Krampus! #5

The final issue of this series wasn't supposed to be this way. Writer Brian Joines had intentions for this 2013 5-issue miniseries to be an ongoing series. Issue #5 was supposed to end the opening story arc. The real villain behind the theft of Saint Nicholas's remains would have been revealed and the next story arc would have Krampus going after them. Some new Santas would be introduced. A new holiday would be added to the mix. 

However, sales after issue #1 began to slump. For a series about Christmas to drag on into February and March, the fan base just fizzled out. Things just end with the big reveal. There was faith that a one-shot special would be forthcoming in the 2014 holiday season. However, jump ahead 10 years and we're no closer to a resolution of that characters original plans or what Joines had in store for Krampus. 

These days, we see publishers issuing seasonal miniseries on a weekly basis. Last year, DC Comics released the Batman/ Santa Claus: Silent Knight miniseries over a series of 4 weeks. They're looking to capture lightning in a bottle with a 2024 sequel. Then you've got Image who hasn't seemed to learn it's lesson issuing the Christmas themed serial killer horror title The Deviant well into the Spring and early summer of this year. I've been told that sales really dropped off after January as fans felt like the series was taking forever to complete.

I thought that Krampus! #5 ended well. But that setup leaves me wanting a completion. It's possible that Image might green light a conclusion. But after a decade of silence, I really doubt it will ever come to pass. You at least get a conclusion to the main story line. But if you want to have a definite conclusion that doesn't leave you in a perpetual wait for an ending that will very well never come, skip the last 3 pages of this story and head directly to the letters page 

Worth Consuming!

Rating 7 out of 10 stars.

Saga, Vol. One (2023 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Brian K. Vaughn's Saga is the story of a family. From two warring sides, the horned Marko and the winged Alana have abandoned their posts. Already on the run for desertion, the pair have married and with a newborn in their arms, the stakes for their deaths or capture have increased their notoriety; for a hybrid child could very well destroy the war effort and disrupt the coffers of those who profit from the lucrative war machine. 

Saga has action, humor, and heart. There's also quite a bit of sex. To the point that its inclusion has gotten publisher Image and the book itself into a lot of trouble. 

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund lists two major occasions in which issues or trades of Saga were censored or challenged. The first incident was in 2013. Apple iOS and the Apple store made issue #12 temporarily unavailable due to two panels which showed scenes of explicit sex. The ban was due to ComiXology's misunderstanding of Apple's content policy. The issue was soon added to the app. But this wasn't ComiXology's first instance of restriction of content and it certainly hasn't been the company's last. 

The second instance of censorship reported by the CBLDF occurred over the year of 2014. Vol. One of Saga was listed #6 of the American Library Association's Top Ten Most List of Frequently Challenged Books. The ranking was due in large part to a challenge of the book by branch of the Oregon Public Library. The reasons for the challenge were 'over sexually explicit content — content that the complainant perceived to be age-inappropriate and propagating anti-family values.' Not much else about the challenge was disclosed, other than that the book was eventually returned to shelves. 

The reason for the challenge is probably due to the detour one of the bounty hunters hired to capture Marko and Alaina take. Known as The Will, the character heads to a pleasure planet where he encounters various acts of debauchery; the most heinous of which is being offered a 6 year old girl by a pimp. The Will attempts to free the girl but he must abandon his noble quest when his sidekick's life is held as ransom for the child's return.

The story of Saga was conceived by Brian K. Vaughn while he was a child. Over time in high school, he spent many of his math classes fleshing out this new universe with influences by Star Wars, Flash Gordon and his most inspiring influence, Silver Surfer. With artist Fiona Staples, Vaughn has produced 65 issues of the series, with a brief hiatus from 2018-2022. Issue #66 is set to debut in early August. 

Pardon the cliche, but the saga continues...

Completing this review completes Task #8 (Book that was Banned/Challenged (https://cbldf.org/banned-challenged-comics/) of the 2023 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

AND WITH THAT, my 2023 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge is COMPLETE!

