We begin with a three witches' framing sequence by Alex Toth and Bill Draut (signed "Wild Bill") that picks up from the previous issue and incorporates Neal Adams's "photo" of Igor and the little girl. The art looks amazing and once again, like the cover, the coloring has a lot to do with the impact the art carries.
This leads us into "The Lonely Road Home" written by Steve Skeates and inked by Murphy Anderson and with pencils attributed to Bob Brown or Jerry Grandenetti. I don't know, some figures are awkward and stilted and don't look anything like Bob Brown. I don't really see Grandenetti in this either, but the Anderson inks are pretty overpowering, so hard to say. Years ago Rob Richards made a wish on a statue that he never grow old and it worked. Now years later, he finds life empty and meaningless and for some unknown reason has returned to his old home town, which he had left when people started to notice that he was not aging. He finds himself drawn to the old Nealson house. There he meets old flame, Linda Nealson, who also has not aged and who says she has been calling to him ever since she heard of the wish he had made, but that it had taken years for him to "hear" her call. When he asks he how she is still young, she explains that like him, she is dead. Like him, she wished to never grow old as well. It ends with a half-page of the framing sequence that just looks fantastic and which some credit to Neal Adams and I can see why.
This is followed by "The Day after Doomsday..." a page and half by Len Wein and drawn by Jack Sparling. Two soldiers from opposing sides meet in the ruins of a large city and shoot each other to death. A third man, called "the last man on earth" finds the two bodies and wonders who won the war. This one also ends with a half page framing sequence, this time it looks much more like Toth and Draut.
Next is our cover story, "The Last Straw" which has absolutely beautiful art by Jose Delbo in service of a great story. Chou Hung was the sole heir to a wealthy family is tasked with keeping the family tomb swept clean each year, lest the family holdings be confiscated by the warlord General Wu. Chou purchases a magic broom from an old warlock that promises that once the tomb is swept by the broom, it will never need sweeping again. Chou uses the broom and is visited by the spirit of his grandfather who tells him that since he has tried to neglect his duties, he will be punished and Chou now finds he cannot let go of the broom until the last straw is worn out through tomb sweeping. It took years but he finally used the last of the broom, but when he went back to his estate for money he found it was owned by the warlord and that all the dust he had magically swept away over the years, returned once the broom was no more. Chou also discovered that he was unnaturally old, that each straw of the broom ate away a year of his life.
This is followed by a page and a half of framing sequence by Toth and Draut, which leads into "Trumpet Perilous!" by maybe Jack Sparling and Jack Abel, but it might not be Sparling as the Abel inks just destroy the pencils. Elliott and Ramsay search for the lost city of Athai. About this story just let me say that if you should perhaps come upon something called The Trumpet of Doom in an ancient city, don't blow it.
Edited by Dick Giordano.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment