ROB'S NOTE: May has become the go-to month of the Comic’s Industry (even
though National Superhero Day is late April, but whatever… Congress…
pshaw). It is when Marvel drops their
big movie of the year. May also sees the
annual Free Comic Book Day celebration take place on the first Saturday of the
Month, so I hope you all got to check that out.
May also has 31 days of the month so what better way to celebrate the
wonderful world of sequential art with the 31 Days of Comics?
Seth Hahne, who runs the blog GoodOkBad,
has put together the 31 Days of Comics challenge. A daily challenge in which you are given a
category and you have to fill it with a comic that you think fits it the
best. You’re all on the internet, I
shouldn’t have to explain it to you. For
the rest of the month I will be taking this challenge. It is my hope it encourages others to make
and share their own lists either in the comments here or on their own
websites. The sharing not only might
turn comic fans on to works they have yet to sample but maybe catch the eye of
a few non-comic fans and highlight the diversity of the form.
Our prompt for Day 6 is “Your Comfort Comic”
Planetary
Written by Warren Ellis
Pencils by John Cassaday
Colors by Laura Martin
When we
think of comfort food, we think of something familiar to us. We think of something that transports us back
in time to a place where we felt safe and loved, often our childhood. For many, including myself, no food does this
better than Mac ‘n’ Cheese. However, as
an alleged adult, I don’t always crave the dish that with the nuclear orange
glow that my mom would serve up a couple of times a week. I look for the same comfort but in a slightly
more “adult” package. A different take
and twist on my childhood, reconstituted for the tastes I have acquired over
time.
Planetary is
the “Truffle Mac ‘n’ Cheese with Lobster” for comic books.
Writer
Warren Ellis described the basic concept of Planetary as taking something old
and making it new again. Set in the
burgeoning Wildstorm universe Ellis was able to reconstitute a hundred years of
superhero history and frame it in new perspectives, without losing the majesty
and awe that you had as a young child picking up your first Superman or
Fantastic Four. Framed around a group of
“mystery-archeologists” who work for an organization called The Planetary,
dedicated to detailing these wonders of the world, almost every sci-fi,
mystical, and super hero genre gets a once over by Ellis. Pulp heroes, the JLA, Fantastic Four, the
giant monster movies of the 1950s, and even Hong Kong horror movies all get the
once over. You can’t help but look back
upon your first encounters with the various genres and relive the feelings you
had.
While
scheduling problems came from both Warren Ellis’ own health and the amount of
time it took John Cassaday to pencil the book each issue was beautiful. If Ellis’ goal was to restore the sense of
awe and wonder in an aging and more cynical comic book reader he couldn’t have
found a better artist to work with.
Cassaday’s splash pages, usually depicting the scale or majesty of
whatever new discovery made by the team, are breathtaking and trigger a
nostalgia that is all too familiar to long time comics’ fans.
Planetary is
the rare book that reads almost as well in singles and trade format, another
reason it is a comfort comic for me.
When I started reading there was not trade market. If you wanted older issues you became your
own “mystery archeologist” and traveled from shop to shop or convention to
convention with a list of things you had never seen and only heard about. While there are overarching story lines
throughout the run (“Who is the mysterious fourth man who finances Planetary?”)
each individual issue tells a complete story about the genre or archetype it is
exploring. Based on your love and
exposure to each archetype some issues will hit or miss more than others, my
Dad was never a big comic guy but remembered some of the old pulp heroes from
novels and radio shows so he dug the issue about that, but Ellis takes care in
expressing a genuine love for each one.
What makes
Planetary a comfort book beyond others for me is that it firmly sets up a
conflict between two opposing world views.
The Planetary team, made up of Elijah Snow, Jakita Walker, and the
Drummer represent the forces of optimism, hope, and wonder. They see the world as strange and different,
but want to celebrate and bask in it.
For them there is joy in discovery, especially when those discoveries
can be somehow used to make the world a better place. In contrast to them stand “The Four”
(answering the question of what would happen if Mark Millar created the
Fantastic Four). The Four sees the
wonders of the world as things to possess and control. By hoarding this secret knowledge it places
them above humanity, where they believe they belong. Obviously this can be read in a number of
ways but I prefer to see it as representing different ways in which comic books
can be seen. They are either wondrous
adventures to be given to friends to be read and re-read until the staples fall
out, or they are to be locked away inside your long boxes, properly bagged and
boarded with the fear that exposure to others will somehow diminish their
value. Thankfully the good guys win.
And in case
you didn’t know who the good guys are, you can borrow my copies of Planetary
anytime you want.
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