Legends Of The Night: Horrors Of War focuses heavily on the isolation aspects of a protagonist set against the backdrop of a fictional zombie outbreak occurring during World War Two Japan. The story lays out a scenario where shortly after the atomic bombs have been dropped a strain of highly infectious virus breaks containment from Japanese biological weapons development and begins to sweep through the crippled Japanese countryside. As the outbreak begins to escalate, which will ultimately draw in our lead character, a lieutenant in the Japanese military is informed that he has lost his family as a result of the detonation over Hiroshima. Upon hearing this news he is immediately ushered into a leadership briefing, where the outbreak and its source are being outlined. At the conclusion of the meeting he is nominated to lead a small contingent force to eradicate and contain the infection. The great thing about this work is that the main character really drives the bulk of the story, despite zombies rising and society crumbling we spend more time thinking about him, than we do thinking “how in the heck are they going to survive this zombie outbreak?”
Do you like Game Of Thrones?!
Do you like Ke$ha?!
Do you like Lord Of The Rings?!
Do you like punk rock?!
Do you like horned apes?!
Well then, you might enjoy Jim Zub’s “Skullkickers” from Image Comics. When Romeo Sid Vicious originally recommended this series to me, I was skeptical. I’m not a huge fan of fantasy. Demon Knights was fun, briefly. I kind of appreciated Lord Of The Rings. But, on the whole, Skullkickers would appear to be way out of my wheelhouse and even possibly removed from my realm of interest. That’s why I didn’t read/review it before.
Good afternoon Comical Musings readers. Just wanted to drop a quick hit and say happy birthday to us (two years) and to suggest you take a look at Helheim #1 before it becomes difficult to purchase. I love Vikings. I love the Minnesota ones, Skyrim, The 13th Warrior, Beowulf, and I love Helheim. It was fun and if Vikings are something that you are into, well worth your time. If spoilers are something that you are not into, you should stop reading here.
The Return Of The Dapper Men is one of the best comic book experiences that I have had in years. I purchased the OGN, wonderfully bound into an over-sized book with a ribbon, at Half Price Books for only $10. Any experience that begins with a deal that good is bound to leave the person involved with great joy. As I poured over the beautiful pages of Janet K. Lee art and saw a different side of Jim McCann, who I had become familiar with from Hawkeye books and Ifanboy podcasts, I couldn’t help but be pleased. The sweet little story of Dapper Men left you, on the whole, satisfied. But it also planted a virus that left you craving quality of a similar ilk. One brief pop over to Youtube.com and a search of Janet K. Lee confirmed that she was a masterful artist, but that the sequel to Dapper Men wouldn’t be out for a while. Her complicated and somewhat unique artistic process for Dapper Men was as time consuming as it was beautiful. As I put down The Return Of The Dapper Men after a second reading, I thought “Well, that was good,” and laid all cravings and expectations aside.
Welcome to Interviews With The Industry, a monthly series from Comical Musings. Each month we interview different personalities in the exciting world of comic books. We believe that everyone who contributes to our favorite art form is valuable from creators to retailers and we celebrate them here. This month we are privileged to steal a moment of time from a very busy writer. When I say very busy, what I really mean is that he has multiple creator-owned titles at Oni Press and manages a small corner of the Marvel Universe with Television programs in development and a kid at home to boot. This month, we interview Cullen Bunn!
Writer of THE SIXTH GUN, HELHEIM, VENOM, FEARLESS DEFENDERS, and CROOKED HILLS;
lucky husband and father; formerly world’s youngest hypnotist. Continue reading
There is just something about Cyclops. Everybody loves him. Whenever we post Top 5 lists on Comical Musings, there are always comments both publicly and privately about Cyclops. He seems to be applicable to most situations and revered by many. Why is this? What makes Cyclops so great? Today, in honor of Erick (xxadverbxx) and Gratuitous Fan Service Week, I attempt to reflect just a bit of the light that Cyclops shines for you.
Cyclops is a mutant 30 something named Scott Summers. While many mutants get super powers that make life easier (powers of illusion, suggestion, strength, etc…), Scott receives the gift of force blasts that erupt from his eyes. To prevent him from killing everyone every time that he opens his eyes, Cyclops is given a ruby-quartz visor and later sunglasses, to regulate how much damage he does. He is a founding member of the X-Men and has always been looked at by Charles Xavier as a son. When you take a step back and read that resume, everything there looks like he should enjoy “Wolverine-esque” popularity, but somehow Scott manages to stay under-rated.
If there is one thing that comic book fans like, it is lists. One of our fans, James C., has commented to me that he gets large influxes of finances in chunks and so he is constantly looking for recommendations of good things to scoop in $60 worth of trades as opposed to financially committing to monthly issues. In these economic times, it can be much less expensive to purchase trade paperbacks and collected editions from a local comic store with great deals or a clearinghouse website like Instocktrades.com. Trade waiting also allows you to get the story in chunks and not constantly be on the edge of your seat. Some might say that authors write for the trade and that issues are a thing of the past. It is in this vein and with James C. in mind that we are gonna’ make some lists of all my favorite collections that I can remember. Most of these collections have had write-ups in past Comical Musings posts. I will link to the previous post (if there is one), put a picture of the cover, and a tiny synopsis of “why it was great.”
