Comics Grinder

REVENGER & THE FOG by Charles Forsman

A vast and desolate wasteland, suitable for any action or exploitation movie, serves as the magnificent backdrop for REVENGER & THE FOG, the second collected volume of the ongoing Revenger comic book series by Charles Forsman. What I readily come away with is this: a horror schlock genre opens up a wide field for comics but it’s not so easy to get it right. You need a strong narrative backbone to keep all the flesh and blood moving along. Forsman jiggles it all into place with a masterful touch.

An instant taxicab ride.

Quentin Tarantino easily comes to mind as a practitioner of the type of movie terror that Forsman is channeling. Everything and everyone is cast in a pale yellow light of sheer desperation. We know from the get-go that the characters that dwell within mostly, or exclusively, eat raw meat…perhaps drink blood too. It is nothing to them to humiliate, mutilate,…well, you get the picture. A little goes a long way. Not my preferred cup of tea but, then again, it all depends upon the writing. Forsman is sensitive to those proper modulations of gore.

No one messes with Revenger!

As I understand it, Reggie, aka Revenger, is a one-woman force of nature, easily the lone wolf but open to companionship from time to time. For this collection, we follow Revenger when she belonged to a vigilante gang known as The Fog in Los Angeles in the late ’70s. This is a most unlikely assembling of brute force and cunning not seen since the A-Team. Revenger has fallen head over heels for Jenny, aka Dynarat. It is a love affair fraught with danger and ill-fated beyond words. Billy, aka Slim, offers some crude technical skill. Tara, aka Scalpel, is a martial arts guru.

The basic story here is a goofy nihilist joy ride. Dynarat is kidnapped by her abusive movie mogul father. Revenger must find a way to rescue her. The story dares you to take it seriously. Within context, it works its magic, much in the same way as other forms of parody and good obsessive autobio can sway the reader. The intriguing thing about this comic is that Forsman, like Tarantino, is intimately involved with his subject matter, both playfully satirizing it as well as paying it respect. There is irony but it’s not all irony. It’s a joke but it’s not all a joke. Essentially, Forsman works from a platform that provides exhilarating freedom for a cartoonist to take big risks: the arena of pure artifice, pure entertainment.

Revenger tells it like it is.

Forsman has an admirable control over some pretty weird proceedings and keeps to a steady pace, mindful of the distinct journey each character is on. It is one thing to create a scene with some impressive slicing and dicing of body parts. But your story will never truly succeed if no one cares. We care about all the characters in this story, even the most repulsive ones. We don’t wish the villains well but we do get caught up in them.

Well, you get caught up in everyone’s business as much as you please. This is a deliciously artificial world we are navigating through. No wonder this gritty pumped up terrain, this hyperreal wasteland, attracts some of the most creative minds. You can mix and match an endless sea of possibilities: the inane headbutts the profound.

Forsman, much like his contemporary Michel Fiffe (COPRA), has the admirable distinction of tackling all aspects of his work: the writing, the drawing, and even the coloring. While pretty common in indie circles, this kind of involvement is nearly unheard of within corporate comic book publishers. In the case of Forsman, he does quite well in serving his cryptic vision alone. His wiry characters get bathed in just the right quirky color schemes. Tongues can stick out and be painted a bright fire engine red! It all makes sense: perfectly oddball and compelling story, art, and colors.

The world of action B-movies, it turns out, is just another world, with as much to offer as any wonderland or netherworld. And, as I suggested early, it is a satisfying and quite apt playground for comics. There is a thread from Herriman’s Krazy Kat to Kaz’s Underworld to Forsman’s Revenger comics. A final thought: After you complete the main story, you have an extra feature which is Revenger lost, appropriately enough, in a hell hole. It is a fitting end to a most intriguing collection of work.

REVENGER & THE FOG, the second volume of Revenger comics, is a 160-page full color trade paperback, published by Bergen Street Press. For more details, and how to purchase the work of both Charles Forsman and Michel Fiffe, visit Bergen Street Press right here. Visit Charles Forsman right here. And be sure to stop by and consider becoming a patron of Charles Forsman at his Patreon right here.

