Krampus

Review: Krampus Vol. 1

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(Image Comics, 2015)

Krampus! Volume 1
Written by Brian Joines
Illustrated by Dean Kotz
Colors by Ron Riley
Letters by Charles Pritchett

If you think about it. The idea of Santa Claus is pretty creepy.   An old guy who breaks into your house and leaves things for your kids without you knowing who he is or what his criminal background is.  As if that weren’t bad enough some disturbed parents in the Alpine regions of Europe decided that their children, while mostly good for the month of December, did not have enough to worry about the rest of the year.  No gift from Santa was not sufficient penalty to keep them in line.  So they invented the Krampus.

I had never heard of the Krampus until about three years ago when I saw Rare Imports, a Finish film released in 2010 about something sinister inside a lonely, snow-covered mountain.  If you do a Google search on the subject, you will see some truly horrifying pictures of traditional Krampus parades in far-off countries.  The Krampus, for those who don’t know, it the yin to Santa Claus’ yang, the black to his white, the creature that comes on Christmas eve to punish bad little girls and boys in various sadistic ways. This book takes a decidedly lighter position on the Krampus.  I give you Krampus! Vol. 1from Image Comics, a collection of the first five issues of the series. Continue reading →

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REVIEW: The Autumnlands: Tooth and Claw #2

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(Image Comics, 2014)

Writer – Kurt Busier
Artist – Benjamin Dewey
Color Art – Jordie Bellaire
Lettering and Design – John Roshell and Jimmy Betancourt of Comicraft

Let’s get this out of the way first.  This is still the same book.  This is not a variant, this is not a spin-off, this is number 2 of Tooth and Claw, the next issue in the series that debuted last month.  The problem, so the press release stated, was that they messed up the trademark search.  So, easy fix, we’ve a new title.  The Autumnlands: Tooth and Claw #2 dropped this week.

The citizens of a fallen city sit around a small fire and hope for the coming of a legendary hero. Their city has crashed due to their magical fidgeting.  Now they are camped in the ruins and fighting amongst themselves, arguing about who their savior will be.  And then the Bison Tribes arrive and begin the wholesale slaughter of the “intelligent” ones.   Continue reading →

Dash 1

REVIEW: Dash: The Case of the Mysterious Zita Makara #1 and #2

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(Northwest Press, 2014)

Writer – Dave Ebersole
Cover, Interior Art, Colors, Letters – Delia Gable
Color Flats by Josh Lester

There’s a stifling office, a lazily spinning ceiling fan, the camera angle is near said fan, its blades cutting through the shot.  A man sits at his desk, fedora tilted back on his head, a cigarette hanging from his bottom lip as he touches the buzzer on his desk, “Let her in…”

If you’ve read any detective fiction, seen a film in the last eighty years, this scene is familiar to the point of cliché. Everyone knows what “should” be in a detective story if it is to fit in the genre.  And, for the first ten pages of Dash: The Case of the Mysterious Zita Makara, you think it’s another detective story, one with all of the earmarks you’d expect from someone who obviously loves the genre.  There’s the setting.   Continue reading →

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Review: Critical Hit #3 & Pirouette #2

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(Black Mask Studios, 2014)

Black Mask Roundup: Of Clowns and Hunters
Critical Hit #3
Written by Matt Miner
Pencils and Inks by Jonathan Brandon Sawyer
Colors by Doug Garbark

Pirouette #2
Created and Written by Mark L. Miller
Pencils and Inks by Carlos Granda
Colors by El Comic En Linea Foundation

I blame the holidays.  They sneak up on you and hit you where it hurts the most, in your “to read” pile.  And the comics don’t stop; they keep coming week after week.  So, with apologies to the creators of these two fine books, I’m combining reviews here, hoping that I can catch up and still spread the good word about great indie books.

It’s one of the things that make it hard not to read books when I see they have that Black Mask Studios logo attached.  This company has a commitment to great storytelling and some of the finest and most original art out there. These are just good comics. Continue reading →

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REVIEW: Escape from New York #1

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(Boom! Studios, 2014)

Writer – Christopher Sebela
Artist – Diego Barreto
Colorist – Marissa Louise
Letterer – Ed Dukeshire

I’ve a love of post-apocalyptic fiction and prose that began long before I first read about zombie’s taking over the world.  That love was born and bred of films I loved growing up, films that took the bright and shiny future and filled it with the most loathsome buggers around, and then made those guys the heroes.  Mad Max, The Running Man (yes, that one too), and especially Escape From New York captured the imaginations of a generation of kids who grew up with Ronald Reagan and George Bush, and thought that whatever was coming was most assuredly not going to be better.  There were sequels to some of those films, some good, some…not so good, but now, under the leadership of Boom! Studios, we’re getting another sequel, this time to a classic.

Continue reading →

ToeTagRiotCover

Review: Toe Tag Riot #1

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(Black Mask Studios, 2014)

Toe Tag Riot #1
Written by Matt Miner
Pencils and Inks by Sean Von Gorman
Colors by John Rauch
Lettered by Sean Von Gorman

Matt Miner, king of the Kickstarter komics, extra “k” for dramatic effect, is back, and with a hunger that can only be satiated by human flesh and punk rock.  Toe Tag Riot #1, the much-anticipated first issue of Miner’s latest series, is on shelves Wednesday, and it is everything that you’d expect from Mr. Miner.

