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chuckroAll the Things We Didn’t Do Last Night - A single-issue one-off about a meet-cute between a jewel thief and a hitman who happen to have plans for the same night.
Shift – Another one-shot, this one a collection of five chapters that tie into the Radiant series of comics. A mercenary gets hired to recharge some stolen alien tech by putting on a “shift” suit that lets him teleport and getting near one of the Radiant vigilantes. But he quickly realizes that just using the technology is a dead-end game and he’s in it for the business angle: Franchising! It’s clearly the origin story of antagonists for the Radiant characters, but it’s an entertaining twist on it. Honestly, I just wish it was a more complete story.
It’s Lonely at the Center of the Earth – An autobiographical graphic novel, with an immediate content warning for depression and suicide ideation. By and about an artist who is a GODDAMN MESS. Honestly, this feels like something that was originally an online diary webseries (…it might have been?) and/or was intended as therapy but not for publication. Either way, it should have be edited (by someone else) to reduce the wanking by at least half for the printed project. Thorogood is a very talented artist and there are some interesting ideas (the way she’s drawn indicates her mental state), but this could have been slimmed down to the coherent stories without the infinite canvas bullshitting and still have plenty of impact.
W0rldtr33 (volume 1) – An evil sub-internet that a group of teenagers sealed away decades ago has returned, and it’s possessing people and driving them to mass murder. The original teenagers have reunited to try to stop the spread again, but it’s entirely possible they’re already too late, and the only thing that can save the world is a message from the future on their original message board, w0rldtr33.net. This is an interesting start and it’s another of those series that is very dependent on whether the ending both happens and actually pays off the mysteries. I’ll want to check back on it in a couple of years.
Antioch (volume 1) – The story of Antioch, Son of Pompeii, a super-ecoterrorist who deliberately lets himself get thrown in super-prison as part of a protest against a big oil company. The Frontiersman (a hero who apparently headlines his own book) had already been thrown in there, so there’s the usual posturing from various supervillain inmates before the power-dampeners get turned off and the entire place comes down. Frankly, this is under the umbrella of “eight-page story that was expanded into a full trade” and I’m not impressed given how little they actually did with any of the ideas.
Bully Wars (volume 1) – All the nerds in middle school were afraid of Rufus, but on the first day high school he learns that he isn’t the biggest fish in town, and he wasn’t even invited to the Bully Wars. So his three favorite targets see an opportunity to help him win the Bully Wars in exchange for protection. This is extremely middle-school goofy, full of Captain Underpants-style gross-outs, inexplicable technology, and lapses in reality. And, of course, the bully discovers the true meaning of friendship.
Dead Eyes (volume 1) – Legendary masked thief Dead Eyes retired in the 90s and disappeared. Where is he now? Lying to his handicapped wife about their cash-flow problems and working at Wal-Mart. But a chance encounter with a stupid murderer gets him back in the game and attracts the attention of his old enemies. It’s from Gerry Duggan (who’s written Deadpool) and John McCrea (the artist who co-created Hitman) and has a predictable sort of “fun, competent, and over-confident vigilante who inflicts gory violence” vibe to it. Also they are bitter about medical debt, but Dead Eyes solves his problems by robbing banks and stealing from the mob rather than actually trying to change the system.
Gospel (volume 1) – The place is England. The year is 1538. The schism of the Church of England from Rome is not popular with everyone, and Matilde of Rumpstead is trying to make a legend for herself. And then...the devil appears, and Matilde needs to go on a quest for a holy hammer to defeat him. This is a mess of stories within stories that, in the end, doesn’t come to any conclusions beyond “to thine own self be true.” It didn’t really work for me.
Mirka Andolfo’s Unnatural (volumes 1-3) – This presents a world of anthropomorphic animals with the closest thing to US Christofascism as one can present in a furry comic: Everyone must get married to an opposite sex partner of the same species and reproduce (by a certain age) or be taxed out of society—or worse, entered into The Reproduction Program. Our protagonist is a pig-girl who has “unnatural” dreams about a wolf lover. Unfortunately, the actual plot veers off into evil cults, orientalist mysticism, possessing spirits and secret family drama; which totally distracts from a very reasonable setup about pig supremacists (nod to Animal Farm) manipulating people via their own prejudices. There was a solid allegory here, but it got lost between the evil telekinetic wolf-spirit and the many naked pig-ladies.
Mirka Andolfo’s Mercy - A complete story in six issues about mysterious, otherworldly monsters that eat humans and leave bulbs growing in their corpses. The art is very good, if, y’know, grotesque. It’s very much a horror story, but it follows an interesting pace of dribbling out information and putting together the pieces of what’s going on. The ending felt a little pat (though I suppose it leaves room for a sequel) but I was impressed at how well everything ended up fitting together.
