Smrithi S 5/1/18 Smrithi S 5/1/18

Review: Art is my Joy

By Thea Srinivasan

I’ve seen several artists showcase their lives in the form of comics. But I’ve never seen anyone make me want to get a dog as much as this artist has done. As a person who has never wanted a pet, I now want a dog to love and to cherish. I think I’ll have to settle for my stuffed animals though.

Smrithi S 3/16/18 Smrithi S 3/16/18

Review: Hard Wyred #1 & 2

By Thea Srinivasan

If I had to describe one movie that’s similar to this comic, I would choose The Matrix. Both of them talk about uploading someone’s mind to the internet, the belief that A.I programs can have sentience and physics-defying abilities someone can have on the internet. If you haven’t watched the movie series, I’m sorry I spoiled it for you.

Dustin Cabeal 3/7/18 Dustin Cabeal 3/7/18

Review: Coffin Crushers #1

By Dustin Cabeal

Sometimes when I support Kickstarters, I fall in love with the art before I read what the story is about. In this case, I didn’t pay any attention to what the story for Coffin Crushers was because I thought it was about the two dudes on the cover, and it is not.

That’s a good thing though because I was pleased to find it was about a squad of women in mech suits fighting vampires! This first issue sets the stage as one of the dudes from the cover comes riding in on a badass motorcycle, beats down a mech and takes its power supply. It’s quickly revealed that they’re running out of power supplies for their mechs and without the mech’s the stalemate between the human city and the vampires will come to an end as they’ll be overpowered and crushed.

Smrithi S 3/7/18 Smrithi S 3/7/18

Review: The Tales of Reverie #1 & 2

By Thea Srinivasan

While the mind is considered the greatest source of creativity, I consider one the greatest tools to create adventures we could never experience in reality. Some of the greatest stories end up becoming dream catchers for some people. But unlike dream catchers, the author chooses what they want their readers to see. When I think about it, books are like dream catchers for the author. With their intent in mind, they create tales that give experiences to other people around the world, regardless of how the story is told.

Smrithi S 3/1/18 Smrithi S 3/1/18

Review: Little Apple vol. 1

By Thea Srinivasan

Honest children are easy to come by. But blunt children are the rarest of them all. This child has a breadth of knowledge to the point she knows how to blend her knowledge with reality. It’s very rare to see anyone be able to speak the truth with eloquence and be able to open anyone’s eyes to what needs to change. It’s very rare to find a girl who is a revolutionary set against the world.

Dustin Cabeal 12/8/17 Dustin Cabeal 12/8/17

Review: Chronospire #1

By Dustin Cabeal

My first question with any fantasy story is, “is the fantasy element needed to tell the story?” You’d be surprised how often the answer to this question is a resounding, “No.” That is the case with Chronospire, which is a world full of elves and ogres, but a story that requires neither element to function.

Dustin Cabeal 11/29/17 Dustin Cabeal 11/29/17

Review: Detropia #1

By Dustin Cabeal

Reviews like this one are the hardest. No one wants to write a bad review for something, and when you’re a site that’s willing to cover indie comics, it’s even harder. You want to see the little guys succeed, but if there’s one thing you can count on from the site, it’s that nothing gets a free pass.

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.

Dustin Cabeal 11/8/17 Dustin Cabeal 11/8/17

Review: Umami #1

By Dustin Cabeal

Umami is one of the most delightful comics I’ve read all year. The storytelling has a strong manga influence, but not so much that a non-manga reader would be turned away from the structure and style. Because it’s embracing both styles though, there is something incredibly pure about it. Something that resonates because it’s a comic, trying to be a comic and nothing more.

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.

Justin McCarty 10/19/17 Justin McCarty 10/19/17

Review: Deadbeat

By Justin McCarty

Deadbeat is a personal story, told on a small scale. Jed McPherson and Chris Shehan have given us a crime story with a southwest feel, told with mood and gritty style. It’s a one-shot that keeps its world small to tell a story of second chances. If you have only ever managed to make the wrong decision, you will take all the chances you can get to make the right one. That’s sort of the nature of being a screw-up. Deadbeat is everyone that wanted to do the right thing despite not knowing how.

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 10/6/17 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 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.

Dustin Cabeal 9/5/17 Dustin Cabeal 9/5/17

Review: Oasis #1-8

By Dustin Cabeal

Here’s a little inside baseball for you, when I’m sent more than one issue to review I tend to panic about it. It seems like this impossible task because it’s not some b.s. comic from a publisher or writer I’m familiar with; it’s this unknown quantity, and while that’s exciting, I get sent a lot of stuff I don’t personally care to read. Titles I wouldn’t have picked out to read on my own and so when I see eight issues in my inbox it becomes a commitment of time and effort to get through all eight issues and give them a fair shake regardless of if I would pick them myself.

Dustin Cabeal 8/30/17 Dustin Cabeal 8/30/17

Review: Rose #6

By Dustin Cabeal

Cameron Davis’ Rose is an interesting comic in the modern industry. It looks like classic Archie and sounds like Family Circus. Your level of enjoyment with Rose will greatly depend on your feelings towards both franchises

Oliver Gerlach 8/25/17 Oliver Gerlach 8/25/17

Review: Dark Beach #1-2

By Oliver Gerlach

Dark Beach is a crime story set in a future with no sun at all. It’s a neat hook that both fits very well with the genre trappings of the murder investigation and opens up for some clever and interesting world building. This is one of those proper crime noir comics that is full to bursting with a sense of place and atmosphere, and it’s an added bonus that the sci-fi concept behind it is such an enjoyable one.

Dustin Cabeal 4/12/17 Dustin Cabeal 4/12/17

Review: The Fist #3

By Dustin Cabeal

One of my “Best of 2016” picks returns with a new issue, but has it managed to capture a place on our future “Best of 2017” list? The Fist, for the unfamiliar, is a story taking place in an intergalactic fight arena in which several great comic book homages are fighting. Enter The First and his wife, who is a ship. They’re deserters from the galactic military and as such, The Fist’s sisters, Legs, have been sent to retrieve him.