Review: Conan and the People of the Black Circle #2

Since I missed reviewing issue #1, I’ll begin this review with a bit of background on this series. People of the Black Circle is a four-part miniseries adapted from one of Robert E. Howard‘s more unusual Conan stories. It’s no secret that the settings of Howard’s stories were often thinly-veiled versions of real times and places, but this story is a change from the more European feel of many other Conan stories, as it’s set in Vendhya and Afghulistan, and this story uses much more magic. This comic is written by Fred Van Lente with artwork by Ariel Olivetti, and at the halfway point this series is looking pretty good.

It’s interesting to see Fred Van Lente writing this comic, since he’ll be taking over writing Dark Horse’s ongoing Conan series once Brian Wood’s run is over in a few issues. People of the Black Circle is probably a good example of what to expect from Van Lente in the ongoing series, but then it’s more or less a direct adaptation from Howard. For his run in the ongoing Conan, he’ll be using one of Howard’s unfinished stories as a framework and adding his own material from there, and he’s said that it won’t be as direct an adaptation.

I’m torn about Ariel Olivetti‘s artwork though. He draws his characters in a very detailed, realistic style, and the artwork is very sharp and clean. I like that. But I can’t get past the backgrounds. While the characters are drawn so well, most of the background art is composed of computer-generated textures and objects, and it’s a pretty abrupt disconnect between the detailed characters and the flat backdrops. They don’t look like they belong in the same image. The rest of the comic is good, but that contrast kept jumping out at me while I was reading.

People of the Black Circle has all you expect from a Conan story, but with a few interesting additions. The setting makes a nice change of pace from most of the other stories, and there’s a more in-depth look at magic in the Hyborian world than we usually see. If that sounds interesting and what I’ve said about the artwork doesn’t bother you, this issue is worth the $3.50 cover price. People of the Black Circle shows how Van Lente handles Conan, but his ongoing run might look a bit different, as he’ll be using less of Howard’s original work in those stories. People of the Black Circle is a good series so far, with the one exception being the background artwork. It’s a standalone story, so you don’t need to know Conan’s backstory to make sense of it, but in any case you should start with issue #1 of this series if it interests you.

Danilo Culibrk, aka Augustus, is a staff writer for the Red Shirt Crew. He never uses his magic for evil, unless you ask really nicely. You can follow his trail through bandit-infested mountain passes on Twitter at @Augustusing.

Review: Conan the Barbarian #22

Finally, here it is. I’ve been waiting for this since Queen of the Black Coast. This month’s issue is part one in the Song of Bêlit, adapting the second half of Robert E. Howard‘s original Queen of the Black Coast. Issue #25 will end this story and Brian Wood‘s Conan run, and I might just forget about some of the weaker issues he wrote in between this and Queen of the Black Coast if he can make this last story work. He’s sticking pretty close to Howard’s original in this issue, and I can only hope that he’ll continue that way. How Wood ends the Song of Bêlit will make or break his entire Conan run. It’s all been leading up to these last four issues, and I really hope the end will be worth the wait. If you’re not up to speed on this series and you want to know what I thought of other issues, check out my earlier reviews here.

Dark Horse’s Conan comics have always aimed to adapt Howard’s stories and present the Cimmerian’s adventures in chronological order, with original stories to fill the gaps in the timeline. Brian Wood’s run expands on Conan’s time with Bêlit between the two main parts of Howard’s Queen of the Black Coast. The beginning and end of Wood’s run are direct adaptations from that story, but the rest of the comics are new stories. In those, Brian Wood has tried to explore different sides of Conan’s character, with varying success. Bêlit is one of the most important women in Conan’s life, and Wood’s stories have gone to great lengths to show that. Sometimes he manages it pretty well, but his ideas often fall flat.


But the first few issues of Queen of the Black Coast were excellent, sticking close to Howard’s original while adding a new side to the story. That’s what I’m hoping for in these last four issues, but there isn’t enough in this issue for me to make that judgment yet. If you’ve read Howard’s original, there’s not much to surprise you in this issue, and that’s generally a good thing, but there’s still room for the story to take an unexpected turn. 

