[Comic Execution] 3/7 – ‘THE REMAINS’, ‘BURN THE ORPHANAGE’, ‘TUROK’

I missed last week’s column, as you no doubt guessed. I’m proud to say that I have the most brutal of excuses; I had my teeth pulled. Two back molars, to be precise. I contend that there are few things as metal as a dental extraction. Unless you’re a big baby and you opt to get put under (more on that later), you’re totally aware for the whole thing. Needles jabbed into your gums? Check. Bone-deep hammer-blows ringing straight through your jaw and into your skull? Check? Uncontrolled loss of blood of the hot and fresh variety? Check. And the most unrelentingly intense part? Watching as they sew shut the gaping wound in your mouth. Nothing quite as surreal as watching that needle and thread go in your mouth, then out through your raw flesh, then in again a few more times. It’s like ‘Enter The Void’ if that movie had been about oral surgery and not, I don’t know, whatever that movie was about. And if, as I was, you’re getting rotten teeth removed, you get to stare down those evil bastards, FINALLY. All that time they spent malevolently wrecking your life, right underneath your nose, ruthlessly keeping you awake at night with the intense, throbbing agony of a very non-metal kind. Those teeth are BASTARDS, and when you confront them in the flesh, finally, you have the satisfying relief of verifying that, yes, indeed. they LOOK like the spawn of Satan, blackened and fractured and deformed. You almost pity them. Maybe this was the equivalent of a black metal concert for them. Maybe they were just one goat sacrifice and a church burning in your mouth away from signing to Profound Lore and opening for Wolves In The Throne Room or Thou or whoever is the “it” black metal band right now. Well, sorry to crush your corpsepainted dreams but I’ve got a column to write, teeth.

PS: On the subject of getting general anaesthetic before surgery; fuck that shit. I mean that in a “spiders with wings” kind of way. Thanks to ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ I have a residual fear that if I ever get gassed again, I’ll wake up and it’ll be 1997 again and I’ll be back in the hospital after having my kidneys fixed but I won’t know that I lost all the time and I’ll be stuck in an endless loop.

Don’t do drugs, kids.

---

THE REMAINS #1

Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: A.C. Zamudio
Colors: Carlos Nicolas Zamudio

Publisher: Monkeybrain Comics
Price: $1 (Digital Only)

I’m a fan of Cullen Bunn. He’s a prolific comic book author who has launched a career with Marvel by playing both to fan favorites such as Remender’s ‘Venom’ while creating new darlings like ‘Fearless Defenders’. But he’s also managed to keep a strong presence with smaller publishers and non-cape titles like ‘The Sixth Gun’ and his collaboration with Matt Kindt (‘The Tooth’). Since full disclosure is a thing I do, I’ll mention that I’ve met Bunn at a signing, he’s a local of sorts, and we chatted a bit. I got a favorable impression from him so when I saw his name on a release this week, I was a bit excited, as it’s a horror title as well, fitting in wonderfully with the site’s theme.

THE REMAINS is definitely horror, through and through. It immediately feels like an homage to classic Gothic horror, set in a rural town and starting off with a girl narrating her childhood. My first impression was that I was looking at Bunn’s attempt to homage/imitate Snyder’s incredible ‘Severed’ but as the tale unwinds, there’s something else entirely going on with THE REMAINS. If anything, Bunn exercises more restraint than Snyder, focusing on exploring the dynamic of the girl and her younger sister as they manage life on a farm as their father struggles with rheumatitis. It’s warm and bright but tinged with sadness that slowly evolves into something darker. The girls are well written and Cullen Bunn’s Midwestern authenticity shines through, his cast of characters neither caricatures nor out-of-place. Well, there’s ONE character who’s out of place.

A stranger shows up at the farm looking for work and Bunn deftly makes him as surreptitiously malevolent as possible without dimming the possibility that he might not be evil, necessarily. The girls escape his chilling presence by attending to a gruesome chore; clearing out their massive barn of a rat infestation. Given how well Bunn’s narration imbues the stranger’s arrival with ominous menace, I can see why that would seem like an escape. The book’s cover paints the stranger’s looming shadow in a swarm of vermin but I wasn’t sure if that was just a visual allegory if it was literal. The fact that a rat swarm takes such prominence in the horror of the tale is quite exciting, as any Lovecraft fanatic will testify.

The act of exterminating the pests is given just enough space in the narrative to fool me into thinking that this was just a coloring detail to illustrate how strong the two girls are, occasionally stuck slaughtering horrendous furry bastards into gory chunks. But Bunn elevates the first issue to blood-curdling heights with the twist, immediately pitting the girls against something far more frightening than I’d imagined was in store. And the leering stare of the stranger upon the conclusion of the real nightmare is a fantastic cap on the whole affair, though I’m still not convinced he’s entirely evil just yet.

But a great horror story needs visuals that are able to parallel that dread and the team of AC and Carlos Zamudio prove quite capable of the task. The first half of the book serves to ground the reader in a fuzzy, relaxing country setting and the girls are introduced with as much visual personality as the locale. But there’s just a few light touches here and there that give the whole affair a very subtle weirdness: the panel of the younger sister peering with one eye through a fence, the rose bushes they play near, the unplaceable fixture in the stranger’s hat and the faint scars on his hands. But once the girls enter the old barn, the world outside slips away and they become lost in a fetid underworld of gore, metal and shadows. The panels don’t hammer you with the eeriness of it, but they slowly build the atmosphere instead; the looming presence of a thresher grows with every page and the bloody displays of dead rats grow more obscene. One scene where their rat-catching dog pounces on his prey in front of the massive tire the thresher has a very surreal quality that really held my eye in a sublime way. But as the true horror of the situation emerges, the dark world of that hot, bloody barn becomes suffocating, a circle of jagged panels depicting bone-chilling close-ups of the unnatural carnage. By the climax, the barn seems barely lit, their arena of slaughter a haven of dim glow tainted crimson. It’s a truly haunting scene, one of the best I’ve seen in a horror comic in a while.

AC’s linework and Carlos’ depict all this with ease and naturalistic beauty, characters brimming with life but not flinching from the bloody violence either. The panel layouts are dynamic and really pull the reader in at the right moments. Overall, this is a really great visual feast that sneaks up on you and evokes the aesthetic style of classic horror movies like ‘Children of the Corn’ or ‘Night of the Living Dead’ in the best way.

And at a single dollar, you can’t pass this up. It’s a digital only, which means you’ll have to either track down a tablet to read it on or make do with your laptop or desktop, but you should not miss this, no matter what the format you take it in. I don’t know if the next issue will be as visceral or as striking but if there’s anything as good as this in store for later issues, you can count me in.

---

BURN THE ORPHANAGE: BORN TO LOSE #3

Writer: Daniel Freedman & Sina Grace
Artist: Sina Grace

Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $5

This, the third issue in the unorthodox BURN THE ORPHANAGE series, arrives with significantly more haste than its predecessor, which took nearly six months to mark the follow up to the debut. Yet as I contemplate the series as a whole, I don’t find myself in the least bit resentful of the long wait. Because whenever I finish reading one of these issues I feel like I’ve sat through a chapter of a novel and that’s because of how much work and dedication goes into it, rather than the bite-sized blips we’re used to with more popular titles.

One of the things I love about BURN THE ORPHANAGE is that it is often deliberately shallow, blatantly ripping-off/homaging classic video games, yet simultaneously dedicates a portion of its content, narratively, to musing on deeper topics. It’s kind of like a Kevin Smith movie, except without the egotism and juvenile sense of humor. When the protagonist, Rock, is FOR THE THIRD TIME, involuntarily tricked into being taken to a far off, mystical land for a trial, it has a ring of absurdity to it that’s more than a bit funny. But even as that storyline gets off the ground, we’re also keeping up with Rock’s two close friends, brash and sultry Lex and wise Bear. It becomes clear that this is more of an intimate development for the two of them, Bear trying to disarm his friend’s aggressive tendencies towards romantic affection of any form, which cleverly backfires on him when they run into his ex-boyfriend and his new partner, triggering his own emotional anguish.

