GABBARD BROTHERS 3 of 3
Tuesday, August 30, 2022
Easter's Child
This song brings back great memories of The Band and others . . .
THE GABBARD BROTHERS 2 of 3
Saturday, August 27, 2022
Earthdivers Trailer - New IDW Original comic series
One of my favorite authors, STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES, is coming
to comics! I'm looking forward to this . . . . . .
PGHHEAD'S 2022 COMICS ODYSSEY, Part Thirty-Four
PGHHEAD’S 2022 COMIC ODYSSEY, PART 34
In 2021 I set a goal to post reviews here for 1,000 comics, and finished the year at 1,008 reviews. It was a stretch - - not to read that many comics, because I actually read quite a bit more. The challenge is to find and take the time to write a fair review of what I read - - but I made it. I’m up for a new year, and a new challenge. My goal for 2022 is to read and document 1,200 comics. That’s an average of 100 books per month, easy enough to check and update. Wish me luck!
# GOAL FOR August 31, 2022 . . . 800 comics documented
CURRENT COUNT . . . . . 795 comics documented
As the world deals with the loss of the Thinker; Logan, Jessica and their infant son Jaq have found a secluded spot to live out their new found extended lives. But the world isn't done with Logan-6 and though he tries to stay out of things, a mysterious person from his past re-emerges with an agenda of her own and a score to settle with the retired Sandman.
It's rare that I don't finish a limited series. I read this in the single monthly issues, but stopped after Issue #4. I should mention that Issue #4 was an improvement over the prior issues, which did not really seem like they were taking place in the world of Logan's Run. This was a disappointing series following the promising LOGAN'S RUN: LAST DAY that preceded it.
Back to Issue #4: the storyline finally began to show some promise, with a flashback to earlier times when Logan was a DS (deep sleep) agent and a rivalry during training between he and a female agent, who turns out to be the villain in this story. However, prior to this the storyline seemed to be re-telling a common western fiction theme in a futuristic setting, with Logan assuming the role of a retired gunfighter trying to keep his family isolated. But his past catches up to him.
The story does deliver a few dramatic moments, but the art fails to enhance the story. While there are a few images that show some skill and creativity, the art overall is very inconsistent and sloppy, sometimes with minimal backgrounds and just figures in the foreground. Very disappointing. Three Star rating because of the potential.
The inclusion of Logan's Run co-creator William F. Nolan and Jason Brock on the first series seems to have made a difference. Paul Salamoff's story by itself is not engaging. I also miss the short histories of Logan's world which were scripted by Brock in the first series, and only one of which appears in the four issues I read. THREE STARS.
BARBARIC utilizes familiar trappings of the barbarian/gladiator/mercenary sword-and-sorcery genre. What the creative team does with those trappings makes this a fresh take on what is sometimes an over-worked genre. (As good as those Barry Windsor-Smith, Roy Thomas/John Buscema, Timothy Truman Conan and Kull comics are, I grow weary if I read too many of them.)
Wisely, I believe, the story of Barbaric is going to be broken up into short mini-series and one-shots, and not an ongoing monthly title. However, I don't expect to grow weary of stories with Owen (unusual name for a barbarian, don't you think?) and his bloodthirsty axe, who he engages in private and amusing banter with (that no one else can hear so they think him crazy).
What makes this fresh is the curse placed on Owen by a trio of witches: "Henceforth, you live in servitude, and all the world is your Master. Any cry for help, any haven under siege, any beggar in distress you must aid."
In this first series, Owen saves Soren, a maiden accused of witchery, and then returns with her to the abbey where she lived before she exposed the rituals of a corrupted monk who then accused her of witchcraft and left her for the manipulated townsfolk to deal with. (Maybe she does have some magical abilities, as she is the only other person who can hear the needy, greedy axe. - -No spoilers.) Plenty of blood, and plenty of severed limbs and decapitations later the story concludes, but not before foreshadowing the next threat (which also marks a departure from standards as this kind of monster doesn't always surface in sword-and-sorcery fare).
The blazing artwork of Nathan Gooden and lush color work from Addison Duke elevate the story to the next level of premium quality. I'll be following this one for a bit longer. FOUR STARS.
This takes place in a future world of 2056. Humans are everywhere, as interstellar travel has been perfected. Technology has made vast strides. But that doesn’t prevent the race of Predators from making humanity their targets. Now every planet is a game reserve to them.
The story here is a simple revenge tale but is enhanced by the other details that keep it interesting, all revealed in sparse flashback scenes. Young Theta’s parents were planetary explorers, both victims of a Predator’s hunting trip. Theta survived, and with the assistance of a sentient spaceship, prowls the galaxy in search of the specific Predator who killed her family. The adult Theta is a bad-ass warrior, and wears an armored suit that resembles a Predator uniform (which gets her in a bit of trouble in one scene). A good beginning. Don’t know if Brisson can keep this story arc interesting for a six-issue run, but I’ll stick around for the next installment. FOUR STARS.
