THURSDAY THIRST – COMIC BOOK ROUNDUP

ANGEL: AFTER THE FALL – Issue #3
IDW Publishing
Written by Brian Lynch Art by Franco Urru

That squirrely Spike. How that vampire walks the line between good and evil with a smile is beyond me. It gets pretty confusing at times too. Some six seasons on TV, and we can handle “Spike-isms” with actor James Marsters living up the role of a lifetime. Bad vampire playing the good guy to get the girl… and does. In comic book form, it’s a little harder to portray the quirks and facial expressions of the actor to express such depth in a character. In this issue of After the Fall, writer Brian Lynch has a tiny struggle with this aspect of characterization. Spike is all above movement in his dramatic prose, even when his body is still. So with that difficulty alone, I don’t understand why Lynch messes around with the timestream for the first half of the book. My head was literally spinning. I see Joss Whedon is plotting the series, and his recent “jumping bean” writing style in Buffy’s Season 8 might be the case here, but why? Why tell the stories this way? Is Angel really time-hopping or is he imagining all these moments of time? Did he really just turn back into a puppet, or is he just feeling all cottony and felty inside? And why does Illyria suddenly want to kill him? And then it’s play time with the dragon? I feel like I was Munson’d. “Who you callin psycho???” The stuff just does not make sense, and that’s what made the first series, Angel: The Curse fail to meet expectations in carrying on the Angel TV series. Total Translation = Total Clarity. Feeding unrelated tidbits to a reader doesn’t give them dinner. “I’ll have a hot dog with hot fudge ice cream on top and some pickles dipped in soy sauce.” Luckily, something clicks after Lynch’s confusing first act, and the regular story of Los Angeles being ruled by neighboring Hell Lords kicks back into gear. The story needs to keep moving forward, and hopefully fans like myself of the Angel legacy don’t get more of this sporadic drowning in a pool of Jell-O. At first it’s fun, and then after a few minutes, you’re done with it. Move on. Move forward, and give the fans what it’s advertised to be: a NEW season.

GRADE: B- CONTINUE READING? The second half of the book gets back on track so yeah, let’s see how Angel gets out of this one!

ZOMBIES VS ROBOTS VS AMAZONS – Issue #2 of 3
Written by Chris Ryall Art by Ashley Wood
IDW Publishing

Now here’s where IDW gets “crazy sporadic Jell-O drowning” right. Zombies vs Robots vs Amazons is not to be taken seriously, as the title immediately suggests. It’s not a TV spin-off, and it has no rules. It’s just zombies, robots, and amazons killing each other. In this issue, the zaniness goes a little further with a zombie Minotaur squaring off against a robot named, Warbot that looks like a cross between an old refrigerator and a Slim Pickens bomb. These two just beat the holy hell out of each other throughout the book, and it’s reminiscent of the popular Peter Griffin vs. The Chicken fight on Family Guy. It’s fun, mindless, and cool to see with Ashley Wood’s art. I love the little word balloons from him too, keeping that off-kilter feeling intact. So the Amazon beauties appear to be on the losing end here as most of them get turned into zombie buffet, and a new queen is crowned with some major payback in store. More fighting! Cool! I can see this being a fun animated film in the vein of The Maxx or Aeon Flux, and I hope this kind of storytelling continues from writer Chris Ryall and Ashley Wood. Maybe we can go ahead and leave the zombies out of the next series though, hey fellas?

GRADE: B CONTINUE READING? I’m digging this series, so I’m interested to see what they come up with next.

THE DARKNESS – V.3 – Issue #1
Top Cow Comics
Written by Phil Hester Art by Michael Broussard

I’m a big fan of The Darkness character. So much so that I wrote two issues to try and impress publisher Top Cow and save the second volume of The Darkness from cancellation, but nothing ever came of it. I didn’t go about the proper way of submitting it because I was kind of new at the comic book business at the time. But it’s good to see The Darkness come back in this third volume along with similar ideas I had in making the main man, Jackie Estacado, a well-rounded character. Top Cow does a great job in hiring masterful writer Phil Hester to reintroduce the character while satisfying longtime fans like me. And Jackie gets a beard too which is simple yet very effective in this relaunch. It symbolizes the next stage in The Darkness power and Jackie’s story while keeping it fresh and original. In this issue, we get a nice recap of how The Darkness came to be as God separated light from darkness, and then we find Jackie sitting comfortably eating his gnocchi with a pretty lady and a country under his control. He’s out on his own. No more strings. No more mob. No more excuses. He has the power, and he’s finally using it. That’s something I’ve always wanted to see come from this character, and I’m excited to see it’s finally here. There’s a small tear that it’s not me writing it, but hey, that’s my own damn fault! Maybe I’ll give it a go again, but not until Phil Hester is tired, which I hope isn’t too soon. His storytelling is beautifully paced and full of detail. I can easily see this being the screenplay for a movie too. Artist Michael Broussard is a huge asset to the book as well, giving us a clash of original series creator Marc Silvestri’s pencils and superstar David Finch’s paneling. Broussard is perfect for the book, and I think he will only get bigger and better with each issue. It’s great to see Jackie and The Darkness kicking some ass again. Let’s hope this sucker goes longer than Witchblade this time around. Three’s a charm, right?

GRADE: A CONTINUE READING? I’m here for the long haul. Jump aboard here if you haven’t already.

Got a book that needs reviewing? And does it have a horror theme to it? Well send it on over! We welcome all kinds from big names, small press, or self made so if you send it, we’ll review it.” Send print copies to: Horror Yearbook c/o Molly Celaschi
P.O. Box 7673, Fremont, CA 94537 or mail PDF’s to bezelleo@yahoo.com.

Read all Mike Fish’s Articles in his Archives