Owen is an investigative reporter, focusing primarily on social causes. In particular, he's been working on studying left-wing extremist groups that use very destructive tactics to get their messages across. Kind of like The Weathermen. His friend Michael is a lawyer who mostly represents the disenfranchised, particularly those who've been picked up in black ops government raids and there's precious little information about where they are or what laws they're supposed to have broken. Hannah is a grade school teacher who's frustrated by curriculum standards testing that tends to negate actual teaching, and she struggles with some ill-defined mental issues that her psychologist has prescribed drugs for. Finally, we have Shannon, a research scientist at the EPA whose boss is actively re-writing her report findings for political reasons.

Through a confluence of circumstances, Hannah is falsely accused of threatening to blow up some insurance offices and, in the ensuing confusion, Owen accidentally kills a federal agent. They flee in a panic with Shannon and wind up at Mike's offices. Despite recognizing their innocence, Mike helps them escape and they hook up with some of Owen's contacts for shelter and guidance. The four, now on the run from another dogged FBI agent, begin to pick up the extremist tactics and use the internet to showcase some of the moral injustices committed by large corporations. Both their stunts and the FBI's efforts in capturing them escalate to the point where the FBI is willing to blow up the National Mall during a protest consisting of thousands just to end Owen's influence.

Although the trade paperback only just came out from A Wave Blue World, the original series it reprints is from about a decade ago. Writers Tyler and Wendy Chin-Tanner started working on the idea during the George W. Bush administration, and artist Andy MacDonald came on board soon after Barack Obama became president. I don't recall hearing about this title back then, and I didn't learn of its origins until after having read the story itself. I feel that's an important piece of context that I want to call out though. (For the record, the TPB does make it clear the story is about a decade old; I just opted to skip the Foreword and the back matter until later.)

The reason I feel it's critical to mention that is because the story feels a bit out of time here in 2020. Not that it's irrelevant but the past four years have shifted the context pretty radically, I think. In American Terrorist, corporations are evil and there's a single government agency dedicated to following the rules regardless of who gets harmed in the process, just so long as justice is served according to the law. And while corporations are still evil, they're not as evil and corrupt as the entire federal government, which doesn't give a shit about the rules so long as they get what they want and everyone else can just fuck off. In that sense, American Terrorist feels almost quaint.

The story is interesting enough, and the art is well done, but I did have to question the transition of the characters' shift to militant extremism. Owen makes the most sense, since he's established as being partially embedded with those types of people anyway. Hannah is suggested to be a little off-kilter mentally and that's used as justification for her involvement, a tact that I took a bit of an exception to. Seems like a kind of hand-wave over her motivation, and pretty dismissive of mental illnesses generally. Mike's and Shannon's involvement is quite dubious, though. It's kind of suggested they both get caught up in the moment initially and go along with running, but neither are given a second of self-reflection. Mike in particular, as a lawyer, seems like he should stop at least once to say, "Hey, maybe I can get us out of this hot water legally?" He sort of does once they're literally surrounded by armed agents, but that's only after seemingly weeks or even months on the run and he only suggests that to the agents, never to Owen, Hannah, or Shannon. All of them are just all-in on terrorist tactics pretty much from jump. Also, while the art suggests they attack their targets when places are deserted, there's never any discussion about even the potential for casualties; their first act is blowing up a smokestack -- even if you didn't think someone would get caught in the blast itself, I think you'd understand 500 feet of concrete and steel has to fall somewhere and could pose some imminent danger to anyone remotely nearby!

It's an interesting read, and worth considering for how and why certain tactics for trying to move the needle on social and ecological reforms are or aren't appropriate. Right this second, here in 2020, it seems a little dated -- even with the weekend announcement of President-elect Biden -- but I'm hoping that in six months time, though, it will seem considerably less so.

Here are this week's links to what I've had published recently...

Kleefeld on Comics: Slaughterhouse-Five Review
https://ift.tt/2Gj6VDA

Kleefeld on Comics: Your Vote Is Vital
https://ift.tt/3mQHUQ2

Kleefeld on Comics: Don Martin, Animated
https://ift.tt/3etbqbq

Kleefeld on Comics: Teenage Mutant Ninja Rip-Offs
https://ift.tt/2IeM05u

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a staple of the comics scene anymore, spawning several dozen different comics, cartoons, and movies. The comics -- the original black and white ones by Eastman and Laird -- were indeed well done and something of a radical departure from mainstream comics at that time. (Although I believe both Eastman and Laird freely admitted to ripping off Frank Miller, Will Eisner, and a number of other great comic creators in their early days.)

The comic, at first, seemed like something of a fad, with the quirky drawings and an even quirkier name. So, not surprisingly, it also spawned a number of rip-offs, which took only the most superficial of elements with them. I thought I'd share some of the concepts... And, yes, these are all REAL comic books.

