Oh, but would I be wrong… so very, very wrong.

In fact, the whole thing actually takes itself seriously. I shit you not true believers. This was devised (and a bit of speculation enters at this point, backed up by the one page ad for stand up nuns that will “come to your church or school” to perform uplifting and soul enriching comedy routines) as a catholic alternative to super hero comics. You know those sad attempts of yesteryear to ween you off of Wolverine, Batman and Usagi, with wholesome God-fearing super heroics? Well, this is the anno 2009 version of those horrid rags. You are to think these nuns are cool and kicking horrid demon tuckus. Sadly the cartoony style of the drawing, hopelessly uncool dialogue, complete and total lack of any kind of witty banter make the entire endeavor boring and impossible to take seriously.

Well you might ask, maybe it’s not targeting the 30-something crowd, but going for the kiddies? That thought crossed my mind too, but when you have a skinned demon show up in full scare effect on page two of your book, followed by some pretty nasty blood and the principal villain drowning in a nicely drawn (for a change) close up head shot, I don’t think the comic qualifies as a product for little Bobby.

And don’t think for a moment that the authors (or at least publishers) didn’t realize they had a turd on their hands. The original cover (seen to the left) says Nuns Without Guns on it. The final published version though says Nuns With Guns, and had an extremely hard to read dark red X behind the word With.

So, in the final analysis, this book blows. It fails to meet any kind of comedy goal (which was my hope), it fails as a super hero piece, and if Aunt Margaret decides to be cool and pick up a copy for little Phillip’s first Cathecism, she better not open the book up at all because she’s going to poop her britches.

So, this week we’ll be looking at one of my personal favorites from the last few years, Stagger Lee, by Derek McCulloch and Shepherd Hendrix, released in 2006.

For those that aren’t in the know (and before picking this book up, I wasn’t either), Stagger Lee is actually a long standing song tradition, mainly in blues music.  While the music itself (rhythm, beat, harmony) is not constant through the iterations, the story told, the shooting death of Billy Lyons, by “Stagger” Lee Shelton at a bar, is always there.  The aim of the book is to trace back the songs heritage and its many permutations (including rock and roll and country variants) through the years, as well as recreate (in as much as is possible) the actual events surrounding the murder of Billy Lyons.

The book is a massive 220+ page tome, printed in a very atmospheric brown monochrome, on thick paper.  At times you’ll think you’re holding something much older, which helps add gravitas to the work.  This isn’t some spandex power fantasy.  It’s history unfolding.  It’s almost academic… well it would be if it wasn’t so darn entertaining. Each chapter of the historical retelling is prefaced by a few pages documenting the evolution of the song tradition.  This helps keep things from getting too serious, but there are times when you just want to know what’s going to happen next, and these interludes do sometimes (not often) get in the way.  But for the most part the chapters are broken up well enough that the brief break from continuity helps things along nicely.

McCulloch has populated Stagger Lee’s world with a vibrant cast of characters.  There is Lee Shelton himself of course, a man put on trial for murder, who isn’t the brightest bulb on the tree.  A very thuggish type who isn’t really likeable, which of course creates an amusing contrast with his song counterpart.  Nathan Dryden, Lee’s attorney, a once great man slowly falling pray to drug addiction as it existed in the late 19th century.  Babe Connors, the local mistress that acts as a lynchpin for the romantic side story threaded throughout the book.  And Maria Brown, the politically connected step mother who is pulling as many strings as a black woman can in the white power structure to make sure Lyon’s death is avenged.  All of these characters and many more tell not only the story of the murder and aftermath, but also of a very specific, often overlooked period in American history.  The murder takes place in 1895, so reconstruction has been over for a while, Jim Crow is taking hold of the south and in St. Louis, where the story takes place, the burgeoning blues and soon to be jazz scenes are coming into their own.  All these changing tides, converging around the turn of the century add new layers to the story and a context which molds the song tradition that would arise from it.

As for the art, it is a fantastic mix of wonderfully realistic design with the occassional smattering of over the top insanity.  The monochrome nature of the art never becomes plain or indistinguishable.  Hendrix is a master of his craft and keeps even long dialogue scenes interesting and fresh.

Now, with all this said, this book is not for everyone.  In fact, many people won’t be able to get past the first few pages, not due to the art or the story, but the subject matter will not grab a lot of people.  Some people I have tried to get interested in the book (and yes, I have been praising it for a while much to my friends’ chagrin) were afraid it would be a “message” piece, which I can assure you its not.  And for others the idea of the story, a 100+ year old murder, just isn’t interesting.  I guess the lawyer in me finds a lot to love here, but I’m sure you will too.

In short, if you aren’t married to the idea of superheros having to be in your comics, and you want something with real depth and an unusual edge, you HAVE to give this one a try.  Pick it up, either at a library, Amazon or a bargain bin (I’ve been seeing a lot of copies of it at cons, sadly).  It’s worth it.

Are the newbs gone?

Good.

For those still reading, let’s talk some Who, shall we? The Forgotten stars the 10th doctor and while Martha Jones shows up as the companion in the piece, it quickly becomes evident that the story is taking place well after the end of the regular series and the begin of the current run of TV specials. Why Martha is there slowly becomes apparent as the story unfolds. And the story will unfold pretty slowly, as the whole premise for the story is pretty much an excuse to do 9 short stories, each featuring the previous incarnations of The Doctor. It’s a fairly ingenious little bit of retrospective, with die hard Who fans being rewarded by bucket loads of guest appearances and odd references to the character’s past.
A cavalcade of old companions and enemies are featured or mentioned. The whole book feels like trivia for the initiated, but therein also lies the downside of this piece. While some of the stories are really quite entertaining (the 3rd, 5th, 6th and 8th Doctors), the rest are mediocre at best and thrown in just because they had to come up with a story for each of the Doctors. The cut and paste feel of the book isn’t helped by the fact that multiple artists worked on it, so the characters continually undergo style changes, which probably weren’t as apparent during monthly publication, but are pretty glaring as a stand alone book. Granted, it’s a big feat to try to shoehorn this many tales into such a small book, and IDW isn’t the biggest company in the world, so I’m sure they weren’t paying top dollar for talent, but it still it disrupts the read, especially when you hit a story that doesn’t really contribute to the overall narrative.
So as a whole was it any good? The overall story is interesting, even though it is a bit hokey, expanding on the idea of the Tardis as a living entity a lot more than has ever been discussed in the show (and which would really raise a LOT of issues in my opinion about the Doctor’s relationship with the ship in the future, which will no doubt never be touched upon since they won’t be acknowledging this as part of continuity). The heavy in the piece is interesting as a twist, but still very much a “done before” concept (come on… the goatee?!?). The saving grace though, that redeemed the book in a big way for me as a big fan of very early Who, was in the last few pages when the book delves into one of the seldom touched upon bits of Who lore going back to the very first Doctor. The return of a character from back then, (and no, not going to give away who) and the moment shared between the Doctor and this person made it all worthwhile.

So in the final analysis, if you are a nutjob that is going to read any and all Doctor Who you can get your hands on, have at it. You won’t be too disappointed. If you are only a casual Who fan, or one that has only seen the new relaunch Doctors, you may want to pick this up and get a flavor for what the old Doctor’s were like… maybe you’ll want to hunt down some DVD’s and see where this franchise got its roots. It’s not the best example of the old Doctors but it will give you a sampling of them that might wet your appetite.
For everyone else, stay away, nothing to see here.