Sunday Splash Page #262

 

"Wikipedia Wormhole," in Infinity 8 (vol. 6) #3, by Emmanuel Guibert and Lewis Trondheim (writers), Franck Biancarelli (artist), Jeremy Meeloul (translation)

The spaceship Infinity 8 comes to a halt at the edge of a vast collection of the dead and their resting places. The captain is from an aquatic alien species with the ability to reset time 3 hours back 8 times from a given point, giving them multiple chances to unravel what they've found. Each 3-issue story focuses on a different one of those attempts, as different officers are assigned to try and learn what exactly this place is. Each story is drawn by a different artist, and each story deals with a different complication.

In volume 4, Patty Stardust is undercover with a group of revolutionary artists who have something much larger planned than just a concert among the dead. Ann Ninurta in volume 5 has to deal with a zombie apocalypse and trying to protect her daughter during the mission. In volume 3, the officer herself is the danger. Volume 2 involves there being a Nazi Party on the ship, who think the Nazis were just big proponents of German beer and lederhosen and are quite excited to find Hitler's corpse in this floating graveyard. So it gets put on a police bot and tries to start a Fifth Reich. The officer helps them rather than following orders, essentially because she's bored.

(The story also includes a little blue alien named Shlomo Ju, with a bushy beard, long black coat, and one of those wide-brimmed hats, I think Borsalinos, who denounces the Nazis, because he hasn't forgotten what they were really about.

I'm not at all sure what I was supposed to take from that. That's it's all too easy for the people who weren't victims to forget the ugly parts?)

Trondheim uses the repetitive nature to slowly reveal different aspects of life on the ship, while also providing clues as to the purpose of the mausoleum. The first story "Love and Mummies," reveals a race of aliens on-board who like to eat corpses, but absorb characteristics of their food. Volume 3, "The Gospel According to Emma," introduces a guy who can telepathically control or kill anyone whose genetic material he's come into contact with, even if it's through an ancestor. If it's through an extremely ancient ancestor, that increases the number he could control/kill. All this comes together in the 8th volume, when it turns into a race between one side out for revenge, another to ensure future hegemony, and a third just trying to survive.

Some of the stories are sad, some are a bit funnier. A lot of them are just depressing. Volume 7, "All for Nothing," in particular, where a character finds out they've been used as a tool their entire life, and the fact it feels like it ruined their life is unremarked on by the ones doing it. I kept about half the series, ultimately.

Out of Continues

Somebody's parents were overachievers.

The eighth and final volume of Lewis Trondheim's Infinity 8, This is the End, starts where the previous volume left off. The cause behind their ship being caught at the edge of the immense space mausoleum is revealed as the ship's captain, one of the last 88 Tonn Shars. The reason the immense, deceptively happy-looking squid thing is doing this is because of why there are only 88 of its kind left.

This time the spotlight is on Lieutenant Reffo, the scruffy-looking guy that hit on every single one of the female agents that were the stars of the first six volumes. The one thing he seems to have going for him is an analysis chip that helps at least comprehend different courses of action. Well, that and the time-traveling AIs that popped up in volume 7, who have their own reasons for wanting the Tonn Shar stopped.

The problem for Reffo is the captain's already gone through the timeline 7 times, taking different approaches. It knows what's out there, what it's looking for, what is available to it on the Infinity 8, and what Reffo might try to stop it. Reffo and Hal don't know any of that, so they have to piece it together as they go. Of course, it's been a few years since I read some of the earlier volumes, so I can't really remember what some of the things they're referencing are, but Trondheim throws in enough expository dialogue to keep it clear.

The art this time around is by Killoffer, and yes, that's the only name the book gives them. The style is a mixture of hyper-detailed backgrounds and more simplified character designs. So the detail on the hulls of the ship or the device Hal uses to build Reffo a new lower half is there, but it doesn't distract from following the story.

Killoffer also seems to like having speech balloons overlap so they can draw the connecting lines with weird curves or humps as they're moving around each other. I'd think it was supposed to be for two characters talking simultaneously or over one another, but I don't think that's it. They just seem to like to do that.

