|
PIPELINE COMMENTARY AND REVIEW #1
08 June 1997
by Augie De Blieck Jr.
http://www.nic.com/~augie/pipeline
I think I've finally found a form in which I can return to reviewing comic
books. Maybe it's a sign of the limited attention spans of our time, but I
like this way better than long-form reviews. What am I talking about?
One of my favorite editorials to read is in the Friday newspaper. Thomas
Sowell does a piece called "Musings on the Passing Scene" in which he notes
random things, brings up assorted points, makes good points. That inspired
me. That, and a desire not to have to go on at length with my opinions.
Sometimes, I just have something short to say and feel guilty about having to
construct a whole long boring review in order to say it.
So here goes nothing. The web page hosting all this fun and merriment, by
the way, is located at the URL listed at the top of this page as
always. This column will be available on it eventually.
One site I make sure to visit a couple of times a week for news and reviews
is Charles Le Page's New Comics Release List site.
http://www.ccse.net/~ncrl/
It's tough constructing an interesting web site about comic books without
handy access to a scanner. All you're left doing is stealing images off of
other sites. And that's not quite fair.
UNTOLD TALES OF SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL '97 gets my pick of the week if only for
the fact that it includes a pin-up by Don Rosa, Uncle $crooge artist
extraordinaire, of J. Jonah Jameson as Uncle $crooge. (Rosa, it should be
noted, got to keep the original piece of artwork, unlike what would happen
with a Disney comic. He auctioned it off for a literacy charity.)
Rob Liefeld is back with JUDGMENT DAY ALPHA, in which Vogue's shoulder pads
mysteriously appear on page 16, while she is not wearing them anywhere else
in the issue. Even Rob Liefeld, though, can't completely ruin an Alan Moore
script. But he comes close. I'm pretty sure that last page wasn't quite
what Alan Moore had in mind when he wrote the script. However, Moore is
asking some interesting questions about Youngblood and the media and the O.J.
syndrome. Let's see how he answers them.
And in researching that last paragraph, I'm struck by the lack of page
numbers on comics these days. Why is that? My first thought is that it
looked better when later collected in TPB form. But since the comics are
increasingly lettered by computer, wouldn't it be easy enough to add in page
numbers, via the computer, which could then be taken out easily later on when
collected?
Page numbering does in no way hurt my enjoyment of the classic Spider-Man
tales brought us by ESSENTIAL SPIDER-MAN VOL. 1, which I've finally started
to read this summer. Vol. 2 is due to ship soon.
And I've finally finished reading ESSENTIAL X-MEN Vol 1. (I note there are
no page numbers here. Huh. Nor in ESSENTIAL WOLVERINE 1 or 2.) However,
Marvel is quite up front with us when it shows us where one issue ends and
the next begins. ESSENTIAL X-MEN VOL. 2 comes out in August and I couldn't
be happier.
Is Terry Austin as close to perfection as inking gets?
Ditto Joe Rosas for coloring? Todd Klein for lettering?
Am I the last one left annoyed when a #1 issue is published with an ad in
place of a letters column or text page? I like reading those blurbs writers
or editors come up with in the first issue of a new series. Kudos to HEROES
FOR HIRE for not forgetting this. They had a text page in the first issue.
And a fine first issue it was, too, by the way. This one comes recommended
to Marvel fans. It's steeped in continuity, but explains enough as it goes.
I remember reading NAMOR when John Byrne resurrected Iron Fist. That was
always a fun series. Then Jae Lee took over the art, the story dragged, and
the art got more and more confusing as time went by.
However, Jae Lee's HELLSHOCK is an excellent book, and a must-read. And if
ever issue 3 comes out, I'll be here to tell you about it.
Speaking of lateness, what happened to Joe Quesada? Will Jerome K. Moore,
currently scheduled as inker of Warren Ellis' TRANSMETROPOLITAN, last long on
that title? His inking didn't last long on Sovereign 7. (Nor Tom
Orzechowski's lettering, for that matter. What happened there?) His STAR
TREK covers were masterpieces. But he's always been rather painstaking about
his work.
Kevin Maguire's TRINITY ANGELS doesn't quite know what it wants to be yet -
bad girl comic, funny comic, or slapstick comic. But in any way, I still
like it.
And QUANTUM & WOODY is a must-read.
I wonder when the next one of these columns will get written?
|
