Quick GN Reviews

Epicurus the Sage; Legends from Darkwood

Epicurus the Sage
by William Messner-Loebs & Sam Kieth
Loebs & Kieth run roughshod over Greek myth and the Greek philosophers and have great fun while doing so. The four stories contained herein retell the tales of Persephone, Zeus's many trysts, Cassandra, and the Trojan War. Although I've never studied enough about the Greek philosophers to have gotten all the jokes, I know enough about them and about mythology to enjoy this enough. Both Loeb & Kieth are at the top of their form here.
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)


Legends from Darkwood, vol. 1: The Unicorn Hunters
by Christopher Reid & John Kantz
Darkwood is a fantasy world with echos of the old west and steampunk, an occasional anthropomorph, and unicorns. Unicorn meat is considered a delicacy, but since only a maiden can get close to a unicorn, they make the best hunters. Young Rose is being raised to be just such a hunter, but Rose likes all of nature's creatures and thinks that hunting unicorns is wrong. So she pools together all her money to put a contarct out on Raynd, the best unicorn hunter in Darkwood. Meanwhile, Andrew the Unicorn is sick and tired of his kind being prey, so he seeks a way to take revenge on the humans who are hunting his kind to extinction. This is a solid and inventive story, filled with humor and a few clever surprises. The mangaesque art is a bit shaky at times, but overall solid and well suited to the story. I look forward to reading volume 2.
Rating: 3 (of 5)

Quick Reviews

Promethea; SpyBoy: Final Exam; Strangers in Paradise

Promethea #31
by Alan Moore & J. H. Williams III
"In This Issue: The World Ends!" And that's just halfway through--the remainder of this issues shows us what happens after and brings to story to a close. It's quite fitting, then, that there's still one issue left. Alan Moore has used Promethea as a vehicle to explore various ideas about the nature of reality, and here he explores eschatology. He also manages to invoke the Strong Anthropic Principle--I'm not a strong believer (I'm more of a Weak Anthropic man myself) but I've got to admire any story that brings it into a comic book. Williams really gets to show off his artistic chops in this issue, and I do hope that he manages to land a prime gig once Promethea comes to a close.
Rating: 4 (of 5)


SpyBoy: Final Exam #4
by Peter David, Pop Mhan & Norman Lee
Really, you can't end a series on a cliffhanger like this. Okay, Angel was able to pull it off, but they get a one-time dispensation. I suppose we can look at this as a cliffhanger at the end of a season, as we are promised "See ya next time!", but after four issues and twelve dollars, I would have liked to have seen the main plot resolved. I may be harping on a small point here, but it makes an otherwise fun mini series slightly annoying.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)


Strangers in Paradise #68
by Terry Moore
The plot starts to kick into high gear again, as the pasts of both Katchoo & Marie Peters come back to haunt them. The phone call between the two of them was especially effective. I found the choice to reproduce the middle section directly from pencils to be a bit odd, as I can't see anything special about the bits of story therein that would require such a drastic shift in artistic technique. It's not like Moore was cutting corners or anything, as these are very detailed pencils made to intentionally look rough. It's just an odd thing to do for no apparent reason.
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)

Fall TV Preview: Tuesday

Last day of the Fall TV Preview.

New Show of Note: Veronica Mars (UPN, 8pm Eastern) takes over Buffy's old time slot, and looks to be a winner. It stars Kristen Bell as a high school student who moonlights by helping out her dad, a private detective. It was created by Rob Thomas, who was also responsible for Cupid, one of the best one-season shows of the past decade. Let's hope that UPN shows some patience with this modern-day Nancy Drew.

Comics Connection: Well, there's Last Comic Standing (NBC, 8pm), but that's a different kind of comic. Or there's Father of the Pride (NBC, 9pm), which is animated but not really related to any comic book. Oh hell, I've got nothing for this. For six straight days I was able to come up with at least a tenuous comic connection, but Tuesday has me stumped.

Also: After a rocky season 4, Gilmore Girls (WB, 8pm) finished strong, and I'm looking forward to season 5 of one of the smartest written shows on tv. The evening ends with the guest-star-o-rama Law & Order: SVU (NBC, 10pm), which I'll continue to watch as long as Richard Belzer continues to play Detective Munch, the character he's played on at least four different shows over the past eleven years.

Monkey Covers

There's nothing better than a comic with a monkey on the cover!

Here's the cover of The Adventures of Bob Hope #33, with Bob losing a game of cards to a gorilla. (click on the image for the full-size scan from GCD.)

Fall TV Preview: Monday

New Show of Note: There's really nothing new on Monday that even remotely interests me, not even LAX (NBC, 10pm Eastern). Has anyone ever had a really good experience in an airport? No matter how 'fun' they try to make this, it just won't be.

