Remember the comics you read when you were a kid? Heck, maybe some of you are still kids! When I was younger I was ga-ga over Richie Rich and Archie. Nowadays, however, those old comics don't hold up so well from an adult perspective. Thankfully, Caliber Comics has created a new imprint called Tapestry which promises to produce comics for all ages. Both kids and adults will love them now and will still be able to appreciate them ten years down the road.

 If you haven't had a chance, please check out the December 1996 issue of LOOK WHAT YOU'VE BEEN MISSING to see my recommendation for DREAMWALKER, another title now part of the Tapestry line. Or surf to the DREAMWALKER web page at http://www.netdoor.com/com/inferno/dreamwalker.
 
 

PAKKINS' LAND #1-3 (Tapestry/Caliber Comics)

A young child stumbles into a magical world of talking animals and quickly finds himself joined with the forces of good on a quest to rescue the land's missing king. We've seen this concept before. In the wrong hands it can be too cute or too dull. However, in PAKKINS' LAND the concept is handled with a care and freshness that make this comic one of the stand-outs in the new Tapestry line.

 The art is the strongest element in the series, earning writer/artist Gary Shipman a Best New Talent nomination in the 1996 Harvey Awards. Shipman may have sprung out of nowhere as far as comics are concerned, but his linework is confident and professional. The animal characters are mostly rendered in a photorealistic style that is dead on. Those which are drawn in a cartoony fashion have been carefully designed. Heck, the only drawback is that the black-and-white artwork screams for color. The full-color covers demonstrate how vibrant this comic could look with some splashes from a colorist's palette. I can only hope that someday the comic becomes successful enough that Shipman can upgrade to color. And boy does this comic deserve success!

 With co-writer Rhoda Shipman, Gary Shipman is creating a cool little quest with plenty of quirky plot twists. The boy hero, Paul, has a hankering to go exploring one day and stumbles into the land while trespassing on the property of old man Pakkins. (Hence, the name.) Paul has an encounter with a mystical eagle which gives him a magic feather. He then bumps into a lion named Gus, who is no bigger than a housecat. Gus introduces Paul to the very large, very fierce-looking, but very friendly bear called Mr. Brambles. Mr. Brambles is organizing the good animals for the quest to find the absent king. Tigers and giant bats, meanwhile, are trying to stop the quest. Paul is scared of the danger and wants to go home. Of course, that's not going to be easy. Despite the large cast, the animals all have strong, clear personalities. The dialogue is delightfully light and charming, though the prose does get a little purple in the caption boxes where Paul narrates the story.

 The critics and letterwriters are favorably comparing PAKKINS' LAND to the works of C. S. Lewis and L. Frank Baum and to Jeff Smith's BONE. While I must sheepishly confess that I have never read C. S. Lewis or L. Frank Baum, I can say for certain PAKKINS' LAND is definitely as good as BONE (Cartoon Books, grade: A-). Come join the quest!

_____

Grade: A-

(PAKKINS' LAND #5 is solicited this month in PREVIEWS!)
 
 

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BOONDOGGLE SPECIAL #1 (Tapestry/Caliber Comics)
BOONDOGGLE VOLUME 2 #1 (Tapestry/Caliber Comics)

According to The American Heritage Dictionary, a boondoggle is a "pointless, unnecessary, and wasteful work." Well. There's nothing like truth in advertising, is there?

 Four issues of BOONDOGGLE were previously published by Knight Press, and the Tapestry issues pick up the story in progress. But those early issues aren't really necessary, 'cuz there's not much of a story here anyway. Roxanne is looking for her missing brother, Bumper. Bumper is bopping around town and getting into various hijinks, including the thwarting of a convenience store robbery. Some other guys hang around and mope a lot. All the characters tend to insult each other whenever they talk. That's it.

 Ostensibly, BOONDOGGLE is a comedy. But look, I'll save you some money and tell you the only funny joke. It's from the Special. Hiding in the back of the convenience store, out of sight of the robber, Bumper plans to catch the robber and become a hero. But first he has to convince his cohorts. "We've seen all three DIE HARDS . . . SPEED . . . both UNDER SIEGES . . . even the HOME ALONE movies! It's as if Hollywood's been training us for this very incident." He continues, " . . . but those guys only had their wits to get them by, right?" He concludes, "We've got an entire 7-Eleven at our disposal!"

 Writer/artist Steve Stegelin has a very odd style. All his characters tend to look like five year olds -- be they five or twenty-one. Because of this, it is hard to tell the men from the women. Older characters tend to look like gnomes. Some characters have randomly been drawn as pigs or with dog heads. I've seen other comics where this style works. Unfortunately, it doesn't here. It doesn't help that the heavy inking style and unusual angles make some panels totally indecipherable. In one panel a gun is accidentally discharged. But I didn't know that until a character explained the incident on the following page. Stegelin's artwork resembles that of Evan Dorkin and Stepean DeStefano but does not achieve the clarity and energy found in Dorkin's HECTIC PLANET (Slave Labor/Dark Horse, grade: A-) or DeStefano's 'MAZING MAN (DC Comics, grade: A).

