Category Archives: Shorter Works

Smax 5

Quick Rating: Big and Blue
Title: Please Leave Us Here, Close Our Eyes

Looking Forward to Top 10

Writer: Alan Moore
Pencils: Zander Cannon
Inks: Andrew Currie, Richard Friend
Letters: Todd Klein
Color: Wildstorm FX
Editor: Scott Dunbier

What’s blue and white and has a bad attitude?
The L.A. Dodgers.

America’s Best Comics is batting above .400, which is respectable in baseball and comics, but we always want the current at bat to end with a hit. Mighty Casey delivers in Smax. This issue concludes the Smax saga on an upbeat note. Smax, Toybox, and their party finally face Morningbright, the dragon, who has been terrorizing the countryside on Smax’s homeworld. The miniseries has been a delightful diversion, finding humor in the same manner as Top 10 and other ABC series: looking at our world through theskewed perspective of another, be it superhero-populated or filled with sword and sorcery tropes.

What’s made up of many small parts that combine to form a ferocious being?
The Mary Kay Cosmetics sales force.

Ask not for whom the driver of the pink Cadillac calls, she calls for thee. Smax seemed like one of the least promising characters to debut in Top 10, but he has provided a wonderful slate for Alan Moore and Zander Cannon to draw upon. More than anything, he is an able straight man. Morningbright has proven to be an odd creation, combining nano-technology and a variety of dragon mythology. And none of them have felt like visits from the Discworld, which is an accomplishment in and of itself in this day and age.

Is this an audience or a pinup?

So, if you like a good read, then you should run and out and acquire the Smax mini-series. It asks no prior knowledge and offers a chuckle and a wheeze. The violence might be a little graphic for the wee ones, but they should be working on Teen Titans Go for a good laugh.

April, 2004

Smax 4

Quick Rating: Stop Dragon My Heart Around
Title: Trip, Trip, To a Dream Dragon

Writer: Alan Moore
Pencils: Zander Cannon
Inks: Andrew Currie
Color: Wildstorm FX Colors
Letters: Todd Klein
Asst. Editor: Kristy Quinn
Editor: Scott Dunbier

Let’s face it- without E. O. Wilson, you wouldn’t be reading this review. Along with his colleagues, Wilson developed the idea that an ant colony could be viewed as a single organism. The World Wide Web was probably envisioned in the same manner when it first blossomed in the mind of Al Gore (or CERN (or …)). Countless horrific creatures have been born of contemplation of the multi-bodied single-minded creature. Every pack of rats in every horror story for thirty years has acted with one mind, to say nothing of every swarm of bees and horde of editors. Your ever-lovin’, blue-eyed Comixtreme staff is really just a hundred hands at fifty terminals typing with one grand mind.

Smax is a spin-off from Top 10, which translates the police station drama to a world of super-powered beings. Everyone in this world has some sort of super-human abilities. The conceit is that almost all still have regular jobs and live in regular places. Smax is a large, blue officer on the Top 10 police force. He grew up on a parallel fantasy world, Earth 137, where he has returned for his uncle’s funeral. He brings his young police force partner, Toybox, with him, mostly so that she can pretend to be his wife. Earth 137 is a third world planet in Smax’s view. It is pretty much Middle Earth, which would qualify it for significant foreign aid, no doubt. Much to his dismay, it transpires that Smax must go on a quest to face the dragon, Morningbright. This penultimate issue brings Smax face-to-face with Morningbright, who proves to be the sum of many parts.

This issue, more than the previous three, mixes horror and humor. On a number of pages, the horror perpetrated by the dragon has been brought front and center. Yet, we are given some distance by the laugh-out-loud jokes. It’s always a difficult mix, in that the two do not mix. The humor must simply slide across the top of the horror, easing the pain and allowing the pathos to seep through. Alan Moore succeeds here. The art is direct and does not sidestep the bare reality of the situation. I have enjoyed this series more and more with each passing issue.

