Comic Review: Boneyard #1

                No, we are not travelling back in time to 2001 today.  That was when the original Boneyard #1 premiered from NBM Publishing.  This one, from Antarctic Press, picks up where that original series ended (for the most part), with all of the same characters and the same humor that made that original series pretty damn perfect.  Will this one live up to its predecessor?  Let’s find out.

Cover:

                It’s a Richard Moore comic book, so there’s a great chance that there will be a scantily clad woman on the cover.  This one doesn’t disappoint as Abbey, one of the main protagonists of the book is shown in an actual scene from the story, trying to keep her dress from flying up over her head while she is fighting a monster.  The expression that Moore has placed on Abbey says a lot about the character herself (and Moore has always been a master of conveying emotion through facial expressions) in that she is obviously fed up with having to play the heroine when all she obviously wants to do is enjoy a nice dinner.

                While the expression is well done, the pose, while accurate, seems a bit wooden and stiff.  If it wasn’t for the fact that Moore tilted Abbey a bit on the page itself, she would be incredibly distracting.  When Moore paints his own work, he usually tends to follow a very monochromatic palette.  Unfortunately here it is not as effective as in the past.  While Abbey tends to pop based solely on the amount of black utilized in her overall design, the rest of the cover tends to wash out.  There is little variation in the color scheme used here, so it is more difficult to discern the different parts of the monster behind her.  Everything is a greenish-purple blob for the most part (especially since most of the monster is off the page anyway, so we can’t really see anything too clearly or make much of an educated guess as to what is what on the monster).

6/10 – Not Moore’s best cover, but it hits on all of the bases.  If know that showing Abbey was the most important thing, but he sacrificed clarity in order to do so.  A little more of a varied palette in terms of the coloring might have helped as well.

Story:

                I have waited quite a while (since the original series ended in 2009) for the return of these characters.  This was probably my first favorite comic book after I got out of the whole “superhero phase” from high school.  I found this series when it was still pretty much in its infancy so I was able to watch it grow and wait on each quarterly installment with baited breath (I was a super nerd) and this was the only comic book that I actively kept up on after I stopped buying comics altogether a few years ago.  There was anticipation as well as a little trepidation when I picked this up.  Would this be as good as the past issues?  Would Moore be able to pick up where he left off in terms of the tone of the book after such an extended layoff?  Was he a good enough writer to keep the “voice” of the series even after such a rough breakup with the original publisher, which must have left him a little bitter at the very least?

                Then I read it.  Everything was as it should be.  The writing was just as good as I remember it from the original series.  The humor and the heart is still there and even though the romantic tension that was a highlight of the original series (that whole will they-won’t they dynamic that Moore expertly crafted) was gone because of the pairing of the two main characters at the end of the original series, Moore still was able to take that transition to a different level, focusing on their problems as a couple (and one in which one of the participants is a vampire with an age of many thousands of years).  This makes for the main push of the story as Michael (the non-vampire) is trying to live up to the reputation of the many boyfriends that his girlfriend Abbey (the vampire) has had in her loooooong lifetime.  Hilarity ensues. 

                While the plot of anything that Richard Moore creates is always well done, I find that the way he handles the in-story interactions, and the smaller jokes to be where he really shines.  Something as simple as a conversation between Michael and Abbey could seem clunky and unrealistic in less adept hands.  The part where Abbey admits that on their date she wore her “fuck-me boots” and yet any time the word “fuck” is uttered a small bat flies over it obscuring the word.  While it’s not necessary (Moore has never shied away from more adult interactions both verbally and visually) having that bat obscure the word fuck just adds to the humor level of the comic, something you rarely find nowadays.  Every once in a while, something like that is a welcome diversion, and the fact that the joke rears its head at the end of the comic is perfect.

                The only thing that I could have asked for is the inclusion of more of the supporting characters.   They are what really filled out the original series and made it memorable.  I realize that it would have been difficult to add everyone in, given the fact that it is only a standard sized comic book, but hopefully we can see what everyone else is up to in the near future.  That being said, as thin as Macabre was last month content-wise, Boneyard is bursting at the seams.  It feels as complete of a comic as I have read in quite some time. 

9/10 – There’s a reason that I pick up everything Richard Moore puts his hands on, and this issue of Boneyard is a microcosm of that.

Art:

                Moore changed his style up a bit.  Okay, let me clarify that.  If you’ve been following Moore for over five or six years you will notice that he has gone from a straight pen and ink/black and white style to more of an inkwash-heavy art style.  I’m more of a fan of his earlier work in that respect, but his inkwash work is just as good, and the fact that he tends to combine the two here on Boneyard has made it even more palatable.  I think the reason that I liked his artwork in the past so much was just how clean it was.  Every line had a place and a purpose, much like Doug Baron’s work on Jump Back Adventures (which, if you’ve never seen it before, you need to check out, Doug is a good friend and a phenomenal cartoonist). 

                Even after the long layoff between the end of the original series and the start of this one, Moore has kept all of the characters on model, just with the addition of inkwash.  The backgrounds are both complete and ever-present in practically all of the panels, perfectly rendered and providing the mood along with the setting for the story.  The monster in the story looks like a fairly typical Richard Moore monster.  It is well crafted and looks both humorous and menacing at the same time. 

9/10 – I am glad Moore is able to just do his work without having to adhere to a Marvel or DC deadline or editorial demand.  That being said, my only complaint about Richard Moore is that there isn’t more of his work.

Overall:  8/10 – Hopefully we get more of these Boneyard books in the future as this has reclaimed its rightful place on the top of my “favorite comics” list.

Comic Review: Macabre #1

                I walked into the comic shop having no idea what I was going to pick up for today’s review.  Lo and behold, looking back at me on the shelf was the newest offering from Richard Moore.  If you don’t know about Moore’s work, it is something you should check out.  Most of the comics that he creates are for the “mature” audience, yet that usually has more to do with the cheesecake in the interior instead of any hardcore sex or language as many other comics with that moniker have nowadays.  The style itself is cartoony and he often uses anthropomorphized animals in his stories but that doesn't make them childish, as they often serve a purpose.  Black and white interiors are his main focus, so it has a very underground feel to it even though the art is much more polished than many of the comics associated with that era.  His work tends to look more like Bone than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. 

                Ever since I picked up the first trade of his hit Boneyard I have been a huge fan of Moore’s work, trying to accumulate any and all of his books, even some of the more risqué ones as the humor in the writing and art, along with the way the art itself is presented is second to none.  As soon as I saw Macabre #1 on the shelf, I knew what I was reviewing this week.

Cover:

                The book itself is set up almost like a Tales from the Crypt story where a narrator interjects between each story.  Being that this is a Richard Moore book, the narrator is a scantily clad woman that goes by the name of Charli, who is predictably in full display on the cover.  The cover is well done and honestly it does the job of drawing in someone walking by (case in point-me!) with that distinctive Richard Moore style.  If someone else had drawn the cover I wouldn’t have even looked twice at it even though the title has Moore's name right above it.  I wouldn’t have gotten that far and would have wound up purchasing something that I was unimpressed with (again). 

                The coloring is a little dark but because of the fact that it’s a creepy, gloomy book (in theory) I think that works.  I would have liked to have seen a little more of an homage to the old Tales from the Crypt covers from EC Comics though.  I understand that a pretty drawing of a scantily clad girl will bring eyes in the door, but I have 100% confidence that Moore would be able to make that work within the context of the EC comics cover. 

8/10 – It was the first issue and it grabbed my attention on a shelf of comics trying to do that very thing.  Very well done indeed.

Story:

                As I mentioned before, the book reads like an old Tales from the Crypt from EC Comics.  It houses three different stories along with a host of pinups.  The stories are good, often with a clever and humorous “Moore”-ian twist at the end.  The only one that doesn’t involve the typical level of cheesecake we are used to with many of Moore’s books is the last one, which is the strongest in my opinion.  It involves zombie pirates with a poor sense of direction, and turned from formulaic to hilarious in a split second.  Don’t get me wrong, I like Moore’s other stories, usually involving the scantily clad female enticing the stupid male to their doom, and always ending in a humorous fashion, but the fact that he was able to craft a tale that didn’t need that and was still able to offer a humorous twist was great.  That story felt more like Boneyard than anything else I have seen from Moore since that series concluded.  Call it nostalgia or whatever, but that set the final story apart for me.  The stuff in the interim with our “host” was little, throwaway stuff that seemed more like an excuse for Moore to draw  pinups, or at least full-page spreads more than anything. 

                As good as the stories are, they are so short, and so decompressed that it literally took me five minutes to read, and that was with stopping to marvel at the artwork on the page.  With the infrequency of Moore’s work, I would expect more from each installment, and the inclusion of the pinups, while incredible from an artistic standpoint are only used to pad a relatively thin comic out to acceptable levels. 

5/10 – I’m not going to accuse Moore of mailing it in on this one because the stories are good, but if he is going to take an extended break, I would like to see more from him upon his return.

Art:

                As usual with a Richard Moore book, the art is exceptional.  The pinups are incredibly well done, but it is the narrative work that once again stands out.  Moore’s use of facial expression and just the general “acting” that his characters do on the page make it easy to enjoy the story.  He conveys both drama and humor equally well, even when those two emotions are separated by a panel border.  100% of the situations Moore draws could never happen in real life, but the way he draws them, the gravitas that he gives to every moment because of the way he draws expressions, drives it home. 

The texture in his artwork is exceptional as well.  My favorite work that Moore produces is the standard pen and ink stark black and white stuff.  While this is not that kind of art, Moore instead delves into shaded artwork a la pencil or inkwash.  This technique, while not as effective as his pen and ink work in my opinion, is still incredibly strong and dynamic, and the figures don’t lose any of their expressive nature with the different art style.  Moore is an absolute master of the black and white comic book medium. 

10/10 – The only bad thing about Moore’s art is the fact that there isn’t more of it in this issue.

Overall – 7/10: It’s a little sparse for the price tag, but what is there is very good.  This won’t stop me from picking up everything else Richard Moore puts out, and it shouldn’t stop you either.