Superman: Year One

Frank Miller, the godfather of the 'Year One' storyline, gives Superman the long overdue treatment in this deluxe sized Black Label tale. In other words - this very well could be an imaginary story. But I'd be totally fine with it being turned into canon.

The childhood story of Superman doesn't really change. His Kryptonian parents, knowing that their planet is doomed, ship baby Kal-El to Earth in hopes of becoming humanity's savior. Raised as Clark Kent by Kansas farmers, Kal-El learns the difference between right and wrong while forging a friendship with Pete Ross and a budding romance with Lana Lang.

Once Clark graduates high school, the origin changes. For the first time ever, in Act Two, we see Kent joining the Navy in hopes of learning what it means to be human while finding his place in this world as a god among men. Clark's romance with the mermaid Lori Lemaris takes an unusual twist with the Kryptonian becoming the ruler of Atlantis, after defeating her father in combat.

It appears that Frank Miller is really going to challenge the established legend of Superman by having him become a super-powered Aquaman. But that's all but forgotten in the final act; just as Clark's relationship with Lana becomes nothing more than a memory by the time he finishes basic training. When Superman meets Lois Lane in a great twist on their first appearance in the crashing helicopter trope, the very young Man of Steel just gives up his life in Atlantis, enrolls in journalism at a nameless University, and becomes an intrepid investigative reporter at the Daily Planet. 

This is not a 365 day year in the life of Superman. It's more of a series of snap shots in the first 25 or so years of life of Clark Kent. This makes for some inconsistencies in the plotting, a ton of forgotten friends and family, and an ending that didn't feel like the end. I wouldn't be surprised for a Superman: Year Two to be announced sometime in the future. Though this book is from 2019, so our chances of that might be dwindling...

As for John Romita, Jr.'s artwork, it too was inconsistent. But it's actually something that works in his favor. In my late 40s, I understand that when you have a career that involves your hands, arthritis and age are your worst enemies. Jr.Jr.'s art has really suffered over the last decade. But when he shines, he really shines here. There were several pages that I spent a long, long time marveling at his dynamic drawings. Powerful renderings. Amazing angles. Kick ass action. It helped improve my rating for this book that feels in desperate need of a director's cut edition.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Dugout: The Zombie Steals Home (Family Comic Friday)

Gina and Stacy are twin sisters. They both love to play baseball. They're rivals in everything they do. Gina and Stacy might also be witches. Their grandma certainly is.

When sibling rivalry involves the sisters going through Meemaw's trove of enchanted ingredients and casting spells on each other, Gina and Stacy unearth a zombie in their hometown... literally.  

Dugout: The Zombie Steals Home was published in 2019 by Graphix. I thought with baseball being a summer pastime, that this book might be a fun late July read. And I was right! Written and illustrated by Scott Morse, this was one of the freshest, funniest, and freakiest books I have ever read. I did not want the adventures to end!

The dialogue is really what won me over. Stacy's baseball team, The Oakvale Rooks, was composed of 9 hilarious little leaguers. I felt like I was reading a book set in perhaps the funniest of all all-ages baseball universes: The Sandlot! The quick wit. The banter. The spoonerisms and malapropisms. It was brilliantly written.

The artwork took a little while to win me over. Once the characters went from static to frantic, the pace of the artwork zoomed into the stratosphere. Morse's work on this book reminded me a little of a cross between the master artists of EC Comics and the all-ages work of Eric Powell. 

As for age appropriateness. I would say readers 9 to 12 will really enjoy this book. There is some witchcraft, which I didn't expect as I neglected to read the back cover intro. (Yes- I only judged a book by it's cover and it's a good thing I did!) However, it was on the level of Bewitched instead of something like The Conjuring. The zombie main character does look a little bit like he came from a George Romero zombie flick and there is a poltergeist giving Gina fits throughout the second act of the book. So there is a bit of an element of fright.

I really felt like this was a flawless read. Perfect for the dog days of summer or for just when the major league regular season is dying down and the playoffs are starting to heat up. Really, the only issue I had with this book was the publication date!

I mentioned earlier that Dugout was published in 2019. That's 5 years for those of you keeping score. It also means, that this book, which was clearly intended to be the kickoff to a new series, didn't get the attention it so deserves! I really feel like if Netflix turned this book into a streaming movie (animated, of course), it would do so freakin' well. I consider this opener to be The Sandlot of this generation. It's that good.

A spooky, smart fun read with a lot of laughs, this is a book parents and guardians of young readers should jump on board with, as long as the subject matter is deemed appropriate in your household. Hopefully, if this book catches fire, it might encourage Graphix and Scott Morse to continue the misadventures of Gina, Stacy and the Rooks of Oakvale!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Little Lulu: The World's Best Comic Book One-Shot (Free Comic Book Day 2019)

I don't think I would have given Little Lulu and her portly pal Tubby the time of day if it wasn't for two sources. First was the writings of Fred Hembeck in his massive omnibus. In his collection of writings, Hembeck fondly reminisces of the comic strip quite often. I felt if it's good enough for Mr. Hembeck, whom I actually play a music trivia game against online, then it's good enough for me. Only I didn't have any Little Lulu stuff on hand to read.

Then I was reunited with a copy of the 1981 museum quality collection: A Smithsonian Book of Comics. There was a bunch of Little Lulu and Tubby stories. All of them hilarious! While I did feel that there was more of them than some of the other characters and artists to be fairly represented in that volume, I didn't run into a single stinker of the comic strip creation from the artist known as Marge.