Along with longtime collaborator Sean Von Gorman, Miner drops his newest offering to the comic gods in the form of a zombie punk band, ready to chew up the competition and gnaw through the mores established by rock and roll icons.

Toe Tag Riot is not only the name of the comic but also that of the featured players in the story.  They are a band formed of various long-timers, those who stood out from other bands and couldn’t handle the b.s. that goes with working with musicians.   Continue reading →

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REVIEW: ‘Starburn’ #1

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(Markosia, 2014)

Created and Written by Kelly Bender
Illustrations by Brian Balondo
Inks by Cristian Docolomansky
Colors by Laura Lee
Letters by Nic J Shaw

I’ve got a small beef with the term “indie” when it comes to certain companies. It seems that many people use the term when talking about any book not published by Marvel or DC, and I understand that in a sense. When some of these other companies came out, Dark Horse, Image, IDW, etc., they Continue reading →

Wytches-No1--COVER

REVIEW: ‘Wytches’ #2

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(Image Comics, 2014)

Story by Scott Snyder
Art by Jock
Coloring by Matt Hollingsworth
Letters by Clem Robins

Scott Snyder has a rabid fan base.  If anyone has read American Vampire you can see his love of horror fiction.  His run on Batman broke records and changed the way people look at the whole DCU.  As if ole’ Bats wasn’t a flagship property already, Snyder cemented that position for years to come. Continue reading →

OutcastsOfJupiter-No1--COVER

REVIEW: ‘Outcasts of Jupiter’ #1

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(Coker CoOp Books, 2014)

Written by Shobo Coker
Art by Shofela Coker

The abundance of crowd-funded comic books on the market today makes it nearly impossible to keep up.  It’s a constant complaint for me, not just with the indie market but with the standard market as well.  There are a lot of comic book to read, and you can’t always be on the front lines to see this stuff at its’ beginning. Continue reading →

Tooth-and-Claw-No1--COVER

REVIEW: ‘Tooth and Claw’ #1

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(Image Comics, 2014)

Writer – Kurt Busiek
Artist and Cover Colors – Benjamin Dewey
Colors – Jordie Bellaire
Lettering and Design – John Roshell and Jimmy Betancourt

I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again, I love going in to a new issue #1 with one idea and coming out on the other end with a completely new understanding of what is going on in a book.  Being surprised is really one of the greatest things in a medium where you think you’ve seen it all. Continue reading →

WKRP-COMIC--COVER

REVIEW: ‘COMICS #5: WKRP in Cincinnati’

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(Levity Biographies, 2014)

Writer – Chad Lambert
Illustrators – Particio Carbajal and Apriyadi Kusbiantoro
Colorist – Rodney Fyke
Letterer – Jaymes Reed

Nostalgia is a player at the table of geek culture.  How many times do we watch a movie and groan a little at how much we liked it and how bad it really is?  I’ve refused to read books that I previously loved just on the off chance that it might be much worse than I remember and therefore ruin it for me now.  You can never downplay the nostalgia factor when checking something new out. Continue reading →

PennyDora-No1--COVER

REVIEW: ‘Penny Dora and the Wishing Box’ #1

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(Image Comics, 2014)

Writer – Michael Stock
Artist – Sina Grace
Colorist – Tamra Bonvillian
Letterer – Hope Larson

Wishing for things is bred into us from a very young age.  We’re told by our parents to wish on stars, birthday candles, when the clock hits 11:11, and if you’re like I was when I was little, I always wished for the same thing.  The Millennium Falcon.  The Hasbro one, with the chess table and spinning quad gun on the roof Continue reading →

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REVIEW: ‘The Rage’, Vol.1

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(Titan Comics, 2014)

The Rage
Volume One: Zombie Generation
Script by Pierre Boisserie
Art by Malo Kerfriden
Colors by Boubette
Translated by Virginie Selavy

I’m starting to find it difficult to come up with clever quips about the dead walking around.  My store of silly puns is dry, drier than the corpse of Tutankhamen in the middle of an Egyptian July.  There seem to be no end to zombie-based fiction stories, both on the big and small screen, in all kinds of print fiction and comics. Continue reading →

Pirouette-No1--COVER

REVIEW: ‘Pirouette’ #1

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(Black Mask Studios, 2014)

Created & Written by Mark L. Miller
Pencils & Inks by Carlos Granda
Colors by El Comic En Linea Foundation
Lettered by Jim Campbell

Coulrophobia is the fear of clowns.  Anyone who grew up on Stephen King novels has a touch of it, and those who saw Tim Curry’s crazy-good performance as Pennywise the Dancing Clown still shudder at the thought of balloons and how they float.  But for those that weren’t deeply emotionally scarred, there’s a new clown in town. Continue reading →

REVIEW: ‘The Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow’

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(Archaia, 2014)

The Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow
The Lost Television Special by Jim Henson and Jerry Juhl

Adapted, Illustrated, and Hand-Lettered by Roger Langridge
Colors by Ian Herring

I’ve been a lifelong fan of everything Henson.  From the first time I saw The Muppet Show, to the tenth time I watched The Dark Crystal, Jim Henson has been a major influence in my life.  Those films, and Sesame Street, were the Continue reading →