The new graphic novel by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Dongzi Liu is a challenging hybrid of beauty and foulness that combines the fun loving happiness of King Lear with the knee-slapping hilarity of Titus Andronicus. But to merely discount it as an exercise in aggressively nihilistic storytelling is to miss it’s true goal as a hate-filled indictment of women, being a woman, or not murdering and raping women as often as possible.

I’m continuing to enjoy how fun this series is. I think I mentioned in a review of JCWM #1 how it feels like an old sci-fi serial mixed with some Saturday morning cartoons, and that description is holding true. While there are no major story breakthroughs in issue #3, the action is thick and the rollercoaster of a story is there in full force.

Shaft #1 started with a roar, and by issue 2, the roar is just as loud. It’s hard to ask more of David F. Walker and Bilquis Evely, to be honest with you. So far, the series reads like a great action movie with actual good writing. That’s especially evident in Shaft #2.

Wrex (our friendly T-Rex) fights a giant mutant ape. That's pretty much the comic. You have two monsters fighting, and the fight is well done, fun, and....it is two giant monsters fighting! What else do you need in your life? The second half of the comic is adults overreacting and not understanding things followed by a fun montage of Jesse and Wrex bonding and having fun.

Rocket Salvage 1 made me feel a bit like a kid again, and given the amount of stress I have in my life, that’s no easy task. So thank you, Yehudi Mercado, for de-stressing me for a while. This is not a perfect first issue by any means, but Mercado has created a story that’s satisfying, entertaining, and worth your time and money.

The comic world is sorely lacking in truly original content. Rehashes, reimaginings, and comic adaptations of TV and film are all industry standards. Enter Creature Cops: Special Varmint Unit. I’m no repository of comic history, so I might be wrong, but I’ll say that as far as I know, there’s never been a book about animal cops who wrangle hybrid animals. Somebody fact check me on that.

If you’re expecting, as Dynamite puts it, “the black private dick that’s a sex machine with all the chicks,” you might be pleasantly surprised with Shaft #1. In what is amazingly Shaft’s first appearance in comics, we meet a much younger man before all the dick and chick stuff.

This new alternate history take from writer John Reilly, with pencils by Tom Rogers and inks/colors/letters by Dexter Weeks and Michelle Nikolajevic, is ambitious and brave. Unfortunately it is also disjointed and doesn’t tell it’s story in a way that allows new readers to learn anything that they don’t already know about the historical figures that make up the cast.

It’s been a few years since the end of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Caesar, Maurice, Koba and company are living the cage-free, free-range ape life. Although Maurice seems content with the progress the apes have made, Caesar is restless, as many great leaders tend to be.

I’m calling it right now: Lady Killer is going to be big. Here’s why you should buy this book.

My fellow Comic Bastard James Anders II (@jamesrandersii) has been reviewing Terminator Salvation: The Final Battle since issue #1 and loving every page. If you want to read good reviews that I agree with for the most part, go hit up the search.

When I read this, the main feeling I felt was nostalgia. Overwhelming feelings of joy, angst, passion and resentment to current affairs struck me like lightning. I could almost jump into the pit with my very vivid thoughts of the hardcore punk shows headlined in Punk Rock Paper Scissors.

As a kid I loved anything with giant monsters, which naturally lead to mad scientists, frequently the cause of said monsters. Even today, as long as the stories are done well or horribly over the top and bad, I really enjoy monsters and the science of the mad. Terrible Lizard is an all ages comic of giant monsters and mad science, this makes kid me very happy.

Having never seen the most recent John Carter film or read any of the literature serving as inspiration (or any of the comics, for that matter), I didn’t know what to expect with this title other than what the cover art promises: a beautiful, chain-shackled lady with big breasts, and a ripped dude with a sword. Thankfully, Ron Marz (Seriously? It was his destiny to write this book) delivers something just as alluring as J. Scott Campbell’s cover art: damn good storytelling.

I already knew the pubescent me was long dead, but reading Cinderella: Age of Darkness 1 reaffirmed it. A 12-year-old me probably would have loved this book because of the boobs and PG-13 language. The 32-year-old me won’t be reading issue 2, and honestly, I’m very relieved I can say that.

Things are royally messed up in the Catholic Church. I can say that because it’s what Roman Ritual #1 is all about: possessions, exorcisms, disturbed patriarchs, and priests with shady pasts.