This Free Comic Book Day offering from Drawn and Quarterly is yet another comic that I meant to provide the members of my school's comic book club and lost within the cluttered mire of my backseat. As we're on a road trip this week, I had to get the car completely cleaned out and that's when I ran into this. 

Little Lulu: The World's Best Comic Book is an assortment of strips and stories taken from Drawn and Quarterly's 2019 and earlier line of Little Lulu and Tubby treasuries. The works of artist John Stanley are featured in this issue. Next to Marge, Stanley is perhaps the franchise's most well known cartoonist. He's Little Lulu's Carl Barks. I've read some of Stanley's non-Lulu material and wasn't blown away by it. Those works felt too childish for me. But here, it felt like I was taken back to the 1940s where kids had free range of the neighborhood and creativity and imagination at play was what kept children occupied compared to the soul sucking TV, video games and cell phones of today.

The best story is the opener in which Lulu looks forward to scaring Tubby with the new mask she bought. Only Tubby has one too. In fact, it seems that all of the kids in town have the same mask!

Another memorable adventure sees Tubby trying to find gold with a divining rod. It's got a lot of great one liners. Some fantastic observations that only come from the mouths of precocious babes. And a heartwarming ending. 

I'm really thinking that I'm going to take advantage of some of these collections, if I can ever find them for a fantastic deal. John Stanley really knows how to write dialogue like a child. He's got that innocence mixed with heavy doses of cynicism and prosecution like Harper Lee did so masterfully in To Kill A Mockingbird. I can see now why he's considered a legend of comic book cartooning!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Mera: Tidebreaker (Family Comic Friday)

Borrowing pretty heavily from the 2018 Aquaman movie starring Jason Momoa, Mera: Tidebreaker is a young adult graphic novel from DC's woefully short- lived DC Ink imprint. If you're expecting the traditional princess Mera from a water filled extra-dimensional world, you better stick to Silver Age floppies. Here, Mera is still royalty. Only now her kingdom of Xebel is subject to the rule of Atlantis. Betrothed to a prince she does not love, Mera seeks her own path, which she hopes is like that of her dearly departed mother: as a fierce warrior and benevolent ruler of her people.

In order to win her father's favor, Mera heads to the surface world in order to locate and kill the fabled exiled prince of Atlantis. Mera immediately finds him. Only Arthur Curry is nothing like she expected. He's kind, generous and just so gosh darn handsome. As Mera waits for the perfect time to commit regicide, she finds herself falling for the Atlantean as Arthur has no idea about his underwater heritage. Now with agents of her father coming to the surface in search of Mera, the princess of Xebel must decide to follow her destiny or her heart.

Tidebreaker was a good story that could have been great. Writer Danielle Paige, crafts a classic love story between the children of two rival kingdoms and she executed it with a totally modern interpretation of the Aquaman mythos. I didn't feel like Paige didn't do her homework in writing this teen graphic novel. She deftly digs into the rich history of these DC icons. It's only that the formula seemed off-kilter. 

There's very little humor. Okay, don't think there was any humor. Lots of melodrama. A fair smattering of drama. Lots of romance. Some action and adventure. Yet, any character that you'd feel might be a potential source of comic relief just isn't funny. Plus, things are pretty tame in a book recommended on Amazon for readers in grades 7-9. Yet then 3/4th of the way through this book, Paige throws in a fairly big swear. Not an F-bomb. But also kinda unnecessary based on how smoothly things had been since that and thus after. It's those little quirks that throw a perfectly good read off balance. 

At least I cannot complain about the art. In fact, Stephen Byrne actually manages to fix a pet peeve I have about photo-shopped artwork. In a few scenes, instead of drawing different characters that look uniform, the artist copies and pastes the same image to make it look like a swarming army of underwater warriors. But instead of leaving them to all look the same like some artists have done to an annoying degree, Byrne actually tweaks each character to be just a tiny bit different from the rest. I appreciate such touches in modern day comics that tend to see artists taking sloppy shortcuts.

I also loved the minimal palette of colorist David Calderon. The fiery orange hair of Mera stands out in a book full of muted grays and an assortment of hues based on sea foam green. For someone like myself who has partial color blindness, the look works to great effect and was greatly appreciated.

This book debuted way back in 2019 when DC execs thought that Mera was going to become a film franchise darling. And she almost did for a while. That's until Amber Heard was essentially cancelled due to her explosive history with then husband Johnny Depp came to light in a scandalous defamation trial. Once Heard was all but removed from the 2023 Aquaman sequel, plans for Mera to lead the DC Universe as the next Harley Quinn went up in a poof of smoke. That's probably why this book ends with the promise of a sequel and yet 5 years later, we've got bupkis. It's almost indicative of the DC Ink and DC Zoom imprints. Both had such promise and then DC turned their back on it. Thankfully, their line-up of planned stories that seemed so amazing, still saw the light of day. Even if it has taken half a decade to see all those dreams become realities. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Minecraft/Incredibles 2 Free Comic Book Day 2019 #1

That day where I was stuck in my car with no phone and nothing good on the radio netted 2 comics that somehow fell out of my bag of books to share with the students at my school. This one is a double feature starring the world of the popular video game, Minecraft and Disney's Incredibles. 

I've never played Minecraft. I don't really know that much about the game. There's this green thing called a Creeper. Kids get really good designing stuff on the game. That's about it. 

I learned a little bit more about the game from this short story. There's players who like to destroy people's property called Griefers. The destruction is done with impunity and the poor victims have to start all over again just for the whole process to repeat itself. If that's how the game is, I sure don't want to play it. However, I did enjoy this game set ghost story. While I might not want to play Minecraft, I wouldn't mind reading another story or two about the comings and goings of the franchise.

