| #48 | 4/20/05 | #3 |
(Click title to go directly to the review)
ESSENTIAL INCREDIBLE HULK VOL. 3
THE OMAC PROJECT #1
YOUNG AVENGERS #3
SEVEN SOLDIERS: KLARION # 1
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #76
CHEAP SHOTS!
ESSENTIAL INCREDIBLE HULK VOL. 3
Written by Roy Thomas and Stan Lee
Art by Herb Trimpe, Gil Kane, Sal Buscema
Published by Marvel
Reviewed by Buzz Maverik, Last Baby Boomer/First Gen-Xer
The Random House College Dictionary defines nostalgia as "a longing for experiences, things, or acquaintanceships belonging in the past."
Nostalgia is kind of a dirty word. Nostalgia means you're old. No one wants to be the old fart listening to the oldies station, remembering the days when he used to get some. Of course, I question whether anybody who came along after the Hippie Days can really experience nostalgia as Random House lays it out, at least when it comes to things. We certainly never stopped listening to the music of our youth, and many of us haven't stopped reading the comics.
ESSENTIAL HULK VOL. 3 got me thinking about my past because it contains some of the very first comics I remember experiencing. I didn't actually read them because I was too young to read when some of these issues of THE INCREDIBLE HULK came my way. My Dad must have been buying them for me when I was as young as three. I can't imagine why anyone would buy a preschool kid Hulk comics in the late '60s. You have to understand that in those days, Marvel was the underdog. While DC characters had been in movies, TV shows, comic strips and cartoons, the Marvel characters were virtually unknown in the mainstream, which is what made them cool.
The Marvel icons and sub-icons had appeared in some very low budget cartoons. They were almost without motion, like a slide show. It was like watching a series of still comic panels on your TV. The best things about them were that the stories were straight out of the comics so they were pretty good, and they had these amazingly corny theme songs like "...when Captain America throws his mighty shield / all who oppose his shield must yield..." and "...Dr. Banner, pelted by gamma rays / ain't he unglamorous...." Yeah, they had a Hulk cartoon, as well as Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and the Sub-Mariner. You can probably get them on DVD.
Like I said, I don't know why Pa Maverik bought me Hulk comics. He was hardly the comic geek type. In fact, he was pretty damned tough. Let's just say that when he finally died late last year, the Empire of Japan breathed a collective sigh of relief and probably had a national day of mourning for one of their greatest enemies.
Oh, that's not P.C. ? I apologize to all pansies who have been offended. Sorry, pansies.
A segment of you readers don't understand reviews that aren't a summary of the comic, followed by a few mumbo-jumbo buzzwords about the story and art that boil down to the reviewer wishing they had a job in comics. About as close as I care to get to that here is that I will talk about the second Glob story. The Glob was a swamp monster the Hulk fought. It was ripped off of the character The Heap from the forties and fifties, as the latter Swamp Thang and Man Thang would be. In the second Glob story, a hitchhiking Bruce Banner is picked up by a blue collar guy headed to LA in a truck. They hit it off, but it turns out the guy suffers a similar affliction to Banner's. Instead of turning into a powerful but dimwitted green monster with a bad temper and good heart, the guy turns into a wimpy but brilliant green monster filled with evil...The Leader. The Leader causes the Glob to rise out of the La Brea tar pits and attack Banner as he rafts down the sewers (?) ! The Hulk eventually blasts the Glob into a million little globules.
This story seriously affected me as a little kid because I lived near LA and for once, a comic book locale looked like places I'd actually been. Also, at the end, the remains of the Glob, which looked like little turds, started reforming in the Southern California gutters. I remember checking the gutter in front of my house all the time. I was scared shitless that the Glob would reform in my cul-de-sac and I could only hope the Hulk would show up and kick his ass again!
Herb Trimpe is one of the most underrated artists ever to work in comics. With the right inker, usually Trimpe himself or the great John "Cracked" Severin, Mr. Trimpe's panels had a raw power that reflected the Hulk himself. Mr. Trimpe's style was like a cross between Kirby's and Ditko's. The down to earth and the fantastic all in one.
In addition to the Glob and the Leader, the Hulk battles Iron Man, the Sub-Mariner, the Mole Man, the Absorbing Man, the Valkyrie, Captain Marvel, the Rhino and many other cool foes. We have to wait for Vol. 4 to see him crush Dr. Doom, though.
