boyajian@akov68.DEC (JERRY BOYAJIAN) (08/17/85)
Reviewed this time around: AXEL PRESSBUTTON #6 COYOTE #14 SAVAGE TALES #1 CODE NAME: DANGER #1 A DISTANT SOIL #6 WHISPER SPECIAL #1 Ratings for the comics reviewed are as according to the Mad Armenian Scale, a shameless rip-off of the Moriarty Scale, stolen out from under the very nose of the Napoleon of Crime. Nyah-ah-ah!! "For a critic, it's better to have wrong standards than none at all." -- Elmer Allyn Craft ******************************************************************************** |=>A+< A veritable Classic. One of the best of All Time. Example: THE SPIRIT | |==>A< One of the best of the year. Ex: TEEN TITANS #38: "Who Is Donna Troy?" | |==>B< A very good issue, one of the best of the month. Example: CEREBUS | |==>C< A well done, entertaining issue. Satisfying. Example: JON SABLE | |==>D< Rather boring, or a few good spots mixed with more bad ones. Ex: ROM | |==>F< Boring AND stupid or childish. Example: MARVEL SUPERHEROES SECRET WARS | |==>Z< Actually offensive. Example: DAZZLER --- THE MOVIE GRAPHIC NOVEL #12 | ******************************************************************************** AXEL PRESSBUTTON #6 [Eclipse, $1.75] C- Well, the first five issues of this title reprinted all of the Press- button stories from WARRIOR. Starting with this issue, we have original mater- ial, from the same team of Pedro Henry and Steve Dillon. PRESSBUTTON is silly (amusing silly, though) and violent --- unabashedly so. I can see that others may not care much for it, but *I* enjoy it. This new story is just as good as the reprinted stories. And this issue is graced with my favorite WARRIOR cover. CODE NAME: DANGER #1 [Lodestone, $1.50] D- Lodestone is the alias of Deluxe Comics, while the issue of rights to the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents is settled (and settled is finally is --- the Agents *are* in the Public Domain). Shortly, they'll be publishing Dave Cockrum's THE FUTURIANS. In the meantime, we have this comic. And what we have here is MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE with super-powers. Big fat hairy deal. COYOTE #14 [Marvel/Epic, $1.50] D+ COYOTE's been really boring since about issue #4 or 5. And this is no exception --- at least the Coyote continuity parts of it. But still, this issue is worth picking up if you're a fan of Mike Baron's Badger, as he and his cast make a guest appearance here. If you're expecting an all-out fight to the death between the two, you'll be disappointed. The two pretty much just sit around and drink beer. Lots of beer. "Badger? *Badger*? We don't got to show you no steenking badgers!" Great stuff. Too bad this doesn't cover the entire issue. A DISTANT SOIL #6 [WaRP, black & white, $1.50] D I haven't changed my opinion on the main feature yet, but there's a couple of items of note here. With this issue, a new back feature starts, "Panda Khan" --- yet another anthropomorphic animal series (this is getting sooooooooo boring). And it's nothing to scream about. It certainly doesn't make this comic any more worth picking up. Secondly, starting with this issue of this comic, all WaRP comics will be published in the same size as "normal" comics. This is a very smart move, as it increases visibility for them, and puts them out where more comics buyers will see them. Unfortunately, there are too many people who won't buy anything that is magazine size. Now that WaRP will be on the shelf next to Marvel, DC, First, etc., they may do better. Of course, they're still in black and white, which will still put off a lot of folks, but... IRON MAN #200 [Marvel, $.65] C- The final showdown between Stark/Iron Man and Stane (Iron Monger). I've been rather indifferent about this ocmic for quite some time, but I have to say that O'Neil really pulls this one off. It's interesting and exciting. I *still* think Stark's new armor sucks, though. Stane's looked so much better it's almost painful. SAVAGE TALES #1 [Marvel, black & white, $1.50] C- I have to say that at first, I was worried. The cover looked like a reject from HEAVY METAL. The editorial and contributor bios made this look like it was going to be a macho, redneck, Good Ol' Boy magazine. A comic for Real Men when they get tired of having to move their lips so much reading SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. For guys whose idea of heaven is a Harley=Davidson, a full tank of gas, and a pair of Detonic 45's. Fortunately, once you get to the meat of the issue --- the stories themselves --- all this posturing goes by the wayside. The stories are of rough and tumble adventure, much heavier than AMAZING HIGH ADVENTURE, but the quality of the writing and art is surprisingly high. Of the five stories, two are tales of Viet