Story #2 involves the super powered Parr family from Disney and Pixar's Incredibles franchise. During a seemingly fun day at a parade, robotic drones attack the giant balloons. Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl and the kids save the day. However, the big baddie gets away. 

The event leaves mom and dad really drained. Thinking some alone time is what they need, Violet and Dash arrange to babysit baby Jack-Jack while the folks go to a movie. To ensure that date night isn't ruined by calamity, the kids go on patrol, only wind up face to face with the villain from the parade and squad of his souped up drones!

It was interesting to see these two separate franchises in the same book. Sure, this is a Free Comic Book Day promotional item in which both properties were released by Dark Horse. All that makes sense to me. Only I thought Disney was so anti-cross promotional, that I didn't think it was possible here. From what I know about modern Disney, I would expect the Incredibles to be solo stars of their own FCBD release or be teamed with another Pixar franchise. 

Go figure. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars. 

Junior High Horrors Halloween Special #1 (Halloween ComicFest Edition)

Imagine if you will all of your favorite slasher movie characters going to the same Junior High together. We're talking costumed killers and final girls all navigating the perils of becoming a teenager together. This 2019 parody sees Jason and Michael Myers as friends Mickey and JV along with Laurie Strode and Nancy. You know Nancy; the girl who lives over there on Elm Street.? Yes, Freddy is here too. Only now he's a stuffed animal cat that Nancy imagines as a kinda sadistic version of Hobbes the tiger. 

With only a few days left until Halloween, the gang are going to go costume shopping. Everyone has an idea what they want to be for trick or treating, except for Mickey. His past couple of costumes haven't had that wow factor and he's sworn off dressing up for good. Hopefully a trip to the mall will inspire him to reconsider and go out in disguise with his pals.

I thought that this was a fun concept. What life was like for some of film's greatest psycho killers when they were teens. In reality, Michael Myers was in a sanitarium. Jason was 'dead'. Freddy was probably abusing and murdering children. But here in this far-fetched parody from Keenspot, the big three stars of 80s horror are innocent teens trying to find their way in the world. 

One thing that I was struck by in this book was how different it looks from most comic books. That's because the fonts are designed especially for readers with dyslexia. Even the scenes themselves are bigger to keep the words from getting lost on the page. While I do not have the word and letters version of dyslexia, I've been diagnosed with the numerical version of dyslexia. I think if I had had math books designed like this, I might have done better in those classes. 

I really like the cover with the characters stylized as the Peanuts gang. I will admit, I was a little disappointed to learn that the characters inside don't look like they came from the mind of a demented Charles Schulz. But the story inside and especially the closing gag were great fun. When you need the icons of horror to be a little more family friendly, this is a read I suggest you pick up. It's just wicked enough to be creepy without having to look over your shoulder while you give it a read.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Full Throttle: Stories by Joe Hill

I've been in the mood to read Joe Hill lately. 

This 2019 collection of Joe Hill stories is a baker's dozen of short stories that have seen print previously in anthologies or magazine form. The two stories that Hill co-wrote with his famous father, Stephen King were my least favorite as they lacked the voice of the younger author which I have become a fan of over the past decade. But overall, this was a great read filled with excitement and a whole lot of chills for someone who is interested in reading Halloween themed stuff but couldn't yet because it wasn't October yet. 

My favorite stories were the tragic 'By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain', which later became the focus of an episode of the Creepshow series on Shudder, 'Dark Carousel' with it's perfectly eerie ending set across the pond, and 'Mums' which may or may not be about a young boy who grows a menacing plant-like version of his late mother. My absolute favorite was 'Late Returns', which along with 'Mums', was published for the first time ever in this book. It's about a young man who takes a part-time job driving his hometown's bookmobile and discovers that he can recommend great final reads to dearly departed members of the local library. I so very much did not want this story to end and I would love for it to be a movie or even a mini-series.

Another story that I would like seen put on film is 'You Are Released'. It's about the early hours of a nuclear holocaust as experienced by the passengers on a jumbo jet. Although I really want this story to be longer as well, with everything that has been happening in Israel in the past week, I think I could wait for the movie as I get this eerie feeling that right now, life is imitating art. 

Don't skip out on Hill's foreword nor his afterword. Both are amazing non-fiction reads. The foreword talks about how having 2 famous writers for parents influenced him to become a writer. There's also a great story about Hill when he was a little fella starring in the framing sequences of the original Creepshow movie. Hill's afterword discusses where you might have come across many of the stories collected in this book, along with sources of inspiration for those tales. Hill claims he's not a story teller but I would love to read a collection of his thoughts. He's that good a writer!

I think I am done with Joe Hill novels for a little bit. Not because I'm tired of him. Nor is it because I'm scared crapless; though Joe Hill is the only author that can write about non-demonic things and scare me cleaner than Ex-lax. It's just that as we are now in October, I am burning through a bunch of those Halloween reads that I've been saving up to read. Thanksgiving and Christmas are up next and I really want to dip into those reads too. Maybe when it's time to spend the holidays in St. Louis this Christmas, I'll bring another Joe Hill work that I haven't read yet with me. Hopefully, the author will have something new on the horizon as I am running out of things of his that I haven't read yet.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Men In Black International

2019's Men In Black International was the first film in the franchise to not have Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones. That's not to say that this film lacked star power as to why this has become the least successful of the MiB movies. Chris Hemsworth, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson and Tess Thompson all star as members of the covert operative team that protects the Earth from alien invaders. Instead, what I think hurt this film was a number of things. Not having Smith or Jones hurt. Prior to 2022's infamous slap at the Oscars, Big Willie was still a massive movie draw in 2019. Without either original actor, I think a lot of folks saw this as a reboot instead of a continuation of the series as Emma Thompson's Agent O as well as many of the beloved aliens from the franchise make return appearances.

