Saturday Splash Page #235

"Out of the Box," in West of Sundown #1, by Tim Seeley and Aaron Campbell (writers), Jim Terry (artist), Triona Farrell (color artist), Crank! (letterer)

Dooley O'Shaughnessy's an Irish immigrant deeply regretting getting involved in the American Civil War. As it's only 1861, he's got several years of it to go. Unless he dies in battle. Or happens to unearth a vampire who tried to sleep out the conflict in a grave.

Remarkable though the odds are, it's the third thing that happens, and Dooley spends the next decade as Constance der Abend's loyal assistant, helping her to slake her thirst on the corrupt or wicked. Robber barons, child killers, highwaymen, people like that. Until someone burns her home, and the native soil within her coffin, forcing Constance to return to the place of her birth. A town sits there now, Sangre de Moro, and it's home to its fair share of monsters.

The book ran 10 issues, split into 5-issue arcs, in 2022 and 2023. The first arc was Constance (or Rosa, as her birth name) trying to get some soil from where she was born, and finding her birthplace now home to some strange cult. She and Dooley are also pursued by Frankenstein's Monster and a creepy little scientist by the name of Griffin. The Monster found God and decided the Lord said kill monsters. Griffin just wants to dissect strange things in the hopes of unlocking the keys to something more.

In the second arc, the quartet have come to an uneasy detente, but new agents move into town at the behest of Dr. Moreau, and play to both Constance's ego (she was a renowned opera singer in New York before the flight west) and her thirst (she's trying to only feed on the evil, but the town is too small and lacking in such people.)

Seeley and Campbell pull in horror elements from a lot of sources. Unfortunately, most of them are ones I'm not familiar with, so any significance kind of whizzes right past me. I recognize Moreau selling the land he'd purchased to a brokerage in England run by a Renfield is a Dracula reference. That the "blind god" Griffin sees when he lets Moreau experiment on him is probably Lovecraftian. Maybe the grey little things roaming the wilderness that cry "ooot!" and have a paralytic tongue are (Canadian?) chupacabras. The fact Constance's father became a werewolf by eating part of the dog he killed trying to protect his wife and child (killing his wife in the process)? Don't get that. Is that a normal method of becoming a werewolf? I thought they had to bite you, not the other way around.

That's probably not an issue, other than I'm missing details. Seeley and Campbell establish that this or that constitutes a Problem, and the cast need to confront it. Terry and Farrell, who illustrate the entire series, keep the threats grounded and solid, only veering occasionally into something that hints at being beyond perception. Moreau's beast-people are basically human, just with animals parts stitched on here and there. But there's a banshee in the second arc, and her face is kept in shadow, save for her teeth, which gleam out of that darkness. In the first arc, the quartet pass through some weak point between dimensions and encounter something that's possessed a horse. Terry and Farrell channeled some strong Berni Wrightson for that creature.

The series really revolves around Constance and Dooley's relationship, and that's where I think it falls short. Not that it's a poorly set up relationship. Dooley feels grateful to Constance for helping him escape the war and educating him, but is growing increasingly uneasy at what he's part of. Constance likes Dooley, probably sees him as a bit of a wayward youth (he's an adult, but she's over 200, so it's a fair perspective) to guide and tease. She cares about him enough to mediate her hunger, but at the same time, resents him a little for his morality that constrains her.

The issue is, Seeley and Campbell leave a lot of things unresolved, or meat on the bone, if you prefer. The first arc turns on Dooley and the Monster, and to a lesser extent, Griffin, deciding to try and deal with this crazy cult leader who has his followers drinking the blood of Constance's father to try and ascend to some higher plane. Constance wants no part of it, until her father (who she claims to despise and want to see dead) points out she cares about Dooley. Then she turns around and shows up to help. Why then, due to words of someone she doesn't care about?

That isn't resolved by the second arc, when Dooley seems bent on trying to protect the citizens of Sangre de Moro from supernatural threats, but can't do much on his own. Even the Monster is limited. A lot of it falls to Constance, who still doesn't really care. Even with her native soil readily at hand, she needs blood, and desires praise from people she thinks are worth it. (Bit of a social climber.) When the eastern businessmen, Moreau's lackeys, show up, talking about bringing the railroad through town, which will mean more people, specifically more evil people, Constance is all ears. That they promise to build an opera house, praise her singing, only makes the offer sweeter.

But even if Constance acknowledges they played on her ego, and she should have listened to Dooley, the core problem is not resolved. Whether she continues to help Dooley with his defender of the night act or not, she's a vampire. She needs blood. Sangre de Moro is a pissant, backwater town in the middle of the desert. If she's going to willingly restrict her potential prey, she's going to starve. No solution is offered, not even Dooley occasionally opening a vein for her. The friction between Dooley's Christian morality, and the necessities of Rosa's existence, remain unaddressed.

(She comments once during their flight west, that if he can't find someone, she may have to feed on him. Dooley treats it as a joke. I don't think it was.)

Maybe if the book continued, they were going to address that, but it's been over 3 years, so I doubt anything is on the way. 

What I Bought 5/1/2023 - Part 1

I took today off, intending to have a 4-day weekend, but I have to work on Monday after all. A public meeting no less. Forgoing a holiday to be yelled at by NIMBY morons. I do not expect to be in a good mood next week. Risk of me saying something I shouldn't at work: rising. Let's keep rolling through last month's books.

West of Sundown #10, by Tim Seeley and Aaron Campbell (writers), Jim Terry (artist), Triona Farrell (colorist), Crank! (letterer) - Another proud graduate of Hollywood Upstairs Medical College, joining the ranks of Dr. Nick Riveria.

Moreau's work on Griffin pushes him beyond Moreau's control, and possibly beyond Rosa's ability to fight. He's apparently linked to Azathoth, if I'm right that "blind idiot god" is referring to Lovecraft rather than some other writer. Thank goodness for Internet search engines.

