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PIPELINE COMMENTARY AND REVIEW #3
22 June 1997
by Augie De Blieck Jr.
http://www.nic.com/~augie/pipeline
It appears that my efforts to cut back on the amount of money I spend on
comic books is bearing fruit at last. The past two weeks combined I've spent
as much money as I used to spend in one week alone just a couple of months
ago. Or have these just been slow weeks? Can anyone let me know?
"Slow" is a good way to describe how I felt reading George Perez's CRIMSON
PLAGUE #1 this week. The art is beautiful, but there's too many characters
(well, this is Perez, right? ;-) and lots of exposition. Nor, by the way, am
I a fan of the lettering in this book. And the rest of the time I'm trying
to figure out if any of the people drawn into this book are people I may
know. I guess I'd recommend the book, but it wouldn't be a strong
recommendation.
I wouldn't mind computer lettering so much if so much of it didn't look like
a bad Tom Orzechowski impression.
YOUNG HEROES IN LOVE gets a strong recommendation from me. The third issue
just came out this week. It continues along an interesting course, focusing
on the confused and tangled social lives of a group of green super-heroes.
And when they meet Superman - in an introduction which is just beautifully
done, by the way - it's an actual event. This series reminds me, in some
ways, of Peter David's X-Factor run. You can have page-after-page of
nothing but dialogue and be mesmerized by it. The stuff is witty and
well-done. The characters are strong and their situations are not
interchangeable. Buy this one before you are forced to wait for the TPB
because your local retailer is all sold out.
Picture this high-concept: "If superheroes really did exist in the world, how
would they affect us? Not who would fight them or what crimes would they
solve, but how would it affect us? The media would certainly latch onto
them. If there were superheroes, they would be the trendsetters, the guys
who impact how people think, and they would be watched 24 hours a day."
Sounds like something Kurt Busiek would write, isn't it? Heck, that could be
THUNDERBOLTS.
Nope, it's Rob Liefeld describing YOUNGBLOOD. (See COMICS SCENE #25) Sigh,
if only he could have followed through on it better. It showed up in some
issues better than others, but he still focused more on the super-hero antics
than anything else. Too bad.
I want to create, write, and draw my own comic book so I can self-publish it
in black and white, get it some good word of mouth and critical praise, move
it to Image, and then change my mind in 6 months and move it back into
self-publishing, having used up Image for all it's good for (publicity and
distribution). It's all the rage these days, I understand.
Riddler got some good dialogue in on Batgirl in BATMAN & ROBIN ADVENTURES
#21, but am I the only one left scratching his head over what the big final
riddle actually meant? I don't get it. Otherwise, a fine comic.
Is BORIS THE BEAR officially dead now?
People have talked about the manga-fication of the X-Men universe and I've
been ignoring them for a while now. I don't read any X-titles except
DEAD-POOL, and that barely even counts as an X-title. I generally like Joe
Madureira's art, too. But I picked up THE INCREDIBLE HULK #455, as I have
been for more than 75 months now, and I saw what they meant. Having just
finished reading ESSENTIAL X-MEN #1, I am shocked. That's not Ororo. That
looks like some kid. And everything else looks too bulky and too "cyber." I
miss the ultra-cool, slick clean lines of Jim Lee.
(Oh, and by the way, I like HULK and think PAD's got it back on track again.)
Speaking of Jim Lee, WildStorm's TPB of the original batch of Warren Ellis
STORMWATCH issues has been cancelled due to low orders. I already have the
issues so it doesn't really effect me, but it's another sign that the system
just doesn't work. (And thus ends the obligatory Warren Ellis reference. I
expect my check is in the post, Warren?)
What happened to all the comic book magazines? HERO ILLUSTRATED, AMAZING
HEROES, COMICS SCENE, FAN, ARENA, INSIDE COMICS, etc. All gone. We're stuck
with WIZARD.
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