Having Tessa Thompson as the female lead had a lot of fanboys crying that this was going to be a 'woke' picture even though there have been strong female characters in the MiB movies before. Just not one in the main star role. That woke assessment really could not have been further from the truth. This is a film about a young girl who encounters an alien and witnesses fer parents getting neuralized by the Men in Black. Seeking to know the truth, the girl spends the next 20 years trying to get behind the truth of that faithful encounter, going as far to infiltrate the organization. The woman is quickly caught. But her tenacity impresses Agent O who puts her on a probationary status as the newly minted Agent M. 

M is sent to the London office where Agent O feels that a mole is entrenched within itself within the ranks of agents. Agent M meets the dashingly handsome Agent H who is billed as the savior of the earth from a wretched group of aliens called the Hive. Yet Agent H acts anything but heroic, often coming in late, sleeping at his desk and who's ineptitude has unfortunately caused a huge diplomatic issue by allowing a member of an intergalactic royal family be assassinated under his watch.

The dying royal family member tells Agent O to trust no one. This is the second time in as many days somebody has warned the probationary agent to be suspicious of everyone. However, Agent H is just about the only MiB member that Agent O knows and thus she must team up with him to find out who murdered the extraterrestrial diplomat and who at MiB London was behind the execution.

Tessa Thompson's swagger was less annoying than Will Smith's. She's cool and yet very vulnerable like Alice in an X-Files version of Wonderland. There's a lot of Thor in Chris Hemsworth's Agent H to the point that there's at least one God of Thunder gag in the film when H uses a hammer to battle a gigantic alien enforcer. 

The film does a good job making you think you know who the mole is and then having that character earn your trust and having to start the deduction process all over again. A couple of years ago, the big ending had actually been spoiled for me. Yet despite knowing who the villain really was, I keep falling for the red herrings. In my opinion that's an example of a good movie, not a stinker.

An example that I think this film was nowhere near as bad as critics rated this film was how they took an actor that I absolutely hate and make me fall in love with their character. I cannot stand Kumail Nanjani. He always has this look on his face like he's just smelled something really awful. His distracting facial feature is a big reason I have yet to seek out Marvel's The Eternals despite being a huge fan of Jack Kirby. Yet, here Nanjani is the voice of a diminutive alien guard named Pawny, who clings on to Agent O as his new Queen. Even though I knew it was Kumail Nanjani voicing the role, I was able to overlook my abhorrence of the actor and actually really become a fan of his character. 

As I mentioned earlier, a lot of scuttlebutt on social media was that this film was going to be the woke version of Men In Black. The first two MiB films starring Will Smith makes more commentary on race than this film. In fact, I don't recall a single reference to Agent M being black. There are a couple of jokes about how the Men in Black also have women in the ranks and neither jokes are all that good nor necessary. Especially as the follow up joke involves a character who wasn't even introduced in the movie yet when Agent O made the first comment about the organization. I'm thinking a big scene was cut for time or relevance. 

If anything ruined this movie, it was the use of Chekov's gun. It's a principle that states if something appears in the first act, like a gun, it must make a needed return appearance in the third act to complete the progression of the plot. A throw away line by one of the Men In Black that flashy-things Agent M's parents had me ready for the big reveal as soon as I saw that mystery character return in the final act. Maybe a lot of folks missed the Easter egg but I didn't and that ruined a big plot twist... and I had been spoiled on who the big traitor in the movie was months prior!

Do I need to see this movie again? Just like with the second MiB movie, I do not. But I would not balk at a sequel to this film. Though instead of being an international film, let's go intergalactic! You know there has got to be some humans living on other planets as operatives. How else will Earth know if some alien baddie is on their way? Okay, sure satellites can help. But there's got to be more to it. I would be okay if Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth came back. I would love to see Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones back in action. But let's face it. The actor we want to see return is Bill Hader who's Men in Black agent posing as Andy Warhol was single-handedly the best scene in the entire franchise!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Star Wars Adventures (2019 Free Comic Book Day Edition)

This 2019 Free Comic Book Day offering features a scary story starring Han Solo and Chewbacca. Only it's not the real Han Solo. I don't care that this is a comic book. But the version of Han illustrated in this book is the Alden Ehrenreich Solo origin film version. The only (acceptable) version of Han Solo is Harrison Ford. Plain and simple. There is no substitute. 

Now one thing added to the appeal of this book is that this is a Tales From Vader's Castle story. Since 2018, Star Wars fans have been delighted by an annual all-ages horror themed anthology set in the Star Wars Universe. It's become a new Halloween tradition. However, there's no such thing as Halloween in Star Wars. That doesn't matter as it still makes for a fun October time read. 

Compared to other Vader's Castle stories, this one isn't really that scary. Probably because this was a Free Comic Book Day offering. Mistress Lina and her droid Crater, who are the story's narrators, make a return appearance from the 2018 debut of Tales From Vader's Castle. As they explore Vader's home, Lina recalls an early adventure from Han and Chewbacca's early days involving a heist as a droid museum. 

This story sets up the framework for prospective fans to pick up the trade paperback which collected the first series. There was a Han Solo ghost story in the first anthology. I double-checked. This story is not a reprint of that issue as writer Cavan Scott managed to have both versions of Solo (the true and the reboot impostor) in the same story. There's no Harrison Ford in this book.

