From reviews@lists.zumcomics.info Mon Mar 1 22:05:08 2004 From: reviews@lists.zumcomics.info (reviews@lists.zumcomics.info) Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2004 22:05:08 +0000 Subject: [review] [ZUM!] Louis: Lost on the Moore, Round The World Rug Race Message-ID: review by Mardou Louis: Lost on the Moore, Round The World Rug Race Two stories of Louis by Metaphrog. The first, 'Lost on the Moore' finds Louis stumbled into a dream landscape reverie after buying a jar of strange bibliophile worms. It's Alan Moore-esque and weirdly wordy by intention but the story doesn't do very much. I'm guessing it would have more impact or at least raise a wry chuckle, in its original context (Alan Moore -Portrait of an Extraordinary gentleman) than it does here. As a story, the charm is dolloped on but it's still not much more than an exercise in vague cleverness. 'The Round the World Rug Race' is much more satisfying. Louis and his (mechanical?) pet, FC are plunged into a Herge-worthy minaret studded landscape, searching for the start of the Rug Race in their hot air balloon. As they scratch away at the mystery of their intended quest , the narrative is rudely interrupted by two gleeful plotters, you guess something's decidedly fishy about the affair. Ultimately Louis is duped into a sugar-death filled mall trolley dash and his dreams of hot air balloons and adventure fizzle into wistfulness. It's well-written and beautifully drawn. If you're a fan of Metaphrog this wont disappoint but personally I'm left with the feeling that I'm missing something. Louis for all his supposed lovable-ness leaves me a little cold. He's a little too featureless and blob-like to really tug at my cute strings. It's a problem for me as a reader, whereas with Tin-Tin its more cut and dried. Herge's eye for the void makes Tin-Tin an empty vessel for adventures and it's aimed squarely at children. Metaphrog seem to deliberately veer to the realm of the undefined. Is Louis for children? Judging by the adult route's they're taking (Alan Moore, SPX) I don't think so. As it is Louis comes across as something like a private joke by his creators and that makes me feel a little uncomfortable as a reader. Or is it just me? For more info please see: http://www.zumcomics.info/l/louismoorerug.html From reviews@lists.zumcomics.info Fri Mar 19 21:34:45 2004 From: reviews@lists.zumcomics.info (reviews@lists.zumcomics.info) Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 21:34:45 +0000 Subject: [review] [TRS] In the Doghouse Message-ID: In the Doghouse Posted by Mardou 'In the Doghouse' by PD at first glance struck me as being done by one of those people who really can't draw and so learn to draw just one thing, as their 'party piece'. It's usually a drawing of a cartoon dog playing the piano, or something like that. Happily 'In the Doghouse' isn't like that at all I discovered. Whilst the 'broken' strips that largely make up this 'zine, do fall under that catagory, the other story featured here 'Xilian' is actually very lovely to look at. Beautifully rendered in pencil and cross-hatching it begins the story of a suicidal young tyke who's attempted self lynching is thwarted by the arrival of a crashing space pod. No more is really given that that but this chapterlet is so nicely done, I'm curious to see how the rest of the tale unfolds. Artist/writer PD has a talent for quirky and unusual layouts that allow the reader's eye to meander across the page rather than follow stories in a traditional panel-to-panel fashion. It's early days and there's plenty I wasn't too crazy about, too much filler for one thing. There's 2 pages of Viz-style advert parodies which I wouldn't necessarily mind if, like the Viz ones, they were actually funny. They're not unfortunately and they give an otherwise muted and endearing comic, an annoying Rag Week vibe. But at a 70p cover price, the minus points are minor ones. A brief but pleasing read. For more info, see: http://www.bugpowder.com/trs2/005281.html From reviews@lists.zumcomics.info Fri Mar 19 21:36:45 2004 From: reviews@lists.zumcomics.info (reviews@lists.zumcomics.info) Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 21:36:45 +0000 Subject: [review] [TRS] Shooting Star Comics Anthology #3 Message-ID: Shooting Star Comics Anthology #3 Posted by Mardou Shooting Star Comics Anthology is an American publication with contributors from all over the English speaking world and boy is it 'dynamic'! Having a long-time predilection for all things 'sluggish' this really wasn't my cup of latte at all, but oh well, here goesŠ First out of the bag of verbose and windy titles is an 'Aym Geronimo and the Post-Modern Pioneers' story called 'Aym got Game'. Creators J. Morgan Neal and Todd Fox deliver a breezy, let's introduce all the characters, slick from the lip kind of story that doesn't do very much other than feature action and bad guys and snappy one liners. Y'know, popular stuff. Continuing in the popular vein, I almost choked on my skinny-soy mochaccino as I at first thought that the indie doyen, Jessica Abel had been given a makeover by creators Jon Hook and Sinclair Elliot (like that horrific moment when you see Ally Sheedy preppied up by Molly Ringwald in 'The Breakfast Club). But no! It's just Fey Wilde, a witch P.I. with a badge and a gun, and star of 'Wilde Magick'. It's well drawn with careful attention to keeping