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Rapid Reviews: New Comics for the Week of 10/4/2023

Rapid Reviews: New Comics for the Week of 10/4/2023

Posted on by Bob Harrison

Welcome to our latest Rapid Reviews column.

This week we have some debut issues and an issue number two to discuss. We have a mix of publishers represented here as well a good sampling of different genres in this week’s reivews.

For all the New Number Ones that came out this week check out our weekly rundown Here.

Our reviews are spoiler free and focus on the positive aspects of comic storytelling in each issue. You can find all of these books at your Local Comic Shop now or wherever you get your comics.

The Devil That Wears My Face #1
Mad Cave Studios
Written by David Pepose
Art by Alex Cormack
Colors by Cormack
Letters by Justin Birch
Cover Art by Cormack

We always enjoy it when the mood of the comic meshes with the season. This comic is meant to be read at night by candlelight with the cool wind whipping at the windows. Alex Cormack has become of master of setting the mood of the narrative with his visuals and nails it once again in this debut issue.

This is creator-owned veteran David Pepose‘s first release in the Indie space in couple of years, and Who Boy! does he cook up a doozy of a story. The story is captivating, and he carries common perceptions of the topic into the story, which allows him to get to the narrative without spending a lot of time explaining the setting and scenarios. The pacing and dialogue are well done.

Justin Birch did an excellent job with the lettering in this book. Strong but fairly standard balloons and text make up the majority of the dialogue in the issue, but when called for, Birch dials up excellent special balloons and SFX to really enhance the experience.

Overall, this is a fantastic first issue with a fantastic reveal and set up for the rest of the series.

Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville #2
DC Comics
Written by Joanne Starer
Art by Natacha Bustos
Colors by Tamra Bonvillain
Letters by Adriana Maher
Cover Art by Terry Dodson & Rachel Dodson

It is truly enjoyable when DC Comics releases in continuity comics that don’t take themselves so seriously. That was one of the important aspects of the success of DeMatteis & Giffen’s Justice League. This book has taken that approach for a new generation of readers.

Joanne Starer and Natacha Bustos take the setup from the first issue of this series and boost it by seamlessly adding an interesting and wacky supporting cast. The dialogue and character interactions are easily accessible for the reader and serve to further a worthwhile story of finding one’s place in the world.

Tamra Bonvillain, Ariana Maher, and editor Andrea Shea round out a fantastic crew of women working on women led comic that should be on everyone’s pull list. Continue reading “Rapid Reviews: New Comics for the Week of 10/4/2023” →

Super Bowl LVII Movie Trailer Recap Featuring The Flash, Guardians, and More

Super Bowl LVII Movie Trailer Recap Featuring The Flash, Guardians, and More

Posted on by Bob Harrison

As one of the biggest entertainment machines in the US goes into it’s off season, we are left with a few very interesting film trailers to ponder and salivate over as necessary. We collected the most important trailers from Super Bowl LVII here. In terms of quantity, there have been other Super Bowls with more trailers and of more massive import. Overall, the quality we got here was pretty good.

Before we get into the trailers, I had one note about the commercial advertisement aspect of this Super Bowl. There is a concept that was utilized by a few advertisers in which the commercial acted as a teaser/redirect to the internet. Several commercials asked me to take my phone and scan a QR code, ostensibly from the TV,  so that I would get more information on the website for the product. Some of the trailers were also taglined with “Watch the FULL TRAILER on the Internet now.” It is definitely a shift in entertainment consumption. In the past advertisers and television executives wanted the viewers to sit on their hands and keep their eyes glued to the tube.

Now that we are done with noticing the evolution of media consumption toward a more interactive model, let’s take a look at the trailers. We are focusiong on the movies that are fit into our wheelhouse here at PCS, and have listed them by release date:

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
In theaters March 31, 2023

PCS Notes: This movie looks fun, but I am totally stoked about the Owlbear and the Gelatinous Cube.  Continue reading “Super Bowl LVII Movie Trailer Recap Featuring The Flash, Guardians, and More” →

With Further Ado #102: Interview with F.J. DeSanto about Bleed Them Dry

With Further Ado #102: Interview with F.J. DeSanto about Bleed Them Dry

Posted on by Ed Catto

Bleed Them Dry is a new comic series created by Hiroshi Koizumi, written by Eliot Rahal and illustrated by Dike Ruan, with colors and letters by Miguel Muerto and AndWorld Design, respectively . It’s published by one of those industrious “upstart” publishers, Vault Comics. This one looks like fun, and I appreciated the new twists and turns the creators brought to the party.

It turns out my old buddy F.J. DeSanto is involved with this one. Recently, as an invited guest speaker (via ZOOM) he enthralled my Ithaca College students  (and me!) with insights into his work developing comics (Vagrant Queen) and big properties (Transformers, Shazam) and bringing them to the screen. After enjoying the first issue of Bleed Them Dry, I was eager to catch-up with him and learn more about it.

Ed Catto:  How do you describe Bleed Them Dry to folks who ask, “What is this is about?”

F.J. DeSanto: I can usually hook someone with two simple words: Ninja Vampire.

EC: What makes Bleed Them Dry different from other vampire or sci-fi, or even cop stories? Continue reading “With Further Ado #102: Interview with F.J. DeSanto about Bleed Them Dry” →