As an ending, I'm not sure how I like it. There's not really a side I want to root for. Hal and the robots wanted to make sure the Tonn Shar are stopped because it otherwise interferes with their eventual conquest of the universe. The Tonn Shar have a valid grievance, but are planning to wipe out every person in the Federation. Reffo and the Federation killed the Tonn Shar's entire race and lied about it to try and maintain their position of dominance. And since they admit the Tonn Shar have no technology, the only way the Tonn Shar could ever have done anything is if someone approached them first. Like the Federation. So they would have done it to themselves, really.

What I Bought 1/27/2020

It was weirdly cold yesterday. Yeah, it was January, but for there being no wind to speak of, it felt a lot colder than the low 30 degree temperature it supposedly was. Maybe due to it being cloudy all day. That's your one day late mid-western U.S. weather forecast. In other news, two comics, both wrapping up their current stories.

Steeple #5, by John Allison (writer/artist), Sarah Stern (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - As Jimbo once noted when speaking of the Devil, there is a man who has eaten a lot of meat. I'm pretty sure that South Park episode is over 20 years old now, and I'm depressed.

The Reverend is away trying to find himself, and Mrs. Clovis is gradually concluding Billie might not be terrible. Then Billie offers to vacuum so Mrs. Clovis can have a day off, but the witches that were paid to resurrect the vacuum, really just put a hex on it to make the user doubt their calling. Meaning Billie questions what she's doing in the Church. Maggie is having similar doubts about being a Satanist, so they essentially switch places. Which is probably for the temporary best, since the mermen have decided to attack in force, and Maggie motorcycle was a more effective weapon than whatever Billie would have brought to the party.

And that's where things stand. Billie's in with the orgies and whatnot, Maggie's on the outs with Master Tom (although I wonder if Brian would still be her friend), and may form a reluctant friendship with Reverend Penrose and Mrs. Clovis. If the book ever continues. I like the idea of people feeling like they aren't supposed to be a certain way, or feeling as though what they're doing is getting them nowhere, and trying to be something else. And that it isn't always easy to maintain that change. If it's not something you really want to be, or be doing, it's hard to convince yourself to continue.

The flashback to Maggie's previous life as a protestor of most everything cracked me up. I think she needs to change up the pattern on her signs, though. Don't let it get to where people can predict the cadence, that lets their eyes and ears glaze over.

Infinity 8 #18, by Emmanuel Guibert and Lewis Trondheim (writers), Franck Biancarelli (artist) - Trees with teeth are not something to be approached. Not without a flamethrower. Yes, they're in the vacuum of space, so obviously I meant a space flamethrower.

Leila and Bert find the central console so Bert can talk to the memories of dead people. They quickly get sidetracked because the sentient fungus thing attached part of itself to their ship and is taking over the central console. They flee, they meet the aliens responsible for this whole place. The aliens state they did gather these corpses from across the universe, and construct a device to give them access to those species accumulated knowledge, but it's purely academic. Then they're destroyed while trying to stop the fungus thing. At least they gave Leila and Bert a shuttle first. So, mission complete, time to leave, right? Well, not exactly, because when Leila tried to look up Bert, he noticed there was a coffin with him inside already there. There's still a mystery afoot.

Well, I figured they were going to miss meeting the architects of all this, but that wound up not being the case. Instead, it's that the architects are lying to them. Which isn't surprising, really. If someone found you hoarding dead bodies from all over the place, I doubt you would explain exactly why you were doing so. Especially if there wasn't a compelling need to do so.

It's amazing how much less imposing the Captain of the Infinity 8 looks when he's presented as a small holographic projection, rather than his true form in his giant aquarium chamber thing. He looks kind of silly. I like that the fungus creature's look evolved from where it was last issue. Granted, that look is now more Groot-like, but it has eyes now, a more expressive face. It actually swings its arms as it walks, instead of letting them hang limp beside it as it did before.

What I Bought 12/27/2019

I did not do jackspit New Year's Eve. I meant to hang out with Alex at his show, but just felt worn down the whole day, so being around lots of people for several hours sounded like a bad idea. Last new comic review of 2019. Next week, Year in Review posts run Monday through Friday.

