Ragemoor #1 - Was I the only one entirely disappointed by it?

Zhurrie

I can be critical at times (I did spend over 10 years as a reviewer/critic so that is to be expected ;) ) but I had high hopes for Corben's art and this new series. Within a few pages I honestly had no idea what the hell I was looking at. The art is a damned mess and looks like all of the faces are poorly rendered 3D/CGI from the early 90's and then occasional hand drawn panels of environment/background that look great but entirely different. Also, there is really bizarre use of spots of blur in random places that have no purpose or context and make it seem like little droplets of water spattered some of the art blurring it in tiny spots. The writing is forced to sound important but isn't and in a way that isn't done to be on purpose/campy which is the only way it would work IMO.

On other forums people that were celebrating Corben before even seeing the issue are raving about it still after it has come out and making excuses and claiming it is all on purpose and all kinds of apologist crap. I was genuinely let down by this and I can't find one redeeming thing to say about it, but it feels like I'm the only one trapped in some Twilight Zone dimension where no one else sees (or wants to see) it. I dig art... crazy, sketchy, abstract, odd, experimental, etc. all with no problems and like to think I have a pretty good handle on it, this just falls entirely flat for me.

Zhurrie

Christ, I must be the only schmuck that even read this crapfest. :)

JohnTilton

i tried to get a copy, but the art threw me off, just didn't like what I saw in the previews. after hearing how many people hated it, I'm glad my LCS didn't have any copies left

David_D

I got it, based on so often loving Corben's work, including some of his recent work, like Hellboy one-shots, and the Poe adaptation he did in a recent issue of Dark Horse Presents.

I was disappointed by this, too, and won't be getting the rest of the mini. I didn't hate it as much as you did, and didn't find the details of the art, like the faces, to be that different from other Corben work I've seen lately. Though I don't think I have read something in B&W from him since the Poe and Lovecraft adaptations he did for Marvel MAX years back, so it may be that part of his storytelling and clarity got improved by having a genius color artist like Dave Stewart working with him. I definitely did find the storytelling in this muddled and confusing, though that may be as much to do with the script as Corben.

It was a let down, though. Hopefully whatever Corben does next will be back to form. I would expect so, given that there has been recent work from him that is much better.