Shadow Hunter #3
Jun. 12th, 2008 05:50 amOkay, before I get into the, um, "comic," a few comments on the two variant covers for this issue.
( Big pretty scans behind cut. )
Now to the comic itself. Excuse me, I mean the "comic."
I mean... Whoo-boy. Right. Okay. So, to those of you who are collectors of Japanese doujinshi: Have you ever been disappointed to discover that you've accidentally bought one of the dreaded "prose" doujinshi by mistake? You know, the doujinshi where instead of comic pages, you actually end up with thirty pages of scratchily handwritten, unreadable Japanese fanfiction broken up by merely two or three full- or half-page illustrations?
Because this isn't quite as bad, but it's still pretty bad.
Three words: "Special. Prose. Issue."
To be far, this issue of Shadow Hunter is actually 11.5 pages of prose, and 11.5 pages of mind-blowing paintings by Mukesh Singh. Even without the prose, I would be willing to spend $2.99 for 11.5 glossy, full-color, full-page paintings by Mukesh Singh.
The prose sections are meant to tell "the collected tales of Jezzerie's adventures" after the end of issue #2. So basically, it's a transition between the origin story (issues #1 and #2) and the big climatic story arc that is promised to begin with issue #4. So this is the transition issue.
Here's what actually happens in the prose sections: Jezzerie has dream about a fantasmagoric masquerade ball in hell. Jezzerie's sword becomes a naked woman and embraces her in the middle of the night. Jezzeries comes to terms with her abandonment issues, and in a NOT FREUDIAN AT ALL NO SIREE monologue, equates all of her deadbeat ex-boyfriends with her father. Uh, moving on. Jezzerie encounters some ancient gods who proclaim thather pet magical spaceman angel dude The Swordsman has sworn his loyalty to her. Jezzerie envisions utopia. Jezzerie describes hunting demons in New York City, tearing them apart with her bare hands, and eating them. Jezzerie has lesbian sex with the human form of her sword. The end.
Transitions!
Okay, now here's the frustrating thing about this issue: Of the events that I just listed, no matter how weird/cheesy/off-the-wall they may seem... How much would it have ROCKED to have seen any of the above rendered in actual sequential art by Mukesh Singh?!
It would have rocked a lot, that's how much. (Except maybe for the big Freudian daddy-issues monologue part.) But seriously, look what we were cheated out of in this issue: A masquerade in hell, drawn by Mukesh Singh. Jezzerie tearing apart demons with her bare hands, drawn by Mukesh Singh. Lesbian sex, as rendered by Mukesh Singh.
We could have had lesbian sex rendered by Mukesh Singh. Intead, we got ( this. )
The saving grace, of course, is that we at least got a lot of Singh's artwork, even if not any actual comic panels. The 11.5 paintings included in this issue run the gamut from utterly horrifying renditions of hell, to powerfully evocative images of haunting divine beauty, to just plain sexy awesome gorgeous paintings of Jezzerie.
Singh, unfortunately, has started to develop the same breast-size issues that Greg Horn is flaunting on his cover. (Seriously, guys, what's up with that? Jezzerie was well-endowed in the first two issues, but she didn't have freakin' watermelons sewn on her chest!) Other than the suddenly-inflated breasts, however, Singh's paintings of Jezzerie - including two highly eroticized ones - don't have even the slightest whiff of exploitation about them. They're sexy and beautiful, not leering or creepy.
Considering how scorchingly hot, subtly beautiful, and respectfully tasteful Singh's artwork of Jezzerie alone is, I am more disappointed than ever that we got cheated out of any sort of visual glimpse of the lesbian love scene.
But still, dudes. I don't understand why you feel the need to take a real-life model as voluptuous as Jenna Jameson and, uh, "enhance" her past the boundaries of believability or common sense. ( Seriously. )
That said, prose issue, boo. Virgin, you get points for trying something new and pushing boundaries, but not every experiment can be a success. Sigh. Can we please have the slicing, dicing, awesome-looking monsters, and gallons of gushing blood back in the next issue? Pleeeeaaaase? Barring that, I would at least settle for a glimpse of what Jezzerie's sword looks like in her human form. That's going to be awesome.
