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by Scott Tilson
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Good intentions. A fresh paved road to Hell. In Give Me Liberty author Frank Miller and artist Dave Gibbons introduce their popular character Martha Washington, following her life from birth to adulthood. Through her hard times and rare moments of joy, the reader also gets a tour of a near future America that has slipped down the proverbial slippery slope. At times darkly farcical, this is a cautionary tale of where certain political attitudes may lead if given untempered sway. The poor all have homes. But locked in massive block "housing facilities" that are surrounded by barbed wire fences. Schools have no shortages of computers. Because children are packed like sardines in front of terminals, to be dominantly "educated" by skewed multiple-guess quizzes. There has been Constitutional reform. President Rexall has repealed the 22nd Amendment, so he can remain in office indefinitely. When an attack takes out the top chain of command, the Presidency falls to Acting Secretary of Agriculture Howard Nissen. He means well. He tries. He's not quite up to the job. Yet throughout this, Martha grows up a good kid, thanks to a loving mother, a sympathetic teacher, and some threadbare luck. She loses her father in a rights riot, before she even had a chance to know him. She's abducted by a known local thug, for someone worse. Her brother goes missing in military action. Martha endures. But everyone has their limits. When she survives one more loss, she also loses herself. She gets committed. Surrounded by the criminally insane, she finds her strength again. And this is still just the beginning. Martha ends up joining the PAX, going to war in the Amazon rain forest. And who she meets ends up drawing her into intrigues at the highest levels of power. Both Miller and Gibbons are well known and praised for their work, together or separately. While Give Me Liberty may not have the same renown as The Dark Knight Returns or The Watchmen, it easily stands with them as one of the most consummately conceived and passionately executed stories both have done. The script is crisp and distinctive. The visualization detailed and expressive. They succeed beyond the biting political satire, creating drama that leaves the reader solemnly moved, yet looking forward to more Martha. For more info, check out http://www.blacksuperhero.com/exh-misc-marthawash.html.
More info about Frank Miller and his other works can be found at http://hem.passagen.se/fm4/theFM.html and
for info about Dave Gibbons and his art, try http://www.chaoscitycomics.com/dave/Newdave1.htm.
Ever dared hazard a theological debate? Asked the well-worn but eternal mutually unresolved questions? Sometimes it seems easier to just avoid the issue. And don't even think you might lighten things by making a joke. Author Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon do not take the path of least resistance, with their series, Preacher, starting with the first of an epic nine books in Gone To Texas. Thematically and dramatically contentious, it's often coarsely humorous, as well as massively violent. Not for the faint of heart, but if you enjoyed the movies Monty Python's Meaning of Life or Jabberwocky or the books of Joe R. Lansdale (who does the introduction), then you may just have a thick enough skin for this too. The book introduces us to the lead character Jesse Custer, a disillusioned small-town preacher with his regular companions, abandoned ex-girlfriend Tulip and... the unusual Cassidy, trying to figure out where Jesse's search should head next and get things straight about how they all came together in their mess. Jesse had become a Man of God, but was losing his faith, in the face of the hypocrisy and corruption of his congregation. The bottle beckoned, and he heard it well. Tulip had become so desperate that she took on a whack job, and worse, failed it. And Cassidy? He happened to be in the wrong place at the right time to be "forced" to save Tulip's life. Jesse went through the motions of giving a sermon when the spirit -- or something -- moved him. Explosively. Something that got lose on high, that was never meant to be. While putting distance between themselves and trouble, Cassidy and Tulip saw an explosion. They find Jesse in the ruins. His faith was restored. And he was angry. He had questions. And now a voice to demand answers. But someone had been awakened to see that he doesn't get them. Preacher is a modern take on the classic road trip, mixed with the darker side of Americana, and a big twist of the supernatural. Stirred and shaken. The search takes the characters across the nation, and beyond. They're run through the ringer, secrets shocked and dragged out of them, and they get into whole worlds of unexpected conflicts on the way. Garth Ennis is a natural storyteller, spinning yarns of subversive and evolving creativity. Nasty, bizarre, thrilling, and funny adult yarns. And Steve Dillon brings it all to life, with a subdued sense of layout and a sharp realistic line work, masterfully crafted and acted storytelling. Gone To Texas is quite a gratifying ride, and the roads still untravelled just makes one want to go for the next spin. More about the series at Preacher's Divinity at http://www.preachersdivinity.com.
To preview some of Steve Dillon's art at Andy's Preacher Art, try http://www.andy.org/comic/preacher.
Here are some suggestions from George R.R. Martin:
Official sites:
Fan sites:
George R.R. Martin is the bestselling well-reviewed author of the A Song of Ice and Fire epic Fantasy series, begun with A Game of Thrones, several other SF and Fantasy novels such as The Armageddon Rag, Fevre Dream, and Windhaven (co-written with Lisa Tuttle), and the driving force behind the popular Wild Cards shared-world series of anthologies.
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In over two decades of reading science fiction & fantasy, prose or sequential art form, Scott has come to see there's an inversion of Sturgeon's Law: ten percent of everything is at least good or better. He is also a regular panelist at Canada's largest SF convention. Will Eisner is the creator of Spirit and one of the founders of the original graphic novel form. He called comics "The Sequential Art" and it is to him this column is dedicated. |
 
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