Daniel Vlasaty 2/22/17 Daniel Vlasaty 2/22/17

Review: Loose Ends #2

By Daniel Vlasaty

I like good crime fiction. I read it, I write it, I watch it. I am a fan of the genre because I believe that it shows up what a person is made of. It breaks right through all the bullshit and shows you the true nature of a person, what’s really in his or her mind and heart. Loose Ends is right up there with the best of them. It’s a book with a lot of characters and they’re all after something else (though we as the readers aren’t given all the information on what that may or may not be yet). Plus, it’s a beautiful book that’s gritty and violent, everything I look for in the genre.

Daniel Vlasaty 2/20/17 Daniel Vlasaty 2/20/17

Review: Batman #17

By Daniel Vlasaty

Batman #17 is the second issue of the “I am Bane” storyline. Issue #16 had a more light and comedic tone (except for the last page), and there is a definite tonal change from that issue to this one. Here it is back to business as usual as Batman continues to prepare for the coming of Bane.

Daniel Vlasaty 2/15/17 Daniel Vlasaty 2/15/17

Review: Batwoman: Rebirth #1

By Daniel Vlasaty

I’ll admit I’m not all that familiar with Batwoman as a character. I’ve read a few things with her and I know the gist of her origin and past, and this book is basically just a recap of all of that. Page by page, little flashes of Kate Kane’s life. Leading up to her becoming Batwoman. It’s interesting and has me intrigued to keep reading but that’s all that there really was with this issue. The last page reveal has me decently excited to check out the next issue.

Daniel Vlasaty 2/15/17 Daniel Vlasaty 2/15/17

Review: Kill or Be Killed #6

By Daniel Vlasaty

Issue #5 ended on a cliffhanger, and issue #6 picks up right where it left off. Still in the bathroom. Still with Dylan’s shotgun pointed at some cops. It’s a tense stand-off, but it’s downplayed by Dylan’s detached, kind of blasé narration.

Daniel Vlasaty 2/13/17 Daniel Vlasaty 2/13/17

Review: A Land Called Tarot

By Daniel Vlasaty

I had no idea what to expect when diving into this book. I picked it up based solely on the cover and the title, and that fact that it had been serialized in Island, although I didn’t find that out until I started doing a little research on the book. A Land of Tarot is a “silent” book, meaning there are no text bubbles or narration at all. The story is told only through the artwork.

Daniel Vlasaty 2/8/17 Daniel Vlasaty 2/8/17

Review: Paper Girls #11

By Daniel Vlasaty

Time travel is a confusing thing. It’s confusing for a writer. It’s confusing for a reader. It’s even confusing for the character doing the time traveling. Paper Girls #11 is the start of a new storyline, but it takes off right where issue #10 left off. With the girls stranded somewhere and sometime and things are confusing and they’re just as confused as the rest of us.

Daniel Vlasaty 2/1/17 Daniel Vlasaty 2/1/17

Review: Batman #16

By Daniel Vlasaty

Let me first say that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to review Batman this month. As you know, if you read my review of Batman #15, I was not a fan of that issue. I didn’t like it, but I do feel like I might have been needlessly hard on it in my review. But this issue is the first issue in a new arc (called I Am Bane) so I figured I’d give it a shot.

Daniel Vlasaty 1/25/17 Daniel Vlasaty 1/25/17

Review: Dante

By Daniel Vlasaty

Dante starts off with a cliché. A dude leads a double life. He’s a total badass assassin on the one hand and on the other he’s the perfect husband/father family man. He loves killing and murder and getting paid to do it but he is also conflicted because to do what he loves he has to lie to his family, who he loves more than the job. What to do? What to do?

Daniel Vlasaty 1/25/17 Daniel Vlasaty 1/25/17

Review: Loose Ends #1

By Daniel Vlasaty

I know Jason Latour mainly from his art in Southern Bastards. I’ve been aware that he also writes comics for a while now, most recently Marvel’s Spider-Gwen. I’ve just never read any of his stuff and I feel like starting off with Loose Ends is kind of like running a marathon when I’ve only just learned to walk. This book had the sleazy/grimy feel to it that is everything I love about crime fiction. Everyone’s up to something and no one can be trusted.

Daniel Vlasaty 1/25/17 Daniel Vlasaty 1/25/17

Review: The Dregs #1

By Daniel Vlasaty

The Dregs, from Black Mask Studios, opens on three butchers preparing a specimen for slaughter. Shaving it and sectioning off the cuts and shooting it up full of drugs. The fact that the specimen is human only make the next two pages even more disturbing.

Daniel Vlasaty 1/23/17 Daniel Vlasaty 1/23/17

Review: The Goddamned vol. 1

By Daniel Vlasaty

The Goddamned is written by Jason Aaron, with art from R.M. Guera – the creative team behind one of my all-time favorite comics, Scalped. I was super excited when this book was announced, but I’m sad to say that I stopped reading it when it was first coming out due to its erratic release schedule, which was most likely because Jason Aaron’s been writing like a dozen books for Marvel on top of his creator-owned titles.

Daniel Vlasaty 1/18/17 Daniel Vlasaty 1/18/17

Review: Kill or be Killed #5

By Daniel Vlasaty

This issue starts with a bang. And ends with a bang, too. Like the rest of Kill or be Killed, this issue starts off at the same place it ends. Brubaker tells us what is going to happen right away and then spends the rest of the issue explaining how it came to happen. You’d think this would get tiring after a while, but it still works here.

Daniel Vlasaty 1/18/17 Daniel Vlasaty 1/18/17

Review: Batman #15

By Daniel Vlasaty

Batman is supposed to be transporting Selina Kyle to Blackgate Penitentiary to serve out her sentence of life without parole for the murder of 237 people, but instead, they are having sex on a random Gotham rooftop.

Daniel Vlasaty 1/18/17 Daniel Vlasaty 1/18/17

Review: Dept. H vol. 1

By Daniel Vlasaty

Who killed the smartest man on earth…?

Dept H. is billed as a murder mystery and it is that, but also so much more. It’s the story of family and loss and adventure and science and discovery and exploration – from the farthest reaches of the universe to the deepest, darkest depths of the ocean. To the underwater caves home to strange creatures, giant turtles and tentacled things and sea spiders that can mimic human voices much like parrots.

Daniel Vlasaty 1/12/17 Daniel Vlasaty 1/12/17

Review: Southern Bastards #16

By Daniel Vlasaty

It’s been a few months since issue #15 came out, which is kind of Jason Aaron’s MO, it seems. I think I’d be pretty pissed about the delay too if the issue wasn’t so damn good. I love Southern Bastards, man. I love everything about it. I love the feel of it. I love the stink of it. I love the writing and the art. I love that this is what I imagine life in southern small towns is probably like.