The sheriff confronts one of Moreau's creations, who was the guy with milky blood he was supposed to have killed after the Civil War, for being too honest. He apologizes, and gives him a sheriff's badge, and the guy decides to protect all the people Moreau abducted and lobotomized. Which I guess means it's good Dooley and the others did refuse to fight them when they attacked. On the other hand, Dooley and the others were about to be torn apart until Rosa showed up. It's fine if you don't want to fight and kill with hate in your heart, but that doesn't mean you got to stand there like waiting for a firing squad.

Moreau's scheme is toast and he retreats to Europe, where a guy named Renfield suggests maybe trying a tropical island next time. And perhaps Mr. Renfield has another client who would be interested in America. . .

This seems to be the conclusion of the story for now, and the answers the characters found don't seem to address the problems they had. Part of the reason, beyond ego, she was vulnerable to the promises of Moreau's lickspittles was she was starving from lack of evil people to feed from. Moreau and said lickspittles are dead or gone. The railroad may or may not be coming through Sangre de Moro, so how will she feed? Dooley seems to have come to a realization about why he originally joined Rosa (beyond wanting out of the war), but while he wants to choose mercy, again, Rosa's gonna need to eat. How are those two things going to be compatible?

Nature's Labyrinth #5, by Zac Thompson (writer), Bayleigh Underwood (artist), Warnia Sahadewa (colorist), Rus Wooton (letterer) - Just time your jumps carefully, and watch out for the flying Koopas that rise and fall.

The Shield, the Flame, and the Sword are the only three left officially in the game. They aren't being exciting enough, so the guy in control makes it so they can track each other, and tells them secrets about each other. Sadly, Flame and Sword decide they're still killin' buddies and try to tag team Shield. Which doesn't work, but it makes for a good fight.

Bit gruesome in places, and I continue to be confused by how much damage what appear to be otherwise average humans can take in this and keep going, but fun all the same. There's a nice flow to the action, Underwood and Thompson use the setting and the fact there are traps in the maze to mix things up a bit.

Shield had a point she could have attacked Sword while he was distracted murdering other folks, but she passed it up. Would have made life easier later, but the point seems to be she's trying to survive, but without playing along to the game any more than necessary. Sword and Flame both bought in fully to just having fun with the whole experience.

So the Shield wins, and it appears that involves the crazy old guy coming after her with a halberd. That's not much of a prize. Meanwhile, the podcaster guy was captured by the feral kid and his mom. The kid thinks the whole reality show thing is "for boomer losers", but also thinks the real money is in crypto, so everyone's a freaking scumbag. I liked the kid better when I thought he was basically a wolf-child. Anyway, looks like the last issue with be J dealing with halberd guy, and the podcaster running from the crypto-brat. Thompson has played so much hinting about the podcaster that it's going to have to be one heck of a reveal in the last issue to pay it off. Assuming he doesn't just leave it a mystery, which I wouldn't rule out.

On the penultimate page, Sahadewa colors two panels with a salmon-colored filter over everything. It seems like it's the crypto-brat's POV, so I thought maybe he had a tactical scope or goggles, but Underwood doesn't draw anything like that when we see him on the next page. Don't know what the purpose of that style choice was, then.

What I Bought 4/3/2023 - Part 2

We did get a little hail Tuesday night, but not large enough to be damaging. Let's hear it for that. Hip, hip, whew.

That out of the way, move on to a couple of titles in the middle of stories. At least, one of them is, and the other feels like it.

West of Sundown #9, by Tim Seeley and Aaron Campbell (writers), Jim Terry (artist), Marissa Louise (colorist), Crank! (letterer) - Not looking too good there.

Dooley, Dirck and Cumberland drink some peyote and go wandering in the general direction of where they might find Moreau's creations. Seems like a bad idea to try and hunt monsters while hallucinating your own demons, but I guess the idea is to slay personal demons first, so the mind is clear. That hasn't really seemed like the problem the guys were having up to now; more that they weren't fully aware of what they were facing, but it's the best explanation I've got.

Rosa is very close to feeding on Betty, when Betty acts as host for the banshee-thing Rosa killed at the start of this arc. Terry keeps Betty's face in shadow for those panels, only enormous teeth and tiny golden-yellow eyes visible. The banshee reminds Rosa she's gone astray from punishing the corrupt in favor of being praised.

Again, I feel I'm on a very different page from Seeley and Campbell here. I was under the impression Rosa fed on the corrupt because it was somewhat satisfying, and it kept Dooley from objecting too loudly from serving her, allowing her to keep a close friend. Her problem now, which Moreau's agents seized on, is there's no one in this little town corrupt enough for Rosa to eat. She's starving, weakened, and susceptible because of it. Again, how has this issue been addressed?

Finally, Griffin has agreed to let Moreau experiment on him, which involves injecting him with the blood of the weird little creature Griffin kept caged up under his table. This appears to have expanded Griffin's perceptions, but also possible made him nuts. Or mindless, it's not entirely clear.

It feels like this should end next issue. Griffin's embraced his dreams, Dooley and the boys have faced their demons, and the sheriff seems determined to do so. Moreau's exposed and running low on subordinates with any intelligence, but there could be turns coming I can't see. Mostly, I've kept expecting Dooley and Rosa's differences of opinion to lead this arc, and it hasn't happened. They each are off doing their own thing.

Agent of WORLDE #4, by Deniz Camp (writer), Filya Bratukhin (artist), Jason Wordie (colorist), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer) - And with that careless littering, he irrevocably altered time, creating a world where it rains doughnuts.

Phillip starts out shooting a conceptual parasite that's feeding on the soul of a President that looks a lot like Trump. Then he goes on vacation. Phillip, I mean. The remainder of the issue moves between three settings. In one, the roboticist Phillip fought in the first issue refuses to build weapons for Phillip's intelligent orangutan boss, because it's his day off.

