The New 52 Review: STORMWATCH #1

STORMWATCH #1
DC COMICS

WRITER: Paul Cornell
ARTIST: Miguel Sepulveda
COLORS: Allan Passalaqua
LETTERS: Rob Leigh
COVER: Miguel Sepulveda and Nathan Eyring
32pp, Color, $2.99

Stormwatch, a comic book created by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi, was originally published by Image Comics via Lee’s Wildstorm Productions. It debuted in 1993 and was part of a second wave of titles that began after the original Image Comics titles.

Stormwatch was a United Nations-sponsored superhero team that dealt with situations around the world. This comic book is best remembered for Warren Ellis’ run on the series which eventually resulted in the creation of The Authority. Stormwatch returns as part of DC Comics’ re-launch of its superhero line, “The New 52,” and the team is formerly incorporated into the DC Universe.

Stormwatch #1 (“The Dark Side” Part One) finds the team, which protects Earth from major alien threats, trying to recruit a young man known as “Apollo.” Stormwatch desperately needs his impressive powers, so they can’t take “No” for an answer. Something calling itself The Scourge of Worlds has arrived to test humanity, and Harry Tanner, the Eminence of Blades (Yep, that’s what he’s called), faces it alone.

Much of Stormwatch #1 is about back story and things to come. What does take place in the present is mostly character introductions. I can describe this as a mixture of elements of Warren Ellis and writer Paul Cornell’s delusions that he can always turn his contrivances into good ideas for a comic book. I have read very little of his work, but what I have read comes across as pretentious and desperate to be edgy and cool. This is, however, potential here. It could potentially be an adequate comic book, or it could potentially be something that dies a slow death over a two year run – say 18 to 24 issues.

As for the art, Miguel Sepulveda draws like mid-1990s Joe Benitez. Who remembers Weapon Zero? Sepulveda is not ready to draw for DC Comics, simply because his compositions show how raw and unpolished he is. Some of Sepulveda’s figure drawing is… wanting, especially when he draws a character doing something other than standing. Still, he has potential, and perhaps, he will surprise me.

The new Midnighter looks ridiculous.

C

August 31st
FLASHPOINT #5
http://ireadsyou.blogspot.com/2011/09/flashpoint-5.html
JUSTICE LEAGUE #1
http://ireadsyou.blogspot.com/2011/09/justice-league-1.html

September 7th
ACTION COMICS #1
http://ireadsyou.blogspot.com/2011/09/action-comics-1.html
DETECTIVE COMICS #1
http://ireadsyou.blogspot.com/2011/09/detective-comics-1-2011.html
HAWK AND DOVE #1
http://ireadsyou.blogspot.com/2011/09/hawk-dove-1.html

 

The New 52 Review: HAWK & DOVE #1

HAWK & DOVE #1
DC COMICS

WRITER: Sterling Gates
ARTIST: Rob Liefeld
COLORS: Matt Yackey
LETTERS: Dezi Sienty
COVER: Rob Liefeld and Hi-Fi
32pp, Color, $2.99

Hawk and Dove are comic book characters created by Steve Ditko and Steve Skeates. They debuted in Showcase #75 (1968), and starred in their own comic book, The Hawk and the Dove, which ran for six issues from 1968 to 1969.

The characters are Hank Hall, who is the Hawk, a conservative, hot-headed reactionary. His brother is Don Hall, the liberal and pacifist Dove. The Dove was killed in Crisis on Infinite Earths. In 1988, a Hawk & Dove miniseries, with pencil art by a young Rob Liefeld, introduced the new Dove, Dawn Granger.

Liefeld and the Hank and Dawn version of Hawk and Dove return in the New 52 Hawk & Dove #1. Based in Washington D.C., Hawk and Dove take on an airplane hijacking initiated by Alexander Quirk, the self-proclaimed science terrorist who wants to change politics. Quirk’s most fearsome creations are powerful zombies that prove to be difficult to beat down and keep down. Meanwhile, brewing under the surface of the main story, we learn that Dawn Granger is keeping secrets from Hank Hall (because she admits this to her boyfriend, Deadman).

After DC Comics announced that they were re-launching their superhero line “the New 52,” I started hearing that people were comparing the preview art for the new books to the initial Image Comics titles of the early 1990s. Well, the new Hawk & Dove is like a “classic” Image comic book. This is indeed a throwback comic book. Thanks to the art by Rob Liefeld, an Image Comics founder, readers who remember Liefeld’s New Mutants, X-Force, and Youngblood will have a disappointing feeling of déjà vu from Hawk & Dove. Some artists get better with age; others see their skills decline in one way or another. I have to give Liefeld credit for staying the same – for better or for worse.

Hawk & Dove #1 is not at all good, nor is it particularly bad. It is stubbornly, disgustingly, mediocre and average, but it isn’t all Liefeld’s fault, although every line of his art proudly carries the banner for rank amateurism. I’m not familiar with writer Sterling Gray, and I am disappointed that my first encounter with his work is this pedestrian effort.

C-

August 31st
FLASHPOINT #5
http://ireadsyou.blogspot.com/2011/09/flashpoint-5.html
JUSTICE LEAGUE #1
http://ireadsyou.blogspot.com/2011/09/justice-league-1.html

September 7th
ACTION COMICS #1
http://ireadsyou.blogspot.com/2011/09/action-comics-1.html
DETECTIVE COMICS #1
http://ireadsyou.blogspot.com/2011/09/detective-comics-1-2011.html

The New 52 Review: ACTION COMICS #1

ACTION COMICS #1
DC COMICS

WRITER: Grant Morrison
PENICLS: Rags Morales
INKS: Rick Bryant
COLORS: Brad Anderson
LETTERS: Patrick Brosseau
COVER: Rags Morales with Brad Anderson (Variant cover by Jim Lee, Scott Williams, and Alex Sinclair)
40pp, Color, $3.99

Launched in 1938, Action Comics was published by Detective Comics, Inc., the company that would eventually become DC Comics. Action Comics #1 (cover dated June 1938) was the comic book that introduced Superman, the first major superhero character. As part of DC Comics’ re-launch of its superhero comics line, we have a new #1 issue of Action Comics, and like the 1938 first issue, this one introduces Superman – a somewhat new Superman.

Action Comics #1 (“Versus the City of Tomorrow”) presents a young Superman. Written by Grant Morrison, Superman comes across as a trust-busting, New Deal populist willing to put his boot up the asses of rich-bitch bad guys. In fact, this Superman actually wears work boots and also blue jeans; he is a wavy-haired, Errol Flynn-as-Robin Hood, boyish Man of Steel. Pencil artist Rags Morales draws him as a farm boy dynamo who leaps, levitates, and slams into big things in such a naturalistic way.

Clark Kent, on the other hand, is Clark. He is the kind of big, tall, strong-looking guy who is as average as a glass of water. Actually, this is a good move on Morrison’s part because no other characters in the story could believe that a guy like this Clark is that strapping Superman fellow.

This issue’s story involves a poncy, privileged, rich boy-type Lex Luthor helping the U.S. military capture Superman, who (believe it or not) is public enemy number one. Of course, no one suspects that Luthor has his own plans to take into consideration and he does not care about collateral damage.

I like Grant Morrison’s retro-30s meets futurism take on Superman and his world. Rags Morales compositions are vibrant in terms of movement and staging of action in the panels, and his figure drawing is dynamic – praise Burne Hogarth. They have Action Comics off to a fine start.

A-

August 31st
FLASHPOINT #5
http://ireadsyou.blogspot.com/2011/09/flashpoint-5.html
JUSTICE LEAGUE #1
http://ireadsyou.blogspot.com/2011/09/justice-league-1.html

September 7th
DETECTIVE COMICS #1 2.99
http://ireadsyou.blogspot.com/2011/09/detective-comics-1-2011.html

The New 52 Review: DETECTIVE COMICS #1

DETECTIVE COMICS #1
DC COMICS

WRITER: Tony Salvador Daniel
PENCILS: Tony Salvador Daniel
INKS: Ryan Winn
COLORIST: Tomeu Morey
LETTERS: Jared K. Fletcher
COVER: Tony Salvador Daniel
32pp, Color, $2.99

Detective Comics #1 debuted with a March 1937 cover date, and the series is best known for Detective Comics #27 (May 1939), which featured the debut of Batman (then billed as “The Bat-Man”). DC Comics is currently re-launching their superhero comic book line, so we have a brand new Detective Comics #1.

