Peter Campbell - Review

The Naked Artist

I was unaware this book even existed until I came across it while mindlessly browsing Amazon one day. It’s not even listed on the official Bryan Talbot page, for god’s sake! It’s a collection of anecdotes, some true, some possibly apocryphal, that recount embarrassing and sometimes near-unbelievable stories about comics creators.

Sir Edward Grey Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever 2

Sir Edward Grey Witchfinder is an excursion into the realms of gothic western. The western seems to be making a comeback, but it’s been infected by zombies and lycanthropes and invariably sultry witches. Why is this? Maybe it’s because it’s an era that already carries mythic overtones. Maybe it’s the looming, shadowed landscapes. Maybe it’s crass commercialism.

Giant Size Atom 1

It’s not quite up there with Giant-Sized Man-Thing, but Giant Size Atom’s a pleasing oxymoron. If only the contents were as diverting.

Grant Morrison – Talking with Gods

Grant Morrison is one of those people who would be interesting enough to carry a documentary were you to point a camera at them and let them talk. Which is just as well, because that’s what this documentary basically consists of.

Fantastic Four 588

So here it is, the final ever issue of the Fantastic Four. Johnny Storm’s dead, Spider-Man’s waiting in the wings to become the new fourth member, there are new costumes, a new direction, it’s the end of an era, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah.

Tiny Titans 31

This is rather charming: a comic featuring the Teen Titans and other superheroes as primary school characters, drawn in a style that you traditionally associate with (US) childrens comics. How is this supposed to fit in with existing DC continuity? Well, Tiny Titans is a TV show that the “real-life” Titans watch. How very metatextual.

Silver Surfer 1

Oh, look, it’s the return of the Silver Surfer again. Oh my Shalla Bal! Oh, my Zenn-La! Woe is me and shalt I talk in a florid sub-Shakespearean language that invariably ends in exclamation marks?! Shalt I ever develop a sense of humour or shalt I muse over the world’s follies in an obviously messianic fashion?! In my dotage shalt I join my namesakes and take to browsing the web and contacting distant friends via Facebook?!

Azrael 17

Appearing several years too late to get caught up in the sales wake of The Da Vinci Code, here comes Azrael. He’s dressed in the costume of a crusading knight, carries a fiery sword…and wears a face mask. Question: if you’ve returned from the dead, as Azrael has, why are you bothering to hide your identity?

Nemesis

Millar and McViven’s Nemesis is based around the realisation that, actually, being the bad guy has a not-so-subtle attraction. Good guys? They have morals and qualms. Bad guys have none of these things. They blow things up and maim and kill people in spectacular fashion, which is much more enjoyable in a trash aesthetic sort of way.

Mickey Mouse 304

Unlike Carl Barks, Disney’s other great comic book artist, relatively little of Floyd Gottfredson’s work is readily available. This makes the reprinting of two early works in this comic especially welcome.