Comic Addicts

AvX in Waiting : 10 X-Men To Watch

2012-03-09T10:47:00.002-08:00

Welcome back everyone!
We hope you're all looking forward to some happy weekend relaxing and revitalising after an enjoyable Holi holiday!

To give you some food for thought and some more insight as the week comes to a close, we bring you this second installment of our series of articles to lay some groundwork before AvX (a.k.a. Avengers versus X-Men) kicks off in a few weeks - we figured you don't have to do any needless homework on all this if we do it for you!

With that in mind, we did a rundown on The Avengers last week and this week that's continued with everyone's favourite Mutants:

10) Magneto

If you haven’t been following theX-Men books over the past few years, what you need to know is thatnot only is the allegedly former mutant terrorist a part of theX-Men, but a very important factor in the merry mutants’ leadershipequation. Expect Magneto to take the offensive against the Avengersin a big way.

9) Angel

After his fall during The Dark AngelSaga in the pages of Uncanny X-Force, Warren WorthingtonIII is now a clean slate with no memories of his past. Also, heappears to have gained the ability to bring people (and puppies!)back to life. Does that remind you of a cosmic force famous forcorrupting a founding X-(Wo)man? Cause it should.

8) Rachel Grey

The timing of her arrival from space iswhat makes this speculator suspect the alternate reality daughter ofCyclops and Jean Grey playing a big role in AvX. Currently teachingin the Jean Grey academy, Rachel’s reaction to the Avengers tryingto stop the Phoenix Force and Hope shall be very interesting. Also,she’s another candidate in the “Might surprise everyone bybonding with the Phoenix” club.

7) Storm

Her loyalty towards the X-Men seemsobvious, but her recent inclusion into the Avengers roster might justmake a case for Storm finally acting on her disappointment withCyclops as leader and siding with Captain America. Nevertheless,being an Omega-level Mutant, she is sure to add plenty of firepowerto whichever side she picks.

6) Quentin Quire

Quentin Quire, thanks to Jason Aaronand Brian Wood, is totally my favourite mutant now. One of the mostpowerful telepaths on the planet, Quire has enjoyed the spotlightsince last summer’s Schism storyline, and AvX co-writerAaron does seem to be building him up for something big. Also, here’sa picture from a recent issue of Wolverine and the X-Men withQuire’s attire showcasing some familiar iconography upon it.

5) Psylocke

Psylocke has had a rough few monthsrecently, as a member of Wolverine’s secret X-Force hitsquad, first with The Dark Angel Saga and then with theongoing arc involving her responsibilities to the Captain BritainCorps. There is also the small problem of everyone in Utopia exceptfor Magneto not knowing of her membership in X-Force. The role ofX-Force in AvX, if any at all, is unknown as of now, but expectPsylocke to take centre-stage while Wolverine juggles around all theteams he’s in.

4) Namor

A lot of people underestimate the kingof Atlantis (the one that isn’t made fun of). They shouldn’t. Inthe last Avengers/X-Men crossover Utopia, Namor was seenstanding his own against the Sentry (Well, almost).He’s had somerecent interactions with Hope Summers in Uncanny X-Men, whichdo seem to suggest a build-up to them becoming allies or, dare I sayit, friends. A couple of years ago, Namor fighting against CaptainAmerica would have looked unlikely, but his newfound love for hismutant heritage and the fact that Atlantis is now quite literallynext to Utopia seems to suggest Namor fighting squarely at Cyclops’side. Besides, the X-Men have hotter blondes. Unless the FantasticFour side with the Avengers, that is...

3) Professor X

Cyclops’ rise as leader of the X-Menin the past decade has meant an abrupt fall in terms of importancefor the founder of the X-Men. Still regarded as THE most powerfultelepath on the planet, Xavier is walking again, but writers do notseem to have much idea about what to do with him. Five writers arebetter than one, I guess. The basic premise of story does seem to bethe direct opposite of Xavier’s dream, with Mutantkind going to waragainst Humanity. The time does seem to be right for Xavier to comeback in the spotlight and show Cyclops who’s boss.

2) Hope Summers

Hope Summers certainly hasn’t livedthe life of a typical 21^st century teenager. The firstmutant born after M-Day, she has been both hailed as mutant messiahand feared and hated as a potential weapon of mass destruction. Hopeis set to be centerstage as the event unfolds and which way hercharacter goes after bonding with the phoenix should be interestingto watch. Also, recent cover reveals surprisingly seem to suggest herrunning away from not only the Avengers, but the X-Men as well.

1) Cyclops

Hope might be what everyone’sfighting for, but have no doubts, this is Scott Summers’ bigmoment. He has taken some tough decisions in the past decade, haslost dear friends to both death and disagreement, and has his veryfaith in Hope questioned at every turn. All that comes to a head inAvX and Cyclops will once again have to wear the crown of thorns toensure the survival of the mutant race. The past decade has seen himgo from Boy to Man, from field leader of the X-Men to the leader ofmost of the mutant race. This possibly being the biggest challenge hehas ever faced, Cyclops is sure to pull no punches in battle ordiplomacy.

Keep watching this space folks, we'll have more on the monumental, Marvel-changing event right here!

And in the meantime, here's a picture of Iron Man doing a striptease for you... why?... because we can.
Ladies, you can thank us later.

Web-comics: The Meek

2012-03-07T03:33:00.000-08:00

Cover sampler for viewing pleasure

Today’s featured webcomic has a tadbit of a darker shade to it– blood is shed, the world is at stake,children have turned smugglers and a naked green-haired girl isrelying on a lost man to find the center of it all.

Presenting ‘The Meek’by Der-Shing Helmer, (popularly known as ‘alexds1’ on theinternet) - a rather well known graphic novel, free for everyone toread on www.meekcomic.com,and an inspiring piece of work that is currently running in its 4^thchapter. The series as a whole was launched in 2009 and the creator has stated it will be posted online until it concludes.

Some wicked concept art!

Putting it simply, TheMeek is about a young girl on a path to save the world. Angora is adetermined little creature with moss-green hair who must find ‘thecenter’ before all of humanity is crushed in a war of the spirits.

The plot is split intothree parts – three separate events taking place at the same time,each set of which is addressed in a different volume.

The firstvolume introduces Angora, a teenaged girl who, up until recently, hadbeen living in a commune in the jungle. When her “grandfather”sends her into civilization, she is forced to grow up a little fasterthan she expects. In the second, we meet Luca deSadar, the Emperor ofthe Northern Territories of the Pasori people, a rather violent manwith a heart full of vengeance – fresh out of war with the nationof Caris. This chapter is definitely my favorite, with references toblood-drinking and the introduction of the formidable and evil Dagre.The third volume tells us what’s happening in the smugglingunderworld just as Angora sets off on her path to find ‘thecenter’.

Some more concept art!

The Meek is an enjoyableread. The story is engaging, the characters will intrigue you, theartwork is unique but beautiful and the colors are bold and lively.This is one comic where a lot is happening and you want moreto happen with every turn of the page. Hell, all the suspense iskilling me. Can’t wait for the next page update in volume 4.

This review brought to you by Basma Rizvi - artist and storyteller, sharing some excellent but lesser known webcomics from around the world and learning a little in the process.

DCAnimatedU Movie Review - Justice League: Doom

2012-03-05T22:12:00.000-08:00

Director - Lauren Montgomery

Writer - Dwayne McDuffie

Featuring the voice talents of - Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly, Nathan Fillion and others.

Based on - Justice League: Tower of Babel by Mark Waid

"Tower of Babel" is one of the greatest Justice League books ever written. And if you haven’t read it yet, take a step back and punch yourself in the face.

You deserve it. Now go buy it and read it.

Now, Justice League:Doom takes quite a few liberties with its source material. It isn’t just a Batman story anymore. And there’s more than just one villain.

Is it a good movie? Of course it is. It’s a DC animated film. I’ll be damned if they ever go wrong.

But how is it compared to the rest of the DC animated films? Not that great. I’d place it somewhere between Superman/Batman : Apocalypse and Justice League : Crisis On Two Earths. Heck, this is director Lauren Montgomery’s worst DC animated film yet. But it is good. It’s helluva lot of fun and very enjoyable.

There’s no Ra’s Al Ghul in this one (there’s the immortal Vandal Savage instead) and they’ve added a lot of villains. Some great ones, and some obscure ones, and (with the exception of Wonder Woman arch-enemy Cheetah and Bane) they’re all brilliantly designed. But Bane is just an embarrassment. It’s as if he’s borrowed Huntress’ costume and painted black over it. He looks like a man in a woman’s costume and it looks all kinds of gay on screen. And his mask makes him look even less intimidating. I’d say it’s the worst Bane design I’ve ever seen bar the one in Batman and Robin. Honestly, the masterful voice acting totally SAVES the character.

Speaking of voice acting, this movie boasts of an amazing cast of veteran voice actors… and Nathan Fillion. Now, Fillion was brilliant in the other animated movies he appeared in, but here, when he has to emote utter despair, he ends up sounding cranky and whiny and very out of character. But he does hold up well in the other scenes. The rest of the cast is nothing less than perfect.

This movie has some really great moments. Watching every superhero getting caught in the traps laid for them is glee-inducing and there’s this amazing scene where Superman falls from the Daily Planet building with a Kryptonite bullet in his chest. The ending, in my opinion, is an improvement from the one in the book, and it doesn’t feel out of place from this continuity created by the DC animated films. For fans of the book: It’s the same ending, but there’s an exchange between Batman and Superman at the end that totally improves everything and is better suited to the dynamics of THIS version of the Justice League.

I didn’t find any fault in the direction (by the brilliant Lauren Montgomery of Green Lantern : First Flight and Batman : Year One fame), but I have some issues with the script. Now, every script goes through about hundreds of revisions. Even the good ones. But I guess they made this movie off an early draft of the script, out of respect for the late Dwayne McDuffie, because this movie feels like it wanted to have some emotional weight, but it didn’t. The script just didn’t have it. There’s a scene where Green Lantern is depressed because of his inability to save someone, but it falls flat because there was absolutely no exploration of the character in the first act. If Dwayne McDuffie were alive, I bet he would have revised his script a little more, and we’d have gotten a much better movie.

However, for all its faults, Justice League : Doom is a very enjoyable flick with a lot of brilliant action and an amazing voice cast. Do watch it. (On a huge TV screen with a nice home theater system if possible) Also, it’s the most kid-friendly-est DC animation of late, so… yeah. There are no exploding heads or sleazy red-light districts in this movie. Show it to them little kiddies.

