Saturday Splash Page #177

"Bridge Between Worlds," in Sera and the Royal Stars #5, by Jon Tsuei (writer), Audrey Mok (artist), Raul Angelo (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer)

During an eclipse, Sera, oldest daughter of the royal family of Parsa, is visited by the deity Mitra, who tells Sera it's her job to find and free the "Royal Stars", who are bound to the physical realm. Apparently this is messing with time and preventing the proper course of the seasons, causing droughts, famines and whatnot.

Still, Sera's family is in the midst of a war against their uncle's attempt to overthrow them, so she's reluctant to leave. Mithra, being a god, and therefore an asshole, ignores Sera's objections, yanks out her heart, and replaces it with a glowing gem. Which turns out to be a prison containing Regulus, one of the Royal Stars, though Sera won't learn that for several issues. All she knows is that now she's got a voice in her head, trying to boss her around and periodically seize control of her body. From there, it's a matter of trying to find the Royal Stars, learn the cause of their imprisonment and how to reverse it, all without getting killed. 

This was something I picked up on a whim, I think because Audrey Mok and Raul Angelo's cover was eye-catching, and the story Tsuei presented got my interest early. Even if I run hot and cold on "chosen ones", I like stories where the person pushed into a quest by higher powers rebels or struggles against it. And even if Sera does go on the quest, she pushes back against it at times. She resists Regulus' attempts to control or command her. A few pages after the above image, she tells the Royal Stars she has to return home. It was a mistake to abandon her family. Her brother's dead and her uncle won the war in her absence, leaving her father and sister as prisoners. Yeah, yeah, greater good, sacrifices must be made. Easy for the magical star beings to say, right?

Another bit I like is that, even if the stars created the world, they aren't the only deities. There are the various ones humans created, and they guard their domains jealously. They aren't inclined to offer assistance, and it's dangerous for Sera and the others to pass through the realm of dreams uninvited.

It also lets Mok draw a variety of different sorts of beings. The Royal Stars are all variations of animals with human physiology. Aldebaran, the 'old bull', has horns and a small ring through his nose, but also flowing white hair and a beard. The deities created by humans lack the animal traits, but then you get weird things like orchids that can turn their petals into insectile legs and chase a person's spirit through a dream realm.

Or the story of how one star forged a giant, anime-style blade from the core of a star to kill its spirit, which warped her own being and turned her into a giant, dark serpent-woman, with a crown of cold blue flames. It's a very cool visual, much love to Mok, and to Raul Angelo, who uses brighter shades and tones that jump off the page. We're not doing some street-level espionage story, this is god-level stuff. Nothing muddy or dull here!

The book ran for 10 issues, 5 in 2019, 5 in 2020. I think Tsuei and Mok told the complete story they wanted to tell (though they left the possibility of more adventures), but I wouldn't have minded a couple more issues. It felt like big reveals came fast and furious in the last 3-4 issues, and some of them didn't get enough time to sink in or be explored properly. A character appears, and they're dead before the reader can really care much one way or the other. Minor quibble, though. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot. A big adventure in bright color, with interesting designs, and enough humor to keep it from getting too grim.

What I Bought 12/18/2020 - Part 4

The last new comic reviews of 2020. Not the last 2020 new comics that will be reviewed, mind you, since there's still a few things I'm waiting on from these last couple weeks. You know what I mean. Fittingly enough, it's the final issue of a series.

Sera and the Royal Stars #10, by Jon Tsuei (writer), Audrey Mok (artist), Raul Angulo (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - That's it everybody, look thoughtful for your senior photo.

Everybody fights. The Draco siblings turn themselves into a big, two-headed dragon. No symbiotes, though. The Royal Stars are on "E", so the fight's not going too well. The best they can really manage is to keep the dragon from taking to the air, blind one of them in one eye. Which I actually like. They can't just find some special wellspring of extra power to fight on equal terms. What they've got is all they've got, and they have to make do. Keep the Dracos focused on them and give Sera the chance to use the big sword. So I like how the fight plays out.

And it enough for Sera to cut them back into two, and then run Rastaban through. Which turns him to stone, kills him, something. The sword vanishes, too. Nobody wants to keep it as a souvenir? Eltanin flies off swearing vengeance, but the seal on the Stars is broken, so they can go chill in their actual stars and recover. The seasons can return, and life on Earth is probably safe. For humans to wipe out themselves, I mean. Hooray!

 

Surprisingly, Sera, her sister, and their mother decide they can't return home, since Sera's sketchy uncle is running Parsa now. It might cause succession issue questions, which could cause a rebellion. So they'll let the guy prove he can do the job, and if not, then they'll show up and kick his ass. I mean, if they wanted a vacation they could just say so. It's perfectly understandable. 

Also it leaves them open to the possibility of more adventures as they travel, in case Tsuei and Mok decide they want to come back to this book someday, I imagine.

