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From: moriarty@fluke.UUCP (The Napoleon of Crime)
Newsgroups: net.comics
Subject: Old! Unimproved! MORIARTY REVIEWS (3 of 5)
Message-ID: <2555@vax4.fluke.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 20-Aug-85 03:05:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: vax4.2555
Posted: Tue Aug 20 03:05:57 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 24-Aug-85 00:38:05 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: The Institute for Criminal Masterminds
Lines: 87

REVIEWED:

ALBEDO		NATHANIEL DUSK II		JON SABLE
BLUE DEVIL	

------------------------------------------------
"There *are* standards.  If you can't see one, you *make* one and stick to
 it come Hell or high water -- until you see a BETTER one."
						-John Gaunt

        "Well, if you can't believe what you read in a comic book, what *can*
          you believe?!" 
                                -Bullwinkle J. Moose
****************************************************************************
|==>A< One of the best of the year. Example: ZOT #8                        |
|==>B< A very good issue, one of the best of the month (usually 6/month)   |
|==>C< A well done, entertaining issue.  Satisfying.  Example: Jon Sable   |
|==>D< Boring, but with a few good points.  Example: SQUADRON SUPREME      |
|==>F< Boring AND stupid or childish.  Example: Secret Wars.               |
|==>Z< Actually offensive.  Example: Several of Haney's UNKNOWN SOLDIERs   |
****************************************************************************

ALBEDO #4 [Usagi, Yojimbo C; Erma Felina, D-]:

The former is fun, the latter is getting too technical for a comics
story this short.  But on to more important things: at the end of the
Yojimbo story, there is a HUMAN in the works!  Hey, I thought this
was an Anthromorphics comic!  What gives, eh?

Sorry, I'm just being picky 'cause I met the creator of Erma Felina
and the publisher of Albedo and didn't like him (and have had my
opinions re-enforced when he calls Ellison's _The_Glass_Teat_ one
of the finest things around (now, Moriarty, don't get into that
argument again....)

NATHANIEL DUSK II #1,2 [B]:

Gosh, quite a few extremely good comics this month.  This is a fine,
well-crafted non-Spillaine (that's a compilment) detective story,
just on the writing itself -- certainly the finest thing McGregor has
done in five years, and the first bright spot in a long line of flops
he's produced.  A few rough spots where his old style breaks
through in the first issue, but it has completely disappeared by the
second.

But the writing, no matter how good it is, is secondary to the
artwork, though the two are certainly not seperate.  I don't think I
can elaborate on what Jerry or Don Thompson have said, but the
colors are very good, the panels (especially the faces) complement
the script extremely well.  This would be a good detective story
without Gene Colan's drawings, but with them, it becomes
something more.  Again, I haven't looked at much of Colan's art in
the last few years -- haven't read much Batman.  But after his DD
and Tomb of Dracula years, I had felt the last few had been rather
lax (including the Ragamuffins stuff with McGregor for Eclipse). 
But here, the quality paper and coloring gives him the forum he
has deserved.

JON SABLE #30 [D+]:

Rather boring, but I'm not sure why.  I suspect my tolerance for
spoofs of _The_Maltese_Falcon_ has been reached...

BLUE DEVIL #18 [D]:

Whoof!  A really bad Blue Devil, but I'll assume someone came in
and said "You must have BD team up with The Omega Men!" and
walked out... all in the name of Crisis.  The Omega Men have almost
always been turkeys, and it doesn't seem too different now.

BLUE DEVIL ANNUAL #1 [C+]:

Now THIS is more LIKE it!  They got Paris Cullins back on pencils,
and got every truly weird character DC has had for the last few
years and threw them together and what a mess!  What a glorious,
filthy mess!  Plus, the debated origin of Black Orchid (brother, do I
remember those old stories).  The Phantom Stranger looses his
temper ("HEY!  Cut it out, you two...!  The Phantom Stranger is
talking!"), and actually resorts to (dare we say it?) fisticuffs! 
Egads!  What will these boys think up next?!

                                "If this is foreplay, I'm a dead man!"

                                        Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
ARPA: fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPA
UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, allegra, sb1, lbl-csam}!fluke!moriarty
<*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want to me, but leave my employers alone! <*>