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Monday, April 28, 2025
JEFF SMITH (of Bone fame) Coming To Baltimore Comic Con
MY WEEK IN COMICS - - - April 27, 2025
#277- #278 = BUG WARS #2 by Jason Aaron and Mahmud Asrar (Image Comics, March 2025) “Book One: Lost In the Yard. Chapter Two: Ain’t No God In Swarm City.”
If you dig fantasy and elaborate world-building with small doses of humor, mystery, and horror - - then pick up this title. Mahmud Asrar does a fantastic job of visualizing Jason Aaron’s imaginative settings. The text material in the back provides a wealth of information on the various minuscule-sized races inhabiting a simple backyard in West Bottom, Alabama. The amount of detail in this book is impressive.
It’s a miniature-world of bug warriors and ant armies, spider-witches and barbarians riding beetles. Main character Slade Slaymaker, along with his mother and older brother, move back into the former Slaymaker house where his father was apparently eaten alive by insects. Slade finds a weird amulet that shrinks him to the same size of the insects in his yard.
In Issue #2, Slade is captured and along with other prisoners is thrust into the Bludhole,a gladiator arena in Swarm City. The People Of The Beetle are celebrating a temporary truce with the Queen of the Ants - but celebrate their peace with a festival of bloodshed and a swarm of super-large blood-sucking mosquitoes. The amulet also gives Slade extra-muscular powers - but somehow a piece of it broke off and he can’t rely on it. FOUR STARS.
#279 - #280 = DUST TO DUST #1 written by JG Jones & Phil Bram with art & colors by JG Jones (Image Comics/Giant Generator, December 2024) While that cover is pretty intimidating, I passed on this when it first appeared on comic shop shelves, but not before scanning the pages. The art was super-impressive, but I didn’t see any indication of the threat or horror portrayed on the cover. I had the impression it was strictly historical fiction, and possibly a slow burn of a story based on a lack of action panels in Issue #1. My thoughts then were that if this was worth reading, it would probably work better if read at one time - meaning just wait for the trade paperback and then decide.
Recently, I found Issue #1 (from December of last year) still on a comic shop shelf with the new arrivals in April 2025. There were 3 copies of Issue #1, but not a single one of the later issues (now up to #5, I believe). I wondered why it would still be on display there, and not moved to the back issue area? Did the shop owner or manager decide to support the title and then get burned when it didn’t sell? I thought the least I could do was buy it, and get one more issue off their shelves.
After reading through the foreshadowing (and great detail about the town, characters, and situations) of the debut issue, I suspected that the threat/horror would be revealed in later issues.
As it stands, this is well-done historical fiction based on hard life in the 1935 Oklahoma dust bowel. After trying to find water and irrigation, an apprentice farmer decides to abandon the homestead provided by his owner (real estate tycoon) and head West to California and better opportunities. I think something nasty is going to happen to him and his family on that journey.
The art is worth studying. Jones incorporates so much detail into the panels, and his close-ups are photo quality. Every page appears hand-painted and the realism is amazing. Jones colors his own work here, and uses shades and hues of brown exclusively, giving everything a sepia-tone appearance like old photographs.
I’ll never catch up to this title now, but I’m definitely going to check out the collected volume once it drops. THREE AND THREE-QUARTER STARS.
#281-#283 = 2000 AD FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2015 by various creators (Rebellion, Oxford ENGLAND, May 2015) What’s best about this specific FCBD offering from 2000 AD is that all the stories are complete and not continued. It’s a great way to get familiar with the Rebellion stable of characters. While the current long-running 2000AD magazine features serialized stories that you might stumble into the middle of and be confused (unless you are a subscriber - and with tariffs this is going to get prohibitively expensive) - this freebie gives you a feel for the various titles. Find one you like, and you can probably find a collection available through your local comic shop.
This time around the stories feature Judge Dread, 3000 AD, Death Rock, Nemesis The Warlock, Dr Sin, Dan Dare, and Slaine.
