The Sandman Presents: Taller Tales (2003)

Author: Bill Willingham  |  Illustrators: Mark Buckingham / Peter Gross / Paul Pope / Michael Kaluta / Phil Jimenez / Adam Hughes / Linda Medley / Marc Laming / Zander Cannon / Albert Monteys / Daniel Torres / Shawn McManus / Duncan Fegredo / Kevin Nowlan / Jason Little / Niko Henrichon  |  Page Count: 224

‘A bestial song of Darwinian law in six-part harmony.  A celebration of the never-ending, inescapable gospel of tooth and claw.’

Taller Tales gathers into one book a small collection of the many post-Sandman stories.  There's some one-shots, a complete mini-series, and a single issue of the now defunct monthly 'The Dreaming'.  Each of the individual publications may still lurk in specialist comic shops, but why spend more than the cover price when you can have them in an advert-free TPB?  In the order presented:

01. Merv Pumpkinhead, Agent of D.R.E.A.M. (2000)
Merv recounts an unlikely story of derring-do in which he’s the one daring and doing.  I like Merv, but a James Bond parody isn't something that stays in my memory long.  Most of the actual Bond movies are like parodies of themselves, so besides the hero having a pumpkin for a head, there really isn't much difference.

02. The Dreaming, issue 55: The Further Adventures of Danny Nod (2000)
At Lucien's behest an enthusiastic young lad goes in search of books that are either overdue or have simply gone missing from the Great Library's stock.  The youth's dedication to his job is his shield as he enters the Book-Lands.
About half a dozen different artists lillustrate the short, fanciful journey.  The result could've been messy, but it works in the story’s favour for reasons that I can’t reveal.  It doesn't plumb any great depths emotionally or creatively, but it’s hugely enjoyable, nonetheless.

03. The Thessaliad (2002)
A four-issue miniseries featuring Thessaly, the last of the Thessalian witches, first seen in Sandman Vol V: A Game of You (1993).  On the surface she’s a meek, bespectacled and bookish college student with pink bunny slippers and a teddy bear backpack filled with English Lit work, but get closer and you’ll see she’s beautiful and powerful.  Get on her bad side and beautiful will sidestep so that terrible can take centre stage.  She'll fry your ass.

04. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Dreams... (2001)
Each answer is attributed just a few pages to make its point.  It’s mostly light-hearted stuff, but despite each short being written by the same person (Bill Willingham) there are a number of unique voices in play.
It makes a kind of sense that constructing a dream would be like constructing a movie, and that it should experience the same kind of production problems.

4 challenge stops on the Allegorical Subway out of 5

The Matrix Comics: Volume One (2003)

Authors: Various | Illustrators: Various | Page Count: 160

"The answer. It's right there. I can touch it. It's beautiful. Simple. And it scares the hell out of me."

Beyond the infinite possibilities offered by a virtual world, part of what keeps the Matrix universe so appealing is that it hasn't been milked to death by a greedy studio. Exploitation and oversaturation would've killed it as easily as it does any other commodity. I assume the Wachowski's had some hand in regulating that, so kudos to them and everyone else who stuck to their guns - although I'd really love another anime collection like The Animatrix (2003).

Anyhow, most of the twelve stories (eleven comics and one short prose work)* contained in the collection were originally available on the Matrix website from 1999 to 2003. They're gone from there now, so your only option if you want to read them is to buy the book. As with all the other tie-ins, they expand upon and attempt to enrich the core concerns explored in the film trilogy. They were created over a period of time, so aren't tied to, or designed to reflect, any one specific film. Some were written before the first movie even came out.

I'm delighted to have them archived in some manner, and I did enjoy them for what they were, but the truth is that the majority of them just aren't very interesting. As web comics they'd have been a fun way to keep a viewer/reader connected to the ongoing story, but they don't hold up when brought together into a medium they weren't originally designed for.

The short creator profiles that accompany each entry are a nice touch; every anthology should have those.

2½ zeroes and ones out of 5

NOTE: See the comments section of this post for a full list of contributors.

Shaun of the Dead (2010)

Author: Chris Ryall (based on a script by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright) | Illustrator: Zach Howard / Sean Murphy | Page Count: 96

“You've got red on you.”

If you've not already watched the FILM (2004), put your Hog Lumps down and go do that before you read the official adaptation because it’ll help you fill in the gaps, of which there are many.  That’s the consequence of editing a packed story down to just 96 pages, which is what Chris Ryall had the unenviable task of doing to Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's original script.

There are of course things about the film that can’t be recreated in a comic medium, such as the long tracking shot as Shaun goes to buy the newspaper, and Queen on the Jukebox, both of which are highlights, but the sharp wit of the dialogue translates well and it’s that part of it that Ryall captures almost perfectly.  I say ‘almost’ because obviously the inflections are absent, but if you’re familiar with how Pegg and Frost speak then you can add them yourself.