SCORE : 7 / 10

Justice League : Doom releases on 28th February on DVD and Blu Ray. You can purchase it <a href=”http://www.junglee.com/Justice-League-Blu-ray-UltraViolet-Digital/dp/B005SH63KG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330015762&sr=8-1”> here</a>

Week-In-Review: G.I Joe: Annual #1 / Lord of the Jungle #2 / No More Heroes #1 / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Donatello

2012-03-05T02:36:00.006-08:00

Welcome folks, to another new week and another load of new comics!! Today we have something special for you - turns out this week we are covering some seriously old school favourites, all in ONE POST! Is this a great week or what?!
And in addition, we have a new addict who is trying his hand at this - Anant Sagar - who is joining us for this weeks 0-day reviewing! Now, without any further drama, lets get to work shall we?

G.I Joe: A realAmerican hero - Annual #1 (IDW Publishing)

Story:Larry Hama

Art:Ron Frenz, Ron Wagner, Herb Trimpe, Sal Buscema

(Reviewby Anant Sagar)
So,I just finished reading this and I’ve got to say I was quite happywith it. Granted it has its ups and downs, but for the most of it, itwas fun. So let’s get down to it shall we?

TheGood:

It had the same feelas the old animated TV show that I know, which was a good thing forme, because I really loved that show. The character art has theclassic feel to it which kept me happy and I got to see some of myfavourite characters like Gung-Ho, Scarlett, Zartan and theDreadnoks!!

TheBad:

I didn’t reallyenjoy the plot. It’s not like it was terrible, but it wasn’t allthat amazing. I mean a cobra sleeper agent who went off the grid,decides to come back and blow stuff up because he got fired andthinks immigrants in the United States are a curse and they shouldall be killed. Sorry, but that doesn’t really do much for me.

So the basic plotwas disappointing but its saving grace was the dialogue.

Now my favouritepart of this issue, THE FUNNY:

Cobra Commander, ona rickshaw. Yes you read that right a rickshaw. And telling therickshaw guy (also a cobra soldier) “Wait for me. I won’t belong.” Plus! It seems agents of Cobra have credit cards and thecommander tells his flunky to cancel the sleeper agent’s card.

The Dreadnoks. Theirconversations. How they’re grounded by Zartan, and how they’relow on little chocolate covered doughnuts and grape soda!

Sosumming it all up. So-so story line. Funny dialogues. Good art. Ihonestly expected more. Worth at least a read. Yo Joe!!!

SCORE : 5.5 / 10

Lord of the Jungle #2(Dynamite Entertainment)

Story:Arvid Nelson

Art:Roberto Castro

(Reviewby Akshay Dhar)

I'm a bit torn about this new series by Dynamite. Essentially itattempts to reboot the long-lived and much-loved franchise of Tarzanof the Apes that we all know so well. The fact that it was beingwritten by Nelson who has done a pretty good job helming the renewedWarlord of Mars series' by the same publisher and that Dynamite hasbeen doing some excellent work with franchises all worked in thefavour of this new series – plus some excellent art by Castrohelped greatly and a pretty well put together first issue gave mesome relief at this not being screwed up.

However it's a difficult sell for today's market, as was Warlord ofMars, but here the pacing is deliberately slowed and the storyprogression in both the first and this second issue is really lazilymoving along. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad thing and in fact ithearkens back to more classic serial story-telling where you had someshort and intense stuff happening and it slowly built over successivechapters. Partly I guess, with the over-load of faster paced and moreaction intense and dense story-telling styles that are common today,this book is among the anomalies.

The plus side is that at no point is it boring. In fact quite theopposite. In the first issue we had the set-up showing the backstoryof his parents, the island, the stranding, the apes and how thenewborn son of Greystoke was adopted by a female gorilla. This secondissue very fluidly introduces a young man who is related to our hero,the lady Jane and her father and bad guys and jungle dangers allaround.

This book is almost aggravating in that Nelson and Castro have aclearly nice chemistry that shows in beautiful pages and layouts andflow that works really well with the story being told – so much sothat you start it, finish it and before you know it you are done andsitting there wondering, “What the hell?!? I want more now!!!” Ofcourse the lovely jungle scenery that Castro renders on each andevery page as well as the raw, almost brutally real story-tellingthat you can feel in your gut being put forth here helps to draw youin a great deal.

I don't know about you, but as annoying as that might be, to me it'sthe mark of a well made story that you at the end of each chapter youcan barely wait to get to the next one.

Not everyone’s cup of tea I daresay, but if you like Tarzan andnon-superhero adventure stories, then you would do well to at leastgive this a shot.

SCORE: 7 / 10

No More Heroes #1(Gordon Mclean)

Story:Gordon Mclean

Art:Caio Oliveira

(Reviewby Akshay Dhar)

Sid Millar has accidentally killed the world's greatest hero. Nowhe needs to find out why.

This is the basis and punchline of this hilarious andb*lls-to-the-walls comic from another sassy new publisher trying tomake its way in the cut-throat world of comics!

Ok so its not all that cut-throat and all that but being a new comiccreator and a new label in a market as nuts as ours, kudos to Mcleanfor not only writing a great new title but also publishing ithimself. To quote Ali-G, “Respect for keepin' it real.”

Now, the bottom line for this comic is simple: a guy, just like youand me, is chilling and drinking and all that with a few friends whenhe gets a strange message from an unknown phone asking, “Should Ikill myself?” and after much goading and drunken peer pressure, heresponds “Yes.” - well the next day the new is over-loaded withthe suicide of Dark Justice, the greatest hero Earth has... er.. had,and Sid is seriously wetting himself that its all his fault.

Of course that wetting is just the first flood in his pants as itturns out he was not wrong entirely that he was involved in this,this becoming clear for starters when Dark Justice's angry sidekicktracks him down and makes him an upside-down hood ornament (amongother things...) to find out who he REALLY is and how he killed thebig man.

Filled with swearing, healthy doses of violence and a very raw feelthat made me recall early Mark Millar and Garth Ennis at moments –if you are a fan of that kind of off-the-wall superheroic stories andwant to support new talent and independent comics of this calibre,you have my full recommendation. Spread the word and go read thisbook.

I'll be hanging around waiting for issue 2 now.

SCORE: 6 / 10

Teenage Mutant NinjaTurtles: Donatello (IDW Publishing)

Story:Brian Lynch and Tom Waltz

Art:Valerio Schiti

(Reviewby Anant Sagar)

Now here’s a nameeveryone’s heard at some point or the other. Whether it’s theoriginal in black and white comics or the cartoon or even the movies,we've all loved them at some point in our lives.

The newest issue inthe mini-series is the story of one of the turtles (clearly!). Thisis young Donatello’s story of love, life, fear, hate and selfdiscovery...... I’m just playing with you!!

TheGood:

The story. Nice tosee a story focus on just Don. Exploring one character at a timegives us a chance to associate more with them. The story revolvesaround how Don feels living with his brothers and how he wants to getout. Going topside and meeting a mad scientist (so to speak) thinkinghe’s awesome, realising they are online arch-enemies, fighting eachother, becoming friends and so on... oh and it also features BaxterStockman who, oddly enough, reminds me of coach Clayton from Archiecomics with a moustache!

TheBad:

Not much really.Tried desperately to find something I hated in it but it didn’twork. Maybe its just me.

TheFunny:

Conversationsbetween the Turtles. Always a funny aspect of the franchise asthey've evolved over the years. The witty banter among the brothershas always entertained me.

The part whereDonatello realises who the mad scientist is.

For me, seeing anAfrican American Baxter Stockman, who I last remember as a scrawnywhite guy with bad hair.

My verdict is that,this series is definitely one to catch. Well written and well drawn,its gripping, it’s fun. If you’ve ever been a fan, find a copy,open it, read it, and run through the halls screaming COWABUNGA!!!!

SCORE: 7.5 / 10

AvX in Waiting : Ten Avengers to Watch out for

2012-03-02T02:36:00.006-08:00

Withsome time yet to pass for Marvel’s latest much-awaited summer event– Avengers vs. X-Men – we here at Comic Addictsrealised that now would be a good time to start off with ourspeculations and expectations from the event in the form of a seriesof articles.

Today,we’re gonna talk about those in the ranks of Earth’s MightiestHeroes who, in this writer’s humble opinion, should play somepretty big roles.

10)Beast

Asof right now, Beast seems pretty likely to stay on team Avengers,especially considering all his disagreements with Scott Summers overthe last few years over the direction of the latter’s leadership ofthe mutants. However, what makes his position in AvX interesting isthe likelihood of at least some fraction of the Jean Grey Institutefaculty siding with their fellow mutants, as well as his recentinteraction with the now anti-Avengers Wonder Man.

9)Black Panther

Withhis wife Storm more than likely to join the X-Men despite her recentinclusion into the ranks of the Avengers, I certainly won’t besurprised if T’Challa ends up getting involved. Possibly even onthe X-Men’s side.

8)Ms. Marvel

CarolDanvers certainly does have plenty of history with the X-Men, and itshould be interesting as that plays out, given her front and centreposition in the Avengers line-up. Also, a fight between her and Rogueshould be entertaining.

7)Hulk

Despitethe fact that Hulk has not been part of an Avengers roster since thefirst arc of Dan Slott’s Mighty Avengers, the fact that he plays amajor role in the upcoming Avengers film should land him with ahigh-impact role in AvX. In the wise words of Marvel EiC Axel Alonso,“You didn’t think he was gonna sit this one out, did you?”

6)Iron Fist

Ithas been stated in interviews that Iron Fist is going to play a bigrole in AvX, and the recent tie-in cover reveals have notdisappointed in that regard. The information we currently have is ofsome sort of connection between Kun’Lun and the Phoenix, whichleads Rand to help Hope in whatever situation she may find herself.

5)Captain Marvel

It’sbeen teased in other Marvel events before, including the skrullimpostor in Secret Invasion, but it does look like Captain Marr-Vellof the Kree will be making a return to the land of the living thistime, as the covers and solicits to the Secret Avengers tie-insreveal. Given the regular ressurections in comics nowadays, kudos toMarvel for keeping him 6-feet-under for around 30 years now!

4)Iron Man

Starkis a very important part of the Avengers leadership, and certainlydoes seem to be taking a front and centre lead in the upcoming movie,which leads one to believe he would be playing a big role in theevent. Also, he has a fight with Magneto in the first issue. Youwould want to see if and how Stark manages to survive in thatscenario.

3) Scarlet Witch

Tosay Wanda Maximoff has had a rough past 5 years in the MarvelUniverse would be an understatement. With her return in the pages ofAvengers : The Children’s Crusade, The Scarlet Witchis being touted to be a central character in AvX. She is, in manyways, the mirror image of Hope Summers, in the sense that shedecimated the mutant race while Hope is to be its saviour. Her exactstand on the coming of the phoenix should be interesting.

2)Wolverine

Itdoes look like we have another ‘Peter Parker in Civil War’situation. As headmaster of the Jean Grey Institute and full timeAvenger, Wolverine has got to be the most likely player to switchsides in the event. In addition to Wolverine himself, the loyaltiesof his little black-ops assassin squad, X-Force, might actually turnthe tide in either of the camps favour.

