Spread #1 – Review

By: Justin Jordan (script/creator), Kyle Strahm (art/creator), Felipe Sobreiro (colors) and CRANK! (letters)

The Story: A post-apocalypse nomad finds a baby that could hold the secret to defeating a demonic plague.

Review (with minor SPOILERS): This was a pretty solid first issue.  The post-apocalypse genre is very crowded.  It happens to be one of my favorite genres just because I like to see what storytellers can do when you take away certain rules.  It’s the same thing as telling a story where gravity didn’t exist or where faster-than-light travel was possible: Taking away rules opens new avenues for storytelling.  So, I’ll sample most things post-apocalyptic even if it means I get a healthy dose of crap sometimes.

Spread is pretty solid.  The reasons for the apoclaypse are vague: something about digging too deep and unleashing something nasty and horrible.  Humanity isn’t totally destroyed as we see dead researchers and their crashed plane.  And there are bandits, there are ALWAYS bandits.  But the focus is on a nomad named “No” who wanders the land and is immune to The Spread.

No has a neat look to him.  He looks like a less muscly version of Wolverine in civilian clothes: messy black hair, unshaven, sideburns, Candian wilderness attire, etc.  And we learn quickly that No can handle himself well in a fight when he uses twin hatchets to take down a Spread-possessed researcher.  Along the way, he finds a baby who may be the secret to saving humanity from the Spread, get’s chased by lots of Spread monsters and that’s it.  End of issue #1.  So, we meet the protagonist, his reason for being in the story and learn the basic set-up of this world.  Some comics take 4-5 issues to accomplish that.  Spread #1 pulls you in enough that you’ll be curious to see what happens in issue #2.

Haunt #28 – Review

By: Joe Casey & Todd McFarlane (writers), Kyle Strahm, Nathan Fox & McFarlane (art), Brad Simpson (colors) & Comicraft (letters)

The Story: The Brothers Kilgore are squabbling again.

Review: Well, this is awkward.  When looking at my comics for this week, I saw Haunt and realized I hadn’t reviewed this series since Haunt #24 back in July.  I always think it is a little sad when an ongoing comic series drifts below the radar like that.  “We” comic fans always say that we want these long runs of comics, but if that’s true “we” should probably at least bother to review and discuss a long(er) running independent series, right?  Thus I decided to review this issue and now I kinda wish that I hadn’t.

This wasn’t a very good issue.  It starts with an art change after only a few pages where Nathan Fox gives way to Kyle Strahm.  These two guys are not remotely similar in terms of style.  Simply put, I love Nathan Fox.  His style is pretty wild – and occasionally too wild – but it is also angular and sharply defined and that works well for Haunt.  The main Haunt character has these ectoplasmic projections from his body that are always stabbing enemies and we need those projections to look like something sharp.  Strahm’s work – in contrast – is also chaotic, but in a softer and mushier kind of way.  It just doesn’t work quite as well.

Hack/Slash #5 – Review

By: Tim Seeley (writer), Kyle Strahm (art), Mark Englert & Nate Lovett (colors), Crank! (letters) & James Lowder (edits)

The Story: Cassie & Vlad run into Fantomah, protector of the Jungle,  in this done-in-one story.

What’s Good: Ya know, sometimes it is nice to have a comic that stands on its own and isn’t part of a 4-6 issue story arc.  It almost doesn’t matter whether the story is good, bad or just kinda “blah” because it changes up the pacing of the series and keeps future stories from being so predictable. This done-in-one story features the “Return of Fantomah” who must have been a character from one of the latter Hack/Slash stories at Devil’s Due Publishing that I haven’t read yet (all on my iPad, just no time…), but no prior experience is necessary because Seeley and Strahm give us a really nice little intro to who she is with a ~5 page intro.  The cool intro is written and illustrated in a very 60’s manner that shows us how Fantomah is some supernatural protector of the rainforest.  Then we cut forward in time to the present day and see Fantomah have a quick adventure with Cassie and Vlad revolving around Cassie’s ongoing desire to rid the world of the Black Lamps.  Not everything is what is originally seems and the pacing of the twists and reveals is really nicely done.

We get an art change for this issue too.  It is probably unfair to do this, but comparing Strahm’s art to regular series artist Daniel Leister’s, you’ll see that Strahm’s art is (mostly) much coarser.  You can see a lot of Chaykin influences and he has that interesting combo of some characters looking rough and scratchy combined with his women looking soft and curvy.  It’s a nice change.  And, the aforementioned intro section of the comic is really great.