Weekly Comic Reviews for May 13th, 2009

I only had one book this week, which is actually one more than I was expecting when I entered my comic shop. Unfortunately I'm a little busy at work and super-tired due to feeling under the weather so it'll have to be quick.

Elephantmen #19 -- We get a look back into Sahara's history as well as what exactly happened between her and her father in the hospital a few issues back. It's definitely not a light hearted story and the punches aren't pulled. Having said that, the book continues to be incredibly well done. The writing is great as usual and the art told the story very well.

One thing I really like about Elephantmen is that you pretty much get a solid story in each issue. Sure, there was the spore wars with it's cliffhangers and the stories tie into one another building a larger narrative but after reading an issue I don't have that feeling of knowing I have to wait 5 more months for the story to end. They are doing a great job of keeping it episodic while still building on a larger story.

On a side note, Valerie D'Orazio looked at the demographic data for various sites, including comic book ones. I've looked briefly at the table but not enough to come up with anything other than what she has to say on her site. I have noticed that DC has done a few things to try and improve their website (which I've said in the past that I really disliked) but one thing Valerie says plays true for me in a big way:

"One thing I sometimes point out to clients is how a smaller site with a relatively simpler design does so much better than sites with all the flash and bells & whistles -- case in point xkcd, but many personal blogs, etc."

This is one of my pet peeves as well, throwing everying and the kitchen sink into the main page with as much eye catching animation and over the top presentation as you can fit into a page (or more). When I get hit with pages like that it often leads me to go back to Google and search for whatever in particular I'm looking for. If that search ends up leading me to back to the particular page (ie. the Marvel solicit page for a particular issue or character page) then fine but if I can avoid that site, I probably will.

Anyhow, rants on that stuff would probably be better left for another post. One made when I'm thinking a little more clearly.