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Home , Alex Schomburg, Antihero, Corto Maltese, European comics

TAKE THAT, ADOLF! 741.5 WW2 AND THE ART OF 741.5 PUNCHING NAZIS FOR FUN AND PROFIT MAY 2017— NO. FIVE PLUS...VICTORY IN !

MEANWHILE

The Comics & Graphic Bulletin of May 8 is V-E Day, celebrating the Allied Victory in Europe. The defeat of Nazism brought many things to the Continent: de- mocracy, the Cold War...and totally awe- some comics! Postwar were little influenced by the heroes-and- tropes of American comic books. Thematically and graphically, Euro-comics took their cues from classic American newspaper strips. The influence of such past masters as Caniff and Crane is evident in the work of , whose stark, inky art had a huge impact on a young . Pratt’s best known for the globe-trotting adventures of Corto Mal- generic cityscapes of most American com- Not the fledgling comic heaped abuse on Hitler tese. A laconic chasing a buck at ics, Gibrat’s Paris is a in itself. Take That, Adolf! book industry. Years be- and his nation of goons. the sunset of European empire, Maltese This aspect of Euro-comics is at the heart The Fighting Comic Books of fore the United States’ of- Some only saw the money finds himself mixed up in the madness of of Benoit Peeters’ “Obscure Cities” se- The Second World War ficial entry into WW2, the In Siberia (IDW). ries, the first volume of which, Samaris, to be made, especially You can find this new release at Beaumont, comic books turned news- will be on LPL shelves soon. Another fine By Mike Fertig once ar- along with the previous example of European ’ sense of (Fantagraphics) stands into war zones as a rived with a sock on books published under IDW’s “Euro- place is the winner of the prestigious hundred heroes - masked Central, Eastside Schicklgruber’s jaw. Many, Comics” imprint, which is bringing us other Grand Prize of the 2010 Angouleme marvels and men in mufti, with names like Eisner, Si- European classics such as Flight of the Raven Comics Festival, 5,000 km Per Second by One of the greatest propa- androids and aviators - mon and Mayer, had a by Jean-Pierre Gibrat. Gibrat (below) is ad- Manuele Fior. A love triangle waxes and mired by fans and pros alike for his aston- ganda operations in histo- took the fight to the Axis. personal stake. Whatever wanes over the years and kilometers as And as every fist flew right ishing use of watercolor, shown to good two men and the woman they both love ry operated without gov- their reasons, these men effect in this tense tale of the French Re- in the Fuhrer’s face, a mil- travel from to Egypt (above) to Nor- ernment support or con- (and a handful of women) sistance. Gibrat’s work also highlights an- way and then back home again. Fior’s wa- trol. It was a spontaneous, lion dimes cascaded into unleashed a four-color other thing that sets European comics tercolored pages are a joy to behold, street level movement, the pocketbooks of pub- apocalypse that contribut- apart—attention to background. Unlike the one’s eye bewitched by the moon reflect- motivated by two things: lishers (though not crea- ed to the Allied war effort ed off an icy fjord or a skiff gliding upon patriotism...and profit. tors). Now this outburst of at home and abroad. Re- the Nile. His latest, The Interview, is the Faced with the threat of premature anti- serve your copy at lex- exact opposite, a shadow-haunted tale of attraction and obsession set in a future world war, many Ameri- gets its due in Take That publib.org and enjoy the Adolf! Curated by Mike Italy and rendered in deep blacks and cans ducked their heads two-fisted agitprop of the smoky ink washes. And there’s spaceships! and hoped for the best. Fertig, who compiled the Golden Age! Above: exam- Though not like the ones in The World of poster book 101, ples of wartime comic co- Edena by Moebius (Dark Horse). Available this tome features 500 vers. Front: art by the from Eastside, this standalone novel by covers from greatest cover artist of his the master of European science the dozens of titles that era, Alex Schomburg. BW comics showcases his exquisite draftsman- ship and gorgeous use of color. Similarly, Below: titles weren’t it’s his moody gouache technique that sets the only ones to fight the good fight, as shown by this ad from the work of Enki Bilal apart, as you can Crime Does Not Pay Jan 1943. > see in The Nikopol Trilogy (Titan), compil- ing the of the relunctantly resurrect- ed Alcide Nikopol and his dealings with a gang of Egyptian gods returned to a de- graded future Earth. And for a more con- temporary look at European comics, check out the anthology Spanish Fever (FG) from Central and Village. Viva tebeos! our nation, in which cat flu, a cult that be- lieves every microbe is sacred and a runa- way warbot that decides it wants to be called “Tina” further complicate our screen TAKE THAT, ADOLF! -addled descent into idiocracy. But...that screen’s just so...shiny, isn’t it? Ever- beckoning, a will-o-the-wisp drawing us always deeper into the cybernetic swamp. That’s where they live, these kids today, kids like Lottie Person, the heroine of Snot- girl, the latest from the creator of Scott Pilgrim and Seconds, Bryan Lee O’Malley. Lottie is a fashion blogger. She lives her life post to post, selfie to selfie, desperately maintaining a picture-perfect façade only to be constantly undermined IRL by her gruesome allergies. Volume 1 of of this Image series, “Green Hair Don’t Care”, is a slick mix of romance, and mystery. The art by Leslie Hung is a perfect example of 21st Century “girl” comics, two parts Betty & Veronica to two parts anime and with a twist of Timm to give it some bite. And like old school teen comics, there’s plenty of cheesecake, beefcake woods, except when memories come alive in bright and bloody color. Comics’ own MEANWHILE Golden Age is remade as noir nightmare in ’s Sandman Mystery Thea- These kids today, am I right? With the tre Book One. One of the inaugural Verti- Snapchat and the swiping and the posting go titles, SMT is set in the late Thirties at of every minute detail of their lives...can ya the birth of the DC Universe and stars the imagine what it’s gonna be like when they original Sandman, who started out in a take over? Well, writer Mark Russell al- suit, not spandex. Armed with only his gas ready has with the DC series PREZ, and it’s gun, dream-haunted Wesley Dodds deals a hoot and a horror. A mod reimagining of out to monsters like the the cult Seventies series about America’s Face and the Tarantula, bizarre avatars of “First Teen President”, PREZ is set in a not banal evils such as incest, racism and very distant future where social media child abuse. Each is ably ren- have completely taken over the American dered in differing styles, from Guy Davis’ system of government. So much that a spidery penline to the slashing brushwork deadlocked election gets won by an outsid- of John Watkiss to R.G. Taylor’s airy illus- er candidate known as “Corndog Girl” be- trations. Meanwhile, Will Elder was one of cause her video was trending on Youtube. the widest-ranging artists in the legendary Once in office, Beth Ross begins to turn EC bullpen, working in crime and horror to things upside down to the consternation of and, of course, parody, the corporate powers behind the American Elder’s specialty. Gorgeous examples of throne. The detailed but rubbery art of Ben each genre fill Fantagraphics’ newest “EC Caldwell and Mike Morales brings to life Artist” collection, available now at lex- this sci-fi burlesque of the issues roiling publib.org. 741.5 is by Bill Widener, CL LA and pretty clothes to keep your runny, itchy eyes glued to the page. But living your life in the public eye has never been easy, even in the pre-digital days, as for- mer pro hockey player Derek Oueltte knows very well. Too much a mess to be called a , Derek is the of Jeff (Sweet Tooth) Lemire’s latest stand- alone novel, Roughneck (Gallery 13). Even living in the middle of nowhere in the Great White North, Ouelette is dogged by his violent reputation. Derek’s dreary life of booze and brawls is interrupted by the arrival of his kid sister Beth, who hit the road years ago. She’s still on the run, from her immediate past of abuse and addic- tion, and from the tragic childhood she shares with her brother. It’s a chilly book, blue as a breath caught in the winter wind. Lemire’s art looks carved from the white birch trees that crowd in from the snowy