Graphic Novels and the Weight

On the otherside of a post from last week, a quick run down of the graphic novels I've read in the last couple of months.

Dark Knight Strikes Again - I had heard a whole bunch of complaints before I read Miller's last release before the Sin City movie; sloppy art, bad colouring, etc, i didn't thaink that was the case; the colouring was garish at times but the art fit in well. However it did lack the political resonance of Dark Knight Returns but for an adventure comic its great.

Walking Dead Vol 3 - I like apocalypse/end of society stories and subsequently i like Walking Dead, it helps alot that its well put together. My main criticism is that its very talky, Aldard (the artist) first came to my attention when he did the XFiles comic (which was very good for the first year and a bit) but again he is saddled with a writer that fills panels with talking heads. It would be nice if once in every volume there was a couple pages of zombie brain hammering, not the odd panel. However on the good side, all that talking does provide a basis for rich and rounded characters.

Hate Vol 1 - Couldn't recommend anything more than this volume spanning the first 15 issues of Peter Bagge's Hate (and its only like 25 bucks). Again, alot of talking heads (but is a slacker comic after all) but some very funny visual stuff as well.

Barefoot Serpent - I'm usually pretty cluey about metaphors and subtext; i like making connections between peices of narrative, but Morse's juxtaposed biography of Akira Kurosawa and Adventures of Hawaiian Girl perplexes me. i liked Morse's Commissioner Gordon/Batman one shot and Plastic Man comics i picked up cheap once but this did not do much for me. Maybe i need to reread it.

Trenches - i mixed up Scott Morse and Scott Mills. In either case, it was ok, just lacked a bit of oomf, some resonance or something.