By Miles Baker, Owen K. Craig, and Tom Kerr
Tom’s Book
The Lone Ranger #7
Written by Brett Matthews
Art by Sergio Cariello
Dynamite Entertainment, 2007
Reviewing a random comic every week, besides being a neat idea in and of itself, forces one to think outside their normal box regarding what they will and won’t read. And it could be argued that the ultimate sign of this being a worthwhile pursuit would be loving a book you’d never otherwise read — so much that you decide you want to stick with it. That’s what happened to me with The Lone Ranger #7.
Where to begin reviewing a book so almost unequivocally great? If you look back at Miles’ review of Jonah Hex from a couple weeks ago, he does a great job breaking down how the comic book medium suits a western story, and this book utilizes it very well. Although I can’t help feeling a little remiss that there’s no “Hi-yo Silver, away!” in this issue (perhaps, a la “Hulk Smash,” “Avengers Assemble,” or “Go-Go-Gadget-whatever” its overuse in the series at large means it only shows up when necessary), the writing is excellent. Brett Matthews employs fewer words in the whole issue than many comics have in the first couple pages. And yet, the story is clear and there are several wonderful character moments. That’s some fine writing. Sergio Cariello’s art is also great, with a cinematic feel that captures the spirit of the western genre, and a skill for making barren plains look dynamic without being any less barren.
The real story here, however, is the colouring. It’s not often that I feel the colouring of an issue makes or breaks it, but Marcelo Pinto’s work here really stands out, using warm and cool shadings and shadow effects to make the scenes both organic and surreal, which, contrasted with the earthiness and grittiness of the wild west setting, tells an emotional story all it’s own. The shading and colouring effects are so good, in fact, that you can practically hear ambient western background music leaping from the page, and even if you didn’t read a word of the text in this issue, you’d still get a clear sense of the story (I tested this out to confirm the fact). Quite a feat for a character and story concept borne of a radio show. There’s an irony in there somewhere.
The only caveat to this being an all-out-tremendous issue is that it doesn’t really end — it just kinda stops — but even at that, I can’t wait to see what happens when it starts again. So I’ll be back next time. I’m bound to get my “Hi-yo Silver” eventually.
Miles’ Book
Will Eisner’s The Spirit #8
Written and penciled by Darwyn Cooke
Finishes by J. Bone
DC Comics, 2007
I’ll admit it — I don’t know anything about The Spirit. I know that he was Eisner’s character and I know that Eisner is a god among comics. But I haven’t read anything by him. I’m sorry.
That said, this issue was a lot of fun. I didn’t know who any of the characters were but the action kept moving and the exposition flowed so nicely that I didn’t need to know. Darwyn Cooke’s art works well with this square-jawed pulp tale. I’ve liked his style ever since reading his and Ed Brubaker’s relaunch of Catwoman, and he seems to know that it works well with noir stories. He’s also from Toronto, which makes him cool.
I love that the book doesn’t take itself too seriously. I like a tough hero who can also be incredibly goofy. It’s a fun mix. In this issue, the obscured-by-darkness villain, Mister Octopus, has an octopus-themed bomb that tickles me. I love character-themed objects, like the how the steering wheel in the Batmobile is in the shape of a bat even though only Batman and Robin are ever going to see that steering wheel.
Another thing I feel compelled to share is Cooke’s excellent two-page title spread. Each letter of the Spirit’s name is a page-length panel that recaps all the exciting action thus far: the Spirit fighting Mr. Octopus, Agent Satin parachuting into the scene, and our threat of the issue, a time bomb. Rarely is a credits page as exciting as that — heck, many comics aren’t as exciting as that page.
Owen’s (Random Archive) Book
For the next few weeks Owen is working in the small Northern Ontario town of Meaford and is not able to access a comic book store. Instead, before he left he used random.org’s random integer generator to create some random numbers. He then counted down the shelf number, comic box, and comic until he found his RANDOM ARCHIVE COMIC OF THE WEEK!
Infinity Inc. #16
Written by Roy Thomas
Art by Todd McFarlane
DC Comics, 1985
As my four-part “archive book of the week” series enters its second week I go now to the oldest book I will be reviewing. Infinity Inc. was a series from the 80s focusing on sons, daughters, and protŽgŽs of the Justice Society of America (or so says the helpful intro just inside this issue). It’s a simple enough concept, and I’m pretty well immersed in DC continuity so I didn’t expect the book to give me any trouble. I was surprised to find it a tougher read than expected. Having missed out on most comics from this era I was now exposed to what I can only assume were common stylistic aspects of comics from the time.
We open on the Infinity Inc team enjoying an engagement party for two of its members (Fury and Silver Scarab, later seen in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series and Geoff Johns’ JSA). In this case engagement party means bikini beach volleyball. Fair enough, they live in Malibu, but does bikini beach volleyball really require an “arm up, looking at the reader” shot from Jade? Apparently it does, and it isn’t the last of such shots we’re going to see. Highly sexualized shots of the cast are abound, the most ridiculous one being a completely over-the-top to the point of being hilarious bikini shot of Ted Grant’s niece (or whatever she is) Yolanda further in.
Moving on from the subject of beach volleyball, I was shocked with how unlikable the characters were. Not in a fun, Arrested Development way either. Most notable was Silver Scarab (Hector Hall) yelling at his new fiancŽ for spiking the ball too hard and ruining the volleyball net: “That’s it! You girls lose by default!” Wow, just wow. Coupled with the look on his face, this issue made him out to be a future abusive husband, which I don’t think is what the writer and artist were going for.
Speaking of the art, I was shocked to see Todd McFarlane’s name on this. I had no idea he did any penciling for DC. It’s interesting to see that his early stuff is not that notable. It’s fairly generic, run-of-the-mill 80s comic art. Although, I wonder how much of that is due to the thick, black inks covering all of his lines (Tony DeZuniga was the inker). Another thing worth noting about this issue is the layout style. Throughout the issue random pictures are placed behind panels, in between panels, on the corner of panels and so on. Things like a picture of a radio in the sky next to Fury hitting the volleyball, or a towel and a pair of sunglasses hanging off the corner of a panel as Wildcat makes his cameo. All of this might be rather cute if it weren’t for how excessive, intrusive, and confusing it all becomes, such as when a picture of Obsidian is superimposed into the background of a page. It gives the appearance that he has changed into the costume, but his alter ego is still in his bathing suit in the story. It’s a clever idea, but one that should have been handled more carefully.
I haven’t even touched on the introduction of the villain Mr. Bones and his fight with Fury. The fight was well handled, shockingly violent (in a good way, not a gratuitous way) and intense. Yet in all honesty, none of that made as much impact as the rest of the issue. When I went to write this review the first things that came to mind were the weird abusive husband vibe, the bizarre layouts, and a whole lot of beach volleyball. Perhaps this issue was an anomaly, but I was left feeling rather weirded out by the whole story. Unless someone can recommend some less creepy issues I doubt I’ll be digging through back issue bins for more.
