Random Thoughts- Beware the ides of March.
Everyone has those thoughts that are never spoken - Mal Jones writes his down.

…Beware the ides of March…

WHY I HATE ALEX ROSS' ART

I'm walking around my local comic store (Closet of Comics…I'm all about the plugs lately) and I notice copies of Superman: Peace on Earth and Batman: War on Crime sitting on the shelves. Lots of copies.

Now I began to wonder why these books were such a big deal when they first came out, why are there so many copies around…then I realize a possibility. People just might not like Alex Ross' art. Then I realized something else. I don't like Alex Ross' art.

Now don't get me wrong, he has fantastic technique, good usage of color theory, nice figure work…but something is just wrong with it, at least in a sequential form. He has no energy in his work. I mean all I see is static panels, static forms…just drawn very very well.

Energy needs to flow out of comic artwork. Each panel represents a piece of time, a piece of motion…and what is motion but energy? I'm flipping through Kingdom Come right now, and his best panels are the large fight scenes…but even then, everyone is so posed…so perfect. Ugh.

Wow, I'm actually putting this art education to work. My teachers would be so proud.

ALREDY OUT OF STEAM, YA PUNK

I checked out the new Cliffhanger book Steampunk this week. Ok, basically...hmm…what the hell??? Did Comicraft decide to take any decent font they have and throw it a blender to see what came out? Did Chris Bachalo decide to forget how to tell a story? What is wrong with Joe Kelly's accent-writing ability?

I've been looking forward to this book for a while, since one of my favorite artists and favorite writers and favorite coloring teams are on it…and was hopelessly let down. Panels made no sense, fonts hurt my head, and sometimes I was wondering what the hell people were saying. This is all besides the fact that the comic came AFTER they thought it up as a video game…

I really don't know what else to say. Ugh.

Disappointment sucks.

A LIGHT AT THE END OF TUNNEL

Just to prove that I'm not always pessimistic and cynical, I present the Mal-Jones-is-not- always-a-bastard moment of the month!

Mark Millar and Frank Quietly take over the Authority next month. Halleluiah, Quietly art will be available on a monthly basis. I loved his work in JLA:Earth 2 and his pages in Transmet (I dare say, I liked his work better then Darick's recent work…although that quickly changed with the latest issue. Darick was back in fine form).

So, for all you people out there saying "Oh No…Ellis isn't writing it, Hitch isn't drawing it…I'm not going to by it…" Forget that…buy the book. Now. Well not now, but you know what I mean.

If we always stopped buying books because of creator changes then most of the books you buy now probably wouldn't be around…think about it.

I mean having Apollo and Midnighter kiss in the background (meaning in a quiet setting) has allowed the Authority to make the news in the Sunday Times. No offense to Warren or anything, but he wasn't even able to pull that off.

--

I'm done, see you next month.

Mal Jones
From the surprisingly sunny land of Maryland, USA
02.27.00

Mal Jones is a regular contributor to PopImage.

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