Featuring art by Derek Charm, this issue has a certain charm to it; even if it doesn't feature MY Han Solo. Loved the closing panel! And the back cover by Francesco Francavilla, featuring the imposing visage of Lord Vader overlooking his Mustafar is just breathtaking. Oh, how I would love to have a print of it to hang in my office!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

They Called Us Enemy (2023 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

I met George Takei in 1986. I was 8 and I had spent almost all day waiting to meet him and Walter Koening at a video store signing in Cary, NC. While Walter was busy being hugged and kissed by a bevy of fans, George was very nice to spend extra time talking with my dad and me. He talked about upcoming TV shows he was guest-starring in. He listened as I told him that 'The Naked Time' was one of my favorite Star Trek episodes, to which George proclaimed was one of his too. I told him how sorry I was to see the Enterprise explode (in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock) and Takei hinted that he might be behind a new console very soon. 

Then it was time to meet Walter Koening and he could not have been more distant to me. I immediately became a George Takei fan. In those nearly 40 years since, I may not have agreed with his politics, methods or style 100%. But I never lost my respect for him because he took time to respect me that day in Cary. 

In 2019, George Takei recounted the tragic affair of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II in the Top Shelf published graphic novel, They Called Us Enemy. Assisting Takei in his personal recollection of his family's 3 year plus imprisonment under the suspicion of being Imperial Japanese spies were Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott. The Takei story is essentially told from 3 perspectives: George as a young child who saw the episode as a frightful camping experience, George as a young man struggling to understand his father's ability to allow his family to be imprisoned while wanting justice for all, and George as a much older man who lived to see the American government apologize for the passing of Executive Order 9066 and later allow the actor/activist chances to talk to others about the atrocities. 

The American government has made great steps to apologize for internment. Yet it seems for every step forward, our nation takes a couple steps backward. For example, towards the end of this memoir, Takei discusses Fred Korematsu's 1944 Supreme Court lawsuit on his internment. Korematsu sued for the right to remain free of the camps and lost 6-3. Then in 2018, the Supreme Court reversed Korematsu V. United States all the while simultaneously providing 5-4 favor in the ruling of Trump Vs. Hawaii, which allowed the government to restrict Muslim immigration into the US. 

At one point in the book, Takei recounts how years later he was invited to the ancestral home of Franklin D. Roosevelt. At Springwood, Takei was invited to speak about the wrongful action of imprisonment of Japanese Americans on the 75th Anniversary of EX 9066. George Takei points out that 'only in America' can someone who was wronged by a world leader actually get to discuss the issue in the very house FDR (George's jailer!) was born and raised in! While Takei admits that America provides great freedoms unlike many countries on earth, it still has a long way to go to get things right.

The artwork was by Harmony Becker. Using black and white art with gray shading, They Called Us Enemy was drawn in the Manga style.

They Called Us Enemy was nominated for several awards, winning in both the American Book Award and Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work in 2020.

Completing this review completes Task #41 (A Memoir) of the 2023 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

 

Basketful of Heads

Joe Hill is the only author whose collective body of work terrifies me. Hill's magnum opus, NOS4A2 gave me such chills, that I had to stop reading it for several months before I got the courage to finish it. Several chapters of his Dark Horse series Locke & Key gave me sleepless nights. And his 2016 work The Fireman, while the least scary of his works that I have read, still had moments of horror that I just can't shake off. 

And yet, I can't stop reading his stuff!

Basketful of Heads was Hill's first miniseries published under DC's Hill House imprint. With the collapse of Vertigo, DC Comics partnered with the author to develop a line of horror comics based on his previously published short stories and new works. Other authors were supposed to be involved in this project. Shortly, DC announced the creation of the DC Horror and Black Label imprints and those other stories were released under that line. 

This 2019 miniseries is set during the end of the Summer of 1983. June Branch has arrived on Brody Island, off the coast of Maine, to pick up her boyfriend, Liam. Liam has been working during his college break as a junior law enforcement officer to help with the influx of Summer tourists. Coming off his last shift, Liam and June encounter a chaotic scene. A quartet of prisoners on work release have escaped from Shawkshank Prison!

These men are considered armed and dangerous. So Liam decides to stay with Chief Clausen's family to protect them while the police force conducts their manhunt. With a tropical storm approaching the island and the tragic news of a fallen cop, June and Liam soon find themselves at the Chief's house alone.

The storm causes the power to go out at the Clausen compound. While June looks for flashlights, the prisoners invade the home and take Liam hostage. In the melee, June looks for something to defend herself and grabs what she believes to be an ordinary antique axe from Chief Clausen's den. Only when she lops off the head of one of the prisoners who stayed behind, she discovers that the weapon has magical powers, allowing the decapitated criminal's head to remain alive. 

June learns from the head that Liam has some sort of unknown item in his possession. Probably money or jewels, which could greatly help with their escape. June knows nothing of this. But if she wants to see her boyfriend alive ever again, June has got to get searching, taking the talking head, and placing it in a picnic basket with her, in hopes of uncovering clues.

As she encounters the other prisoners, June's basket grows heavy with more heads. But is she any closer to saving Liam? And what is so special about this axe that it keeps the dead from dying?

Basketful of Heads was a brilliant dark comedy. It gives homage to JAWS being set on Brody Island. And it ties into the Stephen King universe with the inclusion of criminals from Shawshank. I was expecting this to be a book about a serial killer with a Little Red Riding Hood fetish. Instead, I got a thrilling mystery that was as funny as it was creepy. 

