Books

_Superman: Earth One_, J. Michael Stracynski

JMS manages to say nothing new about Superman. The art (Shane Davis) is a little odd: so many stray lines look like he means to make everything and everyone old, whereas I think he intended to suggest texture. I didn't see it.

A slightly different take on The Origin Story Everyone Knows, but neither sufficiently weird to be character-changing nor sufficiently familiar to be comforting. I like Grant Morrison's one page, 8-word take ( http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4e/CompressedOrigin.jpg ) if you're going to take it on at all.

Books

_Superman: Earth One_, J. Michael Stracynski

JMS manages to say nothing new about Superman. The art (Shane Davis) is a little odd: so many stray lines look like he means to make everything and everyone old, whereas I think he intended to suggest texture. I didn't see it.

A slightly different take on The Origin Story Everyone Knows, but neither sufficiently weird to be character-changing nor sufficiently familiar to be comforting. I like Grant Morrison's one page, 8-word take ( http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4e/CompressedOrigin.jpg ) if you're going to take it on at all.

Books

_Local_, Brian Wood (most of the words) and Ryan Kelly (pictures, some of the words)

It's comics, but it's not superheroes. No detectives. No invincible tough guys, no criminal masterminds. It's a novel which happens to be largely pictorial. 12 chapters of the life of Megan, each in a subsequent year and a different city, telling different stories but also contributing to a picture of her life from 17 to 30, in cities all around North America.

In my listing of _Superman: Earth One_, I was critical of an art style with lots of tiny little lines. It didn't work (for me) there. But Kelly's art here is ALL tiny little lines, and it does work, very well. Things are old and beaten up and thrown away, all in black and white... I remember some scenes in color, even though I know they didn't happen that way. Strange.

Books

_Local_, Brian Wood (most of the words) and Ryan Kelly (pictures, some of the words)

It's comics, but it's not superheroes. No detectives. No invincible tough guys, no criminal masterminds. It's a novel which happens to be largely pictorial. 12 chapters of the life of Megan, each in a subsequent year and a different city, telling different stories but also contributing to a picture of her life from 17 to 30, in cities all around North America.

In my listing of _Superman: Earth One_, I was critical of an art style with lots of tiny little lines. It didn't work (for me) there. But Kelly's art here is ALL tiny little lines, and it does work, very well. Things are old and beaten up and thrown away, all in black and white... I remember some scenes in color, even though I know they didn't happen that way. Strange.