Last Call Comics: Wednesday 10/23/24

Welcome to another edition of Last Call Comics. Here, as we continually bolster AIPT’s weekly comics coverage, we catch any titles that might’ve fallen through the cracks. Or those books that we might not cover but still deserve a little spotlight. Either way, it’s a chance to explore more comics, generate some novel insights, and maybe add to everyone’s to-be-read pile.

Once more, happy New Comic Book Day to everyone.

Dead Eyes: The Empty Frames #2

Writer Gerry Duggan, artist John McCrea, colorist Mike Spicer, and letterer Joe Sabino

In just one issue, Dead Eyes: The Empty Frames expertly demonstrated that sequels can be truly good. In two issues, it managed to effectively prove that very notion with endless vigor and passion.

Perhaps the biggest reason for that is the continued efforts by the art team. As Martin works toward re-stealing the previously stolen paintings, we get visual treats like a kinetic bank robbery in a checking cash place and even an extra nasty fight involving industrial-grade kitchen equipment. It’s all just blood and style and heft galore — a way to show how alive this story is and how it wields humor and violence to tell a proper slice of noir. That, and this latest chapter is developing an intensity and sense of momentum that’s entirely its own.

But the art works further still when it’s, for example, Martin and an old ally catching up — there’s so much emotion and humanity baked into this world. And that, perhaps even more than the glamour of bloody fistfights, is why The Empty Frames continues to excel. We get more of that across the board — not only in terms of the “legacy” of Dead Eyes (and all that significance it holds), but stuff with Wheels and his personal life. It’s about growing this story beyond the razzle dazzle, and further establishing real stakes and real people. Then, it’s not just another caper, but a real exploration of why people can’t give up this life and the desperation we all share for an easy fix to life’s biggest problems.

The first Dead Eyes arc was very much real and relatable, but The Empty Frames is becoming more vivid and tangible with each new panel. Issue #2 really showed that, amid the carnage and chaos, the story cares the most about breaking down the legends and mythos of this world to show that raw, pulsing nougat of relatable people stumbling for life and meaning. It does what all sequels need to: honor its past and blaze a brilliant new path with as much wit, prowess, and commitment as possible. The Empty Frames more than lives up to the ample hype because it’s exactly what it needs to be for this larger story.

Final Thought: If you want to do a sequel right, turn up the blood and the heartfelt displays.

Score: 8.5/10

Standstill #3

Writer/colorist Lee Loughridge and artist Andrew Robinson

Just like with issue #2, Standstill continues to truly work thanks to its big villain. But is he really all that nefarious? Because Standstill #3 paints a slightly more complex version of Ryker Ruel, who is just as likely to freeze time to steal coffee as he is to dole out punishment to some feckless socialite.

The question, then, becomes if we’re meant to love to hate this flamboyant sociopath? Or, are the creators wanting us to dig deeper? (It’s a prospect made even more difficult to discern as Ryker’s “scenes” carry ample visual heft, like how time freezing is continued to be treated with true care, or a dope scene with a Bentley and the Hollywood Hills.) And that comes as our “good guy,” scientist Colin Shaw, continues to not only make slow progress — it’s annoying but probably good for tempering our engagement and expectations — as we also begin to wonder just why Ruel needs to be stopped in the first place. The world’s chaotic enough, right, and so what’s wrong with someone, in Ruel’s own words, tipping the balance?

And that’s when it becomes even more clear that Standstill may be far more interested less in a battle of good versus evil, but rather ideas of obsession, control, and the perilous state of our modern social norms. That maybe Ruel’s not good, but a force for asking really big questions. And that as much as we’re to celebrate Shaw’s heroic efforts, maybe his campaign is only about glorifying himself over actually countering his “heinous rival.”

The end result is the same for us readers: a proper game of cat and mouse that, while slower/deliberate in some parts, is mostly thrilling in its set pieces and inventive enough in its morals and narrative to feel truly special. Good? Bad? This is the book with all the power and commitment to tell a rich, hilarious, and gutting story about what people are truly capable of these days.

Final Thought: Somehow the car stuff isn’t even the best part.

Score: 8/10

Convert #3

Writer John Arcudi, artist Savannah Finley, colorist Miguel Co, and letterer Michael Heisler

Convert‘s first two issues struggled with a certain sense of over-familiarity. Orrin’s journey after his crew’s death just smacked of Avatar, Robinson Crusoe, and John Carter, and those connections stymied some of the potential of this series. (Namely, the gorgeous art and Orrin’s complexity and sensitivity as a lead.)

But Convert #3 goes ahead and finally takes some massive steps on its own with an especially potent but also morally and emotionally challenging chapter.

Without spoiling too much, Orrin’s immersion into the local populace goes from peaceful cross-species collaboration into forcing our young lead into asking some big questions about the kind of person he is, if he can or wants to transform/adapt, and the inevitability of violence and death. Pair that with some of the finest art so far — really playing into the gorgeous but bizarre nature of this world and preparing our brain for these big questions with true psychedelic wonders — and this issue feels like we’ve removed our skin outright.

And in doing so, we are laid totally bare to the existential and moral ideas at the heart of this book, these gentle but vital questions that push the book into new directions and make it so much more than its inspiration/narrative cohorts. (Again, it’s really the art’s more ethereal tendencies this time around that begin to define a wholly new identity for this world that makes these questions feel more robust but also natural.)

It’s really the first time in this run that the book stands fully on its own to feet, and it’s this gorgeous, thrilling, and massively thoughtful experience that will have you second-guessing your own ideas and assumptions about the world. It’s a story that’s finally found new threads or idea to call its own, and while that familiarity still stands, Convert is finally bringing us into territory that demands new energies and thought processes from its reader. It truly feels like a proper adventure now, and I hope there’s still heaps more to offer even with just one final issue.