I’ll go back into the past again – the recent past. American comic book writer and artist Tony Daniel entered mainstream comic book publishing in the mid-1990s drawing X-Force for Marvel Comics. He eventually became one of the many young creators who jumped to Image Comics in the mid to late 90s to produce their own creator-owned comic book series. I read Daniel’s The Tenth for a few years, but I eventually quit the title. Daniel obviously had the talent to create comic books, but The Tenth often showed the signs of being produced by a young, relatively inexperienced, and creatively immature writer/artist – both in terms of storytelling and art.

Daniel’s career moved forward when he began drawing the Geoff Johns-written Teen Titans, but Daniel’s professional status surged when he became the artist on Grant Morrison’s Batman. He drew the highly-popular Batman R.I.P. storyline and wrote and drew Batman: Battle for the Cowl, the primary miniseries that dealt with the aftermath of Batman R.I.P.

Now, Tony Daniel is the writer and pencil artist on the new Detective Comics #1. I can honestly say that I have not felt this excited and thrilled after reading a Batman comic book since I read Book One of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns all those years ago.

Grant Morrison’s Batman has nothing on Daniel’s Detective Comics #1

The plot is straightforward. Batman is hunting The Joker, one of the most violent and brutal interpretations of the character, one who has over 100 murders to his credit over a six year period. However, someone other than the Batman seems to be hunting the Joker, and despite Commissioner Gordon best efforts, Mayor Hady is encouraging the Gotham City Police Department to kill Batman.

Daniel does not copy The Dark Night Returns, but like Frank Miller’s seminal Batman graphic novel, Detective Comics #1 is a lean and clean interpretation of Batman and his world. Daniel composes a story that moves briskly, with sequences of violence that are both blunt and smooth, and all the action set pieces are composed with polish that belies the experience of this creator. As for the art, pieces of it resemble The Dark Night Returns – some compositions, quite a bit of the page design, and some stylistic flourishes. But I must emphasize that this is Daniel’s own thing – his Batman comic book.

Of course, this is just the first issue. Can Daniel maintain this high level for a sustained run on the series? If he can, this Detective Comics will leap over many Bat-comics and be the best ongoing Batman of the new century.

A+

August 31st

FLASHPOINT #5
http://ireadsyou.blogspot.com/2011/09/flashpoint-5.html
JUSTICE LEAGUE #1
http://ireadsyou.blogspot.com/2011/09/justice-league-1.html

Kurozakuro: Resistance

I read Kurozakuro, Vol. 6

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin.

Leroy Douresseaux on THE PIN-UP ART OF HUMORAMA

THE PIN-UP ART OF HUMORAMA
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS

WRITER/EDITOR: Alex Chun
ARTISTS: Dan DeCarlo, Jack Cole, Bill Ward, and others
COLORS/DESIGNER: Jacob Covey
INTRODUCTION: Howard Chaykin
ISBN: 978-1-56097-959-3; paperback
216pp, 2-color, $19.99 U.S.

Breezy. Cartoon Parade. Comedy. Gaze. Jest. Joker. Romp. Stare. Zip. These were once the titles of cartoon digests from Humorama.

Humorama was a New York City based line of digest-sized magazines mainly remembered for the single panel pin-up and girlie cartoons they contained. These digests also published black and white photographs of models (Bettie Page, among them) and actresses (such as Tina Louise and Julie Newmar), as well as jokes.

Humorama was a division of the publishing empire of Martin Goodman and was headed by his brother, Abe Goodman. According to journalist and pin-up cartoon connoisseur, Alex Chun, Abe Goodman was the largest buyer of cartoons in the world during the 1950s. Chun has edited several books that focused on cartoonists who plied their trade with Humorama, including The Glamour Girls of Bill Ward, The Classic Pin-Up Art of Jack Cole, and The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo.

