Red Room The Antisocial Network TPB

TITLE-Red Room The Antisocial Network

FORMAT-Trade Paperback

When the Cartoonist Kayfabe Youtube channel started I became a fan. I knew who Ed Piskor was cause I had read Hip Hop Family Tree. Once Ed revealed his next project was a horror comic based on  the idea of Red Rooms and he had been reading piles of Splatterpunk fiction and watching piles of Gore movies I knew I wanted to read it.

I ordered Red Room vol 1 issue 1 from Fantagraphics. Got it in and stuck it in a longbox. As soon as the TPB was out for pre-order I did that. Got it in and stuck it on the shelf where it sat unread until very recently.

Why did I let the issue then the TPB sit there unread for over 2 years? Not really sure why. Been a few times I would grab the TPB and start to read it. Then change my mind. 

During my night sit down and read after dinner time I had just finished another TPB and figured I would read issue 1 of Red Room out of this collection and then the next night finish it. Forgetting the first issue was double sized. Once I had those 64 pages read I went ahead and finished the TPB.

Ok what is a Red Room? Rumored for years they are places online where you can  pay and watch someone be tortured and killed.  If you have seen the Hostel films this is similar.

Ed Piskor is the writer and artist on this series. Many times he talked about how he wanted it where yoou could pick up any issue and read it without having to have read previous issues. He managed to do this. The 4 issues in this TPB are connected. But could be read in any order and still work. With each issue being a standalone story. A standalone story that also is building a world.

In the series we get introduced to the various people running these Red Rooms. They are using the Dark Web to broadcast these snuff films. People use Bitcoin to buy entry into the rooms. Then pay even more to see some graphic kills.

The kills are gruesome.Since I was a young kid I have watched horror films. Read horror comics and books. This series shows that Ed has also read a pile of the same books I have. Seen piles of the same gore movies.

Add in how good of an artist Ed Piskor is. He talks about how he wanted this to look like the so called outlaw comix of the 80s and 90s. Black and white indie comics that were filled with violence and various things you were not seeing in most comics back then. Piskor's art has this slightly cartoony look to it. Which makes a good contrast. You got something that looks like it could be taken from that silly comic strip your Aunt Lindey reads in the newspaper every day. Then the next page you will see Pokerface ripping out someone's eyeball then pulling their tongue through the now empty socket.

I just wish the writing was as good as the art. Might just be I have read/watched most of the stuff that inspired Ed to do this comic. For me the story is just a collection  of highlights from the last close to 50 years of extreme horror fiction. I wanted more about how the various groups keep their Red Rooms going. Instead of page after page of shhots of the live streams and the chat room to the side of the live stream.

Been told vol 2 is better ,story wise. And as of right now Red Room is over. There is 3 volumes. Feels like the sales were dropping so Ed cut bait.

Really it is hard to say who this comic is for. The hardcore horror nuts will more than likely be like me where the story feels like something we have read before. And those that aint hardcore horror nuts will be kept away by the levels of ultra violence and gore in the comic.

While I do enjoy Ed on the Cartoonist Kayfabe vids out of the 3 comics I have read from him the only one I can recommend to people is Hip Hop Family Tree.

Red Room The Antisocial Network TPB gets a C-.

Hell-Rider Issue #1 70s wacky b/w biker comics from Skywald

 

TITLE-Hell Rider issue #01

PUBLISHER-Skywald

Look at that cover! If I had seen that cover when it came out I am sure I would have  spent the 60 cents it was priced at. But I wasn't even born when this title came out.

Bit of history,Skywald was one of the many companies that in the 70s tried to take the success Warren had with Creepy,Eerie and Vampi and make their own  series of magazine sized,b/w art comics. Stuff that cause of the size of the publication fell outside the tight regulations of the Comics Code Authority. Skywald is best remembered for their 3 horror mags,Scream/Nightmare/Psycho. 

