Home is a strange book to me. I like it as a whole, but I really enjoy the parts with the little girl swearing more than the rest of the issue. She steals the show and while she doesn’t seem to be able to hold the issue all by herself, I still kind of want them to try. That’s not where this issue begins though. Instead we find our three teens heading back to the family homestead just as a zombie scampers off after making a huge mess in the kitchen. The dog gets blamed… The neighbor boy starts telling a joke about apples that if you haven’t heard is pretty funny. It reminded me of my youth so I appreciate that and I couldn't remember the punchline. Our two teens finally do it. Yup, they sex it up in the shower before the idiot neighbor boy calls for help and interrupts them again. Poor kids. Back in town with the family we see the zombies going nuts and the shit hit the fan.
Honestly not a lot happens in this issue until the end. There’s no reveals. The story just continues moving along like it has for two issues. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it does leave a bit more to be desired since we’re on the third issue. At least there’s a cliffhanger that’s interesting and the little girl gets to swear more and call people assholes.
There’s really not much to say about the writing, it’s consistent, but it needs to evolve. I have a feeling though the next issue will take care of that so I’m not exactly panicking. The pacing for the joke/story in this issue felt appropriately place and didn’t interfere with the real events that happened. I’d actually like to see the other series copy this style.
The art is good and very consistent. I really can’t tell if anything has changed from the last two issues. We do see another invisible person that I nearly missed and that makes me very curious about the series going forward. The art continues to be as strong as the dialogue.
Overall, Home felt a little too comfortable, but if you’re reading the other titles then you know what’s going on with the invisible people and it’s a big deal. With them making an appearance here that means there’s likely something big on the horizon for this series. We’ll just have to wait and see and be entertained by a little girl who swears like a sailor.
Score: 3/5
Home #3 – “Dinner is Served” Story: Michael Coast, Julian Rowe Script: Michael Coast Layouts: Soo Lee, Orissa Jenkins, Julian Rowe Pencils: Francis Nuguit, Soo Lee Publisher: Double Take Comics Price: $2.50 Release Date: 2/24/16 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital
Johnny begins looking for Barbara and Amy after being informed that everyone has been moved inside the “safe zone” and we see not one, but two of the other zombie powers come to play. The first is that random look at Johnny and say, “Amy” to him. Now he doesn’t acknowledge it, but then we don’t know how he’s been affected yet. The other is when Johnny finds Amy and she kisses him instantly. Something we’ve seen in Dedication and Medic.
On Samantha’s side, she hosts a dating show with the zombies. It’s hilarious, but it’s the ending of the issue that is truly the best part of the issue. I will not spoil that for you, but I lol’d out loud legit. It was great and made me want to read the next issue instantly.
With these third issues the seemingly random narration from characters is explained. They’re real stories from writers that Double Take has hired. They’re there to add to the realism and while I didn’t 100% understand the point of it previously, it did humanize the characters. I do wish that this was revealed to the reader sooner, but knowing now does change my perspective on everything. I enjoyed the story in this issue in particular and because of that I was also able to enjoy the art and let it tell me more of the story than the dialogue. When I think about it, the art is doing a lot of work and if the dialogue and narration just followed it along, we would have so much pointless and redundant dialogue that it would be unbearable. That’s why I wish they revealed it sooner, because it would have taught the reader how to read their books that much sooner.
I’m going to take a stab in the dark and say that our covers that seem out of left field compared to the story, may in fact be foreshadowing the future. We know that the Double Take Universe is going to jump into the future at some point and there will be super heroes. My guess, the deputy is going to be one of those heroes… and I can’t wait. I will also say that I find that formula brilliant. The problem with new superhero universes is that they don’t have the history to pull from like the big two. Well if you look at the now falling second company, you’ll see that an extensive history is important and Double Take has found an inventive way to manufacture a history for its world. I respect and enjoy the hell out of that.
"Matt and I have been best friends since childhood and I have to give him all the credit for introducing me to the comic book world. We are so excited to be writing this together and working with LINE Webtoon. Much of the story takes place in a post-apocalyptic version of the San Francisco Bay Area where Matt and I grew up. Our heroine, Eleanor, is a strong, young, powerful, complicated girl and we are incredibly excited to share her journey with the world. We are thrilled to be joining the LINE Webtoon family with Dents."
Amidst pages-upon-pages of monster disembowelments, solar eviscerations, and your sundry flayings and blood baths, this issue wraps up as decisively as the series began. At the same time, perhaps surprisingly, it sets up well what promises to be an intriguing follow-up series, which I cannot wait to binge on later this year.
Somewhat surprisingly, given how it echoes the devils of real-world politics at the moment, Citizen Jack has quietly been chugging along, but I think it could turn a corner any moment into what could be an affecting supernatural tragedy. I won’t go so far as to call it “Shakespearean,” but the elements are there.
The credit of writer is split between two: Ian Daffern and Mike Leone. On a positive note the concept here is fun. Lance, a young man is struggling to find steady employment in a number of temp jobs. What stops him from doing so is the strange appearances of vicious monsters. Lucky for Lance he’s prepared to fight these monsters with abilities that are not entirely explained. He seems to be a monster hunter... a freelance monster hunter. I did have a little fun during Lance’s first job as a telemarketer. Who can’t relate to having a mundane job at some point in their lives? The fun dwindles we are taken through a day in this mundane life call after call after pointless and unfunny call. It wasn’t even shown in real time and still the day felt like it went on too long. Scenes where Lance is going through banter with friend/co-worker Leon seem to drag for far too long. The dialogue is really cliché here making the scene feel unnecessary.
Writer Tom Peyer paints Coddington as a larger than life stereotype of the big bad business man bully. Donald Trump comes to mind. His bullying is so over the top that it makes the character really hard to take seriously. Donald Trump comes to mind. His son Coddy has an interest in drawing and his drawings play a large part in the supernatural twist. The artwork in this story is somewhat skewed with everything looking just a little off. The shapes of the characters are rough with no one character conforming to a realistic body type. The perspectives of the scenes are draw slightly sideways. This gives an overall feeling that in spite of the bright, vibrant colors that something is wrong in this world.
That is something that Millar has done incredibly well throughout this entire series. Kept Huck consistent. It’s very easy and typical for any story to present their character how they want them to be seen and then through the course of running them through the story they lose that character. A lot of writer’s pretend that this is just the “character’s journey”, but really it’s faulty writing. Millar even teases that with the previous issue when it looked like Huck had lost his way. Millar did in one issue what other creators do in twelve.
The Ice King is hunting for his ironically kidnapped penguin but needs the help of a super-cool and super-secret wizard gang to get him back. And thus ensues a series of seemingly random encounters that, upon reflection, managed to successfully give us a peek under the royal robes to find a reluctantly helpful but also not helpful monarch. It’s easy to write off these interactions as trivial and insignificant but by the time I finished the last page I was surprised at the quality of the sum of these character building moments.
Speaking of which -- I appreciate Rucka's restrained use of action. It features heavily at the front of the book then exits altogether, giving way to some nicely written, clever banter. You get your sword-swinging and explosions out of the way early here. If that’s what you’re into.
Another one bites the dust. Another bum death that has nothing to do with the story ushers us into the, um… story. But the sporadic bum deaths are nothing to panic over when compared to the thumb chopping maniacs threatening the entire community’s way of life. Masked in the unending scheming and planning comes an actual act of war but character motivations are still murky. Sure we know people don’t want to die and want to keep both their thumbs but those seem like general human problems, not driving forces for story progression.