
Review: Elsewhere #1
By Ben Snyder
Elsewhere #1 is a fast paced streamlined entry point into a classic fish out of water tale. The clever twist in Elsewhere is that the fishes are Amelia Earhart and another surprise famed lost pilot. Elsewhere #1 is mostly solid plot and art wise, but the real shining star of this series is the character Earhart, who is equal parts moxie and human.

Review: Adventure Time x Regular Show #1
By Dustin Cabeal
It seems one crossover wasn’t enough for BOOM!/kaboom! this week and they opted for a second. The first being a Grumpy Cat/Garfield crossover (still haven’t a clue why GC gets top billing) and the second pairing up their two biggest Cartoon Network licenses in an event that I can only imagine a few fans being pleased to read. When I saw it, I couldn’t begin to understand why two shows with completely different comedic styles and tone would be crossed over and what anyone would get out of it. I still don’t know even after reading the damn issue.

Review: Ghost Station Zero
By Ben Snyder
Ghost Station Zero #1 serves as a continuation of the Codename Baboushka catalogue and a mediocre one at that. Issue #1 sets up another globe trotting quest for Baboushka as she must stop the Russian government from reclaiming their secret and shady past. While obviously mimicking classic spy stories from 007, Ghost Station Zero #1 is just not nearly as interesting.

Review: Grumpy Cat/Garfield #1
By Dustin Cabeal
How the fuck did Grumpy Cat get top billing on this book? Like, what the hell.
I have no idea who the hell this book is for. It seems to be written for children, which is just strange. Grumpy Cat, a former internet meme, gained popularity from internet users who would likely hate this book upon site. Garfield, despite the cartoon shows, Christmas special and terrible live action movies, is a comic strip that’s written for anyone and everyone. Anyone can jump on to Garfield and read it, not just children. Why then is Grumpy Cat/Garfield written for children?

Review: Marzi vol. 1 – Little Carp
By Dustin Cabeal
Reading the description for Marzi is a cheat. It tells you too much, and that spoils the journey that Marzi takes you on in this first volume. First and foremost, don’t read the description, but do read Marzi.

Review: Mighty Jack and the Goblin King
By Dustin Cabeal
Mighty Jack was one of the best graphic novels I read last year. I wasn’t surprised in the least that Ben Hatke already had a follow up to the series this year because he’s a machine and produces so many great stories and comics each year. It is impressive considering he writes and illustrates it all himself and the story and art never take a dip.

Review: Batman Beyond #10
By Ashley Gibbs
We’ve been reintroduced to Damian Wayne, Bruce’s son with Talia al Ghul. He’s taken up his grandfather’s mantle and cause, shunning his father and the opportunity to be Batman. In the previous issue, it seemed to be the fault of the suit and its AI, at least that’s what Bruce wants to believe, but in Batman Beyond #10 Damian sets the record straight that his choices were his own. This issue is mainly exposition with some flashbacks and not much action, which is a bummer but I did enjoy the father-son discussions and the look into Damian’s thought process.

Review: Batman Beyond #9
By Ashley Gibbs
When the Batman Beyond cartoon first aired in 1999 until 2001, there was no official character who was the son of Batman. The series made a point of explaining why neither Dick nor Tim had taken up the batmantle, so the role fell to Terry. However, now we have Damian Wayne, the biological son of Bruce and Talia and the next logical question would be why didn’t he become the next Batman after Bruce was too old to handle it? Batman Beyond #9 explains this for us very well as Damian explains his story to Terry as they fight throughout the issue as well as Bruce’s own memories. It’s a good issue, even if I don’t care for the explanation given.

Review: Rise of the Dungeon Master
By Dustin Cabeal
If you haven’t gathered by the extensive amount of reviews I’m doing this week, I’ve had a lot of books sitting on my desk waiting to be cleared out. Rise of the Dungeon Master is one of the few that have been on my desk for too long. Ideally, I would have loved to have posted this review when the book released, but it’s been a hell of a summer for me off the site.

Review: The Dregs vol. 1
By Patrick Wolf
When people think of Vancouver, they tend to think of what they see on TV: the 2010 Olympics, the beautiful mountains, the set of Dead Pool, etc. What they don’t think of is its hidden horrors and poverty. I don’t tell a lot of people this, but I'm originally from Vancouver—specifically one of its worst parts, Surrey. Growing up in Surrey, I remember passing by drug dealers and prostitutes every day. In fact, I passed them so often I even got to know some of them. Unfortunately, I never got to know them that well because they’d always just mysteriously ‘vanish’. At the time, I didn’t think much of it. I just assumed what everyone else did: they either got clean or overdosed. Years later I discovered the truth: a serial killer named Robert Pickton was preying on them by the dozens.
What made the situation even worse, though, was that Pickton’s success was partly due to the apathy of people like me. Everyone assumed what I did: the missing either overdosed or got clean. Nobody cared, and so Pickton continued to have his way until his murder count reached the 100’s. In many ways, The Dregs is an allegory of this horror. It’s not afraid to show Vancouver’s darker side (specifically East Hastings Street), and it does so through the use of the brilliant, Swiftian metaphor: the cannibalistic café. So, you ask, is the story any good? My answer: It’s more than good. It’s a masterwork.

Review: Of Dust and Blood: A Story from the Fight at the Greasy Grass
By Dustin Cabeal
If I had known what this story was about before agreeing to review it, I probably wouldn’t have reviewed it. Which would be a shame and exactly the reason why I don’t read solicits for books. Historical Fiction isn’t a category that gets a lot of love in comics, mostly because it’s damn hard to make interesting and accurate.

