Three 7/13 Books That I Read So That You Did Not
Same as always...I tell you about three comics that I did not hear a lot about this week, and then I ask you all to fill me in on comics that I did not read this week.
Spoilers ahead!!
Special All-Image Edition!!
Walking Dead #20
This book continues on its strong path.
As you all know, this book is less about Zombies and more about what happens to the people who have to live in a world filled with Zombies.
For instance, this issue is just little bits of "catching up" with the characters as they get more adjusted to their prison home.
The insights and interactions are all wonderfully played out by Kirkman.
The highlight to me is when Carol sees her boyfriend Tyresse interact with a new (black) woman in the jail, who seems to have a lot in common with Tyresse.
Normally, something like that would be interesting, but in the world that Kirkman has given us, such a thing is even MORE interesting, for Carol really does not have any other options outside of Tyresse, ya know?
There ain't a lot of fish in the sea in this world.
The ending is one of those endings that really only has significance if you are into the comic, but Kirkman has done such a good job with the book that, if you're reading the comic, you probably are into it.
Adlard's art is as strong as ever.
Recommended!
Guncandy #1
This title was not as bad as you would think, based upon the cover of a girl in a tank-top, mini-skirt (panties visible), and sucking on a large candy cane would be.
Doesn't mean it is a GOOD comic, of course, but it is not as bad as one would think.
Brian Stelfreeze is a fine artist, but I have to sort of question his choice of projects.
In any event ,Guncandy is about an 18 year old girl who has been trained to be a killer for years by her uncle and his associates, who took her in after her parents died.
On her 18th birthday, she learned that her parents were NOT, in fact, killed in a car crash - they were murdered.
Laci then spends the whole book hunting down whoever did it, while writer Doug Wagner has flashback to notable moments in Laci's life leading up to this moment.
The plot is almost non-existent, as this is more an exercise in style than anything else.
Wagner, though, does throw in enough stylistic cool scenes (and he is blessed with a great artist like Stelfreeze) to almost pull the book off.
The closing line of Laci praying "Lord, PLEASE forgive them for their sins...because I won't" is a great, great line.
There just isn't enough on top of the almost random bursts of style.
The other half of the flipbook, The Ride: Mardi Gras, is complete fluff from Chuck Dixon and two artist teams (Sanford Greene and Dexter Vines) and Jason Pearson.
A girl convinces her stepfather into lending him the Camaro for a trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras along with her boyfriend.
A lesson in not presuming all black people are drug dealers leads to the girl being kidnapped and the car stolen.
The second half of the story shows a reporter investigating one aspect of the story (the carjackers hit a man in the car), while trying to compile a cohesive narrative from talking to bystanders.
Not much of a story there, but mainly just giving Pearson a chance to draw whatever he wants - which he DOES do quite well.
All in all, neither issue was all that bad, but nor were they all that great, so I would have to say...
Not Recommended!
Freshmen #1
This is the book that Seth Green "co-created" with Hugh Sterbakov, but it really seems to be Sterbakov's baby.
And it is interesting.
Due to overcrowding, a group of stereoty...I mean, students, have to live in a science building.
This leads to the freshmen instantly bonding over their shared predicament.
You have a French lothario, a comic-book loving nerd, a vegan nerd, a science nerd, a goth nerd, a fet, peppy nerd, a nerd with a small penis, an Amish nerd, a Jersey girl (and her obnoxious boyfriend who she argues and has sex with all the time) and the star of the book, a psych major whose parents are divorcing who spends the whole book analyzing herself and the other folks.
Oh, and the school's mascot - a beaver.
Leonard Kirk does a good job of capturing their personalities, but they are painted so broadly it is hard NOT to capture them.
Still, Kirk does a bravura job on the book.
Sterbakov, however, makes the book read a bit too much like an issue of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.
He makes sure Annalee is LIKE that (the kind who speaks analytically), but the conceit is too transparent for him to get away with it (that conceit being that he gets to use an omniscient narrator without actually having to have an omniscient narrator).
Still, he has a likeable cast and a very appropriate artist, so I expect some good things from this book (I particularly enjoyed the fact that the one big comic fan is the only one NOT to get powers...nice).
For now, though?
Not Recommended!
Now on to the books that I did not read, so I was hoping you might have read them and could tell me what I missed out on:
Man with the Screaming Brain #3
Shadowhawk #3
Zombie King #0
Smoke #2
Soulsearchers #72
Wyatt Earp: Dodge City #2
Thanks!
