I picked up a pretty massive stack of trade paperbacks at Chicago Comic Con 2009 – those $5 bins (and cheaper, late Sunday) provide a nice way to fill holes in your collection or try out books you might have passed by at full price. Marvel books are particularly plentiful (because of their overprint policies, I presume). I also snagged some indie books from creators in artist alley. So here it is 6 months later and I’m still wading through my to-read queue. Here’s a couple I’ve read in the last couple of weeks:

The Colodin Project
Written & Illustrated by Ken Krekeler

This was an impulse buy in Artist Alley. The cover grabbed me, and the writer/artist was friendly and engaging (and he still owes me a sketch). Published by Ronin Studios, the TPB is very well printed and produced, with slick pages that showcase the books art and design well.

Dubbed “a modern murder mystery”, it lives up well to the latter half. With classic noir-stylings, shady clients and private dicks with shadowy histories, the murder mystery hits the right notes, feeling comfortable but also intriguing. As for “modern”… the world of Colodin feels decidedly old-school. The characters carry cellphones, but spend a lot of time leaving messages on antiquated home answering machines. Computers are cursory to their investigations. The real twist of Colodin is Quinn, a 15 year-old master thief and possible murderer, raised and trained in an outside place, an alter realm for only the most gifted, significantly different from our own. The glimpses into Quinn’s past and world are what set Krekeler’s tale apart from the noir tradition. Those scenes are jarring, probably by intention, and occasionally pull the reader out of the story with a “WFT?” reaction. However, as the book progresses, the intrigues hold the interest and the ideas cement satisfyingly. This is meant to be the first volume in a series. I hope they manage to continue – I’m enjoying the story and would really like to see where it goes.

Website: TheColodinProject.com

X-Factor Visionaries: Peter David – Volume 1
Written by Peter David; Art by Larry Stroman & Al Milgrom

I got into comics back around 1993, driven into my local comic shop after watching the new Fox animated X-Men series. I snatched up anything with an X in the title, which eventually got me hooked on Peter David’s now-classic run on X-Factor. Picking up as the new team was assembled – Havok, Polaris, Wolfsbane, Quicksilver, Strong Guy and Multiple Man – I enjoyed being on the ground floor of a new X-team. I was particularly fascinated by Jamie Madrox’s power of multiplicity (an infinitely practical talent I quite envy) and identified with reluctant leader (and Cyclops’ younger brother) Alex Summers. I considered X-Factor my favorite superhero book through the first phase of my comic reading (an era ended when all of my hometown comic stores simultaneously went out of business).

I managed to procure all 4 volumes of X-Factor Visionaries at the con on the cheap, as well as the first 4 volumes of David’s new incarnation of the book. I tore through the new ones first, eager to soak in fresh stories, and found them up to Peter David’s usual standard of quick, witty, light fare. However, a volume into the original series and I’m afraid this is going to be like Goonies for me – a beloved story from childhood whose reality pales to my memory of it.

Volume One’s story arch features all the hallmarks of 80s and early 90s comics – slipshod pacing, unrealistic situations and interpersonal reactions, out-of-place future tech and gimmicky characters. Stroman’s art, known for his graphic design influences and abstract geometrics, bounces between inventive panel stylings and undecipherable visual storytelling. The villains are silly, the heroes foolish and the situations implausible. In the casual manner of pre-911 comics, one of the heroes accidentally destroys the Washington Monument, with very little repercussion. The whole affair feels messy. The dialogue pops and some bits of action are exciting, but the formation of the group feels flimsy and unlikely.

I’m hoping the book picks up across the next three volumes, but I’m a little way into the second (which starts with an Incredible Hulk crossover) and it doesn’t look promising. Perhaps things will improve when Joe Quesada’s penciling run begins, and that the “X-Factor Sees a Shrink” issue lives up to my recollection. That story made a real impression on me as a teenager, an example of how a “superhero” book could tell an effective, emotionally complex story without any superfluous action and mutant shenanigans.