Comic Quickies

Sweet Tooth #16: Its all out war in this issue as the crazed tribal army storms the militia compound where Gus and the other hybrids are being held. Writer/artist Lemire perfectly captures the frenzied chaos and destruction of battle as the fence crashes down and the armies collide. Jeppard's plan has worked up till this point, but he must avoid the clatter of death that surrounds him and rescue Gus before it is too late.

This issue had me on the edge of my seat as the bloody events unfolded. Sweet Tooth seems to get better with each issue, and the trend continues here. The whole time I was reading I knew that even the smallest delay could keep Jeppard from rescuing Gus, and when that delay comes, as I knew it would, it was way crazier than I expected. The next issue is gonna be insane.



Skull Kickers #3: I haven't been the biggest fan of this title since the get go, and that right there should have been good enough of an indicator for me to spend my money elsewhere, but I'm a stubborn bastard at best, so I stuck around to see if this one would get any better. Well, it hasn't. I can't directly point to one thing that sticks out as the defining factor as to why this comic isn't my cup of tea, it isn't that it is a terrible comic. Far from it. It just doesn't engage or interest me on any compelling level. I don't feel invested in the characters, I don't feel invested in the plot, I don't care where the story is going, and I don't instantly crave the next issue as soon as I have finished reading the current one. Basically this comic is the polar opposite of Sweet Tooth. So, I won't be reading Skull Kickers any more. It just isn't for me.

SIDE NOTE: Kudos to the creative team for the cosmically-trippy double page spreads in this one!



Doorways #2: GRRM is back with another installment of Doorways. I wonder how much he is really involved in this comic? It doesn't feel like I'm reading a comic written by GRRM. Maybe they are just working off his old TV scripts and someone else is adapting it. Anyway... this issue is fairly similar to the first; lots of running, gunning and explosions. The cool thing about this issue is we get a taste of the bad-guy, Thane, who Cat, the traveler between worlds is running from. Yeah, he's a tough bad-ass. One thing I can't figure out is why Thomas, the doctor fellah who is caught up in all this, continues to let himself be caught up in all this business. His motivations are murky at best. There are a lot of unanswered questions, and there are only two issues left, so I'll probably stick around to see if they get answered.



Dracula The Company of Monsters #1: Yeah, I know, reeeeally cheesy cover, but it's whats on the inside that counts and Dracula The Company of Monsters is pretty damn great on the inside. First off, its created by Kurt Busiek who's been a successful comics creator for years. Secondly, it is written by Daryl Gregory, the dude who wrote Pandemonium and Devil's Alphabet two novels I read, reviewed and enjoyed earlier this year. Thirdly, I got recommended this one by a trusted source, so I decided to give it a shot. Definitely worth it.

The comic follows a guy named Evan who works for a powerful corporation. He's been given the task of deciphering some archaic scrolls and spells, which his Uncle, who also happens to be the company's CEO, wants to use to bring Dracula back to life and use as a tool in the company's corporate schemes. The issue weaves in some historical flashbacks which introduce Vlad the Impaler. Vlad used the spells Evan is trying to translate to further his reign of terror and to also become Dracula.

I liked that Evan, despite working for the family business, is simply caught up in the flow of events, and is just a regular guy who is in way over his head. Just when I thought I had reached vampire saturation, this comic comes along and delivers a nice twist to the vampire genre. The first issue has great writing and some fine artwork as well. A great first issue, and I look forward to reading more.

Review: Supergod

What would happen if there was a super-human arms race? That's what Warren Ellis wonders in his latest take on superhumans.

The argument here is that humans are hardwired to create their own gods, and have been doing so since the dawn of time. So when various countries around the world start to craft super humans during the Cold War era, it should come as no surprise that these super humans take on god-like qualities and abilities.

In this Warren Ellis comic, the English were the first in space, which resulted in some cosmic entities mixing with the astronauts, creating a three faced, mushroom spore producing deity. From there, other countries around the world begin to ramp up their own super human projects, with varying results. India's super human turned Pakistan into nuclear rubble, creating a world-wide nuclear winter in the process. Other super humans from places like Iran, China, Russia, and the good ol' U.S. of A. begin to crop up and start to converge on India.

The events of Supergod are narrated by an English scientist who worked closely with the English super human. He appears to be one of the only remaining humans left after the conflagration of super humans in India. The guy clearly has a few screws loose, and maybe isn't the most reliable narrator, but he's all we got, and his explanation for why the whole world is in shambles seems to be as good as any.

