![\"\"](\"http:\/\/archive.gamespy.com\/comics\/nodwick\/buystuff\/ComicCovers\/NodChron4t.jpg\")
<\/a>The Nodwick Chronicles:<\/em> IV – “Obligatory Dragon on the Cover”<\/a> (Dork Storm) [2\/2\/3\/3]<\/p>\nThis volume collects issues 19-24 of Aaron Williams Nodwick series, including the dreadfully-amusing “Krutz” issue and the clever musical edition.<\/p>\n
Nodwick is the hapless and oft-dismembered henchman of a trio of D&D-style adventurers — Artax the greedy wizard, Yeager the licentious swordsman, and Piffany the sickeningly-sweet cleric. All the standard fantasy tropes get run sooner-or-later, with the occasional twist and character focus. The constant abuse of Nodwick (and that he is a key to the entire group’s success) is a regular joke. <\/p>\n
Folks who enjoy fantasy and RPGs will enjoy this; others probably won’t get it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Brian Azzarello’s run on Hellblazer <\/em>(which ends in this collection, issues 164-174) was almost certainly one of the darkest and most twisted the book as seen — which, given the other talent who’ve contributed, is truly saying something. Off in America still, John faces racism in a small Montana town and perversity amongst the Los Angeles elite. Constantine is as much a player as an avenger, sometimes disturbingly so, and yet neither story seems to conclude quite satisfactorily. The various artists are up to the task of showing this dark and nasty world, particularly Marcelo Frusin, balancing the subtly fantastic with the shadowy reality.<\/p>\n Not for the faint of heart, or folks who mind feeling a bit greasy by the time it’s all over.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In honor of the return of Chris Claremont as writer and Alan Davis on art in the current X-Men<\/em> run, Marvel’s issuing an odd collection of Claremont\/Davis contributions from the end of the 80s. <\/p>\n Ye gods.<\/p>\n Davis’s art is faboo as usual, but this was well after Claremont had gone over the edge in terms of self-referential soap opera. The stories included (New Mutants Annual<\/em> #2-3, X-Men Annual<\/em> #11, Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #213 and 215) don’t actually tell a coherent story, which jars in the telling. Instead, we get bits and scraps of Betsy Braddock (Psylocke), Mojo, the Marauders, Illyana, Madeline Pryor, Storm without powers, Doug Ramsey, Warlock (vs. the Impossible Man!), and the standard Claremont array of “who am I, why am I here, will I ever know happiness, and will I deserve it?” angst. Issue skips and time lags pick up story lines in the middle, and drop off others in mid-cliffhanger.<\/p>\n As a survey of previous Claremont\/Davis work, it’s not bad — but as anything more, it lacks greatly, except, perhaps, as a briefest of snapshots into a retrospectively ugly era in X-History.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Collects the 3-issue mini-series, featuring the latest dark adventures Sgt-Major William Gravel, sometimes-rogue combat magician for the British Army. This time he’s brought in (against his will) to figure what’s behind some child killings and mutilations that may cause race war to erupt in London if not solved. Nasty, brutish, and short, it’s not one of the better Gravel adventures from Warren Ellis, but it’s still not bad, and Mike Wolfer’s cleanly realistic B&W art makes the unnatural seem bloodily plausible.<\/p>\n Not the most uplifting of tales, but certainly entertaining if you’re in a dark mood.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Collects issues #7-11 of the current Wolverine title, written by Greg Rucka and illustrated by Leandro Fernandez. Logan deals with Mexican immigrant smuggling and drug dealing, while a BATF agent continues to follow him in confused fascination. There’s plenty of the usual (but well-handled) angst of “am I man or animal?”) — which, to be sure, is amusing when contrasted to the same themes hammered in by Claremont almost two decades ago.<\/p>\n For those dead tired of Wolvie, there’s not much new here to see. For those who aren’t, the stories are reflreshingly free of latex and nicely crafted.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kurt Busiek at the writing helm tells the self-contained (6-issue) tale of Fletcher Arrowsmith, who runs off from the States to join a volunteer Air Corps during the opening, bloody years of World War I. Except, of course, there’s a twist, as this is a world of magic and alternate history, lovingly crafted (and lovingly drawn by Carlos Pacheco), and as much fun to read for the strange critters and magical parallels as for the not-unexpected tale of lost innocence, as Arrowsmith goes from callow youth to questioning vet. And, frankly, seeing the dashing heroes of the Air Corps as magicians (aided by their pet dragonets) wielding crossbows and rapiers, is almost worth the price of admission.<\/p>\n There are future (well, past) stories waiting to be told in the Arrowsmith universe, and one can but hope that Busiek and Pacheco will get back to them soon.