Author: Luke M.

Story by John Layman
Art by Alberto Ponticelli

Having stolen the Elias from Monster Island and made his way back to Tokyo, Detective Sato sets out on his plan to use them – and, by extension, Mothra – to destroy the Takahashi crime syndicate.

I’ll freely admit that I was skeptical about Godzilla: Gangsters & Goliaths, even when I heard it had a writer with a pedigree like John Layman. It was, after all, still a Godzilla book, which I haven’t had the best of luck with. Somehow, though, the creator of Chew (one of my favorite current books) has managed to infuse a sense of purpose into the classic Japanese monster world that is sorely lacking from some of the setting’s other books.

Layman has managed, so far, to weave the creatures of Monster Island into a classic revenge plotline in a way that makes their inclusion interesting, rather than simply attempting to tell a human story amongst carnage and destruction of monsters that barely take notice of humankind. Sato and the supporting cast aren’t spectacularly well-developed characters, but the plotline is fun to follow and the Elias will make for an interesting foil for Sato once his decisions come back to bite him in the ass (which they undoubtedly will).

My only minor complaint about the book has to do with Ponticelli’s renderings of characters. His landscapes are excellent, and his monsters (especially Mothra) carry all the weight and scale you would expect from these… well… goliaths. His people, however, sometimes feel a bit sloppy, and even though the book is set in Tokyo, not a single person in the book actually looks Japanese.

Aside from that one complaint, Gangsters & Goliaths is a fun read with an engaging take on the setting. Pick this one up, and avoid Kingdom of Monsters at all costs.

Story by Harold Sipe & Christopher Sebela
Art by Lee Leslie

After threatening to publicize a career-threatening monster-porn called Phantasmagorgya, a group of out-of-work movie monsters finds their almost-blackmailer, Invisible Izzy, stabbed to death and the movie stolen. Now, with every monster a suspect and the movie on the loose, it’s up to Carl “Wolfman” London and former Space Path engineer Travis Walters to find the killer and save what’s left of this motley group’s reputation.

Set in a world where monsters are real and make money off of their monstrosity (think Galaxy Quest meets Greg The Bunny), Screamland is intentionally referential of both monster movie and geek counter-culture. Now that the sheen of a new story has worn off, though, so has the appeal of its gimmick. The characterizations all seem to loiter at the bottom of an odd valley, never quite serious enough to be an intriguing take on the genre, and not quite over-the-top enough to be a comedic spoof.

While there are some genuinely funny moments (like a particular exchange in an elevator), there’s never enough laugh-out-loud jokes to carry the book into the next scene. On the other hand, so much time is spent on character origins and explanatory history that the murder-mystery plot is almost entirely obscured until the end of the book.

The art is fittingly cartoony, doing a fine job of deflecting some potentially adult subject matter into comedy. Like the writing, however, it’s just kind of there, never really finding a groove that sets it apart. If I were to flip through the book in a store, I’d likely just set it right back on the shelf.

Screamland is full of mildly entertaining ideas set in a mildly intriguing world with some mildly interesting characters. All that mild just lacks spice in the end, and mixes together into something ultimately bland.

Story by Kurtis Wiebe
Art by Riley Rossmo

Reading Green Wake has been a confusing journey for me. While the first issue was an interesting introduction to this surreal pseudo-afterlife of a town, the intervening issues grew steadily more vague, adding confusion to an already muddled murder-mystery by living in and dancing around increasingly obtuse metaphors.

While the same is somewhat true of issue #4, the explanations and revelations contained within do an admirable job of beginning to tie together the some of the niggling loose ends. We begin to understand some of the characters’ origins, and are given a deeper insight into the nature of Green Wake itself. Again, however, the story flutters in and out of the corporeal, making some of Morley’s revelatory conclusions seem to materialize from thin air.

While I do feel like issue #4 spends most of its time explaining the story to me, let me take a moment to give credit where credit is due: Unlike previous issues, nothing here feels random. The surprises in issue #4 are genuine – and genuinely planned – and for the first time in the series (unfortunately not until the fourth of five issues), I’m honestly intrigued to see how it ends.

I can’t help but wonder if Wiebe’s story is just poorly suited for monthly releases. Taken individually, each part is unduly confounding and lacks the necessary punch to remind you to buy the next issue each month. Taken as a whole, the story feels a little less pretentious and – depending on how Wiebe wraps everything up in issue 5 – potentially more cohesive.

