Seekers of the Weird #2 – Review

By: Brandon Seifert (story), Karl Moline (pencils), Rick Magyar (inks), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (colors)

The Story: Never mix reading with lacrosse.

The Review: As you could probably tell, I wasn’t all that impressed with the first issue of this series.  This isn’t necessarily a dealbreaker; plenty of stories need an issue or two—or more—before they get their sea legs.  You don’t always have to take a running leap from the very beginning, so long as you can prove that the premise or the characters are interesting enough to see how they come along.  Seekers of the Weird didn’t quite manage that.

Even more troubling, the second issue isn’t much of an improvement, either.  From the character side of things, Melody, Maxwell, and Roland haven’t gotten any more personable, remaining as flat as they were initially rendered.  Maybe this is the “All Ages” curse rearing its head, but Melody and Maxwell seem particularly generic as tomboy and bookworm.  When Roland explains their mission going forward, Maxwell remarks nervously, “This sounds like a lot of…exercise.”

“And homework,” adds a petulant Melody. (Later, in the Museum’s library, she stares in dismay at all the books around her and cries, “You did mean homework.  Boo!”)

Seekers of the Weird #1 – Review

By: Brandon Seifert (story), Karl Moline (pencils), Rick Magyar (inks), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (colors)

The Story: We’re going to the Museum of the Weird!  Because we can’t afford Disneyland!

The Review: As an Orange County resident, I’ve had my share of Disneyland trips, and much as I appreciate the magic and fun at work there, it’s hard not to see through the highly manicured, studio-set quality of the place.  The various theme parks are not so much original works of imagination as they are amalgamations of their respective genres: adventure, sci-fi, western, fantasy, etc.  At best, Disneyland offers backdrops for stories, not stories themselves.

So it strikes me as a little ill-conceived that someone would attempt to use Disneyland as a source of inspiration for not just one story, but a whole ongoing series.  Talk about craven commercialism.  Still, there is a dearth of pure adventure titles on the market right now, and if there’s one thing Disney has proven pretty darn good at, it’s in delivering pure adventure, without any overly complicated strings attached.  Turns out, though, that you can complicate things by making them too simple, too.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8 #19 – Review

By Joss Whedon (writer), Karl Moline (pencils), Michelle Madsen (colors)

The Story: After being doublecrossed by Fray and her sister, Buffy struggles to find her way home while Future-Dark Willow moves her plans to their final stages. Present day Willow, with the help of Kennedy, prepares a spell to bring Buffy back. All while Xander and Dawn fight off an army of frog-looking men with the help of the woodland creatures. It’s an action-packed issue with a lot going on, so don’t blink!

What’s Good: The quality of writing remains incredibly high. The characters, world, and relationships are just as rich as they were on the show. The series really feels like the next logical step in the progression. It makes me wish that Whedon had time to spend some attention to the other comic series based off of his shows.

What’s Not So Good: Three separate and seemingly unconnected stories are a little hard to follow. Xander and Present-Willow’s stories get wrapped up in a handful of pages, while the bulk of the book follows Buffy in the future. It just seems like the spacing is off. Another gripe is Dark Willow. She obviously knows much more of the story than she’s telling, which is fine. But her “you’ll find out soon enough” dialogue leaves without the finding part. But it’s gotten a little tiresome since she’s been doing that for four issues or so without much of a reveal.

Conclusion: Season Eight has been fantastic for fans of the show. However, I’m ready for things to move back to the present. Not that this portion of the story’s been bad. But having two separate stories, two centuries apart from one another was just a little harder to follow than I would’ve liked.

Grade: B

-Ben Berger

Buffy The Vampire Slayer #18 – Review

By Joss Whedon (writer), Karl Moline (pencils), Andy Owens (inks), Michelle Madsen (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft’s Jimmy (letters)

What can you really say about Season Eight other than “more please.” The move from TV to the comics has been a great one for the series. A story this size and scope would be tough to pull off on television. The budget would be insane, and some of it might be too “out there” for the casual fans. In comics, Whedon has a blank check to let his imagination go wild, and that’s how it should be.

Each issue becomes more and more detailed, requiring you revisit some of these books more than once. That’s a credit to Whedon, not a hindrance because the story is so good it makes you want to be sure you haven’t missed anything. Better still, you’ll probably find some great detail you missed. Because of that I couldn’t really recommend that someone just grab this issue, too much has happened. The story is told in two parts simultaneously. One shows present-day Willow trying to find Buffy, the other shows Buffy in the future helping Fray. My complaint is that sometimes it’s too tough to tell where you are. Obviously, the backgrounds and characters involved tip you off. But on occasion it takes a few panels to be sure.

Karl Moline’s imagination and talent for creature design is put on full display this issue. My favorite is definitely Lorelahn and his tree people. Think of a centaur, but with trees, and that’ll give you an idea of where these guys are at. Another great touch is the arm of fire they have. I had to double-check to make sure they weren’t just on fire. Sadly, as awesome as the monsters look, the humans themselves could use a bit more detail. Buffy and Fray’s sister look very similar, just with different outfits. If that’s intentional, then I’d say it’s a little too distracting for the reader.

Each issue of Season Eight just makes me wish the show was still on. I’m sure certain things would need to be cut if it was being filmed, but the world Whedon has created is just too rich to ignore. His style is specific, and that might be part of the problem that the masses don’t get it. So sadly, for those of us who do get it, we have to wait and hope someday that Joss will be as greatly appreciated as he deserves. (Grade: B+)

-Ben Berger

Buffy The Vampire Slayer #16 (Season 8) – Review

Joss Whedon (writer), Karl Moline (pencils), Andy Owens (inks), Michelle Madsen (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft’s Jimmy (letters)

Joss Whedon is someone that comes along once in a great while because he’s so talented and multi-faceted. The amount of creativity needed for one book, or show is incredible, let alone three or more. Like many, I’m always really upset when something he’s working on gets canceled (Firefly especially). That said, his continuation of the Buffy story has been spectacular for both fans of the series and newcomers.

Whedon is one of the few writers who is able to weave previously established mythos into a fresh story and have it not feel redundant. I’d be lying if I said this issue was jam-packed with information, but honestly, anything more and it would’ve felt bloated. The one negative to Whedon’s work here as opposed to Astonishing X-Men is that it’s a little harder to dive right into. The dialogue and story are very specific and if Buffy’s valley-girl lingo isn’t for you, parts of this book might wear thin.

Karl Moline has some great and stylized pencils in this book. He didn’t start out doing the pencils when the series started, but you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference. That said, as someone who was a fan of the show its sometimes hard to tell who people are at a glance. Xander was easy because of the eye-patch, but everyone else from the show looks different enough to throw you off. Either they couldn’t get all the likeness rights of the actors or Moline’s struggling – whatever it is, it’s a little tough at first. However, there are some really great panels in here – especially when Buffy starts to slug it out with Fray while they’re falling out of the hotel.

This is essential reading for any self-respecting fan of Buffy, Whedon, or a similar genre. It’s a really good jumping off point for new readers because it’s the start of the next wave of the season eight story (but you should read the first two trade paperbacks if you can). And while it definitely helps to have a working knowledge of Buffy or to have read the rest of season eight, Whedon does a great job of making it accessible. (Grade: B)

– Ben Berger