This week: Daniel Clowes's time-traveling epic, and the rise of nerd culture.
Agony
Almost childlike in its energy and lack of story logic, this is a charming explosion of grotesque comedic misfortune, exactly as the title promises. Abstract doodles Amy and Jordan careen at breakneck pace through a slapstick series of bad things, including horrible diseases, a stint in jail, terrible jobs, battles with murderers, and various other calamities; the pace jumps from incident to incident thanks to between-the-panel miracles and expository dialogue. Through it all, the pair manages to keep their chins up mostly, barring a few descents into the abyss on Amy’s part, which is understandable since she bears the brunt of the physical pain. Originally a one-shot from Raw Books in 1987, complete with Spiegelman and Mouly design work, Beyer’s calamitous comedy has aged well, its geometric, densely patterned imagery recalling fine art as much as comics and still packing a punch among today’s alternative cartoonists.
Patience
Clowes (Ghost World) plumbs the depths of science fiction in this intriguingly bizarre love story. Jack, torn apart by the mysterious murder of his wife, Patience, flings himself back and forth through time to discover and punish the real culprit. Not everything is at it seems, however—not even his beloved wife. This is a fascinating collage, repurposing elements from action thrillers, psychological horror, and romantic drama. Clowes skillfully anchors each psychedelic turn in human emotion. The SF elements here, as in his earlier The Death-Ray, are just vehicles for the dead-eyed cast to continue roaming through time for a happiness their own obsessions ensure they will never reach, and the future is no refuge from the cycles of abuse that Jack and Patience try to break out of. Patience herself is a wonderfully complicated character and the unraveling of her psyche is key to the story, as is the web of time travel that ensnares her husband. Another strong entry in an already stunning body of work, and one that will surely be hailed as one of the best releases of 2016.
Fool Me Once
Capt. Maya Stern Burkett, the heroine of this stellar standalone from Edgar-winner Coben (The Stranger), has suffered more than her fair share of tragedy. Her career as a U.S. Army helicopter pilot came to an end after whistle-blower Corey Rudzinski exposed the civilian deaths caused by her actions in Iraq. Even worse, her husband, Joe Burkett, is shot to death in front of her in Manhattan’s Central Park, though Maya is able to give a good description of the masked killers to an NYPD homicide detective. Maya is already dealing with the nightmares from her combat experiences and the murder of her sister, Claire, four months earlier while Maya was stationed in Kuwait. Then, weeks after Joe’s funeral, a recently installed nanny cam shows her two-year-old daughter, Lily, crawling onto Joe’s lap. Coben is like a skilled magician saving the best, most stunning trick for the very end.
Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend
In this absurdist take on high school archetypes, student body chair Shiels Krane meets the ultimate outsider, Pyke, a strangely alluring humanoid pterodactyl who flies into school unannounced and disrupts her meticulously controlled life. Amid concerns that Pyke will be ostracized, he instead becomes half of the school’s newest power couple and the front man for a band with a raw animal magnetism that beguiles the entire school. Through this bizarre filter, Cumyn (Tilt) simultaneously pokes fun at over-the-top genre trends and engages with an array of pertinent topics—slut-shaming and ruined reputations, awkward sex, fears of the other—without becoming preachy. Cumyn pulls no punches whether commenting on the idol worship of high school football players (Pyke’s ball-catching prowess quells an angry parental mob but ultimately leads to disaster) or following Shiels’s unimpeded exploration of her sexuality and desires. At heart, this is a deliciously weird and original contemplation of personal metamorphosis, the intoxicating effects of lust, and the clarity that comes with experience.
Lucky Penny
Penny Brighton, 18, is something of a manic pixie, and by the end of this exceptionally entertaining comic, she’s on her way to becoming one guy’s dream girl, even though disaster follows her everywhere. Part rom-com, part pop-culture parody, the story opens with Penny losing her job, parting ways with her friend/roommate Helen, and moving into Helen’s newly empty storage unit. After Penny snags a job at the Laundromat—which is managed by Helen’s surly 11-year-old brother—she meets geeky desk clerk Walter, and an awkward romance is born. Penny’s story grew out of Hirsh and Ota’s Johnny Wander webcomic, and they’re in perfect sync, delivering drily funny dialogue and outlandish visual comedy that plays with conventions of film, manga, and geek culture (for her part, Penny adores fantasy romance novels with titles like Dragon Lust and Succubus Seduced, which she organizes “according to hotness”).
