"Well, it's only a quarter..."

The beauty of the quarter boxes is that I find and buy books that I would normally not even take a second glance at. If the cover looks even mildly appealing or the subject matter might be something I like, in the pile it goes. Everybody always says you should "broaden your horizons," right? It's true, and it's even better when you can do so on the cheap. I may not like everything that I grab out of the cheap bins, but when they are less than a dollar, how can I really complain?

What better way to try new things then to pick up a "Special Introductory One-shot." After hearing all of the praise for Jay Faerber's Noble Causes series on multiple podcasts, I decided that I would be looking for some issues, and just my luck, I found Noble Causes: First Impressions #1 in one of the cheap boxes. A lot like DC's Secret Files books, Noble Causes: First Impressions #1 uses a couple small stories to introduce the reader to the Noble family, a family of superheroes that save the world while being followed around by the paparazzi and talked about in the tabloids. Both stories were written by Faerber with pencils from Billy Dallas Patton on the first story and Patrick Gleason (of Green Lantern Corps fame) on the second. Now I am going to be perfectly honest here. The book didn't really do anything for me. I knew going in that the series was a "soap opera with superheroes" but I guess I didn't know how much soap opera there would be. I don't know if I can explain it real well though since there are a lot of superhero books on the shelves that seem like soap operas too. Look at Spider-Man. Geez, how many hearts has he broken? I guess the difference is in the characters. Spider-Man and Mary Jane are multifaceted characters while it felt like every character in Noble Causes were just basic soap opera type characters. Maybe I need to try more than just this introductory issue.

Next up, we have a Top Cow two-fer: The Darkness #3 by Phil Hester and Michael Broussard and Witchblade #118 by Ron Marz & Stjepan Sejic. I came into both of these books totally blind. Top Cow has kinda flown under my comics radar and the only things I know about these books is what I have gleaned from ads and podcasts. Thankfully, both books had well written recap pages so I had enough info to know what is going on and enjoy both issues. (There has been some debate lately about recap pages. I find myself firmly on the pro side. I love a recap page and I think they can be pretty important. Every book is someone's first, right?) Admittedly, based on these two issues, I think I have been missing out on some goodness from Top Cow. I really enjoyed both issues. I can't think of one serious villian-based book from Marvel or DC right now, and The Darkness seemed to have a very cool premise of Grand Theft Auto meets Venom. In one scene, the Darkness summons all of these "darklings" just to make a giant pile to fling himself onto a helicopter. One word: epic. Phil Hester, I applaud you sir. I see the purchase of some Darkness trades in my future. As for Witchblade, I will admit I had some preconceptions. Like I said before, all I knew of Witchblade was what I had gleaned from ads and magazines, so I assumed that Witchblade was just a simple cheesecake book. Most of the ads for the book have the title character wearing little more that strategically placed armor, and honestly, I like the ladies just as much as the next guy but cheesecake books don't really do anything for me. That is why I never picked up any Witchblade books. Sadly, I wish I had known that I was wrong. I might have picked up a Witchblade book a long time ago. The story in this issue was very cool with the son of one of Witchblade's enemies taking up his father's quest to steal the Witchblade. Artistically, the issue shined. I was amazed by Stjepan Sejic's painted art. Sejic's art alone would be enough to make me buy this book on a regular basis. Top Cow is batting a thousand with me right now and I will be looking for more of their books in the near future.

Now I saved the best for last. I present to you Boris the Bear Slaughters the Teenage Radioactive Black Belt Mutant Ninja Critters. This was one of those books that I saw laying in the quarter box and I knew I had to make it mine. Produced by Dark Horse Comics and written by Mike Richardson, Randy Stradley, and James Dean Smith with Smith on art as well, Boris The Bear is one of those books that just makes you ask yourself "What in God's name were they thinking!?" Well, luckily for the reader, they ask that very question in the preface to the book on the inside front cover. Apparently, Boris is the answer to the horrible influx of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles clones and ripoffs that flooded the comic book market in the 80's. Just so you know Boris's answer is of course a machine gun and katana which he uses to brutally kill Usagi Yojimbo, Cerebus, the Ninja Turtles, the Hamster Vice, Ambush Bug, Snoopy, the Looney Tunes, Captain Carrot, the Ewoks, the Smurfs, and many more cartoon favorites. (The best part of the book was the one character Boris spares from his carnage: Droopy Dog. Boris just says "You can go. I like you.") Honestly, Boris the Bear really was interesting to read, purely as an artifact of the 80's. I was right in the TMNT demographic at that time so I never realized how much the Turtles took over pop culture. I loved them and the more I had of them the better. I guess they needed a bear to come and clean house a little, and that is how we got Boris. This is the kinda comic I dig in the longboxes for.

Do they make inoculations for comic books?

I thought moving and planning a wedding were enough problems in my life. Now I have this. Thanks to David from 11 O'Clock Comics, I am now aware of the fact that my quarter bin addiction may be LETHAL! (Cue dramatic music.)

Nanny State Law Gets Books Burned

The latest round of nanny state legislation finds Congress protecting your children from daily exposure to dangerous chemicals commonly found in items not usually considered dangerous, such as books. Everyone is aTwitter about it, and Laurie Sutton wrote me to let me know about the article in City Journal.

“…under a law Congress passed last year aimed at regulating hazards in children’s products, the federal government has now advised that children’s books published before 1985 should not be considered safe and may in many cases be unlawful to sell or distribute. Merchants, thrift stores, and booksellers may be at risk if they sell older volumes, or even give them away, without first subjecting them to testing—at prohibitive expense. Many used-book sellers, consignment stores, Goodwill outlets, and the like have accordingly begun to refuse new donations of pre-1985 volumes, yank existing ones off their shelves, and in some cases discard them en masse.”

