It’s been a while since I actually talked about comics I’ve purchased. I guess I’ll rectify that.
Comments Off | Posted: October 24th, 2007 | Filed under: UncategorizedThe latest Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane1 digest turned me into a twelve-year-old girl and I swear to god, I actually made that horrifying “Squee” noise when I reached the last page. I’m sorry to see Sean McKeever go, but his afterword did a fine job of explaining his decision. At this point, I’m unsure if I’m going to continue reading when Terry Moore takes over. Part of me thinks that working with an editor may help show off his strengths and tamper down his excesses, but the other part remembers how hopelessly lost Strangers in Paradise got when he overcomplicated the formula. I’ll probably throw a few pals at that particular wolf and see if it bites them before I investigate.
Speaking of graphic design, that Jonathan Adams cover for Awesome: The Indie Spinner Rack Anthology is a clever beast, set up so that the back cover can be placed next to the front cover to form one complete image. Ideally, this would mean the book gets double the shelf space, but I would imagine there’s a handful of stores that would order enough copies to pull off that particular trick. More should, actually, as it’s a damned good value at $15. Some of my favorites show up here, including Jamie Tanner, Liz Prince, Matt Kindt, Al Columbia, and Alec Longstreth. Overall, the material’s of high quality with a few very low spots (Neil Schwabb’s super-misogynistic “What Women Are Really Saying” strip seems like it stepped out of an issue of Hustler circa 1987). True to form, though, the cover artist’s single-page return to the Truth Serum universe was my favorite entry – blackly hilarious and capable of pulling off a joke that would have left me hiding behind my couch, waiting for the inevitable Reader Backlash to begin.
Finally, I’m going to admit something. It’s probably going to shock you. I freakin’ love Marc Guggenheim’s Blade comic and with the release of the second (and last) trade paperback, I feel I can admit that to everyone in the room. It’s high-energy horror schlock set in the Marvel Universe with pure pulp flowing through its veins. Howard Chaykin’s angular, graphic design-influenced art gives the entire thing a polished look that compliments the just-turgid enough scripting perfectly, making the entire affair like Steven Soderbergh directing a Shane Black-scripted adaptation of The Spider.
There. Three books, three paragraphs. Happy?
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No, neither am I. The malaise, it’s unbearable. Here’s some one-or-two sentence commentary.
The latest Justice League of America featured Ed Benes coming back on the title, and my losing a bit more patience with the whole affair. I can almost feel McDuffie wanting to pull the script forward and editorial telling him to slow it down for the trade market.
I’ve said it before and I’ve said it again: you should be reading Army at Love. There’s a trade paperback out for ten bones.
Yes, I looked at Death of the New Gods. No, I don’t think I’ll do that again.
Skyscrapers Of The Midwest #4 means there’s going to be a collection soon, probably with more stuff by Cotter. You’ll want to get that.
DMZ‘s biennial celebration was a bleak one-shot look at Amina from the Public Works storyline. When he’s on like this, Wood is compelling to a degree that no other current Vertigo writer can match.
I am purposely going to avoid talking about the latest Showcase Presents volume. The rest of the blogerati can point out how gay Superman and Batman are; I’ll just read and cackle on occasion. (Hey, everyone else has been pooping at their keyboard-tapping brethren, I might as well be dismissive.)
Hey, that was three sentences. That’s my cue to ditch this thing.
1 I initially typed that as Spider-Man Loves Mary Janes, which would be much more logical tie-in than that disturbing Superman/Airheads ad that’s been running in the DC books lately.
