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#7 | 6/29/05 | align=right> #4 |
(Click title to go directly to the review)
X-MEN: KITTY PRYDE - SHADOW & FLAME # 1
THE LOSERS #25
PLANETARY #23
YOUNG AVENGERS #5
THE OMAC PROJECT #3
ALBION # 1
RUNAWAYS Vol. 2 #5
Indie Jones presents ZOMBIE TALES #1
CHEAP SHOTS!
X-MEN: KITTY PRYDE - SHADOW & FLAME # 1
Written by Akira Yoshida
Art by Paul Smith
Published by Marvel
Reviewed by Buzz Maverik
X-MEN: KITTY PRYDE - SHADOW & FLAME # 1 is the first non-7 SEVEN SOLDIERS book this year to completely knock me out! I can give this issue, and hopefully this series, a 100% unreserved recommendation!
No "a minor problem I had was..." No "the story/art was great but the story/art was lacking..." No "I guess what they did was okay here but it bears no resemblance to the way these characters have ever been used before..."
Writer Akira Yoshida and artist Paul Smith have done everything right! Tight plotting! A perfect pace! Surprises! Humor! Engaging characters! Snappy dialogue! Clear, beautiful visuals that tell the story! And like Dan Slott, they've proven that you can have a full, flawless knowledge of past stories and continuity in the modern Marvel Universe.
Mr. Yoshida has written THOR: SON O' ASGARD and a slew of X-MEN stuff for Marvel, none of which I've read. But if it's all as well done as this issue, he's one of the rare new writers who has made me want to go back and pick up all his older work.
And Paul Smith... if Mr. Smith hasn't been designated an X-MEN VISIONARY, he should be. When he first appeared on the UNCANNY X-MEN just after Claremont's second Brood saga, my first reaction was that John Byrne had returned, toned down some his growing idiosyncrasies, and was good again. But Mr. Smith's work wasn't really Byrnian, the way Erik Larsen's was, for example. It was all his own. While not photorealistic, it has a wonderful lack of exaggeration. Generally, serenity in comic book art equals pretension and boredom inducement, but Mr. Smith's work simply shows you in unquestionable terms what the characters are doing and how they feel. Each panel makes its' own impression, but for all the subtlety in the art, when the action flows, you feel the impact.
Mr. Smith's work was sort of overshadowed by a subsequent series of artists who would become late 80s superstars, which is a true shame because his storytelling is superior to some of the later artists. In a true move from the school of Johnny Depp career management, Mr. Smith dropped X-MEN to work on DR. STRANGE, one of his favorite characters. How cool is that?
X-Man Kitty Pryde (what’s with no code names? Kitty Pryde? Emma Frost? Jean Grey?) has received an invitation to come to Japan. She's supposed to bring her pet dragon Lockheed, who isn't really a dragon but an alien who befriended Kitty on Broodworld. Lockheed sort of first appeared in a fairy tale that Kitty told Illyana Rasputin before Illyana was prematurely aged by demons. While Kitty was held prisoner by Emma Frost, Lockheed accompanied the X-Men and the rest of Marvel's big at the time characters to a world created by cosmic menace the Beyonder in the 1980s SECRET WAR. There, Lockheed cast his luv spell on a female dragon-like creature. At the end of SECRET WAR, the X-Men, Lockheed and the girl dragon were zapped back to Earth, over the nation of Japan. The dragon chick was transformed to Godzilla size, giving Chris Claremont and artist John Romita Jr. a chance to do a very sloppy monster story.
In addition to that story, this story ties into a wretched mini-series of a bygone era by Claremont and artist Al Milgrom. It was supposed to be the second ever WOLVERINE mini-series, a follow up to the one masterfully drawn by Frank Miller. But you know Claremont. It became a WOLVERINE & KITTY PRYDE mini, which meant it was really a Kitty Pryde mini and Claremont's only as good as his artist. Let's say that Mr. Milgrom was okay but you knew it wasn't Frank Miller at the drawing board. Somehow, one of Wolverine's ninja enemies reduced Kitty to infancy, turned her into a ninja and had her attack Wolverine. Yeah, it was as bad as it sounds.
Somehow, all of those old elements have become charmed in Yoshida and Smith's story, though. We've got Kitty befriended by and at odds with a quirky Japanese secret service agent; Lockheed disguised as a Siamese cat; dragon-napping ninjas, Wolverine's e-mail address, some karate chopping, and a killer ninja who can phase. Yep, that meets everything on the checklist.
This is why, every now and then, we should take a look at a comic we normally wouldn't touch if we lost a bet. I avoid the hell out of anything X-MEN. I've always found Kitty Pryde to be one of Marvel's most annoying characters simply because Claremont forced her up our colons when she first appeared, turning UNCANNY into what someone, maybe John Byrne or maybe me, termed "Kitty Pryde Comics." Yet, Kitty is a good character and has been portrayed well when she's not waved in our faces.
I'm on board for at least another issue, maybe the whole thing if it's all this good.
THE LOSERS #25
Writer: Andy Diggle
Penciller: Jock
Publisher: DC Comics/Vertigo
Reviewed by Humphrey Lee
Anymore I can't help to wonder why this comic book series isn't being made into a TV series or a movie. With big action blockbusters like MR. & MRS. SMITH still bringing in obscene amounts of cash at the box office, and a show like "24" being one of the most heavily viewed and most critically praised shows out there, why isn't THE LOSERS, a comic that has everything those things has and more, not getting more attention? Every issue, time and again, has more intense action than even the biggest of Blockbuster movies. Oh, and you want espionage too? Well hell boy, you just hit the jackpot with this little gem of a book. What we've got here is a book with more conspiracies than a season of THE X-FILES.
This issue is the conclusion to an arc entitled "Anti-heist." The drive behind this chapter in the LOSERS story involves their main protagonists, a corrupt figure in the government known only as Max and a former teammate turned traitor named Roque, make a bid for a shipment of very large sum of weapons-grade plutonium being shipped by tanker. Using Max's vast connections and resources, Roque is in charge of snagging the payload and eliminating the evidence. And of course it's up to our merry band of misfits to put down their former friend and try to take the elusive Max down a notch. The result of all of this is yet another arc filled with lots of gunfights, lots of big explosions and jaw-dropping action sequences which, as always, do a great job of showing just how skilled, and lucky, our heroes are, and it makes you wonder just how big the whole overlying story is, given the kinds of "favors" Max keeps calling in to take down our Losers.
And amidst all the bullets and blood writer Andy Diggle makes sure to throw in some character development too. Last issue ended up with a sequence involving the apparent death of one of the Losers, the "brains" of the group and resident joker, Jensen. As the rest of our band make their abrupt get away we see minor conflicts and tensions start to bloom and subside as they each respond in their own way towards the loss of their friend. But when it comes down to it, they are soldiers, and they do what any soldier does when they lose a comrade: get the job done first and mourn later. And Roque does all he can to show off just how big a bastard he can be, but also what a little weasel he's become since turning to the dark side. And in the end of it all, we see exactly why the name Losers fits this team perfectly, because even after all they do and the kind of stunts they manage to pull of and survive through, it seems all for naught as Max always seems to get what he wants and what the group worked so hard to deny him.
I know this whole review has been nothing but one giant love-fest for this book, but I think it warrants it. There's just so much this book does right; great action, great dialogue, a very colorful cast of characters, a deep overall story, and it's all depicted by some of the most unique and stylish art out there today by the artist named Jock. If you are not buying this comic then you're just what its title implies.
PLANETARY #23
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: John Cassaday
Publisher: Wildstorm
Reviewer: Prof. Challenger
How long has this series been going now? 7 years or something like that? Had it come out monthly, it would, I guess be numbering around the 80s by now, but instead here comes issue 23. Okay, yes, it's a slow-moving series. Still, in my book, PLANETARY is one of the finest series ever published. What makes it so good is a unique combination of elements that might otherwise not be so good apart from each other.
In a lot of ways, PLANETARY is reminiscent of Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe characters and stories. The basic conceit of the Wold Newton Universe is that a strange meteorite crashed way back when and irradiated the local townsfolk who then gave birth to many of the great figures of popular fiction back around the late 19th century and on into the modern era. From Farmer's perspective, this theory connects characters like Doc Savage, The Avenger, The Shadow, Tarzan, Capt. Nemo, and all those other precursors to the modern super-heroes because they have a common genesis point in the Wold Newton meteorite. However, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Farmer introduced a new wrinkle into the mix. In his books, A FEAST UNKNOWN, THE LORD OF THE TRESS, and THE MAD GOBLIN, Farmer weaved stories around twisted pastiches of Doc Savage and Tarzan who were locked in a struggle against a worldwide organization of immortals who controlled and manipulated in great conspiratorial fashion the entire globe. Doc Caliban and Lord Grandrith were the "real" people upon whom the fictionalized pulp adventures of Savage and Tarzan were based – and presumably all those other great adventurers and detectives had "real" inspirations within the continuity of the Caliban stories. The villainous organization was known as The Nine, and the series of stories was never completed leaving the reader to assume the secret battle continues even today.
The parallels between PLANETARY and Farmer's Caliban/Grandrith books are unavoidable, but PLANETARY stepped out into its own very early on. Much of the fun of reading both Farmer's Caliban books and PLANETARY is trying to figure out which previously seen character each pastiche is an analog for. In PLANETARY, just for a couple of examples, the Doc Savage pastiche is Doc Brass and the Tarzan pastiche is actually a combination of Tarzan and Ka-Zar. Ka-Zar, was named Kevin Plunder in his pulp and comic adventures, but in PLANETARY the character is named Kevin Sack – "sack" being a synonym for "plunder" – and he has the black hair and origin more similar to Tarzan. Furthering the Tarzan parallel, the Kevin Sack story involved a secret city with a beautiful love of Sack's that bore a more than passing similarity to La of Opar.
PLANETARY delivers pastiches of comics characters, pulp adventurers, radio serial heroes, and even movie monsters. During the run of the series, there've been nods to Godzilla and Monster Island, Japanese cinema, Angels, Dr. Strange, Capt. Marvel, Thor, and last month the Lone Ranger and Green Hornet (both of whom originated on the radio) family line. Basically, the issue by issue structure is that of an anthology, but one where the anthological stories are each individual puzzle pieces to a grander tapestry involving the search for and defeat of The Four (PLANETARY's evil Fantastic Four analogs). For those who have not already read the series before, the set up involves a planetwide super-secret organization that keeps the people on this planet safe from the dangerously alien and/or supernatural forces out there trying to destroy us all. This is the PLANETARY organization. The character focus is on a trinity of characters: Jakita, Drums, and Elijah Snow. Elijah, with a "freezing" power, is one of a number of "century babies" who were born at the moment of the century turn from the 19th to the 20th century. These century babies all appear to be near immortal and super-empowered in some way. This is where much of the anthology structure comes in – the telling of stories involving many of these people with special abilities who have become explorers, adventurers, crimefighters, and even villains. Jakita is this beautiful woman with super-strength and super-speed who wears a leather X-Men-movie-style outfit. Drums is an information expert and it is his story that is the focus of PLANETARY #23.
Basically, the story of Drums is that of a child who was born with a very unusual super-power. As the Planetary doctor explains to Elijah, "He's an informational black hole. He sucks up and processes information. Any information. Any diagnostic tool tends to stop working around him." The Four killed Drums' family and stuck him in a lab somewhere with an explosive brace attached to his neck and a bunch of similarly neck braced kids. He and the other kids were supposed to be setting up controls that would allow The Four to control the flow of information on the fledgling Internet. Planetary raised Drums, who was called "Little Drummer Boy" by his captors because of his obsessive need to tap drumsticks while working, and now he works for Planetary to try and bring down The Four.
Ellis writes this series with heavy visual direction. The dialogue and exposition is kept to a minimum and he lets Cassaday tell the story with pictures. Cassaday never ever disappoints. His realistically cinematic style suits Ellis' direction perfectly. The only thing I ever have a problem with is some of the gruesome illustrations that seem a bit gratuitous to me – like the bloody spine being kicked out of a guy by Jakita in this issue. I get the point of it, but I thought it was silly and unnecessary nonetheless. At the same time, I was thoroughly impressed by the tension build up when the neck braces started exploding heads. The clever use of Elijah's power by freezing the pee-stream of an idiot guard was hilarious. Really good stuff.
I don't know if it's possible to pick up PLANETARY at this point in the run and really get into it. But I do know that the series is forever available out there in paperback and hardback collections, so pick up that first collection and see if the series doesn't connect with you. I've yet to be disappointed in an issue. I even liked the Elseworlds story where Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman were the trinity of characters leading the Planetary organization. If you've only been a passing reader of PLANETARY, this issue finally has Drums put forth a convincing motivation for Elijah's confusing behavior over the entire run of the series. Might be worth you checking back in to PLANETARY headquarters this month.
YOUNG AVENGERS #5
Writer: Allan Heinberg
Penciler: Jim Cheung
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Sleazy G
When Marvel first announced this book last summer a lot of folks responded with skepticism. People said it sounded like it was too derivative of the whole AVENGERS/NEW AVENGERS thing, or that it was gonna be a lame kiddie book, or that it was a TEEN TITANS rehash, or that TV writers should stay on TV. I’m not gonna lie, I had some of the same concerns. I knew Heinberg was a lifelong fan of comics, and I loved that he dropped references to them into his TV work all the time. I knew he could write convincing teen dialogue, but I was worried he might not know how to write the superheroic stuff. I was worried we’d get a teen sitcom where nothing happened. Honestly, I think my greatest fear was that we’d end up with the Marvel version of YOUNG JUSTICE, with jokes that fell flat and storylines that took too long to go anywhere.
I decided to give the title a shot, though, because I was enjoying the hell out of RUNAWAYS and thought another look at new teen heroes in the Marvel U. could turn out to be a lot of fun. I’m incredibly happy I did, too, because the series has managed to squash every single concern I heard people raise before the run started. Heinberg really did a helluva job coming up with the characters he’s using and developing their backgrounds. I wasn’t a fan of the TRUTH miniseries, but having the black Captain America’s grandson Patriot on the team gives his character a lot to live up to and legitimate ties to Captain America. Scott Lang’s daughter Cassie being Ant Girl is also a great tie to a fallen Marvel character’s legacy. Having an intelligent, well-trained and foxy Avengers fan trip across the group and remind them how much they have to learn is a nice touch, and it’s great that there’s a non-powered member of the team to serve as the reader’s POV character. Having Hulkling be a Skrull is cool because it lends the character a lot of flexibility and gives him a direct—but not always positive—tie to Avengers history. We haven’t heard too much about the Asgardian yet—a Thor stand-in who seems to have some sort of mystical powers—but I’m definitely looking forward to hearing more. And the real capper for this first storyline has been the identity of Iron Lad, who it turns out is actually Kang the Conqueror as a teenaged kid who got picked on a lot.
Heinberg did an impressive job of coming up with a unique group of kids who have solid roots in the Marvel U. and good reasons to be there doing what they’re doing, but he’s still managed to throw in a lot of twists that keep each issue moving. That, I think, is where the strength of this book really lies. This series does a great job of keeping things rolling. The characters may stop and talk about what’s going on, but it’s usually just a brief lull before the next wave hits. We learn about the characters not because they’re standing around telling us about themselves but because events in the book are revealing them to us. We’re learning who is more confident, who is still exploring their powers, and what they want to accomplish. This is all going on while the kids are also dealing with the Avengers wanting to shut them down and Kang the Conqueror trying to take his younger self back home where he belongs. There’s a lot going on, and it’s all tense and exiting. I loved seeing the Vision return this issue as a software program capable of activating from within (and taking form with) Iron Lad’s 30th-century armor, among other cool-as-hell developments. I sometimes feel like splash pages are overused, but the end of this issue ends on a cliffhanger splash page that really gets the job done. The cliffhanger is a doozy, one that packs a lot of emotional punch and is an arresting visual as well.
My initial hesitancy faded within the first few issues of YOUNG AVENGERS. The creators on this book have already proved themselves to be skilled and confident, and they’ve produced an exciting series that works to earn its name. The book shares a certain sensibility with the current TEEN TITANS and JSA series in that it respects the characters and history of the universe the series occurs in while adding to it. There’s nothing else like that in the Marvel Universe right now, which is why it’s well worth picking up a few issues of YOUNG AVENGERS for yourself and checking things out.
THE OMAC PROJECT #3 (of 6)
Writer: Greg Rucka
Artists: Jesus Saiz (pgs 1-14), Cliff Richards/Bob Wiacek (pgs 15-22)
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Prof. Challenger
OK. I'm enjoying this series, but even in the midst of my enjoyment there are some problems. One thing I do I find strange is that both this series and DAY OF VENGEANCE were unable to go even three issues into this INFINITE CRISIS build-up before the artist tanked out on them and had to have some fill-in work. Always irritated the hell outta me when that would happen in a regular series, but even more so when it happened on a limited series. I mean, if you know you're only committing to a 4 or 6 issue run of a series, can't you put a little extra work on Saturday or something to make sure you finish out the run and have a complete work?
Spinning out of COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS, THE OMAC PROJECT deals with a satellite spy system called BROTHER I, that was created in secret by Batman to monitor the other super-heroes. As we all know now, Batman had his mind messed with by the secret JLA cabal that mindwiped Dr. Light and other villains. As a result of the mind-mess-up, Batman grew increasingly paranoid toward the other heroes as his mind fought against the magical lobotomy performed by Zatanna. It was this paranoia that led to his creation of the Brother I satellite and his database of the personal information about all the other heroes, including secret identities, loved ones, and weaknesses. Now, Checkmate, led by Max Lord, the Black King, has stolen control of the Brother I satellite, Batman's database, and combined it with this OMAC program giving Max the ability to track people worldwide and generate unbeatable OMAC androids to take them out.
Sasha, some old girlfriend of Batman's, works for Max and has betrayed Checkmate to Batman and this issue picks up with three OMACs showing up. Two to grab Sasha and return her to Checkmate HQ so Max can deal with her personally. One to kill Batman. Which it almost does. OMAC, as originally imagined by Jack Kirby, was a One Man Army Corps who fought against evil in the future. In other words, his connection with the Brother Eye satellite meant that he had dispassionate battle info downloaded directly into his mind from Brother Eye but he had the added level of intuition and emotion that would be missing from a purely mechanical being. At this point, the reader is expected to think that these modern-day OMACs are mechanical precursors to the OMAC of the future. That's why it's just as much a surprise to the readers as it is to Batman when one slice of a sword draws blood from the OMAC assigned to eliminate him. There's more going on here than we know yet.
Noticeably, the OMAC utilizes its knowledge of Batman's strengths and weaponry to promptly remove Batman's utility belt and cuff him with his own escape-proof handcuffs. Then he flings Batman out into the
lake where Superman can fly onto the scene to save him. What this scene did for me was draw out the probability that these OMACs, as extensions of the Brother I satellite, are by design incapable of killing Batman because Brother I perceives him as his, and therefore their, creator. Otherwise, there's no reason why the OMAC would not have just performed a little wishbone action on Batman and ripped him in two.
The writer, Rucka, spends the rest of the comic dealing with the interactions between our heroes. Wonder Woman's tension-filled encounter with Guy Gardner and Booster Gold is very good at demonstrating the difference between the Giffen-era JLA and the current incarnation. The Giffen-era JLA was a clubhouse-style family of friendships. The current JLA is a team of individuals who may not even particularly like or trust each other. They are a task-oriented squad rather than a group of friends who would just as likely go hang out at Starbucks together one night as they would save the world on another night. The current utilitarian JLA team gets together to accomplish a goal then they all separate to pursue their own private lives. In the end, the big three, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, wind up together – without any of the multitude of other heroes available out there – to hash this problem out. Does anyone else see the utter arrogance of these three in shutting out everyone else and assuming they are the only three who can fix this problem? Worst of all, Batman is the cause of all this nonsense. Even assuming a high-level of arrogance on his part, is it really a good idea to write Batman as so blind to his own fault that he cannot humble himself to even ask for help this time? I would love for someone to start writing Batman as a believable human being again rather than this narcissistic bastard that took his place a few years back.
Anyway, a bit more on the art. These first two issues, Jesus Saiz did a really good job, but something really weird happened to his art in this book before he just plain disappeared and was replaced by Cliff Richards and Bob Wiacek. The first panel on the page right after Superman flies up out of the water carrying Batman. Everybody flip to that page. Now, someone tell me what's going on with Superman's left arm. Not only does it look like the lower left arm was pasted in there – it doesn't look like it fits with the rest of the drawing – but the arm has this oddball looking line on it where it was clearly drawn as if the character was supposed to be wearing gloves or an armband or something. Now, if this was inked by someone other than the penciller himself, this could be explained by a confusing sketchmark that a confused inker might mistakenly interpret as a glove. But, in this case, the penciller is also the inker. He should know what he was drawing – especially considering the fact that this is Superman and Superman's costume's is pretty darn familiar to most people in the world and it ain't got no gloves. Then, I'm looking at Superman's boots and his boots are drawn as BOTH standard single-point boots AND the double-point boots – on the same boot! Anyway, little glitches like that are distracting to me, especially when all it would take is a swipe of liquid paper or a half-second use of the eraser tool in Photoshop to take that out. Furthermore, Superman's boots are colored so that the pointy tops are colored yellow rather than solid red. That's Supergirl, people, not Superman who had the yellow stripe on the top of her boots. Little things like that make me wonder if the current publishers even employ professional proofreaders anymore. I'm guessing not. If they do, maybe they need to hire some new ones. Also, the pages by Richards and Wiacek are fine but the shift in artistic styles is a bit jarring. Kind of reminds me of the time that the NBC soap opera, SANTA BARBARA, switched actors playing the part of Mason Capwell in the middle of an episode. In fact, in the middle of one scene. See, Mason was arguing with someone (probably Julia, but I can't remember), the camera cut away to the other person for her reaction, then cut back to Mason and he was a completely different actor. Jarring. Similar feeling here.
THE OMAC PROJECT, even with its flaws, is an appealing mystery with the OMACs bearing the presence of a Borg-style menace. Back when the original OMAC series was out, there was lots of fan speculation – some of it spilling into the letters pages – over who or what Brother Eye was. I remember a lot of speculation pointed to the 70s JLA satellite headquarters as the source for what would later become Brother Eye. It's a fascinating idea to take that somewhat obscure 70s series and make it an integral part of the current iteration of the DC Universe in such a dramatic way. I'm here for the duration to see where it ends up, but I hope DC takes that extra editorial effort to humanize Batman and make sure that the artistic glitches are kept to a minimum.
ALBION # 1
Plot by Alan Moore
Written by Leah Moore & John Reppion
Art by Shane Oakley
Published by DC / Wildstorm
Reviewed by Buzz Maverik
Have you noticed a backlash rising on the message boards against St. Alan? It usually reads along the lines of "SUPREME POWER is cool and WATCHMAN sucks and JMS can beat up Alan Moore in a fight". You can substitute any book for SUPREME POWER and any writer for JMS in the previous sentence but the rest of it is pretty much straight up.
This is following an earlier backlash on Frank Miller because some posters seem to feel that it's impossible to like both Mr. Miller's and Mr. Bendis' work on DAREDEVIL.
With Alan Moore, though, a backlash isn't completely unreasonable these days. There's the retirement that smacks of refusnikism and isn't really a retirement at all because he's still producing comics. That's not a big deal to me. More of a problem is that Moore's name is being used to sell comics that really aren't Alan Moore's work.
John Lennon said, "Don't follow leaders." Taking the Walrus at his word, I started following leaders because if I did what he said, he'd be the leader I was following. But Mr. Ono had a point. I will never understand the breed of fan that goes to the mat to defend their favorite writer, artist, character or publisher. I will never understand the kind of fans that get their identities from being associated with a comic pro. The closest I've come to that kind of fandom is following Alan Moore's work. It has never completely failed me, although many times it has come damned close!
ALBION # 1 is Alan Moore as a brand name. He didn't write the comic, he plotted it. Huge difference. Don't believe me? Look at almost any Silver Age FANTASTIC FOUR. It was mostly plotted by Jack Kirby, but written by Stan Lee. It usually is a great read. Then read a Bronze Age comic written by Kirby. ALBION # 1 has that problem, but in reverse. Reading it twice, I kept saying, "Whut?"
I guess ALBION # 1 has the premise that old time British cartoon strip characters were real but the general, modern population doesn't know it. That's an interesting idea. Somebody like Warren Ellis or, uh, Alan Moore could do something great with that. Getting into an UNBREAKABLE thought mode, if it weren't for the sickness of the crimes which Michael Jackson was acquitted, I've considered posting the idea on some board that he may be the very first real live super-villain. Superheroes don't exist in real life, but we have the closest thing to a member of Batman's rogues gallery up at Neverland Ranch. Bizarre white skin, supposedly from a disease that no other person has that I've ever seen. Purposely misshapen features like something off Bob Kane's pencil. Wealth, now dwindled or dwindling, that has rendered him able to buy muscle for protection and enforcement; and that has kept him from being successfully prosecuted. Remember, the jury never said this hump was innocent. They just said that he wasn't proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If he had been proven guilty, there'd be no denying that he was as twisted, evil, and all out weird as any non-powered super-villain or James Bond megalomaniac.
So ALBION'S conceit that these old time British comic book characters, which we've never heard of before, are real and locked in asylums is a good one. The result is just a mess. Our hero is a comic geek, pursuing back issues the way we used to before the coming of comic shops and E-Bay: in filthy, stinking little crap shops. He spots a comic strip character being arrested and is whisked off by one of those mystery waif girls that pop up in such stories. I can remember not being able to get laid, but even I would have asked any chick a few questions before trotting along after her.
The script is credited to Moore's daughter Leah and John Reppion. I can't figure out why it took two people to write it, but maybe if they would have brought in a third party, it would have been better. Nepotism isn't always a bad thing. Almost any time somebody gets to make a movie, it's because they know someone else in the film industry. That's fine, because if they weren't able to carry it off, they still wouldn't get to make a movie. And they sure as hell wouldn't get a second chance. Just look at the films, I mean film, of say David Lynch's daughter Jennifer.
But in a way, Moore is doing a disservice to his daughter's comic writing career. His name comes first. You're expecting an Alan Moore style book, and this isn't it. It's more like the first draft of a submission to Vertigo or Image. Something that could be decent if reworked.
Simon Oakley's art is good, though. It has a little of the old time EC flavor. It's a little like a cross between the art of some of Alan's frequent collaborators Rick Veitch and cover artist Dave Gibbons. Mr. Oakley especially excels in the black and white JANUS STARK comic that our hero reads in the dusty shop.
RUNAWAYS Vol. 2 #5
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Penciller: Adrian Alphona
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewed by Humphrey Lee
My fellow RUNAWAYS readers, we have been duped.
For the past couple issues we have been pulled along with a new character by the name of Victor Mancha. Apparently, young Victor is the offspring of one of the major villains of the Marvel Universe and will one day rise to be its greatest, as our RUNAWAYS witnessed at the beginning of this new volume via one of their members traveling back in time to warn her teammates before dying herself. Since then, the team has been in search of this forewarned despot in an attempt to find him and hopefully divert him or stop him from becoming what he is supposedly destined to be, at whatever cost. Over those issues we were given glimpses and hints as to who he could be the son of, though Mr. Brian K. Vaughan has deftly shown us multiple possibilities and red herrings. The first name of our potential protagonist alone, Victor, plus some well done hinting via the covers on some previous issues, immediately harkens to one Victor Von Doom, aka Dr. Doom, arguably the most terrifying villain in the entire MU. But alas, over the past couple issues Victor has started displaying some of his powers, mainly those of a magnetic basis, thus shifting focus to other major players such as Magneto. As of last issue though, it seems we finally had some resolution as the book ended with the RUNAWAYS and now captive Victor being contacted by the aforementioned Dr. Doom, saying he had kidnapped Victor's mother and wanted his son back.
But, as history has shown in this book, not everything is as it seems.
Quite frankly, the TRUE reveal as to who Victor's "father" is in this issue is just one I didn't see coming at all. Vaughan, as always, has done a tremendous job of leading his readers right to where he wants to, someplace in between a total feeling of knowing where everything is leading, and a total feeling of not knowing what the hell is going on. And, as always again, when we find out just exactly what is going on here there's just a total sense of awe, as it's brilliantly executed and it's a solution that there really was never any way of you knowing the truth, but it's do so well that it's totally believable and you don't feel gypped in any sense.
This issue also serves very well towards developing a side plotline involving a group of former teenage superheroes known as Excelsior. This is a group that has been brought together via a mysterious benefactor, and who’s purpose is to try and talk to and help out aspiring teenage heroes, or dissuade them, as it's a road these team members have gone down before. The mystery here now is exactly who this benefactor who funds the team is. Is he a new potential enemy hoping to destroy our Runaways in a pre-emptive strike against them? Or is it some one who really wants to help our aspiring heroes become truly great? But possibly the biggest mystery of it all is just is he getting all the info and tech that he is providing the Excelsior members with.
And lastly the character development and dialogue are at an all time high with this issue as well. The Runaways have been feeling pretty confident of themselves over the past couple issues as they've made good progress in taking down super-powered baddies. But now they're facing a whole new level of bad guy and their lack of experience and trepidation are showing. If they are to become the next generation of "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" then they've got a long way to go... if they live through all of this, that is. The very last panel of this book shows our resident couple on the team, Gertrude and Chase, standing alone in front of Victor's revealed father and knowing they have no chance of survival. Holding hands and staring down the inevitable Chase simply says, "I know, baby. I loved you too."
Simple, yet powerful. That is exactly what this book is. Read it and Love it.
ZOMBIE TALES #1
Written by Andrew Cosby, Mike Nelson, John Rogers, Johanna Stokes, Mark Waid, & Keith Giffen
Art by Keith Giffen, Joe Abraham, Andy Kuhn, J.K. Woodward, Carlos Magno, and Ron Lim
Published by Boom! Studios
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
On a recent episode of Ebert & Roeper, the guys reviewed the movie LAND OF THE DEAD and proclaimed that “Zombies just aren’t that scary.” Well, I disagree. If you look at zombies literally, they’re just bags of meat and bones shambling around in a daze wanting to consume everything in their path. Kind of like hippies but they smell better. At the surface, these guys aren’t very frightening. But what if that zombie is your neighbor who you’ve said “Hi.” to every day for the last ten years. Or your mother. Or your lover. That’s some pretty terrifying stuff. I’m kind of surprised at this attitude towards zombie entertainment from Ebert and Siskel’s replacement. When written well, zombies can be allegories for a lot of things that frighten us. First and foremost, these guys are walking, moaning representations of our own mortality. This is what we become when we die. Zombie stories are usually a bunch of people fighting off the inevitable – death. And what’s scarier than the inevitable fact that someday we are all going to die and rot away?
The creators behind the recent BOOM relaunch of ZOMBIE TALES know how to make the walking dead scary, that’s for sure. In this anthology series, creators – classic and new – tell us personal tales from a world where the dead have risen.
Each of the six short stories are excellently paced and crafted. My favorite of the bunch is a twisted little tale called “Daddy Smells Funny.” John Rogers and Andy Kuhn create a story told from the perspective of a child experiencing the first days of a zombie holocaust. This story offers a fresh look at an old concept and would have made for an amazing TWILIGHT ZONE episode.
Johanna Stokes tells a heartbreaking story of survival guilt that is beautifully painted by JK Woodward in “For Pete’s Sake.” Wizened creators such as Keith Giffen and Mark Waid offer their own warped takes on the zombie menace with tales told from the perspective of both zombie and human alike.
Another thing that makes this issue shine is art by two of my all time favorite artists. These days Keith Giffen gets more praise for his writing than his art, but his quirky artwork is what first brought my attention to the creator. In “I, Zombie”, Giffen gives shape to Andrew Cosby’s story of a semi-intelligent zombie. It’s been too long since I’ve seen Giffen’s artwork and I hope to see more of it in future issues of this series.
And finally in the last story, Ron “Where the Hell You Been At?” Lim draws “Dead Meat” a short by Keith Giffen. Lim was one of my favorite artists back in the day. His stint on SILVER SURFER helped forge my love of comics. Seeing him draw zombies is an added bonus.
ZOMBIE TALES is a quality read. It’s got scares, laughs, thrills, and humanity. All of the things a good piece of zombie fiction should have. Zombie comics seem to be the new big thing at the moment, and ZOMBIE TALES is a worthy addition to that genre.
Remember, if you have an Indie book you’d like one of the @$$holes to take a look at, click on your favorite reviewer’s link and drop us an email.
Remember, if you have an Indie book you’d like one of the @$$holes to take a look at, click on your favorite reviewer’s link and drop us an email.
FANTASTIC FOUR #528
So Marvel’s got this FF movie coming out, and for all its wonky casting choices, de-Latverianizing of Dr. Doom, and inevitable public comparisons to THE INCREDIBLES…the movie has folks kind of hyped for it. It looks fun and I think it’s going to do surprisingly well, maybe even shockingly well. And kids are gonna dig it. And they might even want to read an FF comic after they’ve seen it! So what sort of FF comic did Marvel put out as their showpiece on the cusp of this landmark event?A gabfest issue. I shit you not, J. Michael Straczynski has done what few FF writers can do and sucked every ounce of action out of the entire issue. In its stead, a density of word balloons only Chris Claremont could beat. Yes, when little Billy buys this latest issue, imagine his excitement as Sue gets grilled by a child protective services rep! As the newly wealthy Thing stands in front of a mirror and ruminates on public perception! As Reed discusses a bunch of cosmic ray techno-babble with a fellow scientist!
I guess I’m just saying…a cameo by fucking Paste Pot Pete would be more exciting. - Dave
FLASH #223
If there is one word that can describe this current story, it is ESCALATION! Issue after issue, writer Geoff Johns kicks the threat level up a notch. The action happens so fast in this book, that if you miss a panel (the graphic storytelling version of a blink) you’ll be sure to miss something. The Rogues are tearing each other apart in the streets of Central City and the Flash is in the middle of it all trying to stop them. Virtually every Flash villain you can think of has made an appearance as the stakes keep rising. Rogues die. Some turn good. Others turn bad. There’s betrayal and rage and Gorilla Grodd is still trying to eat brains! All of this is proudly wrapped in the brightly colored spandex of superhero-dom. Johns embraces what most writers today seem afraid or ashamed of. This is a brightly colored all-out battle and as each issue proceeds, I keep asking myself how much further into chaos can Johns push this story. And with each cliffhanger ending, Johns proves to me that he can. Last issue, just as Captain Cold smashed the Top into little tiny ice cubes, Professor Zoom crashes into the fray. This issue’s cliffhanger features the return of a villain you’d never think you’d see on a mode of transportation that we all thought was long lost. The fastest comic out there is still the best. Wait for trade, buy the single issues, just don’t miss this story arc. Bug
BILLY THE KID’S OLD TIMEY ODDITIES #3 (of 4)
One issue from completion and I still don’t quite know what to make of this series. I guess the concept – Billy the Kid and a band of circus freaks versus Dr. Frankenstein and his creations – kind of sells itself, but it’s not nearly the surrealist good time you might expect. Billy’s an asshole, the nice circus freaks keep having horrible things happen to ‘em, and an EC tone of leering grimness prevails throughout. More specifically, this issue sees a captured Billy failing to deter Doc Frankenstein from his attentions on the freaks. Billy cuts loose with a string of gay jokes, but Frankenstein gets the last laugh by beheading one freak, torturing another, and locking claustrophobe Billy in a trunk. Next issue, presumably, comes Billy’s Clint Eastwood-style payback. I’ve enjoyed Kyle Hotz’s Berni Wrightson-inspired art throughout, but for a book with such a silly premise, there’s not much fun at all to be found here. - Dave
SOLO #5 featuring Darwyn Cooke
This latest installment of this talent spotlighting series is far and away the best of them all. I have been very impressed by the feature artists, and sometimes writer/artists that have been the focus of these books so far, particularly the Paul Pope issue, but Cooke here knocks this one out of the park. He covers the spectrum so to say with short stories dealing with everything from terrorism, to a story about what inspired our maestro here to do what he does, and also one of the most intense BATMAN short stories I've ever read. Between each short we also get interludes involving one of my favorite characters, and apparently one of Cooke's, Slam Bradley. The art is always excellent with Cooke's wonderful blend of an early Silver Age book with more "cartoonish" looking figures, but the heavy detail you'd expect from one of the modern industry's top artists. Some of the stories might be a little overly quirky, but they all entertain to a degree and look gorgeous. This is the prime example of what this series could be and solidifies Cooke to me as one of the biggest talents in all of comics today. - Humphrey
THE SURROGATES #1 (of 5)
Tired of Warren Ellis hogging all the sci-fi themes in comics? You might want to give this series a look. Presented by Top Shelf Productions, it’s a murder mystery based around the development of a new technology in the near future: “surrogates”, which are robotic humanoids that citizens can virtually inhabit from the comfort of their own homes. SURROGATES delves into the potential of such technology to completely alter racial perceptions, sexual identity, beauty standards, and even crime. Strong concepts, but marred slightly by the familiar murder mystery entry point and, at least as of the first issue, a seeming reluctance to really push boundaries (a cop is actually shocked that a female surrogate is being operated by a guy? Come on.) The art’s moody and filtered through an L.A. smog, but it’s a touch too “Ben Templesmith” for my tastes (rich atmosphere, minimal contextual backgrounds). Best part of the book: the smartly written text pages in the back, providing a faux-history of surrogates and their impact on society. - Dave
WONDER WOMAN #217
I found the ending of this story arc to be a bit abrupt, but entertaining nonetheless. Wonder Woman, Wonder Girl, and Ferdinand the Minotaur go on a quest into the Underworld to retrieve the kidnapped Hermes. A trifacta of dethroned and angry gods, the god of War, and an army of the undead stand in our heroes way. I enjoy the way Rucka has woven Diana’s story firmly around Greek Mythology. The modern take on classic myths are fascinating (I guess it kind of has the same appeal that the ULTIMATE U has for those who read stories of the original characters). Although this title is still often paced for trade, lately Rucka’s single issues haven’t left me with that not-yet-full feeling after my eyes devour the issue. Issue 217 has action, a lot of great moments where the characters shine, and an emotional ending which distinguishes Diana as a compassionate hero that stands above the others in the DCU. - Bug
NAT TURNER #1
Talk about your hardcore pitch-lines! Here’s how cartoonist Kyle Baker himself describes his self-published miniseries NAT TURNER, based on the life of the slave made famous/infamous for the violent uprising he led: “It’s like GLORY, except if Morgan Freeman got hanged and skinned at the end.”Jesus!
