I’ve always thought that the way comics work, it’s hard to execute a proper laugh-out-loud joke. The timing seems too difficult. As a medium, comics is unusual in that it’s very easy to read forwards and backwards from your current position, even peripherally, and that means you can potentially comprehend a punchline before you’ve even read the joke. It takes a special level of skill for a writer and artist to execute a joke as powerfully as any stand-up routine or sitcom, and when you combine that with the need to get all that right AND intersect with the reader’s sense of humour, the odds of getting genuine laughter drop even further.

Either way, there are a lot of comics with jokes that have made me smirk. Plenty that have elicited a small, internal chuckle. Loads that I’ve quoted or repeated because they were funny. But right now, only one springs which actually made me laugh, and that’s S.W.O.R.D. #4

Written by Kieron Gillen and drawn by Stephen Sanders, S.W.O.R.D. was, as Gillen himself described it, “His Girl Friday, in space” – a sci-fi relationship comedy. Ostensibly, it span out of Warren Ellis’ Astonishing X-Men run and starred Beast and his girlfriend Agent Brand, a superhero comic disguised as as indie comic disguised as a superhero comic. It even co-starred Death’s Head, if you’re into that. Unfortunately, despite being one of the best Marvel comics of this/last year, it was only read by about 6 people. I don’t have full access to the economics, but I suspect it needed at least double that to survive.

The reason I remember that this comic, specifically, made me laugh is because of where I was when it happened. I was on the tube back home, after buying the week’s comics. Hunched up in the corner, working my way through my  pile and trying not to draw too many puzzling stares (which, as a 27-year-old reading comics on the train, is never easy) and then I go to the joke. And I laughed. Out loud. On the train. My cover was well and truly blown, and an entire carriage of people got the confirmation they needed that the reason I was reading comics on public transport was because I was, as they had suspected, mentally subnormal, because only someone mentally subnormal would be comfortable laughing that loud, to no-one but themselves, while on public transport. But I don’t care. In life, I’ll take a laugh over anything else (which, genuinely, has been a problem at funerals in the past).

I don’t want to spoil the joke itself, but suffice to say, in writing terms it was like watching Chekov’s gun being fired, only to discover that instead of a bullet, there was a little flag inside with the word “bang” on. And “bang” was deliberately mispelled. Not only did I not see the punchline coming, I didn’t even realise I was reading the lead-in until it was too late. The line, for those of you that know or have the issue, was “Stop everyone! We’ve made enormous mistake!”. The rest of you, do yourselves a favour and buy the collection. It’s unlike anything else I’ve read in years, and I mean that in the best possible way.

Just a quickie, but as one of the voices that championed Kieron Gillen and Steven Sanders’ S.W.O.R.D. online for its all-too-brief run, it behoves me to mention the fact that the trade paperback comes out this week. It was a lovely little series – funny and sharp as well as packed with rip-roaring action and quotable dialogue. As we’ve said before, in being a character-driven comedic action series by an up-and-coming British writer and a sorely underexposed North American artist and edited by Nick Lowe, it was basically the new Captain Britain and MI13 – and it sadly went the same way, even more quickly. But the five issues that it made it to are well worth a read (it’s arguably Gillen’s finest Marvel work yet), especially in valuerific trade form, so I heartily recommend picking it up, yes?

Although reading this from Gillen did make me a little sad:

Go pick it up. When do so, pass on my hellos to Beast and Brand, because I kinda miss the pair of them.

Interesting to note, also, that it’s been rebranded as X-Men: S.W.O.R.D. in this form. Perhaps in an attempt to actually, you know, sell some copies?

One of the things that often presented a challenge to our “review a day” format at Comics Daily was the sheer inconsistency of comics shipping – the fact that, although there should really ostensibly be a fairly even spread of comics worth reviewing (whether a book we’re buying anyway, or one we wouldn’t if we weren’t reviewing but considered worth trying to say something about) over the four (or sometimes five) shipping weeks of each month. But that often wouldn’t tend to be the case, and we were frequently left scrabbling over B- or C-list main superhero universe titles that – and no disrespect to the creators involved – aren’t always the easiest thing to find an angle on if you’re not a fan.