In 71 Skywald published the first of what was a 2 issue run for Hell-Rider. And like all the other magazine sized Skywald comics Hell-Rider wasn't properly copyrighted. I think they didn't the proper notice in the published comics,but no matter what the issue is it means all those Skywald b/w magazines are public domain. So you can goto places like comicbookplus and download legally scans of all the Skywald stuff. Also means a company like Gwandanaland Comics can  published a TPB collecting both issues. While I am using jpgs from the scan of Hell-Rider issue 1 I got from Comicbookplus for this review,I read the TPB that I got almost 3 years ago. Back when Gwandanaland published all their TPB and hardcover collections of Public Domain comics through Amazon's print on demand service. Something happened in 2022,near the end of the year,and Gwandanaland left Amazon and is now selling their stuff through Barnes&Noble online. So if you are interested in Hell-Rider 1 you can either go download the scan LEGALLY FOR FREE at Comicbookplus. Or if you want a physical copy google "Gwandanaland Comics"+"Hell Rider" that should get you to the proper page at the B&N website.

Who is Hell Rider? He is just your average child of a well off family.  Our titular lead doesn't want to work for his father. So he takes some inheritance and moves to the west coast. While there in a rough bar Hell Rider meets a group of bikers known as the Wild Bunch. Once he impresses the Wild Bunch,Hell Rider buys a motorcycle and lives the life of a biker for a bit.

Brick ,Hell Rider's real name,gets drafted and goes for a tour in Nam.After being injured in the Vietnam War our lead gets injected with an experimental drug. Every day for a year  Hell Rider gets shot up with this drug then spends most of his day working out. 

Brick has gained super strength and other abilities from this drug. What other abilities are not really spelled out in this first issue. And we learn that Hell Rider's powers can just fade out without a warning. They always come back after some time. 

Like how this is to show us that while Brick isn't a total clean cut hero like we were use to in comics back in the early 70s,he was still a good dude. Plus love how that last panel looks. Tempted to take that panel and use it for some art projects I am working on.

Reconnecting with a friend in the music business,Brick waits as she goes back to her dressing room at a club. Where she finds our bad guys, in black hoods with metal claws,trying to get a pair of boots the singer owns.  The Claw gang wants these boots cause between the inside lining of the boots is a pile of heroin.The lady singer has sent the boots to her friend,Marian Michaels who works in Las Vegas.

I want to point out that there is a lot of drug references in this comic. Proving that it wouldn't have gotten that CCA stamp on the cover. Also a few times in the comic a drug like pot isn't as demonized as a harder drug like Heroin is.

Brick on his chopper follows the Claw gang as they leave with his singer friend. He thinks he is being sneaky. He isn't and takes a gun butt to the back of the head and is knocked out. Waking up the next morning to find his friend gone and a note.

With the first chapter in this comic done we see the birth of Hell-Rider. 

Chapter 2 introduces us to The Butterfly. Now I might be wrong on this. The research I have done seems to prove my theory about The Butterfly being the first Black female superhero to be true.

The Butterfly is really Las Vegas singer Marian Michaels. Marian finishes her song and the crowd loves it. 

Back in her dressing room our old friends The Claw gang are there. Looking for the boots from chapter 1.

Ms Michaels gets past the Claw hoods,and flips the light switch. Filling the room with darkness. So she  can changed into her Butterfly outfit. Which she uses to blind the Claw Gang. From what the Butterfly says I am guessing her suit can make a  light so bright it will cause permanent blindness.

The Claw Gang leaves with the boots. And Butterfly flies after them. We learn that she flies thanks to a rocket on her back. Noticing her fuel is low,and as a way to intro another of her abilities,Butterfly swoops in low and with the suction cups on the tips of each finger attaches herself to the roof of the Claw Gang's getaway car.

With not much fuel Butterfly has to decide if she will follow the helicopter or make it back to Las Vegas. She  decides to follow the chopper.

Yea low on fuel she fights her way into the chopper. To try to get these boots back.

Butterfly beats up the Claw Gang,gets her boots back and leaves a message with the chopper pilot. 

She tries to fly back to Vegas but runs out of fuel. Safely landing. Marian thankfully had stored her stage clothes in her pack. She changes back into them and wonders if there will be anyone on this lonely desert road that will give her a ride back to Las Vegas.

