Echoes

Written by: 

Joshua Hale Fialkov 

Illustrated by: 

Rahsan Ekedal
Released by: 

Minotaur Press

Minotaur is the dark love-child of Top Cow and Image... a long dead imprint recently reanimated in the form of their new horror label. Mind you they haven't officially called it their horror label. They use the phrasing "darker and more nuanced", but I personally think that's redundant, as Top Cow with titles like; The Darkness & Witchblade, is already a pretty dark universe as it is. Anyway, sorry about that history lesson, Echoes is one of Minotaur's re-launch titles. A somber gray & white family affair, steeped in dementia & shaded in serial murder.  

It opens with a troubled man named Brian visiting his father on his deathbed in the cold tomb of the hospital, just after hearing his child's heartbeat for the very first time. As his father starts to slip behind the veil he urges Brian to check the crawlspace in the basement of their old home, the one at 1339 Haymaker. Wide-eyed he keeps insisting, and then immediately passes on. Not wanting to let his father down in death, a grief stricken Brian is compelled to set off right away to honor his father's dying wish. He heads back to the old, empty, house he grew up in. Abandoned by everything but it's run-down furniture; a dusty, threadbare graveyard to the memory's it once housed.  As his anxiety comes to a boil, Brian's reality starts to crack. He's seeing things. His schizophrenia which can be kept in check with the right medication is invading.  His burdened mind is starting to collapse under the weight of the stress of his father's death, and the anxiety over the birth of his new child. His alarm keeps buzzing to remind him. It's his wife calling.  It's time to take his pill. Clozapine to be exact. Sadly the faucet only leaks out a murky, undrinkable sludge.  Running out of time and reality, he starts to look for the basement, for the crawl space... for the dark and evil things hidden there. Tools of his father's secret trade... knives.... knives and.... porno, nudie magazines.  He laughs, relieved, and lays down on his fathers other secret; a bed of children's bones, surrounding a box. 

He pulls open it's lid and sees hundreds of them staring out at him. 

Dolls made from the flesh, and hair, and bones of the girls they were molded in memory of.  His father buried this secret behind a wall, and kept it till his last breath... but Brian isn't so lucky. 

That's the set-up!!  This is only the first fucking issue!!  I just picked the second one up, and I can't wait to crack it's tiny, little, stapled spine!! I have always been a huge fan of black and white art, (remember the "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" trilogy?) I feel a lot of detail is lost in the coloring process, Whether it's true or not; this is a fine example of visual storytelling. Detailed, excellent use of shading and gray tones that perfectly compliment it's melancholy mood. The way Ekedal (Creepy, The Cleaners, & Warhammer) illustrates eyes is stunning.  You can see the horror, the pain, the sadness, visibly expressed in every pupil. The series wouldn't be nearly as dreary if it were done in full color.  

I found myself captivated by Joshua Hale Fialkov's brooding storyline.  Every panel serves to set the mood. Known for his work on "The Crazies: Motion Comic" which he also worked with Ekedal on, "Alibi" and "Elk's Run"; both of which are getting the cinematic treatment... "Tumor" the first comic ever available on Amazon Kindle, and his Wildstorm one-shot "Friday the 13th: The Abuser & The Abused"; Fialkov is really starting to make a name for himself in this medium.  It seems, and this is just pure conjecture, that he's making the transition from film to comics. Either way; Echoes will have you kneeling on cracked bones, & begging for more by the end of the first issue. Whether it's an all out horror story, or a psychological thriller (a term I personally hate); I for one can't fucking wait to find out what dark & gloomy road this 5 part mini-series is headed down.  While it's unclear which path this comic will take, one can certainly speculate.  I'll give an update once I read some more, though I will say; this made my pull-list in just one issue... something that rarely happens. 

