Tom Strong 9 (September 2000)

The issue’s a family affair, with Tom, Dhalua and Tesla each getting their own story. Paul Chadwick handles the art on Tom’s story. His style mimics Sprouse quite a bit. If I hadn’t seen Chadwick’s name, I’d have no idea.

It’s a nice little story, with Moore mixing jungle adventure with positivist sci-fi. It ends a little fast though.

Dhalua has a good flashback story. Mostly Moore is just filling in her backstory, rounding the character. He does an exceptional job with the character, making her more distinct than Tom. Sprouse and Gordon do well with the constrained setting.

They also do the art on Telsa’s story, which Moore models on DC backups, like a Supergirl one. It’s a lot of fun, with more great art from Sprouse and Gordon. It’s got the most humor. Moore succeeds at making his observation on comics traditions while writing a great character.

Dark Horse Presents (1986) #150

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The issue opens with Petrie, Richards and Pimentel on Buffy. Petrie’s writing is awful (Buffy explains the story to herself through expositional dialogue) and the art is fairly weak. Even the resolution is lame.

Chadwick’s Concrete is bad, but in interesting ways. Chadwick avoids the usual humanity of his stories (good or bad) and concentrates on the action. His art’s odd too—he outlines Concrete in thick inks.

The Devil Chef has a single good joke at the end. Maybe Pollock’s first good joke….

Amara and Davis finish The Nevermen. As usual, great art, bad writing. Here we find out the Presents three-part story is just a pointless prologue.

Brunner’s story about recent college graduates is hilariously awful. It’s so absurdly written, one wonders if Presents had any submission standards at this point.

And Moncuse’s Fish Police closes the issue. Another dumb story (with pedestrian art) for a bad issue.

Dark Horse Presents Annual (1998) 1999

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It’s a “theme” annual—characters in their youths.

It opens with Wagner, Chin and Wong on Xena. The art’s a little rough, but Wagner’s writing is solid.

Mignola’s Hellboy is adorable (as young Hellboy stories tend to be). It’s a cute couple pages.

Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo drags. It’s way too didactic. Sakai’s art some okay moments and some not okay ones.

Shockingly, the Ghost story is good. Zanier and Mariano’s artwork is excellent and Kennedy’s writing isn’t bad. It’s confusing for a new reader, but quite decent.

This issue also has the first Groo I’ve read. Though Aragones’s art sometimes gets a little too dense, he and Evanier write a fine story.

Chadwick’s Concrete story is lame. It’s maybe the worst writing I’ve read from Chadwick.

Norwood’s Star Wars thing bores. Surprisingly weak art from him too.

The finish is Geary’s take on The Mask. Some decent art, but pointless.

Dark Horse Presents (1986) #100-3

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The Concrete story goes on forever, but it’s actually pretty funny how it turns out. Not funny enough to laugh at, but Chadwick definitely comes up with something amusing. Oh, I’ll just spoil it–a mom and son pull a long con on Concrete for something he did back in his first appearance. Decent art, nothing spectacular. Concrete’s just such a miserable character, he’s hard to read sometimes.

Pekar and Sacco have a little story. I still don’t get the appeal. It’s too affected to be real life, so….

Brunetti does a page of funnies, some of which I’ve read. They’re still awesome.

The strangest entry is from Savage, Waskey and Patterson. Waskey and Patterson illustrate an anecdote from Savage about being gay. It’s decent enough, but the art should have been better, more able to adapt an anecdote to comics.

Kelso’s got a socially conscious, depressing piece about homelessness.

Dark Horse Presents 100 3 (August 1995)

Pekar and Sacco have a little story. I still don’t get the appeal. It’s too affected to be real life, so….

Brunetti does a page of funnies, some of which I’ve read. They’re still awesome.

Kelso’s got a socially conscious, depressing piece about homelessness.

CREDITS

Concrete, The Artistic Impulse; story and art by Paul Chadwick; lettering by Bill Spicer. Breakfast at Billy’s; story by Harvey Pekar; art and lettering by Joe Sacco. The Funnies; story, art and lettering by Ivan Brunetti. Faggot Story; story by Dan Savage; art by Jason Waskey and Bruce Patterson; lettering by Sean Konot. Whistle and Queenie; story, art and lettering by Megan Kelso. Edited by Bob Schreck and Scott Allie.

Dark Horse Presents (1986) #100-0

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This teaser for Dark Horse Presents 100 has some great stuff in it… but it also has some unbearably long entries.

