What I Bought 1/11/2019

Two weekends ago was our annual Snowpocalypse, 15-20 inches. We were supposed to get a few more inches this weekend, but we got basically nothing. We just get one big snow per winter these days, if that. Back to the regular grind, with two books left over from 2018.

Coda #7, by Simon Spurrier (writer), Matias Bergara (illustrator), Michael Doig (color assists), Jim Campbell (letterer) - I wonder what medieval fantasy worlds use for flameproof cloth? I hope it doesn't contain asbestos.

It's go time for Serka's plan. With a little help from the bandit-jester Notch, the opportunity arrives to sneak into the Whitlord's section of town. And while Hum is busy gathering the magic for his really stupid plan to try and remove the curse from his wife, Serka confronts the Whitlord and destroys him. Surprise! It's not actually a Whitlord, but it's also not some poser pretending to be one. The truth of who was behind it is a lot worse for our main characters. In the meantime, Serka's at loose ends, and Hum, like I said, is ready to do something stupid.

I'm very curious to see how this spell Hum's going to try works out. There's always consequences with magic in these stories, I figure it can go any of a number of ways, up to and including unmaking her entirely. Like it turns out an Urken can't be divorced from the curse, it's a core part of their makeup. Take it away and the entire person falls to pieces. Of course, there's always the chance he turns his brain back on and stops, but I doubt it.

In the meantime, there's also Notch (the bandit jester) to consider. She wants to climb the ladder, she may have a chance, since she knows who dispatched the Whitlord. But if she understands how things really work in their little community, I'm not sure how she'll react. I could see her not caring - a boss is a boss - but maybe not. So it's all up in the air.

The whole bit when Serka finally gets to confront the Whitlord looks gorgeous. There's a panel of the Whitlord speaking with these three mysterious guys, and there's a faint red glow around the Whitlord that almost looks like a mist, like an aura he's giving off. The panel of Serka obliterating the three mysterious guys in a frenzy of sword slashes. The best is a sequence where Hum rushes in trying to get her to calm down, and as he's talking, he's right next to her. The next panel, he's alone, because she's already into the next panel winding up for her attack. That implied speed, the "you blinked and missed it".

MegaGhost #1, by Gabe Soria (writer), Gideon Kendall (artist/colorist/letterer), Michael Robinson (color assists) -  This Captain Planet and the Planeteers reboot is weird, man. Seriously though, I can't tell if the title is "MegaGhost" or "Mega Ghost", because I've been seeing it both ways.

Young occultist explores spooky mansion, finds a cursed ring, puts the damn thing on without stopping to wonder if it's cursed or not. The ring lets him summon and control ghosts, or combine them into a giant ghost robot. Which he has to do to stop a giant fish god from rampaging through town. Day is saved, but there's a mad scientist behind the whole thing, so that'll be a problem.

It's an interesting idea, a mix of a lot of different things. There are some mysteries for Soria to tease out, like whether the previous wearer of that ring left their hand behind in that box willingly or not. I'm curious to see if Martin can summon and control any ghost, or just the three that emerged when he put on the ring.

For some reason, Kendall's art, at least for people as opposed to ghosts, reminds me of something out of MAD Magazine. I tried looking through the old collections of my dad's, and the closest I could find was some of Jack Davis' art in A MAD Look at the Movies, but I don't know. It's not a bad thing; the art looks good, it's just something about the main character's face, and some of the more cartoonish aspects of the ghosts and monsters. Martin does look fairly old for what I assume is supposed to be a teenager. Could just be how far back his hair sits on his head. The hair style fits for a book about a hero dealing with the occult, but it looks odd on a kid.