The Old 52: Local

If you haven't read it, it's new to you. Every month I try to supplement the New 52 with a series from the Old 52. Series I've never read, but have always meant to.
When it was new: Local is a 12-issue indy series from Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly and published in black and white at Oni Press between 2005 and 2008. It has since been collected into a single volume.

Premise: A series of 12 short stories spanning about 12 years, and each in a different North American city or town, using places and other elements locals from those places would immediately recognize. Even so, Local wasn't meant to be opaque to non-natives, and each story would be universal, an event in the life of Megan McKeenan, a 17-year-old girl we would follow until she was 30. As originally conceived, she would sometimes be the lead, sometimes be a supporting character, and sometimes be an extra in these stories. As it turned out, the project became about HER story, with an occasional look at other people from her family.

Search for review... Review located: Can I just say, right off the bat, that I love it when writers give themselves a challenge and various constraints like this. Wood, whom I've followed through DMZ and Northlanders, has always been adept at creating a big picture from smaller stories, and here the picture is of one young woman. Why IS Megan moving around so much? That, and her final destination, is the mystery. Each issue was designed around a map of North America, and each of 12 places are well researched (taking the year - the story starts in 1994 - into account as well) and beautifully rendered by Ryan Kelly, who has a fluid brush stroke and a talent for facial and bodily expression. Some cities are big and well known, like Portland OR or Austin TX, while others are more rural, like Missoula MT. As a proud Atlantic Canadian, I was stoked that Megan lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, for a bit! And of course, the stories themselves have variety. I love the way Megan imagines the events of the first issue in various ways before the writer commits to a single variety. Or the almost silent issue in which a strange stalker enters her apartment to leave Polaroid messages. Some of the stories stand quite well on their own, while others are definitely part of Megan's arc. There's violence and there's love. The ghosts of the past and the uncertainty of the future. It's a life. You won't always agree with Megan's decisions, but that's what makes her a real person. Her inability to connect with the people and places around her is at the very heart of the series, and each story explores that theme cleverly and passionately.
I'm quite impressed by Ryan Kelly's art in Local. Wood hasn't given him easy briefs. Not only must he render real places without making them look like photo reference, but he has to project the feeling of those places as well. Some scripts are incredibly wordy and could have turned into boring talking heads. Others have very little-to-no dialog, leaving it to the art to tell an effective and moving story. Kelly takes on every challenge and succeeds admirably. For art fans, there's even more, as Kelly's various pin-ups are supplemented by other Megans by professional and fan artists alike. A beautiful, beautiful project from two expert craftsmen.

Trade in for one of the New52? In a heartbeat. I mean, do we really need a book like Voodoo out there?

The Old 52: The Irredeemable Ant-Man

If you haven't read it, it's new to you. Every month I try to supplement the New 52 with a series from the Old 52. Series I've never read, but have always meant to.
When it was new: Running 12 issues between December 2006 and November 2007, this Marvel series was written by Robert Kirkman with art by Phil Hester for 10 of the 12, with Cory Walker subbing on issues 7 and 8.

Premise: Eric O'Grady is a rather bad SHIELD agent who steals Hank Pym's new Ant-Man suit and uses it, well, mostly to look at naked chicks in the shower.

A small package: I'm of course a fan of Robert Kirkman's Invincible, Super Dinosaur and, most recently, Thief of Thieves, but somehow, I'd completely missed that he was the writer of Irredeemable Ant-Man. I was initially attracted to it for the Old 52 Project by Phil Hester's art (and of course, its length), so... bonus! Though only 12 issues, Ant-Man does tell a complete and satisfying story, that of a less than scrupulous man's journey towards becoming a good superhero... and not sort of kind of making it. Because of Mark Waid's Irredeemable, one might imagine this Ant-Man to be some kind of killer, or extreme anti-hero, but he's not. He's a flawed human being, selfish, greedy, lascivious, scared of commitment, and maybe even friends with one of Spider-Man's less evil villains. Nevertheless, Eric O'Grady has some measure of bravery, is a masterful liar, and though he makes a lot of bad decisions, he really WANTS to do better.

