May '23 Reading Round Up

 

Anybody get any of those Free Comics on Free Comic Book Day? I usually pass on everything, figure it’s just gonna be a middling preview of something with a ton of ads. But I did notice this Titan Publishing Conan thingy and I was intrigued to see if they were gonna come wit da ruffneck bidness since they now own the Conan license. People. Conan Fans. Praise Crom. It may have only been a few pages but it’s beyond obvious that Conan is finally back in the hands of a bunch of creators who absolutely honor and love this character.

 

Even though it’s only a few pages they give me all the feels of those classic Marvel Conan books from the 70s. I think I remember Jim Zub writing some Conan stuff from the recent Conan Marvel debacle. Clearly you can’t fault any writer or artist when it comes to Marvisney, who knows what torturous evil they’re subjected to as they’re hung upside down in a dungeon underneath Disney Land between issues. Anyway, Robert De La Torre looks like he’s mastered the gritty dusty old school Conan vibe and Jose Villarrubia's colors are pure perfection. I can’t frikkin’ wait for this series to begin, woo hoo!

Phantom Road is turning into a wonderful Twilight Zone-ish type of story and there’s nobody else I can think of that I would want as my comic book Rod Serling than the one and only Jeff Lemire.

 

Avengers War Across Time is about to wrap up and for the love of all that is good and holy Marvisney, please keep putting out these retro stories, it’s what the world needs right now! You had a formula, the formula worked, it spawned a Universe like no other, for goodness sake stop messing with the formula! Stop trying to make New Coke or Green Tea Coke or whatever, get back to your roots and stay there. Hey, Disney stock is under 90 last I checked! Where do you think it needs to drop to for them to freak out, dump Marvel and sell it to a conglomerate of multi billionaire comic geeks? 70? 65? Dump those shares people!

 

 

I have no idea what the hell happened in the second issue of Dead Romans, the story officially became unreadable. I have no idea who’s marching on who, who wants to kill who, where the hell we are, what the hell people want and why the hell they want it. It feels like I’m watching a bad Sunday Political Talk Show where all the lights are off. An absolute fail after a promising first issue with amazing art, this book is at best kindling and at worst last second poopy bags for my little princess.

 

 

 

Hitomi was an under the radar book that just wrapped its fifth and final issue recently. HS Tak wove a fanciful engaging tale of a young female samurai in training and her lust for revenge over the murder of her family. Isabella Mazzanti’s lush sweeping palette gave the book a real feel as if you were watching ancient Japanese paintings in a museum come to life. While I’m sure this won’t win any awards or garner immense accolades it was definitely an enjoyable read and a breath of fresh air from the standard comic book fare of the day; definitely recommend it.

 

 

 

Chicken Devils, the second arc of one of my Top series of 2022 has kind of fallen off a cliff. I don’t think the plot development of our Hot Chicken Vigilante now working with dirty vigilante cops is a good one. That, and his confession to his family about everrrrything has diffused almost all of the tension of the story and now it’s just a whiny cranky family and creepy gross cops murdering gang members in cold blood; no bueno. It’s a shame, I’ll probably grab the last two issues of the arc with the hopes that Buccellato drops in a gem of a final twist but right now it’s a soggy bland bird of a book.

 

 

Finally, Kroma wrapped up it’s final issue in it’s 4 issue mini-series and it was pretty frikkin’ good! It gave off this whole Ralph Bakshi vibe and the plot twist that Defelici introduced to the world he created really clicked and moved the story to a satisfying conclusion. Imagine that, a satisfying conclusion to a comic book series. I feel like I just got a comic book handy, ah, it’s been a while. Also, looks like Lorenzo and Robert Kirkman are putting out a book in June called ‘Void Rivals'. Based on this series and the fact that it's Kirkman I would have to say that’s a definite pull.

 

 

That’s all I got. Lot’s of intriguing new series dropping this month, happy reading you Geeklings!

 

SOMETHING EPIC #1 - Review

 

It’s my 100^th Post! Woo Hoo! Rejoice! Rejoice! I started this about 10 months ago and thought that I would maybe do it for a month or two but man, I somehow keep spitting out the reviews amidst everything else going on in my life so I suppose I’m here to stay – until I’m not.

