Because I hated ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and because I know from the letters pages and some conversation at WizardWorld Chicago ’05 that Arvid doesn’t love it either, I’m going to make it clear that the bad guy stalking the main characters is /not/ an albino. Everyone just looks pale-ish with Juan Ferreya’s pallet, which is more ‘washed out’ looking than the previous pallet used by former colorist Jeromy Cox. He wears a white suit, but his skin tones aren’t any paler than any other of the characters (and this is France in the 30s, so they’re all mostly really white guys and girls)and he’s never been referred to in the story as an albino at any time. Nitpicky of me, true, but the ‘man in white’ has always been referred to as such and never as an albino.

Some notes on art: I find Juan Ferreyra’s art to be very good, but his details (especially facial details) sometimes lacking. I used to think that I liked EricJ’s art better than Mr. Ferreyra’s, but while his faces had more detail the details were not always as sharp as they could have been. I think the biggest difference between the old art and the new art is Jeromy Cox’s coloring. His palette was very bright and rich while Juan Ferreyra’s tends toward more pastel-ish shades and a sort of soft ‘glare’ effect that makes everything ‘lighter’ and, though this might be a strange word to use to describe coloring, ‘airy’. I think I preferred Mr. Cox’s coloring and that the book might be very different (perhaps stronger) if he came back to color it.

That said, I’m pretty much done. I just can’t not shoot off my mouth when Rex Mundi comes up in any sort of discussion, I love it too much. In many ways, Arvid Nelson is more responsible than anyone else for the depth of my renewed interest in comics as I head toward my thirties.

This is a good idea, because people should branch out and try new things, and this will give them an idea about whether it’s worth buying a single issue or not. Rex Mundi DEFINITELY reads better in chunks, however, and although the recap at the beginning is kind of overkill, they’re overcompensating for the early issues, which came out very slowly and erratically and had NO recaps, which really hurt the overall flow of the book.

And Ferreyra is great, even though he doesn’t get to do much this issue. I wonder when DC or Marvel will come calling.