BEST OF THE WEEK
What I bought and what I thought, week of July 9
FABLES 15
Not especially well-drawn but still involving continuation of the current "Bluebeard's Revenge" storyline. You'd think that with as many Vertigo projects that artist Mike Buckingham has under his belt, he'd get his superhero-ish tendencies out of his system, but that's not the case. He approaches the material like he's trying to do an issue of Wolverine and inker Steve Leialoha, who should know better, lets him. Oh well. I'm not buying this for the art anyway...I just wish Bill Willingham could for once get a visually clever illustrator to compliment his scripts. A-
JSA 50
What we have here, basically, is a compendium of every superhero comic cliche of the last thirty years, all assembled in one convienient place for your entertainment. And it's a testament to the good will engendered by the writers in the early days of this title that I enjoyed it. If I was still 15 years old I think I would have thought this was the greatest comic I ever read. A-
I also picked up the new issue of Comic Book Artist, with an extensive look at Alan Moore and his ABC Comics line. Lots of interviews with other creators, as well, like J.H. Williams III (with several mentions of Chase) and wonder of wonders! Chris Sprouse, who I have admired for years but knew almost nothing about. I've been re-reading several books I had planned to sell on eBay, too, and am surprised to find that I'm more interested in the 1996 Helix miniseries Time Breakers now than I was when I was buying it!
