A sequel, obviously, to Marvel MAX's Strange Tales series from the previous year, which saw some of the best indie artists on the scene today take a spin at some of Marvel's characters, ranging from the popular (there's a fair amount of Wolverine and Silver Surfer content) to the more obscure (Stange Tales II sees appearances from Space Phantom, Woodgod and Frog Man, amongst others). But the real draw isn't the characters but the talent Marvel's brought in for this, a combination of fun, off-beat stories and beautiful art just as off-beat canvassed from creators you'd normally see nowhere near Marvel comics. We see pieces from Rafael Grampá, Dean Haspiel, Jhonen Vasquez, Tony Millionaire, and loads more than I can simply list here. Kate Beaton of Hark, A Vagrant! fame delivers several stories, with additional credits to Bill Crabtree and Perry Bible Fellowship's Nick Gurewitch (who also has several entries in the book), including one that contains maybe the best Kraven the Hunter panels ever printed:
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| A Distraction by Kate Beaton, Strange Tales II |
Altogether this is a great series of fairly random, mostly silly tales, with one notable stand-out being Harvey Pekar Meets The Thing, written by the eponymous late legend and featuring art by Ty Templeton. The collection is a fun read possibly somewhat off the beaten path for the average Marvel reader but worth adding to your collection, along with the original Strange Tales collection and DC's equally-excellent Bizarro World, which attempted the same experiment for their universe.
As a bonus, Comics Alliance has posted a collection of sketches and process art from several of the Strange Tales II contributors. I'll end this with one of my favorite pieces of finished art from the series, Orc Stain's James Stokoe's full page spread of one of the most impressive and certainly one of my favorite Galactus images ever.
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| Silver Surfer by James Stokoe, Strange Tales II |
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