Comic World News | Pull List

April 22, 2008:
CWN and the Grand Finale! -

February 4, 2008:
In Conclusion - David ends his CWN run with Tezuka's MW from Vertical

February 2, 2008:
Acting Like You Have Nothing to Prove -

February 2, 2008:
The Shoegazer Returns - A New Year Begins, And Our Narrator Makes A Pledge

January 30, 2008:
Tim's Reviews -

September 13, 2007:
Wizard World Chicago Loot, Part One - Stykman, Empty Chamber, the Ztarian Saga, and yes, Little Bunny Foo Foo

February 15, 2007:
I Come Not to Bury Nick Cage... - But to mourn the death of my punchline

November 20, 2006:
The End - Rich's last Chicks & Romance

November 8, 2006:
Joann Sfar's Klezmer - And a Front Racks Hiatus

October 4, 2006:
This Month's Guest: Dave Gibbons - From the pages of Elephantmen!

September 18, 2006:
Back in Berlin - or How I spent my summer

July 29, 2006:
KICKING UP A STORM - An interview with David Lloyd

June 19, 2006:
You Ain't Never Had A Friend Like Me. - Graeme looks at Spidey's "genies"

December 18, 2005:
Disappointed - Sad news for fans of Busiek's CONAN, Stephen King, and others

December 13, 2004:
JUSTICE UNPLUGGED 2 at last !!! - By Fabrice Sapolsky & Xavier Fournier

December 2, 2004:
THE TWELFTH AND FINAL STEP - Say it ain't so, Dan.

November 23, 2004:
The importance of editing -

September 29, 2004:
Mystery and Conundrum indeed! - Where in the world is Jason Pomerantz?

September 13, 2004:
Hello and Goodbye and Hello Again - Change is in the air at CWN and it smells sweet.

August 12, 2004:
The Rise of the Web Toon - New Business Model or Dumb Luck?

July 30, 2004:
The Name Says it All... - Spin Doctors revamp Boomerang.

July 27, 2004:
Bigger Isn't Always Better -

June 8, 2004:
Pre-emptive Strike: MoCCA Arts Festival - Looking forward to the con, rather than looking back at it

The Layer Method
Our top Secret time-saving technique for creating and merging balloons and tails in Illustrator.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Poison the Cure #1

Poison the Cure #1 (The New Radio)
Written by Jad Ziade; Illustrated by Alex Cahill

I liked Poison the Cure #1 immensely, but I don�t completely get it yet and that�s an uneasy feeling for me. Not that the story is overly complicated or anything. It begins with a trio of aliens who�ve come to Earth sometime in the future looking for the answer to why intelligent life here disappeared. Our buildings still exist as crumbling ruins, but there aren�t any people. While scanning the planet, they discover psionic residue from a human who appeared to have developed telepathic abilities shortly before everyone left. Thinking this person might have been the key to their questions, they scan more deeply, looking into the telepath�s life before whoever it was gained special powers.

A sequence about three aliens scanning for psionic residue could�ve been frightfully boring, but Ziade and Cahill make the explorers into working-class stiffs who joke with each other and try to slack off work any chance they get. Not that they�re fools; they just come across as likeable, normal people. It�s a nice way to liven up the intro and make it memorable instead of what might have been a throwaway prologue.

The story soon leaves the aliens and focuses on the subject of their scans. We�re never completely sure who that is, because the rest of the issue stars an ensemble cast, but the first character we see is a young guy named Miguel who�s come to an isolated cottage to visit his older brother Pedro. Pedro�s an ecological revolutionary who�s leading other revolutionaries as they try to force the Infinitum Corp into being responsible citizens of the planet.

The plot is easy to follow, and Cahill�s Latin-influenced art is stylish, but also perfectly clear. What�s difficult to get my head around is the exact stuff that we�re supposed to not completely grasp yet. Some of Pedro�s group are fairly simple and have easily understood motives: anger at Infinitum for various reasons, desire to please other members of the team, etc. Others are more complex and have histories that haven�t been completely revealed yet. Actually, from the level of Ziade�s writing, I�m willing to bet that all the characters are more multifaceted than they seem at first. This issue is part one of four, so I shouldn�t expect to know everything right away. We�re still getting to know these characters. I�m just impatient about it.

Just as I�m impatient to know what they did to cause the end of humanity on the planet. What is Miguel�s destiny? Why is he the crucial figure? What does the title refer to? Questions we�re going to have to wait for future installments to answer. And I�ll be eagerly awaiting.