The biggest casualty is that the absence of some of the quieter moments results in Shaun seeming more of an anxious depressive than the lovable loser he ought to be, and the bromance between he and Ed is compromised.

The artwork is excellent.  The resemblances are there but it’s also uniquely stylised.  There’s great use of free form lines, meaning it’s not overly rigid in its depiction.  It exaggerates some of the action scenes but hey, it’s a comic, it’s allowed to do that and it works in its favour.

A small number of panels are added showing events that aren't seen in the film but they’re nothing to get excited about.  The main difference from a story point of view is that some of the action is presented from a different character’s perspective.  That was a welcome change.

I consider it more of a fan-pleasing companion piece than a standalone work.  That way I can overlook the fact that locations change suddenly, characterisation of secondary characters is almost nil and the ending is even more abrupt than this.

3 dangerous vinyls out of 5

Batman: Annual 2014 / Superman: Annual 2014 (2013)

Author: Various | Illustrators: Various | Page Count: 74 (each)

"That’s what Superheroes do. They hit people."

Annuals used to be eagerly awaited jumbo-sized hardback editions with specially commissioned stories. There was little or no reprint. The dates for year of first publication as stated on the copyright page of both these individual titles suggest a lot of reprint, although I can't be entirely sure of that.

Yes, that qualifies as an old man, "back in my day…" grumble. But £7.99 for 74 pages? In Britain we call that a rip-off. The last regular DC comic I bought was three days ago. It had 100 pages and was half the RRP of just one of these.

Even more insulting is that both publications have adverts! They’re relevant to the character, but still, I'm heavily opposed to that kind of thing. It means we're essentially paying for advertisements. Not good.

Happily, the content is worth reading. The Superman annual is targeting a slightly younger audience than the current monthlies, so the stories have a younger focus; but it's not exclusive, there are still a number of things that'll also ring true for adults and perhaps, in some cases, even leave a deeper resonance.
The highlight is a story by Devin Grayson with art by Ariel Olivetti. It begins with two kids arguing over who is the better hero, Superman or Batman, and develops into something more than the sum of its parts.

The Batman book is darker in tone than the Superman one, like it ought to be. The stories chosen are more diverse. Each one shows a different facet of Batman's character, so new readers will, without their knowing it, be seeing the result of a lot of history filtered into short, self-contained one-shots. They explore in very different ways and in varying levels of detail what Batman is and what he isn't, what he stands for morally and what people think he stands for.
One in particular, written by Andrew Dabb and illustrated by Giorgio Pontrelli, uses a fictional world as a contrast to deepen the 'reality' of Batman’s world. The motivations of the second lot can't ever be fully understood by the first, but the story is crafted so that the reader, who belongs to neither world, will garner a deeper appreciation of the hero.

Value for Money: 1 wallet moth out of 5
Superman: 2½ schoolyard squabbles out of 5
Batman: 3½ defining moments of darkness out of 5

Judge Anderson: Triad (2003)

Author: Alan Grant | Illustrators: Arthur Ranson / David Roach / Mick Austin / Mark Farmer | Page Count: 112

‘Childhood… the only real innocence any of us ever know…’

There are five stories in this one; one long and four short.  The long one is the best of them, and is the one the book’s named after.  It teams author Alan Grant with artist Arthur Ranson, which, for me, is a match made in comic heaven.
Grant’s writing is better when he has room to develop a deeper narrative.  He writes the PSI Judge strong but sensitive, heavy handed when necessary, while remaining responsive to a victim’s emotions.
Ranson’s work is black and white, and I mean black and white – no greys.  His ability to add emotion and fear to a face with the minimum of lines is part of why I love his style.  His version of Anderson is my favourite.

It adds to the arc that was slowly developing in all of the longer works.  It took years to fully flourish, and being aware of it now while rereading gives the whole series extra depth.  I'm guessing Grant knew early on where he would eventually take her but I'm not sure he knew quite how tough he'd make that journey.

The events of Hour of the Wolf (2003) are a prelude to Triad so read it first if you can.  However, like Wolf, the story has an unresolved aspect; it’s another small snippet of a larger whole.

The remaining four stories vary in quality.  Sometimes it feels like Grant puts very little thought into his short work.  They helped keep Anderson in the consciousness of the weekly 2000AD readers but they're mostly throwaway.

3½ bad dreams out of 5

Judge Anderson: Hour of the Wolf (2003)

Authors: Alan Grant / John Wagner | Illustrators: Barry Kitson / Ian Gibson / David Roach  |  Page Count: 128

‘...always in the background, the pained static generated by the desperate, homeless dreams of 400 million unhappy people.’