“COPRA” is a 24-page monthly comic, full of handmade goodness, and a force of nature. And it proves that sometimes the best thing to do is to do it yourself. That is what Brooklyn cartoonist Michel Fiffe has concluded. He is on a quest to create something different and compelling. It is a journey that began with aspiring to the work of Steve Ditko and led to a deeper understanding of Ditko and beyond and…”COPRA.”

Working at a breakneck pace, Michel Fiffe is currently doing what he can, with all his heart and talent, to bring you the very best in monthly original superhero comics. If you like the more balls-to-the-wall offbeat stuff, you’ll love this. Think “Suicide Squad,” for instance. Or “Doom Patrol.” Well, that’s some DC Comics. On the Marvel side, think “Doctor Strange” or…well, you get the picture. Fiffe is after carving out his own niche within that wonderful world of ragtag heroes taking on sinister forces.

Fiffe is aware of what he’s trying to conjure up. The world of independent alternative comics and mainstream superhero comics are two separate worlds that, over the years, have made some very compelling interconnections. The term, “fusion comics,” was coined by Frank Santoro to define this melding of indie with superhero. Fiffe writes about it here.

As a fusion cartoonist, Fiffe rides the new wave with just the right understated gusto. Characters, for example, in his hybrid of indie and superhero are decidedly uncharismatic. They are everyday people, at their core, rather than glamorous and sexy. You might think of Peter Parker, for instance, as being a classic everyman but no, he’s not really. He’s just too likable. He’s just too cute and well put together compared to what’s possible. This is not to needlessly slam Spider-Man since the love for the guy remains for Fiffe and, most likely, for you, dear reader. It’s more a desire, I think, to subvert expectations and insert something raw and new that motivates Fiffe.

Art is a complicated thing. It is not delicate. It is not aloof. Art is heroic and dramatic as well as purposeful. Fiffe is answering that call. “COPRA,” I suspect, is intentionally messy and cluttered. Just like a house packed with housemates, and their uninvited friends, creating confusing and frustrating chatter, random and unfiltered, so goes “COPRA.” This comic welcomes that mundane reality. The characters are constantly bickering like malcontents, like run of the mill housemates. No one stands out. The plot takes on that shaggy dog vibe too. It can be hard to follow all the way and that, according to your taste, can be fascinating or not. Too much text crammed into too small spaces doesn’t help the cause either. That said, I tend to want to fall in with being intrigued by it all.

Basically, you’ve got a bunch of the most strange and unlikely heroes doing battle with another bunch of the most strange and unlikely villains. That alone, can be a lot of fun. Yes, this comic has a certain something about it. I was about to say, “energy,” but it’s of a subversive kind. These characters, this plot, the action, the ass kicking, all move at a snail’s pace. Is it offbeat simply for the sake of being offbeat? Well, try it on for size and see what you think. The lack of clarity will prove a stumbling block. Based on his observations on the back page of “COPRA,” Fiffe states that he’s not afraid to run with an idea and just go with, not edit himself. To create on the fly is like walking on a tight rope..without a net.

Getting back to “fusion comics,” Marvel and DC Comics, to their credit, have brought in cartoonists from the “underground” and put them behind the wheel of some awesome stuff. It doesn’t get any better, for instance, when DC Comics gives Paul Pope the keys to the Batmobile. One of the most notable experiments was some years back when Marvel Comics did a remake of “Omega the Unknown” with Farel Dalrymple as artist and novelist Johnathan Lethem as writer. Most unusual and yet it has become an accepted practice to mix things up, from time to time, when finding talent for mainstream superheroes. Maybe it is just a matter of time before Marvel and DC Comics come calling Fiffe. Frankly, it probably won’t be soon but you never know. Whatever the case, Michel Fiffe should come out alright.

In conclusion, “COPRA” is a highly imaginative and daring comic. The plot remains too insular, seeming to follow its own internal logic. It should be opened up more for readers. I am betting that will happen. And I welcome your viewpoint if you believe that to already be happening. Experimental comics are a unique nut to crack. That said, I also believe this comic deserves a continued look. Who knows where “COPRA” or Michel Fiffe, for that matter, will be in a few years. No doubt, it will be some place interesting.

Visit Michel Fiffe’s site here. You can order copies directly through Fiffe. And to make it more fun, let your comics shop know about “COPRA” if they haven’t gotten the word yet.