Over the last half-decade whenever a comic has tried to tell a fantasy story in a fantasy setting, they’ve almost always strived towards reinvention and deconstruction. We can see this with Princeless’s deconstruction and critical eye towards the damsel-in-distress and princess tropes of classic fantasy, Saga’s visual reinvention of what exactly a Star Wars-fantasy setting can look like, and in Rat Queen’s self-aware Dungeon & Dragon’s campaign of a comic.
Read MoreLet me start by stating that I'm not old enough to have played with or been a part of the original M.A.S.K. In fact, I may not have ever heard of the original series had it not been for my cousin, 6 or so years older than me, that had all the toys and would let me play with them when we would come to visit. I was instantly hooked on the idea of these different guys and girls getting these cool helmets and driving these cool transforming vehicles.
Read MoreIt is a well-established fact that Conan is at his best when he defeating his enemies. Seeing his enemies flee and hearing their women’s lamentations are excellent highlights, but the real meat of all Conan stories is in the heat of battle. Conan the Slayer #3 is a great example of the creators knowing what makes a good Conan comic. While not perfect, this is my favorite of the series so far. Cullen Bunn's pacing is excellent in this issue and Sergio Dalvia provides solid artwork with a couple impressive standout panels.
Read MoreWe start off with the explanation that Sub-Girl has died, then came back from the dead but was not really 100%, then died again 15 minutes ago. Now we're on her sub, a bunch of Nazi gold in tow, and suddenly under attack by some kind of armed helicopter. Keep in mind this is issue 1, people. Was there a Tank Girl: Silver or something that came before that would give more backstory? No idea. The remaining girls don't know how to pilot the sub and suddenly, when it seems all is lost, Booga (some kind of kangaroo man) and another of the girls swoop in on a jet and destroy the chopper, all the while the girls on the sub accidentally electrocute Sub-Girls body, which brings her back to life, albeit with some memory loss.
Read MoreI hate to say this, but this isn’t as strong of an issue as the previous one. There’s still a lot of good elements to this issue. Elements that overall I really enjoyed, but my gut tells me that a lot is missing from this issue. That it feels off compared to the other issues and I don’t know if that’s intentional or that the series needed to breathe after soaring so high for so long. I’ll tell you right now, as I’m typing this, I’m not sure what score I’ll settle on by the time I’m done. The issue picks up a short time later from the previous issue. Our newly introduced detective is still a bad ass, and her interrogation of Trent is pretty damn good. The way she tip-toes around the accusation she wants to make is impressive and believable.
Read MoreThere is so much I really like about this new Batgirl series. Rafael Albuquerque’s art is a must-see with his dynamic action scenes or the interesting and weird page layouts that demonstrate Barbara’s thought processes and movements. Dave McCaig’s colors have made these moments even more visually engaging with his attentive background color work.
Read MoreI’m torn. I’m all out of faith. This is how I feel… wait, no let’s just back up Natalie Imbruglia (90s darling) to “I’m torn” as in torn about how I feel on this issue. Because I have to wonder if this was any other series, if this was any other writer… would I have enjoyed it as much? And is that necessarily a bad thing? We all have our reader preferences, our blind spots, our irrational likes and dislikes so it’s really hard for me to say whether or not this is good because I liked it or if it’s good in spite of me liking it. And again, is there really a difference. The plot thickens the fuck up in this issue. The gist is that Lottie goes to an engagement party in the O.C. (which is as great as that fucking TV show makes it seem) and not one, but three things out of the ordinary happen. Perhaps the strangest is the return of Cool Girl… at the party… randomly. What Lottie doesn’t piece together is the fact that she knew about Cool Girl before her friends so how did Cool Girl get a rsvp to the party?
Read MoreHere we have the rebirth issue of Batman Beyond from DC Comics, written by Dan Jurgens and drawn by Ryan Sook. I’m quite fond of this version of Batman and have been since I was a kid watching the cartoon (though it was called Batman of the Future over here in the UK.) I enjoyed the last outing/series before Rebirth, so I figured I’d give this one a bash and see what’s up. With all the current books featuring Batman out right now, and the fact every one (except Detective Comics) is piss poor, I am in need of a decent Batman story. In this book, we’re given a bit of background/ a refresher on this incarnation of Batman via Terry McGinnis.
Read MoreWell, Descender picks up a little bit with this issue, though it’s not exactly by much. All it does is manage to avoid retreading familiar ground in the never-ending series of flashbacks postponing the revelation of Tim’s fate. Is it interesting? Not particularly, because what we some of what we could have easily guessed, and the other piece is somewhat interesting but ultimately rushed, so it doesn’t come with a whole lot of emotional payoff. Business as usual? I suppose, but that’s not a good thing for this book. At least we might finally be done with this flashback horse-hockey and get back to advancing the narrative. Warning: I will be discussing spoilers.
Read MoreThis week, I’m looking at the first issue of frostbite, a new science fiction story from Joshua Williamson and Jason Shawn Alexander which is being published by Vertigo. It’s something different from this publisher, I can’t remember the last Sci-fi Title I read from Vertigo…Nope. I was going to fill in what I thought it was right there but I still can’t think what it could've been. I’m going to say this is the first they’ve put out in a while. So it’s a step in a different direction for the moment for Vertigo but for comics as a whole, it’s just another drop in the ocean. Let’s get to it…
Read MoreBeing thrown into a world and story isn’t a bad thing as long as that world makes sense or is revealed throughout the story. When multiple aspects of the story aren’t explained or left intentionally vague, it strangely leaves you wishing for exposition.Sun Dragon’s Song has a few problems. The first being that the world isn’t very clear. There’s dragons; they eat crystals, and dragon riders patrol the border fending off the poor and starving. I get that much, minus the last bit. The character we follow is a young boy who needs a crutch to walk. We’re never told why he needs it, and we meet a bully that attempts to beat him up. It’s assumed that he’s done so on numerous other occasions which is just terrible to think about.
Read MoreSci-fi is hard. Creating a world and establishing the rules of the world without info dumps or pages of exposition is one of the most difficult things to do when creating a sci-fi comic book. Wergild Atlas didn’t do any of this, but that doesn’t mean it was better for it. As far as I can tell, the story is about a civilization that lives in the sky. They all have wings and some of them race in the sky. This race seems to last the entirety of the story which personally would be very boring. It’s like watching chariot race now; it’s just kind of stupid looking. We learn that the sister of the star racer is for some reason jealous of the way the creepy one-eyed, old as fuck, the ruler is looking at her sister. I can’t imagine why since they look the same, but hey… the story continues.
Read MoreI used to like that Gotye song "Somebody That I Used To Know." Not passionately, but it came off less aggressively dumb than most of the music playing on commercial radio, something I wouldn't object to listening to when hopping around stations while driving. A perfectly inoffensive piece of mellow breakup music. Then radio, like it does all good music, decided to kill the song via overuse. That year of 2012, that song got comically overplayed, so much so that on one drive down from Virginia to North Carolina I made a game out of seeing how many times I could hear it while channel surfing. Familiarity bred contempt, and while no worse of a song, it is now firmly outside of my interest of ever hearing it again, and indeed it seems everyone agreed to just forget Gotye as an artist altogether. So what do you think Nikola Tesla and H.P. Lovecraft might have in common with Gotye?
Read MoreMy name is Dustin, and I’m the reviewer for this comic book. Eisenhorn: Xenos is a game based off the novels by Dan Abnett that’s set inside the universe of another game. That game being Warhammer 40,000. I haven’t the foggiest about which of these the comic book is based on nor does it likely matter. At the end of the day, it’s either a comic based on a novel or a video game and that leaves the comic feeling weak in comparison. The comic opens up much like my opening. The main character Gregor Eisenhorn is holding a big fucking sword with some low current electricity around it and a gun with a skull on it.
Read MoreLucas Stand just can’t seem to hit a winning formula in a given issue. In the first few issues, the central tension of working for hell and leaving behind a lot of collateral damage was undercut by the fact that some cheap writing undermined those consequences. For once, that’s not a problem here; instead, the basic premise of each has finally worn thin, so that all of the emotional baggage of Lucas with his father is so muted that it doesn’t evoke much response. In other words, too little, too late. Warning: I will be discussing spoilers here.
