Tag Archives: Terry Austin

The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones 2 (February 1983)

Posted on 15 April 2013 | Leave a comment

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Denny O’Neil takes over scripting from Byrne, who sticks around to pencil, and adds xenophobia and misogyny. Not to mention Indy talking for the first half of the issue in expository paragraphs.

Ever wanted to see Indiana Jones gleefully kill members of a bronze age tribe? Here’s your comic. Or to see him buddy up with Nazi sailors? Again, this comic’s the one for you.

O’Neil seems entirely ignorant of archeology, so ignorant it’s as though he didn’t even see Raiders of the Lost Ark, which isn’t exactly real archeology but it’s better than what O’Neil writes about here.

He also seems disinterested in the time period. His writing read like a resentful employee’s contractual obligation.

Bryne’s panel compositions are interesting. He goes for cinematic. It doesn’t always work, but at least he’s trying.

Also interesting is Indy’s face. Everyone else has Byrne face; not Indy. Maybe Austin drew it.

CREDITS

22-Karat Doom!; writer, Denny O’Neil; pencillers, John Byrne and Terry Austin; inker, Austin; colorist, Bob Sharen; letterer, Janice Chiang; editor, Louise Jones; publisher, Marvel Comics.

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The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones 1 (January 1983)

Posted on 12 April 2013 | Leave a comment

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There are a lot of unexpected things in this first issue of The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones. For example, writer and penciller John Byrne doesn’t work at making Indiana Jones likable. He’s a bit of a jerk, really, and definitely irresponsible.

I also wasn’t expecting Indy to be mooning over the absent Marion; Byrne uses the lines for character, not to call back to Raiders of the Lost Ark. It’s deft. Not deft is repeating the kidnapping sequence from that film. It’s not predicable either. One would think they would come up with something original.

The villain’s original (and cringeworthy). He’s a big fat black guy named Black. Maybe Byrne was trying to be funny.

The comic does work though. Byrne and Terry Austin’s art is fine, better than most licensed stuff, and the story moves.

Byrne also comes up with an excellent, serial-inspired cliffhanger.

It’s okay enough.

CREDITS

Writer, John Byrne; pencillers, Byrne and Terry Austin; inker, Austin; colorist, Bob Sharen; letterer, Joe Rosen; editor, Louise Jones; publisher, Marvel Comics.

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Camelot 3000 12 (April 1985)

Posted on 2 July 2012 | Leave a comment

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So, I’ll just spoil a little of Camelot 3000‘s finish, not all the details, though there are a lot and all of them are dumb. Anyway, the comic ends with a somewhat cute alien pulling Excalibur from a stone in the far flung future.

It’s kind of like the end of 2010. It’s an amusing scene and Bolland gives it a lot of grandeur. Too bad the pages previous to it are lame. Not the art, of course, but Barr’s story. It’s dreadful.

He also seems to have done the whole subplot with the gender-changed Knight to give Bolland an excuse for a lesbian sex scene. It’s nearly tasteful, but there are some really tasteless additions to plummet it.

The ethnic supporting Knights both get weak send offs and the Modred conclusion’s silly.

It’s a bad finish to a bad series. Bolland and Austin deserved a much better project.

CREDITS

Long Live the King!; writer, Mike W. Barr; penciller, Brian Bolland; inker, Terry Austin; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Len Wein; publisher, DC Comics.

Contemporaneously…

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Camelot 3000 11 (July 1984)

Posted on 1 July 2012 | Leave a comment

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Why would Morgan LeFay resurrect Isolde and let her work against Morgan’s evil plans? It makes absolutely no sense, but I guess it doesn’t matter because the Earth events this issue have no bearing on the actual story. Barr’s just filling space.

The adventures on the mysterious tenth planet aren’t bad though. I mean, they get bad at the end, when Barr reduces his cast to two or three important characters and ignores everyone else… but it’s not bad at the start. For once, Barr has something for the Knights to do. Shame it took him until the second to last issue.

There’s some cool stuff with the aliens too. Barr’s a lot bigger on gender equality than his soft handling of his historically rapist protagonists suggests. He gets so close this issue, I expected him to address it.

