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March 30th, 2011
Every reader has a favorite genre. One of the greatest things about comics today is that there are as many genres in graphic novels as there are in any other literary medium, including some interesting sub-genres.
This week I’m talking about a genre that’s gotten a lot of attention in recently, and that’s the survival epic. Whether it’s caused by a natural disaster, an alien invasion, or some other form of apocalyptic event, survival epics are a fan favorite in movies, books, video games, and even television shows. If well done they depict humanity’s nature in its darkest moments, the kind that makes good people corrupt and bad people upstanding citizens. It’s a real twist on that age old question about the fundamental moral state of human beings. Are we fundamentally good or fundamentally evil?
There are a lot of great survival epic stories out there, but there are three that come to mind that I never tire of recommending. The first story is one most people are familiar with, whether it’s from the long-running comic series or the new television show on AMC. Of course I’m talking about Walking Dead.
Unfortunately there’s not much I can say about this series that hasn’t already been said. It’s an exceptional tale of horror and suspense. It lacks the cheap scares that I’m all too used to seeing in most modern horror stories, the kind where around every third corner you just know some knife-wielding maniac is laying in wait. Robert Kirkman builds the tension skillfully, crafting and warping his characters through desperation, terror and isolation, all the while stripping away the people that they were bit by bit. And the reader, who gets to see this transformation from the very beginning, they find themselves wondering just how far down the road these people will go before they cease to be people anymore. If that’s not good suspense, then I don’t know what is.
The second series that comes to mind is very similar in some respects. It’s called Crossed and it’s written by a master of the macabre, Garth Ennis.
The key distinction between Crossed and Walking Dead is small, but it makes all the difference. Instead of using zombies as the major antagonistic force, Ennis decided on a different route. In Ennis’ epic, instead of dying and coming back as a walking corpse, people start turning into psychopaths. Think an army of Jason Voorhees minus the mask with the addition of a deranged grin and a bloody cross that grows on their faces like gaping sores. These things are as smart as they are vicious and have an inhuman tolerance for pain. Instead of being walking shells, the Crossed are the embodiment of the evil within all human beings, which makes it all the more difficult for the survivors.
And finally, the third series that will always be a favorite is Y the Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan.
Lacking as it is in monsters and mutants, it nonetheless shows a scenario in which roughly half of the world’s population was abruptly and inexplicably wiped out, namely the half bearing the Y chromosome. One guy, however, happens to survive, and no one on the planet has a clue why.
What makes Y the Last Man a different form of survival epic is the kind of opposition the main characters face. Instead of facing off against an exotic force like zombies, they find themselves up against other people doing anything to survive.
So there you go. Three stories, three tales of survival against incredible odds, and each will give you a slightly different take on what humanity would become if worse came to worse. That’s the beauty of post-apocalyptic survival stories; they can confirm your worst fears or strengthen your most altruistic beliefs. And the best thing is that these three are only the tip of a very massive iceberg. Even if you tread carefully, you never know what you might find.
-Brent
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March 8th, 2011
For this next installment of Image Re-imagined, I’m going to talk about another series by writer Joe Kelly. Unlike my other favorite work of his, I Kill Giants, this story is about something far more primal; this is a story about a boy and his dragon.
Four Eyes is basically a rewrite of history with some more fantastic elements thrown into the mix. The story takes place during the Great Depression, a time in American history when just carving out a simple living was a struggle and required some questionable leaps of faith. Enrico, the main protagonist of the story, is a young Italian immigrant whose father finally managed to find some steady work. Soon after moving his family to New York, Enrico’s father dies in a blaze of fire and teeth, courtesy of a dragon’s gullet.
Soon after Enrico discovers a dark part of the world where men capture dragons, a previously undisturbed race from deep beneath the earth, and raise them up to fight in giant rings. Think cock fights, but instead with dragons. In spite of how his father died, or perhaps because of it, Enrico immerses himself in this world of fire and death, striving towards a goal that the reader can only guess at. A desire for vengeance, a want for a sense of purpose, and a determination to uphold his father’s legacy all blend together to make one fierce ten-year-old.
Just like I Kill Giants, Four Eyes is an awesome story guaranteed to take you in unanticipated directions. In a world that is as strange as it is brutal, Kelly has a lot of leeway to make unique and unexpected characters. First there’s Enrico, the ten-year-old kid who wants to hunt and train dragons, then Abraham, the self-loathing dragon trainer who looks out for him. Even Enrico’s father, who dies within the first three pages, has an interesting part to play as his memory inspires his son from beyond the grave.
