Story Studios

3.99@, color, 28 pages@, available now

Writer and artist: Scott Story

Reviewed by Kurt Anthony Krug ***1/2 in Comic Buyers Guide

For an independent comic book, the art, story, and even the colors in this mini-series are high-quality.  You’d swear this title were published by one of the larger companies instead of by Scott Story and his wife, Benita.

Johnny Saturn is a Batman-esque hero who dies at the hands of Dr. Synn, his arch-nemesis.  But death is only the beginning for both Johnny Saturn and Synn.  Character profiles bookend each issues.

Story said he was inspired by Watchmen and Frank Miller’s work on Batman and Daredevil.  There’s also a dash of Kurt Busiek’s Astro City and Neil Gaiman, as well as DC-Wildstorm’s Apollo (as seen in Story’s Utopian) and Midnighter.  The pacing remains excellent throughout, and the art is consistent, not to mention consistently good.  If you read only one independent title in the next month, make it Johnny Saturn.

Hi, Friends!

Lacking, as I am, any truly random thoughts tonight, I have decided to instead ply you with a short review of Grant Morrison’s and Andy Kubert’s “Batman and Son” trade paperback.  I’ll let you know right off the bat (hehehe) that I enjoyed this book.  It’s Batman, right?  Why wouldn’t I love this book?  Well, I fail to enjoy many of the Batman projects that are published, which is one of the reasons I quit buying monthly comics and wait for the trades.  The real question should be, ‘why’ did I enjoy it?

Could it be the writer?  Grant Morrison is my favorite comic writer, and I’ve often said that he is the smartest man in the world.  I’ve also mentioned in the past that he’s the real deal, or that he’s pulling the wool over our eyes and laughing his way to the bank.  Either way, I am real fan.  I originally got into Grant by reading ‘The Invisibles,’ an absolutely insane, brilliant, and revolutionary work that I make of point of re-reading in its entirety every year.  I believe it was my third reading where I started to get a clue as to what it was about.  Or not!  If Grant Morrison really is the smartest man in the world, then I may well be deluding myself!  Morrison’s run on JLA was magnificent, and the series was never the same after he left.  Animal Man was outstanding, and it really introduced American readers to a style of meta-fiction that was not well known on this side of the Atlantic, at least not for comic readers.  I could go on and on, but I’ll stop here.  I will say that it was not solely for the writing that I enjoyed “Batman and Son.”

Could it be the artist?  Andy Kubert is very skilled storyteller, with dynamics out the metaphorical wazzoo!  His characters twist, and bend, and wildly foreshorten, all while looking very cool indeed.  But, no, the art wasn’t what I enjoyed about this book the most.

No, what I enjoyed about “Batman and Son” was that DC was willing to take such a giant leap in continuity!  Characters that are decades old can be very resistant to change; characters that date from the Great Depression especially so!  The introduction of Damien, the clearly sociopathic eight-year-old son of Batman and Talia Al Ghul adds such a cool dimension to the Bat mythos.  The concept was originally explored in “Batman: Son of the Demon,” a long out-of-continuity graphic novel by Mike W. Barr. 

Changing old characters is risky business, and adding additional layers to their back-stories often fails.  Sometimes it works, as in Frank Miller’s “Daredevil” run.  Other times, it fails, as in the Spider-Man “Clone Saga.”  This time, it appears that a forgotten footnote in Batman lore has come back into continuity.

The only thing I didn’t care for was the prose Joker story that split the book up.  Sure, it was interesting, but it was just as likely to be forgotten by all future Bat writers.  The digital art by John Van Fleet wasn’t my thing, either.  I’ve seen Van Fleet produce some very interesting, even haunting art before, but his foray into Poser looked awkward in many places to me. 

So, overall I give “Batman and Son” an A- grade.

Johnny Saturn
By John Wilson

Johnny Saturn issues #1-6, Scott and Benita Story, Story Studios LLC

This is a comic that defies characterization. Is it a superhero book? Definitely. Is it a fantasy book dealing with demigods, demons and angels? You bet. Is it an allegory of the common man’s struggle for justice? Sure. A cautionary tail that sometimes bad things must be done for the greater good? Without a doubt. Scott and Benita have crafted a story that is all these things and more.

The story follows Johnny Saturn, a street level non powered hero how does what he can and what he must to foil the activities of the evil Dr. Synn. Johnny is not a Meta human or powered in any way. His body is a map of the destruction he has physically suffered in his quest. Every bone in his body has been broken, some many times. He requires pills just to move. He does not suffer fools, especially super powered heroic ones that try to interfere with his work and is a firm believer in the ends justifying the means. Even death can not keep him from his tasks. Johnny is the classic street level hero. A Batman without the money and gadgets, The Shadow sans the mental manipulation, Daredevil with no radar sense. Just a man doing what he must because it must be done. And along the way, Johnny becomes a savior, an inspiration, a leader and punches out an angel! Who could ask for more?