Chadwick’s Concrete—though it’s always fun to read Concrete assuming the worst about humanity—goes on forever and turns out to be a prologue. It’s a little lame, though Chadwick’s art is decent.

LaBan’s Emo and Plum is relatively painless. It’s short, anyway. However Musgrove’s Fat Dog Mendoza is awful.

Paul Pope’s got a couple pages and it’s lovely (kind of an interactive discussion of Picasso). Some great figure work.

Brubaker and McEown tease their entry in 100, as does French. The Brubaker and McEown one seems a lot more compelling, with Brubaker’s writing strong even in the one page.

Then Mignola has an endless three page preview for his Hellboy story. It’s got a lot of expositional dialogue.

Still, this teaser’s better than many of the regular issues.

Dark Horse Presents 100 0 (July 1995)

This teaser for Dark Horse Presents 100 has some great stuff in it… but it also has some unbearably long entries.

LaBan’s Emo and Plum is relatively painless. It’s short, anyway. However Musgrove’s Fat Dog Mendoza is awful.

Paul Pope’s got a couple pages and it’s lovely (kind of an interactive discussion of Picasso). Some great figure work.

Brubaker and McEown tease their entry in 100, as does French. The Brubaker and McEown one seems a lot more compelling, with Brubaker’s writing strong even in the one page.

Then Mignola has an endless three page preview for his Hellboy story. It’s got a lot of expositional dialogue.

Still, this teaser’s better than many of the regular issues.

CREDITS

Eno and Plum; story, art and lettering by Terry LaBan. Concrete, The Artistic Impulse (excerpt); story, art and lettering by Paul Chadwick. Fat Dog Mendoza, The Secret Life of Leftovers (excerpt); story, art and lettering by Scott Musgrove. Pistacho!!; story, art and lettering by Paul Pope. Bird Dog (excerpt); story by Ed Brubaker; art by Pat McEwon. The Ninth Gland (excerpt); story, art and lettering by Renée French. Hellboy, The Chained Coffin (excerpt); story and art by Mike Mignola. Edited by Scott Allie and Bob Schreck.

Dark Horse Presents (1986) #87

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This issue is fairly weak.

The Eighth Wonder finishes. Plunkett’s art is good and Janes’s scenic writing–his dialogue, for example–is fine, but the story lacks any real heft. It feels like they hurried or ran out of pages. It ends with a great unanswered questions–why no boats? They’re building a bridge from Europe to Colombia. What happened to boats? It’s disappointing, after the first installment, but not terrible.

Geary’s got a bunch of single page contributions. Like most of his work, some are good, some are not so good. They feel like filler.

Chadwick turns in an utterly useless summary of Concrete’s origin. It might have been nice back in the late eighties, when he first appeared. Interestingly, there’s the promise of a second Concrete… though I doubt Chadwick would ever think of them fighting,

The last Star Riders appears here, thank goodness. Racine’s art is terrible.

Dark Horse Presents 87 (July 1994)

This issue is fairly weak.

Geary’s got a bunch of single page contributions. Like most of his work, some are good, some are not so good. They feel like filler.

The last Star Riders appears here, thank goodness. Racine’s art is terrible.

CREDITS

The 8th Wonder, Part Three; story by Peter Janes; art by Kilian Plunkett; lettering by Vickie Williams. Concrete; story and art by Paul Chadwick; lettering by Bill Spicer. Home Remedy, Standing on Line, Yes, It Happened, The Phantom Telephone; story, art and lettering by Rick Geary. Star Riders, Part Three; story by Étienne Gagnon and Edward Martin III; art by Alex Racine; lettering by Williams. Edited by Randy Stradley.

Dark Horse Presents (1986) #66

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Obviously, the major attraction is the second chapter of An Accidental Death. The pace changes throughout; it opens with the body being hidden, then Brubaker moves to summary, then to scene again. The final scene–the discovery–comes after the two boys (the protagonist and the murderer) start to discover where they really live. Reality, in more ways than one, rushes in on them. But Brubaker’s writing is nuanced, never obvious. It’s just lovely.

Then Dr. Giggles, hopefully, finishes up. I don’t think I’ve mentioned how inept Coto is at plotting this narrative. The plot developments get stupider and stupider. At least it’s over.

The Concrete story is a little overwritten… lots of narration, but it’s amusing and Chadwick and Hotchkiss do a great job with the art.

The issue ends with two one page Alec comics from Campbell. Both are quiet, wonderful and somewhat profound. It’s such good work.