BPM or Big Punch Magazine is best described as a Shonen Jump/2000 AD style of anthology in which you see the same stories return and continue each issue. This first issue is an introduction to the different series appearing in the magazine. The first thing to point out is that story has a one sheet explaining the story and almost rolling you into the story with the info. I implore you, if you’re going to do an indie anthology, consider this. Sure it may not work for everything, but for an indie story that I’m about to be thrown into? It works pretty damn well because I actually paid attention to each story rather than giving it a glance and deciding if I would bother with it.

Instead of covering all of them I just want to give you a taste of what I consider the high and low. When I say low, I don’t mean bad, but just not as good as the other stories. All of them have potential though and really it’s too soon to write any of them off.

I will say that I’m not 100% sold on Cuckoos. It’s an interesting concept, but it seems to homage things like Firefly and other sci-fi space adventures that have a crew of people up to no good. It has interesting moments, but the crew is a bit too big and underdeveloped at the moment to really latch on to them. The first chapter follows the crew stealing an item from people who live on a planet that has no ground. It’s actually just endless sky and if you fall you fall forever. You will starve to death before you actually manage to hit something and die which was kind of fucked up. On the ship there is a young girl and her teacher that are not a part of the crew, but they’re all in it together because they’ve fallen through the cracks of reality. The story is okay, the writing could be tighter and the dialogue is a little cheesy at times. The art is okay, it’s not a style that I personally like, but it’s well put together.

The story I gravitated to the most was 99 Swords. It’s clearly a comedy and stars a Conan-esc character. The premise is that a great sword maker created sword after sword trying to create the perfect sword. Now people hunt down the swords which are very important to society, in an attempt at gathering them all to find the 100^th sword.

This story isn’t roll on the ground funny, but it is humorous. The main character we follow is Elsie Blackwood who has just discovered a sword that her family has. It’s sword number 99, but as she touches it, it screams… because it’s alive. But then Tyler Goldensheath walks through the wall and proclaims that he’s there for the sword. The story is good and I’m curious to see where it goes. It has an anime premise to it which I liked, but then the art was very stylized and American. The art is very clean and sharp. The coloring is very animated looking which makes the artwork stand out even more. Overall, I dug this story.

Overall this is actually a really well put together anthology. It has a clear vision of what it wants to be and each story has a different vibe and a different look. Overall, if you enjoy anthologies, especially like the ones I mentioned in the beginning, then check this book out.

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BPM #1 Writers: Various Artists: Various Publisher Big Punch Studios Price: $3,99 Format: Ongoing; Digital

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