1)Captain America

It’spretty safe to expect a Civil War-esque role of sheer militarybadassery from Cap this Marvel Summer. He has had a few setbacksrecently in his role as top cop, in the form of Fear Itself and theongoing Osborn saga, and he should be pretty keen to clean this nextthreat up without too much loss. Cyclops has been a bit of ad**che-bag of late and it’s time Cap puts him across his knee.

Giveus a shout with your opinions on the matter downstairs in thecomments and be sure to be here next week with the next edition ofthis list giving you a low-down on the other camp.

PS: On an unrelated topic, here’s the Avengers in the style of ThePowerpuff Girls!

THE COMIC CON HANGOVER

2012-03-01T03:26:00.003-08:00

ByObiWayneK

It has been exactly been23 hours: 34 minutes: 42 seconds since The 2nd Annual Indian ComicsConvention (aka Comic Con Delhi) got over and even after such a spanmost of my body parts hurt, my head is spinning a little, there issome sort of a pain culminating in a void-like feeling in my stomach(probably because of all the momos I had) and the only thoughts thatfill up my mind are my memories from the past 3 days.
I am actuallyhaving a classic comic con hangover.
But despite being in such a physicaland mental state I can hardly wait to start digging into all the readingmaterial that I have procured from the convention, start working on mycostume/get up for the next convention and conjure dreams about allthe beautiful female cosplayers I saw and interacted with. (oops didI just mention that!!?)

The comic con may have itsdilapidated definitions which are coined by corporate tools andcapitalists, but for us, the comic addicts and comic book geeks, thecomic con is not just a platform for comic book releases and a forumfor us fans to meet, but an event symbolizing a unique amalgam ofperseverance, passion, patience and resilience. So how did the 2^ndedition (technically the 3^rd)of this almost-sacred gathering exactly pan out?

Well to describe theexperience, apprehensions, appreciation and complains in a genericand regular paragraph would be an absolute blasphemy and a crime onmy part.
Thus we should proceed to the 3C categorical analysis of The2nd Annual Indian Comics Convention andits offerings.

The Comic Books:

Itbrings a satisfied smile to my face when I say that this edition ofComic Con was an absolute paradise for comic book readers. There wasa plethora of comic books available for sale and quit a fewinteresting previews of comics to be released soon. Another greatthing about the available comic books especially the Indian ones wasthat they actually covered many different and untapped genres (mostof them bending and mashing genres) not just being limited tomythology or the usual superhero motif. Apart from the Indianpublishers, there were well known international comics available atthe con including gigantic names like DC, Marvel,Dark Horse, etc. for fans to splurge on.

Someof the indigenous comic books that we at comic addicts are reallylooking forward to reading/reviewing are Untitled #1 by AkashAnand, Ravanayan #5 from Holy Cow Entertainment, The KuruChronicles: Ari by Kuru Chronicles, Damned and Rica #2 by Chariot Comics, Daksh and Odayan by Level 10 Comics, Aveon 9, Aren and Metafreakz by Rovolt and truly many more.

TheFuture: there is no doubt that I really feelsatiated in the terms of the comic book launches; surely variety wasthe spice of life at Comic Con. I expect the same growth in the no.of launches and no. of comics available at the next convention. Iwould love to see names like Franco-Belgian comics, Image Comics etc.and of course some Manga and international Indie stuff being featuredin the next editions.

The Cosplay:

Oneof the biggest highlights of Comic Con this year was the near-immaculatecosplay that we all witnessed. It was great to see the kind of effortthat the fans put across to develop the costumes and lookssymbolizing the characters of their choice, which were also verydiverse in nature from being as common as Rorschach, Superman, WonderWomen, Obi Wan etc. to being as rare and interesting as Patch, Crow,Grifter, Assasin’s Creed’s Desmond Miles, Freddy Kruger etc. Andof course there was Indian cosplay as well, I mean fans dressed up asChacha Chaudhary, Supandi etc. But the cherry on the cake was thefact that some of players tweaked their costumes and added their ownpersonal touches to their look which I personally found veryinteresting. Some examples of this kind of tweaking would be theGeisha-spy, the Super pussy-cat, the Man-in-Black of alienorigin, the friendly neighborhood pirate, etc.

TheFuture: It would really be something if thecosplayers would dress up as characters from the present Indiangraphic novels like Ravanayan, Daksha, Odayan etc. It would certainlyhelp the crowd identify better with the characters from these booksand frankly I feel that somehow it would make us proud seeing someone like Daksh and Ravan amidst the ranks of Batman and Superman and the rest.

Apartfrom this, it would be wonderful if at the next con we see cosplaydeath matches, debates and contests where the cosplayers actuallydefend and enact their characters to the core rather than justwalking in the crowd and striking poses for photographs.

The Convention:

Finallylet’s talk about the convention itself. This time we had an arrayof wonderful and well known international writers and artists likeRobert Crumb, Aline Kominsky Crumb, Gary Groth, Ron Marz and ChrisOliveros and some big names in Indian comic book and entertainmentindustry like Abhishek Sharma and Shamik Dasgupta present at theComic Con. But to tell the truth all these panels fell a little flat.I did not see the kind of fervor that was expected from comic bookreaders; in fact the seats set aside for all the panels were neveractually occupied to their maximum capacity.

Comingdown to the movie launches and promotions at the con, in contrast tothe panels, they were absolutely exuberant in all contexts. Both JohnCarter and Avengers were great crowd pullers. Their innovativecontests, uber cool merchandise and the fantastic range of actualprops and statues from the movie sets kept the crowd on their feet,attracting even the non-comic book readers. I mean who would haveimagined freaking Iron Man himself distributing the prizes for thecosplay.

Certainlywe, at Comic Addicts, are really looking forward to the officialrelease of both these movies.

TheFuture: the administration needs to figureout a way to make the panels equally or more important in terms ofturn out when compared to merchandise/comic book sales.

As Ihave already mentioned I would love to see competitions and contestsamong cosplayers as well as contests, workshops and activitiescentered at the general visitors so that the visitors actually havereasons to be at Comic Con from 11-9 on all 3 days.

Thistime around the fine line between jam-packed and overcrowded(claustrophobic actually) was crossed a number of times duringcertain periods in the last 2 days. Thus the administration needs tofigure out a solution for that as well.

Andfinally is it too much if we ask for an actual international moviestar or someone like Stan Lee to bless us with his/her presence atthe next Comic Con???!!!! Just imagine the kind of impact that wouldhave.

With all said and done Iwould just have one last thing to say: The countdown for the nextconvention has begun. Tick tock tick tock…………

Wayfarer Special: Top 10 Indie Comics of 2011 (Part 2 of 2)

2012-02-29T04:50:00.002-08:00

Andso once more into the breach dear friends, as I bring us to thesecond half of this happy little countdown of the Indie comics that Iloved the most this past year. Yes, I know, it's been a long gapsince Part 1 of this little countdown and the New Year is well intoit's first quarter, but it is what it is - I felt that coverage ofour Comic Con in Delhi and all that came out of it took precedenceand this could wait just a bit.

Before I get to the final leg of thecountdown, a quick listing of the books that almost made it to thistop ten but fell just shy. I wish I could have made this list longerand perhaps I will review them all in the near future, but in themeantime I think they all deserve an Honourable mention:

The Goon (Writer/Artist: Eric Powell)
G.I.Joe Cobra (Writer: Christos Gage and Mike Costa, Artist: Antonio Fuso)
Scarlet (Writer: Brian Michael Bendis, Artist: Alex Maleev)
Scalped (Writer: Jason Aaron, Artist: R. M. Guéra)
Artifacts (Writers: Ron Marz, Marc Silvestri & Matt Hawkins, Artists: Michael Broussard, Stjepan Sejic)
Super Dinosaur (Writer: Robert Kirkman, Artist: Jason Howard)
Fallen Angel: Return of the Son (Writer: Peter David, Artist: J.K.Woodward)

So thank you foryour patience and now without any further rambling along on my part,lets just get to it shall we?

05. HELLBOY

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Writer: MikeMignola w/ John Arcudi

Artist: Various

Publisher: DarkHorse Comics

For those of you that have beenfollowing Mike Mignola'sworlds as they've evolved in the Hellboy, B.P.R.Dand related series, I think you know what I mean when I say that forso many years now they have been the most consistent, creative andamazingly put together comics – among the best comics as a mediumhave to offer in a sense. For those that have not, you are reallymissing out on something special.

The various story arcs and suchtogether form such an amazing, long-running and vast story-line andworld that it's amazing they've managed it for such a long period oftime – and the hand of creator Mike Mignola is definitely visiblein every single book, even the one's he has not directly scriptedhimself. Of course credit where it's due to the talents who've workedwith him and been able to strike a nice balance between their ownwork and style but ever retaining the unique look and feel thatMignola brought to the comic-medium. The truly awesome part beingthat it remains this damn good even after 17 years!

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This past year we've seen the B.P.R.Dbooks go through hell and I was torn about whether to put that bookor Hellboy on this list, but in the end the saga of the titular-struggling hero and the last few adventure that he's had which ledto his [CAPTAIN!!! SPOILER AHEAD!!] that last great battlewhich Hellboy won but for which he ended up paying the ultimateprice... well all that was so amazingly wrought that I had to givethis book the edge, and besides, the torment and adventures of hisfriends goes on so maybe they'll be on next year's list!

We saw Hellboy face The Wild Hunt,The Storm and The Fury (to name a few), lose all directionand faith, find his inner strength and a new love and in the endprove himself the hero everyone always believed him to be, and unlikemany such tales that fall victim to cliché and the like, Mignola andhis team really dug deep into folklore and detail and created visualfeasts to draw us into this terrible battle for the future of theworld itself.

Drama, intrigue, conspiracy, thesupernatural, raw action and basic humanity, all these and more couldbe found in the pages of Hellboy this past year and for that I salutethe people behind it and recommend you all give them a read.

04. THE STUFF OF LEGEND v3: A Jester'sTale

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Writer: MikeRaicht, Brian Smith

Artist: CharlesPaul Wilson III

Publisher: Th3rdWorld Studios

When I first picked up a copy of thefirst issue of The Stuff of Legend v1, it was purely ona whim and because it simply sounded like something different and Ilove to try my hand at the unfamiliar. I expected a simple andentertaining story to be read and the move on from, but instead Ifound a world so unique and amazingly realised that this book hasbeen a constant favourite without fail ever since and every issue hasdone nothing but get better and better.

