quote:Originally posted by Cobalt Kid: As a long time major Spider-Man fan, it would seem like a no-brainer for me to pick up The Black Cat miniseries (four issue) which has recently come out, but I have to admit that I wasn’t immediately on board. These days I’m just more judicious in anything Marvel and DC put out that isn’t specifically one of those characters I’m 100% committed to.
Still, what sold me at first was I thought Amanda Conner was on art; I was wrong, however, but she did do the cover, which is simply gorgeous, with perhaps the best looking Black Cat I’ve ever seen EVER and a cool logo design very reminiscent of 1960’s cinema (which I bet was encouraged by writer Jen Van Meter given her inside script, which I’ll get to shortly). The actual interior artist, however, was Javier Pulido, which is even better for me, as I consider him currently one of my favorite artists currently working in comics. In Lardy’s Roundtable thread I listed him as one of the artists I would buy a comic book specifically for his work and I meant it; his recent Spider-Man and Marvel Zombies artwork is some of the best I’ve ever seen and I even mentioned my familiarity with him stemming from his Human Target days how good I think he’s gotten before on Legion World.
So I did buy the comic and I’m thrilled that I did. I liked it so much that rather than post about it in the Spider-Man thread where it might fit, I figured it deserved a post here in the “Any Recommendations?” thread. I’ve always considered the Black Cat one of my favorites, though I believe that (A) she works best as a supporting player for Spider-Man (like the Punisher) but with the caveat (B) she works best when she’s not a love interest for Spider-Man; I think she deserves to stand out on her own more than that. She’s one of the truly great Spider-characters after the end of the Silver Age. And here, in her mini, I think she gets the best treatment she’s gotten perhaps ever, or at least certainly since the early 80’s when she co-starred with Spidey in Spectacular Spider-Man.
She’s presented here as a strong lead that is intelligent, brave and above all, having fun. There’s a quirkiness to her that makes her more than just ‘attractive thief’ since fiction is littered with those. And she stands apart from Catwoman in more than just physical appearance, which is absolutely necessary in any Black Cat appearance.
But getting back to the art for a minute, which I feel is good enough to justify anyone to buy it. Pulido fits into the category I’ve been for several months calling the more ‘cartoonish style’ that Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale have helped re-popularize as comics move away from manga. Just yesterday Lardy called it more of a Batman: the Animated Series inspired style and I think he really nailed it on the head; whatever you want to call it, I’m a big fan of it, from Mike Avon Oeming’s very sharp, quirky style to Darwyn Cooke’s masterful style and now to my two new favorite artists (both Spider-Man artists): Marcos Martin and Javier Pulido.
Pulido stands apart from the rest due to several things. First, he has a very quirky, Steve Ditko-esque style that both ‘odd’ and also funny at times. It’s obviously intentional and I like it. When the Black Cat is talking to some of her fences about ‘Russians’, she’s also landing from the ceiling and the way Pulido draws her doing it makes it look like she’s doing a Russian dance. Subtle yet hilarious. Secondly, he has a very stylized composition and way of pacing the comic like Cooke does but in a completely different way. There is a big 1960’s cinema influence. The entire ‘other burgler’ breaking into the museum sequence is very referential to the movie “To Catch a Thief”, which is a very stylized Hitchcock movie (I just watched last year). Pulido also draws a very sexy Black Cat, as well as other attractive characters, which is very pleasant on the eyes. The sequence where the Black Cat and Spider-Man are dressing post-coitus is a brief yet incredibly sexy shot that leaves most of it to the imagination. But like Steve Ditko used to do, he liters his comics with very normal looking people which many artists fail to do.
Best of all is the little things Pulido does which shows that gives the reader little easer eggs. The hotel the Black Cat meets Spider-Man at is the “Pollard Hotel” and its sign along the side is the same exact way former Spider-Man (and other things, notably Thor) artist Keith Pollard used to sign his artwork. A nice tribute. The Black Cat is in stocking later on and rather than sheer or fishnet, they are spider-webbed. You can just tell Pulido puts a tremendous amount of thought into every panel which is also reminiscent of Cooke.
Getting more towards the script itself, I think Jen Van Meter did a terrific job. I admit I don’t really recognize her name, just having seen it before in passing and thinking her name made her sound really hot (as some names do ). What is noticeable right away is she is really good at snappy dialogue that is witty, charming and advances the plot. As I say time and time again in the Spider-Man thread, when people try to force Spidey to be funny it just comes across as lame (I’m looking at you Dan Slott) but when its seemless its just brilliant (take a bow, Joe Kelly). Here, Van Meter falls into the latter and even though Spidey is only in it briefly, he has a great line I’m surprised no one ever said before after Black Cat’s luck powers accidentally make him trip: “ouch, you’re the only woman I’ve ever fallen for” (and Van Meter realizing its so obvious even has the Black Cat mention how she bets he’s held his tongue for that one). Van Meter also introduces several very likeable Black Cat supporting characters, which is something she’s always needed.
