When the history of today’s movies is written, there will be a special chapter dedicated to the influence of reality TV. There already exist some books but we’re just beginning to bite into this meaty subject (Consider CATFISH and REALITY SHOW). It has been around with us long enough to have developed a reality of its own with its own conciets. We accept a nice house loaded with hidden cameras as par for the course. We accept nonactors embarking upon a unscripted train wreck. And, sadly, we accept that human beings can too easily allow themselves to become subhuman. That last one is classic and transcends the here and now. In the case of “Lucky Bastard,” it is aiming to be a classic and it succeeds to a great extent.

“Lucky Bastard” begins dark, lightens up a bit, and then like the proverbial frog placed in a pot of cold water that is set to gradually boil, it will catch you by surprise as it heats up. We begin with some introductory text about the film being “found footage” and we are given a heads up as to what we are in for. The end result is going to be pretty gruesome. We rewind back to what set things into motion. It is a typical enough day at the home base of a porn site. But there will be one big difference. Ashley Saint (Betsy Rue) is asked to participate on the site’s claim to fame, an opportunity for a Joe Average to become a “Lucky Bastard” by having sex with a porn star. Ashley refuses to engage in sex acts with ameuters. But Mike (Don McManus), the site’s owner, insists and finally convinces Ashley to go along. She is there as Mike rolls through some potential candidates. They agree on one sad sack, Dave G. (Jay Paulson) who appears to be harmless.

Little by little, there are red flags to indicate that Dave G. is not emotionally equipped to handle his new status. Ashley is the first to clue in but her concerns go ignored. Mike does not take no for answer. He is more concerned over his May/December entanglement with a budding porn star, Casey (Catherine Annette). And Mike’s chief cameraman, Kris (Chris Wylde) is driven to distraction with his idea that Casey is becoming too domineering on the set, taking up too much of Mike’s time and, shudder the thought, learning how to use one of the cameras on set. The fact that Dave G. is just not acting cool and collected is finally addressed by Mike but only superficially. Sometimes you just have to learn the hard way.

There is a quiet moment in the film that hints at the greater world outside. Mike is in the middle of preparing the set when he hears tender music in the background. He finds Casey playing the piano. She is playing Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” a melancholy and quite appropriate piece of music. Mike is moved and asks Casey to please continue but she refuses. This triggers Mike to ask Casey what it is that she really wants but Casey is too guarded and coy to ever reveal that to him if she really knew herself. It is one of a number of understated moments that add so much and are perfectly timed.

Directed by Robert Nathan, from a script by Nathan and Lukas Kendall, “Lucky Bastard” is audacious and dark in just the right way. Within the “found footage” genre, with “Blair Witch Project” setting the bar high, this film has a lot of new things to say. It provides a number of intense original moments. There is an excellent horror/thriller vibe to this movie and “Hellraiser” editor Tony Randel can share some of the credit along with cinematographer Clay Westervelt and unit production manager Jim Wynorski.

“Lucky Bastard” debuts on Friday, April 5, 2013 at Vintage Cinemas’ Los Feliz 3 Cinemas, 1822 N. Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles. This film has an NC-17 rating due to explicit sexual content. Visit the film’s website here.

From the press release:

LUCKY BASTARD is the directorial debut for Robert Nathan (Law & Order), the Peabody-winning, Emmy-nominated veteran writer. The film stars Don McManus (The Shawshank Redemption) as the proprietor of a website that invites fans to have sex with porn stars. Jay Paulson (Mad Men) plays Dave, an eager young fan given a chance to have sex with the fabulous Ashley Saint, played by Betsy Rue (My Bloody Valentine). Everyone gets more than they bargained for from the seemingly mild-mannered Dave…to gruesome results.

“LUCKY BASTARD defies categorization in its blend of suspense, drama, social commentary and humor in the ‘found-footage’ format,” said Vineyard Haven’s Lukas Kendall, the film’s co-writer and Executive Producer. “We decided to take the film directly to audiences as it plays exceedingly well as a communal, theatrical experience.”

“LUCKY BASTARD is a mix of themes that epitomize independent filmmaking,” said Robert Nathan, also a co-writer and Executive Producer. “The film offers a reflective take on the deepest currents in our society: its preoccupation with sexual desire, the commoditization of sexuality, and humiliation as a product of commerce.”

The film carries the rarely used NC-17 rating. “There was a time when the most important and relevant pictures—Midnight Cowboy, A Clockwork Orange and Last Tango In Paris—were rated X, the precursor to NC-17,” said Kendall. “We have a long way to go to measure up to those masterpieces, but our society should have a place for thoughtful artistic dramas for adult audiences. Our film has less sex than the average late-night cable erotica—and no actual sex—but the rating is appropriate, and we proudly accept it.”

You can listen to my podcast interview with Robert Nathan, the director and co-writer of “Lucky Bastard,” by going here.

Caleb Landry Jones in ANTIVIRAL

“Antiviral” is a film that spreads like a virus. We see our main character, Sid March (Caleb Landry Jones) on his long downward spiral, doing his dance with death, almost all at first glance. We know he’s sick. We even know he’s doomed. All from our first view of him, up there on a rooftop, the billboard staring down at him, promising the impossible.

That is what Sid March peddles, the impossible. In a society that has nosedived into complete and total obsession with celebrity, Sid’s employer, the Lucas Clinic, offers its clients an opportunity to be closer to their obscure object of desire. For a fee, anyone can literally own a piece of a superstar. They can own the same virus inhabiting the body of that superstar. They can experience the same sweet pain: the fever, the convulsions, the bleeding. This is what turns society on in the future and Sid March is at the forefront. The only problem is that perhaps the dealer has gotten too close to the poison he sells.

Caleb Landry Jones knows how to command the screen with just a stare or a sigh. He reminds one of Tilda Swinton when she first came onto the scene. He has those same arresting features and attitude. “Antiviral,” to some degree, even brings to mind Swinton’s breakout role in 2002′s “Teknolust,” which revolves around human folly with human genetic modification. In the case of “Antiviral,” the comedic breaks are in the service of an even darker and juicier satire. You even have Malcolm McDowell in this, for crying out loud! Oh, yes, the tension runs through like a high fever. It is a very consistent vision that writer and director, Brandon Cronenberg, maintains to great effect.

As Cronenberg points out, this obsession with celebrity is not new. Just consider the worship of a finger bone from a saint. That doesn’t make it any healthier, of course. Today it’s not saints. It’s the products from the entertainment industry. Cronenberg’s theme is about “the mania that drives that industry.” In an interesting scene early on in the movie, the director of the Lucas Clinic, Dorian (Nicholas Campbell), is asked by a reporter to answer allegations that he is contributing to a mental sickness by providing a means for clients to contract a celebrity’s sickness. He states what Cronenberg has said himself, “Celebrities are not people. They’re a group hallucination.”

The mania is totally out of control. People’s desire of celebrity knows no limits. Prime cuts of human beef grown from celebrity cells are the norm. Given an insatiable desire, a black market is sure to follow. Syd sealed his fate long ago when he decided to traffic in celebrity product stolen from his employer. Couple that with his own celebrity obsession, and it is clear that Syd’s future is far from bright. And you just can’t continue to transport human viruses inside your own body without some really weird and tragic consequences.

The fact that celebrities are not real people, but an impossible ideal, is the real topic up for discussion in this film. It’s about humans entrenched in a belief beyond human. And we see this played out on an often stark, clinical white, backdrop, only relieved by the close-up of the goddess. In this case, it is one Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon) who is described over and over again as perfectly beautiful beyond human terms. We see the real flesh and blood Hannah Geist for brief intervals. She is human, vulnerable, all too human. But even when confronted with the real live Hannah Geist, all some can see is the ideal. Like Marilyn Monroe, the celebrity will endure and can fully manifest itself once it’s done away with its human shell.

“Antiviral” is an engaging mix of horror, thriller, and sci-fi, sharing a sensibility with the filmmaker’s father’s work, David Cronenberg. It is fortunate for us and a sign of great works to come from this young filmmaker.

IFC Midnight will release ANTIVIRAL theatrically at The IFC Center and on VOD April 12th 2013.

I certainly hope that artist Karl Stevens never abandons what he’s accomplished in the pages of his latest collection, “Failure,” simply because he might feel compelled to rip apart what he’s done up until now and strike out fresh. He can do whatever he wants, for sure. But I hope he continues to build on what he’s accomplished so far. “Failure,” I dare say, is a success. This collection shows growth but it’s consistent growth. There isn’t a weak page in the whole lot. It’s more an evolving viewpoint: the angry young artist keeps pushing and pushing until he gets what he wants, a reaction; afterward, he finds he’s pushed his way into new terrain and he finds himself breaking new ground.

