for the week ending Sunday May 04 2025
#292 = CRUEL KINGDOM #4 of 4 by various creators (Oni Press / EC Comics, April 2025) The final entry is this limited anthology series shows that the EC style of writing and art can also encompass tales of fantasy, sword & sorcery, and magical lands. Here are three more examples:
“Headmistress” by Greg Pak with art by PJ Holden & John McCrea - - In a village that would fit into Conan’s landscapes the demanding Headmistress instructs by example and shows young villagers how to be strong and unafraid to go up against the biggest monsters around. Of course, there’s a surprising and also disturbing twist.
“What You Wish For” by J. Holtham and Caitlin Yarsky - - is yet another re-telling of the Cinderella fairy tale. Things proceed exactly as we might expect, following the same steps as the legendary story, until the clock strikes twelve . . . and the twist is very satisfying and long overdue.
“Ye Shall Be Healed” by Ben H. Winters and Brian Level.The old sage is known for his mastery of the healing arts, but that also conceals what pain he inflicts on his subjects when they are left in his charge. Here comes the third story twist this issue, and it is equally satisfying.
It’s tougher this issue to pick a favorite, but I’m going with “Headmistress” which gets the nod for superior art and coloring as well as that wicked final page. THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS for this issue.
#293-#298 = JAMES BOND: ORIGIN #1-#6 of 12 by Jeff Parker and Bob Q (Dynamite Entertainment, 2018-2019) I’m not sure if this is an adaptation taken from Ian Fleming’s Bond novels (or later contributors to the lore) or completely original from the mind of Jeff Parker - - but it’s very impressive.
This is a straight-forward storyline that should please fans of war comics and action-adventure. Jeff Parker’s James Bond is still a teenager as the story begins, unsure of himself and not arrogant or boastful in any way. None of the wry, sometimes smug, satiric comments that Bond is known for. No womanizing.
What this James Bond is: clever, intuitive, bold, and already skilled in fighting from Judo lessons.
Issue #1: In 1941, James Bond is a young student at Fettes College in Edinburgh, Scotland when the infamous Clydebank Blitz occurs. He survives the Nazi bombardment and his courage and abilities during chaos make an impression on Royal Navy Lt. Commander Ronald Weldon (a friend of his deceased parents).
Weldon immediately recruits Bond for a new government program - one that requires wit, guile, discretion. The beginnings of a secret service.
Issue #2: Bond is sent to a military camp for battle training under a sadistic, demanding instructor who he manages to impress when he ignores the baiting and remains on task. He figures out that he is being tested during a ruse concerning a double agent within their ranks. To serve the confidential nature of his duties, Bond is given the rank of Lieutenant in the Special Branch of the Royal Navy, and given his first assignment.
Issue #3: Bond is assigned to a submarine, in the Mediterranean Sea escorting a supplies ship. As soon as a German warship arrives, a Nazi plane attacks and drops a bomb that sinks the ship. The British sub is lured into an underwater mine field and takes a minor hit, as water starts to enter the sub.To throw off the warship, they go silent and pretend to be sinking.
Issue #4: The British sub evades the Germans, and harbors at a small island to make repairs. Bond and a crew scout the island, and stumble across the Nazis using an area as a temporary base for the warplane.
Issue #5: Bond and has squad commandeer the German bomber plane and use it to deceive and sink a Nazi cruiser. Turns out the merchant ship the British sub was assigned to protect was intended to give safe passage to a defecting German scientist with rocket plans. Bond is put ashore near Lisbon in an effort to locate the scientist.
Issue #6: A savvy local woman knows how to survive in Lisbon despite the hardships of war. A desperate German scientist needs her help, and she gets involved with James Bond - who has not yet become very good at being a spy. The mission is not successful. Hats off to writer Parker for highlighting Bond’s growth and development and not making him a super-spy, super-charismatic from the get-go. He learned how to do it.
These are very well-done WWII comics. THREE AND THREE QUARTER STARS.
#299 = EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #10 of 12 (Oni Press/EC Comics, April 2025) We’ve already had a vampire story in this series . . . so I figured sooner or later we’d get a werewolf tale. It happens this issue - - also my favorite story this time around.
“Feed The Right Wolf” by Jeff Jensen and Sami Kivela has that EC look and feel all over it. A successful comic creator is a slave to his sketchbook, working long hours with no exercise and terrible eating habits. It finally catches up to his heart and the doctor puts him on a nutrition/exercise regimen. But, one late night he arises to indulge his fast food fixation and that triggers his other condition. I didn’t know werewolves fed on this stuff, either.
“I Don’t Miss You” by Jeremy Lambert and Valeria Burzo is about a romantic relationship gone wrong, and one half decides to break it off in extreme fashion. Seemed like a simple tale until that last page. Ugh.
“Splinter” by Curt Pires and Brian Level relates how a single incident from childhood can shape a person’s future, for better or worse. Chilling.
THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS OVERALL.
#300-#301 = MARK SPEARS MONSTERS #2 & #3 written, illustrated and colored by Mark Spears with letters by Micah Myers (Keenspot Entertainment, November 2024-January 2025) There is no denying the artistic talent of Mark Spears - his incredible photo-realistic style; the attention to detail no matter how small; the effective use of shading, brilliant hues, and dark tones; the clever incorporation of photographs into the backgrounds, etc. If you love dynamic art worthy of multiple views then you won’t be disappointed - - it’s what keeps me coming back to this series.
If you are a fan of classic horror film monsters and characters and love to see them incorporated into modern storylines - - then it’s another reason to pick up this title. The monsters are back, and Dracula is assembling them for something very threatening.
However, what Mark Spears would really benefit from would be an assist with the storyline. It’s not that he can’t construct engaging scenes and effective dialogue. The problem is that each issue and story are all over the place. The story is unfolding at a slow pace, but only a few pages at a time before shifting to another scene. So, it becomes difficult to get comfortable with what just happened before reader have to adjust and comprehend a new situation.
For example, within the thirty pages of Issue #2 are ten separate scenes of various short lengths: 3 pages in Transylvania 1477 with Dracula; 1 page of the two investigating detectives in current times talking at a diner; 5 pages in Slidell, Louisiana with the Creature From The Black Lagoon; 3 more Dracula pages (different scene, maybe current times); a glorious 6-page fight scene in Area 51 Nevada involving a previously (and still) unidentified ninja told without text or dialogue; a 4 page fight scene with The Slayer (is he really a good guy?) in a Kingpin-like hostel; a 3 page interrogation scene with German agents working for the cabal that wants the Dracula ring; 2 pages of Slayer having a parking lot conversation with a former Division 13 associate; one page of Slayer standing and contemplating in a meadow outside Chicago; and 2 pages in a fantasy world in another time about a quest, an apprentice, and a dragon (does this really relate to the main story?)
Issue #3 is more of the same quick scene-jumping, the highlight of which is another giant fight scene between Slayer and a huge ogre. The murders in Grimwood which were being investigated by the two detectives now spread to nearby Madison County and cattle mutilation. We meet three new characters in Grimwood, Alabama - three middle schoolers (who look straight out of the Stand By Me film) fascinated by monster hunters. It all ends with a black-and-white flashback to 1896, just before the scene from Issue #1 with Sherlock Holmes and associates. This time it’s a Dr. Jekyll type (Dr. Theopolis) drinking the formula and turning into a madman.
No, you sort it all out! Good thing I really love this art, which helped elevate the rating. I’m certainly not coming back for the story-telling. THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
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