Comics Connection: CSI: Miami (CBS, 10pm) is, like its parent show, a comic from IDW. I started watching Miami when it first started a couple of years ago, but gave up after a few episodes as I found it to be grating and annoying. (If you want to find a good show that David Caruso starred in, try tracking down episodes of an old show called Michael Hayes.)

Also: Las Vegas (NBC, 9pm) was last season's guilty pleasure, and I'm sure it will continue to be this season as well. It's turn-off-your-brain television at its finest. Monday Night Football (ABC, 9pm) will surely on occasion keep me up way past my bedtime. And once again FOX tempts the coming of the apocalypse by airing the worst show on network television: The Swan (time not given, so as not to be resposible for the ruining of your soul).

Quick Reviews

Fallen Angel; Captain America; The Punisher; Green Arrow; Gotham Central

Fallen Angel #15
by Peter David, David Lopez & Fernando Blanco
This issue starts off rather slow, as we get a ton of exposition from the bad guys (or are they really--it can be wonderfully vague in this comic), but the two page title-spread of an arial shot of the city is breathtaking. Things start to pick up in the final six pages as the foucs shifts to the title character and ends on an explosive cliffhanger. David Lopez is quite a find--I can't imagine hardly anybody else doing the art on this title (although if a fill-artist is ever needed, I'd love to see José Luís Garcia-López give it a shot).
Rating: 3 (of 5)


Captain America #31
by Robert Kirkman, Scot Eaton & Drew Geraci
This issue left a bad taste in my mouth, and it wasn't just the ending (or my chewing on the pages...) In these post-Identity Crisis days, having villains spout lines like "...you can look forward to a strict regimen of torture and abuse... we're going to have a lot of fun with you" to tied up female captives takes on very negative connotations. It's not that there aren't any good moments (the bit with Modok was very funny), in fact most of the comic was decent, but those few bits are overwhelming in their ickiness.
Rating: 2 (of 5)


The Punisher #11
by Garth Ennis & Leandro Fernandez
Ennis must get paid by the f-word on this book. The opening third of this book is non-stop shooting and cussing, followed by page after page of exposition (and cussing) from character who I've lost track of over the course of this drwn-out story. The three page conversation between the whats-his-name British Agent and his whats-his-name IRA captive (this book really could have used a 'previously' page...) elevates this somewhat. But all-in-all this is not the best of Ennis's Punisher stories.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)


Green Arrow #42
by Judd Winick, Phil Hester & Ande Parks
Mia steps in and saves Ollie. Ollie tells her to quit trying to be his partner, that she's too young and she'll get hurt, and... Stop me if you're heard this all before. You have? This is one of the most clichéd stories in super-herodom, and just because Winick & Hester do a decent job of telling it doesn't make it any less clichéd. Plus: it wouldn't be a non-code DC comic these days without a rape in a character's past, would it?
Rating: 2 (of 5)


Gotham Central #23
by Greg Rucka, Michael Lark & Stefano Gaudiano
Rucka starts off a new arc, "Corrigan," with the return of two of my favorite detectives: Allen & Montoya. They stumble across a nasty bit of gang activity and get involved in a shooting. In most comics that would be the end of it, but with Gotham Central you know it's just the beginning. I'm very curious as to what's up with Corrigan and how he might be related to The Spectre's old alter ego. Oh yes, the gang war appears to be related somehow to the umpty-million part crossover in the Bat-titles, but guess what? It doesn't matter--you can actually enjoy this and not have a clue as to the whole "War Games" thing.
Rating: 4 (of 5)

Super Powerless

Those of you with long enough memories may recall the Super Powers line of DC Super-Hero action figures manufactured by Kenner in the early- to mid-80's. They features prominant heroes and villains of the DCU in typical 9-point articulated figures. There was also a Super Powers television show as well as three Super Powers comic mini-series, the first two of which involved the legendary Jack Kirby.

There were three waves of Super Powers figures in all, but Toy Otter has the lowdown on a missing fourth wave of action figures that was planned but never went into production. It would have featured such characters as Blue Devil, The Creeper, Black Vulcan, Bizarro, Reverse Flash, John Stewart, Atomic Knight, Vigilante, Mister Mxyzptlk, Man-Bat, and many others.

I never collected Super Powers figures--by the mid-80's I felt I was 'too old' for such toys, plus as a teenager money was tight and if I was going to keep buying comic books I couldn't afford action figures even if I wanted. Of course, today I think they're pretty cool and would love to have at least a few of them to decorate the office. Hmmm, I wonder what's available on eBay...

(Thanks to Chris Karath's Blog for the link.)

