Eulogy (of a sort) For Seth Fisher

Feb. 3

Item: I wrote a review for Locus Online where I gave Seth some outrageous praise. I stand by what I wrote.

Green Lantern: Will World
Writer: J.M. DeMatteis
Artist: Seth Fisher
Price: $24.95
Publisher: DC Comics, ISBN Number: 1-56389-782-2

Now if you’re looking for a comic that’s worth 25 dollars, then I highly recommend picking up the Green Lantern graphic novel Will World.

The story involves a spectacularly surreal rite of passage that Green Lanterns (Hal Jordan here) have to go through in order to more effectively wield the power of the ring. He also recites the Alfred Bester penned Green Lantern oath at least once or twice. But the star of this show isn’t the story but the incredible pencils of Seth Fisher. The only thing I might compare it to is that New York gallery level Dr. Strange annual that P. Craig Russell drew those many years ago. There are out and out homages/thefts of Man Ray, Escher, Magritte and Dali that burst from the page, not to mention the continuous suggestive ooze of Bill Plympton's animated mutations. It features a squealing zoo of bizarre images, such as: Giant Floating Heads, tiny people, people with six arms, flying carpets, flying saucers, architecture gone mad (Indian palaces mixed in with future organic skyscrapers mixed with Chinese houses standing beside a rundown tenement building, etc.) pipe smoking gorillas, zeppelins and of course Alien Grays. It has just a small touch of Moebius dappled with the sensibility of the Beatles Yellow Submarine Cartoon. It’s the kind of thing that would make Windsor McKay fume with jealous anger. And that’s just the first splash spread on pages 8 and 9 of this 96 page epic.

Stunning stuff. Not unlike walking through a living, acid tinged dream. I mean, I don’t do drugs, but there are times when you’re reading or listening to something where you get the faint sense that you’re missing out by not being under the influence of, well, something. Every panel screams jarring and disorienting: a floating pixie here, giant levitating heads, a Joker card that features the Joker, towering 20 story clowns with lamprey-like arms, not to mention Green Lantern’s head occasionally exploding into figures of people or a great twisted swirling cacophony of alien faces and organic vinelike strands…

Highly recommended. In fact, when computer pundit Robert Cringley's predicted cheap foldable plastic displays are a reality, this is the kind of art that I’d like to upload on my walls.

(On hold) This week (or weeks) we celebrate the work V for Vendetta. Here's an explanation of the very complicated comic..