Just got a chance to read Pirates of Coney Island #2. A lot of what I liked about #1 was present here... Lolos' art was generally very strong, and Spears' writing was pleasantly restrained. He let the art tell the story in many scenes and refrained from using obvious explanatory dialogue.The basic plot revolves around Patch meeting the titular pirates, and how he joins the group, despite some initial reservations. The process flows pretty naturally, and not in a trite manner that one might expect from a comic book. The characters also feel realistic and genuine -- they're almost painfully aware of their place in society. The dialogue is crisp and the occasional pirate lingo feels surprisingly natural, despite coming from a contemporary gang of land-locked kids.
In fact, I really only have one complaint about this issue -- the hot dog eating scene was not well-explained, I felt. It looked kind of like a hot dog eating contest, and the solicitation copy confirms that, but I had to re-read that scene several times to really get that. A simple banner or poster in the background or something would've been sufficient, but just suddenly seeing these people eating hot dogs was a bit disjointed.
For the most part, I really enjoyed the book and I made a point of telling my local comic shop to add it to my pull list. While there's a superficial resemblence to being an update of the old kid team books like the Newsboy Legion, the characters are all distinctly different and don't fall into the broad stereotypes that are often used. Even with the relatively minimal dialogue, we can see these characters as characters unique unto themselves and there's a lot of strength in that.
There's a lot to like with this book. I was a little reluctant to pick up the first issue, to be honest, based on nothing in particular. But I'm glad I did, and I hope the series does well.
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