Down The Line - Previews review for May 2005 by Randy Lander While my Snap Judgments reviews cover books as they are released, I'm as avid a follower of "what's next" as anyone else. So I've teamed up with Dave Farabee, fellow comic book store manager and equally avid follower of the industry, to do these monthly Previews reviews, covering the Diamond Previews that allow fans to preorder comics from their local retailer. This installment covers the March Previews for comics due to ship out in May 2005. Pre-ordering is your friend. If there's stuff you want in May, letting your retailer know before the end of March is the best way to make sure you get it. Say, didn't we just do one of these? Yeah, when we were running late and February was a short month, Dave and I found ourselves caught off-guard when another Previews hit so suddenly. Thus, another slightly late Down the Line. I'm also flying solo this month, as Dave has caught a mild case of the Tiki Death Flu. But he should be back next month, albeit possibly as zombie Dave, reviewer from beyond the grave. Oh, and on a wildly different topic (it's my column, you can't stop me!), I'm so goddamned tired of seeing action figures or movies advertised on Previews what seems like every month. There are literally hundreds of comics each month, and I know that the big four have a lock on those cover positions, but Christ... could you guys maybe use your powers for good and not evil and put COMICS on the front of the monthly catalog for the COMICS industry? You might notice in reading these Previews reviews that we've decided to dispense with the Previews organization and just go strict alphabetical, in order to level the playing field between the big guys and the smaller publishers. To facilitate those seeking more information from the Previews catalog, each entry will include the page number of the solicitation at the end of our comments. RANDY'S PICK OF THE MONTH: Smoke #1 (IDW Publishing) - This is a good month for new comics. Known quantities like the Deep Sleeper trade, promising returns like the Abadazad team creating a new book for Image, but the book I'm really anticipating is the long-awaited return of Igor Kordey to the comics page. Kordey's work is always good, and when he's paired with the right concept and the right writer, he's 'effin great. I haven't read any comics from Alex de Campi, but I have always enjoyed her work on Ninth Art and I'll be very surprised if those skills don't translate into great comics writing. As for the concept? Black comedy set in a futuristic London, starring an ex-soldier-turned-government-assassin. Sounds like a winner, and the art previewed here looks great. (page 301) Action Comics #827 (DC Comics) - It's time for another Superman revamp, and yet again, I find myself mostly uninterested... I'm much more interested in the All-Star Superman from Morrison and Quitely, coming later this year. However, the exception is this title, as I'm excited to see Gail Simone getting her first (but certainly not her last) shot at one of the big guns of DC, and I'm also interested in seeing John Byrne return to the character. I'm very interested to see whether the outspoken Byrne and the outspoken Simone can work together for long without killing one another... although if it comes to fisticuffs, my money's on Gail. (page 72) Angel One-Shot (Alternative Comics) - There's little to judge Angel on aside from one impressive image from creator Bishakh Som, but that image is really striking, and has me curious about this project. That it won the Xeric Grant is another point in its favor, and that Alternative recently introduced me to a cartoonist whose work I loved (Brandon Graham, of Escalator) seals the deal. I can certainly drop $5 on 64 pages to try and discover another new favorite creator. (page 228) Avengers: Kang - Time and Time Again TPB (Marvel Comics) - So close, and yet still so far. Finally Marvel gets around to reprinting more of Roger Stern's classic Avengers stories, but instead of doing something that could be part of a sequential collection of the whole run, they're cherry-picking some of his Kang stuff, mixing it up with other Kang stories by Stan Lee and Roy Thomas, and tying it all into Young Avengers. Really, is it so hard to acknowledge that some of your backlist stuff might be worth keeping in print even if it doesn't somehow promote your current stuff? Is this an ugly business reality I'm unwilling to face, or an unrealistic perception from the big companies about the value of older comics? (page M92) Batman: Dark Detective #1-2 (DC Comics) - Honestly, I haven't even read much of the original Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers Batman, but it's so well-regarded that I'm excited by this new miniseries anyway. It's yet another Bat-book, and I'm currently considering declaring a jihad on multiple books for big characters because