boyajian@akov68.DEC (Jerry Boyajian) (02/08/85)
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 Napolean of Crime. Nyah-ah-ah!! ******************************************************************************** |=>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 #39: "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 | ******************************************************************************** ATARI FORCE #17 [C] It's been hard to believe that these last few issues have been written by the same guy who writes NEXUS and THE BADGER. Granted, they've been good, but not quite up to the standards set by those two now-First titles. But this issue is finally starting to show that good ol' Baron, especially with Rident's speech on the last page, "Let's just suppose for a minute... for the sake of argument... that this Dark Destroyer was a real person..." The artwork by Ed Barreto is fine (not as good as Garcia Lopez, mind, but with the latter doing TEEN TITANS instead, I can't complain), though there is still too much of the old T&A going on with Dart. It isn't as bad here as it is in some other comics, but it is getting rather tiring. If you've been skipping this comic because it's based on an Atari game or whatever, you might want to give it a try. It's one of the better space opera comics on the market. BATMAN #383 [C-] As I said in a previous review of DETECTIVE COMICS, now that Moench is through with that near-interminable Nightslayer storyline, things are picking up. Here we have another slightly humorous story, in which Bruce Wayne/Batman stumbles around after a few days of little or no sleep. Not an earth-shaking story by any means, but an enjoyable one. Having gone through days at a time with no sleep, I could empathize with him the whole way through. DC COMICS PRESENTS #81 [B-] Ambush Bug strikes again! This time, he gives Superman a present of a nice polished gem, not realizing that it's a piece of Red Kryptonite. What the Red K does this time is to switch Superman's and the Bug's minds into the other's body. And while Superman tries to figure out how the Bug teleports, Bushy's off trying to save the day as Superman. And to top it off, Kobra shows up. A storyline like this has the potential to be the most hilarious story to ever grace the pages of a serious comic book. It doesn't live up to that potential. It's funny as hell, no doubt about that, but it just isn't as good as I feel it could have been. Still worth reading. If I have any complaint about it, it's that Fleming and Giffen made such a clown out of Kobra, who is in this guy's opinion, one of DC's most sinister villains --- probably DC's truest analog to Doctor Doom. Just goes to show that nothing's sacred. DEADMAN #1 [C+] The Deadman series that ran in STRANGE ADVENTURES (plus a couple of stories that appeared in THE BRAVE & THE BOLD) have been considered one of the classics of the 1960's, and with good reason. It had an intriguing premise --- that of a man who sticks around as a ghost after his death to track down his murderer. And secondly, it had some terrific Neal Adams artwork. It was about time that DC got around to reprinting it in Baxter format. So how does it hold up? Well, to be honest, the two installments in this issue aren't all that good. I see some plot-holes now, that I didn't see 15 years ago. And, of course, only the second of these two was drawn by Adams, and even then, it was inked by George Roussos, who doesn't complement Adams' work as well as other inkers have done. But it's still a damn sight better than much of the work that appears in current comics, and is worth your while to pick up, if for nothing else than to get you ready for some of the better stories to come. THE SHADOW WAR OF HAWKMAN #1 [C] This has got everything that the first issue of a mini-series should have --- an intro to the heroes, including a recap of their origin, a conflict with a mysterious enemy, and a nice cliffhanger of an ending. I've always been only somehwat lukewarm to Hawkman, but here Isabella infuses him with a dynamic character. Rich Howell's artwork isn't all that outstanding, but it's certainly serviceable. I'll be looking forward to later installments. SUPERMAN: THE SECRET YEARS #4 [D+] I'm afraid that this mini-series didn't do much for me. It had its moments, to be sure, but just not enough of them. I suppose trying to compress four years of Superman's life into four issues had a lot to do with it; maybe it might have been better as a 12-issue maxi-series. My biggest complaint has been with the art. Curt Swan has never been one of my favorites, but here, he has been incredibly inconsistent about how Clar/Superman looks. In some spots, (pages 2-3 in this issue, for example) he looks like SuperMAN, and yet, in other spots (eg. pages 10-11), he looks like SuperBOY. This wouldn't be a problem if he started out the series looking like SuperBOY, and ended up as SuperMAN, but the random way in which he seemed to change age here really detracted from the overall effect of the book. VIGILANTE #17 [A] OK, I'll admit that I have somewhat of a blind spot when it comes to Alan Moore, but it's an honest fascination with his skill as a writer, and this comic is a textbook case of the fact [n.b. Moore is only doing a two- issue fill-in, he hasn't taken over the book indefinitely]. First of all, the story is intriguing --- a man who was sent to prison for abusing his daughter has just gotten out, and is after his wife and daughter, and Vig, of course, goes after *him*. Secondly, Moore introduces a couple of