NESS was a crowd funded Kickstart project that met it’s goal. And it’s definitely a book that deserves your attention. They sum it up beautifully on their Kickstarter page, with this simple explanation: NESS is a Del Toro/Lovecraft-inspired cosmic horror story set on the shores of Loch Ness.
Chris Welsh is the writer behind this fantastic story, with incredible art by Rob Carey, complimented by Dee Cunnifee’s amazing colors, and Robin Jones’ lettering!
This book simply does everything right. The story is really well thought out. The characters in the story – 
just off the first issue – are developed nicely! The art is fitting with the dark shadows, which helps with the color and tones.
If I were to nitpick anything wrong – and that’s what I would have to do – is nitpick – because, for a good horror type story, this thing is really good! But the things I would have done slightly differently, is make more use of the main characters names. We learn Alexi’s name pretty quick, who has the camera. We learn Seah’s name, as the one who collects books. We don’t even learn (what I suspect is the main character)’s name until near the very end. And the African American/Black character? We never even see his name mentioned in the story. I think a more heavy use of the character’s names would have helped drive it home a bit more.
The Scottish guy in the bar, muttering about the disappearing cows; I would have just left him there. Him, drinking and muttering, through several panels, often in the background – then suddenly sitting up and saying he has to find the cows or the wife’s going to kill him? That just seemed oddly out of place.
And the third thing I’d nitpick, is when we see the creature chasing our main characters, and it makes a massive jump and lands on the bridge. I think seeing it be able to make such a massive jump actually took away from the creature’s slithering, creepy vibe.
But again – that’s just if I had to find nitpicks or things I would have personally changed! But seriously! If you love the Lovecraft type of horror – do yourself a favor – check out the NESS Comic Facebook page and Chris Welsh‘s site!
– Tawmis
First off, let’s begin with Papercuts & Inkstains. The book has a number of different stories; which means different writers and artists. I’d say none of these are your traditional comic book – both in story and art. It breaks away from the norm and dares to venture into new territory. Each story is it’s own thing, and stands out on their own. For the most part, I enjoyed what I found in there, but some of it wasn’t my style (not to say it was bad, but not my typical genre and/or art/writing style I look for in a comic). A lot of these stories are things I could easily see IMAGE Comics producing; because none of them are traditional stories, and IMAGE seems to focus on that (for example, CHEW by the folks at IMAGE).
The book I loved the most was the one called HORRERE. This book, like Papercuts & Inkstains has several different artists and writers; but I felt like the pacing in these stories was spot on. The art was absolutely fantastic and led to the “dark and creepy” vibe of each story. All of the stories in this issue felt very, very, very professional. I could have sworn I was reading an IMAGE comic, because of how amazing the art and writing in these stories were. Hands down the favorite of the bunch. Let me just share some of the cool images found within this book:
Next in line was The King’s Leap. This reminds me very much of 
So next we go to FUNK SOUL SAMURAI. This one reminded me of an old school indie comic I used to get when I first got into comics (I wish I could remember the name of the book). There’s literally next to no dialogue, and while being very colorful, the art was a little too weird for me. I can’t even say I read this book, because of the lack of dialogue. It’s definitely one of the more unusual books I have ever glanced through, I will give it that!
The next one is RAMLOCK INVESTIGATES. Imagine an unusual version of CSI meets Peter Porker, and you will have Ramlock Investigates. It has a very, very, off the beaten path sense of humor to the entire book. It’s still an enjoyable read in that very weird kind of humorous way. The art and story compliment one another very much. They’re both cute, funny and unusual, which is how this book should be written.
SIGNAL, which has a “basic” look to the art and story. The story didn’t have much to it, nor did the art. This is not to say that it was bad (certainly better art than anything I could hope to produce!), but for myself, I didn’t get much out of the story. The art reminded me very much of what you’d find in Ziggy meets Farside.
I’m not afraid to say it. When news initially broke of a New Mutants movie to spin off from the X-Men movies that FOX Studios has been doing – especially after the news that Cable would be slated for the second Deadpool movie; I was pretty sure what we were going to be looking at was the “X-Force” version of the New Mutants.
I am sincerely surprised that the movie wasn’t gearing up for Cable to take over the New Mutants after his appearance in the Deadpool movie and give us an X-Force movie. So I was half expecting the New Mutants cast to consist of Cannonball, Boom Boom, Rictor, Wolfsbane, Warpath and Shatterstar. Because if teenage angst is the focus, that group sure has plenty of it as well.