Conversely, we’d often find ourselves with a week where there were lots of books we fancied covering, but simply didn’t have the time between us. Often, a lot of my favourite books – from Phonogram to Batman and Robin, Captain Britain to Ultimate Spider-Man – end up coming out in the same week, which makes for a fun visit to Forbidden Planet, but a difficult quandary when working out what to write about. Our “Sunday Pages” capsule review posts would help with this, obviously – and both James and I have also tended to find of late that these shorter reviews are quite enjoyable to put together. With that scheduled series of posts temporarily on hold, however (I, or we, may revisit it at some point – but for the moment one of the things we’re exploring with the new format is not having a specific schedule to stick to beyond “something every day”), there won’t be a regular set of capsules each week, but every so often a week may come along in which I feel the urge to ramble on about a handful of books. This is just such a week, so read on for brief reviews of Powers, Ex Machina, S.W.O.R.D. and more…

Read the rest of this entry »

This week: Reviews of Dark X-Men #4, Daytripper #3, SWORD #4 and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #7! Read the rest of this entry »

This week: Reviews of Adventure Comics #6, Amazing Spider-Man #617 and Buffy #31, and a reaction to the SWORD cancellation. Read the rest of this entry »

We do tend to have our “pet” series here at Comics Daily, it must be said. But when we genuinely enjoy the likes of Captain Britain and MI13 and Phonogram (or, in Julian’s case, X-Force) more than most other things out there, and we feel they’re not getting the attention or sales they deserve, then it can feel like a duty to try and communicate that enthusiasm, in the hope that one or two people pay attention to it. So if you feel we’re giving undue prominence to Kieron Gillen’s writing at the moment, then sorry – but he’s really on form at the moment, and I think I speak for all of us when I say we really like his recent comics.

And truth be told, if what you want from a mainstream superhero comic is glorious, fun, witty, gripping, clever escapism, then S.W.O.R.D. ticks all the boxes. It’s just full of those little “Cor, yes!” moments, whether it’s an endless stream of quotable dialogue (“That’s the problem with these superheroic overcompensating altruists”; ”Is it because of the long hair? Ah, the forces of the man do assail us freedom-loving hippies, libertines and similar”) or plot moments such as Lockheed (yes, Lockheed) kicking arse or Beast’s quite, quite brilliant escape plan (one that also, in an unexpected way, calls back a plot point from the previous two issues). And then there’s the characterisation – it’s just spot on throughout – Beast’s transformation into a loveable, wisecracking leading man has been just fantastic (best version of the character for years, even possibly superseding Morrison’s. See, the good writers just get Hank), and if there’s any justice, the idea that he can carry a series will be this book’s greatest legacy. But then you’ve got the layers of Brand being, against her resistance, quietly peeled away; a (potential) origin story and (potential) set of origins for Unit, depending on how much you’re willing to believe him; and the fact that Gillen is savvy – and brave – enough to actually go behind the motivations of Gyrich and almost give him a sympathetic moment or two.

And that’s part of the reason why the plot of this works. You don’t agree with what Gyrich is doing, obviously – but you can see why it’s happening, in the paranoid, Osborn-influenced state Marvel’s USA is in the tail end of at the moment (good to see direct reference, too, to HAMMER having an unseen influence on the book’s events). It’s not entirely dissimilar, of course, to the “no Kryptonians!” setup over in the Superman books at the moment, but… well, less irritating, for a start. But truth be told, the fun in this book is less about what’s happening, and more how it does. It breezes along on a wave of effortless confidence and sharp humour, with Sanders’ zesty artwork striking the right balance between cartoonish humour and energetic action. In a couple of years of reviewing comics for this site, I think I’ve revealed a a clear pattern in the things I like to see in my superhero books - attributes exemplified by the likes of Blue Beetle, Captain Britain and Ultimate Spider-Man. S.W.O.R.D. has most of them in spades, and I’m very glad it’s around – for however long.