With that, happy reading!
Krys the comic chick signing out :) 

Crossed: Family Values

Written by: David Lapham
Illustrated by: Javier Barreno
Released by: Avatar

I honestly thought, in the bubble where I keep my thoughts, that it couldn't get much more extreme than Ennis' run on Crossed. How could it? How could it get worse than heartless, point-blank, kid murder. How could anyone top a married couple getting raped while their little girl is torn limb from limb in front of their screaming eyes?  No way!  End game. Than I opened the cover to Crossed: Family Values, David Lapham's (Stray Bullets) sequel to Ennis' all-too-short-lived run on Crossed. And panel for panel I was sickened. Three shades of pea-soup, puke green, sickened.  Finally when a little girl who was raped by her father, and turned into a Crossed, ate her newborn baby it had become right-in-my-fucking-face apparent that David Lapham had taken things to a whole new level of what was formerly known as extreme. I've watched movies like "A Serbian Film", "Flower of Flesh & Blood", "The August Underground Trilogy".  I've read "The Bighead", "Girl Next Door", "Survivor", and made it out ok.  Well not ok, but scotch tape works wonders for the shattered soul.  So I never in my life would have expected to get shocked like this again. Oh let's just be fucking honest here; I have never wanted so badly to take a shower, and cry, while I held myself, and rocked on the balls of my ass in my bathtub from reading something before.  I was fucking offended. Frustrated, crescent-moon fingernail-imprints-dotting-my-palms offended.  I have to give kilotons of credit to this series. It forces the reader to feel the absolute worst they possibly can!!  Did I like it?  It was a wee bit too fucking vulgar for my fucking tastes. (lol)  I will say though; it was way more fleshed out than the first.  But with characters like these vile scum-bags.. in a situation that goes 7 circles beyond fucked up... is that really such a great thing?  

It starts out on the Pratt family ranch. The Pratt's are a lovely family who raise horses.  But not just any horses. These are the best fucking horses on the planet!! Everything about them is perfect. The same could be said about the Pratt family, at least on the surface.  10 kids ranging from 19 years to nine months old.  A darling mother, a fun-loving Uncle, and a Father to be feared.  Adeline their eldest daughter has been waiting a long time to confront her father about raping her younger sister Emily. When she finally musters the gumption in the form of 4 inches of sharpened steel... he damn near kills her... takes his belt off, and whips her within an inch of her life. He was a child-rapist, the closest man can get to monster.  Then the Crossed came in raping, ravaging, bloodthirsty droves.  And this vile, stomach-churning, scum was suddenly a hero.  It's funny how fast one can throw down their morals in exchange for survival.  Addy did just that.  So now everyone Addy's father saves is subject to a whole new brutality.  He went from revolting to valorous, from a monster to the god of the new world.  His was the word of the lord.  

This story arc poses 3 questions:  How fast are you willing to drop your convictions in the face of adversity & tragedy? Is the Crossed really that much different than us? How do you make a monster into a hero?  And the answer to these questions are even sicker than all the travesty's taking place in each panel.  You thought what Regan said in The Exorcist was bad?  The shit this little Crossed girl says would make a 9 to 5 street-walker embarrassed.  I thought A Serbian Film was the top of the mountain, man that wasn't even the tip of the molehill.  I'm pretty sure Lapham earned himself a place on a list somewhere.  Just kidding.  It took a lot to top what Ennis did with Crossed. Well if that title gets the cinematic treatment, it certainly won't be getting a sequel, or at least the sequel won't be Crossed Family Values.  More incest & child-rape than anyone would ever want to read about.  And it's not just discussed in passing, it's discussed in graphic detail. You're getting every ounce of gore & scum on both a literal & a visual level. 

David Lapham succeeds in surpassing Ennis' run in terms of depravity & in terms of character development.  Every denizen is a person, and not just a character type.  A complaint I had about the series' prior run, which was clearly fixed in this installment.  This time around we get treated to real characters we can feel for in a situation that is both unimaginable & unforgettable.  A fundamentally fucked-up family dynamic within a devastated world that has been completely flipped on it's fucking head 14 or 15 times.  We not only get to witness a world where humanity has been laid to waste, we also get to observe the Crossed, as the Pratt's capture one to get a better understanding of them.  I don't want to give more away, but c'mon it's Crossed. The most extreme comic since like ever. And this sequel tops itself to vile proportions.  This shit is biblical.  It sets out to offend, and does just that.. in spades!!  Send the troops home. Mission Accomplished!  It's a tough read, real tough, but that's the point. I had to read 6 light-hearted comics to glaze over the images this series left flashing behind my eyelids. It shows un-humanity, raw and gruesome. The Crossed are the embodiment of the evil, acting out the most deviant atrocities you keep filed in the back of your mind folder. So the most reprehensible people make the most wicked crossed. 

