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Oct 17th, 2011, 8:36 pm
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Title: Gore (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Alex Crippa (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Gord Locke (Review 1) Anoriginaldick (Review 2) (Don't click it, read the review here... ;) )

"Definitely check it out if you like horror/action comics"

Review:
    Review 1 - GORE #1 - This premiere issue does have its "bumps" but the potential is off the charts crazy. We're talking about demonic Fables like Cinderella , Littlest Mermaid , Red Riding Hood , ...etc its endless where this could go. The protagonist reminds me of Brendan Frasier from The Mummy , and he's gotta hunt all those evil sonsofbitches and kill them by any means necessary ? SOLD. I'm in.
    Our monster hunter , who doesnt actually introduce himself but according to write ups his name is Gabrielle. A little Brendan Fraser +a little Van Helsing +a little Jay Leno

    Good news: Like I mentioned , the potential here for something brilliant is oozing out the wazoo ,and I've said before having stuff ooze out the wazoo is a good thing . The writing is very good , its aware of its target audience with its blunt , explicit pacing. The dialogue is straight to the point and with purpose guiding you along the way as it should for a new story with new characters. I never heard of Crippa or Laiso before but this looks and feels like a project Alex Crippa has been working on for some time and close to his heart hence the epic 12 issue set which only means goodness for us.

    Laiso's art initially may come off a tad "toonish" but it doesn't condescend the story nor detract from its gore roots at all. You get the full out blood shed and face rippings , and it works perfect.

    Bad News: My biggest concern being that it is indie is that it can get canceled at any time. With it also being foreign its release schedule will also be badly inconsistent and sporadic.

    Verdict: I don't like a giving final verdict based on a single debut issue but definitely check it out if you like horror/action comics. If not just for the sake of supporting indie titles , this is too good not to see to the end.

    Because it is an indie title there's a good chance your LCS may not have it in stock but you can always ask to special order it. If you do see this title.. pick it up like Courtney Love picks up STDs.

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    Review 2 - GORE #3 - Ok, I think it is time to let this one go. I have given the art a good review and stood by for three issues to give it some "room" to develop, but now it just seems slow going and some S&M's idea of a fairytale.

    The guy can draw, I will give him that. His women look very hot but his men all look fat or they have a chin bigger than Jay Leno's. His designs for the "evil" fairytale people, are unique but make me think I am getting ready to read a S&M comic or a snuff film.

    The story and characters are not developing very well. You can barely tell what fairytale person is who, and when they introduce a new one, like in this issue, they don't even tell you who they are. It is getting confusing as hell.

    I think the writer had a good idea, it was a interesting take on the fairy tales, but he seems be too slow in developing it. I want to know more about the "evil" people not just see the main "hero" run around all the time in the story. Plus it seems the "evil" females are more thought out then the males, making this, in all honesty, a tits and ass comic.

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More info:
    Written by Alex Crippa
    Drawn By Emilio Laiso.

Publisher:
    Image

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Oct 17th, 2011, 8:36 pm

Post rewarded by Ojay on Nov 19th, 2011, 4:22 pm.
Nice reviewed! 5 WRZ$ reward. Thanks Zach!
Oct 17th, 2011, 10:22 pm
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Title: Apache Skies (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): John Ostrander (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Hassan Galadari (Don't click it, read the review here... ;) )

" It's more than fair enough to say that it is treat not for just comic readers, but anyone who appreciates a good Western story."

Review:
    Leonardo Manco is one of th best unknown artists the world of comics has to offer. I followed his early work in Hellstorm when it was in still rough on th edges, but over the years he has evolved into an artist that is worth delving deep into his magic. His work on Blaze of Glory was excellent. His pencils, sharp and crisp, truly capturing the essence of the wild wild west. In the sequel, he shifts gear and goes for the painted approach rather than the pencils and he just keeps getting better and better.

    Apache Skies takes off at a time later than its first part, Blaze of Glory. While, the first had an all out cast of heroes, the showcase here is mainly on one, the Raw-Hide Kid. Following the death of his partner, the Apache Kid, Raw-Hide seeks retribution on his friend's killers. Little does he know that Apache Kid's widow is alson on the hunt of those same men. Only when the two head on for a collision course, does the story pick up. Vengeance, anger and the fight for freedom are the driving forces of this chapter of Marvel's Wild West saga. John Ostrander creates a believable human story, but does not appreciate the buddin interaction betwen his two main characters. Delving deeper in this would have created a whole array of how even more exciting the road could have been.

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    Manco saves the day with incredible art. One thing that can be said that could be held against him is the fact that the colors are kind of on the darker side. You would need a good light to appreciate the details of the painted captions. Manco scores big with this one. Ostrander should leave more leeway for the new up and cominf writers to take over the helm of writing another piece of Western history. In the third part of this trilogy starring the Raw-Hide Kid, the creative team goes through a complete overhaul. It's sad not having Manco take over the art chores, but then again, like any excellent talent, he doesn't wish to be stereotyped as a Marvel Western artist.

    All in all, this book captures the darker times of the Wild West. It's more than fair enough to say that it is treat not for just comic readers, but anyone who appreciates a good Western story.

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More info:
    John Ostrander writer
    Leonardo Manco artist, penciler, inker, colorist, cover
    Paul Tutrone letterer
    Dan Buckley other
    Joe Quesada, Tom Brevoort editor

Publisher:
    Image

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Oct 17th, 2011, 10:22 pm

Post rewarded by Ojay on Nov 19th, 2011, 4:24 pm.
Nice reviewed! 5 WRZ$ reward. Thanks Zach!
Oct 18th, 2011, 7:58 am
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Title: Blaze Of Glory (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): John Ostrander (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: James Kosub (Don't click it, read the review here... ;) )

" Outstanding art coupled to a middling story."

Review:
    Once upon a time, comic books used to follow the same genre trends as other popular media. Marvel Comics, these days a company synonymous with the superheroics of Spider-Man and the X-Men, had its share of WWII comics...and westerns, too. BLAZE OF GLORY is a collaboration between prolific writer John Ostrander and Argentinian artist Leonardo Manco, and collects a handful of Marvel's long-disused western heroes in a miniseries that promises much more than it actually delivers.

    It's 1885 and the Old West has begun to pass, replaced by railroads, miners, ranchers and the trappings of civilization. Already the myth building of the frontier is underway in such places as Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. When a small town in Montana, it's population made up predominantly of ex-slaves and Indians, falls under siege by KKK-styled night raiders, it's up to one man with a violent past to find defenders willing to risk everything for a bunch of strangers.

    The basic storyline of BLAZE OF GLORY is certainly clichéd. Anyone who's seen THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN or ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST knows exactly where this tale is going and how it got started. Of course the little town in question is of value to a crooked man with a lot of money in his pocket for hired guns. Of course the night raiders want to run off the inhabitants at the bad guy's behest. And, of course, things are going to end with a lot of gunfire and heroic deaths.

