Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Back To Work and Comics (Not In That Order)

I had a shoot at 8:00 am for PCTA, in Huntington Beach specifically, and I very nearly didn’t wake up in time for it. I was exhausted from the entire weekend in Frisco, but I had to get moving for an early morning shoot right away. My vacation was definitely over.

It was an interview of some city officials about different city services. I was manning the teleprompter camera, which needed very little supervision except to make sure it didn’t get bumped, and remained in focus. The shoot went by very quickly, and I found myself with a few extra hours before I had to head to Norwalk, which gave me time to go to Comics Unlimited to pick up the comics that I still had on hold.

The shop was being run by Nancy, Mark, and *SURPRISE!* Denise! A cool girl, with funny-ass tweets. (As in Twitter people, do catch up with the times, and keep your nose out of the gutter).

Topics of Conversation @ Comics Unlimited: Robbing a car as a welcome, owning half a comic rack, one lone dirty sock, crazy mobs, why does a comic shop own a shovel?, the perils of Oakland, dust, payment enforcement, obvious lies, exact change, signatures written in urine, etc.

I picked up Blackest Night (#7 of 8), Green Lantern (#52), X-Factor Forever (#1), What If… (#70), The Great Ten (#01), and Major Bummer (#12). The first three were newer comics, while the last three were back issues from the 59 cent bin.

Blackest Night was fun, but the biggest problem with this issue (and most DC events to boot) is the fact that you really can’t read this 8-parter by itself. You HAVE TO read Green Lantern and, to a lesser degree, Green Lantern Corps in tandem. I think this is unfair for the casual reader, and a little annoying for admittedly hardcore fans such as myself. Hey, I’m already reading these issues, so give me something a little different, not the same exact story!

X-Factor Forever was okay. I liked the art, and Walt Simonson is the a great writer, though I’ve noticed, and this is similar for a lot of the older school comic writers, that the dialogue is a little off. It can get a little melodramatic, and sometimes the characters don’t have a very obvious personality. They don’t talk, so much as make statements. Its not easy to notice, but I’ve been reading too long. Maybe I’ll pick up issue #2, but I’m not sure if I’ll be reading anymore after that.

Major Bummer was fun, and made we wish I had followed the series while it was still around. What If was actually kind of dumb, and the art was really bargain basement. It look like the artist had called in a favor to get a chance to draw a comic book. But he was not ready. AT ALL. I hate bagging on people’s artistic endeavors, so I’ll just leave it at that.

The Great Ten, though, was really good! I’m going to have to dig up the second and third issues to try and catch up. I like the writing, but, and I might be a minority here, the art just isn’t that great. Scott McDaniels just does too fast a job for me. It doesn’t feel like he spends anytime on his art, just does a first draft and sends it in. But he’s still better than the What If artist was.



-Nate

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