#263

I finally got #263 about a week ago.  I was looking for almost a month.  First I misinterpreted the release schedule so I was looking before it was released July 10.  Then it was in none of the four bookstores and five comic shops I got to in the next couple weeks.  The best they had was still #262 on the shelf.  Then it just disappeared from tfaw.com, though they still have #264 and now #265 advertised.  I was getting worried I'd need to order it from somewhere, or worse it sold out before I could get one.  At last, I stopped at one of the B&N again and there it was.  Now in a couple weeks I get to start looking again for #264.  I don't really want to subscribe or order online, but I hope it won't be this difficult next time.

Was it worth it?  For me it was.  I want to keep getting the printed magazine, for as long as it exists.  If HM ever goes electronic-only it'll lose me.  Flipping though pages and perusing the details on the printed pages is one of the things I really enjoy about reading HM.  I need glasses to do it now, but it's what I like.  The experience of reading on a screen does not compare.  I'm behind the times, and I can't argue with the power of electronic media, and I do miss the free .pdf samples, but the paper mag is what I like.

I will say I like the ad for t-shirts on the website, "the most incredible T-shirts in this galaxy".  It's reprised from the magazine ad in the 70s, which also used to say the HM logo was "flocked as thick as your little finger."  On this version they replaced the logos on the photo with a newer chrome version and did it pretty nicely.

With that, to the review:

Cover - 7 - This looks better on paper in my hands than it did on the screen.  A somewhat classical composition, angelically gazing skyward, flowing robes, drawing a sword.  And a toned and ample abdomen.  Michael C. Hayes also has a gallery in this issue and he seems to like this part of a woman, and I don't mind it a bit.

Inside the front cover is an ad for a Star Trek action figure that "Features Interchangeable Parts!" (it's Spock).  Funny that there's no indication of price or even how to get one but for a small website address at the bottom.  I guess if you have to ask you can't afford it.  Contrasting is the opposite ad on the next page for HM subscriptions with numbers and dollar signs all over, and even a cut-out order slip.  Does anyone actually still do that?  How many of these could HM receive in a year?  (Though people did.  It happens that the bulk of the mags in my collection are from a nearly complete set I came upon soon after I started collecting them.  Every so often one of them is missing an order slip.  Usually the other side of the cutout missing isn't a big deal, unless it's Rock Opera or something.  Argh.)

Animal'z - 8 - After over a year, another installment of this Bilal creation.  It may even be continuous with the first two we saw in HM.  This story seems to have been released in a book in French.  I like the sketchpad art even more than before.  The storytelling is even more obtuse.  People on boats, half zebra horses, a flipper for a foot.  It says continued next issue again.  Be still my heart, I can hardly wait. 

Project Sefiroth - 5 - A couple geared-up people in a post-civilization wasteland fighting inhuman creatures, with the text as some poetic lament.  It's incomprehensible enough for me to like it, but I don't care for the art.

Gallery - 7 - Michael C. Hayes shares some more of his work and a nice autobio.  Excellent technique, a bit static sometimes, but I do like the warrior angel women.  But the arrow is usually on the other side of the bow.

Beginning and Ending - 7 - Parts One and Two.  Pretty nicely shaded black and white line art, and a story of power and supernatural intrigue.  A setting resembling feudal Japan, a monk and lost child and warrior, a confrontation with dark forces.  It says to be continued.  These guys don't know about having the arrow on the other side of the bow either, but they seem to be pretty good shots anyway.

The Nature of Things - 6 - In a future civilization, a candidate Drwn from the citizenry meets the ruling elders, for a chance to join them.  In a surprising way, Drwn "evolves" into a ruler.  The art is just ok.  The story is just better.

The Eternity is Only an Instant - 7 - In this story a guy is killed in an accident, then searches eternity for God to find out why.  He does but he doesn't.  But he gets to wait for his beloved for eternity, but it's only an instant.  This manages to cover a lot of ground in just a few pages.  The art is ok, some of it is nice.

Megarobot - 5 - Giant Killer Robot and not much else.

The Axe - 6 - Told pretty well, the art is mostly ok.  But it's such an absurd perspective for a protagonist (and not in a good way).  Like she's really gonna wanna just do ya right after you revive her from death?  Again?

Artist's Studio - 6 - Rafael Rivera displays his abilities with some of his work.  I like some of the absurd and surreal stuff.  The caricatures look well done but are less interesting to me.

The Asencion - 7 - The art looks good.  The story tells of humanity's majority selling their lives, to alien enslavement, by degrees.  Might be some social commentary in there too.  I thought Asencion in the Contents was a typo again until I saw it was spelled that way in the story.

The Nephthys Chronicles - Star Light, Star Bright - 6 - Interesting but thin, but pretty.  Might be more of them, don't know that we'll see any though.

Not too bad, hope it's easier getting the next one.