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    It doesn't help matters that there are six major characters and just 88 pages to introduce them all. Four of these six have the word "kid" in their names, too: Rawhide Kid, Two-Gun Kid, Outlaw Kid and Kid Colt. Ostrander clearly has a fondness for Rawhide Kid (he returns in a sequel, APACHE SKIES), and consequently we learn more about Johnny Bart than we do about any of the other gun fighters that form the ostensible core of the miniseries. The stories of these other heroes are conveyed almost by footnote, and with the requisite number of shootings and chases there's little time to do much with any of them before the big climax.

    Where Ostrander's story fails on several levels, Manco's artwork succeeds admirably. Manco uses heavy inks and shadow to give his pages amazing texture. This is the best these characters have ever looked; Manco's vision has given even the corniest hero - these characters almost all come from the '50s, remember - a post-Leone appearance that makes them seem all the more plausible as authentic gunslingers.

    Manco's art is so good, in fact, that one wishes there was more to Ostrander's overstuffed script. With so much going on, there's no time for Ostrander to do more than pay the briefest amount of attention to any given plot thread. The villain of the piece is uncovered in the space of two pages with no explanation of how it happened. Subplots appear, vanish and reappear without warning. A limited page count, just four-issues originally, generally focuses a story, but BLAZE OF GLORY is all over the map.

    Regardless, there's a certain kind of atavistic response readers will have to the story. Decades of westerns where heroes make a desperate last stand have conditioned us to react in certain ways, and BLAZE OF GLORY is no different, thanks largely to Leonardo Manco's outstanding, and evocative, art.


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More info:
    John Ostrander writer
    Typographical letterer
    Chris Sotomayor colorist
    Leonardo Manco penciler, inker
    Published by Marvel, 2000.

Publisher:
    Image

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Oct 18th, 2011, 7:58 am

Post rewarded by Ojay on Nov 19th, 2011, 4:22 pm.
Nice reviewed! 5 WRZ$ reward. Thanks Zach!
Oct 18th, 2011, 8:45 am
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Title: Transmetropolitan (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Warren Ellis (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Joel Williams (Don't click it, read the review here... ;) )

" it’s an enjoyable read and the setting is fantastic."

Review:
    Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis is chaotic post cyberpunk comic about the fictional gonzo journalist Spider Jerusalem. It details his search for truth, justice, cheap drugs and a way to pay off the advance for a book he hasn’t completed.

    Spider is a glorious homage to the late father of gonzo journalism Hunter S. Thompson. Like Thompson, Spider has a deep love for guns, drugs and The Truth. But not necessarily in that order. He’s a violent trickster, whom even his friends sometimes loathe. Yet you can’t help admire the bald tattooed bastard as he pulls out his trusty bowel disruptor to unleash painful anal geyser hell on any hapless idiot that tries to give him the run around.

    At the beginning of the arc Spider is forced to leave his hermit retreat, known only as The Mountain, and return to the City to pay off a reneged book advance. He hates the City. It’s a place that has sucked all thats worst in humanity and dumped it in one convenient local. It’s a town where politics, technology and fads collide. Producing cult leaders like the half alien Fred Christ and attracting political slime balls like the Beast and the Smiler.

    So Spider returns to writing a political column for the News site the Word. It’s there that he’s assigned his “Filthy Assistants” Channon Yarrow, a lovelorn ex-stripper who briefly leaves Spider when her boyfriend ops to download his mind in a cloud of nano-bots. And Yelena Rossini who at first is naive and quiet, but steadily transforms into a cynical young woman who would follow Spider into the bowels of hell arguing all the way.
    Gorgeous Geoff Darrow art.

    Spider begins to make political enemies thanks to his jaded coverage of the presidential election between the incumbent Beast and the up-and-coming Smiler. The Beast so reviled that even his own children call him by Spider’s moniker. The Smiler on the other hand is always wearing a manic grin and holds out the hope for a less corrupt future. Or so he claims.

    One of the Smiler’s advisers is assassinated, giving him an overwhelming sympathy vote. That when his mask starts to slip and we see what a hollow sociopath he is. Every time he is politically threatened someone dies, giving him more support and deflecting criticism of his increasingly brutal regime.

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    Darick Robertson’s illustration are great. There’s a sharp gritty quality to his art, making the City look used and futuristic at the same time. The backgrounds are frenetic and bustling with humans and post-humans going about their lives. There are some great shout outs in Transmetroploitan. Keep your eye out for a mature Charlie Brown and Snoopy working as a drug dealer’s thugs.

    There’s just about always something to rediscover on every read.
    Some Lovely Dave Gibbons style art.

    I found the setting fantastic. So many times I read future settings that are just now with flying cars. Transmetroplitan takes that trope fires a bowel disruptor at it, pisses nano-disassemblers on it and then injects it with alien D.N.A to make it it’s love bride.

    There are also some great one off stories in it as well. The most moving being, “Another Cold Morning” in Volume 2. It tells the story of Mary a woman cryogenically frozen in the early twenty first century to be revive centuries later out of an outdated sense of obligation.

    Mary has lost everything and everyone recognizable, and has been thrust into an alien world that views her and her kind as at best a nuisance. It’s an emotional and well crafted story, giving us the caveat that the future may care about their past as much as we do.

    The main story arc of the Smiler seems to have been prescient of the Bush administration. Here we see a bunch of political players completely divorced from the concern of the body public and pursuing a violent and brutal agenda for their own gain. A political party that seems to believe that spin and propaganda are good substitutes for intelligence and hard work.

    Be aware that there is a lot of swearing in this comic. So you may want to think twice before buying it for your kids. Still, it’s an enjoyable read and the setting is fantastic.

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More info:
    Written by Warren Ellis
    Artwork by Darick Robertson

Publisher:
    Image

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Oct 18th, 2011, 8:45 am

Post rewarded by Ojay on Nov 19th, 2011, 4:22 pm.
Nice reviewed! 5 WRZ$ reward. Thanks Zach!
Oct 18th, 2011, 9:40 am
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Title: Mediterranea (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Alessandro Cenni (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: puyaybusto (Review 1) Ray Tate (Review 2) (Don't click it, read the review here... ;) )

" Great art and a really fun story make way for a good comic here that has a fantastic action ending that makes me want more now!"

Review:
    Review 1 - Mediterranea #1 - “An epic fantasy set in an ancient Greek ‘techno-Byzantine,’ Mediterranea is menaced by a mysterious swarm. Winged creatures from the east threaten the peace of this kingdom, slaughtering anything that comes between them and their goal. Alonisso’s nightmares seem to be connected to these mysterious enemies, but not even the wise Auraki seems to know how. “

    Artwork: 4.0 out of 5
    Is it sad to say that a book this good looking was, in my opinion, the worst looking one of the four released this week? Once again great pencils work paves the way for amazing colors. Just a great look to this book that is a joy for the eyes on every page. The only downside I really had, was the cover. I honestly found it a little misleading, and it is why I read this book last. I thought it had a water world style story to tell and it kinda put me off, but the interiors really look great.