The Wild Bunch biker gang from the first chapter appear again. They want to see their friend Marian. She is gone. With her missing they are heading to see their friend Brick. And who do the Bunch find on the side of the road Butterfly aka Marian. The lady member of the Wild Bunch takes Marian and heads back to Vegas. While the rest of the gang take the boots and head off to Brick's home. End of Chapter 2.

Chapter 3 starts off with that great splash page of the Wild Bunch in a big fight. That splash and the next  2 pages lets us know a bit about each member of the gang. Then we cut to present time. Wild Bunch is  heading from Vegas to LA. Tasked with safely bringing the boots to Brick aka Hell-Rider.

The guys pull over to the side of the road for a quick rest. A big black fancy car passes them and cut to the inside of the car. Guess who is in the back seat? The leader of the Claw Gang. And the leader happens to notice that on the back of one of the Wild Bunch's bikes is the boots that the Claw Gang wants to badly. So the car stops and we get a big brawl between Claw thugs and the Wild bunch.

Yep the leader of the Claw gang has an extending metal cyborg arm. Which is limited to 6 feet!! And for what feels like the 100th time in this comic those blasted boots change hands. 

The Wild Bunch catches up with the car and stops it. But the leader calls in for backup and a pile of helicopters show up. They drop a big net and every Wild Bunch member,besides Slinker,gets caught  in the net. Slinker on the other hand gets the boots and hauls ass.

Now on his own  Slinker heads back to Vegas to bring the boots back to Marian. The  rest of the male members of the Wild Bunch are held on the Claw Compound and chapter 3 ends.

Chapter 4 starts with Hell-Rider regaining his super strength. Escaping from the cell the Claw put him into in Chapter 1.

Brick not only kicks the Claw thugs asses but he helps his singer friend escape. But it might be too late. The Claw already shot her up with heroin. Hell-Rider puts her on his bike and rushes to the nearest hospital.

Slinker gets back to Vegas. Brings the boots and the female Wild Bunch member finds the heroin hidden in the boots.

The three Wild Bunch members being held captive at the Claw Compound get free,find their  bikes and notice the compound is on a plateau.  So we get a big bike jump from the Plateau to freedom.

They manage to escape. The Claw leader is now in Vegas about to kill Slinker,Butterfly and the female member of the Wild Bunch. But Hell-Rider uses his amazing bike riding skills a 2x4 that is just laying around and I am guessing the biggest thing was the writer realized he had almost no pages left so had to wrap this up fast,and HELL RIDER takes his motorcycle and goes up the side of the building and in through a window. Stopping the evil Claw leader.

And the evil hooded leader of the Claw gang is unmasked. Revealed to be Hell-Rider's uncle. The end.

Wow that was a nutty comic. After finishing it I wondered if maybe Hell-Rider was Skywald's rip off of Ghost Rider from Marvel. Nope Hell-Rider appeared a few years before Ghost Rider.

The art is pretty good. The story is wacky and full of just insanity. And I loved it. 

Skywald's Nightmare Issue 7 reprint by Gwandanaland Comics

 

TITLE-Nightmare issue 7
SOURCE-Gwandanaland Comic TPB

Nightmare was one of the 3 b/w magazine sized horror comics that Skywald published in the early 70s. While the art and stories were not always at the level of the Warren mags,like Creepy and 1984/1994,Skywald was a good second place in the B/W Horror Comic vein. Thankfully Skywald forgot to put a proper copyright notice on their magazines. Which means they are all Public Domain. So Gwandanaland Comics,a publisher that specializes in PD comic collections,a few years ago started reprinting all the Skywald mags. What I have here is cause I didn't read the description closely. I had already ordered a few volumes of Scream,another Skywald Horror Mag,and wanted to get some issues of Nightmare. I didn't read the description on Amazon closely. So instead of ordering a TPB that reprints 4 or 5 issues of the magazine,what I got is a thin TPB that reprints issue 7 of Nightmare.

In this issue we get 8 stories and one article. The article is on Dracula in cinema. And mostly talks about Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee.

