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Alienated – An alien comes to Earth and encounters three human teenagers (coincidentally, all named Sam), who mentally like with it and each other. This goes much darker than you’d think for the opening and the brightly-colorful art. Turns out that teenagers given alien superpowers do terrible things, but it’s all a metaphor for growing up, or something. Good concept, middling execution.
Sacrifice of Darkness - The mine owners drove the miners too hard in their search for the valuable mineral Flareon, until Hiram Hightower flew off into the sky and somehow broke the sun. As time passes in darkness, his son lives with the crime and eventually figures out how to make amends. I can’t tell if this was intended as allegory or just terrible sci-fi (the details about the sun and the actual resolution are either lost to bad technobabble or just glossed over), but the meat of the story is the son’s life and flashbacks to how it mirrored his father’s.
Eat, and Love Yourself – A story of emotional abuse, depression and eating disorders, as told in flashbacks via a magical bar of chocolate. It was interesting to me, but I’m not sure if someone with personal experience with eating disorders would have a good time with it.
The Last Witch (issues #1-3) – In a vaguely-Scottish fantasy world, a girl discovers that witches are indeed real, but the witchmark she was born with gives her the ability to stand against them. This is clever and is clearly trying to build a big mythology, but also loads down too many revelations spread out in a single issue—the pacing has issues.
Ghosted in LA (volumes 1, 2) – A college freshman breaks up with her high school boyfriend and hates her roommate, so she wanders into a mysterious mansion and makes friends with all the ghosts living there. While this doesn’t seem entirely sure where it’s going or exactly what tone it’s taking, it’s got some particularly fun moments and a decent coming-of-age narrative.
Folklords (volume 1) – This one is cute: A boy in a fantasy world has dreams of our modern one, and as his coming-of-age quest, rather than searching for a golden goose or killing a dragon, he decides to search for the Folklords that supposedly rule the land. The cult of Librarians does not take kindly to that. This is the first volume and presumably only half the story, as it leaves off on a stinger about a girl in our modern world who dreams of fantasy. This reminds me a bit of The Unwritten; and I think it’ll be interesting to see where it goes.
Happiness Will Follow – The writer/artist’s autobiographical story about growing up poor with an abusive single mother. Like many autobiographical works, it’s fragmented in places and doesn’t actually tie up every plot point or answer every question. It establishes that a number of the stories his mother told him weren’t true and touches on the actual truth, but that wasn’t the focus of the story and I found that irritating, because part of what I like about true stories is, y’know, the true parts.
An Unkindness of Ravens (issues #1-3) – A girl moves to a new town to discover that a girl who looks just like her has recently vanished. (Of course, she has a twin sister who supposedly died in a car accident 13 years earlier. I’m pretty sure I know where this is going.) She walks into a complicated power play between the goth girls and the queen bee but also, clearly, the supernatural is at work and the town may be full of hereditary witches. Honestly, it has an off-brand Chilling Adventures of Sabrina thing going on, and I feel like it appeals to the same audience.
Faithless – Good old Brian Azzarello, who hasn’t changed in decades, writing modern dark fantasy with orgies and gore. Did you miss old school Vertigo, when everything was trying to be Ennis’ run on Hellblazer? Here’s some of that. A woman with unclear magical powers meets a father-daughter team who might both be the devil, who seduce her into fame, fortune and both of their beds. That said, the artist (Maria Llovet) was interested in turning a mediocre script into artistic erotica, and she has actual talent, so it works on that level.
Heartbeat - Speaking of Maria Llovet, she both wrote and drew this dark tale of high school murder drama. While the story is trying a little too hard to be ART (and clearly she has some fetishes she’d like to share with the audience), it’s pretty decent as a standalone book that knows what it’s doing.
King of Nowhere (volume 1) – Following a car accident, a man walks into the drug-trip inspired town of Nowhere, where most of the people are part animal and nothing makes sense. Between the art style and the subject matter, it didn’t really win me.
