It’s the turn of Image comics, details seen here.
Image has come on a long way, but the promotional blurb can cause strange reactions.
Take the intro for the Bedlam GN: ‘It’s Blade meets The DaVinci Code in this bold new graphic novella!’ I really dislike the ‘Hollywood pitch’ style of description. It just cheapens the comic, even if it is appropriate. It doesn’t help that they have an exclamation mark, a personal bugbear of mine, and calling it a novella at 48 pages – are we going to start calling a double-sized issue of a normal comic a ‘novella’ now?
The Ride: Chain Reaction makes me sigh – Stelfreeze is a slick artist, with a great style and strong sense of design, but why is he slumming with this?
I wanted to mention Shadowhawk – One Shot #1 only because it has the greatest name of an artist ever: Chance Wolf. That is a brilliant name; it sounds like a superhero. The chap had no choice but to work in comics. I’m amazed nobody has used that name for a character already.
The Art of Greg Capullo HC has the most WTF? description:
“The comic artist’s artist!” Ask anyone who knows the medium and that is what they’ll tell you about GREG CAPULLO.
Really? REALLY? I haven’t seen his art since his X-Force days, so I can’t contest the point, but that last sentence seems extremely unlikely at best.
Casanova #2 – now that is a cover; even if it is a scantily clad woman, it’s a visually striking image and artistic use of colour and design that makes it art and not smut. Honest.
Girls #15 – ‘There are two types of girl. Naked. And not quite as naked. Issue supplied with free tissues.’ It might as well have that as the blurb … I mean, come on. And people wonder why comics have a bad name.
Special mention to Mike Hawthorn’s Hysteria: One Man Gang, not just for having great gang names (The Giant Midgets and God’s Thugs), but for the subtle insertion of a phrase from one of my favourite films, Enter The Dragon: in it, the way that Han delivers the words ‘I look forward to a tournament of truly epic proportions’ (‘troo-lee epp-ik pro-por-shuns’, including the pauses) has always stuck in my head, so seeing it here brings a smile to my face.
Witchblade makes it to issue 100? Wow. Just … wow. How did that happen? Is it because there was a television series? I’m staggered. And this cover; how disturbing is it? Or is it just me? It’s just freaky – the biologically unnatural breasts, the impossible buttocks, the spine twisting, the creepiness of the character on the right. I stare at it and can’t believe what I’m seeing; it’s hypnotic in its awfulness …
I’ve just noticed; all these covers show women in various states of undress; does that suggest something about me?
Final mention goes to the Witchblade Compendium Edition: 1248 pages of full colour for $49.99. I may not care for the material, but that’s one hell of a bargain – 50 issues in one enormous book.
