Dustin Cabeal 4/12/18 Dustin Cabeal 4/12/18

Review: The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins

By Dustin Cabeal

I’m not going to lie; I have a lot of envy and jealousy for this book. I originally passed on it because I was unfamiliar with the podcast that it was based on and have been burned by podcast adapted comics too many times to try again. As fate would have it though it arrived in the mail for me to read and I figured, what the hell… let’s give this a go.

Dustin Cabeal 4/12/18 Dustin Cabeal 4/12/18

Review: Mean Girls Club: Pink Dawn

By Dustin Cabeal

If there was one book I wasn’t expecting to continue due to how batshit crazy it was, it was Mean Girls Club. I’m stoked that it did because the first volume/story of this series was absolutely mental. It’s also amazing in what it does. I won’t say that these women are strong role models, but I’m happy the story exists. In thinking of it, I flipped the genders, and suddenly I could think of similar stories that I had read. I couldn’t think of another single story that had women.

Dustin Cabeal 4/12/18 Dustin Cabeal 4/12/18

Review: Birding Is My Favorite Video Game

By Dustin Cabeal

Instantly from the cover, I was intrigued by this book; it would be short lived once I dived into it. It is essentially a collection of webcomics from creator Rosemary Mosco; some of which I had read on my various journeys on the internet.

Sam King 4/12/18 Sam King 4/12/18

Review: Sci-Fu vol. 1

By Sam King

Sci-Fu takes a young boy from Brooklyn who likes to “drop sick beats and rhymes” and tosses him onto a planet where he must battle robots with a musical, science fiction kind of kung-fu. The story seems to love combining hip hop, science fiction elements, and martial arts, which I can applaud since it is a unique mix. However, this one didn’t hit the right beats for me, and it felt very messy at times.

Dustin Cabeal 4/12/18 Dustin Cabeal 4/12/18

Review: Goodnight Punpun vol. 7

By Dustin Cabeal

There is only one problem with this final volume of Goodnight Punpun, and it’s the white fucking cover. I instantly got the cover dirty from flipping the pages inside because there’s a lot of ink on those pages. Probably because of the hyper-realistic art from Inio Asano, but it fucked up the cover which saddened me. It didn’t sadden me as much as this book though.

Dustin Cabeal 4/12/18 Dustin Cabeal 4/12/18

Review: Tokyo Ghoul: re vol. 1-4

By Dustin Cabeal

If only I hadn’t sat on these books for so damn long. You’re looking at the last holdouts of manga that have been gracing my desk for the past few months. They all four deserve their own review, but that timing is off right now, so here we go with one last big bundle review.

Like most people, I read the manga after watching the show. While I enjoyed the show a lot and would even place it very high on my all-time anime list, I have grown to love the manga ten times more. The main reasons being that there is nothing else like Tokyo Ghoul on the market. The way it looks, the tone, its overall creepiness in design. The violence and the costumes. It’s a world you love but would never want to visit. The art alone is groundbreaking and different from anything else I’ve seen. Perhaps it will one day become one of the “norms” of manga, but for now, it’s originality places it by itself.

Sam King 4/12/18 Sam King 4/12/18

Review: Santa Clause Private Eye vol. 1

By Sam King

What is Santa Claus Private Eye Vol. 1 about? Take a magical childhood icon, add festive humor, mix in detective fiction, and sprinkle it with murder. Pour all of that into a hot chocolate mug, and you’ve got Santa Claus Private Eye in a chestnut shell. That is the best way I can describe it. We have all heard that Santa Claus knows who has been naughty and who has been nice. This story has a fresh take on how he gets his information…or rather what his magical intel can reveal when applied to another occupation.

Garrett Hanneken 4/12/18 Garrett Hanneken 4/12/18

Review: Come Into Me #1

By Garrett Hanneken

We are at a time where human beings are obsessed with sharing their personal lives which is why Come Into Me’s concept may seem bizarre but, more importantly, realistic.

In this comic, you will get a feel for what it would be like if someone shared their consciousness with another. After a failed presentation with the transfer of one mind into another’s, the founder of this scientific advancement becomes desperate. He decides to continue with his practice experiments on others and then ultimately on himself. However, something goes terribly wrong.

Dustin Cabeal 4/11/18 Dustin Cabeal 4/11/18

Comic Bastards Podcast - 033

By Dustin Cabeal

Click here to listen!

033 - Back with more comics for you. Mostly new issues, but this is the first week that I haven't been slamming through graphic novels. Though I could have done that again this week, those reviews will be up later, and I don't want to spoil them. Perhaps next time. Right now though I'm going to get vague and save the spoilers for once! Earmuffs off people, that and it's like 90 today where I live so you'll just look like an asshole.

Comic Books covered in this episode:

RoboCop: Citizen's Arrest #1
Sideways #2-3
The Immortal Men #1
Gideon Falls #2
Crude #1
The Dead Hand #1

Thanks for listening and be sure to find me on Twitter or leave a comment. I will get back to you.

Garrett Hanneken 4/11/18 Garrett Hanneken 4/11/18

Review: Sonic the Hedgehog #2

By Garrett Hanneken

This comic can be defined with its fast-paced action from panel to panel as the art bursts out with Sonic’s speed. But in the end, it all seems a little too familiar in regards to story compared to the previous issue.

Sonic saves a group of citizens from another robot attack, but this time he is accompanied by Amy Rose. Amy tries to talk to Sonic, just like Tails from the last issue, but Sonic is too busy with his own agenda to truly listen. In conclusion, Sonic races on to the next town to find Knuckles which seems to be the pattern of the series so far: Sonic goes from town to town teaming up with various allies.

