Dark Horse: 20 Years

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: Dark Horse: 20 Years
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Date: 2006
Artist: Adam Hughes, Art Adams, Doug Mahnke, John Sommariva, Sean Parsons, Mark A Nelson, Cary Nord, Sergio Aragones, Paul Chadwick, Chris Warner, Kilian Plunkett, Eric Powell, Matt Wagner, Jason Alexander, Thomas Yeates, Tony Millionaire, Rick Geary, Joss Whedon, Buzz Parker, Stan Sakai, Frank Miller
Colorist: Michelle Madsen, Edgar Delgado, Dave Stewart, Tom Luth, Dan Jackson, David Nestelle
Editor: Matt Dryer, Matt Hollingsworth, Jim Campbell
Cover: Mike Mignola, Dave Stewart

This is an anniversary pinup book, distributed as a $.25 promo from Dark Horse Comics, celebrating 20 years of their history.

Lots of classic characters and stories are represented here, with some great-looking artwork. What's really fun about this book, though, is getting to see artists do characters by other creators. Highlights included Adam Hughes on Hellboy, Matt Wagner's rendition of the Goon, Frank Miller drawing Usagi Yojimbo and Stan Sakai's take on Sin City, Paul Chadwick's Groo, and Sergio Aragones bringing a very Groo-style take to Conan the Barbarian. There's even a rare art credit for Joss Whedon, who drew Emily the Strange.

Nice way to celebrate 20 years.

Rating: 7.5/10

Fight Club: Free Comic Book Day 2015

My third review from my FCBD stack this year is another of the official Free Comic Book Day releases, this time from Dark Horse Comics.

Title: Free Comic Book Day 2015
Date: May, 2015
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer:Chuck Palahniuk, Eric Powell, David Lapham
Artist: Cameron Stewart, Eric Powell, Mike Huddleston
Colorist: Dave Stewart, Dan Jackson
Letterer: Nate Piekos of Blambot, Clem Robins
Cover: David Mack (front cover), Eric Powell (back cover)
Editor: Scott Allie, Sierra Hahn, Shantel LaRocque

Three stories here, headlined by Chuck Palahniuk's official sequel to Fight Club. The Fight Club story jumps right into where the novel left off. The writing is sharp, but there wasn't a lot of new material here, probably intentionally because this was aimed at a general audience, not all of whom would be familiar with the original book or the movie. It definitely kept the flavor of the original, but it really only teased the new directions that the sequel would be taking.

The Goon, on the other hand, was a complete short story, and a very amusing one at that. A bit of monologue by the Goon about vampires during the climactic scene is priceless. Definitely the best read out of the three stories here, and it stands up very well on its own.

The third story was from Guillermo Del Toro's The Strain. This is a prequel to the main storyline, and it's set in the 1960s. It involves a man with a rare book to sell, treacherous intentions, and predictable results. It is well told, but nothing all that original.

Rating: 6.5/10

Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #2

I was at a writers group meeting at the Independence Mall in Kingston MA and picked this up at the Newbury Comics store there.

Title: Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters
Issue: #2
Date: 2011
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Eric Powell, Tracy Marsh
Penciler: Phil Hester
Inker: Bruce McCorkindale
Colorist: Ronda Pattison
Letterer: Chris Mowry
Editor: Chris Ryall

Anguiras and Rodan get added to the mix as Godzilla continues his march of destruction through Tokyo. There's plenty of mayhem to be had here, and a surprising amount of comedy as well. Political satire abounds in the portrayals of President Obama (remamed to President Ogden, but very obviously Obama to the point where I wondered why they bothered with the fictional name) and the governor of Texas, who's building a wall (made of "100% pure American steel"; does such a thing even exist anymore?) to prevent illegal monster immigration across the Mexican border. You can probably guess how well that plan works.

Actually the best bit of satire was a line by the President: "What do you want me to do? Drop another nuke? It could start shooting lasers out of its eyes!" Ha! Godzilla cartoon for the win! Now all we need is an appearance by Godzookie!

Unfortunately, this book had the same problem as the first issue: No likable human characters. In fact, the character that was the focus for most of this issue is pretty thoroughly dead by time we reach the end, leaving me still wondering who the non-monster and non-politician main characters are.

Rating: 6.5/10

Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #1 Newbury Comics Edition

Taking a break from the SPACE reviews to look at a fairly well-hyped recent release.

Title: Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters
Issue: #1
Date: 2011
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Eric Powell, Tracy Marsh
Penciler: Phil Hester
Inker: Bruce McCorkindale
Colorist: Ronda Pattison
Letterer: Chris Mowry
Editor: Chris Ryall

IDW's new Godzilla book featured one of the greatest gimmicks in comic history. They created a custom cover art for any store willing to order 500 copies. Each cover showed Godzilla's foot stomping the store that placed the order. Marketing genius! Now you can see your local store get flattened by the King of the Monsters, and if you're really obsessive, there are 75 store-crushing cover variants (not to mention four cover variants for those stores who didn't pony up the bucks for the custom cover deal).

This issue also contains thumbnails of all (79!) covers, and the "standard" cover art is also reproduced in full size on the back cover.

Oh, and there's also a story in between those covers. Well, a bit of one, anyway.

Godzilla awakens and begins stomping things (by "things" here, what we really mean is "the city of Tokyo"). And people are upset about that. To be continued. This seems to be a complete reboot, rather than a "return" storyline such as many Godzilla revivals have done. There is even an "origin" sequence for Godzilla's radioactive fire breath, which involves what has to be the quickest and least agonizing decision to use a nuclear weapon in comics. Because the Japanese are certainly not the types to spend any time worrying about the possible consequences of using a nuclear weapon. Anyway, to that list of consequences, you can go ahead and add "granting radioactive breath powers to monsters".

There is also an appearance by President Obama, and an attempt to make "You have got to be %$@#ing kidding me!" into a kind of recurring catchphrase (those are the book's curse-marks, not mine). What is lacking are any sympathetic characters (Sorry, Mr. President!) other than possibly Godzilla himself.

And while there is plenty of destruction, most of it is in isolated pinup-style pages with little actual effort at transition from panel to panel. The whole comic book felt like it was rushing to get the readers past the dull stuff that they'd already seen a million times and get on with the real story, which starts next issue apparently.

I'm not sure this is the way to score points with the die-hard Godzilla fans who are plunking down their money to see Tokyo wrecked.

The artwork is quite nice, and does a good job of capturing Godzilla's size, something that has been difficult in past attempts to bring the big guy to life in comics.

The series promises more monsters (and Toho even included their little monster logos on the inside cover). Maybe with additional monsters will come likable characters and a plot.

Rating: 6/10