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Review: Rat City #1
By Dustin Cabeal
It has been a long while since I have read a Spawn comic book. I find it infinitely interesting that it is still being published monthly, probably as one of the most consistently published monthly books from Image in general but also from a founder of image. That sheer fact alone makes it an anomaly in comic books as every other creator that founded Image or has moved on from the publisher or is almost incapable of producing a monthly comic book. Eric Larsen is possibly the only other person, but even then, the irregularities of the scheduling of Savage Dragon and its spin-offs makes Spawn a standout and now in 2024. It seems Spawn is expanding its universe; it is becoming More than just Spawn and a few miniseries. I have noticed increasingly that I am seeing different titles related to Spawn, but Rat City caught my attention more than the others.
Cybernetic Spawn is not anything new to the Spawn Universe. I think it actually exists in some form in the action figures first and foremost, but it is relatively new to have an ongoing series about a cybernetic-esque Spawn. Rat City is just a catchy, grungy futuristic name. I mean, no one thinks of rats and goes, that's pleasant. Rat City gives you this futuristic Judge Dread-esque, grimy city to deal with which is a perfect fitting for Spawn and a Spawn spin-off book.
Review: Crave Vol. 1
By Dustin Cabeal
It has been a long time since I've read a book like Crave. I finished the trade paperback of what I assume will be the first volume in one sitting. There's something to be said about a story that entices you to continue reading and not just due to the dynamic visuals of the overly beautiful people that populate the story. Rather because of the pacing and content of the story itself.
While Crave’s story is not incredibly deep it does have a wonderful pacing to it. On its surface, it is a story about social media. The anxieties presented by knowing too much and what Big Data corporations do with our information and what could be done with that information and the harrowing realities of testing that on the populace. Now, that all sounds very, very deep, but since the story is limited to essentially one day of this world or maybe two at the most It is rather fast paced and doesn't take too much time to stop and think about these deeper ideas that it presents. Instead, that's left to the audience to think about in the aftermath of the story. Which is still interesting. It's still a good way to present that information. Food for thought rather than here is my opinion. You get the sense that the creator, Maria Llovet, is not looking to explicitly, tell you about their opinion on all this.
Review: Blood Stained Teeth #1
By Dustin Cabeal
There’s a lot of vampire books coming out from Image Comics lately. Maybe I’ll like one of them in the future, but Blood Stained Teeth which is a grammar error that I cannot unsee or correct, is not the vampire book for me.
The entire first issue is used to create a situation for the main character to be forced to go through with the plot of the comic. Which does not make it a particularly strong first issue. Especially since it reveals its emotional lynch pin within its pages. You might be wondering to what I’m referring. It’s the plot device that’s been set up with a timer waiting to go off and emotionally manipulated the audience. It’s vampire Pixar moment and it could very well work. Emotional bombs are successful based on the amount of fuse given to them, so if Christian Ward writes a slow burn, it may be successful regardless of the rest of the story.
Review: Ghost Cage #2
By Dustin Cabeal
I wanted to start off with a joke about my interest in this comic being used up like natural resources, but I’m afraid the quality hits too close to home for this comic. Nick Dragotta is a talented artist. I could stare at the pages of this comic all day as they are wonderful. The visuals of the mecha/monster versions of energy resources are still a wonderful idea on paper, but the story execution has delved into predictable and erratic.
Predictable you say? Yes, it was not even remotely a surprise that it was crazy old guy’s daughter. Less surprising was the fact that crazy old guy is alive and looks shittier than his hologram self. I saw Prometheus as well, this isn’t new. It doesn’t have to be new, but the story does very little to make it relevant. We’ve had a handful of panels with the daughter, but I’m supposed to care about her reveal? Why? I don’t. I barely like Doyle and she won’t stop talking so would I care about a daughter character?
Review: Little Monsters #1
By Dustin Cabeal
The concept of eternal children playing capture the flag and tag like the lost boys from Peter Pan is short-lived in this first issue of Little Monsters. It shouldn’t take more than the cover and a few lines of dialogue to figure out that our band of children are all vampires. And though some of them were growing bored of playing childish games, that concept of an empty city inhabited by children playing childish games for hours on end was more intriguing that the rest of the issue.
Review: Ghost Cage 001
By Dustin Cabeal
Much of what I am going to say about Ghost Cage is going to be unpopular. Artist/Co-Writer Nick Dragotta is very beloved from his successful Johnathan Hickman comics also from Image Comics. There will be a lot of people rooting for his success as he strikes out as a writer/artist, very few will offer criticism for him and Caleb Goellner to grow as creators. Such is fandom in its current form.
Review: Step by Bloody Step #1
By Dustin Cabeal
While I do not foresee reviewing or even reading too many single issues, this one caught my attention because it was from Si Spurrier. I am not so delusional to say he can “do no wrong,” but he is a writer I am always willing to check out. His focus on story and how the reader digests a comic is a rarity in this current age of comics that seek commercial success in other mediums. Spurrier is also never afraid to let the art tell the story more than his written words.
Review: Crowded #1
By Dustin Cabeal
The concept for Crowded has been staring us all in the face for years. I’m surprised I haven’t read a hundred comics with the idea, but then that goes to show how talented Christopher Sebela is as a storyteller. Because he pulled this idea from the collective ether and got it made.
The cover is confusing in that it seems like a buddy adventure in which one of the character isn’t taking things too seriously. It’s far more complex than that as we meet Charlie, she’s the one in grey with pink hair and those amazing shorts and thigh-high socks. Side note, I love that look. Yes, it’s a hot look, but it goes further than that in that it just screams awesome. It’s probably because of Clueless, but Charlie had my attention instantly.
Review: Scales + Scoundrels #11
By Cat Wyatt
It’s time for another issue of Scales + Scoundrels! This issue is different from the others so far, in that it focuses not on Vep, but instead on Dorma. While that makes it different, it’s still an interesting point to be seen. We’ve never really seen much of Dorma’s home life, though we know that she must be heading home to inform her family of her brother’s passing. That would make a return very difficult…
DISSONANCE, VOL. 1: a fantasy drama in a sci-fi world like no other
Press Release
Designer Melita Curphy, co-writers Singgih Nugroho and Ryan Cady, and artist Sami Basri (Batgirl, WITCHBLADE) will release DISSONANCE, VOL. 1 this September from Image Comics/Top Cow.
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On December 2nd, we unleash LANCER #1, a brutal near-future action thriller. LANCER is ALIENS meets the gig economy: military veterans use an app to hunt dangerous species for cash, until one job beneath New York City hunts them back.