In the second, a new employee at WORLDE, called The Dream, wanders through the place, with Bratukhin stuffing the panels full of little sight gags and references (like a case with a cowled skeleton labeled, "Remains of Elaborate Wayne, Detail-Oriented Detective of Baroque City") trying to figure out where he's meant to go. His path leads to the Chairman of the Board, a rather imposing woman who seems to cause the info-dump text boxes to go nuts.

Then there's Phillip and his family vacation. His youngest daughter is nervous about starting school, and when one of the boys is mean to her on her first day, Phillip blows up the kid's house and does something to the kid. It looks like the same gun from the beginning of the issue is in the back seat of Phillip's car, and he said it was capable of shattering a soul. On the other hand, the little thing floating in its containment chamber are smiling, and the ones he shot near the President looked more malevolent.

That's where the issue ends. There's no, "to be continued", but it's an odd place for things to cut off. There's the possibility that none of these three scenes are linear, or occurring in the order they appear. That Phillip's family is a combination of the roboticist's work and the Dream. To give Phillip something he wants to protect enough that he won't go against them. Throughout this series, Phillip has ruthlessly torn apart family after family because WORLDE told him to, only to go home to his own happy, allegedly secret, family.

That feels too pat for this book, though. The orangutan told the roboticist he killed his father, the doctor who gave him intelligence, because the doctor refused to change. Most likely, refused to compromise morally the way WORLDE demanded. Oleg works, except on holidays, because he still has one child left, even if it's confined to a talking stuffed bear and is terribly miserable. But he can have access to tools to make its life a little better.

Phillip's just damaged goods, I think. He wants to be this regular dad and husband, but he's been raised to be a weapon from birth. And for all his protests about not wanting to do the horrible things he does, he still does them. When his daughter is sad, it's her mother who tries to comfort her, who tells her to accept her feelings rather than run from them. Phillip goes and does something terrible to a child. Are that kid's parents dead now, leaving him an orphan? Or they left with an essentially breathing corpse, all because he was mean to the wrong kid? Maybe, but Phillip doesn't care. He whistles while he mutilates. Literally, Bratukhin draws him whistling as he walks away from the exploding house. Because that's the way Phillip knows to be. That's what you do to threats.

I'm not sure how The Dream fits in. Part of me thinks he's what Phillip stole from the kid (again, assuming these events are not happening simultaneously.) Which is why it feels like there's more of this to come.

What I Bought 1/28/2023 - Part 1

Spent last Saturday helping my dad get his car to his mechanic to check the alternator. The dangers of driving a car old enough to run for the House of Representatives. Now if only he would get his truck (which is merely legally old enough to drink alcohol) running, he'd really be in business. Anyway, time to dive into the remaining books from last month.

West Moon Chronicle #2, by Frank Jun Kim (writer), Joe Bocardo (artist), Manoli Martinez (colorist), El Torres (letterer) - Super-tight leather pants would seem really uncomfortable if one already has fur.

Maddy explains that 18 years ago, some goblin guy she and Jae-Sun knew stole her kid and dove through the lake back to his realm, with her on his heels. But he's in some floating fortress and they need some wood from the tree he emerged from to trap him, according to Maddy's dragon friend. They get the wood, the fox lady steals a glowy orb the dragon's holding, which turns red in her jaws and when Jae-Sun's grandfather and the fox grasp it simultaneously, she vanishes and he. . .dies? Maybe?

I feel as though there is a lot of culturally specific mythology or knowledge I'm lacking. Like, what was the orb the dragon was carrying, and why does the fox lady want it? Why did it turn red and shoot lightning after she used it to steal the life energy of the little woodland goblin guys, if the orb was what did that? I'm guessing Dor stealing the baby had something to do with Jae-Sun yelling at Maddy and bailing, as described in a conversation they have in the middle of the issue, but I'm not sure why. Maybe Jae-Sun's denial revoked his connection in Dor's eyes?

The colors in the flashbacks set in the other world are more vivid and varied than those set in the regular world. Bocardo sets the page of Maddy emerging into the other world with eight panels across the two pages of her bursting through the surface of the lake, which Martinez colors in a cool blue. Then there are 10 panels around the border of the page that detail Maddy's chase of Dor through the Sky Wild, which are dominated by a deep red and also start upside-down and then on their side as they progress.

The one exception is when Maddy blows up at Jae-Sun for not being there when their daughter needed him. Four narrow diagonal panels progressing from red-orange-yellow as she cools down, and ending with blue in a panel focused on Jae-Sun staring morosely at his coffee.

West of Sundown #8, by Aaron Campbell and Tim Seeley (writers), Jim Terry (artists), Triona Farrell (colorists), Crank! (letterer) - Seems like she still needs a mouth somewhere.

Dooley, Dirck and Cumberland are saved by some of the locals, who are admittedly local because the U.S. government drove them off their land while they were infected with smallpox, and Cumberland was part of the Army unit that did it. This is an interesting revelation in light of Cumberland told Dooley about people just wanting someone else to tell them to do things they'd do anyway. Does that apply to him as well, or is he blameless because he feels guilty?

Elsewhere, Betty's concerned about the men Rosa is meeting with, but when she tries to confide in the sheriff, he locks her up. Which is too bad for Betty, and not just because the sheriff is a fraud. Rosa is desperately hungry and the men she's meeting with would like her to drink Betty dry, to see her in action. And Griffin is getting a glimpse of Moreau's work, and being offered the chance to be his greatest creation.

So Seeley and Campbell are giving Rosa and Griffin the chance to choose between the personal angels and demons. Each of them wants to pursue what they feel is their natures, but it's a question of who they're willing to work with to do that. Maybe we can throw the sheriff in as well. He hasn't shown any interest in doing any protecting or serving so far. Will Betty's death just be another story for him to try and publish, or will he ditch the con and the identity entirely?