There’s all that explaining for a couple of pages at the start of the book about how the Boston Phoenix yanked the comic strip in 2012, after an illustrious seven-year run. All because of a joke that maybe went too far. Well, does it really matter at this point? Nope. What matters is the artist and man, Karl Stevens, and his work. He’s had some success with critics with three previous books and, with “Failure,” we can observe an artist evolving with these final installments of his comic strip.

It’s a process all of us artists most go through. There’s a time when you’re acutely sensitive to the fact only a few people will ever get you. They will never get art and so they will easily never get you. It’s a very real time that some artists never get over. This can lead to despair or, if all goes well, it can launch a career, likely to be mingled with despair too but you can’t have everything. Getting back to the point at hand, it is a time filled with one’s first overwhelming feeling of complete uncertainty that will stick with you (cause you never forget your first). You start to think that cats and dogs have a better shot at getting you than your fellow humans. Thus, we find a good share of eloquent cats and dogs in this strip.

Then we get a little comfortable and settle into something but we don’t want it to become too easy, a phoned-in gimmick, something that has already been done in The New Yorker or observed by Douglas Coupland. The above strip is a good example of finding your way within the long history of social satire. The humor is broad and yet there’s a sense of the specific. The young woman claims she was “nerding out” to Chekov. This is an annoying, and perhaps disturbing, prospect to her older friend who wonders out loud about what has become to simply being “intellectual.” The artwork is a refined crosshatch that itself harks back a hundred years ago which just adds to the joke, the tension between the proper order of things and the brashly new.

So, you do keep at it. Listen to your own special blend of neurosis. And it will come out. Stevens has mastered that play between the old and the new, the high and the low. “Failure” offers us a very funny look at an artist growing up. It’s a pleasure to see that evolution, that special blend of Karl Stevens come out.

Visit our friends at Alternative Comics. Visit Karl Stevens HERE. Purchase a print edition of “Failure” HERE. And, now, you can purchase a digital edition of “Failure” at ComiXology HERE.

Tom Kaczynski is sensitive to the fact that consumer culture seems pretty much a lost cause and any attempt to reverse course would appear to be futile at best. It’s the stuff of great comics and Kaczynski has an excellent handle on it. “Beta Testing The Apocalypse” brings together, thanks to Fantagraphics Books, an impressive collection of social satire with a distinctive voice. I hate to throw in the term, “snark,” in this review since it’s too easy and sort of misleading. Kaczynski’s humor is, at times, acerbic, with an attitude, I suppose, but it’s much more than that. This book collects eight comics, the majority having appeared in the Fantagraphics anthology, MOME. Read as a whole, the author’s vision comes through as heart-felt, witty, and maybe even, perhaps, genuinely concerned. Oh sure, it’s all in good fun. I’m just saying this stuff will get under your skin.

Have us Westerners crossed a line of no return? We worship cars. We allow ourselves to be herded like cattle to our office cubicles. We create myths about the great dream to own a house. Well, you get it. The readership for this type of satire already gets it. Where Kaczynski shines is in the details. His characters are numb and they know it. The world is too much with them, as Wordsworth says in his poem, and they have given their hearts away. In “976 SQ FT,” Kaczynski gives us a hipster couple, having recently abandoned suburbia, who mock their new “urban” neighborhood as nothing more than a few blocks sliced and diced by a highway overpass, a bridge, and an avenue. They cope with the nonstop construction of new condos. They think they’ve managed to get a handle on an increasingly artificial environment until one day, the joke is on them.

Wordsworth goes on to wish, in that same poem, to just be a pagan. But can such silly near-sighted humans ever get it right? In “Million Year Boom,” an ambitious young man takes a new job that will find him living on a corporate campus for several years. Hired as part of the new marketing team, he is less than impressed with the current company logo that looks like it was lifted out of a clip-art file. However, the company is stuffed with investor capital and the energy of start-up idealism is too much to resist. It’s not until he comes to see that the company’s goal is sort of crazy, that he hesitates. The allergy he’s developed from one of the company’s new species of plants is not a good sign either. But then again, when he thinks it over, a corporate return to the wild could be the sort of crazy that he’s always hungered for.