Seven Secrets (issues #1-3) - There are seven secrets, in seven briefcases, held by seven pairs of guardians as part of a secret cult that protects the world. Two of those secret-keepers had a forbidden affair, and the story is told from the viewpoint of their son (as he comes of age and becomes a secret-carrier himself), who they weren’t allowed to love.
Wynd (issues #1-3) - In the last purely-human city in a world otherwise corrupted by magic, a boy named Wynd hides his pointed ears, helps his adopted family run their diner, and pines after the King’s hunky gardener. When the Bandaged Man comes to town determined to wiped out all “weirdbloods”, Wynd (along with his adopted sister, the Prince, and that hunky gardener) need to flee the city and go on an epic adventure. I have no idea if this will be able to keep up the pace, but it’s a good start with an interesting premise and nice art. It’s one of the few that I may try to hunt down the collected first volume when it appears.
Once & Future (volume 1) – This was a goddamn delight. Not that it was particularly original—a milquetoast man discovers that his grandmother was a monster-hunter who held back the tide of story-based magic from the world—but it’s wonderfully witty. It leaves off on a sequel hook, but the first volume holds together neatly as a single story.
We Only Find Them When They’re Dead (issues #1-3) - What is clearly going to be a sci-fi epic, in a world where the major industry is carving up the corpses of dead space giants that people call gods. The protagonist captain of a ship of four takes his crew off running to try to find a live god, but with the solider who killed his parents (and apparently got herself maimed in the process) hot on their tail. I’m moderately curious as to where this goes.
Red Mother (volumes 1 and 2) - Unquestionably a horror comic, but the “slow build” is a bit too slow. After the initial incident where the protagonist’s boyfriend vanishes and she loses an eye, we have seven issues of periodically seeing a shadowy figure, getting implications of a vast cult conspiracy, and starting each issue with a splash panel of the “red mother”…but no signs that this has any plans to resolve anything. I have the sneaking suspicion this will drag out for how ever many issues they give it, and then it’ll get cancelled and cram a lot of revelations into the last ten pages.
Overall: Once & Future is absolutely worth a read. Ghosted in LA, Folklords, Wynd, and We Only Find Them When They’re Dead interested me enough that I might try to find more of them at some point. This bundle was most certainly worth the money.
Sacrifice of Darkness - The mine owners drove the miners too hard in their search for the valuable mineral Flareon, until Hiram Hightower flew off into the sky and somehow broke the sun. As time passes in darkness, his son lives with the crime and eventually figures out how to make amends. I can’t tell if this was intended as allegory or just terrible sci-fi (the details about the sun and the actual resolution are either lost to bad technobabble or just glossed over), but the meat of the story is the son’s life and flashbacks to how it mirrored his father’s.
Eat, and Love Yourself – A story of emotional abuse, depression and eating disorders, as told in flashbacks via a magical bar of chocolate. It was interesting to me, but I’m not sure if someone with personal experience with eating disorders would have a good time with it.
The Last Witch (issues #1-3) – In a vaguely-Scottish fantasy world, a girl discovers that witches are indeed real, but the witchmark she was born with gives her the ability to stand against them. This is clever and is clearly trying to build a big mythology, but also loads down too many revelations spread out in a single issue—the pacing has issues.
Ghosted in LA (volumes 1, 2) – A college freshman breaks up with her high school boyfriend and hates her roommate, so she wanders into a mysterious mansion and makes friends with all the ghosts living there. While this doesn’t seem entirely sure where it’s going or exactly what tone it’s taking, it’s got some particularly fun moments and a decent coming-of-age narrative.
Folklords (volume 1) – This one is cute: A boy in a fantasy world has dreams of our modern one, and as his coming-of-age quest, rather than searching for a golden goose or killing a dragon, he decides to search for the Folklords that supposedly rule the land. The cult of Librarians does not take kindly to that. This is the first volume and presumably only half the story, as it leaves off on a stinger about a girl in our modern world who dreams of fantasy. This reminds me a bit of The Unwritten; and I think it’ll be interesting to see where it goes.
