Pithy Comics Suck

I don't think David Messina groks how to use inner panels.

An inner panel focuses the viewer on one subject in a larger shot.

On the left page, the inner panels try to focus us on Angel's journey down the spiral staircase, but it seems off. Its hard to describe why. I think it's because it's trying to focus our attention on one area of a larger piece, but Angel only exists in that panel, he's cut off at the borders. It's trying to be a regular panel and an inner panel at the same time.

On the right page, there's an inner panel that's correctly done, but then it's repeated. Initially I thought it was a second inner panel, but it's not. I don't like it.

Messina has done a lot of great work on the rest of Angel, so this is a rare misstep.

ANGEL: IMMORTALITY FOR DUMMIES

by Bill Willingham, and Brian Denham

I think the Angel franchise has a specific appeal for writers that Buffy doesn't. The Buffyverse is thrown into so much constant turmoil that it's just begging for explorations into its small corners. Detective stories lend themselves to these types of stand-alone stories, especially when the detectives are wealthy world-travelers.

Today we see a comic at asks, "how would an entrepreneur approach the existence of vampires?" The answer, obviously, is "sell immortality." Angel, being the most haute vampire, is recruited for the effort. You can see the results above.

ANGEL: ONLY HUMAN

by Scott Lobdell, David Messina

Another Illyria story, this time she teams up with Gunn and finds herself face to face with a new cult and an old frenemy, Saticus, who rightly hates her for what she did to him some millennia ago. The whole kerfuffle almost makes you forget about the true threat. Until the end, when it reminds you in the worst way.

This is a clever story, and has the usual Angel coloring style I've come to love, this time by Ilaria Traversi.

Wallpaper. Demon entangled by nature.

Pancakes!

ILLYRIA: HAUNTED

by Scott Tipton, Mariah Huehner, and Elena Casagrande

Illyria was never my favorite character in the Buffyverse. She appeared late in Angel, and was never developed much beyond yet-another-god. It's hard to build tension around someone who simply can't be hurt, or die. But dear god I enjoyed this comic. One of my favorite of the post-TV Buffyverse.

Illyria is done with life, and travels back to the well to remove herself from it. There a fetch quest with Spike that leads to them waiting in line at the post office. It's the most logical fetch quest I've ever seen. Then there's a battle with a familiar face from her old days, her old days being millennia ago when chaos ruled the planets.

It's a journey of existentialism. She's learning a new answer the "why" in the question "why am I here," when the "here" is nowhere she would ever choose to be.

DOCTOR STRANGE VOL 4

by Jason Aaron, and Chris Bachalo

This is a great use of color to show where the fantastic world hides in out regular one.

ASTRO CITY, VOL 3, #1

by Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson

THE FLINTSTONES #4

by Mark Russell and Steve Pugh

FALL OF CTHULHU

by ...

Two of my favorite pages in the entire FALL OF CTHULHU omnibus.

It's a scene where an man's uncle show up unexpectedly, talks cryptically to his nephew, and commits suicide. It uses panel borders to give us the experience of watching this happen. You can only watch as moments flash by--a gun, a shot--and it's over. And only then you can move.

ARCADIA

by Alex Paknadel, and Eric Scott Pfeiffer

ARCADIA

by Alex Paknadel and Eric Scott Pfeiffer

Scifi is under-served in comics. You'd think it wouldn't be so, since it's a medium without a CGI budget, but superhero and autobio comics just dominate the American market. That's why it's always nice to find a scifi comic to just sink into.

Arcadia is a great, high concept, scifi comic. It sets up two opposing factions, each of which hate and need each other. The living humans, the meat, need a cure for the virus that has already destroyed 99% of humanity. The uploaded humans in Arcadia, with all the great scientists, need the meat humans to give more expensive resources for their servers.

This book takes place right as two revolutions begin. The Arcadian government is playing chicken with the meat, and a few scattered souls both in and out of Arcadia are uncovering the truth of what Arcadia actually is.

If I have any complaint, it's only that this comic doesn't choose to dig into the philosophical disagreements it sets up. But the world in the comic is just too. It for one story to cover everything, so it's a small complaint.

Lovecraft wallpapers for your phone or tablet.

THE FALL OF CTHULHU

by Michael Alan Nelson, Mark Dos Santos, Mateus Santolouco, and Greg Scott

The epic crossover event of the Cthulhu mythos. It's a story of gods versus gods versus gods, where humans are used as small tools to accomplish great betrayals.

The Fall of Cthulhu features a great collection of deities and near-deities, including Cthulhu, Nyarlarthotep, the court of Azezoth, the Dreamlands, the mad arab, and new powers like the Harlot, and the girl of masks.

The Harlot is an especially great addition to the mythos. She's a keeper of secrets and souls, and she's always willing to trade her secrets for your soul. (See the pictures above.)

My one criticism is that there is a lot of hope in this story, which is terrible. Initially I thought this would be a series of stories of doomed humans, each witnessing the end-times. Instead the humans had agency, powers, and an ability to overcome their troubles. Even if those abilities were god-granted, it still rang false for a Lovecraftian tale.

That said, this was still a clever and tense collection of deceits and battles. The great myths, old and new, fit together perfectly.

Here are two pieces of cover art for ANGEL: BLOOD AND TRENCHES.

Both of these colorists have worked on Angel, but they have such drastically different styles.