He does not.

This issue is probably a whole third good.

CREDITS

War!; writer, Mike W. Barr; penciller, Brian Bolland; inker, Terry Austin; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Len Wein; publisher, DC Comics.

Contemporaneously…

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Camelot 3000 10 (March 1984)

Posted on 30 June 2012 | Leave a comment

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I get Barr’s dramatic thrust now–Merlin’s been kidnapped, Modred has the Grail, but I can’t remember what the series’s initial dramatic thrust. What was Arthur back to fix? Was it the unhappiness of human race or was it to drive the aliens off the planet?

He failed the second in the comic and I assume the first too, even though Barr has basically forgotten there are people in Camelot‘s world besides his main cast.

This issue has visual throwbacks to both Tron and the Flash Gordon movie. Not sure either of those films should be a visual source guide; also not sure who’s to blame, Bolland or Barr.

The art’s decent, though it shows signs of a rush again. Austin apparently can’t work miracles.

There’s a neat implication Morgan LeFay can’t have any contact with other people because her back fungus eats them. Makes one wonder if she’s lonely.

CREDITS

Prelude to War!; writer, Mike W. Barr; penciller, Brian Bolland; inker, Terry Austin; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Len Wein; publisher, DC Comics.

Contemporaneously…

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Camelot 3000 9 (December 1983)

Posted on 30 June 2012 | Leave a comment

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Barr really doesn’t know what to do with a big cast, does he? I keep forgetting about the Japanese Knight of the Round Table and the black one. The Japanese guy is actually Lancelot’s son, but Barr hasn’t explored the subplot, which is too bad.

The art, from Bolland and Austin again, is great. Too bad the story isn’t. Some of the problems do come from Bolland’s composition though. It was unclear the Earth had been overridden with the aliens; Bolland could have established that setting better. He doesn’t.

There’s a lot of flashbacks to Old Camelot this issue, most of them revealing how awful the characters behaved. Arthur tried to drown his son? The transgender (now female) knight used to rape peasant girls? Barr doesn’t acknowledge they don’t seem any better than Morgan LeFay. A lot less amusing in fact.

At least it’s a relatively fast and painless read.

CREDITS

Grailquest 3000; writer, Mike W. Barr; penciller, Brian Bolland; inker, Terry Austin; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Len Wein; publisher, DC Comics.

Contemporaneously…

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Camelot 3000 8 (September 1983)

Posted on 29 June 2012 | Leave a comment

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The art this issue, with the Austin inks, reaches an outstanding level. It makes the comic worthwhile, which is good, since Barr’s plotting is a disaster.

He continues the betrayal subplot, then decides to force an entire issue out of it by contriving a complication. Worse, he keeps complicating the situation to contrive more pages. Sure, the art’s great, but it’s an utterly pointless narrative.

One can see Barr’s outline–this issue ends with the quest for the Holy Grail returning. Why is the Holy Grail important, because of Arthurian legend… but Arthurian legend only has as much to do with Camelot 3000 as Barr forces it to have.

He’s also got this relatively new character (the girlfriend for the girl who used to be a guy) who’s the stupidest human being on the planet. And Barr’s future has a lot of overpopulation.

Or maybe it’s just Barr being lazy.

CREDITS

Betrayal; writer, Mike W. Barr; penciller, Brian Bolland; inker, Terry Austin; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Len Wein; publisher, DC Comics.

Contemporaneously…

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Camelot 3000 7 (August 1983)

Posted on 28 June 2012 | Leave a comment

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Terry Austin takes over inks and immediately the art starts looking great again. Bolland (or Austin) even manages some backgrounds. Too bad the comic’s really, really dumb.

First off, the battle scene. Maybe Merlin magicked the Knights to survive in space without protection, but he didn’t magic all the supporting cast they meet to survive.

The two subplots Barr works on here–former Sir Tristan, current Lady Tristan, betraying the Knights for a sex change from Morgan LeFay and then Guinevere gleefully cuckolding Arthur–are exceptionally lame. The Tristan decision has no weight, but it’s not monumental (yet). But Guinevere and Lancelot? There’s no narrative purpose other than a melodramatic one. Barr’s got to keep the characters shallow and poorly written to excuse his goofy plot turns.