I think they're hurting the industry in many ways, but it looks like it's going to be a good story by classic creators, and that gives it a bit of a pass in my book. Certainly that cover, with the Joker offering up the slogan "Vote for me -- or I'll kill you" gives me a chuckle and speaks more to a Batman comic that didn't take itself so damned seriously all the time, something we haven't seen since Frank Miller redefined the character in the '80s. (page 66) Centerfield One-Shot (Alternative Comics) - Nick Jeffrey is another unfamiliar name doing a Xeric winning book for Alternative. This one sounds ambitious, promising topics including professional athletes, organized religion, class struggle and... Hulkamania? All wrapped in a story about a boy, his dad and baseball. Again, I know nothing about this creator or his style and can't easily find anything on the web, but I'm intrigued. (page 228) City of Heroes #1 (Image Comics/Top Cow) - My love for City of Heroes died out permanently once I set virtual foot in World of Warcraft, but I still have some residual fondness for the superhero MMORPG and its world. I have no such fondness for the generally mediocre tie-in comic, so I'm perfectly happy to see it gone, replaced by a new offering by superhero maestro Mark Waid. Looks like good superhero fun for former and current City of Heroes fans alike. (page 172) Common Foe #1 (Image Comics) - Soldiers in World War II run into a mystical menace that finds them uniting with their battlefield enemy to survive. Neat concept, evocative cover by Essad Ribic. (page 138) Dark Mists #1 (AP Comics) - A group of geishas in the 1930s witness something and are recruited to act as spies. Neat concept, but that's not what got me interested. No, what got me interested was that gorgeous cover art by artist Lee Garbett. If the interior art is that good, and newcomer writer Annika Eade can live up to the promise of the unusual premise, AP could have something really cool on their hands. (page 238) Deep Sleeper TPB (Image Comics) - I loved, loved, loved this book. A trippy little story about out-of-body experiences, the worries of fatherhood and how an unlikely savior winds up protecting dreaming souls from a monster, Deep Sleeper was the second collaboration by The Coffin team of Phil Hester and Mike Huddleston. It was actually even better than The Coffin, no small feat, and I'm glad to see it get the trade format. I'll definitely be picking this one up, and it's damn close to being my pick of the month. (page 150) Desolation Jones #1 (DC Comics/Wildstorm) - The last time Warren Ellis wrote a creator-owned ongoing series that wasn't superheroes, we got Transmetropolitan. So my anticipation and hopes are high for Desolation Jones, especially since it finds Ellis collaborating with the amazing JH Williams III on art. The concept sounds right up Ellis's alley, about a burned-out ex-spook who provides private detective services to others in the spy (and ex-spy) game. (page 111) Dracula vs. King Arthur #1 (Silent Devil Productions) - Vlad Tepes makes a deal with the devil to become Dracula and is sent back in time to Camelot to destroy King Arthur. That, my friends, is a high concept. This could wind up being ludicrously bad B-movie stuff, but it could also wind up being delightfully good B-movie stuff. There aren't any easy-to-find preview pages up, but the character sketches by Chris Moreno look pretty solid. (page 326) Earthboy Jacobus (Image Comics) - I swear that Doug TenNapel creates his graphic novels by putting a bunch of random concepts in a hat and pulling them out until he has the weirdest possible concept put together. Earthboy Jacobus is about a former police chief who finds a boy in a dead flying whale's mouth and raises him to be a great American ass-kicker so he can fend off the insect monsters that want to kill him. See? Weeiird. Like, The Maxx level weird. I can't deny being interested, though. (page 140) Essential Defenders Vol. 1 TPB (Marvel Comics) - "The Wait is Over!" proclaims the ad copy. I didn't actually know anyone was waiting, but I can't deny being kind of curious to read this at some point. By all accounts, The Defenders really weren't at their best until Steve Gerber took on the characters and gave them an injection of strangeness, but the tradition of the Essentials is to start at the beginning, and I do love the Essential format. (page M93) Fallen Angel #20 (DC Comics) - The writing has been on the wall for a while, and this is the final issue of Fallen Angel, which is probably the best thing Peter David has ever written (and I say that as a huge Peter David fan.) I would like to take this opportunity to curse all of you who never gave this book a shot. (Kidding! Mostly.) There's some small hope in the form of Peter David's cryptic "We are not, however, quite dead yet" post on his blog, and even more hope with Rich Johnston