And let me just say... Javier Barreno, Mr. Illustrator, Holy Fucking Wow!!  The shit this guy was paid to draw.  Just plain old Damn!!  But like a pro he caught every degenerate detail in a way that made it even more offensive.  I don't mean that in a bad way. Offensive is the topic, you know that going in. Balls is the word I'm really looking for. Balls is what it takes to draw this kind of shit out in scathing detail. You'll see a Crossed fucking a decapitated head just off to the side in the background of a panel.  I'm talking about that kind of painful detail. Even the background is out of it's mind. Let's not even mention the covers.  Two words; sickest around. Sure it's completely fake, but that shit leaves an impression. I can still feel my skin crawling off the bone!! That's effective art!!  

Anyway I need to go wash my eyes out with drain-o and a wire brush, and hug my kids lol.  I'll end on a warning: This comic has a FUCK-TON of kid rape and it's talked about A LOT.... constantly in fact.  If you've read Garth Ennis' run on "Crossed" I'm sure you know what you're getting into.  Well you don't, this is a whole new rodeo. There is going to be a follow up called Crossed: Psychopath, and of course the long-awaited Crossed 3D. As offended as I am... you can bet your ass I'll be picking up those two the micro-second they drop.  Read at your own risk!!

Rotten

Written by: Mark Rahner & Robert Horton   Illustrated by: Dan Dougherty

Released by: Moonstone

Rotten is the S'mores of zombie comics.  The Rocky Road of westerns. Meaning; it combines 3 of my favorite things into one delicious package. Namely; zombies, westerns, and a tough as railroad-spikes hero.  It's horror with history. The Walking Dead in the old west.  Romero-Eastwood. A top notch zombie comic. Not as good as WD, but so far it's a cut above the rest. Grade A undead meat ripe for mass-consumption while you wait for the main course.      

Over a decade after the Civil War Agent Wade is forced back into the uniform he hates, and sent to investigate a hushed crisis at Fort Valhalla with his former comrade in arms J.J. Flynn; who was sent to keep an eye on Wade and report any of the mission's progress (even after they are separated).  On his way Wade gets detoured in the middle of the night when a lookout shoots his horse in the head, blowing it's brains out, and leaving him stranded in the god fearing town of Shimmer. Shimmer's a small town with silver in it's veins.  It's life blood flowing from the silver mine the town was built on.  But there's an infection in Shimmer. The miners have been getting eviscerated by the living dead, a plague that's suspending business, and sending Shimmer into financial cardiac arrest.  In an attempt to save Shimmer Wade not only has to contend with leagues of the living dead, but also it's god-fearing denizens.  After a daring escape, a mortal wound, and a failed attempt at saving a whore he grew fond of, Wade winds up in the next town.  Worse for the wear, and half-dead he bangs on the door of the first house he comes to. Wade's second big mistake.  This family is keeping a deadly secret!  Their daughter was bitten by one of the things shambling through the streets but they think her reanimation is a gift from god.  That it's god's will.  Like all good parents they have been keeping her "alive" by feeding her travelers, travelers like Wade. It's out of the frying pan and into the fires of hell as it's one nightmare crashing into the next .

What's awesome is I didn't even spoil anything.  These are both brief subplots taking place before Wade, and his partner John Flynn even get to Fort Valhalla. That's when the real story starts. You see bits & pieces of Flynn throughout Wade's adventures, as he writes his report, but this arc chiefly follows Wade. The first TPB is spilt into 3 story-arcs, 2 mini-arcs, and one umbrella-arc. I'll call the 2 mini-arcs the peas & carrots, if you will, and the third the fucking meat & potatoes of course!!  The peas & carrots tackle the sub-genre in different ways, each highlighting a unique aspect of the period.  Giving you a little insight into the mindset of the times, while shaping not only a fantastic story, but also an excellent period piece. Time-pieces are tricky, having so much to account for, but this one was seamless.  A time machine made of ink & paper.  I loved how the authors always kept the time frame in mind, and the lack of science in the forefront.  Since science was limited at the time most people believed this was the end of days. Some felt it was a gift from god. While others thought it a plague.  Either way you cut it, fucked is fucked.