What I Bought 1/2/2023 - Part 3

One week down in 2023, and the world hasn't ended yet. To kick off another week, we're looking at a mini-series just past the halfway mark, and an ongoing series a couple of issues into it's next storyarc.

West of Sundown #7, by Tim Seeley and Aaron Campbell (writer), Jim Terry (artist), Triona Farrell (colorist), Crank! (letterer) - Dog soldier? Donkey soldier? Texas Chainsaw Massacre before there were chainsaws?

The merry band begins to fall apart. Finding the fellow they brought to Griffin for medical treatment last issue is now dead, Dooley and Mr. Manor suspect Griffin. Dirck offers a very lukewarm defense of his long-time traveling companion. So after pointing out a pair of punctures on the neck, Griffin grabs his captured creature and marches out of town.

Dooley, hoping Rosa will be able to offer a direction to seek the true killer in, is rebuffed when she insists she needs some sleep, because it's almost daytime, and she's meeting with Mr. Moreau this evening to discuss building her an opera house. They have a blow up and Dooley storms off. Also, Rosa mentions that if she'd fed on the man they brought in, she'd look much more rosy cheeked, which sort of blows my observation that she looks pinker, more human, when she's weakened, right the hell out of the water.

Out in the desert, Griffin realizes carrying around a big cage with a monster in it is a losing prospect and sets it free, before falling down a hillside and finding Moreau butchering animals in a train car.  There's one page in that sequence that looks very rushed, where Terry's lines are smudged and thicker than normal. Meanwhile, Dirck, Dooley and Mr. Manor go roaming the wilderness, and get their asses kicked by a bunch of Moreau's experiments. Also, the useless sheriff is having flashbacks to some earlier point in time, when he wore a weird a hood.

Kind of seems like this bunch can't stand still. Moreau makes a comment about making better predators, and maybe that's what all of them are. Rosa certainly, and Griffin. Maybe less so for Dirck and Dooley, but as they're tied to the other two, they get sucked into it. The nature of their lives won't let them stay within a small confine. If they try, their appetites or requirements for survival make them turn on each other.

Or it's the push-and-pull between chasing one's interests, but being alone, or staying with those they're fond of, but giving up on their passions.

Sgt. Rock vs the Army of the Dead #4, by Bruce Campbell (writer), Eduardo Risso (artist), Kristian Rossi (colorist), Rob Leigh (letterer) - Rock's got himself to pots to piss in, but only enough time for one.

Rock and Easy Co follow the doc. They can't pass through a checkpoint normally, so they take it over, it loudly. Somehow the doctor fails to notice the fire and gunshots, but does notice the truck following him. So the truck comes under fire from a pillbox, and while most of the guys deal with that, Rock and the sniper, Four Eyes, grab a motorcycle and get back after the doc. This brings them to a warehouse in the middle of nowhere, guarded by a bunch of the re-gen soldiers. Must be something important inside, or someone.

Campbell throws in a few funny moments. Rock crashes through a barricade with a big "HALT" sign, and when Four Eyes questions him on it, replies, 'I can't read German.' At the checkpoint, one of his guys is translating the guard's orders, and when he demands papers, Rock rips a bunch of pages out of the truck's instruction manual and hands them over. Risso gets a silent panel of the Nazi just staring dumbfounded, before he starts screaming for the truck to be searched.

This issue does feel thin, though. The place where it ends feels like a decent stopping point for a chapter, but I'm wondering how much will happen in issue 5 and whether these two could have been squeezed together. The dialogue is pretty sparse, which gives Risso and Rossi room to work. There are a lot of nice details. Rock leaning slightly to his left to see around the bullet hole in the windshield.

There's two rows of three panels each where Rock stops their pursuers by rupturing a fuel tank. The top three are the set-up, him gradually getting the bazooka ready. The bottom three are focused on the lead pursuer, and start by showing the light of the shell being fired, then show its path reflected in the guys goggles. It's only in the final panel where the reflection of the tank appears, showing Rock wasn't just firing at the guys chasing them.

What I Bought 12/3/2022 - Part 2

With Twitter's rapid degeneration, I was kind of hoping a couple of people would switch back to posting on their blogs. But they've gone to various other social media sites I'm not interested in dealing with, like Tiktok. Yeesh. I can barely listen to podcasts, I'm not watching short videos of people talking about comics.

West of Sundown #6, by Tim Seeley and Aaron Campbell (writers), Jim Terry (artist), Triona Farrell (colorist), Crank! (letterer) - It's a modern Wild West family. So happily murderous.

The main cast are each trying to settle into Sangre de Moro in their own ways, some more successfully than others. Dirck's taken to being a preacher, and looking quite a bit less nuts, maybe it's that he went clean-shaven. He definitely isn't drawn as the same overwhelming presence in the panels as he was before. I guess he's shifted away from antagonist to ally. Griffin's acting as a doctor/mortician and bitching endlessly about it. Dooley's running the bar for Rosa, and the lot of them are like some neighborhood watch. Because there are still all sorts of supernatural problems lurking about, and some new ones moving in.

The focus is on the shifting relationships between the four, who is enjoying the change in circumstances, who isn't, where the stress points are. Griffin feels that Dirck's left him behind, stranded him in this place in favor of pursuing the word of God. Dirck is either oblivious or unconcerned by this. Dooley's been questioning why he's sticking with Rosa, and Rosa is actually worried about losing him. So much so she's not fed on anyone for a while, because there's no one sufficiently "evil" that Dooley wouldn't object. Dooley, in turn, seems to have rededicated himself to her after a run-in with a banshee (I like the design Terry goes with for her) dredged up some bad memories.

