Comic World News | Pull List

April 22, 2008:
CWN and the Grand Finale! -

February 4, 2008:
In Conclusion - David ends his CWN run with Tezuka's MW from Vertical

February 2, 2008:
Acting Like You Have Nothing to Prove -

February 2, 2008:
The Shoegazer Returns - A New Year Begins, And Our Narrator Makes A Pledge

January 30, 2008:
Tim's Reviews -

September 13, 2007:
Wizard World Chicago Loot, Part One - Stykman, Empty Chamber, the Ztarian Saga, and yes, Little Bunny Foo Foo

February 15, 2007:
I Come Not to Bury Nick Cage... - But to mourn the death of my punchline

November 20, 2006:
The End - Rich's last Chicks & Romance

November 8, 2006:
Joann Sfar's Klezmer - And a Front Racks Hiatus

October 4, 2006:
This Month's Guest: Dave Gibbons - From the pages of Elephantmen!

September 18, 2006:
Back in Berlin - or How I spent my summer

July 29, 2006:
KICKING UP A STORM - An interview with David Lloyd

June 19, 2006:
You Ain't Never Had A Friend Like Me. - Graeme looks at Spidey's "genies"

December 18, 2005:
Disappointed - Sad news for fans of Busiek's CONAN, Stephen King, and others

December 13, 2004:
JUSTICE UNPLUGGED 2 at last !!! - By Fabrice Sapolsky & Xavier Fournier

December 2, 2004:
THE TWELFTH AND FINAL STEP - Say it ain't so, Dan.

November 23, 2004:
The importance of editing -

September 29, 2004:
Mystery and Conundrum indeed! - Where in the world is Jason Pomerantz?

September 13, 2004:
Hello and Goodbye and Hello Again - Change is in the air at CWN and it smells sweet.

August 12, 2004:
The Rise of the Web Toon - New Business Model or Dumb Luck?

July 30, 2004:
The Name Says it All... - Spin Doctors revamp Boomerang.

July 27, 2004:
Bigger Isn't Always Better -

June 8, 2004:
Pre-emptive Strike: MoCCA Arts Festival - Looking forward to the con, rather than looking back at it

The Layer Method
Our top Secret time-saving technique for creating and merging balloons and tails in Illustrator.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Death Comes to Dillinger and others

Black Coat, Horrorwood, Koni Waves, X Isle, Jack the Lantern, BPRD, Sigma 6, Casanova, Witchblade

The Black Coat: A Call to Arms #2-4 (Ape)
Written by Adam Cogan; Illustrated by Francesco Francavilla
On the back cover of the second issue of Black Coat is a quote by Stuart Immonen comparing Francesco Francavilla to Al Williamson. High frickin� praise. And completely deserved. The conclusion to Cogan�s plot is just as swashbuckling and mysterious as the beginning was, but it�s Francavilla�s exciting, realistic artwork that makes this series stand out. A lesser artist might still be able to convey the story and have it be fun, but Francavilla makes you believe in it. On the flipside, Francavilla�s so good that he absolutely needs a writer who�s strong enough to not be overshadowed. He�s got that in Adam Cogan, who keeps throwing new ideas into the story like he�s never going to run out.

Horrorwood #2 (Ape)
Written by Brandon Terrell; Illustrated by Brent Schoonover
Terrell and Schoonover advance their story of a former scream queen and a stuntman who are investigating a murderous cult in 1950s Hollywood. What�s cool is that they do this not only by revealing new clues as to who�s behind the cult, but also by continuing to deepen the characters. Especially interesting this issue is the scream queen�s estranged father, a special effects man who�s afraid to leave his workshop. Anyone can throw together a murder plot with a few exciting twists; Terrell and Schoonover remember that a mystery story is only as good as the characters involved in it.

Koni Waves #1 (Arcana)
Written by Mark Poulton; Illustrated by Stephen Sistilli
Unlike The Black Coat, this is an example of a comic where the writer is overshadowed by the artist. Sistilli has a great style that creates a look reminiscent of spy stories from the �60s. Some of his layouts are weird, but he�s got a Steranko thing going on that�s thrilling to look at. Unfortunately, the story suffers from more exposition than we care about and is a detective tale with no mystery. There�s also a supernatural element that appears so abruptly that it feels shoehorned-in. Less words all around and more build-up to the spooky stuff would work better with the art to make this an indispensable book.

X Isle #1 (Boom!)
Written by Andrew Cosby and Michael A. Nelson; Illustrated by Greg Scott
The premise of X Isle sounds a lot like Lost, which can be good or bad depending on your point of view. Me, I love Lost and as long as the story isn�t too derivative of the show (like Peter David�s last return to The Incredible Hulk was), I�m all for another tale about a group of people stranded on a mysterious island.

And X Isle isn�t derivative. A big part of Lost�s popularity is in figuring out the back-stories of the characters and how their lives have unknowingly intertwined long before their arrival on the island. In X Isle, the characters all know each other since they�re scientists and crew from a boat that went into the Pacific looking for live specimens of a new life form that washed up on the Hawaii shore one day. Weird things start happening on the boat: the captain�s instruments start giving incorrect information and a freak storm attacks the vessel, sinking it. The survivors make it to an uncharted island and they realize that their problems are just getting started.

