Oliver Gerlach 2/5/18 Oliver Gerlach 2/5/18

Review: White Ash #2

By Oliver Gerlach

It’s not often that I get to review the second issue of something; usually, I can’t say more than “a promising start,” or something like that. Seeing a series continue and getting to comment on whether or not it lives up to that potential is something of a rarity in the world of indie comics review. White Ash #1 was one of those books; I liked it, but had concerns about certain aspects and wasn’t sure it would address them. Fortunately, White Ash #2 very much fixes the flaws of the first issue. Just note that this is a spoiler-free review; I’m not going to talk about anything more specific and plot-relevant than general tone and concepts.

Oliver Gerlach 1/25/18 Oliver Gerlach 1/25/18

Review: Audrey’s Magic Nine vol. 1

By Oliver Gerlach

Audrey’s Magic Nine is a charming all-ages fantasy adventure that’s genuinely worth checking out for anyone, adults and children alike. It’s clearly targeted at kids, but there’s a lot of excellent craft and endearing adventure in here for adults too.

Oliver Gerlach 12/8/17 Oliver Gerlach 12/8/17

Review: Pussycats – Foxglove #1

By Oliver Gerlach

Pussycats – Foxglove #1 is the first issue of a planned 2 issue miniseries. It is, as far as I can tell, a part of e-comix’s Pussycats series, which appear to be cheap titillation with what might be the most unappealing covers around. Using a photo of a “sexy model” for your covers feels like a spectacularly regressive approach to comics marketing. So, is the interior of Foxglove #1 any better than you might expect from this?

Oliver Gerlach 12/6/17 Oliver Gerlach 12/6/17

Review: Penumbra #1

By Oliver Gerlach

Johnathan Lewis and Chalk Yeso’s Penumbra #1 feels like a bizarre throwback. Everything about it feels oddly familiar, but not in any particularly positive way.

This is a story about a lady secret agent with an inexplicably constantly-changing costume. There isn’t very much plot, and what there is, is as simple as “she has to steal a thing.” There’s not much going on in this at all, and none of it is outstanding and interesting. This is, to put it bluntly, a very bland comic. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth talking about at all, just that there is nothing exceptional about it.

Oliver Gerlach 11/13/17 Oliver Gerlach 11/13/17

Review: Red Echo #1

By Oliver Gerlach

Red Echo #1, written and drawn by E.S. Brophy, is a sci-fi action book with some pretty great cybernetic panthers and a lot of guns. It’s almost entirely action, with very little breathing space for the characters.

Brophy’s cover is genuinely lovely. It’s a striking red, white and black image reminiscent of David Aja’s cover work, which can never be a bad thing. Genuinely very eye-catching, it immediately makes the book look intriguing and different.

Oliver Gerlach 11/13/17 Oliver Gerlach 11/13/17

Review: Whisper Wilds #1

By Oliver Gerlach

Whisper Wilds #1, currently funding (very successfully) on Kickstarter, is the brainchild of Brent Nelson and Emanuele Arnaldi. It’s the story of a woman and her dinosaur-like partner attempting to prevent monsters from escaping an extra-dimensional wasteland and slipping into 1940s Australia. If that sounds like a weird premise, don’t worry! It’s very well-handled, and the end result is far more delightful than the simple plot and concept summary might indicate.

Oliver Gerlach 11/8/17 Oliver Gerlach 11/8/17

Review: Clonsters #1

By Oliver Gerlach

Clonsters #1, written by Amy and Pat Shand and illustrated by Vanessa Cardinali, is an odd creation. The title is short for Clay Monsters, and the book itself is based on the clay creatures made by Amy Shand, creator of the concept. A comic based on somebody’s Etsy store is not something I ever expected to read, but this is one that clearly has an enormous amount of affection put into it.

Oliver Gerlach 11/8/17 Oliver Gerlach 11/8/17

Review: Blood of Gods #1

By Oliver Gerlach

Blood of Gods #1, by Erick Dominguez and Jake Bilbao, is a big loud fantasy comic about a world where demigods (or, in this case, “divine breed”) walk the earth and have magical powers. It’s got swords and dragons and large muscular bearded men who yell a lot. So far, so generic fantasy.

Oliver Gerlach 11/1/17 Oliver Gerlach 11/1/17

Review: Stain the Seas Scarlet

By Oliver Gerlach

Ryan K Lindsay and Alex Cormack’s Stain the Seas Scarlet, coming soon to Kickstarter, is an efficient 22 page oneshot tale of space resistance and revenge. It’s nice to see something so self-contained and confident in its brevity, and for the most part everything attempted here is handled deftly.

Oliver Gerlach 10/30/17 Oliver Gerlach 10/30/17

Review: The Ghost Butterfly

By Oliver Gerlach

The Ghost Butterfly is the latest project from Rick Quinn, the writer of the beautiful and highly enjoyable Saltwater. This is a completely different project, but one with a lot of the same strengths and weaknesses as Saltwater; Quinn seems to have a very well-defined style, and whether or not it works is up to the reader.

