Beware Spoilers Ahead!

My reviews do contain spoilers about the main stories but I do attempt to keep them at a minimum. I will not reveal any major plot points or twists unless stated at the beginning of a review.

Tuesday 31 March 2015

Page vs Screen - The Walking Dead


Page vs Screen - The Walking Dead

WARNING THAR BE SPOILERS AHEAD!!

The spoiler pirate has warned you

Many comics in recent years have been adapted into TV shows and movies mostly being incredibly successful with movies like The Avengers, Iron Man, Batman The Dark Knight, Arrow, The Flash and Captain America to name a few. One of the most successful comic to TV adaptions has been the Image comic The Walking Dead and lets face it if you aren't watching it yourself you know at least 3 people that do.
The show and the comic will be compared on 3 categories, Story, art/visuals and characters


Story



The TV show seems to be fairly similar with the comic in the general feel of the story which is just a group of people, who honestly don't really know what they are doing, trying to survive in a worse hell than anyone can imagine although I do feel that the comic seems to have a bit more direction in a sense its trying to go somewhere not just watching a bunch of dirty people freaking out all the time. A huge criticism of the show is that it isn't as intense as the comic, which of course is a common complaint when anything is translated to film/TV, but for the themes I honestly think the show does pretty well with the content it is dealing with. In the comic there are twin boys called Ben and Billy who are about 8 or 9 years old, Ben murders his brother and then cuts up his body and simply responds with "Don't worry he's going to come back. I didn't hurt his brain" when discovered. Now I honestly can't see a way that the show could do that even within an R rating.
The winner is: The comic


Characters


The characters from the comic and the characters from the TV show are completely different, some characters from the show do not exist in the comic, such as Daryl & Merle, and the personalities of the characters are not even close to the same. I find some of the really strong and independent characters, especially many of the women, are turned from strong and resourceful characters into complete morons that make terrible decisions on a regular basis. The comic has very human characters that aren't perfect but really do try to make the best of their situation but do still have problems, they make bad plans, have an awful lot of grief driven sex and have mental breaks. The characters in the TV show have the same names but I find it easier not to think of the TV characters as the same as the characters from the comic as it is just irritating. My main issue with the characters from the TV show is Andrea, in the comic she is a tough as nails, loyal friend who's a crack shot with a high powered rifle where as in the TV show she is a whiny, fool who even after she finds out that the Governor (who is waaaay toned down for the show but I suspect that was mainly because they wouldn't be able to show some of the horrible things he did) sexually assaulted Maggie & had Glen beaten still goes back to him, something that comic Andrea would never ever do.
The winner is: The comic


Visual/Art


The comic's art is both gruesome and chilling but the greatest impact the art has is sometimes in what you don't see, one of the greatest examples of this being when Carol slits her wrists and all you see is a a bleeding hand and the terrified Sophia huddled in the corner. The show has just the most amazing makeup special effects and have some of the best looking zombies to ever grace the screen. The zombies are rotten, dried out, sun damaged and filthy, which is what you would expect from a dead body left out in the sun for weeks/months. One of the best examples of the shows fantastic zombies is the half eaten "Bicycle girl" from the first episode.
The winner is: The show
Bicycle Girl is one of the most iconic zombies from the show



Overall winner:
The Walking Dead Comic
The winner today is the Comic due to superior story and characters, now this is not to say that the show is bad but I feel the comic has a far more realistic representation of how people would react, both good and bad, during the collapse of society and the story has a much more clear cut direction that it is heading. The show looks fantastic with it's terrifying zombies and dilapidated towns but the visual look wasn't enough for the win this time.

Monday 30 March 2015

Kinski - Seriously Dude Thats Not Your Dog.

Kinski - Issues 1-6 complete series

Kinski is written and illustrated by Gabriel Hardman and published by Image. Kinski is a crime thriller about a man called Joe who decides he will rescue a dog from what he thinks are neglectful owners. Personally I wouldn't classify Kinski so much as a crime thriller so much as I would just a story about a guy going through a mental breakdown.