It still amuses me that Rosa's skin color turns more pink when she's injured or ill. I suppose she couldn't get more pale, so it makes a certain sense. Of course, her solution to her food issue is to jump at Dr. Moreau's notion of bringing the railroad through town, as it will bring New York City (and its large numbers of evil people) to her. Not sure Dirck will approve, since he'd rather save their souls, and Dooley doesn't seem ecstatic about it, either.

Nature's Labyrinth #1, by Zac Thompson (writer), Bayleigh Underwood (artist), Warina Sahadewa (colorist), Rus Wooton (letterer) - If I had to walk through a jungle that looked that dense, I'd fall to my knees, too.

Eight people accepted a cruise, which is actually a trap to throw them on a strange island and see if they can find their way through an immense labyrinth without dying. I thought the labyrinth would just be a jungle filled with traps and armed soldiers, but it's an actual giant structure, in the jungle. And each person is wearing some kind of rig with cameras on it, but also a bunch of mechanized blades that will dismember anyone who tries to remove it. I figured it would just blow them up, like Suicide Squad, but I guess that might kill too many at once.

We get to see all eight on pages 2 and 3, complete with their names and the odd titles each of them are given. We don't get much time with most of them, so Underwood has to try and tell us what they can from that page and how each of them pose or smile. It's not much to go on, but the reader can at least make some initial guesses about what they're like. Whether those will turn out to be accurate is another matter.

The issue mostly focuses on J. Roe (titled "The Shield"), and to a lesser extent Nasir Sarafin ("The Terror"), who end up alongside each other when they wake up on the island. Roe is not what she pretends to be, and doesn't do a great job disguising it. Thompson writes them as someone trying for no-nonsense, but coming off more mechanical. She comes up with a few facts about herself when she's alone, and when she introduces herself to Nasir, rattles them off in succession. Including that she loves kayaking, which doesn't seem like something to mention during an introduction in a death maze. There's other little touches, like how she smashes the phone included with the camera rig while Nasir and another guy argue pointlessly.

The actions make sense for the reveal at the end of the issue, but if she's trying to remain inconspicuous, she's not doing a great job. Moot point from our perspective, since by the end of the issue, the people running this thing know about her. But it's an interesting approach, for how it tells us something about Roe.

What I Bought 9/3/2022 - Part 1

Nothing like getting Labor Day off. Short work week this week! Whoooooo! So let's start off another round of reviews with a couple of books that are wrapping up storylines. Did either of them manage a satisfying conclusion?

West of Sundown #5, by Tim Seeley and Aaron Campbell (writers), Jim Terry (artist), Triona Farrell (colorist), Crank! (letterer) - Ma'am, I understand you're busy trying to claw into that metal vault, but I'd recommend adjusting your dress before there's a wardrobe malfunction.

Dooley, Griffin, the sheriff and the Monster decide they are going to let this Herzog guy get his way. Which is to use the blood of Rosa's father to create a doorway to a place where he can become a godlike being. I'm not at all clear on why that would work, but apparently it will. While the Monster kills the weird little critters in large numbers, the others sneak into the barn.

Rosa wants nothing to do with any of it, but her father convinces her that she does care about Dooley, as the sole being to form a connection with her. She's still about die, but Dooley kills Herzog with a crooked rifle, then Rosa lets the Monster, sorry Mr. Dirck, throw her father into that shadow realm.

In the aftermath, everyone tries to return to their lives. Dirck becomes a reverend in town, Rosa offers the land of her birth to Mr. Manor and his wife, as a sort of apology for buying his bar/hotel. Griffin hangs around to run an apothecary, and experiment on those little creatures. The lizard lady made it back to her creator, Dr. Moreau, who is now interested in Sangre del Moro.

Seeley and Campbell make it very clear that Rosa harbors no affection for her father, given she encourages Mr. Dirck to dispatch him. She doesn't even look at him until he's being chucked in. Which explains why they kind of brush over that reunion. It felt like the sort of thing that might get more page time, but if Rosa doesn't care, I suppose we shouldn't either.

Makes it all the odder she listens when he tells her Dooley is important to her. Really? She seemed entirely content to leave with her native earth whether Dooley came with or not. She's shown walking by herself, singing beforehand. There's not the slightest hint of her reconsidering until her dad reaches out with his mind. One could argue she looked after him when he was injured, but could also argue that was when she was still without the native soil she needed to heal. She still needed someone to watch her back. Considering she got stabbed in it this issue, maybe she still does.

Lead City #4, by Eric Borden (writer), Kyle Brummond (artist) - It's like they got wild with the size-changing tea and cake from Alice in Wonderland.

Colman squares off with Kavinder Singh, who takes a bottle across the face with little concern and throws Coman headfirst through a window. Which doesn't tear up his face, interestingly. Colman almost literally falls into a shotgun (which I feel like Brummond draws as looking too new of a model, but oh well), and then there were three. The farmer, the lady, and the crazy redneck with the hammer. But the lady takes care of the idiot, mostly by goading him into being stupid and chasing her blindly into getting his head blown open. Which Brummond illustrates with eyeball and scalp and hair being flung backwards and apart.

Down to two, and Colman's bleeding and hiding out in a jail. She tracks him, makes him an offer. Kill yourself, I'll look after your wife and kids. Colman agrees to 'give her his back,', but suicides go to Hell. Will she kill him quick? There's praying, but I'm not clear if he's praying aloud and she's just listening, or if she's praying aloud for him. Either way, Colman found a lot of TNT in that jail, which he used to blow it, and her, up.

Don't worry, his back was to the jail when he depressed the plunger, so he did technically give her his back. She just wasn't in any position to shoot it. I guess the argument would be, she didn't hesitate to shoot that one guy that had the drop on her but didn't want to backshoot her. So if she's foolish enough to offer mercy now, then she deserves to get hoist on the same as that guy. A lesson in not underestimating one's opponent?

