Moonstone Forums

Enjoyed it a lot
http://germworks.net/blog/2007/05/14/moo...en-review/

Thanks, Germ.

I'm glad everyone seems to have enjoyed it.

Ok, I have now been "reading" it, and I just wonder what do everyone "enjoy" here?

Is this a part one of an ongoing series?? Did not say so on the cover! And where can I find the savage looking creatures the Pahntom fights on the cover?

The story itself?? Well it was very close to a Phanto story, but far to short for my liking! Not much Phantom in it at all, all he did was show up in the last part and served some jokes and talked "foreign"!

And what was the poing by using the story about the Carlyle? Did the Phantom pass on the good mark only once? Would it not be better if the writer did come up with something different?

When reading mr. Rhoades' "Behind the mask" we learn that the good mark was drawn different in the same story, as a "tribute" to McCoy and Barry!!

Well, we all know they existed and did good work, what about starting to produce your "own stories" Moonstone, not retelling and mixed visualizing of anything as "tributes"??

When will the "learning" first grade be done and we can start to expect some Pahntom stories from you??

The art was only just ok, and the story worked OK! But all in all the story was to short, and the story ended into nothing, just a promize of another issue!!

I feal nice to day and will give it a 2.5 of 6 anyway!!

CR

Another excellent issue. The story feels like and is seemingly intended to be a prologue to Invisible Children, and it certainly does its job very well in that manner. Like Brando's Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now (or Heart of Darkness, if you like), HIM somehow becomes more and more scary and intriguing when he is only talked about by other characters, and not seen at all. It leaves a lot of room for one's imagination, and I wonder if he will be as menacing as he appears in my thoughts when he makes a proper appearance in a story (he is only seen very briefly in IC part 1).

The Phantom only appears at the end, but like HIM, he is definetely talked about, leading to the reader somehow feeling his presence throughout. I like the Ghost Who Walks being shown only briefly. It contributes to his mystery, and the otherworldness other people must feel when they actually meet the man.

When it comes to pure storytelling, this is easily Mike's most assured and best story this far. Not a panel is wasted on anything that does not somehow contribute to the story, leading to a tight, tense script. The story strangely feels longer than, let's say, Tiger's Blood part 1, and that is a good thing in my eyes. More room for detail is always great in a comic.

I love Silvestre's art. He is definetely the best Phantom artist on a Moonstone book since Pat Quinn (still my favourite, but for how long?), and I hope he stays on the title for as long as possible. It's cool to see someone who might be more influenced by the great Sy Barry than, let's say, the likes of Jim Lee and Todd McFarlane (not that that is a bad thing, mind).

If it wasn't for issue 17, this would be Mike Bullock's best this far. It works quite well as a stand-alone story, but as a prelude to what seems to be one of the Phantom's most difficult tasks ever, it's great.

My only question is, why did the perfectly normal tribesmen look like, well, ancient cavemen on the (cool) cover when they are shown as natural, normal human beings inside the book?

Glad you liked it, Walker.

The underlying theme of the story is how Angela perceives things around her, and how those perceptions prove to be flawed.

Notice how she refuses to trust a non "civilized" person, but is then betrayed by a man she considers to be civilized. This is followed by her fear of the tribesman, which leads to her jumping to the conclusion that they're out to hurt her, when in reality they're trying to protect her.

The cover image is an extension of that: her mind's view of the "primitive" tribesman, as she fears for her life, exaggerates how they actually appear.

Now that's an interesting answer, thanks for the explanation.

Angela's fear for what is foreign to her was obviously quite easy to see in the story, but the thing about the cover was certainly surprising and very clever. I didn't think of it that way.

That is an interesting answer Mike, however I would think it probably was not portrayed like that in the story.