Matthew Dow SmithCritiques

It's pretty sad that I didn't have the patience to finish a graphic novel, but this one was just boring.

I read this by each individual comic, and in the novel form, there were changed made that I'm sure are for the better. It was a decent comic, but a little boring. This is probably only for die-hard fans of the show, rather than the casual reader.

Honestly, there is no reason to read this. It's not crap or atrocious, just a boring video-game cash in that doesn't say anything. One for franchise fans only.

I'm extreemely happy that they chose to write a graphic novel about John Winchester rather than Sam and Dean. The brothers may be the main characters of the series, but the regular novels are already expansions of their adventures in the tv series, and I fear that a graphic novel adaptation would be much of the same. Saturating the market with every medium in which a story can be published can be a very effective marketting technique, but it has to be done in a way that fans do not feel like they are being overwhelmed with material that is all the same.

I have to mention my disappointment with the artwork style though. The series (both the tv series and the graphic novel medium) may be marketted towards men/boys, but that does not mean that they will not respond positively to aesthetically pleasing artwork. Sure, Supernatural is gritty and grim, but cinematic qualities of the tv series are always exceptional, and the artwork of the graphic novel should reflect that. Artistic unity is important in keeping your readers happy (it created symbiosis between genres and storylines), but the artwork is so simplistic that it could definitely be considered sloppy, and causes nothing but disgruntledness from this series fan!

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3328732.html

This is one of the IDW Eleventh Doctor comics, and actually appears to be the only one I have. The Doctor, Amy and Rory wind up in Casablanca during the second world war, and as well as wandering Zelig-like in and out of the background of the famous film, they become caught up in a Silurian plot to take over the world. It's a neat trick to combine both Who lore and a well-known story from outside the Whoniverse, and I felt that Fialkov's narrative worked well. I wasn't always so happy with Smith's art, which inclines a bit to the abstract; I was really tempted to buy this by Mark Buckingham's lovely cover, with its homage to the film's famous poster.½

The second volume in the 11th Dr. Who Graphic Novels. This one has two very interesting stories. First they (Rory, the Doc, and Amy) get transported by the Tardis to 9th century Earth and wind up in the middle between the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons. Then they try to take a vacation world with a dimensional fracture that makes it so there are tons of different stories and times that you can participate in. But, they get interrupted by a crashing Sontaran ship, and then, yikes, tons of Sontarans, Rorys, Amys, and Doctors.

I liked both stories, but, the character I liked best was Kevin the dinosaur in the second story. He was great. The art seemed a bit better than the last two too, but, I still liked the story more than the art.

I loved it for riffing on Casablanca and building a Who story in the interstices. Didn't love the art style, though

Library copy.

Natasha and I have been really enjoying these. Kevin is now my favorite character. I recommend the graphic novels and the only associated novel I've so far read, [b:Doctor Who: Plague of the Cybermen|17162391|Doctor Who Plague of the Cybermen|Justin Richards|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1360260760s/17162391.jpg|23587914], as well as the show itself and the vigorous fandom of Twitter as a good shared-family sort of interest. [Veronica loves the show, but prefers her reading more contemporary and realistic]. The graphic novels are providing a good way for me to keep in parallel with Natasha, even though I'm mostly not reading to her anymore.

Yes, I'm following in the footsteps of [a:Neil Gaiman|1221698|Neil Gaiman|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1234150163p2/1221698.jpg] and sharing our multi-generational fandom.

Library copy.

Joshua Hale Fialkov takes over the writing duties on IDW's Doctor Who comic from Tony Lee for one volume, wherein the Doctor, Amy, and Rory land in Casablanca in 1941, and you might find much of what happens somewhat familiar... only I don't remember Bogart meeting any Silurians. This is pretty fun at first, especially thanks to the always-dependable Matthew Dow Smith on art, but I found that as the plot went on it got more complicated, and not in a good way, and thus the resolution came across as curiously cursory. Good, but not great-- admittedly, the best out of the four volumes of Doctor Who II (as the title page of this trade calls it).

Tony Lee managed to surprise me with the first few pages of this collection, with the prologue to "Space Squid," a cute little montage of adventures with the new TARDIS crew: the eleventh Doctor, Amy, Rory, and Kevin the Robotic Tyrannosaurus. But then it becomes a tedious space station runaround, made worse by Lee's decision to name all the station crew after cast members from Castle, guaranteeing you get knocked out of the story every 2-3 pages. I liked Josh Adams's artwork in the prologue, but in the story itself, it's stiff and overly posed, like he's traced too many reference photos that don't quite fit the circumstances of the story.

Next is "Body Snatched" with the ever-reliable Matthew Dow Smith on art. Seriously, this guy is good, and if any artist gets carried over to Titan's Doctor Who comics, it had better be him. The story itself should be fun-- the Doctor and Amy switch bodies-- but of course it's more a television premise, where you'd get to see Matt Smith play Amy and Karen Gillan play the Doctor, and so it feels squandered here, and the plot that surrounds this is unnecessarily convoluted.