Alex Chun’s latest volume is The Pin-Up Art of Humorama, which is a sort of “best of” collection of the pin-up cartoons found in Humorama’s various magazines. Chun’s frequent collaborator, designer extraordinaire Jacob Covey, essentially re-masters the cartoons in this book and brings them back to life by restoring the accent color (or 2-color) format in which they were originally published. Howard Chaykin (American Flagg!, Black Kiss) provides an introduction to this book that places Humorama and pin-up cartoons in general in a historical context, and he also relates them to his own life.

While it does feature work by the three Humorama cartoonists considered the most accomplished (Cole, DeCarlo, and Ward), The Pin-Up Art of Humorama also offers works by many other notable cartoonists. Readers will find cartoons by Dave Berg of MAD Magazine, illustrator Jefferson Machamer, legendary science fiction and horror cartoonist, Basil Wolverton, and Kurt Schaffenberger, the comic book artist best known for his work on such comic books as Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane during the 1950s and 1960s and Captain Marvel during the Golden and Silver Ages. Humorama also featured the work of three syndicated cartoonists who would go on to have their own newspaper comic strips: George Crenshaw (Belvedere), Bill Hoest (The Lockhorns) and Brad Anderson (Marmaduke).

I am a big admirer of Alex Chun’s efforts at bringing the single panel pin-up art of the 1950s and 60s back into print. I don’t think of his previous publications as archival efforts merely intent on bringing dusty old artifacts out of the basement of magazine publishing history. Many of the visual elements and background details featured in these cartoons have changed since the heyday of the pinup cartoons: cocktail lounges, the architecture, interior design, office furniture, clothing (men wearing suits even in casual situations), and gender roles. However, the two most important things about them have not fallen out of favor – sex and humor.

Chun and the exceptionally talented graphic designer, Jacob Covey (who has designed several of Chun’s books), get the heart of why many of these cartoons are still bawdy, funny, sexy, and even relevant when it comes to relationships between men and women – 50 to 60 years after they were first published. The pay-to-play, the gold-digging, the lust, the office politics, the spouse who is cheating or has a wandering eye are all familiar to practically any adult reader. Even those who are not fans of comics can look through this book and recognize the humor, idea, and story (of a sort). The subject matter is timeless, and in the context of American culture, perhaps universal.

This is not a fine art book. Besides, there are works of art and artists that are no longer relevant and have been reduced to being important in the history of art. The single panel pin-up cartoons in Humorama publications were not meant to be fine art, but rather to be entertainment. Yet these cartoons did not entertain by simply appealing to the prurient interests to the buyers of such publications. Readers recognized such visual cues as scantily clad women and also the men whose hearts and libidos they sent racing. The readers got the joke about the machinations of scheming female characters and knew how the minds of the male characters worked.

We still get that, and so do Alex Chun and Jacob Covey. Chun fills his collections with the best cartoons – the ones that can still delight readers, and Covey uses his lively and inventive design sense to make these old cartoons fresh and vital. With The Pin-Up Art of Humorama, Chun and Covey will once again make you believe that the art of Humorama is still alive and kicking – although the line ceased to exist decades ago.

A

http://www.fantagraphics.com/

http://www.pinupcartoongallery.com/

The following is an incomplete list of the cartoonists whose work appears in The Pin-Up Art of Humorama. I will make updates and changes to this list, either through my own research or with the help of readers:

Felix Andrews
Dave Berg
Camill
Jack Cole
George Crenshaw
Dan DeCarlo as DSD
Dick Ericson
Stan Goldberg
Paul Hamilton
Lynn Harrison
Ramon Henri
Hergo (?)
George Hess
Bill Hoest
Lowell Hoppes
Woody Kimbrell
Bill Kresse
Chet Lown
Jefferson Machamer
Manent
Vic Martin
Jim Mooney
Paul Murry
Posner Murry
Kremos (Niso Ramponi)
Ray Osrin
Don Pengelly
Louis Priscilla
Homer Provence
Stanley Rayon
Robert Q. Sale
Kurt Schaffenberger
Carl Stamwitz
Stark
Jere Sturm
Tom Sutton
Bill Ward
Bill Wenzel
Basil Wolverton

Finder: Naked Truth

I read Finder Volume 3: One Wing in the View Finder (Yaoi) (See all Manga)

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has FREE smart phone apps).