|
JACK STAFF #6
Highly Recommended (9/10)
|
Dancing Elephant Press
Writer/Artist: Paul Grist
Price: $2.95 US |
Okay, I know that some of you wait until I've been giving great reviews for a long time to give books a try. I've heard from folks on Authority, Powers, 100 Bullets and numerous other titles. If you're one of those people, let me assure you that my reviews of Jack Staff aren't going to get any less glowing, and you should trust me on this one as well. Jack Staff is a great little anthology of sorts, Paul Grist's equivalent of Astro City, his take
on a variety of comic archetypes that he grew up reading, and it's wildly
imaginative and always well-crafted.
I'm not generally a fan of
anthology books, but the format that Grist is using works really well for me.
Each issue contains several short stories, usually with one or two chapters, and
they each build upon one another or upon the world that he's created. In this
issue, we see more of Unit D (a SHIELD-esque operation), the master criminal
known as the Spider, investigators for the X-Files-ish Q, the
always-entertaining Becky Burdock, Vampire Reporter and of course an appearance
by Jack Staff, the title hero.
Grist's imagination and style
goes a long way with me, but I'm also impressed by his distinctive art style.
The sequence showing the variety of traps that Unit D has set up is fantastic,
and his take on the more mundane, such as Chinard's apartment or Becky's routine
stop for takeout food, is equally strong. Grist has an amazing grasp on the use
of shadows and light, and he's also got a very clear and attractive design
sense.
It speaks well of this book that just about every one of these segments ends in a cliffhanger, and we probably won't see the solution to them for several months, but I don't mind in the slightest. There's so much character and entertaining plot development in every few pages that I always feel like I've gotten my money's worth out of Jack Staff.
With Grist's other book Kane suffering from low sales, I'd really hate to see Jack Staff go the same way. Both are terrific books, and I hope that the sales will continue to build on Jack Staff, and that those of you who take my advice will enjoy it and take a look at the Kane collections both present and future
as well.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review. |