Northern Armageddon: The Battle of the Plains of Abraham and the Making of the American Revolution
In this detailed military history, MacLeod (The Canadian Iroquois and the Seven Years’ War), curator at the Canadian War Museum, zeroes in on a pivotal battle of the Seven Years’ War to show how the French lost its foothold on North America. From 1754 to 1763, eastern North America was embroiled in a territorial war between France and Britain, with each side cultivating alliances with Native American tribes. The British hoped to take Québec and put an end to France’s ambitions in North America. Drawing on an impressive array of firsthand sources and writing with a keen eye for the dramatic, MacLeod tells this story in a big way, giving equal time to each side. Major figures such as James Wolfe and Louis-Joseph de Montcalm receive careful attention. MacLeod also describes the battle, which took place just outside Québec City on Sept. 13, 1759, through the eyes of ordinary people: nuns, businessmen, soldiers, and sailors. This supports his contention that a loss of morale and willpower caused the French defeat.
The Paper Trail: An Unexpected History of a Revolutionary Invention
In this well-researched history, Monro (China: City and Exile), a British reporter who has written extensively on China, digs into the long and complicated evolution of paper and its effects on civilization. “This is the story of how that soft and supple substance became the vehicle of history and the conduit for landmark innovations and mass movements across the world,” he writes. Monro begins with paper’s emergence in ancient China, and as he chronicles how paper supplanted other forms of writing material, he follows the trail of art, literature, religion, and politics across the course of centuries and continents. His primary focus is on how paper affected Chinese culture, but as the technology spreads to other countries, he studies those trails as well, leading to tangents on the printing press, the Renaissance, the Reformation, and more. Religion plays a large role, with the Bible, the Qur’an, and Buddhist texts finding widespread audiences thanks to the portable, convenient medium. Monro finishes by acknowledging the power of the book itself and how “paper’s greatest role has been as courier of books to individual owner-readers.”
John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit
Foreign policy specialist Traub (The Freedom Agenda) synthesizes the extensive writings of John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) alongside a broad spectrum of primary and published sources in this essential biography of a complex man. “Guarded and taciturn,” Adams walked his own path, and despite his long and productive career as a statesman, he remains relatively obscure. Traub sees him as a “coherent and consistent thinker” who regarded America as the “greatest experiment in government the world had ever known.” Traub’s Adams is also “astringently realistic..., never confusing what he wished to be true with what he believed to be true.” As a problem solver, he had few equals. As a diplomat, he played a central role in negotiating the treaty that ended the War of 1812. As secretary of state, he gave the Monroe Doctrine its insistence that “American policy serve American interests.” Traub shows that without imperiling national unity, Adams’s persistent, perspicacious opposition to slavery “shattered the overweening confidence of the South” and confirmed his place in America’s history.
Wink Poppy Midnight
Tucholke (Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea) rapidly alternates among the perspectives of teenagers Wink, Poppy, and Midnight in a dark, unpredictable mystery that subverts literary conventions like the hero’s journey while shimmering with sumptuous descriptions and complicated psychologies. Midnight both loves and is infuriated by classmate Poppy, who seemingly lives to manipulate others for attention. In an attempt to get over Poppy, Midnight takes up with Wink, the odd, outsidery girl from across the street, who is surrounded by siblings and whose mother reads tarot cards and tea leaves for neighbors. Poppy and her entourage often congregate near a decrepit mansion in the forest, though they’re all slightly afraid that it’s haunted; the book turns on a fateful night when Poppy conspires to lock Wink in the house overnight.
The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture
In this excellent, insightful book, Weldon (Superman: The Unauthorized Biography) returns to comic book history with an expanded thesis. He charts the growth of the 20th century’s most popular superhero and tries to determine Batman’s role in catalyzing what’s now considered “nerd culture.” Beginning with the character’s origins as a quick-and-dirty Shadow rip-off and continuing through the alternately beloved and despised 1966 TV series to the movies of Chris Nolan and the present day, Weldon provides a concise history of the Dark Knight with sharp humor and a personal charm that more than makes up for any gaps in detail. By turning the same analytical eye on both Batman and his fans, Weldon makes some keen observations absent from other, more character-focused histories, particularly in regards to Batman’s sexuality and hardcore fans’ ever-shifting but omnipresent dissatisfaction with onscreen portrayals of the character. Weldon has crafted that rare jewel: a book of comics analysis that nerds and “normals” alike can enjoy.
