Graphic Novel Review: HADRIAN’S WALL

A hundred years in the future there will be a new type of Civil War in space between those on Earth and those on the off-world planet Theta.  When an astronaut mysteriously dies on the survey ship Hadrian’s Wall an uneasy conspiracy may unravel the peace between these two different worlds.  Kyle Higgins and Alec Siegel’s Hadrian’s Wall is a murder mystery thriller about a group of characters trapped on a space station.  Simon Moore is sent to the ship to investigate the death and apparent suicide of Edward Madigan, who just so happens to be with his ex-wife (both of which work on the ship).  When Simon starts to believe that Edwards death may not have been a suicide his investigation into the crew of Hadrian’s Wall leads him to some horrifying discoveries that threaten his and everyone else’s life on the ship.

Simon soon doesn’t know who to trust when anyone on the ship can be the murderer and things just get more complicated when other members of the crew start showing up dead.   Hadrian’s Wall is a tense murder mystery thriller that puts the reader in the same shoes as Simon. 

Art is by Rod Reis and Eduardo Ferigato and the style perfectly compliments Higgins & Siegel’s words.  This is a visually tense thriller that also set up a complex and exciting world in which characters can have many different allegiances.  Higgins, Siegel, and Reis all worked together on C.O.W.L. so if you enjoyed that book then you will love this one.

Graphic Novel Review: BLACK MAGICK VOL. 2

In the world of Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott’s (writer and artist, respectfully) Black Magick Det. Rowan Black is a witch that lives in the city of Portsmouth trying to forget her past and live in peace.  But living in peace is not really possible for a witch who can remember all her past lives and the atrocities brought upon her people and herself.  In Vol. 2 of the series – “Awakening II” (which covers Issues #6-11 of the ongoing series) there are two main stories.  The first covers Rowan when she was young and about to go through a ritual that would allow her to recall all her past lives.  This may seem like a simple thing but learning about one’s past drives you towards your future of which plays a huge part in why Rowan became a police office.

In the present, Rowan has to contend with a new menace which is a society of witch hunters known as Aira, who have killed many of her kind including several of her past lives.  With the help of her best friend Alexandra Roman must discover what plans Aira has for her city while also keeping her day job and solve a new series of murders. 

Rucka (as usual) has crafted an engaging supernatural story that both has its roots firming planted in a detective story and that of a witchcraft story.  The entire story is character driven and the supporting characters are all extremely well written and engaging on their own rite making for a compelling read.  I love Scott’s style of grey-tone artwork with splashes of color when it is needed. The whole feeling is a noir film but in comic book form.

If you enjoy these types of stories, then this is the perfect comic for you.  Rucka maintains the same quality of some of his most popular books like Whiteout or Queen & Country or even his amazing run on Wonder Woman.

Graphic Novel Review: THE BEAUTY VOL. 4

Jeremy Haun & Jason A. Hurley craft an even more engaging and intricate chapter in the world of The Beauty Vol. 4 (Issue #17-21).  The story of The Beauty follows a sexual transmitted disease that makes people “beautiful” and who wouldn’t want that?  When people with The Beauty start to mysteriously die people start to wonder whether or not The Beauty is responsible or if there is something more nefarious going on.  The series does a great job as an anthology focusing on different aspects and characters of the world and how they are affected by the disease (whether some people see it as such or not).

In this volume Cooper is a journalistic blogger who gets involved with a whistle blower who works for Abericorp, a corporation who has deep ties with The Beauty.  Cooper, seeing a cover-up, tries to learn as much as he can to expose the truth about what Abericorp knows about the truth of The Beauty even if it puts his life in dangerous.

Haun & Hurley know how to craft a story build around corporate espionage, government secrets, and the truth in journalism in the hopes of bringing “the truth” to the people before it’s too late.  From the very first issue of this engaging and electrifying series what may have started as a simple story about an infectious disease that makes people “beautiful” has become a cautionary tale about so many other things.  You’d think that presenting the stories in an anthology format would be detrimental to the overall series, instead, it allows the whole series to constantly introduce new characters that the reader cares about even if you don’t know their fate.

Matthew Don Smith (Issue #12) and Thomas Nachlik (Issue #18-21) have different styles but they compliment the entire series and especially each of the individual stories that are being told.  This is one of my favorite series and it just gets better and better.

Graphic Novel Review: FULL MOON PRESENTS: SUBSPECIES

The Vampire Radu returns in an all-new story in Action Lab Comics’ Full Moon Presents: Subspecies.  Taking place right after the events of the cult favorite Full Moon Entertainment franchise Subspecies, this new series finds Michelle (a former college student whose friends had all been killed in the films and herself turned into a vampire by Radu) working as a nighttime nurse in a hospital under the name of Shelly.  After having killed Radu four times, she’s trying to put her life back in order by helping people and living off the Bloodstone (a stone that can feed her bloodlust so that she doesn’t have to feed off real people to survive).  Then one night, Radu returns but it’s not quite the Radu she remembers.  It appears that the essence of Radu has been split into five separate vampires who all seek the Bloodstone.  Now Michelle has to find a way to defeat not one but five of her worse nightmares.

