Death March of the Missile Men....

* a point of note worth mention in addition to the, ahem, last post's Chronicle of Doom....

Agent Johnny seemed in a decidedly 'depressy' and reflective mood last Woden'sday, resigned to the fact that his recent drawin' output seems to have fallen short of expectations (and certain demands), bemoaning his helpless servitude to the 'one-eyed god' and complainin' of bein' simply too 'nakt' and sufferin' from 'aches and pains' to bother. Perhaps in an attempt to alleviate (t)his mood he presented this Agent with the 6 thus-far-completed pages of the Agent of S.M.E.R.S.H comic (the opening page rough here is from a letter circa 2010, a pitch of sorts for its intended inclusion in Kurt Sibling's Nexion #3 - before Evil Hollywood became an (on)going concern).

Well, what to say? What an absolute corker 'Death March of the Missile Men' is shaping up to be! (Hard to imagine it failing with a brilliant title like that!) No doubt in my mind these pages feature some of John's very best work - every panel crackles with energy, simply pops with startling imagery! It seems our Agent's style has evolved yet again, as he's gone big, bold and gnarly in his faces and layouts, meaning there's plenty space for him to run riot with his beautiful op-art touches. - there's brain-boggling 'beezom' fashions on every page! One particular panel, a simple enough shot looking from behind a cat standing on a desk, was so simple, so striking in its execution that it had this Agent agog. Shame that exposure to this as-yet-unfinished epic (3 or more pages to go?) left this reader in something of a 'depressy' funk. In the company of sheer genius why bother indeed...?