I've remarked, on reading the first two issues of Dark Horse Presents, that it didn't quite qualify as something I'd recommend in this thread.
#3 isn't perfect, but I think it's finally there.
It starts up with a story by Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons about a future where SWAT vs. kidnappers is treated like a sporting event. It's formulaic but it works pretty well.
Then we've got the second chapter of 13, which feels more like it has a beginning, middle, and end than the first part. I'm starting to like this one. From there, we go to Finder, which is self-contained and which I'm beginning to quite like.
Concrete takes a break from the portents in the previous issue and tackles the ripped-from-the-headlines issue of police Taser brutality, and manages to avoid being preachy, taking sides, or peddling easy answers. (In fact, the answer it finally gives is comically absurd, throwing the complexity of the real-life issue into sharper relief -- it reminded me of the "prisoners in our own school" bit on Simpsons.) It's a wonderful little down-to-Earth, slice-of-life story where a superhero's just trying to help people in the everyday world.
And Chaykin's story is better this time around too, with far less misplaced boldface and a feeling that yeah, this IS actually building toward something.
The linchpin of the issue, though, is the first chapter of the new printing of Jim Steranko's Red Tide.
Now, this being the Comics for People Who Don't Read Comics thread, I'm going to take a moment to explain who Jim Steranko is. You may not know the name, but you know his work. Picture the X-Men logo for a second. See it? How quickly did it pop into your head?
That logo is Steranko's. He drew TWO ISSUES of X-Men, in 1968, and his work is still instantly identifiable with the property. Because he is, among other things, a consummate graphic designer.
He's also probably the biggest reason you know who Nick Fury is -- bigger than Kirby, Lee, Hitch, or even Samuel L Jackson.
In short, the guy did 29 comics for Marvel back in the 1960's and we're still talking about him.
Anyhow, Red Tide is NOT a Marvel work, and not a superhero work; it's pure noir detective story. I've never read the 1970's original, so this was new to me, but this is a preview of a new printing, and it's gorgeous.
The story's not really anything new, but it's not supposed to be; this one's all about the presentation. And it's striking: the book eschews grids and speech bubbles in favor of two panels and a text narration on each page. Strictly speaking, the text would tell the story if the images were removed, but that's not the point -- this isn't simply an illustrated novel; the beats and rhythms of the art juxtaposed with the text are absolutely essential to the flow of the narrative. And the art itself -- gorgeous, gorgeous stuff; the linework, colors, and layouts are masterful.
The chapter is followed with a three-page interview with Steranko. I find the interviewer a little too fawning, and Steranko spends too much time talking about how this is a TRUE graphic novel, and how he was doing them before Eisner. But once he starts getting into the nuts-and-bolts technique of it, it's a great read; he talks about colors and lightsourcing and how he really did do shit nobody else was doing (or, in some cases, has done since). Again, I haven't seen the original work so I don't know what the colors were like, but the new ones look fantastic, and maybe this really IS a case where a recolored version is superior to the original.
The back half of the book is a bit more of a mixed bag. Neil Adams's Blood still doesn't feel like it was written to be split up into 8-page chunks and just begins and ends completely abruptly. Corben's contribution feels similarly disjointed but at least looks pretty doing it. The gag strips, Indecisive Man and the final installment of Mr. Monster, aren't actually very funny but are pretty to look at.
Ultimately, it's $8 for 104 pages, which range in quality from middling to fucking amazing. For the most part it's approachable to people who haven't read the first couple of issues. Ultimately, I think it's pretty great and I want to see more comics like it.
And next month we'll see the return of Dorkin and Thompson's Beasts of Burden, a recent favorite of mine that mixes talking animals with eldritch horror. And soon after we'll be seeing new Hellboy/BPRD stories besides.
In short: great book; worth checking out.