Emphasizing this is artist Max Fiumara, whose art style ranges from strangely cartoony to sharply defined. The dragons seem real enough that you half-expect them to leap from the page, while the human characters seem more abstract but substantially more expressive. It essentially means that the action, gore, and the characters’ reactions are all heightened to the reader. It’s like mixing How to Train Your Dragon with Frank Miller’s 300.
In your average dark fantasy, it’s always hard to determine who the real monster is going to be by the end. When you throw in dragons, mobsters, and underground death matches, things get even more complicated. If you like blood, violence, and characters with ambiguous morals, look no further. This is a story that has two syllables, four eyes, and five stars to its name.
-Brent
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March 5th, 2011
I don’t think any writer will ever be able to best Stan Lee and John Buscema’s legendary original Silver Surfer series. Many great writers have tried, but the Surfer’s status as a demi-god makes him a hard character for creators and readers to fully grasp. What Lee and Buscema did to create such an iconic character was explore the Surfer’s inherent conflict with humanity.
Of all the famous silver age Marvel characters, Silver Surfer’s story is one of the most tragic and melancholy in Marvel comics. Norin Radd (the raddest name in comics) gives up his life on his utopian home world Zenn La to become the herald of Galactus, as long as the world devourer spares his planet. As a herald, the Surfer soullessly explores the cosmos searching for planets for Galactus to consume, until he arrives at earth. Overwhelmed by the beauty of life on Earth, the Surfer rebels against his master and saves Earth from destruction. Galactus exiles Silver Surfer on Earth, where his faith is betrayed by the hateful nature of humanity and he becomes an outcast to the world he just saved. Compound that with Doctor Victor Von Doom trying to steal his cosmic surf board and you can understand why poor Norin Radd is so depressed on Earth.
Greg Pak’s newest take on the Silver Surfer explores the deep dejection the Surfer has towards humanity and hearkens back to Lee and Buscema’s legacy with the character. The first half of the debut issue has little action, as Pak chooses instead to focus on Surfer’s relationship with the world around him. Artist Stephen Segovia does a wonderful job illustrating the majesty of earth and the immensity of the galaxy. As the issue continues the action picks up when the High Evolutionary resolves to break the silver coating on Norin Radd, relegating him back to mere human not a demi-god. This reminded me quite a bit of the plot of the 2007 mini-series “Silver Surfer: Requiem” where Surfer’s coating begins to deteriorate and he slowly dies. Though it feels that Pak might be rehashing a similar idea to “Requiem”, he is doing so in a similar style of Stan Lee’s exuberant jests, which was an essential element missing from “Requiem.”
The key to writing Silver Surfer is acknowledging that even a god can suffer from the fearful nature of humanity. Unlike other writers who focus too much on the cosmic elements of Silver Surfer, Pak understands Lee’s original strength behind the character. I think Pak’s new Silver Surfer mini series shows promise, but perhaps should be left at just a mini. A little of Surfer’s sorrowful disposition can go a long way.
-Jon
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March 1st, 2011
I have one nephew who is obsessed with Eiichiro Oda’s manga One Piece. “Obsessed” may be too weak a word. He calls me periodically to tell me what’s happening in the world of Japanese pirates, what his favorite character, Zolo, did this time, who ate what devil fruit, etc. I don’t read it — but with the level of detail he relates in every phone call, it feels like I do — but I’m glad he’s reading it. Or at least I thought I was glad he’s reading it.
[I CAN SEE WHY HE’S INTO THIS -- DUDE HAS A SWORD IN HIS MOUTH]
It turns out my nephew is talking his mom (my older sister) into taking him to Borders so he can stand in the manga aisle and read one or two cover-to-cover and then leave. I’m no fan of Borders, but this behavior simultaneously terrifies and baffles me.
It terrifies me because if the 12-year olds are growing up believing that comics/manga are great to read but there’s no need to ever buy them, that bodes ill for the future of the industry. The torrent sites are bad enough, but now kids are just boldly reading them in the shop and leaving? My only solace is that at least he’s not shoplifting them, but in my opinion he’s doing something almost as damaging.