Still, as much as I’ve enjoyed Aaron’s imaginative scenes, I became a little bored around Issue #5 as the story seemed to meander in multiple directions without any forward movement. I sat out Issues #6 and #7, and came back with Issue #8.
This issue’s story is much stronger than prior entires, and benefits from focusing on a single character in a very good standalone story that new readers could pick up and easily follow along. Also, maybe inspired by the chance to draw only a few characters rather than multitudes, Kuder’s art here is the best I’ve seen from him in a long time.
A street-clothed and bearded version of Thor visits the Himalayas on Earth-56337 trying to escape the enchanted hammer Mjolnir, which follows and torments his steps. This Thor is also an unworthy version, and he cannot lift the hammer. He finds the entrance to the ruins of K’un-Lun (birthplace of Iron Fist) and meets Lei-Kung The Thunderer and guardian of its ancient secrets. Under Lei-Kung’s training, Thor learns to develop fists like hammers. He becomes Thor, God of Fists just in time to join up with Ghost Rider Robby Reyes and Ant-Man Tony Stark as they build a team to take on the Masters of Multiversal Evil. Now, that was a good story. FOUR STARS.
I enjoyed Moreci’s script, and the humor that kept the first series fresh and fun is still here. However, the change in artists disappoints me. Even though Robert Wilson IV did a fine job here, his art pales in comparison to the stylings of Nathan Gooden. Evidence of that is easy to come by - - just compare the gorgeous cover art by Gooden to the interior art by Wilson.
Owen joins a group of diverse characters, at the pleading of a goat-horned noble asking Owen to rid their land of a giant devil bat invasion.
This royal knighted warrior seems a little reluctant to do anything other than issue orders. He’d rather boss around the robed monk from the Order of Mystics (who joined up because he’s overly curious about Owen’s special weapon), and La’Kandra (new love interest for Owen and a professional thief). We get some intriguing back-story along the journey (especially the origin of the harvest blades and La’Kandra’s upbringing) as well as the obligatory battle scenes with plenty of blood. Things end well, even though the characters have hidden motives. Already, I’m not feeling as excited as I once did for this title. Perhaps the next story arc will help revive that. THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
Synopsis: The Rebel Fleet is reunited at last, and Leia Organa, Mon Mothma and the other Alliance leaders send a strong message to the galaxy that the resistance to Palpatine’s rule remains as strong as ever. Meanwhile, Lady Qi’ra of Crimson Dawn has activated her sleeper agents across the galaxy, instructing them to cause chaos for the Empire by any means necessary!
This is an important issue for Star Wars aficionados as it introduces some new characters and is a lead-in to new stories occurring just before The Return Of The Jedi timeline. This just didn’t entertain me the same way that earlier entries in Marvel’s Star Wars series have. Soule’s story is tight and contains a lot of plot threads, requiring a bit more dialogue than usual. The often minimalist art of Andres Genolet almost pulled me out of the story. This might have come across better with a different art team.
TWO AND ONE-HALF STARS.
Such is the case here. I enjoyed the art a bit more than the story, although the story is fun. If you’re looking for a tongue-in-cheek spin on superhero
conventions this may satisfy your craving.
Actor/comedian Patton Oswalt gets an assist on the script and it helps. The last book I read by Oswalt wasn’t as tightly woven as this, so that’s a good pairing. This book reminded me of a less explicit version of The Boys if it existed within a mediocre version of The Watchmen. That may sound negative, but that’s actually not a bad pairing either.
The setting is Twilight City, which seems to be overrun with meta-humans so much so that the seedier parts of town seem to be solely inhabited by failed super-villains who hang out in bars and whine about their misfortunes. The main character is Frankie, trying to make it as a bartender in one of these loser meta-hangouts. She’s trying to go straight after being brought up as Playmate, a sidekick to super-villain Toy Queen, her mother. She’s brought right back into the meta-life when the psycho Stickman kills Kid Dusk, sidekick to The Insomniac, top crimefighter in Twilight City.
Fearing that an angry Insomniac may go on a killing rampage, his team-mates in the Continuum are violently shaking down all the inferior super-villains to locate the whereabouts of Stickman.
Frankie/Playmate (who can assemble toys out of any raw materials) takes it upon herself to form a team of super-villains to locate Stickman (and maybe kill him) before The Continuum can wreck their part of town.
THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
Ghost Woman - Dead & Gone [Official Video]
GHOST WOMAN 2 of 4: More from their self-titled debut album
Friday, August 26, 2022
Book Review: THE PALLBEARERS CLUB by Paul Tremblay
THE PALLBEARERS CLUB by Paul Tremblay (William Morrow And Company, July 2022) Hardcover, 288 pages. ISBN # 0063069911 / 9780063069916
A cleverly voiced psychological thriller about an unforgettable—and unsettling—friendship, with blood-chilling twists, crackling wit, and a thrumming pulse in its veins, from the nationally bestselling author of The Cabin at the End of the World and Survivor Song.
What if the coolest girl you've ever met decided to be your friend?
Art Barbara was so not cool. He was a seventeen-year-old high school loner in the late 1980s who listened to hair metal, had to wear a monstrous back-brace at night for his scoliosis, and started an extracurricular club for volunteer pallbearers at poorly attended funerals. But his new friend thought the Pallbearers Club was cool. And she brought along her Polaroid camera to take pictures of the corpses.
Okay, that part was a little weird.
So was her obsessive knowledge of a notorious bit of New England folklore that involved digging up the dead. And there were other strange things—terrifying things—that happened when she was around, usually at night. But she was his friend, so it was okay, right?
Decades later, Art tries to make sense of it all by writing The Pallbearers Club: A Memoir. But somehow this friend got her hands on the manuscript and, well, she has some issues with it. And now she's making cuts.
Seamlessly blurring the lines between fiction and memory, the supernatural and the mundane, The Pallbearers Club is an immersive, suspenseful portrait of an unusual and disconcerting relationship.
My Five-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .
THE PALLBEARERS CLUB marks a first for the works of Paul Tremblay, who I consider one of the most creative modern writers of horror, always experimenting and messing with some familiar tropes of the genre. This is the first time I have seen so many negative reviews of his work on the Goodreads site. A divisive novel, to be sure . . . . you'll either hate it or love it. I love it. I've already bookmarked this for a second reading in 2023 or later.
With this novel, Tremblay takes a stab at writing literary fiction, but manages to keep it real. As he states in the afterword, the main character (Art Barbara, not even the narrator's true name) is based on Tremblay. The identification of specific landmarks and past locales in Providence R.I. / Boston MA are testament to his knowledge of the area and certainly help to cement that realistic feel. Plus, this reads like an actual memoir that someone other than Tremblay might have written because it's different than his other writings, complete with lengthy sections that could have benefited from some revision (on purpose, I believe), awkward comparisons, and even errors.
This is not a straight-up horror novel despite the presence of supernatural elements and suspicions about the true character of Mercy and later, Art. Also, as with his other novels, Tremblay has a way of creating reader suspicion that the supernatural and weird scenes in his novels have a rational explanation. Madness, a vivid imagination, and coincidence are just a few that come to mind in THE PALLBEARERS CLUB.
While there are some frightening and disturbing scenes THE PALLBEARERS CLUB is more about the strange relationship (I would hesitate to call it romance) between the two primary characters.
Tremblay even pokes fun at the story and himself, red-lining the title page to cross out "Art Barbara" as author and insert "Paul Tremblay" and then cross out "a memoir" and insert "a novel" on the title page. Later in the book, the characters refer to a paranormal incident in the neighborhood which occurs in Tremblay's A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS novel.
There are a plethora of musical references sprinkled throughout the novel as music, specifically 1980's rock from Bob Mould and Husker Du, plays a large part in the life and troubled careers of Art Barbara. There's even a Spotify playlist based on The Pallbearers Club which features every song mentioned in the novel.
There's a lot to absorb and reflect on here. Anyone who invests in at least 50 pages of this novel is not likely to so easily dismiss it. I believe it belongs on the short list of Tremblay's best works.
Guest Review: PRIMOS Volume One, from AWA/Upshot
Guest review by Matt Lowder
PRIMOS #1 - #4 by Al Madrigal and Carlos Barberi (AWA Upshot, Feb-June 2022) Matt Lowder's Rating: 4.5 stars out of a possible 5 stars.
Centuries ago, two Mayan brothers constructed a spacecraft that sent them hurtling into outer space. They accidentally returned to Earth in the wrong time, 2022, only to find their culture and civilization destroyed. One of the brothers is super-pissed! He vows revenge and seeks to decimate the planet with intergalactic technology gathered on his travels. To prevent this, the other brother assembles three of the world’s protectors who don't know it yet – all descendants of their bloodline. Now, the fate of the planet lies in the hands of three cousins, Ricky, Javier, and Gina, scattered throughout Central and North America who have never even met.
With a whole lot of Aftershock and AWA Upshot titles, I'm usually fine with them being 4-or-5-issues-and-done ordeals. With this title from AWA, I think they can and should do much, much more, even if it's against their publishing model, and greenlight a permanent every-other-month release for PRIMOS. It's a superhero, mystical, cosmic, sci-fi/fantasy blast, and I love it.
