Journey Volume 2

(William Messner-Loebs)

This second volume completes the original run of William Messner-Loeb’s tales of Joshua ‘Wolverine’ MacAlistaire, a trapper and hunter in early 19th-century America. Back in volume one he was hired to deliver a package and volume two finds him still on that same Journey. As he’s travelled he’s had varied encounters – tangling with wolves and bears, getting caught up in history at Fort Miami, even meeting Bigfoot. Journey’s episodic structure and, in particular, the way it tries on different genres like an indecisive date goes through outfits, resembles Will Eisner’s work on The Spirit. The similarities with Eisner’s art accentuate that, especially the moment when Messner-Loeb kicks away the panel borders during a fight and uses the whole page, just like Eisner did in his Dropsie Avenue books.

Speaking of the art, Messner-Loeb’s faces sometimes look curiously off, as if the distance between features or the overall shape is somehow wrong. He has a neat trick of drawing innocent characters, usually children, in a more cartoony style, but he seems more at home drawing the wide open landscapes of the Michigan frontier than he does people.

Apart from Eisner, what Journey brings to mind are pulp fantasy writers who worked in the short-story form like Fritz Leiber. Journey is just another word for quest after all, and Wolverine MacAlistaire’s pastoral adventures, alternately dealing with nature, violent thugs, politics between urban folk and tribal folk, and bizarre random incursions of science fiction, could have easily slotted into the pages of Amazing Fantasy with the addition of a temple to the spider-god or some elves.

Those random incursions of sci-fi are toned down from the first volume, which contained some very odd crossovers with other characters being published by Aardvark-Vanaheim back in the day. Weird things happen in the wilderness though, and this volume isn’t without its share of strangeness. Two of the first volume’s odder characters reappear: Pere Winter, who talks to dead people, and Jemmy Acorn, a mad hermit who hears angels by channelling tunes from the future, including ad jingles. Acorn is a welcomely strange recurring character, helping to lighten the dour mood of straight-faced wilderness man MacAlistaire.

MacAlistaire may be a hardened and competent civilisation-hating woodsy hero, but Messner-Loebs isn’t afraid to let him look like an idiot, which humanises him greatly. He still fits the American archetype of the rough, unexpressive Man Who Is Always Right, but he’s occasionally foolish enough to be believable. His life of constant struggle against the random destructiveness of nature and the wanton stupidity of humankind is inspiring, a never-give-up story lightened with enough humour to keep it from getting grim.

The difference between Messner-Loebs and other tellers of pioneer tales is made plain when MacAlistaire talks to one of his many temporary travelling companions, Craft, who plans to write a book about their experiences. After telling Craft to make the native Huron out to be either “real stupid or real smart” and to dispense with the “sweat an’ crap an’ blood” he sums up Messner-Loebs’ attitude towards traditional frontier stories:

Journey does none of those things. There’s no sneering, just honest, straight-forward, and hardworking storytelling with added doses of well-researched authenticity that make even the most mundane activities – whether building a shelter for the winter or trekking across Michigan to deliver a parcel – into fascinating reading.

8/10

The Amazing Spider-Man #583

(Mark Waid, Barry Kitson; Zeb Wells, Todd Nauck)

Yes, that is Barack Obama on the cover of Amazing Spider-Man. That’s Marvel comics for you, always up-to-date and relevant. Of course, that’s only the variant cover illustrating the backup story. The ordinary cover is much uglier, not because of the art – John Romita can draw fine – but because of the concept: Peter Parker has his arms around two girls and is saying something lame about cougars while next to him the words ACTION IS HIS REWARD! are shouted at us. Sometimes, trying too hard to be up-to-date and relevant just makes you look a bit old and creepy. This cover is the equivalent of Marvel scraping together that bit of hair at the back that hasn’t fallen out yet, turning it into a scraggly ponytail, and going out to be the weird old guy at the club.

Spidey’s hanging around in the background, looking left out while Peter saunters off to be made into a man-sandwich, possibly thinking to himself, “Aren’t they a little young to be cougars? Technically speaking?”

It’s the ‘Special Tribute-to-Dating Issue!!’, as the cover proudly declares, and I’m glad Marvel were there to shine a spotlight on such an undernoticed subject. The issue’s main story involves Betty Brant helping the newly single Peter Parker ease back into the world of desperate singletons by taking him speed-dating. (Up-to-date!) Obama is not involved in any way. Problems emerge in the form of criminals who steal Peter’s attention when he could be busting moves on hotties. He has to waste his quips on lame villains instead. “Have you tried villain-names.com? It’s awesome!” he honestly actually says to one of them. “Always run a virus check afterwards though.” (Relevant!) Some foreshadowing is squeezed in along the way, but it relies on Betty handing out Aunt May’s phone number to a guy she just met. I know she’s a matchmaker, but that makes no sense at all.

Apparently the timely backup strip was written in a week so it would coincide with Obama’s inauguration. It’s still better than the clumsy sitcom of the main story, which isn’t saying much. Peter is in Washington photographing the historic event when a duplicate Obama arrives and hijinx ensue. Spidey’s going to have to save the day, obviously. Todd Nauck draws this one and he isn’t the kind of artist who does studied likenesses – his Obamas look kind of like Denzel Washingtons, his Peter Parker looks kind of like David Tennant, and there's something wrong with the shape of Spider-Man’s head. Frank D’Armata colours everything with highlights galore, so that it looks like there’s been an oil slick on everyone’s skin.

Yes, it is, Denzel.

Most of the jokes work though and it’s a pleasant enough experience to go through so you can say you’ve read it. The Stephen Colbert issue they did last year was better, however.

6/10