Being baffled by this process, I asked him, if he loves One Piece so much, why isn’t he buying them? (Has he no gene for collecting? We’re related, he must have a little urge to build a collection of something, right? Maybe he just needs a nudge in the proper direction.) His answer was much more straightforward and less nefarious than I imagined: His parents don’t want to him to spend his money on ‘em because he can read them so quickly. My sister doesn’t mind buying him books, but she wants to get value for her money, something he really has to spend some time with before he finishes it, and she’s trying to instill those values in him as well. I can kinda understand where she’s coming from, if only because the comic industry has priced itself out of most kids’ lives. When I was his age I got $2 a week for allowance, and I could buy four comics with that. Even with DC’s “holding the line at $2.99 initiative,” four comics cost $12 and change. That’s $50 a month for a mom who’s willing to buy her kids a couple comics every week — that’s the same total as my electric bill for this past month.
After he told me why his mom won’t buy them, he shouted with the stifled fury that’s a specialty of all 12-year olds, “But I’d read ‘em over and over if she’d let me buy them! It’s my favorite book!” There’s that collector gene; it’s just being temporarily impeded by my sister’s inability to understand he’s going to re-read it for days, not once and then be done with it.
[SOMEBODY MAKE ONE OF THESE FOR YOUNG COMIC READERS]
All you cool aunts and uncles out there — you folks with the tattoos and the X-Box Live subscriptions and the Etsy accounts — it’s time you had a serious conversation with your nieces and nephews about comics. Find out what they’re interested in, what kinda comics they like or might like, and then buy them a couple books a month. If you can spare $10 a month for comics for the cool kids in your life, you’ll not only further cement your reputation as the awesome aunt/uncle, you’ll help instill good comic habits in the next generation.
As for me, as of this week I’m now a regular buyer of One Piece, at least until my own little manga madman is all caught up on his favorite series.
-Paul
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February 23rd, 2011
After I got back from the ComicsPRO summit, I scheduled a few days off work to be home with my mom while she recovered from minor surgery. While I was at my mom’s apartment, I went through my old closet and stumbled across a box of childhood letters. One particular letter was from Marvel comics! In second or third grade my friend Robby and I made Spider-Man gliders i.e. paper planes with crudely inked Spidey illustrations. Apparently, we thought it was such a great idea we wrote Marvel comics with a business plan to market our Spider-Man gliders. Marvel was kind enough to write back to us nine-year-old businessmen. Here is what they said:
At the age of nine, getting a letter from Marvel comics was the coolest thing imaginable. I couldn’t actually find the glider, though I do remember that it had Magneto on it.
As I rummaged through the box of letters I also found correspondence with my childhood friend Ezra who moved to California in the sixth grade. We kept in contact via mail for about two years and some of his letters to me are pretty telling that one day I would end up managing a comic shop. Here are some choice lines, each from a separate letter:
“When you write back tell me everything about Gambit you know.”
“Thank you for the info on Gambit.”
“I’ve got a ton of awesome collectors pogs and slammers. I’ve even got X-Men pogs and slammers!”
“Have you been to the Fantasy Shop lately? Do they have any Japanese animation?”
“Guess what. THE COMIC BOOK STORES IN CALIFORNIA DON’T HAVE MAGIC CARDS!”
“Do you still play magic? Do you know the least amount of cards you can have in a deck because I can’t find it out?”
“So do you guys do anything else besides Nintendo and magic?”
Oh, how little has changed.
-Jon
Posted in Comic Philosophy | 2 Comments »
February 14th, 2011
You know what’s cool? A Green Lantern story that involves Alan Scott, Hal Jordan, and Kyle Rayner as they approach the same doomsday situation during their separate tenures as the only Green Lantern for their generation. Originally released back in 1999, Green Lantern: Fear Itself was released as a premium 100 page comic as a part of the new DC Comics Presents line of comics. One could view this story as means to suggest that there is/was an unofficial right-of-passage between Earth Green Lanterns that truly tested the will and limits of that generation’s emerald warrior. So let’s get right to it and find out if this is something that needs to be in your possession.