Infinity 8 #17, by Emmanuel Guiebert and Lewis Trondheim (writers), Franck Biancarelli (artist) - Surfin' through a space graveyard, the interstellar pastime.

The Customs Officer and the historian are still exploring to pass the time and find another of those hologram balls. As it turns out, the thing is somehow able to communicate with the souls of the deceased. Before that can be explored, they meet some sentient fungus thing. The fungus thing asks them to help him hunt down some odd red creatures that it's at war with, but the historian zaps it because he figures it's going to kill them for not being like it. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but anyway, there appears to be some vast, invisible network that connects all those corpses the hologram thing can tie into, and they're gonna go look for the hub. There's only 30 minutes until they're supposed to meet the ones who created this vast necropolis, so I'm not sure they really have time for this.

I guess that's going to have to be how they fail this mission. Most of the others failed because they didn't know what they were looking for, or they had something else going on. Their own agenda, or in the case of Patty Stardust, an ongoing investigation she was trying not to blow while doing this. These two know exactly where they're supposed to be and when, but their detour to kill some time is going to end up delaying them too long.

Biancarelli's art reminds me a little of the late Seth Fisher's, mostly just in how he draws the historian. It reminds of me how Fisher drew Robotman in those two issues of Jon Arcudi's Doom Patrol. Something about the angle of the neck, the posture, the somewhat googly-eyes. Otherwise, Biancarelli's work isn't nearly as busy as Fisher's, but he has a good knack for landscapes. The vast difference between the idyllic place the fungus creatures invites them into and the empty honeycomb passages where they first encountered it. He draws the fungus creature with this slightly hunched over posture where its arms just hang down limply, which is a nice touch. It makes the body look a bit puppetlike, since the creature can just create another as need be. The arms are there to make a rough approximation of the two creatures its talking to, but the idea of moving them during walking doesn't register.

What I Bought 11/27/2019

The final tally for fiction writing in November was 53,429 words, not counting Blogsgiving last week. Because that wasn't fiction, obviously. Like I figured, none of the stories are anywhere near completion - they're mostly just getting to the part where things really kick off - but it was real progress, so I'm pretty happy with that. Now it's just a matter of keeping going.

Infinity 8 #16, by Emmanuel Gilbert and Lewis Trondheim (writers), Franck Biancarelli (artist) -  That creature in the background looks like something from a more recent Scooby-Doo series.

OK, sixth try at a timeline. This time, it's Leila Sherad, from the Antiquities section of the Customs department. Sherad is a real "shoot first, ask no questions" type. Seems a little careless for someone dealing with antiquities. At least they know to investigate closer to the center, and that the people they want to talk to will emerge in four hours. Of course, that leaves four hours for Sherad to fuck things up somehow. She requests to bring along a historian she hassled at the beginning of the issue, and while he gets a chance to investigate the hyper-sarcophagus of an alleged living god, they find a floating orb that might contain a message, or it might be something else. At the least, there's something else interested in that sarcophagus in the area.

I'm curious how Sherad and this historian are going to mess this up, seeing as there are still two more turns available to use. I guess these two could always get it right and solve the mystery, but I feel like they wouldn't tell you they could use the timeline trick up to 8 times, and call the series Infinity 8, then only use 6. The most likely is Sherad shooting someone or something she shouldn't and prompting a hostile response from the ones responsible for this place. Or a hostile response from just about anyone, really. You would think someone with expertise in other cultures to be a little more diplomatic.

Biancarelli's style makes the space necropolis look more like the deep sea at times, opting for a lot of blues in the sky, and weird bits floating through that could look like air bubbles or something. Little different than most of the other artists. Biancarelli also doesn't play up the T&A factor with Sherad as much as most of the artists have with their officer. That might just be because he doesn't put her in the standard uniform, that skintight blue number with the exposed midriff. She's in what looks like a pair of jeans a white tank top. Which I'm guessing represents her general disdain for regulations or protocols. It's certainly not any sort of normal uniform, since she has to keep telling people she's a cop.

I like the choice of visual for the blaster she carries. The whole panel is colored golden yellow, except for the white lines expanding outward from the barrel of the weapon. It's such a change in color scheme from the rest of the panels it really stands out.

