Author Archives: Phil

Soul Kiss #1 — Writer: Steven T. Seagle;  Art: Marco Cinello One of Seagle’s patented tough-but-vulnerable female leads (see: House of Secrets) makes a deal with the devil, and angsty things happen. Not bad, actually — the art is subtle and able to handle a couple of different styles effectively, and the coloring (uncredited, so I’m assuming it was Cinello too) manages to enhance the story instead of obscuring it, a seemingly-lost art these days. None of that hides the hoariness of the plot, so for me this didn’t quite make the grade, but it’s worth checking out.  Arizona gets … Continue reading →

Final Crisis #7 (of 7) — Writer: Grant Morrison;  Pencils: Doug Mahnke;  Inks: Tom Nguyen, Drew Geraci, Christian Alamy, Norm Rapmund, Rodney Ramos, Doug Mahnke and Walden Wong No big insights at the end here (at some point, I’ve got to read the whole thing in sequence), but a few small observations: (1) Mahnke turned out to be the perfect sub, and in retrospect should have been on this thing from the beginning; maybe now he’ll get the respect he deserves (and should have had after Action #775).  (2) The two issues of Superman Beyond 3D are the only “extra” … Continue reading →

Savage Dragon #144 — Writer/Artist: Erik Larsen An interesting storytelling experiment by Larsen — each panel in the story represents one scene from one day, and so the 121 panels follow just that many consecutive days in the cast’s lives (talk about your compressed narrative…).  It’s fun, and although it’s challenging to read it works: the story hangs together and everything makes sense. It’s still a derivative book, though, almost solely dependent on Silver-Age Marvel Lee-Kirby conventions (which is why it was so amusing to hear Larsen complaining that, dammit, Marvel stole his idea of having a hero meet up … Continue reading →

Superman Beyond 3D #2 (of 2) — Writer: Grant Morrison;  Pencils: Doug Mahnke;  Inks: Christian Alamy with Tom Nguyen, Drew Geraci and Derek Fridolfs This is exactly the kind of sophisticated, hyperactive superhero romp we all wanted Final Crisis to be, right done to the instructions on the 3D glasses and the wink at the end (and the metatextual insights as the secret ingredient…). For less than $10, you can get this and the first issue, and so only have to rip out one pair of the glasses. Totally worth it, and Mahnke is perfect for this stuff; he hits … Continue reading →

Captain America: Theater of War: America the Beautiful #1 — Writer: Paul Jenkins;  Art: Gary Erskine; (Second story): Writer: Dan Jurgens;  Art: Jerry Ordway Two stories with similar arcs: start in the present, then flash back to WWTT. The first is better written, one of those scared-rookie-finds-his-courage deals, set during the D-Day invasion; it’s cliched, but hits all the right beats. I’m not a big fan of Erskine’s art, but it brings a gritty realism that’s appropriate to the story. The second tale, which flashes back to the Battle of the Bulge, looks more comic-booky (almost like an inventory story), … Continue reading →