Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers 3 (October 2014)

Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers #3 Even though Casey is incredibly derivative–the Close Encounters nod is simultaneously cute and too much–Captain Victory continues to be a nice diversion. It’s not exactly a fun read, just because Casey doesn’t let his cast enjoy anything. There is some banter with the scientists on Earth who are looking at one of the spacecraft, but it’s over in a page.

Otherwise, the comic is very serious. And having Jim Mahfood do the adventures of a cat-man on a slightly hostile planet without any humor is too much. The comic has some great art–Fox some outstanding work–but Captain Victory isn’t actually ambitious sci-fi. It pretends to be ambitious sci-fi; Casey’s script is very traditional stuff. Even the artists’ page layouts are very traditional (even when trying to appear otherwise).

It’s an acceptable, enjoyable comic. But the artists deserve a balls to the wall script.

CREDITS

Writer, Joe Casey; artists, Nathan Fox, Jim Mahfood and Farel Darlyrmple; colorist, Brad Simpson; letterer, Simon Bowland; editors, Molly Mahan, Hannah Elder and Joseph Rybandt; publisher, Dynamite Entertainment.

Dark Horse Presents (1986) #129

Dhp129

Wow, Kelley Jones likes the phallic symbols doesn’t he? The character’s called The Hammer, but it doesn’t look like a hammer on his head… Anyway, it’s fine. Nice artwork, some decent scenes. The ending flops though.

Stilkskin continues, this issue turning its dwarf protagonist into a porn star. It’s a change from Oakley, who didn’t have a lot of events in the previous two installments, but somehow he makes it work great. Being in the city (set in the late seventies, which leads to some anachronisms) works great for the series. Gives Oakley a lot more to draw. Once again, fantastic.

Then there’s Cooper’s Dan & Larry and it’s slightly less disturbing than last time, but still incredibly strange. Cooper actually doesn’t take it over the edge, which he could have. It’s good… even with a weak last page.

Mahfood’s Zombie Kid is pop culture blather pretending to be a strip.