Miles’ Book
Hawaiian Dick #4
Written by B. Clay Moore
Pencilled and inked by Scott Chantler
Colours (and back-up story) by Steven Griffin
Image Comics, 2008
Tropical locations, crime, ghosts, possible zombies, AND great art? I’m there.
The only thing I knew about Hawaiian Dick was that it nominated for an Eisner and now that I’ve read it I know I’m going to go buy everything that came before it. I need to know more about the lead up to this series. Not because I couldn’t follow the plot or anything like that, but because there are so many great little character moments that I know there must be hundreds of them that came before this — and I want to know them all.
Set in 1954, Hawaiian Dick is about a private investigator named Byrd and the colourful characters he’s surrounded himself with. He doesn’t do a lot of sleuthing or getting paid for sleuthing in this story; mostly he’s trying to figure out what to do with the ghost of a Japanese fighter pilot with the help of his friends. I guess that makes it sound like Scooby Doo, for better or for worse.
Scott Chantler’s pencils are amazin’, but his inks are really making this book work. He’s able to get a lot darker than he did on his black-and-white series Northwest Passage because this book is in colour, as funny as that might sound. There he had only white to balance out the black, here he gets a host of other colours and they are working overtime to make this book pop.
The plot was a little dense to take in, considering I’m entering out of context, but I’m assuming if I knew what was going on I’d be further on the edge of my computer chair. Regardless, the characters seem to be really interesting, and this short taste makes me want to go back and learn more about them.
The back-up story was also good and made me like two characters I didn’t get a lot from in the main story. Great package, great comic.
Isaac’s Book![](http://mondomagazine.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/9314_400x600.jpg "Note the word \\"sex\\" under Selena\'s left arm")
Catwoman #79
Written by Will Pfeifer
Penciled by David Lopez
Inked by Alvaro Lopez
DC Comics, 2008
Though I don’t normally collect Catwoman, for some reason I have the basic knowledge of what’s been going on with her for the past while, mostly that she had been shunted off to the prison planet where the Salvation Run comic series took place.
This issue, titled “The Long Road Home Part 2″ is obviously her return to Gotham, and serves as a good jumping on point to the series: readily catching everyone up on where she’s been, what had happened to her, and her motivations for the future.
The first person she contacts is Slam Bradley, her classic gumshoe style detective of a friend, who is actually in the process of a beating by some Multiple Man rip. His name is Repro, and that fact took way too long to figure out — I just had to go back and forth in the issue to see if any reference was made to his name. That’s the kind of problem you run into when you have to have such a generic guy as the villain of the piece. I know it’s all kind of part of the comic process, starting your hero off with a lower level character to face off with, building up the “real” villain for that final showdown. But this guy was pretty lame. It would have been very satisfying however, if Slam got it together and took this guy out himself.
There is an interesting idea touched on here where Catwoman had seen Batman using some of his Batman Begins-style fear tactics, and, while surprised at it, also learned a trick or two about manipulation.
I like the idea that there is a side of Batman that Catwoman could be surprised by. We audience guys are used to seeing Batman be a little off when he faces Catwoman: he’s always been just a little less cunning, a little slower when facing her. It’s interesting to see Catwoman’s response to a Batman going all out. Even though the example we’re given of an “all-out” Batman is like a watered down version of Michael Keaton’s scene with the Joker, but from the back. (“You wanna get NUTS!? Come on. Let’s get nuts.” You really have to see that to appreciate it.)
For the most part, really good art. There are a couple of blank backgrounds that I don’t like. A couple of lines for drama or something and it would be cool, but just totally blank leaves me cold. Of course the design for Repro is weak, with his red suit with the single white stripe through the middle — he looks like Guardian if he could split into multiple copies of himself.
Guardian is the Canadian flag draped leader of Alpha Flight over at Marvel Comics. Just in case you didn’t know to whom I was referring.
Love the serious guy tugging at his tie in the bottom right panel of the cover there. This does sound really interesting, have there only been 4 issues?
Based on the quick research I did to write this review, and some of the advertising in the back, this is the third Hawaiian Dick series. I think the first two were drawn by Steven Griffin, who also did this great cover.
Thanks for the positive vibes, guys. This is indeed the third HAWAIIAN DICK series. The first two were primarily drawn by Griffin, although Nick Derington stepped in and drew one issue of the second series (which Steven colored).
The first two series are available in trade, and the third will be available as a trade in August.