What I Bought 1/4/2021 - Part 3

Speaking as a resident of Missouri, Josh Hawley's a fucking embarrassment. If he had any integrity, he'd resign his position. Obviously he doesn't, since he's acting like the First Amendment guarantees him the right to a book deal, so I'd like to see him jailed for sedition. Not gonna happen, and the fucking dumbasses in this state likely won't vote him out in four years, but I can have hopes.

Saved the one book that was wrapping up for the last post. Was that a good idea? Probably not any worse than saving any of the other comics for this spot.

Atlantis Wasn't for Tourists #4, by Eric Palicki (writer), Wendell Cavalcanti (artist), Mark Dale (colorist), Shawn Lee (letterer) - It's not actually a nighttime/daytime-related transformation, FYI.

While Lucas confronts the sheriff and keeps him talking, Lauren finds her dad, or the vampire running around in his body on the nearby roof and deals with him. Lucas uses the sheriff as a bullet shield against the lady deputy who likes to snipe people, and she decides to beat feet. The really big deputy is. . . possessed by Cthulu I think? One of Cthulu's offspring? I don't know Lovecraft, I'm not sure how it works. He gets a knife in the throat, I assume he's dead.

Which leaves one cop in town and no vampires, and Lucas says Ed can either shoot him, or arrest him, because Lucas surrenders. Ed opts for the more lawful approach, and then Lucas breaks out anyway. But I guess it was important for Ed to show he was going to uphold the laws. On his way out of town, Lucas is abducted by the lady deputy, who had some deal with the sheriff which was never completed. She says if Lucas doesn't help, she'll kill him and then everyone in town. I didn't see anything out of her that makes me think she could pull the latter off, but Lucas isn't much of a gambler I guess.

So they left it open for another story. Palicki hinted at the wider array of supernatural things that are out there. Lucas still hasn't made it to Seattle to confront his father, and we never found out who that message he gave the soda distributor was intended for. So there's some open-ended potential there, I guess. They kind of have to change the name of the book though, since it seems like they're done with Atlantis. I guess there could be more than one city with that name, like how there's a bunch of Columbias or Charlestons in the world. Next time Lucas travels to Atlantis, Arizona and fights scorpion people!

 

I'm trying to figure out the strategy behind the coloring choices. Mostly the backgrounds are muted greys and browns for a boring downtown area at night. But there are certain panels where the backgrounds are just a yellow or orange backdrop. Starting with the panel where Lauren opens her dad's head up with the shovel. The last few are when Billy is beating up Lucas, although the color has shifted towards more of an orange by then. But in between, most of the panels on a page where Lucas is tricking the sheriff into revealing the sniper's location are like that. I could see using it for the panels that are her looking through the scope, but Dale also uses it for two panels in between, one that's a close-in on Lucas, the other a close-up of her finger on the trigger.

I did finally figure out that when the solicit said "Lovecraft meets Leone", it meant Leone in the sense of a lone stranger arriving in town and turning things upside-down. Which is not really a Leone thing so much as a Western or samurai flick thing, but OK.

What I Bought 11/20/2020 - Part 2

One perk of my job is definitely the paid vacation time. So nice to take most of this week off. The tradeoff is all the less-pleasant aspects. Like dealing with angry people who blame me for their poor choices in elected officials. Two Wednesdays from now is going to suck.

But that's a problem for Two Wednesdays From Now Calvin. Right Now Calvin is reviewing the other comic he bought last week.

Atlantis Wasn't Built for Tourists #3, by Eric Palicki (writer), Wendell Cavalcanti (artist), Mark Dale (colorist), Shawn Lee (letterer) - Was not expecting an Apocalypse Now homage cover. 

So the sheriff clocked Lucas with a shovel. Drags him back to the jail and chains him to chair, wanting to know if there's reinforcements coming. Technically, Lucas should be expecting something from the note he sent with the soda distributor in issue 1, because he shouldn't know that guy got killed, but instead we get Lucas' origin. Which is that his mother's New England fishing town offered her up as a bride of sorts to the mermen that lived off the coast, in exchange for continued good fish catches.

Lucas kind of hates this town because the sheriff is fine with vampires, because the fear of them keeps everyone in town in line and law-abiding. He thinks it benefits the town, and if a few people suffer, oh well. I can see how that would hit home. Plus, the sheriff's a dumbass who thinks the vampire in his brother's body is someone he can trust. Ah well, small-town sheriffs being tin dictators and morons is a well-established trope. Probably because it's accurate.

