Google Fights

Astronauts vs. Cavemen
Dave Sim vs. Jeff Smith
Watchmen vs. Squadron Supreme
pre-coordinate vs. post-coordinate
Mark Waid vs. Rich Johnston
Vampires vs. Werewolves
Inferior Five vs. Great Lakes Avengers

(Blame Lyle. And Ian.)

Quick Comic Reviews

Uncanny X-Men #456
by Chris Claremont, Alan Davis & Mark Farmer
The cover shows Wolverine fighting dinosaurs; which should be cool, right? Who wouldn't want to read a comic about Wolverine fighting dinosaurs? But Wolverine is nowhere to be found within the actual comic--just that Wolverine knock-off, X-23. But there are dinosaurs, kinda. There are these alien dinosaur people, see? (At least I think they're aliens--maybe they're just from the Savage Land...) And a group of X-Men are fighting them, and then these super-powered alien (or whatever) dinosaur people show up, and one of them is a telepath and makes Marvel Girl think that she is an alien dinosaur person, and they all fight, and... Um... Oh heck, this is just a gawdawful mess. Granted, with Davis & Farmer on art, it's a pretty-looking mess; but it's a mess all the same.
Rating: 2 (of 5)


The Amazing Spider-Man #517
by J. Michael Straczynski, Mike Deodato & Joe Pimentel, Mark Brooks & Jaime Mendoza
Many people seem to have been offended by the previous story, "Sins Past," for tarnishing their memories of a beloved character. But the current story, "Skin Deep," commits an even larger sin: it's boring. The tale of a former uber-nerd classmate of Peter's who undergoes a transformation into a villain is terribly trite and seems like it must have been done a dozen times before. If this story needed to be told at all, it could have been accomplished in one issue, not spread out over four. The art by Deodato is solid though unspectacular, and the coloring, mostly shades of brown and greys, makes for a dull-looking affair. Spider-Man should pop and zing off the page, not meander about with dull precision.
Rating: 2 (of 5)


Seven Soldiers #0
by Grant Morrison & J. H. Williams III
With a secret organization pulling the behind-the-scenes strings, The WWII-era Vigilante pulls together a group of five other wanna-be heroes to form a new Seven Soldiers of Victory in order to destroy an evil giant spider out in the desert west. Of course that only makes for six heroes, not seven, and thus things go horribly wrong. Give Morrison credit here for imbuing these new throw-away characters with enough detail and background that they feel as though they just might have been hanging around the margins of the DC Universe, and to Williams for generating a visually interesting comic that is exciting and never confusing (except in the bits where it is supposed to be). How will this all tie in to the year-long uber-story that Morrison has planned? Who knows--I'm just excited by the possibilties of the ride.
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)

Who Did Better?

Taking a look at the past weekend's box office numbers, via Box Office Mojo:

For the four day weekend there were three major releases that debuted: two, Constantine and Son of the Mask, are based on comic book properties, while the third, Because of Winn-Dixie, is a kids movie about a girl and her dog.

Over the four days, Constantine was ranked second with $33,624,407; Because of Winn-Dixie was third at $13,218,723; and Son of the Mask was fourth with $9,100,115. (The number one movie was Hitch, in its second weekend of release, with $36,731,246.)

So, it's plainly obvious that of the three movies that debuted, Constantine was the clear winner, right?

But wait, Box Office Mojo also gives us the estimated production costs for these movies: Constantine cost $100 million to make; Because of Winn-Dixie cost just $14 million; and Son of the Mask cost $84 million.

So, while Constantine took in just one third of its production costs in its opening weekend, Because of Winn-Dixie took in nearly its entire production costs.

In all likelihood, Because of Winn-Dixie will soon be in the black and making money for its studio, while Constantine will struggle to make up its production costs in its domestic theatrical release, and will have to rely on foreign receipts and the inevitable DVD sales to make a profit (if any).

(About the only thing we can say with much certainty is that Son of the Mask is a dog!)