One thing I'm left wondering about is, Mithra took Sera's heart and replaced it with Regulus' gem thing. Now Regulus seems to be back to his old self. So did Sera get her heart back? Or does she still have the gem thing, which got cracked by Eltannin a couple of issues ago? I'm guessing the gem, because she still has the red striping under her eyes from when she sort of fully claimed Regulus' power last issue (which I feel like raises questions about him of its own). That wouldn't seem like the best thing to be relying on for keeping yourself alive.

I liked the series. I would have been fine with it going on for longer, and if we do get a sequel someday, I'd almost certainly give it a whirl, assuming the same creative team is on the books. I thought there were going to be a lot more Stars, but Tsuei kept it to four, which made it easier to give them distinct personalities, and tended to have the heroes split into smaller groups, which lets you advance the plot in multiple places and gives everyone a chance to be useful in some way. Mok's work isn't anything terribly flashy, but it's expressive and I really like the character designs. How the Royal Stars have certain similarities in their clothes, but each is different. Same with the Dracos, same with Sera and her family. It makes them look cool and distinctive.

What I Bought 11/28/2020 - Part 2

Wednesday was for books that were just starting. Today's for books that are almost done, but not quite. Just like how my work week is, well no, I'm off work by the time this post goes up. But you get the idea.

Spy Island #3, by Chelsea Cain (writer), Lia Miternique (designer/supplemental artist), Elise McCall (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Pretty sure my 9th grade geometry textbook looked like that. 

Most of the issue concerns why Connie and Nora's father is on that island, disguised as a mime. The answer, witness protection, and because apparently he's too recognizable in any identity other than a mime. Also, Nora tricked a mime into being her father for his death, so hopefully the mime shows up in the last issue as kills all of them as revenge.

Further muddying the waters, Nora killed the guy in the first issue and pinned it on a mermaid specifically to bring her sister here to do an autopsy where she could find a message addressed to her inside the corpse, and ask for her help killing the James Bond knockoff. Or faking his death, I don't know.

OK, so this seems stupidly, unnecessarily elaborate, and I'm unclear of the reason why. But OK, needlessly elaborate schemes shouldn't be a dealbreaker for me. But it hasn't given me a reason to care. So Nora developed a better relationship with her dad once he was pretending to be a mime who helped her with burying bodies? The book's spending so much time trying to show how clever it is - oh a page that's supposed to be the comics page of the local newspaper! - it's not doing much to make the case sufficiently fleshed out to where there's any sense of real stakes, emotionally or otherwise.

 

Is the whole point going to be that nothing that all these intelligence agents are doing on this island matters in the slightest? So it doesn't matter why Nora's going to such lengths to get Connie's help or kill/fake kill the British guy? It's just something to while away the time?

The last issue came out this week. I'll probably read it to see if this ends up making any sense, it probably won't, and I'll chalk this up as a learning experience. One I will not actually learn anything from, of course.

Sera and the Royal Stars #9, by Jon Tsuei (writer), Audrey Mok (artist), Raul Angulo (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - This is why you don't give your children implausibly large anime swords. Pretty soon your soul ends up trapped inside.

Sera has an ominous dream, but gets good news when her mother and sister arrive on the flying bird-dog thing. They head for a temple where Fomalhaut and Aldebaraan are waiting with the Light's End. Which they can't use, because it's power takes control of them and pushes them towards the extreme end of their natural mission and purpose. Regulus tries and doesn't do any better. Great, an ultimate weapon no one can use! Maybe they can bluff with it like Reed Richards does with the Ultimate Nullifier.

But they gotta use it, because the Draco siblings are trying a last ditch play to kill the Royal Stars now. And it has to be Sera, making the right choice about what she wants to use the power for. Protect what's left rather than avenge what's gone, I guess. See how that goes next issue.

It's always focusing on what you still have that stories say is the right play, rather than what's lost. I guess the reasoning being, if it's lost, then there's nothing to be done for it. On the other hand, if it's lost because someone took it, willfully, cheerfully, took it to hurt you or someone else, I think there's got to be a reckoning for it. "Bygones be bygones" is what the asshole who delighted in bullying you says when the shoe is on the other foot. So I wonder if she'll have to decide whether to spare the Dracos or not, and what she'll choose. Especially if her sister of mother die during the fight.

 

Angulo uses the same shades of red and writhing shadows when Sera first tries to grab the sword as in her dream at the start of the issue. Detailing the option the sword leans towards. Focus on the loss, the anger. Give in to the hate. Only instead of a creepy old man in robes with a face like a Dick Tracy villain, it's a big angry sword. Most of the backgrounds in the issue are soft blues and purples, so the red and black overwhelming everything makes for a nice contrast.

What I Bought 10/23/2020

It snowed here on Monday. Was not ready for that. At least it waited until my dad got safely through all his home repair monkeyshines on the roof last weekend. I offer to go up there myself, but he still refuses. Not that I want to be on the roof, but I don't want him up there, either.

