REVIEW: Art Bee’s Comic Book Double Header

Halloween has just passed us while Thanksgiving is fast approaching. What do these holidays have in common? That’s correct! These holidays are known for people gorging themselves in unhealthy ways. Its ok as long as its only 2...20…200 times a year, right?
With this in mind and Christmas on the horizon, it seems to me a comic book gorging is in store for our readers.

Grimm Fairy Tails: 2017 Halloween Special

Story: Joe Brusha, Ralph Tedesco, and Anne Toole
Writer: Anne Toole
Artists: Marc Rosete, Eduardo Garcia, Renzo Rodriguez, and Joe Sanchez Diaz
Colors: Ceci de la Cruz, Slamet Mujiono, Fran Gamboa, J.C. Ruiz, Alek Marmontel, and Walter Pereyra
Letters: Fabio Amelia

Lately a problem has surfaced: comic book covers seem to be worth spending big money. Last month I purchased Dawnbreaker for its shininess, and this month I was attracted by a slutty witch on the cover (artwork shown at right). I thought I could possibly get a decent story along with a look-worthy cover.

What surprised me about this issue was the sheer number of people involved with its production. Just look at all of the names above and compare that to only 28 pages in this issue. Were all of those people seriously necessary? The artwork was really good but obviously all digitally done. Looking through the issue at the different sections credited to each set of artists there wasn’t any clear difference in any of the styles. If I hadn’t paid attention to the credits there would have been no chance of me noticing there were more than one artist and colorist. With that all said, the artwork was a fabulous treat for my eyeballs. The colors were extremely vibrant and well chosen.   

This issue features a character by the name of Mary Medina, a woman who has psychic visions of the past. She has arrived in New Orleans, and the person she is to meet is delayed by their enemies. So she does what everyone does when they go to The Big Easy…take a free walking ghost tour. This comic issue claims that New Orleans is one of the most haunted places in the world, and there are several sites online that agree. One of these, Listverse.com, places it as #1. While on the tour Mary experiences the history of each location as the tour guide leads the shrinking group along the tour.

The story was a fairly underwhelming. It did have a nice flow but failed to produce any kind of emotional feeling. Honestly, part of the flow stems from the great artwork. Some time ago I believe I read an issue of Grimm Fairy Tales but it has to have been at least two or three years ago. My recollection of it was fairly unexciting but fantastic artwork. This Halloween Special seems to have fallen into a similar category. At least the people with Zenescope have a strong consistency to their publications.

This $5.99 28-page issue has no ads anywhere other than the back cover, but I feel a bit ripped off.

The Family Trade #1

Writers: Justin Jordan & Nikki Ryan
Artist: Morgan Beem
Letterer: Rachel Deering

This comic was inserted into my folder by my LCS as a, “here try this”.
The Family Trade…
The title inspires questions and intrigue. My first thought when I opened the cover was, “whatever ‘the family trade’ is”, will be evident on the first few pages. This was most definitely the case. Our main character is a young woman. She is a member of “the family”. Their trade is assassination.

The most interesting and creative aspect of this story is the setting, which is a floating city built upon an armada of ships and sounds more neutral and armed than Switzerland. “The family” is painted as a positive force to the stability and safety of The Float, as this city is called. The writers of this strike me as anti-Trump, since the main antagonist has the look and message similar to that of the President.

When it comes to watercolors in the artwork of comics, there never seems to be middle ground in my opinions. The artwork is either great or horrible. Unfortunately The Family Trade’s watercolor artwork sits on the horrible side of my opinion meter, although I do really like the use of color-coding people in a crowd to identify the two sides of a conflict as it breaks out.
Very clever indeed.

Over all this comic book is very dull. The writers didn’t even chose to provide a name for the main character in this issue. Maybe this is a manner of building suspense or buying time to think of one. Regardless of the reason one of the key goals of a book’s first issue is to build rapport between the main character and the reader, and no one trusts another person who will not reveal their name.