Random Alan Moore TPB reviews

Albion - An Alan Moore tropefest: Silver Age character past their time. The terrible oppressive nature of Thatcher’s England. Scenes that jump cut in anachronistic order. Multiple characters with wacky do-anything powers they use sparingly. Except this time it was done with terrible, terrible artwork in a way that felt vaguely pointless. Assessment: Skip it.

Terra Obscura - Based on characters from Alan Moore’s Tom Strong books (and only somewhat written by him), this takes place in a superhero-filled alternate Earth where the heroes had been kept in suspended animation by aliens for 30 years, several noteworthy ones died, and most of them are readjusting. It’s more of a pair of epilogue “life goes on” stories than anything else, but there’s a very good summary of what came before and who everyone is, and not having read the earlier material doesn’t hurt much. There are a few very funny moments. The artist can only draw two faces and bodies (male and female), but everyone wears a costume so that usually isn’t a problem, and he does some nice expressions on those faces. Assessment: A good read, but not life-changing.

Preacher

Due to a colossal screw-up in heaven, cowboy-drunkard-preacher Jesse Custer has merged with an entity that could give God a run for His money. Hunted by the legendary Saint of Killers and the mysterious organization known as the Grail, Jesse, his vampire buddy Cassidy and his hitman girlfriend Tulip are going to hunt down God and give him what-for.

( I read all nine TPBs of the series in the last week. Had to do something when the power was out, right? )

Overall: After having it on the shelf for years, I’m glad I finally read it to get a sense of what the fuss was about, but I don’t think I’d re-read it, and I think Ennis does better when someone reels him in a little. (He did a bunch of really fabulous Midnighter comics, for example; and the seminal run on Hellblazer.) And if you’ve ever been concerned about a “trigger warning”, this comic is NOT for you.