Torsobear, Vol. 3: Back on the Blocks

I waited a year to read Volume 2 of Torsobear because the story I had begun was such a gut punch of a story. Innocent and sweet looking toys doing very nasty things. It was definitely something that I needed to recover from in order to continue.

While Volume 2 was nowhere near as good as the opening salvo, it continued to be a story that made the reader feel uneasy. Only this time I wasn't going to wait another year to finish the storyline.

Ruxby is back on the force. Only now he's doing crowd control with SWAT as Toyburg has descended into chaos. In the fallout of the Torsobear/Copycat killings, Mayor Huntington has turned the city into a police state, arresting innocent people while the real Copycat Killer pulls the strings literally from behind the curtains. 

There's also unrest in the lands across the Lemonade Sea. Only now this struggle is over class warfare as wealthy toys get richer while the poorer, less advanced playthings get poorer. 

I really didn't like this final volume. Sure, the Copycat Killer storyline gets really confusing and meta. Yet if the various writers and artists behind this project would have just stuck with that plot, things would have been okay. Instead, a lot of space in this book was wasted on what felt like a play date version of Les Mis. If the creators had wanted to do a follow-up volume of the class warfare struggles that occurred at the same time as the events in Toyburg, I would have been good with that. See, Volume 3 also finally reveals what happened in the Saturday Morning War which essentially led to the formation of this vast play-land. Spending time on the secondary plotline took time away from the origin story that was needed because if you look in the background, the Copycat Killer was there involved in the war. His motivations are overlooked because the creative team decided to throw 'a batteries not included' version of The Communist Manifesto into the mix.

Torsobear was a large project that came about thanks to crowdfunding and a lot of word of mouth. It's been about 5 years since this third and final volume was published. Those behind this project are probably done with Toyburg. I, the reader am not. There was so many questions left unanswered. While I in no way want to undo the happy ending, I want more answers. What was Copycat Killer doing in the Saturday Morning War? How did the Mayor come to power? What role did Hazbrow play in the war? And who killed Strax Power?

Maybe a companion piece could be forthcoming. I could see a story where as the citizens of Toyburg re-build, they uncover clues that reveal the answers to my questions and more in flashback. It could work. 

Thankfully, if a Volume 4 ever comes to fruition, it will probably be a couple of years before it comes out. GOOD! Parts of this story freaked me the Hell out. When Copycat paints a demonic set of teeth over the crescent moon, it reminded me of the frightening moon that hangs over Christmasland in Joe Hill's NOS4A2 and the graphic novel companion piece, Wraith. 

The artwork was superior once again. So many freaking awesome Easter eggs! Some great parts that were crowded out by a tangent that was unnecessary. I'm just so disappointed in how an idea with great promise fizzled at the end.

Not Worth Consuming!

Rating: 3 out of 10 stars.

Torsobear Vol. 2: All Stitched Up

Though Volume 1 of Torsobear is just as gritty, shocking and violent, that magic was just absent from this follow-up.

The town of Toyburg is still reeling from the Torsobear murders. Detective Ruxby Bear has just nabbed a copycat killer. Only the facts and the evidence just doesn't add up. Unfortunately, he'll not be able to continue he's investigation, as Dectective Ruxby has been arrested for a crime he did not commit.

Now incarcerated in the roughest prison in the land, Ruxby is behind bars with many of the felons and cons that he put there. Constantly having to watch his back, Ruxby tries to solve both his framing and the copycat killings from his jail cell. But when the copycat killer sneaks into his cell, Ruxby now has to face the fact that the mastermind behind all of this is in the penitentiary with him.

Meanwhile on the outside, Ruxby's old partner, Officer Hazbrow, is now the chief of police. He too wants to help his old friend exonerate himself. However, the mayor of Toyburg has forbidden the TBPD continue with the investigation, declaring the Torsobear murders and copycat killings closed. But when the son of an old police mentor of Hazbrow comes asking for help finding his old man, Hazbrow begins an undercover sting that could send not just Toyburg but the entire region of play-lands into civil war.

I love the varying artwork. It's great seeing bad boy versions of your favorite toys. Every page is a feast for the eyes. If you love Easter eggs, be sure to bring your basket with you when reading this book.

Volume 2 is also told in anthology form. The backstories of several of the inmates and prison guards is more interesting than Ruxby's time in jail. To be honest, the hero doesn't belong in prison. He needs to be on the mean streets of Toyburg solving crimes. Hazbrow's story is interesting but that's because the law man is in his element. This volume sets up the Volume 3 finale. Unlike with the first volume, I won't be waiting a year and a half for that book. I just hope the ending returns to that level of wonder that Volume 2 was missing.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Sham Comics #3

Years ago, I remember a 30 minute program where HBO or some other premium movie channel would regularly show an abridged version of Night of the Living Dead. Only the voices of the actors were replaced and a humorously dubbed version was overlapped in its place. Source Point Press' Sham Comics is a lot like that comedy special, only in comic book form!

Sham Comics selects a monthly theme. In the case of this issue, it's funny animals. Then Sham takes comic book stories in the public domain, replaces the dialogue, including the captions, and crafts a parody of the original tale. There are even vintage comic book ads that are given a comedic retool. In 2007, BOOM! Studios issued a trio of similar comics. The only difference is that this 2022 comic book uses quite a bit of four letter words, including the big bad one. There's numerous sexual references that would make a priest sweat. And potty humor. Okay. I take that last one back. I think the BOOM! books had those kinds of jokes as well.

Even though the material got rather blue and the language was R-rated, I really enjoyed this comic. It made me laugh; which was needed during a very dark time in my life. I liked Sham Comics so much, I very much would like to read some of the other books in this 6-issue series and the first volume produced in 2019. 