The rest of the book is a set of shorts, which are on the whole entertaining. Lee and Paul Grist's "Silent Knight," a textless story where the Doctor teams up with Santa, is fun. Joshua Hale Fialkov and Blair Shedd's "Run, Doctor, Run," where the Doctor lands on an Escher-like world (though not Castrovalva-like) is gorgeous to look at and fun enough for its length. Matthew Dow Smith (on writing and not art) and Mitch Gerads provide "Down to Earth," a decent tale with gorgeous art of the Doctor and an alien hiding on Earth. Finally, Doctor Who Magazine stalwart Dan McDaid crosses the pond for "Tuesday," a zany alien invasion story framed by a letter from Amy to her mum. McDaid gets these characters, in both writing and art; I'd love to see a full Doctor Who comic series by him.

There are two stories here, curiously undifferentiated in the collection. The first, only an issue long, has the Doctor, Amy, and Rory playing soccer with Anglo-Saxons, and it is not as fun as that description ought to imply.

The rest of the volume is made of what I can only assume is the title story. It's one of those tales where time zones get all mashed together, and to be honest, I find those tedious if they have no more substance than that-- Doctor Who long ago passed the point where temporal juxtaposition was innately interesting. Thankfully, this one does have a little bit of something to offer, mainly an army of temporal duplicates of the TARDIS crew, Sontarans on flying carpets, and a robotic dinosaur named Kevin. Also, Matthew Dow Smith's artwork, which is one of the real high points of IDW's Doctor Who stories over all. When Worlds Collide isn't great, but it's an above-average adventure for the range.

It's a bit slow, but this part ties up all the threads that were thrown out in the previous two books. It's good - as the Doctor always is - but the ending got a little too wibbly wobbly timey wimey even for me. The villains point of view is very well presented, though, and this is still a fun little trilogy and should be read by all Whovians.½

The Doctor is in Hollywood during in the 1920s where he meets famous actor "Archie Maplin" and is then is captured and put on trial by the Shadow Proclamation for interfering with timelines. The Doctor is always entertaining and I enjoy the graphic novels even if they're not always great. This one is good and I liked it a lot.½

I guess if you cared about Lee's original companions, you'd care about this book, but I don't and I don't. The situation here is contrived by a seemingly-omnipotent and poorly-motivated enemy, solely to teach the Doctor some kind of lesson that I don't really understand the purpose of. The end piles on crazy revelation after crazy revelation. Plus Torchwood is in this, which I guess is good for you if you like "The Time Machination" (I didn't) or if you thought what this story needed were a group of pointless characters to stand around.

There are some short stories in the back, which are decent: some are better in concept than execution, but I like the art in all three (and in the main story, too, actually; Matthew Dow Smith is great at capturing likeness but keeping it stylized). There's a lovely moment where the tenth Doctor dreams of the eleventh.

The tenth Doctor's comic book adventures continue-- like The Forgotten, this seems to be set somewhere between "Journey's End" and "The Waters of Mars." It's comprised of two stories. The first, "Silver Scream," sees the Doctor meeting Archie Maplin (ugh) in 1920s Hollywood, only there's a dastardly plot afoot to drain hopes and dreams from aspiring actresses (of course there is). This is a decent runaround, and Tony Lee does a good job of capturing the voice of the tenth Doctor. The real highlight is the way that Lee and artist Al Davison create some arresting images: the cliffhanger at the end of chapter 1 is divine, and its reprisal is a cool reversal. Then, there's a section done in the style of silent film-- you could only do this in comics! And it's hilarious. One of the two bad guys seems to be dealt with off-panel, but otherwise I enjoyed this.

"Fugitive" is the kind of story I expected to roll my eyes at: the Doctor is captured by the Shadow Proclamation (from "The Stolen Earth") and put on trial, with Brother Lassar a.k.a. Mr. Finch (from "School Reunion") as the prosecutor, and he ends up on a Judoon spaceship (from "Smith and Jones") on the way to the prison world of Volag Noc (from "The Infinite Quest") with a Sontaran, an Ogron, and a Draconian (the events of Frontier in Space are referenced a lot).* But it actually really worked! I don't really see why Finch was necessary, but the rest of the elements come together nicely-- when the Doctor ends up on the run with his fellow prisoners, there's a lot of fun to be had to with the interactions between the four different prisoners, as they move from one deadly situation to another. And the Doctor is made to think about the repercussions of his actions in Frontier in Space in a way that actually ties in nicely with the kind of contemplation the tenth Doctor seemed to be doing late in his life. I wasn't really into Matthew Dow Smith's art at first, as his style is very distinctive, but I soon grew to appreciate it-- he's great at doing action while still capturing the characters, which is a too-rare skill in tie-in comics. All in all, this collection bodes well for IDW's Doctor Who output.

* There's even a Charley Pollard reference, which is maybe completely gratuitous (it would perhaps be less so if it was clear what the Doctor was actually on trial for), but I love Charley so I don't care.

