ADVANCED REVIEW: Finger Guns #1 takes aim at the ‘pulse-throbbing temple of teenage misery and neglect’

By J. Paul Schiek — Adulting is hard. Bills, mortgages, insurance, mortgage insurance bills? But adulting also has a way of making one forget how hard it is to be a teenager. It’s a whole other framework of concerns, much of it centered around a rapidly expanding worldview, and the dissolution of that chrysalis of childhood illusions that diminishes with equal quickness. Then adulthood sweeps in like a giant chalkboard eraser and leaves just a faint pressure outline of all that poetry journal worthy heartache and pain and throws up a new equation, just as unsolvable as the last. 

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REVIEW: Heist, Or How To Steal A Planet #2 remains a fascinating genre mash-up

By Zack Quaintance — When I wrote about the first issue of Heist, or How to Steal a Planet, I was most impressed with the balance the book struck between pacing and exposition, possessing as it did ample world-building intermingled with big ideas. That’s all still in this second issue, sort of underlying a sophomore chapter that makes it clearer what this book aims to do — which from my perspective seems to be mash-up classic heist stories with the type of high-concept, deeply philosophical science fiction that Vault Comics does better than any other publisher in the industry.

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REVIEW: We need more comics like The Butcher of Paris #1

By Zack Quaintance — The Butcher of Paris is one of those comics that is so in line with my personal tastes, that I can’t help but wonder if I conjured it. Okay, that’s maybe a little solipsistic (maybe!?!), but I did like quite a bit about this book before I’d even read the first page. What hooked me first was the concept. This is a rare monthly comic based on a true story (more of those, please!), and not just any true story, but one from a key moment in world history.

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REVIEW: 20XX #1 is a 2019 take on apocalypse and super powers

By Zack Quaintance — 20XX #1 is yet another comic book that has a new take on the end of the world. And you know what? I like it, which is a sign of high quality at this point because dystopia is essentially the genre du jour and has been for many months now (although horror of any and all kinds might have a thing to say about me anointing it that). 

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REVIEW: Resonant #5 is a showcase the artist team of Alejandro Aragon and Jason Wordie

By Zack Quaintance — Well, I just said this in the headline but hey — more than anything, Resonant #5 serves as a major showcase for the mightily-talented artist Alejandro Aragon, who is colored here expertly by Jason Wordie. In fact, the first six pages of this fifth issue are almost entirely silent, with the loan sound effect being a dog’s howl. And, make no mistake, these pages are a kinetic bit of expert visual storytelling.

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REVIEW: Ogres #1 picks up thematically right where the first volume left off

By Zack Quaintance — Ogres #1 hit this week, launching the second volume of writer Bob Salley and artist Shawn Daley’s ongoing fantasy comic with Source Point Press. The first volume spanned three issues, telling a largely complete and well-done story that was rich with themes relating to having no true winners in war, violence only begetting more violence, and the power of us vs. them pathologies. The second volume seems to pick up right where the first left off, at least thematically anyway. 

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REVIEW: Machine Gun Wizards is a bombastic finale for a great book

By Alex Batts — Machine Gun Wizards #4 (formerly Tommy Gun Wizards until a title after issue #3) is the bombastic conclusion to a new genre-melding comic series from the mind of writer/artist Christian Ward. This series marks Ward’s first foray into the writing side of comics, and my oh my what a wonderful debut it’s been.

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