Multiple Warheads

Multiple Warheads #1

by Brandon Graham

Wolf War 3 ended almost 50 years ago and snow has been falling on Dead City for almost as long. A war-torn wasteland that stinks of radiation dust and broken dreams, it's the town Sexica and Nikoli call home. But not for long.

They're packing up their cyber-organic-hybrid car and hitting the road. Soon maybe all of the pain, mayhem, and space ship crashes that have plagued their lives will be reduced to nothing more than memories.

Collects MULTIPLE WARHEADS: ALPHABET TO INFINITY #1-4.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Comix, Fantasy, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics

140 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

Brandon Graham (born 1976) is an American comic book creator.

Born in Oregon, Graham grew up in Seattle, Washington, where he was a graffiti artist. He wrote and illustrated comic books for Antarctic Press and Radio Comix, but got his start drawing pornographic comics like Pillow Fight and Multiple Warheads (Warheads would go on to become its own comic published by Oni Press in 2007). In 1997, he moved to New York City where he found work with NBM Publishing and became a founding member of comics collective Meathaus. His book Escalator was published by Alternative Comics in January 2005, when he returned to Seattle. His book King City was published by Tokyopop in 2007 and was nominated for an Eisner Award. In May 2009 Graham announced that King City would continue publication at Image Comics and his Oni Press title Multiple Warheads would resume publication after a delay, this time in color. Also at Image he is the writer on Prophet, the return of a 1990s series, with the rotating roster of artists Giannis Milonogiannis, Farel Dalrymple, Simon Roy, and himself.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Negativni · Rating 1 out of 5]

Brandon Graham je sa Multiple Warheads - zašto mi već sam naslov nije bio sumljiv?! - napisao možda i manje smislen scenarij od Alejandra Jodorowskog za njegov The Incal!

Ok, ovdje nema toliko misticizma zapakovanog u kvazi znanstvenu fantastiku, kao kod Jodorowskog, ali ono što im je zajedničko je potpuno odsustvo smislene i povezane radnje. Strip izgleda kao da je rađen u ludim šezdesetima, pa vjerujem da se može puno bolje "skužiti" na nekim (lakim?) drogama, ali ovako sa uključenim kritičkim i razumnim dijelom mozga ubrzo sam odustao.

Strip je i teški hipsteraj.

Možda je autor na nekakav čudan način čak želio i odati počast Jodorowskom? Pa je sve to namjerno? Ili možda ironično?

No prije da je tipično hipsterski - autor misli da je dovoljno da je "čudan", te da su neke njegove interne fore smiješne, te da njegov "pomaknut" smisao za humor funkcionira. Naprimjer automobil glavnih likova se zove "Lenjin, jer nije Staljin"* (kako to sam autor navodi u uvodnim objašnjenjima), kod mene i ne funkcionira.

Stil crteža mi čak malo vuče na Moebiusa - što je plus, ali kao da ga karikira - što nije plus. Neke prenatrpane sličice i face likova opet podsjećaju i na neke američke underground strip klasike iz šezdesetih i sedamdesetih.

I ta emulacija i to kao odavanje posvete je isto tipično hipsterski - oni valjda misle da niko osim njih ne zna za stripove starije od nekoliko godina i da su ih oni "otkrili", ali opet oni ih vole samo "ironično".

Jedino što ovaj strip može ponuditi su par tih lijepih "otkačenih" sličica, koje su baš lijepo nacrtane - i da, sjetio sam se - podsjeća i na animiranu seriju Rick and Morty, no tamo mi taj pomaknut humor funkcionira.

Zaključak: meni nedovoljan, ali tko voli nek provjeri.





* - U originalu: "Lenin (because it's not Stalin)" - sve velikim slovima. "Stalin" zvuči kao slobodniji oblik "stalling" (A stall of an engine refers to a sudden stopping of the engine turning, usually brought about accidentally. It might be due to not getting enough air, fuel, or electric spark, mechanical failure, or in response to a sudden increase in engine load. - izvor Wikipedija) čak i ako je ta igra riječi - nije smiješno.

[তানজীম রহমান · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the closest I've seen a comic book come to a rapidly paced, completely engaging pop-punk album. Calling this series sci-fi would not be entirely fair, as it bends enough conventions to be its own genre.
Brandon Graham is a first rate talent. His writing style is instantly recognizable, full of monumental ideas and sweet character moments. The characters themselves are vivid with life and color, as is the artwork.
The artwork really elevates these books. It's unlike anything else on the stands. I sincerely hope Graham's use of iconography to convey information becomes a norm in comic books of the future. His action is frenetic, and his layouts are gorgeous and insane.

[Christian Patterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to describe -- but if you made a triangle of manga, Moebius, and Mad Magazine, Brandon Graham would be close to the middle of that triangle. But even that isn't explaining it right, because it is generally bizarre, in a good way.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

This might possibly be the weirdest comic I have ever read. It's quite good at being weird, and very pretty art. But yeah, weird.

