Friday, December 5, 2008

Expressions of Dread






This post is comic geeky, just so you know. DC is publishing a book called FINAL CRISIS, and its written by Grant Morrison, the guy behind BATMAN RIP. JG Jones is doing the art, and he is best known for doing the 52 covers for DC's weekly comic in 2006-7, 52. The man can convey dread more than any other artist I know, if the sky is raining blood, I know it. The idea behind FC is that Morrison has taken every single mother-loving character Jack Kirby ever created in the 1970s for DC and put them in these pages, basically using the Anti-Life Equation to spread across the Internet and usher in the Fifth World of Gods (both good and bad). A defining moment is when Barry Allen and Wally West run two weeks into the future and realize that shit has gone down in those two weeks, as they see Wonder Woman in a Hannibal Lecter kind of mask and Batwoman with a ball gag, riding on top of giant pit bulls. The sad part is that Jones was falling behind on the over-sized issues and DC brought in Doug Mahnke to replace him on the final issue. Won't be the same, but at least I'm relishing the current pages. I've talked about how I dream in the past, its like how Jones illustrates the night, the reflected shadows in rain puddles in the alleys. Anyone who has ever read comics will know of Jack Kirby's input, going back to the 1940s. To see Grant Morrison bring his creations back for one last wild ride, Lois Lane with shrapnel in her heart and Superman using his heat vision to keep her alive (and keeping him out of action), the Fantastic Super Young Team, fetish heroes from Japan, an example being Sexy Shy Lolita Canary. Pure insanity, a comic that reads more like an adult book, but, as the illustrations show, this book would be next to nothing without the art of JG Jones.