By Unkiedev
Oh good grief, here we go again. One thing I LIKE about independent comic book publishers is they have to have better ideas to stay afloat. If the small presses can’t tell stories the big three (or four) haven’t touched then they may as well pack it up and go home.
IDW has published some great titles over the years, but the cracks are starting to show. Consider:
IDW: INFESTATION, Various W/A, IDW
This is Marvel Zombies, a.k.a. DC’s Blackest Night done on a universal scale with the IDW properties. Haven’t you always wanted to see the Transformers, G.I. Joe, Star Trek and Ghostbusters properties attacked by zombies? NO, neither have I, and that’s why it has never happened.
Wait, the Ghostbusters? They get attacked by zombies all the time! How is that a special comic book event? That’s like saying “In today’s very special Peanuts Charlie Brown will have to do the unthinkable…he will have to attempt to kick a football!”
Apparently the premise is the “Robots Vs. Zombies” universe from IDW’s pretty dang alright Ashley Wood Robots Vs. Zombies comics is spilling out into their other licensed titles. I know they just killed off a pretty darn big and important character over in the pages of G.I. Joe… is this how they intend to bring that (Spoiler Free, I promise) character back? As a Zombie?
I have to think the Transformers aspect to this will be everybody’s favorite changing tin cans FIGHTING the zombies. It would have to be… how can you HAVE zombie Transformers, anyway? Any kid of the late eighties remembers all the weird and hokey bunk that was the “Starscream’s Ghost” episodes of Transformers Generation 1 TV. Trust me it was NOT worth the effort.
For IDW to be wearing the rags of yesterday’s ideas proudly as their own is sick trash. One could argue that the sales might justify the means, that selling out as a publisher can result in the financial ability to produce better, artier books.
Bah. It’s all just tepid moneymaking.
I guess there’s always the big deal Marvel Fantastic Four #587 out this week in which one of them will die. My prediction? It will be my interests.
FAMOUS PLAYERS, Rick Geary (W/A), NBM Publishing
Having chronicled all the noteworthy axe murderers of the 1800’s in his incredible graphic novel series A Treasury of Victorian Murder, legendary Californian cartoonist Rick Geary is stepping closer to modern times with his latest book Famous Players.
Launching his new Treasury of XXth Century Murder line, Famous Players is a beautifully illustrated look at an unsolved murder from the golden age of Hollywood, that of film director William Desmond Taylor.
Geary is one of those rare cartooning masters with a unique eye and a signature style. Both his storytelling and his art style are full of detail, clarity and whimsy.
Take a break from the never-ending parade of gimmicks, events and rehashed crossovers that pass for Super Hero comics and check out what the medium CAN be. Entertaining, fun, original and smart, Rick Geary spins a murder yarn like nobody else in the biz. You’ll hope they never catch the culprits so the book never ends!
