Bought 2000AD for the first time in ages last week, having been attracted by 'Pussyfoot 5', another Smith/Yeowell collaboration featuring various characters from his last Devlin Waugh run. Not bad, but I'm not sure I'd have bought it if it had been drawn by a lesser artist - which, somehow, epitomises my feelings about Smith's work in general.
It's a shame, really. I remember Grant Morrison being asked in an interview a few years ago which rising comics stars were the 'ones to watch'. He namechecked John Smith, reckoning Smith would be writing major characters for DC by the end of the year. Apart from the (excellent) one-off Hellblazer, I can't recall much of Smith's work outside 2000AD, which is a shame. I really liked Devlin Waugh and the stuff he did on Tyranny Rex. Somehow, though, he seems always to promise more, story-wise, than he actually delivers. Typically, he creates enormous casts of potentially interesting characters only for the plot to disappoint or fizzle out altogether (The New Statesmen is perhaps the ultimate example of this). He's never really evolved beyond the 'race to foil the world-threatening baddie' plotline, and sometimes seems destined to be a 2000AD hack forever.
Am I wrong? Have I missed any of his newer, non-2000AD work? What do y'all think? |
