The Me You Love In The Dark

Published by Image Comics
Writer: Skottie Young
Artist: Jorge Corona

My reason for grabbing this book at all however was not based on my love of stories about artists but instead for my love of paranormal stories. The fact that I'm an artist experiencing a large period of creative block illustration-wise, is a bit of a coincidence in terms of reading something I can related to.  Of course, the fact that Skottie Young was writing something a bit darker and more adult was another reason for me grabbing this book, not to forget that fact that I love the art of Jorge Corona. So long-time fan of both these creators and of the collaborations they have been putting out together the past couple years. 

Yes, I realize I'm a bit late to this book. The trade came out in March 2022 and serialized in the previous year. But hey, better late than pregnant, especially if you live the United States. This story follows artist Ro who moves into an old house in a rural location in order to find some inspiration for a new set of paintings. The house she moves into is well-known to be haunted. I'm going to try my best not to spoil the story but my motto for my reviews from now on happens to be : read at your own risk.

I feel like this story is more about the dark and trapped emotions associated with creative blocks rather than anything paranormal. Particularly as an artist, the struggle to come up with something new and different while also tapping into your deeper self, is a relatable struggle. Hmm I'm kinda reading other stories with this "writers block" sort of trope, that is also mixed with elements of the paranormal.. i.e. Brian Azarello & Maria Llovett's  Faithless. 

I think it's a fairly obvious that pairing creativity with the paranormal is a good match because the idea that artistic talent and/or creativity come from the gods or other paranormal beings, is not a new one. It has been a prevalent theme throughout history. The ancient Greeks for example, often talked about this in mythology. The Muses and various gods dedicated to bestowing innovation, creativity and artistic talent on random mortals have many stories of this nature. Further to this, the idea that artistic innovation itself comes from a dark part of your soul or psyche, the old trope of the suffering, brooding artist, for instance; the very idea that creative talent comes from a place of darkness and some dark force rather than something benevolent is also not a new concept but seen in puritan cultures. 

This story feels like an exploration of creativity rather than a general haunting story. In fact, it isn't really a haunting story at all. The interactions Ro has with the being in her house is actually for much of the story, a very comfy one. She gains great friendship and inspiration from the spirit at first. It wouldn't be much of a story however if that were the end of it. Spoiler alert, the spirit isn't really all that nice. It's at this point that the story really becomes less paranormal again and feels more like the story of a battered woman. The red flags start to unfurl themselves before disaster falls. When this story takes a turn to domestic abuse, we see Skottie talking about how you can't force creativity and that when you do, progress is stalled. This happens multiple times. 

There are a lot of other great themes running through this story, like the dangers of isolation when in a new relationship, the pressures of creating under a deadline, self confidence, imposter syndrome,  abusive domestic relationships in general, and so many more things...

In conclusion, I really like this story. It carries so much more deeper themes and meaning than simply serving as another haunted house story. The ideas and themes is explore are all adult however so I wouldn't recommend this for anyone under 14 or 15 but that's really a parents judgement call there. 

Watch my review of this comic in Youtube: 

Little Monsters by Jeff Lemire

Written by Jeff Lemire

Illustrated by Dustin Nguyen

The team that brought us DESCENDER and the spin-off story ASCENDER, is at it again. This time they brought us a horror inspired story about the last children on planet Earth who also happen to be starving vampires. LITTLE MONSTERS. Oh if you're around my age, you're probably reminded of the Fred Savage movie from '89 staring Howie Mandel. Ya I barely remember the plot of this movie. It was not one of my favorites as a child (is there any wonder?). No, this title doesn't seem to have anything to do with that one. Thankfully.

What we have here is an introductory issue that quietly presents each of the last living children to the reader. Lemire and Nguyen have perfected the atmosphere of this post-apocalyptic world with these near expressionless characters. You feel every bit of their ruined environment through the black and white panels. I should say, nearly completely black and white. Like so many great books before (some Frank Miller comes to mind), Nguyen uses reds as an impact effect to draw the readers eye to important parts of a panel. Blood never looks so impactful in black and white of course but he also uses the red to underline the names of the children as we meet them, among other things. 

