October 19

It is that time of the week again. I had had hopes that I could get this done on Sunday, but it just did not work out. So I am back on Monday with the EYC Comic Cavalcade. It is post #225 too, another of those comic benchmarks that usually requires some kind of anniversary celebration. I am waiting for 250 before we do.

I was able to pick up the original four-issues of Hour of the Wolf from Mad Cave and the 12-issue Camelot 3000 series from DC back in the day. I am currently doing a Daily Read on the Hour of the Wolf and I intend on doing Camelot 3000 next.

Comic of the Week

Hammer Head #1

This is a great horror book out from Mad Cave. Brand new this week. The main protagonist, Julie McCormick, was the sole survivor of the immortal slasher Henry “Hammer Head” Elgin killing spree.

Twenty years later, Julie is arrested and finds herself in a mysterious, high security prison.

I enjoyed this book very much and I love this variant cover even though it did not quite make the Medalists this week.

Books this Week:

Amazing Spider-Man #1001. Written by Joe Kelly and art by Pepe Larraz. Cover art was done by Federico Blee. I also picked up Cover B by Todd Nauck. This continues the story from ASM #1000 with Aunt May and her son Cormac Crane. Crane is the villain Ravage, but it does not seem as if he and Peter are going to mend their fences.

Clayface: Celebrity Dirt #1. Written by Jude Ellison S. Doyle with art by Fran Galan. Cover art was done by Patricio Delpeche. With the DC Studios movie Clayface coming out this coming weekend, this series may be picking up some steam.

Mark Spears: Graveyard Shift #1. Written, illustrated and cover art by Mark Spears. The new book from Mark Spears debuted this week. The art is still the highlight to me as Mark Spears is just spectacular. The story featuring the Boss gathering together a crew for the “graveyard shift” to take care of business. I liked this, but it did feel like the same as we usually got from him. Love the art though.

Sicko #3. Written by Tini Howard and illustrated and cover art by Amilcar Pinna. Valentine returned to OMELAS, but she has discovered that this was a mistake. Valentine discovered that several other patients with Breton’s Disease had mutations giving them powers much like Valentine. This has been a solid book so far from Ignition Press.

Lion King #6. Written by Edwin Galmon with art by George Kambadais. Cover art was done by Edwin Galmon. After the first five story arc that included Simba, we now have a new story with Timbon and Pumbaa, and it was a fun start. It felt like a small little issue with a fun story dealing with Pumbaa seeing things that were not there… or were they. It was another fun issue form this unexpectedly good book.

Legion of Super-Heroes #2. “No Escape.” Written by Joshua Williamson and art by Hayden Sherman. Cover art was done by Hayden Sherman & Tamra Bonvillain. Brainiac 1 of 5 and Matter-Eater Lad are trying to solve the case of the murder of R.J. Brande. Garth Ranzz is looking for a new trainer so he can become a super hero. I have liked this new version of Legion.

The Doom Patrol #2. “That’s the Spirit!” Written by Darcy Van Poelgeest with art and cover art was done by Niko Henrichon. While I have never been a fan of Doom Patrol before, I have been loving the first two issues of this new version from DC. I have found the characters to be extremely compelling and I am happy to be learning about them. This has been excellent so far.

Teen Titans #2. “AFK” Written by Kyle Higgins and art and cover art by Danielle Di Nicuolo. I have liked this new Teen Titans book, and the idea of kind of setting them opposite of Nightwing feels fun. I have to say that I am struggling with learning the characters. In Doom Patrol, there is only three characters for me to learn about, but Teen Titans has multiple ones and only the Red Hood is the only one that I know well. I do like this and I am into the book.

Iron Man #10. “Who is Citizen V?” Written by Joshua Williamson with art by Carmen Carnero. Cover art was done by Ryan Stegman & Frank Martin. Happy Hogan is back alive as Citizen V, which was revealed last issue. This gives us background on how he is alive and why he did not tell Tony about his truth.

