Exclusive Interview with Antony Johnston on Codename Baboushka

I am very pleased to kick off this release day with an exclusive interview on an upcoming release. I've once again had the pleasure of interviewing Antony Johnston who just announced his newest series Codename Baboushka. The series is currently available for pre-order and makes it's debut through Image Comics in October. This espionage adventure is illustrated in vibrant colors by Shari Chankhamma.

Each issue will feature two covers; a regular 'silhouette' cover by Shari Chankhamma and an 'art cover' by an all-star line-up of female artists including Tula Lotay, Annie Wy, Leila del Duca and Canadian Martimes' own Kate Leth.

So, I'll skip my praddling on and get right to the good stuff. The interview:

Cover by Tula Lotay

TFQ: What inspired you to write this story? 

Antony: The original inspiration came when I was watching FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, one of my favourite Bond movies, and suddenly thought that I’d love to see a version of the story from the point of view of Tatiana Romanova, the Russian spy sent to entrap 007.

That got me thinking about female spies, female action leads, and historical characters like Modesty Blaise, Emma Peel, and Purdey. They were all groundbreaking characters in their time, and it’s pretty shameful that 50 years — half a century! — later, female action characters like them are *still* regarded as unusual and innovative.

There’s also a serious dearth of leading female action characters in comics, outside the superhero universes. It’s only really in the last several years that a few creators, many of whom I’m proud to count amongst my friends, have begun to redress that balance. We’re still nowhere near any kind of equilibrium.

I wanted to create a character who could be that leading female action hero, a fighter and survivor who was in charge of her own destiny. A character that could endure, and find herself in any number of stories and adventures. Someone with an iconic look, an interesting and shady history… and a very bad attitude.

Baboushka was born.

TFQ: Can you tell me a little bit about this mysterious central character, the Contessa and did you base her on anyone in particular?

Antony: Contessa Annika Malikova is the last scion of the House of Malikov, an old noble Russian line. They fled Russia after the October Revolution to live in Switzerland, intending to return when the Bolsheviks collapsed.

Of course, the Bolsheviks didn’t collapse, and the Malikovs soon frittered all their money away. By the time Annika was born, they were penniless.

When the rest of her family died in mysterious circumstances, Annika — then just a teenage girl — took matters into her own hands. She returned to Moscow, determined to re-make her fortune by any means necessary. She doesn’t talk about what happened, exactly, but it didn’t take long for her to turn to a life of crime.

She adopted the nickname BABOUSHKA, became a gang boss in the Russian mafiya, and quickly built a criminal empire.

(Exactly why she took the term for “grandmother” as her nickname is a whole other story, by the way.)

Baboushka was soon a renowned crime lord, a ruthless killer feared throughout Moscow… until the other mafiya bosses joined forces against her, and forced her to flee the country with her second-in-command, Gyorgy Gyorgyov.

They wound up in the USA under their civilian names, claiming political asylum. That was three years ago, and they’ve been keeping their heads down, laying low the whole time. Until now…

Annika isn’t based on anyone in particular, but is definitely inspired by those historical characters I mentioned before, and more modern female action characters like Black Widow and Misty Knight.

TFQ: For this story you have teamed up with Thai artist Shari Chankhamma who many of also remember from your other Image series The Fuse. What made you decide to do another collaboration with Chankhamma?

Antony: Well, most people only know Shari as an amazing colourist, from her work on THE FUSE and SHELTERED. But she’s also an awesome artist, with graphic novels and web strips to her name.

Shari’s work is modern and energetic, a mixture of manga influences and American storytelling that comes from her unusual background; she’s Thai, but she reads, loves, and works in the US market.

She has a great eye for character, draws some downright sexy women *and* men, plus — because she’s such a great colourist — readers are getting a full-on Shari art experience, from layouts through to final colours. It looks fantastic.

TFQ: Is Baboushka intended to be an long-run, on-going series like Wasteland for instance?

Antony: “The Conclave of Death” is Baboushka's first ‘mission’, running for five issues.

Her second mission, “Ghost Station Zero”, will follow some time in 2016, though right now we’re not setting a final date. We’ll see how everyone’s schedule looks.

Long-term, we want to release at least one new mission each year. The stories will build on each other, telling Baboushka's continuing adventures, but they'll stand alone well enough that people can pick up any mission and read it, without needing to know the others.

It'll be like getting a new spy movie every year ;)

TFQ: Something that always shocks me with comic book writers, is how many plots and characters you're able to write simultaneously. It must take a very organized mind to write so many concurrently running comics. How do you keep it all straight?

Antony: It’s all about compartmentalizing, really. Even before I started writing professionally, I was always doing several things at once; running multiple role-playing campaigns, playing in bands, writing fiction, building my design career… I think the urge comes naturally.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that *doing* all that stuff comes naturally, at all, and I do have to be pretty organized with my time and schedule — especially now you can add “making podcasts” to that list!

But the solution, for me, is quite lo-fi and simple. I make a lot of notes, I write *everything* down so I won’t forget it, and my calendar kind of rules my life. But that’s what enables me to do a bunch of different stuff, so I’m fine with it.

TFQ: The main characters are from Russia. I get the impression you know a lot about Russia and it's people. Have you lived there or did you simply conduct a lot of research?

Antony: I’ve never had the chance to visit Russia, let alone live there, though I do hope to. Mainly it’s a combination of research and social folklore; Russia fascinates me in many ways — as a political entity, as a culture, as a military power, and of course as our Great Enemy during the Cold War.

That said, I’m not trying to write social analysis or a political treatise, here. I use Russia, both in CODENAME BABOUSHKA and THE FUSE, as background and flavour to inform characters and events around them. Russia is still a pretty exotic and misunderstood place to many people in the west, and that’s very useful. After all, I’m writing adventure fiction, not a history book…!

PREORDER YOUR COPY OF CODENAME BABOUSHKA NOW WITH THESE DIAMOND CODES : Cover A (Chankhamma) AUG150479, Cover B (Lotay) AUG150480

We Can Never Go Home #4

You know it's really weird how I got attached to this series and I don't even know how many issues it's suppose to be. I originally thought it was going to sit at four issues and now I'm like... maybe it's an on going? So far, it seems that I could follow these characters around for a long time. For a murderer, lead character Duncan is pretty entertaining! His irrational and split second decisions make for good action and Madison who unfortunately takes the role of the angry matronly figure rather than potential girlfriend (despite what Duncan thinks) actually kicks the most ass while she's cleaning up after Duncan's shit antics. Despite having super powers and an uncanny ability to meet trouble, the two are a crack team who have basically not accomplished anything successfully so far in the story. I'm starting to imagine them flying off some cliff in a convertible. That being said, it'll more likely be a Honda Civic or a pick up truck.

No matter what you think of the main characters, you're not going to be able to predict what happens in issue 4. I'm mystified that I can't stop reading because it's not exactly the type of book I'd stick with. I'm really not all comic book happy for the super powers type but We Can Never Go Home isn't your typical super power story. How many times have you heard that right? Seems like people are always saying that but in this case it's actually true. Mostly because super powers aren't really what this story is about. In my head, it's about two screw ups and that always make for excellent story right?

The fourth issue comes out tomorrow and if you haven't been reading, you should still be able to find the first couple issues as they went for a second printing. The series has been popular enough that Black Mask actually did a second printing with a bunch of awesome new covers. So you, go get em while you still can.