Having won the prize, Colman and his family decide to go back to Missouri. Look man, I live here and I wouldn't recommend coming back. I'm not really sure how I feel about the ending. I'm not disappointed Colman survived, but I'm not ecstatic about it, either. Borden adds in that all the other contestants have bounties, something Colman discovers in the jail, but without knowing the particulars, that doesn't tell me much. You kill the wrong rich, connected asshole and you can get a bounty. It doesn't necessarily sell me on the notion Colman was the only righteous or worthy contestant.

Overall, the pacing just feels a little off. Like the book needed more time to flesh out the characters, because even Colman doesn't seem like he progressed much beyond a cardboard outline. Former solider, trying to be good husband/father. Not much else beyond that, and less for the others. So there wasn't much emotional impact to any of the deaths or the battles, because we don't know them enough to care who wins.

What I Bought 7/30/2022 - Part 2

Got news last week we're going to have not one, but two hearings on a permit we issued. On back-to-back days. Because people really don't want us to have issued the permit. Which means I'm probably going to have to testify, twice. They aren't until the end of September, but the odds I can make it through both without hitting my limit and responding sarcastically are not good. Wonder if you can end up in contempt of court in an administrative hearing?

Here's some comics that, like me, are possibly near the end.

West of Sundown #4, by Tim Seeley and Aaron Campbell (writers), Jim Terry (artist), Triona Farrell (colorist), Crank! (letterer) - Deep shadows are definitely that guy's friend. The deeper, the better.

Miss der Abend and Dooley made their escape, but didn't reach her native soil. Instead, they crossed into some realm of dreams (or nightmares) Frankenstein's monster (because I guess it is him and not der Abend's racist, Bible-thumping grandad) and the creepy little doctor on their heels. Which is a mistake, because the things that lurk there nearly tear them apart. Dooley seems OK, and Constance is stronger than ever, able to command the elements somehow. Probably something there that bears further investigation.

Team-up of convenience commences and we learn a little more about the monster and the kid doctor before they happen upon the memory of the church where Constance was born. The spirits of her parents, or an illusion meant to resemble them, waiting inside. As well as the corpse of Dooley's horse, not inhabited by something that rules that realm.

Terry and Farrell do a pretty decent Bernie Wrightson on that monstrosity. It's easily the most horrifying, nastiest-looking thing in this series so far, Constance's comments about having seen Boss Tweed naked save a for a mask aside. The spirits, in contrast, are kind of bland. Basically just humans that are green and glowy. Not even indistinct at the edges or anything.

Anyway, the things want Constance and the others to stop the cult leader, who has captured whatever her father became and is trying to use it to ascend to a plane or position even greater than they are. Nice to know even other-dimensional monstrosities are as concerned about the social pecking order as high schoolers. Constance and the others make it back to the world, where the sky is the color of blood rather than raining it.

Herzog Jung? Do Seeley and Campbell expect me to do a bunch of reading on Jung to divine the significance of them choosing that name? Or should I be watching a bunch of Werner Herzog films? Either way, it feels like they're still introducing a lot of elements into this story. Dooley's diary landed in different hands again, but still hasn't really played a role. I wonder if there's going to be a second arc.

Jenny Zero II #4, by Dave Dwonch (writer/letterer), Brockton McKinney (writer), Magenta King (artist), Arnaldo Robles and Geraldo Filho (color artists) - Jenny's mad Chad beat her to acting like an embarrassment.

Again, the issue is split between two threads. There's a tiny little bit from Jenny's dad's diary, which introduces the woman who might be Jenny's mother. Mostly, the time is split between Jenny's present and three years earlier. In the present, Jenny is introduced as the new big monster fighter to the public, going to parties, getting drunk, and sleeping with that moron Chad. 

Three years ago, we see Jenny screwing up a mission involving that Jagokai Death Cult because she was high on something called "Dragon's Ass". She cowboyed the situation, got people killed, got fired, spiraled into the wreck she was at the start of the previous mini-series. Robles colors the present day parts, Filho the 3 years ago parts.

Robles seems to be going with a softer set of hues. Lots of pastels and nothing too glaring. Which might jibe with my suspicion that this is all engineered by the Director's three telepaths. Chad seems unusually soft and deferential to Jenny, unlike his usual macho nonsense, and Jenny's scar over her eye is gone entirely. People are oddly willing to get along. Jenny says whatever she wants at her press conference, but somehow doesn't cause a disaster in the process. All the rough parts are being sanded over or eliminated.

Of course, Filho also gets to draw the part where Jenny is getting high, so maybe the more vivid colors tie to that. Or because this is a real screw-up she made that wrecked a lot of peoples' lives. The Director seems to be the daughter of the head of the cult, who got blowed up real good. Sure there's no lingering issues from that!

I'm almost positive there's going to be a third mini-series to this, because I don't see any way everything is getting resolved in one more issue. Jenny doesn't even seem to know she needs to watch out for the Director yet. Not sure how I feel about that. If this was going to be a 12-issue thing, just solicit it as a damn 12-issue thing. You tell me four issues, I kind of expect there will be a conclusion after 4 issues.

What I Bought 7/8/2022 - Part 2

So, when was one of you going to tell me DC is planning to have a Sgt. Rock vs. zombies one-shot, written by Bruce friggin' Campbell, out in September? The one month I can't find DC's solicits anywhere and figure it doesn't matter, they drop that bombshell.

Anyway, here's two third issues.

Distorted #3, by Salvatore Vivenzio (writer), Gabriele Falzone (artist), Francesco Canneva (color assistant) - Gangs of children are running rampant! It's about time.

The issue starts with most of the sequence the previous issue ended with: Mason the cannibal killing that lady and her kid and eating the kid. Not sure why we needed to see that a second time, but this time we get a full-page spread of Mason sitting there, chomping on some part of the kid. Yay? I assume that was supposed to be the final page of the previous issue, which instead ended by reprinting the final page of the first issue. 

In other news, the folks trying to track down people with powers are starting to cross paths. Brennar the teleporter gets to some gamer guy in Seoul before Tom the telepath, but when Brennar tries to approach a kid with a Jamie Madrox power, he gets stomped. Tom has more luck. And in developments I barely care about, James and the weed connection guy - oh, they actually used his name in one panel, it's Murphy. Murphy the weed dealer - are trying to improve the control of their powers. Then James decides he wants to do a hold up and leave this podunk town. Possibly not in that order. Well at least he's (planning) to do something.

The weird printing errors are bugging me. James doesn't particularly interest me. I would like to have some idea what the person Brennar is working for is actually doing with these kids. He paid the guy in Seoul, who set the money aside. Do they get to come home, or did Brennar just trick him? What's Tom getting out of his arrangement that helps him? Because using his powers doesn't seem to do him much good. There's been little progress on that front, however.

West of Sundown #3, by Tim Seeley and Aaron Campbell (writers), Jim Terry (artist), Triona Farrell (colorist), Crank! (letterer) - I bought a copy with the cover of young Frankenstein all bundled up in his coat and dark glasses. Same reason as with Iron Cat: It was cheaper.

Dooley ain't dead, but the stiched-together man I suspect is Miss der Abend's grandfather and Kid Frankenstein are on the attack. Seeing as it's daylight out, she's at a bit of a disadvantage. More of one, since whatever passes for that guy's blood has silver in it. Doesn't it have to be blessed silver to make a difference, or does that just make it doubly effective? Either way, Dooley rides to the rescue, after hesitating to kill Kid Frankenstein, because he's still a kid.

With her room (and the soil she collected) no longer safe, there's no choice but to head back to the ranch. She's hurting (which Farrell shows with splotches of pink on der Abend's otherwise very white skin. Looks like someone hastily applied sunscreen, but in reverse), so that's where they gotta go. They might even have a stroke of luck because the religious weirdo living out there has come to town with his followers, asking about the ones who came to visit the night before.

I'm not sure exactly what's going on there. Mr. Manor, the former saloon owner, seems to have lost his wife (or sister) to the cult, but the way she doesn't even look his direction in the one panel we see, suggests maybe there's some mind control. The followers have no issue with attacking and killing the townsfolk when they tell the "reverend" to pound sand. Which makes me wonder if Dooley, having been bitten, is going to prove susceptible.

I doubt it, because I think Seeley and Campbell want Dooley in a clear mind so he has to make a choice. How devoted is he to his mistress? How far is he willing to keep going for her? And how far does her loyalty extend to him, especially if he keeps letting her enemies survive (or just fucking up and missing a point-blank shot at a guy the size of a horse)? Mister Manor opined that a lot of people who don't want to make choices, look for someone to tell them to do what they wanted to do anyway.

Did Dooley always want to kill people, or to largely not care about them? Given how eager he was to get out of the Civil War, I'm guessing no on the former, and maybe no on the latter. If so, then he's got to be wondering what he's doing helping a vampire kill people, even if he justifies it by them being bad people.

What I Bought 5/28/2022 - Part 1

Going to start off the reviews of the rest of May's stuff with two books from a couple of weeks ago. One's a second issue, one the first issue of the second storyline. I try to pair these things by some sort of theme, and that was the best one I could come up with. That or both books have two writers. No, I'm not Two-Face. Don't say things like that, I'm not looking to have Batman punch my face in.

Jenny Zero II #1, by Dave Dwonch and Brockton McKinney (writers), Magenta King (artist), Arnaldo Robles (colorist), Dave Dwonch (letterer) - It was nice of them to bring the person they constrain like she's really dangerous out for a fun night of pachinko.

Set some time I'm assuming shortly after the end of last year's mini-series, Jenny seems to be getting treated like a dangerous criminal. of course, she beat the hell out of the guys transporting so maybe it's a valid concern. Or maybe not, because that was all an illusion created by the Director's three helper ladies, who have various mental manipulation powers. I'm sure the ability to erase or alter someone's memories won't get abused.

The Director gets Jenny on board by mentioning the threat of the Overking, aka the thing that killed Jenny's dad, and by bringing in her friend Dana to help her improve her image. Aka, make Jenny not behave like a drunken, pill-popping disaster all the time. Neither of them seems dumb enough to trust the Director about who is behind the Overking, or so it seems. 

Ugh, I appreciate Dwonch and McKinney establishing right off that those three ladies can mess with perceptions, but it means I can't trust anything I'm reading in this comic. If that whole escape Jenny pulled at the start was all in her head, then the conversation in the burger joint could be as well. Certainly the "Chunker Jr." mascot coming to life seems suspect. Or, I had to go back and check the end of the previous mini-series because I couldn't remember if Jenny had a scar over her left eye. She did, but if she didn't, that might have been a clue they'd been using her for missions and erasing her memories.

King's line seems more solid than it did on the first mini-series. It was also more jagged and wobbly then. This might just be a sign of progression as an artist, or maybe it's an intentional choice. Jenny's starting to embrace her past and her heritage (including by reading her father's journal, although the Director knows she's got it). She's more stable now, more, "mature" might not be the right word, but something like that. Combined with Robles using a less glaring color palette than Dam did on the previous mini-series, and the whole thing seems more stable. Jenny's got a plan, she's got a friend she trusts and will rely on, things are possibly under control.

Or it's all in her head. I am going to second guess every conclusion or interpretation I try draw about this mini-series, I can tell.

West of Sundown #2, by Tim Seeley and Aaron Campbell (writers), Jim Terry (artist), Triona Farrell (colorist), Crank! (letterer) - I guess the cover captures a mood, but it's not exactly easy to distinguish what's going on at first glance. Still beats blase pin-up covers Marvel opts for a lot.

