Comic Book Tuesday

Solo

The last issue of this wonderful series came out last week. It featured Brendan McCarthy. I'm not going to write about the single issue, though. I want to write about the series.

The day I picked up the first issue, Tim Sale, I knew I was holding something really great. Every issue was set to spotlight a different penciler who, if he (since they were all guys) wanted, could do everything else in the issue. Some did write and ink and letter and color, some didn't. Each creator had the entire DC universe to explore in anyway he wanted as well as create new things.

What other series would have a story about Robin and Batgirl in the future in one book and the story of a creature who steps out of his bones every night in another and a story about how Sergio Aragonés killed Marty Feldman? None that I can think of.

This series varied wildly from issue to issue in both art and story. It existed only to give artists a chance to do whatever they wanted and, hopefully, bring their work to a larger audience.

Before issue 12, I never knew about Brendan McCarthy. Same goes for Damion Scott in issue 10. These are two artists that I'll try to watch out for because they're something different from just about anything else out there.

It's really hard for me to write about this series because I liked it so much. I liked how each issue was different from the last. I liked how different each of the stories within an issue could be from each other. I never knew what to expect, even from artist I've seen before, like Tim Sale, Darwyn Cooke, and Mike Allred. Each issue was exciting for all those reasons and more.

My only problem with the series was knowing it was doomed from the moment I picked up issue one. I read it, saw who the next artist was, and figured I'd be lucky to get a year's worth of books out of this series. The average fan doesn't want anthologies. The average fan doesn't want to experience shifting styles of art. The average fan is content sticking with what they know. The average fan may have picked up an issue for an artist they know, but there weren't many of those in Solo. Maybe if there had been a Bryan Hitch, Frank Quietly, or *shudder* Michael Turner issue that spike would have been enough for another issue or two, but we'll never know and I'm happy with the ones I got.

In an alternate universe, Solo is still coming out and the next two year's worth of artists are Dave McKean, Kyle Baker, Sam Kieth, Robert Crumb, James Kochalka, Mike Wieringo, Lauren Weinstein, Moebius, Stan Sakai, Bill Sienkiewicz, Al Jaffee, and Chuck Wojtkiewicz and my alternate self is thrilled. It's too bad we can't cross the universal divide so I can read the new issues, too.