John Carpenter’s Asylum 5 (April 2014)

It isn’t enough for there to be one exorcism this issue, Jones has to flashback to a previous exorcism. The flashback does get some of the back story between the priests out of the way, which is good, but it’s a whole lot of demonic art. Manco has almost nothing to draw except demons in various stages of upset this issue.

As for Jones, for the most part he’s just got to write priests saying lines out of Exorcist movies. Not particularly heavy lifting for him. Manco at least has a lot to do. There’s a double-page spread of angels and demons–it’s totally useless as far as narrative value, but it’s very detailed work from Manco.

There are some big plot developments and big things for cast members. Unfortunately, there’s so little concern for the cast it doesn’t really matter who’s in danger.

Besides Manco, Asylum’s running near on empty.

C-

CREDITS

Writers, Bruce Jones, Sandy King and Trent Olsen; artist, Leonardo Manco; colorist, Kinsun Loh; letterer, Janice Chiang; editor, King; publisher, Storm King Comics.

John Carpenter’s Asylum 4 (February 2014)

I was worried I wouldn’t remember what was going on with Asylum because it’s been so long since I read the previous issue but since nothing happens in this one, there’s a lot of time to pay catchup. And Jones is good making sure there’s enough information for a casual reader to get by. There’s a cop, there’s his partner, his kid, the Church, the demons… all these things get vague enough recaps one can get by.

But for what purpose? The plotting is questionable–Jones’s hard cliffhanger raises a few of questions but the issue preceding it suggests none of them will get answered. The stuff with the cop’s kid is sad and all but the kid’s just fodder to get compassion. The hook is still the John Carpenter association. There’s been no slippage in Jones’s script.

And Manco manages to be competent but boring–the composition’s mind-numbing.

CREDITS

Writer, Bruce Jones; artist, Leonardo Manco; colorist, Kinsun Loh; letterer, Janice Chiang; editor, Sandy King; publisher, Storm King Comics.

John Carpenter’s Asylum 3 (October 2013)

285979 20131009161545 large I’m not sure where Jones and company really expect Asylum to go. The issue ends on its first natural comic soft cliffhanger, but it also ends with one of the main characters becoming completely irredeemable. These aren’t great characters to beg with, so why hang around for more with the guy….

The story is a mix of End of Days and John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness and Vampires. It might have worked better if they had just done a comic spin-off of Darkness, actually, then the comparisons would be natural.

There’s a lot of demonic action this issue, which Manco does a fine enough job with. I only notice a handful of those weird low angle shots–they’re still bad, but the demonic action makes up for them.

Jones is mostly just writing action scene dialogue; I wonder if he got bored with it. Asylum’s just paced all wrong.

C-

CREDITS

Writer, Bruce Jones; artist, Leonardo Manco; colorist, Kinsun Loh; letterer, Janice Chiang; editor, Sandy King; publisher, Storm King Comics.

John Carpenter’s Asylum 2 (July 2013)

280138 20130807161402 large Manco has all these low angle panels looking up at the detective. They’re obviously for emphasis–he uses them to establish the gun fights too–but they somehow don’t fit with the rest of the style.

If Asylum has a style, I mean; this issue is just as jumbled and packed as the first, maybe even more so.

This issue continues the chase–priest (excommunicated, it turns out) and cop after the Devil, who is jumping from person to person when the scene needs it and not when it doesn’t. Jones sort of keeps the perspective fixed as to not raise too many questions about the comic’s internal logic.

There are adaptation problems, of course. The comic doesn’t have a three act structure, since it’s in the second act of the larger one; that looseness hurts it.

There’re a couple pages of bad dialogue, but otherwise fine.

Asylum’s mediocre enough.

CREDITS

Writer, Bruce Jones; artist, Leonardo Manco; colorist, Kinsun Loh; letterer, Janice Chiang; editor, Sandy King; publisher, Storm King Comics.

John Carpenter’s Asylum 1 (May 2013)

273545 20130529165335 large Asylum is kind of a strange book. First, it’s a John Carpenter movie property turned into a comic. Bruce Jones writing, Leonardo Manco illustrating, these are guys with a lot of experience doing comics. They should be able to properly break out a comic.

But they don’t. This issue is incredibly rushed. Manco’s doing something like ten panels on some pages, mixing little horizontal ones where you can’t follow the action and then tall ones where he’s showing the conversation. Jones has a lot of conversation in the issue; it feels like he’s adapting a script (the credits aren’t clear).

Even with those considerable problems–Manco’s even skipping establishing shots–the comic isn’t terrible. It’s The Exorcist with cops and naughty priests. It’s slightly scary, thanks to the art, and Jones does establish the leads well. He just doesn’t write them well together.

It’s an interesting mess of a comic.

CREDITS

Writer, Bruce Jones; artist, Leonardo Manco; colorist, Kinsun Loh; letterer, Janice Chiang; editor, Sandy King; publisher, Storm King Comics.

Hellraiser (2011) #1

Okay, the comic is at least a sequel to the first and second movies. I’ve seen some of the other ones, but I can’t remember what happens in them. What’s going on here (if I understand correctly… Barker and Monfette’s attempts at giving the cenobites—if you don’t already know, don’t ask—formal speech is somewhat painful) is Pinhead wants to be human again so he’s going on a question. Juxtaposed is the girl from the first two movies who apparently has gotten a lot better since then (she’s now an artist, painting Pinheads and getting engaged).

Manco does a good job with almost everything… except Pinhead. Manco’s approach is so finished, so photo-referenced, it looks like they’re adding a still to the panels and he’s drawing around it. But the rest of the visuals are strong.

While better than I thought it would be, I wasn’t expecting much.

Hellraiser (2011) #0

Now… I know I’m not the target audience (though I do love Leonardo Manco from some of his nineties work), but even so… I wish Boom! had gotten someone better than Christopher Monfette to clean up Clive Barker’s dialogue.

It’s unclear how Barker and Monfette split the duties, but something about the lame dialogue makes me think Barker’s got some kind of a hand in it.

Again, I’m not the Barker audience. I like good writers.

Boom! has done something interesting with the zero issue—it’s a freely available PDF. I’m pretty sure it’s the highest profile “digital only” release to date and it’s nice Boom! released it in an open format.

Though Manco’s art probably looks even better on the printed page.

It’s free and he nearly makes it worth a look. Or if you just want to snicker at the dialogue.