Tuesday, November 4, 2008

The snob treads on DC toes

Kate SpencerManhunter Vol. 1: Street Justice by Marc Andreyko et al
    After a four year hiatus, I am back to borrowing comic books from Ben (thank for moving to California, buddy). And although I liked this first one okay, I realized (rerealized?) what it is I dislike so much about "normal" serialized comics. By being constrained to such a specific length, the storytelling tends to suffer. And then this collection just ends at a spot that makes the whole book feel like a prologue. What's up with that? A twelve-dollar-and-ninety-nine-cent prologue?

    The thing is, there's nothing I disliked about this book. It's really just the nature of its form that gets under my skin. (Which is why I nover subscribe for or purchase single issues.)

    That said, I'll probably borrow further Manhunter volumes from Ben (if he'll let me after this review). I just wish we could leave the Dickens Method behind in comics. You know: for me, personally. Because what I want obviously matters more than what the people who actually pay for these things want. Obviously.

2 comments:

B.G. Christensen said...

I finished the Madman collection yesterday and was left feeling about the same. If I were reading the floppies on a monthly basis I'd be okay with there still being unresolved questions about his past, twenty or thirty issues in, but where this was a big fat book I expected things to wrap up nicely by the end and felt like he left me hanging. At least some of the questions were answered, though.

Th. said...

.

I like tidiness and I don't. I don't mind unresolved issues at the end of a novel, but at the end of a collection --- where it should feel more acceptable --- I like it less. I hate feeling like I've made an eternal commitment to an artist who is apt to endlessly string me along.