Okay, it’s grim material made even less commercial for being historical, but Baker’s a cartoonist’s cartoonist, and his astonishing visuals for the first issue are reason alone to give it a shot. The issue, largely silent in its depiction of the violent capture and enslavement of Nat Turner’s mother, is simply some of the finest black-and-white cartooning of the year year: BEHOLD. Worth a look both for Baker’s art and the challenging subject matter. - Dave
BATMAN #641
I've been pretty rough on Judd Winick here in the past, having bought several issues' worth of his stuff that left me anywhere from unimpressed to displeased. Still, I have to give the guy credit where it's due. I hated Winick's first storyline in BATMAN, which involved the creation of the ridiculous Scarebeast. Since the Return of the Red Hood/Jason Todd to the title, though, he's been doing a really solid job. I'm impressed issue in and issue out with the writing of the Red Hood character and like the approach this new foil for Bruce is taking. He's similar to the Zoom character over in Geoff Johns' FLASH in that the Red Hood claims to be working towards the same goals as Batman while using more severe tactics. Being who he is, though, the Red Hood has a stronger tie to the main character and as a result has an ability to shake Batman in a way a lot of others don't. As unhappy as I am to see Jason Todd return in current continuity, I'm surprised on a monthly basis by how much I like each issue of Winick's run. I just hope he can maintain this level of quality. It's too early to say if he's maturing as a writer or not, but I'm definitely hopeful. - Sleazy
G.I. JOE: AMERICA’S ELITE #1
Even as a big ol’ Joe fan from back in the day, I could never get into the fannish G.I. JOE relaunch from Devil’s Due. They’re giving it another go, though, and as someone who stills gets misty reading the death of Kwinn in the original series, I have just enough nostalgia left for one more go. The verdict? Not bad. Joe Casey’s writing, and the tone’s more in line with the cartoon or a Michael Bay flick than the quasi-military realism of Hama’s heyday I pine for, but I found some stuff to enjoy. The team’s pared down to just eight core members, a fun call-back to the commando unit size of the original crew. The threat – crashing satellites killing thousands – isn’t distinctly Cobra yet, but I’m sure it will be. Destro’s lurking in the background looking to play any and all sides, and he’s still the pimp-daddy of terrorism. Great KILL BILL-esque catfight between Scarlett and an unnamed badgirl protecting a bizarrely obscure ex-Cobra dying of cancer. Richly-colored animation-inspired art from Stefano Casselli. And of course, the soap operatic subplots! My favorite’s the revelation that the Baroness is a captive of the Joes, potentially playing the informant role of Sydney’s mother during ALIAS season two (or Hannibal Lector advising on Buffalo Bill, if you want a broader reference). I dunno. I think I almost had fun with this thing. Faint praise, maybe, but hey, I’m always on the lookout for fun books. Gotta have something to come lighten up the room after reading NAT TURNER. - Dave
SPIDER-MAN/HUMAN TORCH #5 (of 5)
I want to shake Dan Slott’s hand for writing this miniseries. It sold less than ARAÑA, GAMBIT, and “Son of Venom” comic TOXIN, but the failure of fandom to recognize doesn’t for one instant change the fact that this miniseries produced the most authentically “Spider-Man” Spider-Man stories of the last decade. Each standalone story has been a loving and hilarious tribute to Marvel eras of the past, but we finally jump to the present with this last issue to culminate in a historic event: the Human Torch finally learning Spider-Man’s identity. I say “finally” because, as Slott wryly notes in the story, it seems like just about everyone else knows. But Slott takes that lemon of a pattern and makes lemonade. He makes the revelation meaningful, he lays it out with wit during the course of an action-packed story, and he ends with enough heart to leave even the most cynical reader dabbing at his eye to get that bit of sand out. If you’ve forgotten that it’s okay for superhero stories to still be fun, consider SPIDEY/TORCH a cure for your blues! Back issues are cheap and a digest collection’s on its way. - Dave
JUSTICE LEAGUE CLASSIFIED #9
Well, this is it. What may very well be the last issue of the Giffen-era JLI/Super Buddies (ugh!) line-up. With Blue Beetle currently six feet under getting used to the bullet hole through his noggin and Sue Dibney still smoldering in the grave, this will probably be the last time we see this classic line-up of characters together in current continuity. Rumors have it that this oft-uninspired mini-series within a series lost its steam because Giffen, DeMatteis, and MacGuire (look, I spelled it right!) may have been getting a bit bored with the characters. All I know is that issue #7 of this series was the best issue I’ve read this year and the creators still have it in them to tell compelling stories starring these characters when they want to. Issue 8 brought us back to form with the constant bickering and maddening circular dialog that made the first part of this series so hard to get through. This issue is more of the same. Sure there’s some poignancy thrown in towards the end regarding the again-lost Ice character, but the flighty plot outweighs these heavy moments. This was a nostalgia-factor story arc. Those of us who are in love with these characters will probably like this series. Those of you who never really cared for these characters won’t have your minds changed after reading this one. Aside from the truly excellent issue #7, “I can’t believe it’s not the Justice League” left me sadly unimpressed.But I have to give the creators credit for this issue’s homage to Bendis’ murder of Hawkeye. “Not like this!” indeed! - Bug
FORGOTTEN REALMS: HOMELAND #1 (of 3)
HOMELAND begins the adaptation of one of the popular novels of Dungeons & Dragons hero Drizzt Do’Urden. He’s an angsty loner, a master swordsman, and a hero in spite of growing up in the evil culture of the dark elves. Doesn’t matter much, though – the adaptation of his origin story’s a fizzle. I read the book it’s based on a few years back, and it was standard D&D pulp fantasy elevated by its exotic underground locales and some neat ideas about the twisted, matriarchal culture of the dark elves. Not so, the book, racing along between key events at such a breakneck speed that there’s no time to absorb the weirdness, the cruelty, the alienness of Drizzt’s world. It’s a bit like the standard comic adaptation of a movie – a highlight reel with no depth or character. What’s more, the art rarely rises above passable after the splash page, and the action scenes are uniformly awkward. Stick with the book if you’ve got the swords ‘n’ sorcery bug, and let’s just hope Devil’s Due does better with DRAGONLANCE in a few months. - DaveIt’s the Talkback Question o’ the Week!?!?!
What MIA comic creator deserves to be back in the field?
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For years flash has been getting a crappy response from readers. I am so relieved that Flash has finally gotten the props it deserves.
Although how long that will be after JOhns leaves. Who Knows??
I hope DC has a good writer in mind. Personally I think they wouldn't go amiss if the put Andy Diggle or perhaps GOyer on it.
I have a feeling they might hand FLash over to Pfeifer or perhaps even JOe KElly. TAKE YER BETS!!!
Flash Rocks!!
And would someone please tell me who Victor mancha's dad is? Put out a big-ass spoiler warning. I'm dying to know.
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Jul 07, 2005 4:11:26 AM CDT
Spider-Man needs to get back to being light and fun.
by grammaton cleric
When I first started reading Spidey, it was a super fun book penciled by Erik Larsen. Goofy to the extreme; and always a good time. Today's Spidey is too reflective, too broody. His marital problems are a real drag; I-just-don't-care.
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Wether its an imprint or a comic that he produces, I really don't care what fans say. THe man can write like a mutha. And JMS TOO. So any body stoopid enough to compare. Stop wasting ur breath and thank JEebus you have both of them writing stuff. THEY ROCK!!
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My pick: Steve Bissette. He pretty much disappeared from the biz when the industry collapse of the '90s killed his creator-owned project, TYRANT. TYRANT, for them what missed it, was meant to chronicle the live of a Tyrannosaurus Rex from birth to death. It was the culmination of Bissette's lifelong fanscination with the critters, and was so extensively researched that the footnotes in each issue rivaled those in FROM HELL. TYRANT was violent, it was scientific, it was poetic, and it was bloody brilliant. Plus, as anyone who recalls Bissette's art on SWAMP THING will surmise, the art was to die for. Behold: http://tinyurl.com/dmn3f And here's another: http://tinyurl.com/7gev8 And an actual dino picture: http://tinyurl.com/bfott I'm crying here, people. Could someone please hook up Steve with a hundred grand grant or something? This industry need him.
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Jul 07, 2005 4:38:01 AM CDT
Everybody go plunk down 30 bucks and buy WALT AND SKEEZIX
by zikade zarathos
If you tallied up the cost of all the books reviewed here, not counting the Cheap Shots, you'll get an amount around thirty bucks -- and for that thirty bucks, you can get Drawn and Quarterly's first "Gasoline Alley" collection, WALT AND SKEEZIX, which is roughtly a billion times better than all of those books combined. Which means that you come out ahead by about... *checks calculator*... a billion percent. And PLANETARY is "...one of the finest series ever published??" As in EVER ever? You're off your goddamned rocker.
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Off the top of my head, Al Columbia immediately springs to mind. And will Martin Vaughn-James make another comic before he dies, please?
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I dig me some classic comic strips, but GASOLINE ALLEY's one of those I'm pretty unfamiliar with (beyond the novelty of the "real time" aging). Lay it on me: what's great about it?
