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Snapshots for 8/25
There's no way that Don and I can cover all of the material we have for review in full reviews, so these capsule reviews will offer some brief comments on other recent releases.
ASTONISHING X-MEN #4
by Joss Whedon & John Cassaday (Marvel Comics)
 Four issues in, and my prediction made back in my first review, that I would probably grow to be much more impressed with the book than I started out being, has come true. Whedon's back to basics take on the X-Men isn't as revolutionary as Morrison's run, but it's got a more consistent quality rather than sometimes aiming too high and missing, and while the costume designs still range from bland to downright ugly, Cassaday's artwork is in general a treasure as well. These creators are hitting all my fanboy buttons just right, with the X-Men being super-effective and the not-too-surprising return of an unjustly dead classic character pleasing me to no end. I'd be even more pleased if it hadn't been so widely rumored and in fact confirmed by the variant cover (great no-spoiler marketing there), but I'm so happy to have the character back, those are minor complaints. At any rate, Whedon's top-notch dialogue, the relationships between the characters and a pretty nifty little scene of the bad guy showing up in the mansion make this another strong issue of Astonishing X-Men. 8/10
DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY #2
by Jim Massey (Varmint Press)
 Knowing what to expect from Death Takes A Holiday after having read and enjoyed issue one, I came into issue two ready to laugh. I was not disappointed. Massey's humor hits some of the same general areas as his previous issue, varying between politics, metaphysics and the screwed-up nature of the entertainment issue, but the gags are all new and always funny. Particular favorites included Death's reaction to the trendy "WWJD?" slogan ("Let's call him. We can use my mobile."), Death's encounter with the FBI and the six strips that feature Death giving a talk at a grade school. The absolute best strips of the issue, though, come when Jesus is arrested for being a terrorist, and Death has to help his buddy out... which he does in a less-than-helpful fashion. Massey has great comic timing, neat ideas and a likably snarky protagonist. Death Takes A Holiday definitely brings the funny, and I'd recommend giving it a look. 9/10
PINK SKETCHBOOK VOLUME 1: GRRR!
by Scott Morse (AdHouse Books)
 Wow, big week for sketchbooks. AdHouse is a company with a really strong design sense, and the Pink sketchbooks show that, being essentially a cardstock cover, stapled mini-comic style of sketchbook, but coming across as something considerably more polished than that as a result of the attention to detail, like the quality of the paper inside, the faux bookflaps and the nifty little pink ziplock bag that the whole package comes in. As with the Dave Johnson Sketchbook, though, the format is the icing, and the cake is the interior art, which is damn tasty. Morse has done a couple convention sketches for me, and they've always been remarkably beautiful finished pieces, and his work here is of the same quality. The theme here is monster sketches, and while Morse covers old favorites like Sasquatch, Frankenstein's Monster, vampires and werewolves, he also brings his unique design sense to bear on weird aliens and the strangely compelling "octomummy." The book is mostly black and white, with a few fully-painted color pages, and, like the Dave Johnson Sketchbook out this week, is a must-have for fans of the artist and well worth a look for anyone with a love of comics art. 9/10
STYX TAXI: A LITTLE TWILIGHT MUSIC
by Steven Goldman, Dan Goldman, Elizabeth Genco, Leland Purvis & Rami Efal (FWD Books)
 This book inadvertantly steps on one of my big pet peeves, that being music in comic books. While I know that there's a big crossover between music love and comics love, especially amongst indie creators, I've never thought that music came through in the sequential art medium, and I've generally found the inclusion of music lyrics as part of a story to be remarkably self-indulgent and sometimes pretentious. This is a one-shot themed around music interacting with the deceased cabbies of Styx Taxi, and overall, it didn't really connect with me. Part of that is because the inclusion of music as a major element just doesn't work for me, but another part is that the "rules" of Styx Taxi and the characters really aren't explained at all, and with three short stories in a very small space, none of the stories really get enough room to make any sense. Instead I'm left with vague impressions of what Steven Goldman might have intended, like a sense of 9-11 in the first tale or the sense of a mother losing her daughter in the third. Clearly, there are intriguing ideas here, but he doesn't have enough room to explore them, or doesn't seem to have the desire to clarify for easy comprehension. The second tale, by Elizabeth Genco and Leland Purvis, is the strongest, being a simple tale of a dead cabbie with a crush on a living musician, and it's the type of story that can be told clearly in this many pages, although it's simplicity is also a weakness, as it comes off as a touch predictable. 4/10
SUPERNATURAL LAW 101
by Batton Lash, Trevor Nielson & Melissa Uran (Exhibit A Press)
 Though every issue of Supernatural Law tends to be pretty approachable, this one in particular is a jumping-on point since it provides the backstory of the Wolff & Byrd law firm by telling their tales of law school days. Interestingly, while the book doesn't require the reader to be invested in the continuity or characters at all, it's a great read for those who have been following the book, as it's a lot of fun to see the genesis of these two characters. Lash almost starts too late, hinting at the events that led a young Alanna Wolff to become interested in the supernatural rather than showing them, but that means he's got a story to show later (or he's shown it already and I need to go back and reread), so that's OK by me. There's a lot to like about this issue, from the way it shows the transition from the hard rules of law to the more faith and fantasy based aspects of the supernatural to the puns, which range from groaners to chucklers, depending on the readers' temperament. There's also a nice little Twilight Zone-esque twist at the end related to our narrator that I got a kick out of. Supernatural Law is always well put together and always fun, and this primer on the early lives of the characters is no exception. 8/10
USAGI YOJIMBO #77
by Stan Sakai (Dark Horse Comics)
 For the past few months, Sakai has been telling self-contained tales in Usagi, and they've all been of the same high standard that I've come to expect from this book. Oddly enough, this makes the book damn near impossible to review, because there's only so many times you can write "It's excellent. What did you expect?" This issue brings back Inspector Ishida, a character I didn't know from before but who I gather has shown up previously, and pits him against "The Rat," a Robin Hood-esque ninja whose thievery is based on a real figure in Japanese history. It's a fun tale, mixing elements of kung fu movies, the mythos that shaped stories like Robin Hood and a sort of feudal Japan era CSI/Sherlocke Holmes, and there's even an amusing little bit of banter between law and order Ishida and anarchist The Rat by the end. It's excellent. What did you expect? 10/10
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