boyajian@akov68.DEC (Jerry Boyajian) (11/02/84)
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 | ******************************************************************************** MAGE #4 C- I confess that I never tried this one before. I glanced at previous issues, but weren't grabbed by them. But, since a good number of people have said some nice things about it, I thought I'd give it a try. To be honest, I'm not *completely* sold on it, but I liked it well enough to continue with it for the nonce. The character of Kevin Matchstick is intriguing --- there appear to be many hidden aspects to him, some of which we may learn, some maybe not. I can't say I think much of Mirth yet, though, or Edsel. I don't really know enough of what's going on to really comment on the story, and that's the big- gest complaint I have with this book. Not only am I plopped in the middle of a story (the synopsis given for the events of last issue didn't really help), but this issue doesn't seem to advance much whatever plot there is. I did go looking for back issues in order to catch up with what's going on, but I've only found the first issue so far, and that doesn't do much other than set up the two main characters. I can say that there seems to be a definite improvement in the art and production between the first and fourth issues. I'm still reserving judgement on this one, but I'm not writing it off yet, either. I still haevn't figured out why everyone's raving about it, though. But then, I can't figure out why THE ELEMENTALS is selling out so damn fast, either --- it's not *that* good! Grumble, grumble. I didn't manage to get a copy of the second issue of that one. Grumble, grumble. AXEL PRESSBUTTON #1 C This comic was originally scheduled from Pacific, but has been picked up by Eclipse due to the former's problems. It reprints, in color, material from the black-&-white British comic WARRIOR, concerning the psychotic cyborg, Axel Pressbutton, and his shapely partner-in-whatever, Mysta Mystralis, Laser Eraser. Anyone who's not used to the quirky and strange British comics may not take to this, but it is amusing, silly, and exciting. sort of like Judge Dredd, only different. It's not the *best* of WARRIOR, but it's nice to see this bizarre strip get some larger exposure. THE ROCKETEER SPECIAL EDITION #1 B Yet another ex-Pacific book picked up by Eclipse. We've waited a lonnggg time for this one, and it was well worth the wait. Stevens' art was as beautiful as ever (ahhh, Betty.... sigh!). The only complaint I have, and why I didn't give this an "A", is because the story seems rather empty --- more of a finish- for-the-sake-of-finishing than an honest to God resolution. Still, it had its high points, and I eagerly look forward to the next exciting episode... The portfolio was nice, too, though somewhat uneven. I didn't care for the Freeman, the Morrow, or the Jones, but I *really* liked William Stout's, as well as Mike Kaluta's back cover. SISTERHOOD OF STEEL #1 D+ There's nothing really wrong with this comic. The art isn't wonderful (Vosburg has some stylistic quirks that I don't like) but it's servicible. The script, as Mike Ciaraldi pointed out in his review, is a nice, straightforward origin story, that sets up all the characters and situations before diving into a long involved story. Yet, there's something missing from the book. My reaction to it was kind of along the line of "So what?" The characters didn't interest me, the situations didn't interest me, and there wasn't any fresh idea that sets this apart from the usual sword-and-sorcery heap (OK, so the heroes are all women? Big deal! Just a gimmick, like Evangeline being a nun). I'll give this a chance, as I do most books, but I don't expect very much from it. VOID INDIGO #1 C- Considering how much I disliked the graphic novel, I was somewhat sur- prised that I liked this as much as I did. Mayerik still isn't doing the art as well as I know he could, but the storyline is rather interesting, without being filled with nothing but blood'n'guts. Character and motivations have improved, and yet, remain somewhat mysterious. Not a terrific book, by any means, but one I'll keep an eye on anyway, to see how it goes. THE SPIRIT #6 A+ OK, I haven't reviewed this comic before, mostly because I think it's so good, there isn't really much to say about it other than "WOW!" Its quality seems so obvious to me. Eisner has some equals or near-equals in the business -- Hal Foster, Milt Caniff, Jim Steranko, et al. -- but he has no superiors. None. Zippo. He puts