Seven days behind.
*Only time for very short review snips today because oh boy this weekend is out to get me, oh forgive me my sins oh lord oh lord...
*Luckily, there’s not all that much to say about something like Jonah Hex #13 (which actually came out last week), save for the fact that Jordi Bernet’s art adds a real sense of class to the proceedings, enough so that one can almost look at the stunning banality of Justin Gray’s and Jimmy Palmiotti’s “Shocking” origin for the title character as an invocation of every primal saga of a soldier captured, tortured, and left to die, only to rise and bring death and trouble wherever he goes as a living figure of legend. But no, the clichés pile up too fast - this is merely a big heap of predictability, albeit a very nice-looking, crisply-flowing one. There are two issues left in the storyline, mind you, and maybe Palmiotti and Gray have some tricks up their sleeves, but this chapter isn’t much of an encouragement to come back and see.
*Meanwhile, over in American Splendor #3 (of 4), we have a number of good artists providing work that doesn’t quite snap as much as the best contributions of the prior two issues, which does sap the book’s energy. The best of the lot are probably reliable Dean Haspiel’s latest effort, illustrating another tale of writer Harvey Pekar’s youth, a dark one in which he discovers the pleasure of hurting others, even accidentally. As is his wont, Pekar cuts off the story with a sort of trailing off of thoughts rather than a punch or a sense of finality, probably to enhance the unadorned realism of his approach. I don’t know what he thought of the issue’s second best story, in which Hunt Emerson blasts through three pages of cartoon vigor, essentially transforming the whole thing into an energetic gag short. I was glad for the energy, especially after a set of especially wandering bits on criticism, sickness, and Regionalism. A good object lesson on how individual art styles can imbue stories with tones unique from the writer -- I’d really like to see some sort of special feature with different artists illustrating the same unassuming Harvey Pekar script -- but kind of sleepy as a comic this time around.
*Luckily, there’s not all that much to say about something like Jonah Hex #13 (which actually came out last week), save for the fact that Jordi Bernet’s art adds a real sense of class to the proceedings, enough so that one can almost look at the stunning banality of Justin Gray’s and Jimmy Palmiotti’s “Shocking” origin for the title character as an invocation of every primal saga of a soldier captured, tortured, and left to die, only to rise and bring death and trouble wherever he goes as a living figure of legend. But no, the clichés pile up too fast - this is merely a big heap of predictability, albeit a very nice-looking, crisply-flowing one. There are two issues left in the storyline, mind you, and maybe Palmiotti and Gray have some tricks up their sleeves, but this chapter isn’t much of an encouragement to come back and see.
*Meanwhile, over in American Splendor #3 (of 4), we have a number of good artists providing work that doesn’t quite snap as much as the best contributions of the prior two issues, which does sap the book’s energy. The best of the lot are probably reliable Dean Haspiel’s latest effort, illustrating another tale of writer Harvey Pekar’s youth, a dark one in which he discovers the pleasure of hurting others, even accidentally. As is his wont, Pekar cuts off the story with a sort of trailing off of thoughts rather than a punch or a sense of finality, probably to enhance the unadorned realism of his approach. I don’t know what he thought of the issue’s second best story, in which Hunt Emerson blasts through three pages of cartoon vigor, essentially transforming the whole thing into an energetic gag short. I was glad for the energy, especially after a set of especially wandering bits on criticism, sickness, and Regionalism. A good object lesson on how individual art styles can imbue stories with tones unique from the writer -- I’d really like to see some sort of special feature with different artists illustrating the same unassuming Harvey Pekar script -- but kind of sleepy as a comic this time around.
posted by Jog at 11:59 PM
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