Lumberjanes 2 (May 2014)

I can’t remember exactly what was wrong with the last issue but this issue has a rather obvious problem–writers Stevenson and Ellis think they’re writing a cartoon. Not because of the action, but because of their character approach. They think their characters are rather entertaining just with the superficial personalities they give them. Towards the end of the issue, during some banter, I realized–the writers are assuming the reader can “hear” the characters’ voices.

Except Stevenson and Ellis do nothing to give these characters distinctive voices. There’s so much action–all the banter is in between or leading up to action–and there’s no time spent on defining these characters.

Allen’s art has a lot of energy, but her design work is lazy. Or maybe the monsters are all supposed to have three eyes. It doesn’t really matter, because the writers aren’t creating any mystery.

I had hoped Lumberjanes would be better.

C 

CREDITS

Writers, Noelle Stevenson and Grace Ellis; artist, Brooke Allen; colorist, Maarta Laiho; letterer, Aubrey Aiese; editors, Whitney Leopard and Dafna Pleban; publisher, BOOM! Box.