REVIEW: Zone Continuum

Script and art: Bruce Zick

Good science fiction seems to be a rarity in the world of comics. There's an abundance of mediocre-to-okay sci-fi books, but very few that really stand out in a sea of uninspired newsprint. The Zone Continuumstands out, not only in the field of science fiction but in comics as a whole.

The Zone Continuum spins the tale of The Dar, a long-lived race that coexists with man, unbeknownst to the human race. Environmental hazards and man-made catastrophe creates 'Zones' in the electromagnetic field around the earth. They are invisible to man and will kill any Dar who passes between the barrier separating the zones. Talon is the Dar who leads Zone 27 and endeavors to find a way to breach the barrier between his Zone and the adjacent one containing his wife, Paris.

Forever separated by their respective zones, this true love kept apart in Shakespearean tragedy is not a new theme but has certainly not been done like this before.

Free Comic Book Day Pt.2

Free Comic Book Day is like my nerd Christmas. I get free comics and any store worth its salt is running all sorts of sweet deals and giveaway promotions.  I was a bit nonplussed about this year’s selection, but who am I to bitch about what companies are giving me for free?  
I hit up 2 comic shops, 1 wannabe nerd store and my local library for my FCBD adventure and came away with a couple handfuls of freebies and a fat stack of 25-cent/Dollar Box finds.
And a $5 Tick tpb.

So without further ado . . .

Mix Tape 2016

Writers: Josh Blaylock, Mike Baron, Team Ash, Matthew Sturges, Dave Justus
Artists: Matt Merhoff, Val Mayerik, Team Ash, David Hahn

Mix Tape is an anthology book produced by the fine folks at Devil's Due and 1First Comics and serves to showcase some of their flagship books.

The first short is a preview of Mercy Sparks: Year One, which I intuit to be an origin story . . . as are most year one titles.
*wink
Mercy is your archetypical sexy devil girl with a rockabilly punker look and is apparently employed by Heaven as a bounty hunter. I've not read any of her comics aside from this preview. I really hope they're good because I've got the full set headed my way courtesy of the Kickstarter. This short doesn't really give you much other than Mercy as a child wandering around the hellish land of Sheol and meeting up with Karduk, a burly Sumerian biker who seems to be a mentor figure.

Next up is a Badger story, and the less said about it the better. I enjoy Mike Baron's work on Nexus but never cared to look into obscure 1980s creation, Badger. Seems my instincts were right, as this short is an MMA fight between Badger and Vladimir Putin.
Like the god's honest Russian head of state.
I have no idea what the hell led up to this event, but after several pages of combat Badger emerges victorious and is christened Wizard of the East.
Whatever the heck that is.
Badger also has a trio of Asian girls rooting for him who speak pidgin English and declares his win over Putin will the spellbinding bit of dialogue, "Melican win. Laise hand now".
Nice racial sensitivity, 1940s Yellow Scare comics would be proud.

Next up is a phenomenal story from the world of Squarriors! Which is a portmanteau of squirrel and warriors! In the spirit of Redwall, Secret of NIMH, and other smart rodent stories, Squarriors tells the tale of warring factions of animal folk in a post-apocalyptic feudal society. It's a fun story and beautifully illustrated. Lavish, even. The art is good enough to prop up the book, but the story certainly doesn't need to use it as a crutch. It's well crafted and often features hyper-violent squirrel murder.
And who doesn't love that?

Our final sample was from a book called Public Relations and focused around a train wreck caused by a giant dragon egg and a narcoleptic engineer. It also features 50 thousand gallons of homemade mayonnaise, tadpole cosplayers, and some other inane bits that try too hard to be weird for the sake of weird and just aren't funny.
Ah, well, at least it was free.

FCBD 2016 Captain America 

Writers: Nick Spencer, Dan Slott
Artists: Jesús Saiz, Javier Garrón

So Steve Rogers isn't an old guy anymore, but neither is he Captain America. Former sidekick Falcon still wields the shield and now has his very own Falcon sidekick, some obnoxious mutated falcon-boy who will hopefully die a horrible death soon. Also, his pet bird Redwing is a vampire now. I think.
Anyway, Red Skull is up to his old HYDRA shenanigans with Crossbones and Sin, and I'm pretty sure he still has psychic powers from eating Professor X's brain or whatever the hell happened.
Good. After Dimension Z and all the clusterfuckery that followed I could go for some good ol' Cap vs. HYDRA comics. As long as Nick Spencer can keep a moratorium on jamming his personal opinion on politics into the book we'll be fine.
This will probably not happen, but I can hope. Spencer is a fine writer, but he could use to keep his rhetoric the hell out my comics.

There's a Spider-Man backup story that pretty much serves as a preamble to the Dead No More event that'll be forcing its way into your summer reading. The framework of all the dead Spidey characters returning to life (and yes, that means Gwen Stacy) is either a riff on nobody staying dead in comics, or some penultimate barrel-scraping. They all could be robots, clones, skrulls or holograms for all I care as long as the story is engaging.
Slott still owes me for fridging Silver Sable . . .