Royal Jelly: August 26 2015

Floppies:
We Can Never Go Home #4
Tomorrows #2 (of 4)
Teen Titans #11 (Bengal Cover)
Rumble #6
Spread #9
Rasputin #8
Low #9
E is for Extinction #3
Stringers #1

Books:
Effigy Vol 1
Return of the Living Deadpool TP


Hey! Another release week gone and another is right around the corner. I had a great week of comics to read, still not 100% through last week's releases but I'll fix that this evening. I got somewhat lost down the rabbit hole of Dragon Age Inquisition. I'm always late to the party when it comes to video games. The only one I plan not to be late to, will be the new Fallout. Knowing my luck, everyone will spoil it for me so I will get that one straight after release and then... you may not hear from me for a while.

Alright enough about games, obviously we got some good series continuing this week. I'm pretty sure I've talked about every single one of the above series at length. I'm really excited to finally read Effigy which is written by that crazy Revival author Tim Seeley. This one has been on my reading list for a while but I didn't get an itch to read it until a couple weeks after #1 was out and gone. Hate missing things but it does happen from time to time. The cover for volume 1 is from the awesome Dave Mack who's pretty epic with the Vertigo covers.


You should be seeing a few reviews from me this week and one very special interview!  Keep reading!

Fragments of Horror

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of horror and that Junji Ito has been the god of all that horror for me since the first story I ever read. A friend of mine introduced me to his work a few years ago. The first story I read was The Enigma of Amigara Fault. I was needless to say, SOLD after that.

Fragments of Horror is Junji's first horror collection in eight years. We've had nearly nothing in the English speaking world for longer. They keep re-releasing editions of Gyo and Uzamaki which is fantastic but so many fantastic stories haven't made it here and even when they are released, they're very difficult to come by (i.e. Hotel of Horror aka Tomie).  It's not that he wasn't doing things, he actually did a cat manga, a little pokemon thing and various other stories which didn't really have anything to do with horror. Yet part of me wondered if he lost something...

At the very end of the book is a page from Junji detailing his reasons for not releasing a horror book in such a long time. One reason listed among them was about the passing of his long time editor who apparently had thought that Junji may have lost his touch with horror. It's funny because as I was reading the story I started wondering the same thing.

It was the story Dissection Chan which first made me think that perhaps Junji was a little off. The story was there, it was bang on and very much Junji creepy. It was the ending. It wasn't the typical bodygore I was use to seeing from him. It didn't really make sense as an ending and that took the horror away. I felt the book redeemed itself somewhat after reading the next few stories. The Gentle Goodbye although not exactly horror in the traditional sense was very well written and eerie. I particularly enjoyed the story of the of the winged woman who saved a fallen man by feeding him pieces of chewed meat although there was a piece of the story that just didn't seem to fit quite right.

One of the key ingredients for any good Junji story is insanity. There is always one character with a firm grip on what it reality while reality changes and every other character in the story accepts the horror as perfectly normal. It was present in a few stories but its power wasn't utilized in the same way it had been in the past with Uzamaki or even some of the smaller stories like Grease.

In the end, these stories are still pretty great and I'm glad that they are part of my library. I do feel that Junji Ito is right when he says that he feels he's lost something. That being said, I do feel it may be coming back. Maybe he's just out of horror practice? That being said I really hope he starts pumping stuff out and I especially hope we start seeing more work printed in English. Particularly, I'd like to get my hands on a copy of The Black Paradox, but that's a whole other can of worms.

House of M #1 *some spoilers*

The original House of M circa 2005, was a book I really liked. In fact, I was big on the entire story leading up to it. It was kinda crazy, ridiculous and different. It had a nice explanation for rearranging the Marvel universe. At least it was one that I found entertaining. I also got to see more of my favorite mutants, Quicksilver and Magneto. It was this storyline that gave me love for Wanda too. The entire Magneto family really.  Of course it was Bendis who wrote this awesome story.

It's been ten years since the title came out and Marvel's decision to re-use the title struck me with interest. Battleworld has made it possible for writers to bring back any story they liked from Marvel history ever. That could be an awesome thing (like 1872)... or a really terrible thing...

I haven't read much from Hopeless who won the privilege of writing a new version of this story. CBR was granted an early review of the book. Both Marvel and DC lock down their early reviews and exclusives, selectively handing them out to specific review sites. I've gotten a few over the last two years. However, I'm writing this the day after release so that answers that question lol.

Cover of Issue 2

I gotta say, the whole thing feels a bit rushed. The concept is interesting enough (here's where the spoilers hit folks). Magneto is overseeing an Empire where mutants reign. Humans are being exterminated and our crime fighting humans like Hawkeye and the Black Cat lead a rebellion against the mutant supremacy. The biggest kicker of all?? Atlantis is in negotiations with the Empire and Quicksilver is in charge of making sure Namor complies but that's not actually what is happening at all. Behind Magneto's back, son Quicksilver plots a coup with Namor and that's where the story leaves off.

It all happens too fast which is something I've noticed about Marvel mini's as of late. The rush to tell the story leaves all character development in the dust. I just want to see a little more personality shine through. I want to see more of crazy Wanda and I want to see Pietro naked.. er I mean, display his talents. I mean... fuck it, I just want more Pietro.  (Damn you Marvel making everything child friendly).

I didn't really understand why CBR was unhappy with the artwork. I thought it was fine. It paired well with Kris Anka's cover and that's not something Marvel ever takes into consideration. I LOVE the cover of this issue. Issue 2 is also done by Anka and you can see it just over on the side there. Lovely as well but there's something about the first one, where the eyes are on the reader...has a barrier breaking power. The third cover is particularly awesome and beyond that hasn't been released. I tried to hunt around the internet to see just how many issues this will be but couldn't turn anything up. My guess would be around four but who knows.

All in all, not a great first issue but knowing me I'll have to finish reading the series and I'm stupidly down for reading anything with my favorite mutants. I give it a three of five stars with the artwork saving the day.

Welcome Back #1

Here's something different! When you read as many comics as I do, it's really hard not to draw parallels across them. After reading Welcome Back #1, I didn't immediately think of any other comic. This four issue mini series has an epic concept, but can they make it work with just four meager issues? I'm always surprised at the amount of actually decent and concise stories people can make out of four issues these days. It seems a somewhat safe bet by the labels. They get to feel out the reader response and consider a sequel or on-going (if in fact that's what the creators were ultimately aiming for).  So many mini series don't ever materialize into anything else. So what's this story all about anyway?

If you had read my interview with creator Christopher Sebela the talented writer of Dead Letters, then you would know that Welcome Back follows the current lives of two reincarnated warriors destined to fight each other over and over, through life time after life time regardless of the fact they barely understand what they are fighting for any longer. Jonathan Brandon Sawyer (Black Masks' Critical Hit) is on board with all the illustrations. So how do I feel about it all?

I'm really liking lead character Mali. She's an interesting character full of all the snide comments and thoughts you'd expect from a young adult jaded by the publics reaction to her father being a serial murderer. Despite having a particularly cumbersome past, she adapts well to change and pushes forward without anyone to hold her back. Particularly her loser boyfriend that she barely even likes. She's tough but not without emotion and those are two things that have always endeared me to a character. Her inner monologue examines her feelings and thoughts on all situations and she feels real, she feels self aware.

Art-wise, I'm kinda digging it. I didn't have the pleasure of reading all of Critical Hit. It came out a few months back from Black Mask Comics and I only got to read some of the first issue. I can't recall getting into the story but I do remember having some affection for the artwork. The characters of Welcome Back have a sort of punk-tastic look to them. I really appreciate that kind of thing since I'm sort of a recovering punk...now just some alternative type with a job. You get the idea, I like the appearance of the characters.

I'm not crazy about the coloring because it lacks a clear pallet from panel to panel which is something I've always appreciated. Instead each panel feels as though it stands alone with its own coloring. A different plan of attack for each one. I've always been a bit sticky about pallets and as most people know, I'm dead in love with black and white comics. That being said, it's still a great comic and I'm very interested to see where this story goes. With a really excellent ending for a debut issue, I can't really figure out where our two warriors will end up.