Riccardo Burchielli‘s artwork is alright, but there isn’t really anything remarkable about it. Most of the other artists that have worked with Brian Wood on Conan had distinctive styles, but there isn’t anything that stands out about Burchielli’s art here, and that’s a bit disappointing. 

The ruined city looks about how I expected it to, but the river and the serpent don’t have the kind of impact that they should. Maybe the color of the river doesn’t indicate its sinister qualities, and the snake shows up for all of two pages before it’s gone, but I was expecting more from that encounter. And for all the space it takes up on the cover, we only get one good look at the “devil ape” up close in this issue, and it’s a bit underwhelming. It looks more like a dog or a hyena than an ape, but maybe that’s just the angle it’s drawn at. We’ll see much more of it in the next few issues, so hopefully my first impressions are wrong. 

taken from http://www.darkhorse.com

I can’t say much more about this comic without talking about the events of the next three issues, so I’ll leave that for those reviews. This issue is a good start to Brian Wood’s last Conan story, but the artwork isn’t as interesting as it has been in previous issues. But if you want to know how the story of Conan and Bêlit comes to an end, this issue is worth the $3.50 cover price.

Also out this week is the Colossal Conan, a collection of issues #0 to #50 of Dark Horse’s Conan. That encompasses the entire Kurt Busiek/Cary Nord run to the beginning of the Timothy Truman/Tomás Giorello run, and all the stuff in between, in one book. The comics included are some of my favorite Conan comics, period. I’ve read and re-read some of them several times. If I didn’t already have them I’d think about buying the book, but at $150.00 it’s a lot for something I already have. But if you’ve somehow missed those comics before, it’s pretty cool to have them all in one volume. 

Danilo Culibrk, aka Augustus, is a staff writer for the Red Shirt Crew. He thought he saw a winged ape once, but figured it was probably on account of that poisonous river water he drank. You can follow him into the dream-haunted slumber of the black lotus on Twitter at @Augustusing.

Review: Star Wars Legacy #1

I feel like I’m somehow turning into the Star Wars guy here. I don’t entirely understand how that’s happening, since I’m not exactly a big Star Wars fan in the first place, but something keeps drawing me back, and it’s not exactly a mystery what brings me back: I love the world of Star Wars, but not a huge fan of the Skywalkers et al. Star Wars Legacy #1 (written by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman, illustrated by Gabriel Hardman) is exactly what keeps bringing me back: a new adventure without any of the familiar characters, just the world. (Note: No, this is not new, but it’s being released for people who haven’t read the series before, like me, so I’ll treat it like a new #1 for a series.)

One important thing is to pay attention to the splash page at the beginning of the comic, which outlines the world that we’re in here. This is 138 years after A New Hope (an oddly specific number), so we’re off in the far future from the time we’re familiar with. I made the mistake of not reading it first time through and was overly confused when I read it then, which was fixed just by reading that first page. Lesson learned: it’s there for a reason.

For as much as it throws us into the far future, there is the smallest bit of connection to the originals: our protagonist is Ania Solo, obviously a relatively distant descendent of Han and Leia, but I’m fine with that small connection, which gives us something somewhat familiar to hang onto. It’s also a bit of a shortcut to getting us to care about the protagonist – we all like Han and Leia, so we’re more likely to care more about the protagonist because she has a connection to them. I’d be tempted to call it cheap, but it just works.

Despite Ania being the protagonist, a lot of the story isn’t just about her. This spends a good amount of time dealing with the fallout from destroying the Empire, even though it happened more than a century before. For this, the story follows Yalta Val, a knight who is trying to deal with that situation on the planet where Ania lives. This is not as interesting as her story, and it feels like a lot of Star Wars EU material is dedicated to deconstructing the simplistic way that politics were presented in the original trilogy, and so this kind of feels unnecessary, but it doesn’t completely detract from Ania’s story.

When I started reviewing The Star Wars, the art in that series bugged me for a little while, though I eventually got used to its style. I bring that up to contrast to this comic, which is much closer to a “standard” comic style, if there can even be said to be a standard style, but it just works. It allows me to immediately get into the world, and not attempting to strongly resemble actors or actual people allows me to immediately connect to these characters as new people in this universe.