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First of all, GASOLINE ALLEY is only GASOLINE ALLEY during Frank King's initial run (some people say Dick Moores' run was as good, or at least *nearly* as good, but I don't), from 1921 when Skeezix first appeared to the early 50's. It's the first (and still pretty much the only significant one) to really utilize the comic-strip format to detail a person's life in excrutiating, minute detail -- the characters literally AGE in this strip, and as such, every joke and punchline (when there even was one) carries a certain sadness: these people, someday, are going to die, just like you and me. It morphed from a simplistic strip about cars to a strip about families and relationships and people. It's the most subtle strip I've ever read (possibly next to PEANUTS). The best moments of CALVIN AND HOBBES was when they were just hanging out, talking, without a setup-joke-punchline system. EVERY "Gasoline Alley" strip has that level of laid-back ease. Beyond all of that, though, King's cartooning is really just beautiful to look at. He's (justifiably) known best for his lush Sundays, but his weeklies are just as great to pour over. Anyhoo, it's a great strip that, even more than KRAZY KAT, hasn't been reprinted NEARLY as much as it should have been. Here's hoping D&Q keeps raking in money to see this project through to completion.
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What, did they set her on fire? "Mouldering," sweetie.
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Jul 07, 2005 7:19:56 AM CDT
I want to thank this column for turning me on to the Spider-Man/
by johnny ahab
I'd sworn off Spider-Man after the Gwen/Goblin ickiness. I was just too mad at Marvel, wasn't interested in the seemingly millions of Spider-titles, and just decided maybe it was time to stop. I didn't really recognize this character anymore. Spidey/Human Torch #3 changed all that -- and I wouldn't have picked it up if it were not for this column. It made me laugh out loud on multiple readings. It brought back a sense of wistful nostalgia for the former playfulness of Spider-Man comics from long ago. But #5 was the icing on the cake. I laughed, I was moved, I was touched -- and the meeting of the Parker family with the FF family choked me up. This was a truly wonderful and MUCH TOO SHORT series. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Marvel, give Dan Slott the keys to the core titles, namely Amazing Spider-Man. I haven't enjoyed Spidey this light, funny yet also poignant in a very long time. And thanks to the A$$holes for clueing me in.
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Jul 07, 2005 7:50:39 AM CDT
Uhm, yeah, DukeOfSpiders, they did set Sue Dibney on fire...
by ambush bug
but thanks for calling me sweetie.
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Somebody want to clue me in on who Ambrose Chase is...ala Drums' last line? Please, it's driving me effing batty.
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is the black guy on the cover and throughout the issue.
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was a comic strip I loathed. That and MOON MULLINS.
Regardless of it's place in history as a "real time" strip it was laboriously stupid and unfunny. I even mocked GASOLINE ALLEY a bit waaaaaayyyy back in college when I was doing a comic strip for my college paper.
So, ripping PLANETARY with no substance except a call to pick up GASOLINE ALLEY collections instead is about as weak a criticism as I can think of. -
And I feel like an official knob. He's dead tho right? I was really digging the little dropped hints about Randall Dowling tho...how he smells terrible and stuff...makes me want the next issue NOW. Cassaday's prolly got a corker for us.
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Great reviews actually. A minimum of 'silly' interjections and a maximum amount of information. Even a rundown of Plantary...always wondered. Here's hoping Baker's creator owned series doesn't take time away from Plastic Man...or has it been cancelled already.
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HOM#3 spoiler, hawkeye is back
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That guy is a genius. I also need to thank you guys for pointing me in the right direction. I saw some guy buying a ton of Giffen material and I inisisted that he look at Slott's SM/HT and She Hulk. Can't wait for the new She Hulk series!
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I'd also like to thank this column for recommending Spider-Man/Human Torch. One of the most fun, touching mini-series I've read in...well, a long-ass time. If only they'd give Dan Slott an on-going Spider-Man title.
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I was aghast to see what happened to poor DA Tower in the Spider-Man Torch mini. I remember when Tower was tall blonde and good looking. Now the poor guy looks like Alan Rachins. I guess all that Marvel Universe worry aged the poor bugger.
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ALAN GRANT was awesome all the way up to and through his Batman run and then Denny O'Neil was forcibly put to pasture and Alan Grant hasn't worked much in comics since. Alan Grant was one of the best writers in comics and then the a$$hole, ego maniac editors at DC screwed it up and one of the big ones was effectively firing Alan Grant from the business of comics. And the one artist I'd love to see a lot LOT more of is Norm Breyfogle. I was glad to see him on the Hal Jordan Spectre series, but since then .... ZIP. I'd love him back on Batman, but he needs to be working a lot more. It's a wonder to me that either of these guys aren't scooped up by Marvel.
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Haven't picked up the Kitty Pryde mini, because everything Yoshida has done has been awful, but if other reviews are half as glowing I'll probably pick it up. But you're nuts if you think WOLVERINE & KITTY PRYDE was bad. Not only was it a great mini, it was an defining moment for the character, single handedly turning her from annoying child to full fledged x-man (of sorts). I'm only sorry the character has stagnated so much since then. Maybe this mini can do what W&K did all those years ago (and what the Jubilee mini failed to do). Planetary was great. I've been worried about how Ellis is going to wrap this thing up but each issue delivers. And if you're doing a reconstruction of comics, you have to have a resurrection in there somewhere. I hope Ellis' take is as interesting as his take on everything else. OMAC I'm enjoying, but it looks like a huge ripoff of the mid-90s x-men stories where humans become sentinels. Hopefully it doesn't go there. I'm also in general agrement about Batman, once you "make your peace" with jason todd returning, you can enjoy the good writing. But if we get stuck with another "Vigilante Villian" I will be sorely disappointed. Batman has been there and done that. I can't imagine this will bring anything new other than "but this is robin!" which would be cheap. Hopefully they'll have the sense to wrap up the story instead of having him hang around another decade, appearing once or twice a year in the "villian of the month" arcs. Albion: I didn't get suckered by the "plotted by alan moore!!". Runaways: I guess this might read better if I had any clue who this villian was.
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Actually Duke, Sues body WAS set on fire after being killed. However, whether or not the comment was an intentional "clever play on words" or a goof is still up for debate.
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Jul 07, 2005 10:50:16 AM CDT
Akira Yoshida is alright, but I wouldn't hunt down his other
by the heathen
His X4 (X-Men/Fantastic Four) mini was light fun, I kinda liked it. On the other hand his recent Age of Apocalypse mini was fucking horrible. I liked Omac #3, but admit that I didn't notice the artist mistakes. It wasn't jarring to me really, especially in the way your soap show was (creepy how much you know about Santa Barbara btw Prof.) AlgertMopper, thanks for ruining something that might have made HoM a bit more likable. A lot of us can't get to our shops every Wed. Need I explain how Spoilers work? Ahh, whatever. I admit liking Winick with the Red Hood story. I hope that Red Hood is somehow related to the "Crisis" that's coming. Not in a big way, just a minor part. Seems like Batman has a lot on his plate with the League, Brother I, and Red Hood. I hope none of these situations get overlooked because there all pretty big things.
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bloody right
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Norm is the artist on Speakeasy Comics; Of Bitter Souls that is due out in August. The story is about a New Orleans priest who bestows powers on 4 individuals that are related to their worst character flaws. They will then be set loose on Werewolves, Vampires, ghosts, and zombies.
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Jul 07, 2005 11:43:04 AM CDT
Alan Grant can be read on a weekly basis on Silverbulletcomicboo
by gus nukem
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Kitty Pryde and Wolverine wasn't great, but the final issue, when the brainwashed Kitty attacked Wolverine and Ogun tried to force her to kill him and cement his training, was pretty effective. And it was through that mini that she finally recieved a costume and a code-name. And however annoying she was during the Claremont/Cockrum Brood War years, she became more interesting afterwards, and is (was?) the best thing about Whedon's Astonishing. And this is the second week in a row with pointed Beatles references. I ain't joinin' yer stinkin' team no matter how much ya beg! Deal with it! Whazzat? It was just a coinkidink, and you don't need me to review anything? Nevermind.
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Is it possible for you to compliment John Byrne without following it with a ridiculous insult?
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Jul 07, 2005 1:11:07 PM CDT
After Carefully Considering YankeeMan's Question "Is it poss
by buzz maverik
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In fact, he'd be perfect for "Zombie Tales" #2. Somebody get him on the phone!
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Albion was enjoyable, and I'm looking forward to the next issue. You people should check it out!
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Well Dave F stole by answer, man I enjoyed TYRANt, all three issues of it... Instead, I'll say the guy who wrote the shortlived ARGONAUTS series back in the mid-80s. Good black and white art and a fun series about a team of adventuerers that bore more than a slight resemblance to Buckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers.
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Its been awhile since I read it, but I'm pretty sure Kitty wasn't "reduced to infancy" in any way whatsoever, except perhaps in the abstract metaphorical sense. But only someone who read the book would know that, making Buzz's comment extremly bizarre. Maybe he doesn't remember the book well either (that would be the least offensive explanation)
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That's funny, I would think calling something "stupid" is about as weak a criticism as one could think of. What are we, in the fourth grade? (And funny and unfunny are subjective -- you'll notice that no one who wants to praise ANY comic strip will claim it's uproariously hilarious -- if they're a good critic, that is...) And PLANETARY isn't "bad" -- just horribly, relentlessly mediocre, and to call it "one of the best series ever" says more about your limited knowledge of the medium than the comic itself.
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Jul 07, 2005 4:24:26 PM CDT
If you really prefer reading "Gasoline Alley" to "Planetary"...
by rev_skarekroe
...perhaps you'd be more comfortable on the "Comics Journal" board or some other place where you can discuss very old and Important comic strips that we, the unwashed masses, find terribly, terribly dull.
