#Julia Lacquement

[thefourthnegation]

[ultrameganicolaokay]

Black Canary #1 'Hero Worship Part 1' (1992) by Sarah Byam, Trevor Von Eeden, Bob Smith and Julia Lacquement. Edited by Mike Gold. Cover by Von Eeden.

[balu8]

Maze Agency #5: Death Warmed Over

by Mike W. Barr; Adam Hughes; Al Vey; Julia Lacquement and Deborah Marks

Comico

[thedespondent]

Today’s (well, and yesterday’s) comic reading: Green Arrow vol.5

A SFW choice, finally, but cross-posting everything proved too much of a time-sink, so I highly recommend heading over to cohost to see my spotlights from the most excellent volume from the best run of Green Arrow there has ever been.

The quality of the comic storytelling is of a sort that I think this series would appeal a lot to manga types, especially fans of Yoshihiro Togashi, weirdly?

[ultrameganicolaokay]

Black Canary #4 ‘The Art of Whorr’ (1993) by Sarah Byam, Trevor von Eeden, Bob Smith and Julia Lacquement. Edited by Mike Gold. Cover by von Eeden.

BLACK CANARY #4 (1993) cover by Trevor Von Eeden.

[soulofkhal]

Khal Reads: Green Arrow(1988) by Mike Grell

Discretion: This is my first Green Arrow run so I apologize if certain details already appears in the previous run and I missed it!

The blog isn't dead! The reviews are still coming in. Not sure if there's anyone that's waiting for another random comic review by me but here it goes!

This time, I'll be looking at one of the definitive runs of Green Arrow, the 1988 run written by Mike Grell. The run spans for 76 issues between 1988-1994.

Team:

Writer: Mike Grell

Penciller: Ed Hannigan (1-25), Dan Jurgens (26-33), Rick Hoberg (35-38, 44-60, 63-66, 69-72, 75-76), Denys Cowan (39), Shea Pensa (39, 73-74), Frank Springer (61-68),

Inker: Dick Giordano, Frank Mclaughlin, Bill Wray (35-38), John Nyberg (44-60, 63-66, 69-72, 75-76), Pablo Marcos (61-68)

Colorist: Julia Lacquement

Editor: Mike Gold

TL;DR on why you should or shouldn't read:

Trigger warning: Rape (some issues dealt with rapist and one of the character gets raped)

Pros:

Thrilling stories with full of action. Never a dull moment in this run.

More mystery/thriller/action based stories. We're talking government conspiracies, serial killers, yakuzas, CIA, IRA, and psychopaths (there's a story about a guy who collects tattooed skin, super fun). It's similar in tone to Dennis O' Neill's The Question but more action-y than suspense.

Tons of Dinah-Oliver moment if that's your thing (although their relationship isn't the healthiest in this run).

Stories are often interwoven with social issues such as from anti-draft , ivory trading, human trafficking, etc.

Cons (for me):

Ollie gets raped but the incident were not made to be a big deal nor do we ever get to see Ollie's feelings about the situation properly.

Social issues are often mishandled/clearly being written from a white lens. Some whitesplaining moments as well.

Female characters are mostly there just to fawn over Oliver or become his love interest.

The uncomfortable writing of Shado. There's the dragon lady stereotype sprinkled in with some fetishism while simultaneously not allowing her to be a real subject of attention or desire by the white male protagonist. There's some Grant Morrison Talia treatment in there is all I'm saying

Dinah and Oliver's relationship are relatively toxic imo. Oliver often abandoned and even cheated on Dinah throughout the run (with a girl half his age).

Dinah's role is often relegated as a fanservice for the reader

Oliver kills quite a lot in this run and I know heroes killing criminals could be controversial to people.

My thoughts and full review:

This run takes us to Seattle, where Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) and Dinah Lance (Black Canary) have just moved. The run chronicles the adventure of (mostly) Oliver and Dinah during their stay in Seattle and occasionally throughout the Globe. Dinah also started her side job as the owner of a flower shop. Throughout this run, we were introduced to a string of side characters such as Shado, an assassin who used to be indebted to the Yakuza that shares a complicated relationship with Oliver and Eddie Fryes, a merc who are often at odds with Oliver

I have..complicated relationship with this run. As mentioned above, there's a lot of things that I love and there's a lot that I don't and I'm going to expand on some of those points below.

