boyajian@akov68.DEC (JERRY BOYAJIAN) (11/01/85)
Reviewed this time around: BEDLAM #1-2 THE OZ-WONDERLAND WAR #1 POWER PLAYS #2 ELVIRA'S HOUSE OF MYSTERY #1 THE JOHNNY NEMO MAGAZINE #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 | ******************************************************************************** BEDLAM #1-2 [Eclipse, micro-series, $1.75] D- This is the latest in a series of two-shots highlighting early horror work by current popular artists. It is by far the most disappointing. I didn't like a single story in either issue, except perhaps for the "Peanuts" parody, "Nutpeas", which still went on for longer than it needed to. A couple of the other stories were so-so, but most were trite or nonsensical. ELVIRA'S HOUSE OF MYSTERY #1 [DC, $1.50] C- This revival of DC's premiere horror-anthology comic with a new host is obviously an attempt to see if tits and bad puns will sell better than just bad puns. Of the four stories, two were pretty average for HOM level stories (at least, HOM level for the past dozen years, anyways), but two were actually fairly well done. One is an ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS-style written by Robert Kanigher; the other is an Imperial Chinese fantasy by Dennis Yee. I hope that future issues have a better average than this one, but I won't hold my breath. Oh, and it was nice to catch the tie-in with Blue Devil's "House of Weirdness" issue on the page immediately following Yee's story. THE OZ-WONDERLAND WAR #1 [DC, mini-series, $2.00] D+ Well, the art's nice --- Carol Lay does a nice combination of the styles of Oz's John R. Neill and Alice's John Tenniell. But the story is one that I could take or leave (but then, I've never been a major fan of either the Oz *or* Wonderland books; I'd like to see an opinion from a fan of the books). THE JOHNNY NEMO MAGAZINE #1 [Eclipse, mini-series, $1.75] C- The tongue-in-cheek, punk, Sam Spade-parody Johnny Nemo was my favorite of the three strips in STRANGE DAYS, and I'm glad to see him return in his own mini-series. In addition to his being a great character ("Listen, Kalinda, I can either be Johnny Nemo or I can be careful..."), it actually has a fairly good mystery plot to it. The Sindi Shade back-up I can take or leave, mostly because I can't figure out just what is going on yet. We'll see how it does next issue. POWER PLAYS #2 [Americomics, $1.75] C- Yahoo! The second issue is finally out. Unfortunately, it isn't *quite* up to the first issue, though the art is a tad tighter. I suppose it's just that I've had my fill of X-Men parodies. I still recommend this, though, as a refreshing, entertaining comic. No, it's not an *original* look at superheroes (as, say, MIRACLEMAN), but it is a nice change from the hectic hack work from Marvel. --- 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