Starting in the 1940s (more precisely around 1944 or 1945) a set of Nazis uncovered the missing capstone of the Great Pyramid of Giza, which was said to contain the Eye of Osiris, in the basement of the Smithsonian in Washington DC. Using some sort of Nazi Amulet, Swastika Pentagram, and what appears to be the Necronomicon, the Nazis plot to release an ancient horror from the stars that was trapped in the capstone to be used as an ultimate weapon for dominance. Naturally, something goes wrong and the creature is summoned but it does not bend to their will. A large eyeball with tentacles (Not all that different looking than Shuma-Gorath as depicted by Marvel Comics) manifests and kills the Nazis before heading out to the streets of Washington. Meanwhile, FDR is having a photoshoot with the Justice Society of America. He explains that America must also win the propaganda war as well as the physical war, with photos of America’s heroes in support of the US effort, nothing would be able to keep our troops from winning. As this is discussed between the President and Alan Scott, word makes it to the group that there is a creature terrorizing the city. The JSA leaps to action only to be overcome with dominating fear. Each member is incapacitated with a single glare of the creature’s eye. Alan’s fear is that of a world ruled by the Third Reich, he is even attacked by his JSA allies that are now adorned in Nazi themed costumes. But in the end, Alan’s willpower is too much for the illusion and he overcomes the creature, turning it to stone.
It wouldn’t be until about 25 years later during the cold war, that the creature would appear again. This time, Green Lantern Hal Jordan is testing a new plane for Ferris Aircraft when he is suddenly shot down by a Russian submarine hanging out in the waters that border Coast City. Hal interrogates the Russians in his Green Lantern persona and learns that they were looking for and found the stone eye that Alan Scott had previously dealt with. Hal’s ring accidentally awakens the creature and it feeds on the rings power until it destroys the submarine and now stands as a giant (Godzilla-sized) mass of Lovecraft horror. As it reaches Coast City, Hal alerts the new-ish Justice League only to have a few members able to respond. The Flash, Black Canary, Aquaman, and the Martian Manhunter arrive to the scene to help Jordan out with his problem. In similar fashion, the group is crippled with their greatest fears, sadly, Jordan’s fear is the destruction of Coast City. Using similar methods as Alan Scott, the creature is once again turned the stone, and abandoned in the ocean.
Finally, we are brought to the modern age, a few years or so after the death of Parallax/Hal Jordan. Kyle Rayner stands as the only active (Space Ring) Green Lantern in the universe, and he finds himself face to face with the recently uncovered stone eye in a museum. Once again, the creature is awakened by the power of a Green Lantern ring, and all Hell breaks loose as the creature’s size becomes incomprehensible and sets up shop in the Earths Atmosphere. It begins the sap the energy of the world and even the Justice League satellite, stranding most of it’s members in space. At this juncture, we learn what Kyle’s greatest fears are, and we also see that Kyle has still yet to earn the respect of majority of the Justice League. In the end we see Kyle take a different approach to solving the problem and we also get a great no-faith line from Superman that sums up the severity of Kyle’s actions. I’ll not spoil the ending for you, but it’s safe to say that this was one of the coolest Green Lantern stories that I’ve ever read.
Written by Ron Marz (who also wrote the Emerald Twilight storyline that sees Hal Jordan become a mass murderer after the actual destruction of Coast City), Fear Itself does what I once thought was impossible. It legitimizes the character of Kyle Rayner… At least, for my stance on the character. Usually, when I thought of Kyle Rayner, all I could think of was pity and how much I hated his 90s costume. But even on a non-cynical scale, I really do feel that this is the story that will decide your opinion on Kyle Rayner as a character. I know that I’m in the minority of my age group when I say that I favor Hal Jordan over most other Lanterns, but now I have a better respect for those who would previously chose Kyle over Hal. Now if only someone could do the same thing for Guy Gardner. But I’m off focus. Marz’s story is a solid one-shot which does a great job of infusing the DC Universe with Lovecraft without it being too out of place or hokey. Plus, it never hurts when a little bit of mystery-history is used in a story. But the writing is only half the battle as the combined effort of Brad Parker’s pencils and the painted colors of The Hories do the rest of the job. When I first saw the creature, it was clear that this was the only way to go in terms of artwork. As you’ve seen by the examples in this blog, if this were done in the more traditional comic styles, it just wouldn’t have been the same. So kudos to them.
Anyway, the out of print graphic novel used to retail for $14.95, but you can get this sweet reprint for $7.99 while supplies last in the store. If you missed this the first time… or second time around, this might be your last chance in a long while. And I know that there are whole lot more GL fans now, than there were in 1999, so if you’re one of the new passengers on the GL train, definitely check this one out before its gone again. So yes, this is a comic that belongs in your possession.
