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PIPELINE COMMENTARY AND REVIEW #32
11 January 1998
by Augie De Blieck Jr.
http://www.nic.com/~augie/pipeline
DISAPPOINTMENTS
I'm not in a bad mood or anything. It just seems that there are a few
things here I have to talk about which are, well, disappointments.
For one, I attended the Big Apple Con in - where else? - New York City this
past Saturday. It left me cold. Actually, it was very hot... Sweltering.
If there were a fire marshall anywhere near that church basement in which
the con is held, the whole thing would have been shut down for
overcrowding. I've never been in such tight areas. You're lucky if the
aisle is big enough for three people across - one person patronizing a
dealer on one side, another at the dealer just across the way, with room
for one person to get through. UGH. And it was really hot, too, with all
those people. Did I mention that yet? It didn't take me too long to break
into a sweat. And then the circus atmosphere kicks in. What better guests
to have a Comic Con than GWAR, right? Pathetic. I was ashamed of my
hobby. I understand the union control of such places as Jacob Javits makes
moving this con elsewhere very difficult and expensive, but something has
to be done. You'd have to be a real die-hard to go to this one. Not that
many dealers there for your $5 admission, plus my $7.50 train ticket, $2
for two PATH trips, and $1.50 for the subway.
This isn't to say it was all disappointing. I did find a stack of SUICIDE
SQUAD issues to further fill in the gaps of the collection of the series I
started two years ago in Philly. I'm down to my last 18 issues or so to
finish the series - at which point I look forward to reading through them
all. I've read the first 7 issues and am impressed. John Ostrander knows
how to write. (THE KENTS #8 came out this week from DC and is not getting
reviewed this week because I wasn't disappointed in it. Although one could
say that there is a review of it... Oh, forget it.) I also found some
other good comics in the quarter bins and 50 cent bins. Enough to make the
trip worthwhile.
I bought the DC UNIVERSE HOLIDAY BASH #2 mostly for Tony Isabella and Eddy
Newell's Black Lightning story. I didn't like it. Not much, aside from Ty
Templeton, Howard Chaykin, and Dan Jurgen's work, did much for me in this
issue. Part of it has to do with my negative reaction to the socialist
holiday they dubbed Kwanzaa. I have a real hard time takng it seriously,
but I'm not too interested in political debates, so I'll leave it at that.
Aside from that general criticism, the art still looked too dark for me,
and too muddy. Made it tough to follow, and the story didn't grab me all
that well past that.
LOBO #48 was just bland. The artwork (by Garres - who probably
shouldn't ink himself) was terribly plain, the coloring (by Vasquez) was
way too dark, and the story (by Alan Grant) wasn't that funny. After my
first Lobo experience with issue 47, this is a major disappointment.
DAREDEVIL #373 contains some of the worst artwork I've ever seen in a
Marvel or DC title. Artist Richie Acosta draws all the characters with
hats or shadows crossing their faces so he doesn't have to draw eyes.
There is no strong sense of layout, more of a "This drawing fits in over
here, and this panel fills that space left over there." And then there's
the opening sequence, which is cutely scripted by Joe Kelly, but turned
into a T&A fest for no apparent reason. Even allowing for Karen Page doing
Daredevil's mud pack in her underwear, I doubt she'd end up in a couple
of those positions naturally. Rosalind Sharpe is drawn off-model and her
first on-panel appearance looks like something-- well, let's just say it's
incredibly stiff and ill-considered.
MR. MXYZPTLK #1 (by Grant and Morgan) is part of DC's New Year's Evil line
and just fell flat for me. It's not intrinsically bad. It's just boring
and terribly cliche, although the Lobo sequence drew a laugh. Have I
mentioned at all how much Janice Chiang's lettering grates on me? Hers is
the first case I can think of for a letterer over-rendering her work.
Really weird.
Hopefully, I'll have some more uplifting comments next week. With any
luck, the BABYLON 5 comic will be out this week. I hope so. It is, after
all, based on the best TV show ever to grace the screen, currently seen on
TNT. Check your local listings.
-Augie
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