I'm a big proponent of giving all kinds of stories a fair shake, but I also won't squeal about something if the writing is not there. This author and these characters have Mayan and central American roots, and it's not just a check box the way it is for some publishers in the industry right now. For some novels and comics getting lip-service, the story is of secondary importance to the issues of identity. This publisher, AWA, put forth a relatable, contemporary hero origin story, which I'd love more of. It rocks. It never feels stereotypical, and doesn't overdramatize Ricky, Javier, or Gina's skin color as the most significant parts of their personalities.
The characters are actually talking about what needs done, and how to save the day. This gives dimension to the world it's building and the future adventures it promises. There are intelligent moments of real history, of white ignorance, and the adversity inherent to people like our heroes in their day-to-day, but the moments never feel artificial. These moments give pause, moments of empathetic realization, and then we're back to a great-paced story with complications and new reveals every issue. Genocide, dead parents, and high stakes are well balanced with funny one-liners, hope, and the promise of rising above.
PRIMOS is the real deal, for any comic reader. It's built by Latino creators who want to give all readers an epic experience. This creative team is capitalizing on the vacancy of this kind of story in the comic space, and have written something truly entertaining while honoring the culture - which ain't easy, I'm sure.
Sometimes when blogs and newspapers that don't typically cover the "comic arts" do a piece on books like these, it's primarily because they're deemed "important." I comb through hundreds and hundreds of reviews at work constantly, and I can tell you, sometimes the actual quality of the story is glossed over, or worst, it's given a free pass because of its subject matter. But PRIMOS, will surely kick ass for the under 30 crowd. There are some references and zingers that feel like memes, so reader beware. 4.5 out of 5. . . . . . Matt Lowder
Thursday, August 25, 2022
Book Review: WOUNDS TO WISHES (DARK TIDE BOOK 1) Anthology
Wounds to Wishes: Tales of Mystery and Melancholy (Dark Tide Mysteries and Thrillers Book 1) anthology by Chad Lutzke, Robert Ford, and John Boden (Crystal Lake Publishing, August 26, 2022 release date) Kindle edition ASIN # B0B9165QFR
Crystal Lake Publishing debuts Dark Tide, their new series of themed anthologies of novellas, with a stellar collection of stories sharing the theme of the loss of a beloved or family member. Each writer handles the theme differently, as reflected by their characters, and manages to produce a compelling read. These stories are very evocative, and I experienced heartbreak, apprehension, and fear while reading them.
HEARTBREAK: Book One opens with the strongest story of the three, "The Strangest Twist Upon Her Lips" by Chad Lutzke. Lutzke is a powerful writer who has the ability to convey his character's point of view so clearly, which often results in readers experiencing the same emotions as the characters. This one is sorrowful and depressing, and it broke my heart.
After successfully kicking a drug habit and then assisting his live-in lover to do the same, a man returns home one day to discover her dead body (an unexpected suicide). She leaves a note that he's afraid to read. He puts it off, and instead works at crossing off items from a bucket list that they compiled together. Those items are not what you might typically find on a bucket list, which leads the main character on a journey of discovery. Will he find a way to carry on? Is there a kernel of hope in this tale? You need to read this, even though it could make you cry. FIVE STARS.
APPREHENSION: Is there anything more sorrowful and devastating than a mother losing her young child? The woman in Robert Ford's "My Only Sunshine" does a better job of coping with grief than the first story's protagonist. This death is even crueler, as her daughter was brutally murdered.
Not satisfied with police efforts to solve the case, she works to find the killer and utilizes a supernatural method to communicate with her daughter and obtain the information that will lead to the answers. The murderer became apparent to me before the story ended, but that did not interfere with my involvement in the story. This is particularly well-told and very suspenseful. Every scene builds on the feeling of apprehension for the grieving mother. THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
FEAR: The main character in "Suet" by John Boden loses his beloved grandfather, and this leads to his questioning his middle-aged existence, and his place in the grand scheme of things. His disenchantment leads to his quitting his job as an orderly at a nursing home. When he receives an odd letter (in lieu of an actual will) from his deceased grandfather, he visits his Pap's farmhouse and finds a notebook with some disturbing family history and a weird legend about the surrounding valley. This story builds slowly before arriving at some extremely disturbing scenes and a very nasty twist of an ending. FOUR STARS.
In addition to the shared theme there is a secondary connection between these stories. The "easter egg" in the Lutzke and Ford stories is easier to find, as it relates to a similar scene in each story but presented from a different point of view. The connection in Boden's story is more challenging to spot.
Tuesday, August 23, 2022
More Guests For Baltimore Comic Con: Beatty, Davis, LaRocque, Morrison, Saviuk, Staton
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