into seven pages what most writer/artists take *twenty*-seven to do. His sense of design is simple, yet dynamic and imaginative. And one of the stories in this issue is a perfect example of this. The first story in this issue, "Welcome Home, Ebony!", page 6, panel 7. Next time you're in the local comics shop, take a look at it. I was just blown away at how simple, yet how effective that panel was. The man is a master. I also highly recommend this book, because, aside from the contents, this is the best-produced comic around. The coloring, the printing, the paper, etc. are of that high quality that only a labor of love can produce. the only comics I ever seen that match it in terms of production were the Capital Comics --- NEXUS, THE BADGER, and WHISPER. Nobody does it better. NEW TRIUMPH (featuring NORTHGUARD) #1 C Imagine yourself as a comics fan (if you can :-). Then imagine that a hi-tech company makes you an offer to have you use a device which gives you an indefinite amount of energy to use against evildoers. What would you do? Most likely, exactly what the hero of this book does --- become a superhero! Mark Shainblum, the writer, is no Alan Moore or Marv Wolfman or Chris Claremont. Gabriel Morrissette, the artist, is no Barry Windsor-Smith or Paul Smith or George Perez. This book has a ways to go before it can be considered a great book. Yet it is off to a good start, and has the potential to be a real sleeper. The characters are interesting, the motivations intriguing, and the actions suspenseful. And the point of view character as a comic fan turned superhero is delightful. "Phillip. What are you going to call yourself in French? 'Northguard' hardly works. Let's see, 'Guardien du nord' is cumbersome. What about just 'Guardien'?" "No, somehow I don't think so." "Why not?" "Respect for the dead." It's been awhile since we've had a real *Canadian* comic book. The A-V stuff is set in other worlds and times. And ALPHA FLIGHT seems to be really an American comic set in Canada. With NEW TRIUMPH we have what I feel is a worthy successor to CAPTAIN CANUCK. I'm pleased to see that there have been a couple of other reviews for it in net.comics, because that means that it's being noticed. I urge any of you who haven't seen it yet to look for it and try it out. --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA
tim@cmu-cs-k.ARPA (Tim Maroney) (11/03/84)
If you like the Spirit comic, you have to get Will Eisner's Quarterly. Seriously. So what if it's $3.50? Eisner's new work is better than ever. The man is far and away the best storyteller comics have ever seen. His graphic novel, "A Life Force", being serialized three chapters an issue, is one of the most moving and realistic graphic stories I have ever seen. To hell with "Who Killed Donna Troy"! It's amateurish crap compared to Eisner! -- Tim Maroney, Carnegie-Mellon University Computation Center ARPA: Tim.Maroney@CMU-CS-K uucp: Try sending through a gateway such as DECWRL, UCB-VAX, SEISMO, or HARVARD -- mailer conventions differ on syntax
boyajian@akov68.DEC (02/23/85)
Like Moriarty, I find myself slipping a little behind in my reviews (part of it is that I'm falling behind in my *reading*...). There are two separate batches of reviews, one covering ALPHA FLIGHT through GREEN LANTERN, and the other MR. MONSTER through VIGILANTE (plus CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, following a Spoiler Warning). 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 | ******************************************************************************** MR. MONSTER #1 [C] You may remember the first third of this as something that appeared in the last issue of pacific's VANGUARD ILLUSTRATED. The rest was suppose to appear there as well, but fate intervened. Eclipse decided that it would toss all three chapters of the Mr. Monster serial into a single comic book (since the colors were supposedly wretched in that first appearance, they felt no qualms about the first third of this one-shot being a reprint). So how is it? Well, it's amusing and entertaining fluff. Mr. Monster is a no-nonsense, don't-take-shit-from-anybody, macho kinda guy, and here, he takes on a werewolf biker gang who has been intimidating this poor schlepp who quite inadvertantly was turned into a lycanthrope but doesn't have the heart for it. The closest I can come to a comparison is that it reads much like a Judge Dredd story, which is praising with faint damns. I *like* Judge Dredd, and MR. MONSTER could easily become a JD story with a few cosmetic changes. And that's the