Swamp Thing (1985) #44

Swamp Thing 44

I never thought I’d be making this statement–but I can’t tell Randall from Totleben. Randall does some of the inks here and two inkers are seamless at first read. Maybe if I had been concentrating more on the art….

Instead, this issue of Swamp Thing is a big mishmash and, against the odds, it works.

I mean, there’s a scene with Batman bumping into Constantine and Mento (from Doom Patrol) on the street. Moore’s integration of Crisis is hilarious. He acknowledges it, but treats it as inconsequential. I guess they already knew Swamp Thing was safe from a relaunch.

There’s a great scene with Abby being rude to Swamp Thing, then him sulking. But it’s a small moment and the rest of the issue is about a serial killer.

His trip to Louisiana does not go well.

It’s a good issue; however, its parts are better than the whole.

Swamp Thing 44 (January 1986)

Instead, this issue of Swamp Thing is a big mishmash and, against the odds, it works.

There’s a great scene with Abby being rude to Swamp Thing, then him sulking. But it’s a small moment and the rest of the issue is about a serial killer.

His trip to Louisiana does not go well.

It’s a good issue; however, its parts are better than the whole.

Swamp Thing (1985) #43

Swamp Thing 43

Moore introduces Chester this issue; I’d sort of forgotten when he came into the series. Chester will be a member of the supporting cast, but for now, he’s simply the protagonist in a fill-in. He finds one of Swampy’s tubers and investigates it.

Now, Chester, in addition to being a hippie nature lover, is a drug dealer. His customers really like the idea of the tuber and take it.

It gives Moore a chance to not just have a lovely little story about a dying woman’s last night with her husband, but also one where an annoying jerk goes nuts off the tuber.

There are a bunch of visual references to the original Swamp Thing series, but it’s from fill-in artists Woch and Randall… which tempers my enthusiasm somewhat. They do some excellent work, but cameos from the first series deserve Bissette and Totleben.

It’s another great issue.

Swamp Thing 43 (December 1985)

Now, Chester, in addition to being a hippie nature lover, is a drug dealer. His customers really like the idea of the tuber and take it.

It gives Moore a chance to not just have a lovely little story about a dying woman’s last night with her husband, but also one where an annoying jerk goes nuts off the tuber.

It’s another great issue.

Swamp Thing 33 (February 1985)

So while Swamp Thing has his adventure in “Pog,” Abby has her own one here. Except she’s mostly just in a framing sequence, not quite an adventure.

For whatever reason, Moore brought the original appearance of Swamp Thing into continuity with this issue. So there’s a few pages of Abby with Cain and Abel–Moore’s starting to explore the nature of storytelling a little, something he’d later expand on in Promethea–and then a reprint of the Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson House of Secrets Swamp Thing.

The end ties it all together, but the story isn’t consequential at all. It’s Moore mixing playfulness and good humor. He ends it on a joke. Moore’s often his most startling when he’s doing light comedy. It’s nice.

Ron Randall does the Abby bookend art. It’s the best work I’ve seen from him.

But he’s nowhere near Wrightson.

And Wein’s nowhere near Moore.

DC Retroactive: Justice League of America – The ’80s 1 (October 2011)

Conway goes out of his way to remind the reader this Justice League isn’t the real Justice League. It’s the eighties Detroit League no one likes.

But then his script presents this team overcoming a lot of odds not just to save the day, but to save the kids on a school trip to visit their headquarters. Just because the Detroit League is a dumb idea, it doesn’t mean the scene-by-scene execution is going to be dumb.

More than any other Retroactive title, in fact, this one has me wanting to check out the old issues. I assume Conway didn’t have the same negative take on the team when he was writing them originally.

All in all, it’s a good issue.

The Ron Randall art isn’t great, but Randall knows how to tell a story.

It’s fine, though way too unnecessarily negative about itself. Conway should have some pride.

CREDITS

Siege; writer, Gerry Conway; artist, Ron Randall; colorists, Carlos Badilla and Tony Avina; letterer, Carlos M. Mangual; editors, Chynna Clugston Flores and Jim Chadwick; publisher, DC Comics.

Dark Horse Presents (1986) #137

Dhp137

So Nazis versus Predator and the best Marz can come up with is a story set in South America? Castellini’s art makes up for some of it—even though he can’t draw the Predator, the rest of it looks good. But Marz’s writing is pretty dumb.

Seagle and Gaudiano have another My Vagabond Days, this time about the space program. Sort of. Seagle seems to think doing a lyrical narrative about growing up in the Sixties is inherently interesting. Even with Gaudiano’s artwork, it’s not interesting. Seagle, it turns out, didn’t grow up in the Sixties as a teen… have I already mentioned that fact? Regardless, it’s still a waste of good art.

Randall and Verheiden finally finish The Ark here. It’s yet another double-sized installment and, wow, Verheiden’s writing is really awful here. Randall still manages to turn in some decent work (except on the aliens, they’re boring).

Dark Horse Presents (1986) #136

Dhp136

Another endless installment of The Ark. Verheiden’s writing gets really padded here, especially with the conversations. With the long page count–sixteen pages an installment–I wonder if it was intended to be a limited series then someone at Dark Horse realized no one in his or her right mind would buy it. So instead they stuck it in Presents, figuring by the time the reader got to this issue–with The Ark taking up one half and the awful Western (I’ll get to it in a minute) taking up the other–it’d be too late for them to give up. Randall–who I just remembered used to do Trekker–is a fine artist at this point, sort of an almost Paul Gulacy.

As for Smith and Cariello’s Tres Diablos? I tried having an open mind and Cariello’s artwork’s quite good, but Smith is an awful writer.

This issue stinks.

Dark Horse Presents (1986) #135

Dhp135

Macan and Doherty finish Carson of Venus poorly. Doherty’s artwork this installment is particularly bad and, though Macan seems to be trying, the characters are all weak. Macan’s attempts at humor are a woman getting slapped around by her husband.

So it kind of goes well with Brubaker and Lutes’s finish to The Fall, all about a guy who wants to murder women. It’s a good conclusion, but it needs an epilogue. While I can understand why Brubaker finished without resolution, he still needs it. It doesn’t compare to the first few installments though.

I was excited to see early Reis on The Mark, but he’s not particularly good. He’s not bad, he’s just mundane. Barr tells the whole thing in flashback, which seems like a bad choice, especially for readers unfamiliar with the character.

Verheiden goes on, again, forever with The Ark. At least Randall has some good panels.

Dark Horse Presents Annual (1998) 1998

Dhpa1998

The annual opens with Mignola doing a retelling of Hellboy‘s origin. I guess it’s all right. Kind of pointless, but fine.

Weissman finally gets a two page Phineas Page and shows why he should have stuck to a page.

Van Meter and Ross team for the first comic book appearance of Buffy. The writing is more lame than not, but it’s maybe the best Ross art I’ve ever seen.

Watson’s Skeleton Key is a fairly charming little story about a witch and a little kid. I’m assuming the character’s a witch, otherwise it’d be pointless. Some wacky art mistakes though.

The Ark is a long setup with aliens as pay-off. Verheiden’s got some okay writing and Randall’s art isn’t bad.

Guadiano’s art is the primary selling point on he and Seagle’s My Vagabond Days. It’s not terrible though.

Burke and Bolton’s Infirmary is confounding, but Boltan’s art is gorgeous.