The Amazon #2

Written by Steven T. Seagle
Art by Tim Sale
I'm very pleased that Dark Horse has decided to re-print this series, as I missed it completely the first time around, and am enjoying it a great deal. Lately it seems like a lot of attention is being paid to some of the more endearing, yet off-beat projects of the late 80s and early 90s, what with Dark Horse publishing this and Beanworld, Image's Ted McKeever Collection, and the gargantuan Zot! trade I'm working my way through. It's really good to see that quality comics don't disappear.

This series continues to intrigue, with its creative approach to narrative. The reporter protagonist narrates the story both through is journal, which contains his unedited thoughts, and through the article that he eventually writes after the action the comic shows, which is much more edited, polished, and selective in its telling. To add to that, this issue has the Amazon (the character, not the region or river) narrate his story, and it weaves from his own words, into and out of the journal and magazine article formats. It's jarring and really interesting. I can't think of another comic that does this in quite this way. Adding to it, I like how the narrative crosses over panels seemingly randomly, not at sentence breaks. It really makes this an interesting read.

Sale's artwork is fantastic in this book. In the text-piece at the back, he discusses his shifting use of vertical and horizontal panels, and how this series was a starting point for both creators, thereby allowing them to break a pile of comic book rules they weren't aware of.

I really can't say enough about how good this comic is.