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Friday, September 26, 2014

Review: I Was the Cat

Writer: Paul Tobin
Art/colors: Benjamin Dewey
Review: Will Dubbeld

I'm a cat person.
My family is cat people.
Nothing really against dogs, I just prefer cats. They're like a semi-ambulatory appliance or a piece of furniture.
A hassock, probably . . .

Anyway, cat people have a tendency to habitually anthropomorphize their pets, accrediting them with spades more intelligence than should be allotted.
Myself, not so much. My cats are generally as smart as a sack full of doorknobs.
Paul Tobin's fictional talking cat, Burma, on the other hand, is taking over the world with his intelligence.

I Was the Cat spins the story of Burma, the titular cat, and his nine lives. Lives he's spent attempting to conquer the globe. From ancient Egypt to the trenches of WW1 and into the modern era, Burma has been pulling strings and manipulating players like Napoleon Bonaparte and Mary, Queen of Scots in his bid for domination. Chronicling his exploits for a memoir is Allison Breaking, a gutsy reporter in the tradition of gutsy women journalists. Allison is accompanied by her plucky friend Reggie, who treads water dangerously close to the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope, but nevertheless serve as an engaging foil to Allison as the pair record Burma's exploits whilst slowly uncovering his plans for ruling the world.

Paul Tobin and artist Benjamin Dewey spin an engaging and incredibly entertaining tale in the pages of I Was the Cat. Certainly not pretentious or full of itself, and somewhat tongue-in-cheek at points, the books 186 pages (plus a couple of extras) are a quick, enjoyable read made all the better by Dewey's art which is detail minded but careful not to overcrowd the panels. The cover is especially engaging and well done, and it certainly is what drew my attention at the time of solicit. The inks and colors are a hair thick and muddy (respectively) at times, but certainly not enough to detract enjoyment from the almost watercolor look of the book. The color palette in daylight scenes is especially pleasing and contrast well with Burma's flashbacks which are primarily monotone in color.

I Was the Cat is a smaller (6"x9", roughly), beautifully bound hardcover available from Oni Press. The price point may give some readers pause at $24.99, USD, but it's well worth the price of admission.
Trim a few books from the Big 2 you'd otherwise buy this month and pick up I Was the Cat instead.

Let's be honest. You don't really care about "Futures End" or the "Death of Wolverine" anyway . . .

Friday, September 12, 2014

REVIEW: Copperhead #1

Writer: Jay Faerber
Artist: Scott Godlewski
Colors: Ron Riley
Letterer: Thomas Mauer
Review: Cody "Madman" Miller

There it is! That 'holy shit' moment where you lose control of your bladder and most of your motor functions . . . where you’re like, "F me, I’m sitting here feeling like I bathed in Novocain and a tiny bit of my own urine but you know what? It’s perfectly fine because that was a Gottdamn great comic".

Reading Copperhead is like touching boobs for the first time . . . Mind-blowing. Bags of sand.

Seriously though I’m not even kidding. Not even a little bit. Zero, kids.
I’d go as far as to say right now, one review into the HCB’s new calendar year, that Copperhead is the comic of the year. I know its only the first issue but that doesn’t matter to me because it’s that good.
I’ve been a Jay Faerber fan ever since I read his Near Death, another great book. To be totally honest I kind of forgot about the chap until I picked up Copperhead. It won’t happen again.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

The 2014 Hammy Awards

Ladies and Gentlemen, girls and boys, neckbeards and gamergirls, tentacled other-beings and pin-up models, gather 'round!
Herein lies the 2nd Annual Hammy Awards, brought to you for the low, low price of free (donations accepted) by myself and the rest of the staff at the Hammond Comics Blog.
Without further ado, if you dare, step right up and see the freaks of nature that the Good Lord has seen fit to grace us with the 2014 Hammy Awards!

Art Bee's picks:

The last year has been a mostly decent year in comics. DC had their major villains push while all of our DC heroes took a short vacation, but at least we got Joker’s Daughter out of the deal. The issue that introduced her with the 3D cover was a great comic book (I even considered it for Comic of the Year).
Marvel has been doing some very interesting things since the reboot, such as breaking time, killing the Watcher, bringing us the offspring of Wolverine and Mystique, and the return of an old favorite, Peter Parker.
Image has done a great job at giving many creators the chance to be published, and this year we have seen the main stream birth of several good series. Of course we have also seen some crap come out with them. Now let’s look at some of the best and worst comics of the year with the Second Annual Hammy Awards.