The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1814: Eternity Girl #6, October 2018

So, it all works out in the end. I mean, of course it does.

Caroline isn't Caroline anymore. Looking back, we can see Madame Atom's assertion that "Chrysalis" was the only name of Caroline's that mattered being prophetic - through the events of the series, the series as chrysalis, really, Caroline has transformed into something else.

Also, I will have to go back and see if I missed any explicit references to Dani, Caroline's friend, being trans. That adds something else to the story, another perspective on transformation. And, really, it's perspective that this series comes down to. The old saw is that our lives really can be better if we simply change our perspectives. I'm having trouble with that these days myself. What does it take for a person to change their perspective in such a way, to go from wishing only to die to being an agent of change in the universe? I would very much like to know.

This was a great series. Truly great. Sonny Liew did some insane things with panel construction and page layout, as well as offering some really emotional moments in the narrative itself. The series also convinces me that I should be reading anything Mags Visaggio writes. And you all know how much I love a good hunt.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1813: Eternity Girl #5, September 2018

Okay, just who the heck is Madame Atom? At first I pegged her for a Virgil-style guide to Caroline's Dante, but she literally beats up a Lord of Order, one of the fundamental forces of the universe, in this issue. That seems a bit powerful for a recently-dead super-villain.\

There is some discussion that it is Chaos's turn to reign in the universe, and I'm now wondering if this whole thing is simply a ploy by the forces of Chaos to bring about destruction and ruin. Is Madame Atom one of the Lords of Chaos? If so, I hope it's Shivering Jemmy.

The series continues to impress - I wondered if any of Caroline's time with Madame Atom was hallucinatory, but I think that's the wrong question to ask. Or rather, it doesn't matter if they are or aren't. They're obviously happening at a higher level of reality, something part way between metaphor and reality. It kind of nicely sums up the ways that metaphor, or language, can actually have a palpable affect on reality. I used to tell my students that, that it really was like magic. Only a few of them believed me.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1812: Eternity Girl #4, August 2018

Iterations upon iterations upon iterations.

Throughout the series Caroline has been told by her mysteriously-resurrected nemesis that she is stuck in a cycle, that every time she dies, she is simply reborn into suffering again. It's this aspect of the story that I'm reading as a metaphor for comics, of course, though the views of the different cycles that we get in today's issue also gives some sense of the scope of the misery that Caroline has endured.

There's even a version in the style of Peanuts. Guess who keeps missing the football, pulled away at the last second?

The other thing I love about this issue is we get to meet the Never Man, definitely one of my favourite superheroes now. His power is that he can reach into alternate realities where the event he's trying to counter never happened. He appears to be an old comrade of Chrysalis, and we even get to see a few different iterations of him. I think I'm going to be sad to say goodbye to these characters when the series ends. I've grown quite fond of them.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1811: Eternity Girl #3, July 2018

Location questions and hallucination questions become more interesting in this issue. The actual Lords of Order show up, though I can't actually identify them with any of the established characters from mainstream DC. Further, these Lords are reacting to Caroline's quest with Madame Atom, which I'm still not convinced is not a hallucination. I suppose it doesn't really matter if it is or isn't - it's the actions Caroline is taking, metaphoric or otherwise, that interests the Lords.

This issue we see forces beginning to move against Eternity Girl, both metaphysical and physical, whose impetuses are for a greater good outside of Caroline herself. There is something to the clinically depressed person that causes myopia. Though Caroline has been told outright that the only way for her to die is for the universe to end, and that everyone else will die too, she still pursues the path. Depression can become overwhelming, to the point that it's hard to see that other people have lives and worries and sadnesses too.

There is also something to the notion that, from Caroline's perspective at least, when she dies, so does the universe. It's the same with all of us, really. We experience existence from a singular point of view that will never repeat exactly, so when we die, that particular perspective of the universe dies as well. I guess we'll find out whether it's a personal or a public universe that is scheduled for demolition in the series.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1810: Eternity Girl #2, June 2018

I had meant to address the world upon which Eternity Girl takes place yesterday, but I forgot, so we'll do it now.