Chilean artist Gabriel Rodriguez is the quintessential partner when Joe Hill makes comics. But I must say that when you cannot get Gabe Rodriguez, the appropriate substitute can be Leomacs! He's got this quality that makes the living seem so vibrant and the dead look like rotting flesh. Creepy good! And the regular covers, crafted so deftly by Reika Murakami. (Can you find the eyeball hiding in this cover?) Once again- Creepy good!

In 2022, Joe Hill crafted a sequel. Refrigerator Full of Heads promises to continue the mystery of the magical axe. If it's half as good as this book, I really, REALLY want to read it. 

As for Hill House? Does it still exist? I can't find any info as to if Joe Hill has more horror comic books on the horizon. The storyline of Locke & Key has been continued and a couple of prequels set during major wars in American history are forecasted to be in the works. But I really want to know if the latest victim at the hands of horror writer Joe Hill is his Hill House imprint!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Skulldigger and Skeleton Boy

The story of Skulldigger and Skeleton Boy is the Black Hammer universe's version of Batman and Robin. There's also some element of Hit Girl from Kick-Ass. But when you throw in the arch-villain of the sadistic Grimjim, this story is definitely of the Dark Knight with Jeff Lemire flair. 

An unfortunate but inadvertent dropping of this book resulted in me seeing a scene that looked rather tragic and sad. So I held off on reading this library find for a while. But it's time for the books I checked out to go back, so I had to read it. I'm very glad I did. 

This is an extremely gritty book. But I enjoyed the heck out of it. The violence was gratuitous and there were a couple of scenes that show body parts exploding. This typically isn't my thing (and the main reason I've never seen the film Scanners) but for some reason, I was hooked. It felt like the sort of film Tarantino and Sam Peckinpah would have made if they ever decided to get together to do a superhero flick.

I was also a big fan of the artwork. Tonci Zonjic's artstyle is just so minimalist and classic. It reminds me of the late Darwyn Cooke. And I'm not the only one who feels this way. If I'm not mistaken, in the sketchbook section of this read, Jeff Lemire likens Zonjic's work to that of Darwyn Cooke's and I could not have agreed more. 

I really don't feel like this story is over. However, news reports claim that Jeff Lemire is closing the doors on the Black Hammer universe in the next year or so. If that's the unfortunate case, then I really hope Jeff Lemire brings Skulldigger back. There's just so many unanswered questions, like what was Detective Reyes' past history with the vigilante? She mentions a past with Skulldigger in issue #1 and has her reasons for wanting to arrest him. But, then that whole vendetta is glossed over and on the occasions when she does met up with Skulldigger, the two act like they've never meet before.

I'd also like to learn more why it seems that the Chief of Police seems glad that Skulldigger is killing all of the criminal elements of Spiral City. I'd like to learn more as to why it seems like the law enforcer has given up hope in the services of his police force. There seems to be a powerful origin story waiting to be uncovered here.

This story cannot be over. It had better not be. However, it's been about 3 years since Skulldigger and Skeleton Boy was published and time is running out. If that's all there is to this cast of characters, I am going to be sorely disappointed.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Jughead's Time Police

After getting to preview the first issue of Jughead's Time Police in 2019, I had every intention of getting the rest of the series. Just for one reason or another, I didn't follow up. COVID had a little bit to do with it. But the majority of this miniseries came out before March of 2020. I guess I just got distracted or forgot about it all together until I saw the trade paperback at my local library. 

When I reviewed the first issue, I gave it 10 stars. Writer Sina Grace (Iceman) had crafted a very intriguing opening segment that blended modern Archie Comics with the original Jughead's Time Police series. The premier issue had Jughead being summoned to the future by a member of the time cops to help save the very fabric of space time. Once in the future, things get kinda wonky. 

There's an evil Jughead who wants to become the ruler of all reality. In order to do this, the evil Juggie has to get rid of the Jughead who features as the main character of this story as he's kinda like 'Jughead Prime'. For about 2 issues, the ultimate enjoyment I had from issue #1 had dwindled. The quantum physics behind this evil Jughead P. Jones was more mind-boggling with its time paradoxes than the plot of Back to the Future, Part II. Plus, I just felt that such a motivated and evil version of Jughead was impossible- even in the multiverse!

As the good Jughead is chased throughout time and space, things start to pick up. Since the editors themselves spoil the big plot twist on with the blurbs on the back cover, along with a couple of images from the story placed at the beginning of this volume, I'm just going to go ahead and say it: we get a Crisis on Infinite Riverdales with dozens of Jugheads through time and space and alternate earths coming together to defeat the evil Jughead. 

Bringing multiple incarnations of characters together has become the most common plot point used by just about every pop culture franchise there is right now. Star Trek. Power Rangers. Ghostbusters. And especially DC and Marvel have been trolling the multiverse for big bucks and ratings. It's starting to get a little boring. But if it can be done well, I'll still stay on the band wagon. While the reboot of Jughead's Time Police took a detour into implausibility, the story got on the right track for the epic grand finale. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Bizarre Adventures #1

Not happy with the website I use to catalog my comic book collection and wish list, I'm inventorying all 11,000 plus comic books. It's an arduous process, but it's helping me catch things that have slipped in the cracks. And that's where we come to this book. 

I bought this comic new in 2019. I read it within a day or so of purchasing. And then I filed it in my long boxes without neither a review nor adding it to my database. 

This one-shot is a tribute to the Bizarre Adventures anthologies series from 1981-83. Originally titled Marvel Preview, the name change occurred at issue #25. The book was originally a magazine format; which was code for containing material not encumbered by the Comics Code. Marvel kept the oversized magazine format for a couple of issues with the new name. However, the name change wasn't enough to win over new fans. So, some of the last few issues were released in comic book format. Even with forgoing the CCA, Marvel just couldn't make the series a hit and Bizarre Adventures ended with issue #34; a holiday horror classic!