Review: Robotech #1
By Patrick Wolf
Have you ever hung around a couple of your hipster friends and complained about the current state of alien-invasion movies? Have you ever grumbled about how the new ones suck and they’re nothing compared to the sci-fi greats of the 70’s and 80’s? Well gripe no more because one of the best sci-fi’s of the 80’s is back and it’s being spearheaded by none other than Brian Wood himself. It’s Robotech, ladies and gentlemen, and it’s just as cool, fresh, and spirited as the original.

Review: Plastic #4
By Jonathan Edwards
This is a bit of a different issue for the series. The first half is almost entirely dedicated to action, and though there is still time for some really nice character moments, none of them are as revelatory as in previous installments. That is to say, the characters and tone have all been properly set, and now we're just watching the events unfold. On the one hand, it does make for a technically less substantial read. But on the other, there's still plenty of good stuff in here, and it does still build off of what's come before. Plus, with the series conclusion right around the corner, the real purpose of this issue is to set up the big finale. And in that regard, Plastic #4 is hugely successful.

Review: Justice League of America #11
By Jonathan Edwards
What a piece of fucking garbage. As much as I've ragged on this series over these last few months, I'm honestly finding it a bit hard to believe just how bad this issue is. There's not a single redeeming factor present. It's an entirely worthless conclusion to a worthless two-part story, and Raymond Terrill is an idiotic dickbag of a character. If we didn't already know by now, this issue definitively shows just how self-righteous and hypocritical he is. He gets up on his soap box to scream about how moralistic he is for "giv[ing] people the chance to be good, instead of assuming they'll be their worst," and then he turns around and refuses to try and listen or empathize with the woman that raised him. Sure, she may have wished for a new family, but how does that hurt Ray? Nadine is right when she said Ray left, and he hadn't ever come back. The only reason he did this time was because the plot needed him to, and now we're supposed to feel bad because she moved on with her life? Fuck that. Ray has every right to have left the way he did. Because, it is true that the way Nadine was raising him was ultimately wrong. However, she also fully acknowledges that here, but that's still not good enough for Ray. No, to appease his narcissism, she needs to wallow in her past mistakes until the day she dies and never be happy again. Yeah, that's giving people the benefit of the doubt. That's justice. Go ahead, Steve Orlando, lecture us again about how paranoid and awful Batman is.

Review: Doom Patrol #7
By Ben Snyder
Gerard Way continues to pump out the comedy in this humor and exposition filled entry of Doom Patrol. However, the same problems that plagued the last story arc continue to permeate in the beginning of Doom Patrol #7. Despite this, Way provides some hope that this story arc will be different as the team symbolically and literally denies their past and moves on towards the future.

Review: Spinning
By Dustin Cabeal
Spinning is not what I expected. I expected to get lost in the world of figure skating and to be taken back to fond memories of watching the Olympics with my mom. Either way, I expected to dive deep into the world of figure skating, and in many different ways, that’s exactly what Spinning did. Maybe it’s the fact that I don’t like to read what the book is about before reading the book. I just don’t work that way. I’ve never picked up a book, read the cover, then read the book and been like, “Jeez, I’m sure glad I read the damn cover first!”

Review: Shirtless Bear-Fighter #2
By Daniel Vlasaty
If you’re like me (and just about most other people in the whole goddamn world) then you love big dumb action movies. I know I do. They’re my favorite. Especially if they’re from the 80s or early 90s. That’s when they were the best. So much bad hair and ridiculous dialogue. They were corny and exciting and not completely original – but that didn’t matter because you knew the good guy was going to save the day and get the girl, and they were usually good for some solid laughs, and over-the-top deaths, and a shit-ton of explosions. You know, the good stuff. This is how I feel about Shirtless Bear-Fighter. Watching him fly his bear plane to fight some bearrorists rampaging through the city. This is the vibe I get every time Burke gets that faraway look in his eyes and dips into the ever-changing story of his past. It’s like an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie from a bygone era, just with evil sentient bears, a half-pig hillbilly warlock, an evil toilet paper company, and a man that hates bears so much he’s made a promise to himself and the memory of his fallen love to punch every motherfucking bear he sees.

Review: Black Hammer #11
By Ben Snyder
Cleverly disguised as a classic Superhero serial, Jeff Lemire continues to subvert and praise that era with his Eisner winning run on Black Hammer with another fantastic issue of Black Hammer #11. Although this issue isn’t action packed or filled with a huge set piece cornerstone scene, Jeff Lemire continues to write what he writes best: human melancholy.

Review: Secret Coders vol. 4 – Robots & Repeats
By Dustin Cabeal
This is a hard review to write because I think what this book is ultimately trying to accomplish is great. Teaching kids about coding while also giving them an adventure is fantastic. It’s just that it’s not quite working.

Review: The Street Angel Gang
By Daniel Vlasaty
In case you didn’t know: Jesse Sanchez, AKA Street Angel, is a lot of things. She’s a thirteen-year-old orphan. She’s been called the world’s best homeless skateboarder. She’s also a master of kung-fu and other fighting styles. She’s been known to hate school, but loves food and will pretty much eat anything and everything. I had never heard of Jesse Sanchez or Street Angel or even Brian Maruca and Jim Rugg until the Street Angel: After School Kung Fu Special hardcover was release recently from Image Comics. That book was silly and ridiculous and everything I love about comic books. I went out and searched for more of their work, found some older Street Angel collections, read some of the original web comic stories, loved it all. And I was super excited to see that the crew of Maruca and Rugg had another Street Angel book coming out. This is a review of that book. The book is called The Street Angel Gang, and it’s about Street Angel maybe or maybe not trying to join a gang.
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