iZombie #8

Gwen’s latest brain dinner was from the mother of one of her childhood friends, and the dead woman’s only wish is that Gwen tell her estranged daughter that she loves her. Of course, that would leave Gwen’s secret unlife as a zombie in jeopardy, since her friend knows that she’s dead. Meanwhile, Horatio and Diogenes fight off the vampire babes from the paintgun park, and Amon remembers his entanglements with Galatea, a beautiful mad scientist and Frankensteinesque reanimated corpse. Speaking of Galatea, she’s also in town, having just resurrected one of the vampires to use as a servant. And Scott the wereterrier has to deal with his late grandfather, now reborn into the body of a deeply resentful chimpanzee.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Looks like we’re still in a position of ramping up new storylines, but good grief, there’s a lot of cool stuff in this issue. Galatea is beyond awesome, and I’m loving the way Gwen gets nagged by her newest brain tenant.

Strange Science Fantasy #6

The final issue of Scott Morse‘s outstanding series focuses on two men exploring a forgotten jungle valley in the 1930s. They discover dinosaurs and other wonders, apparently all fueled by the power of human imagination. How is this possible? The explorers soon meet a tribe that reveals the jungle’s secret — an ancient city hidden beneath an inland sea — the “Manga-Ka,” the birthplace of all stories! But will destruction and betrayal doom mankind’s birthright of imagination?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Love the way the previous issues in this series are referenced within the stories told in Manga-Ka. And as always, this is really great, audacious pulp storytelling. If you haven’t read this series yet — well, pity upon you, folks, but at least keep your eyes open for the eventual trade paperback.

American Vampire #9

Chief McCogan is still pretty gobsmacked that his own adopted father turned out to be a vampire — Agents Straw and Book from the Vassals of the Morning Star tell him that his father’s species of vampire was thought wiped out centuries ago by other vampires — they needed little blood and specialized in shapeshifting, but they just couldn’t hold out against the more prolific Carpathian vampires. McCogan demands that they let him speak to his father one last time before they kill him. But the Carpathians come looking for them — can Skinner Sweet help even the odds? And even if he can, can anyone keep him from betraying everyone?

Verdict: Thumbs up. The story flips from heartwarming to brutal, and it’s all pretty good.

Secret Six #28

Two different teams of the Secret Six are hanging out in the fantasy world of Skartaris, fighting a war against each other and the people who live there. Black Alice is feeling useless, since she can’t access any magic powers here. Deadshot has run out of bullets, and the rest of them are fairly gleefully slicing other people up with swords. But then Skartaris’ current leaders gets possessed by the spirit of a demon called Deimos, turns into a snake-dragon, and starts whuppin’ up on everyone. How will they manage to defeat the monster and extract themselves from Skartaris? Once they’ve returned home, Amanda Waller offers them a deal — work for her as a new Task Force X — though some choose to leave the group willingly (or in the case of one, very unwillingly and painfully).

Verdict: Thumbs up. I can’t believe King Shark was so much fun in this series. I do hope they’re going to keep him around. We get a nice closer for Black Alice’s story, and Dwarfstar gets exactly the ending he deserved.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Hey, look! Someone made a TV commercial for Lubbock’s Star Comics! See how many of your friends you can recognize…
• The Avengers tackle a few real-world issues.
• Happy Hanukkah from Jack Kirby and Ben Grimm.
• Who said there’s anything wrong with combining Christmas and zombies?

First of all, we have some very interesting news for comics lovers in Lubbock.

There’s going to be a meeting tomorrow evening for folks interested in holding more comics conventions here in the Hub City.

It’s going to be happening at 8 p.m. sharp on Thursday, November 11, in the Metro Tower/NTS Building downtown, way up on the 19th floor in the large meeting room at the end of the hall.

They want anyone interested to come on out — whether you’re wanting to run a table, be a guest, or have some larger part in future conventions.

Got questions? Drop Nicholas an e-mail, and he’ll set ya up.

Alright, now let’s hit a few reviews.

iZombie #7

Gwen needs to chow down on a brain soon, or she’s going to turn into a mindless shambler zombie. But before she can get to her cerebellum lunch, we get to see Claire the vampire raised from the dead again by a mad scientist, Spot meets a new friend, and Horatio and Diogenes, the monster hunters, bite off more than they can chew with a van full of vampires.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Beautiful artwork, fun writing, and more craziness injected into Gwen’s undeath. The cliffhanger is pretty good, too.

Avengers Academy #6

Our focus this issue is on Reptil, the academy’s dinosaur-morphing golden boy. He’s dreamed of being in the Avengers his whole life, he’s just been elected as the class leader, and he should be on top of the world, but stress over his parents’ deaths, his potentially out-of-control powers, and having to keep too many secrets buried on behalf of his classmates is driving him towards a nervous breakdown. Can anyone help him make an emotional breakthrough?

Verdict: Thumbs up. I’m enjoying this comic a lot more than I ever expected to. The dialogue is good, the art is good, the plotlines and characterization are good. It’s well worth reading — hope you’re giving it a shot.

Secret Six #27

The two different Secret Six teams keep brawling with each other in Skartaris, but they call a fast halt to the proceedings after Scandal accidentally slashes Bane’s throat out. Luckily, Skartaris has healers who can fix him up fine. But the two teams are still at odds, still heading for a confrontation between two armies to determine who will control the fantasy kingdom. All that, plus Amanda Waller shoots someone in the head!

Verdict: Thumbs up. Not much to say about it — all the good stuff we’ve come to expect from the “Secret Six” series.

Chaos War #3

The Chaos King is whuppin’ everyone’s butts. He’s already taken over the Underworld, which allows him to control dead gods like Zeus, Hera, and Ares, who, backed up by Chaos’ power, can even smack Galactus around. Hercules is finally forced to kill Zeus, who encourages Herc to team up with the rest of the gods in the rest of the pantheons. Unfortunately, when Hercules uses his new omniscience to find where they’re all hiding out, he reveals their location to the Chaos King — and the more gods he devours, the more infinitely powerful he becomes. Is there any way to win when there’s no chance to win? And who is the Chaos King’s secret ally?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Okay, by this time, the threat to the universe has been risen way, way out of anyone’s league — so it’ll be fun to see how Herc and Amadeus Cho get out of this one next issue…

Today’s Cool Links:

• Marvel’s big price drop didn’t last very long, did it?
• Take a tour of the world’s creepiest Six Flags.
• This is what happens when you let your big-talkin’ rhetoric race past your ability to consider future consequences. Also, it’s funny as heck.
• I’d like to introduce y’all to Those Poor Bastards, my new favorite band in the universe. Ever wonder what kind of country music they play in Hell? They play this and this and this.

Liberty Annual 2010

Here’s one of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s periodic fundraiser comics, designed to both raise some money for the organization and educate readers about the continuing need to support the CBLDF and oppose censorship of comics.

We get a big variety of comics by a whole lot of creators — a Conan story from Darick Robertson, a story from Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba, a Milk and Cheese comic from Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer, a Megaton Man story from Don Simpson, and other stories from Garth Ennis, Scott Morse, Geoff Johns, Scott Kolins, Gail Simone, Larry Marder, and a ton of pinups from Jill Thompson, Frank Miller, Terry Moore, Jeff Smith, Skottie Young, Colleen Doran, Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, and more.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Anything to support the CBLDF, man. It’s five dollars, but it goes to a worthy cause. Pick it up.

Strange Science Fantasy #4

Scott Morse’s pulp-inspired series continues with a look at the life of Private Charlie Gantic, who gets thrust from the Pacific Theater to a global war against invading aliens. A scientific experiment gives him the ability to grow to immense size, and he takes the fight to the aliens as G.I. Gantic — but is he prepared for the mind-blowing secret the aliens have been hiding?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Beautifully illustrated and a great story that effortlessly jumps from one genre to the next. This entire series has been a ton of fun — we’re lucky to be getting the chance to read it.

American Vampire #7

Chief McCogan and his two fed sidekicks, Agents Straw and Book, confront Mr. Smoke — better known to us as Skinner Sweet — but they get booted out of his HQ when Book can’t control her dislike for the vampire crime lord. We learn that Book and Straw both belong to a vampire-hunting organization that’s promised not to touch Sweet, and McCogan’s investigation into the grisly murder of a Vegas businessman leads to the grisly death of another Vegas businessman.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Great storytelling, great characters, and lots of great stuff with rotten, loveable Skinner Sweet.

iZombie #6

Most of this story is Spot’s origin — how he lost his parents, lived with his retired-voice-actor grandfather, became a were-terrier, and met up with Gwen and Ellie. His grandfather finally dies after he and Spot (barely) reconcile — and Spot meets a new old friend at the zoo.

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s a good story, excellent art, but what I think I enjoyed most was Spot’s pop-culture daydreams where he imagines himself as a superhero, in the “Scooby-Doo” cartoon, and in “Star Wars.” It says a lot about what kind of guy Spot is, underneath all that hair.