The issue starts in a flashback to how Constance became what she is. Her mother conceived Constance (then Rosa) with a young Native American man who had been taken from his tribe and forced into service as a soldier (and thus I learn the term "genizaro). Her father objected to them getting married, killed the priest too late. Domingo got the gun and tried to protect them from his father-in-law's dog. Bullet hit the dog, but also his wife. Domingo ate the dog's blood and flesh, becoming a werewolf(?) and ran off with little Rosa.

In the present, Constance and Dooley travel to the site of that church for the earth she needs. They better hurry because she's getting hungry and he's the only immediate source of food. But someone's built something there. A church of their own, where they whip themselves and proclaim the life is the sky. Seems concerning, though not as much as the weird creatures with long, paralyzing tongues that nearly kill Dooley. Constance gets enough earth for the time being and carries him to safety. But those people are set to investigate who intruded.

Also the man who has been hunting her is actually her grandfather, Frankensteined together by, well, Victor Frankenstein is the extremely pale young man with heterochromia is telling the truth.

Obviously it couldn't be that easy for Constance to get the earth she required, although I'm not clear how much she needs. Does it have to fill a coffin? Just grabbing a handful made her strong enough to tear that little creature in half, and she seemed confident she could handle another four of them. Either way, no we've got her and Dooley, Grandpa and Dr. Frankenstein, the creepy cult, possibly the sheriff (whose loyalties are uncertain). Might need to add the tavern owner after Constance bought his place and kicked him out for being rude earlier (because he's black and correctly intuits Dooley fought for the South.) Surely that won't come back to bite anyone! No pun intended, but accepted.

On some level, it might have been more interesting if the people living on the old church site weren't up to no good. If they were innocent farmers or sheep herders, how far would Constance go? How far would Dooley go to help her? He seized the escape when she offered, but Seeley and Campbell seem to be establishing there are limits to how far Constance's protection extends. Push comes to shove, Dooley may not be anything more than a useful instrument. Or maybe she's been a vampire so long she's forgotten the limits of humans. But Terry draws Dooley as looking weary and/or terrified basically the entire issue. The life is taking its toll.

What I Bought 4/9/2022 - Part 2

That urge to jump into the comments of someone's else blog and call someone an idiot never goes away entirely, at least not for me. It is nice to know I've developed enough to control to resist the urge.

Distorted #2, by Salvatore Vivenzio (writer), Gabriele Falzone (artist), Francesco Canneva (color assistant) - Didn't I kill that guy in a meat locker in Silent Hill 2?

James' attempt to have sex is interrupted by his kickboxing friend, who we learn is named Dem, getting in a fight in the club. They go hang out with some guy who buys weed off Dem and talk about stuff before the other guy shows he has some sort of power, too. James gives a little speech about how these powers affect their lives and they have to deal with it. I don't know, it's kind of dull.

In other, more interesting developments, there's two pages on a guy with the last name "Collins" who is investigating people with these powers, including the girl with the acid barf from last issue, who has disappeared. More pages are devoted to the guy on the cover, named Mason. He's a hatchet-wielding cannibal serial killer, and his favorite food is the kids with powers, who he can sense somehow. Here, he gets a young boy with a kind of frog tongue.

Falzone does the page where the kid tries to use his tongue to get to the ceiling, so the boy's leg is outside the panel, in a white space. Mason grabs it there, and then there's one more panel to the right, an extreme close-up on the boy's tearful face, pleading to be let go. But the way Mason is drawn, it leads to the bottom of the page, where Mason swings the kid's head into the floor. It's a pretty solid composition.

There is one strange thing. The last page, at least in my copy, is the same one as last issue. Where the teleporter is standing over the acid barf girl. The one who is missing now. Not sure what happened there.

If Vivenzio is going to continue to focus on James and Dem, then they need to start doing something other than moping around and complaining about not getting laid. Because at this point, every other plotline we've seen so far is much more interesting than they are. I'm guessing one of these three forces - Mason, Brunner or Tom - are going to cross paths with James, and that's how he gets drawn into this. Force himself to decide if he's content to just 'live with it.'

West of Sundown #1, by Tim Seeley and Aaron Campbell (writers), Jim Terry (artist), Triona Farrell (colorist), Crank! (letterer) - Nice job on capturing the movie poster feel. That's not the cover I was able to get at the store, but oh well.

Dooley's an Irishman caught up in the Civil War who digs up a live woman from a grave. The woman is Constance der Abend, and for a decade, they travel the U.S. Dooley helps Constance who, surprise!, is a vampire, find people to feed on who are evil, while Constance acts as a lady of society and possibly a professional opera singer. But there are people who know she's a vampire, and they burn her house to the ground, along with the dirt from where she was born. So Dooley's got to get her back to that place. They reach a town called Sangre de Moro, but the hunters are waiting.

The issue is written from Dooley's perspective, and he's presented as a man who is loyal to his mistress, but he's starting to feel the toll. Serving Constance saved him from the war, but as he notes while peering into a beer Farrell colors like blood, it's still him deciding it's OK to take these lives because they're immoral. He alternates between this downtrodden weariness, Terry giving him exhaustion lines and deep shadows swallowing his eyes, or else a wide-eyed horror at the things he's a party to.

Which makes me wonder if he's going to reconsider his allegiance at some point. It probably didn't help that Constance, badly burned from her failed attempt to save her coffin, comments that if she doesn't get fed, she might even eat him. Get the feeling Dooley hadn't entirely considered that outcome. That, push comes to shove, he could also be nothing more than food to her.

Seeley and Campbell also highlight one possible supporting cast member in the town. The sheriff, who also writes stories about the West. So dime novels, like Beauchamp in Unforgiven? Either way, we'll see if Sheriff Abilene (and that name sounds fake as all hell) does play some sort of role. If he's the type to maintain law and order, or only sheriff because someone has to pin the badge to their shirt.