Creepshow #1

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the horror anthology film by George Romero and Stephen King, Image Comics released this 5-issue miniseries. It also helped that Creepshow is also currently a TV show on Shudder. I've been a fan of Creepshow since I was a kid. Probably not the best thing for a 6 year old to be watching. But I was a much bigger horror and gore fan than I am now. Though I can't pass up a good horror comic especially if it's in the vein of those old EC Comics. 

The 1982 film was a love letter to the works of William Gaines, Wally Wood, Johnny Craig and countless other legends. Instead of a prose novel, Stephen King crafted an over-sized graphic novel with artwork by Bernie Wrightson (Swamp Thing). And the movie itself was done up as a video comic book with the Creeper horror host, animated panels and dynamic close-ups. I'm not sure about the TV show. Never seen it. But I couldn't pass up a chance to collect and read this book. 

There are 3 story segments in this debut issue. The first story is set at Halloween with 3 brats terrorizing their neighborhood. The terrible trio comes across a bowl of candy with a sign asking trick-or-treaters to only take 1 piece. But these creeps take all the treats. It'll be the last mistake these holy terrors ever make, though I'm not really sure if the punishment really fit the crime...

Story number 2 was completely insane. A young girl is having a birthday party and dad has dropped the ball in arranging the entertainment. Enter the mysterious Shingo! His big party trick is eating the party goers and the more he eats, the crazier he gets!

Lastly is a black and white 3-pager. I don't think it's a full story since there aren't any title or artist credits. I think it might be a preview of the next issue. But there isn't a 'to be continued' label or anything like that. Plus, I know that this isn't a printing error as there aren't any missing segments at the first of the book. If it is a short story, it ends really abruptly. Man, did it confuse me. 

Since the first issue has the awkward ending, maybe waiting until I had all 5 issues of this series collected isn't such a bad thing. Especially if the last story picks up in the middle of the tale in issue #2 without any sort of recap. I'm going to wait until Halloween to read the rest of this series. If the second issue doesn't have those last 3 pages, I may have re-read this book. We'll just have to wait and see. 

A fun romp with a lot of gore (even more than the first film and the forgettable sequel) and not very much in terms of mercy towards some of the recipients of their just desserts. I think I might like this book more once I figure out the format a little better. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Scotch McTiernan's Halloween Party #1

I'm rather familiar with Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn. Both were the writers of an epic run of Deadpool stories that saw the Merc With a Mouth gaining a daughter, taking on a zombie horde of dead presidents and the return of the demonically funny Madcap! With their stories, I've learned to expect the unexpected and that there are no sacred cows! But man, was the opening to the book a real punch to the face.

This Halloween special starts off with a maniacal clown about to kill a whole bunch of party goers. Yet, the fiend is beaten to the punch by a mass shooter and then another mass shooter and another. The whole opening sequence of this story was meant to ask the question 'whose is the real monster- those of our nightmares or the regular man on the street?' But with the gore and blood and language and that poor dead bunny rabbit, I was so dumbstruck and shocked; it was like a climate activist had come into my comic book collection and poured tomato soup over everything.

After the initial shock, things got less in-your-face but the wildness and impulsiveness factors never dwindled. When  the 'hero' of this story, Scotch McTiernan, finally appears, the theme of the story has already changed. Over the course of this special we go from biting social commentary to 80s action hero satire to a parody of the 1982 classic E.T., and then things wrap up with a skewering of the religious right while channeling The Most Dangerous Game and Suicide Squad.

In the 1990s, Frank Miller created a character named Lance Blastoff. This souped up rocket man was gritty, grim, bloody as hell- oh, and irreverent. Nothing was safe from Frank Miller's take on the overly testosteroned super hero. Critics claimed that Miller created the character as his form of nose-thumbing at activists who saw mature comics as something to be banned and abhorred. For a while, Miller's character was used in campaigns and fundraising comics produced by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and it seemed the more they did, the wilder Lance Blastoff got. I get the same vibe here with Scotch McTiernan. Only I don't think Duggan and Posehn are doing it for the CBLDF...

