By Various (Burlyman Entertainment)
ISBN: 1-84576-021-2
The comic strip world of the Matrix gets a second outing courtesy of another batch of superstars and thematrix.com – where these stories originally appeared. Tim Sale gets things started with ‘Farewell Performance’, scripted by Jim Krueger, and Paul Chadwick returns to the universe with ‘Déjá Vu’.
Poppy Z. Brite’s prose piece ‘System Freeze’ is illustrated by Dave Dorman, and is followed by ‘The King of Never Return’, a full colour yarn from Ted McKeever with Chris Chuckry. Troy Nixey’s ‘An Asset to the System’ is followed by Greg Ruth’s ‘A Path Among Stones’ and the vibrant ‘Run, Saga, Run’ by Keron Grant and Rob Stull.
Vince Evan’s ‘Wrong Number,’ and ‘Broadcast Depth’ by Bill Sienkiewicz, are followed by the show-stealing ‘Who Says You Can’t Get Good Help These Days?’ from Peter Bagge, whilst Spencer Lamm and Michael Oeming’s ‘Saviour’ returns to the fraught oppression the fans expect. ‘I Kant’ from Kaare Andrews, Ron Turner and Dave McCaig amps up the all-out action quota to round off the action. (My copy also contains two preview inserts for upcoming series ‘Doc Frankenstein’ and Geof Darrow’s ‘Shaolin Cowboy,’ but I’ll ignore those in this instance).
This is a great book for adult comic fans and followers of the multi-media franchise that spawned it. Good work from big guns is always appreciated and the cross-border cachet of a good license ought to bring in some converts to our own particular artform.
© 2004 Burlyman Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved