(Over to the left is my very own scan of the book cover; Amazon and B&N have a different cover, which is not the one on the actual book -- at least, not on my copy of it.)The cover credits this book to "Ostrander/Truman," and while it is true that Truman co-created Grimjack, and it is true that Ostrander wrote all of the stories in here, there's only eight pages of Truman art (out of about 180). So that's not exactly what one would call truth in advertising.
Most of the issues collected here (#s 22-30) were penciled by Tom Sutton, who is not generally considered among the greatest Grimjack artists (to put it mildly). I don't remember anything else he worked on, but he was a bad match for this series, and the contrast of his work with Truman's made it look even worse.
This is also a lowish point for Ostrander's writing; it feels a little like he's casting about for new ideas for the series (as it runs through the end of its second full year, deals with the aftermath of a big plotline, and tries to find a post-Truman direction). In particular, the full issue about Grimjack's sidekick BlackJacMac and his girlfriend Goddess talking in great depth about their relationship is wince-inducing. (Ostrander is generally a good writer, but his people get awfully schmaltzy when they start talking to each other about how they feel.)
Of course, this is volume five -- the only people buying this are those who like the series enough to keep going with it. (And it does pick up later -- somewhat when Tom Mandrake takes over the art, and much more a few years later when Flint Henry comes on board.) I just dove into my old longboxes, and this series ran to issue #81 -- at the current speed, the publisher (IDW) will need at least six more volumes. I've stuck around this far, so I expect I'll keep going...
The Fabulous Book-A-Day Index!
No comments:
Post a Comment