Scotch McTiernan first debuted earlier this year in a book called The Secret History of the War on Weed. I didn't know that it was a book meant to celebrate 4/20 Day. Regardless, it wasn't on my radar and if I had known that the former was based on that April tribute to pot, I probably wouldn't have placed a request on this special. Yet Duggan, Posehn and their Deadpool favorited artist, Scott Koblish, were listed as the creators and that was good enough for me. 

Now that I've completed this book, I've got a couple of decisions to make. Do I want to own The Secret History of the War on Weed since it is a 'holiday' book? And do I want to own the forthcoming Christmas special that Duggan, Posehn and Koblish have lined up about Scotch McTiernan? I'm going to say yes to both. However, I'm also going to be wearing a whole lot of armor when I do. Those first 6 pages of this Halloween special are going to haunt me for decades and the horror had nothing to do with the creatures of the night. 

The opening of Scotch McTiernan's Halloween Party will hit you like a ton of bricks. While those elements of this story, which as a teacher hits very close to home, are temporary, the irreverence and insanity that turned me into a Deadpool fan never wanes from this comic. Maybe if Wade Wilson was doing all of this craziness and not just some random dudes with guns and body armor, I wouldn't be so unsettled. If so, I might have really enjoyed the last 3/4 of this book much as well.

This is definitely not a Halloween special for kids! Mature readers only!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

The Big Lie #1

I read this book a few days ago and I still am not sure how I feel about it. 

For one thing, this 9/11 conspiracy theory comic book is something that I am quite surprised was ever made by Image Comics. Most, if not all comic book publishers are considered to be quite liberal. And while some of the 9/11 theories do attack the Bush family for giving the family of Osama bin Laden a sort of free pass as well as the scuttlebutt on whether W's administration knew of the attack or not; generally those who believe in such a cover-up are considered firmly right wingers.

A big fan of the X-Files, my wife found me this 2011 book at a warehouse sale. Gotta love her. She thinks I come up with some weird, wild theories. And yet, she still indulges me.

See, a local comic shop was trying to clear out some inventory for a steal. I think I might have paid a quarter for it. The cover, which bears a very angry Uncle Sam over the smoking ruins of the World Trade Center is quite powerful. The story inside. Eh, not quite so much?

Instead of being a book that covers just the facts, writer/artist Rick Veitch (Swamp Thing) frames his argument for a 9/11 conspiracy around a sci-fi premise that is almost as old as science fiction itself. A time traveler arrives at the World Trade Center on the morning of the attack. Her plan is to convince her husband to leave, thus saving his life. 

The husband works for a movie production company. Being in league with Spielberg and Lucas, the producer and his cohorts are highly skeptical of the woman. When warnings don't seem to motivate anyone to leave, the time traveler starts spouting out facts about that fateful day along with arguments about a conspiracy. 

See, I think the woman went about it all wrong. She should have proved that she was from the future. I know that Rick Veitch wanted to try to convince us the readers of a conspiracy as being behind the 9/11 attacks. But I think he didn't connect via his storytelling method. 

What Veitch should have done was to actually set this up like an X-Files episode. Have a couple of folks in a smoky office going over the facts and all of the discrepancies and such. I don't think have fictional characters to move the narrative forward would have been a bad idea. I just think that using time travel and the amount of ridicule and mockery the traveler goes through cheapens the impact of both the possibility of conspiracy and reality of a national tragedy.

An interesting read about a subject that I didn't know as much as I thought i did. It just wasn't executed very well to make me into a believer.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars. 

The Beef #4

When it comes to miniseries, the next to last issue tends to be the weakest of the lot. That's one reason why I think this, the penultimate issue of The Beef by Richard Starkings and Tyler Shainline is so vastily different and unique from the first three issues.