Nam --- one about the American forces there in the late 60's (by Doug Murray and Michael Golden, probably the best story in the bunch) and the other (by Archie Goddwin and John Severin) from the earlier period in which Viet Nam was French Indo-China, and the French Foreign Legion was there instead of the Green Berets. The other good story was the first install- ment of a continuing series, "Skywarriors", written and drawn by Herb Trimpe. It's a curious mixture of genre's. The setting is post-holocaust, but for reasons that I won't get into here, the characters are fighting with WW I vintage airplanes. There's a second continuing series --- another after the bomb series. This one however, by Will Jungkuntz, is a comedy of sorts, about the perils of going out for post-holocaust pizza. It's not *too* bad, but I could easily live without it. The final story, by Don Kraar and Gray Morrow, is the only real dog in the pack. It's a western that's so jumpy that it seems like it started out too long, and they decided to fit it in the issue by cutting it in half --- by taking out every other panel and repasting the rest of them up. All in all, not a bad anthology. I hope that editor Larry Hama cuts the macho bullshit in later issues, though. It does nothing but make him look stupid. WHISPER SPECIAL #1 [First, $2.50] C- After a short re-cap of the story so far (from the first two issues, published last year by Capital Comics), this Special finishes the first ad- venture in the life of Whisper, aka Alexis Devin. The strip isn't anything to rave about (especially when it was the companion comic to NEXUS and BADGER at Capital), but it's still a competently-drawn, well-told story. There's nothing fresh here, nothing that seems inspired, but it's not a bad comic, either. Worth you investment more than a lot of Marvel comics, anyway. --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Acton-Nagog, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA
boyajian@akov68.DEC (JERRY BOYAJIAN) (10/01/85)
Reviewed this time around: FUGITOID #1 THE INCREDIBLE HULK #315 'MAZING MAN #1 HOWARD THE DUCK #32 LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #18 THE PUNISHER #1 Ratings for the comics reviewed are as according to the Mad Armenian Scale, a shameless rip-off of the Moriarty Scale, stolen out from under the very nose of the Napoleon of Crime. Nyah-ah-ah!! "For a critic, it's better to have wrong standards than none at all." -- Elmer Allyn Craft ******************************************************************************** |=>A+< A veritable Classic. One of the best of All Time. Example: THE SPIRIT | |==>A< One of the best of the year. Ex: TEEN TITANS #38: "Who Is Donna Troy?" | |==>B< A very good issue, one of the best of the month. Example: CEREBUS | |==>C< A well done, entertaining issue. Satisfying. Example: JON SABLE | |==>D< Rather boring, or a few good spots mixed with more bad ones. Ex: ROM | |==>F< Boring AND stupid or childish. Example: MARVEL SUPERHEROES SECRET WARS | |==>Z< Actually offensive. Example: DAZZLER --- THE MOVIE GRAPHIC NOVEL #12 | ******************************************************************************** FUGITOID #1 [Mirage Studios, b&w magazine, $1.50] D+ From those wonderful folks who bring us the TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, comes this new comic. So far, it's just a one-shot, but if there's a good enough reaction to it, it may becomes a regular. The story is rather hackneyed --- on another planet, a scientist accidentally gets his mind trans- ferred into the body of a worker robot. the scientist was working on a proejct for the military, and when the general comes to visit to see how the project is going, he finds the charred body of the scientist and of course, comes to the conclusion that the robot killed him. And thus we have the story of a fugitive 'droid, or fugitoid (hey, at least the robot isn't one-armed!). The general eventually finds out the truth, but this only makes matters worse. The general figures that he can now effectively enslave the scientist. To compli- cate matters, the project the scientist was working on (which wasn't intended to be, but can be used as a weapon) and the current situation become known to the aliens, and *they* are looking for the robot now, too. Things look grim for our protagonist as he's finally found, but then, appearing right in front of him, are the Turtles, straight from the end of TMNT #4. And the story here continues in TMNT #5. FUGITOID was done some time before TMNT, and is a touch more primitive in its writing and art. Due to its trite story, I can't really recommend it unless you are already following the Turtles. It's not even essential for an understanding of what will happen over the next three issues