Funnybook forecast

>> Cool comics to look for this autumn

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Parallel to the ’80s revival happening in pop music, the comics world is seeing a nostalgia for that era as well. Currently on sale are revived titles like G.I. Joe, Micronauts, Battle of the Planets and Transformers, all from Image and all executed in that overly digitized, manga-meets-McFarlane style that’s dominating the racks of late. Marvel’s Max imprint, meanwhile, has resurrected the feathered oddity called Howard the Duck.

Let’s not forget that the ’80s were also a golden age for progressive and independent comics, some of which are making welcome returns this fall. Grendel, for instance—the dark, complex yarn of super(anti)heroism helped build the comix careers of folks like the Pander Bros. (excellent post-modern pornographers as well, those two, but forget that for now) and Montreal’s own Bernie Mireault. For Grendel: Red White & Black (Dark Horse), however, it’s the series’ creator Matt Wagner who’s back behind the drawing board.

The ’80s also witnessed a number of remarkable opera adaptations by the exquisitely talented and openly gay P. Craig Russell. His magnum opus in the opera-to-comics arena was Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung (Gil Kane took a shot at it in the ’90s, with less success). Dark Horse is cramming all 424 Eisner-Award-winning pages into one hardcover volume, due out in early November.

Not that the ’90s were a complete wasteland, comix-wise. Japanese manga built on the toehold that imprints like Viz had established the decade before, and on the cinematic success of Akira and Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell. Fans of Shirow will simply freak to find out that his manga sequel to Ghost in the Shell, Man Machine Interface (Dark Horse again) is just around the corner. Shirow’s work has evolved greatly of late, as he increasingly uses digital tech not as a crutch but as means of making his already-spectacular artwork that much more dazzling. The translation is by Frederik L. Schodt, noted for his scholarly books on manga.

On the neo-underground tip, Top Shelf will be collecting all of James Kochalka’s deceptively simple Magic Boy & the Robot Elf series in one book, due out in October. While it may look and sound cute, the tale has a gleefully bummed-out vibe to it. From Fantagraphics comes the Doofus Omnibus, collecting the asinine adventures of Rick Altergott’s lovable fool, first seen in Dan Clowes’s Eightball. At the same time, Altergott and his wife, cartoonist Ariel Boardeaux, have just launched their new collaborative title Raisin Pie at the SPX alt-comix expo in Maryland this past weekend. Look for it.

One special thing to watch for is the Dark Horse Completely Pip & Norton book, due in late September. It’s a collaboration between Ottawa’s Dave Cooper (unquestionably the R. Crumb of his generation) and goof-prince Gavin McInnes of Vice magazine, where the P&N strip first appeared.

On the home-team tip, watch out for the second Cyclope book, collecting 224 pages of excellent works from such local luminaries as d. bilos, Marc Bell, Michel Rabagliati and Hélène Brosseau. That’ll be launched at the Salon du Livre in November, while an English-language companion, Cyclops, with the same artists but often-differing material, is due in December.

Two final things: the Corto Maltese film, presenting the animated version of Hugo Pratt’s famous, suave adventurer/historical interloper, screened at the FFM this past summer and hits cinemas in France at the end of this month—Quebec can’t be too far behind. Watch for it! Also, the weirdest comix event of the fall is a mere two pages tucked away in the forthcoming Reveal anthology from Dark Horse, right after the Hellboy-movie interview with creator Mike Mignola and director Guillermo Del Toro. Apparently, Pablo Picasso drew a short comic way back when. Picasso! Pretentious academics and “real” art snobs, consider yourselves appropriately humbled. :