REVIEWS: End Of Month Reviews #98 - February 2012 [Spoilers]

[Adrian J. McClure]

I have to say the story in this issue is very entertaining and the
playing with the medium is great. Will Eisner would be proud.

On Apr 13, 8:41 pm, Saxon Brenton <saxonbren... at hotmail.com>
wrote:
>Adrian created this series as
> an anthology for one-shot short stories,
> and retroactively included a number of
> small LNH20 stories as the first four
> issues, including 'Kung-Fu Holmes'
> (which I want to also touch upon,
> briefly) as issue 4.  So, which
> order to write them up with in
> the EoMR?  Decisions decisions.

And now Tom's writing Kung-Fu Holmes #2. I love that. This kind of
numbering shenannigans is very true to the spirit of the LNH, like
when Martin included other stories in the numbering of his LNH series
until he stopped, or Hubert Bartels started Tales of the LNH with 278.
Not to mention some of the stuff that goes on in mainstream comics
lately, like when the numbering of the late-90s Incredible Hulk
relaunch carried over into the late, lamented Incredible Hercules
while Hulk relaunched with a new series for the Red Hulk. But then
when Bruce Banner came back, Marvel restarted Incredible Hulk at 600,
which includes the numbering of the earlier Incredible Hulk AND Hulk,
while both series were currently running. Not to mention boosting
Avengers to #500 immediately before restarting it. It's like they
wanted to make things as confusing as possible. With the LNH, of
course, we actually are.


>(Which does create one interesting effect
>           that I noticed only now as I come to type up this
>            review entry:  The infodump aspect is obviously
>             meant to be a guide on how the Looniverse-20
>           setting works.  But because the information is
>          expressed in a conversation as speculation,
>        it's very suggestive rather than declarative in
> nature.  It's only when it gets to the end notes and
> Adrian makes the statement that at this point only the
> immigrants from the LNH classic setting are aware of the
> Writers that we get a firm statement on how this information
> should actually be handled.)

This was indeed what I had in mind. The universe is only just getting
started, so I wanted to open up possibilities and give people a chance
to explore these conventions and determine them organically.

> That   makes   it   more   like   the   character   introduction   posts
> that   dominated   the   original   LNH   waaay   back   when   it   was
> starting   out   on   the   newsgroup   rec. arts. comics   in   the
> early   1990s .    Back   when   everything   was   either   what   we
> now   call   chaotic   add- on   posts,   or   simply   throwing   mud
> at   the   wall   and  seeing   what   stuck .    Before   people
> started   writing    structured   net. comic   series   with   ongoing
> storylines.

You know, I don't think there's a writer whose style has changed more
often or more drastically over the years than Tom. He's like the David
Bowie of RACC, but without the makeup. What's interesting is that in
some ways he's come full circle--he started out writing nonsensical
posts that introduced a ton of characters and random chaotic add-on
bits, at a time when the LNH had become more structured. His
undeniable clueless newbieness aside, I wonder whether the earlier LNH
would have recieved him better than circa-1997 RACC. IIRC from when I
was doing research on Ultimate Mercenary's backstory, some people at
the time actually compared him to wReam. So in a weird sort of way
he's come full circle with his recent posts. Of course, they're rather
better written now and there's no Peelix the Cat in sight.



> One Day At A Time: The Chronicles Of Mike Kittyman #23
> 'Names Are Hard'
> A Miscellaneous [MISC] series
> by James Mason

Wonder where he's been? Probably playing Skyrim. He used to be a RACC
writer, but then he took an arrow to the knee! (Sorry.) (... I know
nothing about that game other than the memes.)

>   And
> tellingly, Adrian gives all these
> characters valid points of view, which
> makes the drama and tension of their
> interaction all the more palpable.

I like villains who have complicated motivations that make sense from
their own point of view, like Thanos and Wolfman and Colan's Dracula,
both of whom were an influence on my characterization of the Crossover
Queen.

AJM (realized that Ultimate Mercenary #7 works pretty well as an
anniversary issue, even though I hadn't intended it that way)