Steven W. Alloway (292)
This issue of I Play the Bad Guy takes a bit of a detour from Frank and his story of superhero revenge and takes us, instead, to the Reagan administration. We see an Ugandan youth tasked with taking down a violent warlord by an American government that couldn’t really care less about either. The young man infiltrates the warlord’s ranks as they attempt to subdue another city, until finally—well, you’ll have to read it for yourself.
Each issue of That Bulletproof Kid gives a grander scope to the adventure. Our hero, Anth, a.k.a. Bulletproof, has gone from being an ordinary superhero’s sidekick to being caught up in—and possibly the center of—intergalactic conflict and intrigue, involving some old grudges and a mysterious and powerful item/device/possible weapon. He also has a paper due for a really strict teacher.
When we last left Primo Rocket and the rest of the gang at Rocket Salvage, they were on the run from . . . pretty much everybody. They’re in possession of an ultimate weapon that’s highly in demand for both sides of a massive conflict. What none of the people chasing them realizes, though, is that the “weapon” is actually Primo’s teenage daughter/clone, Zeta.
Trista & Holt is the latest series from Andrez Bergen, creator of such comics as Bullet Gal and Tales to Admonish. It has the same photo-manipulation art style as Bullet Gal, wherein existing photographs are assembled and edited to tell a new story—and provide a gritty, noirish feel, as well. This series, however, takes place in the '70s, which provides an added visual element in terms of style and fashion. Yep, in Trista & Holt, noir meets disco.
What comes to your mind when you think, “An evening of poetry?”
Is it a bunch of hipsters or goth kids gathering in a dimly lit coffee house to pour out their souls into a microphone for an audience of other hipsters and goth kids, not listening, only waiting to pour out THEIR souls into the same mic?
This is the second issue in a row that’s focused on characters other than our titular heroine. I kind of miss her. Still, though, there’s plenty to love about this issue, starting with what I’m pretty sure is an Apocalypse Now reference at the very beginning.
I feel like I’m going to Hell just for reading this. It’s a pretty messed up story from the start, and it only gets more so as it goes along. Still, it makes for an interesting read.
I’m not sure exactly what to make of Imaginary Drugs. Reading it kind of made my head spin—not that that’s necessarily a bad thing. It’s an anthology of 36 short sci-fi and fantasy pieces, most of them 8 pages or less, by all different writers and artists. Successfully funded on Kickstarter over a year ago, it started as a vehicle for writer Michael McDermott to showcase his own work, then expanded to include a variety of other pieces by friends and colleagues. As such, it introduces us to a vast variety of different worlds with a vast variety of different artistic styles.
Planet Gigantic is a fun children’s sci-fi/adventure comic that involves space travel, superpowers, and an exploration of strange, new worlds. Meet Yuri and Valentina: brother and sister, genetically engineered to have special abilities. Yuri can create and control electrical currents, while Valentina has power over gravity. Sent into space on a fairly boring scientific research mission, they crash land on an enormous, new planet and quickly get caught up in the local politics.
When I volunteered to review Nightwasp, I’m sure there was a plot synopsis of some kind that appealed to me, but I can’t remember anything about it. As such, I went into this comic having absolutely zero idea what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. Right from the cover, it had me in stitches, starting with the title: “Nightwasp, the Man Who Is Hardly Ever Afraid.” There are half a dozen jokes on the cover alone, and a good half dozen more on the credits page.