For the gorehound there's lots of flesh getting torn from the bone, and lots of brains getting blasted from their skulls. That's not even mentioning the plethora of memorable scenes.  To say the least it showcased lots of blood in it's beauty all complimented by it's great dialogue. I just love the western drawl.  It lends the story the extra wheels it needs to transport you back.  The pacing, & story-structure were also remarkable.  The deeper it went the more interesting, and involved, it became, never once losing it's focus.  The more time I spent with them the more I loved the characters. Most notable was Wade; who this first story-arc takes the time to flesh out a bit more than all the others.  He (and to a lesser degree Flynn) is one of those characters that embodies the wild west.  To expand on one of my previous points; Think Dirty Harry in a world on the brink of a zombie apocalypse.  He has his convictions, which you'll see, and is being forced to assist the military in exchange for his freedom.  Not real freedom, mind you, as he's kept under watch.  But he figures, prison is better in the open air than it is behind bars.  Flynn on the other hand was sent to keep an eye on Wade as he investigates the "terror crisis" at Fort Valhalla. He loves his country, loves serving his country, and as per his instructions is keeping a detailed journal (which you can read online at the official Rotten site) of Wade and his own accounts as they travel to the Fort, before & after they are separated. He is quick to the gun, & even quicker to the one liner.  A great supporting character who I'm sure will be explored a bit more in upcoming issues.  

Dougherty's art initially felt a little too detailed for some of the smaller panels, which at first left me with a cluttered impression, but I grew to love it more and more with each passing page as it perfectly captured the action at hand something some other artists have a difficult time with.  Every line was intentional, it was never "scratchy", always perfectly manicured. His earth-tone coloring flawlessly demonstrated the rustic feel of the time. Some pages I felt had too many panels, but the overall flow was consistent, and I loved that splash pages were only used for truly epic scenes.  The gray-skinned, blood flecked zombies weren't as decayed as I would have liked, in some instances they were barely distinguishable from the living, but this is a minute detail I can easily forgive as this is just the beginning of the infection. Rotten, with all else being said, is a prime example of a comic to read in the wake of "The Walking Dead" while you wait for Volume 14 (or whatever volume it's up to by the time you read this) to release.  

Whereas most zombie comics take place when the infection is in full swing, or after it's already devastated the planet, this tale takes place just after the initial outbreak. An unknown life-threatening plague in an already harsh time.  Just brilliant!! It's a fresh-take, a bright-light, in a sub-genre bogged down with mediocrity.  My only other minor complaint is I felt none of the side characters were really developed enough. Most felt extremely interchangeable.  I never felt for anyone outside of Wade, and Flynn. Not enough time is spent lingering in any one location to fully develop non-central characters so again I  can understand.  Make no mistake though, that didnt stop me from reading it twice.  

I can honestly say that I can not WAIT to continue reading this series. I'm curious to see what Rahner,(critic at Seatte Times) Horton, & Dougherty (Cyclone Bill, Beardo) have in store.  I anticipate finding out where this whole thing is leading. Can't wait to see how people without the technological advancements we have deal with the undead hordes at their door.  For the one or two small aspects it lacked it made up for them in like 12 other areas in spades!! Wade is the Indiana Jones of the west. He is rough & tough, yet surprisingly kind. A real man's man. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys serious zombie tales, westerns with bite, or to fans of good storytelling. 

Loving Your Local Comic Shop

I wanted to make my first official comic review for my favorite comic as of late, Driver For the Dead. But...since I won't have my copy of issue #3 until later this week, I hated to not take the chance to test the waters of this whole blogging thing before venturing into my review when I head to my local funny book store. The thought of that itself inspired me to write for the first time simply about, you got it, our local comic book stores.

