Dojo Classics - The Complete Normalman!

This is an exceedingly fun black and white comic book volume that likely needs to be in every true blue comic book fan's collection somewhere. For relatively small money you can own The Complete normalman by Jim Valentino. Valentino, one of the guys who would become part of the infamous Image group started his comics journey with this satire on the superhero comic which posited a "normal man" on a world overrun with supermen, superwomen, superteens, and such.

normalman began as a try-out back-up feature in Dave Sim's Cerebus, specifically issues fifty-six and fifty-seven. Then as quick as that it leaped into its own self-titled comic run from the Aardvark-Vanaheim brand. What we get is a romp of a soap opera with all manner of gags and comic book tropes getting trounced before our very eyes. It's a wild ride, but a familiar one to anyone who has  read as many classic comics as folks likely to frequent this blog have done.

The covers to the series are remarkable in that each is a spoof of a different genre and most feature a particularly famous classic comic book cover turned more than a bit sideways for our viewing pleasure. Here they are, many with their inspirations.

normalman even makes a guest appearance in Aardvark-Vanaheim's Journey series, a clever spin on the marketing the character often ridicules.

Then thee came a change, and this is where I left the series originally many moons ago. Aardvark-Vanaheim underwent a split as Dave Sim and his wife parted ways each taking some of the titles with them. normalman became part of the Renegade Press brand after one joint offering.

Renegade Press then went on to finish the original storyline.

The story wrapped up appropriately in the normalman 3-D annual in 1986.

Slave Labor Graphics collected the saga in 1987. And that was all she wrote for normalman and his pals for many years.

Then after the aforementioned Image brand was ignited Jim Valentino dusted off normalman for a one-off romp with Donald Simpson's Megaton Man as well as many other Indy stars of bygone eighties.

In 2004 normalman celebrated its twentieth anniversary with a new story, the last to date.

All this comics goodness can be found in glorious black and white in the pages of The Complete normalman.

Dig up a copy if you can, it's well worth the effort, especially for those who are tired of paying too much for too little entertainment.

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normalman!

normalman is one of those comic books that speaks to my baser nature. It's essentially an entire series of comics built around a single joke -- what if instead of superheroes being singular and unusual, they were ubiquitous and the lowly man without superpowers were the freak.

That's the essence of normalman invented and developed by writer-artist Jim Valentino.  He has his hero rocketed to the planet Levram (get it!) and he pops out of the vessel a fully-grown man sans any superpowers in a world overripe with such types.

While making fun of some of comics' most valuable tropes, Valentino also uses the comic to lampoon some of the classic images and styles of classic comics. This more than any other aspect is what makes the comic of interest to me. I like how each issue of normalman is different, playing off the type of comics produced by Marvel, DC, EC, or other recognizable publishers.

As a consequence of this attempt to simultaneously lampoon both the substances and styles of comics, Valentino contorts his story to make it fit the nominal requirements of each issue. That hurts the momentum of the story, but does make each issue interesting in its own way.

It seems clear to me that Valentino had little idea of the direction of the series beyond its initial half dozen issues or so as the normalman universe continues to expand with little attempt to make details cohere in any really reasonable way.

That's fine as satire, allowing Valentino to do takes on hit comics of the time like Elfquest and others like crossing over into Journey. It's about half way that the longest running gag in the book ends, the seemingly endless roll call of the Legion of Superfluous Heroes, a roll call which effectively prevents them from taking any action whatsoever.

Valentino is able to make some commentary too on the values promoted by comics, pointing out the way comics promote violence and seem to validate avarice, two aspects of American culture which are easy and ready targets for satire.

But as the series continues the reader can feel the tone shift to a more regular comic book story as the plot which has unfolded in a zany way begins to cohere more and develop to a singular climatic (sort of) end point. Despite the sense in the early issues (and back ups in issues of Cerebus the Aardvark) of a small-minded spoof, the narrative seems to begin to take itself more seriously as a pure story about well...normal characters.

And as such begins to lose some of the satirical punch which had informed the wild energy of the early issues. We become immersed in a murder mystery, and while it's safe to say no one character in normalman is allowed to become sufficiently real for a reader to invest in much, there seems to be an attempt at least to develop sentiment.

Wild forays into space notwithstanding, it seems to this reader that in the last run of the book, we are headed to a destination, but not one which necessarily promises to pay off.

Trips into the past are fun, and jokingly point to a neat paradox which makes normalman to some extent responsible for his own dilemma (an element which is not much at all developed).

The final few issues put normalman more in control of his fate as he acquires power  though always he seems not to fully understand what it is he really wants or needs.

The story bogs down a bit toward the end as the finale seems to be arbitrarily delayed to make out the requisite dozen issues and such of the series itself.

By the time we are poised for the thirteenth and final installment, saved for a 3-D annual, the story is quickly losing gas and the reader seems just as eager as normalman himself to be quit of Levram and its lunacy.

This entire saga has been collected a few times, most recently in The Complete normalman from Image Comics.

There are couple of additional tales (one co-starring Megaton Man) which sadly are less effective than I remember them being when they first hit the stands, and don't really add much to our understanding of the normalman universe.

normalman was effectively a single idea expanded to twelve issues and beyond. It's full of delightful cameos (my favorite hero E-Man shows a few times) and any Silver or Bronze Age fan will get a kick out of it. Still and all it seems a bit less impressive on this reading than I recollect.

If you'd like to see the covers these Valentino variations take a spin on go here to a post from me a few years ago when I first bought this collection.

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