REVIEW: A Taste For Killing #3: Reaper of the Abyss

(Acid i Comics 2014)

Story and Art by Nikkol Jelenic

Pinups and short stories by Leo Cherry, Jeff Bonesteel, Josh Shockley, James Dufendach, Mark McKenna, and Brian Spicer

I know I’m dating myself here, but my first experience with mermaids in pop culture was seeing Darryl Hannah splash about in a bath tub while Tom Hanks gawped at the floppy orange tail. Splash came out in 1984 and colored my vision of mer-people (wait, there are boy fish people?) for many years. There’s something you should know before reading A Taste For Killing #3…these ain’t Ron Howard’s mermaids.

REVIEW: ‘Clockwork Angels’ #2

(BOOM! Studios, 2014)

Written by Kevin J. Anderson
From a story and lyrics by Neil Peart
Illustrated by Nick Robles
Lettering by Ed Dukeshire

A month has already passed, like the tick-tocking of the proverbial (and literal) clock; it’s time to return to Albion, the world dreamt up by Neil Peart of Rush fame.  In the first issue we met Owen Hardy, the farm boy who decided to take his future in his hands and leave everything he knew and go to the city.

REVIEW: ‘Dream Police’ #1

(Image Comics, 2014)

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Line Art by Sid Kotian
Color by Bill Farmer
Letters by Troy Peteri

I’ve been singing the Cheap Trick song in my head for about an hour now, every since opened the PDF of this comic.  So to try to excise the demons and scrape Robin Zander’s chant from my mind, I’ll write about comics.  Good comics, not happy comics.  Please J. Michael Straczynski, scour my brain.

REVIEW: ‘Penny Palabras’ #1-3

(Self Published, 2014)

Words – James B Willard
Artwork – Patrick K Beavers

The idea of geek culture bleeding into popular culture has been discussed and debated, by comic pros at comic cons, (oh…its early in the week for puns like that, but occasionally I feel inspired) but the fact remains that we as comic collectors have the upper hand right now when it comes to entertainment. Could that result in a flood of bad things? It could, but at the same time there is a flood of good things, great ideas and comics that may not normally see the light of day are given a chance, the spotlight shines where it should.

REVIEW: ‘Myth’ #1-3

(Alterna Comics, 2013)

Story by Mike Loniewski
Art by Dan Lauer
Letters by E.T. Dollman

Three issues of Myth were sent to me by the creators, and landed on my computer desktop with an imagined “thud”. I’d seen some screen caps of panels from this book. I’d heard that a guy from the site was going to interview them. I was terrified.

REVIEW: ‘Monster Massacre II’

(Titan Comics, 2014)

Written by Various
Artwork by Various
Edited by Dave Elliot

*Suggested for a mature audience…and they ain’t lyin’.

For a long time I didn’t know what kind of music I liked. (Keep reading, this is actually going somewhere in the realm of comics.) I blame my grandpa for this, and not in a bad way. When I was a kid he would wake us with marching band music. Nothing rouses you out of bed at 6 a.m. like the dulcet tones of John Phillip Sousa or K.L. King.

REVIEW: ‘Bigfoot: Sword of the Earthman’ #5

(Brewhouse Comics, 2014)

Written by Josh S. Henaman
Line Artwork by Andy Taylor
Color Artwork by Tamra Bonvillain

‘Bigfoot: Sword of the Earthman’ has been an immensely epic and unique sword & sci-fi mash-up since the get-go.  The entire run up to this point has followed that lead and run with it, far enough to where the lines between the normally divisive ‘fantasy’ and ‘sci-fi’ genres are so blurred they’ve become their own separate world.