Here's my thing. I don't live in a big city, so I have no huge comic book shops near me. As a matter-of-fact, finding a good comic shop here is like finding a needle in a damn haystack. the first shop I visited had absolutely NO comics that interested me, BUT...the lack of options steered me towards my first copy of Chew, which I adore. The shop owner was a very nice fellow, but he just had nothing that sparked my interest. I was worried, at that point, that my renewed love for comics was going to die a quick death. First, a little into my background before I ramble on...

I was born in the early 70's. For those of you who were born in that time, you may share a lot of my same loves: Horror hosts, old time radio, cheesy 70's and 80's horror, and most of all, comics. I remember picking up my first comic, Tales From the Crypt. The smell of tha pages, the crafty artwork, the sometimes silly but entertaining stories captured me and took me away. I recently ordered some old comics from Ebay, and as soon as those buggers got into my hands and I opened them, the smell of the pages alone transported me to my childhood. It was incredible. I loved House of Mystery, I, Vampire, Werewolf, all of the oldies but goodies. But, as I got older, many things in my life changed and comics got swept under the rug. Until I met the duo known at the Caroleo's. Krys and Dave, that is; who I am sure you all know and love as much as I do. We began to talk comics one day and I had literally read nothing that was made after the 1990's. they began to fill in the blanks of all of these incredible series that I have been missing (The Walking Dead, for Pete's sake!!), and generously shared their collection with me so I could get up to speed. Without them, my love for this medium would still be there, but buried deep down. Now it is back, and with a vengeance. I was blown away when I started to delve into the newer comics. Holy hell had times changed! The stories are sharp, witty, and sometimes even heartbreaking. The art is jaw-dropping. I could not believe my eyes when I read the Walking Dead for the first time. I worship George Romero, but this series has changed the world of zombies as we know it, much like Romero's movies of the 70's and 80's did. I cried my damn eyes out at the happenings in Volume 8. Cried!! Like a damn baby!! Over a comic!! I was hooked. I am not a fan of your usual comics, I love horror and anti-superhero books, not Spiderman or X-Men. not saying those are bad comics, not at all....however, many of the best comics are overlooked because they are not published by DC or Marvel. That in itself is a tragedy. Now, back to my quest for the comic shop...

I happened upon a shop called Bent Wookee Comix.

http://www.bentwookeecomix.blogspot.com/
Little did I know that when I went into this shop I would meet another person who would change the course of my comic fate. Bent Wookee is owned by Brandon Wilt, and I credit and thank him as much as I do Krys and Dave for helping me on my comic journey. Brandon is the rare store owner that actually cares about his customers. We struck up conversation in email first, then when we were finally able to meet, it was like I had known him my whole life. He has bent over backwards, forwards and sideways to help me find what I need, and gone to great lenghts to accomodate me getting my order since the shop hours clash with my work hours. Brandon is not only a comic shop owner, but he is an amazing artist, being featured in quite a few funny books himself. There are many titles I would have passed up if he wouldn't have suggested them, ones I absolutely loved when I read them. I often say that I hope everyone has someone like Brandon at their local comic shop. Someone who automatically tunes in to what the customer likes, and can recommend new titles, along with helping the customers get in items that may not be found in the shop. If it is out there, he gets it for me. Someone that knows their stuff, and isn't afraid to share the knowledge and act like a comic snob (which unfortunately happens). Without Brandon's help, I would not have 1/2 of the titles I now own. Could I have found them online? Sure. But I prefer the comfortable, warm atmosphere of heading to the shop as opposed to sitting in front of my ancient monitor trying to guess by the pictures and reviews if I would like the title or not. I actually get excited when I know I can head to the shop, I always have a nice stack of subscriptions waiting for me, making it like a Christmas morning for a child. The joy of driving home with a stack on new comics beside me warms my heart, and the process of trying to decide what should be read first can be maddening! But I love it, and can not thank Krys, Dave and Brandon enough for helping me re-discover my love for this medium. My hope is that some day, my passion for comics can help steer someone into their local shop, and one more comic fan will be born/reborn.

