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LOVE the image by the way SharK!

Cheers - it's just AI though (Bing, I think). No talent necessary so no praise required - but I'll take it with gratitude all the same 

Oh I know that - its still super fun. You can see 9most) AI art work a mile off still.

Who has Barney access these days? I vaguely recall it has been updated several times since it was separated from the official site.

I know Cosh did a load of work on it - though I don't think he had the time to keep it up.

Oh and I keep forgeting the A-Z has a page count that will stop me doing some very poor estimates if only I'd remember!

Fantastic as ever.

There's Barney - but it (currently) stops at 2020.

There's my A-Z, where each story is sorted into tables by publication date. (It's about a season behind - I update it once or twice a year.)

Both are brilliant resources but Funt Solo's A-Z is the goto as its up to date. Barney I use mainly these days for the cover gallery as i tend to search things based on cover... errr no I'm not sure either...

Cool - great to see the results Norton Canes. Thanks for doing that.

While I knew Azimuth was well liked have to say I'm a little surprised it managed to topple The Out. We still live in a world full of justified Dabnett love. Also good to see the strength in depth on display there.

[Number 112 - Human Target - Peter Milligan]

Number 112 - Human Target - Peter Milligan

Keywords: Milligan, Identity, Vertigo, reimagining

Creators:
Writer - Peter Milligan
Art - Edvin Biukovic, Javier Pulido, Cliff Chang and more
Colours - Lee Loughridge and Dave Stewart

Publisher: DC Comics under Vertigo imprint

No. issues: 4 issue mini, OGN and 21 issue ongoing
Date of Publication: 1999 - 2005

Last read: 2012

Identity is an almost ever present theme in Peter Milligan's writing and so what better character for him to work with than Christopher Chance, a character whose specific 'power' is to take over the identity of others. Judge for yourself in


Copyright - DC Comics

Christopher Chance was created for DC by Len Wein and Carmine Infantino in the early 70s. He adapts the role of people targeted by criminals to protect them by becoming a human target for those criminals. Peter Milligan picked the character out of limbo and used him to explore identity across initially a four issue mini-series, then a stand alone graphic novel and finally a 21 issue ongoing series, all of which combine to tell one fantastic tale. They have a singular focus that few of his other works have. That's not to say that he's not explored the ideas of identity before, far from it, as said identity is very much central to almost all his work, rather that it was done with clarity here. His work typically wraps these ideas deeper, combining with other themes, here they are very much on the surface.

For many this was a little too on the nose, it removed the enigma (mayyybe pun intended...ahem.) and complexities that he typically uses. It was all a little too obvious. For me stripping things right back allowed for a much richer exploration of the theme. Allowed the ideas to become clear and detailed, to spread and have the scope, within that theme, that other works of his may have lacked. Also not to say this isn't complex, identity is complex, but it removes other distractions and allows clarity on his core ideas.


Copyright - DC Comics

Christopher Chance in these stories is really feeling the harm caused to him by being other people to place himself in their danger. The damage he takes isn't just physical, though there is plenty of that, it's much more fundamental damage to who he actually is. He doesn't just mimic people to fool threats, he almost literally becomes them. To then return to being Christopher Chance becomes increasingly difficult. When you have become so many other people for so long what is left of who you are. What does he take of them, what does he lose of himself.

At the beginning of the ongoing this has reached extremes, he doesn't simply return to being Christopher Chance, he has to become Christopher Chance again. Chance has just become another identity he has to adopt. This impacts on his ability to form relationships. How can he be with someone else if he doesn't know who he is and can't find the person he needs to give to another? Is he really in love or is he just trying to find something to feel as though he is still a complete, single person. This is pointedly reflected physically. As Christopher Chance he is unable to perform sexually. When he adopts another persona he has no such issue. Chance seems lost to the Human Target on so many levels. Yet facing this he continues to be the Human Target casting himself deeper and deeper into his own dilemma.


Copyright - DC Comics

This close examination of the confusion about and loss of identity in of itself would make for fascinating, at times uncomfortable reading. Peter Milligan goes further however. The cast he creates all seem to be having struggles with their identity in some way or other. The targets Chance replaces, the folks chasing them and a host of others all seem to have some sort of double life, or crisis of identity that stops them being who they are, or appear to be.

