Nice #1 |
Ah - they are such a lovely things, as they can introduce you to new & wonderful artists.
In this case we have K draw - whose cartooning has a loose light touch tinged with a good appreciation of daftness & absurdity - is fun! His main story featured over these 3 issues is Earl, the Snapshot King. The story rattles along at a fair pace & is over all too soon. I could happily digest many more of these pages.
Consumption of more pages by Hercules would not go amiss either. He does tight, precise cartooning realising really neatly a whole world delineated in his pin sharp style. Again, he's an absurdist who he has a happily unhealthy interest in guns, oddments of mechanical construction & cartoon violence. His approach to comics is imbued with a mature, hip design sense is jolly good fun. Oh yes - this is tasty work!Excuse my while I go & read the bits by these 2 artists again! …But now I've gone & spoiled the writing of this review... they were my highlights & now my enthusiasm drains...It's not that the rest are so terribly bad as such... I just could never listen to my mother & leave the best bits until last.
Nevertheless, on we go:
Dr Assassin by Anthony Hope-Smith: I suppose in a Fast Show sort of way the repetition of the joke could be funny, but I couldn't eke a smile from my jaded soul. The line work of the comic improves from one issue to the next & by number 3 has steadied with more lively line work.... but then, if you were to pick up #3 only & were presented with meeting the strip for the 1st time, then I suspect you would just wonder what the point was; this Dr assassin stood there disguised in the plain site of illuminated torches held by the unseeing 'special agents'... What chance are you given of seeing the gag? Hope is raised in the last installment in issue 3, which departs from the usual one page format - perhaps the spreading of wings?
Dr Assassin compares unfavorably with another ongoing '1 pager' (although it can't rally be called a strip - as it's a one page splash more of a gag cartoon, I guess...): Ha Ha Ha Said the Clown by Dug Fuller is a nice humorous juxtaposition - depressing doom with a funny face. Nothing much to them, but eloquently done, using an eye pleasing style which reminds me of Roger Langridge.
Other work by Dug does not hold together so well. The cover to Nice #2 being the prime exhibit for the prosecution: compositionally it's basically devoid of an anchor. The choice of thick marker (if the artwork is reduced) or calligraphy pen is also odd, as the line work looks uncomfortably clunky; the more fluid lies of the Win Your Ex Back strips show a much more pleasing flow that makes the example of the line making that cover seem more anomalous.
Nigel Metcalfe has a curious style; a curious linear approach, but the line that he uses has little accent – it seems so uniform – there seems little life. Unfortunately there also seems little thought to the page layout & composition – mostly seems either too cluttered or too spare; it seems missing something, somehow some strips seem quite lost on the page while others seem to be covered in the comics equivalent of a metromomic buzz. There is ability in the cartooning but it relies too heavily of formulaic shorthand, rather than the interpretation drawing into a realised cartoon (i.e. That is the formula I use to draw a cartoon arm, rather than that is how to draw an arm & that is how it translates into a cartoon). In a way his work his reminds me of Nigel Lowrey's art - of there are similarities in styling, but Nigel is a jump slicker. All in all it does not work well in this format with that inking. Maybe on a larger canvas with more enlivened strokes?
One oddment in the hollering, strutting pack is Will Shyne's Maybe Tomorrow in #1 This story does not have knowing irony or absurdist bravado - but is a simple little unrequited love story. It's drawn scruffily, but with sincerity & feeling... so rather seems out of place here. I like it for this aspect, but whether it could stand on it's own in a more conducive environment is debatable; it's the contrast with the rest of the book that makes it so pleasing.
As a whole, this anthology seems to have formed around a group of people who are thrown together by a common love of comics. As with any group dynamic there are the high flyers & there are those that skulk in the shadows Interesting developments are the inclusion of Toko in #3 - which indicates that there may be a spreading of wings - a flowering that may mean that as this anthology reaches a more critical mass the quality threshold will increase to new levels. I look forward to hopefully watching for such developments.
In the meantime - the strips that gleam make me tip the balance of my favour to the positive side... yes - it has its faults (all anthologies have their faults – it is their nature to be broken) - but I rather like this anthology.
mooncat
| Nice #1: 32 A5 pages, full colour (inkjet printed) card stock cover. #2: 36 A5 pages, full colour (inkjet printed) card stock cover. #3: 32 A5 pages, full colour (inkjet printed) card stock cover |
Price:
#1: £2.50 #2: £2.00 #3: £2.00 Address: None listed. Try the Consumables section of the Nice Website |
Received at ZUM! HQ: #1,2 & 3: 27xi03 Review Posted: #1,2 & 3: 09xii03 |
