Tag: Jerry Ordway

Tom Strong (1999) #5

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The backup this issue is from Jerry Ordway, so the art’s good. It’s not really a backup, it’s more an aside to give the reader some more information. But Moore and Ordway present it as a fifties or sixties sci-fi comic, albeit with better dialogue.

Tom Strong gives Moore a nice opportunity to do revisionist Golden Age and Silver Age stories (presumably the point) while still keeping modern. It’s impressive how, in this single issue, he’s able to introduce a villain, go through the history with the villain, and then give him a sendoff.

Moore didn’t do a lot of superhero books, but Tom Strong shows he definitely would be able to do them if he wanted.

The issue’s set in Pangea (or is it on Pangea?), giving Sprouse a prehistoric wasteland to illustrate. He’s got some beautiful visuals.

Again, not a deep, thoughtful issue; but a good one.

Fantastic Four (1961) #282

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You know, when John Byrne said Hispanic women with dyed hair looked like whores or whatever, I figured he knew how to draw Sue Storm to look like a chick instead of a John Byrne dude with a crappy haircut. I grew up on Man of Steel so I think I always gave Byrne a bit of the benefit of the doubt, but his work on this issue of Fantastic Four is terrible.

I mean, his figures and his action are fine, but his faces? Johnny Storm looks more like a kid than Franklin Richards. Franklin and the Power Pack (wow, if that doesn’t sound like a gay porno, what does?) appear to be dwarfs of approximately forty-years of age. It’s laughable. And Franklin hanging with a tough-looking My Little Pony? Whatever.

The writing’s way too expositional and the issue seems, well, “decompressed.”

The dialogue’s pretty lame too.