Comics Fondle

Weird, word, wyrd. Weirdling is a highly derivative sci-fi horror comic, but the derivativeness doesn’t bother me at all (though I will list all the obvious references just for fun). No, what bugs me is the language. It’s all the same stuff I’ve heard before–“wyrd” in particular just rubs me the wrong way. And the title also bugs me because it’s an easily pronouncable, readable word (wyrd), whereas its use in the story suggests something very different. It’s a little nitpicking, but I read Weirdling in parts, so I came back to it again and again, knowing what I knew about the story and seeing the title there every time I picked it up again.

But I did like Weirdling. It’s a fifteen dollar book and it took me around ninety minutes to two hours to read, adding up the parts–I mean, I actually couldn’t have read it on the toilet, which doesn’t happen any more. Well, I suppose I could have, but I’d be real stiff. Weirdling is a relatively complicated–I don’t really know what happened at the climax, I’m just kind of guessing–throwback to the 1980s, when sci-fi and horror were big on their own concepts (or their adaptations of other people’s concepts), not on the zeitgeist.

Weirdling is, I think, described as Lovecraft meets sci-fi. Probably not, that description sounds really bad. But it is. It’s a far-reaching sci-fi concept thing meets Lovecraft through a neat flashback sequence and a dual reality I really can’t understand. There are hints in the story–maybe–but it’d be a lot of work to unravel them and it doesn’t really affect the read.

It’s also either self-published or really small-time published and I can’t believe it. There needs to be a publisher putting out work like this one (I thought it’d be Desperado, but I guess not). Dubisch has some occasionally sloppy art moments–I’m not sure if the main character is supposed to have a really long neck–but he’s got a good sense of composition and the art’s generally quite nice, evoking a Berni Wrightson but not really feel. Dubisch’s art is finished, the inks very definite, very assured. He’s also very excited about the work and the enthusiasm–and Weirdling’s very big ideas–make for a really engaging read.

I tend to hate men writing female protagonist narrators (oh, I forgot to do the influences–I’ll skip it, but “just think Ripley” seems to be the catch-phrase) and, along with Weirdling’s strange “issue breaks”–even though it’s a graphic novel, some sections are clearly meant to be read as stand-alone floppies–it’s Weirdling’s biggest problem. Dubisch isn’t bad at it–much better than most mainstream writers (he’s married with daughters according to the bio, which might have something to do with it)–but there’s still the ‘death metal and puppies’ thing he doesn’t have.

To come clean, I got a reviewer’s copy of Weirdling and I’m really glad I did because I don’t know if I would have found it otherwise. I don’t know if it’s in Diamond and I haven’t seen any press about it online and it’s a successful comic book… Like I said, it evokes a sense of nostalgia, not for any specific comic book (though I did think of Dean Motter and Ken Steacy’s The Sacred and the Profane when I started it), but of a better time for the industry in terms of there being good comic books for people to read.

B

Technorati Tags: Comic Book, Mike Dubisch, Review, Strange Fear Books, Weirdling

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