Sera and the Royal Stars #8, by Jon Tsuei (writer), Audrey Mok (artist), Raul Angulo (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - Far be it from me to question my elders, but I think the cloak will work better if you wear it over your shoulders.

Starting to wonder if I'd ever see this comic again. Sera and Antares are trying to catch up with the other Royal Stars as they trek across a desert. Antares is trying to help the princess access the power placed inside her, but it doesn't seem to be happening. The majority of the issue is spent with Tara and Roya, Sera's presumed lost mother and her little sister. They're busted out of prison by Tara's presumed-dead aunt, Leilyn.

While Sera's busy trying to get the Royal Stars up and running, Leilyn's been trying to protect the Tree of All Seeds, which was poisoned 30 years ago. By drawing the poison into herself. Her sister tried to summon the Stars to heal the Tree, but failed and died. Then Tara got tapped, and she got captured and imprisoned, after abandoning the quest to return home when she heard it was under attack. 

I would say these dragon siblings aren't very creative, seeing as they pulled the same maneuver on Sera, but it also keeps working. I guess you can get away with being a one-hit wonder with the right audience.

To protect the Tree, Leilyn sealed the way, and to get back in, one of them has to confront the King of Serpents, to use some of his blood as an offering. Not sure at all why it has to be his blood. He's sealed up, so at least they know where he is, and Roya goes in after him. I was expecting someone who looked more snakelike, but he looks like the Mandarin, but controls snakes. As designs go, kind of a letdown. The design for Simurgh is a lot more interesting, with the multicolored wings and a bird of prey's talons on a dog's body. Kind of like if you dressed up a dog for Carnival?

So I'm assuming the dragon siblings poisoned the Tree, which is the source of all the world's plant life. I can't quite see the point. They want to be the big shots, rather than the Royal Stars. OK fine, pecking order squabble. What does poisoning the tree get them, other than maybe giving them a place they know the Stars have to arrive at to attack them? If it dies, and the world's plants follow, they get to rule over a barren wasteland. Great if you want to be Immortan Joe, or a member of the GOP, but kind of pointless for anyone who isn't a fucking dumbass.

Unless someone else did the poisoning. Leilyn just says the Tree was poisoned 30 years ago. She doesn't specifically point the finger. Antares tells Sera the Dracos definitely put a binding spell on the Stars so they couldn't help Sera's grandmother, but that could have been in the works already. Happy coincidence. There could be another threat out there beyond the Dracos and the King of All Serpents. Perhaps the Emperor of All Moose.

It's kind of a exposition heavy, backstory issue. Not really the best one for getting some momentum in the story after a 6 month absence. But presumably all this will be important eventually, so it was going to have to be dealt with at some point.

What I Bought 6/1/2020

All the world's a trash fire, but at least I have comics to help me ignore that fact. Less corrosive to the liver than alcohol. Now here's two comics about dying worlds!

Rogue Planet #1, by Cullen Bunn (writer), Andy MacDonald (artist), Nick Filardi (colorist), Crank! (letterer) - I don't think that suit is still sealed against the outside.

There's a planet that drifts, not tethered to any star or other celestial body. And a salvage crew picks up a distress beacon, so they go to investigate. They find a whole bunch of downed ships, then some weird fleshy structure. They get attacked by a giant snake thing made of teeth and mystery meat and one of them dies. Most of the crew is, understandably, ready to leave, but the boss guy insists they are going to make money on this stop. Then some bodies appear.

This didn't land with me. It should. Strange setting, weird monsters, vague mysteries to theorize about. Ought to be right up my alley, but no luck. I don't know why, other than something about Bunn's writing doesn't connect with me. The dialogue doesn't get any reaction from me, doesn't have any punch to it. The closest attempt to something snappy is one of the characters agreeing they should wear their environmental suits, because he needs extra protection for his junk. But it falls flat.

Maybe that's the point. These folks have been a crew for a long time, it's not working from a profit standpoint. They're tired, they're a little lackadaisical. They all know each other well enough they know each other's tics and dumb jokes. Them being tired and on the brink is in the text, them being too well-acquainted with each other is me extrapolating.

MacDonald is definitely going for an Alien vibe with things. The design and shape of the ship is boxy rather than anything sleek. The weird creatures that seem to get inside and attack from within. Granted that instead of structure that look like ribs or skeletal structures, you get weird fleshy obelisks and whatnot, but that same sort of thing. Except nothing has quite the same dingy, battered look as the Nostromo. The mechanic, Franco, mentions the environmental systems have always been a bit tweaked (in response to the Captain's question of why it is snowing inside his ship), but the ship looks perfectly fine. There aren't a bunch of panels pulled open to expose wiring, nothing dented or with peeling paint. Maybe that just means these people take better care of their stuff, but for a crew that sounds like it's about to go under if this mission doesn't produce a big score, that doesn't make a ton of sense to me.

