Penguin-Random House's Pantheon division is serving up a double delight from writer-artist Mattie Lubchansky.
Leading off this preview is Escape From Zillionaire Island, a sci-fi fable set nearly 60 years into the future. It would appear that Lubchansky's art style is modeled after the Cal Arts style favored by a number of current cable cartoons. That would suggest this is meant to be some sort of satire, but it hardly reads as such. If it's meant to be taken seriously, the Cal Arts look may not be the appropriate choice.
On the other hand, an earlier work, Simplicity, is sampled as the backup, and has been described by one fellow author as a cross between Philip K. Dick and Robert Crumb. Not kidding.
Rating: B+.
Unlike their competitors, Archie Comics is randomly selecting issues of their core titles for facsimile edition reprints.
The latest is Archie's Pal, Jughead issue 78, first published in 1961. It follows the format of the day with a series of short stories by Samm Schwartz that, to today's readers, flies by very quickly. Given the current management's lack of interest in their heroes, don't look for someone like The Fly to get the facsimile treatment any time soon.
Rating: A-.
Writer-artist Mike Hoffman launched Eyrie, a homage to Eerie, via Kickstarter last year, and on his website, he already has 30 issues completed, with most waiting to be released. Issue 1 was supposed to come out earlier this year, but has only just surfaced in the home town. The 2nd issue was advertised to be released in May, but, well.....! Anyway, Hoffman isn't sure who he wants to emulate on a regular basis, and, mind you, Warren put out some great horror comics back in the day, and had a great stable of artists. Hoffman picks different styles according to the storylines, and shares writing duties with Jason Crawley.
I wish I had a clue who was being honored in each story.
Rating: B-.
Not content with having Sam Wilson graduate to being Captain America on screen and in comics, Marvel wants to have it both ways, giving Steve Rogers another go as the Captain in a new series written by Chip Zdarsky. While I am accustomed to Chip writing humor (i.e. the last Jughead series), this is a little different, and shows that Zdarsky has some versatility. With Dynamite and Mad Cave running into some issues of late (more on that below), I think we'll give this a try. Opening arc looks good. So far.
Rating: A-.
As noted Diamond Comics Distributors is having issues with its subsidiary, Dynamite. The latter isn't getting paid of late, and with Diamond dealing with Chapter 11, I'd not be surprised if both brands disappear. Previews, the phone book size monthly catalog, is now online only, at least here in town, but monthly catalogs from DC, Marvel, Image, IDW, Mad Cave, and others are available, so ordering your favorite titles won't change all that much.
And that leaves us with a caveat emptor label for some forthcoming Dynamite releases. Cheetara, the sexy, speedy member of the ThunderCats, gets a 2nd miniseries, out in September. Dynamite also dips into the Hanna-Barbera library once more to bring back Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, also in September. Seems this time, Radley Crown, aka Blue Falcon, is leaving the big city behind to become a farmer, a la Green Acres back in the 60's. The rebooted origin goes from there.
Meanwhile, even though the entire series was released in two hardcover volumes, DC is going back to reprinting Super Friends in its new DC Fines line. The first 26 issues and a treasury edition will be released in November. They're better off doing Shazam! or Welcome Back, Kotter in that format.
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