Transmetropolitan

Written by: Warren Ellis
Illustrated by: Darrick Robertson
Released by: Vertigo

"I want to eat a swan…..is that wrong of me?”              – Spider Jerusalem 

Cue-Bald, lewd, crude, tattooed, chain-smoking, pissed off, and hot (yeah women can objectify too). Can you think of any other way you’d want your anti-hero? Well you’d be wrong. I picked up the first volume, and he wasn’t staring at me, flexing his man-tits, or posing with some lame ass weapon of justice, a symbol of who gives a four-eyed, flying, shit. He was just lighting a cigarette, minding his own business. He didn’t give a fuck that I was about to read his story, that I was about to discover my favorite series. That’s Spider Jerusalem. He doesn’t give a fuck what you think. So much that he moved to the mountain to escape people, and their cities. He thinks everyone’s an asshole. And who wants to be knee-deep in asshole. Problem was… while he escaped the rat’s nest of the cities he also escaped his ability to write, a real issue for a journalist.

You can’t write about the trash of the world if you’re not immersed in its cesspools. When his agent and meal-ticket finds out he hasn’t even started book one of a two book deal after 5 years, Spider is called back from the mountain to the traffic-choked streets, and the billboard cluttered skylines, of a city sucked up its own ass, to cover the new presidential election. So it’s back to the grind, back to the bowel disruptions, drug-addicted machines, dream commercials, plastic surgery alien junkies, all balanced with a diet of Eskimo take-out.

It's cyberpunk personified. Its reality exaggerated at a thousand miles an hour. It’s pissed-off on paper. It’s the truth walking on water in a pair of Air Jesus’ with a trash bag full of puppies for the children’s hospital. I love Spider. As my buddy Gord told me “If you could ‘Weird Science’, one person it would be Spider”. His wit is as sharp as nails hammered into a baseball bat. One he slammed right into my heart. He sees through the users, the liars, the fakes, the swindlers, and all the old & new scum. Spider is the foul-mouthed salty-dog spitting strings of venom into a cyberpunk city gone haywire, and you love every twisted moment of him. He’s torn. Complex and conflicted, he despises people, but wants them to stand up, and fight like demons for their rights even if it means taking the lesser of two assholes.

Picture a tattooed, pissed off Hunter S. Thompson with a dual edge! Darrick Robertson’s art captures Jerusalem’s fevered fucked-up, cluttered reality. Every character no matter how minor is perfectly detailed. You can stare for hours. Not to mention this series has some of the coolest covers since the cucumber got sliced bread. We’re talking “sleeve” material here. If you pick this up, and don’t love it right away, it’s simply because you just don’t get it. A healthy hearty meaty mix of social political satire that keeps its action balls to the wall. In a world where even machines are drug addicts, and transplants go far past cosmetic; Spider is the gorilla-journalist god!!

                                                                                                                                                     This is my favorite comic series of all time, the one that will stay with me forever. So if you’re looking for a gonzo ride straight into the lower intestine of a futuristic metropolis, this graphic grenade will blow the lead clean out of your pencil!! It’s just plain fucking awesome!

The Pro

Written by: Garth Ennis

Illustrated by: Amanda Conners

Released by: Image

Have you ever thought "Ok, this is going to be fucking stupid" just before you read something?  Well I went into "The Pro" thinking just that, and I wound up loving the living shit out of it.  It stuffed those words right down my throat, like jagged little word pills.  I should have known a comic about a super-powered prostitute would kick turbo ass.  I don't know why I would question Ennis, the master of the medium (Preacher, The Boys, The Darkness, Punisher, Crossed, Just a Pilgrim, Hitman, Hellblazer, Chronicles of Wormwood, you get the picture).  He will never cease to amaze you.  All he does is amaze.  The man has made a fuckin' career out of being amazing.  

