Study Group 12

Posted: Wednesday, September 19, 2001
By: Darren Schroeder

Cover of Study Group 12 Creator(s): Various
Publishers: Zack Soto
From: USA
Price: $?.??

This is a big anthology of things to look at that range from well drawn, intelligently written stories to self indulgent pages full of crappy doodling.

<Rant> People who can't draw who decide to not even bother trying to do the best with what skills they have, and instead of trying to get some ideas on the page waste the paper with inky scribbles. I don't mind if people try and fail, but if they can't be bothered then why should I waste my money or time looking at it. I especially hate it when so-called artists do this whenever they are asked to contribute to comic anthologies, as if comics aren't worth their full creative effort. Don't know if this is the case with some of the work on display here, but if it is, they should stick to gallery openings</Rant>

The well drawn material in this collection has much to recommend it, with Mat Tait's God of the Orchard being a finely executed and disturbing tale that achieves its sense of unease with restrained artwork and mostly rhyming text. Zack Soto's Industrial Chicken is a funny two page story, and I also enjoyed the brutal energy of Erik Van Buren's tale of a gnome faced with an annoying door-to-door property developer.

As already stated, this is a mixed bag of pages stapled together here which contains some experimentation on behalf of the contributors and Zack in his role as editor. I just wish he had said no to the scribbles.

In a Word: Eclectic.



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