Zorro (Papercutz)

(Papercutz, 2005)
™ and ©2005 Papercutz

Zorro, while trying to find safe refuge for Eulalia, the beautiful tavern maid who was disfigured for daring to help him (as seen in the short-lived Zorro comic strip), has wandered far from Old California to what will one day be Yellowstone National Park. There, they meet mapmaker Tierry Besson and his wife Amelie, who are desperately trying to evade the murderous trappers Ripklaw and Lucifer Trapp.

It’s questionable whether it’s wise to tie a plotline so closely to a comic strip 90% of the audience will never have seen. Second, Don McGregor needs a strong editor who can convince him that more words are not necessarily better words.

Finally, not every comic book should be drawn manga style. What Zorro desperately needed was an artist who could accurately depict period costumes, props, horses, and a panoramic outdoor setting. Instead, the art is vague at best (Amelie is 50, but you couldn’t tell by looking at her) and at worst a series of ugly smudges, thanks in large part to unsympathetic computer coloring.

— S.A. Bennett

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