The sheriff's niece gets Lucas out, after she grabs something from her wrecked truck. The escape isn't exactly quiet, so now there's a very large deputy after them. Possibly half-Bigfoot. Not sure if Lucas was joking about the 'shaved Sasquatch.' I mean, he's half-sea person, there's vampires, I'm not ruling out someone fucking a Bigfoot.

 

With, I think, only one issue to go, I'm curious if Palicki is going to draw all these threads together. maybe some of them never end up coming into play. Or are left dangling for some potential sequel. I can't see Lucas' story ending here, for one. The idea of the large deputy as the sheriff's defense against a vampire betrayal kind of came of late in the game, it feels like. And maybe it's irrelevant at the moment, seeing as all the vampires except one are dead. Be interesting to see how all this falls together.

Although I wonder if Lucas is even telling the truth about anything. If he was conceived in Massachusetts, how does he know his father is near Seattle? There some hive mind connection in that heritage? A lot of literature on the migration patterns of Creatures of the Black Lagoon salt-water cousins?

What I Bought 11/2/2020 - Part 2

Hello there! Greetings from last Thursday! Hopefully my entire country isn't on fire as you read this! If it is, I hope you are in a different, less insane locale. Today's selection is two comics, each with overly lengthy titles!

Atlantis Wasn't Built for Tourists #2, by Eric Palicki (writer), Wendell Cavalcanti (artist), Mark Dale (colorist), Shawn Lee (letterer) - Oh crap, upside-down world. Or is it invisible zombie world?

Sheriff Dale isn't too pleased to find Lucas didn't get scared off by the vampires eating a drunk in the jail last night. The sheriff explains over morning beers that his brother, the former sheriff, caused all this by making a deal with the vampires to avoid dying of cancer. Well, when your job doesn't provide adequate health insurance. . .

Lucas makes a deal with the sheriff to wipe them all out, but when he gets down to the last one, the sheriff cracks him in the head with a shovel. 'Cause the last one's his brother. So the question is, which way is this double-cross running? Do Lucas and the sheriff want Jack to think he's got things in hand, or did the sheriff trick Lucas? I'd suspect the latter, but the sheriff sounds like he's always played second fiddle to his brother. Jack was sheriff first, Dale dated Jack's wife first, but she married Jack instead. Now Dale's sheriff, but Jack and his vamps are the ones who really run things. Maybe Dale'd like to get his brother out of the way once and for all, be the big man.

I'm curious if the townspeople live with this because they don't see another option, or because the vampires are friends and family, and they'd rather have them alive in this form than not at all. Is it fear that makes the town close ranks rather than seek help, or a sense of community? "He ain't heavy, he's my vampire brother."

Cavalcanti still has a lot of panels that seem to zoom in real close on a character's face. I don't really know why. If it's meant to be dramatic, it's not really working. Because most of the time, there's a layered meaning to what they're saying, but since we don't know all the mysteries yet, it just seems strangely ominous. Like one of those parody horror movies where the creepy weirdo says something like, "I make a steak that's to. . . die for." with really heavy emphasis on die and the other characters are like, "OK, great, weirdo."

The fight scene in the cave between Lucas and the horde of vampires was kind of fun, if brief. For a moment I thought the blood on his arms was matching the pattern of his arm tattoo, but no. I do wonder how, if the vampire can protect himself from the sun by pulling up the hood on his sweatshirt, his hands aren't burning? They're not covered. The mysteries of vampires are legion.

Sympathy for No Devils #1, by Brandon Thomas (writer), Lee Ferguson (artist), Jose Villarubia (colorist), Simon Bowland (letterer) - That squirrel thing wants to know when it can go back inside its stump. It wasn't doin' nothing wrong, just tryin' to live my life here officer! That OK with you?

Winston Wallis was a cop, now he's a private investigator. He's also the last human left, the rest of the planet inhabited by people that look like ogres or insect people or whatever. he ends up in the middle of a crime scene run by his old partner, Raleigh, who would like Winston's help. Apparently, three years ago, a colossus was murdered, and something bad happened when Winston and Raleigh tried to solve the case. Three years to the day, another colossus turns up dead in the exact same spot. Why that spot is in Carson City, Nevada would seem to be the biggest mystery. Perhaps the rest of the world is a barely inhabitable wasteland, except Nevada is already that in our world sooooo. . .

Oh, and the newest victim's wife, a lovely blue lady named Jacinda who implies Raleigh is a bent cop wants to hire Winston to find her husband. Well, he's right there on the cover of this comic. Another case closed! Top that Sherlock Holmes.

