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PIPELINE COMMENTARY AND REVIEW #52
31 May 1998
by Augie De Blieck Jr.
http://www.nic.com/~augie/pipeline
"Unpopular Things to Say -- and other one liners"
You can now view whatever artistic musings I may happen to have over at
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Coffeehouse/7426
I'm not in the mood to write this column this week. So this is what you're
getting. =)
I've read some SANDMAN. It doesn't do much for me.
The best dramatic television show of all time would have to be BABYLON 5.
Some of the best storytelling ever done wasn't by anyone named Kirby nor
Eisner. Nope, Carl Barks is the king.
In fact, much of Jack Kirby's work that I've seen doesn't do much for me.
Artists should get paid much more than writers. Writers can do a lot more
work than artists can in a given month's time span.
Jeff Campbell's DANGER GIRL is a good, fun comic book.
Joe Madureira's BATTLE CHASERS, however, is crap.
And I'm so sick of Humberto Ramos' art, I'm not even bothering with
CRIMSON.
Joe Kelly is, perhaps, the best writer doing comics today. He's certainly
in the same company as Alan Moore and Kurt Busiek, as far as I'm concerned.
I like Busiek's AVENGERS, too.
SUPERGIRL is a damned fine book.
Leonard Kirk is a terrific artist.
Marvel's mutant books aren't all bad. DEAD-POOL is must-read stuff, and
Kelly's X-MEN is compelling.
Letterers define how a book looks even more than inkers, sometimes. And a
bad letterer can completely ruin a comic.
And letters columns are not unnecessary extras. They're part of the
maintenance of the comic book community.
I don't want to write comics professionally. I don't want the pay cut.
(However, I wouldn't mind a little moonlighting. =)
Which is the most compelling comic book series being published right now?
It's a tie between THE SAVAGE DRAGON and DEAD-POOL.
I didn't mind paying $6 for DRAGON #50.
I do mind paying $6 for most issues of THE COMICS JOURNAL. (This is why I
don't buy it every month.)
I don't mind paying $7 for UNCLE $CROOGE every month. Someone needs to
support the format.
Marvel's line of ESSENTIAL books deserve all the support in the world.
I wish comics would start to transition to a graphic novel/paperback
format. SIN CITY: FAMILY VALUES was an excellent story which wouldn't have
had the same impact over the course of a monthly mini-series.
I still do like STARMAN, even though I'm currently about 5 issues behind on
it.
There's nothing a writer can do better in comics than planning things out.
A book which leads up to something while tellling good stories is ten times
better than a book which just tells good stories.
A book which tells bad stories is not worthy of the title "book."
I liked Alan Moore's original VIOLATOR mini-series from Todd McFarlane's
wing of Image Comics.
The definitive image of Spider-Man I'll always have is Todd McFarlane's.
I quit reading Spawn when Todd McFarlane quit caring about comics.
Bill Sinkiewicz (sp?) shouldn't be allowed to ink over anyone's work.
This week I plan on buying all those comics I've missed the past couple of
months. In other words, next week's column has the potential to be a
whopper.
However, it will probably also be a day late, due to other commitments (the
Big Apple Con and a graduation party.)
-Augie
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