Tag Archives: Top Cow

What’s I&N Store (3/19)

18 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by in What's I&N Store?

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Can’t buy ’em all.  That’s why I narrow it down to a select many every week.

  • Dark Horse Presents #34 (Dark Horse): A pricey pick, that’s for sure; but a gotta grab because Dean Motter’s magnificent Mister X is making his much anticipated return to the DHU.  And we love us some Mister X: if you didn’t already know–and you’d be in rare company–Mister X: Eviction was our #1 book of 2013.
Dark Horse Presents #37

Dark Horse Presents #34

  • Skyman #3 (Dark Horse): Has been OK.  My interest level in this book increased exponentially after reading Joshua Hale Fialkov’s The Bunker.  Makes this a bit of a potential pick.  Thing is, as a four-issue mini, Skyman might not have the time to realize that potential.  On a positive note, I’m willing to go the distance because it’s a mini.  Wouldn’t have been so willing if it had been an ongoing.
  • White Suits #2 (Dark Horse): Toby Cypress’s art was certainly remarkable.  The story, not so much.  I’m leaning toward passing on it.
  • The Witcher #1 (Dark Horse): Capable horror scribe Paul Tobin (Colder) makes it a maybe.  The fact that it’s based on a video game makes it a maybe not.  May also pass on this one.
  • American Vampire: Second Cycle #1 (DC/Vertigo): I’ve been looking forward to this!  Oh, sure, I bashed Batman a time or two and have been mostly put to sleep by The Wake (that is until #6, which was, pretty much, in The Wake world, anyhow, the equivalent of a cold shower!).  But that doesn’t mean I’m a Snyder hater; in fact, I happen to love American Vampire.  Consumed ’em all in trade form and am ready for the next course!
  • Animal Man #29 (DC): Jumped off a while ago.  Wondering if it’s worth picking up seeing as it’s the last issue and all.  Love Lemire’s cover:
Animal Man #29

Animal Man #29

  • Batman and Aquaman #29 (DC): Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason continue to deliver the darkest of the Dark Knight books–and now, apparently, the wettest.
  • Suicide Squad #29 (DC): Hasn’t been as good as I had hoped it’d be with Kindt in command.  Riding out his run, anyway.
  • Wonder Woman #29 (DC): It’s no surprise that this is the only New 52 book I’ve stuck with–without missing an issue–from #1.  It’s no myth: Brian Azzarello has made a monthly living of being good.  Of drawing out the story, sure, but of being good, nevertheless.
  • A Voice in the Dark #5 (Image): Well, I certainly didn’t celebrate #4.  (Check out my review here.)  What I have celebrated, however, is the potential that Larime Taylor has shown–especially in a terrific #2.  Here, I’m hoping to see more than a return to form: I’m hoping to see improved pacing.  This book desperately needs to cut to the chase–and draw some blood in the process.
A Voice in the Dark #5

A Voice in the Dark #5

  • Fuse #2 (Image): #1 was an offer I could easily refuse–not re-Fuse, mind you.  Leaning toward leaving it on the shelf.
  • Lazarus #7 (Image): #6 was terrific–as always.  In it, Rucka and Lark build some serious tension, which neither slacks nor snaps.  It’s no wonder that Lazarus was our #7 book of 2013.
  • Sex Criminals #5 (Image): #4 was a bit of a rebound from a not-so-good #3, which was our Biggest Dis(appointment) of November 2013.  I’m going to go one more round and see what happens.  Let’s call this my having faith in Fraction.  Sure, he’s a mad god; he’s an effing oversexed overlord!  But when he’s good, he’s damn good.  If Fraction’s big three books were a menage a trois–ain’t they, though?–Sex Criminals would be on the bottom–and loving it, no doubt.
  • Zero #6 (image): With an arc in the books, er, trades, Zero—our #8 book of 2013–gets back to business with Vanesa Del Rey (artist on BOOM!’s quick Hit) bringing Ales Kot’s vision to life.  OK, not going to lie: still not too sure how I feel about how #5 ended.  I mean, aliens?  Really?  Going to have to trust my man Kot on this one.
Zero #6

Zero #6

  • All-New Ghost Rider #1 (Marvel): My only real exposure to Tradd Moore has been Zero #2, which is my favorite issue of the series thus far.  Honesty: I don’t give a boo about Ghost Rider; I’m grabbing this to get a little Moore.  We’ll see if the little’ll turn into a lot soon enough.
All-New Ghost Rider #1

All-New Ghost Rider #1

  • Avengers World #4 (Marvel): The series has been mostly blah.  Started off well enough, but it seems to have fallen into its “bigger” trap, leaving me asking, “What in the world?”  Consider how much bigger my bag promises to be this week, this one might find itself displaced.
  • Daredevil #1 (Marvel): Speaking of being displaced: time to see what Waid and Samnee have in store for comidom’s newest San Franciscan.
  • Ms. Marvel #2 (Marvel): I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed #1.  Reminded me of my initial experience with Miles Morales and how well Brian Michael Bendis handled–and sold–the character in the face of controversy.  In this case, I’m hoping that Wilson and Alphona can keep Kamala out of the editorial web that ultimately ensnared Miles.
Ms. Marvel #2