(+) The plot

Boring would be the last adjective I'll use to describe this run. It's thrilling, it's melodramatic, and it's suspenseful. You got panels upon panels of our titular hero kicking butt, often with his accomplices. You got the soap opera and the drama between Oliver and the women in his life. It's really fun. As someone who loves thriller and mystery, the first issue already got me hooked. Here, we have Oliver trying to prove that a criminal that is currently under house arrest is still responsible for the kidnapping and torture of several women in the area. The issue ended with Oliver drowning the criminal in his own brewed alcohol. Also, we got cool panels like this one in the run

(+/-) The social issues

In the midst of all of this, we were also served with a plethora of social messages that were apt for the time, a common motif found in comics of this era. The run tackles issues such as race, human trafficking, illegal hunting, military drafts, corrupt government, drug trade and etc. I always love when comics can become a time capsule that reflects the era when it was written and as a medium that could talk about these important messages to its readers. A lot of it works although I do feel like Grell and Gold often hamfisted these message to the plot to the point that some of these issues just felt like an essay and not a proper plot point if that makes sense,

That being said, it's very obvious that a lot of these messages came from the perspective of a white man. One particular issue that stood out for me was in Issue #55 and #56: Justice is Mine, where a cop pins a murder on a convicted serial killer despite knowing that the murder that got this man acquitted was not done by him and the man was later sentenced to death. The catch is that the actual murder was a pimp (since most of the victims were prostitutes) but the thing is, the pimp, JoJo, is a black man, while the serial killer, Harry Gilbert, is a white man. I just think that using a white man being executed in the place of black man feels like an inappropriate symbolism to depict lazy/corrupt cops as it is often the opposite in real life. Not to mention the racial stereotype. A great fan letter sent to Sherwood Column (the fan letter column in the back of each issue) written by a black reader explains this a LOT better than I possibly could.

(-) The writing of the female characters

Dinah Lance (Black Canary)

Dinah and Oliver share a complicated relationship throughout this run. For the most part, their status are as lovers, but a string of events lead them to have an on and off relationship in some part of the run and as the run ended, so does their relationship, no thanks to Oliver's cheating ass.

Dinah mostly acts undercover in this run, running a flower shop while occasionally helping Oliver in kicking some butts. A favourite issue of mine showing them working together is in Issue #59-60 where they both work together to apprehend an assassination attempt on a serial killer (don't worry, they weren't siding with the killer). However, this issue was, unfortunately, a rarity, and we really don't get to see Dinah in action quite a lot. The editor's response to this didn't help as he often points the reader to instead anticipate her upcoming solo run...as if she's not allowed to kick ass in two runs at the same time.

It also doesn't help that most of her appearance relegated to her and Oliver having sex with Dinah often potrayed with bare minimum clothing. I know it's to be expected from an 80s comics, but I can still dislike it. The most frustrating part is though is how badly Oliver treated her. At some point, he even left her after she informed him that she's unable to have a child. And the worse part? SHE ACCEPTS HIM BACK WHEN HE WENT BACK TO SEATTLE. Thankfully, she stood up for herself once she discovers Oliver kissing Marianne, a grad student that they took in (who is also half Oliver's age by the way so yeah maybe male writers need to be stopped sometimes)

A fan letter describing my sentiment:

Shado

So let's get a little bit of a background here. Shado is a former assassin for hire by the Yakuza due to her father's former ties to their group. She and Oliver initially cross paths in the Longbow Hunters, the short prequel to this run. Shado's storyline is a huge part of Grell's run. There are 4 story arcs that puts her in the spotlight alongside with Oliver. Most of them I argue were the highlights of the run (before I knew better at least)

That doesn't mean however that this character is being properly written whatsoever. Shado starts of as an aloof, cold-blooded killer who develops close relationship with Oliver as the time goes on as the two shared common interest in the art of bows and arrows. There were certainly tension between the two which were noticeable, especially by Dinah which (justifiably) led her to be apprehensive around Shado.

