_{Please view my review of the first issue for my thoughts on both it, and general overview fluffery that comes with looking at first installments of anything that deal with concepts and characters that have any amount of history. You may also want to see my interview with series writer Eric Shanower.}

Issue #122

January 14th, 2008

    
In the second issue, three becomes five which seems like small progression, but with a series that has six more issues left, it’s a rather promising element to already have behind us. When you consider that not only is our motley band formed, but also that their origins are already passed along and shared, you come away from issue#2 knowing that everything ahead is the exploration of Shanower and Young’s Baumian landscape. There really isn’t much that needs to be explained in the project from a story perspective (at least to this point). I think that perhaps many people are like myself, and remember the beginning and the end most– and it is the in-between that is a bit vague to us. This is where we will see Shanower flex his muscles more. There was a moment, however, that surprised me, and a rather pleasant one at that. In our chat, Shanower pointed out the scene, but at the same time denied any overt horror element in this series. The origin of the Tin Man read as a wonderful vignette; a mini-horror story, though not gratuitous, but instead an-all ages brand of haunting akin Gaiman employs in a Coraline, or in some Margo Langan fiction. It goes slightly into the marcabre of real Grimm tails, but keeps that rchildhood whimsy element to it that allows us to laugh at what we should fear. It’s very nice, very well done.

With the first issue, particularly with the Kansas scenes and the introduction to Oz you catch a tendency – a needed one – to recapture and re-frame the classic nature of the material. Young does this from the very first page of the issue, to the twister, to house-resting-on-witch and so on– it’s stage setting, and it unobtrusively reminds you that you are reliving a classic. The second issue is a change-up. From listening to various podcasts that Young has been on, I know him to be an admirer of Chris Bachalo’s work. Bachalo is one of my favorite artists – an innovative force in my mind – though the knock on him is that he is perhaps not the most optimal sequential storyteller. This is often branded on many artists who work in a certain style, or rather who don’t work in a certain style, but the second issue flows adroitly and operates on a level that allows Shanower’s description and dialogue to reinforce, rather than to clarify. It really is as beautiful as any of the best illustrated children books you’d find, and tells a story in way that pages that all look like they should be framed should never be able to.

I’m not sure how much of the final art Young is responsible for. The coloring has been gorgeous and Jean-Francois Beaulieu is credited for the job, but whoever is responsible for the mood shifts, especially in the flashback origin panels deserves kudos. It allows for what is essentially info dumping to act as separate pockets and really disallows a going-through-the-motions lethargy that can occur when retelling stories we know.

In the last couple of days it has been announced that the first issue has sold out and went to a second printing. Now, in comics the term ‘sold out’ comes with some amount of ambiguity, as it doesn’t becomes impressive until you know the print run, but still if any comic – Marvel or otherwise – is going to experience interest, and go to another print; I for one, am glad that it’s a project like this.

The end of the first issue ends on a panel showing the road ahead. This issue ends with the companions front and center, trooping through Oz, and for the first time you think you that you might hear the King’s Men quartet in the background.

P.S. – A page I grabbed below!

_{Jan-ken-pon is the time traveling, force-walking, multiverse crossing column of Jay Tomio, owner of 1/3 of everything you see currently on screen, and the editor of Heliotrope. He started a shoe line called Ruby Reds which he sold at the Borges and Bierce Boot Shop in Oz. Some call him the Bodhisattva.}