Skullkickers #6 – Review

“The Blood Curse of the Amazombies” by Chris Sims (story), Joe Vriens (art), Marshall Dillon (letters); “The Sklaag” by Brian Clevinger (story), Jim Zub (art), Marshall Dillion (letters); “The Temple of Blrch” by Ray Fawkes (story), Scott Hepburn (art), Ian Herring (colors), Marshall Dillon (letters); “The Cleavin’ Part” by Adam Warren (story), Jeff Cruz (art), Marshall Dillon (letters)

The Story: Rather than one individual story, this issue is made up of four short ones. “The Blood Curse of the Amazombies” deals with a man under attack by the titular creatures (and our heroes’ efforts to rid him of the curse), “The Sklaag” is a classic ‘fish story’ (of a sort), “The Temple of Blech” is a nasty little piece of work about our heroes’ attempt to destroy a zombie cult (although it’s nasty for none of the reasons you’d expect), and “The Cleavin’ Part” is an oddly cartoony and beautifully drawn confrontation with a handful of soldiers.

What’s Good: First and foremost, congratulations to Skullkickers for six on-schedule issues! Although I really don’t feel that the little disclaimer inside the front cover was necessary, it IS a refreshing bit of honesty. Besides, the issue itself is excellent, and its placement between two story lines means there’s no real interruption in plot or storytelling. The amount of talent put together between these two covers is impressive indeed, and reading each creative team’s take on our two nameless heroes is an absolute blast.

the four stories presented here don’t play off each other or floe particularly well, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing–it turns the issue into a kind of grab bag, hopping from one story and creative team to the next, with the nameless heroes acting as the only common thread. Looking at the pages of wildly different but uniformly excellent artwork is a real treat. The whole feeling of the issue is one of a mini-annual, which is a fantastic vibe to get, and makes me hope that other series’ may follow this example and try something similar.