Things take a turn when in the Here There Be Dragon arc, Oliver gets sick after being shot by his enemies with Shado tending to his wound. She then proceed to take advantage of him and rape him while he is delirious and also conceive his child. Yep.

We didn't really get this revelation until down the road (Issue 36 but I still wasn't sure until reading Issue 45) which makes me feel almost manipulated for enjoying the relationship between the two. To make matters worse, for a while, Oliver seems to kick himself in the curb for not..taking care of his child? when he didn't even know the existence of said child? it's just very off-putting, victim-blamey, and overall incredibly problematic on the team's part. I also feel like the whole situation just feels very unneccesary? It's like they want to drive the point forward that the only way this two could get intimate is that if she takes advantage of him. Maybe I'm reaching but it feels like they just didn't want the white male hero to even have a normal relationship with an asian woman. I heard that the writing of Jade Nguyen (Cheshire) were also problematic so maybe there's something to it.

Conclusion

So in conclusion do I enjoy the run? Yeah, to a degree. It's hard getting it above 8 with the problematic elements present throughout the run. It might sounds unfair since it's an 80s comics but since the fan letters in the sherwood column are also often critical about the way certain issues were handled, I'll say my reasoning is still fair.

Final rating: 7.5/10

Favourite issues: Here There Be Dragons arc, Predator arc, Bum Rap arc

Sorry for the long post. I'll try posting my review of Swamp Thing by Alan Moore and Aquaman (1999) by Peter David in near future. Thank you so much if you're still reading until this part!

[marvelman901]

Green Arrow vol 2 4 (1988) . The Champions, Part 2 . Written by Mike Grell Penciled by Ed Hannigan Inked by Dick Giordano Colors by Julia Lacquement Lettered by John Costanza Edited by Mike Gold and Brian Augustyn Cover by Mike Grell . Green Arrow fought the Russian champion in order to get highly dangerous device... . See more relevant content here: #marvelman901greenarrow #marvelman901edhannigan #marvelman901mikegrell . #greenarrow #80s #dcsuperheroes #mikegrell #dickgiordano #edhannigan https://www.instagram.com/p/CoeHhFONn-K/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[thecomicsnexus]

GREEN ARROW #5-6

June/July 1988

By Mike Grell , Ed Hannigan, Dick Giordano, Julia Lacquement, and John Costanza.

Someone is attacking gay people, and after a customer of the flower shop is killed, Oliver starts investigating why.

SCORE: 8

The exposition in this book is a bit too much, in a way that feels like the writer wasn't familiarized enough with the people he was writing about, and tried to summarize what he understood about their realities. And I am not talking about gay people in particular.

However, I have to commend Grell for his attempt at doing a story like this in 1988, in a mainstream publisher. Sure, this was sold only in comic-shops, but it is still impressive.

I felt like the whole "initiation" plot of this story was very fragile. I understand the trauma-motivated reasons for this gay-bashing wave, but I feel like the story was written way more complicated than it should have.

On the other hand, this twisted plot of Grell gave us a very different kind of "superhero" adventure. Oliver wasn't trying to stop the crime organization at all, he was just looking for some kind of justice for his dead customer.

AIDS is mentioned (not HIV, but I believe that's what they actually meant), in a time when there was still no definitive way of surviving the disease. For all these things, I can forgive Grell for his sloppy exposition and odd representations.

The art was great as usual, and while I appreciate the experimentation in this page, it feels kind of incomplete. I used to have this on paper, but I cannot remember it so white. This may be one of those things that look better on paper, but just in case I would have added more shades or even duotones.

[ultrameganicolaokay]

Black Canary #1-4 ‘New Wings (Part I of IV) - Domestic Troubles; (Part II of IV) - Home is Where Ya' Live!; (Part III of IV) - Somebody's Keeper; (Part IV of IV) - Just Say "Thank You"’ (1991) by Sarah Byam, Trevor von Eeden, Dick Giordano and Julia Lacquement. Edited by Mike Gold. All covers by Giordano.

