Category: Comics

Amish Otaku, Comics, Features

Caught My Eye: Thirteen Steps

Guest Post

As promised, this review is over the newly released comic, Thirteen Steps. It is a horror comic at the root, but it’s pretty much unlike any others on the stands today. It follows the story of a man who is a minor league baseball player by day and a werewolf by night. The main hook is that he feels pretty horrible for what he does in his altered state and needs someone who will listen to him and try to understand, but that doesn’t happen until he stumbles on an A.A.-like program called Thirteen Steps, where he can learn to deal with his affliction.

In the last review, I covered a title called GearHead, which was drawn by Kevin Mellon. When I saw this comic in Previews several months ago and noticed it was drawn by the same artist, I was pretty curious. Add to the pot that this is written by one of my favorite artists and is a horror comic and you have a combination that I couldn’t pass up. Continue reading “Caught My Eye: Thirteen Steps”

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Amish Otaku, Comics

X Mutations Wolverine Two-Pack: AO on Toys

By Ahmad Chaudhary

I don’t remember how much I paid for this Wolverine two-pack, but I bought it brand new at retail price from my days of generally severe Toys “R” Us scouring and suspect I paid somewhere in the $20- to $40-dollar range. I was obsessed with X-men: The Movie. The fact that I was extremely pleased with 20th Century Fox’s adaptation of my favorite Marvel superhero team was in no small part due to Hugh Jackman’s excellent – and career-making – performance as my favorite Marvel character, Wolverine. Although Jackman, at six feet two inches tall, was nearly a foot taller than the man eventually revealed to have been born as James Howlett, he cleaned up on the screen thanks to real acting chops, no doubt gained from stage experience in his native Australia and a ripped physique he achieved exclusively for the role. Continue reading “X Mutations Wolverine Two-Pack: AO on Toys”

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Amish Otaku, Comics, Features

Caught My Eye: GearHead

Guest Post

First of all, I’d like to apologize for my absence. Recently, I started a new job, moved across state, and have been living with my in-laws while waiting for my last house to sell. Needless to say, it’s been hectic these last couple of months. Now that I turned in my tardy slip, let’s get on to the comic review, shall we?

The comic that brought me screaming and kicking back to comic reviewing is called GearHead. Basically, the premise is that the world is drastically different from the one that we know and love in that the civilized society lives in the few large cities across the country, and in the outskirts reside the outlaws and undesirables. It kind of resembles a mixture of movies along the line of Mad Max.

The main character is the mechanic daughter of a vigilante named GearHead who gets a dose of reality when she’s thrust into dangers that far exceed that of a cracked block or blown head gasket. Due to extenuating circumstances, she takes up the mantle of her lost father and begins to peel back the mystery of how messed up her world really is. Continue reading “Caught My Eye: GearHead”

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Amish Otaku, Comics

Postcards: True Stories That Never Happened

Guest Post

I really need to become more in tune with what’s going on in comics aside from the major news that comes directly from the larger publishers.

The editor of the book describes in his introduction how he went about lining up various comic book creators and assigning them each a postcard in which to form their story.

Most of the creators involved may not be the most recognizable names. Harvey Pekar is probably the most well known, but the work also features contributions from talents like Tom Beland, Joshua Fialkov, Michael Gaydos and Stuart Moore,

The premise of the book is amazingly simple, but still wholly unique: A postcard is handed off to a comic creator and the creator needs to tell a story about the message that was written on the postcard. In some instances, the creator chose to establish a story based on the few simple words that were written on the back. Others decided to create a world from the picture on the front. Continue reading “Postcards: True Stories That Never Happened”

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Amish Otaku, Comics

Johnny the Homicidal Maniac

By Ahmad Chaudhary

It’s been awhile since I read this book, probably close to two months. Since then I’ve seen Feist again – not that you care, mind you, but I did so I thought I’d let you know. I’ve also managed to stumble through the six-hundred-plus page mass-market paperback version of Homicide: Life on the Killing Streets by David Simon. It was pretty fitting I read that just after Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: Director’s Cut, since they’re both focused on, believe it or not, homicide. Since the season of Halloween and associated macabre is upon us, it also works that this was finished when it was.

Initially, I swayed from writing the JTHM review then because I wasn’t sure what I thought of the book. It made me wince more than once; although the characters are crudely designed, in black and white, it should have made the murders seem more distant and removed from my own safe and cushy Nerf life. And then, all of a sudden, somewhere around a quarter of my way through the book, it became outright hilarious. It had me laughing hysterically. If you think I’m weird and a little psycho to find the following hilarious, reserve your judgment until you’ve finished the book. Continue reading “Johnny the Homicidal Maniac”

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Amish Otaku, Comics, Marvel

Mutant X 8-13: All Hail the Goblin Queen

Guest Post

When we last left our favorite Summers brother, Alex, he was on the run from his wife, Maddie, who had fully embraced the Goblin Queen persona. Is this Inferno all over again in this strange new world? Or could it be something much more sinister?