Nova: Return of the Rings #1. “Return of the Rings” Written by Josh Trujillo and Rafael Loureiro with art by Bruno Abdias. “Shining Light” Written by Juan Ponce and art by Andy Pereira. Cover art was done by Humberto Ramos & Edgar Delgado. Sam Alexander is back in the helmet. This is a one-shot and the comic indicated that Sam will be back in the pages of Iron Man. Iron Man? That is a weird tie-in. I am anxious to see what that is like.

Barbara Gordon: Breakout #6. “Old Friend.” Written by Mariko Tamaki with art by Pablo M. Collar. Cover art was done by Karl Kerschl. Barbara Gordon is still in prison, and the end of this issue brought about a huge arrival… Two-Face. Two-Face just had his own mini-series and now he is here to deal with Barbara Gordon.

Ice Cream Man: Chocolate/Vanilla Twist #1. “Raspberry Suprise” Written by W. Maxwell Prince with art by Martin Morazzo. Cover was done my Martin Morazzo & Chris O’Halloran. A black & white story that reaffirmed that Ice Cream Man is the BEST of all the horror anthology of all time. So many other books have come out since Ice Cream Man to a various amount of success, but Ice Cream Man is consistently the best read of all of them. Plus, they are the most original and big-swinging horror book of them all. This special was a fabulous issue that I enjoyed tremendously.

12-Foot Skeleton #1. Written by Aaron Campbell & Tim Seeley with art and cover art by Ben Templesmith (Silver Medalist). Another cool new horror book with two kids at the heart of the book. The Halloween decorations in their yard is more than just a decoration. It is a fun concept and the first issue was solid. Ignition Press has been hitting on all cylinders over the last year or so, and they have earned my trust on reading new issues. More often than not, they are really good.

Wolverine: Paradise #1. Written, Drawn, and cover art by Dan Panosian. This book has a different feel than a lot of the other Marvel books “set in the past” that we have had so many recently. This one feels more special. Dazzler is making an appearance in the book, which is always great. I really love the look of the art from Dan Panosian. It had the great atmosphere for this throwback story.

DNX #3. Written by Jed MacKay with art by Federico Vicentini. Cover art was done by Kaare Andrews. The X-Men are desperately trying to prevent the crashing of their ship into Philadelphia after 3X escaped. How are they going to stop the metal missile? How about Magneto? Magneto makes his fully powered return thanks to the FF and he arrived at the end of the issue. DNX has been interesting so far.

X-Men #39. Written by Jed MacKay and art by Netho Diaz. Cover art was done by Tony S. Daniel & Jay David Ramos. While the action in Philadelphia is hot and heavy, the Factory in Alaska has been left … well, not quite defenseless. O*N*E* was going to make an attack on the factory. Xorn and John Greycrow have been left behind to protect it. However, it seemed that it was not just them… but also Glob.

Black Cat #15. “Dress for Success” Written by G. Willow Wilson and art by Gleb Melnikov. Cover art was done by Josemaria Casanova. Peter Parker asked for help from Black Cat, going undercover at the opera. So Felicia needed a new dress. Problem: the dress shop would not take cash. So Cat just chose to steal the dress. This brings Tombstone into the mix as well. Black Cat is such a fun book with some great writing by G. Willow Wilson.

Batman & Robin Year One- Dynamic Duos #3. Written by Mark Waid and art by Chris Samnee. Cover art was done by Chris Samnee and Mat Lopes. Robin’s undercover mission does not go well, as he is placed in the situation where he had to prove himself by shooting Catwoman. Dick was able to get out of that, but Catwoman followed him to his meet up with Batman. This has been a great series so far. Even though there are like three hundred Batman books.

Spawn ’77 #2. Written by Mark Spears & Todd McFarlane with art by Mark Spears. Variant cover B art was done by Shawn Crystal. Spawn works extremely well in the art style of Mark Spears. I think Spawn is much like the monsters that Spears is used to draw.

