As you all know, there’s a Boom! Studios book called What Were They Thinking? Which, coincidentally, was my exact thought when I read Hannibal Tabu’s unusual review/confession of Hunter’s Moon, a new Boom! book at CBR:
Before discussing our first Honorable Mention title, “Hunter’s Moon” #1, it’s time for some disclosure. The writer of these reviews was asked by Boom! Studios to serve as editor on this title during the last quarter of 2006. However, at the exact same time, an opportunity to start a committed relationship with a very demanding young lady popped up, and a choice had to be made. So the writer of these reviews essentially set the ball down and ignored it, which was wholly uncool and bordering on rude. So there’s some foreknowledge of the project. To be honest, this writer has been dodging the Boom! Studios overlord for months, feeling like a personal apology was owed (even watching the guy walk through the cafeteria at WWLA) but not being able to set aside the time to say it right. Let’s hope that at some point some kind of proper amends can be made.
Wouldn’t a good time be when that time he spent watching the guy walk through the cafeteria at WWLA? Luckily, the actual review gets that proper amends thing off to a good start:
However, looking at the issue at hand, some of the concerns that this writer had with “Hunter’s Moon” in the conceptual stage have carried through to execution. The story here has great atmosphere and emotional content, but is simply too slow. In the style of a film thriller, it does a great job of establishing the relationships between characters and making them important to the reader … but in a method that borders on plodding. If you like a nice, relaxing drive, this is a great comic … but if you’re often speeding to where you have to be, you might appreciate the craft of this work but it might be a smidge deliberate.
The moral of this story: If you have the chance to work at a comic book company, don’t get in a relationship with “very demanding” young people of the gender of your choice. And if you do, then apologize to the person in charge of the comic book company instead of telling the internet that you would’ve if only you hadn’t spent the time watching people cross crowded cafeterias before giving said person’s company’s new book a crappy review that kind of digs at a lack of editorial input to help a book that may have needed it, giving you another reason to apologize to said person. The end.
April 27th, 2007 at 10:22 am
Graeme your a b*itch. I kind of like it (o:
April 27th, 2007 at 10:39 am
I really can’t believe that. Anyone with professional integrity would have…I don’t know…NOT REVIEWED THE BOOK, rather than being slightly catty about it. Don’t even get me started on how one’s self-professed closest-thing-to-an-apology is the little preamble before defecating on the book you needed to apologize for possibly holding up with your previous behavior.
April 27th, 2007 at 10:45 am
I don’t think I’m alone when I state that Hannibal Tabu is one of the worst comic reviewers on the Internet. He’s frequently arbitrary in his opinions, shows an appalling favoritism towards Black writers and Black themes (while it is important to recognize the contributions of Blacks in comics; to instantly recommend every Dwayne McDuffie book based solely on the fact that Dwayne McDuffie wrote it, for example, is an egregious error for any reviewer.), and rarely constructive with, or supportive of, his criticisms.
Does anyone take this guy seriously?
April 27th, 2007 at 11:20 am
“[T]o instantly recommend every Dwayne McDuffie book based solely on the fact that Dwayne McDuffie wrote it, for example, is an egregious error for any reviewer.”
McDuffie’s an enormously talented writer who writes good comics. How is Tabu regularly recommending McDuffie’s comics any different from, say, Roger Ebert regularly recommending movies by Robert Altman or Quentin Tarantino?
April 27th, 2007 at 11:48 am
I find Tabu’s review structure/criterion to be spectacularly inane- buy pile? read pile? Look, I speed-flip through books in the store too, but reading the whole thing is unfair to me.
He’s got good insight, but stuff like Graeme highlighted why it’s difficult to take him seriously.
And I agree with Matter Eater Lad: Dwayne McDuffie is one of the best writers of superhero comics out there.
April 27th, 2007 at 11:50 am
Langhorne, I know exactly what you mean. Especially when you consider everytime the Black Panther book comes out its in the Buy Pile, I mean, really?
April 27th, 2007 at 11:53 am
A little piece of my soul dies whenever I attempt read one of his haphazard “reviews” that have all of the substance of a lunch sized portion of sugar-free Jell-O pudding–you know the kind that tastes like crap because none of the good stuff is in it?
A real MAN would’ve taken the time to exact some PROFESSIONAL courtesy to apologize for “dropping the ball”–Boom! is probably much better off anyhow. The person that they attempted to “play ball with” couldn’t write himself credibly into a story that involved “balls” or “playing”.
A real writer would have been able to juggle a personal relationship and a work-related obligation–period.
I’m sure Hannibal’s just busy–singing Karaoke or selling bibs and panties with his moniker on them on his website:
http://www.operative.net/professional/store/index.html
He’s like a “vanity publication” that fell into some toxic waste that mutated arms, legs, and a consciousness and started walking around pretending to be talented and important.
April 27th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
There are insightful reviews, with well-reasoned criticism, deserved praise, and pinpoint vitriol at paradigms of craptacularity.
And then there’s the self-absorbed shitcan garbage “Hannibal Tatu” spews out every week. What a waste of space. If I wanted to read the inane ramblings of some egocentric retard, I’d still be reading Cal Thomas.
April 27th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Hey, I agree that Dwayne McDuffie is a great writer. Excluding Beyond!, I’d be hard pressed to name a book he’s written that I haven’t enjoyed.
My point is, that I would be disappointed if, to borrow Matter-Eater Lad’s analogy, Roger Ebert reviewed a Tarantino movie with “It’s directed by Quentin Tarantino, so it’s obviously one of the best movies in recent memory. Go see it, immediately.” Which may, in fact, be true, but as a reviewer, it’s your duty to provide more than that. Which was basically Tabu’s review of Beyond! a book which I borderline hated.
Perhaps choosing McDuffie was a poor example.
What bothers me most, is that Hannibal Tabu is completely ignorant of criticism, and actually defends himself by basically stating that The Buy Pile isn’t a review column, just a list of stuff he bought that week. Which is offensive to everyone with a brain that goes to CBR.
April 27th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
The offending bits and pieces have been edited out of his column. Or should I say “cut”…like he cuts and pastes for his other “column”.
April 27th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
Well, Graeme, I can’t let this piece go by without my saying…
SPOT-ON, SIR.
I know we’ve had our differences, but, boy, did I enjoy reading this! Thank you.
April 28th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
All I can is I give points to Tabu for listing “jackass” among his talents early in his bio… (And in the interest of full disclosure, back in the days when I was a reviewer, [upon reflection] I was quite often a jackass myself. Rarely [if ever] a conflict-of-interest jackass, but still a jackass. I hope he learns a lesson here (in professionalism and several other arenas).
April 28th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
huh, both of McDuffie’s books are in the read (don’t buy) pile this week. just sayin’
April 29th, 2007 at 1:09 am
Tim: I was a jackass too on Usenet, but the difference was, I wasn’t getting paid. I assume Tabu’s getting paid SOMETHING for CBR’s use of his column.