Drawn Together book two & Holly G! Picture This ~ Two art books from Jim Balent and Holly G, makers of Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose - Drawn Together is a convention sketchbook that was offered for sale on Balent's website, that just happened to turn up in the mail today, while Picture This was solicited in Previews the usual way. Drawn Together features sketches from both Jim and Holly, the former in his realistic style, occasionally venturing into comic book stylisation for extra oomph, the latter in her animation-esque style, ranging from chibi (I'm told that's what it's called - those super-cute stylised Japanese animated figures) to somewhat more realistic, but still very cartoony and cute, work. There are 32 pages of sketches (plus cute self-portraits on the introduction page), with four pages of colour, the rest generally inked from Holly and pencilled from Jim. The subjects range from their usual fantasy fare of fairies and demons (very sexy ones) and the like, including established Tarot characters and original ones, an adorable pair of inked pages from Holly of Tarot and Raven Hex having swapped costumes for Halloween, a little Harry Potter, some of Holly's 'School Bites', a few big name superheroines, and (both being fans) several pages of Star Wars, including an adorable Slave Leia in colour from Holly, and a nude Aayla Secura from Balent, which is the stuff of fanboy dreams (what? Don't pretend it's not true).
Picture This is a portfolio of photographs taken by Jim with Holly modelling, 32 pages plus covers and inside covers. Holly models a variety of looks, including traditional pin-up lingerie, pirates, a little fetishwear, a Tarot costume, and - yup - Star Wars, with Holly wielding one of those super-accurate lightsaber replicas and decked out in a Jedi-esque hooded robe. All the photos are titillating at the very least - many go so far as nudity, but nothing explicit is shown - and Holly does a fine job modelling, with none of the bored expressions you see on supermodels these days (whose bright idea was that, anyway?), and a lot of vivacity and playfulness on show. And purely from a physical point of view, she's one fine looking woman - fit but curvy, and understandably proud of how she looks.
Guardians of the Galaxy #4 ~ The space opera goodness continues - if you haven't read the first three issues (for instance, if you picked this up because it's got 'Secret Invasion' on the cover) this one may be a bit inaccessible, since it leans fairly heavily on established plotlines. Major Victory may be especially confusing to newcomers, but then, he's still a bit confusing to everyone. Speaking of the Secret Invasion branding, we're still to see whether this is really a proper tie-in - is most definitely involves Skrulls (the new, upgraded, undetectable ones), and general paranoia and mistrust, but thus far we haven't seen any link to the invasion of Earth, and that's what the 'Secret Invasion' is, after all. If this is just a 'thematic tie-in', I imagine some readers may be a bit miffed about that - me, I'm not too fussed, but I can see how it'd be an issue. Then again, I'm happy for this title to remain in its own corner of the galaxy, and not get too tied up in what Earth's doing, so I guess from that point of view I should be happy. That aside, I'm glad to see more of the 'society' of Knowhere being revealed, making it a richer environment for the team to operate in, although I have to admit, I'm starting to wonder if Cosmo knows any exclamations besides "Bozhe Moi!" - I get that there's not a lot of Russian swear words that Americans would recognise, but varying his vocabulary a little bit would be a nice touch, he's starting to get a bit repetetive and come off as a 'writer's fake Russian' rather than the real deal.
Birds of Prey #121 ~ Yup, it's the Joker. Coming on the heels of The Dark Knight, the Joker's appearance here has a tough road to measure up - luckily, there's some ingenuity to him, rather than just the standard laughing and lame jokes. Bringing the Joker into Oracle's title is a bold move - it remains for future issues to show whether this storyline will have the raw power it really deserves to have. Joker aside, there's not a lot of the Birds in this issue - some bickering among the team, but most of the rest of the pages are devoted to Misfit, who's having the standard tough time fitting in at the school Oracle's enrolled her in. I've mentioned my general apathy for high school teenager storylines before - maybe it's just how they're portrayed in the media, or maybe I was just lucky and went to an awesome school (International Grammer School, Sydney, if you're curious - kind of a rebel school in my days, though it's become pretty normal nowadays I hear), but American high schools seem to be utter nightmares populated by teenage psychotics that no-one in their right mind would really want their child to be anywhere near. There's some of that here, which makes it a bit difficult to care - it's like a story set in an asylum, it has to be exception to really matter that everyone's a nut - but on the up side, it ties into the main story in several ways, rather than just being 'Misfit's high school adventure'.
Anna Mercury #3 ~ Anna's mission wraps up this issue, with a fairly spectacular sequence, but not a whole lot else. It's kind of a 'super-agent procedural' - Anna does a typically action-packed James-Bond-plus-sci-fi job, the sequence peppered by neatly delivered chatter between her and Launchpad that helps ground it in a kind of realism (even if it is a very strange kind), but the story isn't really about her as a person - it's about showing what her job is, and what steps she takes to accomplish it. Exciting and eye-catching, of course - and there's a nice silent sequence in the tail that humanises her a bit - but after 22 pages (plus the previous issue) Anna is still pretty generic as a character. There's potential for her to develop into something far more interesting - obvious potential, put there by the author on purpose - but so far, it's not really happening. The art is capable of delivering the necessary spectacle and excitement, but I think special notice should go to the colourist, Paul Duffield, for making the visuals really stand out from the crowd.
Gearz #3 ~ Having said I don't like high school stories (in the Birds of Prey review above, in case you're skipping some), my current exception to that rule continues on its kooky way this week. Karen still has her three robot bodyguards following her every move, but more importantly - to her - she's also got a robot boy interested in her, albeit one with a split personality that's half sweet guy, half maniacal death machine programmed to take out the Brady Bots. There's also schoolteachers giving themselves superpowers for dubious reasons, and an Elite Death Squad - it's a busy comic. It's all a bit crazy, but it's basically just a story about a girl, with all the sci-fi shenanigans just being extra-strange versions of the usual pressures and situations that crop up in a teenager's life; Karen's desire to somehow help the Bots in their battles, rather than just be a passive bystander, and her glum acknowledgement of the fact that almost all the popularity she's enjoying is because of them, not her, and especially poignant. The art continues eccentric but exciting, with a striking page part-way through that uses what looks like mixed media (watercolour effects at least, I think) to stand apart at a key moment in the story. The comic concludes with the next issue; right now, I'm glad I've stuck with it.
Batgirl #2 ~ Speaking of the obligatory heroes-fight-each-other, which I was in the X-Factor review (which is actually just below, but I write these in the order I read them, not necessarily the order I put the titles on the page at the beginning of the day), Batgirl and Marque - the unknown girl who showed up at the end of last issue - get theirs here; fortunately it doesn't drag on for too long, because there's really only so long you can see characters trying to beat each other up because one of both of them is too dumb to stop. Cassandra Cain's story is still all kinds of mired in its background, but luckily she does get two stand-out scenes this issue - one between her and Oracle, which shows some interesting insight into her character, and the other where a guy asks her out, which is kind of cute in the way it affects her. I actually wish there were more of that, and less of the grim assassin stuff - grim assassins are ten a penny, and actual people are far more interesting. I can't say I'm really enjoying this a great deal, but so far I'm interested enough to get the next issue - we'll see how that one fares.
X-Factor #34 ~ I still can't stand the art here, let's get that out of the way - half the time the women look like half-hearted cross-dressers, and Madrox's face looks like it's just stretched over his skull. Okay, that's done. The X-Factor/She-Hulk crossover now goes beyond the obligatory heroes-fight-each-other stage, and both sets - X-Factor and Shulkie and Jazinda - set about the business of taking down the Skrull Talisman. The big fight is fairly well executed, but the real strength of this issue is in Madrox's narration, which his highly insightful on She-Hulk's situation and motivation - someone (like myself) reading this solely for She-Hulk won't be disappointed.
Hack/Slash #15 ~ Hack/Slash is full of love for slasher movies, and while series like Nightmare on Elm St and Friday the 13th may be better known, personally I think you have to go a long way to find a more entertaining example of the genre than Re-Animator, so a crossover between those movies and this comic is a tempting prospect. All the traditional Hack/Slash elements are here - the well-crafted characters, the subtlety and humour in their dialogue, the ongoing subplots - and the primary plotline is woven into Re-Animator, in the person of its hero/villain Dr. Herbert West, quite elegantly. But what Re-Animator is really about, for me, is Jeffrey Combs, who plays West - the man is a genius at being creepy and intriguing at the same time, and West is a minor masterpiece. So this issue's best quality is that, in every line of dialogue and narration West has, I could clearly hear Combs's voice, while Emily Stone (with Mark Englert colouring) does a good job of reproducing Combs's appearance, and even his 'acting' in the visuals of West. It makes for an enormously enjoyable issue, faithful to both Hack/Slash and West's presence, and if it encourages readers to go check out the movies, all the better.
