7-29-12 Comics Reviews

Before we begin today, a couple of quick notes.  Last week's episode of "Adventure Time" entitled "Sons of Mars" has officially replaced "What Was Missing" as my favorite episode of the show so far.  Also, this week's episode of "Regular Show" entitled "Diary" was also an instant classic.  Lovely, lovely stuff.

In further addition, "The Dark Knight Rises" is excellent.  No, it's not as good as "The Dark Knight", but is an incredible addition to an incredible series, and a worthy capstone to the trilogy. 

Now, comics...

"Lincoln Washington: Free Man"-  Traditional Comics- Benjamin Marra-  The story of a freed slave who tries to claim legally acquired land in the dirty south in the barely post-Civil War Era.  Bad, bad things happen.  Chock full of hardcore sex and violence, Lincoln Washington is a pretty cool book about the indomitable nature of the human spirit.  And killing Klansmen.

"Baltimore: Dr. Leskovar's Remedy" #2- Dark Horse Comics- Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, Ben Stenbeck-  First off, I somehow missed Issue One, so I was kinda flying blind on this one.  Long story short, Lord Baltimore, the ever resilient vampire hunter, discovers that the Cure for Vampirism may be worse than the disease.  Lots of awesome monsters, lots of blood, and giant crabs.  So, yes.  Probably my favorite Lord Baltimore comic to date.  Must dig up Issue One.

"The Secret History of D. B. Cooper" #5- Oni Press- Brian Churilla-  It's a mad dash to wrap things up in this concluding issue of this nice, fairly trippy series.  There's a nice twist, lots of violence, and crazy monsters.  Plus, now that it's over I've got some more space to try out other comics.

"Snarked" #10- Kaboom!- Roger Langridge-  The Gryphon continues his pursuit of our heroes, the Mad Pirates return (woo-hoo!), and there's some great character moments.  Again, this is fine, brilliant cartooning.  People should take notes.

"Haunt" #25- Image- Joe Casey, Robbi Rodriguez, Nathan Fox-  Our heroes investigate a Giant Bug Corpse.  In the meantime, we get a whole flashback properly introducing a new, bug based villain.  Crazy, wild, violent stuff.  Very nice.  A continual surprise.

"BPRD: Hell on Earth: The Devil's Engine" #3- Dark Horse- Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, Tyler Crook-  It's the big wrap up as our heroes desperately try to survive an all out assault from a trio of demonic monsters.  I still don't care about our two protagonists, but I will say that the tension and suspense of this issue was palpable.  Solid finish.

"Fatima: The Blood Spinners" #2- Dark Horse- Gilbert Hernandez- The origin of Spin, the Zombie Drug, and how it relates to Fatima.  You can never, ever predict what's gonna happen in a Gilbert Hernandez book.  I love that.

"Adventure Time" #6- Kaboom!-  Ryan North, Shelli Paroline, Braden Lamb, and Anthony Clark-  Hahaha!  Princess Bubblegum invents time machine.  Jake gets his hand on time machine.  Hilarity ensues.  Back up story also funny.  This book is a must read.

"Frankenstien: Agent of SHADE" #11- DC- Matt Kindt, Alberto Ponticelli-  Welp, we've got a new writer, and, honestly, this issue was a little confusing and hard to follow.  BUT, there's also a giant sea beast, and a surprisingly deep conversation between Frank and the Fish girl about the nature of what Franky is.  That was cool.  As long as this book continues to be crazy, I'm in.  If it slows down too much, I'm out.

"Glory" #28- Image/Extreme- Joe Keatinge, Ross Campbell-  Ahem.  Giant, flying cat with Laser Eyes.  If you can read those words and not be at least a little interested in the awesomeness that is Glory, then you probably are reading the wrong blog.  Also, Glory fights naked, a new character is introduced, and there's lots of monster fighting.  I'm in.  In like Flynn.

"Wonder Woman" #11- DC- Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang-  Hera hires Apollo and Artemis to deal with the chick carrying Zeus's bastard child.  Smashing ensues.  This series continues to be just phenomenal, unexpected, and exciting.  I'm living in a weird world when I get excited every month for Wonder Woman.  Seriously.

"Saga" #5-  Image-  Brian K. Vaughn, Fionna Staples-  Huh.  Robotman on a toilet.  That's odd.  Anyway, our heroes continue their desperate struggle for survival (seriously, at the rate these two are going, I'll be surprised to see them make it past Issue 10... maybe not even that long).  In the meantime, the two mercenaries, The Will and The Stalk, have their own problems.  Bad problems.  There's no end to the wondrous novelty of this series.  Just great.

"Prophet" #27- Image/Extreme- Brandon Graham, Giannis Milonogiannis, and Simon Roy-  So, take a second to appreciate how amazing the list of books I picked up are.  I mean, I truly enjoyed everything I picked up.  Glory, Wonder Woman, and Saga are books that would easily top my list of favorite comics on any given year.  Prophet is better than all of those books...as early as Page Three.  Take a moment to appreciate that.  I mean.  Every page has something insane and brilliant and wonderful on it.  Also, Die Hard makes a cameo.  This is just... just the best thing out there right now.

"The Bulletproof Coffin: Disinterred" #6-  Image-  David Hine, Shaky Kane-  ...  ...  ...  This is weird.  Again, let's take a moment to truly appreciate that statement.  I, Joseph Morris, declare this comic to be truly weird.  I honestly don't even know what to make of this particular issue.  It's dark and horrifying and colorful and strangestrangestrange.  I think I need to reread this issue, and reread the whole series.  Maybe a couple of times.  Or more.  Overall, this mini-series (which wraps up this issue), has been the second best new thing I've read this year (Prophet being on top).

Oh, and I really liked this Comment from Erik Larsen in one of those "Experience Creativity" Ads from Image Comics:  "If you're not Writing or Drawing your Favorite Comic Book, You're Doing It Wrong."  Amen, brother.