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Saturday, March 17, 2007

Plenty of Panels

As promised, these are the comic books I bought on Wednesday when I went to my beloved B&M Amusement. And this time there's no bad books, so I should count myself lucky. Let's see…

X-Men #196. Probably the weakest book of the lot, this is the third and last part of the Primary Infection arc, which means I'm not getting more issues for the time being. Humberto Ramos's artwork is, I think, a bit better than in the previous two issues, but not as good as I know it can be. Regarding the story, Mike Carey's tale is nothing remarkable, but I don't feel like ranting, so let's just say it could have been better. If nothing else, now I want to draw a picture of this unlikely X-group, which would mean drawing a bunch of characters I've never drawn before. Maybe tomorrow…

Wetworks #6. Whilce Portacio is getting digital inks again, and it just doesn't become his pencils. The story's only so-so (Carey again!), so, as I said before, it might be about time to stop following the series…

WildStorm Fine Arts Spotlight on: Jeff Scott Campbell. Following their Spotlight on Jim Lee, WildStorm gives us this Campbell-centered book with some of his favorite illustrations commented by the great Campbell himself. The pictures rock, and the comments are funny and sometimes insightful. Cool stuff.

Witchblade Takeru #1. Since Witchblade is a successful comic book, Top Cow made a deal with the Japanese Gonzo Animation Studio to adapt the American property for the Japanese market. The result was twofold: a Witchblade anime TV show, and a Witchblade manga. The former will arrive to the US soon, and the latter, Takeru #1, is available this month. WT tells the story of, well, Takeru, who discovers she is the bearer of the Witchblade. The thing is, Top Cow's made changes to adapt the manga: for the US version, they've colored it, flipped the artwork (so it reads left to right), and made it American comic-book size. This achieves a strange effect, because you can see the lines and crosshatching and shading of the original drawings, which were conceived to be presented in black and white, and then the cool computer colors too. But the Cow is really smart: they're publishing Witchblade Takeru in comic book format, but they'll release the original true manga version (black & white, digest-sized, right-to-left) over the summer. The story is cool, and I like the artwork, so, after having tried the first issue, I think I'm going to wait and get the B&W version in a few months.

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born #2. Maybe I'm biased, but this book is amazing. The story, which takes a lot from my favorite book in the series, Wizard & Glass, is fantastic, and the artwork is breathtaking. Every single panel boasts beautiful composition, magnificent colors, and extraordinary pencilwork. Everybody should be reading this series.

Buffy Season 8 #1. At last, the long-awaited "eighth season" of BTVS is here! But you didn't think I would waste a potential full-fledged post by summarizing the book here, did you? I guess you'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out if this baby is worth your money or not. I'm evil, I know. But you know you like it.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Evil? Evil? You're worst than evil. You're like... the evilest thing on earth. Or in hell or something.

I still can't decide if waiting for the TPB of Buffy's season 8 or not. But that would mean waiting like two years or more to read it. No, I'm not that strong...

And about the Witchblade thing, it almost seems like Mr. Lucas is the Master of Puppets behind the marketing of the franchise. Mr. "let's sell the same thing with a slightly different package".

Mario Alba said...

Hahahaha. I agree. Lucas has taught us well...

And more on Buff tomorrow.

Nash said...

Que rapido te vas a quedar sin series de Wild Storm, menuda mierda de relanzaminto del universo

Anonymous said...

Jeje, es verdad lo que dice Nash, Fel. De los seis "no bad books", 4 han hecho que vayas a dejar de seguirlos, o a esperar a comprarlos en otro formato.

Anonymous said...

(hablando en general, no solo de Wildstorm)

Mario Alba said...

Hahaha... Supongo que al decir que no estaban mal lo que quería decir es que no me hicieron enfadar, me hicieron sentir que había tirado el dinero, o me resultaron activamente ofensivos debido a su poca calidad. De los seis mencionados, los dos únicos que realmente me parecen buenos de verdad son The Dark Tower y Takeru. Y lo de Campbell es un especial, así que no debería contar.

Pero es verdad que he dejado y dejaré varias series. Ahora mismo, si no me fallan las cuentas, estoy siguiendo Wetworks, The Dark Tower, Witchblade, Valkyries y Wildsiderz. Y si tenemos en cuenta que creo que Wetworks va a durarme poco en la lista, que Dark Tower son siete números, que de Valkyries no sé nada desde hace un año, y que Wildsiderz no sale desde hace cosa de año y medio, dentro de poco estaré siguiendo sólo Witchblade. Bueno, y también Danger Girl: Body Shots, que sale el mes que viene y es serie limitada de cuatro. Por lo demás, seguiré comprando tomos, como el de Takeru cuando salga, o cualquier otra cosa que vea por ahí.
Una cosa es cierta: el relanzamiento de WildStorm, como dice Nash, no me ha resultado del todo interesante.

Anonymous said...

De tus comentarios, Fel, se entresaca que el mundo del comic no está muy boyante últimamente. Las buenas historias no abundan precisamente, y los dibujantes, o no son buenos o son unos vagos redomados que tardan años en dibujar un solo número.

Y en este contexto en el que sobrevivimos yo me pregunto... ¿a qué leches esperan las editoriales para publicar Decaying? ;)

Anonymous said...

Ahora que me fijo, es cierto que mi retrato es menos caricaturil que los vuestros.

Mario Alba said...

Hahaha. Ya veo que has aceptado el dibujo. A ver si el próximo me sale mejor. Creo que cuanto mejor sepa dibujarte, más caricaturil podré hacerlo, manteniendo el parecido al mismo tiempo.

Y sí: no sé a qué esperan para publicar Decaying...

Nash said...

Es un dibujo muy chulo tambien el de Halagan, te los has currado fin, ahora si que estamos personalizados.

Mario Alba said...

Pues hala: molemos todos juntos.

Anonymous said...

Molamos, sí que molamos. Lástima que en el mundo real exterior no seamos mas que unos incomprendidos. Incomprendidos que se molan, pero incomprendidos al fin y al cabo.

Mario Alba said...

Hahahaha. El que no comprenda, peor para él...