Van Meter also does a great job with giving us this story, which just works for me. It starts as a thief vs. thief story but by issue’s end we see there is a much bigger story at work tying into the mythos of Kraven the Hunter and the Chameleon and their families, which is a mythos I’m fascinated by and have always loved. She seamlessly ties it all into Russian history and the history of the black market and I’m anxious to read more about it.
All in all, this was a fantastic first issue and I can’t wait for the rest and already want to read more miniseries like this or at least have Van Meter join the Spider-Man writing team and rejoin with Pulido for it.
I recommend this comic to anyone looking for a great artist, a great ‘smaller story’, a strong yet interesting female lead and anyone who loves the later Hitchcock films. Great stuff.
I finished the series and my compliments for #1 are consistent throughout the entire thing. I highly recommend this miniseries, it was an excellent, fun little series with a great story and amazing art.
I will certainly look for Jen Van Meter in her future series and I'm already locked in to buy whatever Javier Pulido is going to be moving on to.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Ian Lad: Usagi Yojimbo, by Stan Sakai: I don't know where the story's at right now (I'm a TPB reader), but the series is consistently good. Also, most of it is self-contained stories (although there is an overall narrative), and, despite it's twenty-year history, it's quite easy to follow.
Hey Ian Lad, still around? Still reading Usagi Yojimbo? If so, I'd love to hear more!
I recently bought the $1.00 Dark Horse #1 of Usagi Yojimbo (Dark Horse is reprinting #1's for $1.00 which is a no-brainer purchase for me). I think it was the Dark Horse #1, not the actual Usagi #1, which was at another company.
You know, it was really terrific! Stan Sakai does a great job at every tidbit: art, inking, writing, pacing, characterization, providing a complete story while adding to a larger arc. I really was impressed by it.
Sakai does a great job making it friendly to younger readers yet fascinating and impressive to adults.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I just thought I'd mention, in case any of you haven't read thru all the various threads, what I feel are the last best three single issues of all the comics that I've read over the last approximately three months:
I thoroughly enjoyed all three of these books and can't recommend each of them highly enough! Click on each to read my thoughts on each individual issue, if you'd like to know more. (The write-up of Chew 15 is a little less detailed than the other two, but if you read through the thread, I think, you'll get a good flavor for it.)
I think it would be a splendid idea to recommend a book of the month here (or possibly in its own thread if that doesn't seem to redundant). We should never lose sight on how great individual issues of a title can be!
-------------------- "Suck it, depressos!"--M. Lash
From: The Underbelly of Society | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
Also always good Walking Dead, Scalped and Fables, and Flash has been very good thus far.
These are what I consider best of the best right now! All are 5 out of 5 star comics, A-rated, home runs.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I recently picked up Axe Cop by Dark Horse, which prints the stories by the brother duo of 27 year old artist Ethan Nicolle and his 6 year old brother, Malachai Nicolle . Yes, you read that right. For the full story, you’ve got to check out this story at CBR on it or this high praise. It’s a feel-good story, certainly, and you can’t help but cheer on the sheer awesomeness of it.
And you know what? After actually reading #1-2, it was really, really great! I had a huge grin on my face the entire time I was reading it and when I put it down I couldn’t wait to tell my wife. Some of it was due to knowing a 6 year old wrote it, but a lot of it was because it was just so damn entertaining. It’s surreal to the Nth degree and all done with great charm. There is no down time and that just heightens the fun. I really loved it.
I highly recommend everyone at least sample this series!
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
cleome46
or you can do the confusion 'til your head falls off
posted
Based on a preview story I got on Free Comic Book Day, I recommend The Intrepid Escape Goat by Brian Smith.
A fun, all-ages romp with art reminiscent of Bongo Comics crossed with Cartoon Network, maybe. I haven't had a chance to seek out the actual comic, but I will be doing that sometime this week.
The appearance of EG's probable "kid sidekick" near story's end was (no pun intended) priceless.
-------------------- Hey, Kids! My "Cranky and Kitschy" collage art is now viewable on flickr. Drop by and tell me that I sent you.
