Then, the ongoing series started, by Mike Kunkel. His storytelling was even more juvenile than Smith's. His stories read like they were aimed at 5 year olds, and his artwork had way too much of a "Phineas & Ferb" look to it. But with issue 5, the new writing team of Baltazar and Franco took over. They seemed to move thing in a better direction. The script took more of an all-ages approach to it. But the art, by Vaughns and Branch, was too similar to Kunkel.
Now issue 6 is out, and finally, a home run! The cover by J. Bone is fantastic! The best cover of the entire run of the miniseries and ongoing. The script is also excellent. Baltazar and Franco have hit thier stride in balancing out an all-ages aspect with very good storytelling. Then the interior art by Stephan DeStefano. That is how this comic should look!! It appears to be a blending of C.C. Beck's style with R. Crumb!! It works!!
Unfortuately, this may be a one run game. It appears DeStefano was just a fill-in artist, and the regualar artist will be Vaughns. And that is a shame. Baltazar, Franco, & DeStefano really took this series to the next level, and its a shame they can't continue on together as a team.
I, for one, would much rather see DeStefano (or even J. Bone) be the regualr artist on "Billy Batson & The Magic Of Shazam". But if nothing else, at least we got one superb issue out of it.
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