The fine for selling a pre-1985 children’s book to a child or for “children’s use”? $100,000 in fines, and prison. The law covers ANY item sold to children or for children which does not meet draconian testing standards, including handmade crafts and goods.

Can you knit junior a sweater? No, he might eat it and ingest lead. Or something.

Oh my goodness.

Go read and see if you think this law is as dumb as I think it is.

Now when I say "They will have to pry the comics from my COLD DEAD HAND," I actually mean it. Seriously though, this is insane. I say fight back and give a kid an issue of X-Men from the 80's. I am sure the only "symptom" they will have is something called "reading."

A quick note for my fellow deal hunters....

If you read this blog, that means you like comics. It also means that you probably like cheap comics. Therefore, I thought I would post this link for anyone interested. I just found out that the website Things From Another Universe is having a "Nick & Dent Sale." What that means is that the books might not be in perfect condition, but you will get them for 60% off. I looked through what they had and there were some really good reads in there. Just thought I would drop a quick note and share some cheap comic goodness with everyone.

Trying to fill the void...

As you can probably tell from past posts, I am quite a fan of Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica and an card-carrying Trekkie. With the final episode of BSG behind us and the new Star Trek movie still months away, I am in desperate need of a science fiction fix. So, TO THE LONGBOXES! To be honest, I've actually been saving something for just such an occasion. One of my many jaunts to the quarter bins turned up these: Marvel's Open Space #1, 2, and 3. I had never even heard of this series before I bought them, but they did look interesting. They are prestige format books put out by "Marvel Graphics" which I can only assume was some type of Marvel graphic novel imprint in the late 80's and early 90's. Conceptually, the series is the "world's first shared universe SF anthology in comics form" according to the foreward by Kurt Busiek who edited the series and went on to write the Avengers, Justice League, Astro City, and a whole lot more. The series brings famous science fiction writers together with well known comic artists to create stories set in a dystopian future. Think Heavy Metal minus the glowing green ball or the aliens and you have a pretty good idea of Open Space (and if you have never seen Heavy Metal, what are you doing reading this blog?).

Have you ever had so many different comments and thoughts about something that you can't articulate any of them coherently? It feels like a whole bunch of people trying to get through a door at the same time. Reading Open Space has caused this exact phenomenon. I will try to boil it down to the most important points for the sake of you, the reader, and my own sanity. I guess I should probably start with the positives. The art of the series is probably the most obvious strength of the series. While you have to look past the coloring on some of the stories due to fact they did not have the coloring techniques we have today, the pencils and painted works are amazing. Each writer's story is paired perfectly with the artist. Just like Heavy Metal, the art complements each story and shows the contrasts that are needed in any anthology series, even those that share a universe. There are definitely some artists whose names I will be looking for now that I have seen what they can do in Open Space. Of course art is not the only thing. Many of the stories can stand on their plot alone. Even though some fall into common science fiction tropes, they were all interesting enough to keep me reading. My favorite, titled "Heroes" from the first issue, written by G. Harry Stine and Kurt Busiek with art by Bill Wray. "Heroes" revolved around a con man whose ever growing cons eventually lead to his death and the false belief of thousands that he was a martyr for their freedom from the tyrannical supercompanies. Lastly, the last aspect of the series taht I enjoyed was a little more tangential. Obviously, most if not all of the stories are a product of and commentary on the United States and Reaganomics. When this series came out, the US was just transitioning out of Ronald Regan's presidency, but negative feelings of his economic policies still lingered. The whole Open Space universe and its companies taking over the government are proff of that. Comparing the series to the feelings of the country today in our economic crises shows some eerie similarities.

Now the idea of a sci-fi anthology series is not unheard of, but a "shared universe" sci-fi anthology is a very lofty goal and harder to execute by definition. The idea of a shared universe causes one of the most aggravating aspects of Open Space. Now I know that the term "continuity" has become the word that shall not be uttered among comic fans lately, but when the foreword of the first issue makes such a big deal of the fact that all of the stories in the series exist together, then continuity should be considered pretty important. The sad fact is that continuity errors litter the series and drove me crazy. I wasn't surprised though. When you bring famed sci-fi writers in to write their stories and then tell them that they have to shoehorn them into a particular universe, there are going to be problems. First, there is a lack of definition to the universe. What I mean by that is certain facts about the Open Space world were obviously written in some manifesto somewhere that was given to all the writers but explanations for these things were never given. I assume the writer just said "OK" when they read these tidbits and didn't have any desire to explain them in their respective stories. For example, throughout all three books, there are a lot of characters with the last names "Etchison" and "Brody." I wish they would explain why, but they don't. From what you can infer, it seems like the two names are class identifiers with the richest of the rich taking the Etchison name and the dregs of society called Brodys. The other big problem is that some writers just shaped the structure of the Open Space society as it fits the story. While some stories operated according to the timeline on the inside cover of the second and third issues, some just went their own direction. One of the most important factors of universe is that the major companies of the United States have taken over the government. Some of the stories though still mention specifc goverment agencies that other stories have said no longer exist as they were replaced by particular companies. As any nerdy comic reader knows, a shared universe can be a major strength or a major weakness, and I think it detracted a bit for the Open Space series as a whole.

Even considering the frustrations I had, I am glad that I found Open Space because it is good to see that at some point Marvel was willing to try something very unique for its time and 180° from anything they were working on. Original ideas are the lifeblood of the comics industry, and I think the idea of a shared sci-fi universe should be dusted off by one of the indy companies. They could have a very popular book on their hands if it is done right.