Big Trouble in Little China #1 – Review

By: John Carpenter & Eric Powell (Story), Eric Powell (Writer), Brian Churilla (Artist), Michael Garland (Color Artist), Ed Dukeshire (Letterer)

The Story:
妖魔大鬧小神州, of course

The Review:
“Don’t judge a book by it’s cover,” they say. In this case, however, you should absolutely judge this book by its cover. Or, at least, it’s basic, non-alternate cover, which is clearly evocative to the original Big Trouble in Little China and how it exemplifies cult action-adventure films from the 80s. From the title’s font/logo, to characters’ arrangement, to the lighting and texture and caricature, it’s a pleasingly retro homage.

Inside, the caricature continues, with the figures looking cartoony enough for a MAD Magazine story, yet without degenerating into demeaning exaggeration or stereotypes. Or at least, not relying on them. It’s an interesting choice– it helps keep the humorous tone, establishes close ties to the original movie, and, yes, even dates itself a little bit. Speaking of which, I wonder that is also supposed to be the effect of the same-ness of all the dialogue bubbles. They seem to all be the same shape/dimensions regardless of size or position, which again makes things seem more like a MAD Magazine strip but also a bit stale and undynamic.

As the cover suggests, this is a sequel to the movie, and in fact, it picks up merely seconds after the film ends. A hell-beast has followed Jack Burton home (or at least, to his big rig) but not for the reasons you’d expect, which brings him back to Little China/San Francisco where supernatural gangs continue to plague the lives of his friends. It all makes the story feel very “real” as a genuine part of Jack Burton’s story (even if it’s been many years since I’ve seen the movie) but it somewhat relies on the film to have done all the heavy lifting for its characters and their inter-relationships. A little exposition would have been nice, especially if this is to capture a feeling of “new” just as much as it’s trying to be the next chapter of “before.”

The only bit of new character/world building comes from Jack Burton’s 3-page recount of his second marriage, complete with a comicbook-style flashback that takes advantage of artistic montage. In just this brief moment, we get see/read about Mexican bikers, bat-faced luchadores, giant Día de Los Muetros heads, and Babylonian demi-gods in Nebraska. Now THAT sounds fun and offers genuinely new weirdness, but it’s too brief and quite tangential to any other plot development.

Halloween: Night Dance #1 – Review

By Stefan Hutchinson (writer), Tim Seeley (art), Elizabeth John (colors)

I’ll admit it, Halloween is my favorite horror franchise. The stuff John Carpenter did with the first and second movies was profound and groundbreaking. The later movies weren’t very good, but I did like the new characters introduced and the sense of continuity that played out. Rob Zombie’s remake? Eh, it was okay.

So how is Halloween: Night Dance? I wish I could say I liked it. From the opening pages it had problems. Writer Stefan Huchinson moves through his opening cast of characters so quickly it’s very hard to understand who is narrating, what’s going on, and who these people are. We’re introduced to Lisa, an 18 year old girl who narrates the story like a 13 year old; she says she feels like a freak, but she speaks like a child. Next, we have Ryan and Marcie whose expository dialogue feels trite, forced, and unnatural. Eventually their paths begin to intersect by way of Michael Myers and then we’re left with a “to be continued”.

Tim Seeley, the best penciler working at Devil’s Due, handles art chores. I enjoyed his art on the Forgotten Realms books, and his work here is good, but I really wish they’d give him an inker. As good as his pencils are, they’re not refined – there’s pencil marks all over the place and it looks tacky. So it falls upon colorist, Elizabeth John, to cover up as much of the imperfections as she can. Another odd thing about this book is the changing font sizes. Sometimes the lettering is small, other pages it’s two sizes bigger. What gives? It’s distracting!

There’s no tension in this book. No suspense. The main character is completely annoying and her narrative is overly written. There’s nothing here to like. However, if you must read this book, I highly suggest waiting for the trade. As it stands now, nothing happens in this book to hold your interest. And I know that there’s probably a lot of Halloween fans out there, but three different variant covers is a bit excessive. (Grade: F)

– J. Montes

A Second Opinion

I have to agree with Jay on this one. It’s hard to understand who is narrating. There are subtle changes in the color of the narration which are barely noticeable and if you’re not paying close attention to the color changes you’re going to lose track of who’s speaking. The script could have been better. The pacing is off, too; I guess Hutchinson is taking it slow.

I didn’t have any problems with the art, and I disagree with Jay when he says adding an inker will improve it. I said this before: I don’t like remakes or sequels with people who didn’t work with the original material. But, there will be always an audience. I won’t be picking up issue #2. (Grade: D-)

-Daniel Yanez