Aside from my personal nostalgia rush here, ESSENTIAL HULK VOL. 4 offers some great comic book history. Remember, comics are literature and comics are art. Therefore, an appreciation of the classics is a must.
The great thing about these stories is that the series didn't have direction. Banner / Hulk wandered through the Marvel Universe, encountering the bizarre beings living there. In many ways, that's closer to real life. Hey, if I had direction, would I be reviewing a comic book? If you had direction, would you be at Harry's site, reading a comic book review? If lack of direction is good enough for us, it's good enough for our comic book heroes!
THE OMAC PROJECT #1
Writer: Greg Rucka
Artist: Jesus Saiz
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Sleazy G
I first came across Greg Rucka when he started writing on DETECTIVE a few years back. I really liked his take on the characters and felt he turned out some great stories. I liked Rucka’s work enough to pick up a few of his novels, and plan to pick up more. Still, I was a little unsure sometimes, like when he first introduced a bodyguard/love interest for Bruce Wayne named Sasha Bordeaux. Rucka pulled it off, though, making Bordeaux into a strong woman who stood by her convictions, and even when her employer was upset by her actions she always acted out of a sense of loyalty, doing what she believed she had to. Bordeaux became an intelligent, capable, conflicted character that I wanted to see more of. She was eventually drafted by Checkmate, though, and had to change her identity and appearance and cut ties with Bruce Wayne to protect his secret.
I’ve always liked the concept of Checkmate, too, having first come across it in some issues of the ongoing monthly series back in the 80’s. A top-secret, government-funded squad of highly-trained normals who take on the bad guys—and sometimes the good, too? Cool idea, and it set up a lot of conflicts not just in the DCU but inside the organization itself. So here we have it—the first miniseries to spin out of COUNTDOWN, building to the big top-secret INFINITE CRISIS in six months. It features an organization I’ve always liked and it’s centered on a character I’ve always liked. Should be a slam dunk considering how much I like Rucka’s writing, right?
Yes and no. The problem is that there are so many story elements that seem questionable considering the characters’ histories and personalities, leaving me feeling like the characters are there in service of the story and not the other way around. The main gist of THE OMAC PROJECT is as follows: Bruce Wayne is, once again, such a soulless bastard that he utterly betrays everyone he knows. He steals Skeets, who was Booster Gold’s robotic sidekick/pal. Then he guts Skeets and uses the 25th-century technology (nah, sure he could figure it out) to build a high-tech ring of satellites all around the globe to spy on everyone pretty much all the time. The network is also loaded up with information on all of Bruce’s little superhero pals, not to mention being connected to some kind of blue glowing ass-kicking android. So Batman steals from his friends so he can spy on his them, and then to compound the problem, when Bruce suddenly can’t access his own system and Blue Beetle says he’s found something really big, Bruce is too selfish a prick to even connect the dots—so much for that whole “world’s greatest detective” thing, huh? Then again, apparently Superman’s not so smart either, since he never noticed all those satellites…
So there you have the bad: misguided characterization that continues to dumb down our heroes while muddying their ethics and morality. So what’s the good? Well, the idea of somebody forcing their way into Checkmate and usurping power makes for a good thriller. The political intrigue inside the organization, the megalomania of Max Lord, and Sasha’s machinations as she tries to get information about the situation out so she can take down Lord is pretty suspenseful. Sasha’s willingness to sacrifice Blue Beetle as a pawn doesn’t ring true to her character for me, though—she was always willing to sacrifice herself, but not to put others at risk. There’s also a nice little scene that shows that not *all* the heroes are selfish, stupid or vicious, as Booster Gold and Wonder Woman, the only two people to take Blue Beetle seriously before his death, set out to find out where he is and what’s happened to him. They act like the kind of heroes we used to read about until just a few months ago: people who, though flawed, are essentially good and trying to do the right thing. It’s the kind of thing heroes used to do all the time, and the DCU could stand to see a lot more of it lately.
So where do I really come down on this issue? I wish I could decide. There’s no question it’s well-written, and it features a character I’ve always liked and an organization I’ve wanted to see more of. It’s got action, suspense and some great character moments. It’s also got some ideas that aren’t thought through well enough, though, and it does some things with our “heroes” that make them look like…well, like real assholes, to be frank. Sure they’re human (well, y’know…) and sure they make mistakes and sure they can get stressed sometimes. Actively going out of their way to deliberately make a decision to betray, hurt or destroy people they’ve always worked with, though? Those aren’t the characters we’ve all been reading for decades, and that can’t help but give readers pause.
