Comic Review: Action Lab: Dog of Wonder #1

• Written by Scott Fogg and Vito Delsante
• Art by Rosy Higgins and Ted Brandt
• Letters by Full Court Press
• Published by Action Lab Entertainment
  

Before reading this comic, I'd never looked at the Action Lab logo. I'd seen it (having reviewed a few of their comics), but I never really noticed it. Now I see that it is a dog superhero, and that dog is a lab. Yes, that is Action Lab: Dog of Wonder. They made a comic entirely out of that one bad pun.

These are my kind of people.

Comic Review: Red Agent #2

• Story by Joe Brusha, Ralph Tedesco, and Lou Iovino
• Written by Lou Iovino
• Artwork by Diego Galindo
• Colors by Grostieta
• Letters by Fabio Amelia
• Cover A by Edgar Salazar and Erick Arciniega
• Cover B by Caio Cacau
• Cover C by Michael Dooney and Ivan Nunes
• Cover D by Diego Galindo and Grostieta

The first issue of Red Agent disappointed me. It's odd calling a futuristic spy story with crazy technology generic, but it was. Red Agent #2 puts that concern to rest. It's more potential than execution, but moving in the right direction. 

Comic Review: Wayward #11

• Story by Jim Zub
• Line Art by Steven Cummings
• Colors by Tamra Bonvillain
• Letters by Marshall Dillon
• Back Matter by Zack Davisson
• Cover A by Steven Cummings and Tamra Bonvillain
• Cover B by Nick Bradshaw and Tamra Bonvillain
• Cover C by Danica Brine and Tamra Bonvillain
• Published by Image Comics

The only thing I am more excited for than Wayward is the return of Saga, but that is another story for literally another day. I've been drawn to this from the beginning, loving the way that it legitimately does both manga and western comics without feeling pandering, and I missed it a lot over its hiatus. I can give it no higher compliment than this: I love it, even though it is full of spiders.

Comic Review: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10 #21

• Script by Christos Gage
• Art by Rebekah Isaacs
• Colors by Dan Jackson
• Letters by Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt
• Cover by Steve Morris
• Published by Dark Horse Comics

This issue keeps going back and forth between being something I read before, and something that I forgot happened. It's at a point in the series that it feels like they're waiting for Angel and Faith to wrap up so that this can pick up full force when that ends. Until then, this issue is mostly just here, moving the story only incrementally forward and repeating character beats we've seen before.

Comic Review: Last Sons of America #1

• Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson
• Illustrated by Matthew Dow Smith
• Colors by Doug Garbark
• Letters by Jim Campbell
• Cover by Tonci Zonjic
• Variant covers by Felipe Smith and Michael Dow Smith
• Published by BOOM! Studios

Last Sons of America is a really strange comic. It feels a lot like BOOM! is trying to make an Image Comic, with a very different style than I expect from them. It's going after big ideas in a very grimy and bleak world, and I found myself fascinated and intrigued, even though I'm not entirely sure why I like it.

Comic Review: Zodiac Starforce #3

• Script by Kevin Panetta
• Art, Colors, and Lettering by Paulina Ganucheau
• Color flats by Kristen Acampora
• Cover by Jacob Wyatt
• Published by Dark Horse Comics

It is pretty obvious from reading this that Zodiac Starforce is a 4 issue series. We're on issue #3, and it has the very specific feeling of a story trying to stop itself short before it reaches the real climax, putting this in an awkward place. It has to put everything at the lowest point, but is not really allowed to do anything with that yet. It's kind of an awkward issue for that reason, but a small bump in their execution is not going to stop me this close to the end after liking it so far.

Comic Review: The Goddamned #1

• Written by Jason Aaron
• Art by R. M. Guera
• Colors by Giulia Brusco
• Letters and Design by Jared K. Fletcher
• Variant Cover by Jock
• Published by Image Comics

All that this book had to do to hook me was call itself "Biblical Noir". One thing that comes with my religious background is that I really like stories that are based Biblical stories or ideas, but not the sanitized versions that pop up a little more often. I wouldn't quite agree that The Goddamned fits as noir, but it is Biblical and different from most that I see, so it has me from the start.