Two examples are particularly interesting, to me at least. Firstly Tom McFadden whose story book ends the run. First appearing in the mini-series and who comes back at the end of the ongoing run. McFadden is Chance's assistant, who impersonates Chance's after he (Chance) is horribly injured and having to undergo facial reconstruction. McFadden goes even further than Chance does in his assumption of someone else's identity and wants to actually become Chance rather than simply impersonate him. There is a resolution at the end of the mini, but he returns for the final ongoing arc of the series to try once again to assume Chance's life. Including his relationship with Mary White the woman Chance is trying to settle down with. Mary has of course been leading a double life as well as had been revealed earlier.

This sets up a fascinating conclusion with the three in an complex entanglement of who makes the better Christopher Chance. Does it matter if Mary loves Tom as Christopher more than the original Christopher and whether the loss of his identity to someone is actually liberating for Chance. How all this impacts on Tom and why he is so desperate to become this broken man. It's really heady stuff and just typing about it makes me want to re-read it so I can get my head back into it all. 


Copyright - DC Comics

The second character whose identity issues fascinate me, more than the rest, they are all interesting, is Emma Connors. Apparently a housewife (ouch should we use that term these days?) married to an author, her husband writes books about a character called Emerald, an assassin. Connors, when not supporting her husband, is indeed the assassin Emerald sent to kill Chance in the mini. What we don't know is whether the novels inspired Emma, or Emerald inspired the novels. Her husband apparently doesn't know that Emma is Emerald, or at least doesn't admit to knowing. Again the layers can be peeled away. Is her husband just allowing the lie to exist, denying the double life for his own needs, this happens a lot in the series.

Emma / Emerald also opens the ideas of how fiction impacts the double lives we create for ourselves, the way we play with our own identity or create for ourselves based on the story we engage with. She is of course a fictional character, creating an persona based on a fictional character, so there's probably an over reading I've done that this is all getting pretty meta... but that's likely just me stretching things. These comics will do that to you. They make you think. They make you consider the fictions you create for yourself about yourself. And that is why I think the clear focus of these stories really works.

There are plenty more characters, all the fleshed out ones in this work lead some sort of double life, or play with their identity in some way and I imagine everyone who reads it will be able to find their go to in the story, that reflects things to them about how we deal with our own identity and the fictions we show to others.


Copyright - DC Comics

So this all sounds a little cerebral so far, or at least I've tried to reflect that, whether that's worked, well that's up to you. I'm just trying to present as smart! With all this these comics never lose sight of the fact they are action adventure comics. All the playing with its key themes doesn't distract it from being a fun, action packed, violent, sexy piece of entertainment. They're dramatic and exciting. At times genuinely tense. Again a real benefit of Milligan giving things a really tight focus. By concentrating on his key theme the comics have the space and clarity they need to explore intriguing ideas really closely while keeping a pace and sense of action and adventure that I feel can sometimes get lost in Peter Milligan's more complex work (see I'm only pretending to be smart!).

I can't think of a story he's done that's managed to quite balance those two elements: the thought provoking ideas and the action, as well since maybe Bad Company. He does it with real skill in Human Target and it pulls you along with break neck speed and only when I'd stop to take a breath did I start to dwell on the deeper, more satisfying thoughts this was kicking off. It's brilliant stuff.


Copyright - DC Comics

With all this talk of Peter Milligan it's easy to lose sight of quite how good the art is throughout this run. Principally by Edvin Biukovic for the mini-series, Javier Pulido for the OGN and start of the ongoing, Cliff Chang finishing off the ongoing. There are a couple of fill-ins here and there. Each of these incredibly talented artists brings something different to the stories, they all add a slightly different slant. It is also of course very fitting that a series that deals with conflicts in identity and double lives has a number of different artists giving it varied looks and feels.

All of the artists are fantastic though and carry the storytelling, action and motion and the more intimate human moments real power and work perfectly well. The entire run is an artist treat.

Human Target is relatively close to the top of my re-read list and while writing the nonsense for all these series makes me want to immediately re-read pretty much everything I've whittered about, few, if any, have made me excited to return to a series more than this one. It's the type of series that I know will give me more, provide different insights each time I read it. While providing a thrilling comic adventure with a satisfying beginning, middle and end.


Copyright - DC Comics

Where to find it

Not  all of the run has been released in trades. You can get the mini, the OGN and the first 10 issues of the ongoing physically I believe. Which is a shame as this would make a lovely omnibus for those that like that sort of thing. What is it with DC and not releasing all of Peter Milligan's runs!

You can get it all digitally via Comixology... well Amazon Kindle these days I guess.

The aftermarket will be your friend here though. I got these from the lovely still occasional boarder 'I Cosh' (Hi Pete - thanks again for these, still love um. Hope this one might draw you here!) for bobbins. I've just done a quick search and you can get a full run of the ongoing for £25 all in for example (as I type likely finished by the time this comes out so no link). So worth it at that price.

Learn more

Obligatory Wikipedia page

Atomic Junk Shop has a fantastic overview of the series well worth reading.

Good Reads has all the normal reviews from folks.

That aside a criminally under discussed title worthy of much more love and attention. Kinda gets lost a little when you search in discussion of Tom King and Greg Smallwood's very good, but not this good recent mini.

What is all this?

Conscious that this is becoming a long thread and if you're wondering what the heck you've just read and can't be arsed (quite sensibly) to search back to find out I'll link to my opening posts that try to explain all this.

What this all came from

And of course a nerd won't do a list like this without setting 'Rules' / guidelines

Some thoughts on what will not be on the list.

I'm glad someone is finally remembering that Breaking Bad was orginally a British sitcom and the Vince Gilligan version was a US remake. 

LOVE the image by the way SharK!

Just a quick shout-out for this (re-scheduled) exhibition of original Will Eisner artwork that'll be opening in Hackney later this month...

https://boysadventurecomics.blogspot.com/2024/01/will-eisner-in-hackney.html

Would love to make it to that. Eisner was a genius.

That is a lovely page. I bet it smashes that estimate.

agree! I'll update the post once the auction ends

sold for 1,100 euro! plus fees

https://boysadventurecomics.blogspot.com/2024/01/strontium-dog-journey-into-hell.html

Worth every cent. Johnny's face on that Shooty panel is sublimely grim.

Hine and Kane are a great combo. Loved The Bulletproof Coffin in particular.

Yep I'm very fond of that one too. They are a great team and fit so well together.

[Number 113 - Cowboys and Insects]

Love when so contrasting series appear next to each other. All-bran is a wide open, massive piece of world building cross many volumes. This next, understandly (I hope) shorter entry... well its at the opposite end of the world building scale! That said may I give you...



Number 113 - Cowboys and Insects

Keywords: Short story, giant insects, morality tale

Creators:
Writer - David Hine
Art - Shaky Kane
Colours - Shaky Kane

Publisher: Aces Weekly digitally and Floating World Comics physically.

No. issues: 1
Date of Publication: 2013

Last read: The other day

By far the shortest series on the list, which might seem fitting but the insects in it are huge!


Copyright - them what created it...

Cowboys and Insects first appeared in the weekly digital comic Aces Weekly, and was picked up by Floating World Comics (a comic shop turned publisher) for a physical release in 2016. It comes in at a tiny 28 5.25" by 8" landscape pages and proves that good things do indeed come in small packages.

It tells a short morality tale about group think - or indeed a hivemind - being anathema to individuality, however ridiculous the ideas that group think is based on. Set in an alternative mid 20th century middle America it shows a society where nuclear testing has seen insects grow to enormous size and become the foundation of the US economy and life style. They are used for entertainment, and primary food source, herded by the cowboys of the title. We are introduced to this world by Chip, a young teenager in the 'perfect' nuclear family.


Copyright - them what created it...

He moves to a new town, falls for a girl, eats fried insect wings and rides with an ant-headed version of the KKK. A tale as old as time. His naivety and innocence is used to brilliantly contrast with the dark undercurrent of the world he lives in, covered in a veneer of civility. The wanderlust and just plain lust shines through his eyes. The damage of the cruelty towards those that don't conform is subtly presented in his quiet actions, the harm that does to him in turn.

All of this, the incredible world, the human characters are wonderfully realised by Shaky Kane's astonishing art. It conveys the abnormal with a gruesome calmness that really underpins its darker aspects without neutering them by sensationalising things... well not sensationalising giant stag beetles clashing as much as possible! Kane's characters look entirely normal, utterly real and yet his style has an uncanny ability to draw out the ugly in this normality, to juxtapose the bizarre with homely goodness to give it a jagged, uncomfortable feel that runs much deeper than the simple discomfort of the things we see before us. An insect production line is much more unsettling when drawn by Shaky Kane than anyone else.


Copyright - them what created it...

The colours add to this effect as well. Bright, welcoming, daylight colours that present the world in sunshine and add to the feeling that all is well, regardless of darkness slipping below the surface. Shaky Kane presents a David Lynch film in comic form, which perfectly adds to David Hine's story that plays with precisely this tone.

