Late night link catchup and public service announcement

On Friday and Saturday of this week, I'll be wandering around C2E2, trying to stay out of trouble. I think I may end up covering a panel or two for Newsarama but, at this point, I don't think I'll know what I'm doing until I actually get there. Thanks to free wi-fi at McCormick Place, my phone, Twitter and Posterous posting to this site, I'm hoping to stay fairly well in touch this year and actually have something that looks like con coverage. Of course, I may get there and just decide to wander aimlessly about, trying to avoid anything that looks like actual work.
If nothing else, send me a Twitter message (@scottcederlund) and let me know if you're around C2E2 this weekend. I'd love to stop by and say "howdy, neighbor."
Now onto the business. Even though I haven't posted here in over a month, I've been busy over at Newsarama. Popdose or Johnny Bacardi, if you're reading this, I promise to post something at Popdose next week.
Here's a rundown of what I've been up to. Click on the title to head over to Newsarama and read the full review:
Ruse #1: Mark Waid gets to return to his Holmes and Watson, or in this case his Simon Archard and Emma Bishop, his girl Friday who is identified in the newspapers as “a blond woman was also somehow involved.” Waid keeps the banter between Archard and Bishop quick and witty as these two Victorian characters have to solve the mystery of a murder of an Archbishop.
Artifacts #6: After the patient way [Ron Marz] built his plot, it’s a welcome release to have this issue bursting with energy. Every now and then, you need a release and this issue is it as characters hit, punch, shoot and rip apart other characters and demons.
Elephantmen #30: In this issue Starkings also creates a new dynamic that will be fascinating to watch unravel in the future; the attraction of women to the Elephantmen, and to Hip Flask particularly, has been the unexplored core of the series.
Weapons of the Metabarons: Weapons of the Metabaron is a beautiful book to look at. Charest and Janjetov artwork visually captures Jodorowsky’s imagination and creates worlds and characters that are mythic and grand. But the story itself doesn’t live up to the vision and its artwork, feeling more like a first act of a larger story, with no second act to follow it up.
Joe the Barbarian #8: In these stories, it’s not so much the journey that Morrison took the reader on but the destination where he usually left the ending ambiguous enough to leave it open for interpretation; the reader has to be involved in the ending of Flex Mentallo or The Filth to dive into it and almost come to their own conclusion of Morrison’s story. For Joe the Barbarian #8, Morrison gives a very clear-cut ending and it’s far less satisfying than either of its predecessors.
Green Lantern #63: Green Lantern #63 treads along at the same pace it has since the days of the Sinestro Corps War. In other words, it’s barreling along headfirst into yet another event storyline.
Freak Angels Volume 5: Duffield cuts loose, creating a new and exciting visual feeling for the story without losing the foundation that he has built. Beginning with a long monologue by a character previously shot in the head, Duffield keeps to his four-panel layout but just barely. Four panels aren’t enough to contain this character’s near-death revelatory ramblings as his story is so large and grand that it can’t be contained.
Turf #4: The way Ross plays with these character contradictions pulls in the reader even if Ross and Edwards’ storytelling isn’t always as strong or clear as the story needs.
Godland #34: Even if you don’t quite know what is going on half of the time, Casey never loses the feeling of forward motion.
Silver Surfer #1: There’s nothing new in Silver Surfer #1. Instead of seeing the Silver Surfer in new locales and new situations, we see him doing the same old navel gazing almost every story about the characters seems contractually obligated to have.
Magdalena #5: The lack of character or energy makes Magdalena #5 a generic book, with its pages full of words and drawings that mean nothing to the reader.