I had a week off last month, so I went out to Barnes & Noble, the used bookstore, and Zia Comics for reading material. I’m going to characterize these trips as mostly a success. The Titans trade I got at B&N was great.
At Coas Used Bookstore, I looked over their trades and later regretted turning up my nose at a couple I was interested in. I went through the bargain bin instead and picked some interesting ones. The best of the bunch were a couple of 80’s Gladstone Disney comics. Mickey and Donald generally don’t disappoint. I also got three later day issues of the Teen Titans. Well, actually two of them were issues of just Titans (#3 and #4 from 2008). The characters were fully adults, even if they didn’t entirely act like it. The artwork was highly stylized, but good. My main criticism would be that the story is told mostly in big panels and splash pages.
Also in the bin was a collectible, an Archie’s TV Laugh-Out issue from the early 70’s. Unfortunately, they knew about it and were
asking $10. I was tempted, but resisted. The title usually featured Sabrina and Josie
and the Pussycats, but it was bagged and boarded and I couldn’t look at it. Oddly, I’d run into an issue of that comic a
few years ago at another comic book store.
I’d thought it was in the bargain bin, but again it was an expensive
collector’s item. It you can find an
issue of this comic cheap, get it.
The Elvis
Experience
My mom was a big Elvis fan. I think it was a day in the 90’s when I
happened to find an Elvis comic book in a dollar box and I picked it up for
her. I’d noticed it was pretty detailed. I never found any other issues. On my recent trip to Zia Comics, I noticed
spinner rack only featuring titles from an independent company, Tidal Wave
Productions. There were a bunch
biography comics there, mostly political and a bit dated, but right there was
an Elvis trade paperback. I picked it
right up.
I didn’t remember much about that original comic. The artwork was black and white and
serviceable. I didn’t understand the
framing sequence where Elvis was being interviewed by a psychologist. The Elvis in those scenes seemed oddly out of
character.
The story takes place after Elvis’ death. The psychologist was helping him review his life and learn from it. In the afterlife, Elvis’ intelligence had been boosted, accounting for his new personality. About halfway through the volume, another artist came in with a more cartoony style. Another artist did the final issue. These changes weren’t for the better. The framing story becomes more prominent and metaphysical in attempting to explain life itself in the final issue. There are odd alternate versions of Elvis’ life explored. The book ends with him cleaning up his life and becoming president (and dating Madonna).
You can take or leave all that. The interesting part of the trade was the
retelling of Elvis’ life and career. It
includes many fascinating details. Some
of these I knew, but many I didn’t. My
only complaint was that it never mentioned the Aloha From Hawaii concert,
surely a career highlight.
Much like the Titans
trade, this Elvis book is also dense in text.
This is not a quick read for a comic book. For about $10, this was certainly worth
it. Overall, it’s not a flattering look
at Elvis’ life, but it is an entirely sympathetic one. It’s an amazing life to look at.
Juliet
Also on the Tidal Wave spinner rack were their more
traditional comic book offerings. I
picked up this one, since it had a nice cover.
Like comics from bigger companies, it is $4 and printed on slick
paper. Storywise, it could have used a
summary page up front. This being a
totally unknown character, I had to just had to go along with whatever was said
in context.
So, Juliet is a woman with superpowers and amnesia. She’s being chased by other superpowered
people. I suppose I could reread this to
give a more detailed explanation, but that’s too much effort for this comic. The art inside is maybe a tick below
professional grade, but not bad. The
problem is that the some of the pages seemed to have been produced independent
of one another. The story doesn’t
smoothly flow from page to page. Okay,
this purchase was a mistake.
Grimm
Fairy Tales #33
Like every other guy going into a comic book store, I’d noticed Zenoscope’s somewhat salacious covers. Today was the day I finally succumbed to try one. The company has been around for a while producing comics featuring beautiful scantily-clad heroines in Disney-esqe settings. Other than that, I didn’t know anything about the setting or characters.
Up front was a recap of the story thus far. That was kind of helpful. The artwork inside was good. The story was functional. Basically, it was a couple of standoffs and a
fight scene. I’m not sure if this was
good enough to get me to try another issue.
Maybe a trade, if I could find one.
The promotional ads in the back for other comics from the company did
look interesting. I was a bit peeved
that my issue had some sliced pages inside.
Since all of the comics in the shop are sold bagged and boarded, I
didn’t know until after I’d bought it.
Sorry that these two comic book reviews weren’t very informative, but after reading that Titans trade, I suspect most comics are going to look very dismissible for a while.
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