Sera and the Royal Stars #7, by Jon Tsuei (writer), Audrey Mok (artist), Raul Angulo (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - I see the flaming serpent lady has made herself a nice anime sword. But is it a gunsword? I've heard those are kinda essential.

Sera wants to chase after her captured sister, but is talked out of it by Antares. It's one of those "everybody will suffer if you don't get your shit together" speeches. Aldebaran and Fomalhaut almost get killed by a couple of the Draco siblings, but reach the Demon Star, Algol. Algol tells them why and how she succeeded in killing another star once before, and what the price was.

The question becomes, how much are the Royal Stars prepared to sacrifice to restore themselves, which will allegedly aid this world? From what Algol describes, the star she killed became a black hole, which then destroyed many worlds, stars, and lives. More than what that star had already destroyed? Don't know. More than it would have destroyed if left unchecked? Probably not based on her description. We don't know how many other worlds might benefit if the Royal Stars regain their old power, and we don't know how many stars they'll have to kill to achieve that. The two siblings are planning to call in the rest of their family, so the numbers are gonna go up. It's a murky ground.

I like Algol's design. I always have to remind myself blue is hotter than red when it comes to flames and stars, which would mean she's burning hotter now than she was before. Not sure what I should make of that, though. She's also the first star we've seen that wasn't strictly a biped. All the others conform to "two legs, two arms". She has the arms, but no legs obviously. It's not related to her actions killing the first light, because even in her original form, she was like this. I was going to wonder if it had something to do with her perhaps being a much older star, if she was possibly the second star, after the one she killed. That may not be how it works, as the Seven Sisters were around for her to consult before she acted, and the First Light was bipedal as well.

What I Bought 2/21/2020 - Part 2

Another week in the books. Hooray! Hopefully I get more rest this weekend than I did last weekend. But first, two comics to review.

Deadpool #3, by Kelly Thompson (writer), Chris Bachalo (penciler), Wayne Faucher, Livesay, Al Vey, Jaime Mendoza and Victor Olazaba (inkers), David Curiel (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - Bachalo really likes to draw Wade with one pinky extended when he's holding swords. Is Wade trying to be classy? Because it just seems like a good way to lose a finger.

Elsa's bullet dumps Wade in another dimension for about three pages. Then he's back and angry at her, and Kraven's attacking again. Wade consults his trading cards to learn what his "knights" can actually do, then tricks them all into leaving so he can fight Kraven. They fight a bit, Wade is somehow slowed down more by a spear in the gut than Kraven is by a sword running through his torso. Not sure how that works. Then they keep fighting.

Which kind of makes the whole teleportation bullet pointless? We're right back where we were at the end of last issue, minus Wade's knights. I do appreciate they aren't protecting Wade because they particularly like him, since he spends a lot of time insulting them. They just know Kraven would become King if he kills Wade, and that would be bad for all the monsters. Sound reasoning.

There are still some panels where I scratch my head at Bachalo's choices on panel layout, although it definitely feels like he used more of the available page space than last issue. I did like the bit where Kraven is standing on a ledge looking down at Wade, and then later, it's reversed, with Wade looking down at Kraven. The fight between them was solid. The little lines on Kraven's cheek from the force of Wade's punch. Kraven telling Deadpool all that jumping around isn't effective, then immediately getting stabbed, then Wade complaining a page later that he had a joke he couldn't make because his throat was cut.

The overall concept behind the story isn't bad, but the pacing is not the best.

Sera and the Royal Stars #6, by Jon Tsuei (writer), Audrey Mok (artist), Raul Angulo (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - Oh, look at these two, lording their twin-headed dragon over everyone. La-de-dah. It is pretty sweet though, I'm insanely jealous.

Sera returns home to rescue her surviving family, while the Stars go to ask the Pleiades for some guidance. The Seven Sisters have a few options to understand what's been done to the Stars, but it's pointed out that if they simply kill the two Dracos, their spell will be broken. They also know the Dracos are tracking Sera, so Antares goes to help her, while the other two continue on. The helping doesn't go well, as one of the Dracos attacks and does something to that gem that has replaced Sera's heart, causing a shockwave, that devastates her city and kills her father, while her sister is abducted. That's what you call losing on all counts.

I wonder if the Dracos are even behind the problem, or if they're just taking advantage of the situation. Or being taken advantage of by the real mastermind. If there is one. The Demon Star would seem a possible candidate, but I'm wondering if Mitra not up to something. Why place Regulus inside Sera, which limits his ability to act, rather than guiding her to him, so he could be fully awakened like the others? Seems to have backfired a bit if the goal was to give her power to rely on.

Kind of curious about the thought process behind the Pleiades' design. Other than the youngest looking of the seven, they're all basically naked ladies wearing masks with long pieces of fabric just kind of floating. I mean, fine, they aren't human - the conversation about eating between Alderbaran and Antares made that clear - so no reason they necessarily would wear clothes. But then, why the masks? You're not supposed to gaze upon an oracle's true face?

What I Bought 12/20/2019 - Part 1

Nothing like 60 degree weather two days before Christmas. Entirely normal! Although my dad's ecstatic. He said over the weekend he'd like a solid six months of this. Sounds a little boring to me. besides, if the ground hadn't been wet from last week's 6+ inches of snow, excavating the pipe that runs to his sewage lagoon would have been a real pain.

Sera and the Royal Stars #5, by Jon Tsuei (writer), Audrey Mok (artist), Raul Angulo (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - Nothing much, just a blue skinned lion man with a lightning sword.

Regulus emerges and tries to take control of Sera to fight the dragon person chasing them. It doesn't go very well, as Sera and Regulus seem to be in dispute about who is running the show. The rest of the Stars are trying to reach a bridge in the realm of the dead where Sera can pull them back into the realm of the living. They're having their own problems with the other of the two dragons, plus some giant swamp deity thing, that really wants Sera's soul. Or just hates all the Stars, because they attack both sides.

Our heroes escape, but there's a lot of disagreement. Regulus wants Sera to leave her physical body behind, because it limits his power. Sera wants to return and rescue her family from her uncle, while the Stars insist she help them. Which is really the issue here. At no point did Sera want to be involved in this. Mithra forcibly placed Regulus inside her, basically threatened with visions of doom if Sera didn't help. As a result, Sera wasn't there when her family's kingdom fell, and her brother died. The Stars basically poo-poo that, a necessary sacrifice for a greater cause. Yeah, saving their asses. That's allegedly going to help humanity somehow, but that could be a lie. Deities have been known to lie for their own benefit, just like humans. And what does it even mean that time isn't going to flow properly if the Stars aren't awakened?

No, that's actually something I'm curious about, because I'm not at all clear what will happen in concrete terms if Sera doesn't succeed. It can't be anything too terrible, because her mother was supposed to complete the quest, failed, and yet, life continues.

I don't know what the deal is with that one river deity or whatever it is, but I like Mok's design for it. The stringy seaweed hair, the patches of moss or barnacles growing here and there. Brackish water seems to drip from it constantly, like a waterlogged sponge. The character designs for this series have been great. The fight scenes were brief, but we see a little bit of what each of the Stars can do, how their abilities and skill sets differ.

Now the book is on a break until February, and we'll see where things go from there.

Steeple #4, by John Allison (writer/artist), Sarah Stern (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - I ended up with the variant cover, which makes Witchfest look like either a street carnival, or a cosplay convention.

Billie foolishly agrees to volunteer for Witchfest. She even signed in blood, which is just damn foolish. Billie ends up enjoying herself, as this apparently lets her reconnect with her ill-spent youth. I'm assuming she and Maggie may have gotten freaky during some big midnight thing that was going on. Although "Walk of Shame" could have a different connotation for a curate in the Anglican Church. Reverend Penrose has a bad night, as he's captured by a witch who. . . steals his pants. This leaves him feeling rather embarrassed, so he takes a sabbatical, confident Billie can handle things with her community involvement. And Mrs. Clovis may have enlisted a witch to resurrect her nice vacuum cleaner. Well, Billie knows how to break vacuums, so there's nothing to worry about.

The part where all the witches are swapping legends about Penrose is pretty funny. Especially the panel where it looks like he strolled in direct from a cover shoot for some bodice ripper romance novel. Still wearing his white collar, natch. Billie's repeated frustration as people accuse of her off being a temptress or whatever. Well Billie, you don't act much like people expect a woman of the cloth to behave.

There's one issue left, and I have no idea what's going to happen. Part of me thinks there'll be a need for punching, and Penrose will have to step in, but I could see him not bothering to come back. Or he comes back because Billie switched teams to Satanism and he has to train Maggie as a new curate. Everyone keeps suggesting she's just trying to convince herself and everyone else she's wicked, which leaves me wondering why. Maybe we'll find out something about that. Or maybe not.

What I Bought 10/25/2019

I'm pretty sad to see Deadspin is quite possibly in its death throes, because the vulture capitalists shitheads running either don't know what the fuck they're doing, or don't care. Still, I like that, after telling the writers to "stick to sports", the writers turned around and posted about appropriate types of wedding attire and the good dogs they met while in Mexico. Go down swinging if you can.

Unrelated, I just figured out the Properties option for the images is how I can have alt text for the images I post. Damnit, I could have been working more stupid attempts at jokes into these posts for months now! I'm just going to use it for the scanned images I add, though. No sense going overboard.

Sera and the Royal Stars #4, by Jon Tsuei (writer), Audrey Mok (artist), Raul Angulo (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - I assume that's supposed to be an eye glowing yellow, but it looks like a mouth.

