Radiant Comics

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got 3 new comics plus 2 hard cover collections:

Buffy Season Eight – 14

American Splendor Vol 2 – 3

Delphine – 2

Jack Kirby’s OMAC: One Man Army Corps

Conan Volume 0 “Born on the Battlefield”

And now for a review of something I’ve read recently.

“The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch” by Neil Gaimen , Michael Zulli, and Todd Klein.

I must confess I’ve never been a big fan of Neil Gaimen’s writing. Not that I thought of him as a bad writer; he just never wrote anything that I found interesting. I read a little bit of his “Sandman” but it never got me hooked. The last thing I read by him was “1602” from Marvel and I though it started out well but then it let me down in the end. So I was a bit skeptical buying this book.

I have been a fan of Michael Zulli’s art and writing since that days he was doing a book called “The Puma Blues” in the late Eighties. It was Zulli’s name on the cover (and his nice illustration) that made me pick up this book. Oddly as I flipped through it in the store I wasn’t too taken with Zulli’s art. It looked a little haphazard and messy to me. But I decided to have a little faith in the man and ignore my own misgivings.

I’m glad I did because my misgiving were unfounded. This is another case of comic art that I might not be impressed with as I flip through it but is real good when actually read. Zulli’s story telling is excellent and he thoroughly captures the mood of the tale. “Messy” becomes well placed energy upon reading. The order of things isn’t apparent when flipping the pages. You have to read them.

“Miss Finch” is the story a a guy and two of his friends (a couple) who ask him to be the date of a woman who the couple knows. It’s supposed to be a night out for some dinner and a show but then they end up at this weird circus/sideshow sort of place. We are treated to the show and all sorts of odd goings on as the climax builds to the strange part of the evening that made this night so memorable to them.

This was originally a short prose story by Gaimen published elsewhere. Todd Klein both letters and adapts the script. He does a good job of both. It only runs fifty two pages for a fourteen dollar hardcover but it’s worth it. It’s a fun little story filled with wonder and imagination. I like that sort of thing.