purchase:
DC’s Legion of Bloom #1 (DC Comics) The theme of this 80-page DC Quarterly tome—the now-familiar anthology of the definitive format—is, as the pun-intended title suggests, spring. That means the appearance of plant-related characters like Swamp Thing, Poison Ivy, and the Floronic Man*, as well as stories tied to the arrival of the new season.
My favorite of these eight stories is probably the last one, written by Dave Wielgosz and drawn by the great Riley Rossmo. The Superman story is titled “We Must Live Until Spring,” and it begins with Clark Kent’s farmer father confiding in him how hard winter is and then uttering the story’s title. Fast forward to Clark’s adulthood as Superman and see just how stressful his life was. This is conveyed through pages divided into a calendar-like grid, and is filled with snippets of mostly off-panel adventures that seem like typical Superman stories, but all, like, I wouldn’t mind Read More Great story: Mr. Mxyzptlk, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle’s mischief causing trouble, the threat of Titano, the appearance of Superman’s Revenge Squad led by Luthor, the battle against the Starro-controlled Captain Marvel, and more. There are also plenty of guest stars, from Iron Man to Plastic Man to Superboy.
The point is, of course, Superman gets into trouble sometimes, but while things may get tough, he just has to get through it.
The other stories are well written and well drawn, but none really reach the level of a great superhero story. These include Poison Ivy going incognito to work in a flower shop but using her superpowers to betray her; Batman dealing with a particularly creepy Floronic man (drawn by artist Hayden Sherman); Blue Beetle Spring break with friends is interrupted by the “Floridian” Anima-Vegetable-Mineral Man (which seems like a bit of a waste of a great villain); the very unofficial Titans of the West** fight against a cult led by Queen Bee; The Swamp The Monster and the Flash team up; many of Captain Carrot’s babies accidentally eat his special carrots; and finally, Wonder Woman’s friend Sig reunites with Jack Frost, who delayed the arrival of spring.
All in all, it’s not a bad deal to spend $10 on a superhero comic.
This is Jeff #1 (Marvel Entertainment) I have a simple rule when it comes to comics: if Gurihiru’s art team draws a comic, I buy it. So far I have not been disappointed. This is a series of short comics, ranging in length from a few drawings to several pages, all featuring a four-legged baby land shark from a profile by writer Kelly Thompson. west coast avengers Revival (he was adopted by Gwen Poole, but seems, like Snoopy) peanuteveryone in the gang belongs to some degree).
The comics in This Is Jeff, all of which I believe have appeared online in places I haven’t read before, are written by Thompson and, as I mentioned before, drawn by the incomparable Gurihiru team, They’ve drawn some of the best Marvel versions of superheroes, and a whole bunch of them appear in this issue.
The stories are all short and sweet, and really showcase the storytelling skills of Gurishiro and Thompson, as there is no dialogue or narration in the stories, with the only exception being Hawkeye Kate Bishop shouting “Jeffrey!” and “Jeff!” !” A few times, Jeff said “Mrrrrr.”
My favorite was probably “Pool Party,” which seemed to feature the entire Marvel Universe sharing a swimming pool, all wearing their own personalized swimsuits. As someone who loves Gurihiru’s art, it’s great to see them drawing so many different characters. There’s also a Thanksgiving story, “Jeff’s Thanksgiving,” which features a bunch of Marvel character cameos (including one I don’t recognize; who’s the blue-haired girl sitting between Tony and America Chavez ?
I highly recommend this book to Marvel fans, and I wish Thompson and Gurishiro had done more.
borrow:
Comey Can’t Communicate Vol. twenty four (visual media) Kami and Tadano go on a date…but not until back Komi’s father-like Komi forces Tadano to go on an aquarium date with him he (with Shosuke) to test whether he is truly worthy of his daughter. Fun as always.
Interview:
everything is the first time (first second) I interviewed children’s book author and graphic novelist Dan Santat about his insanely funny coming-of-age memoir, in which he travels to Europe and falls in love for the first time. You can read it here.
Shazam! thunder (DC Comics) If you’ve been reading EDILW for a while, you probably know that I have a lot of opinions about the Captain Marvel character, like that he should be called “Captain Marvel” instead of “Shazam.” So I had the pleasure of speaking with comic book artist Yehudi Mercado, who created a kid-friendly story featuring characters from the original film’s continuity (and who successfully created “To A version of “Mr. Key Tony”). You can read our conversation here.
*But strangely, the same can’t be said for the plant-like Green Lantern Medfield, who is the only character on Juan Gidon’s cover who doesn’t appear in the book’s story. Maybe he was intended to be the main character and his story was cut in favor of Captain Carrot or Superman’s story, since neither of them appear on the cover.
**Made up of bumblebees, flamingos, eagles and doves.