From: Vanity, OR | Registered: Dec 2008
| IP: Logged |
Get down to your local comic book shop and pick this issue up before they sell out. Marvel accomplishes in a single issue what DC Legacies failed to do in ten.
It's a nice and succinct overview of the different eras in Marvel's history that makes it all fit together as a coherent whole. It's narrative heavy in a way that works. It reprints tons of classic artwork by some of the industry's best. Highly recommended.
[ November 30, 2011, 10:20 PM: Message edited by: Jerry ]
-------------------- No regrets, Coyote.
From: Missouri | Registered: Oct 2003
| IP: Logged |
Whatta ya know? There's a NEW comic from BIG BANG COMICS. I feel Gary Carlson's efforts (and those of the various creators he works with) deserve all the promotion they can get. Check it out at the BB site...
quote:Originally posted by Fat Cramer: The Secret History by Jean-Pierre Pécau, various artists Volume I (Archaia Press)
There was a review for this book that called it "one of those fancy-pants European comics..." - but there wasn't anything snooty about it. It's an engrossing, complex journey through history, primarily of Europe.
The Secret History follows four immortal siblings through time. They were the only survivors from an ancient village and each one was given a runestone by their dying shaman. Two tend towards the dark side and two tend towards the good, but all are master manipulators and the battles which they provoke are not only for power but against one another. The siblings (who call themselves Archons) are not so interesting character-wise; it's the games they play which hold one's attention.
The stories progress through time, from the Egyptian era (so favoured by Archaia) through the Middle Ages, up to World War I. Pécau takes real world events and retells them to show how they were influenced, if not instigated, by the four. Some poetic licence is applied to his portrayal of real historical people, which gives them a depth of character that the four Archons lack.
A number of different artists worked on the book, which was originally published as 7 individual issues. Beautiful and highly detailed artwork throughout, and the styles are not so different as to be distracting.
It's the perfect story for a secret society, wheels-within-wheels, conspiracy buff like myself.
This was a review posted by Fat Cramer in the "Random Review Corner" thread that inspired me to purchase The Secret History in trade format, and actually in hardcover at that (I almost never buy hardcover). I thought it was so damn fantastic that it had to be upgraded to the "Any Recommendations?" thread, because this is something anyone who likes good comic books should be buying.
FC's description above lays out the storyline, and I can only add that I think the story-telling and delivery is just so spot-on fascinating and engrossing that I couldn't put the series down. I know there are additional works (in French) and I'm going to go out of my way to start looking to see if they've been translated yet--if so, I'll buy them no matter what the price.
The story combines several types of things I like: historical fiction (real events with fictional tweaks), conspiracy/secret history elements and a bit of Dungeons & Dragons type elements (though highly realistic). There is so much information that it's almost impossible to keep track of it and all that does it just leave the reader wanting more, more, more! Some things are only barely ever hinted at, and you can tell Pecau has so much more he could get to.
The four Archons, as FC mentions, aren't the most in depth characters, though they certainly have firm personalities. But the series *is* loaded with some seriously great characters. Each issue is so damn dense that by the end, you feel as if there was more characterization for some characters than in 40 issues of your local superhero story. The next issue in the trade jumps often 100+ years and you don't see those non-Immortals again, so it's amazing they all still stand out so well in my mind.
The artwork was nothing short of tremendous. Various artists handle it, some I recognize, some I don't, and each individual chapter was amazing.
This was so different and stands out so well from everything else, I've immediately recommended my brother read this immediately before anything else I've recommended him in the past.
Great, great stuff. It was mind-blowingly good and reminded me that if I look hard enough, I can find comic books that hit me in the face like a bucket of cold water and remind me there are no limits to what can be done in this medium.
I bought The Secret History Omnibus over a year ago (at the same time I bought the GDS hardcover, so my order would be large enough for free shipping) on Cramey's and Cobie's recommendations listed above. I often buy trades and stockpile them to read whenever the mood hits. Last week, I finally got to it.
I must say that I'm quite glad I purchased it! This was a sprawling, epic tale spanning a couple of milennia (and much further back in the short prologue that opens it) and features some really detailed, impressive art by a group of artists including Igor Kordey (best known as one of the artists on Grant Morrison's New X-Men run) and Goran Sudzuka (who did some guest art on Y, the Last Man).
I loved all the historical settings/eras, which included Moses's exodus of the Jews, Napoleon's conquest and the beginnings of World War I among others. I'm no historian, so some of the figures and references were over my head, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment. A lot of historical characters got the spotlight, and there were many memorable characters encountered by the four immortal siblings along the way.
Having never gotten into manga, this is really my first venture into translated foreign comics. This was certainly an impressive place to begin.
