Dark Horse Presents 100 1 (August 1995)

Where to start….

Miller opens the issue with sort of a “ha ha, you can’t say it’s misogynistic because it’s intentional” Lance Blastoff! story. Killing dinosaurs, eating meat, those are the things women really need whether they know it or not. The writing’s crap—no shock—but Miller at least draws the dinosaurs.

Bennett and Guinan’s Heartbreakers returns after fifty issues and is no less boring. Sometimes it veers towards interesting territory, but it’s setup for more adventures. Bennett and Guinan avoid the human factor in the new ground situation. Art’s decent.

Pekar and Sacco’s thing is, besides being pointless, fine.

French’s Ninth Gland is really weird. It might be something good, it might not. Too soon to tell.

Lewis has a cute, foul-mouthed animal cartoon strip. Until the Dorkin piece, it’s the most annoying thing in the comic.

As for Dorkin’s Milk and Cheese? I don’t get it.

CREDITS

Lance Blastoff!; story and art by Frank Miller. Heartbreakers, Destination: Earth; story by Anina Bennett and Paul Guinan; art by Guinan and Todd Herman; lettering by Willie Schubert. Peeling and Eating a Tangerine (and Disposing of the Seeds); story by Harvey Pekar; art and lettering by Joe Sacco. The Ninth Gland, Part One; story and art by Renée French. Aboard the Drinking Leviathan; story and art by Jon Lewis. Milk and Cheese, The Devil Made Them Do It!; story, art and lettering by Evan Dorkin. Edited by Bob Schreck and Scott Allie.

Dark Horse Presents (1986) #62

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Maybe what Miller needs for Sin City is a full issue.

This issue, dedicated to Marv finishing up all the villains–I wonder if Miller intentionally gave his psychotic cannibal a harmless name like Kevin or if there’s some backstory to it–and getting executed, is nearly reasonable.

The opening is a disaster, with lots of the Miller narration, but there’s actual humor in the issue, like when Marv crawls into bed with the girl. Miller has some extra lazy moments with art here, though no more than usual.

The issue works because of Marv’s likability. It’s all contrived and really stupid, but he’s genuinely likable. Not too sure it’s believable he’s a virgin until this point.

The conclusion also requires Marv to be unreasonably stupid (to leave his mom in danger, unbelievable)….

But it’s not as bad as I would’ve assumed a full issue of Sin City to be.

Dark Horse Presents (1986) #61

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Sin City has gotten useless to the point I’m not even sure I should talk about it. It’s sort of interesting in regards to Miller’s terrible plotting. One might think he’d adapt Chandler or even Hammett, just amping it up, but he doesn’t. He figures out his own “hard boiled” structure and it’s awful. I guess he draws a little bit more this entry than usual. Not much though.

It’s the longest Earth Boys story so far and the extra pages don’t help the writing. But Story’s back inking Johnson, so it definitely looks a lot better.

The Creep is a continued delight. Eaglesham gets in some more street scenes, which look great, and Arcudi has a few surprise developments. It’s just a fantastic series.

Not fantastic is O’Barr’s Frame. He seems to think making his subject as horrendously awful means I should read it. Actual writing doesn’t matter. Boo.

Dark Horse Presents 62 (May 1992)

Maybe what Miller needs for Sin City is a full issue.

The issue works because of Marv’s likability. It’s all contrived and really stupid, but he’s genuinely likable. Not too sure it’s believable he’s a virgin until this point.

The conclusion also requires Marv to be unreasonably stupid (to leave his mom in danger, unbelievable)….

But it’s not as bad as I would’ve assumed a full issue of Sin City to be.

CREDITS

Sin City, Episode Thirteen; story, art and lettering by Frank Miller. Edited by Randy Stradley.

Dark Horse Presents 61 (April 1992)

It’s the longest Earth Boys story so far and the extra pages don’t help the writing. But Story’s back inking Johnson, so it definitely looks a lot better.

The Creep is a continued delight. Eaglesham gets in some more street scenes, which look great, and Arcudi has a few surprise developments. It’s just a fantastic series.

Not fantastic is O’Barr’s Frame. He seems to think making his subject as horrendously awful means I should read it. Actual writing doesn’t matter. Boo.

CREDITS

Sin City, Episode Twelve; story, art and lettering by Frank Miller. Earth Boys, Homeward Bound; story by Cliff Biggers and Brett Brooks; pencils by Dave Johnson; inks by Karl Story; lettering by Mike Heisler. The Creep; story by John Arcudi; art by Dale Eaglesham; lettering by Pat Brosseau. Frame 137; story, art and lettering by James O’Barr. Edited by Randy Stradley.

Dark Horse Presents (1986) #60

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Oh, lucky me, Sin City isn’t over yet. Instead, Miller spends most of his pages with one image, a lot of white space and even more terrible narration. I think I hate this entry the most. Not sure if it’s because I’m subjected to more of Miller’s writing or if it’s because I thought I was actually done with Sin City for now.

Geary has two different strips this issue. One’s two pages, the other is one. Neither is particularly good, but the second one is pretty bad, actually. Nice art, weak sentimental nonsense.

The Creep starts its second story arc and Eaglesham is even better than he was on the first. It’s nice to see Arcudi able to write something well, considering he’s always got a decent plotting sensibility.

Earth Boys closes the issue. Johnson’s art (probably the Story inks) is better. Maybe Biggers and Brooks’s writing is too.

Dark Horse Presents (1986) #59

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Wow, I really don’t know what’s the best thing in the issue.

Geary’s one page entry is a failure. It’s his solid art, but the writing doesn’t work here. It’s just too much forced sentiment.

Alien Fire seemingly comes to an end this issue–some very nice space frog art from Vincent–but Smith’s writing is just addlebrained. I can’t believe more attention would make it make any sense… I also can’t imagine giving it any more attention. It’s been one of the biggest wastes of time in Dark Horse Presents in a while.

I think Sin City‘s first arc ends here. It’s twenty-one mostly lazy pages from Miller, who apparently discovered back in the nineties all one needs to do is use full page action spreads to pad out the page count. There’s one or two slightly amusing lines, but it’s really just idiotic.

It’s a lousy issue.

Dark Horse Presents (1986) #58

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Well, the first installment of Alien Fire might have been good but this one is not. It’s apparently some sci-fi thing about a car and Native Americans and homophobes. Or something along those lines. It’s got a lot of quirky details, which Vincent draws well enough, but it’s useless.

The Creep finishes (hopefully not for good). Arcudi has a nice close, but the real sell in this installment is Eaglesham. He does this lengthy dialogue-free sequence and it’s beautiful. A very pleasant surprise.

Duffy’s Fancies continues. It’s cute (I think Fancies is a play on fantasy), though I’m wondering what I’m supposed to be reading into all Chacon’s boys wanting to be beautiful.

Sin City closes the issue. I guess it might have Miller’s best design work (the decapitated heads on the wall) of the series, but it’s still pretty lame. Lots and lots of bad narration here.

Dark Horse Presents (1986) #57

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Not much to recommend Next Men this time. Byrne handles his violent action sequence well, but he’s also selling a U.S. senator killing a federal agent. Who knows, maybe it’s all a Tea Party thing. Regardless, no longer interested in the series.

The Creep is, again, excellent. I can’t believe Arcudi’s writing it. And Eaglesham’s artwork is great. He’s doing this unfinished finished look, hard to explain.

Geary does one page. It’s fine. His longer work’s better.

Alien Fire is this excellent sixties piece about a Vietnam vet. It’s very quiet, lovely writing from Smith. Vincent’s artwork is good, with some caveats.

Campbell’s Alec story–about traveling the globe for a couple comic conventions–is astounding. It’s the best thing in Dark Horse Presents to date. He puts autobiography into this narrative device (numbered stills) but also scrapbook-like design work.

Sin City is awful. I hope Marv dies soon.

Dark Horse Presents (1986) #56

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This oversized issue opens and closes with an Aliens two-parter. Loose art from Guinan and Akins doesn’t help Arcudi’s script. It’s absolutely incomprehensible if you don’t read the Aliens series.

Byrne finally produces a Next Men I’m not interested in. It’s two government guys revealing all. The art’s really, really mediocre. It’s like even Byrne doesn’t have any interest in this part of the story, which really makes one wonder why he’s bothering tell it.

Duffy and Geary both have nice stories. Duffy (with Chacon art) has an amusing fantasy story, Fancies about a tavern fight, while Geary does the history of Eldgytha. She was British royalty who had a lot of husbands. It’s fantastically concise and engaging work from Geary.

Sin City is crap, but not as mean-spirited as Earth Boys.

Arcudi and Eaglesham’s The Creep is good. It’s maybe the best thing I’ve read from Arcudi.