We Will Bury You #1 review

I was already looking forward to Choker when I walked into the comic book shop, so the Templesmith-esque cover of We Will Bury You from IDW caught my eye. The zombie cover, that is actually from the pencil of Ben Templesmith, is the highlight of the issue.

The story takes place in 1927 and the form-fitting collared shirt and pants outfit of our dykie heroin Fanya seem completely out-of-place, even if she is going for a manly look. Her Harry Potter glasses don’t seem to fit either. Fanya and her friend Mirah are drawn with clean, smooth lines. Every other character looks hairy, dirty and disgusting, often with distorted facial expressions. We haven’t even got to the zombies yet. This contrast is purposeful in creating an atmosphere and tone, but Kyle Strahm may have done the job too well as the characters are so vile and ugly that I barely want to look at the pages.

Yes, this is only the first issue, but I really can’t tell what direction Brea Grant and Zane Austin Grant are going to take this story. From what I can tell, the only two non-wretched beings is this city have a forbidden love, which will have to be put on hold while they deal with the zombie apocalypse.

In the end, this horse is slow coming out of the gate, but since it involves zombies, I’ll probably give issue #2 a chance.

2 out of 5

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Captain Swing and the Electrical Pirates of Cindery Island #1 review

One glance at the cover of Warren Ellis and Raulo Caceres’ Captain Swing and the Electrical Pirates of Cindery Island and I was hooked. This book oozes sci-fi coolness. Beautifully drawn and richly colored comic pages quickly immerse the reader into Ellis’ version of 1830 London.

Two competing police forces, the Bobbies and the Bow Street Runners, are trying to keep the streets of Georgian era London under control. A rogue given the monicker Spring-Heeled Jack, who appears to have harnessed the powers of static electricity, has taken up the hobby of tossing police onto spiked wrought iron fences. Of course, conspiracies abound as we get hints that the Bow Street Runners and their Magistrate masters may not only have justice as their motive for taking down Jack and the mysterious Captain Swing.

Raulo Caceres employs a plethora of short black strokes to add shading and detail to most every surface. You can see and feel the emotion on every character’s face. The biggest accomplishment is that Caceres seamlessly blends the fantastic and the style of the 1800’s to keep the story “realistic” in a sense.

This comic provides a full $3.99 worth of entertainment. The 21 pages of comic goodness are supplemented by six additional brown parchment looking pages with a fitting script font and technical drawings that go further in solidifying the idea that there is some mad scientist lurking about that is way ahead of his time. The text also provides details of the actual historical events that are being used to frame the story.

The only real criticism I have is that this is issue “1 of 4″. I’m already wanting more.

4 out of 5

PREVIEW: Crogan’s March

Oni Press is about to drop Crogan’s March, the second volume of The Crogan Adventures series of graphic novels.  Sporting a hardcover, black and white Sunday comics-styled frames, this book will run 216 pages for only $14.95.  Not a bad deal when 20 pages generally runs 4 bucks these days.

Each book in the series will follow a member of the Crogan family tree.  In this adventure, Chris Schweizer introduces us to Legionnaire Peter Crogan and his rag-tag unit as they try to survive the desert, an enemy army and a montrous creature with a taste for human flesh.

Check the usual outlets on Wednesday February 3.

A few months back Rick and Ray went through a purging of the pull list (chronicled in podcast episode #15). We knocked a bunch of titles off, but with The Siege, Pilot Season and a seemingly ever widening array of Batman comics, the list is gaining weight again. Are we missing anything?