Even though Bizarre Adventures wasn't a commercial success, the title became a cult classic. Thus the tribute release in 2019.

There are four stories in this issue. First up is an origin or early years story starring that eternal monster hunter, Ulysses Bloodstone. Set in his days as a caveman, it turns out that those pesky Skrulls have been visiting here a heck of a lot longer than we originally thought.

Story #2 involves Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung-Fu. I don't recall much of the plot. I do recall when I read this 3 years ago, my eyes were opened to a Communist Chinese concept of building new cities for the purpose of keeping unoccupied until the need for relocating citizens. In 2019, I couldn't believe such cities existed. But I think last year or maybe 2020, when China needed to divert a river or a dam, they moved their people to one of these brand spanking new metropolises. Therefore, in a weird sort of way, life imitated art!

Third story involves Dracula. Set in like the 20s or 30s, the Lord of the Vampires becomes enamored with a beauty. But of course, there's a twist!

Lastly, things are wrapped up with a Bill Foster Giant Man/Goliath story. It was a hot mess that was supposed to be the debut of some hot new talent. Maybe this cartoonist is some great player on the Indy comics circuit. But they just weren't Marvel material.

Like I said, it's been about 3 years since I read this book. And as you can tell from the Shang-Chi story, my memory isn't 100% clear. So I'm going to base my review on how I felt about the book in 2019. I hated the Bill Foster story. It's too psychedelic for my taste. Loved the two true horror stories that comprise this book. The Master of Kung-Fu story was good. But I apparently only remembered the wrong parts of this book.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars. 

Nancy (2022 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy is one of those anomalies that I just don't understand. The eternal 8-year with an attitude has a cult following. Cartoonists like Fred Hembeck devote literal volumes of his work to the genius of the Nancy strips. Nancy was once the muse of Andy Warhol and star of her own animated feature on Saturday mornings in the 70s. Books have been written to help the uninitiated to navigate how to read Nancy comics. There's even been college level courses devoted to it!

And I just didn't understand why- until now!

This collection of Nancy strips chronicles the first year run of Olivia Jaimes. Not her real name. In fact, Jaimes physical appearance is very much in doubt. But in 2018, Olivia Jaimes became the first woman to ever create Nancy strips. With Jaimes at the helm, Nancy returned to its Ernie Bushmiller roots. But she also brought Nancy into the 21st century!

The Nancy strip didn't even start out as Nancy. The series first debuted as Fritzi Ritz. Fritzi was a young flapper, later an actress. In 1925, Fritzi creator Larry Whittington left the series and was replaced by Bushmiller. It wasn't until 8 years later that Fritzi took on a roommate, her niece, Nancy. By 1938, for unknown reasons, Fritzi became Nancy's legal guardian and the de facto supervising adult to not only Nancy, but her best friend, Sluggo. 

It was in 1938 that Nancy earned her own self-titled spin-off. Fritzi continued to star in her own strip until the late 60s. But the popular title was clearly Nancy. Bushmiller won several awards and gained his cult following. Sadly, by 1978, Bushmiller was diagnosed with Parkinson's. A team of artists including Legion of Superheroes' Al Plastino assisted the artist and even ghosted many strips until replacing Bushmiller when he died in 1982. 

Jumping back to 2018. Though Ernie Bushmiller's run had become the stuff of legend and Guy Gilchrist (and brother Brad) had a loyal following, less than 100 papers nationwide carried the strip. Editors conducted a lengthy talent search before finally landing on the mysterious Olivia Jaimes. Hopefully new blood could booster some new readership.

The strip was the first such work for Jaimes. The new creator won a fair share of critics and fans with her modernist approach to Nancy. New characters including a teacher and frowny-faced classmate, Esther, were added along with an after-school STEM club in robotics, a peppering of non-sequiturs and the meme-inducing proclamation that 'Sluggo is Lit.' But along with the 21st century changes, Jaimes re-invigorated the classically clean art style of Bushmiller.

Aesthetically, Aunt Mitzi became less of a sex pot and more of a single mom now. Though her face is still from the roaring 20s! But Nancy retained her iconic outfit and spiky hair. Sluggo still dressed like one of the Bowery Boys. But the inks were super clean and the settings returned to simplistic, compared to Gilchrist whose style was more exaggerated. Plus, if you ask me, the Gilchrist strips looked more suited for Betty Boop animation than Ernie Bushmiller newsprint.

The majority of the strips in this collection of Jaimes Nancy was funny if not at least entertaining. There's some Bizarro or Rhymes with Orange level oddities mixed in that I just didn't get. But I can see why Nancy has her fans. When we can't express our angst and frustrations, Nancy is there to tell it like it is. Without fear. Without care. But sadly sometimes without a discernible punchline...

Worth Consuming! 

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Completing this review completes Task #17 (With a One Word Title) of the 2022 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Powers in Action (Family Comic Friday)

Hiya Folks- I've been cleaning out my Google Docs and I found this unpublished classic review from when I was a writer for Outrightgeekery.com. Other than grammar, I've not made any updates to when I wrote this in 2019.

Enjoy!

Hazel & Cha Cha Save Christmas: Tales From The Umbrella Academy

Hazel and Cha Cha- those scene-stealing psychotic hitmen employeed by the Temps Aeternalis, are the stars of this 2019 Christmas special. The two are assigned to take out a rogue time criminal who has mingled among the citizens of the City sometime in the mid-80s. At the same time, a young man is coming to terms with becoming an adult when he accidentally is let in on the true secret of Santa Claus: the jolly old fat man is really real!

