Posted August 8, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Dominion: The Sandman
Genres: Fantasy,
Graphic Novels,
Mystery Pages: 50
Series: Dominion #2 Rating: 
Synopsis: A gripping supernatural thriller of biblical proportions...quite literally. When detective Jason Ash arrives on the scene of a particularly strange murder in the suburbs of New Orleans, little does he know that he is about to take on the case of a lifetime. As dead people begin to come back to life, revealing that they hail from a realm where angels fight for power, it becomes clear that an epic battle between good and evil is at play, one threatening the very future of humanity.
The second volume of Thomas Fenton’s Dominion, The Sandman, still has the weird page numbering issue I mentioned with my review of the first volume: some places say 150 pages (ish), while Amazon says 50. The version I read said 50. That said, it picked up from the first volume in a way that made sense, and it doesn’t feel like I’m missing any story, so I guess it’s a weirdness in page-numbering on the Amazon files (or just bad numbering from other places).
The second volume has Jason Ash discovering a little bit more about what’s happened to him, finding that he can read the script of angels, getting unexpected offers of help, and finding himself to be apparently psychic (at least, when he needs to be). It continues to be fairly predictable in its story beats.
It was surprising to me how swiftly the various abduction sub plots are wrapped up, and yet I’m really not sure how Jason’s story can be wrapped up satisfactorily with just one more volume of this length. I guess that remains to be seen; I remain curious enough to continue.
Rating: 3/5
Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Jamal Igle, mystery, SF/F, Steven Cummings, Thomas Fenton
Posted August 1, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments
Love Everlasting
Genres: Fantasy,
Graphic Novels,
Horror,
Mystery,
Romance Pages: 136
Series: Love Everlasting #1 Rating: 
Synopsis: Joan Peterson discovers that she is trapped in an endless, terrifying cycle of"romance" -- a problem to be solved, a man to marry -- and everytime she falls in love she's torn from her world and thrust into another tear-soaked tale.
I really loved the art in volume one of Tom King and Elsa Charretier’s Love Everlasting. It’s stylised and expressive, with well-differentiated characters and designs. It’s a fun race through a bunch of different styles of love story, with the main character Joan Peterson always dying just as soon as she’s declared her love for someone.
The fact that Joan — and a weird masked cowboy — are the only constants does mean that there’s not really much character-building, especially as Joan herself isn’t really exactly the same in every single scenario. The concept is the most interesting thing there, rather than the character (though Joan’s approach to her problems is, ah, entertaining).
By the end, it’s getting a touch too repetitive without any explanation, but it’s a really fun concept, and I am itching to know a bit more. I hope the second volume will explore the plot stuff from the fifth issue and deepen the story a bit.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Elsa Charretier, horror, Matt Hollingsworth, romance, SF/F, Tom King
Posted July 25, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Dominion: The Resurrection of Jason Ash
Genres: Fantasy,
Graphic Novels Pages: 49
Series: Dominion #1 Rating: 
Synopsis: A gripping supernatural thriller of biblical proportions...quite literally. When detective Jason Ash arrives on the scene of a particularly strange murder in the suburbs of New Orleans, little does he know that he is about to take on the case of a lifetime. As dead people begin to come back to life, revealing that they hail from a realm where angels fight for power, it becomes clear that an epic battle between good and evil is at play, one threatening the very future of humanity.
I’m not entirely sure what’s going on with the page numbering and so on with Thomas Fenton’s Dominion, as the versions of each volume on Amazon have only around 50 pages, though elsewhere they consistently get shown as 150 pages. The cover images match the cover images for the versions with 150 pages, so… it’s just weird.
So hopefully what I’m reading isn’t just a fragment missing the last two thirds, but I can only read what’s available, in any case. Volume one of Dominion feels fairly typical: the beginning is a little confusing, but then it switches to the point of view of a young cop, who quickly gets drawn into a conflict involving angels (and gains strange powers as a result).
That’s about as far as this first volume goes, with the conflict wrapped around the story of child kidnappings that gets the cops involved. I’m curious where it’s going, but it feels like I’ve seen this story around before… several times.
Still, I’ll be picking up the next volume to see what the author does with the setup, so though I’m fairly lukewarm, it’s not that the story was bad.
Rating: 2/5
Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Jamal Igle, SF/F, Steven Cummings, Thomas Fenton
Posted July 14, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Foxes in Love
Genres: Graphic Novels Pages: 114
Series: Foxes in Love #3 Rating: Synopsis: This is a simple comic about simple foxes. Come join Green and Blue once again for their simple adventures through everyday life in the third heart-warming volume of Foxes in Love.
Toivo Kaartinen’s Foxes in Love is an adorable comic with a simple format. It doesn’t really have a story, it just follows two foxes (Green and Blue) and their daily lives, their quirks, their problem-solving techniques, their silly conversations, etc. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen one of their comics and thought, “yep, this is just like me and my wife.”
I feel like the strips are really best experienced one at a time, or a few at a time, rather than in a book like this — I like having the collections, because the internet for sure isn’t forever, but because there’s no story and the character development is more cumulative than chronological, it’s not so much one for sitting down and reading straight through.
If you’ve never given Green and Blue a try, then I recommend it! Take a look.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Toivo Kaartinen
Posted June 23, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment
Foxes in Love
Genres: Graphic Novels Pages: 114
Series: Foxes in Love #2 Rating: 
Synopsis: This is a simple comic about simple foxes. Blue and Green continue their simple adventures in the second volume of Foxes in Love. This series is a heartwarming and humorous collection of comics exploring family, life, and relationships, told by two foxes living their lives together.
Volume 2 contains 9 exclusive comics which were never released online as well as 8 colorized comics which were previously only released in black and white.
I absolutely adore Toivo Kaartinen’s Foxes in Love comics. I’ve read most of them, over time, but I was glad to get a copy of this as well to keep on my shelf and support the author. The comics are sometimes just funny, sometimes really romantic, sometimes a little bit profound… it’s a mix.
It’s perhaps best not to read the whole thing in one sitting: charming as the comics are, they don’t have a storyline or anything, and it can get a little “samey”. I picked up volume 3, but I’ll give it a little time before I read it.
Obviously you can also just follow the comic online in various places if you want to see if it’s to your taste.
Rating: 5/5
Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Toivo Kaartinen
Posted May 31, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
We Only Kill Each Other
Genres: Crime,
Graphic Novels,
Historical Fiction Pages: 136
Rating: Synopsis: With World War II on the horizon, Nazi sympathizers and fascists have taken root on American soil in alarming numbers, intending to push the U.S. towards and alliance with Germany.
When the lone hope of stopping the American Nazi movement falls to Jewish-American gangsters currently entrenched in a violent turf war, the gangsters find that there’s only one thing they hate more than each other: Nazis.
We Only Kill Each Other is set during the run-up to World War II, featuring two Jewish characters who are asked to use their skills (beating people up, intimidation and other forms of violence) to defuse the Nazi presence in their city in the US. They’re at loggerheads, however, and make unlikely allies.
It’s not a period I read much about, and as the narrative makes clear, there are no heroes here — these guys are not upstanding normal citizens, but a thug and a gang boss who happen to be Jewish. I read it more because it was there and I could read it for free than out of interest in the story based on the summary, so it’s worth keeping in mind that I’m not exactly the target audience.
And indeed, I found it mostly just… alright? The characters bonded in the end (because of course), and they did indeed manage to beat the Nazis (good) at least in this limited way (thwarting an assassination that would’ve been great for them). The art and writing were okay, but nothing that stood out. I admit to very little knowledge about the quality of the representation of the Jewish characters and whether it plays into any stereotyping.
Rating: 2/5
Tags: book reviews, books, comics, crime, graphic novels, historical fiction
Posted April 29, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Oddball
Genres: Graphic Novels Pages: 112
Rating: Synopsis: In addition to their honest and insightful humor, Sarah's Scribbles comics also contain a social conscience, touching on different issues of personal and societal importance. When it comes to humorous illustrations of the awkwardness and hilarity of millennial life, Sarah's Scribbles is without peer.
I’ve always been quite fond of Sarah Andersen’s style and work, and seen a fair bit that’s relatable in it, so having realised that I never picked up Oddball, I was eager to dig in. To say I was disappointed wouldn’t quite be right: as ever, I liked her style and enjoyed her sense of humour.
That said, it’s a collection of loosely connected one-page comics, connected largely by Sarah Andersen’s personality — and knowing her work pretty well, even the ones I’d seen before felt pretty familiar.
I think ultimately, at least for me, it’s a bit one-note, and of a muchness with her other collections.
