Reviews : Quitely, Judge Dredd, DC, etc.

Judge Dredd : the Pit - Joel Buxton has really got me into the whole Dredd universe and I'm happy to be here. I thoroughly enjoyed the Pit, it's quite the epic Dredd story I was looking for. Dredd is a stone cold badass and the character has an aura all to himself. It's no wonder Judge Dredd has so often crossed over with Batman, while personalities are quite different both are married to nothing but their mission for justice. My only complaint for the Pit is the lack of consistency in artists. It's a valid excuse to say most 2000ad books are collected shorts from 2000ad magazine or Judge Dredd Magazine leading to quite the variety of artists but it can be hard to follow who's who in the story. I guess that's all I had to say about the Pit, it's big, it's epic, go check it out. PRETTYGOODShimura - I have a new favorite character and his name is Judge-Inspector Shimura. He's part Judge Dredd, part Wolverine, part Ninja Gaiden.

I picked up this collection for the Frank Quitely art and it did not disappoint. Shimura was Quitely's first work with 2000ad and it blows my mind how amazing he was so early in his career. Quitely has art chores on the first story and another towards the end featuring Shimura's protege Inspector-Judge Inaba. Written by Robbie Morrison, this collection has many short stories with an assortment of artists. The biggest problem I had with the book is that Shimura didn't spend as much time as I would have liked in his Inspector-Judge costume before going on the lam. While there were a few stories that I didn't care for, overall, the Quitely art combined with the Simon Fraser and Colin McNeil drawn stories make me feel like I got my money's worth. I'll be looking for more Shimura. GREAT

DC Universe Legacy #8 - I'm pretty out of touch with the DC and Marvel universes so I'm not sure where or what this book is supposed to be. I wanted it because of the 8 pages New Gods story with art by Quitely. Thanks to Joel for finding it & picking up a copy for me. You're the man, Buxton!

So, 75% of the book is a recap of the Superman Returns saga and how that leads into Hal Jordan going nuts and killing Green Lantern Corps. I'm not gonna lie, as shitty and cheesy as the writing by Lein Wein is, this book really rejunvenated my love for those stories. I was in grade 5 when Superman died, so it was a pretty big deal. Now I find myself doodling the Cyborg Superman, Eradicator, Superboy (90's earrings with Fonzie jacket version), Steel, and even mullet Superman with the lame black costume.

The New Gods story? I'm not really sure what's goin' on & I don't really care. Quitely draws a mean Darkseid and Orion so I'm happy to have this book. GREAT

Reviews : Will Eisner & etc.

Will Eisner's the Dreamer : Will Eisner is simply the most brilliant comic creator there ever was. He started it all, he did it all & he did it perfectly.

Written & illustrated by Eisner, The Dreamer is a semi-autobiographical tale of the comic book boom of the early 1940's that lead to the creation of legendary super heroes we still celebrate today. Eisner uses pretty translucent code names for himself & many famous creators like Bob Kane & Jack Kirby, etc., while telling the story of the birth of the comic book & comic book business. It's absolutely BRILLIANT and everyone should read it. Will Eisner's the Name of the Game : A multi-generational story following privilege and collapse many families that ultimately intertwine in the early 1900's. You could explain the plot of this story and I would not be interested but Eisner has a way of making anything intriguing with his wonderful sequential storytelling. GREAT

Pigeons From Hell - I picked up this re-telling of Robert E. Howard's short story from 1938, because of the brilliantly illustrated cover by Nathan Fox. I did not love this story. It was neither the creepy nor grotesque horror when it tried to be and any of the characters that are killed off have little influence in shocking the reader since there is no time to even get to know them. Nathan Fox's art is unclear at times but I feel it has more to do with the coloring. The normally stellar Dave Stewart definitely dropped the ball on this series. I will hang onto my copy of this because of the Nate Fox art but I was simply not impressed. LAME

Reviews : Thanos, Infinity Gauntlet, George Perez, Ron Lim, & stuff

Thanos Quest & Infinity Gauntlet - I find it ridiculous that I haven't read the the cosmic Thanos epic before. As a kid, I was never really into the 'cosmic' stories. Sure, I loved Green Lantern & Guy Gardner but I was always more drawn to the personal, down to Earth stories. My mind has been changed. I'm totally rethinking 'cosmic'.

Thanos Quest was a little too quick for my liking.

We get to follow Thanos' journey to collect the 6 Infinity Gems in his attempt to impress Death. I really loved the characters but I thought he obtained the gems too easy. I realize that this was a limited series when it was released but I would have liked to see Thanos have a bit more trouble securing the powerful gems and becoming omnipotent. (Spoiler alert!) Just as I was really thinking Thanos was badass he has a cry at the end because Death still won't talk to him. Grow up, Thanos, ya cry baby.Now the Infinity Gauntlet was different. I suppose Marvel realised they had a big hit on their hand so they gave them a longer series to A) tell the epic story they needed and B) make more money. This story was drawn by George Perez and then Ron Lim taking over in the end. And boy does Perez knock it out of the park. I would love to see this recolored (if there is a recolored absolute kinda version someone let me know) but Infinity Gauntlet still holds up today. Thanos, Galactus, Silver Surfer, Adam Warlock, Dr. Strange, Eternity, the Living Tribunal, etc., these are great characters that have reshaped my outlook on the cosmic stories.

I loved watching Warlock and company scheme up plans to stop the deranged, all powerful Thanos. If you have love for Marvel characters and you haven't read these Thanos stories, do yourself a favor and check it. I am now gonna look into the Infinity War, Infinity Crusade, Infinity Watch (whatever the hell that is), Crisis on Infinite Earths, and I'm might even check out this Annihilation, and Green Lantern war. If anyone has any suggestions for great cosmic stories, please email me or comment because I'm down like a clown.George Perez vs Ron Lim

After borrowing Joel's Thanos books we kinda got into a little debate. Buxton is not a George Perez fan but is huge on the Lim train.

I see it like this,

I hold Perez in the same regard as I do artists like Will Eisner, Joe Madureira, Travis Charest, Moebius, Frank Quitley, Jeff Smith, Frank Cho, John Cassaday, & Bill Watterson.

While I enjoy Lim I think of him in the same category of artists like John Byrne & Tom Grummet. What I mean by this is that Ron Lim, John Byrne, & Tom Grummet (and many others but these are the 3 most prominent examples for me) are wonderful artists. I adored them as a child but they did not evolve with the times. Their style seems dated. While I'll always love their past work that affected me in grade 5, I can't really enjoy the new work these fine artists have created.

A 'complete' artist can draw anything, any angle and make it look not only amazing but accurate. A 'complete' artist is timeless.

When Joe Mad or Frank Cho draw Spiderman swinging through NY they don't go the McFarlane route of drawing two big weird diamonds for feet. They draw feet that look functional and practical. When Frank Quitely's characters hold a sword (or a mug or a remote control or anything) it looks natural, kinda like how real people hold things. Then there's the Rob Liefeld way. You know, when you draw the head first, then some gigantic sword or gigantic gun (that doesn't look like a real gun) and then, you just kinda carelessly draw in arms that might not necessarily fit, and then just draw some hands or weird fist blocks that look super awkward and throw off the entire piece.

Perez draws special effects, or smoke, for effect not to lazily cover up things he doesn't want to draw. Perez is a 'complete' artist. These guys can draw anything and it just looks......right.

Now, I don't hate Liefeld or McFarlane, like a lot of rabid comic book fans but I do acknowledge their flaws and while I really like Ron Lim art, I do the same, and I recognize that he's not a complete artist.Now, I really don't want this to sound like I'm bashing Ron Lim. I'm not, I love me some Ron Lim. He's just no George Perez.

Go read Sweet Tooth!!!

If you like comics you need to read Jeff Lemires new series Sweet Tooth. I've only read issues 1 & 3 but I love it. I've been a huge Jeff Lemire fan since I met him in 2007 at the Hobbystar Fan Appreciation event. I was instantly drawn to his style & after reading everything he's done I can say that Lemire is an amazing artist & writer. Do yourself a favor & go check out Sweet Tooth, it's BRILLIANT.

comics

I read 2 trades recently.

Death By Chocolate : Redux , by David Yurkovich - I didn't love it. to be honest, i was very put off by the art style. I just didn't think it was great. I wasn't a fan of the concept and I tried but I could not get into the art. this is one of the few Top Shelf books that I didn't love. I'll give it a rating of LAME, but that doesn't mean it's bad, it just wasn't for me. I can totally see others loving this.
RASL, by Jeff Smith volume 1 - I don't think Jeff Smith is capable of doing a book I don't love. he is such an amazing, complete artist. his visual storytelling has no flaws. I'm not even sure if the story is that good or I'm just super biased because I love the art. much like Smith's Bone, I will be buying all the RASL Jeff can put out. I hope one day I am half as good an artist as Jeff Smith is. BRILLIANT

Clutch & Comics

Here’s what I’ve been up to.

Sun Feb 24 – checked out my favourite band CLUTCH at the Phoenix Concert Theatre. They were amazing. My problem was that there are too many great Clutch songs, so I was disappointed that they didn’t get to all my fav’s. Clutch did do some great ones, if I can remember they did,
‘Promoter of Earthbound Causes’,
‘Power Player’,
‘Burning Beard’,
‘Child of the City’,
‘the Incomparable Mr. Flannery’,
‘Electric Worry’,
‘Cypress Groove’,
and they did ‘Mob goes Wild’ in their encore, because Clutch can’t come to Toronto and not sing,“Everybody move to Canada, Smoke lots of pot, Everybody move to Canada right now Here’s how we do it,Bum rush the border guard before he and his dog ever knew it”
they are no bullshit, balls out, hard fuckin’ rockers. Good show. Good fuckin’ show. If you haven’t heard of, or checked out Clutch watch this video, and tell me they don’t rock. I dare ya.



I didn’t get to the comic shop this week. In fact, I may have to take a break from buying comics. Or, er, maybe I just won’t buy so much every week. I’m gonna have to save some cash, so maybe I won’t buy a trade every time I get a stack. I guess I should get through all the trades in my ‘to read’ pile, before I get anymore new books.
Here’s some quick thoughts on stuff I’ve read in the past couple weeks,

Amazing Spiderman #550 – another solid issue. I am very happy so far with all the Brand New Day stories. I am really diggin’ Sal Larroca’s art. I think after I’ve tried all 4 new creative teams I’m gonna switch to trades. PRETTYGOOD










Fantastic Four #554 – the first issue of Millar & Hitch’s run was excellent. I know I’m gonna love this book. So far, so good. GREAT












New Avengers #38 – guest art from Michael Gaydos was some of the best I’ve seen from him. Bendis shakes things up some more. I like it. PRETTYGOOD











Omega the Unknown # 5 (of 10) – this book continues to intrigue and amaze me. This issue also has the best cover so far. BRILLIANT
















Walking Dead # 46 – WOW! I missed issue # 45 so I was gonna try not reading this but I couldn’t help it. Glad I did. I’ll keep reading, Kirkman, you got me, you always do. BRILLIANT











X-Force #1 – the story didn’t impress me, nor did the team line up. While I like Clayton Crain’s covers and pin-ups, I couldn’t follow his interiors and that doesn’t make for a good read. no more for me. LAME













Wolverine Origins (hardcovers volumes 1-3) Nothing special here. My buddy Chank kept telling me to read these, so after they sat on my book shelf for months I gave ‘em a read so I could give them back to him. I love Steve Dillon’s panel layouts and storytelling, he is easily one of the best artists in the business, but I just don’t think his style is suited for tights and capes. I love the Preacher books to death, but there is something about Dillon’s style that doesn’t mix well with spandex. I’d much rather read his stuff on a Vertigo title. My biggest problem with Daniel Ways scripts is, now that Wolverine has his memories back, he has apparently come across every modern character in his long past, and most of the time has factored into their lives quite a bit. It gets kind of old when every woman character was like a daughter to him, and every male character Wolverine either screwed over or got screwed over by them. Apparently Wolverine helped shape the lives of Nuke ( from Frank Millers Daredevil: Born Again), Black Widow, Maverick, Heather Hudson (Alpha Flight), and Jubilee. Also, he has tumbled repeatedly with Sabretooth, Siver Samurai, Cyber, and Omega Red. Now I was just flipping though volume 4 and it looks like Wolverine has had quite a past with Captain America & Bucky too. And on the last page Deadpool shows up. Now don’t get me wrong, I know that these are recurring Wolverine characters but I would like to read some cool Wolverine origin story that maybe is just a cool story about him developing and learning to use his powers without having to cross paths with a current Marvel Universe character. Or maybe even, create a new character, eh? On that note, volume 3 did feature Wolverine’s son and he was pretty cool. I would like to just get to this Romulus character that Jeph Loeb and Daniel Way have been building up to for quite some time. I have a feeling that the writers aren’t sure what to do with Romulus yet, so we are continually being teased. At this point, I don’t care anymore and I’m glad I never spent any $$$$ on this book. LAME

WinterCON report & some Comics I read

so Feb 3rd 2008 , Digital Kontent (- JohnBoy) and I got a table at the WinterCon, held by Hobbystar. thanks to James Armstrong for scoring us a table last minute.

after getting some coffee for my mild-hangover it was time to draw. i did sketches of Thor, Dr. Strange, Spiderman, Spawn, Firelord, Magneto & Sabretooth (no DC characters, huh). i'm pretty sure i did more, i just can't remember. if i did do a sketch for you , it'd be cool if you scanned it and sent it to me. prettygoodcomics@gmail.com , thanks .

Milo fucked off for almost the whole show.

'Oh my gawd, it's Andy B. ! Do me Andy! Do me!'.

Digital Kontents raffle was pretty cool though. good job Milo.

Iby was pimpin' his BAD ASS sketch book and sketchin' right along side of me. Iby and i decided that we wanna do this for a livin'. that would be super-awesome.

the best thing about the WinterCon, aside from seeing con-regulars Jason & Danny Troung, was that i was so busy drawing i didn't get to spend money on comics that i don't really need. i still have a stack from Boxing day sales that i haven't read yet. i just sat backwith Mr. Iby and made a little money selling my books and art.

Also, i met up with a dude by the name of Russell. he is a fellow artist and we seem to agree on a lot of things art and comic related. i sketched a Spawn for Russell and he sat down and sketched me this Liefeld-esque character. i am always looking for other people and artists to talk comics. Russell shows a lot of potential and seems very eager to learn and improve.

the only comics i came away with was a gift wrapped stack from Milo and i snagged a Flaming Carrot Comics #1 from the raffle prizes. score! Flaming Carrot kicks major ass!

here's some comic reviews

Ultimates 2 #2 - art is still incredible. the story is fuckin' LAME. there seems to be no overall plot, just a bunch of random scenes thrown together to show how awesome Joe Mad's art is. This book is beautiful, i may just stop reading it, but you all know i'm gonna keep buying. fuck!

Amazing Spiderman #'s 546-548 - this was the first story arc of the Brand New Day. this story was by Dan Slott and art by Steve McNiven. i gotta be honest, it wasn't the greatest Spiderman story ever, but it did feel very fresh and vibrant. At first, i was a little put off by the unmarriage of Peter & Mary Jane, but Joe Quesada ( my hero) was on to something. this is how a Spiderman book should feel. from head to toe, McNivens art is gorgeous. this book: PRETTYGOOD

Amazing Spiderman #549 - the second creative team of Marc Guggenheim (not sure if that is spelled right & i'm too lazy to check) & Sal Larroca. This book , again, feels very vibrant and fresh. i was blown away by how great Larocca has become. I've always been a fan of his but he was always working with Chris Claremont and i tried but i couldn't get through 'em. sometimes i wish Larocca had kept his more cartoony faces but his storytelling is incredible. after i read this comic i went back and just stared at the panels. wow. this book: GREAT

Daredevil #104 - continues to be GREAT

Captain America #34 - i bought this book hoping it would be worth something like #25 but it probably won't. i wasn't too impressed with the story. everyone keeps saying how good Brubakers Cap is, but i won't be buying anymore. this book: PRETTYGOOD

Astonishing X-Men #24- BRILLIANT

Super Powers #0 - this Alex Ross directed book is nothing special. i would like to read an Alex Ross story that doesn't always try to be so epic. it's like he's constantly trying to do another Marvels or Kingdom Come. how about you just pencil & paint us a goddamn mini-series that is just a good story? this book: LAME

Ex Machina volume 5 - BRILLIANT. i love this book. gets better and better.

Metamorphasis by Peter Kuper - this is an adaptation of the Franz Kafka novel. the art is mind boggling and eerie. this book really makes you feel what it is to be different from what we consider 'normal'. well done. this book: GREAT

Escapo by Paul Pope - i love this book. You can never guess what a Paul Pope is gonna be about just from looking at the cover. there is nothing like a Paul Pope experiance. the thought that goes into his storytelling and ink work is astounding. $15 well spent. this book: BRILLIANT

Flaming Carrot Comics #1 - i already have issue #2 but it doesn't matter if you read these in order. Bob Burden's Flaming Carrot is funny as hell. i love it. Flaming Carrot takes a girl on a date to his other girlfriends house. AND he wears flippers all the time , in case he has to swim. AND he has a Boloney Gun. AND he wears a cologne that smells like pie. if you don't like this book, FUCK YOU! this book: BRILLIANT

Scud: the Disposable Assassin #21 - 'Mr. Sarah Silverman Show' Rob Schrab is back to doing what he started, making comics. sometimes i can't follow the story but it is wierd, crazy and kind of awesome, so i give this book : GREAT . the best part i found in Scud#21 was inside the cover in the POOP column, Rob Schrab gives some inspirational advice that really hit home,

‘Learn from the pain of an old nerd. And take this bit of wisdom: if there’s something that you are procrastinating on, writing a book, making a movie or asking a girl out. Do it. Today. Be scared, be stupid but there is one thing you are not allowed to do : give up.

Empty your head. Empty it of all the ideas, stories, jokes, philosophies and inventions. Put it down on paper and share it. We are on this planet for such a short time; don’t hog the magic by dying with it all inside your head. Make your life extraordinary.’

- Rob Schrab 10/24/07

fuckin' A , Mr. Schrab

now here's some subway/bus sketches i've done in the past few weeks