Sandman Mystery Theatre - The Face!

Let's read the second arc of Sandman Mystery Theatre.
The year is 1938, and there is trouble in Chinatown...

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Ouch, those photo covers did not age too well in the days of HD digital rips

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Guy Davis did most of the art for this series, but this was one of the few arcs that he did not draw

Thanks OP

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Sandman Mystery Theatre 005 (1993) (digital-Empire).cbz
www89.zippyshare.com/v/QrI6z6jF/file.html
Sandman Mystery Theatre 006 (1993) (digital-Empire).cbz
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Sandman Mystery Theatre 007 (1993) (digital-Empire).cbz
www89.zippyshare.com/v/eXDmJNYj/file.html
Sandman Mystery Theatre 008 (1993) (digital-Empire).cbz
www89.zippyshare.com/v/qv2QsqDk/file.html

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Thanks for the bump!

SMT is a gem that's obscure.

I got so many issues in bargain bins. Really cool because cheap floppies. Sometimes even in "abandon hope all who enter here" bins where they just weight your total purchase and you pay per pound.

Unfortunately that also meant I sometimes just had 1-3 random issues of 4 issue story arcs.

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Oh boy, so the coloring in this was really, really bad when the issues first came out. I think I'll alternate a few pages just to showcase the difference.

>eyes so slanted you can barely see them
Ah, there it is. The fact the Chinese characters had normal skin tones was throwing me off for a second.

The length of each arc is definitely a problem. Most are paced well for four issues, but it does get very repetitive eventually.

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This more your style?

and now the recoloring, and the story will continue after the next page

I lied, one more page from the original to showcase the skin differences

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Hahahaha! Oh wow. That's especially bad given the story is clearly pushing a theme of exploring race relations. That coloring undermines it so hard.

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good on you for storytiming this. this was the first american comic I ever really got into 8 years ago.

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>The year is 1938, and there is trouble in Chinatown...
Where's Slam Bradley when you need him?

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He would fit into this series really well actually.

Sorry for the limited commenting, I was sorting through folders because I noticed that there was a page number discrepancy, but this is the right order.

Over in Gotham's Chinatown

Ah crap, should have spoilered that

I do like that a lot of this is from Dian's perspective

>five bucks
Geez, girl, have some self respect.

Dian's father is the District Attorney, and she is always paying attention to his work

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That was like a hundred bucks in back-then money!

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The issue about yellowface coloring came up in the letter section.

The recoloring looks better.
The yellowface is just distracting because it also clashes with the style of the other issues.

I know the art team wanted to use the comics style of the era depicted, like the Spirit...

Could have been used as stylistic device in first persion view panels where a racist cop that doesn't give a fuck sees the guys as cartoonish yellow chinamen and our boy Wesley sees them all tinted through the lenses of his gasmask.

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>I do like that a lot of this is from Dian's perspective
Allows development of the love interest while maintaining the mysterious presence of the hero. A fairly common trope in pulp stories. Just one more reason I miss pulp.

I had forgotten that this is what his mask looked like at the beginning. His costume changes as he becomes more experienced.

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WTH, its still great

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That coloring looks fine, so they must have taken it to heart pretty quickly

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As much as I like Guy's work on the series I always thought his Wesley looked kind of tubby.
This looks much more like the body of a crime-fighter masquerading as a normal dude.

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His Wes definitely was tubby. I remember a scene when he was getting his wounds dressed, and he had quite the gut.

Gotta say, this is a pretty sloppy frame up since both factions immediately realize they're being played. Yeah, I get the culprit is relying on the gangs being too prideful to to just talk to each other, but still. They could stand to be a little more clever about this. Minimize your chances of failure, y'know?

Wesley spent a lot of his life in the "Orient"

I found the letters pages, and I'll post them after issue 3

I really like the way he drew both Wes and Dian, desu. Wes was kind of tubby, Dian had a kind of big nose, they looked very real to me. I guess that doesn't ift as much with the golden age, noir/pulp feel they were going for but when I first read it it was one of the things that made it appeal to me when superheroes weren't back then.

imgur.com/a/dChYD

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Oh. Never mind, the culprit isn't relying on the pride of the gangs. They're relying on them being fucking morons. Fair enough.

It is always refreshing to see comic book character who look like normal people, and not samefaced supermodels.

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I like Guy Davis' art, but he samefaces quite a bit too. Some pages of B.P.R.D. look like Dian is in the service

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I'm currently reading Sandman and am on volume 3

Is it okay for me to read this? Will I understand it and/or will important things be spoiled? I've been seeing these around and want to check them out myself

I can't remember if Wesley has a dream page in this one

Sandman's got nothing whatsoever to do with Sandman Mystery Theatre

It has almost 0% connection to it. You saw that Dream inspired him via dreams in the first volume right? This continues from that.
The only real connection is that he sometimes sees Morpheus when he has a prophetic dream

They have no relation besides the name

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Bamp

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Oh right, the fact that the coroner is a Jew is a plot point. The Italian detective doesn't trust him that much.

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Thanks for the bump

So here's a thought. In a hypothetical Sandman/JSA movie/show/whatever, should Wesley have a heavily distorted voice when in costume?

I found some of his dreams from later issues, so I'll post those later

I always assumed he did. Like a creepy filter

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Thanks. I have a signed book of this but reading again

Actual detective work!

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oof

You might as well read Sandman Midnight Theatre since Morpheus appeared on that comic

strawpoll.me/14637940
Enter. Wesley's Alfred

The speech bubbles seem to be implying it at any rate.

Actual forensic analysis! What mad sorcery is this?

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See, this is what I was talking about. The story outright explores racism against Chinese, but that initial coloring just kind of shits all over that theme. Someone just wasn't paying attention or didn't give a shit, cause that's an especially egregious fuck up.

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I read him as having a slightly muffled voice in a low register
Like he puts on a spooky sounding voice on purpose but since it's through a gas mask it sounds spookuier

don't even hypothesize about a JSA movie, the disappointment would kill me

Karen Berger gives an explanation in a few pages

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