Despite being slowed by some sinus stuffiness I managed to make it over to my local comic shop and pick up three new comics:
Plus I picked up the latest issue of Back Issue. This one takes a look at Daredevil plus other “devil” characters. I’ll hit you with a review of Buffy next week. Meanwhile here is Week Twelve of my reviews of recent DC Comics.
Batman 660-662 – The first thing I have to say is about the art. Tom Mandrake drew these issues and they look a bit like Gene Colan’s art. I say that only because you hardly ever see artists influenced by Colan’s unique style.
The story by John Ostrander is nothing to write home about. It’s a straight forward fast moving story of Batman tracking down some criminals and trying to prevent their crimes.
Overall the comics didn’t make much of an impression on me but a least it looks like the creative team was trying. I’ve never found Batman to be an interesting character and there is nothing here to change my mind. But if you are a Batman fan you can do a lot worse than these three issues.
Batman/The Spirit 1 – This is a double sized one shot story and I have to admit that I only read half of it. I flipped through the second half to see what happened but my interest wasn’t held. The plot wasn’t very good as it tried to cram every Batman and Spirit villain and supporting character into the story. Actually there barely was a plot.
Darwyn Cooke is a good artist and just flipping through the book it’s damn pretty. But there is a difference between looking at and reading a comic. The problem is that he tries to do it in a Will Eisner storytelling style (the Spirit’s creator) and Cooke is just no Eisner. That’s not Cooke’s fault because Eisner is one of the all time greats but I winced at some of his storytelling choices. I think he missed the point a lot. It’s worth getting if you want a book to flip through. Just don’t read it.
Skye Runner 5-6 – Wow. Despite three pages of exposition at the beginning of issue six I have no idea what is going on in these comics. It takes place in some magical world where a bunch of people are running around doing magical things. It’s done in an American Manga style which holds no appeal for me. The storytelling and script are both choppy and hard to follow. I have no idea what the plot is or what the point is. Stay away.
Never read any Eisner? I got “Dropsie Avenue” by Eisner for Christmas. It’s a good one to start with. It’s the story of a single street in the Bronx told over the four hundred year history of said street. Different ethnic groups move in, move out, and there is boom and bust. It’s all about the people living on Dropsie Avenue.
Eisner’s post war (after he got back from WW2) Spirit stuff is truly masterful and is where he won his reputation. They’re a little dated and only eight pages each so the plots are fairly unsophisticated by today’s standards but the craftsmanship is unparalleled.
I’ve only seen a little of Darwyn Cooke’s stuff. Though I like the look of his artwork I don’t find his retro-hero subject matter very compelling. Everyone I know likes and recommends “New Frontiers” I just have zero interest in it. I prefer old comics to comics imitating old comics. Call me crazy.
I shamefully admit to having never read a Eiser comics. (I suck), but I really dig Cooke’s art and have been thinking about picking this up… too bad it doesn’t sound very good.
What’s some other good Cooke stuff? New Frontiers?