Something For The Weekend… Fell

And you thought house prices in
 your neighbourhood were bad?

Truth is stranger than fiction so they say, a fact Warren Ellis contests throughout the dark and ominous pages of Fell Volume 1: Feral City. There are no strange costumes or fantastic powers in Fell, no origin story or cross over event. This graphic novel is about a cop. A good cop (as far as we know) who finds himself on the wrong side of the bridge, in Snowtown. This is not a place where good things happen and Detective Richard Fell quickly realises he is going to need all his skills of observation simply to stay alive. It also helps he’s no slouch at fisticuffs.

Each story in Fell revels in the sick and the wrong, and somehow justifies it without ever excusing it. The gross out moments are laugh out loud funny, but there’s plenty that will draw a morbidly fascinated silence out even the most jaded reader. The moral spectrum here is as muddy and warped as the art itself, provided by Ben Templesmith (Wormwood Gentleman Corpse). The art style is perfectly singular, strange but always coherent, at times adopting the best hallucinatory, dream-like qualities of cinema.

And it’s not just the stories that skew from the traditional superhero fair (but you already knew that superheroes are only one genre in the medium, right?). Each episode is limited to just sixteen pages (American comics a regularly 22 page affairs). This makes the story-telling brief and snappy without ever feeling cluttered and condensed. The dialogue is paired down, almost beyond brevity, further adding to the vein of noir that bleeds through Fell.

Long term comics readers will also note the nine panel grid, used to create a steady and orderly pace in story-telling, only broken to establish scenes, capture the action or heighten the atmosphere. And there is atmosphere aplenty in Snowtown.

Note also (pun intended) that Ellis and Templesmith are not tied to such a prosaic thing as a caption box to display the exposition. Detective Fell’s yellow, hand-scrawled, post-it notes introduce us to each locale, often underpinned with gallows humour. It’s this humour that leavens the black as pitch tales of criminality in Snowtown. Adding further richness is the author’s great humanity -- Detective Richard Fell cares, and so does Warren Ellis.

Something For The Weekend - Phonogram Vol 2

"Everyone I know is a bad person with a great taste in records. I can afford to hold some of them in contempt."

Writing a blog post about Phonogram Vol. 2: The Singles Club at this point in time isn't so much being late to the party, as dropping round the following morning to help with the clean up. It was first released as a graphic novel back in March 2010, a follow up to the excellent Rue Britannia.

So why bothering writing at all? Two reasons. First up, Phonogram is what I suggest to anyone who thinks comics begin and end with men in long underwear protecting Earth from evil geniuses. Secondly, there's another installment due this November entitled The Immaterial Girl which is causing all sorts of Geek hearts to flutter in anticipation.

But surely I need to read Vol. 1 first? I hear you say. Well, no. Kieron Gillen (Thor, S.W.O.R.D.) is a savvy writer, and has made Phonogram very accessible (another reason to give it to comic-reading and non-comic reading folk alike). You can dive in and need not know anything in advance. What makes The Singles Club  particularly satisfying is the mastery of storytelling. Seven (count 'em) interconnected tales of seven single guys and girls (hence 'Singles Club') all brought together by an Indie night with a very special set of rules.

Seven tales of impossibly cool but painfully real characters all discovering themselves, discovering each other, re-discovering old geography (both real and psychic). Seven tales of love, loss and regret with an excellent playlist of songs.

But this is a comic too. Enter Jamie McKelvie on art duties.

In addition to being spoiled by the story there is the sort of art that you could frame. I'm being entirely serious, friends of mine have Phonogram art on their mantelpiece. It's not just that the art succesfully conveys story, communicates body language, and captures the mystery of people dancing, but also that every character is immediately identifiable, differentiated and likable (apologies for the long sentence if such things upset you).

And there's another instalment due this November... did I mention that already?

Den

Buy it here

Something For The Weekend - Iron Man

It'd be easy to write off Iron Man as a low brow 'man in a armored suit flies around biffing bad guys' if you've only seen the multiplex posters, but Iron Man has always had a depth to him I've found fascinating.

Tony Stark, the billionaire, industrialist, genius weapons designer has plenty of problems. He has little control of where his weapons end up once he's made them, and no say in who uses them to what ends. What he does have control over is the Iron Man suit and the technology that makes it work. Stark doesn't sit well with the title of 'warmonger' easily and there's a real sense of a man struggling to do the right thing (especially in Warren Ellis's Extremis). And there's the fact that Stark is an alcoholic, something Stan Lee wrote into the character way back in 1963.

Extremis is particularly satisfying because it's part character study, part  classicsuper hero versus super villain, but also has a strong emphasis on believing in a better future. An added allure to Extremis is the fact that the writer really is straight off the top shelf on this outing. Ellis combines his passion for technology and social commentary with a generous side helping of scathing humour.

Matt Fraction and Salvador Larocca's run on Invincible Iron Man follows on neatly from Extremis and deals with Stark less comically than Robert Downey Jr.s wisecracking version. Stark must not only deal with inventing devices and running his company, but also act as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate or Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, versions differ).

He also dons the Iron Man suit and gets into the thick of it when trouble rears its head. The first six issues (collected as Invicible Iron Man Vol.1: The Five Nightmares) pits Start against Stane, the son of an old business rival. Stane has perfected using parts of Stark's technology to create high yield explosive devices ideal for suicide bombers.

Once again Stark feels his responsibility. He is both part of the problem and the solution, but he can only convince himself that he truly is the solution as long as he stays one step ahead in the arms/technology race. Invincible Iron Man is beautifully drawn and rendered collection that benefits from some grade 'A' writing. Tony Stark might be difficult to empathise with on account of his wealth and privledge, but Fraction imbues him with plenty of humanity, and that's what makes heroes great.

Expect to see more of Iron Man on bookshelves and at the multiplex with the arrival of The Avengers in 2013.