The brilliant thing about Irredeemable Ant-Man is that it uses a lot of small, claustrophobic panels when it isn't doing bold superhero action. It makes for a dense reading experience - you get a lot of story for your buck - but it's also thematically perfect for a book about a tiny superhero. The "smallness" of Eric O'Grady as a man gives way to bigger splashes when he goes into action, contrasting his pettiness with the epic nature of his adventures. He's also a man trapped by circumstances, on the run and flying by the seat of his pants. Those tight panels work to the book's advantage in a number of ways. And as a small cog in the Marvel Universe's machine, this Ant-Man becomes the perfect guy to reflect on (and take the piss out of) Marvel's big crossover events, whether that's how "Civil War" was really more of a street fight, or having Ant-Man crawl into the Hulk's nose during the Green Goliath's fight with Iron Man in World War Hulk. No wonder Ant-Man becomes a member of Damage Control (which had a similar function).
And then there's the recap ant that begins every issue with an amusing rendition of what has gone before, each recap funnier than the next. Other than the ant, the book never feels like a spoof. People get hurt, we cheer Eric's ethical successes, and shake our heads at his failures. He's a great trickster archetype. As I was reading the series (neatly collected), O'Grady seemed to be killed in Secret Avengers. Though it would be a tragic and appropriate end to his journey, having just read its opening chapter, it makes me want to see it continue longer.

Trade in for one of the New52? If Blue Beetle is intent on retelling an already told story, why not go bug-for-bug and give Irredeemable Ant-Man a chance? It's also a "becoming a hero" story, but it zigs where others zag.

The Old 52: Locke & Key

If you haven't read it, it's new to you. Every month I try to supplement the New 52 with a series from the Old 52. Series I've never read, but have always meant to.When it was new: It's still new and ongoing. It started in 2008, and has been published at IDW as a series of 6 issue mini-series that continue the same story, acting as easy sign posts for collections. Locke & Key is by co-creators Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, and is published every month or two. Between it's five arcs - Welcome to Lovecraft, Head Games, Crown of Shadows, Keys to the Kingdom, and the currently ongoing Clockworks - there have been 28 issues to date.

Premise: The Locke family moves back into Keyhouse, the family estate in the New England community of Lovecraft. As it turns out, the house is full of magical keys and locks that give entry to strange places or operate transformations on their users when they go through the appropriate doors.

Unlocking the secrets: I've recently read a recommendation for Locke & Key that was something like "the book I hand people who don't read comics", and yeah, it's totally got that kind of appeal. I like that Joe Hill is hiding behind a pseudonym and not trying to trade on his famous father's reputation, but really, I think the comic would get more attention if more people knew he was Stephen King's son. So I'm telling you. He is and it shows without feeling derivative of the Master of Horror's work. The story does have elements of horror to be sure, but it's more of a fantasy. As the book opens, the Locke family suffers a deep loss when the father is killed by a couple of insane kids commanded by some dark power. The survivors move to Keyhouse where the three kids discover the magic their father grew up with. Their distraught mother and gay uncle are too old to register what's going on. And what's going on is an interdimensional demon trapped in the wellhouse, and eventually, in their midst, and manipulating events for its own nefarious purposes. The kids are distinctive and endearing characters, and the other citizens of Lovecraft, Mass. all chisel a place for themselves. When something horrible happens to someone, you care.
Of course, 80% of the joy is in finding out more about this universe of keys and locks, the magical effects they have and the strange history behind Keyhouse and their father's childhood. As the series progresses, we find out more and more, and with the present series called Clockworks, we're finally delving into the origins of the keys (no doubt the recent Guide to the Known Keys special will be part of Clockworks when it is collected). There's tragedy and pathos, but also comedy and light-heartedness. The sense of the latter may be thanks to Gabriel Rodriguez' art which at first struck me as a too cartoony riff on Rick Geary's work, but he's gotten better with each successive issue. By reducing the size of eyes and using thinner lines, he's done away with anything I found overdone in the first collection. His exact draftsmanship creates a perfectly-engineered world, and repeated panels that highlight bodily and facial expression. Hill and Rodriguez could sit on their laurels and kept telling their story the same way, but they go above and beyond that, experimenting with such things as a "giant-sized" splash issue, the tribute to Bill Watterson, the one-panel-a-day issue, and the "war tales" pastiche. Keeps the series fresh as cream on berries. I've been converted. I love it. And I think you will too. Especially if you love things like Harry Potter, or Stephen King, or Stand By Me, or early Vertigo series, or Things That Are Good, Period!

