LNH/REVIEW: Kid Review's Roundup - May 2014

[Andrew Perron]

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PREHISTORIC PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS

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   ><><><> | <><><><  || K I D     R E V I E W ' S ||  ><><><> | <><><><
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   ><><><> | <><><><  || R * O * U * N * D * U * P ||  ><><><> | <><><><
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   ><><><> | <><><><  ||       May      2014       ||  ><><><> | <><><><
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   ><><><> | <><><><  || By:     Andrew     Perron ||  ><><><> | <><><><
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In This Issue:
     The 2013 (20th Annual) RACCies Ceremony
     Journey Into #17
     Journey Into #18
     Powernaut 1969 #1
     The Super Wizard From Space #44

Also Posted:
     Chevalier: The Queen's Mouseketeer (May)
     The Continentals (May)
     Cover Gallery #20i-21i
     Godling #39
     Just Another Multi-Writer Cascade That Will Probably Never Have an
Ending #9
     Looniverse Chronicles #4
     Mighty Medley #5
     Night of the RACCies 2013: Powernaut, Part One and Part Two
     Orphans of Mars: To Bell the Cat #2
     Ripping Off King Arthur #182-187

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The 2013 (20th Annual) RACCies Ceremony
A RACCies [RACCIES] awards show
by Scott Eiler

"What the Heck Is This: The annual rec.arts.comics.creative award show,
appreciating RACC's best and brightest in the silliest way possible."

"That's right, I'm reviewing the RACCies. Hopefully this doesn't end up
with a review feedback loop like last time."

"This is the second year that Scott's done the awards ceremony. And
while last year's ceremony at least tipped its hat to the traditional
McCoskey/Rosen/Brenton/Spitzer/me style of awards, focusing on a behind-
the-scenes story and commercial skits over awards-giving."

"Which, by the way, is 100% cool. I cite a bunch of other writers up
there when talking about style, but really, I stretched out the
awarding-bits more than anyone, and Scott taking the precise opposite
tack is just what's needed to keep things fresh after twenty freakin'
years."

"As for the ceremony itself, it has the type of freeform silliness that
you expect from Scott. Notably, it pays more attention to how the
RACCies as a Thing would work than most showrunners, who just go with
the idea that they're the characters, but out of character. But that's
just doing the Funny in a different way, yaknow?"

"I enjoyed it, and I also enjoyed this series winning Favorite Review
Title. Thankyew!"

Journey Into #17
"Back From the Dead"
An Eightfold [8FOLD] series {HCC44}
by Saxon Brenton

"The first of two terrific tales from the elaborately excellent
Eightfold!"

"'Back From the Dead' continues the strange story of the various Doctors
and Professors Longitude. This one goes in a rather dark direction, with
the diabolical Professor destroying not one but two lives in his return
from death."

"It's interesting how often Saxon juxtaposes humorous elements, like the
generator powered by someone spinning in their grave, with disturbing
elements, like ripping someone's mind out and taking their body. I'm not
sure how often the jolting strangeness of it is intended - was it here?"

"Incidentally, in the thread after this story, there was a discussion on
the fact that Tom stated in Jolt City that there was no mind control in
the Eightfoldverse, and whether copying your mind into someone else's
body 'counts'. I'm going to say that the difference between controlling
someone's mind and replacing someone's mind is more than semantic - at
least in the sense that Tom was talking about, where taking control of
one's body is different than influencing one's thoughts."

Journey Into #18
"This Man... This Rutabaga!"
An Eightfold [8FOLD] series {HCC45}
by Tom Russell

"The second of two et cetera!"

"'This Man... This Rutabaga!' starts off with the words 'COMEDIS
PERSONAE'. Ah, yes, a comedy of errors - one of the finest formats known
to humanity."

"So... in the past, Tom's written some really funny stuff - amazing
kneeslapper gags and character humor. But often - and I think Tom will
agree here - the humor was *mean*, a lot of it coming from characters
being inventively cruel to each other. This, however - this story is not
only less mean, but *more interesting* for it."

"Like, Julie. Under many pens, the Julie/Max relationship would become
the absurdly stereotypical sitcom couple where he's dumb and she's
bitchy and hurr hurr hurr. In this case, though, while there are a few
moments where her lines feel like petty sniping, the majority of them
stay in the much more interesting realm of snappy patter, comebacks and
insults where the emphasis is on humor through cleverness rather than
cruelty. And this in turn makes it feel more like a relationship where
the participants care about each other and have learned and grown from
sharing their life, rather than a mislabeled issue of Doomed Romance."

"Similarly, I quite like Tina's dialogue, especially since it feels much
like the style that a lesser writer would have automatically assigned to
the dude friend without thinking. And each of the four characters has a
unique relationship with each of the others - it isn't just dudes with
dudes, ladies with ladies, and people who want to kiss. Overall, it
feels pretty thoroughly person'd."

"Actually, the only bit I have a problem with is the ending, where a
good gag - the ol' 'what's the worst that could happen?'/'WUXTRY WUXTRY
READ ALL ABOUT IT WORST THINGS HAPPEN' - goes on too long and ends up
feeling oddly disproportionate in its consequences."

Powernaut 1969 #1
"Time To Read the Professional Journals!"
A Superhuman World [SW10] miniseries {HCC45}
by Scott Eiler

"Powernaut 1969 is the beginning of the long-promised Hypergaard arc. On
the one hand, people are disappearing mysteriously; on the other hand,
with the Space Race put on hold because the Solarians banished both
sides of the Cold War from Mars, NASA is researching portal technology.
But these things *clearly* aren't related, and the more important part
is the awkward collision between the philosophies of the psychedelic
Powernaut and the patriarchal Power Patrol."

"Naturally everything Powernaut-related is as fun as ever, and I notice
from looking at the web page that Scott is intentionally trying to vary
the faces more as compared to Powernaut comics that take place before
this. Very cool."

"But the part I find most fascinating is the alt-history idea that the
Space Race was put aside in favor of the Universe Race. It makes a lot
of sense - you still had the same tensions and the same desire to prove
one's country superior in a big, PR-friendly way, so why not reroute
them into a newly-discovered field of scientific endeavor? I wonder if
this feeds into the main Superhuman World history, or is another branch
of fractal time?"

The Super Wizard From Space #44
"The Red Hand of General Dragutin" Part 1
A Marlo Vivo [MV] series
by Wil Alambre

"What the Heck Is This: There are seven Cosmic Crowns, and seven holders
from the seven space-races. The Super Wizard has gone too far. The
universe thunders with cosmic might as the great powers of the galaxies
throw down!"

"FINALLY! I get to do an issue of Super Wizard! <3 (I had a heck of a
time figuring out how to interpret the tag.) And a very worthy issue, at
that."

"Every time we get a look in at the rest of the Super Wizards, they get
more interesting. The rest of the Super Wizards aren't really like *the*
Super Wizard. Is it the Crown? No, I don't think so - I think he was
already Different."

"Ahhh, yes, characterization through exposition, gimme gimme gimme. And
fascinating exposition at that - is this the first time 'the enemy' has
been alluded to like this?"

"The amazing characterization JUST in Dragutin's narration/thoughts -
the way their style differs from the way he speaks, the shock he takes -
it's just REALLY FRIKKIN GOOD okay."

"Side note: I hadn't noticed before that all the Super Wizards seem to
have Russian names. That makes sense; each of the other space-
civilizations seems to take from a distinct Earth civilization. I wonder
what that means for the Super Wizard himself?"

"And of course, the wonderful, ambiguous reveal at the end. Ahhhhh, I
missed you, Super Wizard."

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, back in black