Architecture & Mortality

First off, the art by Cliff Chiang is perfect. Dynamic, clear, and solidly drawn. Most importantly, it's fun. That defines the whole book. It is fun. But despite the camp and the silliness (gay ghost pirates fighting the editorial gods to exist) Brian Azzarello creates deep and well drawn characters. One really comes to care about them and their tragedies by the end of the series. I dare guess that none of these characters has been this well written before. Specifically, Dr Thirteen has a long history with various brilliant Vertigo writers, and I never gave a damn about him (sorry, Neil Gaiman). Now I do. Unique talents creating a uniquely brilliant book.

A group of obscure, outdated and mostly forgotten comic book characters fight their creators for the right to exist. This should be a dreary post-modern mess but in fact it is lively, clever, surreal and fun. And funny! There's quite a few laugh out loud moments in the book. The characters include a frozen French caveboy, a goth vampire, a Nazi gorilla and a scientist who refuses to admit any of this is real. It's a worthwhile buy for anyone who loves comic books. You'll be wishing for a sequel!

Let's be clear, I'm not recommending this book to everyone. I wish I could, as it's very funny, well written, and at many places even thoughtful and touching. However, your enjoyment may depend quite a bit on being intimately familiar with DCU current events and DCU writers. However, if you are familiar with those things you will love this book. And I mean love it. It's a classic that I've re-read many times. At this years NYCC this was one of the few books to the convention to get signed (By Azzarello and Chiang.) I know that many of you out there are up-to-date on DCU writers and crisis'. If you are, do yourself a favor and pick this book up immediately. For those moderately familiar with the DCU this book has my absolute highest recommendation. Read it.

I honestly don't know what to think about Brian Azzarello. He does great gritty crimework on 100 Bullets. And then he has a lot of short, dark works. Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, Banner, Batman: City of Crime and Superman: for Tomorrow (the last two I'd consider REAL disappointments). And then there's this... I'd consider this an unofficial sequal to Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers of Victory maxiseries, as well as the two major DC Crises. If you don't have knowledge of those and aren't a fan of third and fourth string DC heroes, villains and gobbeldygook getting their time to shine in the spotlight, then this series isn't going to do much for you. However, if you do like this sort of stuff, this book has it in spades; it's weird and it's great and it's grand. Also, if you crave more Seven Unknown Men of Slaughter Swamp/The DC Architects weirdness, give this book a flip. I definitely came into this book with little to no expectation, just hoping the story would be as good as the art (by the way, Chiang, the artist, is BRILLIANT). And I was blown away. But, don't take my word for it!

This here collect the Doctor 13 back up stories that appeared in the most recent Spectre mini series. This is a very fun collection with great artwork that tackles and gives new life to some old minor DC characters. It's a trippy adventure tale laced with bits of humor that I enjoyed very much. I'd love to see this creative team do another Doctor 13 series.