#IReadsYou Review: KILLADELPHIA #4

KILLADELPHIA #4
IMAGE COMICS – @ImageComics

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

STORY: Rodney Barnes
ART: Jason Shawn Alexander
COLORS: Luis Nct
LETTERS: Marshal1 Dillon
LOGO/GRAPHIC DESIGN: Brent Ashe
EDITOR: Greg Tumbarello
COVER: Jason Shawn Alexander
VARIANT COVER ARTIST: Eric Canete
28pp, Colors, 3.99 U.S.(February 2020)

Rated “M/ Mature”

“Sins of the Father” Part IV: “...Cry Out for Revolution!”

Killadelphia is a new comic book series from writer Rodney Barnes and artist Jason Shawn Alexander (Empty Zone).  The series focuses on a police officer who is clued onto a lurid secret by his dead father; the corrupt, but historical city of Philadelphia is vampire-ridden.  Colorist Luis Nct and letterer Marshall Dillon complete Killadelphia's creative team.

James “Jim” Sangster, Jr. is a Baltimore Police Department beat cop who comes home to deal with the final affairs of his recently murdered father, revered Philadelphia homicide detective, James Sangster, Sr.  Jimmy hated his father, who is not dead, but is of the undead.  Now, son, vampire dad, and the chief medical examiner are working to stop a vampire apocalypse initiated by... the second President of the United States!

Killadelphia #4 (“...Cry Out for Revolution!”) opens on the night of revolution.  John Adams, President turned vampire overlord, sends him vampire horde into the city of Philadelphia – to terrify it, to destroy it, and to drain it of its lifeblood.  This is Adams' revolution to free mankind and to save humanity.  Meanwhile, one of Adams' lieutenants has apparently turned counter-revolutionary, and he wants to meet Jim, Sr.

I tried waiting extended periods of time between reading issues of Killadelphia.  It was my way of putting some distance between each issue and my mad love for this thrilling, modern vampire comic book.  But forget that.  Image Comics recently made a PDF review copy of Killadelphia #4 available to reviewers and that was vampire crack to a vampire crackhead reader.  That would be me.

Artist Jason Shawn Alexander and colorist Luis Nct, who are starting to seem like the dream team of apocalyptic comic books, present the fall of a city in kinetic compositions and in spurts and splashes of end-times colors.  Meanwhile, Marshall Dillon quietly letters and notes the last, dying hours of a city that was living on borrowed time anyway.

In 2004, Marvel Comics published a small trade paperback, Blade: Black & White, to coincide with the release of the film, Blade: Trinity.  Among the stories reprinted in the collection were two Blade stories written by Chris Claremont (best known for his work on X-Men/Uncanny X-Men) and two by Marv Wolfman (best known for writing The New Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths).  The four stories were magnificent tales of urban horror and dark fantasy that mixed blaxploitation cinema with the edginess of the urban dramas and the horror movies of 1960s and 1970s.

Killadelphia's killa scribe, Rodney Barnes, is bringing da funk and da noise of edgy, urban, Black/African-American horror fantasy.  This series offers some of the best vampire fiction in recent memory, and Barnes also seems to be dancing around dropping some major family dysfunction on his readers pretty soon.  So... I'm still giving this my highest recommendation to encourage you to read Killadelphia, dear readers.

[This issue contains bonus art.]

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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#IReadsYou Review: CHRONONAUTS: Futureshock #1

CHRONONAUTS: FUTURESHOCK No. 1 (OF 4)
IMAGE COMICS – @ImageComics

[This review was originally published on Patreon.]

WRITER: Mark Millar – @mrmarkmillar
ARTIST: Eric Canete
COLORS: Giovanna Niro
LETTERS: Peter Doherty with Melina Mikulic
EDITOR: Rachel Fulton
COVER: Pasqual Ferry with Dave McCaig
VARIANT COVERS: Travis Charest; Eric Canete with Giovanna Niro; Kevin Nowlan; Rey Macutay with Walter Pezzali
28pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (October 2019)

Chrononauts created by Mark Millar and Sean Gordon Murphy

Rated M / Mature

Chrononauts: Futureshock is a four-issue, comic book miniseries written by Mark Millar (Kick-Ass) and drawn by Eric Canete.  All four issues were simultaneously published on October 30, 2019.  Colorist Giovanna Niro and letterers Peter Doherty and Melina Mikulic complete Futureshock's creative team.