The art does make up for some of it, and Morgan LeFay continues to amuse, but the writing’s painfully weak.

Camelot‘s a bore.

CREDITS

Betrayal; writer, Mike W. Barr; penciller, Brian Bolland; inker, Terry Austin; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Len Wein; publisher, DC Comics.

Contemporaneously…

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The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans 1 (September 1982)

Posted on 6 July 2011 | Leave a comment

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I’m hard-pressed to think of a worse comic than The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans. Besides the Chris Claremont writing, which is atrocious, laughable and so on, there’s the Walt Simonson art. I’m not a big Simonson fan, but I’d never thought he was capable of being terrible or incompetent (he’s got some Liefeld body proportions here). So it’s not even pleasant to see. Terry Austin does his many dot backgrounds, which is cute, but he certainly doesn’t fix the awful art.

The story involves Dark Phoenix and Darkseid teaming up. Big whoop.

Claremont tries to introduce a shared universe—the TItans have just never run into the X-Men before (so they don’t feel bad about trying to kill Professor X). Claremont writes the Titans terribly, unless Starfire’s supposed to be a slut. The X-Men get all the page time anyway.

It’s complete garbage.

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Marvel Treasury Edition 28 (July 1981)

Posted on 4 July 2011 | Leave a comment

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Was Jim Shooter paying himself by the word, because I don’t think I’ve ever read more exposition in a comic book. It’s terrible exposition too, but I suppose the sentences are grammatically correct. For the most part.

But what I can’t figure out is the artwork. The combination of John Buscema on pencils and Joe Sinnott on inks produces one of the worst eighties comic books I can remember seeing. Superman’s figure is strangely bulky, with a little head. But the facial features on everyone are awful. It’s a hideous thing to read.

The story concerns Dr. Doom trying again to take over the world, which is boring. The interesting stuff is Clark working at the Bugle and Peter working at the Planet. They should do a series. But not by Shooter, who makes Peter constantly horny.

Interesting to see the black chick after Clark though.

It’s an awful comic.

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Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man (January 1976)

Posted on 30 June 2011 | 2 Comments

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It’s too bad this one doesn’t work out better, but at least it fails in an interesting way. Superman and Spider-Man simply can’t work together. It’s not so much the problems with them not matching powers—Lex Luthor zaps Spidey with some red Kryptonite powers to even the odds at one point—it’s the characters themselves, they’re too different.

The comic’s split into four parts. First is a Superman prologue, then a Spidey, then Doctor Octopus and Lex teaming up before the culminating team-up between Spidey and Superman. The first three parts work great. The fourth part barely works at all. Peter Parker and Lois Lane meeting up, professionally, it works great. Morgan Edge and Jonah getting hammered? Also great.

Superman calling Spidey “web-slinger?” Not great. Though Spidey gets away with calling him “Supes.”

The art hodgepodge makes it visually interesting, but not good.

It’s sadly charmless.

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Cloak and Dagger 4 (January 1986)

Posted on 13 February 2010 | Leave a comment

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I can’t believe Marvel didn’t relaunch Cloak and Dagger during the Bush years. It’s a neo-con wet dream (complete with discreet racism, with Cloak being the evil black, corrupting Dagger, and cops beating witnesses).

This issue is, I think, my first Cloak and Dagger ever. I wasn’t missing much. They’re both really annoying. She’s holier than thou and he’s, well, nuts too. The whole thing reads like a PSA on acid, which I kind of understand, but not really. I get the intent–superheroes versus drugs–but it’s so utterly simplistic, even when it tries to be complicated, it’s just annoying.

I mean, you want to tell me no comic book creators ever dabble in recreation drugs? Please. I’m sure some blog about it today. Cloak and Dagger lumps them all together because it’s propaganda; it’s not even well-written propaganda.

And Leonardi’s art is super bad at times.

CREDITS

Ultimatums; writer, Bill Mantlo; penciller, Rick Leonardi; inker, Terry Austin; colorist, Petra Scotese; letterer, Ken Bruzenak; editor, Carl Potts; publisher, Marvel Comics.

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