Read MoreHaving said this numerous times before I’m constantly forced to remind the audience of this site that I will read anything. I have read things that I have zero interest in and come away loving them and sometimes hating them still. The point being that for me to read a kid’s book isn’t uncommon even if this is your first time spotting one of them on the site. I’m telling you all this because I do tend to have a soft spot for them. Maybe it’s a misspent youth full of video games and TV, but I didn’t read a lot of books when I was a child, nor did my parents supply me with many. Whatever the reason, I enjoy checking them out.
Read MoreThis post has two purposes. The first is to tell you that you'll likely see your last press release on Comic Bastards for a long while. Frankly, I'm tired of posting them. No one cares, and I can't pretend that I have the time or interest in each of them in order to say something thoughtful or witty. Simply put, they take a lot of time and energy that I don't currently have. Maybe one day. You'll see stuff that does interest me, and that's about it. The other purpose is that I've been somewhat paying attention to all the NYCC exclusives, and while I'm not going this year due to a financial drought in my bank account, I would totally kill for these two items from Dark Horse.
The first is a zippo with the B.P.R.D. logo. I don't smoke, but I am a pyro. I used to carry a zippo around just to light the fucker, and I would go back to doing that in a heart beat with this bad boy. Notice that you can only buy five a day. Yeah, Dark Horse knows that's pay dirt.
The second item is a B.P.R.D. flask, and I don't drink. But that fucker is cool. I would just keep water in it and take it out while annoying people were talking and drink from it so that they think I have to be drunk to care about what they're saying... which is probably true, but I won't ever know. Again, five per a person, per a day. If you're crazy and buying a bunch (probably to resell at your shop or eBay store), but have a heart of gold... kick me one. I won't pay you with money, but I make a pretty damn good chicken dinner.
What do you do when a furry, sprite-like creature falls from the sky and onto your park bench? You invite him to live with you, naturally. Spirit of the Staircase, the newspaper cartoon strip currently running in the Knoxville Mercury , will be available in two brand new formats on October 10, 2016: Tap Water and Tuna Party, the first collected volume from all-ages publisher Karate Petshop, and on Universal Uclick's GoComics.com.
Created by cartoonist and illustrator Matthew Foltz-Gray, Spirit of the Staircase is an all-ages, whimsical story of Matt, an introverted human, and his best friend Mumford, an outgoing furry creature of indeterminate species, and the everyday adventures they have in the semi-magical realm of Knoxville, Tennessee. Their exploits include a trip to the grocery store where Mumford attempts to act like a human and succeeds more than he knows, employing spiders to hang the Christmas lights, and of course, hosting a tap water and tuna party.
According to Foltz-Gray, “Spirit of the Staircase is about friendship among a bundle of misfits swimming through the issues of everyday living. These characters aren’t rich or successful, but are surviving and doing just fine. It’s a strip that caricatures the small adventures and experiences every human and creature alike goes through on a daily basis and gives the readers a second away from their own daily struggles to laugh, relate, celebrate, and ponder.”
Foltz-Gray cites as his influences for Spirit of the Staircase including Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes, Richard Thompson’s Cul de Sac and Charles Schulz's Peanuts.
Spirit of the Staircase started as a weekly cartoon strip in the independent newspaper The Knoxville Mercury in 2015. Since its debut, Foltz-Gray won a silver medal from the Society of Illustrators for the individual Spirit of Staircasecomic strip, “The Game of Snooze.” “The Game of Snooze” was exhibited in the Society of Illustrators’ New York gallery during June and July 2016 and earned Foltz-Gray the attention of Universal Uclick's GoComics.com where the entire archives of Spirit of the Staircase will be available for readers on October 10, 2016.
In light of these accomplishments, Karate Petshop Publisher Norm Harper knew that it was time to bring a collected print edition of Foltz-Gray’s work to a wider audience. "When I saw Spirit of the Staircase for the first time, I was immediately floored, “said Harper. “Matthew’s artwork has a way of making the mundane seem magical, and the strip's biggest laughs often come not from a final panel punchline, but from the ongoing interaction of characters who feel real and relatable. I am thrilled and honored that Karate Petshop could help Matthew expand the ways in which the comic strip is reaching its audience."
