Tom Strong's Terrific Tales (Book 1)
Tom Strong'sTerrific Talesconsists of stories that spotlight Tom's family and friends, flash back to Tom's childhood on the island of Attaban Teru, and star an unrelated superheroine, Jonni Future. The stories written by Moore and centered on Tom are the solidest achievements here, and they are more playful than those inTom Strong. Moore uses the short story format (none of these exceeds a dozen pages) to spring shaggy-dog endings on us and experiment with storytelling devices (one strip is told entirely through Tom Strong trading cards). The playfulness continues in the contributions of artists atypical of the series. In a wacky strip drawn by -alternative-comics titan Jaime Hernandez (Love and Rockets), Tom's daughter sneaks out of the house for an interplanetary night out. Elsewhere,Mad's Sergio Aragones illustrates a day in the life of King Solomon that includes a melancholy zoo visit. Short stories were the norm in comics until the 1960s. Today's creators have largely lost the knack for brevity that, asTerrific Talesshows, still has its good uses.Gordon FlaggCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved