Groo vs. Conan 2 (August 2014)

Groo vs. Conan #2 So Groo vs. Conan is already an imaginary story wrapped in the adventures of Sergio Aragonés as he runs around with (presumably) temporary dementia. But then he and co-writer Evanier feel the need to wrap another imaginary element around the finish. The last few pages, where Groo and Conan fight, are all in the imagination of one of the townspeople.

The mix of art, with Yeates’s Conan often in front of Aragonés Groo backgrounds, is mildly successful. Each artist does fine on their own, but the combination is distracting. It isn’t supposed to look real and it doesn’t… it also doesn’t come off as the most imaginative way to fuse the two styles.

The best stuff in the comic is Sergio’s adventures running around half naked as he tries to escape Evanier and his doctors.

Aragonés and Evanier don’t seem to know how to best exploit the series’s gimmick.

B-

CREDITS

Writers, Sergio Aragonés and Mark Evanier; artists, Aragonés and Thomas Yeates; colorist, Lovern Kindzierski; letterer, Richard Starkings; editors, Dave Land, Katie Moody and Patrick Thorpe; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

Groo vs. Conan 1 (July 2014)

Groo vs. Conan #1 Groo vs. Conan. Even the title takes a moment to digest.

Sergio Aragonés and Mark Evanier fully embrace the absurdity of it, including the middle part of the comic–the majority of the comic, in terms of pages–being the two men walking around talking about doing such a crossover and how crazy it would be.

So why do it? Well, in the comic, Aragonés gets bumped on the head and thinks it’s a great idea.

As for the actual Conan and Groo scenes, the issue is mostly setup. Groo gets confused about who he’s supposed to battle and why and his concerned potential victims head to find Conan to save them. Tom Yeates draws the Conan pages. He does a fantastic job. Aragonés does fine with the Groo stuff and the “real world” stuff, but Yeates doing fantasy is treat as always.

The issue’s amusing without being particularly successful.

B-

CREDITS

Writers, Sergio Aragonés and Mark Evanier; artists, Aragonés and Thomas Yeates; colorist, Tom Luth; letterer, Richard Starkings; editors, Dave Land, Katie Moody and Patrick Thorpe; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

Miracleman 16 (December 1988)

Moore bites off a lot for this final issue to the arc. It isn’t enough Miracleman and company will turn the world into a utopia, Moore has to sell it. He uses great detail–like the Warpsmiths liking the Inuit language the most–to make things process. He also throws in a lot of personality. Heavy metal gangs turning Kid Miracleman into a sensation; it’s unnecessary but perfect.

And Liz. How Moore deals with Liz is crazy good. Winter comes back, but she’s kind of comic relief. Liz figures in differently. One has to wonder if Moore always had this plan for her.

There’s a bit of joking at Thatcher’s expense. Moore is having a good time, after all.

Miracleman is not a superhero comic. Maybe Moore never intended it to be one, just let it pretend like on Gargunza’s tapes.

Fabulous work from Totleben too. The art is breathtaking.

A+

CREDITS

Olympus, Chapter Six: Olympus; writer, Alan Moore; pencillers, John Totleben and Thomas Yeates; inker, Totleben; colorist, Sam Parsons; letterer, Wayne Truman; editor, Letitia Glozer; publisher, Eclipse.

Swamp Thing Annual 3 (1987)

This issue, even for an annual, has way too many hands in the art pot. Besides Veitch, who pencils some in addition to writing the script, there’s Shawn McManus, Jim Fern and Stan Woch. Tom Yeates gets the unpleasant task of inking the hodgepodge. He fails at marrying them together.

Just guessing, Woch does the worst work. He gets the finish and some of the interior and Abby and Alec just look wrong. The rest of the comic is a bunch of guest stars–DC ape guest stars. There’s Angel and the Ape, there’s Monsieur Mallah and the Brain, there’s B’wana Beast (or, more accurately, his female ape friend), there’s Congorilla, there’s some other apes.

And, of course, there’s Gorilla Grodd. Now, Veitch is basically doing an eclectic DC crossover here–the Flash’s Crisis death is mentioned–but it just doesn’t belong in Swamp Thing.

It’s not bad, just useless.

p style=”font-size:11px;”>CREDITS

Distant Cousins; writer, Rick Veitch; pencillers, Veitch, Shawn McManus, Jim Fern and Stan Woch; inker, Thomas Yeates; colorist, Adrienne Roy; letterer, Agustin Mas; editor, Karen Berger; publisher, DC Comics.

Swamp Thing 64 (September 1987)

One could, if so inclined, sit and try to figure out who drew what–Alcala’s such a unifying inker on Swamp Thing, it’s hard to tell Bissette and Veitch apart. Yeates I could easily identify, just because of the startling photorealism.

For his last issue, Moore avoids sentimentality. His plotting is gradual, relaxed. Much of the issue is spent with Swamp Thing thinking about the state of the world and his place in it. The big decisions in the issue are rather small. He and Abby decide to retreat from the world for a while.

Moore is putting his characters–he owns them in this incarnation–up off the floor for a while, in a lovely treehouse to stay safe.

It almost feels like Swamp Thing can’t go on; not because Moore’s shut off narrative possibilities, but because there’s no point.

Moore’s writing is gentle. His finale is nearly precious.

The Saga of the Swamp Thing 13 (May 1983)

Pasko finishes up the arc he started the series on and, wow, does it disappoint. It’s not a terrible issue—seeing Yeates draw Satan is pretty cool—but it’s not a good one. This issue is the fourth in the conclusion and there’s no point for it. Pasko’s just dragging it out. He even gets rid of one of his long-time subplots here.

He does have a couple good moments. Like when he shows Christians embracing a new Messiah who turns out to be the Antichrist. The Christians are just too dumb to realize. I’m surprised to see it in a big two comic book, especially from the early eighties.

But that point doesn’t make up for Pasko turning Swamp Thing into Scott Summers for a bit. The only reason he saves the world is because he temporally gets eye beams.

It’s lazy writing.

Then Cuti’s Stranger’s weak again.

CREDITS

Lambs to the Slaughter; writer, Martin Pasko; artist, Thomas Yeates; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, John Costanza. The Man Who Isn’t There; writer, Nicola Cuti; artist, Fred Carrillo; colorist, Anthony Tollin. Editor, Len Wein; publisher, DC Comics.

The Saga of the Swamp Thing (1982) #12

The Saga of Swamp Thing 12 Okay, this story line has gone on way too long at this point. Pasko sets up a decent finale only to reveal it’s still not over… they still need to fight the Antichrist.

The story’s awkward, mostly because there’s a huge supporting cast and no reintroduction to them. I’m reading it at a fairly accelerated pace; monthly it would have been very difficult to follow.

At least Pasko is working on his subplots, both Swamp Thing’s illness and the romance between Liz and Dennis. I guess he’s finally memorable enough I’ll use his name. Unfortunately, their almost love scene is terrible. The comic’s rather mature overall but Pasko tones down the adult nature of their conversation and comes off silly. He shouldn’t have done it if he wasn’t allowed the required vocabulary.

There’s some nice Yeates art. The issue’s packed with visuals.

Cuti’s Stranger backup is overwritten but not terrible.

The Saga of the Swamp Thing (1982) #11

The Saga of Swamp Thing 11 I think this issue must have been an informal “jumping on” point. Over the first four or five pages, Pasko recaps every major event in the series in a flashback. Then he spends another five or six pages on expository dialogue.

The Yeates art, along with some of the concepts, make those dull pages work. I’ve never come across anything else, I don’t think, linking the Holocaust and the Antichrist. Pasko’s idea is the Antichrist would obviously target the Jews, as they’re God’s chosen people (it’s not directly stated, but it’s definitely implied).

The action picks up towards the end with the villain—a mutant child who uses her powers to artificially age herself, which is also a good concept but poorly executed. There’s her, there’s Swamp Thing (who’s incidental to this issue’s events) and there’s a golem.

The less said about Levitz’s anti-euthanasia Phantom Stranger propaganda the better.

The Saga of the Swamp Thing (1982) #10

The Saga of Swamp Thing 10 John Totleben joins Yeates on the art this issue, but it’s hard to see what effect his inks have on it. The issue is almost incomprehensibly dense, with Pasko starting in the States somewhere and ending up in Dachau. Not sure how well the big reveal works—the Nazis were fueled by a powerful psychic who’s been reincarnated and wants to start the Holocaust up again.

It seems a little insensitive.

What’s best about the issue, which barely features Swamp Thing—it’s more of a global-trotting thriller for his sidekicks, Liz and… the blond-haired dude—is how much Pasko and Yeates fit into it. It’s fully organic, lush comic book narrative. Yeates doesn’t employ any special panel arrangement, he just impossibly fits everything on each page.

The Stranger backup from Cavalieri and Carrillo is weak. The Stranger helps rid the world of an endangered species. Bully for him.

The Saga of the Swamp Thing (1982) #9

The Saga of Swamp Thing 9 I never thought, reading the issues before this one, I would see cheesecake in Pasko and Yeates’s Swamp Thing run. But this issue isn’t Yeates, it’s Jan Duursema. Duursema handles the art in varying degrees of quality. With Tom Mandrake inking, there are some very iconic Swamp Thing action moments. Duursema and Mandrake make Swamp Thing look even more like Redondo’s rendition in the first series than Yeates ever does. But there’s also a strange approach to people—Duursema likes long shots, with the moving figures looking awkwardly static.

It’s not terrible art, it’s just not great.

It’s also strange because there’s no gimmick, no monster. It’s a very plot-filled issue, with Pasko working through a lot of the series’s threads, sort of unraveling a ball of yarn.

Joey Cavalieri takes over Phantom Stranger scripts this issue and he and Carrillo’s story is fine supernatural mystery. It’s perfectly serviceable.