Dealing with a backlog now - got some wrist pain with the cold weather.
Duane Cutter lies on an operating table and Ethan's spirit form is disarrayed by the circumstances. Meanwhile, the story of Cindy's journey to prison is concluded, and the efforts toward Ethan's emancipation progress.
A bit of a hodge podge of an issue, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. In extended stories like this you're always going to have an issue or two that can't focus on only one of the storylines because there are so many going on that are equally interesting and important. Were this published as one long graphic novel, we likely wouldn't blink at the sudden shifts between scenes - indeed, such a thing would heighten the tension of the scenes. But that atmosphere isn't really created in a serialized medium like this one. I recently read that Kurt Busiek is moving Astro City to a graphic novel-centered publishing model, so that the team can tell longer stories and take advantage of the "novel" aspect of the format. Busiek's wonderful superhero series is no stranger to long delays in the middle of 6 or 7 issue stories, and it certainly hurts the momentum of a piece when the last time you were immersed in the story was 7 months ago. Would Hard Time have been better served as a series of graphic novels, moving toward a European publishing model? Is the reason that the superhero thrives in the serial medium that they are infinite stories, whereas Ethan's story, a finite one, can't sustain a publishing format suited to infinite stories? Interesting.
Things finish up tomorrow. Sort of.
More to follow.
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