There's 2 main parts to this book; there's a few short pieces too but I’ll be focussing on the 2 two multi-part stories that have been collected together, despite being written 2 years apart (1987 and 1989).

The first is the titular Hour of the Wolf, penned by John Wagner and Alan Grant.
PSI Judge Cassandra Anderson begins to experience unsettling visions of a wolf attacking the City.  Naturally she sets out to find the reasons why.
The story unfolds slowly, and while it doesn't really go anywhere satisfying it sets up events for something that’ll resurface further down the line.
I enjoyed it for one very specific reason that I can’t even hint at because it’ll be major spoiler.  All I can say is that it has ties with something that significantly shook Mega-City One in the past.

It highlights the only real problem I have with the Anderson PSI stories in general: they occasionally rely on knowledge of the larger Mega City.  If you've not followed her adventures when she teams with Judge Dredd in his own stories, you’ll be a little lost at times; this is one of those times.  Fortunately, I did know what was going on but I can sympathise with readers that don’t.

The second story, Helios, written solely by Alan Grant, is much better if all you want is a self-contained narrative.  It teams Anderson with her close friend Judge Corey, and pits her against a different kind of threat.
The two stories couldn't be more different.  Put side by side they present a contrast that helps the book just as much as it divides it.

I’d forgotten how much I love black and white comic art.  It’s much more dramatic than coloured work when done correctly.  Each of the artists has their own style but the focus is always the same, which ties it all together.

3 ricochet bullets out of 5

HR Giger's Film Design (1996)

Author: H.R. Giger | Illustrator: H.R. Giger | Page Count: 138

'[H]oles of all description, holes in the ground, holes in the head, ass-holes, etc. I'm still not sure what they were for but they're great nonetheless.'

William Malone

H. R. Giger's Film Design is a large format book that offers an insight into the artist's film projects. Much of it will already be well known to fans, his work on Dune, Poltergeist II, etc, but knowing about a thing and exploring the genesis of a thing are very different experiences.

It covers a wide range of work, from short films, lengthy personal projects to music videos and even furniture building. But the real treasure is when it goes into detail about the films that didn't make it past the design stage. There's one in particular that has the potential to equal David Cronenberg at his most bizarre; it's both repulsive and tantalising in equal measure. The only problem is the budget required to do it justice could buy a small country. In truth, I'd rather it never get made than get it half-assed.

There's a lot of space devoted to his involvement with the Alien franchise. Seeing him working on models and sculpts, getting a sense of scale, and seeing the evolution from sketch to 1:1 model is fascinating. The film was his most commercially successful from a production design point of view and is the one that stuck most faithfully to his designs. You'd think that thick-as-shit Hollywood producers would have made that connection by now. Instead they pay him for sketches and then continually change them to better suit their own weak ideals.

Which brings me nicely to the only negative aspect of the book. There's some duplication with the similarly sized Species Design volume that came out the same year. If you already own it, then you'll be able to skip that chapter.

5 good intentions out of 5

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Volume 2 (2004)

Author: Alan Moore | Illustrator: Kevin O'Neill | Page Count: 228

"I believe you do not hate me. I believe you have perhaps met someone worse than me. Would that be right?”

Volume 2 of The League is superior in every way to the preceding volume. Again, it’s a traditional boys-own adventure with a literary slant, but this time it’s got more sci-fi elements. The plot is less fantastical, the interpersonal character relationships are better fleshed out, and Kevin O'Neill seems to be having more fun with the art. If you take the time to explore it you'll discover there's a lot of subtle things going on in the background.

You’ll get a deeper appreciation of what Moore was trying to do if you’ve read the source material that he’s used as a weave, or at the very least have an idea of what it’s about from any filmed versions. The biggest influence on this volume is something close to my heart, so I enjoyed it immensely.

The story moves ever further away from the traditional comic format. Nothing is black and white. The 'heroes' are as flawed and as selfish as the villains, and you'll be wondering why you sympathise with them at all at times.

There's a lengthy prose section at the back of the book called 'The New Traveller's Almanac' that expands upon the League and its bizarre world, and introduces elements that will reappear in subsequent volumes.

The book collects together The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 2 issues 1-6.

4 million to one chances out of 5

Species Design (1996)

Author: H.R. Giger | Illustrator: H.R. Giger | Page Count: 86

"I cast worms in silicon …Instead, in the film, reddish brown computer-generated sausages burst out (but very quickly, to hide the computerised embarrassment)."

Large format coffee table book, about the size of an LP, that doesn't fit on any of my shitty Argos flat-pack shelving.  It’s full of HR Giger illustrations, primarily the early stage concept sketches that rarely get released to the public, most of which are black ink on paper.  Giger’s sketches have an almost obsessively hurried appearance.  Seeing what he had envisioned for the creature, that didn't make it into the film, is the only reason to purchase this.  If you’ve seen the film you may remember Sil's dream, with the train?  Probably not, it was brief.  Giger put a huge amount of work into the train, even building a working scale model from animal bones, PVC, wood and metal at his own expense.  The studio gave it a mere 8 seconds of footage in the final product.  Had it remained as he envisioned it could've been spectacular, perhaps even the highlight of the whole damn thing.