The Storys tap into the iconography of superheroes and put their own unique spin to make them all their own. The Utopian is on the surface a hero in the Superman ideal, but scratching that surface shows a hero that sees himself above the common man in more than the obvious physical sense. From Johnny, The Utopian learns the true nature of hero and of sacrifice. On the surface the heroes that The Utopian leads are just an ad hoc Justice League, but they too have quirks and tweaks that push them beyond their surface iconography and make them special. This hurts all the more when many of them do not survive the story. We know little about these characters but we become connected. That is the earmark of great storytelling.

Scott Story’s artwork is an unmistakable draw to this story. In an era of over processed, over rendered and generally overblown art, it is refreshing to see line work and style that harkens back to the best days of the Silver Age. Scott infuses meaning in just a few lines and establishes mood and character for all his creations without having to beat the reader over the head with overblown visual trickery. He is an incredible talented colorist as well. His work is layered and vibrant without being gaudy. It is easy to see that this is a labor of love for both creators because that love is evident in every panel.

Thankfully, the story does not end with these six issues. The world of Johnny Saturn is alive and well in new adventures every Monday and Wednesday at www.scottstoryillustrator.com/johnnysaturn/. While there, make sure you check out every area of the site by these two stellar creators (no pun intended). They are every bit as eclectic as the world that they created.

Hi, Folks!

Over the years, as I have continued working on my art and webcartooning, I have been asked one question again and again: Why do you do long-form comics? Why not do a gag-a-day strip? Gag strips are easier to promote, and they are generally more popular, are they not?

Yes, gag strips are more popular, by many magnitudes, than long-form webcomics. There are a few exceptions, but none I can really think of. Girl Genius is long-form, but it usually has humor and often includes humor. The Dreamland Chronicles? Maybe.

Here are my reasons for doing a long-form webcomic.

• This is the story I want to tell. It’s tragic, dramatic, and edgy, but it’s rarely funny.
• I don’t know how to write jokes. In person I can be funny and I’m good at getting the laughs, but I have no clue how to communicate that in a comic.
• I grew up reading titanic tales of adventure, both in prose and comics. I didn’t read funny animal comics, or humor comics, so I don’t have much history with that.

Back when I read monthly comics, my favorites were usually team books, such as JSA, JLA, the Avengers, the Defenders, and the like. As far as the individual characters go, Batman, Captain America, Daredevil, Thor, Conan, these are what I dug. Later on, it was books like Planetary, the Authority, and Hellblazer. You can probably see elements of these teams and characters in Johnny Saturn.

Those are the kind of stories I loved. This is why I produce long-form adventures. I loved Calvin & Hobbes, Far Side, and Bloom County too, but I just didn’t feel the call to follow that path.

I’ve written quite a few times about “Heroes Inc.,” the excellent webcomic created by artist Scott Austin.  If you haven’t been reading it, shame on you.  “Heroes Inc.” takes a pretty intriguing take of the Nedor/Standard Comic Lines.

I’ve been a fan of these old Nedor characters for a long time.  Originally published from 1941 to 1949, these characters since have fallen into the public domain.  No one bothered to copy write them, and there are no heirs to the Nedor estate.

This turn of events is probably the best thing to ever happen to these characters, because their public domain status made them sort of open source darlings, familiar characters that can be used again and again by anyone.  In the succeeding years, these characters have been published by AC, Image, First Comics, Eclipse Comics, Wildstorm, and Dynamite Entertainment.

Most of these later comics have revolved around the most popular Nedor character, the Black Terror.  The original Daredevil, Skyman, Catman, the Black Cat, the Fighting Yank, and others have all made numerous appearances.  How they have been put to work varies tremendously, publisher by publisher.

These characters are really cool, because they are pure Golden Age characters, with all their improbable storylines and origins, and none of muddy continuity between that time and now.  Much is made of the “Greatest Generation,” the Americans who won World War II and set the country on its course to be a world power.  The Nedor characters essentially are the Greatest Generation in garish costumes.

In Wildstorm’s  “Terra Obscura,” the Nedor characters were trapped in the past and released in the modern day.  This holds true for Dynamite Entertainment’s “Project Superpowers,” which is still ongoing.  I can’t really speak as to how AC Comics, probably the most prolific publisher of these characters, has handled them because I have had a hard time finding back issues.  When I find them, I grab them, but I don’t have many.

“Heroes Inc.” has taken a different approach from “Terra Obscura” and “Project Superpowers.”  In the Heroes Inc. world, where the Allies lost World War II, most of the old supers lived and fought during World War II and the decade that followed, but now they are retired, dead, on death row, or even insane.  When super violence rears its head in the 21st century, some of the surviving heroes search for all the old heroes, collecting blood samples to recreate a new generation of heroes.

