What I Bought 6/6/2019 - Part 2

For all my griping, it could be worse. There are places in the floodplains around town that have been underwater since before the tornado came through. The water was actually receding a bit yesterday, but we're supposed to get rain today. At least the weather this week has been moderate by June in Missouri standards.

So today, we have one first issue, and one book being sad.

Black Cat #1, by Jed Mackay (writer), Travel Foreman (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - I ended up grabbing the Travel Foreman cover since there wasn't any difference in price. Definitely wasn't wasting my time with the J. Scott Campbell one.

Felicia attends some big art gala, and uses herself as a distraction so her team can steal a different painting. But Felicia pissed off the Thieves Guild (not clear if it's the same one Gambit is affiliated with, these folks dress like ninjas) so they try to kill her during the getaway, and one of the gala security team may or may not become a recurring antagonist. And the old guy thief the Black Fox shows up, as he hired her to steal the painting, and has some BIG PLAN.

There are also two short back-ups stories. One two-pager by Nao Fuji about Felicia robbing a jewelry exhibit with the help of three cats. One of which initially brings her a dead mouse instead. It's adorable.

The other story (by Mike Dowling as artist, with Mackay, Reber, and Delgado rounding out the creative team) is about the Black Fox cheating at cards against Dracula, in Miami decades ago. Then we find out he tipped off Ulysses Bloodstone as a way to keep Drac occupied and make a quick escape with money. This is also when both of the Fox' students, Felicia's dad and a a guy named Castillo, who I'm assuming will pop up in the present day somehow.

I don't really care about the Thieves' Guild, whether Gambit's involved or not, but I guess as a convenient source of people for Felicia to deal with in fight scenes, they'll suffice. Black Fox as the teacher of Felicia and her father is probably a retcon. But most of the appearances of his I've seen were the Micheline/Larsen ASM era, where he looked about 200 years old, and was surviving by the skin of his teeth.

I don't know if it's Reber's color work or just Foreman and Dowling's styles, but the art on their two sections really reminded me of present-day Howard Chaykin. Not entirely; neither of them is nearly as heavy with their linework as Chaykin. Maybe it's how much time everyone spends dressed in fancy gowns and suits. Chaykin loves drawing that kind of stuff. But there are times where I'm not sure if Foreman went really light on his lines, or Reber's colors just overwhelmed them, and it varies from panel to panel. When she first meets the Thieves' Guild lady, the linework out lining her nose and jawline is so light, it's like someone shot the panel with one of those soft focus lens (or the old put Vaseline on the lens trick). Then next panel, the jawline and nose are both more prominently defined. It's not bad, just kind of distracting.

The fight scene, though brief, was well-laid out and clear enough to follow easily, which was my biggest concern with Foreman as artist, since I wasn't terribly impressed with him on Immortal Iron Fist. Which, granted, was 10 years ago, but some artists progress, and some don't.

Giant Days #51, by John Allison (writer), Max Sarin (artist), Whitney Cogar (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - That's appropriately somber.

McGraw returns from his father's funeral, and Susan has no idea what to do to help. McGraw isn't much of a talker about his feelings, and so it's mostly awkward. Daisy's attempt at consolation ended up with McGraw consoling her, so whoops. However, Esther actually did win the essay contest with the submission she typed entirely on her phone, which means she has enough money to rent a cottage in the countryside for them all. And it's there, abruptly, that McGraw has his emotional breakthrough.

It's a sad issue at times, watching McGraw move in this very reserved manner. Sarin uses a scratchier line for McGraw, makes him look like he's just slightly vibrating with things he's keeping bottled up, and he seems to hold himself more upright, stiff all the time. Allison handles the issue well, people handling loss in different ways, or grief breaking through at times you least expect. You can't force it.

There's a subplot, leading to next issue, about Esther applying for a job with a bank and getting an interview. So now she's off to London for that. I feel like that fact she did write a prize winning essay on the 'Social History of Pubic Hair' should be significant. She clearly has the ability to write, and she's looking at banking? More stable, I guess, but yeesh. She also confused several of her friends by wearing a bright floral print dress while they were at the cottage. She said she wanted to not evoke 'The Infinite' this weekend (read: not be depressing), but I wonder if it's meant to be the start of a shift in Esther. Or a continuation of her trying to get ready to leave school.