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.
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