« Foul Play! | Main | To Buy or Not to Buy »
May 05, 2005
Subway Reading: Concrete and Shining Knight
Concrete: Human Dilemma #5 - There were some very strong moments in this issue, including Concrete's meltdowns on his TV appearances, Larry's pathetic attempt to pick up women at a bar, and of course, the major status quo-changing event that we all knew was coming. Paul Chadwick's art continues to impress. I especially enjoyed the well-composed tiny panels that popped in from place to place. The layouts seemed generally denser in this issue; I suppose that there was a lot of story to get through, but everything still felt just a little cramped. That's just a minor complaint about an otherwise excellent book. I'll take tiny Paul Chadwick panels over most people's best stuff any day.
Shining Knight #2 - Of all the Seven Soldiers minis, this one is probably my least favorite. I think a lot of my negativity has to do with the uneven quality of Simone Bianchi's art. The color work is lush and top-notch throughout, but the drawing can be inconsistent. The proportions are sometimes out of whack and the 3-D space is often unconvincing. I wouldn't harp on stuff like that, but Bianchi seems to be striving for a realistic look. When that falls short, it does so resoundingly. Don't get me wrong, some panels are so rich and beautiful that they jump off the page. Unfortunately that makes the clunkers look that much worse by comparison.
I was also occasionally confused by some of the action in this book. Where did the bald guy sitting next to Justin on that bench come from? Who is he? Wha? And why was the knight suddenly wearing a tunic or T-shirt over his armor in the last few pages? Either I missed something in the story, or my book was missing some pages.
The story of an Arthurian knight who finds himself in present-day Los Angeles has also failed to grab me so far. I did like the introduction of Vincenzo, the Undying Don and his bizarre henchmen. Vincenzo struck me as the kind of eccentric character with unexpected and seemingly conflicting traits that works perfectly in an L.A. story. I just wish that there was the same kind of richness to the main character. All in all, this issue was more engaging than the first, but the series still has room for improvement.
Posted by jdonelson_nyc at May 5, 2005 02:23 PM