boyajian@akov68.DEC (04/14/84)
("I was in the SECRET WARS and all I got was this lousy T-shirt!") *
* <cartoon in the COMIC BUYER'S GUIDE, 13 April 1984>
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Some thoughts on Moriarty's recent reviews:
(1) I had some problems with EVANGELINE. First of all (or should I say Comico of
all...?), it wasn't particularly original. Dell Books published an adventure
series about 10 years back called "The Inquisitor", about a member of the Holy
Office of the Inquisition, which these days served the Church as an intelligence
gathering and covert operation network. The trick was that each Inquisitor could
only kill in self-defense, and even then had to do 15 days penance afterwards
(though as the hero once said, "There's one good thing about doing penance ---
you're alive to do it!"). EVANGELINE takes this concept to the extreme and
results in a rather violent comic.
Part of what bothers me is that in the preview story in COMICO PRIMER #6
and the first issue of the regular comic, the motives for wholesale slaughter is
taking vengeance out of some bad guys who did nasty things to some Church mis-
sions. If this becomes the only motive issue after issue, this comic will get
dull *really* fast, and become nothing more than a DeathWish vigilante comic. It
has a lot of potential, and I hope that it reaches it. What we need is more feel
for what Evangeline is like without the machine gun, and what she really thinks
of her job; giving us a cold-blooded killer each month just won't make it.
On the positive side, Judith Hunt is a *major* new talent --- I would
venture to say the best new artist since Dave Stevens. Her art does need a bit
of work here and there (Villagran's inks on the first issue cover up a lot of
her flaws, whereas the preview story, inked by Hunt herself, shows them).
ZOT: Didn't I review this already? Anyways, Jeff, I agree wholeheartedly. Not
deep, not sophisticated, not fine art, but a Hell of a lot of fun!
<BTW, Jeff, if you're really interested in Japanese animation, you might want to
take a look at the new English-language graphic albums of STAR BLAZERS. They are
produced in Japan (which leads to some interesting spelling errors, like "astro-
naught" and "takion") and are layed out as comic books, but use the animation
cels from the cartoon as the artwork (like Marvel did with ROCK AND RULE). The
repro is iffy in spots, but for the most part is very good, and the color is
absolutely magnificent! On the minus side, they appear to be using all of the
character names from the American version of the serial (which makes sense from
a business point of view, as does using the title STAR BLAZERS instead of SPACE
CRUISER YAMATO, but I for one would have preferred getting the original Japanese
version). I haven't seen the serial in a long time, so I can't tell yet if they
have kept in any of the graphic scenes that were cut out of the serial for Amer-
ican broadcast. The first volume covers the first four chapters of the first
serial; I'd seen the second volume the other weekend when I was in Minneapolis,
but it hasn't shown up in the Boston area yet. They cost $11.25 each, but are
definitely worth it (and relatively cheap, compared to the price/length of the
"graphic novels" being published these days). I recommend it.>
A few thoughts on other recent comics (and an answer to a previous posted
question about THE SECRET BORES):
*Does* anyone really like THE SECRET BORES? Well, I don't, but I still put my-
self through the torture of reading it, since events important to the Marvel
Universe at large happen in the series, and the basic concept is interesting,
even if the writing is gawd-offal and the art is lackluster (and Layton in the
fourth issue was hardly recognizable under Beatty's inks). We do meet Pyotr's
new beloved in #4, though he hasn't yet, otherwise it's the same old bickering
heroes. And they do *dumb* things, too. I mean, I can really see Thor dropping
into the middle of 13 really tough super-villains and threatening to kick the
shit out of all of them if they don't tell him what happened to the other
heroes; I mean, that *is* just the kind of balls he has (he almost succeeds,
too). Every other one of the heroes, though, does the stupidest things. Arrgh!!
However, DC's answer to THE SECRET WARS makes the latter glitter like gold.
SUPER POWERS is *wretched*. Kirby plotted it, and it would have worked fine 20
years ago, but today it just seems peurile. Cavilieri's script leaves a lot to
be desired (as does all of his scripts). Adrian Gonzales, normally a fairly good
artist, tries to do imitation-Kirby and fails miserably. And to top it off, I
guessed who the mystery villain was by page 3 (his first appearance); his out-
line and costume color scheme were unmistakeable, and the Boom Tube a page or
so later confirmed my guess. Enjoy the NEW GODS reprints, and forget this dog.
SUNDEVILS #1 is just another dull Gerry Conway skiffy book (how he manages to
make ATARI FORCE into a worthwhile book is beyond me). Trite characters in
trite situations. Not actively bad, mind you, but Lord it isn't good.
GRIMJACK #1 was just a tad disappointing. not that it was bad, mind you, but
it didn't quite measure up to the stories that ran in the back of STARSLAYER.
Still, it's better than most of the comics on the market these days. And there's
a lot of nice sight gags (not the least of which is the label on the bottle that
Grimjack's drinking from in the opening scene).
************* Possible Spoilers Ahead (TEEN TITANS & NEW MUTANTS) **************
TITANS:
Well, I was half-right about the outcome: the person I though would buy the farm
did indeed do so, though she didn't reform as I thought she would. Otherwise, a
fairly nice resolution to the storyline, though not outstanding.
NEWTIES:
Hmmm... I may not be wrong about Rachel after all. This subplot looks promising.
As to the art, well, it could be worse, but Sienkiewicz really needs a strong
inker. His art looks too muddy; I suspect that he may be drawing in ink from
breakdowns, rather than doing full pencils and then inks.
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That's all for now. I've got the lastest batch of comics sitting in front of me
waiting to be read, including the latest THOR and DR. STRANGE, CAMELOT 3000 #11
(it's really here, Jeff!!), and the first issues of MYTH ADVENTURES (by Phil
Foglio, from WaRP Graphics, based on "Myth" series by Bob Asprin) and POWER
PACK.
Before I leave, I want to mention a new comic due out soon [as far as I know,
it's no joke, either] that combines all the latest comics fads into one book:
teenagers, mutants, ninjas, and (serious) funny animals. It's...
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES
--- jayembee
(Jerry Boyajian, DEC Maynard)
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