Comic Reviews Justin McCarty Comic Reviews Justin McCarty

Review: Batman: The Red Death #1

By Justin McCarty

The premise for this comic is pretty simple: Earth-52 Batman (Dark Knight Returns Batman) is fed up with his lack of progress with his war on crime. He has lost everyone he’s loved, and he’s had no success. He literally believes if he had the speed force he’d be able to do better. Batman spends the first half of the book fighting Flash for it. He rigs the cosmic treadmill to the Batmobile; his plan is to drive so fast he catches up to the speed force? It’s a superhero comic; I’ll let it go. I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by saying he sort of gets what he wants. He and Flash merge, and Batman Red Death is born. This is an exceptionally dark take on Batman. He kills all the bad guys in his universe, then, after getting a little motivation from the Batman Who Laughs, he decides to take on Earth-0, where he goes full on evil.

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Comic Reviews Oliver Gerlach Comic Reviews Oliver Gerlach

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.

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Comic Reviews Robert Larson Comic Reviews Robert Larson

Review: Long Lost #1

By Zeb Larson

I’ll definitely say this for Long Lost: I finished the first issue and still wasn’t sure exactly how to pin down this particular book. It was initially pitched to me as a take on True Detective, but I’m not sure that particular piece of branding works in this case. If anything, it was more of an iGeneration take on Gothic Horror, as we (the reader) struggle to understand whether the malevolent entity in this story is something supernatural or the main character’s damaged psyche haunting them. To preserve the surprises, I'll be keeping this review spoiler-free.

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Comic Reviews Dustin Cabeal Comic Reviews Dustin Cabeal

Review: Sisco vol. 1 – Shoot When You’re Told

By Dustin Cabeal

When I was instantly drawn to the covers for Sisco while looking through izneo’s catalog of titles; something about the covers just kept me coming back to them. I didn’t read what Sisco was about because I don’t ever do that. I blindly read anything and everything as a reviewer because it allows me to see if the story’s plot comes through on its own rather than through a synopsis supplied by a publisher.

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Comic Reviews Dustin Cabeal Comic Reviews Dustin Cabeal

Review: Atar Gull

By Dustin Cabeal

Well, I was way wrong about the title of this comic on my latest podcast. The full title is Atar Gull or The Tale of the Model Slave. Which is more fitting than what I thought it was. Listen, reading stories about slaves shouldn’t be easy. This book doesn’t glorify slavery, but it does strangely attempt to humanize all of the people involved in slavery and not in a sympathetic way either.

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Comic Reviews Dustin Cabeal Comic Reviews Dustin Cabeal

Review: Saltlick #1

By Dustin Cabeal

Saltlick won’t be for everyone. It’s weird first and foremost, and it’s not attempting traditional storytelling. It’s just three strange stories with sometimes abrupt endings. The resolution you’ll get will come from your own enjoyment of the stories and not because the story ended. It’s damn weird, but I loved it.

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Comic Reviews Dustin Cabeal Comic Reviews Dustin Cabeal

Review: Space Copz – Cereal Zombies

By Dustin Cabeal

I can see what Space Copz is attempting. It's reminiscent of a 90s afternoon cartoon, the second golden age of animation in which material was being made for children, but enjoyed by all. The story is wholesome and full of inoffensive jokes that are mostly about children.

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Comic Reviews Patrick Wolf Comic Reviews Patrick Wolf

Review: Graveland #1

By Patrick Wolf

So, you watched Attack on Titan and loved the storyline, but felt the dialogue was a little too annoying? Maybe you wished for an American giant-monster-story that takes place in contemporary society, but also is grounded in realism? Well, look no further because Graveland has everything you loved about Attack on Titan and more: it’s violent, it’s gory, it’s action-packed, and it’s way too bloodthirsty for your own good. So, if you’re into realistic portraits of doom and giants slaughtering helpless soldiers, this is definitely your poison.

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Comic Reviews Dustin Cabeal Comic Reviews Dustin Cabeal

Review: Zakudoh #1

By Dustin Cabeal

Writing a low scoring review that only brings up the negative aspects of a comic book is not fun. It’s not something any reviewer wants to do. It’s so much easier to write good reviews, but when a comic is bad, it’s bad. That’s all there is to it. I don’t have anything against Zakudoh personally, but it was a bad comic. I'm telling you all this beforehand because I’m going to make jokes, I’m going to try and at least have fun with my review, so it softens the blow or at the very least makes this review easier to read. I am here for the readers after all. But it’s important to remember that the name of the site doesn’t dictate our approach or skew our opinion of a comic, I would much rather have liked Zakudoh than to dislike it.

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Comic Reviews Oliver Gerlach Comic Reviews Oliver Gerlach

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.

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