Rating: 3/5
Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Sarah Andersen
Posted April 22, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Breaklands: The Chase
Genres: Fantasy,
Graphic Novels Pages: 120
Series: Breaklands #1 Rating: Synopsis: One hundred and fifty years after the end of the civilization, everyone has powers. Some big, some small, but you need them just to survive in the new age. Everyone except Kasa Fain. Which is a problem when her little brother, who has the potential to reshape the world, is kidnapped by people who intend to just that.
Breaklands Season One is the start of a three-volume journey that struggles a bit to really differentiate itself from the crowd. It’s enjoyable enough in an uncritical, “hey-ho let’s read a quick adventure” way, but most of the details are going to blur into the aether for me within a week or two more. A boy with mysterious powers gets separated from his older sister (who has no powers), and she chases after him, assembles a ragtag crew to help her find him, and of course gets into trouble along the way. Don’t hurt her brother, or she’ll hurt you!
Oh, and she does, after all, have powers. Etc, etc.
There are things I wondered about a bit with this, and it was mostly about the supporting cast and how they came to be where they are. Ruth in particular, I felt like he spent a lot of time being beaten up (and beating others up), but in the end all we know is that he’s indestructible. But what drives him? The book doesn’t care much.
Technically I’ve read all three volumes, but I don’t think I’ll review the other two: it goes where you would expect it to, pretty much how you’d expect it to. Maybe for younger readers (or less prolific readers), it’d come as more of a surprise, and I’m sure there are readers out there who’d love the series.
Rating: 2/5
Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Justin Jordan, Rachel Deering, Sarah Stern, SF/F, Tyasseta
Posted March 28, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
The October Faction
Genres: Fantasy,
Graphic Novels Pages: 139
Series: The October Faction #3 Rating: Synopsis: Merle Cope and his frightful family have been destroyed and Fred Allan has been rescued. Now that the kids have proven themselves, the whole Allan family is back in business, ready to take on the monstrous, paranormal, and downright strange.
I’m still not really sure what to say about Steve Niles’ The October Faction — it just doesn’t get beyond “okay” for me, yet it is a little bit addictive to keep on steamrolling through the volumes. The fast pace helps: I raced through the second, third and fourth volume, reading them pretty much back to back.
There is a little bit of a development with a certain relationship here, which is kinda cute and makes a lot of sense — though there’s been a lot of rushing with the character development, this didn’t come as a surprise.
And again, the art is kinda growing on me. It makes perfect sense for the story, at any rate.
Rating: 2/5
Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Damien Worm, SF/F, Steve Niles
Posted March 24, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Britannia
Genres: Fantasy,
Graphic Novels,
Historical Fiction,
Mystery Pages: 112
Series: Britannia #1 Rating: 
Synopsis: On the fringes of civilization, the world's first detective is about to make an unholy discovery...
Ruled by the Fates. Manipulated by the Gods. Commanded by Caesar. In the year 65 A.D., one's destiny was not his own. At the height of Nero's reign, a veteran of Rome's imperial war machine has been dispatched to the farthest reaches of the colonies to investigate unnatural happenings... In the remote outpost of Britannia, Antonius Axia – the First Detective – will become Rome's only hope to reassert control over the empire's most barbaric frontier... and keep the monsters that bridge the line between myth and mystery at bay...
I’m not entirely sure what to make of some of the very positive reviews of Britannia. I really didn’t get along with it, but I guess it’s a matter of taste. Personally, I found that it was very heavy on male-gazey stuff (did we really need to see multiple terrified naked or near-naked women? methinks someone’s kink is on show), and while the art tells the story well, it wasn’t a style I really enjoyed, and sometimes I had trouble telling the characters apart.
As far as the plot goes… well. I’m very eyebrow-raise-y about the concept of the Vestal Virgins having a special codex that mostly teaches you how to be Sherlock Holmes (but has maybe a few magical effects as well? hard to tell how seriously to take those screens and whether there’s some metaphors going on there). Referring to Antonius as the “detectioner” just… cringe. I cringed deep in my soul.
And it didn’t feel totally coherent, to be honest. What is Orkus exactly? How are the different manifestations related? Obviously these are questions that might well be answered in later volumes, but I just wasn’t sure of the ground we’re starting from.
Overall, there are some bits here that could’ve been intriguing, but in the end, not for me. I won’t continue reading the series.
Rating: 1/5
Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Jordie Bellaire, Juan José Ryp, Peter Milligan, SF/F