[Christopher]

I'm sorry. None of my goodreads friends have reviewed this, so I almost must... but I have no idea what to think about this comic. I may come back to add some stars in a couple of days, but for now you just get this. I'm sure the following won't be coherent, but neither is Multiple Warheads, and that may be ok. maybe

First things first. Do you like puns? The pun-to-page ratio in this is about 8-to-1. Conservatively. If puns bother you, or could bother you after 100 pages of them, you should run away quickly.

I'm not sure if the plot in this is difficult to follow, or just so threadbare to be non-existent. We have two threads weaving their way through this post-war (post-apocalyptic?) Russia. Primarily, we are following Sexica (ex-organ-smuggler who goes by Sex, which actually isn't used as a joke all the time) and her boyfriend Nikolai (Nik, a mechanic, who is some sort of Werewolf creature maybe) as they travel towards the Impossible city on a vacation of sorts. 'Of sorts' because their home city was blown up somehow, so really they are fleeing the war. That's pretty much the extent of their story. I mean, they go places and do stuff... but yeah.

Secondly we have Nura, who is an assassin using a severed head mounted to her talking motorcycle to (literally) sniff out her current target, the head's previous owner (and whatever new head it has now). Read that again. I'll wait.

Yep.

Perhaps importantly, or not, as it is difficult to tell, this does not get resolved in this collection.

Let's look at the art. I am in no way qualified to talk about the art. It is extremely dense and detailed, at times using large amounts of whitespace to offset the noise, but most often not. I feel like it's good, perhaps really good, but I have no idea what to compare it to. Just, here....

(you should right-click each of these and 'open link in a new tab')





Yes, that last one has Maca Runes, The Tart of War, and Milkzapan Ghost. I warned you about the pun ratio. That isn't even a whole page.

[First Second Books]

This book is _The Phantom Tollbooth_ for adults + werewolf.

[Kyle Muntz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic new work from Brandon Graham, who did King City, maybe my favorite indie comic. Lots of cartoonish surrealism (sort of like a really fun Mobius), cute alien creatures, flying whales. From what I could tell, it was about a girl who hunts harvested organs and gave her boyfriend a werewolf's penis. The puns made the later issues a little hard to follow, but I definitely don't mind going back to look at this later. I hadn't known that there would be more coming out eventually. Looking forward to it.

[JL Shioshita · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like quirky, indie comic books that are big on world building, highly imaginative, with fantastic artwork, and a style all its own, you can't go wrong with Multiple Warheads, or really anything Brandon Graham does.

[briz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm. I don't know what I think of this. On the one hand, I'm attracted by the world-building future history of it: I like the far future, weird, post-apocalyptic, Soviet-descended setting. I also like the whimsical art and design of it: bursting at the seams with colors and hijinx, it feels like a blend of Dr. Seuss and Moebius (yeah, yeah, I know, I'm comparing everything to Moebius these days.) Vast vistas of weird landscapes; the cities are especially convoluted. You know the jokey bits in Blade Runner? Like the little toy soldier that welcomes Harrison Ford to the creepy gene splicer's apartment? Yeah... capture that jokey-weird tone, purify it, and blow it up BIG.

So that's all good. But, I also found this VERY slow - plodding, even - to read. And this is because of... more Moebius! That is, I read this Moebius thing that talked about his innovative use of linguistic and visual puns and endless referencing. Well, Brandon Graham has stuffed this FULL of puns puns puns, endless puns. OMG. I can't handle it. But, like a puzzle, they called me, and so I had to read each and every tiny little scrawl on each and every item (and Graham literally labels almost every item in this story). There's the "Organ Trail". There's "Multiple Wormheads". There are others. I can't remember them.

At times, this extreme referencing/punnage, coupled with the Soviet inspirations and surrealism of the setting, made me think of good ol' fashioned Russian surrealism. Which I hate. Here, I didn't necessarily hate the surreal, fourth-wall-breaking puns; it didn't even pull me out of the story (which is what surrealism usually does for me). But it did slow everything way way down. It just took me FOREVER to get through every panel and its million hidden whiz-dings, and thus the actual plot just kind of limped along. Overall, I don't know if I'll be coming back for the next few issues.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I get the feeling that this book could be taking place in the same universe as the Prophet series he's worked on. The Prophet books are a special kind of amazing/alien/idunnowhat.

What's wildly different about MW is that this book is so much more focused on the pop culture of a post-something Earth-like planet. It's not so grand in scope. And yet, it's so full of stuff that's just insane. It's amazing. Nearly every page has a dozen other little commentaries going on. It's design fiction. It's designed culture. It's cigarettes with caffeine that play rock music. It's rich. I'm glad for it. I get the feeling that I'll be reading everything Graham puts out in the future.

MW is totally inappropriate for a lot of audiences and I get now why it's not readily available the local library. Incredibly explicit post-human sex romps are probably hard to file. That's not everything here. Regardless, there are stories that have to be told and so we get MW. I just get that some people aren't interested in hearing those. So FYI.

[Trey Piepmeier · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book makes no sense. There are some pretty pictures. Pretty colors. No discernible narrative that I can follow. There are threads of a sort-of story here and there, but they never come together that I can tell.

