New comic book Wednesday has come and gone. The dust at your local comic shop has settled. An eerie silence descends as you finish reading your last superhero book of the week. Now it's time for something a little more sinister. Welcome to Bagged and Boarded: comic reviews of the sick, spooky, twisted and terrifying!
The Massive No. 11The Massive is the story of an activist battleship The Kapital that's been floating around the ocean post-apocalypse. Think more "global, social breakdown" apocalypse and less Mad Max apocalypse and you'll get the picture. The ship constantly searches for its missing sister ship The Massive, and the story focuses on the crew of the ship as they try to deal with the slowly crumbling world around them. This issue, the crew runs afoul of a giant, prehistoric shark!
Bag it or board it up? Ooh this is my kind of comic. Quiet, thoughtful, smart, and full of tension. This comic will teach you about giant sharks as it builds up on the air of loss and danger in this post-societal world. It won't turn your hair white, but if you like giant sea monsters, a world full of strife, and an emotional story, you should get on board with The Massive.
The End Times of Bram and Ben No. 4It's the biblical apocalypse and everyone's invited! After general a-hole Bram is accidentally raptured up to heaven and returned, he and his best friend Ben set off to survive the end times and make a profit off of it. But this is the final issue, and blows truly come to blows as the two face off against the Antichrists (who look and act like comedians/magicians Penn and Teller) in Las Vegas.
Bag it or board it up? This is a very funny comic. It's chock full of cringe-worthy puns (and characters cringing at said puns), comical situations, and lovable characters. The action in this comic, rendered beautifully, flows from the page. And the premise and stances the writers take on religion and demons is unique. Check it out if you like seeing the world crumble.
Witch Doctor: Mal Practice No. 6If you haven't been following the story, Witch Doctor is about a Doctor who specializes in medical and magical maladies. Whether he's curing you of a demonic possession or helping you with an inter-dimensional STD, the Doctor's got a solution. In this final issue of the Mal Practice arc, our hero faces off one last time against P.T. Nostrum, the vile medicine man who's made a deal with some nasty demonic patrons.
Bag it or board it up? There's a line of dialogue in this issue that very succinctly sumarizes why I love reading Witch Doctor. The Doctor himself comes across the villain trying to contaminate the town's water supply, and he says "You're going to poison the reservoir? What are you, the Joker?" What a clever little line. It all at ones revels in and mocks the tropes of classic comic books. This is a comic reader's comic book, and Seifert and the gang have delivered one final, fantastic time (for this plot line).
B.P.R.D. VampireSet in the 1940's, B.P.R.D. Vampire follows a man's desperate hunt for a clan of Vampires who may or may not have infected him with vampirism. As he travels to a remote Czech town, he's met by an ambassador who helps him unravel some of the mystery surrounding a possible vampire lord that's been ravaging the area since the 1500's.
Bag it or board it up? When I reviewed the first issue of this series, I thought this quiet comic was amazing because of how little dialogue it employed. This time around, the visuals take a back seat to an unfurling mystery. The dialogue, all explanation, weaves a sordid and interesting tale of death, blood, and misfortune.