Frankly, I loved this part. Bear is a wonderful character who, while unapologetically inhabiting the characteristics of heavyset, hairy gay men, doesn’t feel condescending in the least. At first I was pretty infuriated by his cliche “relationship advice” lecturing because hey, we all know gay men love giving advice on that annoying shit, and I was incredibly unimpressed with how he was criticizing Lex’s live-free-or-die mentality but writers Daniel Freedman and Sina Grace smartly rebuke that stereotype by making Bear a big hypocrite. Because the truth is that anyone who pretends to know how to deal with an emotional relationship is a hypocrite, queer or straight. Bravo to Dan and Sina for putting that out there and making Bear as flawed as the rest of his cast.

That said, I kinda felt like the waitress blatantly copping to toking on shift (without any apparent provocation) was a bit too over the top. Partaking on the job is practically a given, especially in the service industry, but announcing it to your customers isn’t really a thing yet. I don’t think? Actually, I’ve lived in Saint Louis my whole life, which has some of the most infamously harsh anti-marijuana laws in the country (despite a heavily distributed user base) so it’s actually quite possible people are more comfortably open about it else where. I just assume this bit was an attempt by the writers to make the waitress character seem more interesting, which is fine and, hey, maybe that’s part of the character that she’s a bit of an oversharing type.

While this is all going down, we cut back to Rock’s “trial” in a desolate, waterless wasteland whose natives seek retribution for his seemingly-noble actions at the end of the last book. Another great thing about the series is showing that Rock’s “doing the right” thing isn’t really the “right thing” at all, that he can’t do anything of such gravity without hurting someone, somewhere. While that could seem a bit angsty, it’s also never dwelled on and comes off more philosophically, as Rock’s too busy having retro 16-bit hallucinations of his own internal struggles with what’s important to him beyond the next brawl. The scene serves mostly to reiterate a theme that the debut issue highlighted and it’s a well-timed callback, as it helps reinforce why our attention is being divided between Rock’s adventure and his friends’ interactions.

But lest this all seem too navel-gazing, Rock launches into action and saves the people of the dying world in what is a clever visual pun that serves to accentuate the surreal psychedelia of Rock’s journey. I was a little worried by Rock’s success at attaining an understanding of what he needs as well as well as the sense of finality his victory had but the last scene again reminds the reader that the writers have more than a few tricks up their sleeves by making Rock’s “dream sequence” more than just a throwaway moment, in addition to acting as a string for the upcoming monthly BURN THE ORPHANAGE monthly.

Sina Grace also deserves attention for continually bringing insane stuff to the page without losing fidelity. The other-dimensional beings in this story look really cool and the monster they force Rock to confront is easily one of the strangest looking things I’ve seen in a comic in a long time. I definitely liked the retro-videogame dream sequence, mainly because it didn’t feel bloated or ironic, thanks to Grace’s simple but informative presentation. The scenes back on Earth have a pleasingly familiar grittiness to them, just enough to be charming but not oppressive. The book’s aesthetic might not be as bombastic and gaudy as some might like for an action packed extravaganza but Sina has a lot of story to tell and pulls it off with slight flourishes that reward close attention. I’m looking forward quite a bit to seeing what a hard-working and open-minded artist does next.

I could be a bit down that BURN THE ORPHANAGE: BORN TO LOSE is over and that the new series is a monthly, which means shorter issues and maybe less depth but I’m giving Sina and Dan the benefit of the doubt because BURN THE ORPHANAGE, over the three issue arc that kicked off right about the time I started this column, has won my heart for its intensely weird and heartfelt stories. I’ll definitely be doing a review of the first three issues of that series as well to see if my faith is not misplaced. BORN TO LOSE, though? A winner if I ever read one.

---

TUROK #2

Writer: Greg Pak
Artist: Mirko Colako
Colors: Cory Smith

Publisher: Gold Key Comics/Dynamite Entertainment
Price: $4

Gold Key comics is back officially, albeit published by BOOM! Comics. Gold Key goes back to the sixties and is primarily known for having their original characters Turok, Solar: Man of the Atom and Magnus: Robot Fighter used to launch Valiant Comics. “Chris, shut up,” you growl, clutching your throbbing brain in agony, “just get to the point or shut up right this second.” Okay, okay. Basically, what I’m getting it is this; Valiant Comics is actually making a huge impact in the comic book world right now, having taken 10th overall in unit sales in a matter of two years and still gaining. Is it coincidence that Gold Key is also being freshly minted with some of the EXACT SAME CHARACTERS Valiant originally kicked off with back in the early nineties? Heck, Image itself has gotten into the same game by relaunching several properties from their own 1990s line-up, some to great success (‘Prophet’) and acclaim (‘Glory’) as well as general apathy (‘Youngblood’).

