Comics I Bought This Week: April 26, 2007

Another week another three new comics. All regulars:

Rex Mundi (Vol 2) 5

Usagi Yojimbo 102

The Walking Dead 37

In addition to those my local comic shop was having a sale on some old graphic novels. I picked up:

The Shadow: Hitler's Astrologer (1988)

Sabre (1988 edition)

Moebius 1 (1987)

I also picked up Moebius' Bluberry 2-5 for my friend Ed. Every time he sees my copies he says, "I really should have kept my issues of this". So now he can have his own.

There you go. I agree with Randy and Jacob. All Star Superman - 7 was a well done and fun comic. I hated All Star Superman - 1, hadn't bought an issue since, and generally am not a fan of Grant Morrison's work but thought this was a good issue. The art was well done (Frank Quitely), the plot and script were fairly basic (not a bad thing) and also well done, plus the coloring was good. I didn't understand all of the Bizarro World mumbo jumbo that was going on but I'll accept a certain amount of mumbo jumbo in my sci-fi/fantasy/super hero stories. Jimmy Olsen was also a annoying but when has he not been? Over all it won't change your world but if you want to read a good solid Superman story give it a look.

Week Eighteen of my reviews of recent DC Comics.

Infinite Crisis Collected Edition - I tried. I really did but I only got 90 pages into this book. I couldn't take it any more. It's not bad. It's a well crafted comic book but I just couldn't take the content.

Infinite Crisis is a type of story that doesn't interest me. It's a company wide crossover "event" where not only the universe is threatened but the whole "multi-verse". Oooh... Scary...

If you like that type of story go ahead and check out this book but I found it tedious. In this types of stories doom and gloom is everywhere even though, as a reader, I know things will be back to normal soon enough. Characters all act out of character because, "it's the end of everything"! In this book heroes and villains start killing each other at an alarming rate but you know it's not "real". Some wizard will fix everything eventually. I find no drama in this kind of story and they are often filled with mumbo jumbo. This one has it's fair share.

The art also left me cold. Once again, it's not "bad" but it's a style I am tired of. It's that highly illustrative dense artwork that's filled with little scritch scratchy lines. It doesn't make the story any easier to follow. But there are plenty of people who consider such "detail" in the artwork a good thing. I am not one of them. Of course, following recent DC trends, there are four pencilers and fourteen(!) inkers on this book so I guess being buried under endless noodling unifies the art style. It reminds me of the early 90's Marvel then Image style all over again. Just a different type of noodling.

Read it only if you find threats to the DC multi-verse to be in any way interesting.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 1-2, 4-7 - Now here is a movie license that I don't care about. Never in a million years would I have ever bought this book but since it was given to me I gave it a read. It's not bad. As a matter of fact I enjoyed it. The premise is simple and well known: Freddie is killing teenagers in their dreams and those teenagers are trying their best not to be killed.

There is nothing terribly original or earth shaking about these issues but they are executed with some imagination and flair. Don't expect the best comics you've ever read but expect to have some old fashioned (well 80's)horror fun as you read them. The art (Kevin West and Bob Almond) and writing (Chuck Dixon) are solid and no one is phoning it in because it's a movie property. Any individual issue moves pretty fast with all the chasing and killing going on so reading a three issue story arc might be the best way to go. Check it out for some Freddy Krueger fun.

Desolation Jones 7 - I'm only reviewing the first ten pages or so of this issue because that's how far I got. I couldn't read any more. The problem is the art. Every character is drawn in such harsh shadow that I couldn't distinguish one guy's face from another's. Every character has the same face with no discernible expression. It was like reading a comics staring mannequins. I couldn't get into it. I also have issue eight but it's going on the "to get rid of" pile too.