so with out further ado I present to you Mark's post........
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Writer Profile: Nick Spencer
Hi. You don't know me, but I like comics. I didn't always. Or rather, I wasn't as 'into' them as I am now. Aside from an affinity for the Marvel UK run of Transformers, which I actually got into a little late (about twenty issues before its cancellation in 1992) and owning the first trade of the original Ninja Turtles comic (which was fucking brutal incidentally) it wasn't until I picked up the first Walking Dead hardcover three years ago that a dormant interest was renewed. I have too much to say about that book here, so I'll skip forward a little.
If The Walking Dead renewed my interest, then Nick Spencer's work made me fall head over heels with comics. Having only a basic knowledge of the Marvel and DC universes, I'm not playing with a 'full deck' but fuck it, I like what I like. And it was a comic that my buddy Andrew (writer of this fine blog) recommended me at the beginning of last year, 'The Infinite Vacation', that I have to thank for what is fast becoming a very expensive pastime.
'The Infinite Vacation' is an absolute joyous headfuck of a book (and the length of time between issues shows how much planning and consideration each one gets - either that or Spencer is just too busy to finish it - wotevs). In a world where the multiverse is played out like a body swap eBay, our hero Mark (amazing name) is the ultimate tourist, trading his way through various versions of his own life. The art, by Christian Ward, is simultaneously both spectacularly detailed and playfully sketchy
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| repetition |
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The hook of the story is that someone is hunting Mark down; in every universe, every version of Mark is in danger. Cue some pretty awesome speculative fiction concepts intercut with some of the most depraved scenes imaginable at the hands of one of Mark's demented doppelgangers (see especially issue 3).
OK, so my interest is piqued. I have to see what else is in this guy's head.
Also published by Image, Existence 2.0 and its sequel Existence 3.0 are two amazing slabs of Philip K. Dickian level sci-fi, married to a multi-layered crime story about the development (and resulting theft and espionage) of body swap technology. The opening of Existence 2.0 is immediately arresting, as our main guy is killed in the first few pages:
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| Ouch! |
But of course he's not dead, he's used the body swap tech to possess his killer's body, and so begins an incredibly original whodunnit where the victim travels deeper into the killer's world, and... well, I won't ruin it. A three issue mini-series, Existence 2.0 was followed by the four-part Existence 3.0 (both are collected in the trade). The sequel marks the first collaboration of Spencer with the awesome Joe Eisma, with whom Spencer co-created the ongoing Morning Glories.
Before we get onto that, let me just say that the hook in Spencer's work is the thematic continuity in his work. Both Existence and Infinite Vacation portray worlds where technology is surpassing humanity - we can't control what we create - resulting in the fragmentation of identity and situations of anarchy. Further, in his miniseries Shuddertown and Forgetless, Spencer foreshadows the serendipitous meetings, dark secrets and often murderous tendencies that characterise Morning Glories.
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| Forgetless #5 |
Morning Glories was a major success story in 2010, with its first issue going on to four printings for Image and rave reviews making Spencer a virtual household name. Envisioned as a 100-issue melting pot of Lost (the TV show, to which the series owes much - more on that in a bit) and teen drama, glued together with some absolutely batshit insane stuff, it follows six teenagers (3 boys, 3 girls) who all start at boarding school on the same day. Things are not what they seem though, and pretty soon Spencer and Eisma are juggling with time travel, doppelgangers, murder, attempted murder, astral projection, suicide, more murder, more attempted murder, and... what the fuck is this?!
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| Ouch part 2 |
I said before that the series owes a lot to Lost, which it knows (there are a number of easter eggs for fans of that show). The cryptic nature of the storytelling, for one, coupled with many of the themes, are evocative of that show; there is a heavy use of flashback, which is not always signposted and it's a testament to Eisma's art that he can move us through time and mood so clearly (I should also mention his stellar work with giving each of the characters their own unique appearances and sets of expressions, which compliment Spencer's well-drawn characters perfectly). More than anything, though, it's the way the story is told as pieces of a puzzle, which at issue #15 we are only just starting to find the corners of.
And therein lies the challenge. Reviewers have already criticised the series for being a bit meandering and asking too many questions before it gives us answers. And casual readers are going to get fed up. Just like what happened with Lost. In fact, perhaps asking a reader to invest in a mystery for 100 months is more a commitment than six seasons of a TV show. But, for those who trust Spencer's skills as a writer (like myself) I am certain of a rewarding experience each time I pick up a copy of this book. I can't recommend it enough, especially if you're a fan of serialised mythology-based TV shows. It's very telling that Spencer's next project is collaborating with Robert Kirkman on the TV writers-room influenced Thief of Thieves, which will be another interesting experiment for Image.
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| What is the secret of Morning Glories Academy? |
Let's bring this post back to the beginning where I said I wasn't operating with a full deck. This means I can't talk about Spencer's work on Iron Man 2.0, Action Comics, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, or the Jimmy Olsen one-shot but I can tell you I have picked up the first few issues of Ultimate Comics: X-Men, which he's currently writing for Marvel with pencils by Paco Medina. Characterised by a complete u-turn on the X-mythos where it has been proven that mutants are not the next step in human evolution but are instead the result of a government super soldier experiment gone wrong - the series focuses on Kitty Pryde, Rogue, Iceman, Johnny Storm and Jimmy Hudson, the son of Wolverine. Typically, Spencer infuses the setting with angst and unrest, punctuating with top-notch characterisation and thoughtful moments. The first trade hits in April, but there's a collected edition of #1-3 and the single issues aren't too scarce, so don't be afraid, get on board.
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| Shadow-LOL-cat |
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