-Fleet
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February 9th, 2011
For week three of my ongoing homage to Image, I’m going to talk about a book that actually didn’t start out as under Image, but eventually found its way there as a creator owned concept after its original publisher dissolved. It’s kind of an oldie, but definitely a goody. I speak of Scud, the Disposable Assassin.
Trying to describe Scud in a short paragraph is kind of like trying to stuff a rhino into a fish bowl. It looks weird and doesn’t really show what you want the viewer to see. Still, I’m going to give it a shot. Scud the Disposable Assassin is about just what the title suggests, a humanoid robot that you can program to kill someone, and then self-destructs as soon as the job is done, destroying any trace of evidence. They even have a dial on their hands that can control just how viciously they eliminate their targets. Oh wait, you say, couldn’t you just trace the robot back to its manufacturer? Surely there can’t be too many of those? Well, therein lies the rub, because these guys can literally be bought from vending machines on the street. Scary, right?
Well, one day a guy has a problem with a monster…named Jeff, so he buys a Scud to deal with it. However, before the Scud has a chance to finish his job, he happens to see a neat little label on his back telling him his reward for success, and stops the kill shot at the last second. Now, penniless and with Jeff on life-support in a hospital, Scud has to find a way to pay the bills or both he and Jeff are goners.
And that’s just the first several pages.
The story starts from there and travels on a winding journey involving cowboy cults, demons from heaven, angels from hell, and at one point Zombie Dinosaurs. The man who wrote this epic goes by the name of Rob Schrab. Rob Schrab has achieved quite a bit during his time, including successes in the realm of television. Most would know him as the writer, producer, and director of The Sarah Silverman Program on Comedy Central. He wrote Scud over the course of fourteen years. He started in 1994, went on hiatus in 1998 and stayed that way for the better part of a decade before finishing the series with a bang in 2008. With a history like that, it’s no wonder I have trouble defining this as old or new.
In the end you can describe Scud as a lot of things, extremely violent, deeply disturbed, bizarre beyond all imagining and in some ways deeply profound. I haven’t seen a story this random since Invader Zim. The art is twisted, featuring some of the most bizarre creations the human mind can imagine, all done up in the classic black and white and perfectly suiting the absurd and deranged nature of the story.
[Meet Jeff. Now run.]
Scud reminds me of the darkness that lurks within the human imagination as well as the light that waits at the end of it. While it’s true that this book began with another publisher, the fact remains Image took it in even though it was about as far off the beaten path as stories get. When Image made the choice to shelter Scud under their banner, they made it a shining example of the greatness they were always capable of as a publisher.
Until next time,
-Brent
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February 5th, 2011
Here is part two of my homage to Image – this time featuring the strange and turbulent tale of Cowboy Ninja Viking. If the name alone doesn’t grab your attention then you have earned my respect for having a tremendous tolerance for the bizarre. The first thing I said when I heard it was “Are you serious?”
I can’t say what made me read the first trade after that. Maybe it was the art, which was masterfully brought to us by Riley Rossmo. Maybe it was curiosity over whether this was some new twist on the age old Pirates versus Ninjas debate. Maybe I was just bored. Whatever the reason, I’m glad I picked it up.
The idea behind this oddly named series is simple if not a little twisted. Imagine, if you would, trying to set out to create the world’s most unpredictable assassins. These agents would be bred without a solid sense of morals and would be able to kill someone three different ways at once. Sounds like a good idea, right? Unfortunately, the human mind isn’t always meant to cope with the stress that comes with training like that, so the government turned to a select group who had the strongest chance of survival and the least chance of being missed, namely people born with three additional personalities running around their noggin. In some ways the program was a success, creating a group known as the Triplets, with the most dangerous among them being a man named Duncan, code named Cowboy Ninja Viking.
In terms of content, Cowboy Ninja Viking is a story with a lot of action, intrigue, and a fair amount of psychological conflict. If you ever wondered what a person with four fully developed personalities is like, this series will provide you with an interesting perspective. In every issue writer AJ Lieberman redefines how we think of dialogue as each of these guys finds new ways to butt heads with their other personas.
That same personality dynamic also translates into some interesting fight scenes. Between Lieberman’s writing and Rossmo’s art, the reader gets the unique experience of seeing three separate fighters occupy one space at the same time. One panel you’ll see a ninja cut off a guy’s head, the next you’ll see a Viking bisect someone with an axe, and the third you see a cowboy shooting someone in the gut. Then you realize it’s all the same person. The fact that Lieberman and Rossmo managed to do this in a way that made sense is all the more impressive.
There are a lot of stories out there that are great, but this is one of the few that qualifies as being insanely great without going into hyperbole. If you’re tired of the same old narrative this is a series that’s worth checking out, because nothing is more refreshing than reading a story where ninety percent of the main characters are clinically psychotic.
-Brent
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January 25th, 2011
This week I’m starting a compendium of my favorite Image series, the kind of series that have effectively redefined the way I view Image as a publisher, so I thought what better way to start it off than to talk about Eisner Award winner and one of my all time favorite comics, Chew.
Chew is the creation of writer John Layman and artist Rob Guillory and focuses on the life of a guy named Tony Chu (obvious word play, I know). By all accounts, Tony Chu is a pretty average guy. He works hard as a member of the police force, he has a brother that he barely gets along with, and he gets psychic impressions off anything he puts in his mouth. Okay, maybe he’s not the most average guy, but living in a world where chicken can only be bought on the black market and the FDA is the most powerful government agency in the world, he’s about as average as people get.
Now aside from the hilariously bizarre premise, there’s a lot to like about Chew. First off, Chew is one of the few stories that doesn’t settle for being in one genre, but rather comfortably fits in at least three. If I had to describe it, Chew is a mixture of comedy and mystery with a healthy dose of science fiction. These qualities are brought into even sharper focus by Rob Guillory’s gritty, yet cartoonish art style, which will make you want to laugh one moment and feel a little nauseous the next. It’s an interesting state of mind, let me tell you.
[Not the words I was thinking of.]
The third quality that makes Chew worth it is of course the solid plot. From the very first installment you know there’s something larger going on in the story than you can see. There’s a history behind Tony Chu and his strange abilities, as well as a connection between the outlaw of chicken and the deaths of millions of people as the result of a mysterious “avian flu.” Tony as well as a growing cast of characters with equally bizarre food-related abilities are in the thick of it, or at least that’s what Layman’s been hinting at.
Currently Chew is on issue sixteen of a projected sixty issue run, and I for one plan on being there for every second of it. Whether you’re new to comics or just looking for something off the beaten path, this is definitely the series to try.
-Brent
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January 18th, 2011
With all the talk about Marvel and DC characters dying, it’s only fair to make a prediction on characters outside of the mainstream superhero universes that could/should die in 2011. The top on my hit list is Kick Ass. I loved the original comic series, but if I understand the basic premise correctly the whole point was supposed to explore what would really happen if a average kid tried to be a superhero. If you really dressed in spandex and went out on the street to fight crime you would almost certainly get your ass kicked, or worse get your ass killed. Them’s the facts. That’s why I think Mark Millar should rename the series “Ass Death,” which sums up the outcome of a dumb-ass idea like being a real life super hero: real life death. Instead, Millar continued the “Kick Ass” line with the perpetually late follow-up “Balls To The Wall” ignoring the whole threat of death for hero Dave Lizewski, as he becomes more like an indestructible superhero.
Lets review his torment and torture:
In the first issue alone Dave AKA Kick Ass was severely beaten up, stabbed and hit by a car. This should have killed him, but I suspended my disbelief for the sake that the series had seven more issues and they weren’t going to kill him in the first one. As the story continues, “Dumb Ass” again tries to stop a mugging and get’s his ass kicked again, though he is able to stop the victim from getting killed. It’s highly likely that a second fight would result in death, but Dave survives once more. Suspend that disbelief once more. Later Kick Ass is caught by the mob where they torture him by electrocuting his balls. Okay, in reality at this point the kid is dead. The mob isn’t going to electrocute your genitals and then have you stroll back to your suburban home all willy nilly. Still not dead though. Finally, after surviving all this, Dave’s high school crush that he’s befriended by pretending to be her gay friend sends him a text video of her performing oral sex on a jock that beats him up at school. Can we say “cause for teen suicide?”
Kick Ass should be dead! If they’re going to make a second series it should be marketed like ‘The Death of Superman’ from the 90s. I would loved to buy a black polybagged memorial issue with a bloody K for ‘The Death of Kick Ass.” At least it would be realistic. Yet, what will probably happen is the resurrection issue of Big Daddy and the Hit Girl teen pregnancy mini-series.
-Jon
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One of my favorite bookstores in St. Louis. Star Clipper offers not only the best selection of comic books and graphic novels in the city, but also a cornucopia of art, design and pop-culture related books and magazines. 