 

I’ve noticed a few things along the way. It’s way harder to write a glowing complimentary review than it is to completely rip apart a God Awful comic book. Interesting huh? I think that’s why you see so many people who do reviews engage in negative feedback, it’s way easier to do. Being critical of something is a knee jerk reaction, it hits you hard and all you have to do is respond to your aesthetic triggers and drop several pages of vitriol. Maybe that’s why maddening books like ‘What’s the Furthest Place From Here’ or anything that Marvisney has been pooping out the past year are so easy to tear to pieces; there’s so much bleccchh to cover you’ll never run out of options for jokes or digs.

 

But to laud something? To declare something great, that takes some doing. You really have to ask yourself, hmm, why is this great? Why did this have such a profound impact on me? What is it about this that gave me that emotional lift that I always look for? Once you take the time to figure all of that out without having to drop bank on some wackadoodle doc on a therapy couch to tap into your subconscious needs, you’re then left to figuring out how to write adulatory text that doesn’t use the words awesome and great every other sentence.

 

Look, when I do Stand-Up I don’t go out there and tell everyone about the amazing date I just had and how we connected on a deep level and giggled over our idiosyncrasies, tee hee. I would get the light in a minute flat and never be invited back to that venue. No! People wanna hear about the Psycho Goth I met through AdultFriendfinder that met me at a Starbucks in a full see through get up, a top hat and furry boots and croaked like a frog when she laughed. They wanna hear how she had a dozen switchblades in her pocket book and threw them at telephone poles with startling accuracy while asking me if I would go see her band Vile PooBrain in Costa Mesa that Sunday night. Ya know, I’ve always wondered if I sought out these psychos for material rather than seeking out normal well balanced women. I’m sure there was always a part of me deep down that wondered ‘Man, this chick probably will give me 20 minutes of material’. In the finale of ‘Mrs. Maisel’ (one of the greatest TV Shows ever created in the history of the Universe and Multiverse) she speaks about how her dates have basically become fodder for her act during her big break on the Gordon Ford show; there’s definitely a lot of truth to that sentiment.

 

At any rate, I’ve enjoyed the burn to the ground reviews as much as the lift up to the heavens reviews and for my 100^th offering I present to you a comic that shall also be glorified and lifted to the comic book heavens with pages that sing and glisten in luxurious gold. I give to you: Something Epic! I think if this title was released by Marvisney or a publisher like Boom! I would’ve poo poo’d it but when it’s Image you have to give them the benefit of the doubt that this book is in fact epic: and it is.

 

There’s a ‘10 page’ rule for screenwriters. If you can’t hook someone with your script in the first 10 pages then your script is probably going to suck. Right off the bat you can tell that Szymon Kudranski is at the top of his game; the writing is elevated and inspired. It’s not expositional either, it’s a treatise on imagination and how it finds its way to exist in our physical world. The premise: Daniel is a kid who can see the world of imagination, not just what is but what has been. In other words, he also sees the thought creations and ideas of that which didn’t make it into the physical realm. He is like Cole Sear of the Sixth Sense but instead of seeing dead people he sees forgotten characters and after thoughts. There’s a whole B Story of his Mother’s struggle a s a single Mom to make ends meet and take care of Daniel through compromising circumstances which only adds to sympathetic nature of our lead.  Then there's art, dark, evocative, a concerted attention to every detail. I daresay this is a passion project of Szymon, something he's been working on for a while and of course it would be given the platform to breathe by the magnanimous publisher called Image.

 

Something Epic feels unconventional, it feels as if it’s seeking to push the boundaries of what the medium of comic books can offer. The fact that they use the back cover as the real estate for the final panel of the issue is evidence of this. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a final panel placed on a back cover before. I’m going to assume that Daniel meets others like him as he finds a way to either harness this gift or seeks a device to bridge the two worlds. I've not heard of this Kudranski guy before but my goodness as both the writer and artist of this perfectly woven start to his series, he's immediately become someone to watch. Wherever this book may go I’m 100% on board. This may be the Epic book that 2023 has been waiting for and Lord knows we've been waiting a looooong time.

 

Yeah yeah, boring, why don’t you rip apart Daredevil or Dark Horse’s recent crapola? Make us laugh funny boy! Get off the stage!

