Category: News

July 13, 2017

The Black Monday Murders

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Before we talk about The Black Monday Murders, we need to first talk about the author, Jonathan Hickman and the artist, Tomm Coker.

Jonathan Hickman is known for creating Image Comics series The Nightly News, The Manhattan Projects and East of West, as well as working on Marvel Comics’ Fantastic Four, FF and S.H.I.E.L.D. He also wrote Avengers and The New Avengers, as part the “Marvel NOW!” relaunch as well as a six-part miniseries, Infinity, plus Avengers tie-ins for Marvel Comics.

Artist Tomm Coker, on the other hand, is known for his work on Undying Love, Wolverine, and Daredevil to name a few.

What does this have to do with The Black Monday Murders? Everything.
When you start reading The Black Monday Murders you can’t help but feel like all their previous work was just training for this, a chance for them to really hone that dark, dirty, bloody feeling that The Black Monday Murders really thrives on.

Now, let’s get to it. What is The Black Monday Murders all about?

Well first, I reviewed The Black Monday Murders, Vol 1: All Hail, God Mammon TP, which contains comics 1-4 so I’m going to be talking about the entire collection, as it stands thus far.

BUT I’m going to try and do this with as little spoilers as possible, this is one of those cases that you either need to write a full on novel talking about the story to try and do it justice or rather just say nothing at all – I’m opting for the latter.

The Black Monday Murders is a new comic book series about the dark and twisted power of money… and exactly what kind of ‘power’ you can buy for yourself with it.

The series is set in a world where all of the top bankers are a part of this ‘god of money‘ cult, where everything is alright when they are making money on the stock market, by any means necessary, but if the stock market crashes, well then the god of money demands payback.

While you journey through this series you follow so many different characters (both good, and bad), so many intertwined stories and timelines, and yet, somehow it all just works.

The whole series has a very distinctive Crime-Noir feel and look to it, and combined with the story it is a wonderful fit.

The style of the whole comic makes you feel like YOU are the detective in this story, and that every new piece of information you uncover is truly going to help YOU solve this all and figure out the truth of what’s happening all around.

Overall this series has just drawn me in, I feel fully invested in the characters and their stories now and I can not WAIT for more.

Also, it ends off with such a cliffhanger that is sure to make you ache just as much as I am. We. Need. More.

July 13, 2017

Snotgirl

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Before I get into this review I just want to tell you a little bit of my backstory, because it’s that story that led to me read Snotgirl in the first place.

My partner and I have been together for so long that I can’t even remember a time in my life that I wasn’t constantly surrounded by the sounds of sneezing and noses being blown.

It’s just this part of my life now that I have come to terms with and accepted, but also something that I joke about relentlessly… in good spirit… mostly.

See there is this running joke I have, that if my partner was ever to be a superhero his initials would be SM – SNOT MAN. I laugh at this thought every single time I bring it up. He doesn’t really laugh, but I do and I think we can agree that’s what’s important here.

So, when a few days ago I was being annoyed by Mr. Sneezes ALL. THE. TIME. sitting next to me, I started looking through a bunch of comics trying to find a new series to read to distract myself, I saw a series entitled ‘Snotgirl’ I literally felt like a small kid on Christmas morning and I had to have it.

At first, I totally got the series as a joke, just seeing the look on his face when I told him that I got a comic to read JUST because it had a character in it that was his comic book twin and then telling him it was called Snotgirl was absolutely priceless and worth it.

But then, I started to actually read Snotgirl, and as was the case with my very own Snot Man, I fell in love.
Before I get into the actual TP, lets first talk about the people responsible for my moment of happiness turned new obsession:

The story of Snotgirl is written by renowned Canadian cartoonist Bryan Lee O’Malley, the man who was responsible for bringing us one of my all-time favorite series, Scott Pilgrim. While Snotgirl couldn’t be any more different from the world of Scott Pilgrim, there is also something vaguely familiar in the way that the story gets told, it’s like you’re a fly on the wall watching these characters lives play out before you in a surreal yet realistic and relatable way. It’s a magic that lies in the inclusion of all the small, seemingly irrelevant details that others would just omit.

Bryan O’Malley is joined in the series by partner in crime Leslie Hung, a newcomer to the scene and the one who brought the world of Snotgirl to life with her absolutely mind blowing art. Leslie has an Instagram page that she runs and it’s not hard to see why Bryan wanted her for this project, Leslie seems to be able to transfer even the most subtle of feelings with her drawings, and it’s this subtle intensity that makes Snotgirl what it is.