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Aaron Williams not only does Nodwick<\/em>, he’s also started a new title, featuring an elementary school for kids with super-powers. This TPB collects issues #0-5 of the title, including both two-page “gotchas”\/intros, and some fine longer stories. Those who enjoy superhero tropes will be rolling on the floor. Even those who don’t get all the jokes will get enough through cultural osmosis to appreciate most of the title. Heck, anyone who went to elementary school will find the human side of metahuman kids to be extremely enjoyable.<\/p>\n This would be great movie fodder, except that you couldn’t do more than half the TPB justice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some GNs I’ve picked up of late. Review code format: [writing (3-1, faboo to mediocre) \/ art (3-1) \/ suitability for jumping on as a new reader (3-1) \/ and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-comics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4728,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/01\/16\/hey_kids_comics.html","url_meta":{"origin":5785,"position":0},"title":"Hey, Kids! Comics!","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 16-Jan-04 4:17pm","format":false,"excerpt":"[N.B. This review was started but never finished or published at the time.] Been a while ... Review code format: writing (3-1, faboo to mediocre), art (3-1), suitability for jumping...","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4631,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/07\/27\/bt03_additional.html","url_meta":{"origin":5785,"position":1},"title":"BT03 – Additional thoughts","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 27-Jul-03 2:55am","format":false,"excerpt":"Hrm. Thought I posted that last item at the bottom of the hour, but just did it now. So I'll quick whip up another post. Doyce headed back out. Many...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9291,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/29\/bt06_geeky_humo.html","url_meta":{"origin":5785,"position":2},"title":"BT06 – Geeky Humor, Fair and Foul","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 29-Jul-06 8:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Took a moment to close extra Firefox tabs, close and open the browser, and close and open ecto.\u00a0 Get some nice, cool breezes blowing through my computer's RAM.\u00a0 Helped a...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6908,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/12\/03\/comic_relief_8.html","url_meta":{"origin":5785,"position":3},"title":"Comic relief","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 3-Dec-04 9:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A few graphic novels that have been stacking up ... and up to forty words about them. Review code format: [writing (5-1, faboo to mediocre) \/ art (5-1) \/ suitability...","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6700,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/07\/30\/graphic_novel_r.html","url_meta":{"origin":5785,"position":4},"title":"Graphic novel review","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 30-Jul-04 3:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Doyce and Margie both razzed me for dragging graphic novels off to the Con, but it made for an enjoyable pre-show pump-up on the flight out. In keeping with the...","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7848,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/08\/06\/bt05_king_sized.html","url_meta":{"origin":5785,"position":5},"title":"BT05 – King Sized Special!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 6-Aug-05 12:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"About time, after this, for me to get up and walk around, eat something, take a general break. But there's minutes to go before I post, and I have miles...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"http:\/\/images.amazon.com\/images\/P\/1401202233.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg\")
<\/a>Hellblazer:<\/em> “Highwater”<\/a> (Vertigo\/DC) [2\/3\/2\/2]<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/images.amazon.com\/images\/P\/0785114637.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg\")
<\/a>X-Men<\/em>: “Old Soldiers”<\/a> (Marvel) [2\/3\/1\/1]<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/images.amazon.com\/images\/P\/1592910246.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg\")
<\/a>Strange Killings:<\/em> “Strong Medicine”<\/a> (Avatar) [2\/3\/3\/2]<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/images.amazon.com\/images\/P\/0785111379.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg\")
<\/a>Wolverine:<\/em> “Coyote Crossing”<\/a> (Marvel) [2\/2\/3\/2]<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/images.amazon.com\/images\/P\/1401202993.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg\")
<\/a>Arrowsmith:<\/em> “So Smart in Their Fine Uniforms”<\/a> (Wildstorm\/DC) [3\/3\/3\/3]<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/archive.gamespy.com\/comics\/nodwick\/buystuff\/ComicCovers\/ps238%20tradet.jpg\")
<\/a>PS238:<\/em> “With Liberty and Recess for All”<\/a> (Dork Storm) [3\/3\/3\/2]<\/p>\n