Indie Comics May 4th 2011
Gladstone's School for World Conquerors #1
I knew little about this when I saw it on the shelf. I know image have great taste in the books that they publish and also that they don't normally publish Super hero books, so this must have some kind of catch to it. Something different to make it more than the typical super book. I picked it up and flicked through it to see some brilliant cartoon art. Sort of stylised yet childish in a way that reminded me of the Gorillaz band characters, the Umbrella Academy and Saturday morning kids cartoons. It was a style I really loved and the colouring is perfect, massive gradients and garish basic colours splashed all over. It really is a nice sight. Well don the creatives involved.
There is a ten page intro teaching you the history of the school as though you were attending the classes, then introductions to a spoilt brat of a kid from a line of heritage, his alien mate, the mummy girl that has a crush on the brat and her ghost friend, as well as a couple of rival gangs in the school. After breaking up a fight the caretaker, whom has plant based powers, lets slip that he didn't die but instead retired his character to one of the young school kids. which is soon followed by this...
...a strange revelation that the heroes and villains are orchestrating their own battles together. Maybe for money? Maybe for fame. Still it was a nice twist on a classic genre, with a great cast of characters. I think I'm hooked already!
iZombie #13
Back to it's usual full cast and with reminders that everything is at stake here. A brilliant Scooby Doo reference at the start, followed by Amon, Ellie and Spot celebrate Gwen's birthday, that she forgot about. It seems like Amon made the cake out of brains though as the second Gwen leaves she starts getting somebodies memories. He tells Gwen that she's the only person to stop Galetia (now revealed to be a Frankenstein's monster type deal), from opening that space thing up and letting that big creature through. Gwen's childhood friend becomes one of the vampire group. Diogenes tells Horatio he has been called away on business to the UK and that he should stay behind to finish the zombie problem in the town. That Zombie problem including his girlfriend Gwen and also including the ones Spot just got cornered by!
As for the dead presidents back up. It's more relevant than you'd think. It's three agents one a Zombie like gwen, a male ghost and a female were wolf. A professional and much more badass version of the main gang. They are investigating a Russian radio tower that has been converted by some doctor and Galetia to be the start of the Xitalu project. Xitalu being the big monster thing from space. I found the parallels between this group and the main three to be really interesting. Is this what Gwen could be doing some day? Amon seems to think that she is the only onen to save the world.
Great stuff, story moving full speed again and the entire cast is featured in a well balanced story with even more new and intriguing ideas thrown into the mix with the presidents back up. How long till they clash with the main characters? Not that it needs to be said but Mike Allred is one of my favorite artists and his work is just great for the retro characters and popular B-movie spoofs. This is a good jumping on point but I would recommend getting the first two trades as there is a lot to catch up on.
I knew little about this when I saw it on the shelf. I know image have great taste in the books that they publish and also that they don't normally publish Super hero books, so this must have some kind of catch to it. Something different to make it more than the typical super book. I picked it up and flicked through it to see some brilliant cartoon art. Sort of stylised yet childish in a way that reminded me of the Gorillaz band characters, the Umbrella Academy and Saturday morning kids cartoons. It was a style I really loved and the colouring is perfect, massive gradients and garish basic colours splashed all over. It really is a nice sight. Well don the creatives involved.
There is a ten page intro teaching you the history of the school as though you were attending the classes, then introductions to a spoilt brat of a kid from a line of heritage, his alien mate, the mummy girl that has a crush on the brat and her ghost friend, as well as a couple of rival gangs in the school. After breaking up a fight the caretaker, whom has plant based powers, lets slip that he didn't die but instead retired his character to one of the young school kids. which is soon followed by this...
...a strange revelation that the heroes and villains are orchestrating their own battles together. Maybe for money? Maybe for fame. Still it was a nice twist on a classic genre, with a great cast of characters. I think I'm hooked already!
iZombie #13
Back to it's usual full cast and with reminders that everything is at stake here. A brilliant Scooby Doo reference at the start, followed by Amon, Ellie and Spot celebrate Gwen's birthday, that she forgot about. It seems like Amon made the cake out of brains though as the second Gwen leaves she starts getting somebodies memories. He tells Gwen that she's the only person to stop Galetia (now revealed to be a Frankenstein's monster type deal), from opening that space thing up and letting that big creature through. Gwen's childhood friend becomes one of the vampire group. Diogenes tells Horatio he has been called away on business to the UK and that he should stay behind to finish the zombie problem in the town. That Zombie problem including his girlfriend Gwen and also including the ones Spot just got cornered by!
As for the dead presidents back up. It's more relevant than you'd think. It's three agents one a Zombie like gwen, a male ghost and a female were wolf. A professional and much more badass version of the main gang. They are investigating a Russian radio tower that has been converted by some doctor and Galetia to be the start of the Xitalu project. Xitalu being the big monster thing from space. I found the parallels between this group and the main three to be really interesting. Is this what Gwen could be doing some day? Amon seems to think that she is the only onen to save the world.
Great stuff, story moving full speed again and the entire cast is featured in a well balanced story with even more new and intriguing ideas thrown into the mix with the presidents back up. How long till they clash with the main characters? Not that it needs to be said but Mike Allred is one of my favorite artists and his work is just great for the retro characters and popular B-movie spoofs. This is a good jumping on point but I would recommend getting the first two trades as there is a lot to catch up on.
Indie Comics May 4th 2011
Reviewed by Matt
on
05:15:00
Rating:
Reviewed by Matt
on
05:15:00
Rating:
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