By Justin Wood

This may be one of the hardest books to review I've ever come across. In fact, I'd argue nothing I've read can compare to this. Shaolin Cowboy: Shemp Buffet, collecting the Dark Horse era of Geoff Darrow's cult classic miniseries in hardcover, is evidence of an epic undertaking with over 120 pages of Darrow's immediately recognizable hyper-detailed linge claire style, meticulous from beginning to end. It's also an epic undertaking to read from cover to cover, a true endurance test. I can't quite tell how to classify this book. It's either a fascinating piece of experimental art or an insufferable oddity that only exists as evidence to Darrow's inexhaustible patience of drawing the exact same thing for months on end. Or maybe it's both.

By Kaleb Hebert

Fisher might just be on to something here. It has been a long time since a post-apocalypse style story has peaked my interest like this. The concept of a simple skin on skin touch killing a person and that person becomes part of you is frightening. Who would want to live in a world where any form of bare touching could kill those you love. Though death essentially lurks around every corner, there are still things people can do for fun in this new world, so it isn't all down in the dumps. There are still strippers, and even prostitutes, but this is a highly regulated profession since any skin on skin contact would lead to death for one person.

By Mike Badilla

In issue 3 of Jackboot and Ironheel, we find our hero, Eddie, has been recaptured by the Nazis and returned to Lungotz prison camp. For those that missed my review of issue 2, Eddie was given a chance to escape from the camp by some of the nuns working there. However, he was unable to make a run for it as he was confronted by something creepy in the surrounding waters. A Nazi soldier is recounting the capture by radio to his commanding officer, including that one of the soldiers was lost to the threat in the water, called "Muggenthaler," by the soldier. 

By Chris Tresson

This is the third time I’ve decided to review an issue of Zenescope Entertainment’s Grimm Tales of Terror Volume 2. The last two issues failed to impress somewhat, the stories weren’t that great, the art was average and the overall feel of the books hasn’t managed to do anything for me yet. So without further ado, let’s jump into my review of Grim Tales of Terror Volume 2 #13.

By Dustin Cabeal

I give the notion of killing Hawkman a 5 out of 5. Unfortunately, I won’t be giving this comic the same score. As far as comics go, this one is generic and lacks any real consequences. If Hawkman actually dies, that will likely be the only thing to happen in the comic. The main reason is the underdeveloped DC space line of books. What’s currently going on in them? Are there any? Nothing and no are the answers to those questions so being thrust into space to watch Hawkman die is almost as anti-climactic as seeing him alive at the beginning of the issue.

By Patrick Larose

There are some things I really like about the comic book industry right now. There’s still plenty of bad to go around. The single-issue market is still broken, the comic book movie boom didn’t save the industry, and nor has their business practices ever successfully adapted to the Internet era and while diversity's up, it's never quite as up as it needs to be. All that said, however, it’s got one thing going for it that I dig a lot. Now more than ever do comics have such wide breadth of tonal and genre variation.  There’s not just one perfect comic out there for somebody, there’s four or five.

By Patrick Larose

Intertwined is a comic that sells itself as a mash-up between the crime noir and kung fu genres, however, I think I’d offer up a different description. Rather, I’d argue that Intertwined is a comic that uses the machinations of Hong Kong action cinema to tell a story ultimately driven by the pathos of superhero storytelling.

By Dustin Cabeal

Madness is a challenging story to tell. It can be everything and anything, but giving it structure and keeping it feeling like madness… is a difficult task. That’s what this series is up against, and after reading the first issue, I can understand why of all the titles announced for DC’s Young Animal, that Shade had people the least optimistic about it. 

By Mike Badilla

Rise of the Black Flame #2 starts off on some crazy rollercoaster of which I can't even really say as to what is happening. We are in a German museum, and people are looking over all these relics of civilizations long past. We see a young man closely examine a picture, of which the picture talks to him, then they young man becomes an older grizzled man, then the face talks to him more, then he's flying through a void towards the face... then he is awoken by someone kicking him in the back. Our man, Farang, is awoken by the person that owns the house and told he has visitors. A man and a woman approach, and Farang recognize the woman as "Sarah," which appeared in issue 1. She pays the house owner to cover Farangs late rent and tells Farang that he is working for her now, which seems to upset him.

By Justin Wood

I mean come on. How could I not read this book with a title like that?

A Deadman spinoff with no canonical anchor to any current stories, 'Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love' is kind of exactly what I've been missing from superhero stories, not to mention horror stories, lately. Besides some overtly modern touches, 'Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love' feels like a comic from another time. Expertly paced, moodily atmospheric, and elegantly illustrated, this limited series takes the mic away from nearly everything being done at DC and teaches a class on what actual storytelling looks like.