 

Wait wait, did I tell you about the time my date made me take her to a Gay Rave???

 

Rating: 9.7

Verdict: Epic Pull

WHAT'S THE FURTHEST PLACE FROM HERE #12 - Review

 

Ah, another issue drop of ‘What’s the Furthest Place from the Main Plot Narrative’ yippee! This comic is like a hot babe who you had one amazing date with but who you haven’t seen in months. You can’t figure out why she’s not interested in you even though you’re quite sure you both enjoyed yourselves immensely while bowling and making out between gutter balls. Yet she’s distant and barely responds to your DMs on Insta. You want to give up on her but then you see her post something and all your blood rushes to your crotch and then commands your brain to think up an excuse as to why you would be reaching out to her; it’s pure madness. That is what this comic book is like: It was great and now it’s in wackadoodleville but you keep coming back to it because it hooked you so well when it was going great.

 

WTFPFH was brilliant for the first six issues but now we’re still in a forest with some ancillary characters and I have no fucking idea what this story is about anymore. Actually wait, we’re back in the forest but now we’re in another backstory on another timeline. You know, I really think these two dudes wanted a Netflix series and instead somehow got roped into writing a comic book instead. Like, this was their dream pilot project but while getting lit at a grungy hipster loft party where everyone was dressed as furries somebody convinced them that using your comic book as a storyboard to pitch your TV project is all the rage now. This actually would work way better as a Netflix Series than a comic. It reminds of this current hot show called ‘Beef’, have you seen it? It’s actually really good but it goes so far off the rails from episode to episode, it’s insane. It’s like they’re trying to figure out ways from episode to episode to just blow up the entire plot; but it somehow works! That’s what Boss and Rosiecheeks I feel are trying to do but in Comic Book land it just comes off as a sequential art shit show.

 

I’ve stated this before but it bears repeating in order to understand why this comic book has flown off the rails into the clouds and off into another dimension. It has left the main story bloodied and butchered on the train tracks in its wake but there’s a logical explanation. I’m gonna call Boss and Rosenberg BossBurger for convenience sake. Let’s recap:

 

1.     BossBurger, two Hipster Flat White drinking He/Her/Them/Don’t Forget Us did a micro dose one night that turned into a macro dose. They came up with this wild dystopian future/Lord of the Flies type story that was fantastic.

 

2.     After developing the pilot for years they allowed a pseudo hottie at a hipster loft party to convince to turn it into a comic that would eventually turn into the Netflix series they wanted. They brought the concept to Image and although there was no Oatly available at their initial meeting BossBurger forgave Image and let them publish their new opus.

 

3.     The first six issues were a groundbreaking wild success. Several of the initial variant issues had 45 records which exploded the heads of the many hipster vinyl aficionados who latched onto the series. This caused them to halt the Vinyl Variants due to a major drop off in sales due to a chunk of their audience spontaneously combusting – but they kept chugging along

 

4.     Due to the success Image called BossBurger after the 5^th issue and said they wanted to continue the story after issue 6. Both Tyler and Boss answered the phone during one of their annual Ayuhuasca trips and completely freaked out. First, they never intended for this story to go longer than 6 issues and secondly, due to them tripping balls Robert Kirkman’s voice sounded like the character Sho Nuff from the 1985 Martial Arts Film ‘The Last Dragon’ BossBurger were mortally afraid of this character and had nightmares as kids from the “guy who looked like a Black Gene Simmons”, according to them. This caused them to flee to Tulum with their insignificant others.

 

 

 

5.     Image, at a loss as to what to do since they already paid for 6 more issues ended up hiring a bunch of different artists and lured Matt Fraction out of a Canadian Sex Dungeon to write back-up stories as a Ghost Writer for 4 issues, this continued until issue 10 at which point they had to wrap Fraction up and ship him back to Montreal after Image’s offices turned into what looked like an S&M Convention. Kirkman was also tired of telling Fraction that he did not want to dye his pubes and back hair cherry red like Fraction’s girlfriend super cute ultra talented girlfriend Kelly.

 

6.     Eventually BossBurger returned from Tulum. They were broke from spending all their money on hallucinogenics and from investing all their earnings in Silicon Valley Bank stock since one of their dealers was a shareholder of the bank and promised them untold riches. They crawled in their tattered rags to Image’s office and begged them to let them complete the story. It took them a few hours to wade through the rows of Sex Swings but eventually they made their way to Kirkman’s office and groveled in his lap

 

7.     Back in their Silverlake hovel, BossBurger had no idea what their comic book was about anymore so after tripping balls on cheap Hashish that they procured at a creepy pot and pan store in Chinatown they tapped into their childhood fantasies about banging chicks with animal heads on in the woods.

 

And now here we are at Backstory #6 of the initial 12 issues at some wacky young/old folks home that we already visited before sometime back when there were vinyl variants and a cast list inside the front cover. Here’s the thing, it’s not that any of these issues are bad per se it’s just that they’re so all over the place there’s zero continuity from month to month. Bossburger needs to be sat down at a UCLA Writing Class and be whipped with a switch until they realize the importance of maintaining a consistent timeline and not to lose your readers by incorporating a dozen over the course of your initial story arcs.

 

The final panel reveals the face of the enormously tall ‘Parental Figures’ of this series who have been popping in and out of the story dressed in puritanical long black dresses and washcloths that cover their entire head. Let’s just say Picasso would have enjoyed the reveal. As for me, I just rolled my eyes. Looks like next issue is the only issue left until they release another trade and there’s nothing scheduled as far as I can see after that.

 

I suppose Bossburger have probably defaulted on their Silverlake Hovel due to the exorbitant rental prices that plague the LA Market. I’m sure they’re gonna take time off as they move to Austin or Nashville or Florida or maybe they’ll go backpacking in Chile, who knows, whatever they need to do to continue to avoid figuring out where the hell their main narrative went. It doesn’t matter though, I’ll keep coming back every month because I’m a sucker for a hot story idea even if it continues to emotionally abuse me and ignore my blog posts begging for it to come back home to a grounded tale.

 

Just be careful Bossburger, ya never know when Matt Fraction will step away from his addiction to brimping and take over your comic book when you’re too busy shrooming to notice. Happens all the time.

 

Rating: 5.7

Verdict: Pull. Yes pull it! Don’t ask why just pull it! Arrrggghhhh!

DEEP CUTS #1 - Review

 

I got sick! Out of the blue! Wiped me out for a week plus, holy moly. I never get sick! Wow! Nooo it wasn’t the China Flu it was something else, something…energetic. It felt like my body was recalibrating, assimilating, needed to purge some deep rooted stuff. Maybe reading all the Marvel stuff that I’ve read during the past year finally caught up to me. Your body can only take so much toxicity. Maybe all those awful Hulk, Daredevil, Thor, Black Panther, Avenger, Iron Fist books needed to be puked up. I mean, I never had to vomit but maybe if I did it would have coalesced in my toilet with the silhouette of C.B. Cebulski, Marvisney’s current editor in chief. Or maybe I’ve been so depressed with Zdarsky’s butt Batman run that my body just shut down from the pain. Anyway, most of the comics I read during my stupor weren’t necessarily review worthy – except this one. When I look back on the Marvisney Zdarsky Detox of 2023 that I had this past week I’ll remember how this comic ‘Deep Cuts’ reminded me that greatness still abounds in Comic Book Land if you dare to take a risk on a new title and look for it.

 

First of all, just picking up this book and you feel the weight of it, the gravitas, the card stock, the presentation – it all feels very important; like you’re reading an event, years in the making. Also, kudos to Image for all the tiny details it added to this book including the homage to the Blue Note logo on the cover. As for the story, it does not disappoint: A young clarinetist Charles ‘Ace’ Stewart tracks down Jack Cartier, a great trumpeter of the day in early 20^th century New Orleans only to be let down by Cartier’s ego, greed and reckless ambition. In the process he finds his voice, his music and his redemption which includes his trial by fire with a piano player in a brothel. The creative team of Higgins, Clark, Beyruth, Monti and Otsmane weave a magical tale that feels like you’re reading music. The notes jump off the page with such lush passionate paneling that it somehow creates melodies within your mind. I mean, yeah, I was a little loopy from the icky I was feeling but there was a definite rhythm that you could feel with these characters and that is a testament to this team working lockstep off of each other. It felt like this book was created right from a second story flop house in the French Quarter with beignets and chicory root coffee flowing day after day; the love just poured into this book and it shows.

 

A major chunk of the book takes place in a brothel as Charles learns his repertoire from the resident pianist and befriends Daisy, one of the beautiful employees of the establishment. These scenes jolted within me the memories of the several times that I almost booked gigs as a comedian in naughty venues as well. I'm sure you're all sooo deeply interested in those moments aren't you?!?? Please regale us with these stories Issac. Fine, fine, twist my arm -

 

Back in the day one of my close comic friends created a comedy show at Cheetah’s which is a strip club on the East Side of Hollywood. The Comics would come out on the runway and do their shtick and in between acts strippers would come out and do, well, do their shtick. It was quite a show and I was promised a spot in the subsequent show that unfortunately never happened as the show was cancelled after lasting only one night. I distinctly remember hitting on one of the strippers that night and her actually really digging me. Had I stuck around all night I’m pretty sure she would’ve left with me. The problem for me was that I had to watch her ‘work the room’ in the final hours before she was done and me and my immature uppity stupidity apparently didn’t enjoy seeing my future date rubbing up and down and all around a bunch of yucky business types so I left before she was finished; dumb ass. Anyway, I had all these bits and jokes set up for me to deliver while I was going to spin around the stripper pole; yes I know, the world is a bleaker darker place because those genius jokes were never delivered on that squeaky clean stage.

 

Another moment that I almost booked a gig in a naughty venue was at a local sex shop called ‘The Pleasure Chest’ on Santa Monica Blvd. near WeHo. It was actually a somewhat classy establishment, I had been in there a number of times and you never felt gross walking in; it just felt like a, I dunno, a shop that sold sex stuff. This was about ten years ago and they put a comedy show right on the floor when you walked in. It was hosted by T.J. Miller right before his career took off with the Silicon Valley show. You could tell that he was about to blow up, he just had this air of confidence about him and there was a lot of bustling energy around him. It’s funny how you just know when somebody is about to  jump into the stratosphere; Dane Cook had that same vibe as well. Anyway, again, the show ended up getting cancelled before I was scheduled to book a spot so once again I was foiled from enjoying a gig at a naughty venue. I’ll have to figure that out one of these days. In the meantime, I’ll have to settle for living vicariously through the magical musical journey of Charles Stewart. It seems like this is the first in a six issue series and with this story wrapping up already I’m excited to see where this team goes next.

 

As far as I know, The Pleasure Chest and the Cheetah Club are still open for business so, you know, if, you know, this creative team, if you wanted to, you know, do a Jazzy Naughty thing here for one of those issues I could you know, maybe open for one of your acts, you know, you wouldn’t have to draw me or anything it would just, okay, I’ll stop. But, you know, okay, cool.

 

Rating: 9.3

Verdict: Pull

CLEAR #2 - Review

 

Second dates are tough. It’s challenging to show up again and reaffirm to someone ‘Hey, I’m great’. See, the first date is actually easy, it can be a performance; it’s a slice of you. You get to carefully choose what to show and how to show it; a tactile manicure of your existence deftly presented to a prospective…whatever: lover, fling, validation, ego boost – up to you. It’s why Social Media is such a complete and utter disaster to the human race. Everyone is projecting their carefully manicured existence to the world which will neverrr replicate or indicate the truthful persona of that filtered projection. Maybe that’s why Social Media is ironically so anti-social? Since people are never going to live up to the idea that they’ve created online they have to hide behind it far away from actual in-person human eyeballs. Eyeballs that would dress down the augmented thought to its hum-drum reality.

 

Humans will also look back at Dating Apps as one of the most puerile destructive creations ever installed into the natural mechanisms of love, romance and sex. The fantasy of endless choice and brutal disappointing realities of failed expectations in relation to a selective photoshopped slideshow was never going to make anyone truly happy – and yet we all gleefully went along with it; the Devil’s convenience fooled us once again.

 

One of the main pitfalls of online dating was always ‘Am I actually talking to someone real?’.  ‘Is the person in the photos actually the person I’m chatting with or is it someone else?’. I knew I had to delete all dating apps on my phone when I was doing more and more reverse image searches on my phone to check if the profile photos of my ‘match’ were authentic or pulled from somebody else’s profile (celebrity or model). Nothing will beat vibe. Period. Vibration is everything and cannot be manifested over technology or over the meticulous choice of phrases and emojis within a chatbox. I think that’s where we’re headed with art unfortunately. As AI proliferates into our conscious world we’ll find ourselves asking ourselves over and over ‘Was this article/book/painting/video/comic real or was it created by AI?’

 

It’s already begun. AI is encroaching slowly into our lives; a pas de deux between the human and the machine that seeks to be human. I don’t see this ending well. I don’t trust nor believe in the honest intentions of those who ostensibly are ‘in charge’ of the AI. Think about the moment when a gun was first created. Whatever you feel about guns I think it’s safe to say they haven’t been a blessing unto this world. If you could go back and just delete that idea from manifesting from our consciousness into reality I’m sure we would all have been a lot happier over the previous centuries. That’s where we are with AI. If we’re not careful AI will turn into a weapon far more destructive than any bullet could ever have dreamed of. And yet here we are, chatting with it online like it’s a teddy bear filled with gumdrops.

 

I bring all this up in regards to Scott Snyder’s ‘Clear’ because the ‘First Date’ of this comic was a magnificent performance while the ‘Second Date’ felt like it was written by AI. It felt like Scott roped us in with a grand premise and world in Issue 1 and then handed it off to ChatGPT to complete the journey. Obviously I doubt that actually happened but having flipped the last page over to this issue I feel like this story just catfished me. The first issue’s execution and hook were brilliant: A futuristic post-apocalyptic world where augmented reality ‘veils’ are the norm that dropped into a ‘noir murder mystery’. Then, what, did Scott have better things to do and just asked ChatGPT to write him a solid follow up to the first issue that will compel readers to then pick up the final installment despite its mediocrity?

 

What fell short in this issue was I lost the sense of this wild technological dystopia along with the mystery of how these ‘veils’ actually worked and got a bunch of standard stereotypical ‘Noir’ devices.

 

1.     The Hot and Bothered Wife visited by the Detective at her glam pool

2.     The Detective is shot but survives due to a bad guy actually being a good guy

3.     The Detective gets framed for a crime/murder he doesn’t commit

4.     The Detective on the run from his own police force

5.     The Detective hanging by one hand from a cliff as the real villain threatens him

 

Oy vey. Like, where was Jayne Mansfield telling our lead dude to ‘Come up and see her sometime’? I mean, Snyder should’ve made us a Spotify playlist of a droning saxophone with a empty tumbler of ice rattling in the background. Did he download a PDF of ‘How to make your Noir Story super Noir’ and  then upload it to his AI program?

 

Look, from now on, I am hereby calling for a full moratorium on all HEROES HANGING BY ONE HAND ON A FUCKING CLIFF! How many fucking times can stories have lit-er-al cliffhangers?!?!? Can someone actually do a study on how many actual cliffs are available in the world to have a hero hang from so we can astutely the assess how low the probability is for this ridiculous feat to happen. From now on, if you’re a writer, you’re not allowed to put any of your frikkin characters hanging from a cliff until you yourself have actually gone to a cliff, hung from it, and realized how batshit impossible it is to do any of the moves that your heroes supposedly do.

 

While we’re at it, if you’re going to write in a scene where a dude is holding onto a chick who’s dangling from a cliff with one arm then it should be required that you take a couple bags of groceries to a cliff and see how long your spindly nerdy ass can hold onto just a couple bags of groceries before all your containers of Oatly go tumbling onto the tumbleweeds below.

 

Yeesh.

 

Anyway, Francis Manapul’s art is flat out gorgeous. There’s a lot of amazing new and upcoming artists out in the comic book universe doing wonderful work. Now if only the writers could match their spectacular efforts we’d be in geeky heaven. As it stands, Snyder reverts to form from his previous three issue drops and poops out a clunker. I mean, it really wasn’t a clunker it just wasn’t nearly as ‘Wow’ as the first date. Now I’m roped into a third date because I’ve already shelled out for two dates and have barely gotten a smooch out of it.

 

How much you wanna bet Synder’s last issue of ‘Clear’ puts me in the friend zone?

 

Rating: 7.0

Verdict: Pull. [Grumble]