Silverfish
DC/Vertigo
Crime comics maestro David Lapham of Stray Bullets fame crafts an original graphic novel featuring an intense suspense plot and a novel use of the medium’s picture/word fusion to portray the madness of his tale’s psycho-killer antagonist.
Set in a summer resort town near an old-school boardwalk in the off-season (the better for staging a climactic freak-out scene involving close-ups of leering carousel horses), Silverfish centers on the local police chief’s teenage daughter, Mia. Believing her new, suspiciously young and rather mysterious stepmother is hiding something, Mia and her friends steal her address book one night and begin making calls, along the way discovering a criminal past.
From there, Lapham keeps ratcheting up the tension and danger, occasionally dabbling in cliché but making up for it with the usage of outré visuals as metaphors for an unbalanced state of mind.
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Crécy
Avatar Press/Apparat
The 1346 battle between the French and English at Crécy was a turning point in the history of western warfare, wherein the medieval concept of chivalry died and was replaced by our modern understanding of all-out war. At least according to comics writer (and Englishman) Warren Ellis, who certainly provides a strong argument in this amazing black-and-white graphic novel, drawn by Raulo Caceres.
More interestingly, Ellis emphasizes the historical parallels between then and now, focusing on the English’s superior technology (the longbow) as asymmetrical warfare, the English’s willingness to fight dirty presaging the brutal wars of the 20th century and, perhaps most relevant today, the archers’ ability to kill from afar, with only two fingers (drawing a bowstring rather than pushing a button in a cockpit, of course, though the idea’s the same).
Ellis goes into incredible detail regarding some of the political, military and technological history of the battle, but it’s hardly a wonks-only read, on account of the middleman he invents for our reading pleasure. That would be William of Stonham, an English peasant/archer who chats directly with us throughout the book.
Ellis funnels a modern, broad view of history and culture into William, while keeping the character’s colorful language (the English use the C-word as punctuation, we’re warned early on) and prejudices intact. This is actually the story of why the English hate the French, he tells us, and that’s because “they eat frogs, they smell bad, and they’re 25 miles away.” But then, he’s “a complete bloody xenophobe from a time when it was acceptable to treat people in the next village like they were subhumans.”
Factor in drama and gore to eclipse that of 300, and you’ve got an incredible read that’s educational, important and, best of all, massively entertaining.
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Multiple Warheads
No. 1Oni Press
When it comes to science fiction or fantasy comics, Brandon Graham is the best kind of creator—one who is as much a designer as a writer or illustrator. Graham delights in creating worlds and filling them up with all kinds of neat things. When he sets out a table for a meal in one of his comics, with little arrows pointing out all the exotic dishes he’s made up, you want to sit down and taste everything yourself. When he draws a futuristic cityscape, complete with graffiti art and couples in strange fashions strolling down the streets, you want to join them.
This book marks a second stab at long-form world-building from Graham, following March’s King City. Set in a similarly fun future, sometime after WWIII (that’s Wolf War III, fought between werewolves and space aliens), it follows young lovers Sexica, an alien organ smuggler, and Nikolai, who became a werewolf after Sexica sewed a wolf penis onto him (giving him a grand total of two penises; hence the title).
One side effect, in addition to the lycanthropy, is that he now has the wolf’s dreams; the wolf leads an equally interesting life, walking around with a human baby on his back and getting in fights, kinda like Lone Wolf and Cub, only with an actual wolf in the Lone Wolf role.
Graham previously featured Sex and Nik in his anthology Escalator, and now plans to afford them some serious story space. Good thing, too, as they’re among some of this promising creator’s most compelling creations.