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PIPELINE COMMENTARY AND REVIEW #20
20 October 1997
by Augie De Blieck Jr.
http://www.nic.com/~augie/pipeline
Another week with a paper and a test, so we'll see what we can write up here.
I'm a 3-D freak, I have to admit. I'm a fan of the silly
paper-and-cellophane glasses and the bleary-eyed look of the comics
themselves. I like the headache you get afterwards. It's just that neat an
effect. Full 3-dimensional visuals on a flat piece of paper.
But 3-D things don't come out too often. Sure, there's the occasional TV
stunt programming (remember Moonlighting? Of course not, it never happened.)
or comic (remember the Disney 3D special about 5 years ago or Valiant
Visions?), but that's about it.
WildStorm Productions has been bringing it back in a big way this year,
producing 3-D versions of a whole bunch of its backlist: The
WILDC.A.T.s/X-MEN crossovers, as well as the first issues of GEN13 and
WILDC.A.T.s. However, they've also been hideously expensive. As much as I
love the process and admire Ray Zone's work, I'm not shelling out $7 for a
comic I already own.
Last week, the GEN13 3D SPECIAL came out. And this one is worth it. It's a
little expensive, but for $5 you get a couple extra pair of glasses, and two
original stories, the first being written and drawn by Art Adams. And what
does he do? What he does best: Dinosaurs attack the team, and 3-D effects
reign. Ray Zone created the 3D effects which are absolutely beautiful in so
many ways. No panel is wasted or done sloppily. The story itself is rather
simplistic, but the visuals are overwhelming. Do yourself an extra favor and
cruise over to WildStorm On-Line ( http://www.wildstorm.com ) and check out
their gallery. Last time I was there they had reproduced two pages of
original pencil work from this story. Wow.
HEROES REBORN: THE RETURN #2 came out as well, and it's a nice attempt to put
together a story out of sentence fragments which have gone out of control for
a year now. Marvel had no idea what they were doing, and so had to gather a
dozen people together to figure out a way to bring the original heroes back
to our universe. So it's rather tedious. So far, Peter David's dialogue
makes up for this, but the story is generally uninteresting so far. And the
art is just wrong. Art Thibert made for a great inker over Jim Lee and Dan
Jurgens. His style over Salvador Larocca too often comes off rushed, loose,
and unfocused.
-Augie
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