At the end of Milk Wars, Caroline appears to slip out from her brief origin stories and into the main series, exiting the story through a panel that offers no clues as to location. It's fair to assume that she exited into the DCU that had been restarted at the end of the crossover, and Madame Atom, Chrysalis' nemesis and guide toward death, implies as much in today's issue. However, in the first issue of the series, we see Caroline sitting in her living room in front of a television that is quite clearly playing an episode of The Batman Adventures, notable for its unique aesthetic. So where exactly is the story of Eternity Girl taking place? Madame Atom makes reference to the forces of Order and Chaos in today's issue, further cementing the link between Element Girl (who was a champion of Order) and Eternity Girl, but also with the DCU itself. We can assume that the Lords of Order and Chaos operate in all realities, so perhaps Eternity Girl is taking place on another of the DCU Multiverse worlds, but the explicit links tend to point one toward the prime DC universe.

All of this could be moot, of course, since the story is about someone dealing with depression and suicidial thoughts, not about superheroes and their world. Well, except for the fact that superheroes and their world are the root cause of Caroline's depression. What's interesting is that, at this point, it's hard to say if Caroline's mission to end the universe with Madame Atom is anything more than a hallucination or fantasy that is helping Caroline figure out how to die.

The real truth is that the story is all of these things, all at the same time. Like any good story, it is its multi-facetedness that makes it excellent.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1809: Eternity Girl #1, May 2018

This one is just so good.
We first meet Eternity Girl in the pages of the Milk Wars crossover (which I would love to see in the Arrowverse). Chrysalis (her hero name)'s story is told to us in two-page back-up features in each of the issues of the crossover, though she demonstrates something close to self-awareness at the end of the series, and manages to escape from the gaps between panels and into the world. Which world is an excellent question though.

There are certainly aspects of the character of Eternity Girl that align with Urania Blackwell's Element Girl, and part of me wonders if she had been the original character intended for this story. Element Girl goes through a very similar story and process in an issue of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, but Eternity Girl delves much more deeply into the processes that begin to overrun a person in the throes of depression. Caroline (Eternity Girl's name) admits to throwing herself off a bridge once a month, even though she knows she can't die, just in case, for some reason, this particular time works. Those who suffer from depression, and who have had suicidal thoughts, will perhaps recognize in this story a metaphor for their own mental wanderings and wonderings.

The series is also, however, about comics and comic book heroes. Frye once noted the stagnation of comic strip characters, and Eternity Girl is dealing with that idea head on. The only way Caroline can die is by ending her universe, thus halting the cycle of death, decay, and rebirth that she appears to be trapped within. That cycle is something that well describes the "life" of a superhero, and is something that Grant Morrison chats with Animal Man about in the final issue of his run. Eternity Girl hasn't quite come to the realization yet that her reboots are for the entertainment of readers, but the language being used to describe her experience of life is equally applicable to the experience of the life of a costumed hero.

Not a happy series, by any stretch, but a great one, I think.

More to follow.

Some suggestions for queer comics to read...

I gave a talk at the Memorial Library in Calgary this weekend as part of the kick-off celebrations for Pride this year. I love doing this event. When else is a comic-geek like me given 2 FULL HOURS to talk to a captive audience about comics?

It's a really great chance to meet other readers and collectors, people dipping their toes back into comics after years absent, creators, and the merely curious. I like to think we have a good time and get a chance to talk about comics from a perspective that's interesting to all of us.

I promised a list to this year's audience of titles that I mentioned in the presentation, and some others, that I think are interesting parts of the history of queerness in comics. I welcome any suggestions, for sure. This is a history that is fascinating to uncover.

The earliest stuff I mentioned was Marston's original Wonder Woman stuff. There's lots of reprint volumes, depending on how high quality a reproduction you're looking for. Very cool, and much more readable than I find many Golden Age comics.

