From: silbrmnd@acf3.nyu.edu (Darkmage)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: Re: Vertigo Preview
Date: 1 Jan 93 20:27:40 GMT
Organization: New York University

lis@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Elisabeth Riba) writes:

>Robert Kelly writes:
>>in short: the Veritgo Preveiw is worth 75 cents.
>Damn Straight!  I am recommending this for all my friends who have
>been considering the (now)Vertigo books.  Unfortunately, you can't
>always get that much from two page excerpts, and some of these clips
>are VERY cryptic.  

_definitely_ worth it, but how many non-vertigo readers will buy it?

>>Dani writes:

>>>Death:  A three-issue miniseries.  Don't miss this.  The art is
>>>attractive, if crowded, the scripting is pure Gaiman, and Death
>>>is acting in character.  
>>I think the woman (?) killing the pigeon is Mad Hettie a la John
>>Constantine.  I think she wants to die or to kill Death.  Looks good.
>Yes, that's Mad Hettie, and the boy is someone Death met in a garbage
>dump.  The first panel with her refers to the cover story someone else
>gave Sexton.  Incidentally, the coloring on this one really impresses
>me.  It brings back the pale, but not chalky, complexion from her
>first appearance.

Hasn't any1 read any of the interviews? :) Practically _every_ comic-
related mag had interviews w/ anyone remotely related to Sandman, and
after reading 2 or 3, you can kinda piece together the story line...
I'm not gonna give anything away, but ***SPOILER ALERT*** someone 
kidnaps Death! ***END SPOILER***.  I think the art on this is aMAZing!
Someone else mentioned that they thought it was a little crowded, but
that's what makes it work so well... (IMHO) You get to see reactions/
facial expressions/little details that just enhance the story.  And did
you see those faces?  Kew-ul!!!  The coloring is really good, but it
works best at around arms-length...  If you get to close, you can see
the color boundaries... Especially in the sunset on page 1, and 
the shading on Death's face...  BUT, it's still an excellent job.  :)


>>>Mercy:  A graphic novel about "...a spiritual entity called Mercy, 
>>>and...her impact on three very different lives".  Splash pages don't
>>>make good preview material; I haven't a clue what to make of this, either.
>>I don't think these were splash pages... I think that is the entire 
>>way the book is going to be done... bold, I must admit, but we'll see.
>>Good art.  What else has JM DeMatteis done?  I can't remember.
>Sounds similar to the Endless concept.  JM wrote the dialog for the
>earliest issues of JL/JLI, and I think he's also doing a Spider-title.

Paul Johnson also did the art in the Books of Magic; I *love* his
work!  It looks like he's going to do Mercy in a similiar style...
(BTW, any1 know what else he's done?)

>>>All told, we can expect Vertigo to send up a fair number of trial
>>>balloons over the next year or so. 
>>AGREED.. I just wish VERTIGO would do things more like Big Numbers and
>>Cages rather than staying with the 8 1/2 x 11 format... they could really do 
>>lot more.
>Well, Mercy will be a GN.  They're doing a lot of experimentation
>here, and if they want people to pick these up, a higher price would
>be prohibitive. 

Other comments on the Preview:  
  Enigma reminds me of the Phantom of the Opera (the cape, the mask...)
(did every1 notice the cracks in every reflective surface? )

  Hmmm...  The other Sandman wears a gas-mask, which vaguely resembles
_our_ Sandman's helm....  Coincidence?  Hmmmm... :)

  Kid Eternity: I missed it the first time, and it looks like i'll be
skipping it now... (unless the first 2-3 issues prove themselves better
than the preview...)  

  I think the problem with Sebastian O (besides the excessive flashes of
female flesh...) is that the art's too comic-y... The coloring's
unimaginitive, and there's too much white space...  And the dandy
himself: all he seems to do is make little speeches..  I hope that was
only for these pages; his little monologues don't really hold my
attention, and the art alone doesn't seem worth the price of the
comic...

  Black Orchid might work... Jill Thompson isn't one of my favorite
artists (her people always come off looking stiff, like a bunch of
store-window dummies...), but the story sounds cool...  (Ahh...  Mind
Control!!!  MMMMUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAHA!)
:)

  It looks like the Lord of the Dance is going to become a Hellblazer
new years tradition... :)  I can't believe John's 40, though...  :( (and
he was sooooo  cute... :)

  A question about Shade: is this his new look?  Or is it just what he
looks like without his body on...?  I think it's kind of ironic that
he's finally going mad...  

  Swamp Thing...  is having a... n existential...  crisis.  is this....
before or after.... he finds his... way home.... ? (Yes... as much as I
... like swampy.... i find his speech.... patterns... slightly
annoying...  :)

  Wow.  Morph's not the cold, distant pers... Anthropomorphic
Personification that we thought he was... ;) It was a cute story, a
chance to see the man... er, AP... at his every day work, for a change.
The art was cool, especially his dream/memories, but what happened to
Dream???  Ack!

Well, that's my $0.02.  I'm looking forward to seeing *all* of these
books when they come out, including the ones that look a little on the
lame side... (hey, ya never know... :)

>-- 
>--------------->Elisabeth Anne Riba * lis@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu<---------------
>   Do not meddle in the affairs	    |  Usenet is like Tetris for people
>   of cats, for they are subtle     |  who still remember how to read.
>   and will piss on your computer.  |	  So many newsgroups, so little time...

	-DM

--
	*here's where my .sig would be, if it was working...*

	Darkmage, Supreme Ruler of the Universe *8-)

	       (yeah, but which one...?)
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