characters who in the short span of this comic, become incredibly well-developed as people, ones that you can feel for. the only time recently that I can think of this happening was in SOMERSET HOLMES #4. Thirdly, Moore's language seems completely at ease. For a Britisher who has spent very little time in the U.S., he's got a really good handle on the American idiom. His characters speak as naturally as any I've seen in comics. And they speak as frankly as any I've seen outside of an underground comic (for instance, there's a wonderful scene in which one of the characters who is helping the kid explains to Vig that she didn't want Chase to come to her apartment where the kid was, because she had over 40 kilos of pot there, and Vig is squirming trying to decide whether to ignore this fact, so that he can more quickly help the girl). As for the art by Jim Baikie, well, the previous examples of his art I've seen (the "Twilight World" feature in WARRIOR) didn't impress me much, but here it does. There are some comic artists who are acclaimed for being cinematic --- Krigstein, Steranko, Gulacy, Rogers, et al. Mostly, they had a style in which they squeezed a rapid succession of thin panels on a page to simulate the frame by frame advance of a film. But Baikie here shows another way that a comic artist can be cinematic. A damn lot of the panels in this comic look like set pieces from a film by Hitchcock --- the "camera angles" and the layout of each scene. And this is another stunning example of a comic in which you can understand the story from beginning to end from the flow of the art alone. Baikie's art complements Moore's writing even better than that of Stephen Bissette and John Totleben in SWAMP THING. And I think that Moore's story is better than most of the ST stories he's done so far. Highly recommended. JOURNEY #16 [D+] Yes, that grade is correct. Ever since this comic started, I've been enamored of it, and have considered it one of the best comics being done today. However, I have not been enjoying the last few issues much. For one, I've been having a hard time following the current story (maybe I need to sit down and re-read the whole run in one swell foop), and especially the characters. This latter problem is due to Messner-Loebs' not drawing many of the characters distinctly enough, either art-wise or script-wise, so that I have often found myself confused from issue to issue about who was who. A specific problem with this issue is that it's supposed to be the conclusion to the current storyline. You call this a conclusion? It's more like he just decided to stop here, instead of wrapping things up. And what the hell happened on the last two pages. It implies that Wolverine Mac- Alistaire has bitten the big one. Has he? I hope that with a fresh storyline, Messner-Loebs gets back on the ball. It would be a damn shame for this book to degenerate. STAR WARS #95 [C] This comic has always had its ups and downs, mostly because the writer/artist team changes every six months or so, gnerally the artist half. The current team of Jo Duffy, Cynthia Martin, and Steve Leialoha is one that I hope sticks around for a while. The story won't set the world on fire, but after an unim- pressive debut last issue, Martin's artwork is quite striking in this one, perhaps due to Leialoha's inks. She needs some more time to polish her drawing, especially of the principle characters, but her panel design and layouts are quite good, reminding me a lot of a what it might look like if Marshall Rogers was doing Japanese animation. Give it a look see. ******************** SHORT NOTES: GRIMJACK #10 [C] Didja notice the reference to Dreadstar on page 6? LOVE AND ROCKETS #10 [B-] It didn't surprise me to see various Jaime Hernandez characters show up in 'Berto's "Heartbreak Soup" story, but Reid Fleming???!!!??? (page 43) --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA
boyajian@akov68.DEC (05/11/85)
Comics rated this time: AMERICAN FLAGG! #23 POWER MAN AND IRON FIST #118 AZTEC ACE #12 SECRET WARS II #2 ELFQUEST #1 (Epic edition) SPIDER-MAN AND POWER PACK (Special) After trying for a while separate gradings for story and art, I've decided not to bother doing so, unless there is a large difference --- lousy story and great art, or vice versa. 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!! ******************************************************************************** |=>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 | ******************************************************************************** AMERICAN FLAGG! #23 [First, $1.25] B I've thought that the last few FLAGGs have been rather lacklustre. I wasn't all that thrilled with the "Election" issues (that is, aside from the outcome). Here, though, Chaykin is back on track. Yuri is a marvelous supporting character ("What means 'Whomp Bomp a Loo Bomp a Lomp Bam Boom'?"), the plot thickens, and we have a fresh setting (England). And to top things off, Reuben has the added problem that MARK THRUST is very popular there, so he's mobbed by fans. Great stuff. I have to add that I wasn't especially pleased with the Alan Moore's backup. There are a lot of nice touches, but I thought the bit with Raul and the mechanical mouse was a bit excessive. I mean, we all know Raul has some weird, ah..., proclivities, but... AZTEC ACE #12 [Eclipse, $1.75] C This comic has been getting better after a slow start. This issue isn't one of the best, but it's a pulp fan's delight. I did think, however, that making the detective look like Bogey was a touch too