Sunday Splash Page #202

 

"Snapshots of an Impending Divorce," in Ghost Tree #3, by Bobby Curnow (writer), Simon Gane (artist), Ian Herring and Becka Kinzie (colorists), Chris Mowry (letterer)

This was an odd little mini-series from, OK, I thought it was 2017, but actually it was 2019. Cripes, feels like a million years ago. I picked this up, I think because the second issue cover caught my eye.

It's a story about the danger of trying to live in the past, or ignoring the present. Brandt and his wife had an argument of some sort, so he flies to Japan to stay with his grandmother for a while. Meets his grandfather's ghost, and realizes there's a tree in the forest where ghosts gather. Brandt can interact with them, just as his grandfather could, so he does that.

Is he helping them find peace or running away from his problems? A little of both, but definitely the latter once Arami, who he dated one summer while he was here, shows up. Why go home to a marriage that seems to have fallen apart, when he can stay and talk with someone who is exactly how he remembers her?

It's more than just Brandt's relationship drama. There's the question of why Arami and his grandfather are still hanging around. The question of what's going on with the monster in the woods, which Gane draws as a sort of giant centipede with a mouth full of pointy teeth inside a larger mouth of pointy teeth. Do we really not have a term for that? I'd try to come up with something, but I'm afraid what sort of internet searches this blog would start showing up on.

Ian Herring, whose work helped Ms. Marvel maintain a consistent feel through a whole host of different pencilers, colors most of the mini-series. He uses a faded green and dull gold during a lot of the day-to-day scenes. The mundane stuff like dinner with the family and cleaning gutters. When the spirits show up, the colors grow darker, taking on a bluish tint when Zero, the mysterious guardian makes an appearance. When the monster arrives, everything shifts to red hues. The tones aren't bright at any point, but the colors are stronger, showing the allure of Brandt sticking with this rather than going back and dealing with his shit.

What I Bought 7/19/2019 - Part 1

Hopefully the heat wave is over by the time this post goes up. It's 9 am Saturday as I type, and my AC is trying to keep it at 80 right now. Summer is easily my least favorite of the seasons. Considering how much I hate driving in ice and snow, that's saying something.

Of the four books from last week I actually found, two of them were mini-series on their final issues. So let's start with those.

Ghost Tree #4, by Bobby Curnow (writer), Simon Gane (artist), Ian Herring and Becka Kinzie (colorists), Chris Mowry (letterer) - "Get off my poorly landscaped lawn," says old man.

Through Brandt, Arami, and Brandt's grandfather's efforts, the demon is put at rest. Which just leaves picking up the pieces. Brandt delivers a message to his grandmother, says goodbye to Arami, and goes home to save his marriage! Yeah, about that. . .

It's not the ending I expected, but it makes a sense. Brandt ran from his present into his past. The place he enjoyed as a kid, when he didn't have responsibilities. Even met his teenage girlfriend, the first love and all. It wasn't forever, like his grandfather, who preferred to stay at the tree rather than participate in his marriage. Maybe a week. But as Alice notes when Brandt comes home, her life didn't just stop while he was gone.

I'm not clear if she's saying she met someone else while he was gone or just did some thinking. I'm also curious that she says they've done this so many times before when Brandt starts to say he knows they can make it works. Brandt said they never talked about things, because she'd make a cutting remark, and he'd just leave. Apparently Alice saw it differently.

The interior walls of their house are colored this bluish-grey, just a little darker than their fridge, and it makes everything colder. The tones are washed out a bit, I think, everything is less lively than it was back around the tree and the old house. Brandt tried to come back to his life, but it isn't there any longer. In most of the other conversations in the issue, Gane will draw both characters in the same panel, and usually at least parts of both faces are visible. Here, there are a lot more panels of just one character, and even when both are in the panel, we're usually viewing things from behind someone's shoulder, so we can't see their reaction. The positioning plays up the distance between them.