Quick Reviews

Nightwing; Knights of the Dinner Table; Patty Cake and Friends; Tomb Raider

Nightwing #97
by Devin Grayson, Mike Lilly & Andy Owens
The title of this chapter of "War Games" is "Clarification," which is ironic since this issue is anything but clear. Rather than presenting any sort of narrative, it's just a set of scenes strung together with no coherence at all. Many of these individual scenes are well-written, but there's no context and no explainations; for example, who is the guy in the dorky purple costume on page 6? Perhaps he's shown up in other Bat-titles before, but he's never been in Nightwing, so one would think that a caption or two would be in order. This is a perfect example of what not to due for a chapter of a huge cross-title crossover.
Rating: 2 (of 5)


Knights of the Dinner Table #95
by Jolly Blackburn
After what seems like an eternity, the long-running saga of Tremble and the Doomsday Pack finally comes to a close. In other words, this is not a good place for new readers to come in. The end comes at halfway through the issue, leaving Jolly to start off the telling of the next campaign. It wold have been wiser, I think, to throw in a couple of non-related strips instead, thus leaving the start of the new campaign to the next issue, which could have been a good jump-on point. As usual, the art is primative, but if you've ever been around a gaming table, this will be a fun read.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)


Patty Cake and Friends #12
by Scott Roberts with Raina Telgemeier
Keith, José and Irving invite Patty Cake to spend a day in the woods. What could possibly go wrong? A fun story, though a little of Keith goes a long way, and I actually prefer the stories that have the kids interacting with the adults. The two page strip drawn by Telgemeier seems odd; it's well-drawn, but the style seems totally wrong for characters so long associated with Roberts' style. What makes this issue is the strip on the last page, a loving tribute to the 50's-era Peanuts Sundays.
Rating: 3 (of 5)


Tomb Raider #38-39
by James Bonny, Wilson Tortosa & Jonathan Sibal
These are the last of the Tomb Raiders from the quarter box, and at least the plot is different from the previous six issues (not better, mind you, but different). Next to living in Cabot Cove, being an old friend of Lara Croft must be one of the most dangerous positions to be in on the planet. Bonny sure knows how to give Tomb Raider fans what they want, including a shower scene, a ripped shirt, and lingerie for Tortosa to draw.
Rating: 2 (of 5)

Fall TV Preview: Sunday

New Show of Note: Jack and Bobby (WB, 9pm Eastern) debuts tonight. I was totally going to skip this show, about two bothers who have a future life in politics, as it looked just too damn precious. Even through all the good reviews, I figured it couldn't possibly be as good as all that. But now that Newsarama has revealed that Brad Meltzer, currently pissing off comic fans in Identity Crisis, was one of the creators, the scales have been tipped and I'm curious enough to TiVo the first episode to see if it really is all that.

Comics Connection: Yeah, there's always The Simpsons (FOX, 8pm), but besides Brad Meltzer and Jack and Bobby we've also got Lois Lane herself, Terri Hatcher, in the new ABC drama Desperate Housewives (9pm). I was planning on giving this a shot when Sheryl Lee was cast as the dead woman, but since they've dumped her and recast the part that pretty much dampens my interest.

Also: I've still got about 11 episodes of Arrested Development (FOX, 8:30pm) on tape to watch from last season, but since it doesn't start up again until November I should be okay. The only worry is that FOX's football games have a tendancy to mess up their Sunday night schedule, and the TiVo doesn't pick up well on that sort of thing. I'll watch Boston Legal (ABC, 10pm) to enjoy William Shatner's scene chewing, until like all David E. Kelly shows it becomes too damn annoying and I give up in disgust.

Around the Horn

What's been talked about in the comics Blogosphere in the past week:

Grim picks up on Bendis Backlash in Rampage.

Steve returns from a two-plus week absence, only to announce that he's going away again.

Tim questions what's been done with Steve Ditko's The Question in The Hurting. Personally, I think that a Question series where the character was played to his roots would be a fascinating read, precisely because I tend to disagree with much of the Objectivist philosophy. But then, I'm the sort that can read something that comes from an opposite position and learn something about myself because of it.

Shane investigates Warlock's Greg Pak in Near Mint Heroes.

Jon gets medieval on bandwidth thieves' a$$es in Mae Mai.

Christopher goes through blog withdrawl when Blogger posting goes phhft for a day or so.

Mike looks at Superman and how things have or have not changed with the character's status quo over the years in Progressive Ruin.

Ron, from his Fortress of Soliloquies, looks at an early post-crisis Superman/Batman story and finds that it doens't hold up as well as he'd thought it would.

Kerry, The Comic Queen, discoveres Rob Ullman.

Dorian discovers The Watcher's ecumenical religious roots in the land of postmodernbarney.

Matt, out on Highway 62, worries about the upcoming Sin City film.

Peter learns that, yes, Stan Lee can go lower than Stripperella.

Bookslut Jessa rips holier-than-thou graphic novel reviewers like Jeff Danziger a new one. It's one of the best posts I read all week.

Casey, in The Only Blog That Matters, starts up a blog-meme for Brilliant but Cancelled comics (or is it Shane in Near Mint Heroes?). ADD and Chris pick up on it. I'll have my own list soon...

David, our Prococious Curmudgeon, commits manga heresy by admiting he doesn't care that much for Nausicaä.