Trade in for one of the New52? Easily. I'll read the adventures of Tyler, Kinsey and Bode Locke over every DC Dark series in the New52. (If you ask me to kill a DC Dark series to make some room, let it be Justice League Dark.)

The Old 52: Atari Force

If you haven't read it, it's new to you. Every month I try to supplement the New 52 with a series from the Old 52. Series I've never read, but have always meant to.When it was new: Atari Force was published by DC Comics for 20 consecutive issues between 1984 and 1985, with a Special in 1986. The first 13 issues were written by Gerry Conway, with art mostly supplied by José Luis Garcia Lopez, with Mike Barron and Eduardo Barreto taking over after that.

Premise: By the year 2028, humanity has resettled on New Earth, somewhere in the wide multiverse. Atari Force tells the story of a group of human and alien outsiders who face incredible odds to destroy a threat to all existence, while their own people are after them for stealing the ship Scanner-1.

Insert cartridge: I have no doubt that Atari Force's uncollected status is due to the long-lapsed licensing agreement with Atari, relegating this book to publishing limbo like Rom Spaceknight and the Micronauts. Not that is has very much to do with Atari aside from the name, the logo, and the fact the forgettable first volume of the comic came out in specific Atari 2600 cartridges (the whole story is retold in volume 2 as flashbacks, no worries). It's too bad, because its 20 issues represent a complete story with art by a handful of comic book rock stars.

Somehow, Conway and Barron have managed to craft a space opera with characters that have powers, abilities and code names (or at least a cool Will Magnus pipe) that would fit superheroes, without turning it into a superhero book. It's pretty obvious the focus was originally going to be the strained relationship between space explorer Martin Champion and his multiverse-powered son Chris, until the sexy mercenary Dart and her tragic love story with the one-eyed Blackjak pulled much of the attention. Which is awesome because Dart is a kickass female character. Joining them on the mission to find and stop the Cthulhoid-made-flesh Dark Destroyer are: Morphea, the charmingly sympathetic empath; Babe, a baby mountain (at least, that's what these aliens eventually become); Pakrat, a rat-like thief and frequent comic relief; the pet-like Hukka; and late-comer Taz, whose secret will surprise the reader. It's a full generation after the events of the first series, and the first year's arc ends on an epic note, after which Mike Barron takes over as writer, dealing with the aftermath and more resolutions. The series has a definite ending, albeit an open-ended one if you care to let your imagination run away with it. The 1986 special is somewhat disappointing, but it keeps the integrity of that ending by taking place at different points before it. There's an origin story for Dart, a Hukka comedy piece, and a lackluster story where the whole Force appears.

But as competent as this series is, it wouldn't be anywhere near as good without its unusually strong sense of design. Lopez's work is simply wonderful, full of innovative page layouts, dynamic action and detail. When he takes a breather for issues 4 and 5, he still inks over Ross Andru's more traditional pencils. Barreto definitely follows the style Lopez brought to the Atari universe, and when the book started doing comedic back-ups with some of its goofier stars, editor Andy Helfer brought in the big guns: Keith Giffen and Marshall Rogers on the Hukka (not simultaneously), Klaus Janson on Babe, Mike Chen on Pakrat, and Ed Hannigan on Taz. The unsung hero of Atari Force, however, is letterer Bob Lappan, who integrates sound effects into the art and creates more than a dozen alien languages and accents on the fly. Without him, the book would simply not have worked as it does, as evidenced by the Special, where his absence is deeply felt.

Trade in for one of the New52? Oh, for sure. I'd happily do away with something like Red Lanterns (trading aliens for aliens) to read such beautiful work.

The Old 52: Xer0

If you haven't read it, it's new to you. Every month I try to supplement the New 52 with a series from the Old 52. Series I've never read, but have always meant to.
When it was new: Xer0 was a monthly series published by DC starting in 1997 by Christopher Priest, and for most of the run, ChrisCross and Tom Simmons. It lasted only 12 issues.