Well, shit, now I'm depressed. Thanks a lot, Ghost Tree.

Domino: Hotshots #5, by Gail Simone (writer), David Baldeon and Michael Shelfer (artists), Jim Charalampidis (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Later that day, the Celestials were charged with third-degree creepy peeping by the Living Tribunal. They were sentenced to have their teapcup head designs repainted by an over-caffeinated class of second graders. The other Cosmic Bigwigs laughed at them for the next 3 billion years.

The attempt to fight the lady with Celestial power directly goes badly, but the White Fox shows up having somehow acquired the cosmic doohicky Stark was supposed to dispose of. Guess if you want something shot into the Sun, you have to do it yourself. Or ask the Sentry. On second thought, do it yourself. Never contact the Sentry.

Domino gets a boost from the doohicky, briefly considers what she could do with it, but refrains from trying to act like a god because all mutants know about the Dark Phoenix. I guess she's hung around the X-Men enough to have heard about that. Always hard to tell how the rumor mill works with the X-folks. The actual conflict boils down to punching, just punching with glowier fists than normal. I guess the important part was deciding to only use the power to stop Geun, rather than start judging humanity. Deal with the immediate problem, not by killing her, just stopping her long enough she'll calm down, then giving up the power.

One thing I notice is that other characters have to keep asserting that Domino's worthwhile. Sometimes to us, but a lot of times to her. Black Widow pointing out this is why she came to Domino with this, rather than the Avengers. White Fox insisting Domino's the one who should use the Constellation's power. I had never pegged Domino as one with self-esteem issues, but maybe that's because most of the time, she's either working alone, or as part of a group where she's not in charge. Cable's the boss, Domino is the one that reins him in as needed. Being the one in the big chair is different, and having people actually trust your decision-making when it comes to them is weird.

Alex told me a few weeks back he expects me to plan his bachelor party, and while I pointed out expecting me to plan any party is a terrible idea, he seemed entirely confident I'd figure out something good.

Shelfer draws the last two-thirds of the issue, so things look more ragged than on the pages Baldeon draws. Which isn't bad, for the parts of the fight on the boat, where the Hotshots are getting stomped. Domino's Celestial design is fairly cool. The way it's drawn and colored reminds me of Daimon Scott's work a bit in the angle of the eyes and the shading on the skin, where it has this almost plastic texture to it. That said, Shelfer has this particular face he draws, when characters are supposed to be smiling at one another, where it comes off as a vacant look. Diamondback makes that face at Outlaw right before they dive in after Domino and it's like no one is home.

What I Bought 6/26/2018 - Part 1

Picked up this week's comics while retrieving my vehicle from the repair shop. Which was only two days ago, but feels like a hundred years. I was half-convinced before I started typing this I bought them over a week ago. Everything is out of whack in my head right now. If things will just remain calm and stable for a few weeks. . .

Dial H for Hero #4, by Sam Humphries (writer), Joe Quinones (artist), Tom Fowler (inker), Jordan Gibson (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer) - Miguel has become a hero with the power of having a smartphone screen on his chest! Upgraded Arnim Zola, basically.

Summer and Miguel reach the Detroit Justice League HQ, where they find a bunch of Justice League robots and. . . Snapper Carr. Crap. Snapper insists they hand over the H-Dial to him, but then they're attacked by the robots, which have been modified by Mr. Thunderbolt's spirit, so everyone dials at the same time. Summer ends up as a gorilla filtered through Sin City, Snapper is some Moebius thing, I don't fuckin' know, and Miguel ends up as various newspaper comic strip versions of some kid running around in his underwear pretending to be a hero. Which makes him pretty angry, and leaves him vulnerable to Thunderbolt's suggestions, and everything goes wrong.

Snapper's meant to be a cautionary tale for Miguel, I think. Although Snapper's problem seems to be he doesn't think who he is, is good enough. Miguel seemed to act more like he was owed something. He'd been protecting the H-Dial, why did he get the crappy powers? Although he never tried to do anything, so who knows what his abilities were. Maybe it is a matter of thinking he's not good enough as he is.

