Only in Dark Horse Presents can you open with Art Adams and close with Paul Pope.
The Adams Monkeyman and O’Brien story appears to be some kind of homage to Plan 9 from Outer Space. So maybe Adams’s terrible dialogue is in line with that approach. Regardless, it’s fairly awful.
Then Hernandez has an utterly fantastic story about a bunch of carnies reunited. It opens with one thing, moves somewhere else. It’s just great. Second story in and they’ve already made up for Adams and set the issue apart in terms of quality.
Hedden’s Frankenstein, P.I. is well-drawn and mildly amusing.
Oh, then there’s a Milk and Cheese from Dorkin mocking alcoholism. If these strips were only a page, they might be a little less putrid.
Pope (with Smith) closes with a THB. It’s beautiful looking, but even more–Pope finds a profound moment in his action. Just great.
Well, lucky for you they saved the best for last. I’ve never understood the fan popularity of Art Adams. His pages are poorly managed, filled with way too much visual mark making, his proportions are generally personal and don’t reflect how humans look, and all his women look alike. In his defense, a lot of artists suffer from this, I assume they are depicting what their ideal female form is in their heads. Perhaps they should get involved with a real life human woman to find out what one looks like.