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Private Eye #2

by Brian K. Vaughn & Marcos Martin

I gave issue one a very favorable review a month back, and while I was hoping to do the same for issue two, it's not going to happen. Issue two is more of an inbetween issue. Issue one was the huge explosion of wonder and #2 is the sortin out the pieces and parts issue. Nothing too exceptional happened in this issue, nothing I haven't seen in a thousand other comics. I know you gotta have an issue like this to fill in the details and whatnot, but after issue one I was expecting something more grandiose.

Our main character gets involved in a weird murder scheme, the person murdered being his last client. Now our main character is a private eye, which is illegal in this future world, and well he seems to have stumbled into something kinda awful, having apparently gotten shot by two dudes in weird masks at the end. This comic is a mystery story set in the future and while the construction of the story is pretty atypical (sci-fi/mystery story) what I loved about the first issue - quirky background info, comic booky futuristic gadgetry details and off the wall story miscellania - none of that sticks around for this second issue, and what we're given is a pretty straightforward mystery story. Which isn't great especially considering Marcos Martin is the kind of artist who takes some time to acquire a liking for. Issue one's tremendous energy gelled with Martin's odd cartoony style, but the mundaninty of issue two's story made me take a little more time examining Martin's work. And I'm just not digging it that much. It's solid, unique, but...mmmm. I don't know. I'm just not into it that much.

But I imagine the guys will continue creating this comic with the same pay agenda (pay as you like - as long as it's 50 cents or more), and at this point this comic is worth at least 50 cents, so I'll stick around for one or two more issues.

Comic Books Can Be Beautiful, Just Not This One

The Pursuit of Beautiful Things

by Maxwell Prince & Thomas Kovach

That opening is probably a little too harsh, this actually wasn't that bad of a comic, I'm just regretting paying a dollar for it. The story is about a bunch of wicked sailors who search for mermaids so they can fuck the shit out of them, then turn them into slaves. Except this time one of the passengers they picked up isn't down with that scenario and beats the shit out of these evil dudes and frees the captured mermaid.

Yeah, I'm not sure at what point you start taking seriously the idea of raping mermaids and putting it into panels as a comic book story, but that's what these guys did. I mean I liked the cover, hell it made me put down a dollar for it, so they did something right, but a story about sailors raping mermaids?! And not as a sarcastic humor bit? Geezus....

The art by Thomas Kovach is decent, he's another one of those Mike Mignola copy cat guys, who tries really hard at evoking a Mike Mignola style, but fails miserably like all the other Mignola copycats. But the guy did a solid job nonetheless, so while I coulda given that dollar to a stripper, I gave it to these guys. Oh well.

If You Want To Know What Emo Looks Like In Comic Book Form, This Is It

The Wolves

By Becky Cloonan

Becky is a straight up bad ass artist. I reviewed her book The Mire in last week's column (which has been nominated for an Eisner Award and oughta win, except I don't know who she's competing with) and thought it stunningly beautiful. The Wolves is no different from an artistic standpoint. It's lushly illustrated in black and white. The level of detail and composition is stunningly beautiful. Becky is out of this world talented, yet the story for Wolves is just not as clever as she tried to make it be. The Mire has the same kind of clever hook at the end, but it went over better. The hook at the end of The Wolves was really wishy-washy. Fortunately you look past the mediocre story because of the beautiful art.

I can not wait for more from Becky Cloonan.

A Somewhat Forgotten Successful Indy Comic Keeps Chugging Along

The Stuff of Legend vol. 4 #4

By Mike Raicht, Brian Smith & Charles Paul Wilson III

This is my first visit back to this long running indy comic series since volume 1. It's obviously changed a lot, so much so that whatever is happening now doesn't harken any familiarity to my reading experience of volume one. And unfortunately jumping into this storyline right in the middle does me no favors on deciphiring what exactly is going on now. Oh well, it's still a pretty interesting little comic book. I love the art by CPW III. His black/white/toned work really gives this comic a unique look.

What seems to be happening is two sides of a war is being set up. On one side is the creepy transgender Boogeyman and his mates. On the other is a handful of toys come to life. The Boogeyman is trying to invade the land of the toys and take it over, and there's all kinds of schemes and plots flying around. Having not read any of the previous issues of this volume, I'm not sure what is what really.

Still all in all it's an interesting looking book, I'll give it another shot either next issue or sometime in the future if it hangs around.