The Savage Critic: July
23rd 2003
By Brian Hibbs
Welcome
back, my friends, to the show that never ends...
...but
it occasionally goes on vacation.
Yah,
it’s another one of THOSE weeks. But, dude, bear with me, I’m still
trying to catch up from San Diego. That shit melts your brain, and punches
huge holes in the time schedule.
Plus,
comics were actually pretty mediocre this week – I actually didn’t take
home a single comic book this week for my personal collection (though
there are a few trades), which hasn’t ever happened in my recent memory.
There
were a few books I’m Waiting On The Trade for (X-Statix, Terra Obscura,
Crossovers, BPRD), and a couple of books I liked, but don’t Expect
to Want to Reread Them Someday (Puffed #1 was funny if
slight; How Loathsome #3 had a mediocre first story, but a really
wonderful second one), but nothing in periodical form that I took home
for me.
Conversely,
there wasn’t really anything that stand out stunk either – really, this
would have just been a week of “Ehs” and those aren’t any fun
for me to write, or for you to read.
Also,
this week/end I had to get Onomatopoeia done, submit my new Previews
order, and get working on August’s subs. I’m kinda comics’d out.
(There
were, however, a LOT of good TPs this week – so you can feel free to
skip down to that section)
Really,
the only thing I feel COMPELLED to comment on this week is Blankets
by Craig Thompson: I have to say that I liked it a lot, and it deserves
a good measure of the praise it has been receiving, but it did feel
a bit bloated to me – I think 50 or so pages could have been culled
and no one would have noticed. In fact, it almost felt to me like he
had three different stories he wanted to tell, but they had just enough
intersection that he decided to make it one big story – this deflected
some of the feeling from each part for me. Don’t get me wrong – it’s
very good work, and definitely worth your coin, but it’s not the second
coming as some have tried to portray it as, and it’s probably not quite
worthy as some of the cover quotes make it sound. Good
Anyway,
come back next week, and I’ll be back for real. Just need a little more
recharge time.
Oh,
and for the 8 or so of you that care, last Monday I started in on the
third draft of the novel – Paul McEnery was kind enough to give me a
structure-based read through, and I think that’s enough for me to iron
out some of the problems with it and resubmit it to the agent (who said
I was “almost there”) and get the damn thing published.
Since
Paul gave me a 7-act structure, I’m shooting for being done within 7
weeks. Part One is complete as I write this. Wish me luck. (or doom,
depending on how you feel)
For
Sake of Completeness, here’s a list of all of the OTHER comics that
CE got in this week, that I did NOT read (and, therefore, am unlikely
to review!). Note, that in most cases this is limited to 1) Manga, which
I try to read as it is collected; 2) “Kids” comics like most of the
Archies; 3) titles that were subs-only, either by design or accident
[this can include being shorted by Diamond as well]; 4) Porno [oh, like
you need me to REVIEW it!], 5) Things that looked SO bad on the racks
that I didn’t bother, and 6) stuff that I’ve assessed before, and I
care so little about that I don’t want to waste my time reading anymore.
You decide which is which. There’s also the occasional “whoops we forgot
it!” in here as well...
AMERICAN
CENTURY #26
ARCHIE AND FRIENDS #73
ARCHIE DIGEST #200
ARTESIA AFIRE #2
ASSASSIN SCHOOL #1
BARBARIENNE #5
BATGIRL #42
BETTY #128
BIRDS OF PREY #57
BLACK PANTHER #62
BONEYARD #11
BTVS #59
CARTOON CARTOONS #20
CASUAL SEX #1
CROSSOVERS #7
CRUX #28
DOGWITCH #6
EYE OF THE STORM ANNUAL
FANTASTIC FOUR #500 (#71) DIRECTORS CUT ED
FOOTLICKER #3
FUTURAMA COMICS #14
GI JOE #19
GI JOE FRONTLINE #9
GI JOE TRANSFORMERS #2
GROWING UP ENCHANTED #4
HELL #1
HELLBOY BPRD DARK WATERS ONE SHOT
HOW LOATHSOME #3
HULK NIGHTMERICA #2
INCREDIBLE HULK #58
INHUMANS #3
INVINCIBLE #5
JLA SCARY MONSTERS #5
LEGACY #2
LENORE #10
LOVE & ROCKETS VOL 2 #8
LUBA #7
LUCIFER #40
LUFTWAFFE 1946 #11
MBLEH #1
MENAGE A TROIS #3
MOONLIGHT CUTTER VOL 2 SILK &SPEAR
MYSTIQUE #4
OUTSIDERS #2
PARADIGM #10
PUFFED QUITELY CVR #1
PVP #3
RAVEN #1
ROBIN #116
ROUTE 666 #14
SCION #38
SOLUS #5
STAR WARS EMPIRE #10
STARTLING STORIES THING NIGHTFALLS ON YANCY ST #3
STRANGE KILLINGS STRONG MEDICINE #1
SUPERMAN #195
TERMINATOR 3 BEFORE THE RISE #2
TERRA OBSCURA #2
THREE STRIKES #3
TOKYO STORM WARNING #2
TROUBLE #1 SECOND CHANCES EDITION
UNCLE SCROOGE #320
USAGI YOJIMBO #68
VAMPI VICIOUS #1
VENOM #3
WALT DISNEYS COMICS & STORIES#635
WILDCATS VERSION 3.0 #12
WONDER WOMAN #194
X-MEN UNLIMITED #50
X-STATIX #11
And,
for even MORE completeness sake, here’s a list of books, TPBs, GNs,
magazines, and other things that CE got this week. I generally haven’t
read any of this by the time I post these reviews. Though I generally
attempt to give at least one recommendation amongst the TPBs each week,
since I HAVE read the material at SOME point.
2000
AD #1345
2000 AD #1346
ALIENZKIN GN
AMERICAN GEISHA ART OF OLIVIAHC
BATMAN DARK KNIGHT ARCHIVES VOL 4 HC
BIRD VOL 2 THE MASK
BLACK IMAGES IN THE COMICS SC
BLANKETS GN
BOY VAMPIRE GN
CAIN GN
CBLDF SPX 2003 TRAVEL GN
COMIC BOOK MARKETPLACE #103 DISNEY
COMICS JOURNAL #254
COMICS JOURNAL LIBRARY VOL 2 FRANK MILLER TP
CONFIDENTIAL CONFESSIONS VOL 1 GN
FABLES VOL 2 ANIMAL FARM TP
FINDER TP VOL 5 DREAM SEQUENCE
FIST OF NORTH STAR MASTER ED VOL 5 GN
HOUSEWIVES AT PLAY KING SIZEDSP
HR GIGER 12 MONTH 2004 WALL CALENDAR
HTDM MORE ABOUT PRETTY GALS
INCREDIBLE HULK VOL 4 ABOMINABLE TP
INES THE PNEUMATIC GIRL
JANES WORLD VOL 1 TP
JIMMY OLSEN ADVENTURES BY JACK KIRBY TP
KOLCHAK NIGHT STALKER DEVIL IN THE DETAILS GN
MANHATTAN BEACH 1957 GN
NINE OF ONE WINDOW ON THE WORLD GN
PREVIEWS VOL XIII #8
QUIMBY THE MOUSE HC
ROBOTECH THE MACROSS SAGA VOL3 TP
SFX #106
SLEEP LITTLE GIRL GN
TERATOID HEIGHTS GN
THE CHANGERS VOL 1 GN
TWISTED TOYFARE THEATRE VOL 3TP
UNLIKELY GN
WEASEL VOL 1 RIPPLE PREDILECTION FOR TINA TP
WRITE NOW #5
YEAST HOIST GN
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