The art’s not terrible on the Aliens story—Leonardi and Wiacek do all right (they certainly get the art win for this issue)—but Schultz and Amara’s writing is atrocious. They don’t just feel the need for bad dialogue, they want lots of it too. There’s endless poorly written expository dialogue. And the story is some segue into Dark Horse’s next crappy Aliens series, it doesn’t bother focusing on the neat idea—the aliens home planet. Anyway, decent looking crap.
Then it’s Usagi Yojimbo—my first time reading it ever. I thought the art would be better. Sakai seems to be doing a kids’ book, regardless of the samurai content, but he doesn’t take much time detailing his figures. I wouldn’t even call it anatomy.
Chichester, Barberi and Hvam’s Saint Slayer is ugly and bad. The art’s incomprehensible and Chichester’s writing makes the Aliens guys seem like Faulkner. Total crap.
CREDITS
Aliens, Once in a Lifetime; story by Mark Schultz and Philip D. Amara; pencils by Rick Leonardi; inks by Bob Wiacek; lettering by Steve Haynie. Usagi Yojimbo; story, art and lettering by Stan Sakai. Saint Slayer, Last Bus to Pandemonium, Part Two; story by Dan Chichester; pencils by Carlo Barberi; inks by Jason Hvam; lettering by Clem Robins. Edited by Randy Stradley and Terry Waldron.
