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PIPELINE COMMENTARY AND REVIEW #31
05 January 1998
by Augie De Blieck Jr.
http://www.nic.com/~augie/pipeline
"Mostly Moore"
In the past week, I've been able to catch up on some great comics. Two
series, specifically, I had fun reading in their entirety (so far.)
The first is ESSENTIAL VERTIGO: SWAMP THING. No, I wasn't reading comics
when these issues first came out. This is my first chance, and I'm
grateful to Vertigo for putting out the series like this. It's
particularly nice getting it in black and white, so as to let Stephen
Bissette and John Totlebon's skillfull pen and ink rendering shine. Alan
Moore lets his genius show through in several places in the first 16 issues
I've read. There's some amazing stuff in here, including one bittersweet
tale guest-starring Pogo. (Well, his name is POG, but even for someone
who's never really read Pogo, it's obvious who those characters are in
those space suits. Is there some deeper meaning to the issue I missed
because I don't read the strip?) The first twelve issues form one large
storyline, and a well done one it is at that. It's too early in the second
year to see if this is another continuous storyline, but they've been good
stories, nonetheless, with some interesting art from Stephen Bissette.
Here's a guy who can get away with telling a great story without a grid.
He plays around with page layouts a lot, but it never really gets
confusing. Part of that credit, I imagine, would go to John Costanza,
whose easy-to-read lettering and balloon placement make it possible.
John Ostrander writes and Pascual Ferry pencils Marvel's HEROES FOR HIRE.
Aside from two issues - numbers 5 and 6 - being well-nigh incomprehensible
to me, it's been a great run so far. Those two issues utilized literally
dozens of characters from a few offshoots of the Marvel Universe, and that
completely threw me off. I wasn't familiar with a one of them, and they
all started to look alike after awhile. Otherwise, this title is providing
a fun romp through the Marvel Universe Proper's continuity, as Ostrander
keeps bringing back some old Marvel villains and underused characters.
It's fun catching up with them here. (If only the original MARVEL COMICS
PRESENTS were around to show us the underused characters...) Pascual Ferry
is an adept storyteller, using plenty of more traditional panel layouts and
grids, the likes of which you won't find in SWAMP THING. His art can
sometimes look stiff or too sculpted, but those are minor complaints.
Issue 8 just came out a couple of weeks ago, and acts pretty well as a
set-up for the next batch of storylines. I imagine some of it would be
off-putting to a newcomer, but it's a series worth getting into.
SUPREME #55 is a bit of a strange issue. Alan Moore attempts to write
revisionist American history - What if the North lost the Civil War? - and
so long as you don't try thinking while you read this issue, it works.
There are several problems with it from a historical stand-point, and Moore
goes for the easy, trite, and cliche swipe at Jesse Helms. Other than
that, the science-fiction and heroic aspects of the story work out fine.
Chris Sprouse's art is beautiful, as always. His lines are clean, and his
stuff is easy to follow. His costume drama scenes look authentic enough.
And the letters pages are back! (Sure, the first letter is from Christian
Viola, but I won't hold that against them. Eric Stephenson isn't a USENET
regular. =)
VOODOO #2, by Alan Moore again, starts off on the wrong foot with a bad
cover by Adam Hughes. I understand there are people who like this sort of
thing and it fits in with the general theme of the story, but to me it's a
bit much and not something I want popping out at me on the stands. A
painted Voodoo sits in her underwear, legs spread wide at the reader. Not
my thing. The interior art is by Al Rio, late of Gen13, with some help at
the last minute by Michael Lopez, whose three pages are the best looking
ones in the issue. Let's hope Lopez is drawing the next issue. The story,
er, well, it moves along. The mystery is heightened, Voodoo is brought
closer to voodoo, and a lot of skin is shown. We'll see what number 3
does, but right now I'm really iffy on this series.
The AWESOME HOLIDAY SPECIAL contains a lead-in to the regular YOUNGBLOOD
series, and is written by - you guessed it! - Alan Moore. Moore shows off
the warped way of the Awesome Universe in this tale quite nicely, following
the previous YB members to their new positions around the world, keeping
Shaft around, and introducing the new team. Shaft narrates and has some
terrific lines in describing the rest of the characters. This sequence is
all character-related and doesn't have a strong story or plot in it, and
connects at the last minute to the holiday theme. However, it is
definitely worth the price of admission. Steve Skroce's art is very
capable, as well, although I wonder what his fascination is with drawing
crotch panels. hmmm There are three other stories in this issue. One is
OK, one stinks, and the other seems pointless. I'll let you try to guess
which is which.
Next Week: Yeah, like I know. I have comments I might give on the DCU
HOLIDAY BASH, or the current state of the INCREDIBLE HULK, or
TROUBLEMAKERS, or THE BATMAN ADVENTURES, or DEAD-POOL, or X-MEN, or how to
properly craft a fight scene in a comic book or some web sites I've
recently discovered... Ah, who knows? See you next week!
-Augie
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