Anyway to other matters.
Before I get to my main thing here I just want to quickly ask is Slaine - The Killing Field the best 3 page 2000ad story ever? I mean I accept there's probably not too much competition but its just so effective and beautiful in its grim ugliness.
Oh and I love Steve Parkhouse so and I do like Jim McCarthy* but the last two parts of Full Mental Jacket so that Steve Parkhouse and Jim McCarthy* just doesn't work.
Anyway to my main point. A.B.C. Warriors - The Black Hole ... hmmm .... man I used to love this, I mean really love it, as in think it was better than the original run of the strip. Now... and don't get me wrong I still really enjoyed it... but its really lost some of its sheen. I think a big part of that is I'm 'growing' out of Simon Bisley's art. In the same way as I've grown older I've come to love Jack Kirby or Ron Smith, I've stopped liking The Biz so much as I now can hardly look at Jim Lee's work.
That's cool, tastes change, but what's more signifcent here is the fact that the art is so defining in how I think about the story. Normally I think of myself as more writer focused than art focused. It varies a little and its not as if I don't think the art is important, its just I think great art can't save a naff story and naff art doesn't destroy a great story. Yet here the art is so BIG so significent at times the story can get a little lost.
Which is a shame as its a good one, a very good one. Mills at his best. The A.B.C. Warriors at their most chaotic and interesting before they became all KHAOTIC and dull (they do get better again luckily). Its clear though good as the story is, interesting and atypical as the characteration, probably the most interesting part of the story, the whole plot thing does feel secondary. My option of this story is shaped by my option of the art.
My view of SMS hasn't really changed over the years. Its close but not quite there for me. It has moments of wonder and glory, but at others there's something off about it, the lighting, the way he structures faces, the inking. Nothing quite gells and nothing feels too solid and grounded. Its not bad, not bad at all, but just not as evocative as Bisley's. As I've said already however, Bisley is so of his time, so of my time, that I look at it now and while I still enjoy it, it has nowhere near the impact on me it did back in the day.
I'm really intrigued to see how I get on with Horned God now!
*It is Jim not Brendan as listed on Barney right? I mean that's got to be Jim McCarthy inking Steve Parkhouse surely????