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2112677.html

Tony Lee's narrative achieves a very happy union with Matthew Dow Smith's art here, and the story arc arc is rounded off dramatically and satisfactorily. The book is rounded out with three stories from the 2010 Doctor Who Annual, which I now realise I hadn't read; they too are very good.½

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2085481.html

A collection of linked Tenth Doctor graphic stories, the first two issues set in Hollywood in 1926 with the Doctor collaborating with film star Archie Maplin (an obvious duplicate of Charlie Chaplin) and the following four taking him through a struggle with the Shadow Proclamation, or more particularly with Mr Finch / Brother Lassar from School Reunion, aided by a Draconian, an Ogron and a Sontaran. Lee is sensitive to his material and there were several great squee moments for my fanboy heart (including shoutouts to Big Finish continuity).

Unfortunately I felt the artists failed to quite capture David Tennant's (or Anthony Stewart Head's) facial features, with Matthew Dow Smith, doing the second run of four issues, slightly better than Al Davison, doing the first two. (The frame shown here is Smith rather than Davison.) If you can swallow that, the story is quite good, and I will work through the next volumes happily.½

The conclusion of the story begun in Fugitive and Tesseract finds the Tenth Doctor, his allies and enemies on a planet caught in endless civil war. The actions of the Doctor will determine whether the cycle will be broken but requires confounding choices and sacrifice. The comic format allows for a visual imagination that would not likely be convincing in a televised format but on the other hand the dialogue seems spare and simplistic. Still, this is a great adventure and addition to the Doctor Who oeuvre.½

My Doctor Who obsession continues into graphic novels. Here the Tenth Doctor enjoys an adventure in 1920s Hollywood, gains two new companions, and a new nemesis, The Advocate. The comic format allows for a visual imagination that would not likely be convincing in a televised format but on the other hand the dialogue seems spare and simplistic. Still, this is an enjoyable romp.½

I picked up this graphic novel one day while I was visiting the library. I started reading it because (a) I like Doctor Who, and (b) I like graphic novels. I found, beyond the art, that the story was very engaging, and that I had trouble putting it down (though I didn't get it done in one sitting due to time constraints).

This is part of an ongoing graphic novel series to further milk Doctor Who franchise, fitting adventures and whatnot into the blank slots that happen wherever they can between episodes, like every extended media does. The art for the first artist makes everybody look like mangled Shar Peis, and the second artist makes everybody look square and boxy, like Red Dwarf's Kryten.

The story, though, helps the reader overcome these artistic obstacles to get to an otherwise enjoyable story. If you are a fan of Doctor Who and don't mind "licensed media," then you might find some enjoyment in this volume, and even in this series.

As the title suggests, Origins is a look into John Winchester’s beginnings as a hunter and picks up only a few days after Mary’s death in the Pilot episode. John begins to investigate her death, sensing that it wasn’t a normal electrical fire which claimed her life. During his interrogations he catches the attention of Missouri Mosley, the town psychic. Missouri opens John’s eyes to the truth—that we live in a world full of dark things that go bump in the night and it was one of these which killed his wife.

This information sets him on a course that will forever shape the lives of his two little boys, Sam and Dean. We see how John handled having two kids with him as he hunted down creatures and answers, which is awesome for die-hard fans (like me — this show owns my soul, FYI).

I’m wasn’t 100% in love with the art. Half the time I was wondering if John really had eyes or not because they are always in darkness lol. There are also discrepancies between this pre-series graphic novel and the information we have received through the show. I won’t reiterate them here, but if you pop over to Supernatural Wiki you can read all about ‘em. Due to that, I’m giving this a 3/5 even if I loved seeing Missouri and Ellen again.

http://www.read-all-over.net/fiction/graphic-novel/book-review-origins-by-peter-...

Good concomitant to the cult TV show. Art, dialog, plot are all engaging. The story adds to the characters and the story as portrayed on television.

The story of how John Winchester became a hunter after the tragic firey death of his wife has always been an intriguing one not answered through the canon of the show. This version of the story, involving characters either only briefly mentioned or shown in the show, was intriguing. Too bad it was completely overwhelmed by the awful artwork.

I actually laughed the first time they show little Sam and Dean in a panel because they are drawn in such a way that it makes me wonder if the artist has ever seen children before or realized that the boys were about a year and five years old, respectively. The biggest problem that plagued the artwork was the overuse and impractical use of shadows. It looked like lazy art from an artist that realized they were no good at drawing human features, so they'd use impractical shadows to cover up their weaknesses. The artwork was the reason it took me a year and a half to open these comics up even though I've owned each issue since the day of their releases.

But back to the story - the naivete of John, the quick glimpses of early Ellen, Missouri, and Pastor Jim almost made me forget the canon errors littering the first two issues. It almost seemed like whoever wrote and edited the story had never seen the show before. Drawing John Winchester driving a wood paneled station wagon is sacrilege in this fandom.

Despite the awfulness of this series, the second go-round of Rising Son looks much more promising. Here's to hoping they hired an artist for that one.

Saw this movie many years ago and it was one of the worst movies I had ever seen. When I came upon the book I was compelled to read it to see if it was as bad. BEHOLD! to my surprize it was'nt half bad. A pleasent read and I would recommend to all who like horror / ghost type stories. It is the Highlander versus the Nazis. How can you go wrong.

There was a brilliant review here earlier that GoodReads somehow devoured. It went

something Vikings something something Westworld something talking dino named Kevin! something something something


Library copy