Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates, Review | Tagged: clint, Mark Millar, numbercrunching

NumberCrunching: CLiNT #6

Published Mon, 28 Feb 2011 07:48:50 -0600

Last updated Mon, 28 Feb 2011 07:50:11 -0600

Cost: 3.99.

Cost per comics page: 5 1/2 pence.

Old comic book pages: 59 – Twenty-four pages of Superior #1, twelve pages of American Jesus, twelve pages of Turf #4, eleven pages of The Pro.

New comic book pages: 13 – Nine pages of Kick Ass 2 #2, four pages of Ian Rankin and Stephen Daly's Someone Got To Eddie.

How does the extra size affect these comics? It's a shame none of the books have so far reworked lettering to work differently on the larger printed pages of CLiNT, but this most affects Turf, a very condensed book in its original printing, which has a little more spece to breathe here, and it's easier to follow as a result. Kick Ass's sale is reflected well and action scenes do fare better hear than in the Marvel comic. But The Pro and American Jesus, relying on simpler art and linework don't get the benefit, feeling emptier in places than the originals and Superior suffers from spot blacks that weren't intended to be blown up at this size and create offputting pools of shadow and dead spaces.

Actual interview with Zack Snyder: 1. I know, CLiNT has specialised in the non-interview, taking aspects of existing interviews, mixing them up and then cover feature the person in question, hem hem, Quentin Tarantino and Samuel Jackson. But they actually talked to Zack Snyder, in which we learn he is going for a far more photorealistic approach to Superman than his previous cinematic works.

Actual interview with Stan Lee: 1. Although they might as well have used a collection of previous interviews.

Disappointment of the issue: The Rankin strip being badly written for the comics medium. Four pages and it uses them poorly. There should have been so much more detail and smaller panels to make this work. What twist there is only a few panels in, there's hardly any room for decent distraction before it, so it feels clumsy and forced with an "is that it?" conclusion from an audience who has seen five series of Dexter. Four pages is not the problem, four to six panels a page is.

Other disappointment of the issue: No Rex Royce.

Mind you: Kick Ass 2 uses more pages than usually, nine in fact, due to having one splash page and one double page splash, never going over four panels a page. Here the story is about the actions and their consequences as the difference between the good guys and the bad really starts to blur. And Millar and Romita give us a very new take on Bat Hound…