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kpthelibrarian's review against another edition
3.0
a few short stories in graphic format. the first story (and the longest) was interesting and fun to read! the other few were oddly short - more like snippets.
magnetgrrl's review against another edition
3.0
This appears to be tangentially related to the last book I read by Sala, Cat Burglar Black, which I thought was so promising but far too short and didn't explore anything with enough depth. If I had any hope that maybe Sala was trying to release like 2-4 graphic novels a year to form a longer work, I would be more into this. But a lot of the exposition was already "dumped" in Cat Burglar Black so, I doubt a long-form work is what he's going for, even if there are connections with this story and with Cat Burglar Black.
I liked this one better - there's more humor, for one. A couple one-line zingers and sight jokes really sung for me, like when the Former Inspector gathering evidence on Super-Enigmatix says to his young charge "Do you hear that, George? Love is only for the very strong." and immediately in the next panel, there's a little heart above his head as he looks at the female detective helping them with the case. Or, when the masked characters assumed to be the local superheroes are meeting to discuss what to do about Super-Enigmatix and one wearing a very Batmanesque cat cowl (there are whiskers, or else it WOULD be Batman's cowl) says "I prefer not to think of myself as a vigilante, more like - " another mask interjects "Judge, jury, and executioner?" and he replies, "No. Like - a hero." Response: "Whatever."
There's another huge info-dump of exposition in this one, in the middle this time (and in context a bit less noticeable for what it is). It's also somewhat of a mini political commentary on the 60's from the Vietnam war to the state of the world now, interestingly enough. Pretty on the nose but, seemingly out of nowhere. I sort of love that everything goes off the rails though and that Super-Enigmatix is really just bringing about total chaos, havoc, and destruction because the status quo cannot be saved or brought back to anything close to normal, or OK.
That actually feels pretty realistic.
At least it ends with another great zinger: "...I admit he was beginning to make some sense, blast him." "Yeah, I didn't know it was going to get all political."
Neither did I, Natalie, neither did I.
There are two separate interlude comics at the end, that are more classic panel comics a la Sala.
Overall, the book is worth a read. But, if you haven't ever read anything by Sala before, just read The Chuckling Whatsit because that is his best.
I liked this one better - there's more humor, for one. A couple one-line zingers and sight jokes really sung for me, like when the Former Inspector gathering evidence on Super-Enigmatix says to his young charge "Do you hear that, George? Love is only for the very strong." and immediately in the next panel, there's a little heart above his head as he looks at the female detective helping them with the case. Or, when the masked characters assumed to be the local superheroes are meeting to discuss what to do about Super-Enigmatix and one wearing a very Batmanesque cat cowl (there are whiskers, or else it WOULD be Batman's cowl) says "I prefer not to think of myself as a vigilante, more like - " another mask interjects "Judge, jury, and executioner?" and he replies, "No. Like - a hero." Response: "Whatever."
There's another huge info-dump of exposition in this one, in the middle this time (and in context a bit less noticeable for what it is). It's also somewhat of a mini political commentary on the 60's from the Vietnam war to the state of the world now, interestingly enough. Pretty on the nose but, seemingly out of nowhere. I sort of love that everything goes off the rails though and that Super-Enigmatix is really just bringing about total chaos, havoc, and destruction because the status quo cannot be saved or brought back to anything close to normal, or OK.
That actually feels pretty realistic.
At least it ends with another great zinger: "...I admit he was beginning to make some sense, blast him." "Yeah, I didn't know it was going to get all political."
Neither did I, Natalie, neither did I.
There are two separate interlude comics at the end, that are more classic panel comics a la Sala.
Overall, the book is worth a read. But, if you haven't ever read anything by Sala before, just read The Chuckling Whatsit because that is his best.
jayshay's review against another edition
3.0
Hey this one was a bit of a step up for me! After enjoying his early work, like Chuckling Whatzit (which this calls back to?) Sala's later work got too samey for me.
Perhaps it is because I took a break but I enjoyed the pulpy pleasures of this one. His comics are certainly old fashion 'tinglers' with cute dashing heroines and dastardly villians. Nothing new here, but it has a bit of that old energy. Enjoyed the short-shorts at the end as well.
Perhaps it is because I took a break but I enjoyed the pulpy pleasures of this one. His comics are certainly old fashion 'tinglers' with cute dashing heroines and dastardly villians. Nothing new here, but it has a bit of that old energy. Enjoyed the short-shorts at the end as well.
just_fighting_censorship's review against another edition
4.0
The first and main story, is Super-Enigmatix
It has all of the Sala trademarks, young pretty female gang, Gothic noir overtones, harsh violence, a creepy mysterious man lurking about, and societal chaos. It is fast and fun.
The other stories were very short a few pages each. They were Where's Waldo except creepy and mysterious, the type of thing you'll look at three or four times and still see something new.
It has all of the Sala trademarks, young pretty female gang, Gothic noir overtones, harsh violence, a creepy mysterious man lurking about, and societal chaos. It is fast and fun.
The other stories were very short a few pages each. They were Where's Waldo except creepy and mysterious, the type of thing you'll look at three or four times and still see something new.
areaxbiologist's review against another edition
4.0
I like how the background guys Sala draws are either some weird version of Bender or Danny DeVito. Also, there's a guy eating a cassette tape in one of the vignettes at the end. It gets my vote, just for being kooky.
tatidengo's review
3.0
In A Glass Grotesquely includes 4 short comics, the first one being the longest (more than half of the book), and the rest are only about 10 pages apiece?
Out of those last three, one didn't have any words, and another only had one sentence per page, in the form of chapter names, letting you fill in the blanks by peeking through the extremely detailed artwork.
The first story is about a chaos-causing villain who is trying to make the world see itself, warts and all. I found it astoundingly politically relevant for 2018, even though this was published in 2014.
Besides that, I didn't find this volume very memorable, especially in comparison to his other work. I'd read it if you're already a fan of Richard Sala and just want to visit the contents of his imagination again. The colors were delightful as usual.
Out of those last three, one didn't have any words, and another only had one sentence per page, in the form of chapter names, letting you fill in the blanks by peeking through the extremely detailed artwork.
The first story is about a chaos-causing villain who is trying to make the world see itself, warts and all. I found it astoundingly politically relevant for 2018, even though this was published in 2014.
Besides that, I didn't find this volume very memorable, especially in comparison to his other work. I'd read it if you're already a fan of Richard Sala and just want to visit the contents of his imagination again. The colors were delightful as usual.
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