Through this debut issue, we get to see a little about of the humanity as well as the brutality that has been left behind in these eternal children. There's a beautiful moment revealed between 2 of the older children, Yui and Lucas. In this moment is revealed the nature of their day to day like as well as how they had to adjust to their new environment. Their eternal life in a dead world, it is obvious from this conversation that time is meaningless. It got me thinking what most people would do if time was meaningless to how our lives eb and flow. The day to day life of the monsters is completely unencumbered by responsibility or purpose. They don't even seem too hard-up on the survival front as they are depicted eating rats later in the book. I guess those are in no short supply. But the rest of humanity? They have not seen hide nor hair in what must be decades. The exact time frame since the death of the last human at this point is unknown. Yet if I know Lemire, he's likely got some amazing lore to share about this world. That is to say, if past stories like Descender can be any indicator. 

I am very excited to see where this story was headed. I was reminded of The Wrenchies by Farrel Dalrymple while I read this issue. Simply due to that quiet atmosphere created by the illustration and narration. Or perhaps its the fact that its a story centered on odd children. Hard to say! I tried to keep all spoilers out of this article and will endeavor to do so in the future. More reviews to come. I wish I could assign a numbered rating to comics but that just isn't me. I think if I had to, I would give this issue 3 out of 3 crowns for leaving me enough curiosity to read the next issue. A thoroughly enjoyable introduction to the series. 

COMIC BOOK REVIEW: REAVER #1-6 (Image/Skybound Comics)

COFFIN BOUND #1 Video Review

I thought I'd turn some of my articles into Youtube videos for those who prefer video format and this way, I have the opportunity to add a little bit of artwork to the video too! As the article I wrote was an advanced review, I couldn't include any artwork so I've added a few pages into this video for your viewing pleasure. Hope you like it. My dog jumped into the video too so you get a chance to see the dog I adopted a couple weeks ago. He's my bestie. 

Coffin Bound #1 (Advanced Review)

I guess it's been a while since I've actually sat down and written an article about a comic rather than a video script. Let's try and get back in the habit shall we?

Lately I've been all over the various genres. Trying hard to keep up with my favorites and the never ending potential I see coming out every month. There really are so many great comics coming out these days and are people even talking about them? I'm really not sure they are. I will once again make an effort to write a separate article for each one. I wish I felt comfortable just throwing out any old article into the wilds of the internet. I do not. I always want to re-read and fix every sentence and I'm trying to let go of that because simply, nothing gets produced.

So today I read Coffin Bound #1. You can get your copy this week, August 7th no less at a comic book shop near you. I received an advanced copy from Image Comics and opened it up to be both stunned and intrigued by the artwork. Gothic and edgy, that's right up my alley. Throw some supernatural oddities in there and you've pretty much got the blueprint for a Frog Queen Favorite (which by the way I've been childishly hashtagging all over Instagram).

Coffin Bound is written by Dan Watters, London-based writer who's written some DC and vertigo titles like LUCIFER, HOUSE OF WHISPERS. Currently he's writing LIMBO with Image and DEEP ROOTS for the ever ambitious Vault Comics. He's got an active Twitter page you should follow because someone so busy writing should have more followers.

The artwork in Coffin Bound which makes my heart pound (rhyme unintentional but completely invited) is by an artist only known as DaNi who I'm sad to say I don't know more about. She has an active Facebook page and worked on titles for DC such as THE DREAMING. I suggest following her on Instagram as well for updates and artwork. She's auto-fallen into my list of favorite artists of 2019.

Okay let's move on from the gossip and take a look at this grotesquely brilliant piece of work. I dunno what I like more, honestly, the pencils of the colors, which by the way were done by colorist Brad Simpson who is left off the side credit of Image Comic page but written about in the books bio (weird). Regardless each page feels like a frame-able piece for my wall. If this wasn't an advanced review, I would be sharing panels left, right and center. You're just going to have to run out and grab a copy Wednesday to check it out.

