Pipeline at ComicBook.com for February and March 2018
In case you haven’t been able to keep up with the Pipeline columns over at ComicBook.com lately, here’s a quick rundown of what I wrote in February and March:
Walt Simonson’s “Superman Special”
This is a review of the 1992 “Superman Special,” which featured a brand new 50 page story by Walter Simonson, complete with John Workman lettering. It’s everything you’d expect from that description.
The pin-up pages in the back of the issue are a real treat, including entries from Todd McFarlane, Barry Windsor-Smith, Frank Miller, and more heavyweight names.
Rememeber “B.P.R.D.”?
The John Arcudi/Guy Davis “B.P.R.D.” days produced some excellent comics. I like them more than the Mignola Hellboy comics, in all honesty.
This is a review of one of those adventures, “The Black Flame.” It has some great art, a good story, and an on-going mythology that was fun to track from trade to trade in those days.
Lucky bonus: Recent Hellboy issues actually tie into events from this book!
Comics Go “Kaboom!”
Remember Awesome Comics? Remember Jeph Loeb and Jeff Matsuda’s ploy for an animated series, “KABOOM”?
I tripped across my copies of the three issue mini-series and had to review it. There’s also a super short review at the end of the follow-up mini-series drawn by Keron Grant.
The Amazing Eric Canete Art of “Cybernary 2.0”
The column starts:
“Remember Cybernary?
“I had completely forgotten about Cybernary.
“She was a character created by Nick Manabat at Wildstorm back in the 90s. Sadly, Manabat died tragically young of cancer. He penciled some Cybernary backups for the original “Deathblow” series and that’s about all of his comics work.”
Then Eric Canete drew a mini-series and it’s a glorious piece of work to behold. Canete’s work on this book suits his style and is beautiful.
The Thanos Quest for the Infinity Gems
I finally read “The Thanos Quest,” 25+ years later! I didn’t get those issues when they first came out because I was a high school kid with limited funds. Paying extra for oversized books wasn’t really a thing I could justify.
This is the story of how Thanos brought together all the Infinity Gems for his Gauntlet. It’s the direct lead-in to “Infinity Gauntlet,” basically. Well, this and a dozen issues of “Silver Surfer,” I guess…
Ron Lim could really churn pages out in those days.
I love this last headline the most:
Batman, and Hellboy, and Starman, Oh My!
Remember this two-parter? I didn’t. I own it and I’m pretty sure I read it when it came out originally. But I remembered nothing about it. I can give you more details from memory of Hellboy’s appearance in “Savage Dragon” than I can from this series.
So I re-read it and loved it. It’s really good, playing to Mignola’s strength and carrying a good sense of humor.
To Be Continued
Stop by in a couple weeks and I’ll give you the April/May update!