And last, but not least, we see the amazing work of colorist Mickey Quinn who takes all of this and makes it jump off the page, every emotion and feeling expressed flawlessly through colors that give it life.

Now I’m going to try and summarize the story of Snotgirl as best I can while giving away as few spoilers as I can, but really that’s not possible – but let’s just pretend.

So Snotgirl introduces us to the world of Fashion Blogging. You follow the life of Lottie Persons a very well known Fashion Blogger who suffers from very real, and very severe allergy problems.

The story is set in modern day Los Angeles and follows Lottie’s career, friendships, struggles, and relationships.

As you get introduced to Lottie you also get to know both parts of her, the Lottie she is when she’s online and the Lottie that’s behind the screen, the Lottie who isn’t confident, particularly happy or as perfect as she professes herself and her life to be on the internet. We see the real her, allergy ridden and tissue dependent.

Snotgirl is a monthly comic, each new comic taking off from where the last ended – telling one continued story.

As you follow this weird, wacky, and often funny story you find yourself being pulled into a story that’s much darker and troubling than what it appears.

There are so many different elements and tones at play here, but it somehow just works.

Snotgirl is a comic that feels modern and fresh and yet it somehow reminds me of the monthly-continuous-story comics I used to love as a child,

This TS made a strong foundation for the story, I’m intrigued and honestly, I can’t wait to see what happens in the strange and twisted life of Lottie Persons next.
July 13, 2017

Rocket Girl

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If you’ve been around for one of my reviews before then you’ll already know that this is usually the point where I start off my review by sharing some personal anecdote with you all about why I chose this comic to read, and if you’re new here then you now know what you’re supposed to be reading here.

The thing is, though, I don’t have one.

The honest truth is that I didn’t choose Rocket Girl, and I’m not 100% sure it would choose me (and yes, comics are like wands – you don’t choose them, they choose you).

Rocket Girl was one of those comics that I picked up purely because it was there and I couldn’t sleep.

Okay, bonding moment is now over, let’s begin.

Rocket Girl is brought to us by comic book legend, Brandon Montclare.

He has worked on DC Comics Batman; Frank Miller’s Batman and Robin; Batman: City of Crime and Batman: Dark Moon Rising.  Recently he’s been working on Legends of the Dark Knight; Eerie and of course Rocket Girl.

His storytelling is only further brought to life by renowned comic book artist Amy Reeder.

Amy’s work can be recognized in comics like Fool’s Gold, Madame Xanadu, Batwoman and now, Rocket Girl.

The story of Rocket Girl is as follows:

In the future (2006) NYPD is made up of teenagers because, for an unknown reason, adults can’t be trusted.  One of the officers, a young girl named Deyoung, goes back in time to 1986 to stop the largest quantum mechanics company in the world from doing something that drastically altered the future.  She does so knowing that if she stops them she will be destroying the current future and everyone in it.

Only you don’t really know what she’s trying to stop exactly or why.

Now before we go on, I feel the need to clarify something I touched on above.  While 2006 is indeed the future, in the comic you will see it referred to as ‘the past’ and 1986 as ‘the present’ which does make perfect sense when you sit think about it, but in the moment while you’re reading the story, it just feels off.

The idea behind Rocket Girl feels pretty solid, but the execution of that idea? Not so much.  I found myself bored with the story pretty much from the start, mainly because of all the gaping story holes which are just blatantly ignored, like the potholes on the road outside my house.

I had so many questions that were just left hanging in the air pretty much from page 1 up until the last page of the TP (issue 1-5) when I just gave up on ever knowing.

Why can’t adults be trusted?

What is so horrible about ‘the future’?

What happened in the past that was so terrible?

Why does only Deyoung care enough about it to want to sacrifice everything to change it?

Just so many questions… No answers in sight…

That’s also not the only part of the comic that I felt didn’t get the attention it deserved, the characters themselves are more often that not ignored too.  I’m usually very easy to please when it comes to characters because I can form emotional bonds when I read very easily, for Rocket Girl that just wasn’t the case.

I put down the TP feeling exactly how I did when I picked it up: I knew nothing really about Deyoung or the rest of the supporting cast… and I also don’t really care that I don’t.

Now don’t get me wrong, the art is very pretty but it’s not pretty enough to vale over the thinly spread story.

All in all, I wouldn’t recommend Rocket Girl to anyone and I wasn’t exactly sitting on the edge of my seat needing to know more, but I will probably pick up the second TP when it comes out, just to make sure that I didn’t like it, because as with the story I put the comic down just not knowing anything for sure.