Tagged: trade paperback
Comic Cover of the Week: Bill Sienkiewicz’s RETURN OF THE JEDI!!
One of the true all time greats as far as comic book artists go is most definitely Bill Sienkiewicz! His style is like none other and as far as comic book covers go, he is one the BEST! Anytime you’d get a cover from Bill you knew you were in for something several notches above what was normally brought to the table. Here are 5 covers he did for the Marvel 1983 adaptation of Return of the Jedi, a bit different from his normal output in being they’re much more simplistic than what he’s normally known for. However his final painting for the trade paperback (the last image) showcases his epic classic style, this all brings me back to a time when Star Wars had limitless potential. Oh what could have been…..
We Can Never Go Home #5 is a Home Run!
This week the final installment of the first arc of ‘We Can Never Go Home’ hit the stands with issue #5. It was a great finale filled with a ton of well placed twists and turns. This also just might be my favorite new title of 2015. We’ve been following the unpredictable exploits of teen runaway misfits Duncan & Maddie for only five issues but hell, what an adventure it’s been so far.
The series takes place back in the late 1980’s a time I remember quite fondly as a kid/teen growing up, so perhaps I’m just a little more than partial to this tale from the start. It’s also a series that involves 80’s references galore and even more so in the realm of underground music & punk rock of yesteryear. Mix that with some seriously deep in serious shit troubled teens on a road trip that seems to get more dangerous with ever mile traveled and you’ve got quite an intriguing story.
The final issue comes to a blood soaked boiling point to a once seemingly innocent start of budding teen crushes. The final issue pulls no punches a lot of questions are finally answered and maybe not quite in the way you might have hope they’d be. That’s fine though as a truly great story never really wraps up the way you think it will. This last issue takes place in the compound of this first arc’s villain, Mr. Carroll, where he’s trapped Maddie and Duncan and tests their “superhuman” abilities.
Certain aspects of this final issue might piss you off, you might suddenly find yourself questioning some of our lead characters motivations in this series. Ultimately though this dynamic conclusion delivers on all cylinders, (with some excellent artwork to boot by Josh Hood) and I already find my self ready to read it all over again.
It also has me quite ready for more which we can expect in 2016. So if you haven’t checked this out yet I advise getting the trade when it hits as the individual issues are hard to track down and going for a pretty penny online. This series makes the $3.99 price tag on comic books these days feel not quite so sleazy. “We Can Never Go Home” is a full on home run.
Comic Cover of the Week: When John Byrne Tried to Draw Every Marvel Character EVER!!
One of my favorite comic books of the 1980’s was “The Official Handbook of The Marvel Universe” (Deluxe Edition)! Yeah it wasn’t a real comic book per say but damn was it amazing! Back in 1985 all the way through 1988 Marvel released this 20 issue deluxe edition which featured EVERYTHING you could ever want to know about pretty much EVERY character in Marvel comics. This included their real names, specific powers, how much they could bench press, their history, their hometown, yeah I mean EVERYTHING. I spent hours and hours of my time reading these and brushing up on my favorite characters history. This must have taken some serious time to document as it listed the main life events of the heroes and villains that took place in the pages of the comic books. A complete history up until that point. This was a time when Marvel was truly an amazing company…
Each character was drawn by a different comic book artist and it included pictures of the characters in action taken from panels in the comics they’d appeared in. But my whole point here was to talk about the covers which the majority of them were drawn by my personal favorite John Byrne! The cool thing about the covers was that they could all be connected as one super duper long cover of the characters running. So Byrne pretty much tried to include all the characters from each alphabetical issue!! I’d love to see a video montage that follows each issue until it’s end! But until then I’ll include as many of these covers I can find right here! Check this out!
This Week’s Comic Book Reviews! ‘Manifest Destiny’ Stomps ‘The Walking Dead’!
Yesterday was Wednesday and as usual I bought a few new funny books! Here’s what I though of ’em!
Manifest Destiny #7, Image/Skybound
What else can I say here about this comic book? It’s could be my fave title at the moment-the first story arc was a great and it’s now in trade paperback form so I suggest checking it out ASAP! This title gives me similar feelings of when I first got hooked on The Walking Dead! Issue #7 continues the adventures of Lewis & Clark as they continue up river on boat with cast of crew members who’re truly creepy in their own right. We’ve got Lewis trying to keep his monstrous discoveries a secret and a new female crew member who’s discovered his private journal entries. It doesn’t take long though for things to get crazy again as their boat become stuck on on something strange which signifies that these guys are in for more monster mayhem in the woods! The book is fresh as hell and the artwork is awesome-this books popularity is rising quickly and the first six issues are going for a pretty penny already on Ebay-now’s the time to jump on board as you can read seven straight issues without having to wait months between!
