Comics I Bought: September 8, 2007

I'm back from the comic shop again this week and I got 2 new comic plus a hard cover collection:

Buffy Season Eight 6

City of Others 4

Orson Scott Card - Red Prophet Tales of Alvin Maker Volume 1 (Hardcover)

And now for some reviews.

Heart of Empire or The Legacy of Luthor Arkwright (1-9) by Bryan Talbot

Here is another series that has been sitting on my shelf since it came out in 1999. I decided to pull it out and give it a read. That's what shelves are for. This book is a sequel to "The Advenures of Luthor Arkwright" which I have never read. I'll have to track that one down one day.

First off this is one of the prettiest comics around. The covers, the interior art and coloring, and even the fake ads are really well done and look great. It's just plain good to look at.

The story takes place in an alternate universe where Britannia rules a lot of the world and the Queen hold absolute power. The main character in the story is the princess but a very well imagined and well drawn London is a character in and of itself. There is some sort of magic or sci-fi stuff happening too. It's never really made clear which it is.

The plot and characters with their political and social intrigues going on are quite well done. The only part that left me cold was in the latter part of the story when dimension traveling elements show up. Once again the whole multi-verse is affected blah blah blah... Multi-verses are threatened so much in these dimension hoping stories, usually by a "rift in the whatever-stream", that they bore me. I could do with never ever reading about "all of time and space" being threatened again.

Other than that gripe I liked this book. As I said, it's pretty as all get go and the alternate past is very well realized. Their technology is different than our and some things are futuristic, some things old fashioned, and some are just different. You could tell that people were thinking when they made this. It's worth tracking down. Recommended.

Conan and The Jewels of Gwahlur by P. Craig Russell

I bought this as a three issue mini-series, then sold the issues on Ebay, and now have purchased the hardcover collected edition. So I like this story.

Man can that P. Craig Russell draw. I remember running into his work on "Killraven" as a kid in the 1970's and thinking that then. He has only gotten better with age. That's not the case with a lot of comic book artists.

Conan and The Jewels of Gwahlur is a story about the adult Conan as opposed to the young Conan in the regular series that Dark Horse is publishing right now. That really doesn't matter though because Conan is always making enemies, drinking with friends, getting into fights, battling monsters, and trying to steal some jewels. That's what he's doing in this story too.

It's adapted from a Robert E. Howard story by P. Craig Russell so it has a different style than your average comic. A lot of the Howard limited omniscient narration is kept so it has a nice pulp novel feel to it. A nice chance of pace from the endless first person narrative of modern super hero stories. And not only can Russell draw but he can tell a story and is very inventive with technique. He inks, he draws in pencil, he draws in blue pencil, and all of these are reproduced as the story calls for them. The coloring and lettering are also top shelf. Let's face it I have nothing bad to say about this book. If you're in the mood for a Conan story check this one out. Recommended.