Whenever I watch a TV pilot, a #1 in a comic series, or any introduction to anything serial, I recognize that it’ll be rough around the edges and have a few problems. So, I always give it a test: all problems aside, does this make me want to read the next issue? For this comic, the answer is yes, and so I’ll recommend it. Especially since it’s being reissued for $1, you really don’t have a good reason not to at least give this a chance, and now that I’ve finished this, I’m going to track down some of the next issues in the series.

Zac Kandell (known mostly on the internet as Mischlings) thinks he knows how deep the rabbit hole of Star Wars EU goes, but is probably wrong. If you find what he says interesting, follow him on Twitter at @Mischlings or check out his personal blog.

Review: Shaolin Cowboy #2

I read and enjoyed the first issue of Shaolin Cowboy, even though I didn’t review it. I’m not entirely sure how to summarize this series, other than the title is weirdly indicative of what’s inside, so just prepare for weird as soon as you open the book. The previous issue started with two full pages of just text, explaining the backstory, kind of, but also not really. So, what kind of weirdness does Shaolin Cowboy #2 (written and illustrated by Geof Darrow, colored by Dave Stewart) bring?

I’m really not sure how to explain what I just “read”. I use the term “read” very loosely, as there is not a single word in this issue. Not a speech bubble, narrative box, or even written sound effect. No words, only pictures. This picks up where the previous issue left off, with the Shaolin Cowboy fighting against zombies, or something very closely resembling zombies. As he fights them with two running chainsaws connected by a wooden pole, well, we get an idea of just how crazy good this guy is. No, I am not kidding, that is the entirety of this issue, watching the Shaolin Cowboy fight zombies. He never says a word, no narrator chimes in, and we don’t even see a thought bubble. He just fights zombies.

Yes, there is somehow a story in all of there, playing out solely through the artwork. It isn’t exactly the most complicated story, as you might guess, but it is there. You’ll probably have to look through it a few times, but there is definitely a story in there underneath all of the zombie dismemberment.

For as dismissive as I might sound, the artwork itself is very impressive. For having to draw hundreds of zombies in the issue, they never skimp on the quality, and they’re all drawn with great graphical (and occasionally anatomically disturbing) detail. You could breeze through this issue in a couple minutes, or get lost in the artwork for long stretches of time, which I must admit happened to me a few times, and I’m normally not the art guy at all.

Overall, if you didn’t get into the first issue of this series, this is not the place to jump in. It’s not the most accessible thing to people who aren’t already into the series. If that’s the case, check out the first one. On the other hand, I definitely recommend this issue, and don’t go with just the digital version – this one is all about the artwork, so buy a physical copy and go to town looking at all of it in its full size glory. Even though it’s a $3.99 book made up entirely of two page spreads, it’s completely worth it.

Zac Kandell (known mostly on the internet as Mischlings) has spent too long wondering if this should even be considered a comic, but stopped once that started to get in the way of the fun of actually reading it. If you find what he says interesting, follow him on Twitter at @Mischlings or check out his personal blog.

Review: Violent Cases

The new reissue of Violent Cases has three introductions and an afterword, each pulled from earlier editions: its original 1987 release and the 1991, 1997 and 2003 reissues. So this isn’t a new comic, but maybe you haven’t seen it before. There aren’t many comics like it, even so many years after it was originally published. Violent Cases is written by Neil Gaiman and, much like his Sandman comics, it reads like a half-remembered dream (or a long-forgotten memory), but it wouldn’t be nearly as effective without Dave McKean‘s illustrations. It’s a graphic novella, or rather an illustrated short story about memory, childhood, magicians, and Al Capone: the sort of unlikely combination of themes that Gaiman is known for. 

The plot of the comic revolves around a man remembering events from his childhood. The story is pretty simple, but the way it’s told is interesting. Details of the story emerge as the narrator remembers them, and he changes them as he goes. The most obvious example is the face of the osteopath. The narrator can’t remember if his face looked one way or another, so combines the two images to create a new (admittedly fabricated) appearance of the man, and changes his mind again later in the story. As for the writing, it’s pretty good, but it’s always apparent in Gaiman’s comics that he has a background in literature, and that isn’t always good. He tends to rely on narration and delivering exposition through text rather than art, and that emphasis is very heavy in Violent Cases.