For me, there wasn't a lot to love about Supergod. If you want to see a lot of shit get blown the fuck up, then this is probably for you, but if you like plot, and characters, and strong dialog, then stay away. Ellis is usually a go-to guy for great comics, he seems to be full of ideas, and at the heart of Supergod there is a good idea, that of "What would happen if there was a super human arms race?" But the good ideas end there, and the execution is dull at best. Normally Ellis creates some memorable characters, and splashes some strong, snapppy dialog in there as well, but there really isn't any character interaction happening here at all which made this one fall totally flat.

The artwork by Garrie Gastonny was pretty solid. His star shined brightest in terms of drawing the super humans; a few of them were really cool looking. The backgrounds and settings were all done well, and overall this was a strong effort, but one thing bothered me: The regular folks. All the non-super humans looked pretty plain and dull, and their faces were pretty much inexpressive. This generalizing of humans occurred when he drew people of different ethnicities as well. I particularly noticed this when he drew Indian people; it sort of just looked like he drew generic people no matter what the ethnicity. The lack of diversity in the art didn't really match the diverse locales of the story.

Overall, not my favorite art, though there are some great moments...BEHOLD CTHULHU!!


Because there weren't any interesting characters for me to take interest in, this comic fell flat. Aside from the occasional pretty looking art, there isn't much to like here. I'm sure Avatar will eventually collect this in Trade format, but I think there are much better Ellis titles out there to read.

Grade: D-

Review: Fevre Dream

Abner Marsh was once a big name in the riverboat trade. However, after a harsh winter freeze wrecked all but one boat in his fleet, he's now just a name that gets associated with bad luck. His luck changes one day in April when he meets with Joshua York, a wealthy aristocrat who wants to partner with Marsh and revitalize Marsh's riverboat business. Never mind the fact that it is an investment that wont reap profits for years, York has his own, private reasons for wanting to ply the waters of the Mississippi.

Despite Marsh's lingering suspicions, he takes York up on the offer and the two become partners. Being the savvy riverman that he is, Marsh knows he shouldn't look past York's bizarre behaviors, and strange rules, but partnering with York means getting a shot at achieving a dream; building the fastest, prettiest steamboat on the Mississippi. To Marsh, it appears his luck has changed for the better, until the Fevre Dream's maiden voyage where he slowly starts to realize that his new partnership could turn his dreams into nightmares.

George R.R. Martin might be best known for writing epic fantasy, but he's no slouch when it comes to horror. Though Fevre Dream was published over a decade prior to A Game of Thrones, many of his strengths as a writer are present here. One thing that struck me as incredibly well done was how Martin makes the riverboat culture of the 1850's come alive. The individual boats, the cities that line the shores of the Mississippi and the river itself are all vibrantly written. Martin creates a setting that brings that bygone age back to life.

The characters of Fevre Dream are also brilliantly rendered. Each character, particularly Marsh, and York leap off the page. Martin's character building doesn't just end at the principle characters, like some other authors, instead he brings life to the entire cast. As a result, I found myself more invested in what happened to the characters, whether it was Marsh, or the galley cook. From reading Martin's other works, I know that no character is safe, and the same can be said for just about everyone in this book as well.

Another similarity to Martin's other novels that I noticed in Fevre Dream is his fine attention to detail. Martin has a knack for bringing inanimate objects to life through rich description, and that is certainly the case here. There were times that I felt like I could feel the softness of the carpets, the strength of the steam engines and even smell the fresh paint on the Fevre Dream. Not to mention all the times the guy made me hungry from his extremely detailed descriptions of the food Abner Marsh ate.

One thing that initially made me an undying fan of Martin was his ability to shock and surprise me. His A Song of Ice and Fire series has delivered a lion's share of jaw dropping moments. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case with Fevre Dream. Through the reading, I always felt I had a good idea of where the story was going, and how things would turn out. I guess I may have unfairly expected surprises given my history with Martin, but there weren't to many here.

Fevre Dream is an extremely well written vampire novel, probably as good as they get, but not quite on par with his other writings. Even though this one isn't as mind-blasting as Martin's other works in the realms of epic fantasy, it is still a damn good book, and easily one of my favorite reads of the year. I highly recommend this to all Martin fans, and anyone else who wants to read a sweet vampire novel, minus the sparkles and eye shadow.

Grade: A-

Review: Killer of Demons

Killer of Demons is the story of Dave Sloan, he's a junior account executive, and a regular-ass guy, except with one pretty big difference...he can see the demons that have infiltrated our world. Shit, he even has a little cherub angel guy that helps him spot, and kill the demons. Which he does, with bloody and deadly results. Usually with a sword, axe, or gun. There's just one problem, all the demons that Dave sees also tend to be people that annoy him; co-workers, dudes with leaf-blowers, and fast food restaurant employees, to name a few. So is he really doing the work of God, or is he just totally insane?

The premise of Killer of Demons is pretty great, and it is handled in a very light-hearted manner. It's nice to read a something every now and then that doesn't take itself too seriously. This is essentially a bloody, demon-death filled romp that manages to be pretty damn funny as well.

The writer, Christopher Yost spins the tale out at a nice, speedy clip, and doesn't waste too much time between demon slayings. The plot is fun, and the characters are all good for a laugh or two. Especially Dave's MMORPG/FBI Sex-crimes investigator brother who just happens to have a vast collection of sharp, pointy, bladed weapons and an arsenal of pistols, shotguns, and automatic weapons in his basement. The main character, Dave is great too, and his constant questioning of his own sanity can be quite entertaining.

The art of Killer of Demons is where I found things a bit lacking. The artist, Scott Wegener does a pretty good job with the action and fight scenes, but some panels just fall a bit flat, and aren't that interesting to look at. The art gets the job done, which is fine, but it doesn't stand out, or catch the eye. There weren't any panels that really impressed me, or made me stop and stare for a bit. Those moments where I just stare at a page, taking in all the details of the artist's skill is one of my favorite things about the comics medium, and that just didn't happen here.

Killer of Demons is more or less perfect if you are looking for a short, yet fun, light-hearted read. The trade only collects three issues, so it is a light read in more ways than one. Still, despite the low page count, and the less-than-stellar art, Killer of Demons is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face as it has some pretty great moments of hilarity. This one is definitely worth a look if you are in the mood for some mayhem.

Grade: C

John Layman in Seattle

Yesterday the city of Seattle had a cool visitor from the comics world. John Layman, the writer of the Eisner Award winning comic, Chew stopped by one of Seattle's great comic shops, Comics Dungeon, (where he was once a box-customer), to sign books and talk to fans about his work.

I arrived on the scene early into the event, and was surprised to see that the place wasn't all that crowded. Maybe everyone was too busy watching the Seahawks game or something. Either way, it worked out for the best because the small crowd created a great laid-back atmosphere where folks could just hang out and chat it up with one of the most creative minds in comics.

Everybody seemed to want to know about a Chew TV show. Which I've covered before, but just to keep you updated: Circle of Confusion, who packaged The Walking Dead show and shopped it around to cable networks, has done the same with Chew, they've got a writing staff to do an episode or two, got a director, and basically now just need to go to some of the cable networks and say: "Hey, we've got this sweet show all packaged up and ready to go."

It was kinda crazy how nearly everyone asked him if there would be a Chew TV show. I don't really understand why people have such a desire to see things get adapted to film or television, I prefer art in the medium it was created in, but I guess I'm a fucking weirdo or something. Anyway, I must have heard Layman answer this question at least a half dozen times. The cool thing is, he didn't seem to mind and was more than willing to answer people's questions.

There were a few other cool nuggets that I picked up as well.

Layman also discussed how he and Chew artist Rob Guillory split the money on the floppy issues, basically Rob gets 75%, and Layman gets 25%. The reason being that the work load for artists is a lot bigger at this level, hence the big chunk of the proceeds. However, they split everything else, like sales on trades, 50-50.

Layman also told me that just for special, folks who buy the single issue floppies will get a nice little treat after issue #18. Instead of the next issue being #19, they will instead drop issue #27 in there out of sequence, and then the following month pick back up with #19. That way, folks who buy the single issues get a little sneak peek at what's gonna be happening in the series a year down the road. HOWEVER, if you are a trade waiter, Issue #27 wont be collected in the 4th trade, instead the trade waiters will have to wait until the 6th trade comes out...so, only like a wait of like, a year or two...

Another cool nugget: Also for those who get the single issues, Layman mentioned that like with issue #15, which was the 1/4 mark for the series, they'll be cranking out some special-special covers for the half-way point and the 3/4 mark. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for some scratch-and-sniff!

I was pretty happy to find that John Layman is a totally cool guy, and damn easy to talk to. Hopefully he'll make it to the Emerald City Comicon this year. If you aren't reading this great comic yet, do it. Now is an excellent time to jump on as you can get totally up to speed just by buying the first three trades.

Kill Shakespeare for FREE! (Limited time only!)

I was killing time over at Coverless today when I stumbled across this post that links to free Kill Shakespeare issues.

Basically, iTunes has the first two issues available for free. Not too bad of a deal if you ask me. It's a cheap way to check out the series and see if you like it. The first trade came out a week or so ago, so this is great way to get an intro to the book without having to drop the cash for the whole trade, or shell out for the individual issues.

If you give it a shot, let me know what you think!

You can follow those links above or click this and go straight to the website they'll link you to anyway.

Review: Brave New World

Brave New World is one of those classics of literature I've never gotten around to reading. I know most people read this one back in high school or something, but my high school was a joke, and they let me read The Wheel of Time books instead. Well here I am years later, finally getting around to reading this classic.

I sort of feel like a plot synopsis is superfluous, but here's one anyway. Brave New World is set in the distant future in "the year of our Ford 632...or if you do the math, somewhere around the mid 2500's. In this super advanced society, people no longer give birth to cute, squealing babies, they are instead grown in laboratories, and bred to do specific jobs for their whole lives. Not only are humans split up into caste structures, they are also conditioned from birth to behave certain ways. On top of that, people are encouraged to take a hallucinogenic drug called "soma" that helps them feel happy. Essentially, the people of the future only do three things, work, play weird sports like obstacle golf, and have lots and lots of recreational sex. If you don't do those last two things, and do something odd, like say, spend time on your own, you are seen as an oddball or outcast.

The first few chapters of the book focus on building up the setting firmly in the reader's mind, then introduces Lenina and Bernard. Lenina is a perfectly normal promiscuous woman, and Bernard is a bit of an oddball. Though he is an Alpha-plus, he is smaller than those of his caste, and the ridicule he receives from his peers has caused him to do "odd" things like spend time alone, and think for himself.

For reasons that don't necessarily fit societies norms, Lenina finds Bernard interesting and they decide to travel together to New Mexico to visit the "Savage" Reservation there. As far as I can tell the "Savages" of this novel refer to American Indians. These "Savages" live on a reservation, and don't hold to the tenets of the mainstream society. They still have live births, and live off the land, and create the things they need to survive.

While on their trip, Bernard and Lenina meet Linda and her son John, who live on the reservation, but have interesting ties to the World State. It is when Bernard decides to bring them back to London that things really get interesting.

The book is cleanly broken up into three parts, the introduction, the visit to the reservation, and John's visit to the modern world. Things only really get interesting in the third part, as John reacts to the strange society. John is pretty much the ultimate outsider, and the only character of the novel that I could even remotely relate to. The lack of characters I found interesting or engaging made the first half of the book a bit of a drag for me. Bernard and Lenina are more like robots, and in many ways, only serve to move the plot to the point where Huxley could introduce John, thus having him be able to interact with the society the author had created.

That interaction between John and the World State society Huxley created was the greatest aspect of the book, and I think Huxley really nailed the pitch-perfect ending. Reading John experience life in the new world, and reading the people of the new world react to and experience John was a delight. I really don't see how things could have ended differently for John, and though it saddened me to read how his life turned out, I think it was brilliantly written.

Brave New World is considered a classic, but reading it now, over 75 years after its publication, it feels very dated. For one, nuclear technology didn't factor into the wars that led to the World State society being formed, and that really stuck out as an anachronism. Huxley's prose left me feeling a bit cold. Maybe that was deliberate, seeing as it would fit with the cold and empty society he created for this novel, but it made it hard for me to enjoy the reading experience. The characters also left me feeling cold, but that is because by their nature they were, more or less, empty vessels. Still, I prefer to like, or at least care about what happens to the main characters, and while that did happen with John, I found it hard to do the same for Bernard, or Lenina. Yes, I know they are just victims of their society, but still, it was hard to be sympathetic.

Though I didn't enjoy this read as much as I would say, eating ice cream, it is still very much a great read, and every bit a classic. I found the novel interesting and thought provoking. It was cool to look back to the early 30's and see what people thought the future would hold. If you are like me, and haven't read this yet, give it a whirl. It is one you don't wanna miss.


Grade: C+