Here’s our latest:

ABSOLUTION
ALIENS
ALL NEW SAVAGE SHE-HULK
ARKHAM REBORN
BATMAN
BATMAN AND ROBIN
BATMAN ANNUAL
BATMAN BATTLE FOR THE COWL
BATMAN BATTLE FOR THE COWL COMMISSIONER GORDON
BATMAN CACOPHONY
BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL
BATMAN IN BARCELONA DRAGONS KNIGHT
BATMAN STREETS OF GOTHAM
BATMAN WIDENING GYRE
BLACKEST NIGHT
BLACKEST NIGHT BATMAN
BLACKEST NIGHT SUPERMAN
BLACKEST NIGHT TALES OF THE CORPS
BOYS
CALL OF DUTY MODERN WARFARE 2
CAPTAIN AMERICA
CAPTAIN AMERICA REBORN
CHEW
CINDERELLA FROM FABLETOWN WITH LOVE
CRIMINAL SINNERS
DAREDEVIL
DAREDEVIL & CAPTAIN AMERICA DEAD ON ARRIVAL
DARK AVENGERS
DARK REIGN ELEKTRA
DARK REIGN HAWKEYE
DARK REIGN LETHAL LEGION
DARK REIGN LIST AVENGERS ONE SHOT
DARK REIGN LIST DAREDEVIL ONE SHOT
DARK REIGN LIST PUNISHER ONE SHOT
DARK REIGN LIST SECRET WARRIORS ONE SHOT
DARK REIGN LIST WOLVERINE ONE SHOT
DARK TOWER
DAYTRIPPER
DIE HARD YEAR ONE
DMZ
EXISTENCE 3.0
FABLES
FLASH REBIRTH
GHOST RIDER
GHOST RIDERS HEAVENS ON FIRE
GOTHAM GAZETTE BATMAN ALIVE
GREEN LANTERN
GREEN LANTERN CORPS
HAUNT
I AM LEGION
IGNITION CITY
IMMORTAL IRON FIST
IMMORTAL WEAPONSIMPALER
INCOGNITO
INCORRUPTIBLE
INDOMITABLE IRON MAN B&W
INVINCIBLE
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN
INVINCIBLE RETURNS
IRON MAN I AM IRON MAN
IRON MAN VS WHIPLASH
IRREDEEMABLE
JACK OF FABLES
JOE THE BARBARIAN
JONAH HEX
KICK ASS
LOCKE & KEY CROWN OF SHADOWS
MARVELS PROJECT
MILO VENTIMIGLIA PRESENTS BERSERKER
NEW AVENGERS
NEW AVENGERS REUNION
OUTSIDERS
PILOT SEASON STEALTH
PILOT SEASON STELLAR
PREVIEWS
PUNISHER
PUNISHER ANNUAL
PUNISHER MAX GET CASTLE
PUNISHERMAX
RED ROBIN
RESURRECTION VOL 2
SCALPED
SECRET SIX
SECRET WARRIORS
SIEGE
SIEGE EMBEDDED
STAND
STUMPTOWN
SWEET TOOTH
SWORD
TERRY MOORES ECHO
THOR
THOR ANNUAL
THUNDERBOLTS
TRACKER
UMBRELLA ACADEMY DALLAS
UNWRITTEN
VENGEANCE OF MOON KNIGHT
WALKING DEAD
WAR HEROES
WEIRD WESTERN TALES
WOLVERINE GIANT-SIZE OLD MAN LOGAN
WOLVERINE WEAPON X
WOLVERINE WENDIGO

What the fuck.

0 out of 5

Punisher: Frank Castle MAX #75 review

I’m not sure if Marvel just doesn’t give a shit about The Punisher anymore, or if they are purposely trying to destroy the character’s legacy.  This MAX title is reseting under the helm of red-hot writer Jason Aaron and issue #75 seems like a mistake.

I have no inside information, but I figure the issue may lay with Marvel Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada. In the theatre of my mind, I imagine a phone-call that went something like this:

Joe Quesada: Yo, Vic…Goran-my-man, how’s it going?
Victor Gischler: Uh, great Joe. What can we help you with?
Joe Quesada: It’s Friday afternoon…deadline is on Monday. When are you going to send over Welcome to the Bayou part 5?
Victor Gischler: Uh, sir…it was only a 4-part arc.
Goran Parlov: Do you even read Punisher?
Joe Quesada: Hey – do you know how many books Marvel publishes each month? I can’t read them all.
Victor Gischler: …
Goran Parlov: …
Joe Quesada: Just messing with you guys, gotta go!