It’s interesting that they’re bringing Illyana into the New Mutants movie, as I am curious if they plan on tying it in with Colossus, who appeared in the X-Men movies (a few times, different actors), and also appeared (most notably, and the closest version to the true comic book Colossus) in Deadpool. Will Illyana be Colossus’ younger sister in the movie as well, or be completely separate? Will they even acknowledge Colossus in this movie, or are they going to treat it as it’s own entity? They’re calling it an X-Men spin off, but I am not entirely sure if they will tie the two together.
And if they do bring Illyana into the movie (well, it’s not if, they already said they are) – I wonder if she’s going to have a correct origin? Will she be a magic user, because of the events she endured during Uncanny X-Men #160 (and further explained in Magik #1-4) or will she simply be a mutant who has magic like abilities (similar to The Scarlet Witch). Illyana’s entire fiasco in the Limbo realm could be an entire movie itself (and a damn good movie, if done right!), so it seems unlikely that her powers will be true to their comic book form. (Which is a shame, to me, at least, because Uncanny X-Men #160 is hailed as one of my favorite issues from the Uncanny X-Men run!)
I will say that Warlock is an unusual addition to the movie cast of characters. So far, the X-Men franchise has shied away from referencing anything that has to do with aliens of any kind. All of their movies have always been about mutants, or humans vs mutants. No hint of any kind of aliens. So adding Warlock into the mix makes it a weird twist. It almost seems like it would have been a better route to go with Doug Ramsey, being a mutant (computer programmer who can build anything because he understands the language of computers; sort of close to what his mutant power is), building Warlock. (And who knows, perhaps Warlock will not be an alien, but rather a robotic construction like I am thinking).
So next, one wonders – who will the New Mutants be battling? Well, other than the fact that the previous X-Men movie ruined Sebastian Shaw (don’t get me started – really, don’t…) I would hope that they battle someone along their own age group – and ideally, would bring them against the Hellions. It’d be great if the Hellions were from the Hellfire Club school and they were duking it out with Professor Xavier’s school students.
It’s always an interesting voyage. Going back and reading comics that are quite a bit older, that you can swear up and down were “totally awesome comics.”
But, not so much. As it turned out, the series had a number of short stories, with rotating characters, depending on who Doctor Strange’s Tarot cards said would be needed. Reason for concern? Well, not so much for me, initially. After all, the second issue had Sleepwalker (who I found interesting), Punisher (the selling point for this story arc), Doctor Strange, and my biggest “comic book crush” – Namorita. So how could it go wrong?
Now, granted, the heroes should always prevail. But the problem is, after they prevail, they all went their separate ways, so you didn’t get to feel any real development with the heroes. And because the stories were always short stories, the villains were typically trivial, or completely made up for the “short story” itself, which loses some “Urmph!” to a “world changing event” that Doctor Strange needs to summon some heroes to do something to “save the world.” You don’t feel like the world’s in all that much danger when the villains are made up for that story; because you can pretty much bet, that no matter what, that villain is not going to pull one over on the heroes.
Even the letters column of the book pointed out the relatively weak story telling, and the lack of development, and the heroes always winning in the same formula. I thought it was pretty cool that Marvel was printing both praises, and negative comments in their letter column for the book. (The rest of the letters were recommendations as to who they’d like to see appear as a “team” in the book). So Marvel took a different approach come issue #12 – rather than Doctor Strange summoning up heroes, it was actually Thanos who summoned up a group of villains to do his bidding; this included Rhino, Super Skrull, Nitro and Titanium Man. I thought this was a great twist, because we always see the point of view from the heroes; comics were always about heroes doing heroic things. But this gave us a glimpse at villains, their motives, and how they interacted with one another. (Naturally, Thanos betrays them all by the end, but who didn’t see that coming?)
But that didn’t last long. It lasted two or three issues (what a surprise!). But when it returned to the focus being on heroes, it wasn’t Doctor Strange summoning heroes. No. The book takes a turn for the worse (in my own opinion). Doctor Strange bestows (curses) Doctor Anthony Druid (Doctor Druid) with precognitive powers, so that now he sees when bad things are coming down the magical pipeline. So, Doctor Druid (other than being a pretty horrible person, and a worse hero) had been redesigned from his actual, tolerable appearance of being a balding man with the “horse shoe” hair style, to a younger, buffer, stronger, thirty foot wearing pony tail version of himself.