Tap Water and Tuna Party collects the first 56 Spirit of the Staircase comic strips and includes commentary and brand new illustrations by Foltz-Gray as well as a foreword by Coury Turczyn, Foltz-Gray’s Editor at The Knoxville Mercury.
In his review of Tap Water and Tuna Party, comic critic Justin Wood called Spirit of the Staircase, “…funny, capable of originality, and arguably the best-looking strip I’ve seen in the newsprint format since Bill Watterson put down the weekly pen in 1995.”
Tap Water and Tuna Party is priced at $9.99 and will be available for purchase on October 10, 2016 from Karate Petshop’s website, KaratePetshop.com, and comic conventions across the country.
ABOUT MATTHEW FOLTZ-GRAY
Matthew Foltz-Gray received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration and Storyboarding from the Academy of Art in San Francisco. After graduating, he began his professional career taking on small freelance projects with his local design agencies and clients. Matthew’s first illustration job was providing the art for Karate Petshop’sRikki, a graphic novel adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s “Rikki Tikki Tavi.” This was followed by his own cartoon strip, Spirit of the Staircase, in the independent newspaper The Knoxville Mercury. Matthew’s work on Spirit of the Staircase has been recognized by the East Tennessee Society of Journalists, The Society of Illustrators West, and The Society of Illustrators.
ABOUT KARATE PETSHOP
Founded by Norm Harper in 2015, Karate Petshop publishes books and graphic novels for grown-up geeks to share with the next generation. Our focus is on producing quality books with dynamic art and unique voices that can create a shared fan experience for the whole family; from elementary to high school and even something for the parents, too. For more information, review and interview opportunities, and more, please visit KaratePetshop.com or email us at KaratePetshop@gmail.com
ABOUT GOCOMICS AND UNIVERSAL UCLICK GoComics, from Universal Uclick, is home to many of the most popular comics and cartoons in the world. GoComics.com is the web's largest catalog of syndicated newspaper strips and web comics, offering new, fresh and free content every day. Universal Uclick is the largest independent syndicate in the world and a leading digital entertainment provider of humor, comic strips, political cartoons and gaming content for print, web and mobile devices. Universal Uclick provides editorial development, licensing and other distribution services for iconic brands likeDoonesbury, Dear Abby, Miss Manners and some of the most significant comics in history, including Calvin and Hobbes, The Far Side, Garfield, Peanuts, Dilbert, For Better or For Worse, Cathy, and Ziggy. Recent standout successes include Lio, Cul de Sac, Pearls Before Swine, Get Fuzzy, Big Nate and The Argyle Sweater. A full comic catalog can be found at GoComics.com. For more information, visit UniversalUclick.com.
TITLE: Tap Water and Tuna Party AUTHOR: Matthew Foltz-Gray PUBLISHER: Karate Petshop DATE OF PUBLICATION: October 10, 2016 RETAIL PRICE: $9.99 US (Trade Paperback) ISBN-13: 978-0-9966046-2-8 PAGES: 60
I first read Neil Gaiman’s “Troll Bridge” in college. I was waiting in a friend of a friend’s house, and while I silently judged my new acquaintance based upon the titles on their bookshelf, I noticed a copy of “Smoke and Mirrors” off in a corner. It turns out she had found it on the street and was happy to give it to me. This gesture greatly improved my opinion of her. Looking back, I remember the “Troll Bridge” as one of the stories that stuck in my head well after I had finished devouring the collection. I was in my early 20’s and had just tasted my first feelings of true regret and isolation. I remember relating to the narrator in a way that was almost uncomfortable.
Read MoreIn this episode Chizuru's twin brother, Kaoru attempts to drive Chizuru into despair by stealing the gift - a packet of dango- she received from Kondou-san for her hard work. Despite Kaoru's sinister intentions, the plot he conjures up is tame, at best, and funny. I doubt a lost packet of dango could drive anyone to despair. Nevertheless, Kaoru's plan falls through, and he ends up praising his sister in spite of his failure to cause her grief.In the second half of this episode Chizuru (for some inexplicable reason) appears to be troubled (it’s not because of Kaoru's plan though).
Read More