March 2012

Cover - 6 - The more I look at it, the less I like it.  I like Bisely, the new logo treatment is kinda cool (flat head screws are practically archaic), it's plenty gruesome for a cover, but it seems such a mishmash even for a promo cover.  I can imagine someone saying "I dunno, let's put an explosion... here."  It doesn't help that I'm confused by the print mag touting Requiem #10, while the website image announces "World Premier of Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" and, there's only 3 horses...but I'm easily confused.

Gallery - 8 - To me a curious move to publish old Classic covers for the Gallery (and Artist Studio), but I really like the old covers, so I'm good for now.

The Bogey's Dictionary - 6 - Pretty funny and sometimes clever

Metal Media - 7 - I'm not into movies as much as this guy, Drive doesn't look as interesting to me as it does to him, and it's pretty New York - centric, but it's still a fun read.

Requiem - 8 - Spectacularly rendered as usual.  The selection of Hiroshima as the scene of the earthly atrocity is admirable.  Reading multiple two page panels across the crease was challenging for me, the storytelling was ok but there were some good lines, and the censorship was lamentable and clumsy.  I still enjoyed it.

Animal'z - 8 - It's obtuse and absurd, I think that's why I like it.  It might be trying to say something, that I don't get.  The art is sketchy, but it's still sharp, and maybe it adds to the mood.  I think I'm lucky to see it.

In the Trenches of Oniria - 7 -This isn't my favorite Xalabarder, still like it, but less enchanted.  There is a lot to look at, and indeed, "what a lugubriously furnished mind the poor devil has."

Fiendy - 7 - Though the story is light the telling is fun.  DP's lettering adds to it.  I do like the art and its energy.  I'm totally diggin' the recumbent machine gun cycle.

Kranburn #1

Kranburn is a webcomic (link on my Links page) that I first saw on the departed HM forums.  The author and artist BMB is rather prolific and pretty talented.  I recall he said he was trying to produce this ridiculously quickly, he puts out a page a week and for a while it was two pages.  The style is raw, and the story is of a vicious post apocalyptic near future set in suburban Australia.  Yes, Mad Max does come to mind, which is fitting as I think HM and Mad Max / Road Warrior influenced each other at their times.

He successfully got #1 published, so I bought a copy.  It was a bit challenging and expensive getting this from AU, but the company (fec comics) was responsive.  The book itself is rather small, less than 7" x 11" but it's very good quality with nice shiny pages, and I really enjoy a physical magazine like this, holding it and being able to flip back and forth between pages easily, so taking the trouble to get it is worth it to me.

I think this first installment of the story does the best of all I've seen so far.  It sets up the environment, only shows a bit of the background story, and grabs your attention with a car chase, brutally violent action, and wild swings of emotion.  This kind of gripping presentation is exciting.  The art is spare but with enough detail and range of perspectives to keep me interested.  Knowing how it progresses from watching the webcomic, I see that it's well thought out and appreciate how he tells the story.  Following chapters have more foreshadowing and exposition than this first one, which works to this one's advantage as a visual thrill ride and horror show.

Future installments are planned, and I will buy them for the sake of having the paper copies, and giving a bit of support to a comics creator that I like.  You should too.