In the end, though, I suppose I give THE OMAC PROJECT a cautious and conflicted recommendation. As I said, there are some really great moments and ideas, and I’ve been surprised and impressed by Rucka in the past, so I’m hoping it’ll happen again here. If you’ve got any interest in Checkmate or Booster Gold’s maturation or finding out just how badly Batman’s screwed up this time and just how many friends he’ll lose for the first time since—well, since the last big Bat-crossover—then it’s a book worth picking up.
YOUNG AVENGERS #3
Writer: Alan Heinberg
Artist: Jim Cheung
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewed by Dave Farabee
I figured I should re-read the first two issues of YOUNG AVENGERS before reviewing the third. You know, make sure the book was actually as good as I thought it was and not just registering as good because I’d assumed it was gonna suck.
(dramatic pause)
Nope, still good!
And so’s the third issue!
This is the act of the play where all the key players converge – appropriately enough for a legacy-based team, at the ruins of the Avengers Mansion. So we’ve got the Young Avengers themselves, suspicious old guard members Captain America and Iron Man (honorably characterized to a “T”), and even the first potential double-x chromosome recruits: Cassie Lang, daughter of the recently-croaked Ant Man II, and a mystery girl – Kate – trailing the team after helping them out in the first issue. Cap and Iron Man want some answers, they want ‘em now, and by issue’s end…they’ll have a good chunk of ‘em: the reason for the team’s founding, the secret identities of all the members, and the curious link between Patriot and Captain America.
First thing to know about this book is that, while it’s taken till issue three to get to the big reveals, this is no drag-ass title – its first arc is just structured around a mystery. Every outing’s featured action, character sparks, smartly-penned nods to Avengers history, and some big hints about the nature of the team. It’s actually impressive that Alan Heinberg’s been able to show us the characters in action each and every issue while cleverly maintaining an aura of mystery about their pasts (shades of the hit show LOST). This ain’t Nu-Marvel pacing, folks. In fact, despite the “Bendis Mark II” warning bells that went off during the first issue’s talky-talky opening, Heinberg’s as much as said that he’s more influenced by Geoff Johns these days. To which I say, “Bravo.” Even when Johns’ books aren’t topping my lists at a given moment, can there be any doubt he’s the guy to emulate when it comes to modernizing superheroes without forgetting their best traditions?
And speaking of traditions…
In the first few pages, Heinberg gives us plenty. We see Cassie giant-sized to a good thirty, forty feet tall like her pop. Turns out she’s been sneaking into Dad’s Pym Particles for the last few years (what teen wouldn’t?) and they seem to’ve had a lasting effect. There’s also an appearance of sorts by The Vision, whose ties to the team’s origin nicely backtrack to some Vision story arcs from Roger Stern’s ‘80s-era AVENGERS. Later, there’s even an appearance by obscure Avengers villain, The Growing Man! It’s marred only a touch by the in-jokey comment from one of the Young Avengers about a tweak to the villain’s powers: “This completely violates Growing Man continuity.”
On the other hand, one of the book’s very conceits is that the team’s core members are sort of superhero fanboys - they know the history of the Avengers, they know obscure members, etc, etc. Not a bad idea, and it’s nice to see characters that respect what came before ‘em, but I could live without the almost meta-commentary of writing a book for superhero geeks that’s about superhero geeks.
Much of the issue follows the sparks that fly as Cap and Iron Man try to get a feel for the Young Avengers even as the kids recognize the lame-o grown-ups are planning to shut ‘em down. There’s an event at the end that feels a bit too duplicitous for Cap and Iron Man, but otherwise I think Heinberg nailed ‘em. Good mixture of compassion and adult sternness, and a few of their moments reflecting on Bendis’s garbled “Avengers Disassembled” almost…well, I won’t say they redeem it, but they actually bring about some of the very depth it was missing. Likewise, the revelation about Patriot’s tie to Cap, contingent on a Cap story I never cared for, almost has me buying into it just because it was a well-written scene. I really think that’s part of the art to being a good writer at The Big Two – the ability to take the mistakes of past writers and spin ‘em into something good without paving over ‘em outright.
Artist Jim Cheung continues to be very appropriate on the book, having even been billed by Marvel’s hucksters as one of their “Young Gun” artists to watch. Poor guy. Such a cheesy marketing push, but he is a mover. He’s one of these guys, like CAPTAIN AMERICA’s Steve Epting, who can incorporate a lot of detail into his heroes without losing the “super” that gives ‘em their visual dynamism. I think his action scenes could use a little refining and his faces more distinction, but this is a good guy to have onboard. Traditionalist superhero art skills like costume design, drawing fifty-foot teen girls, and making a spectral Vision look badass…he nails ‘em all.
Man, this is just a damn solid book. And the characters are all likeable! I’d be happier, maybe, if the regular AVENGERS book was in such capable hands, but give Heinberg a few years on this fine title and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s running that show too.
Wow, for a Hollywood guy, he doesn’t suck at all!
7 SOLDIERS: KLARION # 1
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Frazer Irving
Published by DC
Reviewed by Buzz the Witch Maverik
As much as I've been grooving on each of Grant Morrison's 7 SOLDIERS titles, when KLARION # 1 came out, I felt my enthusiasm waning.
Maybe it was because I've had enough set up, however well done it's been. I'm ready for an issue two, ready to see where this is all going. Of course, with a writer on the kind of roll that Mr. Morrison has been, that could be exactly what we're getting with each of these first issues.
Maybe it was the slightly Gaimanesque look and (apparent) tone. Let's say that the two men to riff on are Moore and Gaiman. Gaiman is great and gifted, but personally, I've always had to work a little more to relate to his stuff than I have to Alan Moore's work. And I hate work. Fortunately, once I started reading KLARION, I wasn't working.
Maybe it was the Goth thing. KLARION isn't a Goth, isn't about Goth crap, but I can see how it might appeal to Goths. I admire the Goth visual style, but I don't think I like real Goths much. My only Goth experience was when this teenage vampire was going out of his way to scare my kids at Burger King. I said, "Hey, Morpheus, keep it up and I'm gonna peel off your contact lenses and shove this Double Whopper up your ass."
The Goth and his Goth friends left in a Goth hurry, but Maverik-Goth relations have been strained ever since.
But some of my friends were praising KLARION # 1, saying it was their favorite 7 SOLDIERS to date, so I made myself read it.
While I can't say I liked the book better than the other titles, I have to say I liked it just as much ... which is a great deal. Klarion is a Witch Boy, living among the Witch People in a limbo land. They worship a dark god called Croatoan, which is also the word that was found carved into a tree in 1590 when it was discovered that the inhabitants of the Roanoke Colony is Virginia had mysteriously disappeared. The Witch People look sort of like Puritans, except that they are blue. Not Smurf blue, but blue in the way that the SIMPSONS are yellow.
Klarion is a rebel teen type. When everyone is weird and witchy, it's nice to know that kids can still find ways to rebel. No, he doesn't become a Fundamentalist Republican. He questions authority, longs to run away as his own father did, resists the practice of turning dead relatives in zombies called Grundys, etc.
Those pesky creatures, the Sheeda, are running around Klarion's world, but the real menace comes from the Witch people hierarchy, the Submissionaries. Some of the events in the other 7 SOLDIERS books can be viewed from a new perspective after reading KLARION.
One of my favorite aspects of the book is the way Mr. Morrison handled the dialogue. In a great, extended scene, Klarion's foster father Ezekiel lays out for us the way the Witch society is working. It doesn't feel the least bit expositional, thank Morrison. It feels like an adult with some experience cautioning a young person while giving subtle approval to their rebellion.
7 SOLDIERS is Grant Morrison's show, but a comic isn't a comic without the art. Frazer Irving has given us some great horror/fantasy comic book art here. He does mood and bombast at the same time, which makes him an excellent match for Mr. Morrison.
Croatoan Abides!
And Chong is free!
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #76
Brian Michael Bendis: Writer
Mark Bagley: Artist
Marvel Comics: Publisher
Vroom Socko: Taking Notes
After reading the latest issue of ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, I found myself jotting down the following comments.
To those of you who think we have a bias against Bendis: Let me remind you of this and this. Not to mention this.
To Bendis: C’mon, man! This story could have easily been told in just four issues. Not every arc HAS to be told in six issues, you know.
To those of you who think Bendis can’t write action scenes: You’re going to want to take a long, hard look at this issue. Think of it as an appetizer before your crow feast.
To Bendis again: I knew you had it in you!