rumoring that IDW might be the new home, and I hold out hope that we'll see Fallen Angel again. For now, though, this is it. Consider this your last suggestion (for now) to pick up the trade and see what you missed. (page 81) Fantastic Four #527 (Marvel Comics) - J. Michael Straczynski is taking over Fantastic Four, and in the wake of his retroactive character rape of Gwen Stacy and turning Dr. Strange into The Matrix Lite, I have mostly apathy and maybe a little bit of scorn to offer. Truthfully, given how well Mark Millar wrote them in the pages of Wolverine, if Marvel was just going to move one of their half-dozen favorite writers onto this book, I'd rather it would have been him. McKone's a talented artist, so the book is sure to look really good, but that's about all the positivity I can work up for this new creative team. (page M3) Felt: True Tales of Underground Hip Hop (Image Comics) - Now this is a cool idea. Mahfood does comics interpreting songs from a new album by rappers Slug and Murs. Now, I have no idea who either of these guys are either, but I know that the idea of Mahfood doing comics based on rap songs seems ideal to his talents. And that cover, by Mahfood and Garibaldi, is a gorgeous piece of art. (page 141) Girls #1 (Image Comics) - I just couldn't get into Ultra, but I did really enjoy the artwork by Jonathan Luna, whose work reminds me a lot of Josh Middleton (except on time). The solicitation text for Girls leaves the whole story concept deliberately vague, but because of my interest in Luna's art, I'm curious to see if the second at-bat for the Luna Brothers can engage my interest. (page 135) Gotham Central: Half A Life TPB (DC Comics) - Man, it's about damn time! DC finally gets around to reprinting more Gotham Central, and it happens to be my second-favorite story from the book (right behind the more recent "Unsolved"). I note that it also features stories related to lead character Montoya from Batman Chronicles and Detective Comics, a nice touch to bring more of Rucka's work on the character together for those who missed it the first time. This also leads me to hold out hope that the excellent "Josie Mac" backup story will be collected when that character is introduced in the next (or maybe the next after that) Gotham Central trade comes out. Hopefully with less of a delay than the one we had between the first and second volumes. (page 68) Green Lantern #1 (DC Comics) - Geoff Johns has already scored any number of brownie points in my comic geek scoreboard for his work on The Flash, JSA and Teen Titans, but his work on Green Lantern: Rebirth has been nothing short of fantastic, a career high point for him and a high point for the Green Lantern characters as well. This is the inevitable ongoing series spinning out of the top-selling Rebirth miniseries, and I can't wait to see it. Rebirth was all about fixing the problems with the Green Lantern mythos, now the question is, what is the new status quo going to be and what are Johns and Pacheco going to do with it? (page 83) Gunpowder Girl & The Outlaw Squaw (Active Images) - I've previously read part of this western graphic novel in serialized form in the gone-but-not-forgotten Comiculture magazine, and I'm looking forward to seeing the completed story. It has gorgeous artwork and some really fun action-oriented storytelling. (page 203) Hero Camp #1 (Image Comics) - Unpowered son of two superheroes is dumped off at super summer camp and finds himself being tracked down by supervillains. Fun! Bonus points for Robbi Rodriguez's clean and effective art and for the geeky Superfriends reference of naming the camp "Enokchuk." (page 142) Hero Squared #1 (Boom Studios) - After Identity Crisis, "I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League" comes off as more ghoulish than funny (the Sue Dibny pregnancy subplot is particularly unfortunate), so I'm kind of glad to see the creators moving on to their original creation Hero Squared. Without the shared universe characters, the jokes lose some of their punch, but the setup was a pretty good one, and I want to see where the creators take it from here. (page 258) I Was Someone Dead (Oni Press) - Been awhile since I read Jamie S. Rich's Cut My Hair novel, but I remember really enjoying it, and I'm glad to see a new novel from Oni's former senior editor. This one sounds quite different from the down-to-earth punk coming of age tale of Cut My Hair, being the tale of a man who lives in an island paradise with his faithful dog but suffers nightmares and monsters at night. Rich is a talented writer, and though my prose reading is sadly at an all-time low these days, this one will go on the top of my stack of books to read when it hits. (page 322) Johnny Caronte & The Revolver (Alias Comics) - Johnny Caronte is a mob story about zombies with a twist, and The Revolver is about a thief using a gun from hell to kill demons. Both