Tales of the Unnamed: The Blizzard - Nominally a tie-in to the universe of “The Unnamed,” this is a standalone story about a bus full of guards and convicts who get trapped by a blizzard and hunted by a humanoid monster that makes them hallucinate their past sins and then tears them apart. (I think it was the art style, but it made me think of the Shrike from Hyperion.) It’s by Geoff Johns and it’s decent.
Middlewest (volumes 1-3) – A boy discovers that his abusive father isn’t just an asshole, he’s some kind of storm monster and the world is a lot wilder and weirder than our own. This is a fantasy adventure story, but it’s also about the cycle of abuse and violence (and found family). The three volumes make up the complete story. The ending was a little pat, and I’m kind of annoyed that this never addressed what Fox’s deal was, but it was pretty decent overall.
Kaya (volumes 1-3) - I’m pretty sure I had read the first volume of this in an earlier bundle; Kaya is a teenage hunter with a magic robot arm; her brother is the destined “golden one” who’ll save humans from the robot overlords, and they’re on a wild fantasy adventure with various animal-people and indeterminate amounts of magic. I suppose if later volumes end up in another bundle down the line I’ll see how this turns out, but I suspect it’s going to go through many semi-contained adventures until it abruptly ends.
Old Dog (volume 1) - This looked like it was going to be a standard gritty spy story, but it turns out to be a multi-genre mindfuck (and it’s by a guy whose written Moon Knight, so that tracks). “Old Dog” was a spy who ended up behind a desk until an accident put him in a coma and he woke up with superpowers. But what exactly are those powers, why don’t his memories match up to the records, and what does his estranged daughter have to do with everything? I’d be tempted to read more of this.
I tried a little bit of Pretty Deadly (volumes 1-3) and Royal City (volumes 1-3) and bounced off on both of them. I also made it through about half a volume of Mirka Andolfo’s Sweet Paprika (volumes 1-2) before losing interest in the devil girl whose hangups prevent her from getting laid. The bundle also included NINE volumes of Ice Cream Man, a series I gave up on after two. And several volumes of I Hate Fairyland; I think this is the third or fourth time I’ve gotten those in a bundle.
Overall: There were some interesting things here and some things I’m glad I tried, and also a stack of things I bounced off of. But I got my money’s worth, as is often the case.
Shift – Another one-shot, this one a collection of five chapters that tie into the Radiant series of comics. A mercenary gets hired to recharge some stolen alien tech by putting on a “shift” suit that lets him teleport and getting near one of the Radiant vigilantes. But he quickly realizes that just using the technology is a dead-end game and he’s in it for the business angle: Franchising! It’s clearly the origin story of antagonists for the Radiant characters, but it’s an entertaining twist on it. Honestly, I just wish it was a more complete story.
It’s Lonely at the Center of the Earth – An autobiographical graphic novel, with an immediate content warning for depression and suicide ideation. By and about an artist who is a GODDAMN MESS. Honestly, this feels like something that was originally an online diary webseries (…it might have been?) and/or was intended as therapy but not for publication. Either way, it should have be edited (by someone else) to reduce the wanking by at least half for the printed project. Thorogood is a very talented artist and there are some interesting ideas (the way she’s drawn indicates her mental state), but this could have been slimmed down to the coherent stories without the infinite canvas bullshitting and still have plenty of impact.
W0rldtr33 (volume 1) – An evil sub-internet that a group of teenagers sealed away decades ago has returned, and it’s possessing people and driving them to mass murder. The original teenagers have reunited to try to stop the spread again, but it’s entirely possible they’re already too late, and the only thing that can save the world is a message from the future on their original message board, w0rldtr33.net. This is an interesting start and it’s another of those series that is very dependent on whether the ending both happens and actually pays off the mysteries. I’ll want to check back on it in a couple of years.
Antioch (volume 1) – The story of Antioch, Son of Pompeii, a super-ecoterrorist who deliberately lets himself get thrown in super-prison as part of a protest against a big oil company. The Frontiersman (a hero who apparently headlines his own book) had already been thrown in there, so there’s the usual posturing from various supervillain inmates before the power-dampeners get turned off and the entire place comes down. Frankly, this is under the umbrella of “eight-page story that was expanded into a full trade” and I’m not impressed given how little they actually did with any of the ideas.
Bully Wars (volume 1) – All the nerds in middle school were afraid of Rufus, but on the first day high school he learns that he isn’t the biggest fish in town, and he wasn’t even invited to the Bully Wars. So his three favorite targets see an opportunity to help him win the Bully Wars in exchange for protection. This is extremely middle-school goofy, full of Captain Underpants-style gross-outs, inexplicable technology, and lapses in reality. And, of course, the bully discovers the true meaning of friendship.