    Story: 4.0 out of 5
    So like I mentioned about the cover, I expected something I didn’t get here. Instead I was treated to a really interesting story. It was kind of like a tale of fate, that really jumped into high gear at the end. So a good suspenseful ending leads me to want more, more and more! Great translations again, as the story is a great read.

    Dying Breath: 4.0 out of 5
    They did it ladies and germs, GG STUDIO went 4 for 4 in impressing me! This one ranked 3rd on my list of the 4 but to each his own. Great art and a really fun story make way for a good comic here that has a fantastic action ending that makes me want more now! So check it out already!

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    Review 2 - Mediterranea #3 - The opening of Mediterranea seems more like a monster-of-the-week story or an adventure of the moment tale. That doesn't make it bad, but the isolation undermines the impetus the first two chapters delivered.

    A Master Auraki consults a mage to locate an oracle and our heroines Alonisso and Eleni investigate an odd realm populated by an abundance of women and a scarcity of men, writers Guilliano Monni and Alessandro Cenni marginalize the malevolent angel women that attacked our heroines in the premiere. They do revisit these creatures, but the lion's share of the book involves a reversal of fortune for the men of Lemnos, now the objects of purchase for women.

    Gender reversal for the world's oldest profession is an interesting start, but it's just that. A start. There's not enough expansion and incorporation of other elements into the central theme. Perhaps, Monni and Cenni will build on the idea.

    While there's some humor in Auraki's visit with a mage, his consultation with a Titan housing an oracle stone doesn't really seem necessary. It's pretty. The Titan's an impressive beast, but that's about it.

    This issue still bears Mediterranea's strengths: gorgeous artwork, with a kind of Disney-for-adults design and an engaging cast, but the story strays, and both directions lack cohesiveness.

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More info:
    Plot/Environment: Giuliano Monni
    Story: Alessandro Cenni
    Pencils: Gianluca Maconi
    Colors: Alessia Nocera, Barbara Ciardo
    Flats: Pierluigi Abbondanza
    English Translation: Andrea Plazzi, Adam McGovern
    Letters: Studio Blue
    Editor/President: Giuliano Monni

Publisher:
    Image

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Oct 18th, 2011, 9:40 am

Post rewarded by Ojay on Nov 19th, 2011, 4:22 pm.
Nice reviewed! 5 WRZ$ reward. Thanks Zach!
Oct 18th, 2011, 11:47 am
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Title: The Adventures of Blake and Mortimer (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Edgar P. Jacobs (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Roger Shingler (Don't click it, read the review here... ;) )

" An entertaining read and a visual feast. "

Review: The Necklace Affair
    If you thought Franco-Belgian comic strips were all teenage Belgian sleuths and vertically-challenged Gallic barbarians, then think again. Comic strips and, in particular, book-length stories in strip format (what, today, we would call "graphic novels") have a rich and diverse history in both France and Belgium, largely resulting from Nazi Germany's rampage across Europe and the subsequent difficulty in obtaining imported American strips in the occupied countries. This led to Franco-Belgian creators honing their craft by finishing, for the domestic market, the Superman and Flash Gordon stories that had been rudely curtailed by the onset of war in Europe, before going on to develop their own distinctive visual styles and storytelling methods.

    The Affair of The Necklace, first published in 1967, is a fine example of non-Tintin Francophone detective/adventure comics and its creator, E.P. Jacobs, was one of the greatest purveyors of the continental European 'clear line' style of graphic storytelling. The heroes of the tale, Blake, the dashing head of MI5, and Mortimer, a brilliant nuclear physicist, are Jacobs's best-known creations, and have appeared in dozens of comic books since the 1950s up to the present day. Jacobs himself produced the first 11 tales, the last being published in 1977. The characters were resurrected by a variety of authors and draughtsmen in the 1990s and have enjoyed a new phase of popularity ever since. To this day, the stories are still set in the 1950s and adhere to the Jacobs' distinctive graphic style and blend of action, scientific romance and high intrigue.

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    It's no surprise, then, that The Affair of The Necklace is, in terms of the Jacobs canon, fairly standard, though extremely fast-paced, cat-and-mouse fare, following the exploits of the irrepressible Blake and Mortimer as they pursue their arch-nemesis, Olrik, through the treacherous catacombs of Paris on the trail of a stolen piece of aristocratic jewellery. High adventure and plot-twists abound, and not one page is turned without one or the other - or both - of our brave protagonists meeting some peril or enigma with typical good-humoured stoicism.

    The real star of the book, however, is the elegantly detailed artwork, a combination of Herge's finely wrought and realistic depictions of people, places and machinery, and Jacobs's own noir-ish, more hard-boiled tendencies. The colour reproduction is stunning throughout, stretching the four-colour palette to new levels of vivid, sometimes comedic, expressionism and low-lit moody atmospherics.

    The Affair of The Necklace is an entertaining read and a visual feast. This new edition, translated into English for the first time, would also make an excellent introduction to Franco-Belgian comics for those curious about the '9th art.'

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More info:
    Created by Edgar P. Jacobs
    Edgar P. Jacobs, Jean Van Hamme, Yves Sente Writer(s)
    Edgar P. Jacobs, Bob de Moor, Ted Benoît, André Juillard Artist(s)

Publisher:
    Image - Image

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Oct 18th, 2011, 11:47 am

Post rewarded by Ojay on Nov 19th, 2011, 4:22 pm.
Nice reviewed! 5 WRZ$ reward. Thanks Zach!
Oct 18th, 2011, 5:17 pm
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Title: 30 Days of Night: Red Snow (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Ben Templesmith (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Bryant Frattalone (Don't click it, read the review here... ;) )

" A comic’s horror story for someone who doesn’t normally like comic’s horror stories."

Review: 30 Days of Night: Red Snow #1
    Plot: Nazi’s and Communists encounter an evil even more single-minded and deadly than themselves in an Artic wilderness.

    Commentary: I’ve said it before: As a rule I don’t invest in horror comics. To me the best horror is found in textual forms of literature or through the craft of skilled movie makers who know it’s not so much what we see that scares us but the lingering feeling of dread we get from the unknown. Prose novels which leave room for your imagination to roam and the creeping fear of films like Alien are much more preferable to me than the four color world of comics. There the monsters are just a page turn away and large buckets of gore or copious sex tend to replace any real atmosphere of fear. That’s my problem with horror comics. They’re horribly written and drawn and dominated by the slashers and stupid victims syndrome of the genre.

    Until now; until 30 Days of Night: Red Snow. Admittedly my feelings about horror comics have kept me away from Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith’s original and subsequent series but, I got this first issue for free and had enough morbid curiosity to give it a whirl. I’m glad I did. This comic doesn’t fit into the picture I painted above. Even with vampire novels and stories and movies being a dime a dozen with most not worth two cents Templesmith’s installment is an entertaining read because it has the elements that I consider to contribute to true horror. There’s the isolated setting. That feeling that no matter which way you turn you’re never sure of your standing or who’s out there in the cold and darkness. Instead of stupid teens or twenty somethings the victims here are Nazi’s and Communists in the closing days of World War II. Horror always seems to work better for me in period pieces like this. Templesmith introduces us to these two ideological evils and we just know that something more horrible is waiting in the wings. Or in this case, under the snow.

