Shockingly, the Niles story story this issue–one of his Cal McDonald ones–is mildly inoffensive. It’s poorly written detective narration, but at least he’s work in a recognized genre (badly written detective narration). It’s stupid and Casey Jones’s art isn’t any good… but it’s not intolerable.
Oh, the Marz and Wrightson Aliens story ends this issue too. It’s not as predictable as I thought it was going to be, but it’s still pointless. Maybe it’s setup for a series or something.
Shaw’s Alan Bland, about a floundering painter, is all right. Shaw’s art isn’t quite finished enough for the cartoon look, which he seems to be going for. He’s too busy with lines. But it’s not bad.
Pekar and Sacco contribute another page–this time so Pekar can tell jazz enthusiasts to check out Sun Ra. Thanks Harvey.
The issue ends with a sublime Pope installment. It’s just lovely.
Hmmm…looks like Dark Horse shot their wad with the 100 issues….back to the normal stuff with licensed tie ins…I think about this time Pope’s work was his earliest published by anyone but himself…