So Z2H released it’s comic over the weekend and I’ve been busy, but I wanted to review them anyway. So here’s part one. More… later.
Abigail’s War
A little abstract and at times I wasn’t quite sure what was happening, but it was fun. Dark, mysterious Abigail appears from the woods and befriends a family who believes she might be a spy. It’s historical, back in the days of the witch hunts and when France wants the new country. And this first issue leaves you wondering a lot about who many of the characters are and rather hoping they make a second issue so that they can clear up a few lingering questions. And maybe do some more than just show flashes of back story and do some actual character exploration with Abigail. Or, you know, character development with all of them.
I have to say that the art on it was a perfect fit, though, oddly enough. It’s an odd style, but it feels right with the rest of the story. Although Abigail speaking in the blue on blue was annoying the hell out of my by the end.
Alma: The Jumbo Elephant
It starts out with a sceptical man of facts attending a far too convincing summoning. Or perhaps it was an exorcism, I wasn’t sure. Step back, and it shows the man and how he came to this place and the oddities that have put him there. Namely, a giant elephant that derailed a train which caused him to start butting into everything until he’s invited to a woman’s college.
How it all works together, I have no freaking clue. Namely, I don’t know what she wanted with him. She just showed up. Maybe it’s because our main man is so delightfully British and obtuse. And Scully-sceptical on everything that comes his way. It just makes you wish he’d get eaten by a dragon just to see him explain his way out of that one.
Black Jack O’Breen
Let’s start this one off with the genre. Fantasy western. Off the bat, what the fuck? The first few pages feel very disjointed from the rest of the story and a lot of secondary characters show up that feel like they probably won’t be doing very much during the title, but it’s hard to tell with a couple of them. It feels, overall, like this is just the start of something and the glimpse of the first villain at the end was nice to see.
Overall, though, it was a bit of fun. Felt like he was trying to cram too much story into too few pages with the randomness of some of them and it could have worked with a more cohesive lead in teaser and without the glimmer of enemy at the end, but I’d probably pick it up.
Blake Undying
Just as good as I hoped it would be! I was with this one from the pitch and it’s just as good in comic form. There’s a lot that happens, though, and I wonder if it couldn’t do with a little more breathing room. First off, it’s not a vampire story. Blake is a man who recently lost the ability to die and he is very annoyed. After all, he’s been trying very hard to kill himself. And I was laughing my ass off when he slit his own throat in the doctor’s office, then asked for a note for work while the doctor was mortified.
The art seemed a little out of place in spots, though. It’s gorgeous, but something about the realistic style in this sort of subject matter seems a little unnerving. Not sure why that is.
The Brothers McElroy
You know, I didn’t like this one as much as I’d hoped. It felt off. Like it was a lot of tell and no show or something. There was enough in there that, with the proper pacing, it could have been a fun buddy comic. But they just skipped over the action sequences, there was no mention of proper motivation and I really was hoping for a little depth of character that shows up in the tell stories, but that seemed to be absent. Ah well, one in five ain’t half bad.
