BARBELITH underground
 

Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.


Popgun

 
 
iamus
13:51 / 03.12.07


Anyone seen this? Attracted by the cover from The Mighty Allred, I picked it up for £20 while browsing the racks for other things yesterday and it's bloody good. Basically it's a colourful, frenzied grab-bag of comic work from creators both well-known and obscure mashed together into the one fantastic package.

There's no unifying theme to any of the works, which swing wildly in tone and art style from story to story, other than being top-quality work from writers and artists doing their own thing and having an absolute ball doing it.

Favourites off the top of my head at the moment are THIS IS SUPERTRON by Sheldon Vella, a hilarious story about a bust-up between teenage robots in the park. Art that's as chunky yet stretchy as a Wham Bar, that pinballs explosively around the page, dressed in a pallette of yellows, reds pinks and blacks. Obviously the work of a proper cartoonist, singular and unique in it's concept and execution. The robot head at the bottom of the above cover, and the pink cat-thing to the bottom right are Allred's take on this comic.

The other I can think of is ELLIE SAVES THE WORLD. On the surface it's a fairly well-worn Buffyish concept. Superpowered teenage girl, a bit of a freak to her classmates, lives double life as an obscenely powerful superhero, and is employed by the government to take out other, unregistered rogue supers. It's got art that puts me in the mind of Takeshi Miyazawa (of Spider-Man loves Mary Jane fame) with a distinctly more anarchic, cartoonish edge. It's the characterisation and dialogue that seal this one for me though, which is irreverent, natural and very funny. It's also one of the most impressively substantial of the works here, at about 28 pages.

All in all it's an excellent and inspiring package and there's at least something in here to spark the brain of anyone.

Go on. Tell me someone else has picked this up.
 
 
iamus
15:04 / 03.12.07
A bit more information, including previews of a clutch of stories from the inside here.
 
 
Mark Parsons
01:03 / 04.12.07
I picked it up, am on page 150something and thus far there are more hits than misses (and even the misses are visually impressive).

I've seen some of the FLIGHT books, but how are those other anthos, AFTERWORKS is one and there's another, possibly also from Image.
 
 
Hallo, Paper Spaceboy
04:15 / 04.12.07
I ordered this a little while ago and I'm waiting for it to show up. SO EXCITED! Is there an Allred story inside, or is he just the pin-up boy?

I'm turning on to anthologies more and more, and it's great to see publishers putting out high quality anthology trades rather than just the tired old story arc collections; having the opportunity to find new small jewels by favourites as well as discover new people with careers to watch.
 
 
iamus
07:24 / 04.12.07
The Allred story is a reprint of the first Frank Einstein, done in full colour this time round. It's good, doesn't set the world alight, but it's fascinating to see how the man's evolved since then.

Allred's actually the perfect choice for the cover because he totally represents that crossover between mainstream and indie that the book is. The more time I have with this book the more I love it. Such a wide variety of content that really displays how wide the medium can be. Something for people who seriously love comics.

I've not checked out any of the other Image anthologies, but I'm tempted to now. There;s a list at the back of the book I should browse.
 
 
iamus
09:29 / 04.12.07
Oh aye. And for anyone who thinks £20 might be a bit steep, you're getting near 450 pages of quality comics, a good number of which you're practically guaranteed to like, no matter who you are.

Buy it. Honestly.

It's much better than whatever the fuck it is that's going on in Spider-Man.
 
 
Mark Parsons
18:13 / 04.12.07
So, wait, the first MADMAN story was drawn by Bernie Merault (sp?) and only written by Allred?
 
 
iamus
11:09 / 06.12.07
Ring Ring! Ring Ring! Ring Ri-click-

"Hello?"

"Really? C'mon that's no.... but...... Okay.

Okay, I'll tell them..... bye."




That was God on the phone. He says all you people not picking up this book are wankers. I tried to argue your case, but he wisnae having any of it, sorry.

Best sort it out then, eh?
 
 
FinderWolf
14:05 / 06.12.07
some of the comics shops in NYC seem to have sold out of this immediately. I will continue searching for it...
 
 
iamus
14:35 / 06.12.07
And you will be spared the floods for your troubles.
 
 
ursula1000
06:49 / 13.12.07
i thought the collection was great--nice flow, kinda random, but the "tracklisting" does make it feel like a good mix tape.
going from a relationship break up story to a Venture Brothers-like testosterone shoot 'em up to weird Outer Limits sc-fi....random----and excellent! love the Amazing Joy Buzzards, New Brighton Archeological Society and the PINAPL short---great idea. compact. looking fwd to volume 2.
 
 
Spaniel
07:32 / 13.12.07
Dear God,

I haven't been able to buy this book because last time I was in town I spent the entire time trying to find a Spiderman action figure for my young son.

It rained on me a lot.

Best wishes

Boboss
 
 
Feverfew
18:11 / 19.12.07
Fine. Fine. I've ordered the damn thing.

Best be good, iamus. Best... be... good.
 
 
iamus
18:18 / 19.12.07
Naw, I've gone off it now. It's shite.



ONLY JOKING!


I should get back to this thread proper at some point soon.
 
 
Hallo, Paper Spaceboy
19:28 / 30.12.07
I read this two days ago. Some of it -- I'm thinking of the Amazing Joy Buzzards stuff -- was really mint. Some of it -- I'm thinking of some of "verging on emo lost love/heartbreak go-round" stuff -- was barely able to ellicit a facial expression from me. Some of it really stood out as being beautiful (the reincarnation story, for example).

The Madman story was short and sweet, and I loved the art for the Tiger-Man & Lion story, even if the story itself didn't really do anything; it was a cute pastiche of a Silver Age Batman story, but it wasn't really saying anything, was it? It could have just been a Batman & Robin story (but for copyright).

That reincarnation story, though, wow.
 
 
FinderWolf
14:18 / 31.12.07
I hear there will be a vol. 2 of this book, with stories by Paul Pope and other comics luminaries. (heard this from a friend of mine who will be doing a story for vol. 2)
 
 
Hallo, Paper Spaceboy
16:27 / 31.12.07
Any dates attached to that second volume?
 
 
FinderWolf
18:49 / 31.12.07
not that I know of - the way he described it, it sounded quite far off in the future.
 
 
iamus
16:20 / 10.06.08
We have a cover!




Headphones, artist's own.
 
 
Hallo, Paper Spaceboy
16:26 / 10.06.08
I like the music machine there. Belongs in a David Cronenburg movie.
 
 
Hallo, Paper Spaceboy
22:36 / 30.07.08
Volume 2's out this week? Has anyone else been driven to pick it up? It's fun, colourful, cheerful, etc. A sweet, full-colour Brandon Graham short-short is in there, too.
 
 
FinderWolf
19:28 / 31.07.08
I plan to pick it up or at least, look through it and see if what I see/skim in there warrants my $15 or whatever it costs... will probably get it for the Graham thing and other goodies I know are in there, though.
 
 
Hallo, Paper Spaceboy
23:20 / 31.07.08
The Graham sequence is utterly gorgeous -- his stuff is good in black and white but the colours made it so...deep. Voluminous.

Obviously, not everything in the book is as strong but there's some little gems and things. I wonder how often they plan on putting these things out.

No Amazing Joy Buzzards beyond some pin-ups of Biff, though.
 
 
iamus
14:02 / 01.08.08
Gah! More monies to be spended.

Will be picking it up and reporting back at the nearest available opportunity.
 
  
Add Your Reply