And finally, Larry Young writes another column about bloggers. Once again I'm ignored, apparently because I didn't email him about being ignored the first time. Squeeky wheel gets the grease and all that, right?

Quick Reviews

Ultimate X-Men; JSA; The Pulse; Powers

Ultimate X-Men #51
by Brian K. Vaughan, Andy Kubert, Danny Miki & John Dell
Vaughan continues to move the plot along, pausing for some character moments (at this point, hasn't Storm snogged just about every guy on the team?), and Kubert of course draws some great action sequences. The Von Struckers' plans for economic dominance is an interesting approach, but then why do they have to go to the huge cliché of kidnapping Rogue to convince her to join them? This is good, solid, straight down the middle super-hero comics, although we know that Vaughan is capable of more.
Rating: 3 (of 5)


JSA #65
by Geoff Johns, Don Kramer & Keith Champagne
What a find Don Kramer was--he came out of nowhere to do the Dr. Fate mini and then thankfully moved on to the main JSA title. I must admit, I was totally geeked by the one-panel appearance of Per Degaton, one of my all-time favorite time-traveling villains. True, there's a lot of backstory involved that may leave newer readers scratching their heads, but frankly I'm glad that there's still room in the marketplace for a continuity-heavy title like this for long-time fans such as myself.
Rating: 3 (of 5)


The Pulse #5
by Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley & Scott Hanna
Had this arc not ended in the way that it inevitably does, I would have been disappointed. It's about time, don't you think? The series started a bit slow, but like a good thriller picked up speed and we get slam-bam action that doesn't seem the least bit gratuitous. And Bendis's take on J. Jonah Jameson as a hard-nosed newspaper man is just about spot-on perfect. The Pulse just might be the best book that Bendis is currently writing.
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)


Powers #4
by Brian Michael Bendis & Michael Avon Oeming
Like Morrison & Quitely, Bendis & Oeming are masters of sequential art pacing. The first scene with Deena in the basement is dripping with tension, and the scene with Waker searching the appartment is also well done. The interlude inthe supermarket was amusing, I just hope that it ties-in to the story at some point. I'd remiss if I didn't mention the colors by Peter Pantazis, who demonstrates an expert ability to do bright and shiny as well as dim & gritty.
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)

Fall TV Preview: Saturday

New Show of Note: The Batman (WB, 10:30am Eastern) is the new animated cartoon, which is separate from the old Paul Dini/Bruce Timm Batman and promises to focus on Batman's early years. Actually I'm prejudiced against this, as its mere existance has caused the cancellation of DC's Batman Adventures comic, which was easily the best Batman comic they've been publishing for years (Ty Templeton is The Man!) But even so I'll give it a shot.

Comics Connection: in addition, Saturday also gives us Justice League Unlimited (Cartoon, 8:30pm), a third season reworking of the JL toon which features shorter stories and gets to play with nearly the entire pantheon of the DC Universe. I never really warmed to the Justice League toon before, but I've really been sucked-in by the revamp.

Also: Amazing Race (CBS, 8pm) is relocated from its successful run on Tuesday nights in the summer to the wasteland of Saturday. This is the best 'reality' show on television, and the only one I watch. In fact, I'm downright obsessed with it. I do wish they wouldn't always compress the contestants so much after each round and make finishing order more important, but I understand that this needs to be done in order to heighten the drama and move Phil around, and they need to bring back the Fast Forward for every round. (See, told you I was obsessed!)

Fall TV Preview: Friday

New Show of Note: Medical Investigation (NBC, 10pm Eastern). I usually enjoy thse kinds of public health crisis stories, but I really don't see how they'll manage to stretch the premise out into a series. It actually premiered last night, but I TiVoed it and watched the season premiere of Monday Night Football instead (yes, on Thursday...) But certainly it will be ten times better than the ill-conceived Rob Lowe vehicle, dr. vegas (CBS, 10pm).

Comics Connection: Isn't it strange how no one is doing a Star Trek comic these days? I guess that points to the low point in the popularity of both Star Trek and comic books. But hell, crap like Thundercats and Transformers are licensed out. Anyway, outside of Trek novels, your only choice for new Star Trek is in Star Trek: Enterprise (UPN, 8pm). I thought that the third season was much better than the first two, and even got downright suspenseful at the end, though there is still room for improvement. Word has it that Enterprise will focus on short story arcs of two or three episodes this season, and they'll be working on tying it more closely to greater trek mythology (which will drive my friend Bill nuts!) Avatar is doing Stargate SG-1 comics, and both Stargate SG-1 (SciFi, 9pm) and Stargate Atlantis (SciFi, 10pm) started their seasons last month and continue with new episodes in September and November. I gave up on Stargate SG-1 way back in season 1, but so far I've enjoyed Stargate Atlantis--it's the Deep Space Nine of Stargate.

Also: Joan of Arcadia (CBS, 8pm), last season's best new show, returns. If you're looking for a spiritually tinged show that doesn't hurt your teeth, this is the show for you. It should be obvious: good actors & good writing = good television.