the tension and pace going with use of angles and whatever, and it all ends with werewolves and silver bullets. And a cute oneliner. There's more super-vigilant action with stories such as 'Feeling the Sting-part 2', byScott McCullar, which contains action, vendettas and a flashback to seeing God (or is it?) and he looks a lot like Ice Cube. In a similar mindset comes, 'Passing in the Night' by Sean Taylor, Lorraine Sammy and Luis Alonso, a slice of teen power kids, with a night off from fighting crime and a penchant for indulging in some hormonal action. It leaves me sighing, 'Why can't more boys be like the 'guru of gases' Mist Master? Actually, I might think it was actually kind of funny, if it weren't so deadly dull. Shooting Star is one of those small press comics that tries to look as much as a 'real' comic as possible. And I can't argue with that, It's just that it's all so boring. I don't have anything against 'dynamic angles', 'in your face' inking or even computer lettering. It's more to the point that they've tried so hard to make it look professional, they've lost sight of what actually looks attractive. The cover is ugly, seen 'em before action poses in sludgey colours, it just doesn't look nice. There's lots of talent here, that's undeniable, it's just really uninteresting. And so mention must be given here to the one artist who looks completely out of place and was my favourite by far. 'Bedbug' by Scott Rogers looks homegrown, uses genuine pathos to provide a point to the action sequences and veers away from formulaic and overpolished scripting. "What's your name, you look like a Stephanie to me", "Julia.". And it's hand-lettered, a sure fire way to my heart! Well, lots of people are going to disagree with me as this comic will probably find a sizeable, mildy interested audience. For me though, it's just too soulless . For more info, see: http://www.bugpowder.com/trs2/005282.html From reviews@lists.zumcomics.info Sun Mar 28 23:02:02 2004 From: reviews@lists.zumcomics.info (reviews@lists.zumcomics.info) Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004 23:02:02 +0100 Subject: [review] [ZUM!] Tommy Toothhead Message-ID: review by mooncat Tommy Toothhead Here I review two Tommy Toothhead comics: Tommy Toothhead And His Dog & Tommy Toothhead and the Homeless Guy. But hey! These flipbooks are designed to be read in 2 directions to the centre pages. The basic idea is that in one direction you read Good Tommy Toothhead & the other Bad Tommy Toothhead. Egads! - That's 4 comics?! Reading from each side you are presented the same scenario from either the 'good' or 'bad' Tommy Toothhead persona: for instance on the 'Good' cover of the Tommy Toothhead and his Dog, the character is saying, "It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice" - an over saccharine sentiment (which would suggest there is a liberal use of irony here). This is countered on the 'Bad' cover with "I made you a shit sandwich"... this is not, presumably a badly made sandwich, but an unpalatable scatological snack. All this sets the tone of these volumes very well. Hmm - talking of 'shit' - it seems somewhat anomalous to mention "shit" on the cover while within the comic the phrase "Beat the snot out of you" is uttered by a menacing Bad Tommy. So what happens in the comics? Do tell. Well - Tommy talks to his dog in the ...And His Dog issue & he chats with a vagrant in the ...And the Homeless Guy issue; so far so self explanatory. These books aren't really about the conveyance of a story or 'The Gripping Adventures of Tommy Saviour of The Universe' & all that. No, these mini comics play with an idea and they have a bit of a laff. One panel a page, the dialogue is played out & reflected in the counter scenario. The cartooning is stylised & seems to be informed with a graphic design sensibility. I suspect that Tommy started out as a doodle with extended spiky hair integrated into the shape of the head, as per Bart Simpson. The shape of the head creates a pleasing three pronged design motif, which sort of resembles a tooth; thus a character is born. Photocopies are used in the production of this comic, or the use of manipulated repeated images. This gives it a feel of stills taken from a cut-out animation sequence. The small changes that are made in each panel create little panel-to-panel/page-to-page variance, but that's not really to the detriment of the comic because this is more about playing with format. Thought has gone into these little comics: from the premise to the presentation, care has been made in their creation; like the selection of a good quality paper stock for the covers with images stuck onto the outer & inner cover by hand. These are little touches; the added ingredients, which add up making the whole: a couple of pleasant & engaging mini comics. For more info please see: http://www.zumcomics.info/t/tommytoothhead.html From reviews@lists.zumcomics.info Mon Mar 29 23:17:24 2004 From: reviews@lists.zumcomics.info (reviews@lists.zumcomics.info) Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 23:17:24 +0100 Subject: [review] [ZUM!] Conversations From Space Message-ID: review by mooncat Conversations From Space No paper - just a disc - a CD. Technology moves and we utilise it as we can. From the vestigial details and .db files left in each directory's chapter of the story. This edition of the CD would appear to have been