Just some things to think about when you're looking at all the analyses on the January 2005 sales figures from Diamond...

Which Super Friends?

As part of their news item about the announcement of the upcoming release of SuperFriends - The 2nd Season on DVD, TV Shows on DVD.com try to sort out the various permutations of the Super Friends cartoon from the 70s and 80s, and the oddball way in which Warner Bros. is releasing and labeling the DVD season sets:

In 1978, the show continued, retitled as simply Superfriends. That season is the one which aired the episodes announced today for DVD release. At the same time, Challenge of the Superfriends was running adjacent to this, featuring the episodes of the Justice League of America vs. The Legion of Doom. All 16 of *those* episodes are already on DVD in Challenge of the Superfriends - The 1st Season. Since they call that "the first season" and the new title "the second season", we honestly can't tell if Warner means to ignore the 1973 Wendy/Marvin/Wonderdog installments totally.

Review: DreamWalker & Abby's Menagerie

DreamWalker: The Winter Tree #1
Abby's Menagerie #1
by Jenni Gregory with Barry Gregory
$1.50 ea. Zero One Comics

I'm not a big fan of online comics; I spend the majority of my day at work in front of a computer, so when I'm relaxing with a good book I'd rather be looking at print. But when I learned from Johanna that there was a new DreamWalker comic available only online, I overcame my resistance and decided to go for it.

DreamWalker is one of those good indy series with a spotty publishing history. It started nearly ten years ago as a self-published effort for five issues, then it moved to Caliber's ill-fated Tapestry imprint for six issues. In the wake of the Caliber implosion, DreamWalker moved over to, of all places, Avatar, where it didn't really fit in with the rest of the publisher's offerings, but Barry Gregory was affiliated with the company. (Nearly all of the back issues of DreamWalker can be ordered online at the DreamWalker Press Website, at a sale price of just 99 cents!)

The premise behind DreamWalker is simple: Karen Brinson, a bookstore clerk, discovers that she has the ability to enter other people's dreams. Her abilities are largely uncontrollable though, and as the series progresses Karen tries to learn how to better control them, while at the same time dealing with what she learns about close friends and total strangers through their dreams.

DreamWalker: The Winter Tree picks up the story where it left off, but it's a relatively slow start. The first several pages find Karen wandering in a wintery dreamscape, unsure as to whose dream she is in. Later at the bookstore, she relates her aborted attempt to meet her previously unknown father. The comic ends with Karen's mentor, Mrs. Tobias, in a dream of her own that turns into a nightmare. It's a good re-introduction to the series, but I found myself wishing that there was more. This is the first time that DreamWalker has appeared in full color, and it is employed to mixed results: the opening dream sequence looks stunning, but the scene at the bookstore looks a bit unreal. The closing scene employs the color quite well though as it subtly shifts as the true nature of Mrs. Tobias's dream reveals itself.

Since BitPass (which is required for purchase at Zero One Comics) has a minimum credit amount of $3, I also purchased and downloaded the first issue of Abby's Menagerie, another online comic from Gregory that, if I recall correctly, originally appeared a couple of years ago in a different venue. In the story, the titular Abby, a successful business woman, finds herself at a mysterious zoo that only has extinct animals. While exploring, Abby finds herself tossed through time where she observes the gradual downfall of one of the animals, the tasmanian tiger. The story gets to be a bit preachy, but there's also a good deal of substance and it serves to set up the basic premise of the series. (I don't know if the story ever continued or not...)

As for the online readng experience, it's better than most online comics offerings. Each issue is a self-contained Flash file, and you page through the comic either by using previous/next links and/or clicking on a page number. Since these comics were originally created to be read on a computer screen, each page is in landscape format, and you can easily read the text without having to zoom in.

I'm happy to get new DreamWalker material, even if it is online only, and I'll definitely purchase new issues as they become available (soon I hope!) Hopefully when "The Winter Tree" is finished it will be collected into a print edition so it can be enjoyed in a more tangible format. (And hey, I would love to see collected editions of the previous DreamWalker volumes as well--I have a feeling that digest-sized collections would do well in the current market.)

Ratings: DreamWalker: 3.5 (of 5); Abby's Menagerie: 3 (of 5)

New This Week: February 23, 2005

Based on the NCRL list for this week's comics shipping from Diamond, here are a few things to look for at the local comic shop tomorrow:

It should come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog that my Pick of the Week is Greant Morrison and J. H. Williams III's Seven Soldiers #0. Forget all that Crisis 2 hype--Seven Soldiers will be the big multi-title event from 2005 that people will be talking about ten or twenty years from now.

In other comics:

A-V & Winn-Mill have the third issue of Following Cerebus. I don't know how much longer they'll be able to keep this interesting, but heck, they've done over 70 issues of Wrapped in Plastic, their Twin Peaks magazine of fandom & criticism, so Following Cerebus ought to be good for at least a few more issues.

Abstract has a new issue of Strangers in Paradise (#71)

Antarctic has an affordable Pocket Manga edition of Ben Dunn's Heaven Sent.

Beckett has the eigth (and final?) issue of the second Ruule series, Kiss & Tell.

Dark Horse has the fourth issue of BPRD: The Dead and, just in time for Christmas, Jingle Belle #3.

DC has the third issue of the new Legion of Super-Heroes, Paul Pope in Solo #3, a new JSA collection (vol. 7: Prince of Darkness), a new Y: The Last Man (#31), Sleeper Season Two #9, and the debut of their next CMX manga title, Gals.

I Books has a collection of Don Simpson's Megaton Man.

IDW has the second issue of Grimjack: Killer Instinct.

Lost in the Dark has the final issue of Video (#5).

Marvel has the final issue of the Black Widow mini (#6), a new issue of Powers (#9), and the rather late final issue of Ultimate Nightmare (#5).

And lastly, Oni is re-releasing the second Courtney Crumrin volume, Courtney Crumrin and the Coven of Mystics; if you haven't read this yet, don't let the opportunity pass you by again!

Review: Geraniums and Bacon

Geraniums and Bacon #1-2
by Catherine Leamy
$2.00 ea. Bella Razor Press

Geraniums and Bacon is a mini comic from Cathy Leamy; issue #1 was published in 2002, and #2 was published in 2004. Each issue contains several unrelated short stories, ranging from one-page gags to pieces that last for several pages.

Issue #1 opens strong, with "Little Kid Dreams," a series of captioned single panels; and "Self-esteem," a talking-head bit. She closes the issue with "Faith Crisis," a several-page long retelling of her struggles with religion. It's the weakest part of the issue; while Leamy's religion issues are something that nearly everyone goes through (typically in one's early twenties), it's a process that is of interest to the person going through it but not really to anyone else, and she is unable to provide any new insights. To her credit, she closes the piece by relating a phone conversation with her mother that takes the piss out of the whole self-indulgent struggling.

Issue #2 is stronger than #1, providing some excellent laughs. Especially strong are the opening "Writer's Embelishment" episode, and the two-page pseudo ad for "Lysol Gay-Away". "The Dream," wherein Cathy transforms into the 'Goddess of Sex and Math,' had me laughing out loud. It's a generally stronger offering than issue #1, showing Leamy's growth as a cartoonist and storyteller.

Art-wise Leamy has an open, cartoony style that shifts around slightly depending on the mood and requirements of the story. There are very few sharp edges, except where required, giving her art a free-form look.

Leamy reminds me of a young Pam Bliss, which is high praise indeed. I expect to see continued growth from her as she refines her style and outlook and look forward to reading more.

In addition to these collections, Leamy also has a continuing mini comic series, Between the Lines, which I hope to read at some point.

Mini comics can be hard to find, but copies of Geraniums and Bacon can be purchsed online via Small Press Swapmeet.

(review copies of these materials were furnished by the creator)

Rating: 3.5 (of 5)