Five minutes later…Joe Quesada addresses a con-call with every contracted writer and artist that could be found.

Joe Quesada: I have a great opportunity for one lucky team. Who wants to put together a one-shot for one of our flagship titles?
<cricket cricket>
Joe Quesada: Punisher: Frank Castle MAX #75….huh? Huh? And it needs to be done by Monday.
<cricket cricket>
Joe Quesada: Fine! You guys want to be that way, you can ALL write it. Yeah, that’s it. I want eight pages from all five teams and now the deadline is Sunday morning – because I’m going to read them!

So, either through that scenario, or possibly by design, the final issue of the run includes five stories by five separate teams.  It can be difficult to put together a strong stand-alone issue due to the limited options for story build-up, so how much should be expected from only eight pages?

Story number one, Dolls, from the team of Tom Piccirilli, Laurence Campbell and Lee Loughridge tackles the never explored (sarcasm) softer side of Frank when it comes to family matters, especially children.  A lost young girl interrupts Frank just as he’s about to snipe some scumbag through a window in a nearby building.  Of course, Frank can’t resist helping reuinite the child with her father.  If it isn’t clear to the reader how this might affect The Punisher, having lost his family and that his daughter was about the same age as this girl, we are smacked in the head with a flashback frame from happier days.  Campbell and Loughridge capture the competing themes of a man who must stay in the shadows, even when in the open, and the shoppers just out for a stroll in the snow.  The highlight is a three-quarter page frame of a larger-than-life Punisher from the viewpoint of the little girl’s father as he looks up to thank the man who found his daughter.

.5 out of 1

Gateway brings us just what every comicbook fan wants and needs – another twist to The Punisher origin story.  The first two pages are actually pretty interesting.  We’re introduced to a “middle man” who, among other things, sets up hits for the mob.  He justifies that he is just a businessman that provides a service, but who never actually performs the illegal act.  The story faulters as the hit in question, traps the Castle family in the middle.  We’re shown how Frank is dealing with his loss, sitting at a kitchen table with place settings for the whole family.  Strangely, the Castle family has a hidden pegboard loaded with firearms in the hallway outside the kitchen.  Very convenient for a man looking for revenge.  The artwork by Das Pastoras is interesting, albeit not necessarily good.  The frames are drawn from differing and somewhat unconventional angles.  Gregg Hurwitz was on to something with this story.  The ”middle man” living a good life with a clear conscience is just the type of guy that needs punished.  Pull out the ’origin’ angle, expand the story and this could have been a great Punisher Annual.  It just doesn’t work here in any manner.

0 out of 1

The only ray of sunshine is this issue Ghoul by Duane Swierczynski and Tomm Coker.  As such, I don’t want to give much away, because it may be the only joy you get from reading this issue.  The plot is original and it is made for eight pages.  There isn’t any more to tell.  Stretching it out to a full issue would have ruined the effect.  The story is really told through the changing facial expressions of the antagonist.

1 out of 1

If you get a feeling of deja vu from Father’s Day, it’s because you have seen these panels before.  The pages take us through a slideshow of highlight scenes from the MAX series.  I’m still trying to figure out why I’m really being shown this when I flip to the last two pages only to see the Castle family in Central Park played out yet again.

0 out of 1

Ken Ashley and Rob Stull get the accolades for the second best art of the issue.  The colors are bold and contrasting flying us through a lot of action via thin slices of panels.  There isn’t much story to The Smallest Bit of This, but then again, what can I expect in such few pages?

.5 out of 1

If you’ve been keeping score, then you already know that Punish: Frank Castle MAX #75 is awarded:

2 out of 5

Jimmy, Dr. Lou and I made the 90-minute trip south for Baltimore Comic-Con.  Well, the trip is usually only 90-minutes…but takes a bit longer when Jimmy locks his keys in his car before we ever hit the road.