The initial premise was a simple one, ayoung Boy is kidnapped by the Boogeyman and his toys which aresecretly alive (that part makes you think of Toy Story doesn'tit!) spring into action and decide to bravely try and rescue him fromthe dark and evil armies of the Boogeyman. From that starting pointthe tale veered into territory I think no reader would have expectedand evolved very fast into a truly dark and epic fantasy tale in thisstrange new land filled with surreal characters that our heroestravelled and fought their way through. What made it even moreastounding was the depth and richness that Raicht and Smith havebrought to each and every character that just makes this one of themost remarkable comic experiences I've ever had in all my years.

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This, the third mini-series in thissaga follows the character of Jester who formerly was aJack-in-the-box but when he came alive and went into the fabled landsof The Dark, he was transformed into a clever and somewhatswashbuckling warrior that almost makes one think of a darker ErrolFlynn. Ever ready with a quip and a one-liner, he was without a doubtone of the most interesting characters in the group and this soloseries follows his adventures as he leaves the group after thedevastating events of The Jungle (volume 2) andventures into the Indian Lands to rescue his beloved who has beenlost. He is given a sidekick of sorts in the form of a bumblingfellow known as the Mayor and together they have traversed andsurvived many lands and many perils including giant sea-serpents.Additionally, we get a side-story that is shown alongside the mainstory which reveals the origin of the Jester, so to speak, where welearn how he came to belong to the Boy and his life before this grandadventure began. In the end he never wavers and stays on his path torescue the princess, but to learn the eventual fate of all, go readthis book.

And I promise you, you will not regretit for an instant. Not only is the story absolutely amazing, but youalso have the utterly astounding Charles Paul Wilson on art dutiesand the sepia-toned world that he renders is beautiful beyond simplewords – in a sense it evokes a feeling of something old andlong-gone and it has been suggested that it touches on the thelong-lost childhood and days of ones youth.

This mini-series is a great jumping-onpoint for any new readers and if you look for truly creative newmaterial that engages and challenges you as a fan of fiction, thisbook should most definitely be on your To-Read list.

03. CHEW

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Writer: JohnLayman

Artist: RobGuillory

Publisher: ImageComics

This series was a hard call in terms ofwhere to put it on this list, but it was the overall nature andexecution that brought it to #3 for me. For the uninitiated, thestory is set in a world where all poultry and bird-meat in general isconsidered illegal after some catastrophic bird-flu outbreak thatresulted in several million deaths – it does indeed strike afamiliar chord to real world events.

The protagonist of the series is a copnamed Tony Chu who we learn in the first issue itself is a “Cibopath”which is essentially a person who gets psychic impressions and imagesfrom things that they take a bite from and eat. Yes it is indeed astrange concept and it actually lent itself to some reallyentertaining and funny stuff in the initial issues.

But this is a series that has beenrunning for 23 issues since it began in 2009 and the thing thatstands out for me is that Layman has managed to avoid the pitfallthat frequently kills concepts like this one – wearing out theprimary gimmick. Now I don't say gimmick in a bad way, it's just thething, the concept that separates this book from all others and inthis still entertaining and exceedingly bizarre book the developmentof the story, the world and all the dilemmas and adventures has beenconsistently entertaining. I give this book a hell of a lot of pointsfor that alone and the fact that there is a constant undertone ofcleverness and quite a quirky and wild imagination throughout theseries, it lends itself well to keeping it all interesting and nottaking itself too seriously.

The art is not the most fantastic, butwhatever else it might fall short in, the style and feel of thecharacters and the basic art of the book works well with the odd-balland often surreal stories that we are reading and so is equallyenjoyable in its own way. The biggest plus seems to be that as a teamI think Layman and Guillory have a great dynamic and understandingthat shows through in the final pages and makes this one of thebetter creator-owned books in the market.

02.THE UNWRITTEN

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Writer: MikeCarey

Artist: PeterGross

Publisher:Vertigo (DC)

First things first, I have to admitthat I only started reading this series around it's 10^thissue and that too because I had been hearing and reading greatreviews for it. This is something that I have beaten myself up for alot since then and made it a point to never miss a single issue ofthis mind-bending tale.

In today's day and age with technologyand accessibility of information and people, this story strangely hasa lot of relevance if you think on it. Following the journey of TommyTaylor who is the son of a world-famous and beloved author whocreated a series much akin to Harry Potter, using his sons name forthe titular character, this series resonates yet again on the cultureof obsession with fictional characters and the fervour of fans.

We get to see the journey Tommy mustundertake now that he is much older after the death of his father andas strange things start to happen to him. His nature, his identityand his very purpose and existence begin being called into questionand before long his world becomes turned upside down as fact, fictionand everything in between starts to blend and intrude on his own lifeand reality. This past year Tommy's adventures got kicked into ahigher gear as he began to come into his own and take charge insteadof just trying to keep it together in the torrents around him, soonbecoming almost like a new man as he starts to put together what itwas his father was up to over all those years and more. All thisgrowth of course leads to the story as a whole moving further fromthe simpler real world with fantasy intruding into it, to a wild mixof the two with fantasy aspects getting much more room to thrive andentertain us.

With every mystery, conspiracy anddilemma from the early issues slowly leading to answers, Carey upsthe ante and brings in a new question and a new mystery with shockingnew twists and reveals that just keep you utterly absorbed in whatyou are reading. Of course the mind-bending artwork by Gross goes along way in taking this fantastic story to a whole other level as hislayouts and designs breathe an even greater energy into an alreadyfantastic story and provides a visual feast for you to devour onevery single page.

In the end though, this book at itscore is essentially a testament and homage to the wonder and power ofstory-telling and the stories themselves and what they mean to peopleand the world, their impact and relevance. For anyone who is a readerand loves books and exploring the imagination frontiers, this will bea treat that you shouldn't miss under any circumstances.

01. THELI'L DEPRESSED BOY

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Writer: S.Steven Struble

Artist: SinaGrace

Publisher: ImageComics

I honestly don't know what to say aboutthis book folks. I mean I could babble on about it for ages and yetit would feel like overkill really because this is possibly thesimplest little tale I've read in ages and unlike every other comicon my list (and most every other comic out there) there is verylittle “happening” as such. Yet within two issues it has becomeone of my favourite comics of all time and I wait like a junkie forhis fix for the new issues of this series.

This comic is utterly brilliant in itssimplicity and the emotion and humour that creator S. Steven Strubleand artist Sina Grace have filled this book makes it something trulyunique. I honestly believe that this is one of those comics that youwill either love instantly or just not get at all, if you're like meand will like it then you are truly in for something special.

To put it simply: this comic followsthe life and times of the titles Lil Depressed Boy (known in-comic asLDB), who is rendered as effectively a blank slate that strangelymakes it so much easier to allow the reader to relate to him and sinkinto the character. LDB is an everyman, not a sports-star or a heroof anything or rich and successful or surrounded by girls fightingfor his attention. He is just an average guy, a somewhat sad kidmaking his way through life's ups and downs and so much of what hegoes through will resonate with many of us – a reason I attributeto the success that this series has found since its launch. He fallsin love, gets his heart broken, hangs with his friends, reads comicsand listens to great music – who amongst us cannot relate to that?This is a very human story, one that stays away from all the thingsthat stories often tend to rely on and simply engages the reader atthe most basic, most simple and most human level. I think pretty muchevery nerd alive will love this book if he gives it a chance andbefore you know it, you'll be rooting for LDB and sharing his joy andsorrow from issue to issue.

Filled with lots of pop-culture, indiemusic references and cameos and a very real feel to it all, this bookdeserves every ounce of praise it gets for accomplishing what it hasin under 10 issues. And what makes it even better is that Struble hasmanaged to not only accomplish all this, but he has done it whileretaining just the very barest thread of optimism instead of goingthe full-cynic or negative as would have been the easier way to writethis and end up turning it into a tale of melancholy. Despite itsname, this series is never depressing, it is VERY cautiouslyoptimistic (like LDB) but never completely loses hope, a trait that Ithink a great many of us share when it comes to looking at the worldat large. If you live in a bubble of happiness, away from the realworld around us then I wish you well and good luck, for everyone elsewho see's the good and the bad and has faced all the little peaks andvalleys of life – you should give this little comic that could atry, I think you might like it.

And just because it bears saying, anycomic that has a bowling match where you've decided to add “stylepoints” to make it more fun (you know you've either tried it orwant to now!) and leads to a bowling ball being launched Hadoukenstyle to predictably disastrous but undeniably hilarious results issomething special.

So there it is folks, the end of thislittle attempt – my first comic countdown as it were.

I do hope you enjoyed this and that youwere inspired to pick up at least one or two of these treasures thatdeserve to be seen and spread around.

I will be back soon enough for 0-dayreviews next week and then some more wayfaring for your readingpleasure, in the meantime have a good week and a great weekend aheadfolks.
Cheers!

Week-In-Review: Fantastic Four #603 / Witchblade and Red Sonja #1 / Prophet #22

2012-02-28T01:53:00.004-08:00

Well folks, as promised, we have part 2 of this week's comic reviews for your pleasure and we hope you like the titles we've chosen. As always, if there are any series' at all that you would like to see reviewed as they release - all you have to do is ask!

Fantastic Four #603

Story:Jonathan Hickman

Art:Barry Kitson

(Reviewby Akshay Dhar)

I've never been the biggest fan of Fantastic Four comics beyond theearly years under Kirby and Lee, a few good ones here and there butrarely have I consistently enjoyed what is otherwise one of the mostlandmark, unique and iconic team books in comics. Until Hickman. Fromnow on when it comes to the FF there is the era B.H. (before Hickman)and A.H. as far as I'm concerned and if you've been following hiswork from his takeover through the launch of the ongoing FF (a.k.aFuture Foundation) and the recent relaunch of Fantastic Four, thenyou know exactly what I mean.

Not a story-heavy issue, this is just part of the final moments ofwhat Hickman has been building for quite a while now with themulti-Reed storyline, the time and space travelling Richards'children all growed-up and all the other little bits that have beenweaving around – not to mention the death and VERY recent return(with style I might add!) of Johnny Storm, a.k.a, the Human Torch. Weget some funky science, deadly cosmic weapons, Galactus kicking arseand laying the smack-down, Negative Zone armies now ruled by Johnny,lost kids and twists still forming as others unravel and this is arelatively simple issue for what has been a great time with a book(now two books if you include this and FF both). Barry Kitson does afantastic job on the art and the massive scale action scenes play outreally well while never getting in the way of the story, a nicebalance.

Hickman has accomplished something amazing, he has made me care aboutthis book and this team again – I liken his run on the FF to DanSlott on Spiderman and Jason Aaron on Wolverine, its like Marvel hashit the ultimate jackpot and found the writer most ideally suited andpersonally passionate and path-making and breaking writers for theseseries. If you aren't reading these two books, you really should be!