In the end, I give it four out of five stars.

Royal Jelly: August 19th 2015

Floppies:
Disciples #3
The Fiction #3
Welcome Back #1
Island #2
Manifest Destiny #16
Empty Zone #3
Poet Anderson Dream Walker #3 (Bengal Cover)
1872 #2
House of M #1


Books:
Names TP
Annihilator Volume 1 HC
Dorohedoro Vol 16 GN
Young Terrorists Volume 1

Well I got my shit together this week and did my pull list up early. Woo! Go me! Attempting not to let the summer distract me from my duties has been a bit difficult. Please forgive me, my health hasn't been the best either and so a two week stint of migraine headache had me reading far less than usual. It also caused me miss DCAF (Dartmouth Comic Arts Festival) yet again this year. Sometimes you just can't get up.

That being said above is my list. you'll notice that Bengal has another awesome cover out. This one for Magnetic Press' Poet Anderson. This mini series was created by Tom DeLonge from Blink182 and the vivid and beautiful artwork inside by French animator and illustrator Djet. This is a particularly beautiful cover from Bengal who's been doing all sorts of things for DC and Marvel as of late.

This is an excellent release week for newer label Black Mask. Steve Niles' space adventure Disciples continues with issue 3 and the label releases Young Terrorist TP.

You should give my interview with Christopher Sebela a read because his new series Welcome Back hits she shelves Wednesday as well. This futuristic take on reincarnation is going to keep you guessing!

Marvel has a few things that of peaked my interest recently. I recently got to interview the very talented Nicole Virella who's illustrating 1872 ! I'm absolutely in love with this series and in love with her! Beautiful work, Marvel has got to be planning to have her illustrate everything. Seriously gorgeous book. Please check out the interview linked above.  In addition to that, I'll be grabbing the new incarnation of House of M. I was a huge fan of the original title and the previews I saw of the artwork particularly spoke to me for this come-back title. This mini series is written by Dennis Hopeless and illustrated by Marco Failla. CBR called his artwork "inconsistent" but I'll be the judge of that. I'm looking very forward to giving this a good eye balling. I was very happy with his work on Spiderman and the X-men so I have no reason to think this will  be anything but great. Cover by Kris Anka is particularly awesome.

Finally, let's not forget Brandon Graham and Emma Rios' comic book magazine Island! Issue two is out. I had TONS to say on the first issue and wanted to produce a video. Sadly for me, health was an issue at the time and I hate to go back and talk about something after the buzz is decidedly dead. Missed my moment on that one. Perhaps a video on issue 2. For anyone who's interested you can watch my Youtube Channel HERE. It's not so compelling as I'm still learning this particular media and getting the hang of video editing in this way.

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!

The Divine

I have been waiting to get a physical copy of this book for what feels like a year. Seriously, I feel like I started reading about The Divine last summer. Perhaps I had? After all, the book has been talked and whispered about since FirstSecond announced taking it on. This week they finally released the book for the first time in English (originally released by Dargaud in French, this past January). 

The graphic novel is a joint effort between Israeli film maker Boaz Lavie, and award winning illustrators Asaf Hanuka and Tomer Hanuka. This seems to be the year of Asaf with his release earlier this year The Realist. 

The Divine was inspired by the true story of child soldiers. In fact, in the back of the book there is a picture of two Burmese child soldiers which, when originally published gripped the world. Johnny and Luther Htoo are claimed to have led a village in 1997 when Burmese troops swept through the Karen territory.  They are reported tot have called themselves God's Army and were worshipped by adult followers. They controlled the populace of the village and were reported to be able to walk through mine fields untouched, as if guided by some divine entity. It is this image and it's legend which caught the eye of the three authors and from there The Divine was born.