Graham's comics were recommended to me at a comic shop when I was looking for some old Moebius comics. There's definitely similarity, but I feel like Moebius could get closer to telling a story. Graham's stories (such that they are) are just a series of non-sequiturs, weird puns, and little boxes with arrows labeling things on the page.

I could see his work being more like a collection of elaborate sketches. Art books. I don't know. Just don't read any of his books expecting them to make sense.

[C. Varn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Post-apocalyptic, post-Soviet surrealism that seems to be driven by sex and puns as well as insane art. Graham can do coherent plots, but this is all atmosphere: sex, violence, and puns being liberalized into the sex and violence. The art is fascinating, the characters are interesting, but don't come into a coherent narrative. It does have a coherent feel: Moebius and Joderowsky filtered through R. Crumb and fed into some semi-pornographic jokes. Ideas and art, but it is narratively unsatisfying. That said, it does push what one thinks comics do: it goes back into the art of comedy and dreams more than the art of narrative. I recommend it but with the caveat that it is not a narrative-driven comic, it is whimsical but also pornographic, and it is surreal but pun-driven.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, has a lot of energy and freshness and sometimes sloppiness to it, but it feels like a pretty original world. Some strange layouts, disrupting your expectations from time to time… colorful.. but not kid stuff, some graphic material (for my YA friends wondering if it is appropriate… nope).

[Eric Orchard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as coherent as King City.

[Dot Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think big tobacco just found their next marketing strategy 🎶🎶🚬🚬

[Alexander Lisovsky · Rating 1 out of 5]

Рассчитывал на что-то вроде терри-муровской "Мотористки", но тут Брэндон Грэм, автор "Пророка", ваяет панк-рок, как пишут в других отзывах. В его дорожном приключении нет особого сюжета, зато чудовищное количество сил он тратит на визуализацию всевозможных каламбуров и политических аллюзий (в основном на СССР и прочих коммунистов). Процентов тридцать текста и образов в принципе не поддаётся пониманию, а всё вместе отсылает к британской "Танкистке" из 90-х. Осилил пару выпусков, прикладываю ознакомительную галерею.

[Paul Allard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a review of The Complete Multiple Warheads

Cartoony science fiction/fantasy comic collection - reasonably fun but...

This collection deals with two main female protagonists in parallel stories: they both are involved with powered organs, smuggling or capturing. There’s a huge amount of strange creatures and few humanoid beings. The artwork is simple, colourful, detailed and a little weird. The stories are reasonably interesting and packed with puns, some of which I skipped or didn’t spot, many of which require a wide knowledge. Plenty of sex and bloodless violence. Enjoyable enough but I didn’t like it enough to bother with Volume 2.

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dang it. There's so much goofy stuff in this book, I really wanted it to win me over. But somehow any sense of storytelling gets lost among goofy bit after goofy bit (singing cigarettes!) and that just didn't work for me.

[Blair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Graham has a distinctive and interesting approach that nobody else is doing quite the same in comics, so kudos for that, but this gets tedious pretty fast, with all the lame puns and the stories that go nowhere.

[Roman Hraška · Rating 2 out of 5]

...but it looks great

[Aharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

So inventive and pun-filled.

[Nate Spears · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird but dope

[Erik Duemig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Art is cool. Characters, plot, everything else really is pretty stupid.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Um, wow. I'm not sure what I just read, but it was a fun ride.

[Jack May · Rating 5 out of 5]

This shit was so good. Adventure-Time-coded

Idk the way the dialogue reads and the world-building was top-tier and hilarious. Obsessed

[Brianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had a lot of fun reading this installment of Multiple Warheads. First off, because it's gorgeous. Purely superficially, I love the way it looks. Second, because it's super clever. The puns are delicious, and the humor is just as beautiful as the art.

As a writer, I was particularly aware of the dialogue and the "narration" bits, and I thought that they were very well integrated. The dialogue felt natural and didn't over explain the world in which the story took place. Plus it was excellent with creating character. And I particularly enjoy the labels especially when they're punny.

Overall, TONS of fun, absolutely beautiful, and unbelievably witty. More please?

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still need to read those Prophet books that Graham wrote, because supposedly they are all about story. This is just the opposite. I kept reading, thinking that this would turn into some kind of cohesive narrative that meshes together the characters and turns into something. Instead, it turns into nothing at all, except an abundance of bad puns and something that seems just about to turn into a story. Why isn't it junk? Because Graham proves that he can build a world with a bunch of neat objects and ideas. He just doesn't do anything with it here.

[Johanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

holy seacow, that was fun! tintin and tank girl get very high on candy roadtripping in western china in the future. they really like puns and butt jokes.
if you ever wondered what the difference is between graphic novels and comics, here's a great case in point. multilpe warheads is a comic with no overarching theme or plot, no attempts at any kind of seriousness. people get in goofy scrapes. the end.

[Kevin Gentilcore · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a crazy but awesome little slice of sic-fi weirdness. Should have expected that from the guy who is working on Prophet.

[Billy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Phenominal art, okish pacing, grating puns (your mileage may vary of course)