Review: Lobster Johnson - Satan Smells a Rat

Lobster Johnson is an important character in the Hellboy Universe. I know this because his wiki page told me so. In all seriousness, this is a character I've never previously encountered, but this is the thirteenth comic that Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, and artist Kevin Nowlan have written about him, so he is clearly a character held in high esteem. That said, since I've never experienced him before, I'm going to review this comic as the one shot it is, without taking the character's larger context into account. And for what it is, Lobster Johnson: Satan Smells a Rat is a very enjoyable comic, albeit not as deep and intellectual as typical fans of the Hellboy Universe have come to expect.

Review: Dark Horse Presents #24

I always look forward to a new issue of Dark Horse Presents.  Most of the stories are excellent, and even when a story goes wrong here and there, there are enough in each issue that they are greatly outweighed by the successful ones.  This is no different: a couple flops, but all in all a pretty solid issue. To get a glimpse of which stories are in this issue, follow the jump!

Review: Akaneiro #1

Akaneiro #1 (written by Justin Aclin, illustrated by Vasilis Lolos) is the first issue of a comic prequel to the video game Akaneiro: Demon Hunters, itself based on Red Riding Hood as interpreted by American McGee, best known for the video games Alice and Alice: Madness Returns. All of that adds up to a rather convoluted backstory if you decide to research the origins of this comic. Ultimately, this background would be much more helpful if I had any knowledge of the Alice games, but since I do not, I can only comment on the comic itself.

Review: The Deep Sea

The Deep Sea is quite a tale: Rip Van Winkle meets Fantastic Four #1 meets 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  A combined work by the likes of Washington Irving, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Jules Verne might seem like an untouchable combination,  but if there was ever a team that could pull it off, it would be the writing duo of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray (co-writers for so many things like The Hills Have Eyes: The Beginning, Powergirl, and, most recently, Jonah Hex) backed up by dynamo artist Tony Akins (best known for his work on Fables, Hellblazer, and the current run of Wonder Woman).  Supposedly a one shot, it ends with a cliffhanger and "End. (For now)", leaving plenty of room for a return.  I certainly hope so!

Review: The Massive #12

The Massive is back with issue #12. The crew of The Kapital have chased the ghost of a signal believed to be from The Massive all the way to the arctic circle.  Captain Callum and his crew have been chasing their sister ship for nearly a year since they were separated in the storm, and it's starting to take its toll on him.  Callum's desperate, and beginning to reach the point where he'll do anything to find this lost ship.

Review: House of Gold and Bones #2

Well, when I reviewed last month's House of Gold and Bones #1, I was genuinely sad to have not enjoyed it. Corey Taylor is a talented musician for a band I really like that seemed really passionate about making a successful comic book, and the passion was all over the pages. Unfortunately, so was the constant narration, unsatisfactory art, and unending slew of questions with no satisfactory answers was also all over those pages. I was ready to write the series off as a misguided first effort, but the passion he had for the book led me to decide it was worth giving this book another shot. And man am I glad I did! Click the link to see why I found this book to be such a marked improvement over the previous issue.

Counterpoint: Star Trek: Into the Darkness

According to my friend, MaristPlayBoy, Star Trek: Into Darkness is 3.5/5 stars calling it as he said to me “above average” which I can see where he is coming from because he has more experience in rating films and has seen considerably more than I have, so I trust his judgment. When my friend said it was a perfect 5 star rating, I drew the line and knew I had to make a review of it myself. To be fair, my rating of 2 stars makes the average of all three review a 3.5, thus validating my previous statement in trusting it as a rating, I just want to get in my 2 cents on why I gave the film 2 stars.

AoaRD #4: Guard for a Day

Every two weeks, Baker Street Holmes tells the story of Urbal gro-Dushnikh, an orc who just wants to be a blacksmith, even though it seems Skyrim has other plans. You can follow his journey through these journal entries with new entries every two weeks. Enjoy!

Review: The Art of Remember Me

Remember Me has me more excited and nervous for a video game than I can basically ever recall being. By all accounts, it looks to be everything I love- cyberpunk, female-protagonist (!!!), atypical gameplay, and, most pertinent to the following, beautiful design. The Art of Remember Me, with forward by creative direct Jean-Maxime Moris and introductions by art directors Aleksi Briclot and Michel Koch, has only made my burning want for this game even stronger, and reminded me why I absolutely adore cyberpunk design so painfully much.

Review: Mass Effect Library #1

The Mass Effect Library Vol. 1 lives up to its name, including four comics in one - a great deal for someone like me who got into Mass Effect quite late in the game (I didn’t start the trilogy until well after the third game came out, which turned out to be a lucky fluke of fate, but that’s another article for another time). It's attributed to Mac Walters, Omar Francia, and John Jackson Miller, but a slew of other creators had a hand in the comics it compiles. The four comics and the included one-shot stories delve more into things hinted at in-game but never got the chance to take center stage. They all focus on squadmates or side-characters, including everyone from Liara T'Soni to Captain Bailey of C-Sec. Like all good supplementary materials to the source, they’re non-essential to enjoy the game, but they definitely add some enjoyable flavor to it. Now buckle up, people; this review goes over four full comic arcs and a bunch of short-stories, so it's gonna get long.

Review: R.I.P.D.: City of the Damned TPB

As you might remember from my review of the first R.I.P.D. trade, the Rest in Peace Department is God's police force, helping to expunge demons and other dark forces that just won't stay in hell where they belong. In that trade, our protagonist Nick Cruz teamed up with Roy Pulsipher to find out who killed him. The comic wasn't all that original in its presentation, but it made up for that lack of originality with strong characters and a hell of a lot of fun. R.I.P.D.: City of the Damned, however, was written just this year, thirteen years after the original series, with none of the writers or artists coming back to work on it. Reviving the series without any of the main creators doesn't make a lot of sense...until you remember there's a movie based on the series coming out in July. Yep, it's a cash-in. So let's look at what they've done and get this over with.