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    This story is reminiscent of F. Paul Wilson’s inaugural horror novel, The Keep which pitted Nazi’s in an abandoned European castle against an otherworldly horror far darker than their own black hearts. There was mounting tension and terror as the soldiers began to be picked off one by one. I don’t know if Templesmith ever read the book but the similiarities are startling. Where as Wilson’s book failed in the latter half in its reveal of the monster, Niles’s and Templesmith’s vampires remain ferocious and alien. They take the shape of humanity but that’s where it ends. This is evidenced nicely when Nazi snipers try to take down the silhouette of a village girl across the snows. It becomes all too apparent they are not dealing with anything human.

    Templesmith doesn’t just line up the victims to be taken out one by one. He takes time for us to get to know them a bit. Yes, for the most part they are despicable, but we get a glimpse of the reasoning for their own brand of evil. The Nazi commander justifies the genocide of villages by stating, “For the glory of the Fatherland, Our people must have room to breathe.” It’s a twisted patriotism and survival instinct that drove this Nazi in particular to commit unspeakable acts against fellow humans. So, there is some nobility evidenced here. Not true of the denizens of darkness. They are just hungry. It’s interesting that Templesmith uses the Russian commander to state that some of the Nazi’s motivation is due to hunger. But there’s something coming that is truly motivated by hunger.

    The first attacks are drawn beautifully by Templesmith as brave Cossacks are drawn down under the stark white blankets of snow. The only evidence of their fates is the red stained leftovers defiling the pure blankets of white. Templesmith’s color pallet is appropriately eerie to say the least. It’s my understanding that Niles was the writer of the original series and Templesmith was the artist. Templesmith either has writing chops also or learned some stuff from Niles. He creates believable characters and keeps the dread quotient high. His pacing is superb. Here’s hoping the last scene doesn’t lead to a simple zombie style massacre for the rest of the series but that we’ll see more good character moments from the writing and engaging set pieces from the art.

    Final Word: A comic’s horror story for someone who doesn’t normally like comic’s horror stories. Full of atmosphere and dread set against the backdrop of a literally cold war.

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More info:
    Writer: Ben Templesmith
    Artist: Ben Templesmith

Publisher:
    Image

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Oct 18th, 2011, 5:17 pm

Post rewarded by Ojay on Nov 19th, 2011, 4:22 pm.
Nice reviewed! 5 WRZ$ reward. Thanks Zach!
Oct 18th, 2011, 7:03 pm
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Title: Snake Plissken Chronicles (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): William O'Neill (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Arnold T. Blumberg (Don't click it, read the review here... ;) )

" Our recommendation: stick with it, the CHRONICLES might be a cure for the summer doldrums."

Review: JOHN CARPENTER'S Snake Plissken Chronicles #1
    Snake Plissken, one of the '80s greatest cinematic outlaw heroes - as played by Kurt Russell in the cult classic, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK - is back in an all-new comic book incarnation. Seems that his creators, producers John Carpenter and Debra Hill, have decided that the time is right for Snake to re-emerge on the pop culture landscape. I guess there just isn't enough mayhem on the roads these days - time for Snake to cause some carnage, and he is definitely just in time.

    Set just after the first film (and therefore fourteen years before the disappointing sequel, ESCAPE FROM LA), the comic version of Snake's escapades kicks off with a trip to Atlantic City. But first there's some scum on the Garden State Parkway that needs Snake's tender loving care, and the results are predictably messy. Snake makes a rendezvous in AC with a guy named Marrs, and then the real story begins. Plissken and Co. are planning to steal the late President Kennedy's car - yes, that one - and they're set to get a fortune for it. But wouldn't you know it, things turn sour and soon Snake is heading for the bottom of the Atlantic in a cage. Not his day...again.

    Rodriguez' art strikes the right balance between capturing Kurt Russell's swagger and imparting a bit of comic book exaggeration to Snake's features and his environment. O'Neill introduces us to Snake via a road-ripping action encounter, but it plays a bit flatter than it might have on screen. Once we get to Atlantic City, the story picks up but only in time for the first cliffhanger. This is not as strong a debut issue as you might expect given the exceptional source material and the notoriety of the lead character, but we might have to give the team time to settle in and get a feel for the print version of Plissken. It's a new frontier for the guy who lived through Cleveland, so cut him some slack. And call him Snake.

    Our recommendation: stick with it, the CHRONICLES might be a cure for the summer doldrums.

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More info:
    Created by John Carpenter
    Written by William O'Neill
    Chris Blythe colorist
    Digital Chameleon inker
    Robin Spehar letterer
    Tone Rodriguez penciler
    Published by Crossgen Comics, 2002-2004.

Publisher:
    Image

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Oct 18th, 2011, 7:03 pm
Oct 18th, 2011, 9:30 pm
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Title: King Conan: The Scarlet Citadel (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Timpthy Truman (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Ryan K. Lindsay (Don't click it, read the review here... ;) )

" This issue is a pledge that the rest of the mini is going to be absolute top quality."

Review: King Conan: The Scarlet Citadel #1
    “King Conan” is all about the older Cimmerian, though here he relates a previous tale, so it’s kind of just like any Conan story. Dark Horse floods the market with Conan titles like it's their “Avengers,” “Green Lantern,” or “Green Hornet,” but the difference is that the Conan titles feel consistent in quality and tone. Conan comics are good and this issue is a great introduction with an amazing selection of art pages.

    It’s comforting that you always get a “Conan” tale when you pick up a Conan book. He is his own genre and this issue hits most of the standard tropes. (See Conan rage in battle. See a wizard or vizier get the drop on him.) It’s rarely human muscles that best Conan; It’s trickery and mystical deceit. See Conan get put into a precarious position, with a weird creature/foe addition highly recommended. Truman makes this issue hit all of the standard beats, and he uses the faux-Howard voice to mild effect. There isn’t too much in the narrative here that will completely shock you if you’ve read Conan in any form before.

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    However, the art in this comic is phenomenal. Giorello shows echoes of Barry Windsor-Smith in his line work and character composition. There are at least 6 massive panels, or splash pages, not to mention the double splash, that could be iconic and mountable images for this already highly visualised character. Giorello gets a lifetime pass to draw this character and his world because he does it with such texture and poise.

    Robertson provides a nice cover, and he usually does a fine Cimmerian, but I don’t know why Giorello isn’t tapped to produce art that not only reflects the inside of the book but also has a greater chance of impressing someone scanning the shelves.

    Villarubia complements the art at every stage as if he studied under Frazetta. The lighting and the shadow are effectively used to create a story that feels like it’s coming from the lips of an aging Aquilonian king. The art in this comic is worth the price of admission alone because you’ll feel like you stepped back into the “Savage Sword of Conan.”

    This issue is a pledge that the rest of the mini is going to be absolute top quality. The last page alone shows you a brilliant image and a pulpy moment that forewarns further Conan levels of greatness. This title might not revolutionise the character but it plays so well in his sandbox that you’ll smile and never want to leave.