Real mix of Justice League-bots there, but other than Vibe-bot, I didn't see many from the Detroit era. I guess Zatanna, although she was Satellite League, too. There's at least 5 of the Giffen/DeMatteis League. Including a Guy Gardner bot, complete with bowl cut! He didn't speak, so I can't determine if he's based off seriously brain-damaged Guy, or regular Guy (who is only a little brain-damaged). For a lot of them, Quinones seems to be using the Timmverse Justice League cartoon look, especially the Flash and Hawkgirl. Which is fine, those are good versions, design-wise. I wonder if Humphries specified any characters, or Quinones just drew whoever he felt like?

Ghost Tree #4, by Bobby Curnow (writer), Simon Gane (artist), Ian Herring and Decka Kinzie (colorists), Chris Mowry (letterer) - I thought initially they were sitting on big balls of yarn, but at least some of them are skulls. Still cute, in an Adams Family way.

Brandt and Arami reminisce, and we learn a little more about the current state of Brandt's marriage. Meanwhile, his grandfather is realizing how badly he handled things in his marriage, and tells Brandt to leave and return to his wife. Brandt's fully aware that he's running from his problems, but doesn't care. Then the demon returns, and tears the guardian spirit in two, before continuing towards the house.

The end of the issue tells us Arami's unfinished business is to be the successor to the guardian spirit. Maybe it burns out a spirit after a time, I don't know, but it seems like she's expected to step up. Was that fate, or just chance? Was she tagged for that purpose from the moment of death (or before it), or she's just the most suitable person who happened to be dead at the time? Can she refuse, and would that leave her trapped as a ghost forever?

And then there's Brandt. His avoiding his problems with his wife. Contrary to what he tells his grandfather, I'm not sure how much he really tried, since it sounds like the two of them never really hashed out their problems. Takes two for that, but typically someone has to make the first step. That said, is what he's doing here that terrible? He has the ability to see these ghosts, maybe it's a fluke, maybe it's for a reason. If he can help them find peace, even while avoiding his own problems, is that a bad thing? You could argue he's choosing to live as a ghost, avoiding his unfinished business, but the assumption seems to be the two of them can and should work things out. His grandfather ignored his wife to interact with ghosts, and that wrong. But if Brandt and his wife don't work together, why try to make it work?

It's a sad issue, but Curnow and Gane still manage to work in a few jokes, plus the gag about the one ghost wanting some noodles. I laughed. Gane draws the little spirits or lights that float around Zero's head as having facial expressions sometimes, which is kind of cute. Zero's little ghost friends. Like the demon's previous appearance, Herring and Kinzie shift the color scheme to more reds and oranges. But the colors don't shift when Zero arrives, because Zero is no longer enough to repel the demon. Zero's color scheme is mostly green and white, so it really stands out against the backgrounds in those panels. Heightens the sense of vulnerability.

What I Bought 5/29/2019 - Part 2

I don't tend to think of myself as having a lot of stuff. Probably because I manage to keep most of it organized in bookshelves, unlike my dad. It hasn't reached the point where my stuff was just piled up wherever there was room, so it seems managable. Still, once I started actually moving all the longboxes, and finding enough boxes for all the books, things look a bit different. I need to learn to teleport.

For today's selections, we have one book reaching the midway point, and another on issue #2.

Ghost Tree #2, by Bobby Curnow (writer), Simon Gane (artist), Ian Herring and Becka Kinzie (colorists), Chris Mowry (letterer) - That's what happens when you stand in one place staring at your phone for too long.

Brandt is enjoying talking to the ghosts about their problems, and possibly helping a few of them.  His grandfather tries to give him some pointers, and to warn him about some of the risks. Which include demons, of a sort. The ghost with no face, called Zero, is supposed to be the one who drives the demons off, but it may have problems of its own. And Brandt receives a nighttime visit from the ghost of a girl he met the summer he spent here ten years ago. Arami doesn't know why she's still here, but maybe it has something to do with her suspicion that something's happening around here.

