Reading Rainbow

When I'm not battling with electronic compatibility issues I've been doing my best to take significant chunks out of my ever-growing reading list. Lately, I've put the big, wordy books with no pictures down in favour of some good old-fashioned comic book fun and these are some of the one's I've recently polished off accompanied by a couple of thoughts...

COMMON FOE #1 took a long-time to get back to after an abborted attempt at reading it when it came out a few weeks ago. It's a little fuzzy on the storytelling with Dzialowski doing beautiful but not exactly clear work, and the words by Giffen and Denton do little to help the problem. Still, like most Giffen books, it takes a reading or two to really let it soak in and settle so I'm not passing judgement until I see more. I like the concept so I'm around for the long-haul.

ARMY OF DARKNESS: SHOP TILL YOU DROP (DEAD) #3 was a disappointment. The first AOD mini was a nostalgic and fun trip down memory lane for EVIL DEAD fans, but this series seems to be spinning its wheels and riding on the coattails of the original. The story should be more interesting with Ash going into the future instead of the past, for a change, but it's formulaic (in a bad way) and uninspired. I'm not sure if I'll be getting the ongoing series when it premieres...well, whenever it premieres. It's not like these guys are keeping to any kind of publishing schedule.

THE AMAZON has turned out to be a real diamond in the rough. Up until a few months ago, I didn't even know this book existed. When I did stumble across it in a cheap-o bin at one of my local comic shops, I saw the Seagle and Sale credits and figured, what the heck. They were 75 cents a piece so it wasn't like I was out a bunch of cash if they sucked bananas, right? There's a little bit of an Emerald Forest vibe here except the missing person in THE AMAZON is a worker with an American lumber company rather than somoene's son. He disappears into the jungle one day prompting an investigation by a curious reporter. Not a lot happens in this story but Seagle manages to keep the readers interest for three issues. It might be a credit to Sale's artwork which is so very sweet and shows a really nice sense of layout and really sharp images to go with Seagles economical but smart text. If you like either of these guys, hunt this down. It was dated but well worth the time.

HELLBOY: THE ISLAND #1 was both a great read and a great letdown. These 2 issue mini-series' are starting to get on my nerves, not just because of their length, but because it takes Mignola 2 years to pump out 40 pages of art and story. The much commented on line about drinking with skeletons was fabulous, and the story was interesting enough to keep my curiosity piqued, I'm just frustrated with Mignola's output. The movie's been done for a while now and unless he's doing a lot of work on The Amazing Screw-On Head for Bryan Fuller, he's really got no excuse that I can think of (well, I'm maybe being a little harsh there). And, it seems, Lee Bermejo will be doing the regular HELLBOY art chores for the forseeable future.

sigh

Seems like I'll be looking to B.P.R.D. for my regular Hellboy fix. Thank God for Guy Davis.

mike