Bloody Mary is a collection of two short series Garth Ennis wrote for the now defunct ‘Helix’ line of comics (which was a DC branch for, I think, sci-fi themed stories) – Bloody Mary and Bloody Mary: Lady Liberty.  I’d long been looking forward to reading these, seeing it as something maybe transitional for Ennis between Preacher and some of his later works.  And it’s not bad, but seeing as how we aim for whole crampons here, I sided with 2 instead of 3 to denote that the collection is, on a whole, not that satisfying…

LOOK FORWARD TO CLICKING HERE

I can’t offer too much about the comic because there’s really not much there.  Our basic setup is the springboard for every gag thereafter, excepting the introduction of some characters here and there.  Perhaps if the series had been conceived as an actual series and not just a one-off that was voted for a followup by readers, this would’ve seemed like a more substantial read…

SPRINGBOARD INTO GAGS

To call Jim Woodring a genius is too limited.  To call him a ‘visionary’ implies that he’s seeing something beyond, or is somehow fanciful in his work.  No.  You can only call Jim Woodring ‘Jim Woodring.’  I have never encountered an artist / writer so uniquely himself as Woodring, and the ‘Frank’ strips – many of which are lovingly collected in ‘The Portable Frank,’ bring that quality out front and center.

YOU CAN ALSO CALL ME JIM WOODRING, THOUGH

I’m not a Henson-ite.  I love the Muppets when they’re on, and I did my Sesame Street bid, but I don’t get all teary whenever I read a bio, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to seeing Labyrinth.  But I acknowledge Henson’s genius and his still unique vision… The earnestness and honesty that were found in Henson’s later creations are also present here, meaning that, although the story wanders it doesn’t come across as pointless or haughty.  It’s interesting.  Exciting.  Funny.  And rich, and rewards rereads…

NOW WE PRETEND WE ARE FRIENDS

If you’re a Watchmen fan of Alan Moore and you haven’t branched out too far beyond that, then you probably haven’t walked into a comic shop except with your boyfriend or, perhaps, to buy Watchmen as a gift for someone else, so ‘2000 A.D.’ is undoubtedly going to sound like a mystery to you, unless I describe it as Heavy Metal written by Brits, and then you’ll nod all noddy-like.  That’s insulting because 2000 AD has a much deeper sense of universe and richer cache of ongoing characters than HM, but for all intents and purposes that description works.  And it works to suggest: if you’re a casual Moore fan, this book will seem silly.

BUT I LIKE SILLY

The DC / Humanoids line is hit or miss, but given infinite resources I would buy everything they publish.  The presentation is prime and the foreign flair to the writing and art are just a little different from what you normally find on the comic rack.

“Different Ugliness, Different Madness” is a perfect capsule of the hit or miss mix, offering up a unique tone and clean/sloppy art style without the too-cool-for-school feeling I get from publishers like Drawn & Quarterly.  The pacing is cinematic – close up on a face, scene change, camera pulls out – but we end up with what feels like a short story.  It’s a really compelling glimpse at a moment in time, but the initial setup makes it seem like there’s something more emotional in store that never comes to the fore…

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Sometimes there are just characters named Ratfist, and that’s enough to write a story.  One day, cartoonist Doug TenNapel … decided he wanted to create a webcomic.  Maybe he got the idea from his buddy Ethan Nicolle, who works on Axe Cop, or maybe he just wanted to try something new, which seems just as likely.

So you have a guy named Ratfist, who dresses up like a rat and fights crime.  He has a pet rat.  He’s maybe ditching the hero gig to get married, except for one last job.  Unfortunately, on this last job he runs afoul of a bad trip that… turns him into an actual rat, oh my…

WHY DO YOU TEMPT ME WITH YOUR WORDS

Doug TenNapel’s a master of sloppy awesome.  As has been the case with many of his me-aged fans, I fell in love with his character design when I played Earthworm Jim for Sega Genesis.

But TenNapel’s not perfect.  His stories have tendency to have an idea-of-the-week feel, with a very basic moral structured around a very basic concept that’s brought to life by one push into the world of TenNapel.  This means the stories’ conclusions rarely have much impact…

THIS IS ACTUALLY A POSITIVE REVIEW