Kaczynski’s characters are often attempting to push back and find that something that is pure and real. “The New,” throws into bed conflicting beliefs in the authority of first world and third world states. Architecture is seen as a possible solution to the many ills of one struggling nation. Sex and power are confused with the potential of building something “great.” The end is near for everyone when architecture turns into a cosmic portal to unspeakable horror.

So, no, there is no snark here. It is wry humor, told and drawn with a deft touch. Never overburdened or overwraught, what we have are naked apes with too much technology, and too much time, on their hands.

“Beta Testing The Apocalypse” is published by Fantagraphics Books. Visit our friends at Fantagraphics Books here.

David Chelsea is the sort of cartoonist who can create precise work while also keeping it very fluid. He has mastered his art and he has a wicked sense of humor. Nice combination, don’t you think? If you’re new to his work, you’ll definitely want to check out his new collection that brings together his first six 24-Hour Comics projects. Here’s the deal with these 24-Hour Comics projects, they are just as the name implies, not for the faint of heart: 24 pages of comics within 24 hours.

The site of the 2006 24-Hour Comics at David Chelsea’s studio, photo by Tom Lechner

There is something absurd going on at any given time. It could be a cat climbing a skyscraper in order to deflect a mouse, hired by Donald Trump, to sabotage Harold Lloyd’s efforts to climb to the top of that same skyscraper.

Hmmm, what now? How does that work? How do you get such complexity and absurdity? It’s part magic is what it is. If you follow the rules to a 24-Hour Comics project, as created by comics theoretician Scott McCloud, you can definitely think about what you’d like to do but you can’t script anything beforehand. You can only rely on what’s brewing in your noggin.

What Chelsea does is go in with an idea of what he wants to accomplish and then, throughout the night, he’ll pull out images from out of a sack and use them to guide the story along. So, it could start with a photo of Harold Lloyd.

Then Donald Trump emerges as a villain.

A mouse gets thrown into the mix.

And a cat gets to help save the day.

David Chelsea is modest about “The Harold Project” and describes it as “goofy and insubstantial but no more so than a lot of other things I spent more time on.” Of course, its “insubstantial” quality is what is so beautiful about it, as if out of a dream.

Ironic as it sounds, if there is one thing these sleep-depriving endeavors share, it is a dreamlike quality. Let the tomatoes fight the kangaroos over raspberries! Anything is possible in a 24 Hour Comic. Any takers? Chelsea has been at it to where he’s likely reached an unbeatable status as having achieved the most 24 Hour Comics gigs at 16 and counting.

Nat Gertler, the founder of the annual 24-Hour Comics Day, believes that Chelsea keeps going for the sheer thrill of it. For a cartoonist of Chelsea’s caliber, what could be better than to let loose, like jazz, and float away in a whirlwind of improvisation?

The 24-Hour Comic is the perfect venue for Chelsea to declare that, “Everybody gets it wrong!” and then go about showing up each and everyone one of us for all our wrongness!

EVERYBODY GETS IT WRONG! the first volume of David Chelsea 24-Hour Comics, is a 152-page hardcover, 6″x9″, $14.99, published by Dark Horse Comics and available as of June 5. Visit our friends at Dark Horse Comics here.

And check out the recent Comics Grinder interview with David Chelsea here.

And so it begins, a look at Ballard, the cutting edge scene for foodies and hipsters in the midst of a mellow blue-collar world. We begin with a 24-hour adventure in search of the very soul of Ballard.

Photo by Zachariah Bryan, Ballard News-Tribune

Yours truly made the local paper, The Ballard News-Tribune. The story was published online this week (which you can read here) and the print edition of Westside Weekly came out today, Friday, October 11, 2013.

Editor’s Note: Marshall McLuhan is gaining ground, much like Nikola Tesla, as a hero from the past speaking for today. He would certainly have something to say about the hotspot that is today’s Ballard, a far cry from the sleepy little hamlet that it once was. McLuhan was sensitive to such things as the character and identity of a place.

Has Ballard lost something? Well, it’s always been under development, that’s one way of looking at it. Consider the last panel in this comic. You see what was once a grand old fire station. It was converted into one of Ballard’s leading restaurants, The Hi-Life, long before the arrival of all the other new hotspots that make up the new Ballard. It’s certainly a great place and enhances the whole area. All you have to do is try their famously good fried chicken to know they belong right where they are.

