TheCC Staff
07-23-2008, 07:11 PM
A real treat here and a wonderful example of just how great comics can be
by Michael Furth
July 23rd, 2008 - The closest thing I ever came to wanting to be an archeologist is the summer that Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade came out. How old was I, nine? Something like that. My brother and I would venture out into our backyard and try to see it as though it was a new and strange place, waiting for us to discover its secrets. And that's what I feel like reading a book like PopGun. It is full of secrets, wonderful secrets of sequential art, just waiting for you to discover them. And the great thing about a book like PopGun is that it is chock full of those juicy secrets that make you feel like you've uncovered something special. Like the holy grail. Though with less dead Nazis strewn about.
So at some point you have to ask yourself why you aren't reading this. Anthologies are never big sellers. Maybe it's the higher price tag. Maybe it's that you don't know the creators involved. Maybe you just really like the characters you read to have special abilities. Hell, who doesn’t appreciate a solid power fantasy? But the truth is, there have been a crop of exceptionally good anthologies lately and the majority of us aren't reading them. And I don’t know why. Are we really that frustrated by short stories? In the film world short films are completely overshadowed by their feature length brethren. And likewise here in a world of panel borders, India ink and word balloons, a collection of short stories doesn’t fare as well as, let’s say, a book about an alien who takes up residence here on earth who can bend steel with his bare hands.
The last successful anthology that comes to mind are the “Flight” series of anthologies, which started off at Image. Sure enough PopGun takes a stylistic cue from Flight in that it has no particular mandate in terms of style or content. It even loses the little bit of a common thematic thread that Flight had (all the stories in Flight had flight incorporated in one form or another). But this is not a bad thing. The variety of story is overwhelming. Like taking a roadtrip through the collective unconscious of the sequential art world. So whatever your particular taste may be, from old wizards to jive talking tributes to blaxploitation flicks, PopGun has you covered. The closest thing to a theme that I think editors Joe Keatinge and Mark Andrew Smith were going for was "good". Or maybe “really good”. And maybe making sure to hire a great colorist. Because just about every story in here has amazing colors. Vibrant and seductive colors that pull you into the stories. Half the time I was so amazed by the color work that I stopped reading just to appreciate the solid work that these people put on the page.
And sure, there are stories I didn’t dig as much. But this is an anthology. You're not investing too much time in any one story so the bad ones are easy to get through quickly. Or just skip. With 59 stories packed in you can feel free to pick and choose as you like from this smorgasbord. And really in an anthology the chances are that a story isn't going to be "bad" as much as just not to your taste. And this is why PopGun shines. Because amongst all the various stories, there are so many gems. Even the “worst” story here is pretty damn good by any normal standards. Because you do feel like the creators were really excited to have their work here. Even someone whose relative stature in comics is as big as Erik Larsen. He has a few very short bits in PopGun. And they’re just fun. Just wait till you meet the Bacon Mummy. Not every story needs to reinvent the wheel, you'll find those in here for sure, but you also just have people who like to make comics, MAKING COMICS.
Click Here To Read The Whole Review (http://thecomiccollective.com/Comic_Books/Reviews/2008/Michael_Furth/Pop_Gun_Vol_2/)
by Michael Furth
July 23rd, 2008 - The closest thing I ever came to wanting to be an archeologist is the summer that Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade came out. How old was I, nine? Something like that. My brother and I would venture out into our backyard and try to see it as though it was a new and strange place, waiting for us to discover its secrets. And that's what I feel like reading a book like PopGun. It is full of secrets, wonderful secrets of sequential art, just waiting for you to discover them. And the great thing about a book like PopGun is that it is chock full of those juicy secrets that make you feel like you've uncovered something special. Like the holy grail. Though with less dead Nazis strewn about.
So at some point you have to ask yourself why you aren't reading this. Anthologies are never big sellers. Maybe it's the higher price tag. Maybe it's that you don't know the creators involved. Maybe you just really like the characters you read to have special abilities. Hell, who doesn’t appreciate a solid power fantasy? But the truth is, there have been a crop of exceptionally good anthologies lately and the majority of us aren't reading them. And I don’t know why. Are we really that frustrated by short stories? In the film world short films are completely overshadowed by their feature length brethren. And likewise here in a world of panel borders, India ink and word balloons, a collection of short stories doesn’t fare as well as, let’s say, a book about an alien who takes up residence here on earth who can bend steel with his bare hands.
The last successful anthology that comes to mind are the “Flight” series of anthologies, which started off at Image. Sure enough PopGun takes a stylistic cue from Flight in that it has no particular mandate in terms of style or content. It even loses the little bit of a common thematic thread that Flight had (all the stories in Flight had flight incorporated in one form or another). But this is not a bad thing. The variety of story is overwhelming. Like taking a roadtrip through the collective unconscious of the sequential art world. So whatever your particular taste may be, from old wizards to jive talking tributes to blaxploitation flicks, PopGun has you covered. The closest thing to a theme that I think editors Joe Keatinge and Mark Andrew Smith were going for was "good". Or maybe “really good”. And maybe making sure to hire a great colorist. Because just about every story in here has amazing colors. Vibrant and seductive colors that pull you into the stories. Half the time I was so amazed by the color work that I stopped reading just to appreciate the solid work that these people put on the page.
And sure, there are stories I didn’t dig as much. But this is an anthology. You're not investing too much time in any one story so the bad ones are easy to get through quickly. Or just skip. With 59 stories packed in you can feel free to pick and choose as you like from this smorgasbord. And really in an anthology the chances are that a story isn't going to be "bad" as much as just not to your taste. And this is why PopGun shines. Because amongst all the various stories, there are so many gems. Even the “worst” story here is pretty damn good by any normal standards. Because you do feel like the creators were really excited to have their work here. Even someone whose relative stature in comics is as big as Erik Larsen. He has a few very short bits in PopGun. And they’re just fun. Just wait till you meet the Bacon Mummy. Not every story needs to reinvent the wheel, you'll find those in here for sure, but you also just have people who like to make comics, MAKING COMICS.
Click Here To Read The Whole Review (http://thecomiccollective.com/Comic_Books/Reviews/2008/Michael_Furth/Pop_Gun_Vol_2/)