the lead story. The coda, an illustrated essay detailing Seth’s experiences at a Calgary author festival and his attempts to overcome his social anxiety, provides a strong finish to a memorable volume. (Nov.)
Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, Vol. 1--The Journey Begins
Robin Furth, Peter David, Sean Phillips, and Richard Isanove, Marvel, $24.99 (120p) ISBN 978-0-7851-4709-1
The early life of Roland Deschain, last surviving gunslinger hero of Stephen King’s series of novels, is once more revisited in this latest graphic novel prequel. Writers Furth and David tell several stories of Roland, ranging from his childhood to the years between the fall of his home of Gilead and his decision to set out on his quest to find the Dark Tower. Loosely connected, the series of flashbacks show Roland’s early experiences with betrayal and with losing his companions and others he had promised to protect. The stories do not feel strongly connected, save for the fact that they all show early incidents that influenced Roland’s personality, and so are not much more than a collection of short tales shared around a fire. The art by Phillips and Isanove ably depicts the harshness of Roland’s world, the strange mix of the familiar and the fantastic to be found in the setting, and the hard lives lived by Roland and the people he meets. And it’s that glimpse of a beloved fantasy setting which the book has the most to offer. (Jan.)
Cold Space
Samuel L. Jackson, Eric Calderon, and Jeremy Rock, Boom! (www.boomstudios.com), $14.99 (112p) ISBN 978-1-608-86021-1
In the introduction to this SF, action-adventure romp, coauthor actor Jackson explains that hero Mulberry is ultimately driven by his love of money more than love or valor or typically heroic pursuits. Set in the year 4012, the space pirate, escaping the police, crashes into a moon; soon he is in the midst of a simmering gang war and conniving to use the situation to line his own pockets. The setting, such as the World’s End Saloon, combines elements of futuristic fantasies and the Wild West. While none of it is terribly original, Jackson and Calderon have created a fun set of characters, with enough absurdity (a kissing squid?), suspense, and snappy dialogue to keep reader interest. Rock draws the supercool, mercenary, morally ambiguous space pirate to resemble (a young) Jackson, and it is hard not to hear the actor’s deep voice when reading Mulberry’s dialogue, which adds to the story’s appeal. (Dec.)
The Tikitis
Jerry Frissen and Fabien M, Humanoids,(www.humanoids.com) $29.95 (144p) ISBN 978-1-59465-105-2
It’s axiomatic that superheroes (or even heroes not-so-super) get annoyed when they don’t have any forces of evil to defend against. So it is at the start of this loony and somewhat underbaked collection, where a group of masked avengers have relocated from East L.A. to the island paradise of Luau-Luau and find themselves intensely bored. Fortunately for the guys (who grimace and growl behind their trademark Lucha Libre–style wrestling masks), and unfortunately for the island paradise, trouble comes their way in the form of teeming zombies, mythological monsters, and a crazed billionaire who thinks he’s Zeus. Other problems arise when one of the guys confesses a serial problem with seducing women on the island. The art is lush and beautifully rendered, while the action is sharply paced. Unfortunately, writer Frissen and artist M. are strictly juvenile when it comes to their one-note character development. (Dec.)