Horror. Sci-fi. Crime. Romance. These are all themes that are skewered by Sham Comics and the team at Source Point Press. Kudos to the editors for having the insight to given credit to the original source materials from the late 40s and early 50s!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars. 

Turkey Day One-Shot

I closed my 2022 Thanksgiving comic book readings with this 2021 horror one-shot from Source Point Press.

A small town in Illinois is about to host its annual community theater Thanksgiving pageant. This year's organizer promises a huge surprise is in the works. Meanwhile, an alien invasion force has landed in a nearby field chock full of turkeys. Taking over the brains of the delicious fowl, the alien army waddles over to the theater house in order to make their first kill, though the theater goers think this is all staged as part of the big surprise. Truly, this will be a Thanksgiving Day to remember when everyone realizes that these guys aren't here to just 'talk turkey'.

I bought this book right after Thanksgiving last year. So I've been waiting just about a full year to enjoy this sci-fi black comedy. This book was grim, gory, irreverent, and fun as hell! I loved just about every moment of it; though the story did take a turn I wasn't expecting at all. And I thought that homage final page, which was just darn near perfect. 

I did briefly think that this book made a slightly wrong turn adding in a certain former POTUS in a cameo towards the end. Just seeing his face made me feel for a brief moment of 'here we go again' with some sort of political statement. But the use of this character for 1 panel was actually pretty funny and it added to the dark humor tone of the story. 

I'm going to let you dear readers in on a little secret: I am terrified of turkeys. They're mean. They're evil. They'd kill you if they had the chance. But over the past year, I've made friends with a turkey at a local farm. Though she has a different name, I've started to call this bird 'Swanson' after the turkey TV dinner. Over this time, I've come to realize, 'Swanson' is a salt & pepper hued turkey. All the turkeys in this comic and countless viewed videos of poultry on human violence have been perpetrated by brown feathered turkeys. Thus, I change my stance that only those brown feathered foul are direct ancestors of velociraptors! 

Being a comedy, did this book do anything to make me less afraid of turkeys? No, not really. In fact, when the alien leader plucks out a turkey's eye in order to take over its brain, I wasn't mortified like in previous books where other adorable animals are hurt or killed. If anything, I think the use of turkeys are things of holiday horror are a thing of brilliance and I would strongly recommend to SyFy channel getting the rights to this comic and turning it into next year's Thanksgiving movie ASAP! It's campy like Sharknado and bloody like The Evil Dead. I'm sure doing so would make this the next Turkey Day classic for generations of families to come!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Bug Bites (Family Comic Friday)

About once or twice a year, Source Point Press offers comic book readers a chance at free comics. All you have to do is pay shipping. This time around I opted for the all ages bundle. Only one book came. But it was a delight.

Bug Bites is about a young girl named Jolene. She is new to her neighborhood. But thanks to her grandmother's old recipe book, she makes a new friend pretty instantly. 

The cookbook is all about grubs. And snails. And other creepy crawlies. Legend has it that Jolene's nana created the book after a giant nasty bug kidnapped her as a little girl. According to Jolene, grandma escaped the bug by blinding it in one eye. And then once free, she developed a taste for insects. 

One day when Jolene goes to visit her new BFF, Peter, she learns that something huge destroyed his garden. Whatever it was left a trail. As the two children track the fiend, they run across it. It's a giant bug and it just kidnapped Peter!

Now Jolene, armed with her cookbook must take not just one giant insect but an entire community of bugs! And they've captured 3 other kids whom they plan to cook for the bug queen. And one of these creature chefs happens to be missing an eye!

Maybe Jolene's grandma really was kidnapped by giant bugs!

Originally a 3-issue web series, Bug Bites is the creation of Corinne Roberts. As far as I can tell, this is Roberts' first work. And what a debut it was!

Bug Bites was an imaginative story that combines fantasy, horror and my personal professional favorite- culinary! The characters are really well written. And funny! I really didn't want this clever tale to end.

Let's not forget the artwork. It was so detailed with a great color palette! With the wistful design of the bug town and it's inhabitants, I think Corinne Roberts might be a graduate from the school of Tim Burton. 

Being a story about food, I would have liked a couple of recipes attached as a sort of extra. But that's a personal preference thing. One thing I might want to advise parents on is the fear factor. 

Bug Bites is considered by Source Point Press to be all ages. But with the kidnapping of some kids with the intention of eating them and a little bit of violence, this book might be a tad intense for some. I'd say that this book would be appropriate for most readers 9 and up! 

A must for young readers who enjoy cooking, bugs and weird fun like James and the Giant Peach. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Torsobear, Vol. 1: Yarns From Toyburg

Imagine a gritty crime noir, similar to Chinatown. Only it stars a variety of stuffed animals and toys. 

Someone is dismembering the teddy bears of Toyburg. A team of a rookie cop and a harden veteran are on the case. Together, the duo will come across perverts, dope fiends and a dame to die for. But the players are all stars from your favorite toy store. And that touch of innocence makes the events that take place just a bit more uneasy.

I got this book as part of a grab bag from Source Point Press. Holy cow- is this an interesting, but odd book. There's basically 2 parts to this volume. The first part is the hunt for the teddy bear killer. The second is a mish-mash of short stories, sketches and other bits and pieces that you might find in an artist's sketchbook. 

So what I am thinking about this section is that it's the origins of Torsobear. Unfortunately, this is a pretty incoherent collection of work. I'm not sure what is canon and what is just the riffs of an artist practicing on some rough drafts. Regardless, I'm intrigued by this bizarro world and I want to know how the story plays out.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.