Read tomorrow's stories today.

April 13, 2000

ISSUE #7
Alan's anthology Writer: Alan Moore Artists: Various Click the cover to see a larger image.
	Of all Alan Moore's current titles, I like this one the least, mostly because of its anthology format. But it's still been a really good series, particularly the earliest issues that featured some wildly divergent narrative styles, memorable characters, and innovative visual storytelling techniques. This issue wasn't anywhere near those earlier outings; the first three stories, with Splash Brannigan, the Cobweb, and the First American, all had a similar theme -- a walk through history -- and an identical, almost painfully jocular tone. The Brannigan bit has the inkblot in an art museum where he jumps into a number of historical paintings and visual gags. Likewise Cobweb and Clarice walk through a rapid-fire send up of 1960s pop culture; Moore's digs on the various fads and movements (and the underground comics of the 60s) are well placed but rushed, and again buried in bad puns. Weakest of all is the First American's trivial overview of the 20th Century, and really, it's not until the last story with Grey Shirt that things pick up a bit. --Jason Bates
	Recommendation:	BORROW IT!

ISSUE #6
Where's Jack B. Quick? Writer: Alan Moore Artists: Rick Veitch, Jim Baikie, Melinda Gebbie, Hilary Barta (Click on the image to see a larger version)
	REVIEW: The big question this issue is: how does newcomer Splash Brannigan stack up against our other Tomorrow Stories heroes? Well, I miss the vacationing Jack B. Quick and his buttered cats, but Splash provides a fairly amusing, insider-y take on the comics industry. Makes for a better read than Greyshirt's constant brooding, anyway. Splash is a superhero made of ink, and has been trapped inside a tiny bottle for 40 years. He's freed by Daisy Screensaver, a new artist at Kaput Comics, and proceeds to bore her with his life story. It's fairly funny, and breezes along at a perfect pace for the anthology format. I still miss Jack, though -- Splash may be fun, but he's not nearly as loony, and his insider take on comics and blowhard style could eventually become too similar to The First American. Speaking of TFA, he's a little off his game this month. Sure, there are some good bits -- the comics guy who keeps popping up in the frame to sell you some bit of merchandise is nice -- but the whole premise (TFA gets married, gets divorced, gets married again, and eventually returns to US Angel) isn't so much inspired as it is tiring. Ah, well. I suppose that's forgivable after such side-splitting holiday adventures. --Sarah Kuhn
	Recommendation:	BORROW IT!

ISSUE #5
(Click on the cover image to see a larger version)
	REVIEW: Trust The First American to gift us with a little belated Christmas gift -- a perfectly hilarious re-telling of "A Christmas Carol" that gets its digs in at Pokemon, Archie, Furbies, superheroes, and the current state of the comic book industry (best exchange: "Look, there's someone reading comics." "Yes, they are socially inadequete"). Razor-sharp quips, goofy imagery, and the usual dim-witted bombast from TFA abound. Now that's holiday. The rest of the book is pretty good, too -- Greyshirt checks in with a neat tale of a mad physicist/musician and his neglected daughter, and Cobweb spins her usual decadent, lavendar web that's entertaining, if a bit heady and ponderous. Unfortunately, Jack B. Quick's on vacation for a spell, so no buttered cats or time shoes this time around. As usual, it's the inspired hilarity of TFA that will keep me coming back for more, but the other tales are starting to grow on me -- and next issue sees the debut of a new hero, Splash Brannigan, who will hopefully give us even more lunacy to look forward to. --Sarah Kuhn
	Recommendation:	BUY IT!

ISSUE #4
	REVIEW: If you have not yet experienced the freaky funhouse charm of Alan Moore's Tomorrow Stories, now's the time to start -- this month's issue offers two of the title's most entertaining efforts to date. It is, of course, Jack B. Quick and The First American who deliver, though Cobweb and Greyshirt certainly fare better than they did last month. Out of all of 'em, the pompous blowhard that is The First American has the edge in my cynical little heart. This month, he's on trial, but it's not what you think. In a mere six pages, the wicked tale satirizes corporate sponsorship, the pitfalls of superhero-dom, and public figures on trial for what could be considered their private lives. It's deft, it's knowing...and I love that TFA is mostly concerned that people think he looks fat. ("This is all muscle! G'wan, punch me in the stomach! G'wan, hard as you like!") Elsewhere, Jack B. Quick takes a hilarious trip down memory lane (thanks to his "time shoes") and spins through experiments past, "Lil' Cobweb" investigates a sordid mystery, and Greyshirt looks to the future. Though they're all worth a look this time around, I'm just waiting for TFA to get his own book. --Sarah Kuhn
	Recommendation:	BUY IT!

ISSUE #3
	REVIEW: I can honestly report that you won't find many titles out there as singularly inventive as Alan Moore's anthology-format book Tomorrow Stories. Where else are you gonna find a twisted little take-off on Reservoir Dogs involving tough talkin' first graders, an overgrown superhero, and a foul-mouthed elementary school teacher who pelts the wayward kiddies with profanities and chalkboard erasers? That little tale, starring one of the book's trusty quartet, The First American, is the best of this month's lot, and crams a multitude of off-the-wall hilarity into a few short pages. Unfortunately -- and this is both the blessing and the curse of anthology-based stuff -- not all of the other personas fare quite as well. The Cobweb, so cool in issue one's delightfully demented tale of a doll collection gone wrong, dissolves into something resembling one of those heaving-bosoms-and-heavy-breathing made-for-cable movies ("Gathering the girl up in her strong, gauze-fogged arms, Cobweb crushed the hot, encarmined fruits of her lips against those of the fugitive..."). Cobweb, you're hot, but don't push it -- go back to all the alliterated dialogue or something. Meanwhile, boy inventor Jack B. Quick has loopy fun with some buttered cats, and Greyshirt gets a passable -- if somewhat forgettable -- origin tale. So that's what...two out of four? Not a great ratio, but the book's still worth taking a look at, if only for the aforementioned band of mini Tarantino-philes. --Sarah Kuhn
	Recommendation:	BORROW IT!

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