The cutest puppy in comics
Joe is on a business trip with his company when he finds an adorable black lab puppy and decides that he is going to keep him and names him Kinski. An animal control officer turns up and takes the puppy away, despite Joe's objections. The animal control officer says that the owner has five days to claim the dog before he goes up for adoption, Unfortunately Joe doesn't have five days to wait as his flight leaves in the morning. Joe lies to the pound saying that the dog is his and goes to retrieve him learning that somebody had already claimed the dog. Joe quickly checks their address when the receptionist isn't looking and sets off to find Kinski. When Joe reaches the address he sees a little boy playing with Kinski whose real name is Bosley, Joe thinks that Kinski will only escape again if left with these owners so he decides to whisk Kinski away in the night. Joe puts a collar on Kinski with a tag and his phone number deciding that he is now his. Joe doesn't end up taking his flight back because he refuses to put Kinski in cargo so his work mate, Frank, offers to drive the 12 hours back with Joe at the annoyance of their boss who gives Joe this one last chance to shape up or he's fired. On the way back Joe bumps into a waitress he met the night before who gives him a missing poster for their dog saying her son is incredibly upset. as Joe drives back he starts having second thoughts about what he has done and decides to take Kinski back to his owner but when Frank finds the lost poster for the dog he realises that not everything is exactly as Joe said it was.

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUN!!
The art in Kinski has a wonderful noir feel to it with great facial expression and just the happiest little puppy you've ever seen. Kinski has some really fantastic panels some with great scenery, others using shadows to really communicate the tone of the current situation. The facial expressions of the character's are so good this comic could almost be printed without words and still be have a very clear story.

I just love the look of this panel
Personally I find Joe a really unsympathetic character, he seems to be completely normal on the first page and even starts to look for the lost dog's owner and then suddenly decides the dog is his to keep because it is friendly and cute. Joe seems to have a complete mental breakdown over this dog that he has only spent a few minutes with, Joe gives up his job, loses friends all of which begins huge ripple of negative impact on his life. We are given no prior evidence that Joe is having trouble in his life or that he has some previous issues with lost dogs, he simply seems to lose it out of nowhere. I have a hard time feeling sorry for a man who literally sneaks into a child's yard at night and steals his puppy when he had absolutely nothing to go on that the owners were neglectful other than the fact that the puppy got out once, he even witnessed the child playing lovingly with the puppy but still decides that he would be a better owner. In defence of the comic all of the other characters in the comic have the general attitude of "what the hell is wrong with you, Joe?" attitude, his boss says to him he may be taking some body's dog and Frank even flat out tells him that what he is doing is wrong.

This puppy is apparently like the one ring
I may be slightly biased with this story because professionally I am a veterinary nurse and have actually dealt with similar situations where people find dogs, have them for a few hours and decide that they are theirs. This is not only illegal (technically this is stealing the dog) but the owners, 99% of the time, will be looking for their much loved member of the family.  So if I were to rate this story on art alone it would be getting a much higher rating but taking into account the story and main character I give Kinski 2 out of 5 lost dog posters.

Find out more about Kinski here.

If you do find a lost dog or cat take it to your local vet clinic and they will take care of them, they will scan them for a microchip (a legal requirement in Australia for not only owning but selling a puppy or kitten) and get them home before dinner. On the off chance that the vet clinic cannot find the owners they will be taken to the RSPCA the owner's have 8 days to claim their pet then the pet will be assessed for adoption. People do not work as animal rangers/control officers and at shelters because they enjoy euthanizing animals and they will always do their best to take care of all the animals that come through their doors. You can put in an application when dropping a lost animal at the vet for you to be contacted if the animal does come up for adoption.

Monday 23 March 2015

Lady Killer - Dirty deeds done with style and grace


Lady Killer Issue #1

Lady killer is a six issue miniseries written by Joëlle Jones & Jamie S. Rich, art by Joëlle Jones, colours by Laura Alfred and letters by Crank!. Mrs. Josie Schuller is the picture perfect 1960's housewife, she is stylish, graceful, a wonderful cook, a loving wife, a caring mother to two beautiful girls and a highly skilled assassin for hire. Wait, What?
I'd open the door for her
The story of Lady Killer follows Josie as she assassinates her targets then makes it home to have dinner on the table when her husband is home from work. Josie keeps her work completely secret from her family and friends explaining away her time with charity work and meeting up with friends. Josie's contact and fellow assassin is the cheesy and vulgar (vulgar for the 60's anyway) Peck who bring Josie her assignments and gives her information on her targets. Josie's mother-in-law lives with her and her husband and begins to grow suspicious of Josie when she sees her meeting with Peck, not suspicious that Josie is secretly an expertly trained assassin but suspicious of something.

Just a regular housewife who could kill you with every object in this room
The art of Lady Killer combines to beautiful look of a 1960's catalogue with the crazy bloodiness of Game Of Thrones. That sounds like a pretty weird combination but it just works so well, there is something surprisingly satisfying about watching a beautiful woman wearing darling blue Chanel style suit having a knife fight with another woman. One of the best things about the art of Lady Killer are the close ups of Josie's face, especially the eyes, as you can always see that she is planning something deliciously evil. The only one thing I'm not super keen on is the way hands are drawn they aren't bad exactly but they look old but hands are really, really, really hard to draw well.
.



Despite the fact that Josie is a remorseless killer you can't hate her because she's just so damn good at it. In issue #1 you only get a small glimpse into Jose's personality but at home she seems to be a happy, bright housewife who loves her husband and children and takes care of her family but when "working" Josie is a heartless, stone cold killer. As the series continues I'm sure we will get a more in depth look at Josie's personality but so far I think she is great. Josie's husband, Gene, seems to be in completely blissful ignorance of anything unusual his wife does and appears to be a loving husband however Gene's mother, Mother Schuller, is a bitter old woman who seems to hate Josie, referring to her as "your wife" rather than by name, class act Mother Schuller, class act.


Blood is just impossible to get out
I would recommend to pick up a copy of Lady Killer for regular comic fans and it is a great first time read for new comics fans (providing they don't mind a bit of blood). 
  
I give Lady Killer 4 out of 5 bloody mop buckets
Find out more about Lady Killer here.

Sunday 22 March 2015

New Comic Book Day Swag Bag 22.3.15

New Comic Book Day Swag Bag 22.3.15


Powers Volume #1: This is the topic of April's Women's Comic Club. Find out more about that here.

Batgirl Volume #4:  More epic adventures for Barbra Gordon as Batgirl

Catwoman Volume #2: Volume #1 was pretty damn dark we'll see how volume #2 goes.

Kinski: I've been looking forward to this one for awhile, its about a man who finds a stray dog and the adventures he goes through adopting him.

Ms. Marvel Volume #2: Everybody loves a teenage superhero!

Batgirl End Game #1: End game special event!

Princess Ugg #8: By the looks of the cover the Princess Ulga is going to lead an attack.

Red One #1: A new series about America's greatest hero who is secretly a Russian spy.

Rat Queens #9: THE RAT QUEENS ARE BACK THE RAT QUEENS ARE BACK PRAISE N'RYGOTH!!

Squirrel Girl #3: Squirrel Girl in space!

Giant Days #1: I don't know anything about this one but I love the colour.

Princess Leia #2: They are women on a mission.

To Hell With It Volume #1: This is a mini comic by a local creator Scott Reid. Pretty funny

Mail-Order Mutant: Another cool little comic from the Franken Comic series.

Saturday 21 March 2015

My top 5 irrationally aggravating things in comics


Comic books are wonderful things for readers and for creators they are extremely hard work between art and stories it is incredibly difficult to put together. Like all forms of media I sometimes find myself getting irrationally aggravated at what are really minute things be they story choices or tiny mistakes that slip past editors. These things don't make the comics bad and often don't even make them any less enjoyable but they seem to fill me with unbridled rage for some reason, I possibly have anger issues.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY ARE CHANGING ARTIST?!?!?

#5
Time Travel

This is how you explain time travel to a nerd
Now don't get me wrong I love time travel but attempting to understand it is just so, so, so very aggravating. Time travel can be fantastic for a story when used well but it can turn a story into a completely muddled mess when overused.

#4
Clones

Spider-man in the 90's

*Sigh* Clones. All I'm going to say is Spider-Man in the 90's. The idea of a clone trying to find its way in the world feeling like they don't belong can be a very interesting and touching story but having clones appearing left right and centre is just over doing it.

#3
Eye colours randomly changing

They couldn't find the blue

I know comics are very hard work and especially if there is a large team working on the series mistakes can slip through the cracks and I understand that these things happen but for some reason I find eye colours changing from panel to panel incredibly aggravating.

#2
The "sexy woman/sexy underage woman pose"

physical impossibilities are sexy
Now I'm all for beautiful people in comics (for that matter t.v. & movies too), we want to see sexy women and handsome men in a visual media. As refreshing as it is to see a normal sized person in comics (Think Gertrude from The Runaways) I do understand why most of our heroes are especially good looking. I do not however have a lot of tolerance for these women being in a pose that Mr. Fantastic would find uncomfortable. It is physically impossible for a woman to have her butt and her breasts showing at the same time because the human spine does not work that way, I hate up skirt shots that expose a heroe's underwear, Breasts that are ridiculously sized and weirdly tiny waists. These things aggravate me even more when these are done with an underage girl. Now the age of consent in Australia is 16 years which is a few years younger than a lot of other countries, so if I have to explain to you why it is inappropriate to have a 15 year old super hero dressed like she is attending a fetish show I think you need to rethink your life. I'm not saying that the portrayal of men is not without its flaws (think teeny tiny waists and giant arms) but I'll get to that in a later blog.

#1
Awesome characters become useless


A character one minute is on top of their game and absolutely kicking ass and then suddenly they are turned into an absolutely helpless blubbering mess at the drop of a hat. This happens a lot with female characters especially but males are not immune to suddenuselessness-itis. During the Secret Invasion story Tony Stark (although affected by an illness) is almost talked into believing he is a skrull but the skrull queen when we all know that Tony Stark usually tends to go the "screw you I'm Tony Stark" route. If this breakdown is explained well such as Batgirl's post traumatic stress disorder which she eventually deals with and overcomes I don't find it madly enraging but when a character, who is normally strong and independent, is suddenly completely disabled by either something the villain says or a flashback it makes me want to destroy things with fire.



Thursday 19 March 2015

Batgirl - The Variant Scandal


Recently you may have heard about a variant cover for Batgirl #41 by Rafael Abuquerque being cancelled at the request of Rafael himself. This cover, which was meant to pay tribute to the incredibly popular and well known The Killing Joke written by Alan Moore, published in 1988 and for the 75th anniversary of the Joker (happy birthday Mr. J!). 

The cover that made twitter blow up
The Killing Joke, in which the Joker shoots Barbra Gordon (Batgirl) in the spine putting her in a wheelchair, is heavily referenced in the current run of Batgirl. The complaints tend to be that the cover is offensives and promote rape culture many having an issue with the frightened, helpless look on Batgirl's face. The reason the cover was eventually pulled at the artist request and due to threats that were being received. Oh, the threats weren't towards DC or the artist but to the people complaining about the cover now this aggravates me personally because it's not okay to threaten somebody for disagreeing with you ever, like ever, ever. So the people who decided they wanted to keep the cover ultimately were responsible for it being removed due to their own bad attitude. These threats have been condemned by both Rafael Abuquerque and DC Comics in official statements.


A reference to The Killing Joke in the current run of Batgirl
I understand that people can have different opinions on almost anything in life and that people find different things disturbing or unnerving so before I give you my opinion on the cover I showed the picture to five of my female friends whose knowledge of the Batman universe ranges from never seen a Batman movie to big Batman fan and asked them how the picture made them feel but gave them no other context for the image.
Person #1 focused mainly on how scared Batgirl looked using words like terrified and weird.
Person #2 recognised the characters, described the picture as being scary but not making her feel scared and that it looked like something that would be displayed as a piece of art
Person #3 said the image gave her excited nostalgic feelings of Batman from when she was younger but at the same time she felt weird because she felt like she was excited about something that could potentially be violent erotica.
Person #4 said the picture made her feel saddened, horrified, frightened and felt angry that a female character was being attacked and treated so badly. For her the image invoked feminist and protective feelings.
Person #5 (who knows the Batman universe fairly well) simply said "aww poor Batgirl".

Why does everybody pull this face when critiquing art?

No opinion is wrong and cover art, like all art, invoke different feelings in different people but in my personal opinion I don't think the cover should have been pulled because I think its great because it is so disturbing. This is a scary cover and the Joker is a scary guy, the cover works because it is so unnerving and frightening. I've read some people saying that this cover doesn't fit with current tone of the comic which I disagree with as in a recent arc of Batgirl involved The Joker kidnapping Batgirl's mother, cut off her ring finger, using that ring finger to propose to Batgirl while her mother sat weeping, tied to a chair with a nail bomb under it. I really don't think you can say that this cover is out of tone for the batman universe but admittedly below is a variant cover for Batgirl #39 but a fun, colourful cover doesn't change the content of the comic or Batgirl's violent past involving The Joker.

I think this is a great cover too
The cover has been pulled so it is gone now and won't be happening which is a shame but what is a real shame is the small minority that decided it was appropriate to threaten people for disagreeing with the cover and having a different opinion so on that note I will leave you with a quote from DC Comics official statement: "Threats of violence and harassment are wrong and have no place in comics or society."

Monday 16 March 2015

The Li'l Depressed Boy - It gets you right in the feels

The Li'l Depressed Boy Volume #1 - She Is Staggering

The Li'l Depressed Boy is written, coloured and lettered by S. Steven Struble, Penciled & inked by Sina Grace and published by Image comics. The Li'l Depressed Boy started out as a webcomic and made its way to a print version in 2011. An important thing to remember when reviewing a comic like The Li'l Depressed Boy is that you can only judge a story on the story it is trying to tell. In the same way you wouldn't judge Batman as a romance story you can only judge The Li'l Depressed Boy as a story about a guy making his way through a particular time in his life. In saying that I really enjoy stories just about people in their everyday lives not to say that I don't love stories about the extraordinary but I find stories about people and their lives easy to relate to. The Li'l Depressed Boy is one of my absolute favorites and is pretty relatable on one level or another to most people.

This is how I feel when I write some days
LDB is just your average guy he likes indie bands, comic books and video games, he is also in a bit of a rut at the moment as his life meanders along with no real purpose. All this changes when he meets a woman. She is fun, outgoing, different and pushes LDB out of his comfort zone if only LDB can learn her name without the awkward moment of admitting to someone he has been on several dates with that he doesn't know her name. Everything is going great with the mystery woman, LDB takes her to music shows, bowling, laser tag and shopping. After a few dates LDB thinks things are going really well until she drops a bombshell on LDB shattering his new found confidence and happiness.


The art in The Li'l Depressed Boy is great using thick outlines and a slightly dulled colour palette. The backgrounds are usually simply detailed or mostly blank and at some points in the story are used extremely well to help bring you into LDB's feelings. Oh I also forgot to mention that LDB is a rag doll. Is he a rag doll because he sees himself as being bland and featureless? Is he a rag doll so the reader can see themselves in him? Is that how LDB thinks others see him? Did they just feel like designing him as a rag doll? Am I reading to much into that? Possibly, but I find it a very interesting art choice that is really different.
I love this page

The story is told entirely from LDB's point of view so we find out thing as he does so the reader is often just as surprised as LDB in certain situations. I really think everybody can relate to LDB as somebody who is going through a rough patch in their life that feels very stuck in that place and let's be honest with ourselves for a moment and admit we have all, at one point or another, been in a relationship that wasn't exactly what we thought it was so this makes LDB's relationship troubles are relateable to almost everyone who reads it.