Premise: Xer0 is a Closer, a cyborg super-assassin working for an unnamed agency, a black man disguised as a white man, who risks it all to perhaps regain his humanity.

Xer0ing in: What seems one of those gun-totting anti-hero books of the 90s proves to be a surprisingly involving read. However, it's easy to see why mainstream readers either never gave it a chance or were frustrated by it. The book is presented as a running novel about Xer0 written 25 years after his death by his brother Trent Walker, a self-destructive Tony Stark type, a narrative that makes for a dense read that approaches noir. The spy jargon is always explained in footnotes, and adds an air of authenticity to the over-the-top spy thriller stuff. The action is balanced by a just-as-unusual soap opera element about Trent and his brother's pro basketball team. Yeah, in real life, Xer0 is the Michael Jordan of the DC Universe, Trane Walker, playing for the National City Vipers. The set-up is shaken by a number of things: Xer0 starting to get a twinge of conscience, a mysterious spook appears to know all of Xer0's secrets, and a cop gets in Trane Walker's face about making a difference to the neighborhood kids.

Christopher Priest layers his story with a racial metaphor too. Xer0's cover is as a costumed white man, something he resents. Is it meant to be an image of a successful black man feeling like he has betrayed his roots? Been whitewashed? Or more universally, a man who has lost his connection with his own identity by working for the Man? It's also a fun irony that one of the most famous men in the world is also its most secret metahuman. His genius brother Trent is a womanizing, boozing, suicidal, amoral mess and fascinates in the same way a character like Vril Dox might, though he is much more damaged. From the beginning, we know there is an end because Trent tells us, and it's just a matter of getting there. We're thrown into the action without a parachute in issue 1, but do get an origin story in issues 7 and 8. Though canceled due to low sales, Priest still managed to tie up most of the plots and subplots, though the last issue feels rushed, revelations and deaths piling up most unsatisfactorily. Another 6 issues might have done the trick. Just one or two if we don't need the Roswell/cloned kids connection resolved.
And the art! I should really mention ChrisCross here who gave the book a stylized look that worked well with the running narration, with slick anime/manga tricks like speed lines and well-choreographed action. The comic has a LOT of text, but the action beats are strong and exciting, so it's not all played on a single note. ChrisCross did all but three issues, but one can hardly complain about Eduardo Barreto's 9 and 10. It's a shame Eric Battle draws the last issue, because he's not up to it, interpreting the script confusingly, and several continuity problems crop up. In the final analysis though, Xer0 has a unique look and feel, a varied and credible minority ensemble cast, and was ABOUT something. No, it didn't connect too much with the rest of the DCU (Xer0 was forced to meet Doctor Polaris in a Genesis tie-in, and Priest makes it work very well), but that makes all the better as a self-contained "novel". Too bad it was never collected.

Trade in for one of the New52? In a heartbeat. If you want to go anti-hero for anti-hero, drop it into Deathstroke's slot.

The Old 52: Vext

If you haven't read it, it's new to you. Every month I try to supplement the New 52 with a series from the Old 52. Series I've never read, but have always meant to.When it was new: Vext was a monthly series published by DC starting in 1999 by Keith Giffen, Mike McKone and Mark McKenna. It lasted only 6 issues.

Premise: Vext is the former God of Mishap and Misfortune, exiled to Earth for lack of worship. Hilarity (briefly) ensues.

A run of bad luck: Due to poor planning on my part, the first series I've talked is a very short one. Indeed, it could have been a mini-series. It's too bad it wasn't, because it ends entirely too abruptly, with recently introduced subplots left dangling. For example, three of the cast are villains Vext never even gets to meet, despite a 6-issue build-up of meanwhiles and elsewheres. The A-plots, however, are stand-alone tales that can still be enjoyed regardless.