We're still in the early going, and things are so open at this point, I'm very interested in most everything that's happening. Not just how things work with the ghosts, and whether or not what Brandt is doing will help them move on. And not just what's going on with Zero, or how it might be resolved. Curnow brings back Brandt's cousin from issue 1, and brings her husband along for good measure. It's only two pages, but most of it is Mariko saying her husband can clean the gutters for grandma, and him absently saying, "I don't mind," while continuing to eat. Considering the decaying state of Brandt's marriage, and the fact his grandfather is most likely hanging around because he feels guilty for being so caught up in the tree he neglected his wife. It feels like a significant choice to portray it that way, but I'm not sure what it means yet.

The design for the demon is like a centipede crossed with a Xenomorph (the latter only because of the face within the mouth of the bigger face). Cool, though. For the most part, Gane is drawing regular people taking, but he does enough with the expressions, combined with Curnow's dialogue to make it work. Brandt's understated reaction to the samurai's tale, the poor guy with the melted face. Herring and Kinzie's colors help, as scenes all have their own background color. The parts with the demon are reddish hues, the conversation between the Brandt and Arami has that eerie green against a night backdrop. The conversations with the ghosts are in a placid, slightly washed out green, with a yellowish tint. It's not a warm color, but it's calm. Things are going OK when the colors are like that.

Smooth Criminals #6, by Kurt Lustgarten, Kirsten Smith, and Amy Roy (writers), Leisha Riddel (artist), Brittany Peer (color artist), Ed Dukeshire (letterer) - Brenda, pull your knee back, if your torn jeans lose any fabric, it could trigger an alarm!

The Net of Indra is being sent to new York abruptly, so the heist will have to happen sooner. Problems: Mia can't get through the motion sensors in the time allotted. The feds know she's after the Net and are trying to trick her mother into helping them. And Hatch knows she's after it, too. Basically, waaaaaay too many people know about this heist ahead of time. They actually get through the security system, despite Brenda's crush runs IT at the museum, but Hatch trips the alarms to flush Mia to the roof. His goons beat her up, he takes the prize, she and Brenda get arrested.

That went about as badly as possible, short of Mia or Brenda getting shot or blown up. I guess contact with Hatch could have given Mia an incurable disease. He strikes me as the kind of guy to contract incurable bone-itis and not warn people. Jerk. I can't imagine Mia's mother is actually stupid enough to believe the feds will honor their deal, so I'm guessing she just wanted to be reunited with her daughter so they can escape together. I hope she isn't that stupid. I mean, I know better than to trust the feds on something like that, just by virtue of having watched The Rock.

The interlude on the roof, where they stumble on the marriage proposal, was odd. I know they decide at the end of it the roof was a bad idea, and at the end of the issue it turns out, yes, running to the roof was a bad idea. I'm just not sure why they stumble on a marriage proposal. And yes, the guy's spiel was pretty awful. Do they want it to come from the heart, or have something ghostwritten? I hope that wasn't ghostwritten. If it was, he should demand his money back.

For two pages, as Mia's descending into the display while Brenda tries to keep T-Blue from figuring out what she's doing, Riddel lays out the pages to take advantage of the two being in radio contact to show things are happening simultaneously. The first page has two panels of Mia descending slowly, one above the other. They're sandwiched between panels of Brenda trying to distract T-Blue and then alert Mia. On the next page, as Mia gets spooked, one panel of Brenda is set so it overlaps the first and second panels of Mia on the page. She's in another location, but in touch with Mia, and her response carries between the span of moments in those two panels. It's something a bit out of the ordinary for Riddel, who usually does more conventional layouts. So it works well here as a brief change of pace.