A recent discovery, for me at least, is David Anthony Kraft's Defenders #48-50 arc featuring Scorpio - I recently read an interview with Kraft where he says he was trying to subtly suggest that Scorpio was gay. To be honest, from a contemporary perspective, it's not that subtle.

Must mention Northstar in Alpha Flight, of course.

The next section dealt with Vertigo. I'll just list the titles. It's hard to go wrong with early Vertigo in general, though be warned that it's often dark and quite violent.

Sandman Mystery Theatre (specifically #13-16, "The Vamp") - Seagle, Wagner, Davis
Enigma #1-8 - Milligan and Fegredo
2020 Visions (specifically #4-6, "La Tormenta") - Delano and Pleece
Doom Patrol (specifically #64-88) - Rachel Pollack and others

I didn't mention quite a lot of Vertigo titles. There's The Sandman, The Invisibles, Lucifer, lots of really great stuff.

21st Century starts to get copious.

Kevin Keller #1, I still think, is one of the most important queer comics. Blonde-haired, blue-eyed, all-American Kevin Keller is gay, out, and headlining his own comic in Riverdale for goodness' sake! I've always thought Archie Comics were a pretty great publisher. They're not afraid to change and shift with the times. That's the secret of their success.

Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams' Batwoman in Detective Comics is a beautiful piece of art, a challenging and tense narrative, and a queer woman headlining one of the most revered superhero comics titles in the history of the medium. You can't go wrong, honestly. Can't wait to see the television series this Fall.

Other stuff: The Infinite Loop from IDW publishing, Small Favors by Colleen Coover.

I'd recommend anything from the Young Animal imprint at DC. Though I haven't read Bug yet, the first wave of titles is highly recommended, with Doom Patrol and Shade, the Changing Girl being particular favourites for me. Eternity Girl is amazing too. I just pick this stuff up on principle now. I've never been disappointed.

And I think that's it. I'll see if I can upload the presentation for those who might be interested. And I'll be back to updating in the next couple of days. Gotta recover from the vacation ;D

The 40 Years of Comics Project - The Bi-Weekly Graphic Novel Number 67 - Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye v.2: Every Me, Every You, 2017

This series is just so great. What the eye was doing, who made it do that, and what happened after are all amazing, and given that I'd seen, as I said last time, a single panel of Cave Carson prior to reading this, I'm so deeply involved with these characters now. There were some quite emotional moments in the comic, and I'm quite impressed by the creative team that they've managed to make me care that much about these characters in less than 12 issues. I can't wait to see where the follow-up series, Cave Carson has an Interstellar Eye, is going to go.

One thing I will say about the series that I'm slightly averse to is the level of violence. Mr. Oeming has a pretty extremely iconic style. His people look like people, but not any kind of people we can imagine in reality. But his violence is very real. Or, it's visceral, and therefore real in the reality of the characters upon whom the violence is being perpetrated.

More briefly, the violence is a bit gory for my tastes.

I'm going to have to go back and read the "Milk Wars" special of Cave and Swamp Thing, knowing, as I now do, who the heck all of these characters are anyway. And then as soon as I've a bit of money in my pocket, off to the comic store for more of the crew's wacky adventures.

Stay tuned.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - The Bi-Weekly Graphic Novel Number 65 - Mother Panic v.2: Under Her Skin, 2017

I unfortunately did not read this series before reading the Milk Wars crossover issue, and so my reading of Mother Panic has always been skewed by my knowledge of what was to come. I don't think it detracted from my enjoyment of the story, just inflected it slightly. I'll say this for Gerard Way and his creators - they're doing some tight storytelling in all of these books.

I was trying to figure out what kind of feeling Mother Panic gave me, what it reminded me of, and then it finally came to me: The Prisoner. This all reads very much like the plot of that seminal series of the 1960s. Even Mother's white suit, its clean lines, are very Mod. The Gather House experiments are straight out of Cold War spy fiction, and Mother Panic's origin resembles nothing so much as the Black Widow's origin. Is there some homage there, a take on the character, but in white instead of black?