Cassie #1. Written by Sam Humphries and illustrated and cover art by Eleonora Carlini. This Boom! Studios book was a bizarre baseball book. I have had several strange baseball books over the last couple of years, but this one I just could not get through. It is only a one-shot, but I would not have been buying it had it been a series.

The Infernal Hulk vs. Fantastic Four #1. Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson with art by Cian Tormey. Cover art was done by Nic Klein. The Infernal Hulk is trying to create a new age of monsters, and now it is up to the Fantastic Four to stand in his way. Unfortunately, they take quite a beating.

Venom #1. Written by Charles Soule with art by Tommaso Bianchi. Cover art was done by Davide Paratore. Charles Soule writing Venom is interesting. The book has reset Venom, with Eddie Brock back in the symbiote and in New York to save people. I am not sure if I want to continue with Venom, but this first issue was pretty solid. We’ll have to see.

Generation X-23 #9. “Have a Nice Trip” Written by Jody Hauser with art by Marco Renna. Variant cover B art was done by Partha Pratim. I have loved this book so far. I did not expect this book to be as enjoyable as it is. These young characters are all fabulous and I am hoping this book keeps going after issue 10 (although it seems most Marvel books do not any longer).

Wade Wilson: Deadpool #9. “Big Guns Part 3 of 4” Written by Benjamin Percy with art by Geoff Shaw. Cover art was done by Geoff Shaw & Alex Sinclair. The sort of team-up between Deadpool and the Punisher moves along into the third part as Bullseye joins the conflict. One more issue with the crossover in the next Punisher.

Other Books this Week: The Seasons #12, 100 Bullets: The US of Anger #4, Blood & Thunder #18, X-Men ’97 Season 2 #5, Star Crossed #3, DC Studios Clayface #1, Planet Atmos: Exordium #6, Avengers: Meals to Astonish #1, Horror Comics: Dead Man’s Party #1, Bludwire #4, and Jinx & Stitches: The Great Revenge #1.

Quick Hits: Mad #602 is out this week with a look at the world of art. It is nice that it is still being released at a semi-regular rate. There is a cool and lovely black & white version of the Universal Monsters: Frankenstein #1. I’ll pick up the rest of the series from Image. There are a series of art from Lee Bermejo in the Amazing Spider-Man: Amazing Visions #1. There is an interview inside this book with Bermejo along with his art of some of the greatest Spider-Man moments of the history of Marvel. This was also the bronze medalist for the week. I grabbed the foil version of Archie vs. the Terminator #1 from Dynamite. It is a cool cover, and the Archie renaissance continues. Captain Britain: 50th Anniversary Special #1 dropped from Marvel this week as there are several past Captain Britain stories. Pancho Villa: Monster Hunter #2 keeps sending our Mexican hero after monsters. This Amp book has been entertaining so far. Babylon Cove #5 brings this story to a conclusion. It was a decent book, but maybe not as great as I had hoped. We look at Mrs. Hyde in the Accessories #3, which is the third of four issues. They have just now introduced all of the members of the Accessories and there is only one issue left. I wonder if this should have been more issues than four. Batman-Bad Seeds: Streets of Gotham #1 was the gold medalist for the Favorite Comic Cover of the Week for the B variant cover. The Nice House By the Sea #12 wrapped up the new series this week from Vertigo. Of course, this series was not from Vertigo when it started. We focus on Elita Prime in Transformers #37 on Cybertron in the war. Elita learns a lesson. New ID book You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive #1 arrived on the stands this week. This is one that I am going to need to see a little bit more before I decide if I like it. The Omega Book #3 continues to be wild and bizarre. Love the swing this series took. I am shocked at some of the scenes from Chachu #3, because Iman Vellani is such a sweetheart that I did not expect a blowjob scene. Speaking of sex stuff, Lilith: Blood & Burlesque #1 had a cover by Garth Graham that is very sexy. Then, I received this in the mail from eBay today: Watson v. Holmes #1. What an interesting book. It is a twelve-issue series. I have #2 coming from eBay as well and I have added it to my pull list.