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From: hsut@pur-ee.UUCP (Bill Hsu)
Newsgroups: net.comics
Subject: Reviews
Message-ID: <3388@pur-ee.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 11-Oct-85 19:10:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: pur-ee.3388
Posted: Fri Oct 11 19:10:46 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 16-Oct-85 05:24:21 EDT
Reply-To: hsut@pur-ee.UUCP (Bill Hsu)
Organization: Department of Eccentric Esoterica, Purdue U.
Lines: 70


	My copy of Neat Stuff still hasn't arrived yet, so
here are a few slightly more conventional comics that came in recently...


BEDLAM #2

	I missed #1, but #2 didn't exactly inspire me to run around town
trying to find it. This is an anthology of pieces by Rick Veitch and
Stephen Bissette (and some others). Bissette's stories (he did both script
and art) were nothing to write home about. I mean, pages and pages of
dinosaurs ripping each other apart (no captions) aren't exactly my idea
of a good comic. Veitch's pieces showed a twisted sense of humor I was
unaware of. "Conquest of the Banana Planet" was an excellent parody of
the genre (some nice panels here), and "Nutpeas", a parody of Peanuts,
was a scream (wait till the PMRC see the "offensive" parts!) Worth
getting for the Veitch pieces, if you're into slightly perverse humor...


SWAMP THING #44

	I consider this one of the best issues since the Anton Arcane 
series a year ago. The gentle scene between Abby and ST was funny and
touching, and recalls a similar scene from #25 (was it that long ago?)
when ST dragged Abby into the lake and got her wet, all in good fun.
I wonder how long this unlikely romance is going to last. Or maybe the
hint of tension between the two is just a temporary thing... The
scenes with the Bogeyman were very well done --- humorous sendups of
hack and slash horror movies. ST's subtle method of disposing of the
Bogeyman shows what a wonderful writer/artists team is working on this
book. The transformations of ST, though hardly on the magnitude of 
those in previous issues, were truly terrifying since we're familiar with
the basically gentle and contemplative nature of the ST. The full page
panel near the end is one of the most detailed and beautiful drawings
I've seen of the ST --- if only they included an extra copy as a poster!
And I loved the little conclusion with Abby and John Constantine;
Moore is having a lot of fun with horror movie conventions this month...


THE JOHNNY NEMO MAGAZINE #1
	
	While Johnny Nemo was my least favorite strip in Eclipse's
late, lamented Strange Days (well, the others were Freakwave and Paradax,
so that's hardly surprising...), I really enjoyed his return. We
get more of the "tough cop in the future" type storyline. There
isn't much of a plot; Nemo just runs around looking for info and shooting
people up. This is perhaps a glorious parody of Bladerunner (one of my
favorite movies) as much as anything. Looking back at my comments 
about it, I'm still not sure why I enjoyed it so much. Maybe the
witty dialogue?

	I'm not so sure about the backup strip Sindi Shade. It seems
kind of diffuse and heavyhanded, but that might get better with the
next issue.

	By the way, what's the word on Aztec Ace? By now I've read the
dread announcement in recent Eclipse books that #15 will be the last
one. I thought the function of Independents was to support good books
that are unlikely to sell many copies... Maybe Eclipse, after having 
got a taste of the big money with Miracleman, want to rehaul their
operation sales-wise (Dean Mullaney doesn't seem to be that kind of
guy though.) At least we still have Cerebus and Swamp Thing...


"Be careful, Johnny..."
"Kalina, I can either be careful, or I can be Johnny Nemo..."


					Bill Hsu
					pur-ee!hsut