Dead Eyes (volume 1) – Legendary masked thief Dead Eyes retired in the 90s and disappeared. Where is he now? Lying to his handicapped wife about their cash-flow problems and working at Wal-Mart. But a chance encounter with a stupid murderer gets him back in the game and attracts the attention of his old enemies. It’s from Gerry Duggan (who’s written Deadpool) and John McCrea (the artist who co-created Hitman) and has a predictable sort of “fun, competent, and over-confident vigilante who inflicts gory violence” vibe to it. Also they are bitter about medical debt, but Dead Eyes solves his problems by robbing banks and stealing from the mob rather than actually trying to change the system.
Gospel (volume 1) – The place is England. The year is 1538. The schism of the Church of England from Rome is not popular with everyone, and Matilde of Rumpstead is trying to make a legend for herself. And then...the devil appears, and Matilde needs to go on a quest for a holy hammer to defeat him. This is a mess of stories within stories that, in the end, doesn’t come to any conclusions beyond “to thine own self be true.” It didn’t really work for me.
Mirka Andolfo’s Unnatural (volumes 1-3) – This presents a world of anthropomorphic animals with the closest thing to US Christofascism as one can present in a furry comic: Everyone must get married to an opposite sex partner of the same species and reproduce (by a certain age) or be taxed out of society—or worse, entered into The Reproduction Program. Our protagonist is a pig-girl who has “unnatural” dreams about a wolf lover. Unfortunately, the actual plot veers off into evil cults, orientalist mysticism, possessing spirits and secret family drama; which totally distracts from a very reasonable setup about pig supremacists (nod to Animal Farm) manipulating people via their own prejudices. There was a solid allegory here, but it got lost between the evil telekinetic wolf-spirit and the many naked pig-ladies.
Mirka Andolfo’s Mercy - A complete story in six issues about mysterious, otherworldly monsters that eat humans and leave bulbs growing in their corpses. The art is very good, if, y’know, grotesque. It’s very much a horror story, but it follows an interesting pace of dribbling out information and putting together the pieces of what’s going on. The ending felt a little pat (though I suppose it leaves room for a sequel) but I was impressed at how well everything ended up fitting together.
Tales of the Unnamed: The Blizzard - Nominally a tie-in to the universe of “The Unnamed,” this is a standalone story about a bus full of guards and convicts who get trapped by a blizzard and hunted by a humanoid monster that makes them hallucinate their past sins and then tears them apart. (I think it was the art style, but it made me think of the Shrike from Hyperion.) It’s by Geoff Johns and it’s decent.
Middlewest (volumes 1-3) – A boy discovers that his abusive father isn’t just an asshole, he’s some kind of storm monster and the world is a lot wilder and weirder than our own. This is a fantasy adventure story, but it’s also about the cycle of abuse and violence (and found family). The three volumes make up the complete story. The ending was a little pat, and I’m kind of annoyed that this never addressed what Fox’s deal was, but it was pretty decent overall.
Kaya (volumes 1-3) - I’m pretty sure I had read the first volume of this in an earlier bundle; Kaya is a teenage hunter with a magic robot arm; her brother is the destined “golden one” who’ll save humans from the robot overlords, and they’re on a wild fantasy adventure with various animal-people and indeterminate amounts of magic. I suppose if later volumes end up in another bundle down the line I’ll see how this turns out, but I suspect it’s going to go through many semi-contained adventures until it abruptly ends.
Old Dog (volume 1) - This looked like it was going to be a standard gritty spy story, but it turns out to be a multi-genre mindfuck (and it’s by a guy whose written Moon Knight, so that tracks). “Old Dog” was a spy who ended up behind a desk until an accident put him in a coma and he woke up with superpowers. But what exactly are those powers, why don’t his memories match up to the records, and what does his estranged daughter have to do with everything? I’d be tempted to read more of this.
I tried a little bit of Pretty Deadly (volumes 1-3) and Royal City (volumes 1-3) and bounced off on both of them. I also made it through about half a volume of Mirka Andolfo’s Sweet Paprika (volumes 1-2) before losing interest in the devil girl whose hangups prevent her from getting laid. The bundle also included NINE volumes of Ice Cream Man, a series I gave up on after two. And several volumes of I Hate Fairyland; I think this is the third or fourth time I’ve gotten those in a bundle.
Overall: There were some interesting things here and some things I’m glad I tried, and also a stack of things I bounced off of. But I got my money’s worth, as is often the case.