Frankly? Fuck the ‘90s. As a kid who grew up in the ‘90s, on a diet of Super NES, Peter Gabriel and Marvel comics, I can honestly say it was horrible. I mean, I obviously loved it, but if you weren’t a stupid kid who liked stupid stuff, I feel sorry for you. Still, if I could send a message to fourteen-year-old me, it would be “Darkhawk is a horrible character and Venom isn’t much better. Go read From Hell. Also: Fugazi records.” I don’t want that era back, not unless I get to be young again too.

So it’s with relief that the new Turok doesn’t even attempt to invoke the previous incarnations of Turok, going their own much grittier, more down-to-alternate-Earth way. The latest issue maintains that attitude, elaborating on the awesome new take on colonial England’s invasion of Turok’s native land, accompanied by (mostly) tamed dinosaurs. Writer Greg Pak commendably avoids making the story about them, continuing to focus on Turok’s evolution into, well, a badass. That’s not to say we don’t get an exciting glimpse into the strange dynamic of the European analogue invaders and their reptilian weapons but it’s just enough to tease.

It’s Turok’s story and thankfully it hurtles right down the blood-drenched path turned down at the end of the debut issue. He and his frenemy Andar, after evaluating their pale-faced enemy (one who is delightfully dysfunctional), adopt the kind of guerilla warfare tactics Turok had been developing since his first kill. Especially thrilling is when Turok himself decides to fight fire with fire, taking his cleverness to a whole new level of mean bastard. Pak has wisely begun pushing Turok across the line from sympathetic protagonist to frighteningly efficient killer. But the flashbacks to his family’s last moments together seem to hint at something else. I’m not really sure I’m ready for Pak’s reveal on this topic, as I can’t help cynically assuming it’s going to be Turok’s “Uncle Ben” moment. Obviously, that would suck.

Fortunately, this issue is so busy pitting Turok and Andar against the invaders we barely get enough time to breath between battles, especially after the first big character death (not that it should’ve surprised anyone). I’m a little wary of Pak’s instilling of Turok with a weird protective instinct towards the tribe’s teen girl, Kita. He clearly telegraphs Turok willing himself to ignore her plight and that doesn’t quite click with Turok’s killer instincts, adding to this his emotional outburst at the aforementioned character death. I’m genuinely hoping we’re not going to have to deal with Turok angstily trying to reconcile his murderous talents with his human emotions, because that’s a heavily-tread path I don’t care to explore again.

That said, Pak’s wise enough to show that Kita shares with Turok and Andar a penchant for dealing with tough situations, so the comic will hopefully become a three-way exploration of Turok, Andar and Kita’s growth into soldiers again the invaders and not, fingers crossed, a dinosaur-sprinkled love triangle.

Artists Mirko Colak and Cory Smith are definitely doing some good work on this title, no doubt. It’s very dynamic and punchy; a movie or TV show would have to try very, very hard to be as thrilling as this comic looks. Of particular note are the dinosaurs themselves and the interior of the invaders’ ship. There are quite a few panels that try some bold perspectives, inviting the reader into the world by the eyeballs; the burning arrows in the settlement walls and the closeup of a dino’s eye are very nice touches. I think it’s a testament to their work that the pages flow by like a waterfall, with delightful moments of violence shredding the water yet never disturbing the movement entirely. They do have the advantage of drawing a setting where backgrounds are, outside the Europeans’ camp, entirely repetitive so it’s good that they’ve doubled down and really nailed the characters and the action. I can only hope that the story eventually moves into more populated and developed territory where they can really stretch their artistic muscles.

This second issue of Turok is, thankfully, just as good as the first. Pak’s writing has a few troubling spots that I hope will resolve into more than rote cliche but beyond that, I love what he’s doing with this Turok but, more so, with Turok’s world. Giving the invaders the mandate of God as their motive is a stupendous act of storytelling bravery (for a mainstream title) that I’m glad we’re mature enough as comic readers to see as a conceit of the story and not some intended slight against religion. If you’re not reading this series by now, you should definitely be doing it by now because I’m betting the third issue is going to be CRAZY.