Power Pack: Grow Up! by Louise Simonson (writer), June Brigman (artist), Gurihiru (artist), Roy Richardson (inker), Tamra Bonvillain (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Kitty shouldn't need to phase through that, should she? It's just light.

Power Pack feels like something I should have been into back in the day, but kind of missed for one reason or another (except the issue of Uncanny X-Men where that one Morlock abducts the kids and makes their parents forget about them). I don't even know how old most of them are now in continuity. In this case, though, the story revolves around Alex' 13th birthday, with the main part drawn by June Brigman. Alex is really excited to spend time with a girl he likes, but worried his siblings will embarrass him at the Lila Cheney concert. But the kids are too busy trying to protect their talking horse alien friend from the Brood to do that.

There's a recurring thread of Katie being angry that everyone keeps calling her a baby and treating her like one. Being an only child, I don't know if that's accurate, other than it certainly seems like siblings would pick at each other that way. I did like how there's almost a sense of constantly shifting alliances between the kids. Jack, Julie, and Katie might all be angry at Alex for how he's acting towards them, and therefore defend Katie against Alex. But when he's not around, they (especially Jack) will give Katie grief instead.

I did get a good laugh out of Katie insisting that next time they try to use the "bathroom" excuse to slip away from their parents, it has to be someone other than her that has to go. That seems fair, although I imagine it'll be harder to explain Katie accompanying her older sister to the bathroom than vice versa. But I see her point.

The other story, the one drawn by the Gurihiru team, takes place later that night, and focuses on Katie, who feels bad because she spent all the money that was supposed to be for Alex' present from her on the Lila Cheney action figure she got. Which she did because he was being a jerk, but now that he's acting nicer, she feels bad. Which feels accurate from what I remember being that age. Doing something that seemed perfectly reasonable at the time, then figuring out I was being a selfish jerk later on. Ugh, I hated that feeling. Stupid guilt. The resolution is set up by something from the tail end of the first story, and not hard to see coming, but it's nice.

Both Brigman and Gurihiru do a good job being expressive with the kids' faces. Especially Alex, who has some expressions where you'd understand his siblings wanting to pop him in the jaw. Brigman gets to draw some fight scenes, which work pretty well. Nothing majorly creative, just a good ebb-and-flow where the kids have the element of surprise, and then things start to turn against them, as they're pretty disorganized. I feel like Gurihiru draws the kids as taller, but still kids. It might just be because they're really only around each other in that story, rather than giant aliens and adults. There aren't a bunch of bigger characters to make them look smaller by comparison.

What I Bought 9/27/2019 - Part 1

I have officially lived where I do long enough one person at the post office recognizes my face and remembers my name. A true milestone. In other news, we were apparently so bored or loopy at work this week we somehow got on the topic of cartwheels and before you knew it, four of us were testing whether or not we could still do them. The answer is "yes", albeit not particularly graceful ones. Here's two comics from September, a story winding down and another reaching the midpoint.

Sera and the Royal Stars #3, by Jon Tsuei (writer), Audrey Mok (artist), Raul Angulo (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - That would be a hell of a thing to run into while out rock climbing.

Our three heroes take a little ride down the river, but get attacked by more of those lizard guys, this time with dragon back-up. Aldebaran's still a little worn out from the plant growth display last issue, so they try hiding in a cave. One which is enchanted and full of little flying creatures that abduct Sera and drag her to a place where she sees a lot of family members who tell her they are all disappointed in her. Hey, the holidays are rough on everybody. She makes it through, I think, with a little help from her brother's actual ghost, and catches up with her allies and someone else.

It's nice that, when seemingly confronted by the ghost of her mother who is being critical of her, Sera doesn't immediately collapse or start issuing denials. She does that stuff eventually, once her siblings join in, but her immediate response is to angrily point out her mother abandoned them for a quest just like this, so she doesn't get to judge. It's not the usual reaction you see in a story like this, but given how Sera had to be forced to do this quest, and she clearly has issues about her mother being gone because of it, it seems like the right reaction.