Johnny & Luther Htoo

The Divine is one of the most stunning books to be released this year. The story possesses your body and compels you to read further. I had lost control of my hands and eyes, almost forced to read on by some unearthly body. However embellished the story of the twins had become by media and rumors worldwide, the authors have weaved beauty out of the confusion and horror the picture evoked in the public. Each setting within the story is illustrated in a unique style, setting apart the real, the fantastical and the divine. Five Stars for The Divine, I could not put it down. 

If you wish to read more about the story of Johnny and Luther Htoo there is an article here from NY Time which I recommend but the internet is full of their story. 

Royal Jelly: August 12th 2015

Floppies:
21st Century Tank Girl #3
Beauty #1
Boy-1 #1
Constantine the Hellblazer #3
DC Comics Bombshells #1
Descender #6
Harrow County #4
Grant Morrisons 18 Days #2
It Will All Hurt #3
Shutter #14
String Divers #1
Walking Dead #145

Books:
Alex + Ada Tp Vol 3
Hellboy & the BPRD 1952 TP
Little Nemo Big New Dreams HC

Woah! It's a huge week for comics. Marvel and DC both saturate the stands today and pretty much every other label is releasing debut issues to new mini series. Now you know I'm more about the smaller stories. The older I get, the less hero comics I actually read but here are some exciting new series:

Beauty #1 published by Image Comics introduces us to the modern society obsessed with outward beauty. In this comic book world, beauty is a sexually transmitted disease and population clamors to obtain physical perfection. Writer Jeremy Haun (Constantine, Batwoman) and Jason A. Hurley bring us this really interesting pilot winner. This is Jason's first Image series. Very exciting.

Boy 1 #1 published by IDW attracted my attention with its mysterious cover. The story centers around the heir of a genetic engineering company who although addicted to drugs, decides to look into the history of this company. Previews tells us that what he discovers will transform him and the course of human evolution. I'm intrigued, are you? The story is brought to us by H.S. Tak with art by Amancay Nahuelpan.

String Divers #1 also from IDW is given to us by the talents of Chris Ryall and Nelson Daniel (Judge Dredd). This story is described as String theory made real and thrilling! This is promised to be Part 1 of the series indicating to me that this will be more than a mini series. The story has been developed from Ashley Wood's 3A Toys.

Clearly there are lots of other series that I'm currently reading which are continuing with this week's releases. Special mention for Farel Dalrymple because I'm so thrilled that It Will All Hurt is being published. Love these issues. They have a cardstock cover and are a larger size than current comic books. Love it.

Exclusive Interview with Nicole Virella on Marvel's 1872 !

It's Friday and you know what that means, time for a new interview! I'm so excited to bring some Q&A on one of Marvel's most fun stories to come out of Battleworld. 1872 takes us, and some of our favorite mutants (not to mention a certain Mr. Stark) into the old west. I'm a sucker for westerns and since Battleworld has pretty much made it possible for writers to do whatever they like, why not a western?!?! I've talked with Nicole Virella previously about her work on the Return of the Living Deadpool mini series with Cullen Bunn. I love her bold style and especially her character design! The first issue of 1872 is available now with the second issue releasing August 19th. You should definitely have this one on your pull list.

TFQ: I just finished reading the first issue and I immediately wondered what kinds of challenges you faced drawing chargers who have been previously portrayed and remembered famously on modern scenarios. Were there any challenges translating them to 1872?

Nicole: I wouldn't say there were challenges, just creative possibilities. Gerry [Duggan] has a clear understanding of this world's cosmology, which comes through his writing. And to give credit where credit is due -- Doc Shaner, who was originally on the book, created really amazing concept drawings for some of the initial characters. So from there, I started the concept process for the rest of the cast, which for me was the most fun. I was especially excited to create and ranslate Natasha into her 19th century counterpart. She and Red Wolf also have a costume change at the beginning of issue three, which was fun designing since it looks as if they may have swapped certain items from Bucky's wardrobe to create their unique ensembles.

