Mantra #3 (Malibu Comics, 1993)

Flipping through this issue, a few things become apparant right away: the artist really enjoys drawing very voluptuoous women (and does a good job of it), but most of the issue suffers for weak drawing of incidental characters and poor use of space within each panel, and a dark-brownish cast to all of the colors. I don't know what it is about computer colors, but when they tranlate from the screen to the printed page, the result is dark and muddy. Anyway, let's look at what's working in this issue: good use of action and variety of viewpoints (that is, from close ups to long shots); many of the layouts and the writing are very good, it's just that the artwork team of Terry Dodson and Al Vey really shines when the subject matter is closeups of voluptuous women. Imagine famed pinup illustrator Vargas drawing superheroes.

The story is interesting right from the first page, where we learn that Mantra (pictured above, on the right) gets her powers from her mask

Youngblood Strikefile, #4 (Image Comics, 1993)

 Non-Stop Wrestling Match in an Empty Room

The story in this issue is called "Dead Set On Detruction", and was written by the infamous Rob Liefeld (one the founders of Image Comics).The story is about how a cyborg android named Overtkill comes to life (in the lab of a sinister government scientist, where a lot of Image superheroes are also hanging out), escapes from the lab, and then battles with Badrock in a series of in-your-face action fight scenes.  There really is no story...it's like one continuous fight scene that goes on for 20 pages.  It ends with Overtkill's head flying off of his body (it becomes like a GPS guided rocket) and crashes right into the office window of a mob boss.

The cover shows a big two fisted character named "Badrock", who looks like a combination of Marvel's "The Hulk" and "The Thing", but  on 'roids.  He angrily jumps out at us from the cover, bearing two massive fists, and showing off his perfect set of teeth.  The cover image pretty much summarizes the issue: extreme perspective, emotional switch permanently set on "very angry", and no drawing at all in the background. The world of "Youngblood Strikefile" is like being in a non-stop wrestling match. There are a lot full page spreads and double-paged spreads of punching, where the characters fly out of the panel into your lap, but that's probably because there no story or dialogue that anyone bothered to write.

The page layouts are primarily 3-panels per page, alternating between 3 verticals side-by-side on one page, and 3 horizontals, side-by-side, on the other.  The middle of the book has a 2-page spread showing Badrock (wearing a backwards baseball cap) punching Overtkill, which sends Overtkill flying.

I like how the artist (Jeff Matsuda) has created some interesting panel borders, but he doesn't do it enough. He's got as panel border made of wafting cigar smoke (something that Will Eisner might have done), and another made out of choppy jagged lines, which give the impression of being barbed wire. But that's it! Otherwise, all of the panel borders here are straightforward simple boxes (three per page, as noted previously)

Lavender, Turquoise, Blue, and Red-Orange are the colors that predominate here; very '80's colors (especially the lavender and turquoise). But the colors all have a dark cast to them, as if there were a lot of grey mixed into them.  I'm sure that this is caused by using too many in layers with Photoshop; "digital painting".  Everything seems to dark in tone, that the colors have all got a brownish muddy look to them; they need to be lightened up and brightened up.

The best parts of the book: the 2-page spread that introduces "Overtkill" on pages 2 and 3.  That's about it. There's a lot of "extreme" action, and serious grimaces, bu the characters function in a void. There are no backgrounds, no incidental objects, no details of their lives.  The dialogue sounds like it was written by kid playing with toys: "You're all too slow and soft...nothing but a bunch of wusses in fancy gear", or "who wants to die first?"

I think that Rob Liefeld really wants to make a great comic book, but his strengths are in drawing superhero characters....not in writing, nor in drawing environments.  I think that some background scenery would help this comic. It would give it a sense of place.  But there is no "place" in this story; the backgrounds are all bare. It makes the story feel as if it's being acted out on a Hollywood sound stage.  To compensate for this, the artist (Jeff Matsuda) has chosen to have all of the fighting scenes fill the entire panel, muscling out any room for background details.  The result is that you feel like you've been dropped into the middle of a wrestling match that never seems to stop.  Every panel is closeup shots of fighting and mean name-calling. This book feels tough and dumb, in an empty room. with the scent of styling gel and cologne wafting off of it.  How 1980's!

Underground, #3 (Dark Horse, 1994)

This comic book, published by Dark Horse Comics in 1994, is visually very interesting, because it's actually a mix of comic book and pulp fiction writing; half the book is comic panels, the other half is written out as a story. The cover is a full color painting of a bald muscular guy with a dragon tattoo on his chest; he's got  no legs, and he moves himself in his electric wheelchair though an underground tunnel or sewer.  He looks at us, the viewer, as be passes us, driving his electric cart (which has the word "leftovers" scrawled on the side)  Right away, I can sense that there's something amateurish about this book, even though it's got top-notch production values: the drawing is all out of proportion, and the cover layout is pretty dull (a picture of a poorly drawn guy in  wheelchair? C'mon...!) I'm encouraged, however, when I open the book and find that there's so much more going on than what the cover suggests.  UNDERGROUND is actually and art and literary magazine. It's half comic book, half pulp novel. It's a compilation of work

At first glance, I like how it seems experimental in nature, how it tries to tell a story using four different creators. Two of the stories are comic book in style, the other two are written as straight text. The text stories also have illustrations added to them. The result is rather disjointed. The basic story is laid out on the first page, where there's come vague narration about there a group of people and creatures who live a subterranean existence in some tunnels. You're never sure really what's going on.

The first story, by Jason Lutes, is interesting from an artistic standpoint: he ties together a long string of panels with a long continuous sound effect that overlaps the panels. But each contribution here, whether it be the comics portion or the literary portion, they all attempt to tell a piece of the story, without telling the whole story. It's strange to see pages and pages of text in a comic book. The history of using pages and pages of text in comics was to get around a rule that the post office had; it was a way to save some money. But here, it's like a forced combination of comic book and pulp novel. The comics are hard to follow, and the written stories will probably go unread. As a comic book reader, I look for the comic book portion of the book; why would I open up a comic book to read a short story?

There are also some problems with the artwork: it comes off as amateurish, like "fan art". Same with the lettering. There is a creative sequence of panels towards the end of the book, however, where there is an alternation of art styles between panels, as if different artists took turns drawing each panel.

This book lacks a cohesive feeling. I would suggest literally cutting and pasting the comic into the text portion, so that this book has the same feel throughout. That is, have three panels of the comic book (as a comic strip), followed by a page of text from the short story. Just repeat this pattern over and over until you've exhausted the comic strip panels and the paragraphs of text. Then this book would hold together; it would be more cohesive.  It feels like an interesting experiment from some fan boys.

The editors, in their introduction to this book, attempt to set up the story...in four paragraphs. They should reduce it to one or two sentences. Even after reading four paragraphs, it's not clear what's actually going on in this story. Their introduction would be better used for explaining how to read this book (with its combination of comic chapters, and text chapters), and an explanation of why they're creating this book using this format.  I admire how the creators of UNDERGROUND #3 want to make comics and text work together, but this version is just too raw. It feels like a rough draft.