Month: August 2015

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
Adapted by David and Scott Tiption from Nicholas Meyer
Art by Ron Josheph
IDW Publishing

When Alan gave me this week’s assignment, I will admit to giggling. I had never heard of the particular Sherlock Holmes story adapted here, but the cover promised “the astounding joint adventure of Sherlock Holmes and Sigmund Freud.” In my day job, I am a psychiatrist practicing psychodynamic psychotherapy, and I have a fondness for the Holmes stories, especially the classic Young Sherlock Holmes. This seemed perfect for me.

The book surprised me. In the framing sequence, Watson says that decades after publishing the stories recounting the death of Holmes’s nemesis, Professor Moriarty, and the three-year disappearance of the legendary detective, he needs to come clean about some lies in the text. This confessional tale spends the opening issue establishing Holmes as a man gone paranoid from excessive injections of cocaine (in the titular 7% solution). As he is lost further down the drain of his addiction, Holmes spouts frightening delusional stories about Professor Moriarty as a sinister genius crimelord, and Watson decides to take him to see Sigmund Freud to work on rehabilitation.

The story is setting up a significant tone and environment, so it’s light on plot. But the tone is top-notch. The refined dialogue reads like something out of Arthur Conan Doyle’s original tales, but the subject matter is incongruously dark. As a man who works with a number of people in addictions, I recognized the fears Watson and his wife have for their friend, the shock that a man they used to respect is now sending threatening letters to an apparently innocent math teacher and refusing to speak to his assistant without asking three security questions to verify his identity. Watson is shaken by Holmes’s skin infections from using dirty needles, by the weight he has lost and the change in his eyes.

Fans of Sherlock Holmes will probably feel a little cheated that he doesn’t pull any dramatic deductive reasoning tricks out in this first issue. But those fans will also feel grateful that this book doesn’t gloss over the cocaine like Doyle did originally, and anyone who has ever cared for a person with addictive issues will wait breathlessly for the next issue, hoping this story has a happy ending. I hope this book empowers family members to talk openly about substance abuse. Picking this issue up at one of your Ultimate Comics locations can start this conversation for you.

If you are a friend or family member of someone with substance abuse, there is help. Look into http://www.al-anon.org to learn more. If you yourself struggle with the use of drugs or alcohol, talk to your doctor or look into http://www.addiction.com or http://www.aa.org to begin getting help.

-Matt Conner for Ultimate Comics & NCComicon

Archie #2
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Fiona Staples
Archie Comics

The Archie relaunch made huge waves last month. A staple for young readers for over fifty years, Archie has become associated with an outdated conservative worldview where teenagers barely even kiss each other and would give a kidney to snag the good booth at the malt shoppe. Over the last couple of years, the line has expanded by places analogues of the classic Americana characters into thought-provoking mature horror lines like the zombie survival title Afterlife With Archie and the seventies-style occult series Chilling Tales Of Sabrina. Fevered interest in these respectful reinterpretations of beloved childhood memories has boosted sales and inspired a significant relaunch by Mark Waid (on the tail end of one of the best Daredevil relaunches Marvel comics has ever seen) and Fiona Staples (whose art in Saga has set the industry aflame). Last issue introduced Archie and Betty as a teen couple together since elementary school who just broke up under mysterious circumstances. Their friends, unable to process this sea change, went into overdrive trying to force them back together, leading to legitimate humor that’s appropriate for children and emotionally real to adults.

In this issue, Archie needs money to fix his crappy car, so his friends try to keep him from killing his accident-prone self on the construction crew for the new Lodge Manor. Betty is trying to learn how to go from tomboy to couture queen in time for her birthday party, but she’s willing to ruin a manicure if it means secretly repairing her still-beloved ex-boyfriend’s jalopy when he’s not looking. Scenes of Archie ruining a series of after-school jobs (like standing in front of a burning ice cream stand shrugging, “I don’t have much luck” as the manager in the background screams, “How? HOW?”) brought actual laughs from me, and when he accidentally causes a cataclysm on the construction site, it comes across as a funny anxiety nightmare rather than a cheeky Kids-On-Our-Focus-Groups-Like-Destruction editorial note. Betty’s half-smile at seeing Archie happy with his car repair but not knowing she helped him is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. I don’t know if I want these kids to get back together. But I dearly love them both in ways I haven’t since I was ten, and I want them both to be okay.

This is a great book for kids in the same way Pixar makes great movies for kids – all-ages entertainment should never mean simple or dumb or broad. We should show our children well-created, intelligent art that appeals to their expectations about friendship and school and first jobs and growing up, and this should inspire them to make their own art. If you love comics, come to Ultimate Comics and pick the first two issues up for yourself. And if you love children, these will make excellent back-to-school gifts or donations to local elementary classrooms.

-Matt Conner for Ultimate Comics & NCComicon

DC Bombshells #1
Writer: Marguerite Bennett
Artist: Marguerite Sauvage
DC Comics

The Bombshells were a popular theme of recent variant covers for DC Comics, a reimagining of major women in the line as 40’s pin-up girls. Sexy women are common on covers, occasionally crossing major lines of taste and stirring up controversy, like the recent hypersexual Spider-Woman variant. This theme, though, depicted the women as playful, confident, and empowered. Men and women alike have appreciated the sexuality but also the creativity and the callback to history, leading to a proliferation of these images onto statues, T-shirts, and pint glasses (many for sale at Ultimate Comics in the Chapel Hill and Raleigh locations!). This week, that popularity goes deeper, with a comic book to give character to the ladies in the pictures.

