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FIRST IMPRESSIONS Welcome. Yes, we're here and hope you and yours are doing fine
during this extremely difficult time. Art Spiegleman was disappointed with DC's Archive reprints of PLASTIC
MAN - finding them too muddy and expensive - so he put out his
own book. This is actually a reprinting of his New Yorker article
from a couple of years ago and, honestly, it's a stunning book.
Reflecting Spiegleman's sense of composition more than Cole's -
the book contorts and twists - mixing media: old newsprint, collage,
various typefaces. It's the most excessive design Spiegleman's
done since his oversized RAW days. The article itself is
a loving tribute to Cole - chronicling his life from country boy
roots to creating PLASTIC MAN and TRUE CRIME for the
Eisner/Iger studio, his almost unnoticed work for "Playboy" and
his suicide. Not intended as biography, but as good as it gets for
the moment. And reasonably priced! Until they come up with an actual
coffee table that looks like Plas, you'll have to settle for this.
(AB) ALTER EGO #9 DAN & LARRY Collecting the story serialized in DARK HORSE COMIC'S PRESENTS
Dan is a 12-year old, hormonely-crazed, adolescent duck and Larry
is his best friend and mentor, a 26-year-old giant, sweaty, brain
atop a wood-burning stove body (I think). The undercurrent is Dan's
muddled reactions as Larry takes advantage of him with sexual overtures.
I've always enjoyed Cooper's work but here his cartooning is simply
brilliant. Cooper creates a "surreal mixture of dreams and memories"
- a world with hints of Woodring, Crumb and Chester Brown. While
the mix of such an intensely personal narrative with a surreal,
cartoony setting isn't 100% successful, the book remains mesmerizing.(AB)
FLASH: IRON HEIGHTS Poor Wally West. Nice, light adventures. Fun rogues.
And then this comes along. Yeuch. Hailed as THE
FLASH's equivalent of Batman's THE KILLING JOKE
I found the book tedious and disappointing. Yes, the art was nice
in a Bolland kind of way - but did we need a Flash version
of KJ? (AB) MAGIC
PICKLE #1 (of 4) Scott Morse
is a national treasure. No,
make that an international treasure.
Anyone who needed cheering up last Wednesday (So nearly every
single person on earth) need have only turned to Morse’s brand new
book, MAGIC PICKLE, for a few minutes of much-needed laughter
and diversion. Morse has garnered praise on books of
a more “serious” nature like VOLCANIC REVOLVER
and SOULWIND.
Here, he turns his unique style toward satirizing the super-hero
genre, in the form of a cryogenically-frozen (In a refrigerated
pickle jar, of course) super-soldier pickle who has returned to
life to fight the foes of evil produce in our times.
He’s aided by an adorable little girl with footsie pajamas.
The two are already one of the funniest comic duos around. This book is hilariously written and perfectly
drawn by Morse. This
mini-series is slated for four issues.
I hope it continues on past that for a long time to come.
(MS) THE
ESTABLISHMENT has been labelled yet another spin-off of
THE AUTHORITY, but it really doesn’t feel that
way. Although the characters inhabit the same universe, this feels
like it’s own book. Edginton writes mysterious characters in a way
that you get that there is history, but with out all the vague hinting
around. Don’t get me wrong; It isn’t hand fed to you by any means,
but instead all the plot elements flow out at a regular pace keeping
you interested. Adlard does a fantastic job as usual. He’s a fine
story-teller with a great sense of pacing and a real eye for tight,
managable layouts. I’m curious to see where all this ends up, so,
for the time being, I’m going along for the ride. (BD)
The good news
is that this latest AUTHORITY spin-off is a stronger
work in every way than the last AUTHORITY spin-off,
THE MONARCHY. The bad news is it really isn't that much better, and THE MONARCHY
had a heck of a lot of faults. Basically, the set-up is just a little
too… well, irrelevant is the wrong word, but there you go. There's
the beginnings of a really interesting story here, but after MONARCHY
you'd think that Wildstorm would have learned to get people into
the story a little quicker. I mean, we've got some interesting bits
about 60's gangsters, a kid living in a suitcase, and some Daemonites
doing something mysterious. Yes, I've get it, but I want to be engaged
too. And I'm not. Maybe it's down to personal preference, who can
say? But there's a very telling advertisement in ESTABLISHMENT
#1, the cover of the first Monarchy trade paperback. On
it, we have a picture of a character called Condition Red, who's
a member of the team but never actually appears in the trade paperback
collection. There's your warning. At any rate, Charlie Adlard turns
in some great artwork, the colouring is above average and all-in-all
it's a decent read. But it isn't going to set anyone's world on
fire, and to be successful in today's market that's really what
you've got to do. Good luck. (CB) The third book
in Marvel's new mature line, WAR MACHINE continues
the trend of the stories being largely mediocre. I'll give it a
lot of credit for trying and succeeding and new things. The majority
of the computer generated graphics, the style, the storytelling,
it all really works. But there are equally as many problems, like
the lettering, the human faces, and quite a bit of the greyscale
tones in the book are really amateurish. In short, it's just an
unpolished work that should have had a much stronger editorial hand.