THE TICK! (emphasis mine)

Story: Jeff McClelland
Art: Duane Redhead, Ian Nichols

YEAH! Now this is some inane humor I can get behind! I f'n love The Tick, I don't care if it is a cliché these days.
I'm even a member in good standing of the Mystic Order of Arachnid Vigilance, so take that.
This was my favorite FCBD offering. Versions of Tick from alternate universes keep popping into The City, forcing Tick to hide all of his copies in a garage until he can figure out a course of action. 
There has never been more glorious a sight than a legion of Ticks charging into battle, yelling, "Spoon!", and then falling all over each other in a heap.
Bravo, New England Comics.
We're treated to a brief cameo from Pineapple Pokopo and introduced to a version of Tick from a noir universe who is black and white and speaks aloud his pulpy inner monologue. 
"Causality is a jerk", Tick proclaims, but all's well that ends well as all the alternate Ticks go on a bus trip until a solution is discovered and we close with Tick Prime riding a shark.
If you don't like this book you clearly hate fun.

Rom #0

Plot & script: Chris Ryall, Christos Gage
Pencils/inks/colors: David Messina

Although Tick was my favorite bit of FCBD, Romwas the one to which I most looked forward. The cool kids know Rom was a licensed Hasbro property that Marvel somehow crafted into a popular 70-some-odd issue series in the '80s. Bits of lore from the Rom comic will periodically still show up in contemporary Marvel books, but alas, the license for Rom himself now lies in the hands of IDW, undisputed champions of licensed properties. (Sorry, Dynamite, maybe next year)
Rom is an alien in sweet-ass chrome armor who has come to Earth in order to root out his ancient foes, the Dire Wraiths. In the old Marvel books the Dire Wraiths were some sort of shapeshifting degenerate Skrulls, but in the new Rom, they are evidently evil wizards which is just as good. 
The preview was good, pitting Rom against some wraiths, showcasing his tech, and planting the seed for some possible human allies. Honestly, there was a 1-page ad for the old-school Rom comic (Romic?) that was just as efficient as this whole book, but I don't care. Rom is back, baby, and I'm looking forward to see how the new incarnation stacks up against The House of Ideas' version from yesteryear.

Free Comic Book Day Pt. 1

This year when I, Art Bee, looked at the list for FCBD, I cringed. The majority of the comic books looked like they were aimed at children so boo-hoo for us adults. I am very jealous of my daughter, because she won a raffle for one copy of every FCBD book. A couple of the comic books picked are very good the others, the majority are not. I will be reviewing some of the ones I picked and a few of my daughter’s. I tried to get her to review a couple but she got embarrassed. Let’s get started.

The Stuff of Legend

Story:  Mike Raicht & Brian Smith

Illustrations:  Charles Paul Wilson III

Design and Colors:  Jon Conkling & Michael DeVito

This is the reprinting of another FCBD comic book for the first volume of this title. They claim it is to honor their current readers in anticipation of the fifth volume. This seems a little strange. Why reprint a free comic of the first volume to promote your fifth volume?

This story seems to be aimed at children and looks to be a Toy Story recreation with an element of horror. The story features a little boy, whom is kidnapped by the Boogie-Man, and the boy’s toys have to mount a rescue attempt.

Even though the artistry is fantastic, the story really sucks. The toys discuss and debate which of them is going on the mission for far too long. There is no way a child would stay focused long enough on this debate, and as something of an adult, I did not want to finish it due to its childishness.

Spectrum

Written: PJ Haarsma & Alan Tudyk

Illustrations:  Sarah Stone

Producers:  Alan Tudyk, PJ Haarsma, and Nathan Fillion

This seems like it will be an awesome series. Spectrum was the first comic I picked on FCBD mainly due to me being a major Firefly fan, so when I saw this comic was produced by Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion, I clapped my hand and giggled like a little girl getting a Barbie (this is not an exaggeration I am sorry to say).

The story’s title is the name of the ship that will be featured in this series, and a picture with technical data is provided in this comic book.

On the inside of the front cover is a nice long backstory to provide the setting and useful information for the reader. This has been a great tactic started by the Star Wars movies and is used by smart writers of science fiction.

The artwork is good for the most part, but it has a bit of an odd element to the lines of it. That is the best statement I can make. Once you see the work you will understand. Other than that there is not much to say.

If you are a fan of the Firefly series, you will love this. If not, then you will still like this and you should watch the awesomeness known as Firefly.

Serenity:  The Warrior and the Wind

Script: Chris Robinson

Art: Stephen Byrne

Lettering:  Michael Heisler

Hellboy:  The Mirror

Script:  Mike Mignola

Art:  Richard Corben

Colors: Dave Stewart

Aliens Defiance:  Extravehicular

Script:  Brian Wook

Art:  Tristan Jones

Colors: Dan Jackson

There are three stories in this one free comic book. I was truly taken aback by the rude implantation of crap with my Firefly/Serenity story. That was very not nice.

