WEIRD WAR TALES #1

Review by: TheNextChampion

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Avg Rating: 4.0
 
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Written by DARWYN COOKE, IVAN BRANDON and JAN STRNAD
Art by DARWYN COOKE, NIC KLEIN and GABRIEL HARDMAN
Cover by DARWYN COOKE

Size: 32 pages
Price: 3.99

Let’s see we have an anthology issue with several stories done by veteran and rising stars of the industry? Sounds like it’s time for another moment of:

TNC’S PELLET REVIEWS!

Armistice Night (Darwyn Cooke/Dave Stewart): I always love the idea of mixing in different generations of people into one group. Just the idea of having all of these famous warriors and politicians through out the centuries in one area is a gold mine of creativity. Luckily Darwyn Cooke decided to up the ante and make it a very humorous look at this idea. Whether it’s General Patton dressing down his ‘troops’ or Winston Churchill and Erwin Rommel having target practice with there own heads; Cooke just keeps bring on the funny. The art is very good in this, it’s clean and the colors really make it stand out more. Now here’s my problem though, and it doesn’t detract from the issue mind you. But I cannot tell if Cooke did the art or not. Sure it looks a bit like Cooke, but it just doesn’t ‘feel’ like Cooke. I have a feeling Guy Davis did most of the work here, or his inks/colors did so much to hide Cooke’s style. Either way it doesn’t hamper the story in the end. This was a funny and beautiful short about different figureheads of the military having a fun day out. (Story: 5/Art: 5)

Bridge Peice (Steve Pugh): Just a little quick thought on this gorgeous one sheet to introduce us the premise of the issue. Never heard of Steve Pugh before but he has a great, painted style. There is also a great amount of detail from what the undead soldier is wearing to the tombstones in the background. I hope we see more of Pugh’s work in future DC stories, he would be perfect to do a Vertigo series. (Art: 5)

The Hell Above Us (Story by Ivan Brandon/Art by Nic Klein): Reading this again I have a very strange ‘Twilight Zone’ vibe to this. I could totally see this being turned into an episode of some sci-fi anthology series. By the end of the story I had the thought also of dramatic music just swelling up when we get to the reveal. Brandon does a great job dealing with the soldier’s slow descent into madness and going into (gruesome) detail on how the others died. What really worked though was the art by Nic Klein. He did a perfect job showcasing the dark and cramped area of a submarine. The more and more the one soldier grapsed his situation, the darker and grimer the pages looked. Klein has a weird sense of having facial designs like Eric Powell, but the detail of Dustin Weaver. Just a nice sci-fi short and I would actually would have loved to see more of this adventure with this particular soldier. (Story: 5/Art: 5)

Private Parker Sees Thunder Lizards (Story by Jan Strnad/Art by Gabriel Hardman): Oh man just how great is Gabriel Hardman? He can make anything look so realistic and he always have great colorists by his side. If there is one man I want to see do more war comics it would be Hardman. But also maybe do a dinosaur story as well. That image of the Nazi getting bit in the head was hilarious. The story by Strnad served it’s purpose though and didn’t add much to it like the previous two. It wasn’t bad, but it certainly isn’t the high point of the story. Even still it ends the comic in a nice capper with Hardman’s art. (Story: 4/Art: 5)

I would love to see this series continue in some capacity in the near future. This issue delivered because it brought in almost the right talent to create their own bizarre take on the war. Any one of these stories could work well on their own, but it takes a special comic to put all three in together. Just a fantastic one-shot that everyone should own.

Story: 5 - Excellent
Art: 5 - Excellent

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