M3

M3- issue 0 and 1

Publisher-  Vice Press M3comc.com

Writer- Erica Schultz

The Hook- Young Machiavella Maria Marcona parents were assanated in front of her when she was a child. It left her with only one person to take care of her..the man who assainated her…DUH DUH. Grown up the hitman try to keep her out of the lifestyle but to no avail. She become an assain and goes on a mission of revenge while an FBI agent chasing after her. All while a conspiracy happens around them that they both need to figure out.

To book took me by surprise. I was leaving the comic con and basically the last book I grab before catching the train. I figure 3 dollars why not. When I read the name of the character and find her name was Machiavella…I thought this was going to be a bucket of stupid. I assume it would be hitmen talking about Philosophy while they sip on wine. But it better then that. Its really cool. First the art if pretty good. It very stylish and fit the dark action movie tone. It has a lot of style. The style is realistic but with a bit of a heighten tone. It’s a painted, almost photo and cell shaded style. The style makes you buy it as an action movie thriller.  The main character is sexy but not in a Charlie Angel skimpy clothing type of way. Nor is she unstoppable. If she tries to Leroy Jekins her way through 30 arm guards it will end badly for her. So she is force to be smart. It is a nice scene in issue 2 where, her plan messes up due to a rather small error and she freaks out a bit.  It makes her force to use her brains to get out of things and you get to see her plan her hits. So it gives it an Authenticity. This is not to say it doesn’t have big character that happily chew the screen. It leaves room for cool dialogue for you to enjoy. The relationship between her and the hitman who adopted her is pretty interesting. Now I only got issue 0 and 2. I don’t know if there an issue 1. So I may be missing some details. But I may not get why should I root for this particular killer over the others at time. Nor why should the surrogate father who killed the parents in the first place get off the hook

Kodoja Terror Mountain Showdown 1-2

Kodoja Terror Mountain Showdown

Written and Drawn by- Foster and Smith

Publisher- Kodoja.com

The Hook- A big budget Godzilla type monster movies with explosions and destruction.  It has what you love, monsters punching things till it explodes. It a nod to monster movies of old accept sense it’s a comic you don’t have to worry about budget It follows the conspiracy of how this creature was created and the people who have to fight it and cover up how it was created

The art style if pretty cartoony but fits it. It basically comes off as your ultimate comic book if you were a kid hyped up on soda and coco puffs. Something you would draw on your notebook but then someone came along and added a good to plot to it. Not say it much plots other then destruction. It is nice seeing the political fallout of what this would cause. Seeing the strategy section of taking down the monsters (and the frustration when it doesn’t work) adds tension.  The mystery of how this thing was created is pretty nice. That said, I don’t know if you get an explanation why the military thought creating a giant monster was a good idea...other then it awesome. The designs are pretty cool. It in black and white and monster looks huge. The artist leave on the lines and some smudges.. So it looks raw and there always a lot going on screen. That said the art style may leave much to be desire to some people. For instance some character doesn’t have pupils which may take people out of it. And the art style may be too messy for some. Also as I said there a plot but don’t expect a huge amount. Sense you follow behind the scene and lot of people doing investigation it no real development of anyone on the ground attacking the monster. You don’t care much about who the monster eating. In fact you root for them to eat them...since as I said it looks awesome. But that may be the attention. All in All its pretty good fun. B

Shawn Atkinson Bombshells Inc

Shawn Atkinson Bombshells Inc

Written by- Shawn Atkinson

Drawn by Shawn Atkinson

Publisher- Power Smith Studios

The Hook- Think Hero’s for hire with two women instead of men. Takes place in a world where the government made Superheroes. These two women were the first, but as the government advance the formula and made more advance metahumans. This made these women look like beta maxes, with breast...absolete and assign to desk jobs. These women decided to then stop working for the government and become bounty hunter, Bodyguard, and anything else that makes ends meet

One thing that stands out is the art. It is pretty cartoony but not to much so.  It makes all the character seem unique and stand out. My pets peeve in art is characters that look to much the same. This was namely bad during the early image era where EVERYONE LOOKED like Cable. Faces are very hard to make different namely with women. This because artist are afraid to add lines to their face out of fear, of making them look Manish or old. One way around this is to give them big, or multiple color hair. Another way is to make their design and shape different enough where if you saw them in shadow you can still tell who they are. This comic does both of that and it add in some different faces. It has 2 characters 1 black and one white. The white one is a big busty Blond Amazon with big muscles named Casey. They manage not to make her look Manish during this by the way.  The other one a slim...less busty black girl with a huge afro puff and funky dress style Named Sienna. She looks like she could be Luke cage daughter. The black girl uses gun and flight. The white girl uses super strength and heighten durability. This makes the character visual stand out and their type of dress look different. Although it make there disguised silly.  Like dressing as a cheerleader wont hide you if you’re a big muscle bound Amazon. But, that goes with the campy nature at times story. The exaggerated faces give even the background character some personality.