When making this list, Cowboys and Insects came quickly and easily to mind as one to be added. I did then wonder whether a one-shot like this could really justify the place. After all, can it really cover the ground and have the 'value' of much longer form stories that are able to explore much deeper, richer territory simply by virtue of the space they have. Unlike almost everything else I'll write about I therefore quickly re-read it. After all, it didn't take long. That re-read made it all too clear that it was entirely justified in its place, in fact I wondered if I'd placed it too low. That size doesn't indeed matter,... well much... it's how well you use it as the cliche holds.

All 28 pages here are used to perfection. The story is simple. Its key theme didn't need drawing out and the creators knew this and knew how much that story needed and didn't drag things out unnecessarily. In less skillful hands, or with creators with less abundant ideas that might well have been a temptation.


Copyright - them what created it...

After all, the world is very engaging and entertaining. There are plenty of ways this could be spun out. That temptation was deftly avoided though. Hine and Kane had a tale to tell, one with a focused point to make and they had the confidence to tell it with the space it needed. The dressing of a world with giant insects might be a temptation but the story came first and it's told with expert craft and then left.

While it might have limited space, it is densely packed. The world is fleshed out with detail and precision in the art work. The impact of the giant insects drops quietly and unobtrusively into any appropriate corner so you can dwell on the glorious pages to get a real sense of the world and how it operates. The characters are developed well to carry the story, but if we're honest it's not about them, they serve the story in this instance they don't need to be the story.

Then the ending, it is chilling as it is brilliant. It raises the dark undercurrents in the tale slowly and steadily to the surface making it clear that even in a short story such as this pacing is absolutely key. And here the pacing is perfect. Yes if there was more to tell this could place higher, longer form stories by these creators will show that later in the list. So its scale does limit its placing to some degree, but it takes nothing away from the fact that this story works perfectly in 28 pages and those 28 pages alone are worth a place in this list.


Copyright - them what created it...


Where to find it

This one looked like it was going to be tricky as the physical copy is long out of print and the one copy I could find in the aftermarket was stupidly expensive (I imagine with a bit of effort and patience you could get it a lot cheaper). I did wonder if this one was going to be next to impossible to get hold of BUT I checked Aces Weekly and it seems you can get the original Aces Weekly - its a digital comic - pretty cheaply. All the previous volumes are still available and if you scroll all the way down to Volume 5 the entire volume is just £6.99 apparently. You get a lot more besides. I can't speak to any of that as I haven't done it BUT it is good to know this stuff is available.

Learn more

Obligatory Wikipedia page ain't there for this one.

Not really surprisingly there is not a great deal out there about Cowboys and Insects, but there are a few bits and pieces.

The ever reliable Down the tubes has a nice preview - from where I 'nicked most me images.

Multiversity has a decent review.

As does Haunted phonograph.

I'm sure with a bit of effort you can dig out more.

What is all this?

Conscious that this is becoming a long thread and if you're wondering what the heck you've just read and can't be arsed (quite sensibly) to search back to find out I'll link to my opening posts that try to explain all this.

What this all came from

And of course a nerd won't do a list like this without setting 'Rules' / guidelines

Some thoughts on what will not be on the list.

Whilst on the topic, I really enjoyed my first experience of Bat Lash Colin, thanks for the impassioned post about it!

That's cool to hear, it really is such a fun comic.

...Leo has crafted one of the most enriching, all encompassing worlds in comics through this series that I can not only let it slide but offer it the highest of recommendations.
I really, really must get around to catching up!

Testify brother.

Cheers Colin! Not sure how I've missed that thread in the past.

Big Cinebook order coming up...

If you wait until you are at a Con they are at they typically have amazing deals if you buy in bulk. Just depends if you attend cons they go to... I miss going to Thought Bubble!

Intriguing one there Colin. I've looked at this series once or twice but never read any. The name always puts me in mind of All-Bran unfortunately and I think that's subliminally put me off by flavouring the series like a bland breakfast cereal in my mind.

I also always call Betelgeuse, Beetlejuice and have never been able to do otherwise regardless of what Tharg says!

I also think this looks really good and worth a look.

Cinebooks sheer volume of titles can often be a bit overwhelming if you don't know anything about them, so a recommendation is always welcome. The ones I've read have been generally excellent, although it's annoying (if understandable) when the art is edited.

Anyway, the first part of this series is definitely going on my future purchase list.

There's a thread with various recommendation if you can face wading through it. Generally just go for it as I've rarely been disappointed and the truism 'You can't judge a book by its cover.' is often wrong when it comes to Cinebook!