Happiness Will Follow – The writer/artist’s autobiographical story about growing up poor with an abusive single mother. Like many autobiographical works, it’s fragmented in places and doesn’t actually tie up every plot point or answer every question. It establishes that a number of the stories his mother told him weren’t true and touches on the actual truth, but that wasn’t the focus of the story and I found that irritating, because part of what I like about true stories is, y’know, the true parts.
An Unkindness of Ravens (issues #1-3) – A girl moves to a new town to discover that a girl who looks just like her has recently vanished. (Of course, she has a twin sister who supposedly died in a car accident 13 years earlier. I’m pretty sure I know where this is going.) She walks into a complicated power play between the goth girls and the queen bee but also, clearly, the supernatural is at work and the town may be full of hereditary witches. Honestly, it has an off-brand Chilling Adventures of Sabrina thing going on, and I feel like it appeals to the same audience.
Faithless – Good old Brian Azzarello, who hasn’t changed in decades, writing modern dark fantasy with orgies and gore. Did you miss old school Vertigo, when everything was trying to be Ennis’ run on Hellblazer? Here’s some of that. A woman with unclear magical powers meets a father-daughter team who might both be the devil, who seduce her into fame, fortune and both of their beds. That said, the artist (Maria Llovet) was interested in turning a mediocre script into artistic erotica, and she has actual talent, so it works on that level.
Heartbeat - Speaking of Maria Llovet, she both wrote and drew this dark tale of high school murder drama. While the story is trying a little too hard to be ART (and clearly she has some fetishes she’d like to share with the audience), it’s pretty decent as a standalone book that knows what it’s doing.
King of Nowhere (volume 1) – Following a car accident, a man walks into the drug-trip inspired town of Nowhere, where most of the people are part animal and nothing makes sense. Between the art style and the subject matter, it didn’t really win me.
Seven Secrets (issues #1-3) - There are seven secrets, in seven briefcases, held by seven pairs of guardians as part of a secret cult that protects the world. Two of those secret-keepers had a forbidden affair, and the story is told from the viewpoint of their son (as he comes of age and becomes a secret-carrier himself), who they weren’t allowed to love.
Wynd (issues #1-3) - In the last purely-human city in a world otherwise corrupted by magic, a boy named Wynd hides his pointed ears, helps his adopted family run their diner, and pines after the King’s hunky gardener. When the Bandaged Man comes to town determined to wiped out all “weirdbloods”, Wynd (along with his adopted sister, the Prince, and that hunky gardener) need to flee the city and go on an epic adventure. I have no idea if this will be able to keep up the pace, but it’s a good start with an interesting premise and nice art. It’s one of the few that I may try to hunt down the collected first volume when it appears.
Once & Future (volume 1) – This was a goddamn delight. Not that it was particularly original—a milquetoast man discovers that his grandmother was a monster-hunter who held back the tide of story-based magic from the world—but it’s wonderfully witty. It leaves off on a sequel hook, but the first volume holds together neatly as a single story.
We Only Find Them When They’re Dead (issues #1-3) - What is clearly going to be a sci-fi epic, in a world where the major industry is carving up the corpses of dead space giants that people call gods. The protagonist captain of a ship of four takes his crew off running to try to find a live god, but with the solider who killed his parents (and apparently got herself maimed in the process) hot on their tail. I’m moderately curious as to where this goes.
Red Mother (volumes 1 and 2) - Unquestionably a horror comic, but the “slow build” is a bit too slow. After the initial incident where the protagonist’s boyfriend vanishes and she loses an eye, we have seven issues of periodically seeing a shadowy figure, getting implications of a vast cult conspiracy, and starting each issue with a splash panel of the “red mother”…but no signs that this has any plans to resolve anything. I have the sneaking suspicion this will drag out for how ever many issues they give it, and then it’ll get cancelled and cram a lot of revelations into the last ten pages.
Overall: Once & Future is absolutely worth a read. Ghosted in LA, Folklords, Wynd, and We Only Find Them When They’re Dead interested me enough that I might try to find more of them at some point. This bundle was most certainly worth the money.
