I was pretty excited for April’s MKE Comicbook, as we were going to be discussing a topic we haven’t covered before – “spiritual realms as depicted in comics.” I wasn’t disappointed in what was brought to the chat – I heard about some books I expected (Swamp-Thing, Daredevil) and many I’d never read (Pretty Deadly, Stig’s Inferno, Grimjack).
Emilio brought Marvel’s “Mystic Arcana”, a limited-series exploring the magic-based elements of the Marvel Universe – “I hated it the first time I read it, but the second time…it was better.”
He also brought the mind-twisting “Promethea” – “A long story that basically becomes Alan Moore’s master thesis on what ‘magic’ is.”
The comicbook based on an iconic horror film was his final selection – “Hellraiser” was an anthology comicbook series, based on the Clive Barker film of the same name.
Shawn – I always enjoy what he shares, because it’s neat to see what a history teacher, who’s also a Skottie Young mega-fan, brings to the table – arrived with four varied selections. Two over-the-top books and two semi-historical books.
“Krampus!” was a “random find at the library, and it’s kinda awesome.” There’s some battle royale action going on with Santa/winter/Christmas mythological figures!
“Batman: Red Rain” by Doug Moench and Kelley Jones is a memorable Elseworlds story where Bats gets turned into a vampire!
“The Life Eaters” is a painted-by-Scott-Hampton graphic-novel that explores an alternate path through World War II, wherein the Axis and Allied nations each find allies in all the mythological gods that ever existed. As Shawn put it, “The gods take side and go nuts.”
“Rasputin” is a tale about the life of its title-character, but embellishes it a LOT, as he absorbs life-force from people and finds himself guided through life by various ghosts!
Jon shared the one book somebody >had< to bring – Alan Moore’s “Swamp Thing” – specifically, the “issue where Abby dies and Swamp Thing has to go through Heaven, Purgatory to find her soul.”
Jon also brought a book I’ve heard of, but haven’t read yet – “Stig’s Inferno”, where the title character dies when a piano lid falls on him, and then spends his time wandering through the rings of Hell, often just trying to find some pants.
He also brought “Bacchus”, a thick tome, compiling a number of stories by one of Alan Moore’s significant collaborators, Eddie Campbell.
Jon also shared one of my favorite recent runs on a book – the Brian Azzarello/Cliff Chiang Wonder-Woman that was full of Greek gods and plenty of chess-level intrigue.
Jon’s final choice was one that I really want to check out now – John Ostrander and Tim Truman’s “Grimjack.” In this series, the main character gets killed and ascends to Heaven. While there, he discovers he has a kid he never knew. Too, he finds his still-living friends are in peril and only he can save them…if he leaves Heaven. He does, and is doomed to reincarnation, never to return to Heaven.
Molly brought the current book by Kelly Sue DeConnick, “Pretty Deadly”, which she described as a “western horror narrated by a zombie-skeleton rabbit.”
She also brought a picked-up-on-vacation read – Marvel’s “1 Month 2 Live”. In regular Marvel fashion, a character gets super-powers in an accident, but only has about a month to live, and using his powers speeds his end up. The book features many Marvel guest-stars, as the main character tries to learn how to best be a hero, before his “clock” runs out.
Jony brought two X-books with well-realized scenes dealing with religion and spirituality. In X-Men Classic 69 (Uncanny X-Men 165), Wolverine and Nightcrawler have a one-page scene discussing Nightcrawler’s solid Catholicism and Wolverine’s stoic atheism.
In New Mutants, Jony said there were “lots of conflicting religions, and of course, Illyana (a main character) was a demonic sorceress raised in a demonic dimension!” The particular scene Jony shared was a conversation between Cannonball and Wolfsbane, about their different Christian upbringings and how that affected who they became.
Don had some selections similar to earlier ones and some different. He brought in a copy of the script to the never-published Swamp Thing 88, where Swampy would have met Jesus!
He also shared the recent Daredevil 6+7, which focused on DD’s mother, who struggled with postpartum depression, and became a Catholic nun.
Don next shared the topical “Morningstar Option” story from Sandman, where Lucifer decides he wants to abandon Hell. This story eventually spun out into the standalone title, Lucifer – which is now being made into a TV show!
Don’s last choice was an eight-page story from the anthology comicbook “Wasteland”. In this tale, a character named Raoul challenges God to a fight.
I brought three books to share – one independent book, and two Marvel books. First up was “Wolverine” from Marvel Comics. The character, Wolverine, has a special “healing factor” that is his super-power, enabling him to come back from pretty much any sort of injury. Still though, some wounds put him as close to death as a person can get, and this story deals with what happens to Wolvie when he’s in that one-of-a-kind space – between life and death.
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My second selection was “Daredevil”, from the late 1980s, when writer, Ann Nocenti, and artist, John Romita Jr, were taking their hero, normally a “street-level” fighter, and plunging him into Hell itself, and facing off against the Devil himself, Mephisto.
Thirdly, I shared “The Atheist” from Image Comics. This was more of supernatural horror story, with a protagonist so rational, so clear of thought and dedicated to reason and what can be proven, that he is nicknamed the Atheist. In this story, he has to face-off against a situation where the souls of long-dead people might be taking over the bodies of numerous young people.
Like every month since we’ve been doing this, Anodyne Coffee was an excellent host, and like most recent months, the evening ended with a fun trivia contest put together by Don – with a new feature – a first-place prize donated to us from Lost World of Wonders, a really great local comicbook shop!