Spoilers ahead!!
Special All-Image Edition!!
Walking Dead #20
This book continues on its strong path.
As you all know, this book is less about Zombies and more about what happens to the people who have to live in a world filled with Zombies.
For instance, this issue is just little bits of "catching up" with the characters as they get more adjusted to their prison home.
The insights and interactions are all wonderfully played out by Kirkman.
The highlight to me is when Carol sees her boyfriend Tyresse interact with a new (black) woman in the jail, who seems to have a lot in common with Tyresse.
Normally, something like that would be interesting, but in the world that Kirkman has given us, such a thing is even MORE interesting, for Carol really does not have any other options outside of Tyresse, ya know?
There ain't a lot of fish in the sea in this world.
The ending is one of those endings that really only has significance if you are into the comic, but Kirkman has done such a good job with the book that, if you're reading the comic, you probably are into it.
Adlard's art is as strong as ever.
Recommended!
Guncandy #1
This title was not as bad as you would think, based upon the cover of a girl in a tank-top, mini-skirt (panties visible), and sucking on a large candy cane would be.
Doesn't mean it is a GOOD comic, of course, but it is not as bad as one would think.
Brian Stelfreeze is a fine artist, but I have to sort of question his choice of projects.
In any event ,Guncandy is about an 18 year old girl who has been trained to be a killer for years by her uncle and his associates, who took her in after her parents died.
On her 18th birthday, she learned that her parents were NOT, in fact, killed in a car crash - they were murdered.
Laci then spends the whole book hunting down whoever did it, while writer Doug Wagner has flashback to notable moments in Laci's life leading up to this moment.
The plot is almost non-existent, as this is more an exercise in style than anything else.
Wagner, though, does throw in enough stylistic cool scenes (and he is blessed with a great artist like Stelfreeze) to almost pull the book off.
The closing line of Laci praying "Lord, PLEASE forgive them for their sins...because I won't" is a great, great line.
There just isn't enough on top of the almost random bursts of style.
The other half of the flipbook, The Ride: Mardi Gras, is complete fluff from Chuck Dixon and two artist teams (Sanford Greene and Dexter Vines) and Jason Pearson.
A girl convinces her stepfather into lending him the Camaro for a trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras along with her boyfriend.
A lesson in not presuming all black people are drug dealers leads to the girl being kidnapped and the car stolen.
The second half of the story shows a reporter investigating one aspect of the story (the carjackers hit a man in the car), while trying to compile a cohesive narrative from talking to bystanders.
Not much of a story there, but mainly just giving Pearson a chance to draw whatever he wants - which he DOES do quite well.
All in all, neither issue was all that bad, but nor were they all that great, so I would have to say...
Not Recommended!
Freshmen #1
This is the book that Seth Green "co-created" with Hugh Sterbakov, but it really seems to be Sterbakov's baby.
And it is interesting.
Due to overcrowding, a group of stereoty...I mean, students, have to live in a science building.
This leads to the freshmen instantly bonding over their shared predicament.
You have a French lothario, a comic-book loving nerd, a vegan nerd, a science nerd, a goth nerd, a fet, peppy nerd, a nerd with a small penis, an Amish nerd, a Jersey girl (and her obnoxious boyfriend who she argues and has sex with all the time) and the star of the book, a psych major whose parents are divorcing who spends the whole book analyzing herself and the other folks.
Oh, and the school's mascot - a beaver.
Leonard Kirk does a good job of capturing their personalities, but they are painted so broadly it is hard NOT to capture them.
Still, Kirk does a bravura job on the book.
Sterbakov, however, makes the book read a bit too much like an issue of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.
He makes sure Annalee is LIKE that (the kind who speaks analytically), but the conceit is too transparent for him to get away with it (that conceit being that he gets to use an omniscient narrator without actually having to have an omniscient narrator).
Still, he has a likeable cast and a very appropriate artist, so I expect some good things from this book (I particularly enjoyed the fact that the one big comic fan is the only one NOT to get powers...nice).
For now, though?
Not Recommended!
Now on to the books that I did not read, so I was hoping you might have read them and could tell me what I missed out on:
Man with the Screaming Brain #3
Shadowhawk #3
Zombie King #0
Smoke #2
Soulsearchers #72
Wyatt Earp: Dodge City #2
Thanks!
posted by Brian Cronin at 7/19/2005 07:40:00 PM
1 Comments:
So much detail was put into the characters in #1 that I find it hard to believe that Sterbakov did not have a major hand in creating the characters.
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