Saturday, July 19, 2008

update

First, my hand is okay. Went on another ride on Thursday with a local MTB club. It was a mixed bunch of really cool guys (no bellas!?) and as usual, I was 'not as good as, but better than'. Good night.

Obscure Tales is updated. A hard couple of panels. I'm not sure how successful they are, but they went through a lot of iterations to find ones that actually came close to working. Plus, after I finished and posted, I found that the first panel of page 13 looks like the car has a shattered windshield. It doesn't. It's supposed to be a cool lighting effect, but it doesn't work. I'm going to re-work it tonight, so forgive me.

Now, a Comic Review. Not of an issue, but of a comic: PS 238. I may have mentioned this before, but you HAVE to start reading this. It is the first monthly since Excalibur (under Davis) that has me laughing, thinking, caring about the characters and, importantly, looking forward to every month.

You can hit the site for the full story (and online re-print of the first issue), so I won't bore you with a synopsis other than to say it's about a school for meta-human children (of both heroes and villains). However, the issues I just got in from Heavy Ink have some perfect examples me of what I love about the comic.

First of all, it's damned funny! Check out this very subtle joke as we watch the local non-metahuman vigilante crime-fighter relaxing in an arcade:



The joke in issue 29 that still makes me laugh every time I see it needs a bit of an introduction. This is Poly Mer and she's the local stretchy hero ala' Elastigirl:



Here is an exchange between Poly and a girl known only as "eighty-four". Seriously, I laughed as I scanned it, I laughed when it was in photoshop and I'll probably laugh when I check this page. If you don't laugh, you've obviously lost touch with your inner 4th grader:



But, it's not all jokes. Aaron Williams has created a pretty solid universe heavily populated with meta-humans. One evolving storyline evolves the girl "eighty-four". It ask the interesting question about what it takes to be special in a world of many special people. This exchange with an airport security guard is very poignant (and is cobbled together from two pages):


Also, I think that Williams can really draw. He does great hands and he draws kids really well. His eyes and backgrounds need a tiny bit of work, but his only real flaw is his overuse of photoshop for effects and 'signage' type. I'll forgive that though, as he is a one-man operation and if he can't draw type (as I can't), he can't exactly hire someone to do it. I think his writing is top-notch as well. He does a good job of portraying kids as kids.

Anyway. there are now a bunch of TPBs that encompass the all the previous issues, so you can catch up easily. Please hit the site and read up (just a note: the SINGLE arrows are go SINGLE PAGES, the double arrows go to the most recent page). You probably won't be sorry. I'm going outside now.

Listening to while posting: "Break Down the Walls" by Half Way Home

8 comments:

Don Snabulus said...

Did you already fix it (?) because the only frame that looked close to a shattering looked much more like light reflected from the sphere.

PS 238 looks like fun. I never met a meta-human that I di...never mind.

I hope all is well. I've been lax about the internetting with all the summer frenetics.

Thomas Fummo said...

The bubblegum joke is gold.
looks like fun, indeed.
William's style reminds me a lot of yours.

Dean Wormer said...

Like the bubblegum joke.

I've always thought a hero with stretch powers would be wayyyy popular with the opposite sex.

:-)

Anonymous said...

Guitar hero, completely out of context that panel cracked me up.

Arkonbey said...

don: If you didn't notice, then I'm not going to muck with it. and 'lax'? I'd be disappointed if you didn't go outside and do those cool things you've been posting about!

Dr. S: Thanks, but Williams does hands much, much better than me still.

Dean: I've always wondered about the 'Elastigirl/Mr. Fantastic' question. From a guy's perspective I can say that most guys would say they wanted a stretchy girlfriend, but in the end we're much, much easier to please...

Lee: Welcome and wasn't that genius? And subtle!

Swinebread said...

I love that joke, quite funny stuff

I've seen thePS 232 at some comics shops, I'll have to double-check now!

ladybug said...

Hey, this page needs updatin'!

Any news of anythin' at all?

Rebecca said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.