The Comics Journal is one of the few places left to offer up decent, chunky reviews of a huge variety of comics on a regular basis, which is a great thing and sorely needed in this time when a twitter thread is about as in-depth as you get, and they still do that classic Journal thing of ripping into something that everybody else has loved.
And a recent review of Ed Piskor's X-Men comic did just that, and even though I highly rate Piskor's work, it was a genuine breath of fresh air. It did make some super subjective comments about the limits of Piskor's art - it's way more fluid and flowing on a panel-to-panel basis than it first looks - but it also asked a very good question: who is this project actually for? Too alternative for the mainstream crowd, and the artcomic crew aren't going to be down with corporate bullshit.
Fortunately, I'm exactly this kind of audience. A idiosyncratic artist with a distinctive style re-interpreting stories that I am deeply familiar with? Yes please!
I know the long, convoluted story that Piskor is retelling enough to dig on the changes, and appreciate what he's going for - I'm such a fucking nerd that I notice how the cover gallery on the endpapers goes weirdly out of order halfway down the page - and the small changes he makes to the story are fucking fascinating.
That kind of affection doesn't go away, and to see it interpreted through another's eyes - sometimes with endearing clumsiness, and sometimes with flawless grace -is always going to be attractive. The Journal's mileage may vary, but this is my jam, and I happily eat it all up.
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