Quick Reviews

JLA; Action Comics; Teen Titans; Outsiders

JLA #105
by Chuck Austen & Ron Garney
Oh wow. For a minute there, I actually thought that Austen might have something to say with this penultimate issue of "The Pain of the Gods." After a way too long and pointless fight scene with Wonder Woman and an unknown villainess (it takes up half of the comic), WW defeats her foe, then breaks down and cries. I thought that we might get an examination of the pointlessness of the fight, how Diana feels empathy for her foe, or how we use violence as entertainment. But no, Wonder Woman was crying because she had been afraid that she was going to die. Excuse me? Diana is a warrior--she goes into every combat knowing that death is a possible outcome, and has faced death many times before. This issue was even more infuriating than the previous four, due to the opportunity wasted.
Rating: 1.5 (of 5)


Action Comics #819
by Chuck Austen, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Marc Campos & Jon Sibal
I'm not even going to review this. I'm still too pissed off about JLA.
Rating: 2 (of 5)


Teen Titans #15
by Geoff Johns, Tom Grummett & Lary Stucker
Johns wraps up his three-part rectifying of Beast Boy's origins, after John Byrne's dismantling of any possible Doom Patrol roots. Which after being one of the people who successfully rescued Hawkman from retcon purgatory must have seemed downright easy. The only character to suffer as bad as Hawkman in post-Crisis chaos was Donna Troy, and glory be she makes a brief one-panel cameo, hopefully setting the stage for an upcoming Troia mini by Phil Jimenez. Johns also sets several other subplots in motion ina manner that would make Paul Levitz proud, and even includes a gratuitous page one cameo from Aquaman. Tom Grummett began he career many years ago by penciling over George Perez's layouts on The Titans, so he's always a welcome fill-in on any Titans project. Plus, this comic has giant purple & green dinosaurs duking it out--what more could a super-hero fan want in a 22-page comic?
Rating: 3 (of 5)


Outsiders #15
by Judd Winick & Tom Raney
Boy, the art in this issue sure was muddy. The colors are too dark--this is a super-hero slugfest, not a moody Vertigo book! It is pretty much wall-to-wall fight scene, and even includes the good ol' cliché of a shot to the gonads. And where exactly did pseudo-Metamorpho's parachute and goggles suddenly appear from? But I have a soft spot for the Fearsome Five (and thanks to Winick for resiting the temptation to spread this story out over five issues!) and it's good to see Dr. Sivana taking on an evil mastermind role in the DCU.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)

Fall TV Preview: Thursday

New Show of Note: Joey (NBC, 8pm Eastern), the spin-off from Friends. The big question coming into this season was whether Joey was going to be another Frasier or another AfterMASH. I just got through watching the first episode, and I'm happy to report that it looks more like it'll be more like the former. With so few 'comedies' that are actually funny, Joey bucks the trend at looks to be worth several good laughs. It remains to be seen if Matt LeBlanc can carry a whole season on his own, but bringing in Drea de Matteo as his sister is a good start.

Comics Connection: CSI: Crime Scene Inverstigation (CBS, 9pm) seems to be a moderately successful comic license for IDW. It's entering its fifth season and shows no signs of slowing down.

Also: Will & Grace (NBC, 8:30pm) returns, and even though the last season faltered a bit it'll remain one of the few sitcoms left that I care to watch. er (NBC, 10pm) is still going, even though I gave up on it a couple of seasons ago. I've also decided to give up on Without a Trace; even though I kind of like it, I still have eleven episodes from last season on tape that I haven't watched, which tells me that it's not a priority. Maybe I'll catch it in reruns. I still have yet to watch a single minute of Survivor (CBS, 8pm), and this season won't see a change in that policy.

Like Living on Earth 2

Everything seems just slightly wrong this week. Mainly this is due to my computer being in the shop, getting the motherboard replaced (the ethernet connection went bad and wasn't working when I got back Monday evening). I've got the iBook from work here at home, hooked up to my monitor and keyboard, but it's just not the same as my computer with my files and my iTunes etc. I may get it back tomorrow if the parts arrive, otherwise it'll be all weekend without my G4.

Plus, this is a Thursday comics week, so Wednesday came and went without any new comics. I stopped by my LCS today and got the new batch, but now since my computer is in the shop I can't enter the comics into my database and file them into the To Be Read Box (remember, I'm an anal-retentive librarian!) like normal.

At work, it's the start of the new semester, and we've decided to reconfigure the reference desk schedule so all of the reference shifts are at odd times. It all just feels wrong.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go read The Daily Star.

Quick Reviews

Tomb Raider; Sylvia Faust; 100 Girls; The Ghouly Boys

Tomb Raider #33-37
by James Bonny, Tony Daniel & Jonathan Sibal with Adam Hughes & Romano Molenaar
These issues, which I got from the quarter bin at the local comics shop, contain two three-issue stories. In "Angel of Darkness," Lara Croft teams up with a hunky adventurer to keep a mystic artefact from falling into the hands of the bad guy. In "The Black Legion," Lara Croft, um, teams up with a hunky adventurer to keep a mystic artefact from falling into the hands of the bad guy. Of course, in the first story she's traipsing across Europe, while the second is set in the Old West. But let's face it: Tomb Raider is basically the same story over and over. Heck, even video gamers tired of her exploits, which is saying something. Now, when you're looking for an artist to draw attractive yet oddly proportioned women, Tony Daniel is your guy. Especially if you want butt shots; Tony really likes drawing butt shots. That's what Tomb Raider is really about; well, that and cleavage. In the first issue, there's a three page sequence of all splash pages wherein Lara undresses. That really tells you all you need to know.
Rating: 2 (of 5)


Sylvia Faust #1
by Jason Henderson & Greg Scott
In a plot that could have come straight out of any number of shojo manga, Sylvia Faust is a princess from a magical realm who has journeyed to our world in order to escape a marriage to an evil prince. Scott previously did fill-in art for Gotham Central which I found lacking, but then just about anyone would following Michael Lark. Although still rough in places, he has improved with his work here, and his thick line works well with Leslie Ann Barkley's colors.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)


100 Girls #1
by Adam Gallardo & Todd Demong
Thirteen-year-old Sylvia is smart enough to have skipped two grades and has mad athletic skills, her parents don't understand her, and she doesn't fit in at school. She also manifests super strength, which must explain why a secret organization--which refers to her as #97--is keeping tabs on her, and has nearly 100 identical girls stored away in cloning vats. Demong's art is interesting, clean yet stylistically a bit ugly, and thankfully steers clear of turning this into yet another teenage T&A book. I'm interested enough to stick around for at least a couple more issues to see where this goes.
Rating: 3 (of 5)


The Gouly Boys #1
by Christopher
The story of a dead boy whose spirit has been poured into body made from a burlap sack, and his best friend--an overweight bat. It's meant to be goth, but it's a bit too sweet and affectionate, and lacks the wry humor of a book like Lenore. the singularly-named Christopher is talented in both art and storytelling, but this book just doesn't hook me.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)

I Wonder if The Mysterians Will Make an Appearance?

I was going to take a pass on DC's new series of The Question, as I haven't really cared for much of anything that Rick Veitch has written since Brat Pack and Maximortal. But darn if the preview art with The Pulse's interview with Tommy Lee Edwards isn't just fantastic. Especially that splash page--wow! I'm afraid I'll have to plunk down my hard-earned $2.95 for the first issue to see if the story lives up to the art. (Thanks to Thought Balloons for the link.)

Fall TV Preview: Wednesday

Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide are both out with their Fall Preview issues this week. So since I'm almost as big of a tube junkie as a comics junkie, I'll take a post each day for the next week to go over the new season. In the interests of keeping this a comics-blog, I'll try to make at least a tenuous connection to comics for each post.

New Show of Note: Lost (ABC, 8pm Eastern), the new show from Alias creator (and one-time proposed Superman director) J. J. Abrams, has a premise that in lesser hands would be a bad movie of the week: passengers of an airline are marooned on an island. But I have faith in Abrams, and Lost has been getting very good buzz. Plus: Daniel Dae Kim is in the cast, and he's almost always good.

Comics Connection: Smallville (WB, 8pm) of course. While last season stumbled several times, the season ended with a bang. They need to do something with Lana/Clark, because another season of "I like you but can never be with you" will drive me nuts.

Also: I really want to care about CSI: NY (CBS, 10pm) because I like Gary Sinese, but CSI: Miami was a dog and we already have enough cop shows set in New York. So I'll be sticking with good ol' Law & Order (NBC, 10pm), especiialy with ultra-cool Dennis Farina joining the cast. At 9pm, I'll probably stick with West Wing (NBC), even though Kevin Hill (UPN) with Taye Diggs as a reluctant dad looks like it could be good. I've already seen the pilot for Hawaii (NBC, 8pm) and though it's not set in New York, it still felt like just another cop show, and my TiVo and VCR are already busy at 8pm.

DC Timeline

Bob Hughes is putting together a remarkable timeline of DC Publishing history. It's not yet complete, but it's already worth a look.

It's not just a list of facts--there's plenty of fun snark, such as this entry from February 1993: "Green Arrow: The Wonder Year- Mike Grell screws up Green Arrow chronlogy and makes Ollie even shallower than usual. 4 issues."

You'll learn stuff too. For example, I only vaguely recall that Sarah Byam and Trevor Von Eeden did a short-lived Black Canary series.

(Thanks to Tony's Tips for the link.)