Hellboy: The Storm #3

Britain’s Noble Dead have risen from their graves, ready to march to war with Hellboy as their leader. But Big Red is getting cold feet — the utter bizarreness of the whole situation has gotten to be too much. He can’t bring himself to trust anything he’s been told by the people who supposedly know what they’re talking about, and his friend Alice can’t argue him back down. He leaves Excalibur with Alice and walks out past his army. He runs into a bum who tells him that even his army of zombie knights have no hope of surviving against Queen Mab‘s monstrous fae army. But maybe if he goes ahead and calls on the armies of Hell. All that, plus Baba Yaga returns to make a bargain, and Queen Mab learns that she’s ultimately serving a force much more powerful.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Lots and lots of stuff happening, all building up to a great climax. So many cool moments — Hellboy is a playa, Baba Yaga gets a great scene, and the seemingly unstoppable Mab learns who’s really calling the shots for her. Great writing as always from Mike Mignola, and great art from Duncan Fegredo.

iZombie #5

A bit of a wind-down issue here — Amon makes Gwen realize that she can’t remember how she died; Spot tells Gwen that he actually outed himself as a were-terrier to one of his friends; Gwen spends some downtime with one of the monster-hunters; and the vampires want revenge for Claire’s death.

Verdict: I think I’m actually going to thumbs-down this one. It’s 20+ pages of not-very-much-happening, and it’s too early in this one’s run for that kind of stuff.

Today’s Cool Links:

• See the world — or at least a random photo of it — with Globe Genie.
• David Brothers thinks DC may be embracing its experimental spirit again.
• Pop Culture Zombie Studies at Baltimore University? Where do I sign up?

iZombie #4

Gwen the gravedigging detective zombie and Ellie the ’60s ghost have discovered the killer, Amon, a man who claims to have died and risen from the dead in ancient Egypt. He says he only kills because he has to from time to time, and he only takes those whose deaths would benefit society. Gwen isn’t sure whether to believe him, so he takes her on a psychic journey through his life and explains the esoteric origins of various different monsters and supernatural powers. Elsewhere, Horatio and his fellow monster-hunter try to capture Claire the vampire before she can kill Spot’s friend Ashok. Spot, meanwhile, has been outed as a wereterrier to another of his friends — and he takes it in stride so they can play video games.

Verdict: Thumbs up. I especially enjoyed Amon’s descriptions of the undersoul and the oversoul, and how their presence or absence creates everything from zombies and werewolves to poltergeists and possessions. I’ve been praising Mike Allred’s artwork and Laura Allred’s colors, but Chris Roberson’s writing is also a ton of fun. This series has been a lot of fun so far — make sure you pick it up.

Crossed: Family Values #3

Adaline has discovered that her family’s completely rotten to the core — her survivalist father has raped and impregnated his daughter Kayleen, who’s chained up in the barn because she’s become one of the psychotically murderous Crossed. And dad has decided he’s God’s prophet so he can do whatever he wants, which includes beating Adaline down and locking her up. Her mother has gone at least as crazy as her dad, and she’s willing to excuse anything he does — you don’t go against God’s prophet, right? And a horde of the Crossed have just discovered the family compound, which sets Dad off even more. He declares Adaline to be of the Devil, beats her, rapes her, and prepares to expose her to Crossed blood, which would turn her into a monster, too. This is finally too much for Mom, so she locks herself in a cell with her husband, pours a jar of the Crossed blood on herself and kills Dad. Adaline makes it through the compound, now mostly overrun by the Crossed, kills her sister Kayleen (who’d just cut herself open so she could eat her unborn baby), and escapes with the few survivors of the compound. Oh, hey, did I just spoil the entire issue for you? Yes, I do believe I did!

Verdict: Thumbs down. I can deal with a lot of death, depravity, nudity, gore, and perversion — but only when there’s a good story to go along with it. And while the story here has actually managed to go farther on the gore/depravity/nudity/perversion scale than Garth Ennis ever dreamed in the first “Crossed” series, it’s also gotten nowhere near Ennis’ storytelling prowess. While I still recommend the first “Crossed” series for any adult fan of bleeding-edge horror, I can’t recommend this series for anyone, and I’m dropping it as of now.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Here’s an impossibly awesome Eisner-award-winning comic by Mike Mignola and his seven-year-old daughter.
• I don’t normally think much of cosplay weddings, but this one seemed cuter than normal.
• You’re actually hearing foolish people talking now about repealing the 14th Amendment. Aside from being nothing more than a dim political stunt (the Republicans couldn’t even pass a flag-burning amendment when they had the presidency and both houses of Congress — so this is just some red meat to throw to the Know-Nothings), this is about a heck of a lot more than “anchor babies.” The 14th was passed because some states were passing laws keeping blacks from their rights as full citizens, and it prevents any government from arbitrarily taking away your citizenship. That’s what political dimwits are talking about when they say they want to repeal it — they’re talking about getting rid of a lot of the stuff that really keeps you free.