I really like how Audrey Mok draws clothes, or maybe it's the actual clothes. All the robes and sashes and capes, and cloaks, but the characters never look too cluttered or busy. Every group kind of has their own distinct look. The lines are light and everything flows nicely. The word that keeps coming to mind is "elegant". Everyone is very stylish, and Antares definitely has a sort of grace to her movements when she leaps onto the cliff and starts fighting.

Infinity 8 #15, by Lewis Trondheim and Davy Mourier (writers), Lorenzo de Felici (artist) - Yes, I know that's the same cover I posted last issue. This is the one Previews had online when I went looking for that's issue's cover then. It still isn't an effective way to halt a zombie charge.

Ann and the group of mercs that are helping her splash into the hanger of Mister Led, the big fish guy from the previous storyarc. And there's Ron and his Symbolic Guerillas trying to make an escape as well! Ann commandeers the the craft, and gets a little trigger happy, killing Led and both of his pilots when she enters the cockpit. She can fly the thing herself, but the transformation's accelerating. They reach the center of the anomaly and find, I dunno, some space rifts that giant corpses come floating out of? And the corpses attack them? Maybe. They blow 'em up regardless and Ann's able to talk with the people who created this place, but the transformation takes hold entirely before she can relay what she's learned, and she just blows the alien vessel up instead.

Oh well, three more tries to go.

This one's story didn't seem to hold together quite as well as the previous one. There was some stuff about Ann being very straight-laced and formal, real follow the rules type. She veers off that, but because she's been infected by the zombie bite and its gradually changing her mental state. You'd expect it to be she has to be a little more loose in how she handles things because of circumstances. And it sort of seems like that was where things were going last issue, but this issue makes it seem like, no, she's just rapidly turning into a ravaging undead. And I'm still not sure if those giant corpses were attacking, or it was simply the ship had to blast its way through to reach the center of the anomaly.

It looked very pretty though. de Felici makes the corpses this sort of green and black combination that outlines the bones so that they have the appearance of glowing. Where they emerge from the spatial folds, there's these translucent triangles around their limbs or chest. Like pieces of cellophane or the material 3-D glasses are made of that's been left out in the sun and faded. It's really odd, and I don't know that I would think of that as representing falling out of a spatial fold if the story didn't tell me that's what is happening, but it's still a very cool visual.

What I Bought 8/31/2019 - Part 2

I originally intended to go to Freestatecon last weekend, but my allergies screwed up my sleep so badly Friday night I didn't feel like driving three hours one way for anything. Oh well. Dropping back to comics from a couple weeks ago, looking at two stories both on their second issue.

Infinity 8 #14, by Lewis Trondheim and Davy Mourier (writers), Lorenzo de Felici (artist) - That doesn't seem an effective strategy.

The Major's going to die of that bite, but in a few hours the timeline will get rebooted anyway, so no big, right? At least, that's her bosses perspective, as they want her to get back to exploring the space mausoleum. She tries, but her ship can't make it through the horde of zombies swarming the ship from said mausoleum. She needs a better ship and help to get it, so she calls up the guy she met briefly last issue, and he and his crew of misfits manage to link up with her and start fighting through the typical mess o' the undead.

Considering they haven't even gotten to the larger ship they're going to try and use by the end of this issue, this timeline attempt certainly seems like it'll be a bust. Although all the previous attempts have been as well, unless you count eliminating possibilities as success, which I guess you could.

The reboot takes a bit of the sting out of Ann discovering what's happened to her daughter at the preschool. It's still an effective scene on its own, with the little girl for some reason standing off by herself, while all the other changed kids are trying to swarm Ann. The panels focus on Syb, standing in an circle of light facing the wall, and the swarms of kids are just at the bottom of the panel, silent but clawing and biting. Ann doesn't even have to see Syb's face to know what's happened, although we get to see it once, when Ann's distracted by the zombie of her ex. At least she got to shoot him with no repercussions.

De Felici's good at drawing the undead with a relentless drive. They don't necessarily look excited when they see the living, but almost desperate sometimes. They have to get them, even if they don't know why. Contrasts nicely with Ann's grim determination to push through them. Despite control's suggestion to let loose a little, I think she's still holding back. Impending death hasn't really loosened her up any.

Sera and the Royal Stars #2, by Jon Tsuei (writer), Audrey Mok (artist), Raul Angulo (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - That's just a very pretty cover. Love the colors on it.

Sera and Aldebaran, the Old Bull, drive off the lizard guys, the return to Sera's kingdom to see if they can get a bead on where the other Royal Stars are. When they arrive, they find Sera's uncle's forces have taken over, and he's king now. Oh, and her brother died in battle. On the plus side, she was able to awaken (summon?) the Scorpion, Antares, and her uncle believes in her where her father did not. The fact there are two of the Royal Stars standing right there might have a lot to do with that. And now the three of them plan to travel north, but the mysterious hooded folks are going to make their move, since the lizard guys failed.

I wonder how many of these Royal Stars there are. They mention three others besides the Bull, so maybe it's just four. If so, that would be good for Sera, she'd already be halfway there. Although I'm unclear what finding these four is going to accomplish exactly. Aldebaran made crops grow, I can see that being helpful, but I don't know what Antares can do yet, other than threaten to kill people. Which is helpful, but not a skill exclusive to her.

I really like Angulo's colors on this book, the combinations in particular. Aldebaran has purple skin, but a green robe with gold borders, and sometimes he glows orange-white, and it's just this variety of colors that makes him pop off the page. The colors aren't muddy or toned down, it helps sell Mok's artwork rather than obscuring it. I might have given them a bit more space to work for the part where Aldebaran makes the crops grow, to play up the size and extent of his feat more. The panels are fairly small, and focused more on character's reactions to it. I guess to prove that he's not the type to pull a fast one and make poisoned fruit to eliminate enemies. He actually is a helpful sort.

It feels like there's an unpleasant surprise reveal coming, but I have no idea what it's going to be.

What I Bought 8/3/2019 - Part 2

For today, a couple of first issues. Well, one of them is sort of a first issue, sort of a continuation. And I thought I'd have the first two issues of the other book, but it didn't work out that way.

Test #1, by Christopher Sebela (writer), Jen Hickman (artist), Harry Saxon (colorist), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (writer) - Updated form of Operation! they've got going there.

Aleph is trying to find the town of Laurelwood, which is supposedly incredibly futuristic and has been erased from all maps. Aleph's had a lot of upgrades or random tests done on their body, because they're trying to find a particular feeling, I think. But they also signed a lot of contracts that give the companies that performed those procedures control of their body, so they're being hunted. And they may have killed some people, and may not be taking all the proper meds. But they found Laurelwood, although things don't seem great there, and the repo guys are still coming.

Things aren't entirely linear so far. The story goes back and forth between present and Aleph's past that led to this point. The escape from the hospital is shown in reverse, the end first, going back to what set it off. Part of the road trip is shown in reverse too, I think, because I feel like the RV crashed before the nervous young couple picked Aleph up. The windshield of their vehicle didn't match the RV's, so I don't think that was their vehicle. I don't know what that means yet. If that's how Aleph's mind works, focus on what's now and work back to where it started. If they're this focused on what they're pursuing that might make sense.

Hickman draws Laurelwood as basically a normal town with some unusual features bolted on. A strange car, Roombas keeping the streets clean, weird liquid metal things cross roads or dropping off rooftops. So a gradual infiltration of this futuristic stuff, to ease the shock of it. The inhabitants look mostly what we might think of as normal, although I haven't seen any kids yet. No usual appendages or outlandish fashion choices. A few new products at a time, see how people respond, then maybe a few more. But it isn't clear if the locals are really taking to the stuff or not.

Lot of questions, which is usually good. Questions mean they captured my interest. Whether I'll enjoy the answers, assuming there are any, is another matter, but cross that bridge when we get there.

Infinity 8 #13, by Lewis Trondheim and Davy Mourier (writers), Lorenzo de Felici (artist/color artist) - She should probably focus more on the undead grasping at her legs and less on whatever is in the distance. Unless she's saluting, in which case she should definitely focus more on the undead.