much. ELFQUEST #1 [Epic, $.75] This isn't a review, really, just a public service message. I do confess that I haven't been reading the original WARP Graphics run since about issue 3 or 4, mostly because I'm generally not interested in this type of fantasy, and with its quarterly frequency, I found myself forget- ting what happened from one issue to the next. I've been buying it to sup- port WARP Graphics in their efforts, and because I like Wendy's artwork (I have a Pini original hanging in my living room). Anyways, I've also been buying the signed/numbered color Starblaze volumes, and one of these days, I'll sit down and read the whole saga from beginning to end. I just thought that I'd mention that the first issue of this Epic reprint is out. In case it matters to you, be aware that Wendy is drawing new covers for this edition, as well as new bridge passages since the story doesn't break in the same places as it did in the original run. And, of course, it's in color (which doesn't mean a whole lot to you if you have the Starblaze volumes). Anyways, if you're a completist, you may want to pick this up. POWER MAN AND IRON FIST #118 [Marvel, $.65] C- Every once in a while, I give another try to a title that I gave up on. I dropped PM&IF somewhere around #100 because I started to get very bored with what Mary Jo Duffy was doing with the characters, and the art by Denys Cowan wasn't exactly awe-inspiring. Since in this issue Danny, Luke, and Colleen travel to K'un Lun, I thought this may be a good place to drop in (I always liked the K'un Lun related stories). I was pleasantly surprised. I find that writer Jim Owsley has a good handle on the characters, and Mark Bright & Jerry Acerno do quite well in the art department. The basic problem is that Iron Fist is dying from radiation sickness (no spoiler here --- he was exposed to radiation in a previous issue) and he needs to get back to K'un Lun, where they have a method of self-healing that he never learned before leaving the city. Unfortunately, our heroes (plus Dr. Druid --- remember him? --- who is responsible for getting them to the city) find K'un Lun in ruins, and while Danny seeks what he needs, Luke and Colleen encounter the one responsible for the destruction. I don't predict a bright future for Danny-boy, since the book is slated to be cancelled after #125, but the storyline has captured my interest. SECRET WARS II #2 [Marvel, $.75] D Better in both story and art than the first issue. I could almost get interested in the Beyonder's search for the Meaning of Life, or whatever it is he's looking for. And fortunately, Steve Leialoha's inks overwhelm Al Milgrom's pencils. I still can't recommend this comic, with the caveat that if you follow FANTASTIC FOUR, you'll need this issue, since the Hate Monger story is resolved here. And it's about time that I review something special.... SPIDER-MAN AND POWER PACK [Marvel & the National Committee A for Prevention of Child Abuse] You may all remember the 3 special Teen Titans Drug Awareness comics from the other year. Although they certainly carried an important message, they were just awful as comics. Unlike those, though, this special comic not only carries an important message (I'll state right here and now that child abuse prevention is one of my Causes), but it's also a damn good comic. It contains two stories, one featuring Spider-Man and the other Power Pack. "Secrets" is by Nancy Allen (idea), Jim Salicrup (script), and Jim Mooney & Mike Esposito (art). In it, Spidey comes across a young boy who's been a victim of attempted molestation, and he convinces the boy to tell his parents what happened. He does so by telling the boy about an event in *his* past, in which an older boy tried to abuse him. That Marvel should establish this as a part of Spider-Man's life shows a sincerity in getting across the message that child abuse is something that can happen to anyone, and it's a bold move. "Runaway" is by the usual Power Pack team of Louise Simonson, June Brigman, and Bob Wiacek, with Mary Wilshire pencilling over Brigman's layouts. In it, the Pack help out a friend whose father has been sexually abusing her. Again, as in "Secrets", the main message that is gotten across is that the best thing to do is to tell someone in authority that the abuse is taking place, so that something can be done. This comic is aimed at the children who may be abuse victims, but are afraid to tell about it. And it has apparently done some good. I've seen some news- paper reports that say local agencies have received many calls from abused children who've read the comic. This shows just how important the medium of comics can be. If you want a copy of this comic, you can get one from THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR THE PREVENTION OF CHILD ABUSE, P.O. Box 94283, Chicago, Illinois, 60690. The comic is free, but they request that you send at least $1.00 to cover costs. Please send in a larger donation. One last thing: after finishing this comic, it occurred to me that if these stories were tried in issues of the regular SPIDER-MAN or POWER PACK comics, they probably wouldn't pass the Comics Code. Now is that irony for you? --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA
hsut@pur-ee.UUCP (Yuk Hsu) (09/24/85)