Vext is, for all intents and purposes, a send-up of "superhero gods" like Thor, Hercules and the New Gods. The twist is that Vext doesn't become a superhero. He's just a regular and very unlucky guy trying to figure how mortals live. He's more a victim than a lord of his particular domain, and there's good comedy to be had from his hardships (I very much empathize with his bureaucracy problems, for example). The last couple of issues are the weakest, the bits about the God of Flatulence low-browing the proceedings to a place where, had I been reading at the time, I might have welcomed premature cancellation. Though I suspect DC didn't market it very well, I'm not sure how much longer Vext could have remained interesting unless the character had taken a more active role in the stories. It reads today like an amalgam of other Giffen series. It has the trademark banter of his Justice League, takes place in Delta City just like Heckler (another quickly canceled Giffen book), and makes use of varied narrative pieces (cut-out coupons, computer data, dictionary definitions, and changes in genre) not unlike his Legion or Doom Patrol.

In the final analysis, this is a series that had an intriguing premise and some promising subplots, so it was canceled before it's time. It's really too bad because it could be genuinely funny, and the God Police was about to slap Vext down hard (and his ex, Paramour, the Goddess of Bad Relationships was about to make contact with the villain of the piece, rogue archaeologist Aaron Caldwell). There might even have been the possibility of the Heckler putting in an appearance, who knows? I guess bad luck was written right into the concept. Not much Giffen could have done about it.

Trade in for one of the New52? Maybe if it wasn't so abortive.

If You Haven't Read Them, They're New To You

There are a number of short series I'd like to read or re-read, for my own benefit as much as for the blog's, but I'd like some help compiling the list. It's impossible to read everything and in my particular case, I was out of comics from the mid-to-late 90s to the mid-00s. So I'm looking for "little series that could" that I might read (and report on) at a rate of about one a month. They should be no longer than about 25 issues (though I'm flexible), and represent mostly underrated, less well known, perhaps cult, quality work. Little treasures. Not mini-series, though longer minis might count. What the hell, let's make it a New 52 project, or rather an Old 52. Imagine we're compiling a list of 52 series that most people haven't read (from across all comic book companies). So even if DC's New 52 isn't to your tastes, you might be able to dip into older material you haven't read yet. Like the title says, if you haven't read them, they're new to you!Here's what I've got to date. There aren't 52 yet, but I'll keep this a "living post" which will be influenced by your suggestions and updated through the coming days. (R) = Books I've already read, but would happily re-read.

Alias (R)/The Pulse
Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld
Army@Love (both volumes)
Atari Force
Authority vol.1
Blue Beetle vol.2
Chain Gang War (R)
Chase (R)
Chronos
Criminal
Crossovers
John Arcudi's Doom Patrol (vol.3)
Dynamo 5
Godland
El Diablo (the one with Mike Parobeck art)
Empowered
Exterminators
Global Frequency
Green Lantern: Mosaic (R)
H.E.R.O.
Dwayne McDuffie's Hardware (R)
Hex
Hourman
Human Target (Vertigo)
Irredeemable Ant-Man
Jack Kirby's 2001: A Space Odyssey
Local
Locke & Key
Major Bummer (R)
'mazing Man
Mouse Guard
Orion
Phantom (DC)
Kyle Baker's Plastic Man
Power Company
Question
Resurrection Man vol.1 (R)
Ruse vol.1
S.T.A.R.S. and Stripes
Dan Slott's She-Hulk
Strikeforce: Morituri
Kurt Busiek's Sword of Aquaman
Tales of the Beanworld
Thriller
Untold Tales of Spider-Man
Unwritten
Vext
Web (the most recent version)
Xer0
Young Heroes in Love (R)
Young Liars
Zatanna vol.2

That makes 52 (but don't be shy about suggesting more, prospective readers can use your recommendations in the comments!). As much as I'd like to put 100 Bullets or Y the Last Man or Gotham Central - all books I'm ashamed to say I haven't read - they're too long by a stretch. Don't hesitate to suggest books to add on here that fit my criteria, or even to convince me to REMOVE some you feel DON'T. I promise to get on ONE of these soon.

Alternates! I can't read them again because I've JUST read them to bits very recently, but if you haven't, please feel free to switch a series above you HAVE for one of these fine suggestions from readers like YOU!
Gail Simone's All-New Atom
Astro City
Aztek
Batgirl vol.3
Black Hood (Impact Comics)
Heckler
Immortal Iron Fist
Incredible Hercules
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Nextwave
Phonogram
Top 10

Last edit: March 18th