Prophet 40 (October 2013)

287903 20131030201716 large Graham and Roy mostly just work towards bringing the New John together with the Old John, even though Old John doesn’t seem to understand what’s going on yet. He’s a pawn on the intergalactic chessboard, which this issue includes the return of Badrock–an old Image hero from some series or another–and a Cthulhu-like thing flying across the galaxy towards them.

There’s time for some character stuff with Old John, but it’s only a page or so and not as affecting as the conversation between two of New John’s team. One forgets Graham and Roy were able to take Prophet so far in such relatively few issues.

The main story ends up suffering from a lovely little back-up from Nerd O’Reilly. A wizard gets mad at his crystal skull (it’s animate, of course) and it’s a touching, funny little story.

The feature’s just too rambling in comparison.

CREDITS

Writers, Brandon Graham and Simon Roy; artists, Giannis Milonogiannis, Roy, Matt Sheean and Malachi Ward; colorist, Joseph Bergin III; letterer, Ed Brisson. Crystal Wizard; writer and artist, Paul Bohm. Publisher, Image Comics.

Prophet 39 (September 2013)

283111 20130911103147 large It’s the Diehard issue, which is an easy pick for favorite Prophet issue but maybe only because Graham and Roy get to do a summary story covering about 10,000 years.

They open with a retelling–I assume, I have no idea–of Diehard’s origin on Earth in the twentieth century. The art, by era, is from one person or another (or a team). It’s all awesome, with Lando’s standing out the most because it’s such a sad story.

Anyway, there’s a first act, a second act, a little third act. Even though the issue moves fast, across the galaxy (and beyond) and through thousands of years, Graham and Roy show the the effects on Diehard and how he changes. Graham is doing so much with Prophet already, I guess he figured he had to do amazing things with forgotten superheroes too.

Lovely, muted Paul Bohm backup too.

Truly exquisite stuff.

CREDITS

Diehard; writers, Brandon Graham and Simon Roy; artists, Giannis Milonogiannis, Joseph Bergin III, Matt Sheean, Malachi Ward, James Stokoe, Aaron Conley, Lando, Ron Wimberly, Graham and Roy; colorist, Bergin; letterer, Ed Brisson. Backup; writer and artist, Paul Bohm. Publisher, Image Comics.

Prophet 38 (August 2013)

280189 20130815010038 large What an issue. With Roy and Milonogiannis splitting the art–basically between Old John and New John–it’s a visual feast to be sure. It’s also exceptionally confusing.

The Old John stuff is simpler. It’s a tie-in with Supreme, which most Prophet readers can’t be familiar with, right? But Graham runs with it.

He doesn’t give enough time to the sidekicks though, especially not with the middle issue changeover to New John. And New John doesn’t really do anything–he gets a new arm–before Graham moves on to some planetoid.

At that point, the issue becomes completely incomprehensible. I think a planet gets broken up to free a planet-sized Prophet from a gravity well. Or something.

The backup, from Kate Craig, is cute. It’s a little too cute, with a white koala bear looking guy on a distant planet playing with the weird indigenous lizards. It’s fine.

CREDITS

Prophet; writers, Brandon Graham and Simon Roy; artists, Bayard Baudoin, Giannis Milonogiannis and Simon Roy; colorist, Joseph Bergin III, Jessica Pollard and Roy; letterer, Ed Brisson. Catch and Release; writer, artist, colorist and letterer, Kate Craig. Publisher, Image Comics.

Prophet 36 (June 2013)

919049 So New John is just Newfather now. Very easy. Oh, and nice cameo again–Graham really seems to enjoy the winks. He’s able to put them in and move right along. It helps Old John’s crew is so personable. Wouldn’t work without them.

There’s a little on Diehard’s crushing again this issue. Nothing ominous but it’s hard to say how it’ll work out. You can never guess with Prophet.

Graham now has Newfather set up his own crew. They’re not as personable–they are just clones after all–but he’s making the juxtaposing between the two Johns more similar in delivery while maintaining difference in texture. Very cool. They’re on the same mission too, so a meet-up is inevitable.

The Care backup is positively distressing this time. The art’s grossness hurts the strip big time. One fixates on the ick factor, not the delicate profoundness of the actual story.

CREDITS

Prophet; writers, Brandon Graham and Simon Roy; artists, Roy, Giannis Milonogiannis, Matt Sheehan and Malachi Ward; colorists, Joseph Bergin III, Roy, Sheehan and Ward; letterer, Ed Brisson. Care, Part Three; writers, artists and colorists, Sheean and Ward. Publisher, Image Comics.

Prophet 35 (May 2013)

910298 Graham has seemingly hit a lull issue. Not a bad issue, but definitely some kind of a bridging one. It’s always hard to say with Prophet, since Graham and his collaborators often do something unexpected.

He splits the issue between Old John and New John. Old John is traveling to meet The Troll, a warlord of some kind apparently, who occupies a moon of Mars. There’s some great stuff with his crew, some oddly touching moments and some funny ones. Very grand scale sci-fi stuff.

New John, on the other hand, should have grand scale too–he’s part of an attack to defeat these aliens who Graham leaves obscure–but Milonogiannis never amps up the huge battle. There are establishing shots, some quick interludes, some expository help, but it feels oddly small. Even though it’s obviously huge.

The Care backup continues to be weird. Better this issue than last.

CREDITS

Prophet; writers, Brandon Graham and Simon Roy; artist, Giannis Milonogiannis; colorist, Joseph Bergin III; letterer, Ed Brisson. Care, Part Two; writers, artists and colorists, Matt Sheean and Malachi Ward. Publisher, Image Comics.