Richard Stark’s Parker: The Man with the Getaway Face – A Prelude to “The Outfit”

My, my, my, looka here. Here’s how this goes. Darwyn Cooke wanted to adapt four of the “Parker” hardboiled crime novels by Donald Westlake (writing as Richard Stark). He was going to adapt the first four, but there were some of the later novels he wanted to work on more, so he eliminated two, including the second Parker novel, “The Man with the Getaway Face.” But it turned out, he kinda needed that second one, ’cause he needed to make sure readers knew that Parker had gotten plastic surgery to disguise his appearance. So instead of doing a full-length adaptation, he cut it down to just 24 pages, so he could use it as the introduction in his next graphic novel.

And because he’s so nice to us, he and IDW Publishing went and released that first chapter as a stand-alone comic.

And they made it oversized.

And they priced it as two dollars.

Yeahhh.

So what happens? Parker gets his new face to help him hide out from the Mob, but it’s taken out a bunch of his money, so he needs to heist some cash fast. He partners up with some old associates, Skim and Handy, and Skim’s new girlfriend Alma, a diner waitress who clued Skim in on an armored truck that’d be easy pickings for a job. But Parker doesn’t trust Alma — and for good reason. Will Parker be able to grab the dough and get away clean? Or is everyone looking at time in the pen?

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s a short, fast heist thriller, with artwork by the always-brilliant Darwyn Cooke. And it’s only two freakin’ dollars. The only downside? This thing is colossal, and I have no idea where I’m going to store it. Nevertheless, at two measly bucks, it’s more than a bargain. Pick it up, or you’re a stone fool.

iZombie #3

While Claire the vampire sets her sights on Spot’s friend Ashok, the monster hunters stalk her in return. Meanwhile, Spot, in full-blown were-terrier mode, meets with Gwen the zombie and Ellie the ghost to bring them some more evidence in Gwen’s ongoing murder investigation into who killed the last guy whose brain she snacked on. The investigation leads to a spooky old house, and Ellie, trusting in her ghostly status to keep her safe and undetected, goes in to have a look around. Things don’t turn out the way she was expecting. Is everyone about to get their supernatural secrets exposed?

Verdict: Thumbs up. A very fun story and really excellent art. Extra points for Laura Allred’s coloring — she’s going for an old-school comics look, with cool halftone effects. Yeah, Mike Allred’s art is great, but Laura Allred’s coloring is making this one look really unique.

Jonah Hex #57

A lot of our framework in this story comes from a couple of kids telling tall tales about Jonah Hex’s fabled exploits, like killing ten outlaws with a single bullet. They hear that Hex is going to be in a nearby town, so they sneak out late at night so they can see what he looks like. And they get more than they bargained for — namely, a bunch of old DC western heroes, like the Trigger Twins, Bat Lash, Scalphunter, Nighthawk, and Cinnamon. And of course, there’s a big gunfight. And some snoopy kids getting in trouble, but getting their own tall tale they can tell later…

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s one of the lighter Jonah Hex stories I’ve seen, but I really enjoyed it anyway. It’s cool to see all those old DC characters — and most of them aren’t just guest appearances for the sake of renewing the copyrights — several characters get some actual business and plotpoints of their own. It was a good, fun, and pretty over-the-top story — hope we get to see more of these from time to time.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Have I mentioned yet that everything Allie Brosh does is awesome?
• “Big Bang Big Boom” is epic graffiti animation.
• Improv Everywhere finds your lack of faith disturbing.

iZombie #2

Gwen Dylan is a brain-eating zombie — but that’s just because she has to eat a fresh brain once a month or she’ll turn into a mindless shambler. She’s gotten her monthly cerebellum snack, but now her head is filled with the deceased’s memories, and she’s trying to figure out who killed him. While she’s painting pictures of the dead guy’s memories, she and Ellie, the ghost from the ’60s, realize that there may be some connection to the spooky house and bandage-wrapped mummy they met aaaaall the way back in last October’s House of Mystery Halloween Annual.

Meanwhile, Spot’s geeky friends think he has a gay lover he meets once a month — coinciding with the full moon when he has to hide to maintain his secret life as a wereterrier. The monster hunters are, well, hunting monsters. And the vampire hotties who run the paintball course are faced with declining business and the possibility that there’s another vampire in town killing people and making the cops nervous.

Verdict: Thumbs up. I am really enjoying the little details of the weirdly mundane (or mundanely weird) existences of Gwen and her friends. The dialogue is fine — characterization is good, too. Michael Allred’s art is so much fun on this one. And ya gotta give props to Laura Allred’s colors on this one — Ellie seems to glow ethereally, and Gwen’s skin coloration is just barely off — enough to make her look like she might be a dead body. It really does a lot to help sell the series.

Chimichanga #2

Well, if we can’t have Eric Powell doing “The Goon,” we can at least have him doing this. Lula the little bearded girl has her work cut out for her trying to keep the gigantic monstrous Chimichanga from eating everyone at the circus. But things seem to be paying off once she’s got him under control, ’cause the crowds pour in to see Chimichanga and his stunts. Unfortunately, the other circus performers are all jealous of all the attention he’s getting. And even worse, Dagmar the Witch has sold her anti-flatulence formula — made partly with Lula’s chin-whiskers — to a giant pharmaceutical company. And it turns out that her serum is only a temporary cure — the gas comes back worse than ever! Seeing a potential gold mine — a non-cure that will make everyone buy it and use it over and over and over — the company puts it into production. But to meet their sales figures, they’re going to need more of Lula’s beard…

Verdict: Thumbs up. Nothing much I can say about this other than — it’s very, very weird and very, very funny.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Everyone here in the mood for a French art film about a zombie clown? I sure hope so…
• So what’s the amazing Brit TV sci-fi secret of Miss Frizzle from “The Magic School Bus”?
• Everybody stand up right now and get ready to dance!
• I’ve never been much of a fan of the Mortal Kombat games, but this is… Wow.

iZombie #1

This is the first issue of the new series by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, and it’s available for just a buck, which means you should go pick it up, ’cause nowadays, that’s dirt cheap.

Not a whole lot of plot in this first issue — just introducing our cast of characters. Our lead is Gwen Dylan, a gravedigger with a secret — she’s dead as a doornail. Luckily, as long as she eats one fresh brain a month, she won’t go all “Night of the Living Dead” on anyone. But for a week after she eats that one brain, she’s going to have the deceased person’s memories, and she’s going to try to take care of their unfinished business. Her friends include a ’60s-era ghost named Ellie and a wereterrier named Spot, and other supernatural types in the area include a bunch of vampire babes who run a paintball course and a couple of monster hunters.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Nice art, decent dialogue, nice setup for the characters, and again, it’s just a dollar! Go get it already!

Brightest Day #1

A white power battery has appeared, and no one seems to be able to lift it. Deadman finds himself on board a ship smuggling children and is unable to help, but Aquaman and Mera appear and save the kids — with the aid of some unexpected zombie sea creatures. Meanwhile, the villain formerly known as Black Manta is working out of a seaside fish shop — when he hears that Aquaman has returned to life, he kills all his customers and gets his armor out of storage. Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch are unable to separate from the Firestorm matrix, and the Martian Manhunter, trying to terraform Mars, has a vision of himself murdering Professor Erdel, the Earth scientist who accidentally brought him to Earth. And Hawkman and Hawkgirl pursue a bunch of criminals who have stolen the bones of Prince Khufu and Princess Chay-Ara — the original versions of the Hawks from Ancient Egypt.

Verdict: Thumbs down. We get a lot of different stories, all just barely addressed before we rush off to some other barely-addressed story. It’s a rotten way to tell a story — it’s only a way to stretch out a crossover. And there are worse problems than that. In the zero issue, Aquaman was afraid to go in the water — now he’s swimming around just fine. We also get calls-back to the “Blackest Night” crossover, with Aquaman’s zombie sea minions and the partial reappearance of Martian Manhunter’s Black Lantern costume when he has his vision of Professor Erdel. And quite honestly, as much fun as “Blackest Night” was, it’s not a good sign when your first crossover afterwards is already running back to that well again.

And on top of that, the implied promise of “Brightest Day” — a more hopeful, more “Silver Age,” less mindlessly murderous future for DC’s comics — has already been completely abandoned. A zombie shark gorily dismembers someone, a blood-drenched Black Manta slaughters three people at more-or-less random, and we get treated to detailed closeups of some commandos getting shot in the back of the head. Sure, I expected DC to go back to lazy massacres soon, but I never imagined it’d happen so quickly. I thought for sure Geoff Johns could go at least a few issues before splattering some guy’s blood across the page.

I’m giving this one just one more chance. I don’t have infinite patience for crossovers any more.