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The Friday Comics Review

Two new books from indy publisher PictureBox Inc. are this week's recommended reads.

We Lost The War But Not the Battle: a revengeful story by Michel Gondry (PictureBox Inc., $5.99). That's right, it's that Michel Gondry, the director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. This could be called a political science fiction comedy: 20 years after four friends fake mental illnesses to avoid being drafted (in France), they all get letters from the government ordering them to serve their country. Their assignment is to fight the International Solidarity Army (ISA), an all-woman force-- as the narrator describes them, "They were magnificent, angry creatures. Only a few of them, though."

Gondry is a filmmaker who gets the graphic format completely, and We Lost The War But Not the Battle is pure six-panels-a-page comics fun. His art style is that of a demented school-notebook scribbler (and a damned fine one), but his writing is sophisticated and his comedic touch is deft. Especially funny are all the scenes with Simon, the John Lydon-quoting member of the team who died of a drug overdose years before.

Here's the scene where the other three dig him up, so they can take him to the Army and prove he's dead.

(Notice the double "just?" The book is filled with mistakes like that. Usually I hate that kind of sloppy work, but it's actually charming here!)

Gondry packs a lot of story into his 32 pages (but not too much-- as I said, he gets comics), and I laughed out loud several times. In fact, I liked it better the second time I read it. I'm not sure that it will appeal to people who aren't already comics-- or more appropriately, comix-- fans, mainly because of his art style, but anyone who's been initiated into the wilder, weirder places the art form can go (think undergrounds) should see it for the instant classic that it is.

Goddess of War by Lauren R. Weinstein (PictureBox Inc., $12.95). The last genuine underground comic was probably published around the time Ms. Weinstein was born, but their spirit lives on-- as does mythology, American history, and even Jack Kirby-- in her story about the title character, Valerie the Valkyrie. An immortal goddess who lives on a planet of vampires and volcanos, after 175 years of reporting for work, she finally feels the need for a day off. By the time the story's over (and it's really not-- this is part one), she gets drunk on a bottle of virgin's blood and relives not only the (real) story of Cochise, but also her romance with him.

Goddess of War is a lovely oversized book, and its author makes great use of the page size, with tightly-panelled pages of story suddenly giving way to large, flowing panels and portraits. While Weinstein's art and layout are the main attraction, her writing is too good to be overlooked. (The Cochise story is especially well told.)

But like the Gondry book above, it may even confuse non-comix readers with its trippy panels and phantasmagorical plot shifts. Take the comics acid-test yourself and look at this (alas, drastically cut) cosmic Cochise moment (and note that the panel's action begins in the lower right corner):

(By the way, although I was irked to see that New York's comics page beat me to both of these books, I'm happy to steer you over to their entries, which feature pages and pages of both. Here's the one for Goddess of War and this is the link for the Gondry comic. And this is a link to a nice photo-feature about Lauren Weinstein and her studio.)

Send Steve an email at couchpundit@yahoo.com.

Posted by Steve Monaco at August 8, 2008 12:23 AM

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