The book then tries to appease fans, who complained about a lack of “main stay” characters for the cast, but giving us Doctor Druid, Shadowoman, and Cadaver as main stay characters, with the always shady Doctor Druid, clearly displaying questionable motives (and acting completely horrid throughout his time as the team’s “leader”).
So what they did was break out an issue of the Marvel Universe Handbook (man, I loved those things! Still have them all!) and didn’t get any further than the letter “D” in the Marvel Universe Handbook as one team consisted of: Dagger, Deathlok and Drax the Destroyer. Now, I am a fan of Deathlok (his series may be one of the upcoming Retro Reviews I do), and loved Dagger (especially throughout her series with Cloak, and her appearances in New Warriors). Drax, at the time, I wasn’t exactly a fan of. He reminded me too much of the Hulk (back then, because he was still pretty brainless; and like Hulk, was all green, and like Hulk had purple for his choice of clothing colors).
Another odd moment was the introduction of Joshua Pryce, who carried around with him, a head in a jar (that could speak to him). He was a part of a mystical band that recognized Doctor Druid as the real threat. But that’s normal right? Well, what’s odd (I don’t know if something changed in the story because the series was suddenly coming to an end) – but the head that Joshua carried with him, had abilities; and often killed people that helped them (like when they hitchiked and got a ride from a trucker; the head inside the jar blew up the truck, killing the driver; then it tried to kill a pregnant woman and her husband by dropping beams on them from a construction site)… and this is somehow supposed to be a hero? So I am not sure if something did change, but it was odd – that these two (or at least the head in the jar) would be concerned about the end of the world, when it’s doing it’s own killing spree along the way to find Doctor Druid.
The series came to an end with issue #25, with the corrupted Doctor Druid defeated and restored (along with Cadavar and Sepulchre killed in the issue and restored in the issue). Sepulchre would eventually go on to make a few appearances (even recently), like trying to be a baby sitter for Luke Cage. Joshua Pryce joined the recent Howling Commandos led by Man Wolf. Cadaver, not sure if he ever resurfaced.
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It’s been a few weeks now. A few weeks since San Diego’s population increased by several thousand; though in the heat of it all, it felt like several million.
Still, that’s not to say that the San Diego Comic Con has done away with comics entirely, as a theme. But San Diego Comic Con has become more of a show that an actual comic book convention. The days of the San Diego Comic Convention being lined with comic book vendors is now over. Comic book vendors are squeezed into a very small area, taking up perhaps 5% of the Convention floor. The rest? It’s the Ritz and Blitz of of anything and everything else related to comic books; whether that’s enormous Marvel, DC and Image booths, with other companies such as Darkhorse and IDW among others, also having large booths, but no actual comics; just things to look at, and typically used as a stage to announce various comic book related shows, movies, DVDs, etc that are all coming out from said companies.
The artists are shoved, away from the comics and the major booths, into rows of tiny tables, that provide enough room – barely – for them to put their elbows on; and there’s so many tiny tables crammed together, that it’s insanely difficult to spot an artist you might be looking for.
(and that’s perhaps being generous), and upstairs, there’s like ten tables. The problem is, a lot of people also used that as a place to rest. Because the other option was sitting upstairs, outside – and in San Diego, other than Saturday, the temperature was typically 95 to 98 degrees… which is pretty freaking hot. So, we had found a spot between the stairs (where people can’t walk), but – even the very, very, very nice Security Woman who came by and told us, “Look, I know you’re not blocking any traffic because people can’t walk here, but the security team has asked me to come down and tell you to move. I know, it’s stupid. But I am just doing my job.” We put up no fight, and relocated to stand by the doors and just stand and eat.
Now that the San Diego Comic Con has grown well beyond just the convention center, and now not only includes outside behind the convention center, the side area of the convention center, across the street of the convention center, and now into several hotels – it would be nice to see that inside the Convention Center if they made more of an effort to expand where people could sit to eat their (slightly) over priced hotdogs and pizzas that they buy in the Convention Center. Maybe even dedicating one of the Convention Halls as a place to eat and/or rest. I think this would alleviate some of the problems I felt were an issue; like resting against a wall, and having Security come by every 3 seconds telling us to move, or to stand closer to the pillars, so we’re not blocking foot traffic. While I completely understand that they’re doing their job, keeping areas clear in the event of some emergency; having a place to rest, that wasn’t outside in the blistering heat, would be nice.