I'm not sure how to describe this story. Izzy Tyburn is our gorgeous 90s trash goddess. She can handle herself and you get the feeling right away that she's deadly. From the get-go she's in deep shit with some baddies hot on her trail but receiving help (if you can call it that?) from a bizarre humanoid vulture character. I think I was taken in by the comic right then. I mean, there wasn't much chance of it doing anything wrong and then it threw in some horror strippers and sealed the deal on my opinion. Outrageous fun. The whole thing does feel very Grindhouse but Grindhouse type film based in the Hellblazer universe.

I have to say I really like the old English used in the story. The characters are bizarre and interesting although I really wish this was an extended issue so I could get to know them a bit better. There is this terrifying character known as the Eartheater. What a fantastic name and he has wonderful, sort of romantic figures of speech for what he does, which is essentially murder. Like "I, Psychopomp, sew the Earth. Reuniter of man and mud." Isn't that lovely?  I guess he's a sort of supernatural bounty hunter.

There's a lot going on and unfortunately I didn't get a real strong sense of what that is in the first issue. It's my only real complaint. I think it's all brilliant and highly engaging but I would have liked a few more pages in the first issue. I do feel (and I've said this often), that many stories just shouldn't be serialized and rather make better OGN releases. I'm not saying that Coffin Bound fits in this category but I think my meager brain needs a little bit more info in an initial issue. I want to get a really clear cut sense of what's going on and who the characters are. Mystery is paramount! My brain must wonder what will happen. I just don't really understand the motivations of any of the characters besides Izzy and Vulture and that's sort of annoying to me. Of course it should be clear in upcoming issues but it is an important asset for me as a reader in determining whether I continue to read. I want to be enthralled by mystery but not lost on the plot.

Okay I think that's enough from me. I am excited to see where this goes. I will likely cover this in a video after it's debut so I can share the art but until then, add this one to your list. I feel this one needs to really be talked about. I think it's going to be too much fun.

Comic Book Review: UNNATURAL (Image Comics) & New Manga!

Hello comic book junkies! It's me the frog queen and I'm back with another comic book review. Today I wanted to talk about the trade edition of UNNATURAL Vol1 : Awakening Trade paper back.

When I got the initial press release from Image comics about this series, I really didn't know what to make of it. I skimmed the information presented and took a quick look at the artwork. It was bright and but I rarely have interest in anthropomorphic books which is kinda weird since one of my favorite movies of all time is rock and rule but anyway...at the time I dismissed the series as something that looked pretty but probably wouldn't  be for me. That was of course until I got a review copy of the trade and decided I would go for a binge. I couldn't put it down. It was that good!

What's the story about ??? Well the focus is on a pretty pig names Leslie Blair who's been having erotic dreams about a big bad white wolf. The problem?? It's against the law to mate with animals of another species (or of the same sex). Leslie tries to follow the rules and date within her species but something keeps feeling wrong about it and she can't shake the deep feelings she has for her mysterious white dream wolf. If I tell you any more than that I will surely spoil the entire plot but you won't be able to predict exactly where this story will take you and that's half the fun. 

The artwork can only be described as beautiful. It feels glossy and ethereal with loads of interesting angels in each panel which really makes you feel as though you are spying on someone rather than simply watching a story unfold. There's an intimacy imparted to the reader through these angles. I almost felt almost as if I was intruding as I accompanied Leslie silently on her first date in the story.

Check out the video above for my final thoughts AND to hear about the manga I'm currently reading including a new book from BLACK HOOK PRESS! 

COMIC BOOK REVIEW: Bitter Root #1 (Image Comics)

Welcome back Comic Book Junkies. It's the Frog Queen here and today I'm reviewing BITTER ROOT #1 which is published by Image Comics. BITTER ROOT is written by David F. Walker of POWER MAN and IRON FIST  with Chuck Brown of TRENCH COATS, CIGARETTES AND SHOTGUNS. The comic is illustrated by Sanford Greene who is also from POWER MAN and IRON FIST. I actually really like it when creative teams who work together in the big two successfully, actually branch out to creator owned comics and bring us something that's all their own. There are also a series of variant covers by Brittney Williams, Denys Cowan and Mike Mignola.

Bitter Root #1 was published November 14th and it's intended for a mature audience. The story takes place in the 1920's and centers on the Sangerye Family who are trying to save the world from the supernatural terror which threatens to consume New York first. The reader knows this threat only as the Jinoo. Although Google tells me Jinoo is a made up word, I dunno if google is being willfully ignorant here, one can draw the conclusion that Jinoo is another word for Djinn that date back to pre-Islamic mythologies.

From what the Image website tells me, the first story arc of BITTER ROOT is slated to be 4 issues in length. They refer to this as the first story arc which generally means the series will continue depending on sales.

As far as first issues go, not a whole lot is given to us. It appears our focus is on a female character who's got her heart set on physically fighting the Jinoo while her family pushes her into a less violent role. She's given the task of grinding a special root which is administered to the Jinoo. We don't get to know much else about the characters as they have a brief interaction of just a few pages and then some action. We are also introduced to another more mysterious set of characters with even less insight into who they are or exactly their motives.

From the cover, one would assume that the Jinoo are vampires and although some are vampyric in appearance on the cover, reading further into issue 1 will have you feeling otherwise. I'm honestly not sure at all how I feel about this series. I do feel overwhelmed by the introduction of so many characters despite the fact that there was SOME meaningful interaction and the main characters are pretty cool. The headstrong female lead is a bit tiresome but I like the rest of her family. As for the art, I'm really into the coloring of the entire comic although the characters do feel a bit goofy most of the time and that so far doesn't make this feel like a horror comic but maybe it's not supposed to be?

Well I think that's it for this review, something fun I wanted to start doing was to tell you what music I listened to while reading the comic and  for this one I listened Samavaya- Vatan (2018)  which seemed to actually go quite well with this one. Warning if you don't like Maynard from Tool you're not likely to enjoy this because the lead singer very much sounds like him.

Check out my video review to see some of the artwork: 

Middlewest #1 (Image Comics)

Writer: Skottie Young
Artist: Jorge Corona
Cover: Mike Huddleston
Variant Cover: Skottie Young, Jorge Corona
Published: November 21, 2018
Diamond ID: SEP180050
Age Rating: M

Hello Comic Book Junkies, it's the frog queen here and today I'm talking about Middlewest #1 by  Skottie Young and Jorge Corona which just came out from Image Comics.

I have actually been sharing images of this on Facebook for quite some time. So this is a pretty important comic for me in the sense that I've been really looking forward to it. I got my review copy this week and had to take the dive.

I do not think that I have ever read a comic that was written, but not illustrated, by Skottie Young. Yet having read I HATE FAIRY LAND, I know that we are in for something far from average. I don't think anyone more perfect could illustrate a story for Skottie Young. Jorge Corona's style is so perfect for anything whimsical. If you've been reading my blog for a few years you likely remember me gushing over Jorge Corona's comic series FEATHERS which was published by Archaia back in late 2015. You'll find that his art style has taken on a maturity to speak to an older audience than FEATHERS and the coloring will get to you.... right in the feels. Those gorgeous blues and purples makes my pupils dilate.


The story appears to take place in a kind of dimension similar to our Earth but with some eerie differences. For instance, everything appears to be powered by this glowing pink substance which is attached to motor vehicles, homes, etc. It almost resembles an IV drip and so I keep thinking that here's a child who's in a coma attached to some I.V. drip and talking to his spirit guide. Yes that cute little Fox on the cover is actually talking to our main character. Of course being a bit of symbolism junkie, I would assume from the cover that he is a terminal heart patient. But hey I could be entirely wrong and I'm just having fun making my own narrative. My whole made up synopsis works well with the fact that we are introduced to the main character Abel from the beginning of the comic, within his own nightmare. Or maybe the nightmare is just how he views his environment, the Middlewest. Hostile, uncontrollable and oppressive.

Abel has an abusive father whom he tries to please until he doesn't when his Fox friend urges him to neglect his responsibilities in favor of having some fun with his friends. And that's when the storm comes. This is a very mysterious story and I can't wait to see more.

MIDDLEWEST is an all new, on-going series with Image Comics and you can get issue #1 at your local comic book shop! You can get your copy of issue #2 on December 19th!

WATCH THE YOUTUBE VIDEO TO SEE MORE OF THE ART:

COMIC BOOK REVIEW: SUGAR Vol 1 (Image Comics)

Writer: Matt Hawkins, Jenni Cheung
Artist: Yishan Li
Published: August 29, 2018
Diamond ID: MAY180085
Age Rating: M

I'm trying to diversify my comic book reading. It truly is very easy for me to stick to my natural comfort zone in comics: horror, sci fi, post apocalyptic devastation and mayhem. Anything to satisfy my bloodlust. So I this week I started picking up books that look like something I would never read or enjoy. That's when I saw SUGAR. I didn't really like the cover, it screamed of romance novel and I typically despise everything romance related because I have such a hate on for cliches. SUGAR is 100% everything I would not buy or bother reading so... I read it. I actually liked it despite all it's problems. Let me tell you why but first, here's the skinny on SUGAR:

SUGAR is an original graphic novel that was published on August 9th 2018 by Image Comics. It's co-written by Matt Hawkins and Jenni Cheung and fully illustrated by Yishan Li. The book is appropriately named for two reasons 1) Sugar for sugar baby, a name given to generally young women who provide a gf experience to a man in exchange for a monetary allowance and gifts. 2) Sugar for the pet name used as a term of endearment to strangers, for instance something a waitress might say to a customer. 

When I said I don't like to read romance books for the most part because of cliches let me not mislead you into thinking that SUGAR is free of cliche. It's totally a cliche. The book follows a beautiful young girl, struggling to make enough money to pay her tuition and help her family who are down on their luck because of a horrible car accident. She ends up being a sugar baby in a very round about way and falling for the man who's paying for her companionship. It's Pretty Women for struggling, 23 year old white college girls everywhere... I guess. 

The whole book is problematic from the start because it gives the impression that we can only accept a woman being a sugar baby if she is 100% innocent, a hard worker, and through no fault of her own, in financial distress. The book tells us this in a number of ways while constantly playing up the righteousness of our main character Julia. For instance she repeatedly explains she is taking the money from sugar daddy John as a loan... that she will pay back.... right. This allows her to what? Keep her dignity and righteousness in the readers eyes? Does anyone else think that maybe the authors don't consider sex workers or sugar babies (if they can also be considered sex workers?) to be good people? Like maybe they look down on sex work? That's so forward thinking of them right? ugh.. let's continue.

Right in the beginning we meet the main characters roommate who apparently regularly brings different men home for sex. Although the main character isn't slut shaming her and almost admires her apparent sexual freedom, you still get the impression that we are suppose to see the roommate as a dirty, dirty whore (in comparison to Julia, the beacon of righteousness covering her face with a pillow on the couch). So the slut vs virgin type cliche? 

Let's continue to pile up the cliches then, Julia also tends bar at a club where the owner is known to grab and touch the female staff inappropriately and GUESS WHO jumps in to defend Julia when the owner smacks her butt behind the bar? YUP our love interest millionaire John. Okay so we got the White Knight cliche... 

It's not long before we find out that John is in emotional recovery from a rocky divorce. His mean, mean ex wife had an affair. She's awful isn't she? Just no one in this book who has a vagina is anywhere near as amazing and honest as Julia is. Don't you just relate to her? Anyway, Johns ex wife finds out about Julia who's FAR younger than she is and suddenly decides to come back into Johns life. Okay so we have the pitting women against each other cliche. To make it REALLY awesome the evil older woman against the sweet and demure, submissive 23 year old. 

So these are just a few cliches and despite these I don't actually think that the authors really look down on sex work but they aren't doing much to mitigate that view in the book. Despite this, I did enjoy reading the book. It was well written despite the cliches and bad political views... and despite even though I hated all the characters except the very practical roommate character. In the end they make her look "better" by showing her actually committing to someone because I guess that makes you a better person? There's so much to unpack in this graphic novel that I dunno if I even did it justice. I get that possibly super sexually oppressed people might like this story as a fantasy but the reality is lots of people do sex work and it doesn't make them bad people and WHY does Julia repeatedly yell at John that she's not a prostitute? That's just UGH. There's nothing wrong with being a sex worker. It's TWO THOUSAND AND BLOODY EIGHTEEN. 

