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Underground > Comic Books >

SMAX #4

02:58 / 02.01.04

It's out today (Friday!)...can't wait! It's #4 of 5, so there's one more issue left for us Smax fans.

12:42 / 05.01.04

Who else scooped this up? The cover is a pastiche of the famous classical painting "St. George Slays The Dragon."

This issue was fun but seemed just a little...thinner than the others, in that not much actually happens. And I thought the line "I refuse to accept that I'm in denial" was sort of lame & cheap, coming from Alan Moore. But the rest was very fun, entertaining, and nicely done. Only one issue left - I can't wait to see just what Morningbright is all about. Nice art job once again by Xander.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

13:53 / 05.01.04

I can't remember 100%, but was Dennis the entity that Robyn talked to in the rubble?

Other than that, Jeff's denial line was right in step with all the other completely trite things he's said over the last 15 books he's been in. I think it works well on him, especially after Smax #2. The poor bastard is a shell.

Nice issue.

14:26 / 05.01.04

Nope, it was a sort of ethereal superhero spirit/ghost thing that everyone in the precinct (the event you're referring to took place back in the regular TOP TEN series) called "The Word" or something like that...it was like the precinct Bogeyman that no one thought really existed. I don't think that entity had any relation to Dennis as an Incarnation of Death in the SMAX series.

Good point about Jeff/Jaaf's line being *intentionally* trite and stupid. I think you're right about that.

15:07 / 05.01.04

(This is Runce/Spalliance) I enjoy the whole dragons-as-lloigor thing Al's playing with. I thought it was just me, but Celebrity's noticed it too. Just take that mouth away and you've got fractal octopus all the way. Underlined, of course, by the sequence with Morningbright at rest and unfurled across the surface of his cave..... You can already see where Al's going with this. "Trip, trip to the Dragon"....

15:40 / 05.01.04

what's "IIoigor"? I see what you mean about the fractal stuff, but I don't know that term. And what signifcance does the title of this issue have? ("trip, trip...")

17:39 / 05.01.04

I'm betting that Morningbright is the cause of the lack of science on that world... and his "death" will also be the "birth" of science.

I loved the I do NOT attend headaches... I am not Concussion bit!!!

Curious why the Strong Light seemed to have effected TOY BOX in that way.

Also Curious about who Dennis is.

06:46 / 06.01.04

Wasn't Dennis one of the forms of Death from issue 2?

Great issue by the way. Loving how on one hand its some funny shit, but then on the other, its some pretty intense stuff.

09:54 / 06.01.04

Fun stuff, as ever. Particularly liked the Malls and Muggers joke - makes perfect sense that if people in our reality play D&D etc, then something similarly reversed should happen...

13:32 / 06.01.04

Dennis is indeed the form of Death from a few issues back (if not last issue). He's the form of Death that is most terrible, feared and respected out of all of 'em, as the other Death (the one who loses board games with wily peasants) points out.

Loved the few easter eggs in this issue - Capt. America's old 1930s shield, the skull with cut-off Hellboy horns, Captain Caveman's trick club in Morningbright's cave.

Also, very cool subtle language thing how the one dwarf says "Fellow, I know!" "Fellow" is like "man" or "dude" for the dwarves.

"Yeah, she's little, but she's a bully." Hysterical.

The reference to Sean Connery's Scottish brogue-speaking "nice" dragon in that movie DRAGONHEART was nice.

I like how Robyn doesn't just accept the notion that "science" doesn't exist there. She really reasons it out.

And did Zander (I realize now I spelled his name wrong, no "X" like the Buffy character) really draw ALL those patterns of Morningbrights in the cave? I looked carefully and it sure as hell doesn't look like a pattern. Way to go, Zander!! That's some exhausting stuff!

"Whate'er."

14:08 / 08.01.04

Also, in other Alan Moore news, Moore's novel VOICE OF THE FIRE just came out in hardcover yesterday, in a beautiful new version with book design by Chip Kidd, photos by Jose Villarubia, and published by Top Shelf. $26, but looks damn worth it! And who knows, they might never go back to paperback on this (the original version was in paperback form, published by some small indie book publisher about 10 years ago and apparently very hard to find). I hope it gets reviewed by major 'regular non-comic book' magazines and such.

03:39 / 09.01.04

Yeah Dennis was mentioned last issue. I could have sworn there was a scene with him and Robyn interacting, but it's not in the book. I must have imagined that bit somehow.