Monday 24 March 2014

Weekends and Comic Books...

How was your weekend? Mine was great thanks for asking :o) It mostly involved eating good food, drinking a little too much red wine and having Elana fall asleep on me – three of my favourite things. It also involved me reading comic books, on my phone, when everyone had gone to bed, another of my favourite things :o) Here’s what I thought of them all; it’s all ongoing stuff that I’m into (for the most part) and my feelings about the artwork haven’t changed so this is just going to be about plot and things like that. Here goes then…


‘Edgar Allan Poe’s The Premature Burial’ -  Richard Corben (Dark Horse)

I’ve said this before but if there was ever an artist born to illustrate Poe’s tales it is Richard Corben. Corben doesn’t let us down here with some appropriately gloomy gothic depictions of both ‘The Premature Burial’ and ‘The Cask of Amontillado’; I could just sit and stare at Corben’s art, it captures the tone perfectly. Both tales are slight adaptations but not so much that they detract from the power of the original stories; what you get is a bit of a fresh spin that helps you re-live the horror all over again.

‘Grindhouse – Flesh Feast of the Devil Doll: Part One’ – Alex De Campi, Gary Erskine (Dark Horse)

Pre-Colonial zombies take on a camp full of hockey playing teenage girls and a gang of teenage boys. Erm… and that’s it :o) ‘Flesh Feast of the Devil Doll’ is possibly the most shallow and exploitative comic since ‘Clown Fatale’ but I came to it after watching ‘Piranha 3D’ so I was in just the right mood for what it had to offer. This is a comic that is pulp fun at its pulpiest (nice little twist at the end)with art to match by Gary Erskine. I’ll be back for part 2.


 ‘Get The Lobster: Part 3 of 5’ - Mignola, Arcudi, Zonjic (Dark Horse Comics)

You know those bits, halfway through a series, where everything has been set up and it’s not quite time for the big finale? Those moments where there’s nothing really to do apart from let the plot plod along until it’s time to really get going? That’s exactly what we’re looking at here. There are some nice action moments to be had (with a grenade toting Chief of Police amongst them) but the impression I ended up coming away with was of a comic just marking time until the big stuff. A comic that’s sole purpose was to be #3 because you can’t just jump for #2 to #4. I’m still going to be around to see what happens next but was a little disappointed here…

‘Terminator Salvation: The Final Battle’ #5 - Straczynski, Woods (Dark Horse)

I’m still very much of the opinion that the Terminator franchise is going to end up time-travelling up its own bottom, if it insists on playing to the same old tropes every single time, and #5 hasn’t done anything to change my mind. This is an issue where events are being set up so the first issues can play out as well as the first two Terminator films; I liked the sense of things playing out in reverse but I wouldn’t have minded seeing some actual story instead. I did enjoy the whole ‘Terminators being controlled by a serial killer’ thing though as it gives Woods licence to be really creative with his battle field scenes. As before, I’m sticking with this series (duh, it’s the Terminator…) but I’m not holding out much hope for it at all now.


‘Veil’ #2 - Rucka, Fejzula (Dark Horse)

I think ‘Veil’ could well become my new favourite comic with intriguing new questions arising out of every answer given as we find out a little more about the mysterious Veil and where she might have come from. Veil herself is also a very intriguing character, the reader is torn between her vulnerability and what she is able to do to people who threaten her. I’m kind of half rooting for her but ever so slightly scared of her at the same time…
Two issues in and ‘Veil’ has become required reading as far as I’m concerned. I’m in for the long haul with this one and I’d recommend that you get in early as well.

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