Chrononauts: Futureshock is the sequel to the four-issue miniseries, Chrononauts, which was created by Millar and artist Sean Gordon Murphy.  Published in 2015, the first series focused on the world's first time travelers, Dr. Corbin Quinn and Dr. Danny Reilly, and the problems they encounter or create while time-traveling.

Chrononauts: Furtureshock #1 opens in the present day and finds Quinn and Reilly ready to take the next big step in the advancement of time-traveling.  They want to finally travel forward in the time-stream, after making six missions into the past.  The duo has a new vehicle, the “Time-Hawk,” which is built to resemble a giant electric guitar, and they also have special new “chrono-suits.”  There is, however, a specific reason why Quinn and Reilly have thus far failed to travel into the future.  Until one of them discovers that reason, they will always be going backwards.

Like much of Mark Millar's creator-owned comics outside of Marvel Comics, Chrononauts was the usual, glossy, high-concept piece featuring characters that know a lot, but don't realize how much they don't know.  An action-comedy, Chrononauts was a four-issue romp through time that was quite entertaining to read.  I recently read the entire series and found myself quickly reading through the entire thing in less than a day (in between work and assorted tasks).

Chrononauts: Furtureshock #1 suggests more fun in the same vein.  Nearly four and a half years after the release of the original, Millar's story for Chrononauts: Furtureshock seems to pick up right where the first left off.  Furtureshock's artist, Eric Canete, has a graphic style that is close to Sean Gordon Murphy's drawing style, so the change in artists is not jarring.  Canete is a little flashier and more dramatic both in his composition and in his graphic design of the page and within individual panels than Murphy.  It is now, however, a case of one artist being better than the other.  They are simply similar in some ways and different in others.

The coloring by Giovanna Niro is fiery and flashy and that makes the story edgy and gives it a jolt of energy that picks up the pace.  There are pages in which the coloring even mimics the camera flare effect.  The lettering by Peter Doherty, with an assist from Melina Mikulic, keeps punching the story into action every time it seems as if the narrative is going to be quiet.

I won't call Chrononauts: Furtureshock #1 a great comic book, but it is hugely entertaining.  Since I was too clueless to figure out that Image Comic released all four issues simultaneously, I don't have issues two, three, and four.  I will get them, though; the end of the first issue offers the kind of cliffhanger that makes readers want to come back for more.

7.5 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.


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Dark Horse Comics from Diamond Distributors for September 20, 2017

DARK HORSE COMICS

JUL170155    BLACK HAMMER #13 LEMIRE CVR    $3.99
JUL170154    BLACK HAMMER #13 MAIN    $3.99
JUL170159    DEPT H #18    $3.99
MAY170035    END LEAGUE LIBRARY ED HC    $39.99
JUL170192    HALO RISE OF ATRIOX #2    $3.99

Review: MARTIAN MANHUNTER #1

MARTIAN MANHUNTER #1
DC COMICS – @DCComics

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITER: Rob Williams
PENCILS: Eddy Barrows
INKS: Eber Ferreira
COLORS: Gabe Eltaeb
LETTERS: Tom Napolitano
COVER: Dan Panosian
VARIANT COVER: Eric Canete
32pp, Color, $2.99 U.S. (August 2015)

Rated “T+” for “Teen Plus”

“Weapon!”

The Martian Manhunter a.k.a. J'onn J'onzz is a DC Comics superhero.  This sci-fi hero was created by writer Joseph Samachson and artist Joe Certa and first appeared in Detective Comics #225 (cover dated: November 1955).  J'onn, a native of Mars, is also one of the seven original members of the Justice League of America.

Now, with the advent of the “DCYou” publishing event, J'onn J'onzz has a new ongoing comic book series.  Martian Manhunter is written by Rob Williams, drawn by Eddy Barrows (pencils) and Eber Ferreira (inks), colored by Gabe Eltaeb, and lettered by Tom Napolitano.

Martian Manhunter #1 (“Weapon!”) opens with a prologue wherein a group of children visit a strange man named Mr. Biscuits.  Meanwhile, the Martian Manhunter is trying to save an airliner from crashing, all the while unleashing a psychic call for help.  At the Justice League Watchtower, Superman, Flash, and Cyborg are having a little difficulty believing what they are witnessing, while war zones erupt and terrorists unleash multiple attacks.  An alien invasion begins.

Martian Manhunter #1 is another of those DCYou launches that I avoided reading even though it was in my reading slush pile.  I regret that now, as the second issue has already arrived in comic book shops, and I might not be able to get a copy.  Obviously, I enjoyed reading this first issue, and it could be the start of a tremendously good title.

I might be wrong.  Perhaps, I should wait to read another issue, but it seems to me, after only one reading, that series writer Rob Williams has unleashed something big.  If the rest of this story arc is as good as the opening chapter, it will be the kind of big, event story that should launch something.  You know:  the way Flashpoint launched The New 52.

I love, and I do mean love, the art by the team of Eddy Barrows and Eber Ferreira.  It is old-fashioned and textured, not relying on the colorist to provide texture, such as “feathering.”  Still, colorist Gabe Eltaeb manages to shine anyway, with a color palette that establishes a dark mood, the sense of a world under siege by things not of this world.

Wow!  I want more Martian Manhunter.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

Image Comics from Diamond Distributors for April 15, 2015

IMAGE COMICS

FEB150501     68 BAD SIGN ONE SHOT CVR A (MR)     $3.99
FEB150502     68 BAD SIGN ONE SHOT CVR B (MR)     $3.99
FEB150598     CHRONONAUTS #2 (MR)     $3.50
FEB158100     CHRONONAUTS #2 CVR B MURPHY (MR)     $3.50
DEC140731     FADE OUT #5 (MR)     $3.50
FEB150608     GHOSTED #19 (MR)     $2.99
FEB150620     ODDLY NORMAL #6 CVR A FRAMPTON     $2.99
FEB150621     ODDLY NORMAL #6 CVR B RICHARD     $2.99
FEB158258     POSTAL #1 2ND PTG     $3.99
FEB158259     POSTAL #2 2ND PTG     $3.99
JAN150650     PUNKS THE COMIC TP VOL 01 NUTPUNCHER     $14.99
JAN150701     REVIVAL #29 (MR)     $3.99
FEB150626     REYN #4     $2.99
FEB150487     RUNLOVEKILL #1 (MR)     $2.99
FEB150631     SECRET IDENTITIES #3     $3.50
FEB150632     SHUTTER #11 (MR)     $3.50
JAN150596     SPAWN #251 (MR)     $2.99
DEC140691     SPREAD TP VOL 01 NO HOPE (MR)     $14.99
JAN150712     STRAY BULLETS SUNSHINE & ROSES #3 (MR)     $3.50
FEB150544     SUPERANNUATED MAN TP (MR)     $17.99
FEB150488     TITHE #1 CVR A EKEDAL     $3.99
FEB150489     TITHE #1 CVR B EKEDAL     $3.99

IMAGE COMICS/MCFARLANE TOYS

DEC142228     WALKING DEAD TV BUILDING SET BMB SER 1     PI
DEC142232     WALKING DEAD TV BUILDING SET LEVEL 12     PI
DEC142230     WALKING DEAD TV BUILDING SET LEVEL 3     PI
DEC142231     WALKING DEAD TV BUILDING SET MULTI-PK     PI

I Reads You Review: ROCKETEER ADVENTURES VOL. 2 #3

ROCKETEER ADVENTURES VOL. 2 #3
IDW PUBLISHING

WRITERS: David Lapham, Kyle Baker, Matt Wagner
ARTISTS: Chris Sprouse, Kyle Baker, Eric Canete
INKS: Karl Story
COLORS: Jordie Bellaire, Eric Canete and Cassandra Poulson
LETTERS: Shawn Lee, Kyle Baker
PIN-UP: Eric Powell with Dave Stewart
EDITOR: Scott Dunbier
COVERS: Darwyn Cooke (A, C), Dave Stevens (B)
28pp, Color, $3.50 U.S.

