Susan Omand Comic Reviews

This is only the first comic in the series so there's not a lot to the plot so far and, if you're expecting complexity, suspense and tension you will be disappointed. But if you're looking for a fun, bordering on ridiculous premise with Kurt Russell and a demon in a tshirt and shades fighting bad guys it delivers in spades. The artwork isn't great but has a cartoon-y appeal and the storyline is flimsy at best but fast paced enough to carry it and the humour in the dialogue is actually laugh out loud funny. It's a great start to the series and I don't think you need to have actually seen the film to enjoy the comic, as long as you know the basic plot. Roll on part 2!

So another great fun comic from the Big Trouble in Little China gang. What it doesn't have in storyline (plot = Jack and Egg travel down the Midnight Road. The end) it really makes up for in humour in the dialogue as the one-liners come thick and fast. I can see though that if you don't "get" the humour, or if you are offended by a lack of political correctness in places, you're really not going to enjoy the comic. Remember that it is based in the 1980's and that helps a lot. The artwork, as with the last one, is not great but is cartoonish and fun and you have enough detail to know who each of the characters are.

After the filler of last time, this month's comic is very much back on form, with clever wisecracks and all action martial arts fighting as well as an exciting, if simple and predictable, plot which progressed the story well, although the "Jack reminiscing about an ex" this time was a bit schmaltzy. The art seems better in this edition too with a good use of colour and tone to evoke the environment. I'm back to looking forward to the penultimate instalment of my Kartoon Kurt Russell fix.

Well! There was more story in this one than there has been in most of the issues up until now, and I definitely can't accuse it of being filler as it was all action. Thankfully too, the Jack reminiscences didn't make an appearance this time. The humour was as much fun as ever though and the artwork, apart from one incredibly ropey cover picture, was well up to standard. I hope that they manage to tie the biker gang fight into the next issue smoothly and we'll wait to see what happens to Jack and the gang next!

Oh but they did and I can't wait to read the next comic to see how they get out of that situation. The action went at breakneck pace throughout this issue, with a load of fighting and violence being amped up with Jack's habitual wisecracks. This was balanced by the ropier than usual artwork but to be honest who the heck cares when the comic is this much fun. If it was a couple of months ago I'd have said it was pure pantomime.

Reading more into the story than I probably should, this issue gave an interesting perspective on the "celebrity" of Snake Plissken and the man behind the mask, so to speak. He really is perceived by all to be a "one man army" and people are either for him or against him with no middle ground, so he really is the John Wayne character of this fictional world, able to start and end wars on his own. And it sounds like war is what we're going to get next month!

This was not 'so bad it was good' but for me it was a mediocre collection at best. I've never seen Sundown/Twilight, through choice rather than availability, so I maybe missed a lot of plot points and nuances in this story but I found the plot to be weak and fragmented and the characters annoying - especially the emo theatre-ish kid whose fanciful retelling of events confused rather than entertained the folk in the comic as well as me. The artwork throughout the comics was also of a much lower standard than in the first collection, with some of the known characters being barely recognisable, although the cover art for each of the four comics was again very well done. This is a poor cousin to the first collection, definitely a filler episode and a stretch for even the most ardent Eureka fan to enjoy. My advice would be to skip this one and go on to the next, if there was one. Oh wait.... there's not. I wonder why?

Another fun comic from our feathered friends with enough happening to keep it interesting while not taking itself too seriously. Because of its standalone nature, I would have likes a small "coming next time" or more certainty of a continuing story arc to pull me to the next issue but I'm still looking forward to seeing where the circus ends up next.