Luckily, the artwork more than makes up for that, putting the details of the story together into disparate images that are just as shaky as the narrator’s memories. The artwork is rough like a sketch, with images scattered through different panels. The original 1987 printing of the story was in black and white, but each reissue since then been in color. Still, there’s very little color in it. It’s only there as punctuation, to draw your eye to a detail. It’s an unusual choice, but it’s effective. This story only needs so much color; anything more seems unnecessary. Besides, I’m sure the narrator doesn’t remember what color everything was. The lack of color, if anything, helps tie together the artwork and the text.

Besides the heavy narration, I’ve only got one complaint about this book, and that’s the lettering. I know it’s supposed to look handwritten and perhaps it’s intentionally hard to read, but it’s an obstacle between the reader and the text. Maybe the printed version looks better than the digital one I’m looking at, but I don’t know. Other than that, Violent Cases is a solid book, and it holds up just as well in 2013 as it did in 1987.

taken from http://www.darkhorse.com

Alan Moore‘s introduction from 1987 talks about comics “growing up” as an art form, but that process doesn’t seem to have gone very far since then. A book like Violent Cases is still unusual in comics, as is anything else that attempts this kind of story, without action and superheroes. However, I think there’s still room for both paradigms in comics, superhero comics and cartoons as well as more serious storytelling. They both do something that the other can’t provide, but it’s true that comics still aren’t always taken seriously as an art form. Books like Violent Cases can change that perception somewhat, but it’s a very slow process and might require a change in the way we think about (and buy) comics. I won’t speculate about that any more than I have; that’s not the purpose of this review, and it’s very likely that I’m talking nonsense at this point.

Which is probably a good sign that I should wrap up this review. If you haven’t run into Violent Cases before now, go ahead and pick it up. The cover price of $24.99 is pretty standard for a hardcover book like this. The story is pretty short, but it’s worth it just for the artwork. If you’ve ever read Sandman before, you’ll know what to expect broadly in terms of the writing and style, but this is still a very different comic from most others you’ll read.

Danilo Culibrk, aka Augustus, is a staff writer for the Red Shirt Crew. He doesn’t think a violent case is a good place to store a violin, or a typewriter for that matter. You can follow his ramblings through his own memories on Twitter at @Augustusing.

Review: Akaneiro – the Path of Cloak and Wolf

Each review we’ve done of individual Akaneiro issues has been by a different author, so I was asked to do this one. The Path of Cloak and Wolf is actually a hardcover collection of those three issues together in one volume, so naturally I’m going to compare my thoughts about this comic to those of my fellow Red Shirt Crew writers and discuss a few of the points they brought up. I guess you could just read their reviews, but they each focused on one issue. I think this miniseries as a whole ends up greater than just the sum of its parts.

The other reviewers already mentioned that Akaneiro: the Path of Cloak and Wolf is a prequel to a video game, Akaneiro: Demon Hunters, but they didn’t really talk about the influences on Akaneiro except that it’s an adaptation of “Red Riding Hood.” Well, most of the inspiration for the setting and mythology of this comic doesn’t come from that story, but from Ainu mythology and Japanese folklore. So that’s not just made up, but I think the Red Hunters are, as well as the karma crystals they collect. I imagine the crystals only exist because of the video game, but I wouldn’t have noticed that if I didn’t know about the game beforehand. In the end, this comic is better than most video game tie-ins though. It stands up pretty well as a comic by itself, not just in relation to the game.

While the story benefits from the inclusion of Japanese folklore, it doesn’t require you to know much about that. There aren’t really any interesting surprises in the plot itself. It really is just a classic story with a twist, but I don’t really mind that. Justin Aclin‘s writing is pretty good for the most part, but he does rely too much on narration in some sections where the artwork could have shown events in a more clear and concise way.