of TMNT, but it does provide some nice background. HOWARD THE DUCK #32 [Marvel, $.65] D- I have to say that this was quite a surprise! I knew that Marvel was going to start up Howard's comic again, but I didn't expect it this soon. The bad news is that Steve Gerber isn't writing it. He was going to, but Shooter decided to edit the book, and he and Gerber had too many creative differences (check out THE COMICS JOURNAL #101 if you want to know the story from Gerber's side). So instead we get a humdrum story from Steven Grant. Howard is hitch- hiking cross-country and gets a ride from an ecologically-minded, woman truck driver named (barf! gag!) Ceci Ryder. As they stop to answer nature's call, they stumble across a plot by one Morton Erg (a thinly disguised James Watt) to replace all of the parks, forests, and mountains with condos and strip mines. I suspect that this story has been sitting in inventory for a while for a couple of reasons. First, the "timeliness" (heavy sarcasm here) of the subject of the satire. Secondly, the art is by Paul Smith, who drew the Howard story that appeared in one of the comic-sized issues of BIZARRE ADVENTURES (I think Grant wrote that one, too, but I don't recall exactly). This story was probably done for another issue of BA before that comic folded. As for the Paul Smith art, don't expect anything great. Vinnie Colletta's inks drown out Smith's pencils almost ot the point of non-recognition. Gerber may have gotten occasionally self-indulgent in his writing in HOWARD THE DUCK, but he at least knew how to do proper satire. Grant doesn't have either the subtlety or the sharpness of wit that Gerber had. And thus, Howard the Duck has become just a pale shadow of his former self. THE INCREDIBLE HULK #315 [Marvel, $.65] D+ Less than what I'd expect out of Byrne. Bruce Banner is finally sep- arated from the Hulk (!) and somehow, Byrne manages to make it dull. But it's a minor aspect to the story that I found very interesting. In what amounts to a sort-of followup from the She-Hulk graphic novel, S.H.I.E.L.D. is really starting to get to big for its britches. If Marvel is doing this to build up interest in the eventual Nick fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. maxi-series, they're doing a damn fine job of it. LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #18 [DC, $1.50] C Depending on how you look at it, this issue either clears up or makes even more confusing some of the paradox problems concerning whether the Legion (and the whole 30th Century) should have known all about the Crisis already. And we have the return of two of of the Legion's most dangerous adversaries --- the Infinite Man and Darkseid (you *did* notice his "appearance" of page 14, didn't you?). I've also come to the conclusion that the Greg LaRocque/Larry Mahlstedt team is the best on the Legion since Keith Giffen's heyday. 'MAZING MAN #1 [DC, $.75] C- I'm not sure just how to call this one. It's different, it's wild, it's fun, it's entertaining. But it somehow *just* misses the mark. It's sort of a cross between THE MASKED MAN and CAP'N QUICK, as we have a little kid who wanders about in a costume fighting injustice, and who is a true hero. And the supporting cast of characters, headed by 'Maze's best friend, Denton (who looks like a dog but isn't one) is quite a good one (by the way, does anyone have an idea why Guido looks completely different on the cover than on the inside?) As I said, it just misses the mark, but I'll be damned if I can figure out how. It's just that I had this slightly uncomfortable feeling as I was reading it. But you can be sure that I'll be back for a few more helpings at least, until I find out whether Stephen DeStefano and Bob Rozakis can get their act straightened out. 'MAZING MAN is like a breath of fresh air. <Aside: Let's talk about serendipity, OK? I read HOWARD THE DUCK and 'MAZING MAN back to back and noted something interesting --- HOWARD THE DUCK, page 14: Morton Erg: "Even after witnessing our vision, you think us mad?" Howard: "Na-a-ah! Yer obviously sane! That's why yer talkin' ta a duck!" 'MAZING MAN, page 7: Officer Muldavey: "...the lights are on but nobody's home!" Denton: "Are you saying he's crazy, Muldavey? Look who's talking! You're the one carrying on a conversation with a dog!" THE PUNISHER #1 [Marvel, mini-series, $1.25] B- I almost didn't pick this one up. The Punisher was never a character that particularly interested me, and this looked like it was just going to be a macho, two-fisted, guns-blazing (just look at the cover) action-packed piece of tripe. But, in a weak moment, I relented, and I'm glad I did. This comic *is* all of those adjectives I listed above, but somehow Steven Grant and Mike Zeck manage to pull it off. There's a real strength of character here that I liked, one that put this above the usual run of schlock. But I'm not sure that it could have made it without the strong, dynamic art by Zeck and John Beatty. they have more than redeemed themselves for the trash they produced for SECRET WARS (I). This work harkens back to the issues they did of CAPTAIN AMERICA. If you're in the mood for hard-hitting action, this one is for you. Jerry-bob says check it out. --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Acton-Nagog, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA
scott@hou2g.UUCP (Racer X) (10/02/85)
>And we have the return of two of of the Legion's most dangerous adversaries --- >the Infinite Man and Darkseid (you *did* notice his "appearance" of page 14, >didn't you?). I also figured it was Darkseid who "rescued" Validus. I wonder what the effects of the CRISIS timeline "restructuring" will be, if any, on Darkseid's own tampering. (If you recall, Darkseid "monster-napped" Validus after Saturn Girl gave birth to him, and sent him into the past to menace the Legion before he was "born".) By the way, does anyone know offhand if the idea for Garth and Imra's "good/bad twins" came before, or after the "V" television movie? "Penfold! I've GOT it! This grandfather clock is a great big time machine!" "Aren't ALL clocks time machines, DM?" "No no no, Penfold, this machine travels THROUGH time." "Oh...like that Doctor fellow." Scott J. Berry ihnp4!hou2g!scott
ralphw@ius2.cs.cmu.edu.ARPA (Ralph Hyre) (10/07/85)
... >>And we have the return of two of of the Legion's most dangerous adversaries --- >>the Infinite Man and Darkseid (you *did* notice his "appearance" of page 14, >>didn't you?). > >I also figured it was Darkseid who "rescued" Validus. I wonder what ... At first I thought that is was Braniac who nabbed Validus, since he and Luthor needed super-villians for their conquests in Crisis. Careful rereading/relooking belies the BOOM Tube, which means Darkseid. I expect we'll see an even tougher Validus in the Legion's future. BTW, this Legion story seems to contradict the story in Crisis #10 about the events following the destruction of Takron-Galtos. Crisis says the prisoners escaped and wrought havoc, while LSH #18 says they were recaptured. -- - Ralph Internet: ralphw@c.cs.cmu.edu (cmu-cs-c.arpa) Usenet: ralphw@mit-eddie.uucp
boyajian@akov68.DEC (JERRY BOYAJIAN) (03/04/86)
Reviewed this time around: MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL #21: MARADA THE SHE-WOLF THE TOWERS OF BOIS-MAURY #1: BABETTE TORPEDO 1936 [BOOK 1] Ratings for the comics reviewed are as according to the new, improved, lemon- freshened Mad Armenian Scale. "For a critic, it's better to have wrong standards than none at all." -- Elmer Allyn Craft ******************************************************************************** |>A< Nirvana. As R. Fiore (COMICS JOURNAL) would say, "Don't hold your breath."| |>B< Sex is still #1, but sliced bread is definitely in trouble. | |>C< Now, *that's* entertainment! | |>D< Better than being poked in the eye with a sharp stick. | |>F< Please pass the sharp stick. | |>Z< Better dead than read. | ******************************************************************************** MARADA THE SHE-WOLF [Marvel, graphic novel #21, $5.95] C+ The Marvel graphic novel series has been a mixed bag. Some of them have been just plain bad, some of them have been fairly good as stories, but lousy as graphic novels, and a fortunate few of them have been both good as stories *and* as graphic novels. MARADA is just such a *rara avis*. It's a collection of two stories that were serialized in EPIC MAGAZINE a couple of years ago, by Chris Claremont and John Bolton. Claremont can write well, when he sets his mind to it, and Bolton is one of the finer artists to show up in the last few years (on *these* shores, at any rate). I was quite disappointed by the work they did on last year's Epic series THE BLACK DRAGON, but the Marada stories show off their talents well. The original serials were in black & white, but Bolton does a magnificent job of painting them for this appearance. While I don't see anything wrong with black & white, I must confess that the color adds a nice dimension to these stories. For those completists among you: there are some additional panels in the graphic novel that weren't in the original serials, but nothing significant. Unfortunately, the graphic novel does not contain the cover from the first serial installment, nor the splash page from a later in- stallment. Either one would have made a fine frontispiece, and it's a shame that they were left out. And there still is another color Marada story from EPIC left to reprint sometime. Without hesitation, I say that this is worth the