only real problem: there's no spark of originality here. When all one can think of when reading it is that it's just like a Dredd story with the names changed to protect the copyright, there's something wrong. Still, it's a good, funny read, and worth giving a shot. Besides, the text piece in which Michael Gilbert explains where Mr. Monster came from is fascinating, and the Bill Messner-Loebs art is wonderful (certainly enough to confirm that his art in JOURNEY has really been slipping). MS. TREE #16 [C] The latest in a long line of "socially conscious" comic books: those that deal with such problems as drugs, rascism, child abuse, and other such nastinesses of our society. Like a long ago couple of issues of THE NEW TEEN TITANS, this issue focuses upon the issue of child runaways. The subject is dealt with in a realistic and sympathetic manner, but there are two things that bug me about it. First, the hidden bleeding-heart-liberal in me feels that Tree dealt with a particular villain in this story a tad too harshly. Sure the guy was a worthless piece of scum, but I lost a little respect for the character of Tree from the way she handled things. The second is why I think this is slightly less effective than the Titans runaway story. It so happens that Tree turns down a case involving a runaway child, claiming that the trail was too cold (the child ran away four years prior to this, and the parents went through many PI's trying to find her). And serendipitously, she no longer escorts these folks out the door when she learns that her own adopted son has run away, tossing her head first into the problem. I feel that needing to make the hero a victim in order to get him involved in the problem smacks of poor motivation (gee, so sorry, but as long as it doesn't happen to *me*, who cares?) It's nice to see this comic tackle such a serious problem (as opposed to the bandwagon jumping-on of the previous story about beauty-pagent blackmail), but it's too bad Collins and Beatty didn't do a better job of it. NEXUS #9 [C+] Lots of things of interest going on here. Nexus' incipient conflicts with the new government of Ylum, the continuing intrigue involving Ursula, and last but not least, the stew that Nexus finds himself in now by killing (with good reason) a 14-year-old kid in front of crowds of people (on Earth, no less). I only have one complaint, and that's that I'm sick of the current stereotype of kids with mohawks being bad guys just because they affect a punk style. Sigh. NORMALMAN #7 [D+] Valentino seems to be a bit off this time around. However, I couldn't help but ask: How many characters could *you* identify on page 7. Out of 66, I couldn't get 3. OMEGA MEN #26 [C] If you haven't been following this lately (and rightly so), you might want to give it another try. A new team, Todd Klein and Shawn McManus, has taken over the reigns, and they're off to a promising start. In a sense, it's more of the same old space battles, this time against a new foe, the Spider Guild, then against the Citadel, but the focus seems to be a bit narrower. most of the Omega Men are trapped on over-run planets, and the story is going to focus on a small group, which includes Kalista, Tigorr, Harpis, R'yandir (Starfire's brother), a renegade Green Lantern, and a new character. The GL and the Spider Guild are out of a few "Tales of the GL Corps" stories that Klein has done in the past couple of years. Be warned, however, that this issue drops into the middle of the current story, with flashbacks occuring over the next few to tell us what lead up to the current situation. This issue also starts off a new back-up feature called Vega, by the ever more present Alan Moore. This first episode tells of one world in this system that didn't fall to the Spiders, and why. Like his GL back-up, this is minor Moore. Oh, and last but not least, this comic has got a *stunning* cover by McManus. The layout is nice, but it's the colors that reach out and grab you. RAGAMUFFINS #1 [D] I wish I could say that it's nice having Don McGregor and Gene Colan's Ragamuffins stories collected all in one place. It *is* nice, except for one thing: they aren't worth reprinting. McGregor seems to have this obsession with proving how much better a writer he his than everyone else because he does non- commercial stories---you know, about hard-boiled detectives, children's school adventures, and the like. Nary a superhero to be found, nosirree; none of that adolescent male power fantasy crap fer me. What he, and others like him --- writers and critics