As I threatened, I’m going to talk about the comics I bought in the weekly schedule since I last wrote about them on the blog. Just because. The last time I did this was 23 July 2009, so let’s continue as if no time had passed …

Detective Comics #855
Greg Rucka is a very good writer but the art is the star here – JH Williams is on fire here. The action scenes are amazing, harking back to the style I first saw him use on Warren Ellis’ Desolation Jones, breaking down the fight scenes across double-page spreads that have flashes of the fight in mini-panels across the page. It’s stunning – even a panel of the inside of someone’s mouth to show a razor blade hidden within seems a delight. There are different styles for different aspects of the story, wonderful design elements and just page after page of brilliant pencils. I feel sorry for Cully Hamner – he’s doing some solid action comics art in The Question Second Feature, but it doesn’t compare. The Question story is nothing special – it’s Rucka using comic books to spotlight the horrific nature of people trafficking – but it’s well done and engaging.

Ignition City #4
‘Science will fuck you!’ indeed. Ignition City has got better along the way, and Warren Ellis has fun with Dr Vukovic but also managing to include a sombre moment for Bronco, the Buck Rogers analogue, explaining why he drinks all the time. Ellis also pulls a storytelling fast one so that he doesn’t reveal the secret until the final issue by cutting to an external shot when Mary Raven announces she is going to tell Vukovic what is outside Ignition City – bit of a cheat, but we’ll let him get away with it because it’s such an enjoyable mini-series. I’m still on the fence when it comes to the art – Gianluca Pagliarani is a good artist, and I like his background work and storytelling, but I don’t like his faces (with the exception of his Vukovic), which is a little distracting when the book is so character based. I’m so conflicted.