Abe Sapien #13, Dark Horse
Abe Sapien’s ongoing solo series has been pretty interesting so far. It’s always bizarre and keeps getting darker in tone with every issue. Abe’s recently went through some transformations recently becoming more monster in appearance than man. This issue encourages new readers to jump on board as a good starting point. We see Abe still traveling across an apocalyptic wasteland with an odd woman whom he found chained up inside a weirdly ravaged house. They run into some strangers who’s son has half transformed into frog man monster, seeking the powers of a healer who supposedly lives close by. Abe’s still trying to prove to himself and world that he himself is in no way connected to the most recent events of monster outbreaks that have occurred in major cities. This series continues to intrigue me as does almost everything in the Hellboy universe. I’m still trying to catch up on all the thick rich back stories that all seem to connect in some way. This issue also features some pretty spectacular artwork and an additional Abe Sapien back up story-so you most definitely get your money’s worth! Anyone looking for a good creepy comic book with heavy Lovecraft influence should check this title out!
Walking Dead #128, Image
Ok, first let me clarify that I’m really not a huge fan of this book anymore, it used to be my favorite title. I wasn’t a fan of “All Out War” and this continues the story a couple years after those events. The whole gang has been hanging out with Rick in their picture perfect community but of course we still have the annoying Negan involved as he’s being held captive trying to make friends with Carl secretly. We have a new group of people who enter the community and of course no one truly trusts each other. Carl wants to move out of Rick’s place. It’s really more of the same shit we have been reading for the past couple years or so. Man, this book needs a serious kick in the ass. But it just keeps going and it really doesn’t cover too much new ground. There’s not a lot of adventure to be had in The Walking Dead anymore, they kinda just like staying in the same place, no matter what and pretending that they’re rebuilding the world single handedly. However they still have zero clue what is going on in the rest of the world, nor does anyone seem to care. They have no idea what caused the outbreak, and they don’t seem to care. They really haven’t traveled all that far, they just blindly accept that the whole world is fucked and continue with their repetitive daily operation. Maybe Rick just wants be the leader of the world? Maybe he fears finding others and losing his say in how everything always goes down? I think a lot about how this title could be a top notch adventure still and all the different scenarios they could face, yet it just keeps doing more of the same old shit. I’m really at this point keeping up with the story because I’ve made it this far. I really do miss the old days of this book when the group was on the move and constantly entering into the unknown…..
Deadworld: King Zombie Comes to Town!
Years ago we heard that a Deadworld movie was in the works based on the 1980’s comic book series. As I suspected however nothing has come to fruition. Now normally I’d wouldn’t give two shits about another zombie movie as I’ve been pretty over the whole zombie thing for probably the last five years or so. Deadworld however is a favorite of mine and has been since the late 1980’s for one because it’s got more going on with it than most zombie fare, probably the best part of the series is the evolved intelligent flesh eater, King Zombie! He’s a mean Harley riding badass that’d make the Sons of Anarchy cringe in their leather boots!
I recently saw this awesome fan made Deadworld trailer which impressed the hell out of me! It may be the closest thing we get to a real Deadworld movie anytime soon at least, if you’re a fan check this out directed by and starring Scotty Fields-Bravo! Now let’s get us a real movie in the works aleady! If you’ve never heard of Deadworld check out the Trade Paperback-it’s a fun old school Zombie/Monster comic straight from the 1980’s!
Bringing back those 80’s Zombies!!
I was pretty pumped to see the brand new Deadworld Classic trade paperback at the comic book shop recently. Wait, you never heard of Deadworld? Well if not I highly suggest that if you are indeed a true zombie fanatic you best be getting your ass down to the local comic book shop immediately to pic up this trade! It’s been called the best zombie comic by critics and at least can be safely called the first.
This cult 80’s comic also features the amazing Vince Locke as the artist for the first 8 issues. Some of the covers for this book are still some of the best zombie images I have ever seen. The crazy thing about it was that Vince was only in his teens when he started illustrating this comic. He went on to illustrate the amazing “A History of Violence” which was later made into a big time motion picture Continue reading
Universal Dork 