Anyway I think that about wraps it up for this review. The only other item I can really say is that despite most of the art being quite polished (although it's really not my cup of tea), many of the characters suffer from some serious dead-eyedness. Lacking emotion at many points.. and it's mostly Julia just looking like she's had a lobotomy. 

ADVANCED COMIC BOOK REVIEW: Man Eaters #1 (Image Comics)

            I thought it was about time I started writing review articles again and why not start with something deviously named MAN EATERS. This is a new on-going series from New York Times bestselling thriller writer Chelsea Cain. This creator owned series is published by Image Comics and complete with expert interior illustration by artist Kate Niemczyk who has worked for everyone from Marvel to Dark Horse and yes even the game giant Blizzard. All the gutsy and glitsy cover art is by Lia Miternique who is a bit of newcomer to comics but not to design. 

So I bet you're wondering what a book about man eaters could be about. Well it's not about cannibals...exactly. Essentially in this story, the world is rocked by a new plague. In fact a mutation in Toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasmosis is something cat owners these days don't really concern themselves with. It is a disease caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which can be found in garden soil and raw meat. Cats can get toxoplasma infection by killing and eating infected prey. The disease can also be passed on from cats to humans. However in MAN EATERS the mutation causes menstruating women to turn into ferocious, killer wildcats. It has caused more than a few deaths. So many in fact that the government had to create a new task force to deal with the devastation. 

So what do I think about this debut killer issue? I think the idea is pretty fun and although it did remind me a bit of Cat People with Malcolm McDowell at first, it's a pretty far cry from the 80's thriller. It also doesn't seem to take itself too seriously which is a major pitfall of most thriller and horror stories lately. Without spoiling much of the story I have to ask however, why tampons?  Allow me to just go on a bloody tangent here. I totally get that tampons are a big symbol in this book because we're dealing with menstruating women who turn into human eating cats but WHY tampons? Is it because it's penetrative? Is it because pads and diva cups will confuse male readers? That seems a bit unlikely. 

So why tampons? I hate tampons. I could never get them to work, leaking little turds that were uncomfortable and prone to infecting a gal. Not to mention that the whole history of the tampon is still accredited to a man. The whole idea of plugging up your vagina was not invented by the guy who first patented the tampon. (Dr. Earle Haas Women have been sticking things up there to soak up blood since ancient Egypt but still a man gets credit for inventing the tampon... the world is really confusing.) Regardless I am left assuming that penetration is the point here not to mention the control a tampon (is suppose to lend). The whole story is pretty much society trying to control the sexual maturity of women... you know, exactly like society in real life. I'm not being sarcastic. That's how I actually look at the world and what I believe to be true. I think a lot of us see that as truth. Okay let's move away from tampons and deeply depressing reality faced by women during puberty. 

As for interior art, I think you're going to be pretty at home with this book if you're a Marvel comics fan. Niemczyk & Cain were responsible for the very celebrated and also very much attacked MOCKINGBIRD: My Feminist Agenda. Here like the artwork in Mockingbird, we have panels that are straight forward in their intention. It's easy to grasp what's happening in every panel, emotions are precise and clear. You don't have to guess who characters are half the time because they are easily distinguished from each other. Of course if you've read many of my reviews or watched my videos you know that one of my major pet peeves in the comic world is a book with a bunch of characters who all look the same.

MAN EATERS #1 is available in stores September 26th and I completely recommend you putting it on your pull list because it's quite a bit of fun. 

COMIC BOOK REVIEW: Death of Love trade (Image Comics)

 Hello Comic book junkies it's the frog queen here back from a little summer break. Today I'm talking about DEATH OF LOVE by Justin Jordan and illustrated by Donal Delay. The collected trade edition was just released this Wednesday. Death of Love was originally serialized as a 5 part mini series with Image Comics.

BACK TO BACK Comic Book Review: Bone Parish & The New World #1

This is a double feature... well a double review. On July 25th 2018 we say the debut of two new comic book series: BONE PARISH #1 and THE NEW WORLD #1. Here's what I thought!

COMIC BOOK REVIEW: Ice Cream Man Vol 1 (Image Comics)

Hey Comic Book Junkies, please watch my latest video review below!

