In the era of Kickstarter anything is possible and Comichaus is one of the things that makes me glad we live in this age, it’s an epic concept that we’ve not seen in forever a Monthly British Indie anthology comic.
The first thing you notice is the quality of the art on the cover (provided by long term comic professional Glen Fabry who is best known for his work on Judge Dread and painting the covers of the first 66 issues of Preacher ) … this is not some low budget photocopy student paper, this is quality!
Once you’ve taken in the cover your thrown straight into the six short stories ( 5 of which are the beginning of an ongoing story arch) that make up this 42 page first issue.
First up is Karyn Shade by James McCulloch and Jessica L. Byrne; I like Jessica’s art style it’s pretty and she makes great use of the Grey scale colour scheme, the 6 pages of “Beyond Forth” that we get here introduces us to our Hero – Karyn and feels like the first 5 minutes of a Twilight Zone episode or the beginning of a particularly well written 80’s horror movie, if they can keep the quality up this story has a lot of potential.
Feather by Dave Cook and Norrie Millar this feels like the pre credit sequence of a CW series introducing us to a disease that is spreading across the world like wildfire and a handful of characters, the first and last page’s seem to foreshadow what’s to come and make me want to read the second instalment so all in all a good introduction which hooks you for the upcoming story.
Suited and Booted takes us in a different direction to the previous stories and throws us into the future; in the 6 pages of this story we rocket around from 2120 all the way to 2303 we see the rise and fall of humanity before being introduced to our protagonist on the last page , the story telling has a fast pace , Jon Laight’s scripting and Dan Butcher’s art reminds me of a backup story in The Eagle during the 90’s , the pace is a little fast for me but I understand that to tell the story they want to tell they need to set the scene by introducing us to a whole different world which is something the Karyn Shade and Feather did not have to do before they started telling their stories.
Troubleshooters drops us straight into a post-apocalyptic world with two nameless travellers / traders who are looking for a way to make some money in the introductory pages we see Six shooters and dinosaurs / dragons and get a bit of a mad max feel Ed Bickford’s art is simple and sparse which sits well with the story. Aaron Walther’s script does its job, quickly introducing you to the parts of this strange world that you need to know to let him tell you this story and stops at a point that wants you to keep reading again like Feather the part of this story presented in this issue feels like the pre-credit scene of a modern T.V drama.
Luke Cooper has done all the work on the first part of Mortality there are a couple of interesting moments (one of which was particularly well done and could create a really interesting story point) and Luke is obviously setting up his story as he introduces us to a hitman / former mercenary and his daughter who have just died in a car crash.
Our final story is the only one shot, Mum and Dad tells the story of a one year old called Jimmy and again has the feel of an The Eagle back up story to it (which is not a bad thing). Iain Laurie and Colin Bell’s art is simple and helps Tom Ward’s story get to a satisfying end that I didn’t see coming!
The back cover is a simple picture of a young woman smoking a cigarette in front of a red Skull and above the word “Chalk” …. This image is beautiful , it looks like the front cover of an issue of the chilling adventures of Sabrina and makes me want to know more about what’s going on.
Overall this was a strong 1st issue with the stand out being Karyn Shade and Feathers but all of the stories being worth a read. Here’s to issue 2 continuing the good work.
– Mark
Ogun Bat is a Japanese superhero created by Takeo Nagamatsu in 1931 and is considered to be the first Japanese superhero. The anime ran 52 episodes between April 1st 1967 and March 23rd Read more
Released in December 1980, Zork: The Great Underground Empire - Part I aka Zork I was an interactive fiction video game written by Marc Blank, Dave Lebling, Bruce Daniels and Tim Read more
Zoolander is back but a lot has happened since 2001! Rest assured the Ben Stiller comedy features familiar faces and a few new ones with plenty to get you excited. Read more
At a dinner party with their wives, NASA scientist Dr. Keith Ritchie (Tony Huston) reveals to his colleague Dr. Curt Taylor (John Agar) that he has secretly been in communication Read more
In Italy during World War II, an American military patrol discovers a spaceship that has crash-landed in the woods, along with its alien crew. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm9fnNfLg8M A nearby Nazi unit also Read more
Zone Fighter was a tokusatsu science fiction/superhero television series produced by Toho Company Ltd. It aired from April 2nd 1973 to September 24th 1973, with a total of 26 episodes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdhcjsVLDQY The series follows Read more
It is the final episode of Season 1, and as expected following the somewhat calmness of last week's episode this week is about to go off the scale. Our crew Read more
Episode 5 of Zomboat! is the penultimate episode of Season 1 and it gave the audience a chance to catch their breath before the grand finale. Instead of the fast Read more
In Zomboat! Episode 4 we discover that even a shopping trip can be hazardous to your health in post-apocalyptic Birmingham. With the boat moored and apparently safe Amar (Ryan McKen) Read more
After our diversion last week our Zomboat crew begin travelling in the right direction and end up back where they first got on the boat. This also happens to be Read more
Zomboat! burst onto our screens last week and while we loved it we noted that it felt "a bit rushed with lots crammed in." As Episode 2 washed over us Read more
Debuting on ITV2 in the UK, Zomboat! is filmed in the 2.35:1 widescreen ratio of most zombie movies and answers the life long question of what would happen if you Read more
When the government's latest crime deterrent, obmoz, goes completely off the rails and starts to destroy everything from the underfunded super team Planetronix to the president himself, who ya gonna Read more
Tony Todd is back in an all new zombie movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBlWz-n-nec When the world is in shambles, plagued by a zombie outbreak, only the strong will survive, but just how Read more
Directed by Chris Watson and distributed by Troma Entertainment, Zombiegeddon begins as Satan creates a human-like race called zombies. When the zombies begin taking over the world, dirty cops Jeff Read more
Directed by Anthony C. Ferrante, Zombie Tidal Wave aims to pick up where the Sharknado franchise left off. More serious in tone, the film plays more like the original Sharknado Read more
Zombie Hotel ran for twenty-six episodes in 2006 and focuses on Fungus and Maggot - two child zombies who pretend to be human to get into their local school. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzXhCDspKxU Read more
After surviving the 'Multipocalypse', Ben tries to live a normal life, hiding the fact that he is infected with a zombie plague. His new friends have just found out ... Read more
A dutiful Samurai, a madcap Ninja and a bizarro Zen Monk team up to battle the undead in Feudal Japan. Can these unlikely allies stay friends long enough to stop Read more
From the mind of the iconic Gene Simmons! Return to the world of Zipper - an alien trapped on Earth fights his way home to Etheria. In his absence, he Read more
More Stories
Preview- Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe of Horrors: Fresh Meat #1
Marvel’s Blood Hunt official event trailer released
Preview: RoboForce #2 (of 3)