Sera and the two Stars, plus the guy on the cover, named Formalhaut, continue their journey through the underworld, trying to find a way out. Given they are being pursued by the mysterious people in purple robes, they decide to take the risk of asking the Council of the Dead, who are not ecstatic at all these other gods and a live human hanging around. But they also won't intervene when the purple-robed folks start a fight while Sera tries to dream their way out of here. And while she's trying to manage that, there's something inside her demanding to be let loose. I don't think it's the Spirit of the Dance, but you never know.

I figure these five issues have to just be the start of something larger, because I can't really see how this whole thing is going to be resolved with one issue to go. Especially not when Antares is making reference to 'great battle to come' that all the stars were supposed to take part in. Plus, it seems Sera's mother isn't actually dead, which raises the question of where she is, and why she didn't finish this quest. Is Sera being duped, is awakening the Royal Stars a mistake for humanity? Aldebaran mentions that, from their perspective at least, all life on Earth exists because Ra, the Sun, dreamed them into existence. If you awaken someone and you're a function of their dream, will you vanish?

I like the variety of underworlds, representing various belief systems. I don't which one involves caves with giant mushrooms, Luigi and Mario's perhaps, but it looks like a cool place to visit. Certainly wouldn't want to spend eternity there, though. The design for the creatures that attack Dream Sera are interesting. Flowers that come to life, but insectlike appendages formed out of the petals as needed. Creepy thing to have chasing you while you look for a bridge, that's for sure.

Steeple #2, by John Allison (writer/artist), Sarah Stern (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - I actually got the variant cover, because it was in the front of the stack of copies. Plus it looks like the Reverend is fighting a couple of Swamp Things, which I think means Mike Sterling is legally compelled to buy this.

Billie decides she's not leaving after what she learned last issue, but she's not down with the monster punching. She's going to do community outreach, but hits a snag at convincing dissolute teens to take an interest. Until, after a chat with Maggie, she convinces them cleaning up litter will really stick it to their rival in Boscastle.

These have got to be pretty stupid teenagers to fall for that. Then it starts raining and the two muck creatures emerge from the sea. The Reverend's having a little trouble fighting his, but Billie has somehow had a pleasant conversation with the one that followed her and the trash patrol to the church. The Reverend's not ready to buy into the power of friendship, and Billie's not prepared for what goes on at the Church of Satan. 'Wow. This place is certainly quite. . . orgy forward.' is a heck of an observation. There are a lot of funny lines in this, which is not a shock if you've read Giant Days. Really, as tempting as it for me to just list dialogue that made me laugh, you should just go buy the comic yourself. You'll probably laugh harder that way.

Allison's art style always looks kind of simple to me, but it works. There's enough range each character is easily identifiable. Different body types, clothing styles, helps to make them memorable. Well, I suppose Billie and the Reverend dress the same, but that's unavoidable given their profession, and they don't look or act similar at all, so it's not an issue. Billie has those big round glasses, which somehow make her eyes look even bigger. You'd think since she so often has a wide-eyed, shocked expression, the size of the glasses would make her eyes look smaller in comparison. I guess they're large enough compared to the rest of her face to counteract that. I'm actually very impressed by how Mrs. Clovis can manage to scowl in so many different ways. There's one page she scowls in every panel, but it always looks slightly different. That must take a lot of practice.

What I Bought 9/27/2019 - Part 1

I have officially lived where I do long enough one person at the post office recognizes my face and remembers my name. A true milestone. In other news, we were apparently so bored or loopy at work this week we somehow got on the topic of cartwheels and before you knew it, four of us were testing whether or not we could still do them. The answer is "yes", albeit not particularly graceful ones. Here's two comics from September, a story winding down and another reaching the midpoint.

Sera and the Royal Stars #3, by Jon Tsuei (writer), Audrey Mok (artist), Raul Angulo (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - That would be a hell of a thing to run into while out rock climbing.

Our three heroes take a little ride down the river, but get attacked by more of those lizard guys, this time with dragon back-up. Aldebaran's still a little worn out from the plant growth display last issue, so they try hiding in a cave. One which is enchanted and full of little flying creatures that abduct Sera and drag her to a place where she sees a lot of family members who tell her they are all disappointed in her. Hey, the holidays are rough on everybody. She makes it through, I think, with a little help from her brother's actual ghost, and catches up with her allies and someone else.

It's nice that, when seemingly confronted by the ghost of her mother who is being critical of her, Sera doesn't immediately collapse or start issuing denials. She does that stuff eventually, once her siblings join in, but her immediate response is to angrily point out her mother abandoned them for a quest just like this, so she doesn't get to judge. It's not the usual reaction you see in a story like this, but given how Sera had to be forced to do this quest, and she clearly has issues about her mother being gone because of it, it seems like the right reaction.

I really like how Audrey Mok draws clothes, or maybe it's the actual clothes. All the robes and sashes and capes, and cloaks, but the characters never look too cluttered or busy. Every group kind of has their own distinct look. The lines are light and everything flows nicely. The word that keeps coming to mind is "elegant". Everyone is very stylish, and Antares definitely has a sort of grace to her movements when she leaps onto the cliff and starts fighting.