Some interesting items came in over the past two weeks or so that will definitely be high on my "Best of 1985" list next year: AZTEC ACE #15 FINALLY this gets to the stores. I was really worried for some time, figuring that since Zot! has been put on hold for a while (at least), what's going to stop Eclipse from "cancelling" temporarily Ace? I mean #14 only came out 3 months ago... This is a fairly wild issue even for this book. Moench has a good feel for the absurd that keeps Ace from becoming a self-indulgent, slow-moving mess. While I haven't been too happy with the art lately (bring back Nestor Redondo on inks!), at least Dan Day is back this issue. The chase sequence with the six doxie-Bridgets was terrific. I loved the film trailing across the two-page spread and the explosion of images. So now we know who Bridget REALLY is (or do we? I suspect there's more going on...) Moench has Ace make a typically cryptic remark at the end, about loving Bridget forever, since she turned out to be who she is. So who is Ace? Caesar...? Mark Antony? (Uh-oh, that's almost a spoiler.) After a few pleasant, leisurely issues, Moench has introduced a plethora of new questions. This continues to be a most intriguing book. MOONSHADOW #5 Well, if Jerry Boyajian liked this one enough to review it, it must be good!! :-) Seriously though, this is probably the best Moonshadow since #1 and #2. The art is, as usual, moody and beautiful, mostly in shades of concentration camp gray this time instead of the lurid reds of the war scenes of #4. Ira further emphasised his "wookie-ness" by ripping out somebody's arm. The sequences with Barry were extremely well-done, thought-provoking and moving. Heck, any comic book which has a character with a bullet hole in his head walking around and making serious statements about life AND MAKING THE WHOLE THING WORK has to be one of the best of the year. CEREBUS #76 This is a slower issue than the last few, but very well-done nevertheless. The shot of young Cerebus in the first few pages almost made me jump out of my chair (of course it was only a dream...) The repeated panels of a sleepless Cerebus were perhaps a tiny bit excessive... The dream sequences were very revealing of the pain and confusion Cerebus is going through, and I don't envy the aardvark. Can't wait for the next one and Cerebus Jam #2. (By the way, did anyone notice the two-page Cerebus sequence in normalman #10? Not very exciting, but it was Sim's Cerebus...) Bill Hsu pur-ee!hsut at the Department of Eccentric Esoterica, Purdue University
hsut@pur-ee.UUCP (Bill Hsu) (10/12/85)
My copy of Neat Stuff still hasn't arrived yet, so here are a few slightly more conventional comics that came in recently... BEDLAM #2 I missed #1, but #2 didn't exactly inspire me to run around town trying to find it. This is an anthology of pieces by Rick Veitch and Stephen Bissette (and some others). Bissette's stories (he did both script and art) were nothing to write home about. I mean, pages and pages of dinosaurs ripping each other apart (no captions) aren't exactly my idea of a good comic. Veitch's pieces showed a twisted sense of humor I was unaware of. "Conquest of the Banana Planet" was an excellent parody of the genre (some nice panels here), and "Nutpeas", a parody of Peanuts, was a scream (wait till the PMRC see the "offensive" parts!) Worth getting for the Veitch pieces, if you're into slightly perverse humor... SWAMP THING #44 I consider this one of the best issues since the Anton Arcane series a year ago. The gentle scene between Abby and ST was funny and touching, and recalls a similar scene from #25 (was it that long ago?) when ST dragged Abby into the lake and got her wet, all in good fun. I wonder how long this unlikely romance is going to last. Or maybe the hint of tension between the two is just a temporary thing... The scenes with the Bogeyman were very well done --- humorous sendups of hack and slash horror movies. ST's subtle method of disposing of the Bogeyman shows what a wonderful writer/artists team is working on this book. The transformations of ST, though hardly on the magnitude of those in previous issues, were truly terrifying since we're familiar with the basically gentle and contemplative nature of the ST. The full page panel near the end is one of the most detailed and beautiful drawings I've seen of the ST --- if only they included an extra copy as a poster! And I loved the little conclusion with Abby and John Constantine; Moore is having a lot of fun with horror movie conventions this month... THE JOHNNY NEMO MAGAZINE #1 While Johnny Nemo was my least favorite strip in Eclipse's late, lamented Strange Days (well, the others were Freakwave and Paradax, so that's hardly surprising...), I really enjoyed his return. We get more of the "tough cop in the future" type storyline. There isn't much of a plot; Nemo just runs around looking for info and shooting people up. This is perhaps a glorious parody of Bladerunner (one of my favorite movies) as much as anything. Looking back at my comments about it, I'm still not sure why I enjoyed it so much. Maybe the witty dialogue? I'm not so sure about the backup strip Sindi Shade. It seems kind of diffuse and heavyhanded, but that might get better with the next issue. By the way, what's the word on Aztec Ace? By now I've read the dread announcement in recent Eclipse books that #15 will be the last one. I thought the function of Independents was to support good books that are unlikely to sell many copies... Maybe Eclipse, after having got a taste of the big money with Miracleman, want to rehaul their operation sales-wise (Dean Mullaney doesn't seem to be that kind of guy though.) At least we still have Cerebus and Swamp Thing... "Be careful, Johnny..." "Kalina, I can either be careful, or I can be Johnny Nemo..." Bill Hsu pur-ee!hsut