To Bagley: Okay, you deserve the lion’s share of the credit in that respect.
To those who don’t see the point in TWO Goblin villains running around: Look at that last page and tell me this was a bad idea.
To Bendis, part III: This arc has definitely not been what I expected, and that’s a good thing. I can’t wait for the final installment.
To Bendis, addendum: Hawkeye Lives, Motherfucker!
SPIDER-MAN: BREAKOUT #1 (of 5) - Spider-Man’s name is being used to hawk this mini, but that’s a bit misleading. Launching from the events of the prison break in NEW AVENGERS #1, BREAKOUT’s actually more focused one warring factions of escapees. Taking the lead, at least for the first issue, are the somewhat obscure Hulk bad guys, the U-Foes. The U-Foes own! In fact, just for bringing them to the fore and writing ‘em well, writer Tony Bedard deserves a No-Prize, but the rest of the story ain’t half bad either. Super-powered prison gangs duking it out with Spider-Man in the middle? I don’t know if it can work for five issues, but so far so good. Nice art, too, reminding me a bit of the work of Paul Pelletier (SHE-HULK, GREAT LAKES AVENGERS). - Dave
MANHUNTER #9 - I’ve gone heavily on the record as loathing IDENTITY CRISIS. Still, if this is the sort of storytelling we can expect to come out of it, I might be able to live with the results. The murder trial of the Shadow Thief has exploded into one of the most action packed issues I've seen in an age. Just look at what Manhunter does to the Monocle! Now that is hardcore. This is one of those books not enough people are reading. Go on and give it a look-see. - Vroom
RUNAWAYS #3 - I always enjoy this book, but Vaughan’s stretching good faith a touch thin with the contrived clashes between the Runaways and Excelsior. He needs to reign that in a bit, because right now the kids are all behaving kind of…stupidly. I guess it’s not surprising, then, that Chase – possibly the dimmest bulb of the group – continues to steal scenes. Good character, fun book, just needs some fine-tuning. - Dave
HAWKMAN #39 - Holy poopin’ crap! Major shit goes down in this issue! Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray have been running Hawkman through the wringer recently with a constant barrage of baddies, but the events that occur in this issue just may be the straw that broke the Hawkman’s back. The term “after this issue, everything changes” has become a cliché in comics, but it doesn’t ring any truer than this issue. Seek out the last few issues and experience the emotional build-up leading to this issue’s climax. Hawkman may be sorry for the events that transpire in this issue, but you won’t be sorry for reading them. Damn, what a brutal issue. - Bug
LIVEWIRES #3 (of 6) - This is Marvel’s most innovative book on the stands and you really should be reading it. This ish, the Livewire robot crew stages a dance club sting on party-going Sentinel designer, and writer Adam Warren throws out so many insanely cool ideas my mind’s still spinning. Tech-heads and internet-surfers should be loving the hell out of this book, a kind of cyberpunk MISSION IMPOSSIBLE with an attractive cast of humanoid robots. It’s literally dizzying how many neat tech-tricks Warren packs into this book, so you get a nice dense read and a payoff that’s nothing short of hilarious. And did I mention the book’s kinda sexy, too? Well it is. - Dave
EX MACHINA #10 - A few weeks ago, I laid into Vaughan for including political leanings in his RUNAWAYS series. Interesting enough, I have been compelled and consistently entertained by this political adventure series. It may tee off the easily offended, hard right and lefties, and knee-jerk reactionists in the crowd, but this series continues to be a fascinating and fantastical political drama. I read this entire arc in one sitting and it turned out to be a suspenseful and often hilarious treat. Vaughan doesn’t shy away from the “straight from the headlines” stuff (this arc deftly intermingles the gay marriage issue with a murder mystery involving alien hieroglyphs) that usually makes me groan when heavily handled by less tactful writers. But it doesn’t turn my stomach because he presents these issues as challenges for the often dopey, highly non-PC Mayor Hundred, who exudes an everyman, “I really am kind of winging it here” charisma that real life politicians are afraid to show. It’s too bad that only in the funny books can there exist a political figure that speaks this honestly and off the cuff, and makes so much sense all at once. - Bug