His association with Hollywood hasn’t been a pleasant one over the years so it’s nice to get something from his POV.  However, at times he uses the book as a platform for his grievances about the Hollywood machine.  It's either a man having a bitch-fit, or an artist whose vision was cruelly compromised getting a cathartic release.  Either way, it borders on the depressive.  I felt so very sorry for him, and wondered why he took such treatment from the money-whores.  I have my suspicions but you’ll maybe discover that for yourself upon reading.

Alongside the aforementioned sketches are colour photographs of the animatronic puppets used in the production, and lots of stills from the film which are either there contractually or as filler.  If you have an unfilled need for a deeper insight into the creation of the best part of the film, the book will give it.  I just hope you have some oversized shelves to house it on.  Don't go to Argos for them.

3 all aboard the penis train to a Swiss pervert’s dreamland out of 5

V for Vendetta: New Edition (2009)

Author: Alan Moore | Illustrator: David Lloyd | Page Count: 296

"They eradicated some cultures more thoroughly than they did others."

V for Vendetta is set in post-war Britain; while not directly involved in the nuclear bombardment, it did suffer some socio-economic fallout after it was over.  It became a fascist state controlled by a select few, policed by the power-hungry and corrupt, and populated by the frightened.  One man, V, a self-elected revolutionary, attempts to pull away the apathy, to wound the totalitarian regime and incite a passion for change in the populace.  V orchestrates a violent and theatrical campaign against the oppressors.  He’s a wakeup call to the sleeping masses.  Being rudely awakened is unpleasant.  It’s more comfortable to go on sleeping.  But should we hate the alarm, or the reason it was set?

If V is the central protagonist of the work, which is debatable, then the City itself can be viewed as the most obvious antagonist, as V’s nemesis.  The people that sit in positions of power are only there because the City let them get there.

I imagine the book is largely misunderstood outside of Britain (as evidenced by the film adaptation), because it mirrors the potential social stratification that could've taken place here, albeit in an extreme scenario.  That kind of fractured class structure isn't distinctly British, but it is a deep rooted part of our culture, a part of our history and very possibly a part of our future.  America wants to expand its hypothetical borders and rule the world.  Britain wants to close its doors and rule its own back yard with an iron hand.  (We don’t vote for who we think is best, we vote for who is the least worst, if we choose to vote at all.)  That's the kind of environment that breeds—and needs—anarchy, and is the very same conditioning that must be overcome to view the work in its proper context.  V isn't a hero.  V is an anarchist.  Can the two co-exist, or are they mutually exclusive?  You'll need to decide that for yourself.

The colouring adds nothing to the work other than distraction.  The panels are well drawn and dramatic so a suitably dramatic palette of black ink on white page would've been preferable.

Textually the book is full of ideas and can be seen as a prototype of what Moore would do with Watchmen (1987).  It’s not quite as good as that seminal work, but it's damn close.  The ‘New Edition’ includes two short interludes originally presented between the three distinct parts.  They aren't part of the main continuity, so can be read or ignored as the reader wishes.

4½ iambic pentameters out of 5

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Volume 1 (2002)

Author: Alan Moore | Illustrator: Kevin O'Neill | Page Count: 192

"God, what a squalid thing humanity can be!  Would that they all might vanish and be made invisible instead of I.”

Alan Moore’s magical beard helps him channel the glittering milk from the bosom of the Muse; it keeps him protected from all the lurky things in dark closets; and it wards off irritating little faeries scouting for motion picture deals (sadly, that last part isn't true).  There are times when he makes mistakes like any normal mortal, but the League isn't one of those times, although you may be forgiven for thinking it is on your first reading.  It’s painfully slow to unfold and doesn't excite in the way normal comics do.  It’s only when you adjust your expectations for the second and third reading that the charms begin to shine through.

With the League, dialogue is key.  It features a group of Victorian era literary characters culled from a number of different sources.  Each character speaks in a manner befitting their locale and time period.  The people were never meant to exist in the same universe, much less in the same book, but it really works, and the resultant clash of egos and identities adds tension.

The identity of the characters isn't explicitly revealed at the beginning.  Part of the fun is figuring out who they are before you’re told.  If you've read some 19th Century literature (it’s set in 1898) you’ll appreciate the work a lot more.

In short, it’s a traditional, fun, boys-own adventure with a literary slant.

The book collects together The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen issues 1 – 6.

3 sleepless nights at the girls' school out of 5