Nebraskan
Thursday, March 31,1994
ArtscoEntertainment
ook tells about struggles
f visionary comic artists
Comic Book Rebels”
itanley Wiater and Stephen R. Bissette
)onald I. Fine Inc.
The real men and women behind the valiant
superheroes, villains and mutants get their
:hancc to explain the reason behind the may
icm of the comic book industry i n “Com ic Book
Rebels.”
‘Comic Book Rebels” leaves a dissection of
Icomic book characters and the comic books
themselves on the wayside as it focuses on the
[motivation behind the creators.
‘Comic Book Rebels—Conversations with
jthc Creators of the New Comics,” by Stanley
[Wiater and Stephen R. Bissette. is a compila
tion of interviews with comic legends and new
comers in the industry. The book is broken up
into five sections from “Basics: What are the
New Comics” to “The New Independents: Pass
the Ammunition.”
Scott McCloud. Howard Cruse, Denis
Kitchen. Dave Sim, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller,
Colleen Doran and Todd McFarlane arc only a
sampling of creators and producers drawn into
this mecca of rebels with a cause.
Their cause includes making comic art val
ued as fine art. along with fighting the creative
limitations of big comic industries, such as
Marvel, and starting an independent publish
ing company.
“Comic Book Rebels” dismisses such com
mercial comics as Superman and Batman and
focuses on the more underground “comix” with
pioneers such as “Ccrcbus,” “Spawn” and “A
Distant Soil.”
These underground comix artists were often
fallout from major comic industries that limited
the artists’ creative license. It came to a point
where the industries were stealing their art.
“Comic Book Rebels” is an introspective
look at a misunderstood art medium. Although
a lot of people dismiss comic book art as juve
nilc trash, this book shows how the individual
artist isjust as passionate about his work as any
Shakespeare or Monet.
The artists in the book describe their dedica
tion to their art and their wish to preserve it
from becoming commercialized. The book also
opens up the world of international comics and
other comic forefronts.
Cruse used his work to tackle a taboo subject
in art and literature. Through h is scries “Wendel
on the Rebound,” Cruse dove into the problems
ofbeing homosexual i n a world of homophobes.
Because of his work, he faced another problem
comic artists encounter: censorship by printers
and binders who refused to work on his book.
T he eve r- lov i ng, st rang- h ca rted a nd yet fic rce
“Cerebus," a talking aardvark, allowed Sim to
air his perspectives on “life, love, politics,
power, religion and reality.”
With the majority of the comic book industry
dominated by men, Colleen Doran gives a
moving explanation of how she broke into
comics with her series “A Distant Soil.”
Image Comics cornerstone Todd McFarlane
includes his personal experience with battling
for creative rights and breaking off his bonds
with the industry to start a home for “Spawn”
and himself.
The book concludes with “A Bill of Rights
for Comics Creators” — a kind of “how to”
guide for preserving the rights of the individual
artists in a world of very real industry villains.
By reading the I ivesof“Comic Book Rebels,”
a touching and humorous portrayal appears of
an artist or a publisher with a dream to make her
or his art come alive.
It’s a wonderful exploration of an underval
ued art form and its artists. Where would the
villains and superheroes of today be without
them?
— Paula Lavigne
‘Quarter comics’ can provide
cheap, excellent entertainment
Remember when “kiddie market” surplus
trading fare like trading cards and comic books
were cheap? Those days are gone.
Today, an average comic book costs $2-$5.
Deluxe comic books, called “graphic novels,”
can cost anywhere from $20 to $40. Funny
books are big business.
So what’s a comic heroholic supposed to do,
shoplift? Pawn some brain matter to Harris
Labs? Mortgage his or her 10-specd bicycle?
Nah. Instead of doing something drastic, visit
the comic store quarter box.
Comic store owners buy their comic books at
a discount, but they can’t return unsold items.
As a last-ditch effort to cash in on their dead
stock, most comic retailers place their
unsellables in a sale box. Sale box merchandise,
or “quarter comics,” is usually sold for 2 5 to 50
cents.
Needless to say, most close-out comic books
arc awful. But if you know the territory, some
literary dumpsters can be a gold mine.
Here are a few quarter-comic gems:
Dreadstar by J im Starl in. Th is scicnce-and
sorccry epic is crafted in a far-out ’70s style,
with strong characters and expert plotting. It
details the life of Dreadstar, the last man from
Earth, who stops a war between church and
state in an alien universe.
Atari Force, an excellent comic from the
early 1980s, was cursed into oblivion by its
dorky name. The original Atari Force series
was a give-away included with Atari 2600
games. The second version of Atari Force swept
the comic awards for its excellent art and plot,
but the fans snubbed it because of its silly
corporate name.
Hex. Jonah Hex was the last of the cowboy
comic heroes, wandering through the Old West
in his Confederate Army uniform. But when
Jonah’s comic sales plummeted, DC Comics
sucked the facially scarred hero into a time
warp and placed him in the midst of Earth’s
nuclear-ravagcd, biker-babe-ridden future. This
“gunslinger meets the Thundcrdome” series is
kooky to the extreme.
Judge Dredd. He is judge, jury and execu
tioner, as well as Britain’s most popular comic
hero. Reprints of his 2000 A.D. magazine ex
ploits arc abundant and always worth looking
for.
Ambush Bug and The Heckler arc evi
dence that Keith Giffcn is the unappreciated
genius of comic books. Although Giffcn now
has his own comic-book line, “Blackball Com
ics’’ by Image, he used to be given the dirty work
at DC Comics, finishing up dead-end scries like
“Hex” and “Atari Force.” Occasionally, Giffcn
was also given a miniseries of his own making.
Ambush Bug and The Heckler arc hysterical,
madcap fun.
— Patrick Hambrecht
Comics can be serious
Let’s get serious. Arc comic books really
serious literature, or are they still just fanciful
juvenile shlock? The best argument for comic
book tenure in the stuffy library of academic
renown rests on a handful of comicdom’s best.
Here is a sampling:
“The Watchmen” by Alan Moore and Dave
Gibbons. This comic novel asks a simple ques
tion: “What if there really were superheroes?”
Moore’s Dickcnsesque answer is beautiful, se
rious and mind-boggling. You must read this.
Really.
“Dark Knight Returns” by Frank Miller.
The passion of this comic book is fierce and
magnificent. Miller’s interpretation of an eld
erly Batman in a damned world exemplifies
what a hero is. The power of his vision cuts
across literary boundaries and shows what a
comic book can do.
“La Maus” by Art Spiegclman, winner of
the Pulitzer Prize. In this biographical comic
book, Spiegelman tells the story of his father
through the Holocaust. Using the Nazi propa
ganda symbols of Jew equals rat and Nazi
equals cat to tell the story. Spiegelman tells a
story that is uncompromising, quirky and jar
ring.
“Cerebus” by Dave Sim and Gerhard. This
moody aardvark wanders through reality, be
coming an elemental force of society, religion
and the cosmos in his ongoing quest for noth
ing. The Cerebus paperbacks arc expensive but
necessary reading.
“Arkham Asylum” by Grant Morrison and
Dave McKean. This book meshes paintings,
history, illustrations, photographs and comic
villains into an alluring, demonic wonderland.
Art and story mesh perfectly in this sick, pow
erful vision of insane fancy.
“The Sandman”by NcilGaiman. Gaiman’s
mythology for the ’90s has engrossed both the
college scene and com ic insiders with h is brood
ing stories of heaven, hell and the dreaming.
— Patrick Hambrecht
All of these comic books are available in
soft and hard editions.
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James Mehsiing/DN