Dustin Cabeal 4/11/18 Dustin Cabeal 4/11/18

Review: Sideways #3

By Dustin Cabeal

I live in this weird comic bubble in which I don’t seek out or read other people’s thoughts on comics for the most part. I never read what anyone is saying about a book I’m reviewing because there’s always a chance that it could slip its way into my review. I don’t know how Sideways is being received, but I can almost guess that it’s a mixed bag.

Cat Wyatt 4/11/18 Cat Wyatt 4/11/18

Review: Eternal Empire #8

By Cat Wyatt

After the conclusion of the last issue, when they sensed that the Empress was nearby, Rion and Tair know they don’t have much time left to prepare. If they’re ever going to have a chance at taking her out, they must do it soon. Of course, there’s a very good chance that she sensed them at the same time, and thus their attack will not be a surprise. Still, if they’re going to save anyone from her wraith, they must act soon.

Dustin Cabeal 4/11/18 Dustin Cabeal 4/11/18

Review: Gideon Falls #2

By Dustin Cabeal

If you liked the first issue of Gideon Falls, then good news, you’ll likely like the second issue as well. Having read the first issue in advance to its release, it’s been longer for me since returning to the series. Reading the second issue felt very much like reading the first issue again and left me with almost the same vibe. This time around though, there isn’t that one killer scene. You know the one, with Father Tom… shit was bad ass.

Cat Wyatt 4/11/18 Cat Wyatt 4/11/18

Review: Suicide Squad #39

By Cat Wyatt

Issue 39 of Suicide Squad was left off with the Wall (America’s fantastic new replacement for the Suicide Squad) going rogue, hacking into the Pentagon, and somehow taking every single person in Washington D.C. hostage via possession. Oh, and the Wall will only allow the Suicide Squad team in, anybody else enters the area and every person under his control dies. Now, I have theories about what’s going on here, but it’ll be interesting to see how this all goes down.

Sam King 4/11/18 Sam King 4/11/18

Review: DuckTales #8

By Sam King

DuckTales the comic series takes the characters from the 2017 reboot of the original cartoon that ran from 1987-1990 and puts them in new adventures. Having owned and watched every original DuckTales episode, I guess you could call me a pretty big fan of the "franchise" in general. I’m in the middle of the reboot and couldn’t pass on the chance to review the matching comics. I wouldn’t say that the new adventures beat out the originals, but for a fresh audience, it isn’t that bad.

Garrett Hanneken 4/11/18 Garrett Hanneken 4/11/18

Review: Red Hood and the Outlaws #21

By Garrett Hanneken

Artemis confronts Bizarro in an emotional conversation, and Red Hood goes solo to Penguin’s casino. The two stories are split up equally, but the comic mainly succeeds when it focuses on Bizarro’s personal dilemma.

The conversation between Artemis and Bizarro stood out due to the way it makes us understand why Bizzaro is addicted to the liquid Kryptonite. Rather than giving the reader a blunt explanation of Bizarro’s addiction, we are treated with an emotional understanding. The art is able to highlight and compliment Bizarro’s feelings with emotional cues such as gazing off or looking straight into Artemis’ eyes with sincerity.

Dustin Cabeal 4/11/18 Dustin Cabeal 4/11/18

Review: Robocop: Citizen’s Arrest #1

By Dustin Cabeal

It would be easy to spend most of my review listing all the things this series had going against it before I even picked it up. As a fan of the original two movies, it gets tiring seeing failed attempt after failed attempt to prolong this franchise. While I would love to pitch BOOM! a Robocop story, when they’re landing big established names in the industry, I doubt they’d want to entertain a reviewer’s script idea.

Cat Wyatt 4/11/18 Cat Wyatt 4/11/18

Review: Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #42

By Cat Wyatt

Issue 42 of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps has us starting up a new plot. That isn’t to say that Zod isn’t still a threat (because he absolutely is), but he’s likely acting in the shadows and out of sight for the moment. This issue does bring around some enemies we’ve become more familiar with as of late, which is always fun. It also introduces a new threat (well, new to rebirth I should say).

Garrett Hanneken 4/11/18 Garrett Hanneken 4/11/18

Review: The Immortal Men #1

By Garrett Hanneken

The fate of the world rests on the shoulders of our unexpected protagonist. We’ve heard this story before: an unlikely hero will rise to the occasion. But does The Immortal Men put a new spin on this tale or is it by the books?

We begin with our dubious protagonist in a dream sequence where he encounters a secret group of heroes and a sanctuary known as The Campus. The protagonist, Caden Park, wakes up from this dream but then sees a familiar face from the daze he just had. Caden knows there is something suspicious going on, but his psychiatrist brushes it off as an overactive imagination. As it turns out, Caden’s premonitions are correct, and he soon finds himself in the middle between two groups of superpowered beings: one trying to save him and the other trying to kill him.

Sam King 4/11/18 Sam King 4/11/18

Review: Dodge City #2

By Sam King

Dodge City #2 dives deeper into exposition waters. We get a little more dodgeball playing and a lot more focus on team drama. We find out what the girl meant in the last issue when she referred to the Jazz Pandas as cheaters. It elaborates on plot points presented in issue #1, but slows down the pace a bit, by comparison, edging more toward character development. The story set up has been good thus far, and I’m waiting to see when things will come to a head.