Now, while it certainly sounds like I did not have a good time; let me make it clear. I actually did. Surprisingly, I had a better day Saturday (which I have always viewed the “worse” day, because that’s when there seems to be the most people, so getting to anything seems literally impossible). But Saturday, other than that moment that the Suicide Squad cast came out at the DC booth, and the crowd imprisoned me between two immovable walls of people, with their arms up in their air, holding up their phones to record everything (and putting my nose at armpit level), I still managed to have a very good time Saturday. (Ironically, Sunday seemed to be more packed with people when it hit like 11am, to the point it became extremely difficult to move around, then having the Convention Security shouting in your ears, “Keep moving! Keep walking!” when you’re trying to do just that but can’t), was enough to shorten my stay on Sunday.
It was really cool on Saturday, seeing a bunch of cool Star Wars: Rogue One stuff… (there’s a lot more pictures on our Facebook page, see the link to the right and how to access the page!).
It’s no big secret. I am a fan of the obscure characters. And most often times, the more obscure a character is, the more I tend to like them. This is not to be “different” or “rage against the crowd” who enjoys the more popular characters. I think a lot of this has to do with the aspiring writer within me. If there’s an obscure character, there’s untapped potential to flesh out that character and tell some stories with them.
During the time of the comic, I never questioned the idea of Jack Monroe hauling baby Bucky around and dragging her into trouble. (There were times where he had made several underground contacts and would leave Baby Bucky in the hands of people he trusted – well, as much as Jack Monroe trusted anyone anyway).
In the beginning; the series also featured a wide assortment of guest stars ranging from The Punisher, Deadpool, Daredevil, Red Wolf and Gambit. However, as the series progressed, there were fewer and fewer guest stars (which I always felt was a shame; because here you have this character essentially traveling across the United States; it seemed like there was an endless pool of character for Jack to run into, and team up with, or be at odds with).
However, I’d never say I hated the book. The ending got to be a little rushed – but that could be because around issue #21 or #22, they had announced that issue #25 was going to be the final issue.
Story: B+
Captain Marvel (2016) Vol. 1: Rise of the Alpha Flight
East of West Vol. 1
Now we head into the third round! Coming up we have The Clone Conspiracy – I can’t imagine this is going to be an ongoing series. Dan Slott typically handles Spider-Man very well. So I may pick this up and see what’s up with this cover. I am not sure who it is on the cover (other than Spider-Man) – it looks like an Anubis head (but it also looks like a Jackal, which would make sense with the title of this book – but, let’s be real – did we need another Spider-Man related book?) Creative team is: • The Clone Conspiracy #1 by Dan Slott, Christos Gage & Giuseppe Camuncoli
Speaking of Spider-Man related books, we have Silk. I’ve not been an over all fan of the influx of female Spider-Man related characters; Silk was fine, then we got Spider-Gwen, which – was that really needed? (Wasn’t a Gwenpool enough?) Anyway, I’ve not been picking up this book. I’ve not even heard if it’s good or bad. The creative team is: • Silk #13 by Robbie Thompson & Tana Ford
Up next we have Prowler – and if the cover is any indication, it looks to be a new Prowler. It looks like a much younger version than the original Prowler. I admit I am curious why Marvel would be pushing this character – of all the characters they have. So I may peek at this and see what the story is about. Again, this has to do with learning more about villains. Curious if they’re going to make – what I assume is this new Prowler – a hero? The creative team: • Prowler #1 by Sean Ryan & Jamal Campbell
And then there’s… this… Spider-Gwen. I know a lot of people love her. I see her cosplayed so much as Conventions. And I am happy that people are able to connect to this character. I’ve never been able to get into it. Creative team is • Spider-Gwen #15 by Jason Latour & Robbi Rodriguez
Which flows right into the next book which is Spider-Man (with Miles) who appears to have a relationship with Spider-Gwen. (And here we are with yet another duplicated hero – with Peter calling himself Spider-Man, Miles calling himself Spider-Man, and even Miguel from Spider-Man 2099). I’ve not picked up this series, mostly because of the writer. The creative team here is: • Spider-Man #12 by Brian Michael Bendis & Sarah Pichelli
Another Spider related title; though at least, she’s not directly connected to Spider-Man (other than the name) is Spider-Woman. I’ve not collected this series; but if this series brings back Hobgoblin; I might pick up the issues with him in it (as I have always preferred him over Green Goblin… I know, despite how much I complain about duplicates!) I don’t care for the art on the cover; but that’s a different artist than the interior art. So when Hobgoblin appears I may check out the issue. The creative team is: Dennis Hopeless & Veronica Fish.