So the story isn’t exceptional, but at least Vasilis Lolos‘ artwork is interesting. He has a pretty unusual style; his characters are very stylized, with exaggerated expressions and features. The artwork might not appeal to everyone; I didn’t really like his artwork in issues #8 and #9 of Conan the Barbarian, but I think it works in Akaneiro. It’s a very different story; Lolos’ style is better suited to it, and Michael Atiyeh’s colors probably have something to do with it too.

All three issues of Akaneiro are together in this book, and the complete miniseries ends up being better than the individual issues. I’ve read this kind of story a hundred times before, but Akaneiro isn’t the worst retelling of it. The story isn’t interesting or surprising, but it works well enough, and the artwork is good enough to hold up this comic by itself. Provided you like the art style and don’t mind the clichés in the plot, Akaneiro is a decent comic. Of course if you already like the video game, this will probably appeal to you, and for the cover price of $14.99 it’s not a bad deal.

Danilo Culibrk, aka Augustus, is a staff writer for the Red Shirt Crew. He’s definitely not a werewolf disguised in human form. You can follow him past the waterfall to the Akane camp on Twitter at @Augustusing.

Review: The Star Wars #3

Despite it being a fresh start for the series, an alternate universe taking just the main ideas and reusing them in a different context, there’s just one thing that I can’t get away from with regard to Star Wars, even in this series. For the second issue in a row, I’m not entirely sure what to make of it, and I have a lot of that for the series itself. I love the potential that it has, but I’m never quite sure what to make of what they actually do with it. With that in mind, let’s look at The Star Wars #3 (written by J. W. Rinzler, illustrated by Mike Mayhew).

As I mentioned in the previous review, a number of more familiar elements are starting to show up in this series. While they provide touchstones to know where we are in the storyline, the fact that the story has been changed so much from what it was before almost makes it more disorienting than anything else. I’d call it something like the Uncanny Valley of adaptation – there’s an odd mix of the old with the new that’s too much new to be a recreation, but too much old to be a re-imagining, and it just seems to be lacking a real identity on its own. One particular scene in this issue is drawn almost exactly like it was shot in A New Hope, and that serves mostly to throw me off from finally being able to see this as truly separate from the original. Recreating scenes almost exactly while an entirely different story we never saw is playing out in other parts of the issue gives me a sense of whiplash when reading.

I think that what’s bugging me the most, if anything, is that there are a few too many storylines going on all at once. When I get to the end of an issue, while each story there may have come to a good stopping point to be picked up again in the next issue, the issues don’t feel like they’re full, standalone stories. Good or bad, this series is being written for the trade, at which point it should make a lot more sense. As for now, there’s a bit too much going on.

Also, I mentioned something that might be controversial among Star Wars fans in the last review, and I can talk about it here, as it continues on in this issue. I’m talking about R2D2 (or, as he’s called here, Artwo Detwo). In this, he can talk. Not just in beeps and whistles, but actual speech. Honestly, this doesn’t bother me at all, but I expect that there are going to be a lot of fans who react badly to this. So long as he and C3PO (I mean Seethreepio, since this galaxy was so long ago they never heard of shorthand) continue their banter, which they do, I’m okay with it.

I’ve mostly gotten used to the art in this series, which sets aside the fears I had early on that the art style just wouldn’t click right. What stuck out at me is that C3PO seems to have a slightly changed design – he was always intended to look like Maria from Metropolis, but it’s even more pronounced in this design. Again, it’s a change that I don’t really mind, but it also seems like it was a change made for the sake of making a change. 

Overall, I’m still a little torn on this series. I’m going to continue to follow it, since I’m enjoying it so far, but not enough to give it an unconditional recommendation. It’s also a little more difficult to make the recommendation at $3.99 for the issue, so I’ll have to leave it up to you: How much do you want to read good but not great alternate universe Star Wars? That’s what it ultimately comes down to.

Zac Kandell (known mostly on the internet as Mischlings) is far prouder of a single joke in this review than he ever should be – hasn’t stopped laughing at it all day. If you find what he says interesting, follow him on Twitter at @Mischlings or check out his personal blog.