Wait for the trade if you've got to own it. (CB) HICKSVILLE
is one of my faves so I was really looking forward to ATLAS:
the new thousand page book from Dylan Horrocks, and sadly came away
unimpressed. Although the premiere issue does a good job of setting
the tone for things to come, the issue in itself doesn't stand up.
This 100 page issue sees Dylan Horrocks kidnapped and being interrogated
in Cornucopia. It does a great job of creating interest for things
to come, but the characterization is horrid. Here you have Dylan
being kidnapped, interrogated and even threatened with death but
he handles the situation like a pro. He's not freaking out. He's
not trying to deal his way out of a hard situation. He just sits
calmly in conversation with his interrogators. It's a large part
of the story but just isn't believable. That and the paper quality
is pretty poor, it's akin to the sort of sketching paper you might
use for charcoal life drawings. Each
issue of ATLAS will also feature a guest artist's take on
the town and characters of HICKSVILLE - this issue featured
James Kochalka. Although cartoonish and considerably not everyone's
cup of tea, it does a good job of nodding to HICKSVILLE.I'm
going to keep on for a few more issues of the series to see where
it leads, but I may just wait for the collected version. Time will
tell. (JE) Although
originally published in August of 2000, this book has just seen
its second printing. The
art at first glance doesn't seem that spectacular. At first glance
. Keep in mind I picked this book up after having been told 'You
gotta see this' and while picking it up I also saw a portfolio of
some of Kagan's paintings, which are quite simple put - beautiful.
So that's a bit of pressure placed on a book I'd just heard about.
Then of course you actually sit down and read the comic and realize
the hype doesn't nearly do it justice. The art is talented and multi-layered.
The pacing is excellent and the art style itself mixes a freestyling,
fluid curvature with bold lines in addition to a multitude of shading
creating 'infinite' dimension. But if the art is not your thing,
the story is entertaining enough on its own. The pace, the flow
of the story along with the action and dialogue is enthralling. In
addition to the story this issue also has some bonus pencil sketches
plus kung fu movie reviews. Now the price may be a deciding factor
for some, as it so often is. The cover price is 5 dollars Canadian
and 4 dollars US. But in this case it's worth it. Not only do you
get a quality comic [32 pages, no ads] but it carries with it a
cardstock cover and is printed on some very fine paper. I look forward
to picking up the remaining issues. (JE) For
more info go to: www.kaganmcleod.com/infinitekungfu. JLA:
HEAVENS LADDER DC
Comics I missed
this when it first came out and just read it for the first time. Hollywood's
got nothing on the JLA . This is a blockbuster
in every sense of the word. Every other moment they achieve the
impossible. This story follows the universes first race of beings
as they face death - but to get to heaven they must construct it.
The challenge for the JLA is to help the race die and not go mad
in the process. Mark Waid places these heroes on a whole other level
of existence. (Hell, Mark has to exist on a whole other level just
to think this stuff up.) A great read. Aside
from being a great read, I don't necessarily agree with the JLA
helping a species die, rather then trying to save them. Dylan Thomas
wrote about raging against the dying of the light. Thomas Mores
wrote about how being afraid to die can be an offense to God. In
this case the ones who don't want to die are the villains, but all
die together. Zealots and believers alike. Raises some interesting
thoughts. So read it already. (JE) In
stores now. You may have read about this in the past First Impressions,
but I don't get to the comic shop as often as I should and was impressed
enough with this to want to get my say in: This
is just too adorable. Every page is a splash of fun. Angel and Ape
follows private eyes Angel -O-Day and Sam Simeon. Angel is a hip
and sexy blonde with an insatiable love of fashion. Sam is an ape.
An ape who also happens to be a detective and a cartoonist. He's
scared of heights and can order pizza without talking. Angel and
Ape is about laughs and sex. Mystery, Lingerie, Napoleon mobsters
and love sick policemen. If the rest of the series is as good as
this issue, and the creative sticks together, perhaps DC should
start to consider an ongoing. (JE)
|
by
Art Spiegleman and Chip Kidd
Edited
by Roy Thomas
by
David Cooper
Writer:
Jeff Loeb
Writer:
Brian Michael Bendis 
Writer/Artist:
Scott Morse 
Writer:
Ian Edginton 
Writer/Artist:
Chuck Austen 
by
Dylan Horrocks
Mark
Waid, Bryan Hitch, Paul Neary and Laura Depuy 
Written
by Howard Chaykin and David Tischman 
