Another Wednesday, another pile of dead trees:
- Following Cerebus has finally made it to the shelves, and though I haven’t had more than a glance through the book, it looks like there’s lots of good information for the hardcore Cerebus fan like me that slogged through the whole damn series. There’s plenty of sample artwork inside (original art, pencil sketches, and the like), but most of it is pixelated, which loses some of the detail. Shame about that, but the mag seems to be off to a nice start. (Pal Dorian wonders if the producers of this ‘zine are going to try to pin Sim down on his “feminist-homosexual axis/female void” theories. I have doubts, myself.)
- Oh, yes, it’s another issue of everyone’s favorite comic, Identity Crisis. I didn’t see anything in this issue that’ll stir up the fandom pot like the last couple of issues have, so they’ll just have to try harder next issue. Anyway, we get some pretty nice treatments of DC’s Big Three, and, I believe, when Green Arrow is talking to his friend later in the issue, while his friend is claiming that he’s not allowed to interfere, he simulaneously lets slip a clue as to who may be behind the attacks. Nothing specific, just that maybe there’s more than one person at work here. (Or maybe Meltzer was just trying to make the friend’s reference to the murderer gender-neutral, which may be a clue in and of itself.)
- I didn’t pick up The Legend of Wild Man Fischer, as I have most of these stories already from when they appeared in Dennis Eichorn’s Real Stuff comic. But if you haven’t seen the strips, this $7.95 book is a good way to get some classic stories about this offbeat cult entertainment figure, with great art by one of my favorite cartoonists, J.R. Williams. The last page of the book is a handwritten letter from Fischer to Eichorn, and it closes out this volume on a very sad note. Looking at the scrawled, misspelled words, I sort of got the feeling that we have an alleged “street crazy” dragged into the entertainment business by people who thought they’d get a few laughs out of him, and has now found himself over his head in a business he thinks he has some influence over. A very downbeat conclusion, but still a worthwhile book to read.
- Madrox #1, written by Peter David, pretty much flew off the shelves at our store, and I’m glad to say it’s quite a well-done comic. It’s takes Jamie Madrox’s power of being able to split off duplicates of himself, and extends it to some natural conclusions. Mix in the fact that he’s attempting to be a detective, plus the return of Strong Guy, we have a comic that’s a lot of fun.
- Other new releases: Youngblood: Genesis #1 (no, I didn’t buy it…I did look at it, though…my eyes!), Terra Obscura Vol. 2 #2 (I really get a kick out of this book), JLA Secret Files 2004 (in which writer Kurt Busiek makes an obvious-in-hindsight addition to the Crime Syndicate story), Man-Thing #3 (also didn’t buy, but did glance through…I like Manny’s new look, but a Man-Thing that growls? Didn’t like it in that long-ago issue of Astonishing Tales, and I don’t like it now), and Alter Ego #40 (a customer of mine, who’s been reading this mag since the beginning, once described all the interviews in this magazine as being the same: the artist talks about (or the spouse of the now-deceased artist recalls) how he would spend all his time at home in his attic studio, pumping out page after page of art for little money, never seeing his family and drinking too much. Maybe not 100% accurate, but it made me laugh. Plus there’s always lots of great art in each issue).
In other news:
In talking with pal Ian earlier today, I suddenly had a brilliant idea: since the Freddy Vs. Jason and the Alien Vs. Predator (and, perhaps, Boa Vs. Python*) movies have had a moderate level of success, why not team up another couple of highly popular film properties? Yeah, that’s right, I’m talking Back to the Future Vs. Bill & Ted. If there’s a cinematic experience greater than Doc Brown vs. Rufus, I don’t want to know about it.
Now that I’ve seen the Sin City in motion, I’m a little less hesitant about the quality of the film…but I still have a fear that the general audience is going to be laughing at the movie, not with it. I don’t want everyone to think I’m all that down on the film, as I would like to see it…but just because comic fans think it looks good, doesn’t mean the world at large is going to see it the same way.
I’ve read next week’s issue of The Avengers, thanks to the preview copies our store receives, and were I an evil man, I’d spoil everything right here. Luckily, I’m not that evil…besides, if you’ve been paying attention, none of it should come as any surprise anyway. Heck, this is the first issue of this storyline I’ve really looked at, and I still wasn’t surprised.