In 1986, Gerhard Hahn's Deutsche Zeichentrick Erste Produktions GmbH & Co. KG. produced an animated feature called Don Martin Does It Again. It was based off many of Martin's old comic strips and, from what I've seen, are pretty faithful executions of same. Sounds like a brilliant idea! Somehow, though, the pacing and onomatopoeia make the originals funnier to me. See for youself... Norma Martin, Don's widow, described it as "a half hour version of one of Don's long stories that can be found in his wholly owned pocketbooks." She added, "Don worked on this project extensively and the film won an award—there were problems of the usual kind between the parties. It was shown on TV in Europe—but never released in the US."

And speaking of Norma, I missed earlier this year (because of the pandemic) that she had set up a GoFundMe to try to keep MAD and DC Comics "from stealing his name, trademark and work." She highlights: "If AT&T [who owns MAD and DC] wins the case I have been fighting all other creative people can just as easily lose control over their names and work too. My opponents have been using Don's name on books and magazines all over the world as if it is their property. They have been putting his name on work he did not create. That is what I am fighting."

I expect the pandemic has really thrown an additional wrench into the works for her. She launched the campaign just as news of COVID's spread began taking over every headline. If you have the means, I'm sure she would appreciate any assistance you can throw her way.

It is literally a matter of life or death that Trump and every fucking poltician who supports him is drummed out of office! Hundreds of thousands of your fellow American citizens have died because of these assholes... and not just from COVID! They've actively refused to help disaster victims; they've encouraged police brutality; they're continuing to deny financial assistance to people who've lost their jobs due to the pandemic! They need to be kicked out onto their asses as hard as possible! GO VOTE!

This comic was published in 1952 by Harvey Comics. The writer is unknown, but the art is by Warren Kremer and Al Avison.

Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five is, of course, a classic of American literature from the back half of the 20th century. The book was adapted to film within just a few years of its initial publication, and it's also been adapted to the stage and radio. Ryan North and Albert Monteys, however, have adapted it to the comics medium for the first time.

North and Monteys use the basic plot and structure of Vonnegut's original. Meaning that the story hops around protagonist Billy Pilgrim's life in a seemingly haphazard manner. It starts with him in World War II, then jumps to his childhood, then to his mother's deathbed, then to a party in 1961, and then back to WWII. All in the span of a few pages. Although Vonnegut (and North) describe Pilgrim as a time-traveler, it might be more accurate to say that he experiences his life non-linearly. And throughout the story, we see how the events he experienced during war impact the rest of his life.

But you can read a review of the basic story anywhere. It's been around a hald century at this point. How do North and Monteys handle the adaption?

Interestingly, the first thing they do is acknowledge that it's an adaptation. The first seven pages meta-textually explain (using comics) how Vonnegut came to write the original, and how their adapation is similar but in a distinctly different medium. As such, they then provide a visual guide to some of the characters and the different version of Pilgrim we'll see throughout the book. And, in a manner that seems to acknowledge they're racing to catch up with Vonnegut himself, they then start the story proper a little ways after the original. Kind of a "we now return you to the story, already in progress..."

Not surprisingly, other elements gets shortened or eliminated. Pilgrim's son is all but gone entirely, as is the co-pilot who survived a plane crash with him. Also, notably, Kilgore Trout is now an author of comics as well as pulp stories. This is perhaps most significant as we're treated to some of Trout's stories, and they're presented as if they were published in the 1960s... with Ben Day dots and mis-registration and the like.

That approach, where North and Monteys try to take advantage of the different medium, shows up at several points. The sequence where Pilgrim watches a movie backwards is told via story boards. The Tralfamadorian book is actually shown for a couple pages... and is, of course, as unintelligible as Vonnegut described. Roland Weary's thoughts about explaining his 'adventures' once he gets home are shown rather than explained. While most of this book does depict the original story as told in comic form, the creators here aren't simply transferring Vonnegut's words into illustrations, but they're making it a solid comic experience.

The one element I didn't care for in that regard, though, was there was also a visual depiction when Pilgrim went from one time period to another. Admittedly, it's been 15-20 years since I've read the original, but I don't recall Vonnegut marking those changes quite so explicitly in the text. Further, Monteys does an excellent job with the visual storytelling anyway, so there's never any question when Pilgrim has switched time periods even if you ignore the visual markers he puts in place. These visual markers don't really reduce the reading experience or distract the reader per se, but I think the story would have flowed just fine without them.

Overall, I would say that North and Monteys have done an extremely admirable job in translating the novel into comics form. If this had been available when I was a teen, I would've been reading Vonnegut's work MUCH earlier and not have waited until I was in my 30s before even considering him. Well worth picking up!

Here are this week's links to what I've had published recently...

Kleefeld on Comics: Comic Strip WIIFM
https://ift.tt/2HzvIUE

Kleefeld on Comics: W.A. Roger Predicts the Future
https://ift.tt/3otV4nv

Kleefeld on Comics: The Lure Of Nostalgia
https://ift.tt/34ztahP

Kleefeld on Comics: The Hero Who Could Be You!
https://ift.tt/34Df1Ae