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PIPELINE COMMENTARY AND REVIEW #48
03 May 1998
by Augie De Blieck Jr.
http://www.nic.com/~augie/pipeline
I mourn the loss of Awesome, really I do. But it's good to see some people
landing on their feet. Ed McGuinness, who left/was forced off DEAD POOL to
go to FIGHTING AMERICAN is listed in this month's PREVIEWS as artist on
that month's issue of CABLE.
Alan Moore is Alan Moore. He'll find work. Rumor has it he's shopping
around his own universe of creations now. And http://www.mania.com has the
story this week on what would have happened on SUPREME for the next year,
had it continued to be published.
Chris Sprouse is doing something already. I forgot what, though. Damn.
Jeff Matsuda will be doing WOLVERINE sometime in the future. Brandon
Peterson will be doing something for the X-offices as soon as they can find
it.
And there's the possibility all of this could have been avoided, if one is
wont to believe RICH'S RUMBLINGS, available at
http://www.twistandshoutcomics.com/features/rrevs.html
What brings this on? Well, I finally read JUDGMENT DAY AFTERMATH this
week, and it's a mixed bag. The first most disappointing thing about it is
the lack of proofreading. There's at least one case where the two word
balloons ending one page are repeated at the beginning of the next for no
reason. And there are a couple of typos in there, too. Alan Moore's
stories are interesting and in one case, damned disappointing.
The framing device utilizing Gil Kane is cleverly done. The Youngblood
story is terrific and boy, am I missing that series already. The Maximage
and Glory bits are fine, although they're just set-ups for the series which
never happened. But the real loser of the group is the NewMen. Maybe that
series should only ever have been written by Eric Stephenson, I don't know.
But the story contained herein bears no relation to the NewMen I slavishly
followed just a few years ago. These characters look alike and have the
same names, but there's none of the same characteristics here. Alan Moore
can revamp the entire universe of Awesome, but I don't see why he didn't
just create a new team to do this Challengers of the Unknown riff. I shook
my head after reading this one. I mean, Kodiak is talking here. Sheesh!
I'm going to go flip through those Stephenson/Nauck/Sprouse issues again
and remember the glory days, thankyouverymuch.
I did get to read DEAD POOL #17 this week. And it occurs to me that now
might be a good time to go back and reread all the issues. Joe Kelly has,
indeed, plotted a lot of this out ahead of time and it's starting to come
to a head. And I'm lost in some of the details.
ASTRO CITY #14 is an interesting tale, and it's only part one. I suppose I
shouldn't review the whole of it until it's all out. But, as usual, Kurt
Busiek manages to tell a sorta self-contained story even within the context
of this single part. And it's a troubling tale. But, then, it always is
when you root for the bad guy. I thought for sure the ending would be him
getting a job as a demolition man. Oh, well. I still love that cover, but
preferred the original ad copy over it to the logo and credits. =)
AVENGERS #5 came out, by Busiek, Perez, and Vey. It guest-stars the
SQUADROM SUPREME and I'm not sure if I'm going to read it just yet. I want
to read the TPB with the original stories in it first. Do I need to?
Should I do this? Any ideas?
The new WIZARD magazine has a great interview in it with Erik Larsen which
brings up an interesting issue -- do artists look in the mirror too much?
I'm looking at the shots of Erik they put in this issue and I realize they
look just like the characters in his comics do, to a certain degree. The
picture on page 70, for example, has a prototypical Larsen mouth, fist, and
arm position. Weird.
-Augie
P.S. Sorry - I didn't have the time to proofread this one. I only hope it
doesn't show too badly.
P.P.S. If you'd like a copy of this delivered to your e-mail box every
week as its published on the web, just click on the ListBot button
on this web site! I'm testing this system out. If it turns out to be a
pain, I'll just kill it, but let's give this a try, in any case.
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