Anywho..... The story starts off with a prostitute finishing off a John in his car.  She wants her fucking fifty bucks, but the douche gives her next to nothing, and to top that shit off the tart-fuck pulls a gun.  It's just another fucked up day, in a fucked up profession, in a fucked up world, for a fucked up bitch. Tired and angry she heads home to her shit-hole apartment, to a fed-up baby-sitter, and a kid sitting in a mega-fuck-ton of it's own shit; so she can smoke, sleep, and get ready for the next day. That very same night in a galaxy exactly like ours an alien, and his robot pal make a bet. To see if ANY human could be a hero if given the proper help. So they shoot down a beam of I don't know what the fuck, and The Pro was born. The next day she woke up to her screaming kid, and a group of Super-Fuck-Tarts at her window.  Literally bunched around her fuckin' window like they were posing for the cover of a magazine.  They wanted her to join them.  (An unapologetic spoof on the Justice League).  This freakshow.  But she was reluctant.  This squeaky clean group of spandex-riden banana-clowns had no fucking clue what they were getting themselves into. She had a whole different idea of what to do with her new found powers. She needed money and while flying around like a group of assholes paid the bills, why stop there?  Super hero with a violent streak by day sounds nice, but dick pumping machine by night sounds lucrative.

I couldn't get enough of this!!  It ended far too early.  There needs to be a sequel.  With scenes of just utter madness such as; The Spirit, the spoof on Superman, getting his very first BJ, and cumming so hard he takes down a jumbo-jet.  And there's plenty of other more than memorable scenes that I don't want to spoil for you, because if you've ever had a bad day you need to read this.  There is a massive bonus at the end of the TPB in the form of The Pro vs. The Ho, which takes place sometime during The Pro's days off from pissing in the face of crime.  Best fucking part?  It's basically a super-powered hooker showdown. This is the coolest of the two story arcs, or at least I thought so.  The TPB is so off the wall it's on the ceiling.  I don't want to give too much away, but I'll give you a taste of the dialogue "I swear to god if it's not a bunch of flying cock-knockers in spandex, it's some total freak looking for a co-star in her own fucking pathetic search for attention".   You know you're curious to see what happens when a prostitute gets super-powers.  How could you not be?

Amanda Conner's art is dead-on.  It's bright.  It's shiny. It lights up every page, and compliments every madcap antic.  The art & the short-lived adventure felt perfect together.  The personality of each character was brilliantly depicted.  She did an excellent job.  Some panels are more detailed than others, but it never skips a beat. It's nice to see a female artist who has no problem getting as dirty as the guys... but all ladylike.  So my suggestion is if you want to laugh yourself silly, if you want a mockery, a loving middle-finger to the face of comics, this is the hooker to hitch a ride with.  I've read it 5 times now, and it's still as funny as comedic hell.  It's very tongue through cheek.  And it captures awesome very well.  (I don't know it for a fact, but this felt like Ennis' inspiration for "The Boys")  

The Walking Dead

Written by: Robert Kirkman

Illustrated by: Tony Moore & Charlie Adlard

Released by: Image

Every zombie fans dream is a Romero story that never ends.  And every medium has its defining zombie story.  Cinema has Night of the Living Dead. Books have World War Z. Comics have The Walking Dead, which is like the Romero story that never ends. (Written by Robert Kirkman, with art by Tony Moore, until issue #7 when he is replaced by Charlie Adlard.) If you haven’t read this yet you need to apologize to yourself. Like a hand-written apology. Because this is hands down one of the greatest zombie stories ever written. Hell it might even be one of the greatest comics ever written.  Now a hit TV show on AMC, with Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption, The Mist, The Green Mile) at the helm, you need to read this series it will rekindle your long lost love for comics, which are so much easier to collect now in the form of trade paper backs (or graphic novels if you prefer that term).

It starts off with our hero Rick waking up from a coma, in a hospital-bed, to a whole new, savage world. A world in which the dead have risen from their graves. A world where the dead outnumber the living. And the living are stripped of their humanity. Rick sets off back to his house to find out what has become of his wife and son. He returns to an abandoned home, his family no longer there. They went to the city thinking that’s where the rescue teams will show up. But there’s no rescue. After a grueling few weeks of solitude, and hopelessness, Rick finds a small group of survivors. This is where we meet the main group for the first time. This is where the real story of survival begins.