What I Bought 5/8/2019 - Part 4

Onward and upward, hopefully. Today we have two different books I took a chance on. One of them is promising, the other didn't work for me.

Ghost Tree #1, by Bobby Curnow (writer), Simon Gane (artist), Ian Herring with Becka Kinzie (colorists), Chris Mowry (letterer) - You got a little something on your face. Or maybe not.

When Brandt was a kid, his grandfather made him promise to come back and visit him under a particular tree, 10 years after his grandfather died. Brandt is back in Japan, mostly to get away from a failing marriage, but he's still right on time, even if he didn't remember the promise he made. His grandfather is there, along with a lot of other ghosts. His grandfather regrets telling him to come back here, but Brandt feels comfortable. The mysterious figure on the cover is watching over all this, has some connection with a woman Brandt knew when they were kids.

The comic is peaceful, which may sound odd for being about ghosts, but the figure on the cover hasn't taken any threatening actions yet, and neither has anyone else. Brandt is running from his troubled relationship, returning to place he has fond childhood memories. Gane draws him with somewhat messy clothes, and he avoids eye contact with most people. Talking to his grandmother next to him while they both look ahead. Looking at the car window while talking to his cousin. He seems like an awkward, uncertain, weary guy.

Also, when Brandt wakes up in the middle of the night, Gane draws him with some of his hair sticking straight up, and it stays that way for the remainder of the scene. Because people's hair gets weird when they sleep, and Brandt's not thinking about it to where he'd smooth it back down. Which was a little detail I appreciated.

But when he interacts with his grandfather's ghost, he stands up straighter, he looks at him while talking, and there's a genuine smile. Not a smirk, or watery weak smile, but a real one. His grandfather told him to hold onto childhood memories because they would be the happiest, and even if he didn't remember that conversation, he seems to have taken it to heart. The question is whether he's holding onto the memories or retreating into them, and how that is going to contrast with all these spirits. I guess we'll see.

I don't think the book is even entirely finished with set-up yet, but as far as first issues go, this one did well to get my interest.

Jungle Comics #1, by Chuck Dixon (writer), Kelsey Shannon (artist), Brian Denham (letterer) - For some reason I was thinking constrictor snakes wouldn't necessarily have teeth. Don't know why I'd think that, they have to have something in their mouth to help keep a grip on the prey while they gradually swallow it.

The basic story is about one those white jungle guys that rules over a village because he's the strongest guy around. A nearby village is attacked by what turn out to be dinosaurs, and he naturally goes to meet the challenge. The catch is that Dixon writes it in a way that acknowledges some of the problematic aspects of these kinds of stories. Not exactly a parody, although there are some jokes, and not exactly a deconstruction, either.

Members of the tribe questioning why exactly they let this arrogant white dude be their king. His wife complaining she wants to visit Leopoldville, because at least there's running water there. The great hero's resolve and will not ultimately being enough to win the day. Ka'a'anga doesn't see the problems with how things are going, but he's king of the mountain, so why would he? Everyone else recognizes this is not a great system, but no one seems willing to do anything, other than grumble. Eventually the problem is resolved for them, so I'm not sure what to take from that.

There are certain parts of Shannon's art style that reminds me of Joe Kubert, probably because Kubert drew Tarzan comics for a time. Mostly in the panels where Ka'a'anga is fighting something, the musculature, some of the hatch lines and shading on the body. Like the legs and rubs in the panel above. The resemblance fades in the panels that are mocking Ka'a'anga for being an arrogant blockhead, or the other characters questioning how things are going. It's a softer look, the coloring makes the linework a bit less distinct, inks a heavier too, more shadows.

I'm not sure what I was expecting exactly. That the stories would try to address or adapt the genre to eliminate some of the problematic aspects, but otherwise play it straight. Just do a crazy jungle adventure while avoiding the stuff about a white savior that naturally is the best suit to lead the black tribes. Ka'a'anga as a friend and ally to those in need, but the M'ukundas run their own village. This does the first half, but not really the second half.