Umbrella Academy creator Gerard Way pens this holiday tale. It's really not what I thought it was going to be. I've held onto this issue since is debuted 2 years ago and someone told me an overview of a plot in which Hazel and Cha Cha has to save (or maybe kill) the Baby Jesus from a rogue hitman. Is there another Umbrella Academy holiday book that I don't know about? I'm not sure. But this isn't what I was informed about previously. 

I've mixed feelings about this issue. The story seems to be all over the place. Maybe some of it is that it's probably been 10 years at least since I last read the first couple of Umbrella Academy series. But with a couple of characters looking just like each other. And the last page seemingly a little ambiguous. And the addition of a couple of random panels that just look random. Well, I think the Tommy Lee Edwards artwork maybe be a part of the blame.

The overall story is very good. But like I said, the artwork is inconsistent and the narrative is chaotic. It makes for a difficult read. I did love how some of the book ended. And I might love how it ended altogether. But like I said, I'm not sure if how I think the book ended is really how it ended.

I like Gerard Way. Great musician. Fairly decent storyteller. And an overall nice guy. I met him once being his personal security at a local comic con. But I don't think this holiday special was flawless. Sometimes Way's writing style gets a little too Grant Morrison-like for his own good and it doesn't always work. There's only one Grant Morrison and even a legend like him gets in a little too much over his head.

Really wondering why somebody told me this story involved the Baby Jesus though...

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.

The Adventures of Cthulhu Jr. and Dastardly Dirk One-Shot (Halloween ComicFest 2019)

I guess like TV shows and movies, comic books get cancelled before they get past the pilot stage. That seems to be what happened here with this 2019 Halloween Comic Fest freebie. 

The Adventures of Cthulhu Jr. and Dastardly Dirk is a promotional comic that prints the first chapter of the proposed graphic novel. In this story, Dastardly Dirk longs to be a super villain. He's got the costume. He's got the underling. And he's got the scout cookies! 

Ironically, it's the cookies that seem to be the only thing going for Dastardly Dirk's evil ways. Scorned by his nasty peers, it appears that our anti-hero will have to stay in his suburban home with his loving wife, daughter and secret underground lair (and by that we mean the basement.) That is until a mysterious foreboding cloud appears in Dirk's cul-de-sac full of promise of an evil entity taking form on earth. Instead, it's an adorable Cthulhu whose been taken in by an elderly neighbor!

This was such a great opening chapter! The back of this issue promised a release in 2020. Sure, I know COVID has messed up a bunch of plans. But I figured by now, it would have been published already. No dice!

As I usually do, I did some research and I discovered that there will be or have already been plans to sell this book via some sort of crowdfunding. But I'm not sure if this finished up or not. So, I've actually contacted writer and co-creator Dirk Manning for more info on this. Hopefully, I will be an owner and reader of the rest of this fabulous idea.

For now, you'll need to turn to online retailers to see if they might have a back issue copy of this great read. But if the fates are in my favor, I'll be helping all of you get your hands on the full story.

A funny read that has dashes of Despicable Me and the artwork styling of Art Baltazar and Franco. Oh and Lovecraft too- if the horror writer was secretly Doctor Seuss.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9.5 out of 10 with only a half point deduction because I can't readily get my hands on the rest of these adventures.

Grimm Fairy Tales 2019 Holiday Special

With it's theme of modernizing fairy tales, Grimm Fairy Tales should be one of my favorite series. But it's legacy of T&A covers keeps me away from this series for the most part. With the addition of Krampus to this storyline, I made a rare exception. 

Krampus plays the role of Crypt Keeper, Zacherly or Svengoolie with his narration of a trio of holiday themed stories; each with their own spooky twist. The level of gore was Tarrantino-esque. But I am a fan of those scary ghost stories set during Christmas-time. 

The individual stories were quite good. And they had perfect twists which make horror stories a comic book staple! But I had a little bit of trouble figuring out the twist ending for Krampus' victim. What? Did you think Krampus just goes around telling scary stories to himself? 

The quality of this holiday special from Zenescope Entertainment was quite high! Thankfully, the main cover was fairly tame. In a way, the carpet didn't match the drapes as the sexuality level of the actual content was virtually non-existent. I might find myself purchasing some, if not all of the past holiday specials. As long as I can find the PG-13 (or better) covers.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Scooby-Doo Team-Up #48

A few days ago, I reviewed the 50th anniversary Scooby-Doo special. In that appraisal, I lamented the lack of another Scooby-Doo Team-Up. Well, it was like fate felt sorry for me!

I've gotten way behind on my inventory and cataloging. I always seem to do other things than work on my collection. For some reason, I made time and I found this in my brief efforts. It was like discovering a lost episode! Why, I barely remember buying this. And I've pretty much read all of the series. And then Boom! Here's another awesome issue to be read!

In this Sholly Fisch/Dario Brizuela collaboration, the Rogues of Central City have called upon the Mystery Inc. team for help. It seems that their most recent schemes have been thwarted by fellow Rogue: The Top. Normally, this sort of thing wouldn't appear to fall under the caseload of those meddling kids. But The Top has been dead for years! So it's a ghost Rogue behind it all! It most certainly is something that the detectives how experience with!

A great story that didn't fall for the same plot line traps or very bad jokes which plagued the first 7-8 issues. Plus, I finally get to encounter a story with Golden Glider! She's often mentioned in the Arrowverse shows. But I've never had a chance to see what she looked like or could do in the comics. 

A fun-tastic surprise that made me smile!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.