Infinity 8 #15, by Lewis Trondheim and Davy Mourier (writers), Lorenzo de Felici (artist) - Yes, I know that's the same cover I posted last issue. This is the one Previews had online when I went looking for that's issue's cover then. It still isn't an effective way to halt a zombie charge.

Ann and the group of mercs that are helping her splash into the hanger of Mister Led, the big fish guy from the previous storyarc. And there's Ron and his Symbolic Guerillas trying to make an escape as well! Ann commandeers the the craft, and gets a little trigger happy, killing Led and both of his pilots when she enters the cockpit. She can fly the thing herself, but the transformation's accelerating. They reach the center of the anomaly and find, I dunno, some space rifts that giant corpses come floating out of? And the corpses attack them? Maybe. They blow 'em up regardless and Ann's able to talk with the people who created this place, but the transformation takes hold entirely before she can relay what she's learned, and she just blows the alien vessel up instead.

Oh well, three more tries to go.

This one's story didn't seem to hold together quite as well as the previous one. There was some stuff about Ann being very straight-laced and formal, real follow the rules type. She veers off that, but because she's been infected by the zombie bite and its gradually changing her mental state. You'd expect it to be she has to be a little more loose in how she handles things because of circumstances. And it sort of seems like that was where things were going last issue, but this issue makes it seem like, no, she's just rapidly turning into a ravaging undead. And I'm still not sure if those giant corpses were attacking, or it was simply the ship had to blast its way through to reach the center of the anomaly.

It looked very pretty though. de Felici makes the corpses this sort of green and black combination that outlines the bones so that they have the appearance of glowing. Where they emerge from the spatial folds, there's these translucent triangles around their limbs or chest. Like pieces of cellophane or the material 3-D glasses are made of that's been left out in the sun and faded. It's really odd, and I don't know that I would think of that as representing falling out of a spatial fold if the story didn't tell me that's what is happening, but it's still a very cool visual.

What I Bought 8/31/2019 - Part 2

I originally intended to go to Freestatecon last weekend, but my allergies screwed up my sleep so badly Friday night I didn't feel like driving three hours one way for anything. Oh well. Dropping back to comics from a couple weeks ago, looking at two stories both on their second issue.

Infinity 8 #14, by Lewis Trondheim and Davy Mourier (writers), Lorenzo de Felici (artist) - That doesn't seem an effective strategy.

The Major's going to die of that bite, but in a few hours the timeline will get rebooted anyway, so no big, right? At least, that's her bosses perspective, as they want her to get back to exploring the space mausoleum. She tries, but her ship can't make it through the horde of zombies swarming the ship from said mausoleum. She needs a better ship and help to get it, so she calls up the guy she met briefly last issue, and he and his crew of misfits manage to link up with her and start fighting through the typical mess o' the undead.

Considering they haven't even gotten to the larger ship they're going to try and use by the end of this issue, this timeline attempt certainly seems like it'll be a bust. Although all the previous attempts have been as well, unless you count eliminating possibilities as success, which I guess you could.

The reboot takes a bit of the sting out of Ann discovering what's happened to her daughter at the preschool. It's still an effective scene on its own, with the little girl for some reason standing off by herself, while all the other changed kids are trying to swarm Ann. The panels focus on Syb, standing in an circle of light facing the wall, and the swarms of kids are just at the bottom of the panel, silent but clawing and biting. Ann doesn't even have to see Syb's face to know what's happened, although we get to see it once, when Ann's distracted by the zombie of her ex. At least she got to shoot him with no repercussions.

De Felici's good at drawing the undead with a relentless drive. They don't necessarily look excited when they see the living, but almost desperate sometimes. They have to get them, even if they don't know why. Contrasts nicely with Ann's grim determination to push through them. Despite control's suggestion to let loose a little, I think she's still holding back. Impending death hasn't really loosened her up any.

Sera and the Royal Stars #2, by Jon Tsuei (writer), Audrey Mok (artist), Raul Angulo (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - That's just a very pretty cover. Love the colors on it.

Sera and Aldebaran, the Old Bull, drive off the lizard guys, the return to Sera's kingdom to see if they can get a bead on where the other Royal Stars are. When they arrive, they find Sera's uncle's forces have taken over, and he's king now. Oh, and her brother died in battle. On the plus side, she was able to awaken (summon?) the Scorpion, Antares, and her uncle believes in her where her father did not. The fact there are two of the Royal Stars standing right there might have a lot to do with that. And now the three of them plan to travel north, but the mysterious hooded folks are going to make their move, since the lizard guys failed.

I wonder how many of these Royal Stars there are. They mention three others besides the Bull, so maybe it's just four. If so, that would be good for Sera, she'd already be halfway there. Although I'm unclear what finding these four is going to accomplish exactly. Aldebaran made crops grow, I can see that being helpful, but I don't know what Antares can do yet, other than threaten to kill people. Which is helpful, but not a skill exclusive to her.