SCORE: 8 / 10

Witchblade / Red Sonja #1

Story: Doug Wagner

Art: Cezar Razek

(Review byMayank Khurana)

When two companies get their topselling characters together for a cross-over, this is how ittypically goes: heroes meet, there is a misunderstanding, they fightand then unite against a common foe. The story usually has no impacton either of the heroes own continuity and is relegated to the bowelsof forgotten realms.

So how does this meeting of thecomic-doms two fiercest femme fatales go? Well, the jury is still outon the final verdict, but the prognosis is good.

Doug Wagner solves the dilemma of ourcentral characters existing in two different eras by narrating twoparallel stories. One in the present with Sara Pezzini (Witchblade)and one in the past with Red Sonja. The comic in fact, begins withsome amazing visuals of Red Sonja fighting monsters and then cuts toSara investigating an unusual murder crime scene. I doubt I'd bespoiling much if I tell you that during the course of the story Sonjameets another bearer of the Witchblade and mercifully there is nomisunderstanding and they do not fight! Hellaujah. So far so good,one comic trope avoided. But soon thereafter, an ancient evil awakens(not again!) and this is where the first issue closes itself.

Doug is playing his cards close to hischest and we do not know how the story in the past is going tooverlap with the present (though you can almost guess). We do notknow whether “our” Witchblade (Sara) would actually meet RedSonja or whether the cross-over will be between the other wielder inRed Sonja's era and Sonja. Will there be time travel? Will there betransfer of souls or will Doug manage to avoid all comic cliche's andmake this cross-over a worthy comic to read? The story is fast pacedand has made me curious enough to want to come back for the secondissue, which I guess is the objective of a first issue.

I haven't spoken about the art muchbecause it is understood if you are taking on art duties forcharacters like Red Sonja and Witchblade, you better be able to drawlike hell! and Cezar Razek does not disappoint at all. Lookingforward to seeing him on other books after this one.

SCORE : 7 / 10

Prophet #22

Story:Brandon Graham

Art:Simon Roy

(Reviewby Akshay Dhar)

Just to clear the air for those that might not know this – Prophet#22 is in actuality issue #2 of the series relaunched by ImageComics. Originally this was a series by Rob Leifeld about a man whoawakes from over-long hibernation in a dark future and was createdduring the mindless and dark age of comics we call the 90's butrecently there has been a move to re-imagine the basic concepts withpeople who actually HAVE talent and the result is this, a bookwritten and drawn by a fantastic creative team who have taken apretty dumb comic and turned it into one of the most interesting newbooks I've read in a while.

Brandon Graham is a bit of a personal favourite with his work on hisown series King City, but I've never seen him outside of that reallyand I was surprised he had taken this on. But there is nothing quitelike being surprised and then surprised again and thats exactly whathappens here!

We follow the adventures of human soldier John Prophet who has awokenfrom a sleep chamber of some kind into one of the most bizarre butendlessly fascinating futures I've ever seen in any medium and findsthat while he has slightly overslept and the world is much changedfrom what he knew – in sometimes shocking ways – the mission hewas given (that we know nothing about) remains real. In the firstissue he met his contact and after an... interesting exchange he hasfound the mission parameters and this issue sees him travelling andadapting to this strange, strange new world and trying to survive thedangers all around him, even if sometimes he brings it on himself.

The art style and design by Simon Roy is some of the most awesome Ihave ever seen and complements the mood that Graham is creatingalmost perfectly. Truly this book is another feather in Image's capand makes me actually look forward to the Glory and Bloodstrike (anold guilty pleasure) being relaunches as well.

If you like science fiction, the bizarre and something just a littleoff the beaten track that really gets under your skin – check thisbook out!

SCORE: 9 / 10

Week-In-Review: All-Star Western #6 / No Place Like Home #1 / The Flash #6

2012-02-26T23:38:00.000-08:00

Hey folks! Welcome to another week of new comics and this week we again split our review into two because we just had too many comics to review (it's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it!) and so we bring you three spectacular new comics today:

All-Star Western #6

Story: JustinGray and Jimmy Palmiotti

Art: Moritat(w/ Gabriel Bautista on colours)

(Review byAkshay Dhar)

There is little anyone can say about this series except that it iswithout a doubt one of the best things to come out of DC's “New 52”relaunch.

Jonah Hex has always been one of the most popular cult characters andunder the pen of Gray and Palmiotti, one of the better noncapes-n-tights comics on the market consistently. But this relaunchthat brought Hex to ye-olde-Gotham back in the day, bringing therugged outdoorsman and vagabond into the confines of a city reallyput things in a different direction and allowed a whole new kind ofJonah Hex story, mingling the standard western adventure he is knownfor with a hint of the just-south-of-normal that was a hallmark ofhis tales for a long time.

We get a conclusion to the big mystery this time around as Hex andhis unintentional partner Dr. Arkham race to learn the fate of thekidnapped children of Gotham and fight a giant demonic bat along theway – just another day in the life of Hex. With a satisfying endingthat isn't quite an ending but a nice and neat lead-in to the nextissue that gives us a sweet little teaser of what to expect and awhole new guest star/partner for Hex, I would say I'm loving the waythis book is being handled and hope it stays around at least for awhile.

The back-up story (another comic practice I miss!) stars themysterious lady known as the Barbary Ghost as she continues on herhunt for vengeance and so far has been well told and the characterfairly nicely put forward so this promises to be another welcomeaddition to monthly reading for those who like these hardy frontiercharacters in this wild world.

The art is without reproach in both stories and the combination ofart and colouring carries a wonderfully faded grittiness to it thatreally brings out every mood and facet of the excellent layouts anddetailing and I look forward to much more of the same in issuesahead!

SCORE : 8.5 /10

No Place Like Home #1

Story: AngeloTirotto

Art: RichardJordan

(Review byMayank Khurana)

Image is kicking all kinds of ass rightnow with titles like : invincible, walking dead , chew , MorningGlory , Blue Estate , Prophet , Glory etc etc.. almost two muchawesomeness!! With the news of new titles coming out of recentlyconcluded Image Expo, I feel sorry for my wallet.

No Place like home could be anotherwinner for Image. It is supposed to be a re-imagining of wizard ofOz, but make no mistakes there are no yellow bricks, perky girls ,tinmen or cowardly lions. No place like home opens up with a gruesomeincident which causes Our Protagonist "Dee" to return toher native place. She is soon caught up in a mystery which from thelast page suggests is not going to be your father's interpretation ofwizard of Oz. I am not revealing more details about the story becauseit is something that you should enjoy for yourself. I have a slightcomplaint though, the parallels between wizard of Oz and No placelike home are not explicitly clear. But the story is just beginningand we may get more Oz elements in the future. The artist RichardJordan's work reminds me of Darick Robertson (Transmetropolitan / TheBoys) is all the good ways.

Overall , a good but cautious start .Looking forward to reading the next issue.

SCORE : 7 /10

The Flash #6

Story/Art: Francis Manapul(writing; art) and Brian Buccellato (writing; colours)

(Review by Rijul Rauth)

Wow. I mean, I've seen good Flashcomics for years now, but they've always succeeded on the matter oftheir writing, not their art (which has been good, but notunparalleled.) Here, on the other hand, we have a masterpiece. Thereare three panels which I would spend good money on if DC blew them upand sold them as posters.

The story deals with Captain Cold, theiconic villain, suddenly gaining new (what else? cold-based) powersand freezing up the river, trapping Iris and Patty in a yacht stuckatop a column of ice. The Flash then races around, trying to stophim. The story is told with a number of flashbacks, detailing Barryand Patty's recent trip out of town; Dr. Elias warning the Flash notto use his powers too much to risk tearing a hole in the fabric ofreality; how Barry, Patty and Iris came to be on the yacht; andfinally, the reason for Cold's newfound hatred of the Flash, thoughnot the source of his new powers.

The art is, as mentioned above,fantastic. It's a deviation from what normal superhero art lookslike, and it works for the character. When the unmasked Cold comingoff a little bit cartoonish is your greatest gripe, you know whatyou're getting is bona fide classic art. Buccellato's colours aremostly muted, giving a toned-down look to the whole thing (as opposedto the mega-bright colours on any other cape title) that works,somehow giving the whole thing an air of... real life? I dunno, butit just seems to leave you looking at the pages again and again.

Flash Fact: You can tell a good BarryAllen story. You can even tell one that will rank up there with thebest of Waid and Johns Flash stories.

SCORE : 10 / 10

Hope you guys enjoyed that, we'll have more of this week's comics being reviewed shortly including Fantastic Four #603 and the recent Witchblade/Red Sonja cross-over!

All here, same comicaddict time, same Comicaddict site!

Rajat's Random Rambling 2-In-1 Review : Chairman Meow + Widhwa Ma Andhi Behen

2012-02-25T10:45:00.001-08:00

Last year at the first Indian Comic Con India (2011) in New Delhi,for me, the find of the 2-day event was without doubt UBiMa. I have written about itin detail in one of my first few reviews for Comic Addicts.

After a few months, I heard that a sequel was in motion andthat excited me to no end, I hounded both Adhiraj Singh and Abhijeet Kini to send me pics,and Abhijeet even promised to send a few sample art pieces but I guess they got busyor something, the sequel hasn’t happened yet. Disappointing, but what the hell.Life goes on, right?

Since there was no UBiMan #2 or for some unexplained reason Retrograde #2 either (fellow addict Akshay can perhaps shed some light on this!), and SumitKumar wasn’t launching anything, I had no major expectations from this ComicCon, as far as the artist and writers I knew were concerned.

There were going to be some new launches and Rovolt looked totallykickass, but didn’t expect much from the humor section. Anyway, 3 days went ina breeze. Due to Cosplay, I missed out checking out and buying anything fromthe stalls this time as well!!! Note to self: Next CC BUY stuff on day 1 andthen follow it up with the fooling around in costumes!

Thankfully, one of my unofficially adopted kids won theCosplay contest on day 2 and got a bagful of comic books – which is what wewanted in the first place!

Among others, the 2 that caught my immediate attention, the subject of this review, were

Chairman Meow and the Protectors of the Proletariat by Abhijeet Kini & Anant Singh and Widhwa Ma Andhi Behen by Adhiraj Singhand Harsho Mohan Chattoraj!

You say you want a revolution?

My dream team, but split in 2 parts? What on earth…?

So I picked up Chairman Meow and as soon as I startedreading it, my cab reported and I had to leave for the office, but the ride ifsome 40 odd minutes, so I took the book with me.

In the cab, there I was, reading, while others were gossipingaround, and that did absolutely nothing to my reputation, which is already thatof a grown up man who read comics and if not that, he reads books! Well – ask meif I really care b*****s?

Half way through the journey, I started laughing out loud,and a few cab-mates turned around to take a glare and gave me the look that said– “Oh, it’s just him. Ignore him, that’s how he is”. Impervious to such looksand even verbal jibes through extensive experience over several years, I carriedon.

