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PIPELINE COMMENTARY AND REVIEW #13
01 September 1997
by Augie De Blieck Jr.
http://www.nic.com/~augie/pipeline
"Here, There, and Everywhere"
Welcome back to the review column which really has no idea what it wants to
be or where it's going from week to week.
I was on vacation for a week to the Outer Banks of North Carolina this past
week, where I picked up a couple of typically touristy t-shirts and a pretty
mean tan. And I never once bought a comic book. I think it's the first time
I've gone more than 7 or 10 days without going to a comic book store. And it
didn't bother me one bit. There's more out there. Maybe that's a valuable
life's lesson for us all. Or maybe the fact that I did find the time to read
a couple I had bought the week before makes me a hypocrite. I don't know.
Before I get to the regular reviews from this week, I think I had better get
an old debt out of the way. Jeff Mariotte was kind enough to send me the
black and whites of his upcoming DESPERADOES series' first issue, coming out
in September from Homage Comics. It's basically a western comic, with
promises of a genre bent, in the way of horror and science-fiction. The
first issue doesn't show too much in the way of anything but straight
science-fiction, but it's mighty entertaining, nonetheless. The characters
are all introduced easily enough for the reader to figure out who's who.
They all look and act different. There's some classic gunplay and cowboy
machismo going on. The setting looks real and feels real. Artist John
Cassaday has outdone himself here. Artistically, it's beautiful. There's a
ton of detail from the first page's architecture to later crowd scene,
teeming with people.
So I'd recommend the first issue. I can't recommend the whole series yet,
but this is a promising start. The next couple of issue will really tell how
interesting a book this is going to be.
My, but it was an expensive week this time around. GON SWIMMIN' came out for
$7. Yes, it's a hefty price tag. However, it is worth it. This is some of
the finest storytelling outside of a Duck comic I've ever seen. And the art
is finely detailed without needless clutter. It's a nature comic. Weird.
Strange. Devilishly good fun.
WILDC.A.T.S/X-MEN: THE MODERN AGE came out this week, too, with art from Adam
Hughes. Haven't read it yet. A quick flip through it makes it look good,
but we'll see.
NINJAK #10 is showing signs of its impending death. The paper has already
been degraded from shiney to white or something.
THUNDERBOLTS is, well, THUNDERBOLTS. If you're not reading it yet, then you
have a lot of catching up to do. Get going and see what you're depriving
yourself of.
TROUBLEMAKERS had their "teen sex" issue this week, and aside from a page or
two near the end which reads like a PSA, it's really a nifty issue. There's
more than what people do with sex. There's what sex does to people. Makes
'em silly and stupid and liars and -- well, Fabian Nicieza leaves everything
nice and ambiguous. It's not a pretty story, but I believe it's a good one.
-Augie
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