The holiday season is upon us and what better way to rebel than with the right dose of sarcasm and wit? Well then, look no further than the latest issue of the quarterly humor magazine, The Devastator. Issue 9 is devoted to the theme, Toys & Games! Ah, what fun! Get it here.

In an issue chock full of comics, prose, and all sorts of jolly manipulation of other content, you start out with the one-page comic, “In Jail,” by K.C. Green, that sets the tone for funny.

“Mastermind,” spoofs the beloved board game and is brought to you by Comedian Greg Proops (The Smartest Man In World, Whose Line Is it Anyway?), well in the tradition of hilarious photo-comics from The National Lampoon.

Or perhaps your refined taste for offbeat humor runs toward more complex satire? No problem there, sport. You will be thrilled by such involved work as “Bye-Bye, Miss American Girl,” by Patrick Baker, with art by Grace Levine. There’s even a fully formed new board game, “ClueMates: The Passive Agressive Roommate Detective Game,” illustrated by BOOM! Studio’s Yehudi Mercado (Adventure Time comics, Pantalones, TX).

The Devastator is a Los Angeles comedy magazine, founded by writers Geoffrey Golden and Amanda Meadows. Each issue features original comics and writing by some of the funniest people alive: from The Daily Show, The Onion, Adult Swim, Marvel, DC Comics, and more! Check out devastatorquarterly.com.

There’s a high level of cool playing off a serious case of regret in the always engaging graphic novel, “Pretentious Record Store Guy,” by Carlos Gabriel Ruiz. As a fellow traveler in cartooning as well as hipster preoccupations, I can say that Ruiz has concocted something pretty special. It’s like he’s willed to life a particular view with all its quirky faults. Once the shark stops, he is doomed. Ruiz finds a way to keep that shark moving.

This is Guy Valentine’s world and welcome to it. He has the most enormous octopus tattoo on his arm and really cool hair. And he seems to have an unlimited amount of time to plot his course. Well, he seemed to have unlimited time. Guy is discovering there are limits to everything. Maybe he’s been aware that his life is not all it could be. He was missing proper motivation. That’s exactly what he gets in this story that never takes itself too seriously and is loaded with style.

Ruiz does just what is needed to ride a fine edge between satire and a dramatic plot. There’s an interesting static quality to the artwork that reinforces the humor and the disconnection. Guy needs to remain cool and detached. That is both his weakness and his salvation. He doesn’t express any emotion other than looking perpetually morose. His static stare and overall stiffness are what make him who he is. It’s a great look and something that Ruiz developed over time. The book also includes earlier versions of the character as he appeared in an ongoing comic strip. We get to chart the refinement of the character and his story. The fact that Ruiz deliberately tapped into that alienation is perfectly in keeping with Guy’s hipster scene.

The story itself is satisfying. At first, it will bring to mind Nick Hornby’s “High Fidelity” as we observe Guy going through his regular routine working at a record store. Guy is put upon by the typical customer’s overall lack of knowledge, style, and authenticity. He is right, of course. But that doesn’t mean that the unwashed masses are so thick as to never fight back. One particularly obnoxious little punk calls Guy out and pegs him for a 35-year-old nobody living in his parent’s basement. That hits a little too close to home for Guy. Anyway, things were already getting sour for him. Somehow, always being on the guest list for all the cool shows just wasn’t enough anymore. That’s when Guy decides he needs to take his band more seriously and that creates its own set of complications.

To round out the package, this book includes a fun grab bag of bonus features like Guy’s endless list of possible names for bands: The Sherlock Holmes Conspiracy, The Sesame Street Walkers, United Parcel Service, Sonic Boom Boom, The George Washington Junior High School Fencing Team Tryouts, and so on. This stuck with me and I found myself coming across my own discoveries. Today, for instance, I read the services at a hair salon and I was struck by a great name for a band. Digital Perm! I just read that some Japanese company owns the copyright to that perm term so I don’t know if that would hold up in court but I digress.

You can find Pretentious Record Store Guy at Ruiz’s website here. You’ll also want to go here, here, and here.

And check out my interview with Carlos Gabriel Ruiz right here.

There is something very wrong about following a vengeful JFK in pursuit of his killers but Craig Frank is willing to go there in his graphic novel, “JFK: SECRET OPS.” It is dark humor to be sure. What makes it work is Frank’s unabashed commitment to stay the course. Okay then, giddy up, pardner, cause we’re on a bumpy conspiracy theory-laden crazy ride. Where do I find these unusual works? Well, it ain’t easy but it’s fun.