Writer: W. Maxwell Prince
Artist / Cover: Martin Morazzo, Chris O’Halloran
Variant Cover: Mike Shea - See more at: https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/ice-cream-man-3#sthash.SaGPd5aN.dpuf

Interview with Sloane Leong on PRISM STALKER

Today I'm talking to Sloane Leong about her new Image Comic book series PRISM STALKER. You can get both issue 1 & 2 in stores today. Issue 3 is available May 9th.

If you haven't, please check out my review of issues 1 & 2 here:

THE REALM Vol 1 (Image Comics)

Hello! Today I'm reviewing Image Comics' THE REALM VOL 1 by Jeremy Haun and Seth M. Peck. Also, I've been streaming on Twitch so check me out over there!

Follow me on Twitch! http://www.twitch.tv/thefrogqueen

Why Should You Read ROYAL CITY by Jeff Lemire

It's no real surprise for long time readers, that I'm a fan of Jeff Lemire. It may be a surprise that he's one busy dude who is writing multiple comic book series as I write this one little article. He's been very busy all over the world of comics. He writes for the big 2 here and there as well as providing Valiant Comics with some of the best superhero genre comics of modern times. Of course, he somehow manages to both writer and illustrate his creator owned comics published by Image Comics on top of it all. He must be a superhero himself.

ROYAL CITY is one of those creator owned comics that is currently ongoing with Image Comics. Not to mention his latest debut series there GIDEON FALLS.

Volume 2 of Royal City comes out April 18th and if you haven't been paying this series any attention, I suggest you do now. Get volume 1 just like I did and BINGE this now. I wrongly ignored this series because I was busy with all the Jeff Lemire going on everywhere all over the comic book world. So it wasn't until a week ago that I decided it was time to pay some attention to his latest creator owned series. I couldn't have been more wrong to have ignored it although, it is an amazing binge read. I can't speak to how I would feel about this series if I had read it monthly. Binge reading this had me reeling. I COULD NOT STOP READING. In fact, with issue #10 finishing in February, I'm in shock. I need more. I need it now but I don't get more until issue #11 on frick'n May 30th!!!

So, why should you read ROYAL CITY? Firstly, the plot itself. This is about a family dealing with trauma and it is presented in a unique way that actually tackles how different family members deal differently with the same trauma. In this case, it is dealing with a possibly suicide. Throughout the series, the deceased person appears to each member of the family in a different way. Some family members see the deceased as they were when they died. Others imagine them as grown up who has been with them in all the absent years progressing with them as if they were alive.

It's not clear right away whether they see the deceased purely in their own mind or by some supernatural intervention. It's a huge mystery and it does keep you reading. You continue to learn about each character and not only how they feel about the deceased but how they feel about each other as the history of their lives unfolds throughout the story. Of course, they are all dealing with another family member facing a death sentence.

What is interesting to me about this particular Lemire book, is not only the realism of how a person's brain deals with grief, but the effect the art itself. It imparts a significant loneliness throughout the entirety of the series to date. This feels very real and you actually feel the loneliness and struggle of each character in a very emotional way without even having to consider their actions and words. You will quickly find sympathy with each of the characters despite their flaws. You will just FALL IN LOVE.

So my question to you is: WHY AREN'T YOU READING ROYAL CITY?!

Interview with Sarah Horrocks on GORO, Twisted Romance & Politics

INTERVIEW with SEBASTIAN GIRNER on SCALES AND SCOUNDRELS (Image Comics)

Interview with RICH TOMMASO on DRY COUNTY (Image Comics)

  Today I'm talking to Comic Book Creator Rich Tommaso on his upcoming Image Comics Series DRY COUNTY out March 14th. You can pre-order using Diamond ID: JAN180605. Don't forget to subscribe to my Youtube channel!

How Boring was SEX CRIMINALS?

So I do this thing from time to time where I completely ignore books that have too much hype. That's what I did Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky's SEX CRIMINALS. When the series initially debuted, I completely ignored it. I saw the hype of course, that was difficult to ignore. I saw the very special amounts of money Image Comics was dedicating to advertising and special edition floppies. I saw rave review after rave review. So here we are 21 issues later and I still haven't read a single issue...

