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!