burnt using an application called Nero. Whether there would be more features - such as the "cover 2 cfs.ncd" would be available when using Nero, I could not say, but as the images themselves are in the pretty much universal format of jpeg, then most personal computers should be able to view them (I use a Mac). If you have a large screen that has the facility to display images at the resolution of 1280 x1024 then all the better - as you will be able to view the whole width of the image without the need to scroll: these are large images. I feel I have to get these pedantic technological concerns off my chest - as this is what they essentially are. My mentioning of them may cause you some concern and granted, they do not make the reading of the comic any easier if you have a low spec computer with a small screen, but don't let this put you off - this is a very good comic!! Richard's art has always been a visual treat. He is an intense cartoonist - someone who does not flinch at painstakingly depicting the ugly side of life in all its malevolent beauty. He also seems to have enjoyed packing his work with a density of detail that makes me marvel at his patience and tenacity. Background details like a mouse/rat being decapitated in a trap (first page of chapter 2) litter the background. The mob attacking a house is depicted scathingly in a childish style to empasise the disdain of the mob mentality, but that does not stop him pouring lavish detail into their scenes. He draws well, and you get the feeling that he really enjoys drawing, to the extent that there is a slightly obsessional aspect to the draughtsmanship - the general level of detail and the work applied to all the hatching and shading is very involved. All this adds to the general heightened intensity that the comic delivers. Richard has his polemical side, and is scathing of society, but not in a tired and hackneyed way. The presentation is fresh and the cynicism is wrapped up with a lot of homour. Although he is often scornful and condemning, he is also humane; the characters often travel in circles of hell, but they are not condemned - he allows characters to condemn themselves. It's a well plotted tale; cohesively planned and written, even down to the title. The chapters and recurring themes within would work a treat serialised over a number of months. The fact that there is no viable alternative comics anthology in this country that might be able to bring this work to he wider public makes me dispirited all over again... For more info please see: http://www.zumcomics.info/t/tommytoothhead.html From reviews@lists.zumcomics.info Mon Mar 29 23:19:47 2004 From: reviews@lists.zumcomics.info (reviews@lists.zumcomics.info) Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 23:19:47 +0100 Subject: [review] [ZUM!] Conversations From Space In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <3016DF0D-81CF-11D8-AED3-000A277D970E@yahoo.co.uk> On Monday, March 29, 2004, at 11:17 pm, reviews-admin@lists.zumcomics.info wrote: > For more info please see: > http://www.zumcomics.info/t/tommytoothhead.html erratum: that URL should be http://www.zumcomics.info/c/conversationsfs.html sorry - shouldn't be sending to a mailing list when this tired... ZUM! boy From reviews@lists.zumcomics.info Wed Mar 31 22:57:30 2004 From: reviews@lists.zumcomics.info (reviews@lists.zumcomics.info) Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 22:57:30 +0100 Subject: [review] [TRS] Seer Message-ID: Seer Posted by Mardou A one-shot story from Engine Comics , 'Seer' is the tale of an urban witch doctor called in to solve murder cases in his own unique way. Jonathan Parkes, the witch doctor in question can 'see' the last thing a murder victim sees at the point of death. The only drawback is, he has to taste the victim's eyeballs to share the vision. Nice. He's an uncanny 'Cracker' if you will, and the TV show comparison bears up in other ways - the strength of the writing, the pacing of plot twists, the believable characters. One thing that is missing from the story however, is women. The absence is strongly felt as so much in the story relies on the protagonist's relationship to his wife, it's not enough that we are just told about her. We need to see her too, and this omission dents the credibility of the final line alluding to a sexual throb (though I'm trying not to include spoilers here)! Gary Simpson's writing is accompanied by deft artwork. From the opening foggy outline of Manchester, to the intricate lab scenes, to the brick fortresses of rows of terraced houses, Lee O'Connor's artwork isn't short on detail. Added to this, the more abstract art depicting the 'vision' scenes, fuses really well with the more gritty reality. What lets the artwork down is the inking. It's too spidery-thin and mechanical looking for such a chunky story about humanity in all its gross, indigestible glory. My favourite thing about 'Seer', is that it's so ugly - and I mean that as a compliment! This is professional looking stuff, yet no attempt has been made to slicken or prettify. The characters are ordinary blokes with weight problems, and this is so refreshing to see in a medium where chiseled jaws and manly brows still rule the roost. All in all then, 'Seer' sets a high standard for small press crime fiction and is well worth the read. For more info, please see: http://www.bugpowder.com/trs2/005295.html