hsut@pur-ee.UUCP (Bill Hsu) (11/12/85)
Did anyone hear about Marvel getting complaints from distributors because of Moonshadow? This must have been a while ago. Any info on the topic would be appreciated. Some reviews: DAREDEVIL (the new Frank Miller issues) Once in a while, a comic book comes along that restores some hope for the traditional superhero comic. The recent DD certainly did that for me. I haven't read more than 4 issues of Frank Miller (none of them DDs), and this is impressive stuff. Kingpin is subtle and menacing as he should be, instead of being played for a joke as in old Spiderman comics. The gradual mental distintegration of DD is handled in a chilling manner. Miller did not do the art, which was very nice. The subtle shadows and grey tones build a film noir flavor of grime, despair and claustrophobia. This is as good as the Gene Colan issues from the late sixties and early seventies in terms of atmosphere, and probably better in terms of writing. The occasional sensationalisms do bother me, but this is on the whole one of the best regular Marvel books I've seen this year. TIMESPIRITS #7 A lighter issue after the political musings of the past two Timespirits (see the letters page of this one for some relatively spirited discussion). The credits on the inside cover said Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy, though the inside material looks pretty much like the regular team of Steve Perry and Tom Yeates (maybe a typo?). Now if Aztec Ace is cancelled, it would be supreme irony to see Moench doing Timespirits!! As mentioned before, this is a slightly lighter issue, tho there are some intense scenes. I enjoyed the play on mythological themes, especially the Yeti's loss of his hand for "enlightenment" (compare Odin plucking out his eye). An enjoyable, much more coherent issue than the past few. Does anyone in this newsgroup read the Comics Journal? This is an interesting publication for fans who see comic books as more than mere entertainment. There are some informative articles, if you can stand all the verbal abuse the writers give the mainstream comics and most of comic fandom. There is also a fair amount of hate mail for certain independent publishers. No wonder the CJ does not sell much advertising space. What I do enjoy are some of the reviews, Dale Luciano's survey of underground comix, and the occasional inside look at the comic industry (#101 had a detailed article on why Steve Gerber did not write the new Howard the Duck. There's a photo of one page of Gerber's script, before and after Shooter got done with it.) I'll post some stuff from CJ if anyone's interested. Bill Hsu