So I Read Bad Dog: In The Land Of Milk And Honey

A 250 word (or less) review of Bad Dog Vol. 1
by Joe Kelly, Diego Greco, and Thomas Mauer; Image Comics

Bad Dog is a comic about a werewolf bounty hunter named Lou and his perverted, evangelist partner Wendell as they hunt skips, search for meaning in a chaotic world, and get blackout shitfaced. In The Land Of Milk And Honey we are introduced to the pair and their hard drinking, vulgar, and existentially fraught ways as they chase bounties, fuck up white supremacists, protect the border, go on a Vegas drug bender, and orbit around the mystery of a missing girl on milk cartons. Bad Dog volume one is raunchy good fun filled with obscenity and hilarity and the grim madness of trying to deal with a world filled with so much injustice and tragedy. It's beautifully sad and horribly funny. I really enjoyed it. I am also super excited that there is a collected edition! Bad Dog went on a prolonged hiatus about halfway through its original run and I despaired that we would ever see a complete chapter. But there is now a collection which, some dated pop culture references aside, provides a really fun, satisfyingly complete story. A story that seems to be setting up for future stories, and if all of you go out and buy this volume, we might actually see them. So please, I'm begging you, read this comic! You'll enjoy it, and maybe help restart a comic I really like.

Word count: 227

Post by Michael Bround

So I Read I Kill Giants

A 250 word (or less) review of the I Kill Giants graphic novel
By Joe Kelly and JM Ken Niimura; Image Comics

I Kill Giants is the story of Barbara Thorson, a girl who is obsessed with killing giants. She knows the giants are coming and that it is absolutely up to her to wield the mighty hammer Coveleski to slay her gigantic foes and protect her family from certain destruction. Barbara is also an elementary school student where she is a dorky, Dungeons and Dragons obsessed loner with a penchant for offending authority. And yet there is something else Barabara must deal with, another monstrous reality that she cannot face. And so instead she kills giants. I Kill Giants is a pretty heartfelt comic that tells a story that, like some sort of emotions singularity, just drags empathy out of you. It is also a pretty clever comic, balancing the opposing forces of fantasy and reality to sort of play with that fuzzy space inbetween in this pretty interesting way. I Kill Giants is a pretty fun comic too: the story has an energy to it, characters are vibrant, and Barabara is pretty hilarious. But I think the thing that nabs me most is that I found the comic eminently relatable. Shockingly, I was a pretty dorky kid who, before I found my peeps, leaned into the fictional world (your sci-fi, your fantasy, etc) to get through the special hell of the educational system. Now, my situation was nowhere as tough as Barbara's, but I get where she is coming from, in a way I too killed giants. Try it.

Word count: 249

So I Read Four Eyes: Forged In Flames

A 250 word (or less) review of the first Four Eyes trade paperback,
By Joe Kelly and Max Fiumara, Image Comics

I really like Joe Kelly. A bootleg disk of his Deadpool run is a big part of why I got into comics and I'm pretty fond of his recent Spider-man stories. I've been given to understand, however, that Mr. Kelly is a bit of a lightning rod for comics controversy: people are bitterly divided over the quality of his DC comics work (which I have never read). So bearing in mind that I like Joe Kelly, I think Four Eyes is a book everyone can enjoy. The comic is about Enrico, a boy who must fend for himself and his mother during the Great Depression after his father is killed in an accident. Also there are dragons that fight in underground rings run by criminal syndicates. The story operates as a kind of period piece depicting the hardships and strange cultural conditions of the great depression and also dragons. Built into this amazing setting is the thematic core of the story, which is about trying to grow up and be a man without a father to emulate. And also dragons. Joe Kelly's script for this book is great, but the real star for me is Max Fiumara. His artwork just has such a sense of panache that it makes this world of the-Great-Depression-but-with-dragons come to life and be convincing. It's a gorgeous book with a great concept and story. Sadly, I’m unsure when/if we’ll see more Four Eyes, but Forged In Flames is pretty complete and well worth checking out.

Word count: 250

(Apparently the next issueis in the can, and Kelly and Fiumara are just waiting until they have a completish arch to solicit… but who knows when we’ll see that?)