BILLY THE KID’S OLD TIMEY ODDITIES #1 (of 4) - Can’t quite make heads or tails of this quirky outing from the creator of the cult hit THE GOON. Unlike THE GOON, OLD TIMEY ODDITIES mutes the humor button as we find Billy the Kid hired by a traveling freak show to help them recover the heart of a golem from none other than…Victor Frankenstein! Dun-dun-DUN! Okay, it’s got GOON’s weirdness, but tonally, it’s pretty serious, if way high on the melodrama scale. The Kid’s actually a kind of unlikable jerk throughout the issue, motivated only by desperation and an attraction to the show’s tattooed lady. Given that the pulp goulash of a concept is something that doesn’t appeal to me much these days, I’m not wildly motivated to check out a second issue, but I do want to see where all this is leading. Kyle Hotz’s art is exceptional too (think of a more exaggerated Bernie Wrightson). - Dave
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #519 - While I'm not one of the legions who took up the call of "Fuck Straczynski, he turned Gwen into a whore!" I'll readily admit that this title lost an intangible something when John Romita Jr. went bye-bye. It's still a book I look forward to, just not as much as before. There is a truly magnificent moment early on featuring Aunt May that nearly brought me to tears. In fact, the entire first half is magnificently written, although those fans who insist they can't relate to a married Peter Parker are probably going to slip into grand mal seizures over a Peter that lives in a lavish Manhattan penthouse apartment, rent free no less. The second half, however, simply doesn't work. The exposition heavy reemergence of a Hydra that bears little to no resemblance to the group that's appeared recently elsewhere in the Marvel milieu had me scratching my head rather than shaking in my boots. All in all, this issue is the most mixed of bags. - Vroom
CONAN #15 - Kurt Busiek gives us the second flashback story to Conan’s youth, again illustrated by Greg Ruth. Ruth’s one of the real finds of the last few years with his kinetic, painterly art. This guy can really depict Conan biting out a wolf’s throat, see if I’m wrong! - Dave
JLA: CLASSIFIED #6 - Have you ever run into a friend you haven’t seen in a long time and then realized after spending ten to fifteen minutes talking with them that they haven’t changed one bit in all of that time? It’s good to see them, but it’s kind of sad that after all of this time, they haven’t evolved as most people should do. That’s kind of the way I feel about Giffen/Dematteis/McMuire’s latest outing with the former JLI. It’s great to see all of these creators getting together to tell a new tale of these old characters bouncing off of one another with one insult and jibe after another. There’s a certain feeling of warmth that came over me as I saw Beetle, Booster, and Guy pissing the rest of the team off again. I guess it’s that good old nostalgia feeling that everyone is talking about, but after a while, you realize it’s just the same old schtick from 1992 in a different half-hazardly produced story. It’s kind of sad that after all of this time out of the spotlight, these characters haven’t changed at all in the minds of their creators. Instead of toning down the verbal swordplay and upping the action quotient for a more even read, these guys are stuck doing the same old “who’s on first” routine. Still, it’s great seeing my old friends again. - Bug
IRON GHOST #1 - This one’s a pulp, wartime mystery courtesy of pulp-minded Chuck Dixon. Set during the waning days of World War II, it follows the Nazi investigators on the trail of an assassin leaving a pile of dead German officers in his wake. There’s a pretty strong sense of mood to the piece, and a good feel for the growing German desperation as the war turns against them, but I didn’t find anything particularly compelling about the vigilante killer himself. The art’s really nice, though – very “Joe Kubert” – so I’ll tune in for a second issue to see if the story picks up. - Dave
HERCULES #1 - A fictional comic book about a mythical heroic character set in modern times and structured around a reality television series. Zounds, my head doth hurteth! And boy does this book sucketh! Nice Texiera art though. Somebody get this guy on a well written book please. - Bug
PROCESS RECESS (HC) - Hey, it’s an art book from the guy who does the FABLES covers! Actually, covers for FABLES, BATGIRL, GREEN ARROW and more, and if you’ve ever seen his fine art stylings, you’ll remember ‘em. Sample. Sample. Sample. PROCESS RECESS is a collection of his non-comics art in a bitchin’ little hardcover the size of a DVD case (but thicker!). Wow, this guy is good, and even given the book’s modest size, the reproductions are incredible. There are scores and scores of entries, everything from sketchbook pages covered in notes to life drawings of jaw-dropping draftsmanship to eerie, fully-finished paintings with surrealist and symbolist underpinnings. Oh, just go stroll around his website and see what he’s about! Paul Pope writes the intro. All art geeks must buy, no questions asked. - Dave
