CeeJay Comic Reviews

The art is pretty mundane but serviceable. Duursema's work is just crisp enough not to see unnaturally sleek but still leaves a lot to be desired. I recognize her legacy and respect her long career but there's nothing kinetic about the art. It doesn't pop.

The issues downfall is, once again, the shoehorning of Elisa's mysterious backstory. It's very seldom handled well and detracts from more interesting narrative and visual things that could and should be happening more. It's even evident in the interiors. When Von Ghastly isn't there the whole issue becomes dull (in art style, color and narrative engagement). That's unfortunate because the series has a lot of potential.

The art is fine " serviceable's the word. The settings are well realized and detailed and the figures are okay. There's just nothing very stylized about it and from the premise and the humor base that the issue sets up, it seems like a book like this would lend itself to some stylization. All in all, Imperial was a quick, inoffensive read that could show a lot of promise going forward. Here's hoping it'll pull an Invincible (start off fairly vanilla and go batshit).

The interiors are pretty boring. Even the panel setup was super plain and for a book with no real narrative spark, "Imperial"'s dull art is just one more strike against it.

Ethan Nicolle's world, crafted in part by his 10-year-old son and co-writer Malachi, is funny and imaginative but it's a bit of a stretch for 30 pages. The art is consistent and in line with the animated series there's just not much there for the uninitiated. However, I did get a good chuckle out of the line, "Spoiler Alert: You're all going to die."

The writing is serviceable. The world is set up pretty nicely and the characters and their roles are clearly defined but the real star is Hague's art. One part tapestry and one part classical fantasy, the interiors are imaginative and sort of remind me of chapter illustration in old fantasy novels. It's not for me but it's definitely worth a look.

The real star here is still the art. It's almost like an ancient tapestry and it's the books biggest pull. Hague uses shadow to great effect and makes his world colorful without being cartoony. Anyone into ancient European mythology should really give this a try. The art is dark to offset the fantastical elements of the plot and it's filled with cool creatures and thing.

Everything in Ryan Brown's "God Hates Astronauts" is to comics what "Guardians of the Galaxy" to summer blockbusters. It's all hilariously weird and disturbingly off-kilter. It reads as if it was written by a 13 year old but that's a lot of the fun.

Monthly singles either leave you wanting much more or really bored when it comes to titles like this, which isn't terrible but it's kind of like reading a really exciting, dramatically resonant novel a chapter a month and this month everyone's just traveling and bantering. This leads me to believe that Pariah, although a fantastic magazine overall, will end up as a better reading experience in trade.

Weldele's interiors are just as moody as ever. The tones are more even and the characters have more defined designs now than they had in the initial issues. In fact, it seems that as the series goes on, the art is becoming cleaner and better realized. I just wish that I can say the same for the actual narrative, which is moving forward, but feels like filler. Albeit, occasionally character-building filler.

This issue fixed a lot of what's been wrong with the past couple of installments, namely the faster pacing and progression of the overarching plot. #7 ends with a cliffhanger that I didn't see coming; one that throws a giant monkey wrench into the proceedings but not in a way that feels like it would stall the narrative. It's about to get good.

No one is safe and clues very hard to come by in the actual story because it moves so fast. It's still really good " probably the best, if not the most interesting title in DH's stable.

You've heard me gush about the interiors before so I won't here " but seriously guys, dat art.

That's the beautiful thing about "Mind MGMT," even the wind up/wind down/filler-y issues are still wonderful to look at and offer a little narrative meat to chew on. This month's Mind MGMT Memo involved the Perriers writing young adult fiction that subconsciously taught the readers lethal martial arts and self-defense maneuvers so that should prove important somewhere down the line.

Design aside, "Nightworld" is quite possibly the most out there miniseries I've read all year and I'm looking forward to having it in my stack come October.

Copland's art is emotive, kinetic and very careful about undermining how on the nose Pire's script can be. "Dustin Beaver" was obviously a parody but he was different enough visually that it didn't feel like the creators weren't going to get sued. The panel structure and use of white space also added to how psychedelic everything seemed and I enjoyed that there was a clear distinction between "real world" settings and the more 70s-style sci-fi design that appeared in action scenes and at the "POP" farm. Great brisk read with some rough but beautiful interiors.

Ferreyra's art is crisp and fits with in the design mold of the film. I especially loved the new creature designs; the "monkey" was pretty terrifying, but I couldn't help but linger on the page. "Prometheus: Fire and Stone" #1 was a fair opener and left me very curious about where this new Prometheus/Alien/Predator universe is headed. My body is ready. Let's do this.

So yeah, a bit of a slow start perhaps, but consider me on board for the foreseeable future " as if there was ever any doubt with this particular creative team at the helm.

Story aside, the interiors are lush and bright. The lines are defined and everything has so much detail in every page. Even characters in the background have definition in their faces. It all seems like it could go somewhere interesting and all the pieces are there. I'm willing to give it one or two more issues to see where it leads.

Strahm's interiors continue to impress, as he seems to have a knack for disturbing imagery even when it doesn't involve the Spread. Action-filled panels feel kinetic and the more graphic instances of violence bring with them a level of horror that a lot of extremely violent books like this seem to gloss over or sensationalize. "Spread" keeps getting better and better with each issue and something tells me that when the plot really kicks into gear, it'll be in everyone's stack.

Sean Phillips masterfully captures that film noir style and blends it with a hyper-dramatic real world sensibility. The colors are muted, which is to be expected. There are a lot of differing shades of grey at work, so when brighter colors like reds are used, they really pop off the page. The character designs fit well with the thematic aesthetic; movie stars, bodyguards and even secretaries look like they jumped right out of "The Maltese Falcon." "Fade Out" was a great read and I can't wait to follow Parish down this rabbit hole of a murder mystery.