Sometimes, the staff at Graphic Policy read more comics than we’re able to get reviewed. When that happens you’ll see a weekly feature compiling reviews of the comics, or graphic novels, we just didn’t get a chance to write a full one for.
These are Graphic Policy’s Mini Reviews and Recommendations.
Logan
Hello Darkness #3 (BOOM! Studios) – Hello Darkness #3 leads off with a dark twist on “mukbang” YouTube videos as Michael W. Conrad, Martin Morazzo, and Chris O’Halloran skewer the fame at whatever cost crowd with a side of cannibalism. The almost deadpan quality of Morazzo’s visuals make the story that much more disgusting. Next is a three panel mad scientist story from Robert Hack that’s of middling quality. After that is the second part of James Tynion, Werther Dell’Edera, and Miquel Muerto‘s Something is Killing the Children serial. I love the dreamlike quality of Dell’Edera’s pencils as small-town man Barry tells Erica Slaughter the story of a monster snatching up and tearing apart his young neighbor. It’s a small slice of a larger story, but has the atmosphere that has made such SIKTC such a hit. Plus I’m enjoying these small scale character studies while the main book focuses on Erica’s arc. This is followed by Andy Lanning, Trevor Hairsine, and Rain Beredo‘s “Kampfgeist” a World War I-set war/cosmic horror yarn. Breaking the stalemate on the Western Front awakens something much worse as Hairsine art progresses from realism to something out of Viking zombie film. Hello Darkness #3 concludes with the most chilling chapter of Garth Ennis and Becky Cloonan‘s “The War” yet. A couple try to leave New York on a private plane as the potential of nuclear attack looms over the Big Apple. There’s a very “It can’t happen hear” vibe to this whole chapter with Cloonan capturing the naked emotion in the characters’ faces that world may actually be ending. Overall: 8.0 Verdict: Buy
The Moon is Following Us #1 (Image) – Daniel Warren Johnson and Riley Rossmo team up for an imaginative fantasy/sci-fi/genre mash-up epic about a husband and wife rescuing their daughter in a world of her dreams. Like a video game without a tutorial, Johnson starts in the middle of the action with the protagonists getting help from a friendly frog with machine guns and running into bad guys of all different shapes and sizes. Rossmo and colorist Mike Spicer really cut loose in the portion set in the simulation while Daniel Warren Johnson handles art in the “real world” and shows the emotional connection Duncan and Samantha have with their daughter Penny. The Moon is Following Us is truly an ass kicking, yet heart-rending read. Overall: 8.4 Verdict: Buy
Horizon Experiment: The Manchurian #1 (Image) – The Manchurian is a slick entry point into the labyrinthine world of Chinese spycraft that very different from Western espionage from Pornsak Pichetsote and Terry and Rachel Dodson. The one-shot reads like the first act of a James Bond film showing our hero, Calvin Low, in action and establishing his relationships and vulnerabilities as well as the underpinnings of this heightened, yet research-grounded world. The Dodsons kick ass at the fight choreography, but they also show the moments where Calvin loses the super spy facade and freaks out about his panic attacks with his soon-to-be-broken up with girlfriend while still keeping his cover. The Manchurian stands alone and has a fairly emotionally satisfying conclusion, but I want more of this world and to learn more about contemporary Chinese espionage. Overall: 8.1 Verdict: Buy
NYX #3 (Marvel) – Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, Francesco Mortarino, and Raul Angulo get all the pieces of the puzzle right in the NYX #3. This issue focuses on Anole who just wants to live a normal life as a bartender, but is laid off by bigoted ownership and ends up caught in a struggle between young mutants like Ms. Marvel and Sophie Cuckoo, the Morlocks, and the Purifiers. There’s plenty of big, colorful action in NYX #3 like Ms. Cuckoo psychically lobotomizing Purifiers, or Laura Kinney just obliterating them. However, the issue’s main strength is Kelly and Lanzing’s introspective scripting for Anole who may have a hero’s heart, but just wants to focus on being and finding himself. He does that with the help of the Morlocks who have their own kind of paradise in the tunnels of New York. Throw in a bit of a twist at the end, and NYX is starting to find its voice as the queer-friendly, youthful street level X-Book. Overall: 8.6 Verdict: Buy
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