Issue #4 of The Beef begins with a talking (and flatulent) cow. Not only does the bovine give the reader a recap of the the story so far, it also leads into a lengthy segment of the truths (and horrors) of the dairy industry. 

Being both a chef as well as product of a dairy farming family, and later working on a farm or two, I'm not shocked by the information. But I was quite surprised to see it here in such raw 4-colored glory. Or should I say 'gory?'

While I would like to say that farms are returning to more ethical practices, it's a slow road getting there. Giant corporate farms are just too in deep financially to ever change their ways. Plus, the average consumer is just too cash strapped to pay $5-7 dollars for local, humanely harvested products- especially on a regular basis. Then again, there are some pretty sneaky tricks that some farms will do in order to slide under the reigns of certain terms like 'free range' and 'organic.' 

For example, and this is one of my favorites- under USDA rules, a chicken only has to released from it's pens or cages for 1 hour a day in order to be declared a free range chicken. Don't blame our current administration on this loop hole. This is just one of many such bent rules that have been on the books for at least a decade.

The Beef #4 is most definitely a different change of pace from the series. But it was actually needed as I think this story really would be over in probably only 4 and a third issues without this giant interlude. Has the events and facts of the farting cow changed my ways of eating meat? Not in the least. But I greatly appreciate the efforts made to bring a serious subject such as food production ethics to the realm of comic books. 

Lastly, in terms of the cover, I really felt at first that the comic book cover of a comic book cover wasn't such a big deal. However, a great amount of effort went into it's development. Don't skip on the 'making of the cover' section in the back of this issue! It's very informative, especially for aspiring artists.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Kid Savage, Volume 1 (Family Comic Friday)

     A top-of-the-line space ship crashes onto an alien world. Light years from home, dad Gerard and his children Alina and Ethan are not only lost; they're stranded. If the family can stay on the wreckage until help comes, they might just survive. But when a giant alien mistakes the ship for food, the survivors will have to rely on their skills alone. Unfortunately, Gerard and his family don't have any skills that don't involve technology.

      Likely to not survive the night, the dysfunctional family meet a young inhabitant of the planet. With his savage skills in hunting and war as well as knowledge of the local flora and fauna, Gerard's family just might have a chance. But is their new ally up to the task of survival expert? For on his own home planet, he is an outcast. For this Kid Savage is considered by his former tribe to be as unskilled as his new friends really are.

     Kid Savage is the first volume in a proposed series of graphic novels by Deadpool's Joe Kelly and British illustrator Iyla. There's definitely a dynamic of the Space Family Robinson (AKA Lost In Space) with this book. But with Kid Savage added to the mix, I was reminded of the 1971 film Walkabout.

    For you who may not know this movie, it's from Australia. In the film, a pair of civilized children lost in the Outback meet with an Aborigine boy. The boy shows them survival skills in order to get them back home. That's really what Kid Savage is in a nutshell and I loved it.

    The artwork was really good. It's a stunning mix of sleek hi-tech and paleo folk art. The panels don't quite go in traditional sequential fashion. So it gets a little tricky to read as you have to got it a sort of pinwheel fashion with every splash page to follow the action. 

      Another thing that I was not a fan of was the annoying banter of the brother and sister. When they interact with Dad Gerard, I can tolerate them. But together, I just want to bash their heads together and leave them unconscious while Gerard and Kid Savage try to find help. Maybe in volume 2, Alina and Ethan will get a little more civilized...

     This 2017 graphic novel by Image was an exciting read. Lots of creative thrills and chills. Kid Savage's story of redemption is equally as interesting as Gerard's family's quest of endurance. In fact, it might even be just a little bit more compelling to read as those scenes have real heart to them. This book wasn't perfect but then again no family or situation is. As long as the next chapter continues to grow the characters of the human kids in a more positive direction, I expect to be on this journey until the end.

     Some scenes can be a little intense for younger readers. So, I recommend it for fans of action and adventure ages 12 and up.

    Worth Consuming!

     Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.