This story is written by Cullen Bunn & Jimmyz with art by Daniel J. Logan.  This story fits more in line with fans of the films and less about trying to bring on new fans but for readers familiar with the films this story gets straight into the action and carnage without a lot of (unnecessary) set up and exposition.  Bunn & Jimmyz fills the story with tons of references to the films and Logan’s style of art is perfect for the story as he knows how to bring out the menace and savagery of this vampire story.

The graphic novel is filled with extras but the most interesting are snippets from the actual script used and the steps to the final artwork.  This will interest readers with interest in the process of how the comic was crafted.

Graphic Novel Review: THE CROW: SKINNING THE WOLVES

It’s been awhile since comic creator James O’Barr’s iconic character The Crow has seen the light of day much less been a comic book in which he took part in but with this latest series The Crow: Skinning the Wolves O’Barr returns to bring an all new and different character that readers have never seen before.  In this new story O’Barr shares story create with Jim Terry (who also contributes the art) and O’Barr himself contributes the breakdowns for the script. 

This new story takes place in 1945 inside a Nazi concentration camp where the prisoners are lucky to see the morning of another day but salvation comes in the form of a resurrected man, a new Crow, bent on righting the wrongs done to him and his family.  O’Barr and Terry have crafted a different type of Crow tale as this story starts off with a bang as our no-named Crow quickly dispatches several Nazis as soon as his train arrives at a European concentration camp.  He is making a point to the Commandant of this concentration camp with his bloody arrival that sets the mystery in motion of who this new Crow is.  This new Crow and the Commandant have a deep rooted history that lies at the heart of this Crow’s vengeance and this is revealed slowly throughout the story like a typical mystery thriller. 

This story does not skimp on the blood and gore either as Nazis are literally torn apart and even the horror of a Nazi concentration camp are revealed.  At only 3 issues (as originally published) this is a fast and brisk story yet it hits upon the real life horrors of WWII while telling the ultimate revenge tale of an unlikely hero to the Jewish people.  This is a great start to what I hope is a continuing mandate to bring to light more Crow stories.

Steve Niles & Horror

I’ve read a lot of the horror comics from iconic horror writer Steve Niles from his most influential creation 30 Days of Night (which is finally going to an ongoing series) to his sinister Savage and The Nail to the more somber Freaks of the Heartland and comedic exploits of The Cryptics and the noire stories of Cal McDonald in Criminal Macabre.  Niles gets around.  Not all of his stories are masterpieces (i.e. I didn’t generally enjoy Giant Monster or The Ghoul) but there is no denying that he strives to tell stories different from everyone else in the field.

One of my personal favorites of his is his epic adaptation of Richard Matheson’s classic I Am Legend.  Despite the fact that I was first introduced to his work with the original 30 Days of Night series it wasn’t until I read his version of I Am Legend that I truly became a fan.  He’s the only one to truly get to the meat and potatoes of Matheson’s story and present it in a faithful way; not one of the three film versions have been able to do this yet.  Its amazing detail in story structure and execution is hands down spotless and brings out the nuances of Matheson’s story like few others have ever been able to do with the author’s material. 

Niles has done other adaptations of other authors work including Clive Barker and Bram Stoker (Dracula) and H.G. Wells (The War of the Worlds) and Mary Shelley (Frankenstein, Or the Modern day Prometheus), to name a few and he has taken some liberties with the material (not always for the best). 

Most horror writers find a niche and stick with it but Niles weaves in and out of all types of genre stories refusing to be pigeonholed into any one sub-group.  It would have been easy for Niles to have continued doing hardcore violent horror stories after the success of 30 Days of Night but instead he’s done dramatic horror with Freaks of the Heartland and comedy The Cryptics and even a giant monster story inspired by Godzilla in the form of Giant Monster and he’s even tackled Bigfoot in his series Bigfoot.  

Niles is a professional at crafting entertaining stories whether they be horror or not.  I just recently read The Cryptics (I got to it late since it was one of his series that didn’t look all that appealing to me at first because of its comic overtones).  It’s an inspired collection of short stories based around the offspring of the classic movie monsters (Dracula, the Wolf Man, and Frankenstein’s monster, Dr.Jeckle & Mr. Hyde, and the Creature) as they go about their daily lives living in the suburbs.  Not all the stories hit their mark but there are a couple that are quite funny but the thing that struck me the most is that as standalone stories they can be just moderately entertaining but by the time I got to the last couple stories I had really gotten into the lives of these characters and found the stories more entertaining because of how much “character” Niles incorporated into the series as a whole.  If you can get past the fact that this is meant to be a coming of age comedy and not a monster free for all then you’ll enjoy the series as much as I did (I enjoyed it more the second time I read it).   Despite the types of stories he does (the horror genre), Niles’ stories are always about the characters within which is why he is so able to maneuver from one type to the next.  As long as he writes good characters then every story (no matter how strange or unusual it may be) will always be entertaining and good.

If you’ve never read a Niles story before than any of the ones I’ve mentioned above are a good start but there are plenty of others to get your hands on such as City of Others, Epilogue, Doc Macabre, The Lurkers, and many, many more.  All have their own unique take on both classic and modern horror stories and all are worth taking a look at.