The comic seems to be narrated by Winston's assistant, a little pink thing who looks like he's missing an eyestalk named Floyd. Floyd's writing a book, and plotting Winston's doom so he he can be reunited with somebody. Unless that's just literary license. A disgruntled employee releasing his frustration through revenge fantasy stories. Which means I don't know how seriously to take all the stuff about how Winston's like all the humans were, and can't help tearing things down. The perspective could be a little slanted, you know? Granted I'm not clear on if all these other folks used to be human, or if the other humans are all dead and were replaced by these folks. Or how long any of this has been this way. Questions for another day.

Ferguson's art has a bit of Mike Parobeck or Rich Burchett in it. Most notably with Jacinda, but also with most of the non-Winston characters. Straightforward designs, sort of the Star Trek alien approach. Different people distinguished by colors or having a couple of horns or a fin on their head. Clean strong linework, some cross-hatching in the close-ups, but not to a distracting degree. Winston's a little rougher looking, but he's the outlier in this world, so that tracks. I don't know if the others age like humans, slower, faster, or what, but Winston's clearly meant to be getting on in years. Gets worn out running and fighting more than Raleigh. 

I'm curious to see if the rainbow-colored blood is going to be a consistent thing. They use it on the cover, and again at the crime scene in the beginning of the book. If it is blood. Maybe it's saliva.

What I Bought 9/28/2020 - Part 1

Fall has come to the area. Which is good. I like fall so much more than summer. I can go for a walk and not sweat like crazy. Better enjoy it while I can. So, hey, comics! Got one book from September, one book from August, Friday's a book from July, I think.

Atlantis Wasn't Built for Tourists #1, by Eric Palicki (writer), Wendell Cavalcanti (artist), Mark Dale (color artist), Shawn Lee (letterer) - How deceptively placid. I'm sure nothing bad could happen in such a place!

Lucas is walking down the road and is nearly hit by a drunk driver. Then he's a nice enough guy to carry the injured drunk out of their wrecked car to the nearest town. The sheriff is the drunk's uncle, and offers to let Lucas sleep on the couch in the station for the night, since there are no motels. Then a bunch of vampires march in during the night to eat the drunk who broke curfew. Lucas lets them do it, but when one of them tries to attack him, he kills it because he's a lizard-man? A basilisk? A kobold? I don't know what you call him. He asks to partner up with the rest of them, but the next morning, he asks a soda delivery guy if he will call someone once he gets to where he has cell service. Except a cop shoots the guy's truck and blows it up on the way out of town.

Well, this isn't exactly what I was expecting from a book described as "Lovecraft meet Leone". Vampires are kind of mundane for Lovecraft, aren't they? But, OK, my fault for reading solicitations. The book we have though, is interesting. Who was Lucas trying to get ahold of? What is the deal with the vampires? Was the cop who shot the truck's fuel tank acting under or orders, or did they have a personal interest? So there's intrigue, which is usually enough to get me to stick around for a while.

Cavalcanti's work leans towards a realistic side. Doesn't exaggerate much in the expressions, body language, body types. The vampires are basically people with sharp teeth and some of the time, black eyes with red pupils. Which does make Lucas' transformation more notable, although even isn't presented as being too weird. Like, the vampires don't seem to know what he is, but also don't seem confused by him, either. Lot of heavy shading on the faces, especially for the cops, but also on Lucas. A couple of times I think he overdoes it on the extra lines on faces, but maybe that's just because there are so many panels that seem to be close-ups on faces.

Wicked Things #5, by John Allison (writer), Max Sarin (artist), Whitney Cogar (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - A guy who uses his knights. A player after my own heart. I hope he's better at it than I am.

Lotte's trying to help the police with a string of casino robberies, by picking the brain of her housemate Bulldog. She seems surprisingly unconcerned about finding out who attacked Miyamoto and framed her for it, but explains a) the cops are keeping her busy, and b) once he wakes up, he'll i.d. the actual attacker and she's off the hook. If he wakes up. In the meantime, her friend Claire is trying to question people on the case, and so far is stuck with either vapid imbeciles, or Miyamoto's assistant Maki who may be nuts. As shown by the visual representation of the scene she says she found.

Like something out a Ren and Stimpy episode.

I love that the casino robbers used a forklift for one of their heists. I don't love that they drove it through a second-story wall and then just left it crashed outside. The driving it through the wall part is cool, especially if they were riding it at the time and jumped off into the back of a flatbed filled with pillows, but who's cleaning up that forklift? I'm not your mother!

The last page says "to be concluded" so I guess it's going to be a mini-series? Unless there's been enough sales they'll go ahead and turn it into an ongoing like Giant Days. Fingers crossed. I expect things will be wrapped up next issue, whenever that comes out. I haven't seen a solicit for issue 6 through December at least.