In Marvel’s “Captain America,” the writers are able to get a lot of mileage off the old warrior with ideals and patriotism, and how he functions in a modern society of cynicism and distrust for patriotism.  The same holds true for the Black Terror and Company.

I just finished “Secrets in the Shadows, The Life and Art of Gene Colon.”  If you are a fan of the old, so-called Marvel Bullpen, this is a book well worth purchasing.

Gene Colan has always been an odd artist to me. Unlike some, I didn’t care for a lot of his superhero work, but I thought he was absolutely freakin’ brilliant on “Tomb of Dracula” and “Howard the Duck.”  This is not to say that his art looked any less odd on ToD or HtD, but that it perfectly fit the dark, quirky nature of these books.  Later on, I was exposed to much of the material in Gene’s “Daredevil” run, and I changed my opinion at that time and decided his art looked fine on superheroes too.

Stan Lee wanted all his artists to draw like Jack Kirby.  That was the Marvel style, as he thought of it, and all the greats were given the chance to pencil over Kirby breakdowns and study the King’s technique.  Not Gene Colan.  Stan never asked him to draw in the style of anyone else.  It wouldn’t have worked anyway.

Colan’s style is really hard to pin down.  On one hand, his art has elements of photo-realism, and the characters’ faces and expressions are far more nuanced than those of most other comic artists.  Gene’s use of black lent his work real gravitas, and he used all the wild angles, non-standard framing, and intuitive storytelling of his peers.  Where Colan’s art differed, however, was that there was always some distortion in the drawings, and often the character’s proportions were a little “off.”

Personally, I think Colan had the ability to conjure scenes in his imagination and hold them long enough to do life drawings from that image.  His drawing was not a mathematical technique, laying out the character in 3D space.  I believe he drew exactly what he saw.  He didn’t put down a character first without clothes, and then fit the clothes to them.  He saw the character in clothing, and he drew what he saw.  If there was wavering or distortion in his imagined scene, it equated to wavering and distortion in the resulting drawing. That’s my theory about Gene Colan’s technique, in any case.

Of the Marvel Bullpen, there is no arguing on the pre-imminence of Jack “the King” Kirby.  Just below him were the other “greats,” including John Buscema, John Romita Sr., Gil Kane, Steve Ditko, and the like.  Gene Colan belongs in this group.

The fact that Gene is still alive, still working, and apparently enjoying a bit of a career Renaissance, is our good fortune.

I really like trade-paperbacks.  I do not like single issues, which now cost $2.99 to $3.99.  As far as I’m concerned, the economics are way against collecting the floppies.

Dick Grayson makes a fine Batman.  Is it really important to the franchise that Bruce Wayne returns?  Sure, I know it’s only a matter of time before he’s back, but does that make for a better story?

Norman Osborn is a fascinating character.  I love the way Brian Michael Bendis’ mind works, because the Dark Reign stuff makes for a compelling read.  This is one of those cases where the villain makes a lot more sense than the heroes, after all.  I love villain-centered stories, and I wish I had dreamed this up first.  Alas, I did not.

Digital comic distribution seems to have arrived.  As usual, the way was paved by the pirates and all their file sharing.  ComicsXP is my favorite of the new digital distributers, and you can watch an excellent presentation about it here.

Does comic coloring seem darker and more dingy than it used to appear?  Overall, I’m tempted to say “yes.”  It seems to me that the current technique in widest use, coloring from dark to light with lots of screen effects, is the cause.  Many of these colorists, very talented in their own right, seem to have forgotten the need for clarity and contrast.

In my opinion, Freddie E. William’s book “The DC Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics” is perhaps the most important book on cartooning written this decade.  I like “how to” books, but most of them cover the same time-tested material again and again.  William’s book is something new, a new way to cartoon.

I’ve been reading Ed Brubaker’s run on Captain America.  It’s easy to see why he won his Eisner’s.  Because of the rich supporting cast and super writing, the book has continued on for several years with the main character dead.  I haven’t read any of the Rebirth material yet, because it’s not collected into trades, but I have high expectations for that too.

So, the Black Widow is the new Captain America’s (James Buchanan Barnes) girlfriend.  Natasha has been around the bend a few times, also having had relations with Hercules, Daredevil, Hawkeye, and Iron Man.  There are probably others, but I just don’t remember them.  She doesn’t rank as the most sexually active Marvel character, though, because that seems to be a long-running contest between Tony Stark and Matt Murdock.  Those dudes get around!

I’ve got an interview coming up in the new ComicsXP magazine, available free at http://www.comicsxp.com.  This magazine has not been released yet, but the interview is by John Wilson, and some of my answers may surprise you.