The first story is The Penitent,wrote by Ed Fedoryi and the art credited to Ferran Sostres. Never heard of either creator. The story is told to us by a man with a long white beard. He is in prison and claims to be innocent. From what he tells and shows us it appears that this Prisoner lives in a world full of fantasy elements like dragons and Lizard-men. But like the Pre-Code horror comics these stories were inspired by we get a twist ending. Sadly it is a twist that sucks.

Group Jeopardy ,Script by S.F. Starr art by Amador,is up next.A group of people with various mental issues are at a place way out in the woods. And their doctor is trying to help them with their issues. But there is a mad killer on the loose who kills using a brutal bear hug. Thankfully the twist in this story is way better than the one in the first story.

Our third tale is The Giant Death Rat. At a wharf a group of rats are trying to get on a cargo ship that is headed to the new world,AKA North America. A few weeks after the ship is out in the ocean someone in the kitchen sees one of the rats. The captain gives an order to find the rat or everyone on board will die of the Plague. They don't find the rat,but not long afterwards one of the sailors comes down with a deathly illness. By the end of this 7 page story all but a few of the sailors are either dead or dying from the plague. The ship is set on fire to prevent the plague from spreading. And we go back to the wharf. The rats tell us how they are glad they didn't go on the ship since one of the humans aboard had the plague. Decent twist ending on this one and great art.

Batting clean up,aka Fourth,is GASP! A 3 pager that feels like a story rejected by every horror publisher so far. The twist at the end is just dumb. This one has art and script by Donald Brown. And yea the art isn't good and the story sucks.

After the 4th story is the 6 pager on Dracula in Cinema. Nothing in here any horror fan didn't already know. But I'm sure back when this came out and we didn't have as easy an access to info this article might have been pretty good.

5th story is The Alter of Blood. Which has the best art of story in this issue. That gorgeous art is by Pablo Marcos and Bob Kirschen is the writer. The story sadly isn't as good as the art. A demoness in Hell is trying to take over all of Hell. This 6 pager I am betting was aimed at the teenage boy audience that wasn't old enough to buy Playboy but could buy a horror comic.

A Father's Lament is our 6th story. Script by Ed Fedory and art chores are handled by Frank Cueto. A father and his son are off hunting in the woods. They find a body of a man. This man has a large ax in the middle of his chest. In the body's pocket they find a journal. Learning that the man was hunting a werewolf.  A werewolf that killed his family.  After what appears to be years of hunting this killer werewolf the man gets the upper hand and burys a silver ax in the chest of the lupine monster. This is where we learn the werewolf is the son. Our father and son team of hunters are shocked by this story they read. And the father let's his greed get the best of him. He removes the ax from the body's chest. Planning on selling the ax since it's head is silver. The son tells him to not do this since it is cursed. But the father ignores his son. And the story ends with the hunters talking about how hard it must have been on the father to kill his son,even if he is a killer werewolf,and off in the distance we see the werewolf alive again and about to attack the 2 hunters.

Lucky number 7 is Artifacts. A Sci Fi short story I have seen done many times before. A new World War happens. Most of mankind dies. The small band of survivors leave some sacred artifacts hidden in a cave. A few hundred years later some aliens that look like Vaughn Bode Lizards land on Earth. Go into the cave and find these artifacts. One of which is a metal disc. This is opened and inside they find a reel of 35mm film. The Bode Aliens rig up a projector and we see that this film reel is a Looney Tunes short!!  Script and art on this one are handled by Dennis Fujitake. Loved the art and the story was decent,even if I have read/saw variants of it for decades.

Our final story  is scripted by Al Hewetson with TORRENTS handling the art. I do wonder who TORRENTS is. This is a Sci Fi story heavily inspired by the mythos of HP Lovecraft.  And while it has some really nice looking art the story is crap. Like the Alter of Blood story this is one where you are better off looking at the art and making up your own story to go along with it.

Now with any Gwandanaland Comic you have to remember all they do is either find scans of the comics or get the comic and do the scans themself. They do not touch up the art or alter it in anyway. With their Skywald stuff the only thing that is changed is the ad pages and some of the text pieces are removed. This reprinting a single issue of Nightmare means it has 70 pages. IIRC it was like 8 bucks on Amazon. The bit of looking I have done on Skywald stuff is any issue of their horror comic mags in decent shape will run you way more than 8 bucks. So this reprint from Gwandanaland is a great deal.