TFQ: How did you get involved with this project and how many issues did you illustrate for it?

Nicole: Jordan D. White and Heather Antos recommended me for 1872 after working with them and writer Cullen Bunn on “Return of the Living Deadpool." I'm so grateful to them for the opportunity since I'm getting to work with Gerry Duggan on this awesome series, of which I'm illustrating four issues.

TFQ: Who is your favorite character to draw in 1872?

Nicole: Hard to say, I don't really have any favorites, it's been enjoyable to draw all of them. But the ones that I liked drawing in particular were Bones (Crossbones) and Carol Danvers, just to name a few.

I especially enjoyed drawing Bones even though his role was short-lived. When I designed him I decided to incorporate the his crossbones or 'x' motif into his facial tattoo/paint. The idea was this -- he like the rest of Fisk's gang are holders of secrets and privy to special information. They are tight lipped and live by their own set of values. And it's especially true because Bones wears that idea boldly on his face. Contrast that with someone like Carol who is very much out in the open and fighting proudly for what she believes in. She's very charismatic and knows how to defuse a situation whether it be with her words or fists! I really adore her and I'm especially excited for people to see her in issue two and three!

TFQ: Can you tell me about the mediums you chose for this series ?

Nicole: I'm working digitally. In the last five or six years I've found that for myself it has become easier to work digitally for economic reasons. However, working digitally doesn't mean you produce work any faster, it just creates a more efficient way to keep production all together. Meaning all the layouts and pages are organized and the expenses of supplies and materials are kept to a minimum.

John Flood #1

The very first thing I noticed about this issue was how much the cover reminded me of The Sandman. The long face, high cheekbones and dilated pupils. But I though, hey, it's a super nice cover and lets read on.

I wasn't sure what to expect. I've read a lot of Justin Jordan series and I'm a big fan of the current ones. I purposely did not bother to read the synopsis on PreviewsWorld. I thought I'd just dive right in.  It's a colorful book and John Flood is a colorful character. I can't rightly say what kind of character he is. Is he good? Is he bad? There's an innocents that surrounds his character, but it's the innocents of a madman. At the same time, I get the feeling he's far too intelligent to be innocent.

The interior artwork is handed to us by Jorge Coelho who is responsible for Sleepy Hallow. I think him and Justin make an interesting match!

I'm not sure where this story is going. Perhaps it's a bit of a who done it but I'm waiting for the Jordan horror to seep in. I did get the feeling this was a horror series yet after reading issue one, I'm no longer certain. CBR's exclusive on the series makes it sound like a murder mystery and really, who doesn't like a good murder mystery.

It wasn't at all what I expected but I enjoyed this opening issue. Might as well solve the mystery! After all, any guy who doesn't need to sleep is worth reading about.

Royal Jelly : August 5th 2015

Floppies:
8HOUSE ARCLIGHT #2
AGE OF REPTILES ANCIENT EGYPTIANS #3 (OF 4)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN RENEW YOUR VOWS #3
BROKEN WORLD #3 (OF 4)
FADE OUT #8
HUMANS #7
JUPITERS CIRCLE #5
NEVERBOY #6 (OF 6)
SPIRE #2 (OF 8)
UFOLOGY #4 (OF 6)

WE STAND ON GUARD #2

TP:
ANGELA ASGARDS ASSASSIN TP VOL 1 PRICELESS


So things seem to be picking up finally. Sadly one of my favorite current mini series does come to an end this week with the conclusion of Neverboy. I'm excited to see what Tyler Jenkins pulls out of his head next!

Lots of good things continuing obviously!! Very exited to see what is going on in Arclight! It was a very intriguing first issue! It feels like it's been forever since I read the last issue of The Humans so I'm looking forward to this release as well. 

UFOlogy is especially impressing me as of late. I regret that I began reading it digitally because it's definitely a book for my library. I will cross my fingers that it will be released in a trade paper when it's complete!