Until the other day I found a copy of the first trade for 5 Canadian dollars at my local comic book shop and said "Okay, let's do this". "DO THIS" I tried.... and failed. I didn't completely finish the first trade. I was so..... BORED! I WAS FUCKING BORED! I sat down looking for a time travelling, sex fueled heist and got a stereotypical take on a teenage girl discovering her body (in a bathtub) written by a dude and a lot of really boring exchange between two people talking about masturbating and sex. By boring I mean, there wasn't one line that made me laugh.

I heard the book was clever and funny. I am the type of person who laughs out loud while reading comedic stories. You can ask my fiance about that one because he makes fun of me on the regular about it. Not once, in fact while laying next to him in bed I slammed the book down and looked over at him and said, "this book is totally overrated". I immediately went on facebook and asked everybody about what they thought of the book and then I picked up volume 1 of Ranma 1/2 and began giggling. Mood improved 100%.

So after a day I got a shitload of replies about SEX CRIMINALS. I wasn't the only one who thought it was boring or mediocre. In fact, a bunch of other comic book Youtubers, reviewers and journalist replied with the same reaction. I had several comic book creators chime in with their two cents agreeing and comic shop owners also confused about how the book gained so much hype. So WHY did it get so popular? My immediate thought is that after the success of Matt Fraction's Hawkeye run  in 2012 (which I really did enjoy btw), apparently Fraction was the golden boy and everything that spun out from under him was a golden egg rather than a golden shit. I think they might have been wrong about this one... I'm really leaning toward a rather mediocre, plain egg. I can't really call the book shit, it's not. It is in my opinion, just so mediocre that if anyone else had conceived it, I believe it would be universally ignored.

But I'm not trying to make a big dig at the writing. I have opinions on the artwork as well. I would have been very happy if the entire book looked like that cover. See that cover I posted at the beginning of this article!? THAT ONE. That cover is brilliant. The inside of the comic, not so much.

I really didn't like the artwork. I tried to envision it without color and thought "Oh there it is. There is Chip doing that thing I've appreciated in him, in the past". But why does this particular book look so awful? I remember looking at the artwork when issue one dropped and my instinct said: NOT THIS BOOK. (I feel like I'm using a lot of capitals in this article which isn't terribly typical of me but lets just go with it shall we?)

So what is it that I don't like about the artwork in this book? The coloring. I am still NOT a huge fan of the way the book is drawn. I've seen Chips work other places and really enjoyed it but not here. I went to the inside cover of the book. I saw two credits, Becka Kinzie and Christopher Sebela (side note: Christopher being a writer I've enjoyed many books from in the past) are credited with Color Flatting. That doesn't really explain the issue here.

Flatting, if you're unfamiliar, is a job to speed up the coloring process by separating the elements on the pages into colors. The colorist can then select those colors with the Magic Wand Tool in Photoshop to quickly change and edit the colors. This suggests of course that Chip colored the book himself. So another strike against Chip I guess. Damn, I love supporting Canadian Comic Artists but damn. I've never had a fondness for the Photoshop look  anyway, which is screaming from the pages of this book. If only this book was colored in a moebie-esque pallet but not everything can look so lovely.

So I attempted to do a bit of research about this series and all I could really find was a lot of rave reviews from comic book media sites and a lot of mediocre reviews from actual readers on Amazon and some bizarrely 4 star rated reviews that were actually just full of criticism.

Yes I did find a couple pleased people and of course, people are more likely to write a review about a book if they had an extreme reaction to it one way or the other. I wouldn't normally post other peoples reviews in a way to back up my own but I really find this interesting. For an Image series, I normally don't see this sort of anomaly which leads me to wonder...why is Image backing this series so hard? Yes I realize that favoritism happens at the publishers house, but without an insider view I can't accuse them of blind favoritism. I don't see the sales stats so I can't see how well the book is selling. It could be selling very well and therefore Image sees fit to back the series harder. 

At any rate the series continues to be published leaving many of us apparently, very confused. I dunno know about you but I'm going to go read some more comedic manga.