Warren Ellis, in his introduction, describes The Annotated Mantooth! as garage comics, and that’s as good a description as any. The wacky adventures of Rex Mantooth, Kung Fu Gorilla have a bizarrely wacked-out, warped approach to action storytelling that feels like it’s been ripped straight off someone’s art stand and tossed onto your desk.

Originally published as 11-page adventures before being collected in a sharp new edition from the coolhunters at AiT/PlanetLar, Rex Mantooth: Kung Fu Gorilla comes from the minds of writer Matt Fraction (Man of Action), Indianapolis’ own Andy Kuhn on pencils and toning by Tim Fisher.

The plot’s dead simple. Think Austin Powers, but with a talking gorilla superspy who fights space ninjas, lesbian commandos and professor Stephen Hawking. (Which reminds me: The sight of a zombified Hawking croaking out “MUST … EAT … BRAINS” through his voice modulator is easily hilarious enough to justify the entire purchase.) Plus, giant Nazi robots, which always improve any comic they’re in. (There was a giant Nazi robot in Howard Shum’s Gun Fu as well — I’m detecting an Indianapolis pattern here.)

Fraction and Kuhn demonstrate their ability to cook up a seemingly endless series of variations on vulgarities. (“Our parents are proud. Oh! So proud,” Fraction remarks.) I’m not sure which is my favorite: “MotherfuSHIT!” or “Hoppin’ he-cunts!” If only all comic books presented such a difficult choice.

The art and plot direction feature expertly timed cases of compressed storytelling; each self-contained 11-page story is stuffed with enough plot and stuff blowing up to feel like 30 pages. The story itself is funny, but it’s bookended and punctuated by the likes of Warren Ellis, Joe Casey, AiT/PlanetLar publisher Larry Young and continually annotated, DVD commentary-style, by Fraction himself. All of them seem to get progressively drunker as the book progresses, which only adds to the fun.

Furthermore, the addition of a side-by-side comparison between script pages and the finished product is a useful tool for anyone interested in the mechanics of comics. Fraction’s commentary doesn’t really add much insight into the production process, but it’s really funny, sometimes more hilarious than the book itself. “If sex sells, then Fraction will be your four-color pimp, by god,” he declares. I promise it makes sense in context. —Paul F. P. Pogue

Catwoman: The Dark End of the Street
$12.95

The image of Catwoman that’s permanently lodged in the popular psyche is that of Julie Newmar or Michelle Pfeiffer reclining in a skin-tight black outfit, purring at Batman about this plan or that death-trap. In the mid-’80s, Frank Miller’s spin on Selina Kyle in Batman: Year One gave us a tougher character, one with deep-seeded conflicts, yet not entirely evil. Over the years, Catwoman has become a character in search of redemption. That path really begins in the first collected volume from the current ongoing series from DC Comics.

After a near-death experience, Selina gets a new look and starts on the trail of a serial killer who is preying on prostitutes. The feminist interpretation of the character is nothing new, but the tightly constructed tales in the new series are executed with solid writing and terrific art.

At the helm is wordsmith Ed Brubaker, a writer who has built his reputation on deft crime fiction. The main voice in the art is Darwyn Cooke, a prodigious talent whose pop-noir fusion blends deeply shadowed blacks and the design sensibility of Paul Dini and Bruce Timm.

One of the hooks of the series is the way that it juggles harsh subject matter, vibrant imagery and a sexy and witty protagonist. Catwoman has little in common with regular superhero types, other than the emotional baggage that they all seem to accumulate. This is sharply realized in a scene where Batman reiterates his belief in Selina’s inherent goodness; she answers, “I think it’s just a lot more complicated than that.” Catwoman: The Dark End of the Street is complex, enjoyable and takes the concept further than you’d believe. It’s outstanding work. —Troy Brownfield