Surrounded by death, the rag tag group is camped outside the city, trying to survive with limited supplies, and limited access to medicine, food and shelter. Aside from those mentioned we have Andrea and her sister Amy – 2 college kids trying to find out what happened to their parents. Dale an older man with an RV who saved the 2 girls, as well as give them a warm place to sleep. Glen a young guy who escaped the perils of the city, and is now alone in the world. Shane; Rick’s deputy in the force who who is acting as the groups leader. Carla, and Sophia a young widowed mother and her fatherless daughter. Allen (a nice pushover) Donna (his bitch wife) and their twins Billy & Ben. And Jim the middle-aged loner.  More characters get added in & taken out, but these are the first we meet.

I won’t say too much as this is an ongoing comic series, but not one TPB (which is how I collect them) has let me down, each is packed from cover cover with gripping story, and heartwrenching moments for the few survivors. It contains some of the most powerful moments in this medium, and the story just gets better & better with each page. The characters just keep getting deeper & deeper. Until you're drowning in them.  It will leave you scrambling for the next volume, just to make sure everything is ok. You’ll clutch your chest as you read this series. Kirkman takes you through this new life in this post-apocalyptic world, and makes you love the people in it… before they’re all ripped from your arms & torn from your pages. One thing that fascinates me is that even in a world overrun with the walking dead, humans are still the greatest monsters of all. On the same token; you’ll also see how in times of adversity people can band together for the greater good, and how roles get assumed and assigned. You get to see the best and the worst of mankind all in one series.

Kirkman knows when to hit you hard. He is the new master of this art. But make no mistake, he also knows when to slow down, and make you think, make you fall in love/hate with his cast of characters. This is far beyond “well-thought-out”. No two characters in the story are alike. They are more than just fodder, each has their own thoughts, emotions, triumphs, goals, failures, secrets, and personality. While keeping you more than riveted, Kirkman manages to make you love (or hate) each person by displaying the depths of their being. His story telling never once contradicts itself something you rarely see in a series of this ilk. He has thought out everything you can imagine and the character-driven story blooms because of that.

The Walking Dead is not just some out of control gore-fest like Ennis’ “Crossed” (not that I mind gore-fests). It’s complex and primal, thought-provoking, and passionate. This is not a kiddy-candy-coated story at all. You’ll feel the pain when characters start dying because by the time they’re ripped limb from limb in front of the ones they love … you'll love them, and feel like they’re apart of the family. But on the bright side: you WILL cheer when bad guys get what’s ultimately coming to them. Never have I read something that moves me so much – that has been so consistently powerful.

One of the most powerful aspects of the series being the inclusion of kids. Zombie stories almost never have child-survivors. You get to see children deal with a world where the dead won’t stay dead. You get to see them grow up in an apocalyptic graveyard.  Where your mother/father/brothers/sisters will rise from their death to consume you. All while the surviving adults turn out to be even bigger threats than the monsters surrounding them. There is no protection. There is no where safe.  But they know nothing else – these children of the apocalypse. Possibly one of the most complex characters is Carl, a boy that never got a childhood. In the later issues you see him grow up fast because he has to, he has to make decisions no child should ever have to make. You get to see first hand; how the world around Carl is evolving and shaping him.

The artwork is phenomenal, done in black and white for that NOTLD feel, which only adds to it’s beauty and nostalgia. Every character is illustrated in a unique way depicting each's personal attitude. The story is unlike anything you will ever read, and yet encompasses everything you’ve ever loved about the zombie sub-genre. Read volume one, and if you’re not hooked, then I promise I will eat my own arm. A solid 10 out of 5 stars. 5 just isn’t nearly enough to express my love for this powerhouse of a comic.

In short: READ THE WALKING DEAD!!! Max Brooks (author of World War Z) liked it, and so will you.

The trade paper backs/graphic novels   (the fastest way to go) collect 6 issues             per volume. 

The hardcovers (the prettiest way to go) collect 12 issues per volume. 

The compendium (the cheapest way to go, yet the most annoying to read because it’s so cumbersome) collects the first 48 issues. (which is the first 8 tpb’s, or the first 4 hardcovers.)