Review: The Eltingville Club

By Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer

I can't recall my first encounter with The Eltingville Club, but I think it was long enough ago that MTV was still relevant.  I couldn't tell you where or in what book, but the strip always stuck with me. Oft-forgotten, but always lurking in the back of my brain as a cautionary tale of sorts. Every knee-jerk, rabid fanboy reaction I'm tempted to make is tempered by  images of Evan Dorkin's comic about the trollish, ugly side of fandom.

The Eltingville Club tells the tale of Bill, Josh, Jerry, and Pete, a quartet of teen fanboys embroiled in the world of comics, role-playing games, horror films, and a myriad of other facets of nerdery. They're full of geek-culture quotes, arcane trivia, and the very venom of the worst of fan culture.  Arguments, visceral insult, fisticuffs, the odd arson, and all around horrible behavior categorize the meetings and day-to-day goings on of the club and the behavior is cringeworthy.  This is the archetypical fanboy behavior that mainstream culture mocked for so many years and drove great portions of nerds back into the parents basement from whence they came. This is the ugly side of fandom turned up to 11.

Part satire, part commentary, The Eltingville Club really is quite humorous in the way that it makes you second guess some of your own nerd behavior, be it gate-keeping or any other flavor of elitist behavior. It'll keep you looking over your proverbial shoulder for that bad, bad, fan hiding inside.

REVIEW: Badger #1

Creators:  Mike Baron and Jeff Butler

Story:  Mike Baron
Artwork:  Jim Fern
Colors:  Paul Mounts
Review:  Art Bee

At our LCBS we look at various comics,recently stacked on the shelves, in hopes of one enticing us to pick it up and cough up some cash to escort it home.  Let that sink in for a minute...does that sound an awful lot like prostitution? Last week I paid money to purchase Badger #1, published by Devils Due/1First Comics. The cover looked great and the artwork looked really good when I flipped through it.

The main character in this comic is named Norbert Sykes. As cliché as it sounds, he has multiple personality disorder and enlists as a dog handler in the army. Seriously, when I picked up this comic and read the brief introduction inside the front cover, my thoughts went straight to this being a funny comic. That thought was like me wanting to see palm trees in Quebec. They are just not there (unless they are plastic)! As I read this comic, many times I kept thinking about the missed comedic opportunities.
 

REVIEW: God is Dead #47

Main story writer: Mike Costa
Main story art: Emiliano Urdinoia
Backup story writer: Dan Wickline
Backup story art: Michael DiPascale
Review: Will Dubbeld

I have mixed feelings about this book, and publisher Avatar Press in general. On one hand, God is Dead and Avatar Press deliver no-holds-barred mature content, leaving nothing taboo and giving creators an outlet for stories the Big Two wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole.
Wielded by Plastic Man or something.
On the other hand, the books are often outlets for pure, unadulterated depravity. I sometimes feel like I should be buying these comics from some shady individual in the back alley behind a seedy porn theater. I also sometimes feel like I need a shower after reading.

That said, an alarming number of Avatar books, from Providence to Über, are on my monthly pull list. Maybe it's the weird little gorehound that's inside of me, the one who loves Lucio Fulci films and Garbage Pail Kids, or maybe I'm just a bit off-kilter, but I keep reading. 47 damn issues deep and I still keep reading . . .

REVIEW: Swamp Thing #1 (of 6)

Writer: Len Wein
Illustrator: Kelley Jones

C'mon, you guys, like I WASN'T gonna review a new Swamp Thing book? Especially one by Len Wein and Kelley Jones?
Please . . .

I know you all look forward to hearing about my love of giant vegetable monsters, and this certainly is no exception. Although I lean more towards Man-Thing in my adoration of shambling mounds, ol' Swampy was my first love. You've all heard the the tale of one of my very first comics, The Saga of the Swamp Thing no.14. This thing exploded my 7-year old brain and there was no going back. It introduced me to both Phantom Stranger and Swamp Thing, a deeper level of storytelling, wonderful art, and that sweet, sweet newsprint back issue smell.
You know the one.

Swamp Thing's latest foray into print punched me right in the nostalgia with an opening page that paints the portrait of our title character's Louisiana bayou home.

Madman Three-In-One

That’s right, three comics in one review. No extra charge.

Rocket Raccoon and Groot #1
Writer: Skottie Young
Artist: Filipe Andrade
Colors: Jean-Francois Beaulieu
Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry
Review: Madman

Groot, Rocket, Skottie Young . . . doesn’t matter. Sign me up. A “resistance is futile” moment if I’ve ever had one. I’m talking “almost forcing me to ‘woot’ on social media” level. Doesn’t matter, Marvel hit a home run with this brain child right here. Two of the most popular Marvel characters in the biz currently . . . I think they even made a movie with these characters. Doesn’t matter, Skottie Young gets my dollar every time with his epic variant covers. I don’t always variant cover, but when I do, I Skottie Young all day. Doesn’t matter, not even a little bit.

Highlights include: the new Guardians of the Galaxy, a mouse-like Rocket named Pockets, a Groot-like bushman named Shrub (and yes he “I am Shrub”s), Lord Rakzoon, and a feral graffitied Groot. Doesn’t matter.

REVIEW: Self Storage #3 (of 6)

Written & Created by: Clay McLeod Chapman
Illustrated by: Matt Timson
Review: Will Dubbeld

451 Media is a relatively new (to me, anyway) Indy company that popped up on my radar a couple of months ago. They had a few pretty enticing sales pitches, so I went ahead and ordered a few titles, including one about a werewolf biker gang, one telling the tale of a Dirty Dozen WWII squad of monsters a la the old DC Creature Commando books, and a whimsical little ditty called Self Storage.

Self Storage hooked me on its initial premise of a hapless schmuck who opens a storage locker and finds sequestered within a zombie girl.
Best. Storage Wars. Ever.
A down on his luck local yokel hoping to hit paydirt in an abandoned locker and finding a zombie girl is a pretty damn original pitch as far as I'm concerned, and I was in for the long haul.

REVIEW: Lone Wolf 2100 #1

Script: Eric Heisserer
Line Art: Miguel Sepulveda
Colors: Javier Mena
Lettering: Nate Piekos of Blambot
Review: Art Bee

In the 1990s the vampire movement started with the pale undead invading books, movies, comics, and other entertainment media, By the time we hit 2005 most of the public would throw up in their mouths at the mention of anything else featuring the creatures. At the turn of the century we saw the trend move to zombies, and as fun as it has been, I feel zombies are well on their down turn. Alas, we are struck with yet another zombie comic.

In Lone Wolf 2100 #1 we are faced with zombies of a different color. A virus infects millions of people worldwide changing them into people-eating mutations called "thralls". Look, I get that the writer is trying to be different, but you cannot put wool on a dog and call it a sheep. It is still a dog!

It really amused me when I saw printed on the inside cover “inspired by the manga Lone Wolf and Cub”. They didn’t vary from the title much, so does that mean the story is almost the same as well? Is this plagiarism? I haven’t read the manga title, but it makes me wonder.