Chairman Meow! The glorious leader of a revolution, that wasintended to raise the country to the level where everyone was equal and had equalopportunities, but something went wrong and things were going south fast.

Abhijeet’s inimitable artwork is immediately recognizablebut I had no idea he was this good with colors too! Very vibrant panels, brightcharacters and an overall very, very interesting look that at the first glancesaid – "pick me up and you won’t regret it!"

"You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes..."

Now I must mention I enjoyed both the artwork and theoverall story, humor, satire, not-so-hidden poke at certain personalities fromour past, but I am pretty familiar with the history of red China and Russia,the struggle, the party, the cause and the revolution.

There MAY be a slight awkwardness in the first few pages forthose who are completely unfamiliar with China’s history, but just carry on fora few pages more and after 4-5 pages the plot becomes clearer, becomes a bitgeneric and easier to follow without any prior knowledge about the subject.

Oh, and those who have seen the beautifully painted cover(colored by Yogesh from Holy Cow) and noticed the animals drawn and came to theconclusion that it is anything even remotely close to the Kung Fu Panda – you’rein for a big surprise :D

Yes – the animal species are pretty much the same – but as Isaid, if you read about China, you’ll find out that these ARE the animalseveryone ever writes about in any context with China and it’s mythology.

You should just carry on until you reach a particular panel where youcan see something quite clever and then you’ll know!

"Meow Hoon Na?" - Chairman's first appearance!

Anyhoo, the story – as per the blurb – is a basic good vs.evil tale and revolves around… wait. Lemme paste the blurb itself and save myselfthe hassle!

“Around 30 years ago, the Party came to power… the Politburodecided that it was time to give democracy a chance. And just like that, TotalRevolution came to an end… and a crack team of True Revolutionary Heroes fadedinto the People, disbanded. But now, the Bastion has fallen. And theProletariat needs its heroes again.
This is the tale of those lost heroes… The Protectors of theProletariat And their Leader… Chairman Meow. Chairman Meow gathers theProtectors together again and gets ready to wage a new war of Revolutionagainst the Imperialist Pug Didi and her running dogs.
Chairman Meow and the Protectors of the Proletariat is astory about the Dreams of Revolution and how far they are from the Reality of aBengal inhabited by cute pants-less animals.”

Now – ignore the fact that I am a lazy bum or maybe I am sobusy in saving the universe that I need to conserve time in ever mannerpossible, but pay attention to the storyline.

Revolution. Party. Leader. Teacher. Imperialism!! That’s thefun part.

I kid you not – I was munching an apple in the cab, whilereading (multi-tasker that I am) and the name Didi did conjure someimages in my mind, but when I saw the first panel I almost turned into SnowWhite!!!

You know? The whole choking on the apple thingy? What’swrong with your fairy tale knowledge? I shouldn’t have to explain every wittyremark or reference I make! Shame on you! :P

Sneak Peek at Didi's look - see for yourself! :D

Anyway, after a few more glares and coughs from the cabmates, I finished the book and was pleased as punch – however pleased a punch might get. It is a fantastic book and if I hadn’t gotten it for free, I would have beenhappy to buy it. It’s a tad expensive at Rs. 250/- (225/- at Dial-a-Book with a 10%discount) but believe you me, this is a keeper. You WANT to keep it.

The art work is beautiful and pleasing to eyes, and thestory is witty, full of puns, satirizing several personalities, mocking thesystem and passing a very genuine message without being cheesy or boring.

In fact, since the J.N.U elections are happening after a fewyears of wait – I was genuinely interested in talking this to one of the bookshopsthere and asking them to start stocking it! It will sell like hot-cakes there!

Pop Culture Publishing – You listening here guys? 15% forthe idea on all the profit made from J.N.U, else, I know people in the system –you know what happens to punks who try to revolt, don’t you? :D

Okay okay.

Just kidding.

...10%... :P

The Pickchar Ishtaarts NAAU!

Now let’s come to the second book. This one is written by mygood friend Adhiraj (umm, not so much a friend as a guy whom I inadvertently meetin comic conventions, and who happens to share similar interest in pop culture,music and humor - but hey! This is how you exploit your acquaintance to popular people :D) who was the co-conspirator with Kini on UBiMa!

Harsho Mohan has done the pencils – which are a long waydifferent from his regular art, at least as far as I have noticed it. This oneis in the spirit of all the Widhwa Ma Andhi Behen strips that featured inthe Random Anthology (although I am not sure who drew those) and have a veryrough and raw feel to it. I find it very interesting, and it goes extremelywell with the plot.

Oh wait. Did I say PLOT? :P

I meant a freakin real estate treasure – prime property!

A warning, however. If you were not born in the 90s, thisbook will lose half its charm for you. Even if you were a kid in the 90s andremember only bits and pieces, you will enjoy it immensely!

I was already 10 and growing, when the 90s hit and althoughI wasn’t a great fan of the 90s – primarily because everyone I know looked likea dork, including myself – but they were heaven, if compared to the 80s! Musichad become suddenly better, primarily with the advent of the Big 4 grand daddy’sof thrash metal and several movies, albums and books were launched whichturned out to be outright cult favorites!

This book – if I can call it that – is a collection of a fewshort stories featuring the 2 protagonists, the Widhwa Ma and the Andhi Behen,with a series of shuffling villains and other interesting creatures – I hadalmost forgotten but they were as clear in my mind as if I had seen themyesterday, as soon as I encountered any reference to them.

The writing style is very similar to that of UBiMa –obviously – but the characters are extremely funny and each has a life of it’sown.

Teaser pages from the digital preview for your visual pleasure!

Sadly, I can’t really tell you too much about the plot, butlet me share the blurb with you (heheh. This looks like a neat trick. I think I might make this a regular part of my reviews. Saves me the hassle of writing about the actual story and stops me from getting carried away and give away the plot):

“An old-school, fast-talking, hard-walking crime-fightingduo who'll take care of all your Retro/Filmy Mystery-solving needs! Whether itsthe Bride-Abducting Were-Yeti of Ramgarhpur, or the Ghost of AK Hangal, Ma andBehen are on the case and at the scene (Usually before anything even happens.)…”

As you can see, just the blurb itself is so exciting, thatanyone who loves humor, enjoys a good laugh and wants to read a comic bookwithout picking up a dictionary or trying to understand the underlyingphilosophies and morals hidden inside the plot should go and pick this one too.

The protagonists! Handicap? Hah!

It is for Rs. 125/- (115/- at Dial-a-Book) and is an excellentcompanion to Chairman Meow.

I wish I could tell you more about these books – discussspecific panels that I loved, scenes which had be in splits and overall theimmense fun I had while reading these 2 books, but then that would spoil thefun for you.

So go, buy them, read them and then mail me on Facebook andwe can have a good laugh together!

I am not a great believer in the number system, but if I hadto rate these 2 books, I’d say,

FINAL SCORE:

Chairman Meow: 8.5/10

Widhwa Ma Andhi Behen: 9/10 (.5 extra only because ofinclusion of unforgettable Salma Sultana – whom I had completely forgottenuntil she made an appearance in this book!!!)

A special introduction to the star cast.
The actual font wasn't very readable, so I had to overwrite the names. I hope PCP guys don't mind it much :)

Respect guys. Can’t wait for the sequels to both!

Comic Con Special Review : Daksh 1-4

2012-02-24T08:55:00.003-08:00

Courtesy the fine people at Level 10comics, the Indian comic book geek finally has something to hand theirritating buggers who follow the retarded notion of comic booksbeing for kids. After the success of the first issue in theindependent creator-owned edition of the Comic Jump anthology, andthe subsequent excellent fan reception of the second issue, we nowhave our hands on the first four issues, thanks to the launch of theDaksh Graphic Novel at this year’s Comic Con India.

Without venturing into spoilers, thebasic premise of Daksh can be described as that of redemption for thetitular character, which sets up a nice personal struggle and opensthe door for emphasis on character between all the high octane actionand badass one-liners. Writer Shamik Dasgupta shows does appear tohave a great vision for the world he has created with hisco-collaborators. The introduction to hell and the basic origin storyof Daksh remains one of the best sequences seen so far in Indiancomics.

Birthed by the God of death Yama with amortal woman, the character struggles to come to terms with hishumanity, which leads him to fall in love with a human woman in hell,distracting him from his responsibilities as gatekeeper of hell andallowing a bunch of inmates of the likes of Stalin, Hitler andNathuram Godse to escape to Earth. Exiled by Yama, Daksh seeks toseek out all the escaped inmates with the aid of hell escapee JungleeB and bring them back to hell.

The series has a very dark toneoverall, and the ‘For Mature Readers only’ specification gelsvery well with the story. Some very mature dimensions of evil areexplored, and without any of it looking shoehorned into the story.One criticism I personally had with the first two issues was the lackof character development, especially with Junglee seemingly actingmore as a plot device than an actual character. All thoseapprehensions, however, do come to rest with the next two issues,where Junglee matches Daksh quip by quip. Another improvement withissues 3 and 4 is that we see the beginning of a build-up of sortsfor a long-form overarching plot, which helps in adding a fair bit ofcontinuity to the done in one stories the series has so successfullypulled off. The villains are handled very well, and no punches pulledwhile exploring all their dark twisted minds.

Handling art duties for the firstissue, Biboswan Bose gives us a very fantastical look at hell, butleaves the Earth-based scenes in want of a little more bold lines.However, with Devmalya Pramanik taking over 2^nd issueonwards, brings plenty of grit into play, complimenting the tone ofthe script well. In my humble opinion, Calling Pramanik’s art stylea grittier version of Carlos Pacheco’s would not be too much of afar cry.

With plenty more still to come, Dakshremains one of the most promising series the industry is putting outtoday, and can be seen as laying out the path for more mature contentoverall.

SCORE : 8.6 / 10

Cyborg 009! No school like the old school!

2012-02-23T02:26:00.004-08:00

Cyborg 009 is a name that should ring familiar to many manga/anime fans across the country. A long time ago, when I was considerably younger, I was enthralled by the anime for Cyborg 009 when it was aired on television. I was of course new to anime in general so many of the things that caught my eye were the standard anime styling and fluid action. But there was something to the story and the characters in this cartoon were surprisingly tragic for, you know, a cartoon.

There was a gravity to the story. Twists and turns that were either too subtle for me to completely grasp or too deep in the story for me to completely decipher. So it should not come as a surprise that I chose to delve right on back into the manga as soon as I had the chance. Created by Shotaro Ishinomori, the artwork for the manga is highly reminiscent of Osamu Tezuka's work. Which greatly increases the value of the manga for me. The artwork is definitely dated and a few readers might take issue with the cartoonish features but that actually enhances the art to me. Providing the manga with a mythical disney-esque quality to the comic that is absent in many of the popular manga of today.

