What I Bought 10/25/2019

I'm pretty sad to see Deadspin is quite possibly in its death throes, because the vulture capitalists shitheads running either don't know what the fuck they're doing, or don't care. Still, I like that, after telling the writers to "stick to sports", the writers turned around and posted about appropriate types of wedding attire and the good dogs they met while in Mexico. Go down swinging if you can.

Unrelated, I just figured out the Properties option for the images is how I can have alt text for the images I post. Damnit, I could have been working more stupid attempts at jokes into these posts for months now! I'm just going to use it for the scanned images I add, though. No sense going overboard.

Sera and the Royal Stars #4, by Jon Tsuei (writer), Audrey Mok (artist), Raul Angulo (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - I assume that's supposed to be an eye glowing yellow, but it looks like a mouth.

Sera and the two Stars, plus the guy on the cover, named Formalhaut, continue their journey through the underworld, trying to find a way out. Given they are being pursued by the mysterious people in purple robes, they decide to take the risk of asking the Council of the Dead, who are not ecstatic at all these other gods and a live human hanging around. But they also won't intervene when the purple-robed folks start a fight while Sera tries to dream their way out of here. And while she's trying to manage that, there's something inside her demanding to be let loose. I don't think it's the Spirit of the Dance, but you never know.

I figure these five issues have to just be the start of something larger, because I can't really see how this whole thing is going to be resolved with one issue to go. Especially not when Antares is making reference to 'great battle to come' that all the stars were supposed to take part in. Plus, it seems Sera's mother isn't actually dead, which raises the question of where she is, and why she didn't finish this quest. Is Sera being duped, is awakening the Royal Stars a mistake for humanity? Aldebaran mentions that, from their perspective at least, all life on Earth exists because Ra, the Sun, dreamed them into existence. If you awaken someone and you're a function of their dream, will you vanish?

I like the variety of underworlds, representing various belief systems. I don't which one involves caves with giant mushrooms, Luigi and Mario's perhaps, but it looks like a cool place to visit. Certainly wouldn't want to spend eternity there, though. The design for the creatures that attack Dream Sera are interesting. Flowers that come to life, but insectlike appendages formed out of the petals as needed. Creepy thing to have chasing you while you look for a bridge, that's for sure.

Steeple #2, by John Allison (writer/artist), Sarah Stern (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - I actually got the variant cover, because it was in the front of the stack of copies. Plus it looks like the Reverend is fighting a couple of Swamp Things, which I think means Mike Sterling is legally compelled to buy this.

Billie decides she's not leaving after what she learned last issue, but she's not down with the monster punching. She's going to do community outreach, but hits a snag at convincing dissolute teens to take an interest. Until, after a chat with Maggie, she convinces them cleaning up litter will really stick it to their rival in Boscastle.

These have got to be pretty stupid teenagers to fall for that. Then it starts raining and the two muck creatures emerge from the sea. The Reverend's having a little trouble fighting his, but Billie has somehow had a pleasant conversation with the one that followed her and the trash patrol to the church. The Reverend's not ready to buy into the power of friendship, and Billie's not prepared for what goes on at the Church of Satan. 'Wow. This place is certainly quite. . . orgy forward.' is a heck of an observation. There are a lot of funny lines in this, which is not a shock if you've read Giant Days. Really, as tempting as it for me to just list dialogue that made me laugh, you should just go buy the comic yourself. You'll probably laugh harder that way.

Allison's art style always looks kind of simple to me, but it works. There's enough range each character is easily identifiable. Different body types, clothing styles, helps to make them memorable. Well, I suppose Billie and the Reverend dress the same, but that's unavoidable given their profession, and they don't look or act similar at all, so it's not an issue. Billie has those big round glasses, which somehow make her eyes look even bigger. You'd think since she so often has a wide-eyed, shocked expression, the size of the glasses would make her eyes look smaller in comparison. I guess they're large enough compared to the rest of her face to counteract that. I'm actually very impressed by how Mrs. Clovis can manage to scowl in so many different ways. There's one page she scowls in every panel, but it always looks slightly different. That must take a lot of practice.