Oliver Gerlach 10/25/17 Oliver Gerlach 10/25/17

Review: Audrey’s Magic Nine vol. 1

By Oliver Gerlach

Oliver Gerlach 10/16/17 Oliver Gerlach 10/16/17

Review: White Ash #1

By Oliver Gerlach

White Ash #1, recently Kickstarted with the promise of more to follow, was marketed as something for people who like Lord of the Rings, Twin Peaks, or Supernatural. That seems like a bizarre list of comparisons, and not a particularly coherent one. It is, however, an intriguing list, and one which fits the comic better than expected (although still not perfectly; that Lord of the Rings comparison is a bit ridiculous and out of place).

Oliver Gerlach 10/11/17 Oliver Gerlach 10/11/17

Review: Wolverton, Thief of Impossible Objects #1

By Oliver Gerlach

Wolverton, Thief of Impossible Objects, is, as the lengthy and descriptive title indicates, a fun adventure story about a thief of magical artifacts. It’s a great concept and an entertaining story, and the title makes the premise pretty clear from the first glance at the book. It’s a bit of a mouthful, though, and that’s kind of representative of the rest of the book.

Oliver Gerlach 10/6/17 Oliver Gerlach 10/6/17

Review: Tales from the Interface #1

By Oliver Gerlach

Emmanuel Filteau’s Tales from the Interface is a strange piece, both in terms of creative content and production. The blurb for it promised giant crabs and weird adventure, so I felt I had to check it out. I suppose it delivered both of those, and the crabs were excellent, but I still didn’t love it.

Oliver Gerlach 10/4/17 Oliver Gerlach 10/4/17

Review: Knights of the Golden Sun #1

By Oliver Gerlach

Knights of the Golden Sun #1 is a biblical epic that goes far beyond any biblical epic I’ve read before. It’s really quite something, in the most delightfully over-the-top way possible. Mark London and Mauricio Villareal have created a truly ridiculous and beautiful book here, filled with levels of melodrama that make even the most dramatic anime look bland. It’s not what I was expecting.

Oliver Gerlach 9/27/17 Oliver Gerlach 9/27/17

Review: Mister Strange’s Monster Mansion #1-2

By Oliver Gerlach

Monster Mansion by Dan Wolff is a lot of fun. A classic Hammer horror movie in comic form, it wears its B-movie influences proudly on its sleeve and has a great time with them. I can’t quite tell if it’s meant to be a horror story by modern standards, but it fits that classic horror movie vibe perfectly.

Oliver Gerlach 9/27/17 Oliver Gerlach 9/27/17

Review: Velocidad #1-2

By Oliver Gerlach

Casey Quevedo’s Velocidad is a fun sci-fi adventure about a crew of space pirates raiding supply ships traveling to distant space colonies. It’s a straightforward concept that doesn’t require very much explanation or detailed worldbuilding, so it’s nice and easy to jump into. Honestly, the brief paragraph introducing the concept at the start of the first issue is entirely unnecessary.

Oliver Gerlach 9/18/17 Oliver Gerlach 9/18/17

Review: Language Barrier

By Oliver Gerlach

Hannah K. Lee’s Language Barrier is a collection that self-identifies as “zines, comics, and other fragments” on the cover. That’s an important piece of categorisation, as is the Koyama Press website’s description of it as “[an] art book”. This isn’t really a comic, and shouldn’t be treated like one. It’s a giant zine or a surreal art project or something like that. Yes, there are comics in it, but I wouldn’t call it a comic in itself. Whatever it is, though, it’s profoundly weird and unsettling, and doesn’t sit comfortably in any major category.

Oliver Gerlach 9/14/17 Oliver Gerlach 9/14/17

Review: Bumstorm: A Snake Amongst The Wind Farm

By Oliver Gerlach

The vast majority of the indie comics I end up reviewing seem to be serious high concept low sci-fi adventures about serious white men. That honestly gets a bit dull after a while, so sometimes a palate cleanser is in order. Bumstorm #3: A Snake Amongst the Wind Farm certainly cleanses the palate. It’s not grim, it’s not serious, it’s not clever or even slightly pretentious; it’s just stupid as hell and out to have a good time.

Oliver Gerlach 9/13/17 Oliver Gerlach 9/13/17

Review: The Chimera Factor

By Oliver Gerlach

The Chimera Factor is one of many comics based around Barry Nugent’s Unseen Shadows books, a spectacular self-published multimedia empire covering novels, audio, and comics by a wide range of creative teams. The Unseen Shadows website lists 17 separate print comics plus a webcomic, although it’s a little hard to find information on The Chimera Factor itself due to the link on the website directing to the wrong comic. Before reading The Chimera Factor I had never heard of either Unseen Shadows or Nugent himself, and the scale of this project was quite a surprise to me. So, as a disclaimer, I’ve never read any other part of this fictional universe, and therefore all opinions here are coming from the perspective of someone completely new to Unseen Shadows.