Review: Catalyst Comix #5

After a month with an extra Wednesday, Catalyst Comix has returned, marking one of my favorite times of the month. I made the mistake of looking at the solicits, however, and now have seen that this is a limited series, not an ongoing. We’re now at the halfway point here with Catalyst Comix #5 (written by Joe Casey, illustrated by Paul Maybury, Ulises Farinas, and Dan McDaid), which is rather depressing since I want this series to just keep on going, but we just have to appreciate what we have, especially when what we have is this good.

Amazing Grace continues to surprise me with how good it turned out to be. Even though this is the awkward second act of the main story, which isn’t quite as good as the previous issue, it still has a surprising amount of wit and really good dialogue. It does feel a bit like it’s setting up the final issue of its run as the main story more than telling its own story, but the dialogue and even the narrator makes up for that. Yes, I’m praising the yellow text boxes and the narrator, who has become irreverent and just plain bizarre, which is what I loved about the narrator from the beginning but, for some reason, was missing early on in this storyline. 

Wolfhunter and Elvis Warmaker – I mean, Agents of Change – seems to really be building up for when it takes its place as the lead story. Looking back on previous issues with this idea in mind, the rough spots at least make sense. Unlike I’d assume from the beginning, my nickname for this series seems to be mildly inaccurate – I’m not giving enough credit to Ruby, who’s being positioned as possibly the de facto lead character – though that is a difficult label to give someone when the story is more of an ensemble piece, she’s gone from afterthought to basically front and center. While the story by itself here isn’t the greatest, it does sow a lot of seeds for the run as the lead story, and on those terms, it does a really good job.

Ballad of Frank Wells keeps going in different directions that I expect it to each issue. When I think that there’s somewhere they’re specifically going or a concept they’re going to take and go with until the end of the series, they change things up slightly. Last time, I was slightly confused and disappointed by the ending, since it seemed like something intended for fans who already knew the characters, which locked me out of getting what might be a twist at the end of the issue. They pick back up with that in this issue, but only after yet another different direction they take the plot in – this series somehow manages to be really dense despite just 8 pages an issue – but they don’t fully explain who the new character is, so they’re either leaning too much on previous knowledge or waiting to put in more detail later. Those issues aside, the fact that they keep taking it in new directions even with the limited space makes the story really interesting, and it seems to have evened out the somewhat rough transition to the shorter format that the last issue struggled with.

Overall, I definitely recommend this issue like I have with every other issue in the series. They just keep doing a great job, even when there’s the occasional stumble in storytelling. I’m still surprised that Dark Horse is only charging $2.99 for this comic – it could easily be $3.99 given the number and consistent quality of the stories. It’s basically a steal for $2.99, so just buy it. Pick up the back issues if you haven’t been following them, too. They’re all worth it.

Zac Kandell (known mostly on the internet as Mischlings) isn’t sure how, but he managed to keep the running gag count to a minimum in this review. If you find what he says interesting, follow him on Twitter at @Mischlings or check out his personal blog.

Review: Baltimore – the Infernal Train #3

The first page of Baltimore – the Infernal Train #3 shows Lord Baltimore delivering one-liners as he kills vampires while on top of a moving train. I don’t really need to say anything else about this issue, but I guess you expect a full review. I did miss reviewing last month’s issue, so I guess I should make up for that. If you’re interested to see what I thought about the first issue, you can read my review here. Alternatively, you could read MaristPlayBoy’s two reviews of earlier Baltimore comics. But if you’ve never read Baltimore before, the very first issue is currently on sale for only $1. Baltimore started out as a pretty great comic, and it’s only gotten better with new issues.

I did read issue #2, and it was pretty good. We finally got to see Baltimore face-to-face with Judge Duvic. This month’s issue resolves most of the mystery surrounding the train, but opens up a whole new can of worms with some more information about the Red King and a hint as to why Baltimore is so good at killing monsters. Issue #3 is of course the last issue of the Infernal Train, so I don’t think we’ll be seeing much more of Signora Fulcanelli and her furnace, but there’s an interesting development with Judge Duvic toward the end of this issue. I don’t want to say anything more detailed, but this particular twist has been foreshadowed for a few issues now.

Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden‘s story and dialogue are as great as they’ve always been in this series, the highlights of course being Baltimore’s lines as he fights off the undead, as well as the descriptions of the ancient vampires and the Red King. Added to the exposition from last month’s issue, the big picture behind the vampire plague is really starting to develop, and it’s pretty cool.

Ben Stenbeck gets to draw bloody action scenes and explosions in this issue, and Dave Stewart is left with the choice of several shades of red in the Red King sequence (and of course all the blood and gore). In particular, the gruesome scene in the last few pages of the comic really stands out, and throughout the issue Stenbeck’s art is very efficient, showing a lot of action in just a few panels.

When Baltimore began, I was worried that it might end up being too similar to Hellboy or BPRD, or that it might end up like Lobster Johnson – full of cool action, but without much substance (I liked the Iron Prometheus, but the newer issues don’t seem as interesting). Thankfully, Baltimore is shaping up to be one of my favorite recent comics. Sure, it has some similarities to Hellboy, but Baltimore has carved out its own niche, with a unique setting and characters that are more interesting than you might expect at first.

Baltimore – the Infernal Train #3 is definitely worth the cover price of $3.50, and I highly recommend it to anyone reading this series. If you’re new to Baltimore, you should probably start from the beginning; a lot has happened up to this point in the story, and a few plot points won’t make as much sense without earlier events. Besides, the first issue is back for a while at a low price. If you like that, you’ll probably like the rest of the series.

Danilo Culibrk, aka Augustus, is a staff writer for the Red Shirt Crew. He’ll never rest until he tracks down the ancient vampire that cursed him with insomnia. You can follow him on the wings of giant bats on Twitter at @Augustusing.

Itty Bitty Hellboy #3: Review

Number 1 reason why I love this blog: I get to read Itty Bitty Hellboy, by Art Baltazar and Franco. I’m going to be honest, I’m kinda a fangirl for these two; I want them to sign my boobs and then say they love me too. I absolutely in love with this series and love every issue that comes out, and look forward to every new issue that I get to review. But it’s even more than that; most classic comic strips that you see in the paper start to get old because they recycle the same motifs: Garfield like lasagne and hates mondays, Charlie Brown can’t catch a break because Lucy is kinda a you-know-what. But Hellboy is always fresh and new and putting it in this comic book format allows for there to be more definite story arcs and can periodically introduce new characters. It’s actually brilliant and a job well done.

Hellboy is such a classic character that any and every re-imagining of him immediately comes under harsh scrutiny of loyal fans. I can’t say that I’m one of those loyal fans, but I do still wonder if this Hellboy lives up to the legacy of those preceding him. If you don’t think he does, please comment and let me know what you think. I’m going to refer to what comes at the end of the issue (don’t worry, no spoilers). At the end, Art (is it cool if I call you Art?) publishes fan letters from fans, a number of which are written by fathers that read it with their sons. It really touches my heart to see fathers who can share something with their sons and reminds me when my own dad pulled out his original teen titans to let me read when I wanted to be like him and read comics. This series is one that transcends age and bring everyone together and has an way of making everyone love it. Personally, I think that’s special.

This issue bring Hellboy to… well Hell. What could possibly go wrong? Well the answer may or may not surprise you because it seems that is actually quite a lot. Interestingly enough the pit of fire and brimstone is more like home than you know. They practically roll out the welcome mat and make hell as comfortable as possible, aside from the fire pits and demon infestation. And who sends them there? Well you’re gonna have to find that out on your own. This issue has all the funny and antics that you have grown to expect from Itty Bitty Hellboy and a couple of new characters that just add the revelry. 

Personally I love this book, but I’m sure you could have guessed that. And with of cover price of $2.99, why wouldn’t you see what all the fuss is about. To anyone that loves Hellboy, the Sunday funnies, or has kids, this comic is a must. I highly recommend it to even the twenty year old that lives down the hall from me and isn’t any of those things. For more information about the series, feel free to read my previous reviews. Otherwise quit considering it and just get it already. No regrets!

Brendan or bigmacd101 is currently working on a few projects that he hopes will make it to the mass media. Hold out hope that he will make an ass of himself on public internet. Until then keep reading his postings and be on the lookout for the next Itty Bitty Hellboy.