Hello and happy Friday, gentle readers! This week I have three quick selections to throw out in the hopes of increasing someone’s enjoyment of life and of all the spectacular weirdness that exists out there. This time out it’s comics and Scottish electronic music, but that’s just where I’m at this week. Your mileage may vary.
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Comics: If I didn’t know that Image’s 2012 Prophet series was an overhaul of a very ’90s superhero, I wouldn’t believe me if I told myself. Written by Brandon Graham and illustrated by a rotating team of artists — Simon Roy, Farel Dalrymple, Giannis Milonogiannis, and Graham himself — this new Prophet series takes place 10,000 years in the future, where the warrior John Prophet awakens to find that the universe-spanning human empire lies in ruins. It’s a sci-fi book with a bunch of crazy ideas; the first issue sees Prophet trying to blend into an alien city, situated on the rotting corpse of a living spaceship and populated by a fermentation-based society with a very rigid caste structure. And that’s just the first issue. The book is certifiably bonkers and it took me a bit to really shift my brain into the right space to appreciate it, but once I did, I was hooked. Brandon has a very clear vision for the book (as the extra material at the end of the first TPB indicates) and the concepts live on the power of his imagination. Each of the artists takes those designs and adds their own twist, pouring fuel on the fire of creativity. It’s exciting to see a group of artists being given free reign to create and be imaginative in a setting where nothing is familiar so everything is exciting. This Prophet series is very visually based and light on dialogue and narration so far, which puts the onus on the reader to really explore each page of each issue in order to appreciate the full scope of the experience. Plus, the final pages of the final issue in the first volume, Remission, show that the story is just getting started. It’s a strange, strange series but I look forward to seeing what madness Graham gets up to over the next three volumes.
Comics: The television version of The Flash has been so enjoyable (save for one or two relatively flat episodes) that I decided to revisit the most recent comics version. I’ve never really gotten behind Barry Allen as The Flash — I’m a Wally West man, through and through — but this series goes a long way to making me re-evaluate my position. The 2011 The Flash series was one of the biggest highlights of the DCU relaunch thanks to creators Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato. The two men work well together, each taking a hand in both the writing and the art (they co-wrote the book with Manapul on pencils and inks and Buccellato on colours), and I think it’s that kind of symbiotic relationship that elevates these issues above and beyond. While the plots of these issues are basically what I expect from a traditional, average superhero book, the art is beyond gorgeous. Every issue has at least one page that makes me pause and take notice. Manapul can take a splash page and pepper it with tiny panels to show the reader The Flash’s thought process, or have our hero move through the visual space in a way I’d never seen before, or even symbolically integrate lettering into the environment in a way that’s reminiscent of Will Eisner. Buccellato’s colours are soft but vibrant, with a depth and texture that shines through even though I’m reading it digitally on my iPad screen. Their collaboration is thrown into sharp relief when a fill-in artist has to take the reins for an issue or two; I’m not going to badmouth Marcus To but he doesn’t hold a candle to what Manapul and Buccellato are able to accomplish on this title. It’s a delight to revisit these early issues of The Flash, and their creativity and spark make this an evergreen book that I will re-read over many years.
Music: CHVRCHES’ debut album, The Bones of What You Believe, came out nearly two years ago but it was just this week that I really devoted some time to listening to it all the way through. And boy, do I love it. I feel bad comparing them to fellow Scottish electro-pop band Cocteau Twins, but at the same time, the comparison isn’t entirely without merit. A number of songs on the album (including my favourite, “Lies”) remind me of Cocteau Twins if they were a little more upbeat and had intelligible vocal tracks. I know I am sometimes alone in my love of slightly creepy dance music, but I really like The Bones of What You Believe a lot and stand by my very strong recommendation. It’s fun and I can dance to it. Mission accomplished, CHVRCHES.
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That’s it for me this week, I’m afraid — I have to go and dance out my feelings and then read more Flash comic books. Until next time, explore something weird and share it with someone you think is cool. I’ll see you in seven days.
