B. Clay Moore | Enemy of Peanuts

So, if you’ve been reading the blog, you’ve probably noticed that I’m a big fan of many of the Kansas City-based creators in the comics world. The ranks of KC talent who’s books I’m madly in love with include Jason Aaron, B. Clay Moore, Tony Moore and Matt Fraction as well as the up-and-coming Seth Peck—who co-writes the Image book ’76 with Clay—and who I’m becoming more and more a fan of with each issue.

Why do I dig this KC Collective so much? Ever since my college days in Columbia, MO (a little over a 2-hour jaunt from KC) when I realized half the books I was digging were written by guys a short car trip away not deep in the urban jungle of New York or across the pond, well, it just felt kinda cool to know I was reading stuff by “local” talent.

I did an article on Midwestern Comic Talent back then where I talked with Clay, Jason and Matt and I’ve since talked to Jason about his current runs on Wolverine and Ghost Rider, but I’ve never met him in person. So, knowing he was going to be at NYCC, I made a note to seek him out.

Andy Serwin and I were both talking about how much we love Jason’s Vertigo series Scalped not to mention the Wolvie and Ghost Rider issues he’s done so far, and were kicking around the idea of approaching Jason to do a blog on WU….

…Quick aside…here’s a picture of sexy/deadly, naked Mystique by Ron Garney from Jason’s current Wolverine arc…yeah, it’s a freakin’ awesome book!…

…anyway, I sought out Jason on the show floor yesterday evening and found him camping out at buddy Tony Moore’s booth taking a break after a long day of Con action and finally got to shake the hand of Mr. Aaron. Yes, one of the same hands that typed Scalped! I know that’s extremely nerdy to say, but getting to meet a writer who’s work you really enjoy and admire—especially as a writer myself—well, its pretty darn cool!

I didn’t pester the man too long as it’d been a long day whether you were a writer sitting in on panels or an editor reading/editing/posting stories about panels (Seriously, did you see how many stories we put up yesterday?! Go check it out!) and I’m not guaranteeing anything by any means, but based on the convo I’m optimistic we’ll work out some very cool stuff coming up in the future on the site that will involve Mr. Aaron. So—again no guarantees, but—stay tuned!

And while the above is cool, I guess the main point of this post is just to say that I still totally nerd out about meeting some of these guys and I absolutely hope that never changes no matter how long I’m in this comics journalism game. I mean, if you can’t still get psyched to meet the minds behind your favorite books, what’s the point?! Glad I still do!

What’s a comic book blog with some weekly book reviews?!

Well, when you’re readin’ the Monkey you’ll get The Best of the Bunch!

If you grabbed books this week, you don’t need me to tell you that good reads were in abundance. Between perennial crowd-pleasers like Geoff John’s Action Comics and Justice Society of America, and Ed Brubaker’s Captain America and Daredevil (not to mention an exceptional kick-off to volume two of his Icon series with Sean Phillips, Criminal), but the book that really rocked my week was JSA Classified #35.

Much like last week’s Superman Confidential, I grabbed this issue because it was written by B. Clay Moore. I picked up Hawaiian Dick—Moore’s awesome Image series—last year and was amazingly pleased to find it was exactly the type of book I was hoping it’d be after seeing the cover, and I’ve checked out as much as I could by Clay since. I heard about the Superman book from Clay when I did an interview with him last fall for a Columbia Missourian article about professional comic creators in and around Kansas City. I was jazzed to read Confidential and really enjoyed it, but in the end, I’m not a big Superman guy. However, when I heard he was doing a three-issue arc on JSA Classified starring Wildcat, I was ecstatic!

Seriously, as far as I’m concerned, Ted Grant is the preeminent badass of the comic book world, because he was the first and he’s still kickin’…

…The coolest thing about the beginning of this arc, is it asks exactly that; why is Ted Grant still wearing the whiskers after all these years? GL poses the question and tells Ted that his old gyms in Gotham are looking a little fishy. So, Ted jumps on his bike and heads to check it out and maybe reaffirm for himself why he hasn’t retired. He punches people and the plot thickens—I could keep telling you what happened or tell you why it was awesome. I’ll opt for the latter.

The dialogue’s tight and rings true of a down-to-Earth, graying boxer in a cat suit constantly outshined by his superpowerful teammates and without sounding as ridiculous as that description of the hero. The plot isn’t overwhelming after one issue but allows for punches aplenty and has more than enough room for chances to analyze what keeps this golden age hero going. Reading the book, it felt like it was written exactly for my tastes and was enjoyable from first page to closing cliffhanger, and that’s just the writing.

Ramon Perez’s art was…well, let’s just say I want to paste it up all over my white and extremely boring apartment walls. He captures the essence of why Wildcat is just flat-out cool in the opening fight sequence and emphasizes every cool jab and hook throughout the book. And the scenes where Moore juxtaposes Wildcat’s past with his present, Perez deserves a callout just for drawing that awesome image of Wildcat punching a ‘20s classic boxer through the seat of a chair…

…Other than the above-mentioned books, I have to give a call out to Blue Beetle. Seeing Jaime Reyes dawn the Ted Kord Beetle costume after 24 issues was just plain awesome…

…and this whole issue was a slam-bang, drag-out action extravaganza. Great stuff!

Lastly, I loved X-Men: Legacy. I’m a big X-Fan, and seeing such an interesting exploration of the easily-clichéd “Xavier might not be perfectly altruistic” theme was really a treat.

Ok folks, that’s it for this week’s bunch, and hey, feel free to email me any questions or comments at TheLoudestMonkey@gmail.com!

Tag: B. Clay Moore

Hey, I met Jason Aaron!

The Best of the Bunch: Week of 2/27/2008