Jeff Smith does no wrong in my eyes.

His Bone series is going to be remembered as one of the best children series ever. Plus his other work (I know people didnt like it but) like his Shazam! mini was one of my favorite Captain Marvel stories. With his new series….well….it looks like the armor has to take a few dents…

Dont get me wrong, I think this is a great start to a new series by him. I’m intrigued on the premise of this story and him going into a bit more of an adult territory is interesting. Basically, if we’re talking about film ratings, this is rated PG-13 while Bone was rated G. I like it how Smith is going into this sci-fi, dimensional hopping angle and that could bring a huge amount of stories into this. Smith’s art is also amazing to look at. This is an oversized trade so these panels are big and some of them are just incredible to look at. But here’s the biggest problem with this trade…..You shouldnt buy it.

Hell I dont think anyone should go near this series. If anyone doesnt know, this RASL series has taken a shit load of time to get released. Jeff Smith decided to make this a quarterly released series (or released every 3-4 months) and it has shown. I mean this trade collects what? The first 3 issues, and only the first 3 issues! Another problem with this is that like Bone, Smith is doing both art and story; so who knows what could happen down the line with the release dates? Think of it this way; this series started in Feburary 2008….we’re in March of 2009 and the 4th issue still hasnt been released! Do you really want to follow a series that only released three issues in over a year?

Something has to be done about this. Either Smith needs to get another artist on board or he needs to do something drastic, like make this an original Graphic Novel series. Cause I dont know how long he has planned this series out; but if he continues it at this rate….the 10th issue wont be out into sometime summer of 2010. Again I like the premise of this story, I love the art; so my score is going to contradict what I’m saying here But if your interested at this series, wait for awhile….Hell wait for a good 5 years for this story. Cause again, this series could take a good amount of your lifetime to be released if Smith continues at this pace. It’s a shame, I was looking forward to follow this, but not at this pace. Maybe they’ll do a bigger first volume trade when the next three issues are out.