More On Moore
Pastiche overwrought;
Keep Wikipedia near.
Moore’s work needs margins.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill
(Wildstorm, $29.99)
Author: Charlie Meyerson
President Bush Finishes Second
President George W. Bush comes in No. 2 on Mad Magazine’s annual list of the 20 Dumbest People, Events and Things of the Year. Mad‘s January issue cites Bush for breaking the presidential record for most vacation time. The president is no stranger to this dubious honor: It’s the eighth year in a row he’s made the list.
Other political figures who made Mad‘s cut: No. 12, former vice presidential aide Scooter Libby ("man for all treasons"); No. 17, Alberto Gonzales ("He promised he wouldn’t resign, but … it was the one lie he told that we could all be happy about"); No. 18, Sen. Larry Craig ("another … Republican just came out of the water closet").
And No. 1? Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, "the world’s worst dog owner."
Heroes – The Haiku Review by Charlie Meyerson
This disjointed set
of attractive footnotes is
not worth thirty bucks.
Heroes, Volume One, by Aron Eli Coleite, Michael Turner, Chuck Kim, Marcus Tu, and many others. Cover by Alex Ross. $29.99, DC Comics
Study in contrasts: Shazam! and Simon Dark, by Charlie Meyerson
Arriving in one press kit from DC, a couple of comics as different as day and night: The deluxe edition hardcover collection of Jeff Smith’s four-issue miniseries SHAZAM! The Monster Society of Evil and the first issue of Steve Niles and Scott Hampton’s Simon Dark, promoted as Gotham City’s other protector.
SHAZAM! is Smith’s brightly colored love letter to the original Captain Marvel comics, a new take on a storyline first presented in the 1940s. It’s yet another relaunch for a character DC has proven unable to handle with any consistency, but it brings Smith’s clear sense of storytelling to a plot that is, in the end, a little too simple. It’s a handsome volume – with a dustjacket that unfolds into “a giant-sized poster!!!” (to quote the enthusiastic cover blurb), and elaborate production notes and sketches. But longtime fans may be disappointed. The story itself is better suited for parents looking to introduce kids to the adventures of the Marvel family.
