You know who can't be stopped? Well, yeah, Godzilla, but y'know who else? Kevin Church, the Internet's cheeriest comics and pop culture blogger who also happens to be a damn fine comic creator in his own right.
If you follow GCP regularly (or semi-regularly, as the case may be, and if so, why is that the case, jerk?!), you already know I'm a fan of The Rack and its limited series spin-off Lydia. This time Church is doing something a bit different with She Died in Terrebone, a crime/mystery strip he's writing, with art by T.J. Kirsch. There are four prelude strips that do a nice job of setting the story's tone and introducing the main characters, as well as giving readers a feel for Kirsch's appropriately rangy artwork, and the first story arc is already two strips in — get in on the story before all the other kids laugh at you.
As if that wasn't enough, Church is also partnering with artist Ming Doyle on another new humor strip called The Loneliest Astronauts, launching tomorrow! The premise sounds great, well-suited to Church's shank-to-the-kidney style of humor, and I can't wait to see Doyle's sketchy take on the trappings of life in outer space.
Behold! The Batman sketches of Eliza Gauger!
Are you man enough to handle the most disturbing Underoos ever?!?
Finally, I'm not doing this comic justice with a blurb but I wanted to make sure I mentioned Underground — by writer Jeff Parker and artist Steve Lieber — and how you should be reading the hell out of it.Underground is a crime story involving dirty land developers, Native American concerns, park rangers with hearts of gold and, of course, a cave that serves as a character in its own right. Parker is writing a script that smolders with the kind of menace only greedy, amoral and all-t00-human characters can bring, and Lieber delivers the knowing touch for depicting nature and realistic facial expressions that helped make Whiteout famous.
My only gripe would be the coloring by Ron Chan, which seemed rushed or blocky in places throughout the first issue. This could just be a matter of bad registration off the press, and it certainly isn't enough to take away from what is shaping up to be a winning comic.
If you haven't read it yet there are previews of issues #1 and #2 at the Web site, and you can also download a black-and-white version of the full first issue there — so get to it!
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2 comments:
Wow, I had the exact opposite reaction to Underground. I love both Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber, and I didn't like it at all. I thought the plot was a series of cliches, and Lieber's art suffered badly at the hands of the colorist. It really made me wish they had just gone black and white.
Ah, well. I'm glad you dug it.
At this point I'm willing to give Parker and Lieber (especially Parker) the benefit of the doubt, mostly because it's still early and I'm willing to cut slack for a set-up issue.
You might have a point, though, about the black and white. I originally read this as the B&W preview, and like you, I really think that would have been the way to go. The color, which is bad enough in places that it took me out of the story for a second, saps a lot of the power from the story. B&W would have been a lot more effective.
At the very least, a more thoughtful coloring job would have helped.
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