After coming to the conclusion that I have no place to sit in and read in our house, I have taken it upon myself to remodel our guest bedroom into a hybrid bedroom/den.  I have idyllic visions of myself, sitting in my grandfather’s easy chair, drinking coffee or perhaps tea, and reading in a pleasant, well-lighted environment.  I’m only about halfway done clearing out the room, however, because I’ve managed to hurt myself several times working on it, and most recently I sprained my drawing hand.  I remain undaunted.

I have taken it upon myself to create a master Photoshop resource file on my computer, one that includes all the brushes, textures, tool presets, custom shapes, custom paths, filters and patterns that I’ve either collected or created myself.  This file also contains my photographic morgue, as well as Sketchup files I use regularly.  I backed this file up a few days ago, and it took two DVDs to hold it, and would have taken 9 CDs.  Yikes.

Lately, when I do watercolor, usually at the Indianapolis Art Center, I’ve foregone drawing the subject matter in pencil and gone straight to watercolor.  I’m so used to using a brush that this is not that difficult for me to sketch in color.  Yay me.

Over at the Webcomic Planet Collective forums, I’ve been given two sub forums to run, one on Photoshop, another on Sketchup.  These will be collections of resources, and advice, and initial reactions to these are positive.

Scott.

Working on turning the guest bedroom into my den is continuing right on track.  Today I cleaned out the glass cabinet of Batman goodies I stored there.  Handling this collection again made me smile—I mean, there are Batman bandages, Batman chicken & noodle soup, Batman cake toppers, a Batman night light, Bat signal projectors, Batmobiles, Batman Easter Egg set, etc. etc.  In my defense, most of the stuff in this collection was pretty low cost, all the Batman Pez dispensers, Batman tooth brushes, Batman suckers, Batman pencil toppers, etc.

But, back to my future den.  This is going to be my secret hideout, with a wall of shelves holding all my graphic novels, prose fiction books, and art glass, and maybe some upper end action figures.  When I’ve got it done, I’ll post pictures.  My grandfather’s easy chair is going in there, as well as my Alan Lee framed print.  Soon, we’ll paint the room (this room has never been painted, and still has primer colored walls) and tear out the nasty old carpet.

Today, at the Indianapolis Art Center, I enjoyed a three hour pose with a model dressed head-to-toe as a Roman Centurion.  The costume is impressive.  I kind of blew it, because I got in a hurry and didn’t take the time the picture deserves.  But, that’s OK!  I’ve got pictures, and I will pain this to my satisfaction.

Last night, I watched the video of Dr. Steven Greer’s speech to the exopolitical crowd in Barcelona, Spain.  The show was about an hour long, and it had some very intriguing moments.  I’m not sure what to think of Dr. Greer, to be honest; he is vain, self-impressed, and a name and innuendo dropper, yet he also seems to believe what he’s fighting for.  Much of the disclosure that has happened is a result of Greer’s pressure in the higher levels of government.  He is a showman and a committed believer at the same time, so I find him perplexing.

Are traced photos the future of comic book penciling?  I’m starting to wonder.  I understand that the minimum threshold is much higher now than it was, say, in the 1980’s.  I really became aware of this trend when Greg Land went public on his technique—the controversy has raged on to this day!  Well, as you can imagine from my work, I prefer hand drawn and inked comics, but traced comics, if done well, can be quite beautiful too.  Here’s the crux of it: If the traced photos are stolen from other media and photographers, that’s bad; if the penciler took his own photos and traces from those, that’s good.  I don’t really care for comics traced from Poser figures, either, but I reserve judgment on whether the artist can make it look fluid and good or not.  So far, my experience has been “not.”

I haven’t read any of this Blackest Night event at DC.  When the trades come out, I will probably read the main series, but skip most of the supporting series and crossovers.  I’m looking forward to it, though, because the concept is cool and Doug Mankes’ art is really impressive.  I’ve been a fan of his since the Seven Soldiers’ “Frankenstein” mini-series.  To be honest, I also hope they use Blackest Night to return some of their cooler dead characters to life.  While I was still buying the monthlies, it seems DC comics were all about death, death, and death, and it was getting me down.

What change will Disney’s acquisition of Marvel have on the content of their books?  I’d like to think “none,” because many of their titles (Captain America, Daredevil, Avengers (whichever title) are outstanding.  In fact, with this current group of writers, including Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Millar, Ed Brubaker, Greg Pak, and Matt Fraction, this has been the richest time in Marvel comics since the 60’s.  Needless to say, I’ve been bowled over by their books in the last few years.  Let’s hope Disney doesn’t mess this up.

Have I rambled enough?  Let’s say yes.

Scott.