Comments on: Flippin’ through Previews – January 2009

By: Salamurai

Salamurai — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:50:38 +0000

Thanks for mentioning the Tick book. I’d already gone thru Previews last week, and glossed over that because I thought it was a “re-offer” of the original series omni that came out a couple months ago (similar cover design).

By: Tracer Bullet

Tracer Bullet — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:36:41 +0000

Oddly shaped Bolt-On Tits (TM) attached to the frame of a woman clearly suffering from crippling anorexia? What’s not to love?

By: Michael Rawdon

Michael Rawdon — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:41:23 +0000

Instead of buying Absolute V For Vendetta, you could buy the nice regular-sized, much-cheaper hardcover that DC produced a few years ago. That’s what I’ve got.

I’d like the Absolute format if they weren’t quite so damned big. They’re actually too big to read comfortably. They really need to make them either thinner, or use smaller dimensions (the dimensions Marvel uses on their hardcovers – for instance, the Astonishing X-Men ones – are much more manageable). I stuck with my first-edition Sandman hardcovers rather than buy the Absolute ones. And I’m a little miffed that the HC Death collection got cancelled so they can do an Absolute version instead (which I won’t buy; I’ve already got the trades, but I’d have upgraded them to hardcover if they’d collected them in a standard form factor).

I’m not sure which annoys me more: Collections that are too big to read, or collections that are smaller than the original comic book form (such as the Castle Waiting and Finder hardcovers). Grrr.

By: DubipR

DubipR — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 02:26:07 +0000

Wow, that Ross cover is in the fine tradition of his Cyclone pantyless cover and his Sgt Steel junk piece. What happened to this man’s art?

By: T. AKA Ricky Raw

T. AKA Ricky Raw — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 01:41:04 +0000

Certainly better than a lot of what Loeb has done.

Faint praise indeed.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 01:35:01 +0000

The first chapter of Voice of the Fire is really the only part that’s all that difficult to understand, the rest of it is actually fairly straightforward. I’d imagine a lot of its reputation comes from the first chapter, which is a challenge to read initially, but once you get into the rhythms of it, it becomes pretty clear what’s happening by the end.

By: Kelson

Kelson — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:45:22 +0000

Looking forward to more Potter’s Field.

Invincible: I have a tendency to forget that Image Central has a shared universe, and that, say, Spawn and Noble Causes theoretically take place in the same world.

Fallen Angel: From what I understand, they were originally going to keep the series going, but decided to end it after the current storyline and relaunch a few months later. Maybe they figure they’ll just have the next omnibus cover vol.2 #22-33 and vol.3 #1-whatever.

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:16:03 +0000

Voice of the Fire is pretty great, and reasonably easy to penetrate with your mind. It’s more a collection of interlocking short stories than a novel, so if you just read a chapter at a time, you don’t get bogged down. If nothing else, at least read the first chapter.

By: Ian A.

Ian A. — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:01:52 +0000

Didn’t Jae Lee also do some illustrations for an edition of Dracula?

I vaguely recall hearing about that.

By: Andrew Collins

Andrew Collins — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:40:25 +0000

I don’t always agree with your comments regarding women and sexuality in comics, Greg, but I’m with you on the War Of Kings cover. The ‘costume physics’ on display there bug the heck out of me. Crystal is wearing an outfit that is sooooo tight that not only do we see individual ribs, but each of her breasts are individually lifted, seperated, and wrapped by the outfit. Then Lilandra is sporting a major wedgie while also displaying some oddly portrayed cleavage as well. And it’s not just the female characters either. Gladiator up there is sporting a costume so tight that we see rippling abs on top of rippling abs (he MUST be alien because no human has that many ab muscles…) but when you get to his crotch…no bulge. Apparently we can infer that Gladiator is a Ken Doll beneath his costume.

I’ve defended books like Tarot in the past because they make no bones about what kind of book they are, but it does irk me when you have a supposedly serious action adventure book like this undercut itself by going for the cheap titillation. That cover is just distracting and makes me not want to take it or its characters very seriously.

The gratuitous butt shots on the Elektra and Mockingbird covers in the Marvel solicitations were bad enough and had me rolling my eyes, but that Kings cover is just atrociously drawn. Brandon Peterson can do so much better….

By: Stephen

Stephen — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:36:48 +0000

“but what I’m weirded out by is Sara Pezzini’s costume. Is it just the way Ottley draws it, or has it always looked like hands cupping her breasts?”

That’s how it looked in the Pre-Marz days. Since he took over, it’s basically just been the “exoskeleton over street clothes” look from the TV show, but Ottley’s probably working off a (very… it’s been four years now) dated reference.

And, thanks for that last image, Greg. I’m going to be haunted by that one in my nightmares.