Quick GN Reviews

Blue Inferior; Princess Ai

Blue Inferior, vol. 1
by Ktoko Shitou
In a future world ravaged by environmental pollution, humanity survives in isolated pockets along the coast that have been spared. Kazuya, a 14-year-old boy orphaned when his parents never returned from an expidition to the world outside, finds a mysterious amnesiatic girl laying unconscious on the beach. Where did she come from, and did she arrive by accident? This is manga, Sparky--what makes you think any of these questions are going ot be asked in the first 200 pages? Shitou's story is part adevnture and part romance, and his art style is a cross between Rumiko Takahashi & Clamp. Will be worth continuing, as long as the story doesn't start to drag.
Rating: 3 (of 5)



Princess Ai, vol. 1: Destitution
by Misaho Kujiradou & D. J. Milky
Let's see: Girl from a fantastical other dimension comes to Earth? Check. Said girl falls for attractive, sensitive, probably-not-gay musician? Check. Girl takes job where she deals with the jealousy of coworker? Check. Girl maintains internal monologue about how lonely she is? Yup. All the shojo tropes are here in this American/Japanese hybrid manga "created by" D. J. Milky & Courtney Love. I was mainly interested in Princess Ai due to the involvement of Ai Yazawa, creator of the fabulous-looking Paradise Kiss. While Yazawa's designs are in evidence, the art by Kujiradou is competent but not exciting. It's not bad, but there are plenty of other volumes of manga available that are more deserving of your $9.99.
Rating: 2 (of 5)

Quick Reviews

Hawkman; Astro City Special; The 3 Geeks Swimsuit

Hawkman #31
by Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, Ryan Sook & Mick Gray
Never have so many good creators been put on a title that they're unsuited for. Gray & Palmiotti have written some good comics before, notably 21 Down, and Ryan Sook is a talented stylized artist as well. But super-heroes really aren't Gray & Palmiotti's forte, and Sook belongs on a book like The Spectre or a gothic horror title. So while the story is okay, it feels a bit inadequate. It doesn't help that "Fate's Warning" was stretched out at least an issue too long, and ends with a long stretch of exposition. The Atom shows up next issue, so I'll stick around for that, but my days with Hawkman may be numbered.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



Astro City Special #1
by Kurt Busiek & Brent E. Anderson
This look at the last mission of a retired super-hero has its moments, but it won't go down as one of the great Astro City stories either. Anderson turns in a couple of great two-page spreads--a benefit of the longer page count--and the flashback splash pages are effective as well. But the action bits are disorienting and hard to follow, although given the story I suppose that might have been intentional from Busiek & Anderson. So, a good tale from Astro City, but we've come to expect better.
Rating: 3 (of 5)



The 3 Geeks 48 Page Super-Sized Swimsuit Spectacular!
by Rich Koslowski with Adam Wallenta & Craig Boldman
Four stories (and a few short bonus features and pin-ups) make fun of the concept of comic-book swimsuit issues and the fanboys who drool over them. (A sentiment sure to be appreciated by TangognaT and John.) The first story manages to be a bit clever, but the rest are merely obvious.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)

Around the Horn

What's been said in the comics blogosphere this week.

In the Fortress of Soliliquies, Ron Freeman calls me out for my comments on Azzarello's Superman. I say it's intentionally bad, while Ron feels that Azzarello's reach has simply exceeded his grasp so far. We've scheduled the duel for March 2005.

Everybody links to Larry Young's article about comic blogging. I go unmentioned, but then I've only been at this for a couple of weeks. Just include me in your next batch of swag, Larry, and all will be forgiven!

Johanna is running a contest with copies of Fallen Angel as the prize.

At Postmodern Barney, Dorian doesn't hate kids, he just hates the parents.

Jon Silpayamanant reminds us about horrifying things such as Supermodels in the Rainforest and It's a Bird... It's a Plane.... He also takes a look at some soft porn comics of the early 90's.

Shane Bailey begins a look at underapreciated comics with a look at DC's short-lived Chase.

ChaosMonkey Mark Hale worries about Joe Casey's robot fixation.

Finally, John Jakala at Grotesque Anatomy calls it quits. We join in the weeping and gnashing of teeth at seeing another fine blogger take his bow.

Borders GN Sale

I stopped by Borders on my way home from work today, and discovered that they're running a sale on all manga and graphic novels: Buy 3, get the 4th Free. The sale apparently runs through September 26.

Super Dumb

TVShowsOnDVD.com reports that the DVD release of Superman: The Animated Series Volume 1 has been pushed back from December 7 to January 25th. Because why on earth would they want to release something like this in time for the holiday shopping season? Then people might actually buy it as a gift for someone, and we can't have that!

Professor Gloeckner

I learned yesterday from our Art & Design librarian that one of the new faculty members at our School of Art & Design is none other than Phoebe Gloeckner. As an assistant professor, one of the courses she'll be teaching is on comics. How cool is that?

I've been meaning to get to reading some of her work, so now I have a good excuse. I've checked out A Child's Life and Other Stories and I'll try to get to it soon.