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More info:
    Writer: Timpthy Truman
    Artist: Tomás Giorello
    Colorist: José Villarrubia
    Cover Artist: Darick Robertson
    Genre: Action/Adventure

Publisher:
    Image

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Oct 18th, 2011, 9:30 pm

Post rewarded by Ojay on Nov 19th, 2011, 4:22 pm.
Nice reviewed! 5 WRZ$ reward. Thanks Zach!
Oct 19th, 2011, 10:50 am
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Title: Marlysa (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Jean-Charles Gaudin (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: TOM DE LENTDECKER (Don't click it, read the review here... ;) )

" It does not fail in its purpose: entertainment, recreation, volatility and fluency."

Review: 05 - The Wonderworker
    The end of the masquerade

    Didier Chrispeels, better known as Criss, has a weak for starting a series and not finishing it. Marlysa also falls into this category. He took care about the story in the first two parts, then handled the third part over to screenwriter Gaudin (the werewolves) and the artist Danard, who draw four parts in the 90'ties out of love for the art.The change of author was obviously projected in the albums of Marlysa. Where The Mask and The Shadow of Dompour were very good comics, the level dropped frightening low with The Other Side and Bragal. Still Marlysa stayed widely read and much discussed. Probably because of her looks and because of the mystery of her mask, still not revealed. Unfortunately, beside that there wasn't much left.


    With the Wonderworker, the latest album of the first cycle, the cycle of origin, the authors are back on track. The last album of a cycle is sometimes no more than the desperate knot of all loose wires, but this story just stands. It's not being forced in any way. The reader finally gets a lot of answers to questions that remained open for too long. Moreover, the last three pages are a nice introduction to the next cycle because the story of Marlysa doesn't seem finished at all. The attractive and mysterious cover of Danard fulfils the promises and the drawings are within the best he made since the start of the series. The Wonderworker is a solid end to a story that unfortunately didn't bring all it could have contained, but fortunately it does not fail in its purpose: entertainment, recreation, volatility and fluency. The start of the second cycle is already published in the French monthly Lanfeust Mag. Marlysa is still the famous masked duellist. Already something I look forward to. Now it's your turn.

    (Translated)

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More info:
    Jean-Charles Gaudin Story
    Jean-Pierre Danard Art
    Yoann Guillo, Sabine Fuentes, Nolwenn Lebreton, Angélique Césano Colour

Publisher:
    Image

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Oct 19th, 2011, 10:50 am

Post rewarded by Ojay on Nov 19th, 2011, 4:23 pm.
Nice reviewed! 5 WRZ$ reward. Thanks Zach!
Oct 19th, 2011, 12:15 pm
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Title: Richard Castle's Deadly Storm (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Brian Michael Bendis and Kelly Sue DeConnick (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Matthew Meylikhov (Don't click it, read the review here... ;) )

" The Castle comicbook is not bad at all. It's a fun evening read, but it's not essentially filling."

Review:
    CASTLE fans rejoice!! For the first time anywhere, Castle’s hero Derrick Storm comes to life in the pages of this all new graphic novel. This “adaptation” of Derrick Storm’s first novel adventure takes our hero from the gritty world of the private eye all the way to the globe-hopping intrigue of the CIA. Eisner Award-winning Marvel Architect Brian Bendis and red hot Osborn writer Kelly Sue DeConnick worked closely with Castle creator Andrew Marlowe to create the one thing millions of Castle fans have been asking for: their first real Derrick Storm adventure. A wall-to-wall, gritty, witty, globe-hopping detective thrill ride for fans of the hit TV show starring Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic, as well as fans of damn good comic books.

    Through a series of what I assume are missteps and just dumb luck in my favor, I've ended up with an advanced copy of Brian Bendis, Kelly Sue and Lan Medina's Castle graphic novel. But hey, I can't complain too much, now can I? I love Castle!

    Let's see how the book did after the jump in a 100% spoiler-free review.

    I've been a watcher of the television program Castle since it first aired, due to my appreciation of the work of Nathan Fillion, the show's eponymous character. The show is, to be honest, sort of a run-of-the-mill detective show, with a mystery per episode that our detectives have to solve, and it's up to the writer of each individual episode to attempt to create an impenetrable mystery for the viewer full of misdirection. All things considered, this hasn't exactly been the case in the last season of the show, in which you could usually guess who the killer was in every episode by looking for what person shows up for a few seconds and then disappears. I keep watching because Fillion and co-star Stana Katic have great chemistry, and the show is inherently fun enough to forgive it's otherwise fatal flaw.

    The book, on the other hand, is a completely different entity. ABC, Andrew Marlowe and a series of ghost writers have released several "real" Richard Castle novels based on the show, starring Nikki Heat, but nothing of Derrick Storm (to my knowledge, anyway) has really been explored. Castle the show began with Castle the character abandoning Derrick Storm in favor of Heat, and since then we've largely been left in the dark on his adventures, aside from those perhaps more involved in the ARG of Castle than I am.

    So now we have a graphic novel from Marvel's golden boy Architect and a celebrated rising star writer creating what is, for all intents and purposes, the "definitive" Derrick Storm story, outside of it's fictional counterpart. Following the adventures of Derrick Storm the detective, Storm is pulled into a CIA mystery involving missing/possibly rogue agents who Storm is tasked with finding. What unfolds is a rather high-stakes adventure that unfolds almost like a Dan Brown book/Ron Howard film (minus all the Jesus). Storm is paired up with Carla Strike, a CIA operative who knows what she's doing and needs Storm but doesn't neccesarily want to work with him.

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    Basically -- the same dynamic as the show, toned down a tad, and with Nathan Fillion's character being much more badass than he is on the show.

    Bendis and Deconnick make an interesting writing pair. The two seem to work quite well together, to the point that it is only really apparent who had a hand in what scene a few times in the book. There are a few scenes which scream "Bendis!", and there are even more that are reminiscent of Deconnick's voice, but for the most part the book is rather seamless between the two. Bendis is certainly known for his dialogue and decompression, but the book on the whole strays from that outside of a few instances. If anything, this title is comparable to Bendis' work on Fire more than his more well known pieces, just with a toned down sense of back and forth in the conversational parts. You can probably thank Deconnick for that, though. Deconnick's voice is rather apparent in the title overall, and this book is somewhat comparable to her work in Osborn in both tone and character. Storm and Strike are both characters quick with wit, perfect for both Deconnick and Bendis to play around with, and with Bendis' history in detective storytelling and Deconnick's excellent character handling, the two are a great match for the title.

    The odd thing about it, though, is that as much as the two work well as a pair, the book still feels a little lackluster. When taking into consideration the size of the book (112 pages, only 88 of which are story), one can't help feel like you're not given a real bang for your buck ($20). The story is rather quick, and a complete surface read of the text (i.e. not taking time to pause and enjoy the art) will take about the run time of an episode the show (40 something minutes or so). Things also seem to get a bit haywire towards the end of the story, with a bunch of new and rather important seeming characters being introduced in the span of a few pages before everything comes to a chaotic ending. While it appears appropriate to the book, once everything becomes a double cross of a double cross of a double cross of a double cross, the book focuses less on the curiousity of the CIA mystery established and more about who can fire off a gun first and in what direction. The books strengths lie in it's mystery, not in it's action, and it all comes cascading towards a seemingly rushed ending (which we'll discuss more in a bit) that is not as satisfying as one would hope, and certainly not at the hardcover price of $20.

    The art also detracts from the book a bit. I'm going to guess that despite doing otherwise great work in the book, Medina couldn't meet the schedule of release (timed so this comic can come out as the new season premieres) and an additional artist, Tom Raney, was brought in. The two artists work does not match even remotely, with Medina using a much more realistic approach to his work than Raney, who has an inherently more loose and almost cartoonish style. Medina brings a strict tone aided by Scott Hanna's inks and Sotocolor/Val Staples' wonderful colors, whereas when Raney takes over partially towards the end with Dan Green on finishes, the visual tone shifts dramatically, and at arguably the worst part of the book to do so. This isn't a flashback or some kind of side story; it's simply a turn of a page and everything looks different, which doesn't reflect well on the final product. That being said, the book certainly doesn't look bad. Medina's artwork is solid and clear, and as mentioned Sotocolor/Staples' colors are a perfect compliment to the tone of the book. Even Raney's art isn't ostensibly bad, albeit slightly off tone, and both Raney and Medina do try and make Storm look a bit like Fillion and Strike look a bit like Katic, which is nice. It's a nice looking comic overall, but the addition of Raney against Medina does throw it off balance.

    The Castle comicbook is not bad at all. It's a fun evening read, but it's not essentially filling. Given previous work of Bendis and Deconnick, it almost feels like they had more to say and/or could've done more with more time/pages, but it's also safe to assume that the book was trimmed and feared to non-regular readers and more general fans of the show. When looked at like that, as a book specifically geared for non-comic readers, the book succeeds in giving a general and good example of what comics do on a regular basis. For those familiar with Bendis and Deconnick's work, though, chances are you'll be left wanting to re-read things like Jinx or Osborn before coming back to Deadly Storm.

    Final Verdict: 7.0 - Buy with the above information in mind.

    Additionally, there's something that bugs me about the book. This is unrelated to my review and is certainly a spoiler for part of the ending, but nevertheless is something that remained on my mind post-reading: the backmatter of the book talks about all the books that Richard Castle has "written," including a synopsis of each of his Derrick Storm novels and Nikki Heat novels. In each of the Derrick Storm books, it is mentioned that he once again teams up with Carla Strike -- yet at the end of the comic book adaptation of Deadly Storm, Strike is dead. So ... did someone just not get a memo? Or is this supposed to just mess with me?

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More info:
    Written by Brian Michael Bendis and Kelly Sue DeConnick
    Illustrated by Lan Medina

Publisher:
    Image

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Oct 19th, 2011, 12:15 pm

Post rewarded by Ojay on Nov 19th, 2011, 4:23 pm.
Nice reviewed! 5 WRZ$ reward. Thanks Zach!
Oct 19th, 2011, 2:03 pm
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Title: G.I. Joe: Cobra Civil War (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Chuck Dixon and Mike Costa (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Patrick Tobin (Don't click it, read the review here... ;) )

" As a primer for a crossover event, Cobra Civil War #0 is a frustratingly mixed bag."

Review: G.I. Joe: Cobra Civil War #0
    COBRA CIVIL WAR BEGINS HERE! The Commander is dead! Long live... Cobra Commander?! But the questions is, who will BE the NEXT Cobra Commander?! The role of Commander must be filled -- now the most lethal and cunning Cobra operatives will COMPETE TO REIGN SUPREME. The winner -- he who kills the most G.I. JOES -- will take the reins of COBRA! Bonus: Ninja Force!!!!! Yeah, baby! 30 big pages of story at regular price! This is the place to jump on board and see what everyone’s been talking about!

    I probably don't need to introduce G.I. Joe to you. Yet at the same time, if you're one of the people who I don't need to introduce G.I. Joe to, this may not be the G.I. Joe you recognize. The days of Sgt. Slaughter dishing out cartoon beatings are long gone: so is what we have now better, or worse, or what? How does Cobra Civil War #0 square up against all-time classic material like that one "The Viper Is Coming" YouTube clip? Find out after the blah blah blah.

    I'm a pretty big G.I. Joe fan -- it comes from being an American male born in 1985. I had my own battalion of figures and caught the cartoon in syndication when I could. Since the late 90s or so, I've borne witness to people trying to coax G.I. Joe into growing up with them. Sure, the old-school comics by Larry Hama were pretty grown-up compared to the Sunbow cartoon (and especially compared to the DiC one, home of all-time classics like "Chunnel"), but it also featured stuff like Battle Force 2000 (a product line of toys who dressed like Tron escapees and drove future tanks) and the Eco-Warriors (although to be fair, the Eco-Warriors stuff was surprisingly hardcore). Still, things were for the most part always just to the left of what we could call "realistic" -- this wasn't The 'Nam.

    Since the advent of Metal Gear Solid, 24, and (insert your favorite po-faced military conspiracy action thriller here), G.I. Joe comics have taken a sharp turn away from that side of things. It's not enough to be America's quasi-superheroic fighting force against a group of terrorists dressed like particularly gaudy cereal boxes. Devil's Due resisted this change for a while, but eventually gave in whole-hog with America's Elite. IDW's Joe stuff, headed up writing-side by Chuck Dixon, has been particularly humorless from the start. I kept up on it for a while, but after nearly a year they still hadn't even gotten around to showing a single panel of Cobra Commander in the main series, so I gave up. I don't mind slow-moving, dead-serious military thrillers, but I'm a child of the 80s when it comes to G.I. Joe -- for every storyline like Outback, Stalker and Snow Job in the gulag, I want a moment of the Baroness hissing, "Cobra Commander, you IDIOT!"

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    Anyway, the pitch is this: Chuckles (one of my favorite Joes, unironically) shot Cobra Commander in the head and now Cobra's flailing around without a leader. What we get in Cobra Civil War #0 is what you'd expect, split into thirds. Three prologues lay out the premises for three series that will further the new mega-plot of the G.I. Joe world, until the next thing. With those parameters laid down, the question is whether or not these prologues are enough to suck readers into following them to their respective #1's. Let's handle them one at a time.

    The first story, by Chuck Dixon and Javier Saltares, is meant to set up the proper G.I. Joe series, where one imagines the bulk of the plot will be taking place. Not that you'd be able to tell from the actual story; it features a bunch of tossed-off codenames (and, oddly, Barbeque) being led to the slaughter. Here's your spoiler-alert summary: a bunch of Joes you've never heard of (and, oddly, Barbeque) go to Springfield, wander around for a few pages, and are summarily executed in six seconds. What this tells us about the G.I. Joe team, I guess, is that they're easy to kill. If anything, this reads like a prologue for a series about the antagonist who does the killing, which is really unfortunate because his name is (seriously) "Krake." I have no idea what G.I. Joe #1 will be about other than, presumably, fallout from Krake killing their dudes. I don't know who'll even feature in it as main characters, other than, presumably, Krake. This is not really how to sell me on the series, and I feel okay with using "does it sell me" as a marker because I'm already a G.I. Joe fan, so I should be a fish in their proverbial barrel. And yet, here, they missed.

