Scott's script is pretty text-heavy, making this a substantial read, one that feels incredibly meaty for a mere 150 pages. The pages seem even more crowded because all of the quotes and facts are attributed and their sources listed (some are rather dubious ones like Bush-bashing books, but most come from respectable news sources).
There's little within that we haven't seen before, particularly during the anti-Bush book boom of 2003-2004, but it works as a sort of greatest-hits collection of the administration's sins and mistakes.
What is new is the little cartoon-character version of Bush starring in the little sight gags that accompany every panel of criticism.
Darkman Vs. Army of Darkness No. 1
Dynamite Entertainment
Back when his biggest hit to date was a horror film by the name of Evil Dead II, no studio exec in their right mind would have trusted director Sam Raimi with the millions of dollars and all the pressure and prestige that would have come with making a Spider-Man live-action movie.
If Raimi wanted to make a superhero movie back then, he would have had to make up his own superhero, which is exactly what he did, giving us 1990's campy Darkman.
It's become something of a footnote in Raimi's filmography, eclipsed by his Spider-Man success in the decade that followed, and lacking the cult cachet of the Evil Dead trilogy. Only the most hardcore Raimi fans remember it fondly.
Such Raimites should be downright ecstatic about new miniseries Darkman vs. Army of Darkness, in which Ash, the loud-mouthed hero with a chainsaw for a hand from the Evil Dead trilogy, joins up with the faceless, fedora-rocking mystery man from Darkman.
Hopefully it will do well enough to generate a sequel, in which Ash and Darkman, along with Cate Blanchett's psychic from The Gift and Kevin Costner's pitcher from For Love of the Game, will find a downed airplane full of cash, à la A Simple Plan.
Premillennial Maakies
Fantagraphics
Tony Millionaire's weekly comic strip about a cute alcoholic crow and a scummy alcoholic monkey and their adventures on the high sea gets a gorgeous new collection, courtesy of book designer Chip Kidd (one of the few book designers who's so good, you've actually heard of him).
For those who've yet to set sail with Maakies, Millionaire's strip is perhaps the most fucked up comic strip on the planet, as far as his completely random (to the point of surreal), often crass and occasionally inexplicable sense of humor goes. Millionaire's formal skills with pen and ink, however, are unfuckwithable, as he sets his jokes about suicide and alcoholism in beautifully rendered ships and seaside mansions.
This collection takes the first five years of the strip (1994-1998; hence the name) and re-presents them in a horizontal, one-strip-per-page format that's ideal for the medium (here, the book is custom built to serve the comic strip, rather than the strip serving the book).
You don't have to share Millionaire's sense of humor to appreciate his art, nor do you have to give a damn that he's perhaps the only modern cartoonist following in the footsteps of E.C. Segar or George Herriman to find his drunken monkey funny. If you do both, however, then it looks like you've found your ideal comic strip.