The art in almost all the stories is really good. With GASP! being the only one with what I would consider bad art. Out of the 8 stories in the issue 3 of them I found to be pretty damn good. The others went from readable to Skip the story and just enjoy the pretty art level.

If you enjoy horror comics. And have read all the Creepy and Eeries stuff give one of the Skywald collections from Gwandanaland Comics a try.

The Saga of the Victims TPB from Gwandanaland Comics

 

TITLE-The Saga of the Victims
SOURCE-Gwanadanaland Comics #2420

Off and on for the past 20 years I have heard about "The Saga of the Victims". This was a 6 chapter comic serial. Appearing in issues of Skywald Publishing's Scream horror magazine. Scream was a clone of Warren's better known Eerie and Creepy

 

Josey Foster and Anne Adams are college students. Going to a fancy private college. Then one night their dorm gets invaded by demonic looking beings from below the Earth's surface. They learn that the leader of these dwellers from below is the Head Mistress of their college. Using their brains and a bit of luck our two college ladies escape. But end chapter one in a room where a man with no skin has just walked in.

And with this first chapter ,running 20 pages of gorgeous B/w art from artist Suso,establishes the forumula we would get in the next 4 chapters. Each starts off with "the Victims" escaping a cliffhanger from the last chapter. They run into something even more odd and creepy. End up about to die and chapter ends.

Like how they end up on a pirate ship full of zombie pirates. Josey and Anne are made to walk the plank. They fall into a shark infest sea. But a giant squid grabs them and drags them deeper into the sea.

But wait that Giant Squid is actually a submarine. Captained by a midget Nazi,who goes around the world in his Squid-Sub terrorizing various seaside towns and cities.

Just when I thought the writer,Alan Neweteon,couldn't top a Midget Nazi who piloted a Squid-Sub he strands the Victims deep in the darkest jungle. Where they get captured by a tribe of cannbials lead by a giant man who got a masters in psyhcology from Harvard

In the final chapter in this trade,Chapter 5,our leads faced all kinds of insane deathtraps

Before being put into a odd looking spaceship. Being taken to a huge castle.

Which in the final panel takes off into space. All through out the 5 chapters we keep being told that someone/something is torturing the Victims and will keep doing it till they two ladies give up. In Chapter 5 they strongly suggest that in chapter 6 we will learn who/what this ringleader is. And why they chose Josey and Anne to be the Victims.

Now I have hinted that this TPB doesn't contain every chapter of this sadly forgotten batshit insane comic serial.And there is a major reason for that. See Scream was a magazine sized comic that got published by Skywald. Skywald never put a proper copyright notice in their comic mags. Which means they are all public domain now. The issue of Scream that Chapter 5 ,issue 11 aka the Winter of 75 special,was the last issue of Scream to be published.

So what about the final chapter? Well from what I can find it has been published 2 times now. Once was in a horror comic that was published in Spain. This version is of course in Spanish. Then in the early 2000s there was a small print run of a hardcover collection. This collection has ,IIRC in color,all 6 chapters of The Saga of the Victims in English. This hardcover is long out of print. I keep checking a few used book sites and never find a copy for less than 200 bucks.

Honestly even with the story being incomplete this collection is worth grabbing. All of Gwandanaland Comics can be found for sale on Amazon. Or you can buy direct from Lance,the guy who runs Gwandanaland. If you buy direct from him you can get the volumes a slight bit cheaper but have to pay for shipping. Either way you get them they are made by Amazon's print on demand service. I think for the cheap price this volume is worth it. 

2017 Comic Challenge 310 The Walking Dead #165

TITLE-The Walking Dead 165
PUBLISHER-Image

FUCK! Yeah Kirkman got me again. I have been thinking that either Rick or Carl would die soon. But I was wrong.

We got our group on horseback leading the herd into the ocean. All is going well. Then Andrea and Eugene get separated. Andrea makes it out,but has to go back to rescue Eugene.