    Presaging a relaunch of the parallel series, G.I. Joe: Cobra, is a story by Mike Costa and Antonio Fuso featuring the actual beginning of the civil war proper. Sort of. It turns out that this is less Civil War and more Contest of Champions, although the fact that Cobra is full of scum and villainy means that the games will be in no way fairly played. As far as setting up a cast of characters, this is far more effective than the first story -- all of these people are presumably going to be factors in the Cobra series, and some of them are even given a bit of motivation, too. Unfortunately, there's no real excitement to be found. A short story about the heads of Cobra meeting was always going to be a talking-head passage, but the decision to have them meet only by video conferencing over Evil Skype or whatever means that this is literally a story of nearly nothing but talking heads (between dark-haired guys in suits, and also the Baroness). It doesn't make me want to pick up Cobra, because, well, as cool as it might be for these characters to start murdering each other, I can't really say reading about them having a relatively civil discussion got my adrenalin surging.

    That leaves one more book to set up: G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes, because of course we need a Snake Eyes spotlight. What could be the most gratuitous tie-in of the whole endeavor has the most effective prologue of the lot, however, and gives us a coherent picture of what to expect. Chuck Dixon returns with Agustin Padilla on art, and for all the sins of Dixon's first story in Cobra Civil War #0, his second gets it right. The plot is simple: goofy 90s neon throwbacks Ninja Force have been slaughtered by the ninja villains Slice and Dice, and Snake Eyes, understandably, is very upset. This not only gives us a sliver of a story and a dose of characterization, it sets up an immediate emotional connection that we can build an expectation off of. Snake Eyes is gonna hunt Slice and Dice down for revenge -- what more do we need?

    As a primer for a crossover event, Cobra Civil War #0 is a frustratingly mixed bag. We get plot, we get action, and we get character; unfortunately, we get one story of each, rather than mixing the elements together. The only tie-in this #0 makes me want to pick up is Snake Eyes, but considering that that's almost certainly the least essential of the stories to be spun out of this, I can't help but think of this as a failure to launch, and a sorely missed opportunity. At least back in the 90s we would have had Captain Grid-Iron, if nothing else.

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More info:
    Written by Chuck Dixon and Mike Costa
    Illustrated by Javier Saltares, Antonio Fuso, and Agustin Padilla

Publisher:
    Image

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Oct 19th, 2011, 2:03 pm

Post rewarded by Ojay on Nov 19th, 2011, 4:23 pm.
Nice reviewed! 5 WRZ$ reward. Thanks Zach!
Oct 19th, 2011, 3:19 pm
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Title: GI Joe (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Chuck Dixon (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Mel Odom (Don't click it, read the review here... ;) )

" This first issue is a brilliant showcase of what is to come."

Review: GI Joe #1
    GI Joe comics are back and IDW publisher has ‘em! Not only that, but they have action writer supreme Chuck Dixon doing the scripts and Robert Atkins on pencils.

    The GI Joe franchise began as an action figure (although we called them dolls back when I was a kid because we had not invented the term action figure to preserve our maleness at the time) in 1964. At that time the Vietnam War was raging. Fathers and brothers were off to the war, which was publicized heavily in newspapers and on television.

    The GI Joe doll was supposed to be Barbie for young boys, but I think it gave boys a better sense of what their fathers and brothers were off doing. It took the horror of war out of the daily life of these kids and turned it more into a sense of adventure. Dad and brother were off adventuring. I don’t know if that psychology is correct, but I know my friends and I talked about it in that way.

    Later on, GI Joe remained popular and went through several iterations and rethinking, adding more characters and more villains. Marvel Comics began publishing GI Joe comics in 1982. For a while, the series became the top selling book at Marvel and ended after 155 issues.

    Since that time, GI Joe has almost always been in print at one comic book company or another. Dark Horse Comics and Devil’s Due Productions had relatively successful runs as well.

    One of the best remembered cartoon series of the decade was the GI Joe launch in 1985. It catered to an ensemble of characters with special abilities and training, and featured a lot of high tech weapons that – of course – became toys.

    Chuck Dixon has long been a favorite comics author of mine. I read all his action adventure and superhero stuff. No one knows how to economically introduce character and plot and create a sense of impending doom during a breakneck chase than Dixon does. I loved his long runs o nNightwing and Robin as well as his creation of Birds of Prey. Several later writers have come close to the standard set by Dixon on those titles, but I still miss him on them.

    He’s on GI Joe now though, and I can tell by this first issue that he’s not taking any prisoners. The issue begins with a bang, actually several bangs and a few booms tossed in as well, in the Gulf of Mexico. The ship’s crew intends to plunder some of the cargo and end up opening a box that kills them all and sinks the ship. At the end of the sequence, Dixon leaves us hanging as to what the boxes. Cool stuff. I’m intrigued already.

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    Then he flip-flops to the hidden GI Joe base in Nevada. In a quick succession of pages, Dixon reintroduces all the old characters GI Joe fans have come to love. And I have to admit, Robert Atkins’s artwork is simply astounding. It looks realistic and over the top all at the same time.

    The two-page spread of the base is eye-popping and extremely detailed. There’s hardware and armament galore. Not only that, but as Dixon moves the action from scene to scene, Atkins’s art brings those new areas to life with unique looks. The way Dixon writes and Atkins draws, you see the movie come to life on the page. All a director would have to do is shoot what they have on these pages to have a hit action movie.

    Dixon immediately spins in other plot threads as well. Beach has evidently lost his memory and is trying to recover from that. Duke has a thing for Scarlet – and who wouldn’t?

    Then we get a sequence with Snake Eyes that has to be seen to be believed. Evidently he’s going to meet his match in the next couple of the issues, and I can’t wait because that’s going to be all out war.

    At the end of the comic, Shipwreck has recovered the mysterious box from the bottom of the Gulf. And we’re left waiting for to open inside GI Joe headquarters.

    This first issue is a brilliant showcase of what is to come. I’m convinced that Chuck Dixon can write any kind of action comic there is and instill these two dimensional heroes with life. I’m also now convinced that Robert Atkins is phenomenal. I can’t wait till the next issue to find out what’s going on, and anxious as I may be, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

    Go Joe!

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More info:
    Written by Chuck Dixon
    Artist: Robert Atkins

Publisher:
    Image

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Oct 19th, 2011, 3:19 pm

Post rewarded by Ojay on Nov 19th, 2011, 4:23 pm.
Nice reviewed! 5 WRZ$ reward. Thanks Zach!
Oct 19th, 2011, 5:06 pm
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Title: G.I JOE: Cobra (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Christos Gage and Mike Costa (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Dan Hill (Don't click it, read the review here... ;) )

" Espionage comics of the highest order. "

Review: G.I JOE: Cobra #4
    To paraphrase a recent ad campaign, “This isn't your childhood G.I JOE." Right from the start of this series writer Christos Gage has taken the familiar elements of G.I JOE (Cobra Commander, the Crimson Guard, and, of course, Chuckles) and placed them firmly in a realistic setting, one to which we can fully relate. This is a world of advancing military technology, Blackwater-esque private military contractors, torture, and underground terrorist organizations.

    The series so far has dealt with an embryonic Cobra, one whose power and reach is slowly growing. Amidst all of this, planted deep undercover is G.I JOE agent, Chuckles. We've watched as Chuckles gets deeper and higher into Cobra itself. In the last issue Chuckles was faced with a horrible dilemma that tested his cover to the full. This issue takes place in the aftermath of that event.

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    The issue itself serves as both an action packed conclusion to the mini-series but also something of a character study into the effects the events of the last issue have had on Chuckle's psyche. Not only must he deal with the event internally, but he is also reminded of it by his co-workers at Cobra (with one worker, Semyon, showing some kind of sick admiration for him over it). Throughout the issue Gage really sets Chuckles up as man beyond caring, beyond fear. The harrowing events of the last issue have served to catalyse Chuckles into a man hell-bent on revenge, with no care for his own safety. Towards the end of the issue Gage delivers a sucker punch regarding Chuckles cover that puts events in the previous issues in an entirely new (and horrible) light. By the end of the issue Chuckles is a man with nothing left but the mission.

    Gage handles the elements a book like this needs and weaves them together effectively. He crafts some great character moments, with the narration really getting into Chuckles mindset and his motivations, but then in the same breath Gage will unleash a great action sequence, as the back half of this issue attests.

    Artist Antonio Fuso is equally adept, rendering character moments and the high octane moments with great amounts of skill. Towards the end of the book there is a moment where Chuckles comes to a point of no return. He knows that once he follows through on what he is about to do, everything will come crashing down, likely costing him his life. There's a great page where Fuso shows Chuckles thinking this through and then accepting his fate. You can almost see the weight being lifted from him, the acceptance of what he must do. Fuso's scratchy linework really lends itself to the dark and gritty atmosphere Gage has established for the book and is evocative of similar artists such as Jock and Michael Gaydos. The art is complemented nicely with the muted colours of the book-- tones of blue, grey and brown that really establish a sense of mood and place.

    Overall this is a series which, to me at least, has been something of a sleeper hit that came totally out of left field. Gage and Fuso have produced an intelligent, mature treatment of the material and this is a great capstone to the series as a whole. Espionage comics of the highest order.

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More info:
    Written by Christos Gage and Mike Costa
    Art by Antonio Fuso

Publisher:
    Image

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Oct 19th, 2011, 5:06 pm

Post rewarded by Ojay on Nov 19th, 2011, 4:24 pm.
Nice reviewed! 5 WRZ$ reward. Thanks Zach!
Oct 19th, 2011, 10:21 pm
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Title: Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Prodigal Son (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Chuck Dixon (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: C. Price (Review 1) and Luke Forney (Review 2) (Don't click it, read the review here... ;) )

" This book will leave you begging for the sequel. "

Review: Dean Koontz's Frankenstein: Prodigal Son #1
    Review 1 - Though a fan of Koontz, when I first saw the title of this book I was afraid it would be trite. But I was wrong. This is one of Koontz's best efforts in years. He does not rewrite the story of Frankenstein, rather, he builds on it.

    It is the present day and Dr. Frankenstein is alive and well and continuing his efforts. His goal is more clarified. He is no tragic figure, but an evil man bent on building a race of perfect beings that will replace humanity. Over the two hundred years since the events portrayed in Mary Shelley's book (which, in an nice twist, is explained as a semi-historical account based on legends and hearsay), Dr. Frankenstein has amassed a fortune and a vast biotech empire. Through modern genetics and science, he no longer has to piece together his creations from dead humans. He grows them and programs them with directives and information. He and his creations bide their time, infiltrate humanity, and await the time to strike openly.

    Opposing these efforts is Dr. Frakenstein's first creation. The Monster still lives, but has become more and more human while his creator has become less. Koontz and Anderson do a great job of portraying the monster as a suffering man, noble in spirit yet malformed in body. His path and mission cross paths with two homocide detectives on the trail of one of the New Race who has become a serial killer after he realizes that his programing and superior genetics has left him empty, missing something that humans seem to possess.

    Koontz and Anderson's decision to place the story in New Orleans was a stroke of genius. They do a good job of capturing the mood of what is perhaps America's most foreign, haunted city. The food, the history, the music, the graveyards. All are effecitvely portrayed and woven into the story.

    The book is a quick read, with 4-5 page chapters dealing with one sequence of events, the moving to another. Despite this, it does not come across choppy. The writers keep the pace going while making the narrative clear.

    A good book. Reminscent of, though not quite at the level of, Koontz's excellent Twilight Eyes.

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    Review 2 - Dixon wrote this novel as an adaption of Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Prodigal Son, a novel originally credited to Dean Koontz and Kevin J. Anderson, but now credited solely to Koontz. This graphic novel is the first volume of a series that adapts the first novel in the Frankenstein series. As a fan of Koontz, the original novel by Mary Shelley, and graphic novels, I dove in.

    In New Orleans, a chain of murders has detectives O’Conner and Maddison left with a puzzle, and things get no simpler when Deucalion arrives in town. It turns out that Deucalion has some ties to a famous monster, and that his creator is residing in New Orleans, looking to repeat his experiment. But when another creature goes on the loose, O’Conner and Deucalion may have to team up to stop the wave of murderers.

    When it comes to adaptations of prose works into graphic novel form, the results vary. The graphic novel version of The Hobbit, also done by Chuck Dixon, was engaging, while Orson Scott Card’s Wyrms was okay in parts but wasn’t the greatest graphic novel to reach my shelves. So I was curious how this would turn out.

    In this case, I hit the jackpot. Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Prodigal Son, Volume One is one of the best adaptations since George R. R. Martin’s The Hedge Knight, also put out by Dabel Brothers Publishing, that time for Marvel, this time for Del Rey. From the moment you pick this book up, it is hard to put down. Dixon’s story flows through the pages with excellent art from Brett Booth, and the stories weave together wonderfully. The plot twists are masterfully executed, as I would expect from Dean Koontz, the characters are well-rounded, and the story is fun.

    As a bonus, there is a short graphic story from Koontz, a look at a failed experiment from Victor Helios’ past. It is entertaining, if light fair.

    This book will leave you begging for the sequel. If there is any single aspect of this work you think you could find yourself liking, go out and grab a copy. You won’t regret it.

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More info:
    Writer; Chuck Dixon
    Illustrations by Brett Booth

Publisher:
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Oct 19th, 2011, 10:21 pm

Post rewarded by Ojay on Nov 19th, 2011, 4:27 pm.
Nice reviewed! 5 WRZ$ reward. Thanks Zach!