Hi All,
Here are some of the comics we have been enjoying reading at Gnash this last month. Reviews are all courtesy of the Gnash Comics Team and Guest reviewer Hugh Ogilvie. So to kick off…there is no better way to counteract the nagging last gasps of winter than to snuggle up with a freshly bound comic.
Dark Horse supremo Mike Mignola has come up trumps with his latest 4-parter ‘Jenny Finn’:
An exercise in perfectly-pitched gothic weirdness, with a signature mix of serious dialogue and delirious attention to the grimy detail of a 19th Century dockyard, swirling with ghosts, prostitutes and the strange titular figure herself. Its presentation is almost hallucinatory yet reassuringly creepy, with all manner of crazed, monstrous creatures stalking its pages.
Bringing matters up to date with Black Crown Quarterly, from IDW comics.
A fascinating sampler which reveals the wanton genius of Rob Davis, amongst other off-kilter delights – that’s Rob Davis of ‘The Motherless Oven’, one of the most rewarding graphic novels (in the truest sense of the word) of the last few years. His contribution involves strange goings-on in a godforsaken pub in an equally godforsaken town, where nothing is quite as it seems. His comic touches are sublime and the drawings tinged with gobbets of poignant conversations between its heaving underbelly of disillusioned characters from the wrong side of wherever.
And yes we are loving Dark Horse Comics at the moment!
“Koshchei the Deathless” a six part series
And another Mike Mignola! With art by Ben Stenbeck. The relatively simple page layouts made it possible to be totally drawn into the narrative of the story, which has heavy echoes of traditional folkloric story telling and hints of the darkest tales of the Brothers Grimm – definitely we are following this from now on.
“Hungry Ghosts” from Dark Horse stable again! A series of 4 stand alone comics.
This comic was full of promise and was so looking forward to it coming in. The premise of the series is a reworking of classic style Japanese ghost stories. There are four complete stories in the first issue. The first story is a classic moral tale and the second much more gruesome. The artwork from Alberto Pontcelli and Vanesa Del Ray is gripping but less so the actual stories. But intrigued enough to want to follow the series and really loved the Paul Pope cover on the first issue!
“Motherlands’ from Vertigo Comics 6 part series.
In a crazed future where, unhinged technologies and interconnected parallel Earths have given rise to a spectacular class of super-criminal, the most beloved celebrities aren’t actors or rock stars, but the bounty hunters who traverse an exotic multiverse in search of impossible prey! We cannot recommend this highly enough! The sheer amount of weird science, world-building, surprise reveals, dimension hopping and best of all – heart – crammed into just one issue by British writer Simon Spurrier. Truly impeccable art from fellow Brit Rachael Stott and perfect colours from Felipe Sobreiro round this out into a package not to be missed under any circumstances.
“Calexit “ from Black Mask Comics a 5 part series.
An extreme right wing president comes to power and California votes to secede from the US. The fight back splits the state. The creators Matteo Pizzola and Amancay Nahuelpan started the idea of this comic long before the Trump election, and the first issue came out early in 2017 but then went AWOL until now. Loved the first issue, punchy, it felt very real, plus it truly brought out the dark and divided side of America that was there long before Trump came to power and polarized public opinion. The characters are strong and clearly defined and somehow we end up having some empathy with all of them whatever side of the fence they are sitting on. The action flows wonderfully across the panes but the second issue to my mind lost some of its momentum. Maybe reality in the US was taking over the “what –if “ scenario. But still want to keep reading this and see where it goes so don’t go AWOL again guys.
Dark Knights Rising: The Wild Hunt (Metal) one-shot from DC Comics.
A fantastic standalone comic of sci-fi-fantasy with a cast of thousands of different universes’ heroes colliding! This was great even before the talking chimp detective was added into the mix. And if you liked that, keep reading until the end!
So until next time, comic lovers, and relish the colours, lines and words…