What I Bought 2/29/2020

Well, I got a little more rest this weekend than I did last weekend. Not on Friday night, woke up coughing at 4 and couldn't get back to sleep. But Saturday night went better. Take what I can get. Still couldn't find a copy of the first issue of Canopus, so we'll look at the other two remaining books from last month.

Amethyst #1, by Amy Reeder (writer/artist/color artist), and Gabriela Downie (letterer) - I don't know which gemstone is represented by "line of sheet music that barfs up narhwals", but they should ask for a refund on that symbology.

It seems like the events of the original, 12-issue Amethyst series, are in play here. Amy learned she's the princess of an other-dimensional kingdom, fought Dark Opal, still has parents who love and remember her on Earth, etc. She's been on Earth for an unspecified amount of time, but returns to Gemworld for her birthday. She finds her kingdom shattered, her subjects missing. People she believed were friends behave coldly towards her, and she can only find one person willing to help.

I have a few theories, most revolving around this being some sort of trial for Amy. Prove she can get things done without guidance, without everyone else. She admits when she tries to rally Turquoise's people that she's never really had to try and do diplomacy before. Citrine handled that. Amy could just focus on flying her winged horse and magical zappy blasts. Unfortunately, that's probably not all that's involved in running a kingdom. The presence of Dark Opal kind of argues against it just being a test, though, but maybe he's not such a completely irredeemable person in this timeline.

I really want to see how Reeder portrays the various kingdoms, visually. We only saw the remains of Amethyst's castle in hers, although all the little floating pieces were eye-catching. All we needed was some flying turtles and it'd be a great Mario level. The houses in Turquoise's land are kind of barn shaped, with mushroom chimneys. I don't know if there's a significance to that, but it makes what otherwise seems like your standard medieval town a little more distinct. Also, people in Turquoise's kingdom have four arms now, although they only separate at the elbows, and their clothes are a little pirate-like. The kind of thing I associate more with port towns. Sleeveless vests and pants tucked into knee boots. Stuff like that. Don't know if that means anything, just an observation, but I enjoy studying it.

Fantastic Four: Grimm Noir, by Ron Garney and Gerry Duggan (storytellers), Matt Milla (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Hey, Namor's found gainful employment as somebody's butler! Good for him.

Ben's having a lot of nightmares about falling to pieces and failing to protect Alicia. There's a singer named Rosemary who lived across the street that's gone missing. Then he has a nightmare where a shadowy figure abducts Rosemary. he describes what he sees to Alicia, she sculpts, Reed doesn't recognize him, but Wong does. Except "Wong" is really D'Spayre, and the sculpture is him, and now Ben's in a nightmare realm. He digs his way out, puts the boots to D'Spayre, rescues Rosemary, things are good, for now.

It's kind of a fun story, although I don't get why D'Spayre wanted Rosemary around to sing for him so much. In understand her singing was improving Ben's mood and lessening the effect of D'Spayre's attacks on Ben, but it seems like he really enjoyed her singing as well. I'm also not clear why D'Spayre's own demons would attack him after Ben beat him up for a bit, but I'm pretty vague on the guy's powers, other than being a low-rent, second-rate Nightmare.

I'm also not sure it's much of a noir, at least in tone, but that's another matter. Ben has the stubborn, scrapper mentality of a noir detective, but not really the cynicism.

Garney and Milla's artwork are really the sell here, and they do a lot of good stuff. Milla sometimes colors the whites of Ben's eyes black in his nightmares, which both highlights the blue of his eyes, and makes him look more monstrous. D'Spayre's this shifting form of black-and-white. Sometimes he seems to be wearing gloves and a cape, other times it's just his body that's a mix of light and dark. Some high-contrast stuff with Ben when he's in his hat and trenchcoat, almost Frank Miller style to just hint at his rocky texture under the brim's shadow.

So the story isn't great, but it's nice to look at.