December, 2003

Smax 3

Quick Rating: Smashing

Where have you gone, Ambush Bug? The comics’ nation turns its lonely eyes to you. Whoo ooh ooh

Writer: Alan Moore
Pencils: Zander Cannon
Inks: Andrew Currie
Colors: Ben Dimagmaliw
Editor: Scott Dunbier
Asst. Editor: Kristy Quinn

Review: As you doubtless know, superhero comics emerged as a viable business entity in the late 1930s. Interestingly, nylon emerged as a functioning product in the middle 1930s. Hosiery, particularly women’s, transitioned from silk to nylon over the succeeding years. In their original incarnations, did Superman, Batman, et al, wear nylon or silk tights? I do not know, but this question may keep us all awake late into the night. Superman, as is often the case, is an exception to the silk or nylon debate. Since his inception, we have learned that his costume was fashioned by his adoptive mother from the blankets that were found in the rocket that transported him to Earth. What about Batman though? What about Captain Marvel and Captain America? Flash? Robin? Aquaman and Submariner? Bucky and Toro? Surely some of them surreptitiously shopped in ladies hosiery for that perfect color? Perhaps they dyed silk tights, but that would have been a tedious process (though that might explain the odd shades often found in older comics). Most importantly, did they wash their costumes frequently? I do not think that I would want to wear last night’s tights without some confidence that the criminal element would not smell me approaching. (“Nasty nostrils, Batman! Alfred did not wash our costumes!” “Do not be so harsh, my young ward. Alfred is a good servant. After all, he did lube the batmobile, cook all our meals, clean the mansion, impersonate me at a Wayne Foundation board meeting, and weed the front forty acres. We will simply circle around the block since the wind is at our backs and chafes our thighs.”) Let’s face it; the whole men-in-tights thing was probably more than a little amusing at the time.

Funny superhero comics go back at least as far as when Robin the Boy Wonder first tried to strike fear in the hearts of criminals while wearing green short-shorts. Popeye, arguably, was the original humerus strongman. Captain Marvel, among others, often included a nudge and a wink for older readers. Slapstick is prevalent throughout superhero comics. What super-speedster has not slipped on ice, bananas, oil, or grease? And who does not relish a quality static slapstick image? Did you know that SMaX is an acronym for Sign, Mark & X-ray, which are the suggested surgical rules for avoiding operating on the wrong part of a patient?

Top 10 has been compared to Hill Street Blues, a long-lived 80’s television series. The show was notable for a large ensemble cast and interesting interior camera movement. It was a high-quality show set in a police station and its surroundings. Top 10 transports the police station to a world of super-powered beings while maintaining the large cast of characters and flowing point-of-view. It should be noted that the Top 10 world of super-powered beings is not a world with super-powered beings. Rather, just about everyone in it has some sort of super-human abilities. The conceit is that almost all still have regular jobs and live in regular places. Top 10 is currently on hiatus, but the lull is filled with a Smax miniseries.

Smax is a large, blue officer on the Top 10 police force. He grew up on a parallel fantasy world, Earth 137, where he returns for his uncle’s funeral. He brings his young police force partner, Toybox, with him, mostly so that she can pretend to be his wife. Earth 137 is a third world planet in Smax’s view and he spends most of the first three issues in the series griping about returning home. Earth 137 is pretty much Middle Earth struggling with the modern world. Smax warns Toybox to beware if “[a]nybody offers you shapesharing arrangements, work in telepathy marketing or trips to the disappearing quarters… .” Much to his dismay, it transpires that Smax must go on a quest to face the dragon, Morningbright. This issue deals mostly with preparations and departure. The eyecandy and the barrage of jokes make this issue feel like anything but a placeholder though.

Alan Moore can be very funny. Zander Cannon has a lot of fun with all the possibilities presented by Earth 137. Many, many of the jokes are pop culture references, so you’ll probably get a good laugh. Some folks appreciate sarcasm. Other thoughtful sorts love satire. The experienced appreciate parody. Annoying people like bad puns. Can I have a bite of your sandwich? Perhaps this limited series spin-off smacks of a company trying to get more from their canon, but that is not necessarily the case here. Alan Moore has reached into his toy box and pulled out an embarrassment of humor.

October, 2003