A very big part of the appeal of this book is its ferocious animated style. Take a look, here, Frank knows and loves to draw cars. It’s not something every cartoonist takes to with such gusto. You can tell there were some key images that Frank was rolling around in his head as he set out to create this. Car chases! Guns! Girls! Rat Pack terror! He succeeds in a lot of ways. Maybe the only trouble, at times, is keeping up with all the people on JFK’s list of killers. But that’s alright. Maybe we want to scratch every possible conspiratorial itch. And we definitely want as many loopy things as possible, like JFK hanging out with Sammy Davis, Jr.

In many ways, you can’t get enough of this material. There is that strange attraction to JFK that we may never break free from. He is of the relative distant past and yet contemporary enough to still leave a sting. And, oh, what a sting when you start to think about it. That’s the thing. This is a story, and a tragedy, with a ripple effect to go on indefinitely. Some might even say it’s still too soon to create a book like this but, on the other hand, crass humor has its place.

In other ways, I can see where some paring down would have made this work that much better. It’s a matter of preference, for me, since I really have to hand it to Frank for what he’s accomplished. As it is, it’s a wild free-for-all that, to my taste, seems better suited for animation. Frank is, after all, a professional animator. And, hell yes, I’d definitely buy a DVD of the animated version to this story.

But, let me backtrack just a bit. I think this graphic novel is something of a hairy beast. JFK, like a Frankenstein monster, is going to stay the course no matter what. JFK ploughs through. It’s a very fluid ploughing through that could have been helped by a more precise composing of the comics page. That said, this is a solid piece of dark, sweaty, gritty humor.

I offer up this criticism with great respect for Frank. The truth is that taking on a graphic novel is a challenge, especially at the scale Frank is working at. This 260-page graphic novel is a wild ride.

“JFK: SECRET OPS” is on its way to an outlet near you. Check the internets. You can view my special Skype interview (Ooh ahh, Skype!) with Craig Frank right here.

Jim Gaffigan as Howard Cantour

Portia Doubleday as Dakota Zearing

You know, I’m really surprised that Shia LeBeouf’s exercise in plagiarism has not been shut down and still exists as a legitimate film with its own official IMDb. So it goes, right? Well, for now. We’ll see how that turns out for Mr. LaBuff. Really, I enjoyed the Shia’s performance in 2012′s “The Company You Keep,” co-starring Robert Redford. It had a nice Hallmark Hall of Fame quality to it. Something Lindsay Lohan might have done before everything got fuzzy and weird.

Considering Shia’s new upcoming project as a sex addict, who knows, maybe things will start to get even fuzzier and weirder for him. But we don’t really want that for him. In fact, once this blows over, after wounds have healed, after some soul-searching, all could turn out quite well, no? And, if so, I’d be proud to shake Mr. LaBoof’s hand. For now, the craziness continues as you can read in this piece in The Independent from this Monday here.

So, basically, you’ve got a short film that lifts its story directly from a short work in comics by Daniel Clowes, entitled, “Justin M. Damiano.”

Hey, knock your socks off and view Shia’s little masterpiece at the YouTube right down here, just waiting for you. It might get deleted, so check it out, if you want:

Truth be told, sure, sure, sure, it’s an okay little piece but you gotta ask the original, yes “original” creator, permission, Shia, just gotta. Live and learn.

“Fade Out: Painless Suicide” is a one-shot comic written by Beto Skubs; drawn by Rafael de Latorre; and colored by Marcelo Maiolo. It’s a pretty funky little story with a nod to Generation Y. All Kurt seems to want these days is to end it all. Far be it for anyone to point out that Kurt’s life is not so bad, he won’t listen. Yes, this story has its shock value. Don’t expect a morality play here. Kurt is going to die, like it or not. Skubs challenges the reader and knocks out a credible script making you sort of root for the main character’s demise. He certainly runs the risk of alienating many readers.

Who kills off their main character in, like, the first scene? Well, it happens. “Sunset Boulevard” is a prime example. In this story, however, Kurt is a young man with his whole life ahead of him, a poster boy for preventable suicide. He should have no problem with “choosing life.” Skubs chooses an odd but interesting path for his character. It’s not the path some readers will be comfortable with. It’s a challenge that Skubs attempts to work through in an offbeat way.

