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!
Lobster Johnson: A Scent of Lotus pt. 1Lobster Johnson is the closest thing the Hellboy universe gets to a Batman. He’s clad in leather, capped with an awesome pilot’s cap and goggles, stalks around in the night, and shoots the shit out of bad guys. He’s a tough, rough and tumble hero and in this mini-series he’s on a quest to figure out who’s killing all the couriers of a gang in Chinatown.
Bag it or board it up? You could read this comic just for the atmosphere and moodiness. It’s amazing, full of taut action and dark hues, and it always delivers on the premise it proposes. Chinatown is a great setting for a Lobster Johnson comic, and even though we don’t see much of the eponymous hero in this issue it’s still an awesome read.
Doomsday.1 No. 3After a solar flare-up sent a wave of fire across the Earth a few survivors must survey the land. Some were safe in a space station orbiting Earth, while others survived by staying in a submarine. But these are all professional, military-type people with real backgrounds and lives. As they head into New York City, the hope is that they’ll find more than a mass extinction.
Bag it or board it up? When John Byrne is behind the wheel of a comic you can expect a certain type of story and his very recognizable art style. I happen to like the way he tells his stories and draws his comics. Realism all the way! Every story, no matter how outlandish the premise, is filled with realistic characters acting in realistic ways. The more I read of Byrne's work, the more I see its influence in comics like The Walking Dead.
Ghostbusters No. 6A few months back Janine (the Ghostbusters’ one-time-secretary) was challenged by her Nordic ancestors to face the spirit of Grendel. She broke a sacred oath by getting help from others to combat the monster, and now she’s been kidnapped by the ancient spirits that challenged her. Simple enough, right? So now Egon and Janine’s boyfriend Roger are trying to find her... but they have to go inside her mind to free her!
Bag it or board it up? I like to check back in with the Ghostbusters comics every now and then. I know they’ll never be ground breaking or life changing, but I think they’re fun and funny little supernatural stories. If you’ve got little ghouls running around and want to get them into comics, you should start with Emily and the Strangers and Ghostbusters. Alternatively, if you suffer from extreme nostalgia, you may also want to check out this comic.
Army of Darkness vs. Hack/Slash No. 1Army of Darkness hero Ash is hot on the trail of someone who’s selling off pages of the Necronomicon (you know, the evil book that’s been his main antagonist for the past thirty years. His trail leads him to the home of Cassie Hack, the “serial killer killer” who recently retired from a life of adventure, danger, and murderers. After a brutal confrontation between the two, they team up in what is sure to be a wild, snarky ride.
Bag it or board it up? There’s no problem a baseball bat, shotgun, or chainsaw arm can’t fix, right? This is the team up everyone’s been waiting for and it’s already meeting expectations. It’s also a great entry point for either franchise. Don’t know much about Hack/Slash? No problem. Don’t know who the hell this Ash guy is? It’s okay, jump in!