Cherubs! (Dark Horse)

Script and Layouts: Bryan Talbot

The first Cherubs book came out in 2007 and, whilst a satisfying read on its own, it did not complete the tale. Due to the artist, Mark Stafford, having to work on the book when he could whilst he spent earned a living, the conclusion to the tale has only just seen print. Fortunately for the reader new to the story, the whole thing is now available from Dark Horse.

Cherubs concerns five cherubim, bored in heaven and desperate for something exciting to happen:

“Yeah! There's nothin' excitin'? No sex, no war, no crime, no violence, no sex...”

“Y-you mean like on Earth? Now that's a happenin' place, dude!”

“But we never get sent there anymore! Last time was durin' the Renaissance, y'know posin' for those Italian guys...”

The trouble is that they soon encounter some unwelcome excitement when they witness the archangel Abaddon murdering the Grand Council before heading down to Earth and framing them for it. In quick order they descend themselves, determined to find Abaddon and clear their names. Along the way they meet a “tart with a heart of gold”, are pursued by two seraphim enforcers who cannot be stopped, and encounter vampires, werewolves, zombies and other supernatural entities.

This book is packed with pop culture references, and it is great fun spotting them all, from Terminator and Dirty Harry through to Alan Moore and Ossie Osbourne, and many more in between. Some are obvious, some you don't immediately get, but it certainly feels good when you suddenly make the connection.

Mark Stafford's art was new to me, and it has a certain cartoonish, frenetic quality to it. There was an interview on the Comic Book Resources website (here) with Bryan Talbot where he mentions that the strip was informed by the anarchic British strips such as the Bash Street Kids by Leo Baxendale, and Stafford's art certainly lends it that sort of feel. The extras at the back of the book show a comparison of Bryan Talbot's initial layouts and Mark Stafford's subsequent pencils, and the difference, and the flavour that he brings to the art, is obvious.

Bryan Talbot delivers a tight, funny script that packs a lot in. There were periods in the first half where I felt my interest fading a little, but the final third is a complete triumph, and had me laughing out loud at several points. There is enough depth here to suggest that Bryan is criticising certain aspects of popular culture and modern life, but at heart what the script seems to want to really do is grab you by the balls and entertain the crap out of you, which it certainly does.

Overall, for a fun and entertaining read that you will find yourself returning to again and again, even if just for certain scenes where you see/read something and realise, “That's what that was!”.

Criminal Macabre/The Goon: When Freaks Collide (Dark Horse)

Now I really didn't want the first post in this blog to be negative, so I chose this one shot. Having enjoyed Criminal Macabre in the past, and being a big fan of Eric Powell's The Goon, I felt that this would be a sure thing. How wrong I was.

Firstly the positive points. The cover is a nice piece of work by Fiona Staples, capturing the feel of the four characters presented. Inside The Goon and Franky are given some wonderful dialogue, and there is nice interplay between Franky and Mo'Lock.

Steve Niles as the writer does a fair job of establishing the situation and characters. The first page tells us that there is a war between werewolves and vampires in a Chicago not quite of this dimension. He shows Cal Macabre and The Goon doing what they do, which is beating up monsters. This isn't the most sophisticated comic in the world, but then again it's not supposed to be, and the plot would work well.

Unfortunately the interior art by Chrisopher Mitten just isn't up to standard here. There is no clarity at all, no attempt to establish a scene. For instance, there is a scene where Franky and Mo'Lock are speaking to each other whilst Goon and Cal are fighting, is a parody of the super-hero team up cliche, when this exchange occurs:

Franky: Speak of the Devil! Look at that! What kind of freaky place did we wind up at?
Mo'Lock: I do not know, but men wearing cloaks are rarely a good thing.

However there is no sign of any man wearing a cloak in the panel, just a heap of boxes. Eventually Franky and Mo'Lock catch the cloaked man that we didn't see, and he lasts approximately eight panels before exploding. Why he explodes is not adequately explained, nor does his role in the story make much sense. Apparently he just woke up and things he thought about came real. The blame for this confusion can't be laid at the door of the artist, and sits squarely with the writer.

After this there is a little bit of fighting, although the werewolves and vampires appear to be in it together, a book is destroyed sending away some inter-dimensional entities (I assume - it is never made clear) and Hellboy turns up, which means nothing to anybody who doesn't follow Hellboy, and so leaves a very unsatisfying conclusion to a confusing mess of a story.