I’m not yet sold that Green Wake is any sort of masterwork of surreal horror, but my befuddlement is starting to give way to curiosity, enough to now allow the conclusion to determine my opinion of the overall narrative.

Story by Mark Waid
Art by Peter Krause & Diego Barreto

For the last several months, Irredeemable has been mired in several plot threads that were opened with seemingly little thought toward their closure. While interesting at its start, the current storyline has diverged so far from what made the book interesting in the first place that it felt like Waid’s tale of Superman-gone-bad might be completely lost.

While issue 27 hints at something like closure, it does not do quite enough to assuage the feeling that Irredeemable is just…off. This issue feels even more haphazard than others recently as Tony nears the conclusion of his quest through the bowels of an intergalactic insane asylum. Characters introduced in previous issues are proven to have no purpose other than momentary plot devices, and the most recent introduction feels a bit too deus ex machina for my liking.

The entire purpose here feels forced, like Waid suddenly decided to give purpose to the book’s meandering. A few potentially major plot points are closed in very minor ways, yet new threads are opened with far-reaching implications. At some point along the way, Irredeemable lost its rudder, and this issue does nothing but change the book’s direction without committing to any particular destination. It lacks any sort of satisfying resolution, ending on another mildly interesting cliffhanger without really advancing any of the characters or storylines.

On the upside, I can dare to dream that the new direction laid out here is for the best, a first step toward bringing Irredeemable back around to the simple-yet-compelling storyline that made it a hit in the first place. That hope, however, will be tempered by yet another month of “wait and see”.

Story by Jim Zub
Art by Edwin Huang

Issue #8 joins our hapless heroes after they’ve been framed for the murder of the Chancellor and several other nobles by a group of fairies and their ginger-elf leader. Dumped into the street with no weapons and little information, Shorty and Baldy’s plan is simple: hide out until nightfall and find the town’s less reputable elements, then press them for information to clear their names, kicking some ass… I mean skulls… along the way.

Everything in this book is as guileless as you would expect: our heroes are simplistic, so their adventures are requisitely so. This lack of depth is balanced by legitimate (if sometimes black) comedy, evidenced by several interjecting scenes involving the retrieval of a golden flintlock. The brainless storyline is not unwelcome, though, and should be expected from a book named Skullkickers.

Edwin Huang’s artwork is suitably dynamic, seemingly built entirely to enhance comedy and action, which is exactly what a script like this needs. The aforementioned gun retrieval sequence is hilariously rendered, and Huang’s choice of framing adds an extra punch to just the right beats. Misty Coats’s colors are bright and vibrant, a good compliment to the book’s overall style.

Skullkickers is what it is: a rambling, anachronistic log of a (pretty decent) D&D adventure, replete with the kind of dialogue you’d expect from a group of cynical long-time gamers. It’s an entertaining ride devoid of emotion or drama – but sometimes that’s good enough.

Story and art by Richard Moore

Goblins – “Gobs” for short – are dangerous, filthy little degenerates, capable of no good and unable to positively contribute to civilized society, no matter what Harry Potter may tell us. So what happens when a group of goblin friends are permanently removed from their favorite elvish pub? Why, they go build their own, of course!

Richard Moore’s tale of a gaggle of goofball goblins and their plight to drink themselves into oblivion might be a bit on the simplistic side, but it’s a fun fantasy adventure nonetheless. Our introductions to Gretchen, Milo, and the rest of the band of misfit gobs shows little care for the fourth wall, and effectively builds a comedic cast of endearing – if slightly shallow – characters.

The crisp, cartoony, black & white line work in the book is perfectly matched to the script’s irreverent style. Since Moore handled both the writing and artistic chores on the book, the art is allowed to breathe and work for itself at times when other books would have attempted explanations in text. There were a few times when I was confused about what was being depicted in a panel, though, and I think coloring would have solved that problem.

My main complaint about the first issue of Gobs is that it steps outside itself just a few too many times. Some scenes could have been more straightforward and still retained their comedic nature (a scene involving beards comes to mind), but stepped into a strange no-man’s-land that derailed the experience, if only slightly.

Gretch & Co’s tale is entertaining and its cast is charming. If you can stand the large dose of cuteness this story carries with it, Gobs has a lot of potential.