Comic Review: Limbo #1

• Created by Caspar Wijngaard and Dan Watters
• Writer: Dan Watters
• Artist: Caspar Wijngaard
• Lettering: Jim Campbell
• Published by Image Comics

Limbo is yet another in a larger than expected number of comics about Private Investigators that I've stumbled into recently. No, I don't mean that in the "Really, another one of these?" sense, as Limbo is a very different entry into that genre. It's the kind of thing that shows why this kind of story seems to last forever, since there is always something new that they can do with it.

Comic Review: Joe Golem: Occult Detective #1

This was originally posted as a review for Word of the Nerd. Reposted here with slight modifications.

• Story by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden
• Art by Patric Reynolds
• Colors by Dave Stewart
• Letters by Clem Robins
• Cover by Dave Palumbo
• Variant Cover by Mike Mignola and Dave Stewart

Trying to review something like this is difficult because I feel so mixed on different aspects of it. There are times that something is "all good" or "all bad", or feels overwhelmingly one way or the other, and that makes giving an opinion of it easier. When there are different parts, all of them working at different levels, it's harder to come to a conclusion. Joe Golem: Occult Detective falls right into this, with different storylines of wildly varying quality, and that makes it quite difficult to really talk about.

Comic Review: Johnny Red #1

This was originally posted as a review for Word of the Nerd. Reposted here with slight modifications.

• Writer: Garth Ennis
• Art: Keith Burns
• Colors: Jason Worde
• Letters: Ron Steen
• Published by Titan Comics

Johnny Red will get a lot of attention just for the first name listed in the credits: Garth Ennis. He has a great reputation in comics, so any new releases with his name on it are going to get a lot of attention from the beginning. Even with his writing behind it, Johnny Red is a bit messy trying to get to the point that it becomes an interesting story.

Comic Review: Dead Vengeance #2

• Created by Bill Morrison and Kayre Morrison
• Script by Bill Morrison
• Pencils by Tone Rodriguez
• Inks by Keith Champagne
• Colors by Carlos Badilla
• Letters by Nate Piekos
• Cover art by Bill Morrison with Carlos Badilla
• Published by Dark Horse Comics

In its first issue, Dead Vengeance was this fun thing that I kind of liked reading. It was a fun read, but not something that I was going to go out of my way to try and sell people on or sing its praises. At risk of spoiling my opinion, this issue takes it from there to must-read in the span of a single issue. This started with a body in a circus exhibit coming to life, and with this issue, it throws out an idea that feels so completely out there that I cannot help but love this book now. I won't spoil what it is, but I will do my best to get across why I love this.

Comic Review: Angel and Faith Season 10 #20

• Script by Victor Gischler
• Art by Will Conrad
• Colors by Michelle Madsen
• Letters by Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt
• Cover by Scott Fischer
• Variant Cover by Mike Norton with Michelle Madsen
• Published by Dark Horse Comics

I love the Buffyverse, but I've had a rather complicated relationship with the comics recently. There has been a lot of good recently, but I've also been mentioning in my last few reviews that it feels like they might be losing their way. After this issue of Angel and Faith, which has led me in both directions, I've given up on trying to project or predict where it's going. All I can do is look at the issue in front of me and evaluate it, and there's a lot of good there right now.

Comic Review: Adventure Time 2015 Spooktacular

This was originally posted as a review for Word of the Nerd. Reposted here with slight modifications.

• Written and Illustrated by Hanna K
• Cover by Chrystin Garland
• Variant by Emily Partridge
• Published by BOOM! Studios

I'm not overly familiar with Adventure Time, having seen just enough to know that I like it without having gone through the entire series. That is important because it gives me a somewhat strange perspective on this issue. The particular reason is that this issue attempts to give some backstory to Marceline before she became a vampire. To me, it was an enjoyable story, if not particularly deep, but it's likely to be controversial to people who like the fact that Marceline's backstory is mostly kept a secret.

Comic Review: Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare #1

This was originally posted as a review for Word of the Nerd. Reposted here with slight modifications.

• Story by Paul Tobin
• Art and Cover by Jacob Chabot
• Colors by Matthew J. Rainwater
• Letters by Steve Dutro
• Published by Dark Horse Comics

The more time I spend with All-Ages comics, the more I think that I'm secretly 5 years old and just good at hiding it. Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is not only aimed straight at a young demographic, like other Plants vs Zombies comics, it fits a lot of the things that people don't really like about comics aimed at kids. Instead of hating it, though, I find a lot of joy in reading it.

Comic Review: Cyrus Perkins and the Haunted Taxi Cab #1

• Story, Letters, and Colors by Dave Dwonch
• Art and Tones by Anna Lencioni
• Published by Action Lab Comics

Cyrus Perkins and the Haunted Taxi Cab is kind of difficult to talk about. It's not overly complex, since most of the premise is in the title and first page of the story, but it works as an example of a problem that I often have with comics, and it's hard to tell if the problem is me or not. There is a lot that I like here, similar to my reaction to other comics from Action Lab, and without the way that it ends, it would be something that I absolutely love. The way that it ends gives me pause, and I can't tell if it's a failure of the book or of me.

Comic Review: The Rook #1

This was originally posted as a review for Word of the Nerd. Reposted here with slight modifications.

• Script by Steven Grant
• Art by Paul Gulacy
• Colors by Jesus Aburto
• Lettering by Nate Piekos of Blambot
• Published by Dark Horse Comics

Going off of the synopsis, The Rook sounds like something I would absolutely love. The idea of someone fighting a one-man war against a time-traveling terrorist is the kind of high concept thing that I love to see people do. While I like the concept, this issue doesn't do a lot to give me confidence that the rest of the series is going to match up to its potential.

Comic Review: The Steam Man #1

This was originally posted as a review for Word of the Nerd. Reposted here with slight modifications.

• Story by Joe R. Lansdale
• Script by Mark Alan Miller
• Art by Piotr Kowalski
• Colors by Kelly Fitzpatrick
• Lettering by Nate Piekos of Blambot
• Published by Dark Horse Comics

The Steam Man is a combination of western, steampunk, alien invasion, and vampire story. I love reading stories made up of different elements that feel like they were pulled out of a hat, but end up working together, so of course this was a perfect series for me to try and jump into. It gets started on the right foot, but it's not so outstanding that I'm ready to declare undying love for it quite yet.

Interesting Comics This Week (10-28-15)

Marvel Comics:

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1 

This comic gave me a hard time even finding it because, as the cover is glad to point out, this is only their second #1 issue this year. It was only reset because of the Secret Wars nonsense, but if it helps get more people reading this again, then we have a very good thing. I reviewed a few issues of this before, and while it sometimes felt a little too much like Ryan North, it was still a lot of fun to read and follow.

Comic Review: Power Cubed #2

• Written and illustrated by Aaron Lopresti
• Colors by Hi-Fi Design
• Letters by Michael Heisler
• Published by Dark Horse Comics

I picked up the first issue of Power Cubed just because it was a #1, and it turned out to be a really fun surprise. I've really been looking forward to this second issue, which manages to avoid the slump many second issues fall into. It keeps everything that made me love the first issue and avoids showing the cracks that many stories would by this point.

Comic Review: The Paybacks #2

• Script by Donny Cates and Eliot Rahal
• Art by Geoff Shaw
• Colors by Lauren Affe
• Letters by Michael Heisler
• Published by Dark Horse Comics

I loved the first issue of The Paybacks, and that puts the second issue in a bit of a difficult place. Now that the idea is no longer so new, it's time for the book to really get into the story that it will be going forward. This is the problem all second issues have to deal with, and it's hard to contend with. Here, this issue isn't quite as good as the first and starting to show weaknesses, but it's still good enough that I'm not going anywhere.