The Shade #8 – Review

By: James Robinson (story), Jill Thompson (art), Trish Mulvihill (colors)

The Story: Yeah, I’d say a drug-addicted demon summoner defines a bad romance.

The Review: One thing that’s come into focus over the course of this series is that the Shade has a much more complicated acceptance of his own nature than we’ve been led to believe.  In fact, he himself doesn’t seem aware of how troubled he is at heart about what he’s become.  Although he puts on a cool show of lackadaisical whimsy, as if he couldn’t care less about anything even remotely linked to his former humanity, all his actions demonstrate otherwise.

This issue centers on that particular contradiction in the Shade’s character.  He emphasizes more than once that he wanted only to “distance myself from the sad thing I now regarded my prior humanity to be,” and yet he can’t seem to stop himself from diving in headfirst when anything related to his prior humanity appears.  Like a mafia boss, he may be capricious, “murderous even at times,” but his loyalty to his family is undeniable.

Scalped #50 – Review

By: Jason Aaron (writer), R.M. Guera (art & letters), Giulia Brusco (colors), Mark Doyle (associate editor) & Will Dennis (editor)

Pin-ups contributed by: Tim Truman, Jill Thompson, Jordi Bernet, Denys Cowan, Dean Haspiel, Brendan McCarthy & Steve Dillon

The Story: It’s an anniversary issue, so we take a break from our regularly scheduled story to enjoy some central themes of the series set in the Old West.

What’s Good: First off, massive congratulations to Jason Aaron, R.M. Guera, Giulia Brusco, Mark Doyle, Will Dennis and all the fill-in artists who have gotten Scalped to issue #50.  That is a real achievement in today’s comic market with a creator-controlled series.  Already Scalped is one of my favorite series ever.  It’s also a special series that disproves the commonly held notion that all comic books are about superheroes and are sold to fat, smelly & bearded men who haven’t adapted to adult-society.  There’s nothing spandex about Scalped.  This is straight-up adult fiction at it’s best.  Bravo guys and thanks!

For this particular issue, we deviate from the ongoing story of Dash, Gina, Catcher, Red Crow, et al and get a story that is largely set in the later 1800’s that deals with the injustices that Native Americans have suffered at the hands of folks of European descent.  Anyone who went to public school in the United States will not find this news, but Aaron finds a way to bring it to us in a special way by showing us a white man who is teaching his son how to scalp Native Americans for the bounty and how this story circles back in a not unexpected, but powerful, way.

Aaron then drags that “you-reap-that-which-you-sow” theme along to show how Native Americans ended up on reservations…. and that while reservations are no cup of tea being on the worst possible tracts of land in the United States and riddled with poverty, substance abuse, crime, etc. that the people who dwell there remain proud and alive and a distinct culture despite all the horrors that have been visited upon them.

The art is standard R.M. Guera goodness.  He excels at the gritty, so I can think of few artists who are better suited for drawing the act of scalping a man alive. Guera also does the lettering by hand.  I love hand-lettering and guess I understand why we dont’ see it much anymore, but it really drives home what an important aspect of the comic lettering can be.  As a treat, a bunch of notable artists contributed splash pages towards the end of the comic.  These mostly served to further excite me that Jordi Bernet is drawing a few issues of American Vampire coming up.

House of Mystery #2 – Review

By Matthew Sturges and Bill Willingham (writers), Luca Rossi and  Jill Thompson (artists), Lee Loughridge (colors)

While I appreciate and enjoyed the story presented in this issue, I’ve got to admit I was a bit let down by the lack of “horror” elements. I guess this place can’t be scary all the time. Instead, HoM #2 presents us with a tale of a man who was retrofitted to take trip into the deep. It was a mission of diplomacy, but at its core, the man was a glorified collection agent. The world he delves into is fantastically realized by Jill Thompson as she does some beautiful water color work. And as much as I enjoyed this small tale, I couldn’t help but wonder where all the suspense was.

Later, when the story shifts back to Fig, we get a better understanding of how she found her way into the House, but little is revealed about her ghostly assailants or their motives. And while we do get to see more of the House and learn that Fig can never leave, there’s little story that happens in this sophomoric effort. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind it as much if we got a load of character development (we don’t), and lack of any suspense cripples the book – at least for me. That’s not to say the story is bad, it’s entertaining, for sure, but anyone hoping for some actual horror or mystery may be a bit disappointed.

As for the art, it’s one of the bright points in the book. Jill Thompson’s muted watercolor work is hauntingly beautiful. It’s only a few pages though, so don’t expect too much. Luca Rossi handles art chores for rest of the issue and produces quality that matches the previous issue. In other words, it’s good stuff. The story, however is strictly average at best. And that’s something House of Mystery should never have. (Grade: C)

– J. Montes