Dwight's group is doing good. Then what is left of the Saviours show up and Dwight gets attacked.

Back at Alexandria Rick and Negan are slowly thinning out the herd that is surrounding the shed they are trapped in.

So it looks like all is going ok. Then the final page happens. And we see what I am pretty sure is a bite mark on Andrea's neck. Like I said at the beginning FUCK!.

The Walking Dead 165 gets a BUY!

2017 Comic Challenge 309 The Walking Dead #164

TITLE-The Walking Dead 164
PUBLISHER-Image

Fun issue. Got a bunch of people from Hilltop and Alexandria on horse back leading off packs of zombies from the herd that is inside Alexandria.

And while all that is great,well written and drawn the best part of the issue is Rick and Negan get stuck together inside a tiny shed inside Alexadria. And Negan explains why he is the  way he is to Rick. Kind of surprised but it makes sense.

It looks like our leads have this under control and Alexandria will survive. Then the last page reveals that some of the Saviours are lying in wait. Ready to attack as soon as the herd is gone.

The Walking Dead #164 gets a buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 279 Hate #12

TITLE-Hate #12
PUBLISHER-Fantagraphics Books

Yeah I know should have done this issue before the last review. But they were not in order in my comic box.

In this issue Buddy and Lisa,his crazy girlfriend,decide to buy a table at a convention. And we get Bagge's satire and loving tribute to 90s comic cons. Back before they got invaded by pop culture people and it was 30 bucks to take a pic with your own camera.

The main plot is Buddy trying to get Lisa to use her status as female at a con to sell more stuff. And well since it is Lisa it doesn't work. Then Buddy runs into his nemesis Yahtze,yeah that is the guy's nickname. Yahtze is your normal early 90s bootleg VHS dealer at a con. Piles and piles of horror and cult movies that at the time hadn't gotten a legit release on any home media. So why Yahtze and Buddy are trying to show how macho they are Lisa sneaks over and steals a few shopping bags full of Yahtze's more than likely over priced tapes.  Of course once Buddy and his lady get home they settle down to watch some of these tapes,when Yahtze shows up demanding money. Lisa grabs a bat and lets her inner crazy out and in the process destroys all the tapes. So Yahtze leaves,swearing revenge,and Buddy is bummed out. Until they find that one tape didn't get destroyed so they lay down on the mattress on the floor to watch some old 60s movie.

Bagge as you can tell had been to many cons. And gets all the great parts and all the crappy parts exactly right.

Hate #12 gets a Buy!

2016 Comic Challenge 278 Hate #13

TITLE-Hate #13
PUBLISHER-Fantagraphics Books

Ahhhh Hate,the perfect 90s indy comic.Peter Bagge,who wrote and drew Hate,had a way of being about 2 years ahead of mainstream pop culture back then. And being in my teens then early 20s during the 30 issue run of this title I was the perfect audience for Bagge's extremely funny and somethings thought provoking series.

On the cover we got the lead,Buddy Bradley,as a voodoo doll. And the guy holding the doll is Buddy's ex-roommate George Cecil Hamilton the Third.Who if I recall correctly hadn't appeared in Hate in at least a year or two,at the time Hate came out 4 to 5 times a year.

Buddy learns that George has kind of slandered Buddy in the newest issue of his zine. So Buddy tracks him down to find out why. And learns that George is now living with a wealthy woman. Who takes care of George and pays to publish his zine.

Now I know that Hate is very much linked to the decade it came out in. I wonder sometimes how much appeal it would have to someone who didn't live thru the late 80s thru the 90s. I am sure lots of the jokes and references will go over anyone who wasn't around then's head.

Hate #13 gets a Buy!

2016 Comic Challenge 231 Mortar Man #01

TITLE-Mortar Man #01
PUBLISHER-Marshall Comics

Found this one recently in the cheap bins. It was a buck and I had never heard of the title,the artist,writer or even the publisher.

The cover,and that it came out in 1993,makes me think this is another tiny indy trying to start their own superhero universe. On the back cover we got the lead villain of this issue,the Rotten Apple. Of course that is our titular hero on the front cover.