Fifth try at figuring out what's going on, and this time it's a Major Ann Ninurta on deck. Before she could even get to that, she had to drop her kid off at school, and arrest a person for shooting someone. While she's off exploring the vast graveyard in space, it turns out the murderer and his assistant were trying to test a resurrection gun of sorts, but obviously the assistant had to die first. Well, the gun works, but he comes back as a shambling, mindless creature that craves flesh and spreads his condition by biting people. Then the gun falls into some power conduit that carries its energy through the entire ship and the space graveyard, meaning everyone's in trouble now. Although i enjoy how she was mostly just annoyed when one of the zombies tried biting through her space helmet.

de Felici draws a decent variety of aliens, although he seems to lean towards them being small and kind of lumpy. But they mostly look suitably alien, so that's the important thing. He varies the size of Ann's eyes relative to the rest of her face by a lot. In some panels, they look about normal. In other panels they take up half her face. I can't tell that there's a pattern, so it's just a thing he has issues with. It isn't a huge issue except for being very distracting when I come across one of the panels where the eyes are enormous. I stop and just gawk, like what the hell happened there?

There's also a subplot about Ann's deadbeat ex, and also possibly her trying to hook up with some guy that caught her eye while she was on patrol? These stories usually have some sort of element beyond whatever trouble the agent runs into out in the graveyard, and I guess that's going to be this one's.

What I Bought 6/29/2019

There were only two new books from the last few months I hadn't managed to find yet, so I ordered those online from my usual place. Tired of the constant nonsense where UPS and USPS can't get on the same page, I finally bit the bullet and went with the next level up on shipping options. The books got here in three days, which is a lot better than, "who the fuck knows," which is what it's been the last several months.

Infinity 8 #11 and 12, by Lewis Trondheim and Kris (writers), Martin Trystram (artist), Trystram and Hubert (colorists), Olivier Vatine (designer) - Gotta love an outfit that works underwater or in outer space.

Patty discovers a mausoleum for a heretofore unknown interstellar confederation that would dwarf the one the people in this story are part of. But, it doesn't appear to have anything to do with why their ship has stalled, so she's told to move on. Meanwhile, Ron has found what he's looking for: a different shrine, dedicated to a bunch of Earth musicians who died at 27. Which he then blows up, killing a bunch of his doped-up Symbolic Guerillas in the process. Because this will make him famous, somehow.

In theory, none of this matters, because the Captain of the ship will cancel this timeline, roll time back eight hours, something like that. Because Patty didn't find an answer to the question of what's happened to the ship. But the Captain could tell her what's going to happen, and she can stop it first, which he says he'll do. The last page, though, after things have been reset, shows Patty walk right past three officers, with no indication they passed on the information. I don't understand that, unless they're happy with how things turned out. The corporate guy Patty was really interested in (a giant talking fish named Led), ended up dead, so maybe that suited their purposes. All Ron's dead followers? Who cares, right? Bunch of deadheads.

I'm not sure what to make of the story. Something about the hollowness of looking for meaning in someone else's work, or that everyone is going to try and exploit everyone? Led seems to be supporting the Guerillas because he thinks he can earn some kind of cred. I don't know if he really wants to look hip, or if it's strictly a cash thing. Like how different beer companies are trying to do cans in various colors for Pride Month as a marketing thing. Mr. Shaser seems to tout a lot of ideas he doesn't really grasp, the dumb teenager who thinks he's the first to think of really obvious ideas. Willing to toss himself away for people who don't care a bit for him, and didn't mean any of the things he took from them. Ron's built up this whole mystique around himself where he pretends to abhor attention, to garner himself attention and fame. Most of the people following him seem to believe in what he says, and they are ultimately expendable. Nobody matters to him, except him.

Trystram has a variety of alien designs, and I like that the security bots in the mausoleum Patty finds don't look very similar to the robots on the ship. Presumably very different cultures behind their creation. The design for Led reminds me of how Doug TeNapel draws fish, at least a little bit. All his women tend to be long and angular, very slim, while the guys vary a lot more. Not a stylistic trait unique to Trystram, but figured I'd mention it. But the action sequences, brief as they are, are pretty smooth, and the pacing is good. After those three panels above, there's a panel of Ron's procession dancing past Moosh while he stands there confused. Then another panel of him standing there as Shaser walks up, and only then does Moosh finally ask what we're all thinking.