 So take my warning and my recommendation. Do not be hornswoggled, go find some Dorkin and DeStefano instead.

_____

Grade: D

(BOONDOGGLE #3 is solicited this month in PREVIEWS, if you're interested.)
 
 

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SHADES OF GRAY COMICS AND STORIES #1-12 (Lady Luck Ltd.)
SHADES OF GRAY COMICS AND STORIES #1-2 (Tapestry/Caliber Comics)

Let me tell you right from the start, I'm going to go easier on this book than I really should. Why? Because it's a labor of love that is just so darn heartfelt, I gotta give the creator a break for the sheer effort he's pouring into it.

 SHADES OF GRAY COMICS AND STORIES is a unique experience in comics. It's a gentle tale of four high school friends. They're all around fifteen years old and experiencing all the angst and uncertainty that only teenagers can truly undergo. No, this is not done in the style of ARCHIE, folks. Writer/artist Jimmy Gownley crawls into the hearts and minds of these kids and lets us see all the complications that can arise from adolescent love and friendship. We watch a girl deal with being the object of an unwanted crush. We watch another girl trying not to alienate her boyfriend's best friend. We see flashbacks to painful or embarrassing moments in the early childhood of the teens. You're not going to find much action here (one story was entitled, "Four People in a Room Talking"), but you are going to find a wealth of entertainment.

 What am I overlooking? The art is awkward. Gownley tries for a fairly realistic style, but his anatomy frequently goes astray. His ambitious page layouts are often confusing, and I find myself accidentally skipping a panel or reading the word balloons out of order. Sometimes it's a bit difficult to figure out which word balloons belong to which character. Finally, Gownley is fond of dropping big chunks of typeset text into the story, and I find this annoying in a comic book no matter how good the writer is. Y'see, I feel cheated, because I'd rather see the content of the text blocks turned into several illustrated pages. Or an entire issue. Whatever it takes! If I wanted text, I'd pick up whichever novel I'm currently reading. Anyhow, these are all moot points, 'cuz, if you'll remember, I'm overlooking them. (You, on the other hand, may not be as forgiving . . . )

 Gownley self-published the first twelve issues. One trade paperback collecting the first four issues is already floating around out there somewhere. He hopes to collect the remaining Lady Luck issues in the near future. 'Til then, it's pretty easy to jump into the Tapestry issues without the backstory: just remember your teenage years . . .

Grade: B

(SHADES OF GRAY SUPER SUMMER SPECIAL is solicited this month in PREVIEWS!)
 
 

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THE ROB HANES ARCHIVES (WCG Comics)

 Oops! I'm afraid you're not going find this trade paperback on any PREVIEWS backlist. But I'm pulling it out of my archives to let you know that a great series is being relaunched this month by Caliber Comics. Only a few people caught Rob Hanes' original appearances in ADVENTURE STRIP DIGEST. Well, after disappearing for a year or so, he's coming back. Why should you care? Hey, look what you've been missing . . .

 Good old-fashioned adventure!

 This is a comic done in the spirit of TERRY AND THE PIRATES and STEVE CANYON with a little bit of James Bond and Indiana Jones thrown in for good measure. Rob Hanes is an agent of Justice International. He jousts with the spies, terrorists, and authorities of a small Middle Eastern nation called Koman. This is not a "talking heads" comic; each episode is packed with fistfights and gunplay.

 Good old-fashioned fun!

 ROB HANES is written with a light and clever touch. Some stories are played strictly for laughs. Other stories are written more seriously, but rarely get overly dark or somber. The fast pacing of the stories generally keeps the good times rolling right along.

Good old-fashioned art!

 Writer/artist Randy Reynaldo is obviously influenced by comic strip great Milt Caniff. Reynaldo goes heavy on the ink for shading and highlighting. His characters are distinctive and colorful (even if they're in black-and-white).

 Good old-fashioned recommendations!

 Kurt Busiek (ASTRO CITY, UNTOLD TALES OF SPIDER-MAN) writes in his introduction to the trade paperback, "Ladies and gentlemen, Rob Hanes. He comes from a long and honorable lineage . . . and he's doing his forbears proud." Heck, Busiek liked the strip so much, he designed a new logo for Reynaldo to use.

 Good old-fashioned web page!

 Okay, maybe web pages aren't old-fashioned. Regardless, surf on over to http://members.aol.com/robhanes/index.html to check out the Rob Hanes home page. It's chock full of useful information and sample art.

 Good old-fashioned quality!

 Reynaldo really pours his heart into this strip, and it shows in every panel. He's giving his all, and it's pretty damn good, folks.
 
 

_____

Grade: A-

(ROB HANES JUSTICE INTERNATIONAL #1 is solicited by Caliber Comics this month in PREVIEWS!)
 
 

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