Serenity: the Warrior and the Wind is a short story in which River, one of the main characters, is telling Emma, the daughter of Zoe and Wash (both main characters as well), a bedtime story featuring all of the cast. This is a very unique way to provide the backstory of the series mixed with a bit of fairy tale. By my admission, this is very clever.

The artwork and colors are astonishing although a bit cartoony. This fits with the theme of this short story, so my feeling is it is admissible.

Now we move to Hellboy: the Mirror. Even though I have never been a Hellboy fan, this is utter crap. Hellboy enters a house, looks into a mirror, is attacked by a ghost, and begs for it to stop. The ghost disappears, and then Hellboy leaves. The End. See what I mean – crap.

If that wasn’t enough, the artwork was painful to look at as well.

The third story in the book is Aliens Defiance:  Extravehicular. This story featured some very nice lines and color, but the story itself was very bland for starting in the heat of a fight. Realistically this should have been an exciting piece. The dialog and flow did not convey the intensity it should have.

Camp Midnight

Writer:  Steven T. Seagle

Artist:  Jason Adam Katzenstein

The opening for this comic book is:

“Skye’s parents put her on the wrong bus, and now she’s about to find out what it means to be the only human girl at an all monster camp . . .”

Now the theme and title scream children’s comic to me. This story also addresses some classic child themes such as fitting in, standing up to bullies, and being loyal to friends. What does this all mean? I was very bored reading this comic book. My daughter seemed to really like it, so I am right on the mark for the theme.

I really don’t want to address the artwork, but my obligation as a comic book critic deems it necessary. The artwork made me throw up in my mouth just a bit. The lines are not consistent, but the colors are. Each panel has a color . . . just . . . one . . . color. Can we say mono-tone?

REVIEW: Bloodlines #1 of 6

Script: J.T. Krul
Pencils: V. Ken Marion
Inks: Sean Parsons
Colors: Andrew Dalhouse
Review: Art Bee

You may have gathered that I am not much of a DC fan. Looking back through my other reviews, I only noticed two DC reviews in my three years with the HCB. At my LCBS I happened to notice Bloodlines #1 and #2 from DC sitting on the shelf. The covers were striking, and after flipping through the first issue, I decided to give this six part mini-series a try.

Honestly, my opinion on this book is really split. It has an average story, intriguing characters, and some amazing artwork but has some faults as well. I will warn you now, there is going to be a couple of minor spoilers.

The first thing I would point out is towards the editing. On page 6 in the last panel, one of the main characters says, “You don’t want my back. Trust me. Five more years, it’s going look like a pretzel.” It should read ". . . it's going TO look like a pretzel." This is the second time in a month I have addressed editing issues in comics, although the other one was in a comic book from the late 90s.


The first issue is almost completely centered on the character of Eddie, even though other characters are introduced. Eddie is a former skateboarding teen on crutches after some kind of accident that left him partially paralyzed. He is introduced after the opening scene sitting as he is getting up for a day at school. The writer and artists do an incredible job of communicating so many details with just a few panels. The scene and dialog between Eddie and his mother indicate three major things about Eddie and their relationship. First Eddie is eating Chocolate Cookie Blast cereal while there is a plate of various fruit, bagels, and orange juice on the table. The second is Eddie’s mother is leaving for work early in the morning and tells him that she will be home late at night. This is an indication of a single mother working two jobs. The third is Eddie’s depressed mood. When his mother leaves and says she loves Eddie, the artist conveys the boy’s mood extremely well in his face when he says he loves her too.

Throughout the comic book each character is created and woven into the story well. Each is likable and unlikable according to their traits, but I have an issue with Eddie’s. At the end of issue one, when something bad happens to Eddie’s best friend, Graham (a super likable character by the way), Eddie transforms into a big blue brute when he gets upset. Does that sound familiar to anyone? That’s right. It sounds like and resembles the Hulk. Granted he gets this ability from completely different means (revealed in issue #2), but it still seems like a steal from Marvel, whom is beating DC in the Box Office, TV, and comics.

The artwork is just beautiful throughout each issue. The three artists seem to have a massively successful collaboration. My favorite panel is the one introducing Haley. Their work with her has made me have a small crush on this fictional character. That’s right; laugh it up, guys. Each artist is focused on details in characters, objects, and backgrounds. Everything is fantastic.

This mini-series has a very intriguing story developing, and I am interested in seeing where it goes. It is added to my pull list, so I can see how much more DC is robbing from Marvel, whom is still under my embargo for treating readers like dumbasses. Check it out and see for yourselves. It is nice to see something fresh come out of DC. To me their brand has always seemed a little stale, like an old man that is comfortable with a certain status quo.