Ms. Marvel #2

  • Uncanny X-Men #19 (Marvel): Don’t judge me.
  • Winter Soldier: The Bitter March #2 (Marvel): Probably not.  I didn’t really care for the first one.  And after Remender’s Deadly Class #2, I’ve pretty well given up hope that he can deliver something that interests me.
  • X-Men #12 (Marvel): OK.  Now you may judge me.  You know, the series started off on such a nostalgic note, and I bought right into it.  Felt like the X-book I had been waiting for since coming back to comics.  Then came the momentum busting Battle of the Atom.  Since then, the damn thing’s been a bit of a mess.  I’ll ride out this storyline and decide from there.
  • Curse #3 (BOOM!): My curse: being unable to quit on a mini if I’m at least two issues in–even if I really don’t care very much about it. That pretty well describes this series for me.
  • Harbinger #0.2014 (Valiant): Everything you’ve wanted to know about the Bleeding Monk but were afraid to ask.
Harbinger #0.2014

Harbinger #0.2014

  • Letter 44 #5 (Oni Press): Still loving President Blades, and right now that’s all that matters to me.
  • Shadowman #16 (Valiant): A monthly mystery: I don’t care a lick about any of the characters and I’m often vexed by all the voodoo; but I still like it.  A major selling point: Roberto De La Torre’s art.  It really suits Peter Milligan’s turn on the book.
  • The Sixth Gun #39 (Oni Press): I’m almost caught up!  I’ve got three more issues to rock out.  Know what?  There’s no reason why I shouldn’t read through them tonight.  There you go: I’m going to read them tonight; and I will read this one first.  How’s that?  Oh, and, umm, just in case you didn’t know already: it’s good.  Really good.  As I’ve mentioned in recent posts: the team of Bunn and Hurtt will go down as one of the greats of the modern era–maybe even of all time–because of the terrific work they’ve done on The Sixth Gun.
The Sixth Gun #39

The Sixth Gun #39

  • X-O Manowar #23 (Valiant): Has been a solid read from the get-go.  Aric’s another one of my favorite characters, and Venditti’s shown a great command of his character in and out of the armor.

Avery’s Pick of the Week

  • Scribblenauts Unmasked: Crisis of Imagination #3 (DC): My daughter has enjoyed the first two issues well enough.  By “enjoyed” I mean “not torn the covers off yet.”

That about does it I&Nmates!

What are you looking forward to this week?

Turning pages,

Scott

I&Nsight: A Voice in the Dark #4

18 Tuesday Feb 2014

Posted by in I&Nsight

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In his creator-owned A Voice in the Dark (Image/Top Cow), the amazingly talented writer and artist Larime Taylor emphatically embraces darkness as both inspiration and instigator.  He has exploited his relationship with the dark side to a great effect: A Voice in the Dark #1 received quite a bit of well-deserved attention and sold out at the distributor level before it even hit the stands; and through the first three issues, he’s used soul-eclipsing shadows as a grindstone for his own voice–to varying degrees of sharpness.

Sure, Taylor’s super-sized initial offering–delivered in a deliberately drawn out manner–laid an effective enough foundation and gave us something to enjoy–and, for many reasons, admire; but his voice reverberates most effectively in the tense second installment, in which Zoey–the morosely murderous protagonist, who happens to host a college radio call-in show–counsels a seemingly suicidal caller, who, shockingly, has planned to embrace an even darker -cide.  Taylor does a bang-up job of selling the suspense with his patient pacing, which erupts in a parricidal twist that throws Zoey for quite a loop.

Lamentably, that loop lasts the entirety of issue #3, on its own a carousel of conversation that triples down on a singular revelation, leaving us wondering if Taylor’s voice is focused too fervently on setting up what’s to come; if he’s unwilling or unable to collapse conversations, to lean out scenes, or to give us the credit we deserve as willing and able participants in this game–partners who don’t mind if our minds end up, in the case of a well-crafted comic, in the gutter, where we may fill in the gaps, as necessary.  Certainly, he–and #3–would’ve been better served had he followed his own killer advice: “Let’s leave a little to the imagination.”

A Voice in the Dark #4

A Voice in the Dark #4

It’s tough to imagine that Taylor would take a similar tack going forward.  Unfortunately, he does.  Issue #4–“Killing Game, Pt. 2,” in stores Wednesday (2/19)–is more of the same: while more effective than the previous part in the sense that the story isn’t stuck in the same cyclical set-up rut, the pacing problems persist as Taylor spells out every moment methodically, murdering any humor and any suspense–the pancake and butter of the series–with cruelly dull dialogue and a string of stereotypes that, like, read in mono.  Taylor’s heavy-handedness is highlighted, however, as the ethical dilemma at the heart of the issue–and the series as a whole–is played out clumsily in a college classroom, leaving me wondering if Taylor himself would concede that, along the way, “too many mistakes [were] made.”  If not mistakes, certainly questionable choices.  Hey, now there’s a topic worthy of debate!

So, the biggest question becomes, then: what choice will I make when I see #5 on the shelf in a month’s time?  If I’m being honest, I expected that Taylor’s voice after four issues would be scalpel sharp and that I would be celebrating his surgical precision with a splattering of bloodstained compliments, the happy result of my metaphorical exsanguination.  Surprisingly, the series has been more of a slow bleed: Taylor has inexplicably shunned momentum and, as a result, has unexpectedly left me in a position where I have to hold out hope that he can return to the form that made me a fan in the first place.  But it’s more than hope, really: I’m willing to stick around–probably for the remainder of the series–because I know Taylor has it in him; #2 is all the proof I need.  I trust–and I don’t do so lightly–that his voice is still being held to some soul-eclipsing shadow deep there in the dark; and, once ready, he’ll scream.

I want to be there to hear it.

Turning pages,

Scott