Rachel
Rising #24 – Rachel Rising is one of my favorite books currently being
published. The comic is by writer/author Terry Moore, creator of Strangers in Paradise, probably my favorite non-genre comic of all time. Moore is one of the
most bright and talented storytellers working in any medium, period.
When
Rachel wakes up in a shallow grave in the woods, she finds she has no memory of
her brutal murder. She somehow stumbles back to the small New England town of
Manson. As the series progresses, she finds herself under attack from some
powerful and nasty witches out for revenge for their murders in Manson hundreds
of years ago. Originally part of the coven, Rachel is now working against them
and trying to save her friends and the town.
In this issue, Rachel, the evil little brat Zoe and Rachel’s old friend James (currently in the body of her present friend Jet—don’t ask) confront Lilith, one of the most powerful witches of the old coven. A raging snowstorm has been burying the town and beautifully adds to the art and mood of the story. The team vanquishes Lilith (for now), Jet returns to her body and James returns to the ether. This is a high-stakes battle, with Lilith commanding feral wolves and poisonous snakes to do her bidding, and Rachel and James fighting for their lives. Zoe doesn’t really care.
Moore
has written about the small audience and low sales of this book. He has used
several guerilla marketing tactics to gain a bigger audience and I hope they
work. This title features typical Moore characters, who look like real human
beings and have distinct and realistic personalities. Thrilling and insightful,
Rachel Rising deserves better sales and comes with my highest recommendation.
Comics don’t get better than this.
Rating:
***** out of 5 stars
Angel
& Faith Season 10 #1 – A companion book to Dark Horse’s Buffy the Vampire
Slayer: Season 10 comic, Angel & Faith are working together to fight evil
and pay for Joss Whedon’s fourth or fifth summer house. This is a sequel
series to Christos Gage and Rebecca Isaac’s Angel & Faith book, which was
very good. New writer Victor Gischler and artist Will Conrad get off to a
promising start, as Faith helps Buffy with a case and Angel unsuccessfully
tries to protect a young man from a group of foot-high winged demons. I admit I
would follow Gischler about anywhere, his crime novel The Deputy was one of the
best books I read last year. I avoid the main Buffy comic like the plague since
it became a showcase for politically correct storylines—it very well may be
worse now since Gage has taken it over and he is a militant political agenda
writer. Angel & Faith are far removed from that up 'til now—it’s just death
to monsters everywhere. Let’s hope they stay with that theme. Rating: *** out of 5 stars
Shotgun
Wedding #1 – I didn’t know anything about this book, but bought it due to a friend’s
recommendation. I’m glad I did! Mike and Chloe are not a normal engaged couple.
They are both spies and assassins for the U.S. Government. Mike is a patriotic true
believer; Chloe is a stone-cold psycho who hides it well. When Mike leaves Chloe
a "Dear John" letter on their wedding day, she’s not the type to have a good cry,
play “I Will Survive” and move on. She’s more the “wait several years and chop
Mike and his new fiancée to pieces” type. Now on a blazing path of vengeance,
she tracks down Mike’s father and gets the scoop on where they plan to tie the
knot, then does some terrible things to him. As the book ends, she is buying an
airplane ticket to go greet Mike and his bride-to-be. And I don’t think it’s to
give them the good china on their gift register. This book was a fun surprise, with a unique premise and some engaging character work. Chloe really is a nut case. Add to that she is a scorned woman, and to that her fiancée has found happiness with someone else. I expect snarky quips, gunfire and multiple explosions in the next few issues.
Rating:
**** out of 5 stars
Grindhouse:
Doors Open at Midnight #7 – Even at my advanced age, I’m too young to have
caught the most exploitive grindhouse flicks from the ‘70s at the theater. This
comic helps make up for that educational gap. Writer Alex De Campi has done a
series of two-issue grindhouse stories in this title, with subjects like alien
killer bees and medieval princess revenge stories. In the first part of this
last two-issue tale, “Flesh Feast of the Devil Doll,” Renae is an unpopular
teenager sent to an upscale summer sports camp. Of course the camp’s land butts
up against a cult compound where the members spend their days calling bad
things from beyond to this world. The two camps end up overlapping, and Renae
must team with the popular girls to fight bikini-clad, multi-fanged she-monsters
to the death. This book is violent, bloody and exploitive. And a great deal of fun. It also contains fake movie posters for ridiculous grindhouse films I’d love to see, such as “Shaolin Romeo-Wutang Juliet (Only one thing stood in the way of their love affair ... Vengeance!!!), and “Dirty Sanchez (He’s a stinker!). Not for the faint of heart, but it does live up to the grindhouse claim. Can’t say they didn’t warn you!
Rating:
**** out of 5 stars.
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