The dialogue is a bit old school and so it some of the story. Although that on purpose. For some that may be a bit to old school. It is like reading a 60-70’s era comics at time. The story pretty breezy. They give you are you need to know about the world pretty quickly. You get to know the character personality in a first few pages and you have a pretty good idea what the story arc going to be about in the last page. The characters manage to avoid the cliques. For instance the black character never raise her fist at say “Racism..the only problem I CANT out fly”. The women dress pretty normally but still sexy and they don’t hit you with GIRL POWER that much. It can be corny at times but pretty Fun.

B

Epic

Epic-

Writer/artist- Anthony Marques

Ferano Ruiz

Bob Hardin

Fabio Redivo

Publisher- www.epicsanthology.com

The Hook- an Anthology series with short stories in each book. Drawn and written in a sometimes old school style. The Book dedicated to Jack Kirby with some of the same sensibilities of the old works.  Going over multiple Genera

This one has 4 stories. First one is a simple a soldier in a Jet pack fighting invading Russians in the late 50’s. The second is about a scientist who owes money to Loan sharks and his Robot. The third is about a lady street racer. The 4^th is a noir mystery about a detective investigating a murder. Each has different arts styles. The third has the most different run with a rough art style. The art on this is pretty good going from Goofy, to rough pants of a 60’s, Warhol’ish pop art style. All the stories drawn by the person that writes it. Some are better artist then they are writers. Sense some of the plots at time just a place to show off their art. And it really good art though. Some are too short, and it really makes you wish they expand on some more. Namely when you know all of these stories are probably one shots and this won’t be retraced. The first story is quick and to the point. Not much story to it. It is just a guy in a Rocket fighting in a city where Russians took over. There are Blimps exploding and the whole Jazz. It is basically just an action scene.  I mean I like seeing evil communist get punch as much as the next Rocky 4 fan, but it more an appetizer then a meal of a story. The second one actually does have plot that works well with the short structure. It has a nice origin story about a guy who soul gets put into a robot. It has a nice middle, beginning and end in a short amount of time. The third is basically those old rebel Teens with fast cars movies in the 60’s. The art pretty rough but that the style it going for. Not the style I like but can’t really say it’s bad either... 4^th one is a good detective story with nice pacing.  If you don’t like some of these, it a good chance you least like one of them.

Curves and Bullets

Curves & Bullets
Written- Keith Mccleary
Drawn-  Rodoflo Ledesma
Publisher- BD
Curvesandbullets.com
The Hook- Imagine if Russ Meyer wrote Mad Max, while hopped on and Red Bull and had a LOL CAT fetish and you have a pretty good idea of what this movie would be. In the future, multiple gangs fight in a desert life for power. We follow a gang of hot barely dress babes, that fight Cat people on Biker, and then a cyber that looks like a Silver Elvis

One thing you got to accept is it has a very little plot. And the Plot they do have is dumb as all get out. It’s fun but dumb.  That said it’s a very fun but short ride. The art is very colorful like they just dump every Crayon in the box on the page. It had tons of red and, blue, oranges. The designs are very cartoony with them giving cheese cake poses, and wearing outlandish gear. One girl has clown face tattoos on her breast (just like my dear old Grand ma). There a lot of women dress in Fetish gear and driving crazy vehicles. The dialogue reminds me of a B movie. There is a lot of women talking trash and acting tough. That said the cartoonish kind of takes away most of the tension. Lot of people die and you’re like “meh”. Also, it really hard to distinguish the character from each other besides their outfits

Dead Man's Party

Dead Man’s Party
Written- By Jeff Marsick
Illustrated- Scott Barnett
Publisher- www.MulhollandBooks.com
                   www.deadmansparty.org

The Hook- A hit man is told by a doctor he is going to die.  So he decides to go out swinging and puts a hit out on himself for millions. Apparently it something done regularly in the high paid hit men filled to point is had a name referred to as A DEAD MAN’S PARTY. But wait there is a TWIST. He finds out his doctor been killed, and that he wasn’t on Death’s door After all. He wants to call it off but hitmen go by a very strict NO TAKES BACK rule. And now he much fight off an army of hitmen, and figure out who killed them

I read two issues. The story is drawn black and white and pretty well written. It has a realistic look, very smooth line and thick ink. It is drawn and paneled out with a very cinematic vibe.  This may be a spec script for a movie because it written likes that with action scene that could fit into a movie with a rather modest budget. In car chases, cool kills, and some cool dialogue. It a pretty sweet kill with an Iphone in one scene. Of course it runs into the normal issues of the genre. I never really brought why he could call it off, by just moving some money around so they wouldn’t get if even if they killed him. Anytime they make that explanation it sounds fishy. Also like most stories of this type it in a world with no cops. Or if they are cops they have the skill of the cop from the Cookie Crisp commercials. But they avoid the normal hurdles of these things. The hitmen aren’t making pop culture references. Also they don’t try to soften him up by saying “Yea he may kill people for money but he spends all that money on Orphans. Granted there orphans because he killed their parents but still”. Although, he is mostly going after other bad guys so you don’t hate him. He hasn’t shot a kid or anything yet to make you go against him too much. It is not really that much of a morality tale. They just pushed you into a story real quick and let you enjoy the ride and it’s a good ride.
B+