And the remnants of Gather House that keep popping up are terrifying. Not quite insane. Alien, perhaps. That might be a good way to look at it - they've been made alien, Violet included.

Art and story are insanely strong, which I should have mentioned in my review of the first volume, and might have but my memory's not great, but will mention here too just to stress the point. Top level superhero storytelling here. Violet Page is fascinating, and I can't wait to see what happens in the strange Gotham City she finds herself in at the end of Milk Wars.

Onward.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - The Bi-Weekly Graphic Novel Number 63 - Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye v.1: Going Underground, 2017

I think I've read exactly one panel from one comic that featured Cave Carson. It was in one of the issues of Crisis on Infinite Earths. Unless he was a member of the Forgotten Heroes. I forget.

But that's neither here nor there. I knew what he was about, even if I didn't know his story, but now I'm so glad that I have joined this character on his weird, weird adventure. I'm a fan of Mr. Oeming's style. I read Powers for a little while, but then somehow lost track of it. I think what I love about his art is that it manages to achieve a really dark take on the DC Animated style made famous in The Batman Adventures. As with the Morrison/Truog Animal Man, there's something deceptive in reading a dark story through a very iconic lens like this one. The characters look like cartoons in a lot of ways. They're at the same time innocent and corrupted, I think.

Another thing I'm quite appreciating about these Young Animal revivals is that they're acknowledging the histories of the characters involved, and they're carving out a generational aspect for the older characters who really have never had that opportunity. The DCU seems to thrive on superhero legacies, so what happens to a character or a team that never has the opportunity to do that? The Doom Patrol sort of did, but we've always had Cliff there as the link to the foundation. The first generation, in different iterations, has always been present. In the aftermath of The Milk Wars, we'll see how that progresses. In the case of Cave Carson, Cave's daughter Chloe is a main character, every bit as capable as her old man, though not quite as jaded to the wonders of the underground world.

Weird, wacky sci-fi adventures with a good deal of heart. Does that sound corny? Yeah, it's a bit corny. That doesn't mean it's not amazing.

Onward.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - The Bi-Weekly Graphic Novel Number 62 - Mother Panic v.1: A Work in Progress, 2017

Moments before starting this post, I left a comment on Facebook that was something like "Young Animal fills a Doom Patrol-shaped hole in my heart that's been there since the Empire of Chairs." "The Empire of Chairs" being the last story in Grant Morrison's run on Doom Patrol.

Hyperbole aside, after finishing "The Milk Wars" crossover, I went out and bought all of the stuff Young Animal has put out (with the exception of Bug - the trade comes out soon!). And it's all fantastically good. Each book is very different, each is telling its story in remarkable and innovative ways. There's a lovely aesthetic cohesion that binds all the books together, and I want to say it's Vertigoesque. Can we make an adjective out of that imprint, please? It's been influential enough to warrant one.

So Mother Panic is just great. I'm still not certain that Violet Paige fulfills the requirements to be called a superhero, but she's got powers and seems to be doing good things. My son and I were talking about this character and her story, and we've both come to think it's a very interesting look at class - perhaps as a metaphor for the ways in which class is reinforced in contemporary North America. Plus, as the series is based in Gotham, I feel like I've still got my toe in a nice corner of a universe that I barely recognize these days. Maybe that's why I like Young Animal's books. They're telling stories about the corner in which I'm comfortable.

Jody Houser has, or seems to have, a very clear idea of where this tale is going. And the art in the book evokes the grittiness of Gotham through the lens of Violet's often hallucinatory world view. Lots of people accuse Batman of being every bit as mad as the villains he confronts - Violet is actually much closer to that level of mental illness. The difference is that she recognizes it for what it is, something that was done to her, and decides to make every last person involved pay.

And if she saves some people along the way, so much the better I guess.

Onward.