Suspended Animation Review

Sigil: Death Match V. 5 (containing the never-before-published issues 27-32)/198 pgs. & $17.95 from Checker Books/words: Chuck Dixon; principal art: Scot Eaton/sold at book stores, comics shops & www.checkerbpg.com.

What is the value of seeing only the last ten minutes of a movie or reading the last five pages of a book?  Well, one might learn that the movie or book wasn’t worth watching or reading.   Sigil: Death Match publishes the last six, unpublished issues of an epic, SF comic book series released several years ago and cancelled before those issues made it to book and comics shops.

You might ask: “okay, Mr. Big Tease Comics Reviewer, are you hinting that this isn’t worth reading?”

I’m glad you asked.

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ComicList Critiques by Charles LePage

Milt Caniff's Steve Canyon 1947
Checker Book Publishing Group
Milt Caniff

You will find no finer piece of literature in the world of comic strips or comic books than STEVE CANYON. Sadly, I started reading this strip in its waning years, as the Vietnam war was ending, and newspapers and readers starting turning away from what was a patriotic and military oriented story. However, we can recapture the magic of the strip's early years in this fine trade paperback series by Checker BPG.

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Suspended Animation Review

Scion V. 6 (reprinting CrossGen issues 34-39)/153 pgs. & $17.95 from Checker Book Publishing, principal artist, Jim Cheung; Ron Marz, writer/sold in comics shops and at www.checkerbpg.com.

Imagine the 'knights and damsels' comic strip Prince Valiant sprinkled with pseudo light sabers and aliens and you've pictured Scion, a comic book series that ran for thirty-nine issues before its original publisher went out of business.

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ComicList Critiques by Charles LePage

Star Trek The Key Collection Volume 1
Checker Book Publishing Group
Nevio Zaccara, Alberto Giolitti

Collecting the first eight issues of the Gold Key Star Trek comic book series, this trade paperback certainly is an affordable means of owning and reading these stories. There wasn't much in the way of explanation, however, for anyone new to these comics.

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ComicList Critiques by Charles LePage

GrowinGold with B.C.
Johnny Hart, with friends and family
Checker Book Publishing Group

There’s no shortage of books compiling comic strips to buy and/or read. When I was much younger, I devoured Doonsebury books whenever I had the chance, amazed to discover what usually required waiting every day to read could be found in large volumes. I have recently read, however, one very special book regarding a very special cartoonist and his cartoon: GrowinGold with B.C. A 50 Year Celebration of Johnny Hart. I highly recommend it.

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