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I'd really care for more new-blood outlets. People with fresh ideas. The next Dan Slott is out there and i don't think there's many people concerned with finding him/her. Oh and i love that zikade zarathos guy, he's so fucking full of himself. First he tells you to stop reading what you want to read and instead go out and buy what HE likes, because HE thinks it's better than your stuff. Then he claims the Prof is a moron because Planetary is one of the finest series ever published IN HIS BOOK. So basically the Prof is a moron for having an opinion, and is ignorant because this dickhead doesn't share it.
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We've had Bendis-lovin' assholes, Bendis-hatin' assholes, manga-lovin' assholes, color comic assholes, Marvel assholes, DC assholes, and even one or two CrossGen assholes (shout out to Elliot Kane!). With so many assholes, I'm kind of happy to see a snooty, classic comic strips asshole in the mix. It's a rare breed, but one I appreciate. Not sayin' you guys shouldn't give him hell like any other TalkBacker, I'm just sayin' I need someone to respond when I review THE LIFE & TIMES OF SCROOGE MCDUCK next week. It's not a comic strip book per se, but the same snooty types who'd read old comic strips know about UNCLE SCROOGE coolness.
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I am a HUGE fan of the classic comic strips.
LI'L ABNER, POGO, ANNIE, THE PHANTOM, DICK TRACY, KRAZY KATZ, TARZAN, ALLEY OOP, POPEYE, etc.
Just turns out that GASOLINE ALLEY is one of those that, as our esteemed amateur @$$hole has already mentioned, is EXCRUCIATING to read because it emphasizes the mundanity of daily life. GA does not hold up as enjoyable to modern readers simply because we do not have the same life experiences and points of common interests that the public during GA's heyday had. The classics that hold up are timeless in their stories and humor(even when set during a specific time period) and GA grew progressively more boring and senseless over the decades as its simplistic version of melodrama and humor grew out of touch with the modern mindset.
And, by the way, to even have brought it up in context with PLANETARY was sophistry at its worst. PLANETARY is a serialized comic BOOK with a modern pov and emphasis. GASOLINE ALLEY is none of that. GA and PLANETARY both tell a story in drawings with word balloons and that's where the comparison lies.
Now, had I reviewed a collection of TERRY AND THE PIRATES strips and declared that comic strip to be one of the finest comic strips ever published, you might have a logically supportable argument.
As it is, you did not even compare apples and oranges, you compared apples with brussel sprouts.
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Lots of fond memories as a kid, and the trip to Japan with Storm's mohawk, Rogue's learning curve and Wolvie getting stood up at the altar is my all-time favorite X-Men arc. But, while Smith is in top form on this mini, I could care less about the story. And Kitty's e-mail to Logan was just plain embarrassing.
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I'm actually reading the first Moore "Swamp Thing" trade right now, and I'm not sure if I'll buy the second, mainly because of the art. Bissette is very talented, but his Swamp Thing work feels like a rush-job to me. The line work is too much. And how is it he can draw every last flower in the swamp, yet can't be bothered to finish characters from the waist down? Weird. *** But, you're right as rain about the Spidey/Torch mini, which will surely be the miniseries of the year for me. And yes, I know the Big 2 are both putting out roughly 80 **BIG** Event Miniseries this year.
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-all the time
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Hey, I cracked wise about you a few posts back, but I just remembered you're one of our TalkBackers from across the pond. Silly comic stuff aside, are you okay, pal? With all the insanity going on in London today, it's time to make sure our Brit TalkBackers are doing alright. Sound off if ya can!
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Jul 07, 2005 8:11:30 PM CDT
Steve Bissette - just too sophisticated for your podunk aestheti
by dave_f
As always, I kid. I'll say this, though: now, more than ever, I wish the SWAMP THING reprints were in pristine black and white, because there's no doubt in my mind that Bissette's work shone best before the mediocre coloring processes of the era were slathered on top. I say this because Vertigo actually did *start* to reprint Moore's SWAMP THING in black and white some years ago, but the project flopped. Why? Partially because there's just a bias against black and white (oh-so-slowly fading as manga and the Marvel ESSENTIALS bring it to the mainstream), but I suspect more because the reprints occured in serialized issues, not in the form of trades (just as the format was taking off). But, Sideshow, if you ever get a chance to see these things, give 'em a close look and see if you don't change your mind. Bissette's linework is just beautiful. I truly believe the coloring, while solid, muddied up his densely hatched, illustrative style. As for characters fading out below the waist or whatever, sounds like Bissette was just going a little "arty", treating the characters like artistic studies on occasion. You've seen it from the great masters, no doubt - a sketch from Michaelangelo or Da Vinci that focuses on an arm or a torso, but lets the other details fade away. It's also a pretty common device for illustrators, most of whom have great experience in layout and can use such fade-away effects to balance compositions visually. Since Bissette comes from that school, probably idolizing guys like Joseph Clement Coll, it makes sense he'd employ such techniques. 'Course, he was a young turk then, and he might've flubbed such stuff a bit, but I can about guarantee you no laziness was involved.
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the fact that UNCLE SCROOGE kicks much ass as does Carl Banks...looking forward to that review.
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While I suspect it'll mostly be Silver Age Justice League goodness, I really, really hope they throw the initial Vertigo line and Morisson's Doom Patrol into the mix, cause I'll snap those up in a New York Minute! Your points of Bissette's art serving a B&W format are well noted, Dave. Can't say I disagree. Those colors are too washed out to convey the beauty of the swamp anyhow.
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Jul 07, 2005 11:24:08 PM CDT
Some of Bissette's stuff in Swamp Thing still gives me the w
by fuzzyjefe
and I've revisited it many times over the years. I'm here to tell you, that Moore-Bissette-Totleben (sp?) run on Swampy is just classic, classic creep-a-rific stuff. Let's do an unofficial and by no means complete tally, shall we? 1. Swamp thing "dies", only to come back to the revelation he is not what he thought he was. 2. Woodrue goes batshit. 3. Swampy & Abby squelch. 4. The Monkey King, with the coolest-looking Etrigan ever (and Alan Moore writes the Demon's prose like no other). 5. (out of order, I know) Insect Arcane goes splat. 6. Frikkin' Nukeface, man! 7. Swamp Thing can grow! 8. 2 little words: John Constantine. 9. "American Gothic" gives us werewolves, vampires, ghosts, and other assorted nasties. This includes the original "give me a number" serial killer mentioned in the cereal convention story in Sandman. 10. The Parliament of trees. 11. South American witches who wear coats of human skin and twist babies' heads around, while plotting the end of everything. 12. All Hell breaks loose in the afterlife. Death after death, and Constantine needs a fag. 13. Arcane and zombies. 14. Swampy goes to hell. 15. Abby gets arrested for her florophilia. 16. Swamp Thing kicks Batman's ass. 17. Redwood Swamp Thing! 18. A cool as hell, and somewhat creepy, Lex Luthor invents a way to kill Swampy in about 5 minutes. 19. Swamp Thing in spaaaaace! And then I dropped the book, as it went comic shop only, and there was a serious dearth of comic shops in Birmingham at the time. So hey, if you've got the cash and want to read some cool stuff, give those old issues a try. Moore was doing Vertigo before it existed. And whatever happened to Michael Golden? And...Alan Grant/Norm Breyfogle on Detective & Batman did indeed rock.
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Jul 07, 2005 11:36:47 PM CDT
Young Avengers: a bad name can't taint the awesome work in i
by enter4none
This is one of the three titles I look for every month, the other two are Astonishing X-Men and Runaways...not even the fucking snore fest of House of M-boring can taint this three great readings.
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Jul 08, 2005 1:10:37 AM CDT
The Writer and or Artist I'd like to see back in Comics is..
by solrider77
ROGER STERN, writer of Spider-Man, Superman, Captain America, creator of the Hobgoblin, and the man who gave Mary Jane an origin. But Stern's done more than that, he's an underappreciated talent who respects the history of comic characters like few others. Witness his graphic novel DOCTOR STRANGE and DOCTOR DOOM in TRIUMPH AND TORMENT. He retold the origin of Doom, his mother, and even Strange himself. And he did so in an action packed story of Doom enlisting Strange's help to rescue his mother's spirit from Mephisto. And all of this is drawn by Mike Mignola even, looong before HELLBOY came around. Stern's so good that he even managed to finally solve the mystery of the Hobgoblin's true identity 10 years after he introduced the character!!!!(SPIDER-MAN: HOBGOBLIN LIVES) That miniseries showed the best reason why Stern should be writing comics again. He respects the characters AND ALL of their history. That's a problem with a lot of today's writers, they pick and choose what parts of the characters past they want to use, ignoring the rest. Stern showed in HOBGOBLIN LIVES and in his historic run with Byrne on Captain America, that to trully understand these characters you have to embrace all their history, even the parts you may not like.
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Either that's a really shitty joke, or it went way over my head. I agree with you that House of M has been pretty much non-event crap so far though.