Speaking just a moment about about Spider-Man 2099, that’s the next one I want to discuss. I really love this cover; and not just because the classic looking Spider-Man 2099 is standing victoriously overly the new white costumed Spider-Man 2099 (I’ve been pretty vocal about how much I like Spider-Man 2099, but I hated that costume change – his original costume is so incredible, that it didn’t need to change – especially with jets to fly). I have been thoroughly enjoying Spider-Man 2099, despite that costume change! So I am looking forward to see what this cover means – if anything. The creative team here is: • Spider-Man 2099 #21 by Peter David & Will Sliney
And now Venom is going to be getting his own series – I am guessing Venom: Space Knight didn’t work out as well as they had hoped? I never picked it up, and by the looks of this cover, they’re going back to the more classic Venom (which I think they should have never ventured from). He had some fun limited series during the 90’s that I enjoyed; and if this new book follows along those lines, I will definitely be checking this out. The creative team here is: • Venom #1 by Mike Costa & Gerardo Sandoval
And staying within the Spider-Man realm, we have Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows. Gerry Conway did some good writing; so I may pick up where this title is headed. Some have speculated that Peter Parker and Mary Jane will be getting married again; or that the whole “One More Day” event is getting reversed. Curious if that’s where this is headed. The creative team is: • Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #1 by Gerry Conway & Ryan Stegman
Gerry Duggan is writing Deadpool now – and I’ve never been a big fan of the character. I enjoyed his original appearances as a mercenary with swords and guns; but he’s been everywhere now (and essentially become the new “Wolverine” – who, ironically I enjoyed back in the day, before I became over saturated with him!) Now I admit, Madcap has become a part of the Deadpool titles; and I am a huge fan of Madcap from his appearances in Captain America (and even in – I believe it was Ghost Rider). But I am not sure if it’s enough to make me want to pick up the book and see what they’re doing with him – even though the title of this one appears to be Madcap Recall. The creative team is: • Deadpool #21 by Gerry Duggan & Mike Hawthorne
Another Deadpool book is Deadpool & the Mercs for Money which I thought Madcap, Slapstick and few others were slated for; but apparently that entire cast has been changed by two monkeys, Domino, Teenage Megasonic, Machine Man, and a guy in what appears to be a Deadpool costume. The creative team here is: • Deadpool & The Mercs For Money #4 by Cullen Bunn & Iban Coello
Speaking of Slapstick it looks like he’s getting his own title now. It will probably do very well, because it will probably echo the same type of writing found in Deadpool. Despite apparently having joined the New Warriors off panel, and my interest and love of the New Warriors, I can’t see buying this book for myself. The creative team behind this insanity is: • Slapstick #1 by Reilly Brown, Fred Van Lente & Mike Norton
Up next is Solo – which I mainly remember from Spider-Man, and don’t remember much more about him. However, if the interior is as good as the cover art; I’d probably give this book a swing and see what they’re trying to do with it. The creative team behind that is: • Solo #1 by Gerry Duggan, Geoffrey Thorne & Paco Diaz
Another obscure villain getting his own book, Foolkiller gets a new look. Initially, it reminded me of Night Thrasher because of the red and black theme. Doesn’t look like a book I’d pick up. Creative team is: • Foolkiller #1 by Max Bemis & Dalibor Talajic
And there’s a Guardians of the Galaxy (I should have fit that with the other Guardians books I was mentioning previously)… This appears to be the final arc of the story – and, from what I have heard, (I’ve made it clear I am not a Bendis fan), but many people seem to be disappointed what Bendis has done with Guardians of the Galaxy… But then, it’s difficult to follow up what Abnett & Lanning did with the book… and what the movie did. Creative team is • Guardians of the Galaxy #15 by Brian Michael Bendis & Valerio Schiti
I won’t believe it’s true, until I see it… but it looks like they’re going to finally be bringing back Rich Rider as Nova. Again – I am waiting. I am going to control myself and not allow myself to be excited about this. Because there is no creative team announced yet…
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