Prophet 34 (February 2013)

900202 It’s another excellent issue. Whatever Graham’s got planned for Prophet, he’s also figured out a way to draw it out but never get boring.

This issue, featuring some great art from Roy, does establish a little more with the New Father John Prophet–he’s the one from the first few issues of the relaunch; seems like he’s been gone for a while and even though he’s sort of a bad guy, it’s nice having him back.

Anyway, what Graham and Roy do here is move him along baby steps but do so in a way to show all the variations of the John Prophet clone. Not all the Johns appear human, not all are equal, some are quiet alien. It’s wacky and wonderful.

The backup, from Matt Sheean and Malachi Ward, disappoints a little. It starts really cool but then turns out to be a Logan’s Run knockoff or something.

CREDITS

Prophet; writers, Brandon Graham and Simon Roy; artist, Roy; colorist, Joseph Bergin III; letterer, Ed Brisson. Care, Part One; writers, artists and colorists, Matt Sheean and Malachi Ward. Publisher, Image Comics.

Prophet 33 (January 2013)

Skitched 20130719 172620 Awesome issue, just awesome. Graham ends it with this awkward silence–he only hints at the big events going on–with a focus on Old Man John Prophet’s reaction. Milog does a beautiful job on the art for these pages too.

A lot of the issue is spent with the crew in this strange hive mind fleet. Hive suggests bugs but there are no bugs. It’s all ethereal and beautiful, some kind of Amazonian space fleet. There’s an unexpected cameo too. Graham integrates it beautifully.

He also has a lot of humor. There’s a wonderful running joke about Rein-East and her discarded biological mass. Graham doesn’t do a lot of the detail callouts–he does a few–but something about the pacing of Rein-East’s biological mass reminds of them. It’s matter of fact, but hilarious.

The backup, from Sloane Leong, is rather impressive. Poetic, visceral stuff.

Fantastic issue.

CREDITS

Prophet; writers, Brandon Graham, Giannis Milonogiannis and Simon Roy; artist, Milonogiannis; colorist, Joseph Bergin III; letterer, Ed Brisson. Backup story; writer, artist, colorist and letterer, Sloane Leong. Publisher, Image Comics.

Prophet 31 (November 2012)

This issue has to be the most traditional Prophet yet. Maybe Graham was just taking his time establishing everything. By traditional, I don’t mean “normal” in terms of Prophet issues. I mean “normal” as compared to other comics.

Prophet–Old Man Prophet–and his crew end up on a planet for some trading and for Prophet to attend a meeting. Graham writes Prophet as a solitary guy, but the other crew members talk and hang out. There’s comic relief with Jaxson the drone too. The plant guy and the lizard girl bond. It’s all very well done, with Graham’s return to the characters unexpected (but welcome).

He’s also got some interesting things going on with Diehard the robot.

Prophet is still picking up steam, its best issues ahead.

Olivier Pichard and Cécile Brun’s backup concerns a space traveller stranded on an unfamiliar planet. The art’s lovely, but the story’s slight.

CREDITS

Prophet; writers, Brandon Graham, Giannis Milonogiannis and Simon Roy; artist, Milonogiannis; colorist, Joseph Bergin III; letterer, Ed Brisson. Waveless; writer and colorist, Olivier Pichard; artist, Cécile Brun. Editor, Eric Stephenson; publisher, Image Comics.

Prophet 30 (October 2012)

Graham brings together a lot of plot threads this issue. Well, he actually more just brings the drone guy–Jaxson–alongside old Prophet. That part of the issue, the third, is probably the least interesting.

The issue opens introducing another new character–who Graham brings back somewhat deftly–and then moves into a lengthy flashback about old Prophet. Milonogiannis handles the illustrating on these two stories; he brings a palpable melancholy to Prophet’s flashback. The series continues to surprise in this way–Graham and his artists get a lot of emotion out of a few pages in the middle of their grandiose sci-fi.

Graham does the art for the last part. It’s action-packed and good, but the issue definitely peaks during the middle.

The Bartan backup from K.C. Silver and Dimi Mac is lame. It’s anthropomorphic animals in space stuff. The jokes are cheap, the punchline’s even worse.

CREDITS

Prophet; writers, Brandon Graham, Giannis Milonogiannis and Simon Roy; artists, Milonogiannis and Graham; colorists, Joseph Bergin III, Milonogiannis and Graham; letterer, Ed Brisson. The Maleficient Maze of Tzontonox!!!!; writer, K.C. Silver; artist, colorist and letterer, Dimi Mac. Editor, Eric Stephenson; publisher, Image Comics.

Prophet 29 (September 2012)

Farel Dalrymple does the art this issue. It’s a younger Prophet issue, involving his adventures on a prison ship. Or the prison part of a ship. It’s a very big ship. Dalrymple finds all sorts of stuff to draw. It looks, no surprise, amazing.

I just noticed most Prophet issues are these stopovers. Graham has Prophet–both or all of them–on journeys and issues tend to be about a stop. Here, young Prophet is able to get out of control of the Earth mother he’s escorting. It’s a side effect of the main story, but it provides a big change. Only Graham created both sides of that change this issue.

His writing is never disjointed or episodic. Every Prophet issue reads like it’s the only one. It’s a very interesting approach.

Andy Ristiano’s backup is derivative but okay. His art style nicely contrasts the serious nature of the story.

CREDITS

Prophet; writers, Brandon Graham and Farel Dalrymple; artist, Dalrymple; colorist, Joseph Bergin III; letterer, Ed Brisson. Game Over; writer, artist, colorist and letterer, Andy Ristaino. Editor, Eric Stephenson; publisher, Image Comics.