Top of the Pile 5/18/16

The book that made it to the top of my pile isn’t necessarily one I would normally pick up. I would have picked Civil War II #0, since that’s going to be the big bad Marvel summer storyline. But instead I read Future Quest #1. I did this because I’m giving it to a colleague here at work (she’s a big Hanna Barbera fan).

Future Quest is a new comic where DC plays around with old Hanna Barbera properties. In this book, Johnny Quest and his crew meet up with Space Ghost, Birdman, The Herculoids, and other cartoon classic adventure characters from back in the day. This first issue, written by Jeff Parker, is setting everything up. Something is breaking through to Earth and Dr. Quest is determined to find out what’s happening before his nemesis Dr. Zinn does. And of course, it’s all the super, outer space type characters that are popping into Johnny’s world. So far, it has potential. But like many stories that has tons of characters, we’ll see how Parker is able to enhance the story without getting too bogged down.

The artwork is done by Evan “Doc” Shaner and Steve “The Dude” Rude and keeps with the style of the old cartoons. I actually think Steve Rude has been practicing drawing Space Ghost for almost his entire life. But they make use of all the great designs from the cartoons, as well as a sad timely shoutout to Darwyn Cooke, who I guess helped with some of the designs.

So I’ll check back and see if my colleague wants me to continue picking up these books for her. If so, I’ll more than likely give them a read before handing them over. Otherwise, I don’t know if I would add this to my regular comic purchases.

Other books this wee:

Civil War II #0

Snow Fall #4

Wonder Woman #52

All-New Wolverine #8

Old Man Logan #6

Top of the Pile - 1/30/13

Before Watchmen: Dollar Bill #1
Written by Len Wein
Art by Steve Rude

I’ve been picking up all the Before Watchmen books, but with most mini-series, I hold off reading them until they are complete. But this Dollar Bill issue is a one shot, so there is no waiting involved. This book made it to the top of this weeks pile only because Steve Rude did the artwork.

This issue of Before Watchmen tells the individual story of the hero Dollar Bill. A member of the Minutemen who turns out to be a normal guy with better than average looks who is hired to work as a bank mascot. The story Len Wein tells is ok. It doesn’t have the psychological depth that some of the other stories have. But it’s understandable since its a single issue book on a minor Watchmen character.

And for the Steve Rude art, it looks really good. I’ve kind of been watching his work since the Nexus books in the 80s, and the style looks pretty much the same (which is a good thing). Action poses and dynamic movement with a clear detailed line, its nice to see his artwork again in a comic book.

Now I guess I’ll need to read through the other Before Watchmen books pretty soon since they’re all winding down. And the guys at the comic shop say they are all pretty cool. So if this Dollar Bill book makes it into a collection, I’d certainly add it to our library. But I wouldn’t be too upset if it somehow got left out of the Absolute edition.