alike --- have lost sight of is the fact that a good super- hero story can still be a good story, and a lousy non-superhero story can still be a lousy story. A *truly* "different" comic story is one that in which the story is *handled* differently than others, not one that is superficially dif- ferent because it has a different subject. Alan Moore (*especially* Alan Moore, with "Marvelman"), Walt Simonson, Frank Miller, Roger Stern, John Byrne, and Chris Claremont, to mention a few, have all proven that superheroes can be handled seriously and intelligently, and differently. McGregor, with the comic at hand, proves that a comic with such a "different" subject matter is still o-nay odd-gay if it's poorly executed. Each of these three stories has got heart and soul coming out the ears, but they have no substance whatsoever. And to me, style alone just doesn't make the grade (as regards writing, anyway; artwork is another matter entirely). VIGILANTE #18 [B] I wish I could give this a better rating. The first half of this two- issue fill-in was one of, if not *the*, best piece of work by Alan Moore. With a tinge of regret, I report that the second half doesn't quite live up to the promise of the first. Still, Moore really pulls through on the characterization (which was the high point of the previous half). Here we get to see another side to Carl Linnaker, the villain of the story, and to Fever, the Vigilante's sidekick/foil for this story. We see that Linnaker isn't all bad, and after all he's done, there's at least someone who still loves him. And we see that Fever isn't all good, that she can succumb to that same push for revenge that in most people remains under control. A line from the story kind of sums it up: "But that won't stop them picking at it and trying to turn it into something black and white. Something they can have an opinion about. Something they can judge." Life isn't all black and white, and often we lose sight of that fact. This story helps rectify that situation. ***WARNING!! SPOILER ALERT!!*** CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #3 [C+] My, my, my. This one's got it all, folks! A totally unknown character fighting alongside the Teen Titans and the Outsiders (which team, if any, she belongs to is anyone's guess); the second(?) death of the Flash; a few minor war and western characters get bumped off; Brainiac goes in search of Luthor to try and find a way to save the Universe (after all, if he lets the Universe get destroyed, where is he going to live?); and for a smash finale, Earth-1, and quite possibly the rest of the surviving Earths, goes Snuff City along the entire timeline. And the blurb for next issue says: "This is the big one! The end of the Multiverse!" And that will only be issue #4! --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA
moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer) (02/28/85)
In article <693@decwrl.UUCP> boyajian@akov68.DEC writes: >Besides, the text piece in >which Michael Gilbert explains where Mr. Monster came from is fascinating, and >the Bill Messner-Loebs art is wonderful (certainly enough to confirm that his >art in JOURNEY has really been slipping). > It HAS been poor lately... other than Mr. Monster and some work for VORTEX, has he been spending his time on other mags? Also, I was sorry to see so much of Gilbert's artwork fade underneath Loeb's work; he is a very good artist in his own right (see THE WRAITH). >RAGAMUFFINS #1 [D] > >A *truly* "different" comic story is one that in which the >story is *handled* differently than others, not one that is superficially dif- >ferent because it has a different subject. Damn, I wish *I'd* said that! I've stayed away from this comic after the team's sojourn in ECLIPSE MONTHLY, and frankly, my regard for McGregor's skill has been in a crash dive ever since. His last good work seem's to be his DETECTIVES, INC. work a while back (which was very good), but lately... pfui. And if I see ONE MORE STORY dedicated to his KID!! No child should be saddled with the infamy of so much mush writing... Well, I should have reviews out by the end of the week... "Now, for the LAST TIME, old man, WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR?" "And as I told you *already*, sir, I'm SELF-EMPLOYED and PROUD OF IT!" Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc. UUCP: {cornell,decvax,ihnp4,sdcsvax,tektronix,utcsrgv}!uw-beaver \ {allegra,gatech!sb1,hplabs!lbl-csam,decwrl!sun,ssc-vax} -- !fluke!moriarty ARPA: fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPA