If you’re a huge Saga fan, or if you just love all things created by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, you’re most certainly going to want to keep your eyes open, as we fans are going to be gifted something special in April!
Continue reading ‘Saga: Book Two’ Arrives in April in a Deluxe Hardcover!
I haven’t been a fan of professional wrestling since about 1987. Back when the big American promotion wasn’t WWE, but WWF. Back when Hulk Hogan shredded that yellow shirt… and Jake the Snake brought that terrifying sack out to the ring with him… and the Ultimate Warrior exploded into a fireball of energy and popularity. It’s been that long for me. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love a great wrestling film (Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler was a heartbreaking masterpiece), or a great wrestling book, like Ringside Vol. 1: Kayfabe.
Continue reading ‘Ringside Vol. 1: Kayfabe’ Review
If you read Image Comics’ slick new book Demonic, you’re on the proper path. If you let the book fly under your radar, you’ve screwed up. But fear not, you’ve got a chance to catch up on the first big arc very soon!
Christopher Sebela writes while Niko Walter provides the illustrations.
Continue reading Image Gets ‘Demonic’ in a Trade Paperback!
Little Mikey is just playing ball with his old man. It’s a slick way to keep the boy distracted while mom stayed back at home and prepared his big birthday bash. But it doesn’t look as though Mikey’s going to be enjoying that party… as he’s gone – poof – completely missing. So begins a tale of adventure, mystery, terror and familial love.
Continue reading ‘Birthright’ Volume 1: Homecoming (Review)
If the X-Men all got together, hammered some cool beverages, “accidentally” stumbled into free rooms and bumped uglies, subsequently pumping out little Suicide Squad babies, you’d have an uglier rendition of Deadly Class (Book 1). And, as insane as that sounds, it really is kind of accurate.
This sprawling story focuses on an assortment of troubled teens who find themselves recruited into a private school (complete with an ancient cousin of Professor X), far off the radar. This school isn’t designed to help your reading, writing and arithmetic however, this is school is designed to turn rogues into highly skilled professional assassins.
It’s an insane concept to work with, and although the book borrows a few ideas from a few major titles, Rick Remender’s narrative is infectious, complex and unique enough to suck readers into the morbid vortex inhabited by youthful assassins. With each page that passes in this beautiful collection only becomes more curious, until the answers finally begin trickling in, and readers are left to assemble a few severely damaged lives.
At the heart of this top notch piece is a somewhat simple coming of age tale, and I love that about it. Don’t get me wrong, the violence and brutality of the book is gratifying, but the more personal elements are where the magic really lives. The love, the loss. The loyalty, the betrayal. These are things we’ve always dealt with in the real world, and they’re issues that make up a prominent slice of a teenager’s life.
Wes Craig’s artwork is excellent, often mixing up clean, precise images with frantic illustrations to further enhance Remender’s story. The two work well together, and the book is nothing short of absolutely magical.
Highly, highly recommended!
You can look into it right here.
Rating: 5/5
Written by: Adrienne Clark
I hadn’t read all of Hack/Slash before reading this story line. Many of the Hack/Slash stories are one shots (a stand-alone issue with a story that isn’t part of an ongoing series) so it’s usually not necessary to have read every previous story. Son of Samhain (story by Michael Moreci and Steve Seeley) followed suit as a stand-alone mini series; however, you would do well to be at least somewhat familiar with the series when you dive in.
Let’s do a quick run-down of the 5-part plot.
Book 1
Cassie Hack is hiding from herself by working as a bounty hunter. In a former life she hunted a different kind of prey–monsters. When another infamous monster hunter named Delroy tempts her out of retirement, they find themselves in Mexico uncovering a monster (no pun intended) plot to bring to life the God, Attan-Soolu.
The perspective toggles back and forth between our monster-hunting heroes and Morinto, the leader of a group of monsters who spends most of his time waxing poetic about the plight of monsters. Humanity defeated them centuries ago and drove them underground. Now, Morinto is building an army to return to the surface and take it back
The climax comes when Hack and Delroy discover a mysterious kid being held captive by the monsters. The hunters fight to free him. He returns their bravery by biting Hack’s arm and running away.
Book 2
Morinto confronts the mythical god beast, who has been made only to destroy, and listens to no one but Attan-Soolu. Fortunately, Morinto has perfected his brain-controlling bugs. With no effort at all, Morinto conquers the beast. Now the god beast believes Morinto is Attan-Soolu and will what whatever this monster leader wants.
Hack and Delroy track the mysterious boy that ran away. It turns out that he has a murderous streak as well. His name is October (Ocky for short), and Hack comments on how familiar he looks.
Book 3
Hack and Delroy take a moment away from monster hunting to discover more about Ocky’s past. It turns out there is a reason he looks so familiar to Hack.
Morinto’s past is revealed. It turns out that his mother was a member of an occult organization called the Dark Order. When she passed she prayed to have her powers passed to her son. Between this gift of dark power and the god beast, Moritno is able to build the monster army he needs to go to the surface.
Book 4
The battle is on between our hunters and the monster army. While Hack fights to survive against Morinto’s mind control bugs, Delroy takes on the god beast all on his own. That’s all I can say without spoilers so, on to…
Book 5
Hack and Ocky (seriously, has there ever been a less intimidating nickname?) take a moment to reflect on whether they should return to the battle or make a run for it. They know what choice they have to make, and once they do, they hatch a plan to send the murderous monsters back beneath the surface. But, can evil ever really be defeated?
Our heroes drive off into the sunset even as a new threat begins to take form.
This fun, if somewhat basic, story puts the classic “Hero’s Journey” structure to good use. It leans heavily on the reader’s familiarity with the classic structure. This way the story can focus on action rather than character development.
The characters are delightfully simple in both their motivations and their dialogue. I say delightfully simple because that is exactly what I’m looking for in a story like this. Cassie Hack is a smart-mouthed monster hunter who never loses her cool. Her sarcasm and bravery fire on all cylinders at all times and can only be matched by her empathy when she meets someone in need. She’s tortured, too, but only in so far as it helps break up the actions scenes and give her a motivation.
This story centers around a potential monster war, This simplicity of character was a good choice to compliment the story. If the action had been complex, but the characters one-dimensional (or vice versa) then I would have questioned every moment. For example, in the course of a page Hack kills several dozen monsters. Had her character been more complex, I would have wanted a better explanation for her abilities. Maybe spend time with her showing Ocky or Delroy how to do what she does. But, as it is, she’s strong, they’re evil, done and done. Works for me.
What did slow the story down were several passages of Morinto pontificating on the state of evil, humankind, and his desire to rule. I understand that the writers had to give him something to do, and they needed to build Morinto up as a threat that the reader would find believable, but it didn’t work for me. When you’re going to give a character time to say something that’s meant to be profound, it better be a pretty unique perspective. Instead it just bogged down the story with something akin to a passage from a teenage goth’s journal.
The imagery (by Emilio Laiso) is spot on, with a focus on shape over detail. Every monster is bigger or badder than the last, making for a beautifully intimidating army. Although sometimes the similar coloring on the baddies would confuse me for a few panels, which would take me out of the story as I scrambled to make sense of who was talking and if I knew them.
Hack/Slash: Son of Samhain is a fun comic for anyone who likes the horror genre. Although this miniseries is without some of the more famous guest stars that people have come to love (check out the Evil Dead crossover for a really good time), it’s still a totally readable monster story. Killing monsters is what Cassie Hack does best, and it’s always fun to watch someone kill (OK, pun intended that time) at what they love.
Rating: 3/5
A brilliant book with multi-layered characters that are typically easy to cheer for, but can be easy to despise. But if you pull those polarizing figures from the picture, and what Outcast truly is, is an evil, exorcism tale. Now drag those personalities back into frame and what you’ve got is a battle between good and evil that runs parallel to an intricate examination of magnetic characters.
Robert Kirkman may end up being remembered for The Walking Dead and little else, but he’s accomplished so much more than just creating The Walking Dead, and his ability to chill to the bone sure as hell isn’t dependent on the inclusion of zombies. Kirkman could make your backyard patio set terrifying, if he wanted to. He can certainly handle evil, self-doubt, violence and even maybe a hint of schizophrenia, as well. Pretty versatile, if you ask me.
As for this story, the focus rests on Kyle Barnes, an insanely troubled 30-something with a past he’d prefer to forget. But he can’t forget, because evil beings have been following him since day one. His only answer (a leery one) to this problem is to stop being the pursued and begin pursuing. Kyle embarks on a mission to rid the world of the evil beings capable of possessing the human body.
Kirkman makes this one a rugged affair, as we see some unsettling imagery, creepy ideas brought to the page and an unrelenting evil that has a score to settle with Kyle. It’s a brilliant read, and this comes from someone who isn’t a fan – in the least bit – of religious horror stories.
This one feels different. It actually doesn’t feel like an exorcism piece in the slightest, and that works for me. It reads differently, as though the small community and the mysterious and unknown are designed to take center stage over crosses and holy water. Again, big points for knowing when it’s time to move in a different direction.
I’m interested in seeing where Kyle heads from here. Robert Kirkman’s writing is top notch, and Paul Azaceta and Elizabeth Breitweiser’s artwork proves to be a magical fit for this gripping story. One volume in and I just can’t get enough of this aggressive piece of artwork.
You can order volume one right here.
Rating: 5/5
Author Caitlin Kittredge (Coffin Hill, Hell) and artist Steven Sanders (Wolverine) have teamed up to give us what promises to be a balls-to-the-wall joyride. Throwaways sounds like a certified keeper, and we’re pumped to see the book moving forward.
Look for Throwaways to launch in July.
Here’s some valuable 411 from the official press release:
Abby Palmer and Dean Logan are two broken people. Abby is a veteran with severe PTSD and Dean a burnout trying to escape the shadow of his infamous father—but when they are thrust into a modern-day MK-ULTRA conspiracy… They discover they are both ULTRA’s human experiments.
“Throwaways is the comic I’ve been waiting my whole career to write, and I can’t think of a better publisher than Image or a better collaborator than Steven,” said Kittredge. “This book is a collection of everything I love—spies, superpowers, secret history, conspiracies and action, grounded in a big dose of flawed, realistic characters. It’s just plain fun to write this book and I can’t wait for it to be unleashed on the world.”
Sanders added: “Throwaways has been a blast to work on! Just getting to draw ‘real life’ telekinetic fights has been something of a dream come true. I’ve had an itch to draw that sort of thing since I was a kid. It’s also giving me the chance to try out some illustration techniques I’ve just recently learned about. There’s a lot of detail to play with, a lot of action, but also quiet moments to build up tension. It’s hard for an artist to not be excited about a comic like this.”
THROWAWAYS #1 (Diamond Code MAY160548) will hit comic book stores on Wednesday, July 6th. The final order cutoff deadline for comic book retailers is Monday, June 13th.
Matt Hawkins, Brian Hill and Isaac Goodhart created a marvelous and engaging tale about a mail man with Asperger’s who finds himself in the middle of an intricate war and a bid for power. Postal is one of the greatest books on the shelf, loaded with fantastic characters and a few great twists, the popular Image title immediately squeezes its way into the must-read column.
And that’s really not a result of the book’s ruthlessness (it can indeed be pretty effin’ ruthless), it’s a result of nurturing of personalities. We care about Mark. We care about Maggie. We even become quite invested in the story’s antagonists. They’re a colorful lot, and the manner in which Hawkins and Hill blur the details and the line between good and evil, we’re never entirely certain of who is shady and who isn’t. I enjoy that enigmatic quality.
A murder mystery with some strong elements of horror (the secret’s floating throughout the town offer plenty of genre fuel, and things only seem to be escalating as the story continues), Postal is one of the greatest books you can read right now. It’s such a refined piece of work that looks and reads in pitch-perfect fashion. Postal cannot be avoided or slept on – it’s just too good for that.
Each arc is being released in collected volumes. You can volume one right here, while volume two can be purchased here. Volume three will be available for purchase next month. If you have trouble tracking down a few of the earlier issues, the old trade paperback is a safe way to go.
For now we want to bring you up to speed on the story, without spoiling it for you. Just in case, you know, you’ve had your head buried in the sand.
Dig on our top moment from each of the first four books.
Favorite Moment from Postal #1
Favorite Moment from Postal #2
Favorite Moment from Postal #3
Favorite Moment from Postal #4
Here we offer you a look at each cover from the first four issues, which are what make up the first volume TPB. Speaking of the TPB, we’ve also got a look at the cover for that as well:
Best Comic Books 