I really like Angulo's colors on this book, the combinations in particular. Aldebaran has purple skin, but a green robe with gold borders, and sometimes he glows orange-white, and it's just this variety of colors that makes him pop off the page. The colors aren't muddy or toned down, it helps sell Mok's artwork rather than obscuring it. I might have given them a bit more space to work for the part where Aldebaran makes the crops grow, to play up the size and extent of his feat more. The panels are fairly small, and focused more on character's reactions to it. I guess to prove that he's not the type to pull a fast one and make poisoned fruit to eliminate enemies. He actually is a helpful sort.

It feels like there's an unpleasant surprise reveal coming, but I have no idea what it's going to be.

What I Bought 7/19/2019 - Part 2

The other two books from last week. One is a mini-series moving into its second half, and the other is the first issue of what I assume is an ongoing series.

Smooth Criminals #7, by Kurt Lustgarten, Kirsten Smith and Amy Roy (writers), Leisha Riddel (artist), Jamie Loughran, Adam LaFuente and Goncarlo Lopes (colorists), Ed Dukeshire (letterer) - Freezing Mia didn't work, so now they've shrunk her, I see.

The feds try to get Brenda to talk, to no avail. Mia confesses, or agrees to confess, to protect her, and for the chance to speak to her mother. Brenda isn't happy Mia portrayed her as an innocent dupe, but realizes this means they're friends and. . . tries to rob a bank to be thrown back in jail with Mia. That is one way to go about things. Then they make a deal with the feds to help them catch the guy who stole the Net of Indra from them, and that's where the issue ends.

There's also a two-page sequence in there of Hatch acting like a complete dumbass while celebrating having the Net of Indra. He sings part of "Ice, Ice, Baby" to it (incorrectly) for God's sake. Thank goodness his fiance comes in and points out he didn't actually steal it, Mia and Brenda did all the work. It's getting harder and harder to take Hatch seriously, although I feel worse and worse for his two goons. I hope one of them was taking photos to blackmail him with later.

That part, and the bit where Mia is picturing Brenda in prison are the two high points. Although that second one is a little odd. The feds are trying to scare Mia by talking about how badly it'll go for Brenda, but Mia is picturing her working out, making friends, exploring prison fashion and tattooing. Seems like Mia thinks Brenda will do pretty well in prison. Still nice of her to try and take the fall solo. Helps these two feds are dumber than a sack of hammers.

Sera and the Royal Stars #1, by Jon Tsuei (writer), Adurey Mok (artist), Raul Angelo (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - Hey, I think I found a crystal just like that in a pile of stuff left over from an old smelting operation last week! Where's my magical quest?

Sera is a princess, working with her siblings to lead their father's armies and try to defend their kingdom from their uncle's forces. There's also a mysterious third group who wear hoods with goat horns on them watching and waiting. Unfortunately, a being named Mitra has tagged Sera to free some "royal stars" to get things back on the right path. Sera tells her to pound sand, but Mitra removes her heart, puts that crystal in its place and tells her all her loved ones will die if she doesn't do this. Apparently this world doesn't have lots of stories about what happens when you strongarm someone into doing stuff for you. Movies tell me it tends to backfire. By the end of the issue, she's found one, but they're in the process of being attacked by lizard men, so hopefully he's of some use.

There's some stuff here, a lot of it about Sera's family. Their uncle is the one waging war on them. Her mother was the last one Mitra tapped for this quest, but she apparently failed. Mitra's response was only that 'we chose incorrectly before you.' Oh, well, that's great, but you didn't do her family any favors, so maybe show a little contrition?  Her younger sister is pretty ticked she's taking off, and her brother's a little worried, since Sera's apparently their best tactician. So you wonder if there'll be anything left of her home by the time she gets home, if she does. Mitra didn't guarantee her family wouldn't be killed if she did go on this quest after all, and seems like the kind of deity to omit that.

I like Mok's artwork. There's a light touch to the linework, not a lot of excess pencil lines. Even with the old man Sera finds in the temple, Mok uses just a few wrinkles lines here and there to suggest the rest. Keeps things clean and easy to read. I like the designs for their uniforms as well, though I'm not sure what the influence is. My brain keeps saying Indian subcontinent, but I'm not sure of that. "Hormuzd" is Middle Eastern, or at least the first result on Google is for Hormuzd Rassam, an Assyrian archaeologist that found clay tablets with the Epic of Gilgamesh.

The village in the vast open plain Sera passed through on the way to the temple made me think Mongolia (I remember reading something about the Eternal Blue Sky as a religion in that Weatherford book about Genghis Khan), but again, I'm guessing. At any rate, it's a good design, not too complicated, but distinct, Angelo makes it colorful, it works. The variety of landscapes offers a lot of possibilities, especially since I suspect Sera's going to venture into places most people have forgotten about.

I'm going to buy issue 2, and that's the goal of a first issue, so mission accomplished.