Fashion Beast (2012) #2

Fashion Beast 2

See, there you go, I had no idea the protagonist–her name’s Doll–worked at a nightclub. I thought she was working for the fashion guy, but no. Big fail from Johnston on that one.

This issue is a lot better than the last one, with most of the issue having Moore dialogue. There’s a nice expository opening–with people on the street filling the reader in on the ground situation–before Doll finally ends up at the fashion place.

Giving a transgender girl a masculine lesbian for a nemesis is a little odd, especially since not everyone is mean, just the villain fashion crones and the lesbian. There’s not enough texture to the supporting cast.

But, thanks to the dialogue and plotting, Doll comes through as a strong protagonist. She gets immediate sympathy thanks to the vicious bad girl, but her choices are also strong.

It’s getting better fast.

Fashion Beast 2 (September 2012)

881592 See, there you go, I had no idea the protagonist–her name’s Doll–worked at a nightclub. I thought she was working for the fashion guy, but no. Big fail from Johnston on that one.

But, thanks to the dialogue and plotting, Doll comes through as a strong protagonist. She gets immediate sympathy thanks to the vicious bad girl, but her choices are also strong.

It’s getting better fast.

CREDITS

Death; writers, Malcolm McLaren, Alan Moore and Antony Johnston; artist, Facundo Percio; colorist, Hernan Cabrera; editor, Jim Kuhoric; publisher, Avatar Press.

Fashion Beast 1 (August 2012)

876990 Given how much effort Alan Moore puts into his comic scripts–instructions to the artist for each panel, for example–one can easily tell he’s not writing Fashion Beast. Antony Johnston is–I assume–using Moore’s dialogue, but who knows what kind of instruction he’s giving artist Facundo Percio.

Did Johnston actually tell Percio to waste about a third of the issue on montage shots?

Once the comic gets going, it’s pretty good. The protagonist–at this point–seems to be a transgender girl who works as a coat check girl for the poshest fashion designer in a dystopian city. Percio’s visuals for the city are great; it’s like a mix of Dickensian London with classic Paris but set in the future.

The lead gets into a fight (at work) with her neighbor, a tomboy.

It’s a very slight issue, but ends promising thanks to Moore’ dialogue and Percio’s art.

p style=”font-size:11px;”>CREDITS

The Magician; writers, Malcolm McLaren, Alan Moore and Antony Johnston; artist, Facundo Percio; colorist, Hernan Cabrera; editor, Jim Kuhoric; publisher, Avatar Press.

The Courtyard (2003) #2

Ah, I misremembered. I thought this issue ended with an insanely graphic scene. It doesn’t, it’s all implied… which means on the second reading (or whatever) it’s a lot less intense.

There are three or four double-page spreads here, so I guess Burrows does get to do some work. It’s good he gets to do them, even if they’re gross, because the rest of the issue is pretty boring. It’s mostly scene work, but he’s stuck with the two panels a page and it really doesn’t work for someone walking up a flight of stairs.

The Lovecraft reference—the Cthulhu name-dropping—is clearer in the end, but it comes during an early Photoshop (changing color-tones—I hope Burrows got paid for each page, even though the last three are identical illustrations) and it really doesn’t matter.

I hope Moore bought himself something nice with his Courtyard paycheck.

The Courtyard (2003) #1

Not having read Alan Moore’s original short story… I have to wonder if Antony Johnston added all the racial slurs to make The Courtyard seem more “authentic.”

I’ve read the comic before (so I remember the big reveal)—I did not remember, however, the titular courtyard doesn’t even show up until the second issue—but it was probably before I’d read Moore talk about comic book writing. Besides the center spread, Jacen Burrows splits every page into two long panels. Johnston includes the text; again, whether it’s his or Moore’s is unclear.

Burrows’s artwork is good, but The Courtyard doesn’t really give him a chance to do anything. His panels are mostly static, even when he’s got an actual scene, he’s still in the same two panel format (Watchmen it ain’t).

It’s also unclear how Moore weighted the original text; the Lovecraft stuff, for example, could have been more prevalent.