good concepts, but the really interesting thing here is the artwork, which is beautifully colored but otherwise reminds me of the black and white (and gorgeous) artwork of Kazu Kibuishi and other Flight collaborators. (page 226) Justice League Unlimited Vol. 1: United They Stand TPB (DC Comics) - Neither DC nor Marvel's young readers output really speaks to me, but then, I'm not the target audience. The target audience is kids, and my feeling (admittedly based on anecdotal evidence) is that these affordable digests of cartoon-familiar superheroes are hitting that target audience very well. Kudos to DC for continuing to do digests like this one, giving kids introduced to the characters by the cartoons a chance to discover the comics medium while they're young. (page 99) The Losers: Trifecta TPB (DC Comics/Vertigo) - Not much to say here other than more Losers trades are welcome, and this one includes the "secret origin" tale of the Losers that I really enjoyed in single-issue form, as well as a really great standalone Aisha tale with art by Ale Garza. (page 123) Machine Teen #1 (Marvel Comics) - I was one of the few who found Marc Sumerak's Guardians to be kind of weakly written, so he hasn't proven himself to me yet, but everything else about this book I find intriguing. It's another example of how Marvel rarely creates truly new characters, but at least it's a revamp of a fairly obscure character instead of another version of Spider-Man or Wolverine. Mike Hawthorne has really impressed with his artwork on Queen & Country and Hysteria (here's hoping Marvel can find the right colorist for him... and maybe spell his name right next time, too), and James Jean's cover is great, of course. (page M8) Magnus: Robot Fighter Vol. 1 GN (IBooks) - I read and enjoyed some of Valiant's Magnus Robot Fighter comics, but I was never really that enamored of the character or concept. So I'm kind of puzzled as to why I'm intrigued by this new version of Magnus, created by Louise Simonson (whose work runs hot and cold for me) and Damien Hendricks (whom I've never heard of). Maybe I've just discovered a late-in-life love of robot fighters. At any rate, I'd be more interested if it were a big original graphic novel, rather than a 64-page "volume one," but I'm curious nonetheless to see if Simonson can breathe new life into this semi-classic character. (page 300) Man with the Screaming Brain #1 (Dark Horse) - There is much geek love for Bruce Campbell, so this book, an adaptation of Campbell's upcoming feature film (which he co-wrote, directed and starred in) will probably go over well in the comics community. It's B-movie plot sounds perfect for Campbell's sensibilities, and this one will definitely go over well with those who have been digging those Army of Darkness comics. (page 22) Matador #1 (DC Comics/Wildstorm) - Wow, this one was announced a while ago, and honestly, I figured at this point it'd never be coming out. This one's got a hispanic female detective tracking down a serial killer none of her fellow detectives believe actually exists. Grayson's writing is really hit and miss for me, but I've got a good feeling on this one, and Stelfreeze's stark and effective cover is a good indication of the quality of art he's capable of. (page 113) Mr. T #1 (AP Comics) - Mind... blown. There's kitsch, and then there's "you've got to be 'effin kidding me." But just in case Mr. T is actually reading this, I think it's a great idea and hope it makes him tons of money and earns him the Emmy nomination we've all known he deserved since his work on the A-Team. (page 238) New Line Cinema Movie Monsters (Avatar Press) - Big deal for Avatar here, as they reveal that they've got the license for beloved slasher characters Freddy (Nightmare on Elm Street), Jason (Friday the 13th) and Leatherface (Texas Chainsaw Massacre). None of these movies or characters hold any particular interest for me, but they do hold a lot of interest for others and offer potentially huge mainstream crossover, so good for Avatar for landing these guys. Truthfully, my big interest would be seeing if Avatar can hook up a crossover with Devil's Due's Hack/Slash and any of these guys. (page 249) Olympus TPB (DC Comics/Humanoids) - The last time Geoff Johns worked with Kris Grimminger, the result was The Possessed, a book I was not even remotely fond of. However, this Humanoids offering sounds intriguing, as a team of mercenaries and a group of archaeology students accidentally run into each other and then have to band together to defeat the monsters of Greek legend populating the mountain they're on. Great concept, and the artwork by Butch Guice is sure to be lovely. (page 106) The Passion of the Keef (Manic D Press) - This one's buried in the books section, so if not for Johanna Draper Carlson spotting it, I would have missed it entirely. Glad that didn't happen, as Keith Knight's politically-charged, hilariously funny cartoons are always entertaining. And hey, it's got an introduction by God, so you can't miss that, right? (page 388) PVP #0 (Image Comics) - Boy, Image is really jumping on this cheap promo comic idea, huh? Invincible last month, PVP this month. Maybe it's just an idea Kirkman and Kurtz kicked up on one of their many phone calls. At any rate, it's a good idea, and I think both books are worth a look. PVP, of course, has a ton of free samples available online at www.pvponline.com, but that doesn't reach everybody, and a 50-cent comic to hook readers is a good idea. (page 146) Queen & Country Declassified Volume 3 #1 (Oni Press) - Greg Rucka isn't writing it. Some might be nervous, but I'm not, because the guy who is writing it is the very talented (and genre-hopping) Antony Johnston, exploring the story of the newest Minder (that's Q&C speak for "secret agent") Nicholas Poole. Good news to see it, and the even better news it that with Poole out of the way, the next Declassified pretty much has to be the much-anticipated look at Tara Chace's early years. (page 323) The Rann/Thanagar War #1 (DC Comics) - Dave Gibbons's writing doesn't often click with me, but that's the only fault I can find in this miniseries, which promises to pit two of DC's big space empires at war with one another. Ivan Reis is an artist who is long overdue for a big break (and that cover image is gorgeous), Diggle and Ferry's Adam Strange mini has given me a real taste for more of DC's space adventure heroes and villains and I love the notion of a war between Rann and Thanagar and all the super-technology and space opera style battles that implies. (page 90) Ravenous GN (Speakeasy Comics) - Pretentiousness sense... tingling! When you're "inspired by" the works of Edgar Allen Poe, I get both nervous and intrigued. Intrigued because Poe is one of my favorite figures of literature, and this unusual graphic novel also features reprints of some of his famous stories like "The Pit & The Pendulum," "The Raven" and "Mask of the Red Death." Nervous because it's all too easy when writing your 100-page original story to write something that is not only not up to Poe's standards but is in fact cliched gothy and pretentious instead. Here's hoping that Dawn Brown can steer clear of the pitfalls and live up to her inspiration... as a Poe fan, there's pretty much no way I can't at least check it out. (page 334) Savage World #1 (Kandora Publishing) - Kandora continues their slow rollout of titles, and Savage World sounds like a good 'un. 10,000 years after a natural disaster wiped out civilization, we've got a strange post-apocalyptic/fantasy society which reminds me of nothing so much as Thundarr the Barbarian or Kamandi. This could be hokey as hell, but it could also be a wild, imaginative fantasy tale with a post-apocalyptic twist. (page 312) The Stardust Kid #1 (Image Comics) - Yay! I know that DeMatteis and Ploog are going to revisit their all-too-short lived creation Abadazad in children's books, and I'll be buying every one of them to read to my daughter, but I'm much happier to see the two of them diving into a similar vein again for comics as well. The solicits really don't tell anything, but the story at Newsarama is much more informative, and has me excited to see this book. (page 149) Strange Eggs #1 (Amaze Ink/Slave Labor Graphics) - So here's the pitch: A lonely brother and sister get a strange egg delivered to them each week, which then hatches into a problem the kids need to solve. Problems like aliens, dinosaurs, crazed ventriloquist dummies and several hobos. Fun, right? It gets better, as the contributors to this weird anthology include Crab Scrambly (13th of Never), Woodrow Phoenix and Ian Carney (Sugar Buzz) and (deal maker for me) Kerry Callen of Halo & Sprocket fame. (page 231) Super F*ckers #1 (Top Shelf Productions) - James Kochalka doing superheroes. If my mind hadn't already been blown by the re-emergence of Mr. T comics, this would have done it. I wish it were a longer graphic novel (32 pages at $7, even full-color, is more than a little steep), but Kochalka has said that the book is superdense and really feels like more than 32 pages, and most of what he does I usually really enjoy, so... looking forward to this one. (page 356) The Thunder Agents Companion SC (Twomorrows Publishing) - Here is what I know about the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. Once, there was a comic called the Thunder Agents, and some people liked it. So why do I care about the Thunder Agents Companion? Well, because the Twomorrows Publishing companion to Miracleman, another book I haven't ever had the chance to read, was damn good, and this seems like another in-depth, well-written examination of comics history complete with previously unseen art and stories and contributions from creators of the book over the years. (page 356) Too Much Coffee Man: How to be Happy TPB (Dark Horse) - Shannon Wheeler's strange, almost zen-like sense of humor never fails to make me smile, and often succeeds in making me think as well. The preview strip in the solicitation also succeeded in getting a Journey song stuck in my head for the better part of a day, so while I will definitely pick up this Too Much Coffee Man collection, I may have to kill Shannon Wheeler himself. (I kid, I kid! Actually, while enjoying post-Staple festivities last weekend, I drove Mr. Wheeler around and he was one of those who attended a Flametrick Subs/Satan's Cheerleaders show, so I can attest that he's a good guy.) (page 32) Top Ten: The Forty-Niners HC (DC Comics/Wildstorm) - Man do I miss Top 10. Everyone else was all a-flutter about the more literary Promethea, and the somewhat forgettable pulp hero pastiche of Tom Strong continues, but for me, Top 10 was the best thing to come out of America's Best Comics (yes, including League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). I'm saddened that it didn't get more than 12 issues, as the creative team was excellent and the potential for more very much there. However, I'll take what I can get as far as continuation, and this original graphic novel looking at the heroes who built the city of Neopolis and formed the original Top Ten. And by take what I can get, I mean "buy the softcover," just as I've done with Top Ten and hope to do very soon with Smax. (page 117) True Story, Swear to God Volume 2: This One Goes to 11 TPB (AIT/Planet Lar) - True Story Swear to God is one of the sweetest, most honest and often funniest comics out there. Glad to see another collection, this one going beyond the start of the Tom/Lily romance and exploring where it goes from there. (Spoiler warning: Where it goes is Puerto Rico, and this volume is more or less about why and how.) (page 226) The Unauthorized Puffed Movie Adaptation (IDW Publishing) - Puffed was the unusual and wickedly funny tale of a poor bastard trapped in an amusement park dragon costume and dumped off in the ghetto. IDW collects the original series and it's sequel one-shot, as well as a new story and pin-up gallery, into this trade. Well worth a look for fans of the acidic humor (Johnny the Homicidal Maniac fans, I'm lookin' at you.) (page 306) Villains United #1 (DC Comics) - The pro: It's by Gail Simone, Dale Eaglesham and Wade Von Grawbadger, and features some of DC's coolest villains, like Deathstroke, Lex Luthor and Black Adam. The con: It's tied in to one of the things I hate about Identity Crisis, namely the notion that the heroes started mind-wiping like crazy and the villains have to organize against them. I'm all about the supervillain team-ups, though, and definitely all about Simone's writing, so I'm gonna hope that the Identity Crisis mentions are kept to a minimum and the supervillains being badasses is kept to a maximum. (page 92) What's Michael? Volume 10: Sleepless Nights TPB (Dark Horse) - Curse you, Makoto Kobayashi, for making me love a damned cat comic! I hate cats, I'm allergic to cats, I don't want to be this anxious to see the next collection of Kobayashi's hilarious strip What's Michael? And yet, here I am, exceptionally pleased to finally see another What's Michael? volume solicited. (page 39) The World's Greatest Super-Heroes Oversized Slipcased HC (DC Comics) - If I didn't already have most of the oversized Dini/Ross painted projects, this would be a must-buy for me. As is, it's still really tempting. I'm hardly the world's biggest Ross fan at this point, and often found these yearly specials to be a little sappy, but I really loved some of them, and there's no denying how good Ross's work looked in oversized format. At $50 for almost 400 pages of painted art and classic characters, this one looks like a winner. (page 94) Wrath of the Spectre TPB (DC Comics) - Never read the Fleisher Spectre, but from what I've heard, it's trippy, horror/superhero blend stuff that's well worth looking into. My fondness for the Spectre comes entirely from the Ostrander/Mandrake series (and I wish DC would reprint all of that), but as I recall, Ostrander noted this as one of the few Spectre runs that really worked, so I'll probably give this collection a look when it comes out. (page 93) Zig Zag #1 (Adhouse Books) - Zig Zag is a one-man anthology comic by J Chris Campbell. You can check out his unusual art style at his official site. Looks pretty good to me, and Adhouse Books has rarely steered me wrong. (page 204) Zorro #1 (Papercutz) - Zorro returns, written by '70s action writer Don MacGregor, whose name I have heard but whose work I don't believe I've ever sampled. I'm no huge fan of Zorro in particular, but he's a heroic icon, and seeing him return to the comics pages sounds like a good thing on paper, at least. (page 318) Email Randy Lander and Dave Farabee comments about this review.