As far as I know, Prof. Gloeckner is one of only two cartoonists with a PhD--the other being Jay Hosler of course. Are there any others?

Quick Reviews

Ultimate Spider-Man; Captain America and the Falcon; Uncanny X-Men; Firestorm; Swamp Thing; Majestic


Ultimate Spider-Man #65
by Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley & Scott Hanna
It's the aftermath of "Carnage," as the kids get stuck in detention and sit around trying to sort out their feelings about Gwen's death. Or rather Mary Jane tries to get everyone to talk, but the others are having no part of it. It's a good denoument, but I'm still a bit bitter over the wasteful death of Gwen. Plus, we've seen the whole 'I quit being Spider-Man' too many times (seems to me there was a movie a couple of months ago...)
Rating: 3 (of 5)



Captain America and the Falcon #7
by Priest, Joe Bennett & Jack Jadson
By the end of the issue I was feeling a bit better about the situation that Cap was in in the begining. But at this point I'm feeling like the whole "Disassembled" thing (or, as the cover says, "Sassembled") isn't going to equal the sum of its parts, and each part individually feels like it's only part of the story. On the plus side, Bennett's art is some of the best I've ever seen from him (making up for the earlier work by Sears), although he needs to get over the nausea-inducing camera angles.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



Uncanny X-Men #448
by Chris Claremont, Olivier Coipel & Scott Hanna
Dispite what you may gather from the cover, Wolverine is hardly in this issue at all (but hey, we've given up on Marvel's covers having anything to do with the interiors long ago). It starts off strong with a hint of a mystery about what's going on with Braddock Mannor and a fun bit with the X-Men getting ready to attend a royal ball. But then it veers into a nonsensical trip to Murderworld (yawn). Coipel's art is more polished than ever, though I must admit I miss a bit the energy that his earlier, rougher Legion work had. Still, if they end up swapping art chores between Coipel & Davis, it'll be a fine-looking X-Men book.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



Firestorm #5
by Dan Jolley, ChrisCross, Rob Stull & Keith Champagne
Although this is a part 2 of 2, there's enough of a story here that it'll seem self-contained. There's plenty of super-powered heroics, but I'd like to see more of Jason's home/personal life too. This book hasn't quite yet gelled for me. But it's getting there. It's right on the cusp, and I'm willing to give it a couple more months--but then there's a crossover with a title I don't read, which may be a good excuse to get out...
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



Swamp Thing #7
by Will Pfeifer & Richard Corben
Richard Corben. Huh. Corben is capable of good and interesting work, although he tend sto have problems with consistancy, especially when it comes to rendering pre-existing characters. But his monsters always look fantastic, so for a book featuring a Yeti and Swamp Thing, he works out pretty good. I especially like the splash page where Swampy rises to appear befor ethe cryptozoologist. Swamp Thing is one of those characters who often works better as a secondary character to other stories, when he serves as a catalyst instead of the protagonist. When you look at successful Swamp Thing runs--namely those of Alan Moore, Rick Veitch, and Mark Millar--you see that those authors understood that. Pfeifer does too, which means that this guest stint, while it won't go down as one of the great Swamp Thing stories, should be enjoyable.
Rating: 3 (of 5)



Majestic #2
by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, & Karl Kerschl
Majestros continues his exploration of the DC Earth, taking on a secret identity to better understand humans. This is the best Superman book currently being published--too bad its just a four issue mini. DC could do far worse than putting this team on one of the main Superman books. (One point of nitpicking: a school librarian most likely has a bachelor's degree of some sort, a master's degree in library science, and a teaching certificate--no way she'd be going to night school to be a nurse, working towards an entry level nursing position.)
Rating: 3 (of 5)

Marvel Ads

For some reason, I'm highly amused by several of the ads in this month's Marvels:

The Captain America Halloween Costume. Coming as it did in the middle of Captain America and the Falcon, it just looked down-right creepy.

Spider-Man Socktop Slippers. I'm trying to imagine some kid reading this and saying: "Mom, we've got to get to K-Mart right now so I can get some Spider-Man slippers!" Isn't going to happen. Slippers like these are something that Mom gets for the kid when she sees them on an endcap while walking through the store.

Spider-Man & X-Men checks. Because nothing says 'Geek!' louder than paying your gas bill with a check that has Wolverine on it. Actually these are the Ultimate versions of Spidey & the X-Men, so I suppose you can only use them if you have an Ultimate checking account.

There's a Spider-Man action figure with "67 Points of Articulation!" I wonder if you can get him to pose in one of those anatomically impossible Todd McFarlane poses?

The Scooby Doo 2 DVD ad is a two-page spread. Is any kid going to be better persuaded by an ad that stretches over two pages instead of just one?

This fall, ABC Family channel has a cartoon called Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! That's just a great title. It has the voices of Wil Wheaton and Cory Feldman!

(Different comics have different ads, so your comics may not have all of these.)