The Secret History continues to be published by Archaia Press. I've seen that a second Omnibus is already available and that there have been issues published that will likely merit at least a third. The only downside is that with it caught up to the early 20th century already, we may lose some of the exotic quality of the first volume. I definitely lament some of the eras that were skipped over and could have made for good settings. But I'll definitely be getting the next volumes at some point in the near future.
-------------------- "Suck it, depressos!"--M. Lash
From: The Underbelly of Society | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Thrilled you got this Lardy! Even more that you enjoyed it as much as I did. (Huge thanks to FC for spotting this one to begin with).
I'm with you 100% on vol 2, which I didn't realize was out already. I'll definitely buy as the quality was too good to pass up, but I hope it doesn't lose that extra something without the epic-ness of multiple eras within the sprawling history. Hell, I'd be thrilled for even just recurring detailed flashbacks like Lost.
This was my first intro to Archea as a publisher and theyre now on my radar.
Also, I totally didn't connect Sudzuka with the Y: the Last Man guest art. That's where I know him from!
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think I reviewed V. 2 somehwere around here - it covers the two world wars. Volume 3 is due in September - it appears to cover the post-war Middle East crises. There's a Volume 4 out in French, which goes up to the shooting of Pope John Paul II (no publication date yet for English). So the events covered are getting more condensed as we move into our current time.
I suppose this could just keep going on indefinitely, covering current events, but I'd like to see the series go back and fill in some of the historical gaps as well.
People I've shown these books to, who aren't into comics at all, are just entranced with the detail of the artwork. It really is a unique series.
posted
So the surprise hit of January / February for me was Prophet. I had heard the buzz surrounding it and how quality it was, and then was even more curious once I started reading some big names (e.g. Warren Ellis) really complimenting and praising it. So, checking it out for myself, I was totally blown away by how unique the series is, and how interesting and good that made it. This was a fantastic comic! And by issue’s end, I wasn’t sure if it was so much that I wanted to continue reading, or if I just felt compelled to.
Prophet is by Image Comics via Rob Liefield’s extreme studios. It was a major Image comic in the 90’s and the epitome of everything wrong with comics then; but I actually never read any of those stories and don’t really know all that much about it. And I think this relaunched series is exactly for readers like me in that regard, who have no great knowledge or love of what came before. Rob Liefield made a very smart decision in finding some creators with real indie cred and letting them just run with the concept in their own direction. Writer Brandon Graham and artist Simon Roy do exactly that and its really like nothing I’ve seen before.
Prophet takes place at some far point in the future, when the lead character John Prophet has reawakened to find a very alien Earth. And by ‘very alien’, I mean it! It’s almost impossible to describe the contents of what is within without resorting to summarizing, so I’ll just try to focus on the tone of the series. There is an incredible sense of uneasiness throughout, and I felt myself getting continually more on edge. Prophet is a true sci-fi series in every sense, but it is one of the much more visceral ones to come out in awhile. In that sense, its very much like Ridley Scott’s Alien film in that it presents the reality of the situation and shows nature at its most pure and horrifying, and especially when it something entirely unlike anything we’ve seen before. There are moments where I found myself disgusted by what I was seeing but fascinated at how it subtly made sense within a much broader picture of the world Prophet is set in.
The writing and artwork create a steady forward pace that never once alleviates the tension but also does not give you the satisfaction of bringing things to a head. So you’re left feeling anxiety and awe at what you’re seeing, much like the character John Prophet.
I’m pretty darned impressed by this issue. This is a Liefield character and he’s done a pretty bold thing in staying totally out of it; instead we get something really fresh and unique to the comics world. Like I said before, at the end of the issue, I knew I had to buy the next one. Not because I was ready to put myself through that again, but because I feel like I have to know.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
Hyperpath: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic | Subscribe To Topic
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
). What is noticeable right away is she is really good at snappy dialogue that is witty, charming and advances the plot. As I say time and time again in the Spider-Man thread, when people try to force Spidey to be funny it just comes across as lame (I’m looking at you Dan Slott) but when its seemless its just brilliant (take a bow, Joe Kelly). Here, Van Meter falls into the latter and even though Spidey is only in it briefly, he has a great line I’m surprised no one ever said before after Black Cat’s luck powers accidentally make him trip: “ouch, you’re the only woman I’ve ever fallen for” (and Van Meter realizing its so obvious even has the Black Cat mention how she bets he’s held his tongue for that one). Van Meter also introduces several very likeable Black Cat supporting characters, which is something she’s always needed.
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[LOL]](graemlins/lol.gif)