Skubs is a young writer who already shows promise. He provides characters with some thoughtful moments and keeps to a lean and fast pace. The purpose of this story is to function partly as farce and mostly as thriller. Various comics tropes are in play: Kurt is a cub reporter. There’s a killer on the loose. Kurt has girl problems: one beautiful girlfriend who is very needy; a new girl in his life who is a big mystery. And Kurt has major father issues. His father is remote and Kurt has only recently made contact with him. And Kurt is still in high school, a classic comics trope.

Art by Rafael de Latorre is quite pleasing, truly another layer to the story. When it comes to breathing life into Kurt and his friends, both de Latorre and colorist Maiolo, are appealing. With irony, the art and color bring out a sunny disposition to a story with a disturbing theme running throughout.

“Fade Out: Painless Suicide” is available as of January 29 at ComiXolgy Submit.

“iHero” is a comic book that mixes satire and whimsical use of superhero tropes to provide some good laughs in its debut issue. I think what I like most about this work is that it’s not afraid to just goof around. There is plenty of silly humor run amok. There is more going on too but it’s the offbeat humor that I’m favoring the most.

We begin with Pear Industries introducing their latest must-have product. The charismatic company chief, Jack Taylor, has just launched the iHero. People have been queuing for days just for a chance to be one of the first to own one. But this is far more than just the latest way to organize your music and cat gifs. With the iHero you are transformed into your very own superhero. If you’ve always wanted to fly, then this is the gizmo to do it with. But what if you’ve always wanted to rob a bank? Well, this is also the gizmo to do it with. It’s a pretty funny premise.

Luke J. Halsall’s story works quite well with Graeme Kennedy’s artwork. They both want to riff on the absurdity they see in life and they do this well with a light-hearted approach. I think when the story makes a shift away from the funny stuff and has characters engaging in traditional superhero action that things tend to drag a bit. I wouldn’t worry about it too much one way or another. I think the talent behind this comic is in it for the long term and will find a way to make it all come together. Maybe things will get even stranger. I’m all for that.

“iHero” is a production of Obscure Reference Comics. Visit OR Comics here.

Speaking truth to power. That’s a good thing. Needless to say, it gets rather complicated when it is in the form of an official statement or formal speech. In fact, speaking truth to power is not something you expect to hear at the highest levels of government. However, from time to time, there are those in power who actually do try to make a difference. In “Weapons of Mass Diplomacy,” we have a graphic novel that is a hilarious political satire and gives us the heroic story of the French Foreign Minister attempting to prove the pen to be mightier than the sword.

Alexandre Taillard de Vorms only has words to argue the greatest case of his life. He is going against the tide, to be sure. He is taking on the United States of America! It is 2002, and the drum beat towards war is incessant. He likens his situation to leading a small commando staff that could fit on a raft going after an army of staff at the disposal of the U.S. Secretary of State. He must make do with what his budget allows. A new speechwriter, Arthur Vlaminck, gives de Vorms hope. But, as Vlaminck goes on to show us, this will be a most rocky journey. Words! Will Vlaminck help his new boss find the right words? Vlaminck is the alter-ego of this book’s author, Abel Lanzac, a French diplomat who is in a unique position to provide us with an insider’s point of view. He was, after all, an adviser to the real life French Foreign Minister in our story.

Tina Turner once asked, “What’s love got to do with it?” In our case, we could ask, “What’s logic got to do with it?” As the Bush administration forces its way to invading Iraq, it does not matter how logical the argument is against it. However, one must try. What de Vorms seeks is such a compelling argument that his David can defy Goliath. The American neocons, on the other hand, have their way with no great attempt at eloquence or logic.

A most remarkable thing about this graphic novel is its sense of style and discretion. This is genuinely meant to engage the reader, not beat them over the head with an agenda. To better immerse ourselves in the subject, names and places have been changed. There is an air of fiction in order to get at a greater truth. You won’t find Iraq in this book. Instead, it is the Kingdom of Khemed. You’d be surprised how these little changes make such a difference and help you see events afresh. It helps us dig deeper as we shift back and forth between the contemporary and the timeless. This is a book with great vision and a great sense of humor. It is the artistry of Christophe Blain’s comics that add to that timeless quality. His artwork is made up of impeccable timing and masterfully rendered body language.

So, the cover of fiction is there to help enhance the experience. It is not there really to avoid offending anyone. Really, who would that be? Dick Cheney? With the “War on Terror” still raging, this is a most relevant book indeed. It has already caused a stir in Europe and will cause a good stir in America with its new edition, available as of May 6, 2014. “Weapons of Mass Diplomacy” is a 200 page hardcover published by SelfMadeHero, an imprint of Abrams Books, which you can visit here. You can also find “Weapons of Mass Diplomacy” at Amazon right here.

If you are interested in an intriguing movie based on a work in comics besides “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” you will want to see “The French Minister.” This comedy could be your window to offbeat political satire and French comics all rolled into one.

“The French Minister” is written by the same creative team for the graphic novel that the movie is based upon. Both the movie and the book were originally released in France and are both now being released in the U.S. The graphic novel, retitled in the states as “Weapons of Mass Diplomacy,” gives us an insider’s perspective on the French opposition to the U.S. led invasion of Iraq. It does this with an elegant and thoughtful discussion with just the right amount of satirical bite.

Writing under the pseudonym Abel Lanzac, author and diplomat Antonin Baudry gives us a fictionalized auto-biographical look back at what it was like to be a speechwriter to the charismatic French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, particularly in the time leading up to the U.S. gaining approval from the U.N. to go to war. In the graphic novel, Christophe Blain provides a tour de force in masterful comics transforming the French leader into a feverishly animated and elastic figure. That said, it is quite a treat to see the team of Lanzac and Blain behind this film.

Lanzac represents himself as Arthur Vlaminck (played by Raphaël Personnaz). We see the many frenzied machinations from his point of view as the minister’s key speechwriter. As the film opens, we see that he has just landed his position with the French Foreign Minister Alexandre Taillard de Vorms (played by Thierry Lhermitte). It is this important first meeting that sets the tone. It varies in interesting ways from the book and is a good example of the distinct purposes, and expected audience, for an ambitious graphic novel as opposed to a major motion picture.

For instance, de Vorms has a book he wants to share with Arthur. The movie uses an easier quote to digest. In explaining the U.S. threat of becoming unilateral, the book takes on the issue with a somewhat stronger description. That said, in both cases, it works. We understand that de Vorms sees the American neocons as heading down a dangerous path. He inspires Arthur to work with him to try to put a stop to the emerging U.S. doctrine of preventive war.

Directed by Bertrand Tavernier, “The French Minister” would make an excellent companion to the graphic novel, “Weapons of Mass Diplomacy.” As a farce alone, it works very well. Thierry Lhermitte proves to be quite up to the task of embodying the whirlwind that is Alexandre Taillard de Vorms. There is a running gag in the movie that has stacks of papers blasting into the air whenever de Vorms rushes from one urgent matter to the next. It’s quite an entrance to live up to and Lhermitte nails it every time with excellent comedic chops.

“The French Minister” is currently showing in select cities in the U.S. And you can also view in on Amazon right here. And the graphic novel the movie is based upon, “Weapons of Mass Diplomacy,” is published by SelfMadeHero, an imprint of Abrams Books. You can also find it on Amazon right here.

Imagine, it’s the ’70s, anything seems possible with free love, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. It was the zeitgeist and everyone participated, one way or another. For many, it didn’t lead to much more than preening about in a leisure suit, platform shoes, and feathered hair. But for the superhero team of Power Groove, it was their time in the sun, their glory days, their salad days, and their happy days. Today, forty years later, not so much. But, due to contractual obligations, they’re getting the team back together, and it hurts for them just to think about it.

The creative team of Ken Pisani (creator and writer) and Jim Lavery (art) bring you Power Groove. Having gotten a chance to know Ken Pisani (interview here) as well as having reviewed the first issue of his upcoming graphic novel, Colonus, (review here) I am excited about Power Groove. This is a comic in tune with superhero tropes and ready to poke fun at as many as it can. Given that Pisani is a seasoned pro in the entertainment industry, I feel he brings an authentic sense of humor that can easily navigate from light to pithy to snarky.

Jim Lavery has a fun art style, spare and cartoony, that works well with this story. We’re only looking at an 8-page teaser so far but it covers a lot of ground and promises some dark and light humor and twists and turns.

Check out the first issue of “Power Groove” right here.