The stand-out here is “In Through The Out Door”, a Judge Dredd story by Matt Smith and Mike Hawthorne. Tenants cannot get access to return to their high-rise apartment residence. A programmed robot blocks residents below a designated income bracket to use the east-side entrance (on the most dangerous section of the block) so that the elites who contributed to a deluxe service can enter through the safer doorway. Judge Dredd is caught in the middle, having to defend the law but also finding a way to disable the robot - who is also violating a law.
While the art is exceptional throughout this issue, the only other story that really clicked with me was “A Simple Killing” by Pat Mills and Simon Davis, featuring Slaine the barbarian. Plenty of sword-play and decapitations. THREE AND ONE-QUARTER STARS.
#284 = THE LAST MERMAID #1 with story and art by Derek Kirk Kim (Image Comics, March 2024) This off-sized comic with a magazine width showcases the story-telling abilities of animator Kim. In the 2010’s he pitched an animated series project that was not picked up, and this is the spin-off from that effort.
The painted art looks like animation cels from a film but the story-telling is sparse and too much is not explained. It’s a slow burn of a story about a mermaid living inside an armored space-suit as she searches for ever-dwindling sources of water on a scorched landscape. She’s got an alien fish-like companion.
The book is great to look at, but not engaging. TWO AND THREE-QUARTER STARS.
#285-#288 = SHUDDER SPOOKTACULAR 2025 ANNUAL by various creators (Warrant Magazines) This reprints nine select stories from SHUDDER magazines from #2 (2022) through #11 (2023). It’s indicative of the quality of the regular bi-monthly magazine, which I will pick up occasionally (at least once a year). While the art is always good, often exceptional, the stories (in my opinion) are too predictable and not enough reach above-average standards (my standards).
Only four stories stood out to me. That’s 44.4%, pretty much the same average for a typical issue of SHUDDER.
The best of the bunch is “Clairimonde” a comics adaptation of the 1836 story by Theophile Gautier written by Artie Godwin with art by Reno Maniquis.
During his ordination ceremony in medieval times, a new Catholic priest falls deeply in love with an audience member sitting in the front pews. She turns out to be a vampire who haunts his dreams until he finally takes action, which puts him in danger with both the Church and his soul.
Also worth mentioning are “Guest Of Honor” where a lost traveler finds a remote old hotel and suddenly becomes the next guest of honor; “Two And A Half Zombies” a blend of original zombie (hypnotized undead slaves) and current zombies (ravenous flesh-eaters) by Don Glut and Reno Maniquis; and “The Monster Maker” wherein a jealous make-up artist wants to learn the secrets of the master who designed the Frankenstein, Dracula and Wolfman appearances. Sometimes the human make-up is even more remarkable. THREE STARS.
#289 = ASSORTED CRISIS EVENTS #2 by Deniz Camp and Eric Zawadzki (Image Comics, April 2025) Let’s begin with the positive: This title is a grand experiment in comics story-telling within the anthology format.
Each issue is a stand-alone story with a new character. The only link is that time has gone wonky, and each tale seems to deal with how each protagonist handles the calamity in their own individual ways. Label it what you want: fantasy, science-fiction, horror, etc. I call it psychological profiles, slice-of-life in an unusual setting.
The story does not unfold in linear fashion, with multiple flashbacks and varying times in overlapping scenes. Camp and Zawadzki have assembled a jigsaw puzzle, and it’s up to readers to put the pieces in the right places. While I admire what they are doing, I’m not sure this is going to find its’ audience. In addition, Issue #2’s setting within a meat-packing slaughterhouse of cattle is not going to make readers comfortable (blood, severed limbs, horrific scenes).
Zawadzki plays with repetitive images while Campi teases us with repetitive dialogue - - do we get it, or are we just as confused and turning manic as the main character is?
Zawadzki puts characters in the foreground with darker lines and sketches the background with lighter strokes. Jordie Bellaire on colors enhances the appearance with vivid colors in the foreground and muted hues of the same color plus white in the background. The overall effect makes it look like a 3-D panel.
Issue #2 didn’t need the intrusion of flesh-eating dinosaurs at the end of the story - - but that helped make some points (if you can figure out the message). The story was disturbing enough before that happened. That is really the only time-related event in this story, except for the reappearance of the doom-sayer elderly man (from Issue #1) in one panel/scene.
After reading this issue, I’m going to remember some of these scenes the next time I eat red meat.(Which I definitely need to cut back on).
I”m not entirely sure that I understand what Campi is saying here, so I won’t attempt to summarize the story. Basically, it’s one man’s gradual descent into madness as the continued repetition of certain images/scenes from his life begin to trouble him.
I only bought the first two issues, since I wasn’t sure I was going to want to read the full series. I’m still not sure, but just like what happened with the FIGHT CLUB comics - - I’m not sure I get everything that’s going on but I keep coming back for more. FOUR STARS.
#290-#291 = BORIS KARLOFF THRILLER #1 by uncredited creators (Gold Key Comics LLC, March 2025) This one takes me back. When I started using my lawn-mowing and chores money to buy my own comics when I turned ten years old in1962 - I was always eyeing up the offerings from Gold Key (1962-1984).
Western Publishing put out a lot of comics under contract for the Dell Comics imprint, and then decided to go their own way as Gold Key Comics with the distinctive logo. They put out children’s comics based on cartoon shows (lots of Warner Brothers & Hanna Barbara) as well as spin-offs from television (Three Stooges, Man From Uncle, Journey To The Bottom Of The Sea, The Munsters, Lost In Space/Space Family Robinson, etc).
They also published supernatural and ghost comics, action adventure and were the original publishers of Magnus, Robot Fighter, Doctor Solar-Man Of The Atom, and Turok-Son of Stone (previously a Dell Comic). Those three titles later became part of the launchpad for Valiant Comics in the 1990’s.
BORIS KARLOFF THRILLER debuted in late 1962 and only ran for two issues. The 2025 comic reprints four stories from those 2 issues, which later became BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY with #3 and ran for 97 issues until 1980.
The reprints brought back a lot of memories for me. Gold Key never posted the Comics Code Seal of Approval on their comics covers based on their reputation for producing wholesome entertainment for all ages, and even BORIS KARLOFF THRILLER maintained that mission objective.
None of these stories are scary, but they do entertain. These are more supernatural/paranormal versus traditional horror. No monsters, slashers, or blood - just ghosts getting revenge for their wrongs in three of the four stories.
My favorite, “The Dreamer” does not feature a ghost. It’s about a man plagued by dreams of getting engaged onboard an ocean liner only to learn it’s doomed to sink by a giant iceberg. He always wakes up before conclusion, and seeks a psychoanalyst’s help who hypnotizes him into revealing/finishing the complete dream. Or is it? While inside the dream, he also visits a ship’s psychoanalyst to help him through his troubles. Neat twist at the end. OVERALL, THREE STARS and fond memories.
Check out the new company and their crowdfunding campaigns at goldkeycomics.com
Sunday, April 27, 2025
Saturday, April 26, 2025
Late Night With the Devil - Official Trailer | HD | IFC Films
65 – Official Trailer (HD)
Bosch: Legacy Season 3 Trailer | 'The Final Season'
Thursday, April 24, 2025
Marvel Television's Daredevil: Born Again | Official Trailer | Disney+
13 OBSCURE Rock Bands from the 60s & 70s That Should Have Been Famous!
Tuesday, April 22, 2025
The Latest Offerings, News, Seminars From COMICS EXPERIENCE
EDITOR'S NOTE: Occasionally, I will share news/infor from Comics Experience, especially when I think it will be of interest to some of our readers. For retailers, the upcoming free seminar below is of interest. Also, the link to the market report about comic shop sales being up 20% in 2025 is encouraging news, in a year that needs some good news.
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