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PIPELINE COMMENTARY AND REVIEW #61
02 August 1998
by Augie De Blieck Jr.
http://www.nic.com/~augie/pipeline
PLEASANT SURPRISE OF THE MONTH:
Oni Press makes a lot of popular books. Having never actually seen
any of Kevin Smith's films, I don't read any of them, really. (I do
want to see them -- particularly CHASING AMY; I just never have.) This
week I noticed an interesting-looking book from Oni Press completely
unconnected to Bob and Jay. The book is entitled WHITEOUT and is drawn
by Steve Lieber. Steve, besides being a really nice guy, is also a
fantastic artist. I picked up the book based solely on the strength of
his artwork. The write is Greg Rucka, who I had never heard of before
this. Afterwards, I read the text page he wrote and found out he's some
sort of prose novelist. I'd imagine he does his work in the
science-fiction area. This comic book reads like a good science-fiction
novel. It introduces the reader to an unfamiliar environment. In this
case, it's Antarctica. But this isn't the Antarctica of the present
day. This is one in the near future with something like 1200 workers on
it. This entails a U.S. Marshall being based there as the law. This is
her story as she tries to solve the first homocide on the ice cap.
There's a lot to take in here. Almost too much. A lot of names and
people and situations. Rucka doesn't have the luxury he would in one of
his novels of taking his time to explain it all. So you end up with
some pages packed with a lot of lettering on them trying to catch up the
reader quickly.
That minor quibble aside, this is an excellent story with a lot of
through obviously put into it regarding what life would be like in the
situation posited by the author.
The cover is by Matt Wagner and stands out nicely on the racks.
Another excellent book this week is TANGENT: WONDER WOMAN. I
laughed from start to finish on this book. It is simply one of the
funniest things Peter David has written in awhile. It also has the
benefit of not being silliness for silliness sakes. You'd think that
until it all starts coming together in the second half of the book.
This is excellent writing and well worth the read.
The art is by someone named Angel Unzueta. I've never heard of
him/her before, but it's obviously art influenced by Joe Quesada. The
more I look at it the more amazed I am at how much an imitation this is
of Quesada's style.
The only thing that throws me off about this book is the lettering.
It's done by the same Comicraft person who did the Acclaim line of
comics. So when you read it, you think you should be in the Valiant-2
Universe. It feels really weird. And it further poiints up my
continuing claim of how important lettering is o the final product.
It's not enough to merely legible or skilled at placing balloons. There
is also a certain 'je ne sais quoi' involved here. Todd Klein is a
chameleon. Tom Orzechowski screams super-hero. (And the letterer here
is obviously Orz-trained.) John Workman has a wonderful open feeling to
his lettering. I like it. Janice Chiangs' is just ugly.
OK, now that I've done my patented letterer rant for this quarter,
I can move on with my life.
The new TANGENT: JOKER'S WILD almost makes me wish this were a
regular series. With each new issue, some major revelation comes out.
From the last page of the first Tangent issue we get a shock. And now
with a clever wink and nod to that ending, we get the ending on this one
this week, which just makes me want more. I find the storyline
fascinating. At the same rate, though, the title wouldn't be as special
if it came out monthly and there wouldn't be such a big surprise with
every issue. So maybe it's better if it just comes out once or twice a
year. It gives you something to look forward to. The art is excellent,
the story is clever. I want more.
The final comic book in question this week is THE SAVAGE SHE-DRAGON
#51. In wake of Dragon's apparent demise last issue, She-Dragon is the
new star of the book. (One gets the feeling that if this were DC, this
book would have come packaged with a black armband or maybe a special
lenticular cover to show off this change. If it were Marvel, the title
would be cancelled and restarted with a new number one. But this is
Erik Larsen, the most stable creator in most of comics.) This is an
excellent issue for people who want to start reading the book. I know
issue 50 was billed as such, but it also cost $6.00, and the story was
overrun with captions to make it painfully obvious who was who for new
readers. This one is a lot simpler and more straight-forwards.
Characters are defined by their actions and their words and not some
omniscient narrator. It's also very light and entertaining and bridges
the segments between Dragon's death and the next big storyline quite
nicely.
-Augie
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