Marguerite Bennett was an excellent choice for this book given her involvement in books like A-Force, Years Of Future Past, and Angela, all celebrating the diverse ways in which women can be themselves in a male-dominated genre. To tell the story of DC heroines shining during World War II, she initially follows Batwoman, one of the line’s most prominent lesbian characters. Kate Kane cheekily stops a mugging in Crime Alley, then wins a Women’s Baseball League game (because BATS, right?) before going to home to her girlfriend, Maggie to bemoan how useless she feels. It’s the same message as Captain America’s first movie but a million times less whiny. Next, Bennett flexes her writing with a harrowing aerial battle scene introducing Steve Trevor to Wonder Woman and her Amazons, as gripping as any war story you’ve read. Finally, she takes us to Moscow for alternate versions of Supergirl and Stargirl who are training as pilots but are forced to reveal their superpowers during a terrible crash. All of this is told with stunning, rich art by Sauvage that lines up with the pin-ups but anchors them in a detailed historic presence.

This book is terrific. I love female characters, and I love when they are celebrated for their qualities rather than pitted rabidly against caricatures of the evil men who oppress. This book nails all the gender beats that made A-Force a must-have, and it’s one of the best things I’ve read out of DC in months. This book would be good enough to launch a line of licensed T-shirts and pint glasses all on its own, and it seems impossible that a story like this came from trying to connect a few pretty pictures. Well done, DC. Congratulations.

If you have an inspiration to cosplay any of these stunning looks, consider taking your skills to this weekend’s Oak City Comic And Toy Show, Sunday from 10 to 5 at the Hilton, 3415 Wke Forest Road in Raleigh. If that’s too soon, get ready for the North Carolina Comicon the second weekend of November in Durham!

Matt Conner for Ultimate Comics & NCComicon

Sunday, 8/23/15 Doors open at 9:00 am with first round beginning at 10:00 am.
Ultimate Comics Raleigh
1301 Buck Jones Road
Raleigh NC 27606
919-3778778

Come take advantage of the finest competitive Heroclix play and win prizes and points for entry to the ROC National Championship in October. This may be your last chance to earn points for this years Final. Swiss rounds with a cut. If you don’t make the cut, stick around and play some Battle Royales!

Entry fee is only $25 and can be paid the day of, or to preregister simply Paypal the money to ultimatecomicsonline@yahoo.com and in the notes section include your name and the phrase “ROC HeroClix”

See you all AUGUST 23rd AT 9AM!

This Damned Band #1
Writer: Paul Cornell
Artist: Tony Parker
Dark Horse Comics

As Paul Cornell writes in the letters page of the first part of his new six-issue horror comedy series, there was a bizarre period of rock and roll in the 1970’s where it was cool to worship Satan. His book is a Spinal Tap-style mockumentary following provocative occult rockers Motherfather on their Love Hate World Tour 1972. Though the band members have generally laughed about the mysticism that fuels their branding, after an experience with Japanese mushrooms, the guys stagger offstage to find they have somehow summoned Satan to their dressing room.

I am not a fan of Paul Cornell’s work at Marvel. It’s charming but not usually as funny or interesting as the Internet tells me it is. This book, however, pulled me in. It’s focused, creative, and textured. The band members don’t get much individual screen time but still establish some individuality, be that the oversexed bass player, the steady drum player, or the sweet lead singer who keeps forgetting to stay in character on camera. The plot lovingly skewers the chemical and sexual excesses of the rock scene without wallowing in gratuitous nudity. The groupies are represented as respectable women who could help the band if the boys would just heed their spiritual warnings, and sinister manager Mr. Browley steals the issue with a two-page monologue blending intellectual British sentence construction and a slew of delightful profanity (including defense of the guitarist as “someone who has had their liver, spleen, and penis insured by Lloyd’s of London for such sums that injury to those parts would cause an enormous gilded bell to be run in their head office”).

I am not sure how adding Satan to the mix is going to affect the story, but based on the strength of this first issue, I’m signing on for the rest of the tour. Head on down to Ultimate Comics in Chapel Hill or the new Raleigh location to pick up a copy!

Matt Conner For Ultimate Comics & NC Comicon

You asked for it, and we listened! In addition to our original Durham/Chapel Hill store we now proudly present Ultimate Comics Raleigh! Same amazing staff, twice the square feet! And just to be clear we haven’t MOVED, we’ve just added ANOTHER location! Our original Chapel Hill/Durham store is still open and looking better than ever! Come in and let us show you!

But let’s talk about our new Raleigh location. Boy-howdy is it something to see! Not only will you be able to find brand-new hot-off-the-press comic books and hard-to-find in-the-box toys and collectibles, we’ve added an entire back-issue warehouse for you to peruse at your leisure! Find that perfect issue to fill in your collection or that killer ’80s toy you’ve been looking for everywhere! Check the new Raleigh store’s page out on Facebook right here and give us a like! HERE

So visit us at BOTH Ultimate Comics locations but certainly come see the Raleigh store soon, as we can’t wait to show off our new space. Ultimate service, Ultimate selection, Ultimate Comics!