Since I didn't make it over to the comic book store on Wednesday (Extremely busy at the day job!), I can finally write a review instead of of reading the new stack of comics I usually get on Wednesday. Last Wednesday (5/19) was sort of a light comic week for me, it's not that I didn't get a bunch of books, I just didn't think there were a lot of great books from last week. The only real standout of the bunch was Demo #6, which I won't be writing a full review for, because...
1) A whole lot of other folks have already done it.
2) I would just be writing an 8 word review for the book: "I love this series, I love this book".
Demo #6 was a little different for me, taking a turn for the supernatural, but the book was still another excellent outing for Wood & Cloonan.
Today's review/commentary will be about The Gift #4. Now The Gift is not on my pull list, it was a freebee with my normal slab of comics. First off The Gift isn't something I would normally get, maybe I would pick it up and flip through it, but definitely wouldn't normally buy. The art has it's strength's and weaknesses, faces are a bit odd looking, anatomy is all over the place, and in the middle of everything the art goes sort of "manga" then it switches back. Some of the decent art is still a bit too "Top Cow" for me. He does do a great job on the "Ancient One" and in one or two places he gets the stripper right. But for me the art has more weaknesses than strengths.
The writing for me is...ehhh. One scene that I want to point out is when the "Ancient One" give the "gift" to the main character, the gift is in the shape of an extremely nasty looking bug that digs itself into the neck of the main character. Now this set of scenes doesn't look comfortable, Gregory writes the scenes over four panels, and the main character doesn't react until the next facing page. A large sharp bug digs itself into the mans neck, and nothing until it's nearly 75% in. This guy is one tough cat, I yelp when a mosquito bites me.
All in all the concept is neat, although I've seen elements of it all before. In a nutshell, a mysterious figure bestows a "gift" on a person and all sorts of wackiness ensues. It's got a sort of Twilight Zone/Tales from the Crypt feel to it, without being too "jokey". Did the free copy get me interested in the rest of the series? Ummm no...but I'l take another free one if it's given to me.