( Big pretty scans behind cut. )
Now to the comic itself. Excuse me, I mean the "comic."
I mean... Whoo-boy. Right. Okay. So, to those of you who are collectors of Japanese doujinshi: Have you ever been disappointed to discover that you've accidentally bought one of the dreaded "prose" doujinshi by mistake? You know, the doujinshi where instead of comic pages, you actually end up with thirty pages of scratchily handwritten, unreadable Japanese fanfiction broken up by merely two or three full- or half-page illustrations?
Because this isn't quite as bad, but it's still pretty bad.
Three words: "Special. Prose. Issue."
To be far, this issue of Shadow Hunter is actually 11.5 pages of prose, and 11.5 pages of mind-blowing paintings by Mukesh Singh. Even without the prose, I would be willing to spend $2.99 for 11.5 glossy, full-color, full-page paintings by Mukesh Singh.
The prose sections are meant to tell "the collected tales of Jezzerie's adventures" after the end of issue #2. So basically, it's a transition between the origin story (issues #1 and #2) and the big climatic story arc that is promised to begin with issue #4. So this is the transition issue.
Here's what actually happens in the prose sections: Jezzerie has dream about a fantasmagoric masquerade ball in hell. Jezzerie's sword becomes a naked woman and embraces her in the middle of the night. Jezzeries comes to terms with her abandonment issues, and in a NOT FREUDIAN AT ALL NO SIREE monologue, equates all of her deadbeat ex-boyfriends with her father. Uh, moving on. Jezzerie encounters some ancient gods who proclaim that
Transitions!
Okay, now here's the frustrating thing about this issue: Of the events that I just listed, no matter how weird/cheesy/off-the-wall they may seem... How much would it have ROCKED to have seen any of the above rendered in actual sequential art by Mukesh Singh?!
It would have rocked a lot, that's how much. (Except maybe for the big Freudian daddy-issues monologue part.) But seriously, look what we were cheated out of in this issue: A masquerade in hell, drawn by Mukesh Singh. Jezzerie tearing apart demons with her bare hands, drawn by Mukesh Singh. Lesbian sex, as rendered by Mukesh Singh.
We could have had lesbian sex rendered by Mukesh Singh. Intead, we got ( this. )
The saving grace, of course, is that we at least got a lot of Singh's artwork, even if not any actual comic panels. The 11.5 paintings included in this issue run the gamut from utterly horrifying renditions of hell, to powerfully evocative images of haunting divine beauty, to just plain sexy awesome gorgeous paintings of Jezzerie.
Singh, unfortunately, has started to develop the same breast-size issues that Greg Horn is flaunting on his cover. (Seriously, guys, what's up with that? Jezzerie was well-endowed in the first two issues, but she didn't have freakin' watermelons sewn on her chest!) Other than the suddenly-inflated breasts, however, Singh's paintings of Jezzerie - including two highly eroticized ones - don't have even the slightest whiff of exploitation about them. They're sexy and beautiful, not leering or creepy.
Considering how scorchingly hot, subtly beautiful, and respectfully tasteful Singh's artwork of Jezzerie alone is, I am more disappointed than ever that we got cheated out of any sort of visual glimpse of the lesbian love scene.
But still, dudes. I don't understand why you feel the need to take a real-life model as voluptuous as Jenna Jameson and, uh, "enhance" her past the boundaries of believability or common sense. ( Seriously. )
That said, prose issue, boo. Virgin, you get points for trying something new and pushing boundaries, but not every experiment can be a success. Sigh. Can we please have the slicing, dicing, awesome-looking monsters, and gallons of gushing blood back in the next issue? Pleeeeaaaase? Barring that, I would at least settle for a glimpse of what Jezzerie's sword looks like in her human form. That's going to be awesome.
