Comics These Weeks
I’ve been working (somewhat), so the reading pile’s grown quite a bit. Slowly, slowly.
“Sharknife Volume 1” (Corey Lewis)
Manga-inspired madness about the mystical protector of “The Guandong Factory”, a restaurant infested with giant monsters in its walls. Sharknife seems to activate his powers by eating fortune cookies — “seems to”, because the art is so cluttered, I can barely tell what’s going on half the time. Lewis’ art has the same problem as Chris Bachalo’s recent work: too much going on, too little focus. On the other hand, the entire book’s very lively and rather amusing to watch (intentional choice of verb over “read”). Kinda bizarre and not taking itself very seriously at all. I guess I liked it.
“Batman & Superman: World’s Finest” (Karl Kesel, Dave Taylor)
It was fun reading the progression of the characters throughout the years (I especially enjoyed the bit where the four fake Supermen and Bat-Azrael showed up — I’m a sucker for replacement icons and even enjoyed the Spider-Clone saga), I guess. Otherwise, the story was a bit of a chore to get through, what with Kesel’s formulaic stories and disappointing ending, as well as Taylor’s inconsistent art (the front and back covers are amazing, but his work in the rest of the book looked jarringly ugly at times). I hope Trinity, Matt Wagner’s Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman graphic novel that I bought last week, is better than this.