What I Bought 3/27/2019

I'm going to be out of town for the rest of the week. I may or may not have the chance to get on the Internet. Posts are set to go, but if you comment and I don't respond, that's why.

Today we've got two new books to look at. One's a first issue, and the other is the first issue of a new story arc on a book I haven't bought previously.

Dial H for Hero #1, by Sam Humphries (writer), Joe Quinones (artist), Dave Sharpe (letterer) - Do kids today even know how to use a rotary phone? is this one of those Youtube pranks like "watch a 5-year old react to a Game Boy"?

Young boy became a thrill-seeker after being rescued by Superman, but is stuck in dead end life with his uncle's mayo-themed food truck. Tries to jump Springfield Gorge on his bike, and as he falls to his death, a phone appears. He turns into a '90s hero, saves nothing and causes a lot of destruction. Then he and a girl he met earlier in the issue steal the food truck and leave town. Also, anyone who has used the dial before can sense when it's being used, so there are going to be people on the lookout. People like Lobo, Alfred, and Snapper Carr.

Might take my chances with Lobo. Nah, I can beat up Snapper with or without powers.

Quinones' art is nice, the colors are bright, the characters expressive. Although I've always thought his shading emphasizes cheeks too much. But it's a consistent thing so I get used to it. He does a good job mimicking the outward trappings of '90s art for the hero sequence, but he needs to be more inconsistent in terms of human proportions and anatomy from panel-to-panel. I like the white jacket Miguel wears when he's thrill-seeking. It comes off as brighter, more vividly colored than all the other clothes he and the everyday folks he interacts with do. The same is true of Superman when he appears, so it's like the jacket is Miguel's costume, the little bit of that world he's chasing he's able to get.

Humphries decides the first time his main character uses the dial he just smashes a bunch of cars, rather than doing anything actually heroic or useful. Interesting choice. Would certainly explain the reactions of all the costumed types who sense the dial being used. And there wasn't any indication Miguel wants to be a hero like Superman, he just wants the thrills at this point. So we'll see if that relates to what hero the H-Dial calls forth, and if Miguel can or even will want to try and use the dial more constructively. Hard to believe he's gonna be able to help save anyone at this point.

Infinity 8 #10, by Lewis Trondheim and Kris (writers), Martin Trystram (artist/color artist), Hubert (color artist) - Those earrings seem like they'd get caught on a lot of stuff.

Patty there on the cover is working undercover within a group called the Symbolic Guerrillas, actually trying to get info on a sentient talking fish's trafficking operations. But the spaceship they're on has run into trouble, and she's called in to investigate the problem in an alternate timeline. If she can produce a good result, they'll stay with that timeline. If not, they'll try another (this series is apparently a bunch of 3-issue arcs exploring the different timelines and agents they keep sending). The problem is a massive space graveyard, including at least one thing that glows green, and that someone planted a tracker on here. Is it the captain of the ship, the leader of the Symbolic Guerrillas, the talking fish?

There's a lot happening here. The weird space graveyard is the sort of thing that would normally command my attention, but I'm more curious about the Symbolic Guerrillas and what they're up to. Are they a weird artist movement, or a terrorist group, or what? There's a lot of drugs and free love, and Patty's outfit definitely looks like mid-to-late '70s, so I could see a Jonestown vibe. A mass suicide in a space graveyard would be. . . something, I guess. Also wondering how Patty's bad past experiences as some kind of an operative are going to factor in. Getting used by scumbags to enrich themselves under the illusion of nobler means.

I don't think I've ever seen Martin Trystram's art before, but they way he draws one character's eyes when he's out of his head on drugs is really familiar somehow. Most of the aliens fall into a basic bipedal shape, other than the captain of the ship, but there's a wide variety of designs. Every different part of the ship has its own color scheme, from the green in the fish guy's office, the the soft purple in the Guerrillas base thing, to a deep blue in the ship's command section. The parts where Patty is out in space have a deep blue/purple vibe going. Makes everything distinct, even if I'm not at all sure what effect Trystram's going for with each one.