Blog

Indy Gems is back after a brief hiatus due to some unforeseen technical difficulties. I took the downtime I had recently and was able to beat Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, which is an amazing game if you haven’t picked it up yet. Now I’m back, and have a new hard drive that hopefully won’t crash.  Well- on with this weeks column.

Beasts of Burden #2
Writer: Evan Dorkin
Artist: Jill Thompson
Letters: Jason Arthur

Dorkin and Thompson have created a masterpiece with Beasts of Burden! I was impressed with issue #1 and knew I would follow this mini-series. Now issue #2 has come out and I am totally BLOWN AWAY, as this series just keeps getting better and better; Evan Dorkin has done an amazing job on this gem. Issue #2 starts off with the gang trying to track down some missing puppies, and after some investigating they are directed to an old abandoned well. After the group tries a summoning spell to see if they can make contact with the missing puppies, things get hairy fast! I’m not going to say what happens next, so lets just say an unexpected vengeance is dealt. You guys will have to go out there and pick this amazing comic up!

Haunt
Publisher: Image
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Artist: Ryan Ottley
Colors: Todd McFarlane
Letters: Richard Starkings/Comicraft

Haunt is a tale of two brothers, Kurt and Daniel. Kurt is a covert operative who relies on pure unrelenting firepower and violence, Daniel on the other hand is a priest, and a troubled one at that. The brother’s relationship is not the best and there is little animosity between them. Things get difficult for Daniel when Kurt gets killed after a botched mission. Instead of going into the Light as it were, Kurt decides to hang around and haunt his brother. Daniel stays with Kurt’s widow after Kurt asks him to keep an eye on her, knowing the agents that killed him would come knocking, and when two guys with guns show up and start shooting, Kurt possesses Daniel and slaughters both men. This series seems like it could be pretty interesting, I will have to wait and see though since it still is only the first issue. One thing I’m not sure of is I get the feeling that Haunt could turn into a Spawn clone, which would be unfortunate. Only time will tell with this series.

Seduth
Publisher: IDW
Writers: Clive Barker and Chris Monfette
Artist: Gabriel Rodriguez
Colors: Jay Fotos
Letters: Neil Uyetake
3-D Conversion: Ray Zone

OK I will admit I really haven’t read this one-shot from IDW yet; so far all I’ve been able to do is stare at the amazing art that is in 3-D. I admit, 3-D comics are a gimmick and usually not very good, but this one however has some amazing and dark art in it. The story is surreal and so far I haven’t been able to stop gawking at the artwork long enough to truly read the comic. Once I take off the 3-D glasses and actually read this issue, I will provide a more in depth review of the story.

Scott Andrews
scott@comicattack.net