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Stern's SPIDER-MAN is what I read in my formative years, and it's safe to say it's a big part of what got me all fired up for superheroes and comics in general. I look back on the run, and I just think of story after story after story that wowed me. The Juggernaut two-parter might have to be my favorite for the sheer extremity of the situation, but I loved 'em all: the Foolkiller tragedy, the Tarantula/Will O' The Wisp shocker, the Hitchcockian suspense of those early Hobgoblin issues, the gruelling Cobra/Mr. Hyde showdown (I actually tributed that one for our Spidey movie column: http://tinyurl.com/cp5u4), the emotionally charged Stilt-Man defeat of Spidey, all the sexy/weird Black Cat stuff, and yes, a little story called "The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man." As noted, TRIUMPH & TORMENT is great too, and Stern's AVENGERS run only contains one of the most beloved stories in the team's entire history ("Mansion Siege"). These runs are all ripe for "Visionaries" collections from Marvel, and I'd love to see the same of his CAP work with Byrne as that's one of his seminal projects I've never read. ****** Brian Vaughan committed a minor blasphemy when I interviewed him a year or two back, citing Stern as the biggest influence on modern Spidey writers, even over Stan himself. Vaughan checked himself a bit - obviously, *nothing* exists without Stan's genius - but I don't think he was wrong in his assessment of Stern's influence. Stern's quintessential Spider-Man stories were what many a modern writer had to've been reading in his own youth, and those stories sure loom large in Spidey's history. Now if only the guys Stern influenced were half as good as him...
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I forget what they're calling it, but "DC Essentials" fits as shorthand - credit where it's due, and Marvel definitely deserves credit for sticking with a format that seemed insane at first, but his caught on more and more over the years as THE place to go for cheapo classics. Now the DC Silver Age stuff...I gotta say, I'm not nearly as interested in that as Marvel's Silver Age brilliance, but the oddball stuff could be cool. Was it JONAH HEX and METAMORPHO I heard tell of? Sounds bitchin'. GREEN LANTERN and the JLA? Maybe not so much. ****** Interesting thought about collecting more recent, Vertigo-y stuff, Sideshow. I don't know if that's even remotely in the plan, but stuff like SHADE THE CHANGING MAN (always heard about, never read) would intrigue me, and as much as I love that Vertigo's slowly continuing with SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE in color, that's another title that'd be suited for black-and-white just fine.
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I forgot to mention how much I loved that little book. Surprisingly, with all the cool nuggets, my favorite bit was the Batman one. Now *there's* a story that gets Batman right: scary, mysterious, dark, evocative. The reason I never read Batman books is simple. He should either be *dark*, or he should be *fun*, and they should go all the way with one of those paths. It's possible to be both, too. But 99% of the Batman books I've read, he's neither, and that's boring.
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"Avengers Under Seige" has been collected in a nice little trade.
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Jul 08, 2005 2:29:42 AM CDT
"GA does not hold up as enjoyable to modern readers simply becau
by dave_f
I think that's a fair observation, but I'm one of those who might warm to the series for that very reason - that is, I'm fascinated by the window into Depression-era and WW II-era life so many of the classic strips represent. Plus there's just the artistic craftsmanship of the early 20th century stuff - cartooning from an era where the influences were the great illustrators (realistic or satiric), and not simply *other* newspaper strips cartoonists. I say all this, and yeah, I avoided GASOLINE ALLEY like the plague when I was a kid, but I also know how different modern incarnations of strips are from their heyday incarnations. ****** By the by, I noticed Newsarama did a bit on the GASOLINE ALLEY collection in question this very day: http://tinyurl.com/dt96j And Kurt Busiek posted in their TalkBacks to link to some pretty stunning work from the Sunday strips - check these out fer certain: http://tinyurl.com/9arbj That really is some beautiful drawing, the strip with the shrimp boat, especially. I think I'd be inclined to check out the book if only for the art.
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Actually, I guess they missed out on a few Simonson issues, but I think they got all the ones he himself drew, and I can deal with missing a few of the Sal Buscema-drawn ones. Ol' Sal...I've sort of come to appreciate his qualities, especially during his INCREDIBLE HULK days (and with the right inker), but he sure wasn't his brother, was he?
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When certain artists like Cooke draw that O.G. Batman with the long, inswardly-curving ears, it just looks cool as shit - real creepy, real pulp. I like Paul Pope's old-school Batman too, though I think his version's the Batman from a few years past Batman's pistol-packin' days. Shorter ears, but the same pulp vibe: http://www.beguiling.com/images/3816.jpg Heh, Pope and his thick-lipped characters...
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Jul 08, 2005 5:17:43 AM CDT
Joe Mad does Not need to return to comics, that quitting lazy ja
by george newman
I loved his art but he hurt me
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Remember that Batman/Swamp Thing annual story 'Threads'? FREAKED me as a kid.
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Dan Slott writes the best Spider-Man I have read in the last five or six years. He truly, totally GETS IT. JMS has done okay but he needs to pack it in. Plus this whole Avengers thing is bullshit - Spidey is not a team player. With Peter David taking the helm of a monthly Spider-book I am looking forward to the future, but Slott has done so magnificently well on Spidey/Torch (and on She Hulk of course, a genius, overlooked book) he has shown that he should be the main man for Marvel. Imagine ASM with writing by Slott and pencils by a returning JRJR!! A fanboy's dream. Oh and MIA creator - Roger Stern all the way.
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I know he's still doing covers and a mini-series here and there, but Matt Wagner has been "missing" for way too long. I wouldn't mind Mage III (just re-read the first two and BOTH are very enjoyable). But, I'd just love to see him work working on some creator owned stories. I remember going to the comic shop every time a new Grendel War Child came out and getting goose bumps reading them. I know he's got to have more great stories in him. I MISS MATT'S MONTHLY GOODNESS! I also wouldn't mind a little more Mr. Monster from a certain Micheal Gilbert.
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his art was perfect for Swampy. I honestly can't see Swamp Thing as being as influential and important as it is today with another artist. His work was unique even though it evoked a sense of Wrightson, and it also brought all the characters/creatures in Swamp Thing to life without making anything look too cheesy. Personally, I think all his people could be 'faded' as long as he kept drawing Swampy, Arcane, Woodrue, etc. perfectly. ----- On a side note, anybody like the new Swamp Thing series? I've got the last four or five on file in my comic store, but the first few from the new writer (the third guy) were pretty impressive. Bringing Arcane back seemed like the worst idea ever, but I kinda like how they did it.
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That's one I've always wanted to read but it hasn't ever been collected. I'd be VERY interested in an ESSENTIAL SUICIDE SQUAD as well.
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Eric Powell + funky 70's Marvel monsters? http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=37676
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There are quite a few that have dropped off my radar. Two of which I mentioned in my ZOMBIE TALES review. Ron Lim and Keith Giffen are two artists that helped shape my demented mind when I was younger. Giffen under-appreciated art on SUPERMAN, LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, and AMBUSH BUG were some of my favorite comics. These days, GIffen is best known for his writing, but the guy really can draw some amazing stuff. And Ron Lim. I was never a big fan of cosmic adventures but Lim made me one. INFINITY GAUNTLET, SILVER SURFER...I mean, c'mon. That was some great stuff. I guess he recently did a THANOS series, but the guy deserves some bigger books to work on.
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I was hesitant to bring him up cause he wasn't 'silver-age'-enough or some such shit but glad you like him, Bug. His work on Surfer was rad. A 90's artist that could...gasp...actually tell a story well visually??! Anybody remember the story where Surfer got transported to that skeleton world and met Capt. Marvel??
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I was big on his SILVER SURFER stuff too - in fact, I'd kind of like to re-read all that old stuff plus the Engelhart and Marshall Rogers stuff that preceded it - but it seems more recent projects from him haven't looked so hot. Wasn't he affiliated with one of those superhero start-up companies that came and went in a year? I should probably Google around to see; I just know that I'm associating his more recent art with the word "mediocre" in my head. Maybe his heart's just not in the comic stuff anymore? I found what I think is his website and it looks like he's strictly an advertising guy these days: http://www.ronlim.com/ Noticed that AICN's among his list of links, though. Maybe he'll read this and respond? Hey, it could happen! Ron, I wanna commision a picture of Drax the Destroyer and I've got thirty bucks to do it!
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I want a commisioned Pip the Troll in a speedo! Who's with me?! On a more serious note, advertising is sometimes all that's left for guys like Lim, who are past their comic artist heyday but still need to pay the bills.
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S'just too bad for for fans of the funnybook stuff.
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I don't think the Ron Lim who runs ronlim.com is the same Ron Lim who pencilled those incredible Silver Surfer issues. The ronlim.com Ron Lim doesn't mention his comic book past anywhere on the site if it is the same guy. Either way I'm thinking about changing my name to Ron Lim because both those guys are really talented.
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But I caught a handful of comic-related references on the site (including Spider-Man in one of the sketchbook pages), and got to thinking maybe the guy had eliminated most such stuff to reinvent himself to the ad community. Doesn't quite fit, though, does it? Marvel's still a big name - you wouldn't drop that from your resume. Ah well, I'll see what I can turn up on the real Lim later, maybe do a bit of cyber-stalking (aka Googling). I want my Drax, dammit.
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I loved many of last weeks books reviewed here--Kitty Pryde, Spdiey/Torch (learned from here), Young Avengers, WW and Runaways. Plus, I liked the old Kitty/Wolverine mini despite Milgrom. And you can hate me now, but I used to love Ann Nocenti's writing and would pick up any book I saw written by her. Also, loved the Bissette Totleben Swamp Thing and the Sandman Mystery Theater.
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Jul 09, 2005 1:10:36 PM CDT
Are all the people coming back to life in the DC universe like J
by the heathen
Some People believe that everyone who's died since Crisis on Infinite Earths has something to do with this new crisis & that's why many are coming back. I dunno? Sounds more interesting than the continuity "fix" HoM is planning though.
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LAST!
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and last at last!
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for i am last and so it shall be!
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you're making me work harder for this now. and gus if you are breathing out there i'm gonna imitate an UWE BOLL movie at the box office...and finish last!
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this talkback usually goes on until gus gives up after i crush his spirits by finishing last again and again.
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by creating a my own. HEREBY I DECLARE MYSELF LAST!
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you can declare yourself penultimante for i am last.
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