As the saga of the Goblin Queen unfolds, Alex finds himself up against his former teammates, now under the nefarious control of Alex’s wife who is poised to take over the U.S. Hope rests in the combined might of Havok, Magneto’s X-Men and the U.N. forces led by Dr. Doom. Havok leads the charge on the Empire State Building, where the Goblin Queen is being held up. With impending doom, Havok and his son Scotty eventually defeat the Goblin Queen in what I consider the cop-out of the century (or at least the series thus far). Still, the ending does make me believe in the power of a child’s love for his mother. Yeah, I just puked a bit too. Issue 13 is a filler issue detailing the background of Bloodstorm. Personally, I would have preferred a Fallen centric issue, but oh well. We can’t always get what we want. Continue reading “Mutant X 8-13: All Hail the Goblin Queen”

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Amish Otaku, Comics, Features, Marvel

Bubonic Comics: Nikki Doyle: Wild Thing

Guest Post

This debut issue of Wild Thing is bad, seriously bad. I’m not sure how many issues it lasted; but since the Marvel UK imprint folded in America about a year later, I can imagine it didn’t run too long. The cover promises the appearance of Venom and Carnage so, of course, it’s a must-buy.

But before you track it down, let me explain this is the furthest thing from a must-buy. Venom and Carnage (who only appears in three panels) are only virtual-reality bad guys. Yes, Ms. Doyle fights virtual-reality bad guys. Actually, she fights illegal virtual-reality programs that are more addictive than heroin. It seems that in an effort to capitalize off the somewhat success of virtual-reality programs, Marvel created a virtual-reality warrior.

Being a former VR junkie, Doyle has cleaned up her act and is working with the NYPD to bust these underground video game dens. The concept is laughable (especially looking back from over a decade later) and the execution is rather terrible. Doyle has acute knowledge of the VR world, and as Wild Thing she is able to navigate this world and save those addicts.

Why can’t they just unplug the game machines? Because in a move much like The Matrix, anyone jacked into the other world can also die because of the virtual world. If the junkie is unplugged, he’s a goner. Thankfully, Wild Thing is their savior. The whole issue follows this set-up; it includes her busting a den and then plugging in to a particularly devious program to save one of the addicts.

Continue reading “Bubonic Comics: Nikki Doyle: Wild Thing”

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Amish Otaku, Comics, DC

Batman and the Monster Men 1-6

Guest Post

I like Batman. I really do. I just don’t read any of his monthly titles. In these books, I feel he’s too weighed down by his eighty-plus years of continuity. He’s just better in smaller doses. So, when I learned that one of my favorite comic guys, Matt Wagner, wrote and drew the miniseries Batman and the Monster Men, I decided to pick it up.

I was not disappointed. Continue reading “Batman and the Monster Men 1-6”

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Amish Otaku, Comics, Features, Interviews

Interview: Steve Niles on 30 Days, Clive Barker and Rob Zombie

Q:
Early in your carreer you adapted a fair number of books to the comic medium. What has it been like to now take your original work and adapt that into books and movies like the upcoming 30 Days of Night?

A:
I feel bad that I practiced on guys like Matheson, Barker and Ellison! But seriously, all those adaptations taught me a lot about breaking down and/or expanding a story from one medium to another, and I certainly utilized those lessons while writing 30 Days in all its various forms. Learning to be true to source material can be tricky, but as the better comics-to-films have proven, the more accurate to the original material, the better the films seem to be. I mean there are very good reasons why people have loved Spiderman all these years, but it took Raimi following the comics to prove it. Continue reading “Interview: Steve Niles on 30 Days, Clive Barker and Rob Zombie”

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Amish Otaku, Comics, Marvel

Mutant X 1-7

Guest Post

If there’s one thing I love in life, it’s checklists. But when it comes to comics, their serial nature tends to clash with the finite simplicity of a title, an issue number and a check box. So, when I decided to start collecting comics again, I set my sights on a series no longer being printed by the House of Ideas Mutant X.

No…not that crappy live-action TV show. We’re talking about the series starring Alex Summers, a.k.a. Havok, the lesser-known brother of twice-adulterous boy scout Cyclops of X-Men fame.

At the climactic end of X-Factor 149, Havok was seemingly blown to bits by a time/space distortion device. That’s where Mutant X picks up, showing a disembodied Havok floating against a star field, saying he remembers dying. Continue reading “Mutant X 1-7”

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