Kevin Nowlan

This gives off strong "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" vibes as Superman and Lex Luthor go on a frenemy road trip to find a cure for Luthor's sudden-onset terminal illness, visiting sites and people sure to bring a nostalgia rush to long-time DC fans. But the glow fades as the trip wears on and hits a wall as a last act crisis is introduced to give some slam-bang action and force some big dramatic moments.

I kept hearing a "Wicked" song in my head: "Who can say if I've been changed show more for the better? But because I knew you, I have been changed for good."

Meh.

And it's Black Label, so it doesn't count in continuity anyway, being an "Imaginary Story" just like Alan Moore's much better 1986 send-off.

Also, while I like Kevin Nowlan's solo art, his strong inking style frequently overwhelms Bryan Hitch's pencils here, making it as though Hitch was never there at all. Kind of a waste of what I assume was a superstar page rate.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contains material originally published in single magazine form as Superman: The Last Days of Lex Luthor #1-3. show less

There should definitely be more compilations of this sort published, not only because there's so much god material out there to be collected, but also because it's hard to find copies of some of the one-shot story arcs that get published. Most of them don't last long enough to have enough issues to make up a graphic novel (due to their lack of selling power), but collecting a selection of short runs by a well-known author can work from a marketting perspective. For someone (like me) who show more likes to collect all of the stories by her favourite authors, collections like this are a lot more handy than trying to find the single issues of the comics (often years after the fact).

It also helps that these storyarcs (no matter how short lived) are actually quite fantastic reads. I particularly liked The Thessaliad and Thessaly: Witch for Hire because Thessaly is kind of a bad ass, but the shorts about the Dreaming were wonderful, and the Danny Nod library adventurer story was so amusing that I'm going to be laughing over that one for years to come. show less

http://shawjonathan.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/bill-willinghams-bad-doings-and-big...

This is hefty hardback full of horror comedy. Bill Willingham is best known for his series of comics, Fables. This is not that. It’s a collection of Other Stuff, including a number of adventures of minor characters from the Sandman universe. I don’t know what the uninitiated would make of these, with their injokes and unexplained walk-ons, but the stories stand up by themselves, especially the 60 or so show more pages of Thessaly the witch.

The opening story, Proposition Player, is the longest (130+ pages) and most interesting. Willingham tells us in his introductory blurb that it was the first thing he wrote for Vertigo, having been an artist with them for some time. It must have been quite a debut: the hero starts out working for a casino and ends up through a series of poor choices and successful gambles as the most powerful God (capital intended) in the cosmos. I wonder if the story’s cheerful blasphemy is a bigger challenge to the cultural authority of established religion than the humourless argumentation of, say, Richard Dawkins. show less

Soon after the Man-Thing's initial 1971 appearance, writer Steve Gerber assumed the role as the muck monster's primary chronicler, producing a spate of often goofy yet engaging stories centered around the emphatic swamp creature with no personality of its own. In the late 80s after years of litigation surrounding his seminal creation Howard the Duck, Gerber returned to Marvel and began working on a graphic novel-length sequel to his story from Man-Thing #12 (December 1974) "Song-Cry...of the show more Living Dead Man!" The talented Kevin Nowlan, working at a glacial pace, could only manage to produce only 1-2 gorgeous painted pages a month. Since he needed to eat, he accepted other, quicker assignments, further slowing his output. Years after Gerber's death, the finished story "The Screenplay of the Living Dead Man!" finally appeared in late 2012 as a three issue mini-series. The Infernal Man-Thing collects that tale along with "Song-Cry" and the very first Man-Thing appearance from Savage Tales #1 (May 1971), written by Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas with art by Gray Morrow. As with many of Gerber's tales, both "Song-Cry" and "Screenplay" involve troubled individuals and social gravitas. The apparently mad writer Brian Lazarus, who produces his craft from within an abandoned insane asylum, creates demons that have a life of their own. In the sequel set many years later, Lazarus continues his struggles with his own terrors and his own humanity. Gerber seemingly taps into his own internal conflicts regarding money and creativity. Nowlan's magnificent illustrations elevate Gerber's often profound words into an excellent summation of the often troubled writer's career. show less