price. THE TOWERS OF BOIS-MAURY #1: BABETTE [Titan, graphic novel, $3.95] D+ This is a new (in translation) series by European artist Hermann, whose only other work I'm familiar with is a couple of graphic novels from Fantagraphics called THE SURVIVORS, set in a post-holocaust western U.S. If memory serves, he also is the craator of the French series LT. BLUEBERRY published by Dargaud (publishers of Asterix). BABETTE is apparently set in medieval France and it focuses on two characters whose paths cross. One is Germain, a mason who kills a knight when the latter attempts to rape Germain's lady love, Babette. The second is Sir Aymar de Bois-Maury, another knight who is visiting the kingdom where Germain lives, and who ends up fighting a tournament that frees Germain from prison. Of course, in exchange for his freedom, Germain is exiled from the kingdom, and in his wanderings, he encounters and later joins, a trio of thieves who masquerade as an entertainment troupe. It seems evident that the paths of Germain and Sir Aymar will again cross in the future. I enjoyed this somewhat, though not as much as Hermann's SURVIVORS. Part of the problem is that the story seems to ramble too much. It never strays from its story, but it seems to take a long time to get a short distance. And there are certain scenes that are not clear in what is happen- ing. I'll give a guarded recommendation with my oft-used "if you're looking for something different, you might want to try this". And it's not often these days that you find a graphic novel for only $3.95. TORPEDO 1936 [BOOK 1] [Catalan, black & white graphic album, $8.95] B This graphic album (I don't call it a "novel" because it's really a collection of a dozen 8-page stories) came out a little over a year ago, but I never got around to picking it up until recently. What inspired me to do so finally was the appearance of two of the stories in the latest two issues of Continuity's ECHOES OF FUTUREPAST. TORPEDO is the creation of two Span- iards: writer Enrique Sanchez Abuli and artist Jordi Bernet (though the first two stories --- the ones reprinted in ECHOES --- were drawn by Alex Toth). Put simply, this is a fine example of the potential of comics as a story form. The protagonist (he's hardly a "hero"), Luca "Torpedo" Torelli, is a mob hit-man. Now, usually in the case of a series about such a person, he is shown as either turning on his bosses and becoming a good guy or his opponents are shown as worse criminals than he is, so he seems like a good guy in comparison. Neither is the case here. Torelli is a totally unsympa- thetic scumbucket. He will not hesitate to kill his best friend or a priest, he'll send his crony off to get the crap kicked out of him (or he'll do it himself), and he forces himself on women. While he has some sort of a code of ethics, it seems rather random and whimsical. What makes this remarkable is that regardless of the likability (or lack thereof) of Torelli, or perhaps *because* of it, he is a fascinating character. And it's this fascination with the character that makes this book fascinating to read. It's gripping, it's violent, it's hard-boiled, and I have nothing but praise for it. If you like crime fiction, this is for you. I feel obligated to warn you that in addition to the violence, there is quite a bit of nudity, sexual matter, and profanity, but such is *not* gratuituous, as it is in the KELLY GREEN graphic novel series. There are times when I felt that the script was a bit weak, but I'm not sure if it's part of the original, or a problem with the translation. Since I speak Spanish, I would like some day to find the originals to this to see how they read in their original language. It's interesting to note that the versions of the two Toth stories that are reprinted in ECHOES OF FUTUREPAST are very much overwritten --- I suspect that Neal Adams couldn't resist putting in his two cents worth. Frankly, the sparser scripting in the album works better (Adams, or whoever, also anglicized "Luca" into "Luke"; I'm not sure why). As for the art, I confess that I don't think that the Toth stories are among his best work. He always has a sparse, minimalist style that works well, but here, I think he's too sparse. There seems to be an over- abundance of white space. The real surprise is the work of Jordi Bernet. He works in a style similar to Toth, but with a much richer tone and more detail. It's sort of a Toth with a touch of Joe Kubert. I highly recommend this book. It's expensive, but worth every penny of the price. I'm going for the second volume next. --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Acton-Nagog, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...} !decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.DEC.COM