Wednesday Comics

One sentence summary: Come on, who doesn't want giant-sized comics?

Wednesday Comics really is a gorgeous collection. Before I go into further details, it should be noted that that really is the most important aspect of this collection: it looks good. It is a big, cool book filled with art that looks amazing, at least partially due to how friggin' big it is. That really comes before any consideration of the quality of the stories.

Now to consider the quality of the stories.

Actually, let's talk about which ones are improved and which ones are hurt by the change between weekly newspaper strips and a smaller, glossy collection of the whole stories.

Metamorpho, Deadman, and the Catwoman/Demon stories are all helped by the reprint (probably in about that order). I'd say really only Kamandi and Flash are hurt by it, though they're still two of the best stories (especially Flash).

Maybe Wonder Woman is too, but it's a bit of a mess regardless. I feel bad for the Wonder Woman story; it's this story that, if just a bit better executed, could've been really cool and the most reminiscent of the more avant-garde old newspaper strips. As is, though, it's a continual mix of styles, with no clear distinctions ever made with the motifs. In my perfect world, it's this beautiful, lightly colored dream of a story where the panels just flow with the word balloons, letting your eye casually follow along in an almost hypnotic effect. But, instead, it just doesn't seem to have the balls to do anything that crazy, and opts for this in-between existence that just doesn't work.

OK, so quick reviews of the other stories:

Azzarello & Risso's Batman is fine. I don't dislike it, but it didn't do anything for me either. It's a pretty predictable story (what, crazy, the beautiful woman in a noir story is the villain, whaaaat) and the art, while good, never goes for anything more than that. It does offer a stylish frontpiece for the collection, I'll admit.

I liked Kamandi a lot, actually, and reading it more carefully made it all the better. The reason I said it was worsened by the reprint was simply that it makes it depart slightly from its base, which is pure Hal Foster-ian goodness. However, it's still a strong story. Basic, yes, but there's a high quality to that baseness (which actually reminds me of Gibbons work on Green Lantern). The story doesn't go for intellectual heights, but it is a very solid, entertaining romp. And one thing that Sook, the artist, does, which is so basic but still he's the only one in the whole collection to do it, is take advantage of the size of the panels in order to make key objects be relatively small in the background, which, given the size (even in reproduction) of the page still makes them easily seen. It's such a low-level thing, but he gets points in my book for actually doing it.

I'm still meh about the Superman story. It's not terrible, but it really is just a 12-page story. It barely takes advantage of any aspect of this incredibly unique presentation method. You'd barely have to rework it at all to make it a 12-page back-up.

I liked the Deadman story when it was coming out, and I think the print quality really helped make it pop in the trade. Again the story-line itself isn't anything particularly impressive, but I think the art & panel design is notable enough to merit praise.

Anything I have to say about the Green Lantern story, just take the Superman story criticism and bump everything up a level or two. Solid, but definitely not special.

Allred's one of those artists -- along with Darwyn Cooke -- whom I will always love. It really doesn't matter what he does; when I heard he was doing one of the Wednesday Comic stories, I knew I'd love it. And I do. The reprint helps this story so much -- that they would do not one, but two different 2-page spreads in a 1-page a week story is such a ballsy move. I will say that I think it was a misfire for Gaiman to play off the story like it's a pre-Marvel superhero book, since the format is specifically newspaper comics, but, well, it's so pretty, who cares? And at least it tries to be different.

Teen Titans. Ugh. Sorta interesting artwork that is in no way enhanced by being large. A storyline that is fine at best. Subplots that don't matter; narrative techniques that are never fully utilized; just a mess. Just a mess.

Strange Adventures is fantastic! Paul Pope's art is great, and he uses a relatively dynamic panel layout throughout the series. It also does a bit of a Prince Valiant-esque story (I defend the story is more Valiant than it is Flash Gordon, despite the space setting), though not quite so openly as Kamandi, and, importantly, introduces this idea of the other-ness of comics. Not only is Adam Strange transformed by entering the comic-realm of Raan, so are things metamorphosed mundanely by exiting. It's a neat idea that only works when you take Adam Strange outside the DCU proper (which Pope violates in a neat episode with weird panels & Dr. Fate, but I forgive him).

Oh Amanda Conner. I love her art so much -- it just makes everything fun! It's impossible for me not to enjoy myself when I read one of her comics, simply due to the art. It's just so utterly playful. She also does great background shots, adding to the playfulness of the story. I know Palmiotti's writing is what let's the story stay sprightly, but I can't help but over-praise her art.

Metal Men was another mess of a story. If you have bouncy art like that, and jovial characters like the Metal Men, what the hell are you thinking killing them all off tragically over a period of weeks? It's like they let Remender ghost-script this or something.

The Sgt. Rock story isn't special, but it's Joe Kubert art, which is always gorgeous. It's absolutely crazy to me that he's still producing that level of quality at 83. Absolutely insane.

The Flash! Such an amazing story! This is the story of Wednesday Comics. This is the one that best uses the newspaper style, this best uses the short form story, where every page is unique, and it just generally has the most ambitious story. I won't lie and say I totally understand the conclusion; I also don't care, because I enjoyed it so much up til then, I just accept at that point.

I liked the Demon & Catwoman story more than most. It's a solid story with solid art, and nothing seems out of place; it's nothing particularly special, so it may just be that I like it more because it has Etrigan in it, which always wins points in my heart.

I like the Hawkman story, but I have very mixed feelings about the art. I don't really like what Kyle Baker has done lately, with the 3-d overlaid with linework. The use of 3-d images forces a static-effect on the drawings that wouldn't be there otherwise. Maybe I wouldn't notice it if all comics were like it, but that's like the argument for 240 Hz TVs -- I don't care that it's technically better, it looks like crap and you know it. That said, even with the hit-or-miss artwork (sorry) the story is at least interesting, and very much embraces the newspaper tradition of rapidly changing directions in plot while maintaining a steady smoothness in the strip (it's really like a year of a normal Phantom strip compressed to 12 weeks).

There you go, a massive review for a massive book. Even with the medley of quality, totally worth owning to show off.