The Rocketeer is a comic book character created by artist and illustrator, Dave Stevens, who died in March of 2008. The Rocketeer is Cliff Secord, a stunt pilot who discovers a mysterious jet pack that allows him to fly, and his adventures are set mainly in Los Angeles in and after the year 1938.

The Rocketeer returned to comic books in 2011 in Rocketeer Adventures. Edited by Scott Dunbier and published by IDW Publishing, this four-issue, anthology comic book was a tribute to Stevens and featured Rocketeer short stories (about 8 pages in length) from some of the premiere creators in American comic books. The tributes continue in Rocketeer Adventures Vol. 2.

Rocketeer Adventures Vol. 2 #3 opens with “Coulda Been…,” a story by David Lapham with art by Chris Sprouse and Karl Story, that finds Cliff Second and his girlfriend, Betty Page, imagining what their lives could be like. In “Butch Saves Betty,” the brilliant cartoonist Kyle Baker introduces Cliff and company to a shadowy client. Then, writer Matt Wagner and artist Eric Canete take readers to the future for a “History Lesson.”

David Lapham is a popular comic book creator, but I wonder if people really appreciate what a good writer he is. I see him as a comic book scribe who can always put an imaginative twist on the character/ensemble drama. Read 30 Days of Night: 30 Days ‘Til Death; it could have been just another vampire comic book, but isn’t. His “Coulda Been…” shows why making comic book characters “grow up,” especially those grounded in fantasy, is a mistake. The reason is that when you make characters act like real-world adults that fundamentally changes those characters, sometimes to the point in which they become different from what they were originally. Another good thing about this story is that the artist is the talented and under-utilized Chris Sprouse.

There is nothing special about the other two stories, other than that Kyle Baker draws one of them. What is special is the pin-up by Eric Powell (with colors by Dave Stewart). I could stare at a Powell drawing for an hour and not consider that a waste of time.

B

The New 52 Review: SUPERBOY #1

SUPERBOY #1
DC COMICS

WRITER: Scott Lobdell
PENCILS: R.B. Silva
INKS: Rob Lean
COLORS: The Hories
LETTERS: Carlos M. Mangual
COVER: Eric Canete with Guy Major
32pp, Color, $2.99

Rated “T” for “Teen”

Superboy first appeared in More Fun Comics #101 (January-February 1945). The character was meant to be Superman as a boy and a teenager. Later, Superboy was reinvented as a clone of Superman and Lex Luthor. With the re-launch of DC Comics’ superhero comics line, “The New 52,” Superboy (the clone) is back.

Superboy #1 opens with Superboy in a glass tank of neonatal amniotic fluid and subjected to various virtual reality programs. Who is Superboy? What is Superboy? Why does the female doctor known as “Red” care for him? Who or what is N.O.W.H.E.R.E.?

What to make of Superboy? It is a mildly enjoyable read. A veteran scribe, Superboy writer Scott Lobdell is a master of dragging out a narrative over several months (or even over a year or two if necessary). That would be just fine and dandy if the characters weren’t so stiff here, although Superboy is interesting.

The art (pencils, inks, and colors) is pretty, but is so stiff and mechanical. If clip art fucked Dilbert, artist R.B. Silva’s style would be the result. Still, I’m curious enough to try at least one more issue.

C+

September 14th

BATMAN AND ROBIN #1
http://ireadsyou.blogspot.com/2011/09/batman-and-robin-1.html
FRANKENSTEIN AGENT OF SHADE #1
http://ireadsyou.blogspot.com/2011/09/frankenstein-agent-of-shade-1.html