The story might feel downright ridiculous to the reader of the new millennium. A weapons race over the past decades has resulted in the creation of the ultimate weapon. Cyborgs. Now living in 2012 we can see how distant a possibility this is in reality. However the author's time must be taken into context. Cyborg 009's original run was in 1964, it was not too long ago that the creator would have witnessed the power of the atomic bomb on his nation. It would not be hard then to imagine a future where weapons of death would continue to evolve at a frightening pace and the the idea of devastating cyborgs would become a reality.

At its core however Cybrog 009 is classic Sci-fi tragedy. It has numerous elements of the genre in it and the adventures undertaken by each of the Cyborgs are a pleasure to read. There are heartbreaks hidden in these pages, and tales of love that will remain unrequited. I do not know if you will laugh or cry, but I know for sure that you will feel, and feel for a cyborg at that.

I would recommend Cyborg 009 to all Sci-fi aficionados looking for something to read. And for any self respecting otaku, this is a must read.

Week-In-Review: Batman #6 + Peter Panzerfaust #1 + The Activity #3 + Wasteland #34

2012-02-22T11:27:00.002-08:00

Well folks, as promised, here is another round of comic reviews from this past weeks releases for your pleasure. Today we cut across 3 companies, 4 titles and just as many genres as we bring you part 2 of this weeks selection.

BATMAN#6

Story:ScottSnyder

Art:GregCapullo

(ReviewBy: Anupam Sarkar)

Afterthe dreadful encounter with “The Darkness” #99, Batman #6 was theonly medicine that could get me outta my depression.

Theprevious issue had ended with The Talon, who stabbed (the drugged)Batman with a blade through the midsection of his body. Issue 6 picksit up from right there.

Inthe first few pages, Talon beats the shit out of Bats (who proceedsto bleed like gallons of tomato ketchup leaking from a barrel) whileThe Court of Owls surround them.

TheCourt then decide that they are not done with The Dark Knight yet andwant him to be hurt much more still.

Theweakened Bats (who had been trappedin the labyrinth beneath Gotham City for 8 days)is pushed inside a room where he sees his great-grandpop AlanWayne's photo, which motivates him to kick Talon's arse just by usingwords as weapon against Talon(a bit unusual, but effectively done).Then he performs a magnificent escape from the labyrinth.

Followingthis, the Court decides to bury the Talon inside a coffinand prepare to awaken all of The other Talons who are kept in thesecoffin-like containers in one of the rooms of the labyrinth.

Theart is especially my favorite in this issue. Panel Arrangements,Facial Expressions, Storytelling, Capullo seems to have mastered itall. My favorite was the way he had captured how Bats would look likeif he was getting weak, without food and limitedbut drugged water for 8 days. I have been following Capullo since thetime he was handling art duties for Marvel's Quasar and so I caneasily say that this issue has been his best work yet.

'Nuffsaid bout art, being a Snyder fan, I was a bit disappointed as thisissue had pretty less narrative from the writer. But, I think it wasdone purposely so as to focus on The Court of Owls rather than onBats.

SCORE: 9 / 10

PETERPANZERFAUST #1

Story:Kurtis Wiebe

Art:Tyler Jenkins

(Reviewby Akshay Dhar)

Anotherentry into the new Image lineup, this one is both a strong and weakentry for the mass of creator owned awesomeness that Image has beenputting out there for the past year.

Setin France during the 2^nd World War, it introduces us tothe primary protagonist – Peter – and to a group of young boysthat he saves who will (clearly) become his gang in the adventuresahead. We get a brief intro to the principal characters behaviour andto the setting, mixed with a splash of war-torn action and somenazi's to fight along with an older version of one of the boysretelling all these details as your narrative device – all in anattempt to answer some kind of mystery or something surroundingPeter. Well as you can imagine, this is a story that has thepotential to be a compelling and interesting saga or maybe a totallet-down or pretty much anything in between. The art was far moreenticing for me as Jenkins shows a knack for good angles and layoutand given the fairly simplistic subject matter here, creates a nicefeel and flow for the reader.

Now,given the recent wave of highly entertaining, unique and acclaimedtitles that have been making their way out of Image I would say I'mwilling to give this series the benefit of the doubt for now and atleast a couple of issues to see if they find their feet. As a firstissue this is decent but they'll have to seriously up something inthe second issue for me to keep at this series.

SCORE: 6 / 10

THEACTIVITY #3

Story:Nathan Edmonson

Art:Mitch Gerads

(Reviewby Akshay Dhar)

Wellfolks, here we are again – back in the covert-ops world of TheActivity.

Andyet again Edmonson proves why he is one of the most watched newtalents out there. After a stellar and fairly action packed firstcouple of issues, the pace slows down to a more character basedsegment of story as we follow the team after an operation gone bad asthey make their way home – tempers flare, there is discussion anddebate and we get a greater glimpse into the human side of theseoperatives who work in the shadows and do the things no one elsecould or would.

Craftingintriguing characters and scenarios, Edmonson and Gerads are a greatteam that work well in tandem to create a remarkably fitting visualstyle and feel and the emotion that Gerads brings to the faces andscenes add a dimension that makes this book better still. Notnecessarily everyones cup of tea, this remains a highly recommendedbook from my side and one of the best of the new Image-wave ofcomics.

SCORE: 8 / 10

WASTELAND#34

Story:Antony Johnston

Art:Justin Greenwood

(Reviewby Akshay Dhar)

Whatcan I possibly say about this series? Now in its 34^thissue and this is still in my top five of best ongoing comic series,definitely in my top five for greatest series ever written andarguably the single best post-apocalyptic series ever written. Don'tagree with me? Not sure about the truth of my words? Well that lastclaim is something on which even the master himself – Warren Ellis– agrees with me.

Justin case you've been living under a rock and have not even heard ofthis series, it's a basic post-apocalyptic story set after anunspecified event called “The Big Wet” which presumably destroyedthe world as we know it and reshaped the world which then evolvedinto a new, more brutal one. It follows an eclectic cast ofcharacters including a desert drifter named Michael and severalnow-homeless towns-people including Abi, Jacob and Golden Voice (himbeing a Sun-singer i.e., a preacher of sorts of the new religioncalled Sunners) and the residents of the only large “city” aroundcalled Newbegin and the political machinations and intrigues within.

Bynow the story has split into two distinct story-lines, one followingthe happenings in Newbegin and the other following Michael and Abi asthey travel the wasteland to find the fabled land of A-Ree-Yass-Iwhich was the legendary place where all the madness and the end ofthe world began. Now with the last issue we've taken a break from thefocus on Newbegin only and once again follow our intrepid hunters asthey find themselves in a new town, a more... religious town. Labeleddevils and demons and with Michael injured, their future is injeopardy as they struggle to find their way and things look more andmore grim for our heroes.

Stillawesome and beautifully rendered and told, this remains a joy and ifyou have not been reading it – go do it. Now. Really.

SCORE: 9.9 / 10

Week-In-Review: Army Of Darkness #1 + B.P.R.D Hell on Earth: The Long Death #1 + The Darkness #99 + Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi #1

2012-02-20T03:04:00.000-08:00

ARMYOF DARKNESS #1

Story:Elliott R. Serrano

Art:Marat Mychaels & Chris Ivy

(ReviewBy: Akshay Dhar)

Thisreview must be prefaced by me informing you that if you have a lovefor either the Army Of Darkness and Evil Dead movies, Ash Williamsand/or the inimitably awesome Bruce Campbell – then you willalready relish and enjoy the comic. Also, you should bear in mindthis is in essence a horror-action-comedy before you read it andstart taking it seriously as you do so. Just enjoy it for what it is,thats what it does.

Takinga new direction on the mythology of the Army Of Darkness with chosenones and adding in a whole new “Ash” Williams character, a bit ofa surprise this time, what with it being a girl and all that. Tornfrom her time by magic and possibly fate and thrown into ancientEgypt with new and ungodly powers, Ashley is now on her own (more orless) as she fights an survives what is clearly just the beginning ofdeadly adventures to come as the malevolent big-bad watches fromafar. With the original Ash in just a cameo moment, it was a bit of alet-down given the cover which makes you dive in hoping to geekilyenjoy seeing the Boom-stick in action. But in the end Serrano hasdone a good job and the end result is an amusing and well portrayedstory in the horror-comedy genre that sets an interesting openingstage, now I just hope he can build on it nicely hereafter.

Asfor the artwork – I make no bones about the fact that I'm not thebiggest Mychaels fan, given his artistic lineage under the tutelageof the man who makes anyone with any aesthetic sensibility face-palmat will, Mr. Rob Leifeld. However he seems to have made some progressand while not spectacular, he does a basicaly decent job and seems tohave surpassed that particular teacher for sure – plus I think somenice inking by Ivy also helps in that department quite a bit.

SCORE: 6.4 / 10

B.P.R.D- HELL ON EARTH : THE LONG DEATH #1 (of 3)

Story:John Arcudi and Mike Mignola

Art:James Harren & Dave Stewart

(ReviewBy: Anubhav DasGupta)

Thisis the most perfect B.P.R.D issue I’ve ever read.

Butthere’s one problem: If you haven’t been following B.P.R.D :Hell on Earth regularly, you will be as lost as a Chinaman inAustria. That said; let’s get on to what makes this comic awesome.

Thisissue focuses on Johann Krauss of the B.P.R.D. I love how Johann hasevolved as a character. He’s more cheerful now, more confident,after having faced the horrors in Russia. He takes on a new missionbut it does not end well. And there’s a new character, AgentGiarocco, who kicks all kinds of a**. This time around, the writingfocuses more on character than spectacle, and it reads brilliantly.

Whenthe s**t hits the fan, it’s totally Harren’s comic. His art isAMAZING. His handling of motion, the way he uses every line is justso brilliant. I don’t have words for how brilliant this guy is.Just check out the preview pages online.

Andthere’s Dave Stewart. He’s the best at what he does. And what hedoes is extremely nice.

Allin all, this is the best BPRD issue I’ve ever read. If you haveinvested your time (and probably money) on BPRD so far, I don’tthink you should give this a miss.

SCORE: 9.5 / 10

THEDARKNESS#99

Story:PhilHester

Art:RomanoMolenaar, JoeWeemsandRyanWinn

(ReviewBy: Anupam Sarkar)

Fromgoodtobad,frombadtoworse,TheDarknessfanshavegonethrougheverything.

Afewyearsback,The Darknessusedtobethetalkofthetown- whetheritwastheartorthestory,thiscomichaditall.Nowbacktothepresent,thisissue hasneithertheartnorthatmuch of astory.

Iseriouslydoubtthatsomethingmight'vehappenedtotheTopCowguysforchoosingRomanoMolenaarfortheartduties.It'snotlikeIhavegotanythingagainstthechap,butwhenyoulookathisart,youseriouslycurseyourselfforbuyingacomic(whichshouldoriginallybeworth$1)forUS$2.99.Thisissue'sartdutiesarealsoco-handledbyguestpenciller&inkerJoeWeemsandRyanWinn.

