Tony Caballero (75)
“A fetid pestilence has invaded this city. The organized mobs, already doomed by their own atrocities, have been usurped by an archfiend who now holds authority over their foul and brutal ranks.”
“Let all who serve the dominion of Grendel take heed . . . betray your wretched and mysterious overlord, and you may survive the scourge of my vengeance."
“The weed of crime bears bitter fruit. Crime does not pay!!”
“THE SHADOW KNOWS! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
When we last left our heroes, Grendel was bearing down upon an unsuspecting Shadow deep within his own inner sanctum, supposedly secure in his secrecy. Not so much, buddy . . .
Fluffy Sin City
Toyburg is a playground with serious issues . . .
Under lemonade rain skies, new Detective Ruxby Bear and grizzled hickorywood Officer Hazzbrow patrol its deceptively colorful streets on their way to Ruxby’s first case: a dismemberment killing of a plushie. The third in a month. Something dark and sinister is stalking the candy-bright streets of Toyburg . . .
“Man did not start the war between good and evil. But, he was the cause.”
“Following his creation of man, God selected a number of his most precious angels to keep vigil over the earth.”
“They were know as the Watchers. His most elite warriors. The greatest fighters Heaven and Earth had ever seen.”
Take one of the most talented artists working in comics today. Add in a pair of video game writers known for their tight and driven action stories. Give them a tapestry that encompasses the entire history of mankind and an epic battle of good and evil. Let them have fun.
You might get 13 Coins out of it.
“Drop your weapon, villain! Or face the pitiless judgement of . . . THE SHADOW!”
“Fond of that name, I see? Well, Senor Sombra . . . only a lucky few can refer to me as “Grendel.”
After his acquisition of a rare antiquity imbued with mystical power transports him back to 1930s New York, Hunter Rose, nee Grendel, deems it his new playground and seeks to unite the Depression-era criminal world under his banner.
The only thing standing in his way is the city’s anointed protector, The Shadow. And, once these two unstoppable forces are set in motion, expect fireworks to result.
“How often do you fly, Kari?”
“I don’t. Outside of these random meetings, I lead a very ordinary life. I don’t need to fly.”
“It’s not about needing to fly. It’s about being free, escaping this madness we live in.
“Once you go up, you just have to come back down and face it . . . Your best bet is to just ignore it. That’s how I escape.”
Baltimore, MD – Present Day. Gerald Petworth and Kari James have been given an assignment: Infiltrate a Department of Homeland Security armored convoy to retrieve a young man being transported under guard to Quantico. But, the young man apparently isn’t what he seems, and neither are Gerald and Kari, as their powers make them more formidable than the DHS Soldiers guarding the convoy.
“That day . . . we began our long journey through an insidious and profane realm. Innocence dissolved quickly after we stepped into . . . the cave.”
“The cave changed us. Made us.”
“The cave cost us . . . ”
“We weren’t supposed to go in there. We never should have entered the shadows . . . ”
“Something left a back door open.”
Okay, true confession time here. I’ve just read Farel Dalrymple’s graphic novel, The Wrenchies, and I have to admit, I’m not sure what I just read . . .
. . . but I’m damn impressed with it.
“August Fenwick, one of the city’s wealthiest men, hides a secret life of adventure as his city’s mysterious champion.”
“Together with his trusty driver, Kit Baxter, who joins him in his quest as The Flying Squirrel, he fights an endless battle, that all those who serve evil shall fear the . . . Night of the Red Panda!"
It’s the end of summer. You know what that means . . . all the blockbusters have come and gone. Kids are going back to school. The shorts and t-shirts are going back into the dresser for next year and are being replaced with boring ties and too-tight collars. What is there to look forward to?
“Look at these cool, old, crumbly buildings! I know, I’m a hick. I’m easily impressed by old buildings. But, I love how the old buildings are huddled up between the skyscrapers . . . and the skyscrapers, now that they have no sky, are mostly bases for big, multi-use mountains that go up, floor after floor of glass and sparkle. Shops and apartments and warehouse and every other damned thing. Amazing. They just go up and up.”
“If only time travel were so easy.”
“We’re all time travelers if we live long enough.”
In Finder: Third World, Carla Speed McNeil’s lonely mystic vagabond Jaeger Ayers has come back to civilization after his long and often psychedelic journeys through this urban aboriginal dream-time world. As a “Finder,” a member of secret society of unnaturally skilled tracker-hunters, he’s held many jobs from killer to gigolo to soldier. But, with his return to society, he takes on his most dangerous and well-suited job yet: Delivery boy for X-Ray’s Couriers. Their motto? “We’ll get through.”
“Brutality and ignorance . . . are the hallmarks of crime! It’s stain is borne by the helpless and the weak. A rancid weed, sprung from craven soil! Even a Viper strikes only to defend. THE SHADOW KNOWS!”
After completing the momentous delivery of the complete Grendel Saga in three spectacular volumes, Dark Horse may have to go and start working on an addendum with the stellar release of a new Hunter Rose sage, Grendel vs. The Shadow.
“To the Heroes. They didn't set out to be heroes. They just did what they had to do.”
“The end of Evil. Are a handful of men worth that?”
After his knock-out turn on Victorian literary icons in The Weirding Willows: Volume 1, writer Dave Elliott is back with an epic, new tale that weaves equal measures of patriotism and the paranormal, underlining traditional comic book tales with an uneasy, existential dread.