[skeevertails]

Even if it was just a random issue of Green Arrow, Julia Lacquement colored it like the most important piece of art ever made. Issue #40 features Grell attempting to grapple with the magical history of Britain, with the beliefs of Druids, with spiritualism. It could be read as hokey, but the level of commitment to the craft elevates it. Lacquement paints it like its, and so it becomes art. Look at that title page – the strong dark greens in the foreground plants, complimenting but never obscuring Green Arrow himself, the manner in which they give way to these trees, the light barley breaking through the branches providing this purple-ish hue. The roughness of it all merely adds to the charm, this is a nature scene and it should have a degree of coarseness to it. The old faded paper, the limited palate – in the hands of the master they become tools rather than hindrance.That’s what these women were: masters. They defined a period and they defined a publisher. 

Color Me Impressed: The Unsung Woman Colorists of 1980s Comics

Colors by, respectively: Lynn Varley, Julia Lacquement, Lynn Varley, Tatjana Wood, Julia Lacquement

[thefourthnegation]

[zegas]

Jerk City, USA is an incredible essay by Tegan O’Neil on Mike Grell’s Green Arrow, vigilantism, and the “mature” in the “Mature Readers” label.

Mike Grell story, Dan Jurgens pencils, Dick Giordano/Frank McLaughlin inks, Julia Lacquement colors.

[graffiti-bi]

Ok actual propaganda for John:

Dude's got 13 appearances outside of whatever the fuck nu52 did to "him". The only 2 that don't send me into a violent rage are from??? Ms. Tree Quarterly. The writing isn't horrible in either his miniseries (The Butcher #1-5) or Brave and the Bold Vol. 2 (that one with Green Arrow and the Question too) but my gods I have never wanted nor needed to have the names of a Penciler + Colorer memorized before in my life. You know that team that did that one really bad Flash annual? This is that same team.

My icon is severely color corrected because this is the only half way well drawn image of him in either run but it was so gods damn red.

I have many opinions about how the story lines were handled (it was the late 80s-early 90s) but they were decent storyline!

Then what does Jeff Lemire do to this poor man who's never been drawn with any respect a day in his existence? Can't even be bothered to get his name right. Pretty sure they call him Jim in those five issues that he made it into. Turned him into a cop and also in classic nu52 GA style, decided that he's not Lakota like he originated as. No, he's Diné now for some reason? (Instead of Brave Bow and Roy for some fucking reason) I don't remember what was going on with the weapons clans storyline but like... there was no reason for it to be John. He doesn't even use an axe in his original run except maybe once in B+tB and that may have been a knife actually.

And there's been nothing for him since which is such a shame like 100% someone needs to take John and do something decent with him again. (Also get a better art team because my gods Shea Anton Pensa and Julia Lacquement should not have any fucking carrer after seeing how they draw and color POC).

propaganda under the readmore

John Butcher: guy literally started as two written stories in a publication I didn't even know existed until I tried reading all his appearances. I think the only reason I know he existed is because I got like the last issue of his miniseries in a box of comics from an estate sale my aunt went to when I was in high school. I have only found one other issue of anything this guys been in on a whim literally 3 days ago while digging through a $.50 at my childhood comic shop. Like technically he exists in the nu52 iteration of Green Arrow but like they butchered his character so much it's not even really him. I firmly believe I am the only person that knows about this character besides the people who had to watch me weep while I read his miniseries.

Theresa “Trixie” Collins: She was Booster Gold’s receptionist and love interest (lol) back in the early days, but what I love so much about her is how weird she is. Her first scene is her making a business man apologize to her cat (that she adopts I guess?? But they stay in Booster Gold’s high rise office building?) or she will cancel his meeting. You can just tell that Dan Jurgens had a great time writing her. She has like 30 appearances ever.

[balu8]

Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters #2

by Mike Grell; Lurene Haines; Julia Lacquement and Ken Bruzenak

DC

[longerbox]

This is good. The art feels tactile, the theme is well bookended, and it opens with a splash page of Oliver doing a Gene Kelly impression in the backgrounds with a random gay couple walking by. Feels like Joe Biden’s America to me.

[theblackestofsuns]

Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters Book One (August 1987)

Mike Grell with Lurene Haines and Julia Lacquement

DC Comics