So I start reading the issue expecting something like I would get from Dagger comics,who besides me remembers them?,or maybe Lightning Comics. A badly drawn and written cash grab at the comic boom. Nope instead I get a fairly well written and very very well drawn satire of superhero comics. Mortar Man relies on various grenades. Some cause him to fly others just explode. The drawback is they all look the same so he never knows what he is using. The Rotten Apple is a great arch-villain. Think a slightly silly Dr Doom.

I am kind of wondering if maybe this was written and drawn years before it got published. One of the reasons is this came out at the height of the Image craze,where comics were lucky to have 3 panels on a page.But in Mortar Man #01 most of the pages have 6 to 9 panels. It really reads and looks like one of the many superhero satire books on the 80s B/W indy comic boom.

Since I found this in the dollar bins,I am gonna guess it shouldn't be hard to find it cheap. And really if you find it for cover price or less and enjoy satire it is worth grabbing.

Mortar Man #01 gets a buy!

2016 Comic Challenge 204 The Walking Dead #155

TITLE-The Walking Dead #155
PUBLISHER-Image

Like the tide the pace of TWD ebbs and flows. This is obviously the start of a big story arch. Michonne is trying to rush back with a wounded man. Dwight is leading a group of troopers in a hunt for Negan. And Negan well.. Negan is in love with Alpha of the Whisperers.

Even the slow issues like this one are engaging enough I don't mind getting this monthly then later on grabbing a physical copy in the Compendium format. The letter page confirms my thoughts on this being the start of a big story arch. Our monthly cast of people will be going to war with the Whisperers. And it is promised to be different and top the All Out War plotline from a bit over 2 years ago.

The Walking Dead #155 gets a buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 170 Dumm 2099 #01

TITLE-Dumm 2099 #01
PUBLISHER-Parody Press

Under the Bill Maus cover is a horrid piece of shit. Seems Parody Press had all their 2099 parodies crossing over. And if you buy them all the covers form some kind of crappy image.

The story is shit. Pure shit. The art looks like stuff a bored 13 year old doodled in class. And charging $2.99 for this shit....WTF.

Dumm 2099 #01 gets a PASS!

2016 Comic Challenge 135 Gore Shriek Vol 01 #04

TITLE-Gore Shriek Volume 01 #04
PUBLISHER-Fantaco

Ahh Gore Shriek! I have written about my love and pursuit of this b/w gory as hell horror anthology comic at least one time before here at my blog.

There are 5 stories in this issue. Plus a nice piece on Monster Magazines by Steve Bissette.That is one thing I love about Gore Shriek it not only has some great comics,but it also after a few issues started putting nice articles in every issue.

And while all 5 stories are entertaining,the first one by Steve Bissette is the best. Titled Sleeper. It is about a kid who hates Sundays.Mostly because while his parents goto church,he is forced into a dresser drawer and has to stay in it until they come back. Then one day something happens and they don't come back.

Gore Shriek #04 gets a BUY!

2016 Comic Challenge 124 Good Girl Comics #17

TITLE-Good Girl Comics #17
PUBLISHER-AC Comics

I really enjoy all these various indy comics that reprint Golden Age stories. AC Comics is best known for their long running title Fem Force. In which either various Golden Age heroines or close copies of them are teamed up in the modern age to fight crime.

Good Girl Comics was a quarterly comic. With usually one new story,most of the time starring whatever Fem Force member was on the cover. Then the rest of the 52 pages is filled up with "good girl" art from the Golden Age.

Issue 17 is the penultimate issue of this series. The original story has Nightveil,the lady on the front cover fighting off sentient evil ice cream. Then there is 4 reprints of Golden Age stuff. With Sky Gal being the best known.

I am guessing this comic never sold well. In my many years of hitting comic shops and cons I have only seen 2 issues of this series. Both of which I bought. Might be the $3.95 cover price turned away curious eyes. Maybe it was cause it was in b/w.Whatever the reason now most issues of this series will run you at least $7 to buy an issue.

Good Girl Comics #17 gets a borrow.