These are short reviews of comics I've read in the last few days.
War Is Hell #1
If Marvel wanted to, say, make their MAX line Garth Ennis's personal war stories playground, I'd be OK with that. I don't think I've ever read an original Phantom Eagle comic, so I went into this with no preconceptions about the character and had myself a grand old time, especially with the besotted Captain Clark and his untimely end. Chaykin, despite some people's strange beliefs about his art, knocks it out of the park. (Except for those copied-and-pasted airplanes. That was a bit jarring.)
Strangeways: Murder Moon
As mentioned, I know Matt Maxwell and have seen this take a long, arduous journey to completion, so I'm probably rooting for him an awful lot when it comes to this book. Thankfully, he didn't let me down, with a story that manages to combine werewolves (blergh) and a western (blergh x 2 unless it's the two "woods": East or Dead) into compelling, character-driven suspense that works very well. I've a minor bugaboo with the lead character uncovering the beast's true identity, and that payoff feeling slightly muted, but that may just be me looking for something to pick on with my obsessive dot-connecting; I'll easily concede that the story is about one man's journey into a world much bigger and stranger than what he has known, so the identity of the werewolf is a second-or-third-tierd concern at best.
Luis Guaragña's art is appropriately moody, if inconsistent, with the best efforts featuring him paring down the linework, such as the chiaroscuro style used during the cabin fight scene. These weaknesses in the main story's art are pointed out by Gervasio and Jok's minimal-yet-lush work in the backup origin story, "Lone." This is a solid, entertaining debut that will (hopefully) get Maxwell and his artistic collaborators some well-deserved positive attention.
North World Volume 1
The first collection of Lars Brown's entertaining modern-day fantasy webcomic features a guy in khakis and a polo shirt fighting a giant talking bear in the first eleven pages and manages to, somehow, top that by throwing him on a quest that takes him back to his hometown. There, he must embark on a dangerous quest that is counterpointed by the emotional minefield of his past. There's a few hints very nicely dropped (I think I've figured out what's up with Conrad's sister) and no small amount of humor. Sometimes, Brown's art changes styles unexpectedly, but his overall look for the book is refreshing.
Subway Series
Alternative Comics re-solicited this Leela Corman book about the trials and tribulations of a young woman in New York City from 2002 a couple months ago and I liked the look of the cover and thought I'd give this a shot and boy that was a bad decision. In many ways, this feels like a poorly-disguised diary comic without a spine to engage the audience thanks to fractured storytelling without a single compelling character and flat, dull art that seems to be cribbing from Hope Larson and other, better artists working the same vein.
My Brain Hurts Volume 1
Thankfully, Liz Baillie's comic about a young woman in New York City is about as pitch-perfect as a minicomic with its (admittedly moderate) aspirations can be. This volume collects the first of Baillie's self-published material and despite a few predictable moments (particularly the coma bit near the end), her assured character work and spiky, rough art make this comic into something much more authentic than many of its peers. If I had my druthers, this would be put out through someone with some bookstore power and placed on the shelf next to the rest of the Stuff Teenage Girls Like books.
If Marvel wanted to, say, make their MAX line Garth Ennis's personal war stories playground, I'd be OK with that. I don't think I've ever read an original Phantom Eagle comic, so I went into this with no preconceptions about the character and had myself a grand old time, especially with the besotted Captain Clark and his untimely end. Chaykin, despite some people's strange beliefs about his art, knocks it out of the park. (Except for those copied-and-pasted airplanes. That was a bit jarring.)
Strangeways: Murder Moon
As mentioned, I know Matt Maxwell and have seen this take a long, arduous journey to completion, so I'm probably rooting for him an awful lot when it comes to this book. Thankfully, he didn't let me down, with a story that manages to combine werewolves (blergh) and a western (blergh x 2 unless it's the two "woods": East or Dead) into compelling, character-driven suspense that works very well. I've a minor bugaboo with the lead character uncovering the beast's true identity, and that payoff feeling slightly muted, but that may just be me looking for something to pick on with my obsessive dot-connecting; I'll easily concede that the story is about one man's journey into a world much bigger and stranger than what he has known, so the identity of the werewolf is a second-or-third-tierd concern at best.
Luis Guaragña's art is appropriately moody, if inconsistent, with the best efforts featuring him paring down the linework, such as the chiaroscuro style used during the cabin fight scene. These weaknesses in the main story's art are pointed out by Gervasio and Jok's minimal-yet-lush work in the backup origin story, "Lone." This is a solid, entertaining debut that will (hopefully) get Maxwell and his artistic collaborators some well-deserved positive attention.
North World Volume 1
The first collection of Lars Brown's entertaining modern-day fantasy webcomic features a guy in khakis and a polo shirt fighting a giant talking bear in the first eleven pages and manages to, somehow, top that by throwing him on a quest that takes him back to his hometown. There, he must embark on a dangerous quest that is counterpointed by the emotional minefield of his past. There's a few hints very nicely dropped (I think I've figured out what's up with Conrad's sister) and no small amount of humor. Sometimes, Brown's art changes styles unexpectedly, but his overall look for the book is refreshing.
Subway Series
Alternative Comics re-solicited this Leela Corman book about the trials and tribulations of a young woman in New York City from 2002 a couple months ago and I liked the look of the cover and thought I'd give this a shot and boy that was a bad decision. In many ways, this feels like a poorly-disguised diary comic without a spine to engage the audience thanks to fractured storytelling without a single compelling character and flat, dull art that seems to be cribbing from Hope Larson and other, better artists working the same vein.
My Brain Hurts Volume 1
Thankfully, Liz Baillie's comic about a young woman in New York City is about as pitch-perfect as a minicomic with its (admittedly moderate) aspirations can be. This volume collects the first of Baillie's self-published material and despite a few predictable moments (particularly the coma bit near the end), her assured character work and spiky, rough art make this comic into something much more authentic than many of its peers. If I had my druthers, this would be put out through someone with some bookstore power and placed on the shelf next to the rest of the Stuff Teenage Girls Like books.