Jimmy tried using metal coathangers to try to pop the door to no avail.  Fortunately, North York Auto Menders was right across the street and the guys were more than happy to come over with a slimjim(my) and got the door open in about 30 seconds.  We hit Mickey D’s for a hearty breakfast and almost made it out of the parking lot before the second near calamity.  We pulled the car over by a stand-alone ATM that was out in the lot.  Jimmy decided he didn’t want to the pay the withdrawal fee and went into the grocery store 50 yards away.  Dr Lou retrieved his funds and we moved the car closer to the store entrance.  Lou and I were deep in what I am sure was a very interesting conversation when I look in rearview mirror and see Jimmy trudging across the parking lot towards the ATM.  He walks up and starts getting into a car sitting there - scaring the shit out the poor lady inside!  Please note that this car was barely the same color and not even close to the same model as my car.  We scooped Jimmy up and peeled out before the fuzz arrived.

 We were back on the road and only ended up getting to the Comic-Con about an hour later than scheduled.  We parked and went over to the front of the convention center where we were to meet up with the “Dark Protector of Baltimore” (I just gave myself douche chills) – Darth Ravenous.  Jimmy got tired of waiting and wandered off, seemingly only minutes before Darth Ravenous finally arrived.  DR talked us into ditching Jimmy and we headed into the Con without him.

It was a good show and I was able to get some decent pictures of some people in costumes.  No, I didn’t get many of females.  There were some fetching femme fatales in cool costumes, but I just couldn’t bring myself to be that creepy guy thats walks up to a girl standing by herself and asks to take her picture and slobbers “nice costume” as he scurries off after a quick click.  I tried to pawn it off on Dr. Lou under the guise that “we’d get better pictures if we take turns” or some BS.  He couldn’t bring out the inner creep either.

Since returning, I’ve been scouring the net for sites showing pics from the show.  I found the following sites:

Zerbetron’s Photostream
Baltimore Sun
Confessions of a Cosplay Girl
Crave Online
Mr Terrific’s Photostream
HappyGlyphs Comics
Rival Angels
Racoon Eyes DeviantART
Cosplay.com
Comix Connection
Rob and Tom’s Place
MorpheusBlade’s Photostream
ComicsDC
SINincallyTwisted’s LiveJournal
BG’s Photo Libary

I did not find one single picture of Darth Ravenous.  He assured me that a “bunch of people” took his photograph.  I even caught this unknown photographer in the act, so I know at least one exists.

If anyone knows of a site that has a picture of Darth Ravenous, please send us an e-mail and let us know.  Just in case you haven’t seen Darth Ravenous in other posts on the site, here’s another one for you.

Related posts:   Costume Gallery from Baltimore Comic-Con 2009

I was just jumping across links and came upon this new movie trailer. Pretty freak’n cool.

Fans at Comic-Con were treated to ten minutes of the Kick-Ass movie adaption and luckily for those of us who could not attend, someone cammed it.  If the studio is smart, they will let the clips stay up, but you never know, so watch them now.  Not familiar with Kick-Ass?  It’s easy to catch up on because since debuting in April 2008, only six issues have been released.  I guess if I got a movie deal, I’d focus more on that too.

I found the clips over at Bleeding Cool. Check it out.

Here is Rick & Ray’s take for this week.  Note: We didn’t include Dr. Lou’s list because he gets every comic and we also skipped Jimmy because he only gets PowerGirl and She-Hulk.

The New Avengers
Superman
Thunderbolts
Unknown Solider
Northlanders
Marvel Zombies 4
THe Dark X-Men
X-Men Forever
Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps
Dark Reign: Young Avengers
Dark Reign: Sinister Spiderman
Dark Reign: Lethal Legion
Dark Reign: THe Hood
Dark Reign: Hawkeye
The Complete Dracula
Previews