Final Thought: Get ready to wander into the great, wide emotional unknown.

Score: 8/10

The Body Trade #2

Writer Zac Thompson, artist Jok, and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

Anyone who has ever experienced a loved one’s death knows that grief is a messy little jerk. And that’s really the thread and theme that brilliantly emerges with issue #2 of The Body Trade.

As Kim continues to track down his dead son Charlie’s remains, he fumbles in a way that we all might, capturing the kind of crippling sadness and overt confusion that comes when we lose someone so significant. It’s also a way in which the narrative and the art are further aligning — Jok’s whole style/approach is wonderfully gritty, delightfully messy, and utterly real, and he captures a slice of life that feels very authentic and unassuming in its views of people and the world. With that alignment, then, we’re exploring death and the aftermath in a way that feels increasingly visceral and wholly at eye level, a depiction of the complex web of feelings and reactions that really unite us all in this most shitty of human experiences.

Other threads also extend across this second chapter — the dynamic between Kim and the “body trade agent” feels like an Odd Couple situation, and I want way more of that back-and-forth. Plus, the continued near-future stuff is even more interesting here; people have this contentious relationship with technology, and it’s a whole other level to how death is commodified and how something so intimate and vital is being further removed from our shared control.

All of it together just demonstrates that The Body Trade is up to some interesting things as the series further develops its identity, overarching world, and interesting subtext and observations. It’s a painful, jagged story that I can’t seem to get enough of — it just makes pain feel so cathartic and human, and it gives us such a novel space to work out these truly massive ideas.

Maybe this book can’t ever make you feel good about death (yours or someone near and dear). But then maybe that’s not the point: it’s a gross, soul-crushing process, and the best art makes you lean into that with your whole dang chest.

Final Thought: Maybe not a light in the dark but a buddy in the shadows.

Score: 7.5/10

Universal Monsters: Frankenstein #3

Writer/artist Michael Walsh, colorist Toni-Marie Griffin, and letterer Becca Carey

As much humanity as Universal Monsters: Frankenstein #2 offered, that was only the beginning of this monster truly and fully coming to life.

Because issue #3 spends the bulk of its time further romanticizing Dr. Henry Frankenstein, using everything from flowery dialogues from his betrothed, Elizabeth, from a singular portrait packed with unwavering life to cut through all the horror. But none of this is to ever diminish the good doctor’s actions, and we get some things that complicate this story in the best way.

The first is a clever little twist/wrinkle to the heart that powers Frankenstein’s monster — it calls into question just how oblivious or above it all Dr. Frankenstein truly is (or isn’t). And the second is bringing the young orphan boy, Paul, back into the mix. Since I missed his presence and the layers that he added in issue #2, his comparison to the doctor in issue #3 manages to A) contextualize the campaign to make the doctor more sympathetic, and thus have it feel more potent and multifaceted and B) extend this issue’s efforts in a wider net, and to wring out even more truth and insights from the core of Frankenstein.

Sure, Elizabeth can feel a touch like a pawn or literary device here (maybe because she’s seemingly the only truly good and stable presence here), but it all sensationalizes and grows what this story’s really about: that deeply human journey of getting lost in pain and grief, and what you’re willing to do to settle your heart. And in that way, the book continues to dazzle (alongside some tonally perfect horror that hums with old-school might and always goes right for the throat).

The series has brought all of its ideas and interests to center in this penultimate issue, and it all feels so wonderfully up in the air in terms of what will win out in the end, the true monsters or the innocent souls (and just who occupies what role). No matter how it all shakes out, though, this adaptation has tackled its source material head on with even more terror, tenderness, and overt creativity.

Final Thought: This penultimate chapter is very much this series’ beating heart.

Score: 7.5/10

Self Help #5

Writers Jesse Kellerman and Owen King, artist Mariana Ignazzi, colorist Fabiano Mascolo, and letterer/designer Ian Chalgren

The appeal of Self Help (at least for this fella) was always the slow burn of it all. The way things gradually and deliberately built up as we saw Jerry transform into Darren and deal with the stream of resulting opportunities and consequences as the self-help kingpin of SoCal. And in that pace and speed, we’ve gotten a really solid story, one that used the framework of a great crime story to break down ideas of identity, the self-help community at-large, and even the way we tell stories to shape the world.

But eventually all slow-burning stories have to reach their end, and while Self Help is already set to return in spring 2025 for a brand-new chapter, this first arc ended in a slightly bizarre, half-cocked manner.

On the one hand, Jerry’s “transformation” seems to be complete thanks to a talk show appearance, which proved to be this extra robust mix of emotionality and visual magic. (There’s more such magic across this issue with more background into Darren/Jerry’s time in prison.) But this issue just felt too open-ended and focused on what story it still wants to tell and not what story it has told. As such, things end sort of wrap up unevenly and a touch haphazardly, and that slow-burning pace which worked so well mostly tumbles off a cliff that you hope is thrilling on the way down.

On the plus side, it feels like we’re at a place to focus much less on the development aspects and more the gooey bits, like a possible new player, the ongoing threat of Ove the Swedish badass, and if Darren/Jerry and his family can make it all work amid their con. But I still can’t help but feel like we went from a solid jog in this world, taking all of its layers in at our own pace, into a final, panicked scramble to a midway point that’s seemingly exciting but also just a shade too different and untested.

The upsides of Self Help demand that I absolutely continue the journey, but I can’t say I’m entering this new chapter with total confidence. Maybe I just need to visit a Darren Hart seminar, yeah?

Final Thought: The journey was great, but man oh man, you better watch that final step.

Score: 6.5/10