Burn out the day; burn out the night. I can't see no reason to put up a fight.

Scurvy Dogs: changing hearts. Changing minds. The boys wear down Tim O'Neil with their tireless attack on stiffery, to the point where a guy like O'Neil, who didn't much like the Scurv when he first read it, gives up some grudging admiration of issue five in spite of himself. It's that special silver hypno-ink that's got everyone bamboozled! Scurvy Dogs #5 is in shops tomorrow.

Sean Collins writes some stuff about Demo at Comic Book Galaxy, as does Bill Sherman on Pop Culture Gadabout. Bill has some laser-like observations contrasting issues six and seven: "As a writer, Wood is more interested in the effect each choice has on his characters. This may be frustrating for comic readers looking for a more clear-cut ethically defined story-verse, but it raises more intriguingly open-ended questions for the rest of us. Who of the two heroes is better off for the decisions they made? The repressed and haunted hero of Wood & Cloonan's horror story or the economically dead-ended Hatfield? The more I consider it, the harder it gets to definitely answer that question..."

Johnny B promises a full review of Ursula for later in the week and notes: "I will say this, though - Ursula is as good as the hype." People! When has one of our books not lived up to the hype? I ask you.

Whenever I see an erstwhile observer of the scene say this in public, I always get a chuckle. My favorite one of those came from Greg McElhatton: "The problem with hype is that it's almost impossible to live up to. So unless you've been under a rock for the last couple of months, you'd know that AiT/Planet Lar was publishing a graphic novel called Last of the Independents by Matt Fraction and Kieron Dwyer. You'd also know that according to the hype, it's supposed to be excellent. And it's more than understandable if as a result of all of this you're feeling more than a bit wary. Having now read Last of the Independents, I feel that I can say that when it comes to the hype... it was actually dead-on correct."

I love that one, because all I see there is Greg complimenting me for doing my job.

... and here's a link to Loose Cannon #25 (from June 29th, 2001), where I tell everyone where ideas come from.

Wound up, can't sleep, can't do anything right, little honey, oh, since I set my eyes on you... I tell you the truth.

Publisher's Weekly (here's the direct link for those of you subscribing) reviews Hench. "Using ingenuity and a nice sense of humanity, Beechen and Bello provide an original take on the notion of superheroes and super villains by focusing not on the stars but on the bit players: the villains’ henchmen." and "Beechen’s script gives one henchman, Mike, a convincing history, and Bello’s simple but clear art gives him a stoic yet vulnerable face." are particular faves.



Ken Lowery wins the I'm-cooler-than-you race with the rest of the comics blogosphereiverse, as he's posted the first review of Scurvy Dogs #5 from the batch I've sent out. He deems it "radass." The Scurv and Ursula (Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba's modern-day fairy tale that got an A+ from Variety) are both out this Wednesday.



... and here's a link to Loose Cannon #24 (from June 22nd, 2001), where I list everyone doing good work in comics, and no surprise! every one of them still works in comics.

And now you find yourself in '82; the disco hot spots hold no charm for you

Here's a couple recent reviews from the prestigious Booklist:

Wood, Brian and G, Rob. Couriers 02: Dirtbike Manifesto. 2004. 88p. illus. AiT/Planet Lar; dist. by Diamond, paper, $12.95 (1-932051-18-X). 741.5.
The Couriers, whose second graphic-novel adventure this is, are young urban mercenaries ("yummies"?) Moustafa and Special (a female), who deliver stuff you just can’t give to any bike messenger––drugs, weapons, various kinds of payoff––because bike messengers are gonna freak when the recipients pull heat on ’em and say they’ll keep delivery and payment or return merchandise, so to speak, and oh, yeah, you (the messenger) won’t be going to the next client––ever. This scenario unfolds early here, but Moustafa, Special, and Ryan handle it perfectly, with bullets and big-ass four-wheel-drive pickups. ’Cept Ryan gets killed. Tracing the killers to redneck territory upstate (New York), our two lethal slick city-zens head north. Mostly chasing and fighting (with guns, knives, fists, whatever), this opus might be fairly boring as a movie but is pretty impressive here, thanks to Rob G’s way––in black and white, yet––with smeared lines for speed, glowing light effects, and cloud, mist, and dust effects that give a subtle 3-D look whenever he uses them. ––Ray Olson
YA/M: Teens will like the young heroes; plenty of violence, but no sex.

Young, Larry and McKinney, Brandon. Planet of the Capes. 2004. 80p. illus. AiT/Planet Lar; dist. by Diamond, paper, $12.95 (1-932051-20-1). 741.5.
Everybody knows there are no superheroes in this world. But why assume that this is the only world? Physics seems to smile, however thinly, on the notion of parallel universes, and writers have always re-ordered reality as they pleased, or there wouldn’t be superhero stories at all. Dan Jolley and Tony Harris did a bang-up job with a world in which superheroes exist in The Liberty Files [BKL My 15 04], and Young and McKinney also entertain by first offering a superhero-sodden existence much like this reality––for instance, complete with celebrity-autograph hounds who aren’t above the pretense of being in trouble to attract overly serious, caped crime fighters––and then tossing superpowered analogs of Superman, Batman, the Hulk, and, perhaps, Alan Moore’s Promethea into this world, where they don’t all behave well. Cast mostly in the virtuosic black-and-white that is AiT/Planet Lar’s house distinction, with a central flashback in color à la 1950s comic books, this amusing caper zips along so quickly that it seems more graphic novella than -novel. ––Ray Olson