Inthepreviousissue,readerswereintroducedtoJackie'sDad-DannyEstacado.Inthebeginningofthisissue,weseesomePops-sonlove(ifyoureallywannaknow,buythecomic)andintheend,beforeyouknowit,Dannyiscutinhalf (“yikes!”istheexpression)!

Inmyopinion,thecomicseemsmorelikeabuildupforit's100^thanniversaryissue(whereJackiewillcometomeetthesourceofhispowerandallthetroubleitcausedhim.)

SCORE: 4.5/ 10

STARWARS - DAWN OF THE JEDI : FORCE STORM #1 (of 5)

Story:John Ostrander

Art:Jan Duursema, Dan Parsons & Wez Dzioba

(ReviewBy: Anubhav DasGupta)

Thiscomic is set about 20 to 36 centuries before A New Hopeand it’s supposed to be about the Dawn of the Jedi (obviously). Inthe first fourteen pages, we are given a discourse of Je’Daii*history 101, and it’s brilliant and absolutely Nerdgasm-inducing.The rest of it? Not so much.

TheJedi history is well-written and brilliantly drawn. Duursema drawsone epic panel after another, as the story jumps from Kashyyk to theplanet of Twi’leks. They tell us of a battle between the Je’Daiiand their children, which sounds epic as hell. Sadly, the comic isnot about that. Then it fast forwards twelve years and veers intopotential Phantom Menace territory.

Oncewe’re on Tantooine, where some aliens accompanied by a Dark Je’Daiiare slaving the locals, it’s a story about power, “politics”,and a half-assed Jedi fight (yet again like the Prequel trilogy).

Duursema’sart is pretty good, and holds up pretty well. It’s just that thewriting loses steam midway through the book. And the fact that thiscomic is really NOT about the Dawn of the Jedi and the war of theJe’Daii is a real bummer and a missed opportunity.

Forthe first fourteen pages, Dawn of the Jedi is a brilliant comic, butafter that, not so much. But I have a feeling it’s going to getmuch better.

SCORE: 7 / 10

*TheJedi are called “Je’Daii” here, not “Jedi”. Not yet. So itisn’t a typo on my part.

Well folks, here are the first set of review for this week - but hang around, there's MUCH more to come as we not only have more zero-day reviews tomorrow, we will be trying to bring you reviews for some of the new comics launched at this past weekends Indian Comic Con at New Delhi!!

Excited? We sure are!

Wayfarer Special: Top 10 Indie Comics of 2011 (Part 1 of 2)

2012-02-15T03:53:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to another wayfaringedition of my rambling and meanderings through the world of comicsfolks!

Today I have something special for youhowever. You see I decided that with 2011 now over for a time, therewas a massive surge of independent titles and creativity that reallybrought something new to the industry. Image Comics in particular hada banner year and produced fantastic series after series that leftreaders breathless.
With this in mind I decided to create ashort-list of some of the best and brightest of what I had read thispast year. Now bear in mind this is a subjective list and merely mylisting things out off the top of my head, first instinct and allthat!

There were some magnificent titles thatare worthy of praise and celebration but unfortunately my decision tokeep this a “Top Ten” list limits the titles I can talk abouthere. So I will address the ones that got missed here in a laterpost, for now lets just start our countdown shall we? Good!

(...and as always, all images can be clicked for larger versions! Enjoy.)

10.AXE COP: BAD GUY EARTH

Writer: MalachaiNicolle and Ethan Nicolle

Artist: EthanNicolle

Publisher:Dark Horse Comics

What can one say about this series? Itis hands down the single most fun and creatively outrageous seriespossibly ever written. For those that don't know – this mini-serieswas originally a web-comic written and drawn by 29 year-old Ethanbased on stuff that he and Malachai (now about 7?) came up with whileplaying together. Seriously. Think on that a moment.

Centred on our hero – Axe Cop – whois basically a cop who sleeps only a couple of minutes a day becausehe works the “always shift” and is the ultimate bad-ass, we seedinosaurs, aliens, Ninja Moon Warriors, a pet T-Rex with gatling gunarms and anything and everything you can imagine. Filled to the brimwith entertainment and (I repeat) sheer wall-to-wall fun, you don'tneed backstory or continuity or anything – this is just simpleenjoyable comic reading and in an industry trying very hard to betaken seriously, this book just throws it all out the window withstyle.

This book literally reaches into yourbrain and connects with the hyper-imaginative kid inside you so ifyou are at all inclined to nurture the kid within – check thiscomic out!

09. THEWALKING DEAD

Writer: RobertKirkman

Artist: TonyMoore

Publisher:Image Comics

There is very little I can say aboutthis series that has not already been said repeatedly. Now fastapproaching its 100^th issue and with a highly successfulTV adaptation, this series could be said to have given new life tothe long-decaying genre of zombie survival horror – something Ithink all horror fans in any medium have been thrilled about.

Kirkman has shown himself to be one ofthe most innovative and brilliant writers in comics today and hisability to consistently maintain the kind of quality and consistencyof characters he and artist Tony Moore have over the ninety-oddissues published thus far is nothing short of astonishing.

This past year we've seen things at thenew compound/haven start to fall apart, new dangers and internalstrife that threatened to bring everything they had built till now bedestroyed. We even saw Karl near-fatally shot and power-shifts in thefragile little community and a new direction for the survivors withthe future just as uncertain as ever.

If you have been reading this series,you know why its here. If you haven't, then you really should try itout – I was never a zombie fan but this is one saga that issomething unique and will be remembered as such long after its over.

08.LADY MECHANIKA

Writer/Artist:Joe Benitez

Publisher:Aspen MLT

Possiblyone of the least well-known comic launches this past year, this comicis a blessing for fans of steam-punk based story-telling like myself.Of course, if the book was not as plagued by delays as it has beenperhaps it would have a better chance of making a mark.

Writtenand drawn by Benitez, we get to follow the adventures of our leadinglady as she uses her unique skills and bleeding-edge technology tofight supernatural and other such threats in turn-of-the-centuryBritain. I was skeptical at first that this would be nothing morethan another excuse for coolness and eye-candy, Benitez surprises bybringing forth for us a very compelling world that is both familiarand alien at the same time – coupled with a tantalising leadcharacter, it makes this series a great read. Of course there is morestill, you see our lady here is not just any woman – she is parthuman-part machine and has no memory of how and why she is what sheis, her quest to unravel her past being one of the runningstory-threads through the comic. I do wish they would bring this outmore regularly, but for now I'm content just to have issues to readthat keep the story alive.

07. PAYINGFOR IT

Writer/Artist:Chester Brown

Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly

Right at the start let me say that this is most assuredly NOT a bookfor everyone and should be approached with a measure of caution. No,its not violent or over the top or disturbing in any of thoseconventional ways, but it will definitely be offending somesensibilities among the slightly less accepting.

In this Graphic Novel we follow Brown's main character as he findshimself less and less inclined to get into new relationships after alack of success and long-term joy in those he's had before. It thenprogresses to chronicle his life after he decides that he no longerwants the headache of a regular relationship and all the baggage thatcomes with it and slowly discovers the world of prostitution. Andthis is where I imagine it would generate a lot of strong reactions,as he begins to dabble in this and more and more becomes convinced ofthe essential failings that come with conventional romanticcouplings. Admittedly the book is a little one-sided in favour of hisviews, but then thats how these things work when one is talking aboutone's own experience and beliefs.

What makes this book great and worthy of being on lists and gettingacclaim is the way it is approached and the utterly honest andunflinching manner in which Brown approaches the subject matter. Hedoes not sugar-coat hthings, he does not try and make it seemromantic or fall into cliche's and Pretty-Woman-esque drama but isvery real and shows us the true face of both the sex-worker and thereal average 'johns' instead of the typical over-the-top faces thatnormally get put on them.

WhileI do not endorse his views and condone the practice, there is areality and a truth to so much of what he talks about – a breakingof stereotype and myth that is essential to anyone who likes to pridethemselves on knowing the truth of things. And in a world wheresex-workers and others are pushing for regulation and legalisationand all manner of things are in question, well books like this are abreath of fresh air – and personally I think people need to be morewilling to talk about topics such as this that tend to be taboo andliterally untouchable, another attitude that gets addressed in thisbook.

06. SWEETTOOTH

Writer/Artist:Jeff Lemire

Publisher:Vertigo (DC)

I'ma wee bit ashamed to admit that I was a little late starting on thisseries, at first dismissing it off-hand as something that didn't lookall that enticing. Of course as you can guess, I did end up trying ita couple of issues in when I started seeing good reviews of it andthe rest as they say, is history.

Currentlymany of you will know Lemire for his work over at DC on Animal Man (abook I HIGHLY recommend by the way!) but before all that he waswriting and drawing this wonderful little gem that is truly one of akind.

Followingthe journey of a simple, young mutant boy named Gus and an angryhard-ass named Jeppard who crosses paths with him at the start of theseries, we get a very different and interesting take on thepost-apocalyptic scenario that is in many ways so familiar as anarrative setting now.

Jeppard by the way, was based on the aged Frank Castle (a.k.a. ThePunisher) from the mini-series The Punisher: The End.

Inmany ways this series has been seen as a kind of tribute or ode tothe concept of an outsider, told through the main character as hestruggles to find his way and learn the truth and his strangerelationship with Jeppard who was a surrogate father-figure andbetrayer all in the same man.

Eventhe art style Lemire uses is quite unlike other books on the shelfbut it works remarkably well with the story he's telling. Besides,I've always held that a writer who can draw his own story has a muchhigher likelihood of bringing out the image, the vision that he seesand bringing it to life – and Lemire has a knack for not only doingso, but doing so exceedingly well!

Carryinga sense of melancholy and strained hope, this is not a light and funstory, but a compelling and beautifully rendered one nonetheless.Following a greater underlying mystery that Lemire masterfully teasesus with and a gentle progression of story over this past year hasmade this one of the best books on the racks for me, period!

Ifyou've ever felt alone and like an outsider, I imagine you'll findsomething familiar and engaging in this book.

WellFolks!

Soends the first half of my list as I make my way down the list of myfavourite independent title by some of the most under-rated andmagnificently talented people in the comics industry – any field,any profession and any medium has only a future as long and bright asthe underground and indie side of it, the off-beat, theout-of-the-box and the mad ones.

Theyare the markers, the game-changers and the brave ones that change thefuture.

SoI ask that you try out such titles more often, you'll be surprisedhow many great stories there are out there that get missed amid thechaos of the mainstream and the Big-2'sspandex-clad-crossover-event-overload that runs all year long.

Untilnext week when I reveal my top five, cheers folks!