From: heifetz!lokkur.dexter.mi.us!scs@uunet.UU.NET (Steve Simmons)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.info
Subject: Good Week Reviews, 8/30/92: Animal Man 52/Flesh And Blood 2
Summary: judas priest . . .
Date: 30 Aug 92 21:57:22 GMT
Followup-To: rec.arts.comics.misc
Organization: Inland Sea



Good Week Reviews is an irregular series, published whenever spare time
and a good batch of comics happen to converge.  This is the first time
in over a year that two good weeks have come back to back.

Editorial Comments: I *hate* when the all the followups to a review of
eight different books all get lumped under the Subject of the review
title.  Eight different threads under one subject.  Feh.  Each Good
Week Review is posted separately with the issue in the Subject line.

Rating scale: excellent, good, acceptable, poor, awful

For those wondering what `acceptable' means: I buy maybe 15 comics
a month.  IMHO, 95% of the market is *not* acceptable.  On the other
hand, the goal is `excellent'.  There are a number of other things
I enjoy besides comics, so something merely acceptable is going to
pushed aside if something really good comes up.

Comparisons: I've used MS-DOS, but didn't inhale.

=======================================================================

Animal Man 52/Flesh and Blood Part 2, "Homecoming"
Writing: Jamie Delano
Art: Steve Pugh, colors by Tatjana Wood
Cover: Brian Bolland
Ratings: Writing good/excellent, art good/excellent, overall excellent.

This my second issue of Animal Man.  Whew!  I dunno what these guys are
on, but I'm willing to inhale.  If (like me) you've been seeing praise
for this book and wondering what all the fuss was, these two issues are
a good place to start.

Spoilers ho:


Buddy is run down by a sadist who has Buddys son in two.  The sadist
("Uncle Dudley") is training the kid in that direction, and the kid
seems to be lapping it up.  Buddy's body is dead but Buddy is . . .
something else.  Delano and Pugh give us some of the most fascinating
and grotesque art I've seen in a long time.  Buddy is working his way
back to life through some of the strangest mental landscapes you've
seen in a long time -- imagine Steve Ditko's Dr. Strange stuff with
downers instead of psychedelics.  The scenes of things unravelling . .
. just great.

This sub-life is visually contrasted with some gorgeous scenery from
our world -- but with an equally dark underside.  Tatjana Wood (hey, I
knew a Tatjana Wood in L.A. in the early 70s) does a superb job
pointing this up with the colors.  The tonal contrast as you flip the
pages is tremendous.

Nonetheless there are a few things I didn't care for (hence the
good/execellent rather than just excellent).  Too many of Pugh's
characters look alike.  That's partly because his personal style is so
strong, but he can and should do a bit more.  And some of Delano's
dialog is weak.  But what the hell -- it still makes for an overall
excellent book.

Last but not least, the Brian Bolland cover is great.  It's nice to
see that the cover and interior artists are so well co-ordinated.
-- 
 "When Dexter's on the Internet, can Hell be far behind?"
		-- Steve Simmons, scs@lokkur.dexter.mi.us



--
-Hades (Brian V. Hughes) 
	    "Egads! These look like a women's fingerprints"
						   -- Durlock Holmes