I give The Li'l Depressed Boy 4.5 out of 5 hipster concerts.

Find out more about The Li'l Depressed Boy here.

Monday 9 March 2015

Animal Man - Nightmare fuel in comic form


Animal Man Volume #1 - The Hunt

Animal Man is published by DC Comics and is part of the New 52 range. Animal Man is written by Jeff Lemire and art by Travel Foreman. Animal Man has an interesting story but very very strange art.

OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL!!!
Buddy Baker is Animal Man and has the power to use the abilities of animals to fight crime and in his everyday life, I know if I had the napping ability of a cat I would use it all the time. Animal Man is mostly retired now and Buddy Baker lives a relatively quiet life with his wife and two children. Animal Man doesn't actually have a secret identity, everybody knows he is Buddy Baker and he uses this to support his cause as an animal activist and recently staring in an indie move about superheros called Tights. The story begins when Maxine, Buddy's 4 year old daughter, brings to life all the skeletons and decomposing remains of all the neighbour's buried pets. This leads Animal Man and Maxine on a quest to find "The Red Place" that is calling to Maxine. The Red Place is a kind of like a web of life that connects all living things and warns them that they will need to fight "The Rot". As the story progresses we learn that it is Maxine and not Animal Man who is the true chosen one and it will be up to her to fight The Rot. This is an interesting twist in a super hero story having the hero as more of a body guard than the true saviour. Animal may have to give up his wife, son and even his own life to keep their only hope, Maxine, alive.

Be honest you would totally have a skeleton cat if you could

Now as much as I like the story of Animal Man I have one major problem with this comic that being the art, I hate it. I believe they were going for grotesque imagery but I feel this can be done without using sub-par art. There are eyes that don't appear to have eyelids, faces that look pinched and some panels that are just far to busy. The shading is inconsistent with almost none on one page and then a character completely covered in shading. Animal Man gets covered in "tattoos", which are really a map showing them the way to The Red Place, that look like somebody split ink on the original sketches and they just decided to run with it. Some of the art in Animal Man is done really well, all of the grotesque creatures are wonderfully disgusting, I've never seen anything quite like it before so props for having a villain that is unique and looks exactly like what it is: rotted life.

this is why you go to a professional tattoo artist instead of some guy's kitchen

Animal Man's relationship with his family is really sincere and touching. This is a man that has already given up most of his crime fighting and heroism to be with his family and keep them safe being dragged into something far more serious than bank robbers or car thieves is the last thing he wants. You feel for Animal Man as a father as he doesn't want his daughter involved in the "hero" lifestyle let alone this terror inducing nightmare. I really like the character Animal Man's wife, Ellen, she understands that Buddy and Animal Man are never going to be truly separate and as much as she would like her husband to stay home with his family and pursue his safer causes of animal rights and acting she still supports him when he does decide to put back on the suit

Ignore the talking cat focus on the touching moment
Animal is a good series, it is written well, the characters interact well, the concept of life fighting rot is a great concept because eventually everything dies and rots but I just can't get over the art in this one. I'm just not entirely sure what look they were going for. I think Animal Man is a good story but I would recommend maybe grabbing it in a digital copy rather than letting it take up space in your book case.

Trust me you don't want a hard copy of this nightmare fuel

I give Animal Man 2.5 out of 5 skeleton cats

Find out more about Animal Man here.

Sunday 8 March 2015

My Top 10 Bad-Ass Babes In Comics


In the spirit of international women's day I decided to list my top 10 kick ass ladies in comics. I was going to make this a top 5 list but I couldn't narrow it down to my 5 favourites.


#10
 Casey Blevins from The Morning Glories



Casey is brilliant and resourceful and will stop at nothing to take down the evil Morning Glory Academy. Also she knows how to make tear gas.

#9
 Princess Adrienne from Princeless

A Princess who was tired of waiting in a castle to be rescued by some prince she'd then have to marry so she decided to team up with the dragon guarding her and takes off to save her sisters.

#8
 Princess Ulga from Princess Ugg


A warrior princess who wants to learn about more than just brute force and use diplomacy to end the war between her people and the frost giants.

#7
Thor from Thor

We don't know who she is yet but Thor has been deemed worthy to carry Mjolnir and already beaten the Odinson in a fight. Remember she isn't Lady Thor or Mrs.Thor just Thor.

#6
Em from Revival

 Despite technically being dead Em isn't afraid to get her hands dirty for the greater good.

#5
Andrea from The Walking Dead

A great shot with a high powered rifle, one of the bravest and most resourceful members of the walking dead family.

#4
Batgirl/The Oracle

Not only does Barbra Gordon fight crime as Batgirl but after she is crippled she continues to aid Batman as the Oracle using her photographic memory and computer hacking skills. Barbra is both physically strong and mentally brilliant.

#3
Penny Rolle from Bitch Planet

Penny Rolle is a noncomplient inmate on Bitch Planet and she won't take any disrespect and has no problems fighting back.

#2
The Rat Queens from The Rat Queens


Hannah, Violet, Dee and Betty are four adventurers that fight goblins, assassins, orcs and giant squid gods. They have a love of fighting, drinking and mushrooms (not the cooking kind).

#1
Josie Schuller from Lady Killer

Any woman who can be a world class assassin and still looks that glamorous deserves to be at the top of this list.

New Comic Book Day Swag Bag 7.3.2015

New Comic Book Day Swag Bag 07.03.2015



Long list this week and next new comic book day I will endeavor to post on the day.

Nail Biter Volume 2: Every body's favourite serial killer knows who the new Buckaroo Butcher is but so far he isn't telling.

The Runaways Volume 1: The Runaways is a great older series that finished up in 2009. A group of children find out their parents are super villains and decide to run away together and fight evil. Rumour has it there will be a new Runaways comic in the upcoming Secret Wars.

Catwoman Volume 1: Part of the New 52 series. Catwoman Made an appearance in Batgirl so I thought I'd check her out.

Angela Asgard's Assassin #4: Angela is hanging out with The Guardians of the Galaxy.

God Hates Astronauts #6: I really don't know how to describe this series anymore other than ridiculous.

Help Us Great Warrior #1: Looks a bit adventure time-y. Super Cute Great Warrior wears a big pink bow and her sword has a bunny head on the hilt.

Curb Stomp #1: I love the cover on this one. The super bad babes on the cover look like they are going to get up to some mischief.

Lady Killer #2: I love Lady Killer! Maybe I should cosplay as the wonderful Josie for SupaNova this year?

Lady Killer #3: Josie takes on a "special" assignment and her mother-in-law starts to suspect something, not that her daughter-in-law is an assassin but definitely something.

Nail Biter / Hack/Slash: A cross over between the two very successful series of Nail Biter and Hack/Slash.

Princess Leia #1: Honestly I haven't watched Star Wars since I was a little kid but Princess Leia looks really cool on the cover.

Feathers #3: Poe is collecting quite a little group of friends but now his father has found out he has been misbehaving.

Revival #28: They have found Aaron and he seems to be the key to whats going on unfortunately he can't tell us whats going on anymore.

Big Man Plans: I have no idea what this one is about. issue 1 of 4

Never Boy: The cover on this one is crazy I love the colours.

Nameless #1: I don't know much about the series but I've been seeing its name come up a bit thought I'd check it out.

Nameless #2: Read above comment.

Indy: Not a comic but a magazine for creator owned comics to advertise.

Wolf Moon #4: A werewolf in the shopping centre and some guy with a high powered rifle not caring about civilians getting in the way

Saga #26: Dengo starts to realise that he may have made a mistake in trusting the Last Revolution. Team Gwendolyn  are getting closer to helping The Will but who is this mysterious guy that looks like The Stalk?

In the local pocket this week: Support Local Talent!

2wo: A freaky little tale by Australian creator and artist Frank Cadiloro. Part of his Franken Comics series. Check out his website here.

Wow that was a long list this week! with lots of new series and a bit of local talent.