Books 121-122
The Amazing Screw-on Head and Other Curious Objects by Mike Mignola
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Again I feel like I'm seeing The Emperor's New Clothes. Don't get me wrong. I like Mignola's work. Love Hellboy but this isn't that great and I'm stupefied that it won Eisner awards. The titular story wasn't awful. It has that steampunk feel I like. There is surrealistic sort of fun watching Abraham Lincoln calling out Screw-On Head.
Mr. Head is just that a head that can be screwed into various robot bodies that suit his needs (and is also capable of hopping on his screw on bits) Mr. Groin (I am not making this up) is his valet and partner in fighting crime. Lincoln needs them to stop the Zombie Emperor before he gets some ancient artifact that will let him take over the world.
Honestly if this was the whole of the graphic novel I'd have rated it higher. Screw On Head did amuse me (not to Eisner levels mind you) but the rest of the anthology is just a let's round up all of Mignola's scribbles and tiny one offs and jam them into an anthology without a theme or anything cohesive about it. You get a glimpse of a name or artistic Easter egg to tie it together but it's not enough nor are the other stories memorable. Like at all. Like I read this last night and have forgotten it already.
The muted color palette fits the Victorian theme (okay it really doesn't. Victorians had color but steampunk has embraced brown) but this art is so muddy and sketchy. I didn't like it at all. I'm disappointed all around.
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Judas Complex by Son M
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sometimes you take a chance and it works out. I backed this on kickstarter and I don't regret it. The art in this is lovely with a great color scheme that is so often missing any more in the non-Superhero books from the major comics publishers.
Desmond was a high school football player in the 90s and his coach provided them a little pharmaceutical help to have the best senior game of their lives. All Des remembers is blood and running away. He's the sole survivor of the massacre.
Now in the early OOs he's working with Constantine as a private investigator. The tattooed young Constantine doesn't like going out in the sunlight if you get my drift. They get a case from a young grad student the goth-leaning Erika, whose friend is missing. It's a case that takes Des right back into the nightmare of his senior year.
The story did feel a little rushed in places. Constantine needs more fleshing out but the story is told from a relatively close third person point of view from Des's pov. But I really enjoyed it in spite of that. The ending is open for this to be a series and I hope it does. I would certainly back it if it does.
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