Like the creators of Horrorwood, the X Isle team has created a strong mystery around an eclectic cast. Scott has a realistic, Michael Lark-like style that draws you in and makes the story believable. The only thing that seems unreal is how well Scott conveys the awesomeness of the electrical storm that sinks the boat. You can feel the energy crackling in the air as it appears on the horizon and the power of it as it hits the boat. It�s that kind of thing and the humanness of the characters that make you feel like this is all really happening and that you�re there; a part of it. And really, you can�t ask for more from a story than that.

Jack the Lantern: 1942 (Castle Rain)
Written by Michael Angelos; Illustrated by Jerry Beck
For a Free Comic Book Day offering � the kind of book that you want to use to hook new readers � this one�s not very new-reader-friendly. It�s a tiring book to read. There�s a first page that�s absolutely full of teeny-tiny text explaining what�s come before in the series, none of which is crucial information to the story that follows: an origin for one of the characters. Since it serves as back-story to the regular series, you don�t have to know everything that happens afterwards to enjoy it. Angelos (who also designed the book) would have done better to put the long summary of the ongoing series in the back of the book as supporting material, though unfortunately, that by itself wouldn�t have been enough to make this an exciting comic.

Except for a brief framing sequence, the entire origin story is told in caption boxes that are accompanied by drawings depicting various scenes from the narrative. In that sense, it�s not even a comic; it�s very cumbersome, illustrated prose. Angelos had the right idea in making this a standalone, origin issue, he just didn�t execute it very well. He tries to cram too much information into his twenty-two pages and your eyes start glazing over before you�re even halfway done. A simplified, tighter version of the story with actual dialogue would have been the way to go.

B.P.R.D.: The Universal Machine #3-4 (Dark Horse)
Written by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi; Illustrated by Guy Davis
I love the dual storyline going on through this book right now. As things get creepier and more dangerous with poor Dr. Corrigan, the rest of the team sits around at headquarters sharing origin stories. And how the characters relate the stories is every bit as important as the events they�re sharing. There�s even a Hellboy cameo in #4. This is officially the best B.P.R.D. mini-series so far.

G.I. Joe: Sigma 6 #1 (Devil�s Due)
Written by Andrew Dabb; Illustrated by Chris Lie
For a kid�s book, this is pretty good. I have to make that disclaimer, because I�m not a kid and I have problems with it. The characterization is overly simplified, there�s some unnecessary exposition, and Lie has a hard time with faces. But kids aren�t going to pick up on any of that and this is their book. It�s an exciting story that�s self-contained, but open-ended enough to make you curious about what happens in the next issue. And Lie�s people may need work, but he excels at drawing submarines and undersea bases and robots and giant sharks and a lot of other cool stuff that make this comic pay off. So, yes, it�s flawed, but it�s also very readable, even by adults. And if you�re looking for something cool to hand a ten year old, Sigma 6 is that.

Casanova #1-2 (Image)
Written by Matt Fraction; Illustrated by Gabriel B�
Most writers horde ideas like they were precious pieces of treasure. They file them away for a rainy day. You never know when the next good one�s coming along, so you store up. You save. Matt Fraction, on the other hand, seems to be recklessly putting all of his ideas in Casanova, trusting that there�ll be more where that came from. A song lyric sparks a thought? Put it in. Something on TV suggests a character trait? Put it in. It�s terribly irresponsible of him, but it�s making Casanova into an insanely imaginative book. Figure in Fraction�s irreverent sense of humor, easy narrative style, and B�s psychedelic illustrations and you�ve got perfection. And I haven�t even mentioned yet that it�s only two bucks an issue.

Death Comes to Dillinger #1 (Silent Devil)
Written by James Patrick; Illustrated by Se7enhedd
There are times when I finish a first issue and I curse to myself that I didn�t wait for the trade, because damn this is going to make a nice one. Death Comes to Dillinger is one of those times. It�s the beginning of a cool story about a version of the Wild West in which seeing the skeletal figure of personified Death isn�t uncommon. Everyone knows what it means and hopes he�s not after someone they like, but they also know that they're helpless to stop him. Well, most of them do anyway. In Death Comes to Dillinger, the father of a sick child is afraid that Death is there for his daughter and figures that he�s only got one shot (pun intended) to protect her. Patrick paces the story just right to build tension as Death rides into town, using strategic cuts in the action to keep it from ever getting boring. The art is amazing too, helped immeasurably by the colors of J.M. Ringuet. Se7enhedd�s pencils clue you in instantly on the personalities of the cast, and he also draws a Death that�s as Clint Eastwood Cool as he is eerie. Ringuet�s color palette lends just the right mood to the whole thing. I may want to wait for a trade, but I�m not going to be able to.

Witchblade #99 (Top Cow)
Written by Ron Marz; Illustrated by Adriana Melo
Things heat up as Witchblade approaches its hundredth issue. Old plot threads from early in Marz�s run are being revisited and tied off, leading up to a genuinely thrilling cliffhanger at the end of this issue. What makes it so exciting isn�t so much �how�s she getting out of this� as it is the sheer energy of Adriana Melo�s pencils (with great assistance from Mariah Benes� inks) on that last page. Mike Choi�s stuff was okay, but it was too much in the Top Cow house style and Melo�s work through the whole issue is refreshing and stunning. She reminds me of Greg Land when he was doing Sojourn and it makes me very happy to know that she�s going to be on the book for a while.