The Beast of Wolfe's Bay by Erik Evensen

As a reader with a relatively broad spectrum of interests in fiction, I find myself frequently at a loss as to what I want to read next, as the options can be overwhelming.  On the other hand, sometimes I know exactly what I want.  And I wanted monster mayhem.

Erik Evensen’s The Beast of Wolfe’s Bay is set in a small town where a string of strange disappearances appears to have culminated in a murder, and the evidence baffles the local law enforcement.  So they call in two academics, who set out on the trail of what appears to be a bigfoot attack.

The story is very much like many monster movies, where occasional plot holes do exist, but part of the fun is embracing the story wholeheartedly despite them.  Evensen does a wonderful job of laying the plot out for the reader, and making his characters successful enough to carry the story along at a significant clip.  Truly, I found myself flying through this book, and having fun the whole time.

Fans of monster horror fiction, monster movies, or cryptids will have a blast with this.  The Beast of Wolfe’s Bay is fun graphic fiction at its very finest.

Grimm Fairy Tales Presents Oz by Joe Brusha, Rolando Di Sessa, and Glauber Matos

When Zenoscope released the first issue of their flagship series, Grimm Fairy Tales, most people likely didn’t imagine it would become the starting point for an entire franchise, but the success the series found has led to a host of spin-offs as the core series nears its 100^th issue.  Among many are Return to Wonderland, which has proved the series’ most successful branch, spawning a host of titles itself, as well as Inferno, Robyn Hood, Grimm Fairy Tales: Myths & Legends, and a whole stack more.

One of their more recent offerings is Grimm Fairy Tales Presents Oz, a retelling of the story from the novel by L. Frank Baum, but taken in a direction very much fitting with the Grimm Fairy Tales line.  Dorothy lives on a farm with her aunt and uncle, and when a twister comes through a takes the house, Dorothy is transported to the magical land of Oz.  However, this is an Oz where the Cowardly Lion is a fierce warrior, the Tin Man is a steampunk robot, the Scarecrow is a frightening nightmare version of usual happy-go-lucky portrayals, and Toto is a gigantic wolf.

Far from just being a story of Dorothy’s personal journey, the maneuverings of the Wicked Witch of the West is leading to a cataclysmic final battle at the Emerald City for the fate of Oz, and Dorothy and her companions and deeply entwined in the conflict.  There is also some brief tying in of this story to the over-arching Grimm Fairy Tales storyline, but it is done in such a fashion that readers new to the universe won’t feel lost, or that they need to read a large number of books to get caught up.

Rolando Di Sessa and Glauber Matos capture the essence of Zenescope’s art direction with the overall universe, creating vibrant, dynamic settings populated with characters designed in the vein of some of the early Image Comics arts stylings.  The beasts are monsterous and deadly-looking, the men have muscles piled on top of muscles, and the women seem to find some of the most imaginative ways to unintentionally reveal their staggering assets.

Writer Joe Brusha creates a story that really kicks into gear as it progresses, and is a lot of fun.  Particularly surprising, given the scantily-clad nature of the protagonist, is that Brusha features a Dorothy who is strong and powerful in her own right, rather than constantly having to be saved by the others.  The ensemble cast is slowly developed, and by the end of the story the reader wants to continue on another journey with Dorothy and company.

Grimm Fairy Tales Presents Oz doesn’t have any nudity, but it comes as close to it without crossing that border as is possible, so this book is likely best for the teen and older crowd, but for readers looking for a fun, fast paced adventure featuring a charming hero, devious plots, and a battle full of deceit and deception, then this is a book very much worth checking out.

Astronaut Dad by David Hopkins and Brent Schoonover

Written by David Hopkins, with art by Brent Schoonover, Astronaut Dad is a fascinating indie graphic novel.  The story follows a group of astronauts who are running secret missions to space to spy on the Soviet Union in the midst of the Cold War, and the families that they leave behind as they spend more and more time training and in space.

The family drama is deftly handled.  Rather than making it into a soap opera, nothing is taking to the point of exaggeration, leaving the relationships, friendships, and family bonds feeling that much more real.  The kids exude the joys of childhood, the families feel the strain of absent loved ones, and the hopes and dreams of the astronauts are tempered by the cost.

Astronaut Dad is not a long read, but it is one that will be remembered.  It is an example of what historical comics can do, and how deftly a story can be told in this medium.

The Redcaps' Queen by Danielle Ackley-McPhail

For regular readers of Luke Reviews, seeing a review of a book by Danielle Ackley-McPhail should come as no surprise.  This reviewer has frequently been impressed with her work, most recently her collaboration with Day Al-Mohamed, Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn, which I was beyond impressed with.  The Redcaps’ Queen, part of the Bad-Ass Faerie Tales series, is a direct sequel to Ackley-McPhail’s The Halfling’s Court. 

The Redcaps’ Queen picks back up with the Wild Hunt, a group of bikers that happen to be a mix of humans and magical beings, featuring Suzanne, who is recovering from a vicious attack from a group of redcaps, flesh eating creature that need blood to survive.  While the physical injuries are gone, Suzanne’s struggle with overcoming the emotional trauma of the event is far from over.

But all that is just a launching point, as machinations from the fae high court that Suzanne used to belong to pick up, Lance, Suzanne’s lover, encounters a threat from dark faeries, and roller derby women into the world of Suzanne in a big way.

The adventure is wonderful, but the gritty seriousness of the internal struggles of the character is where Ackley-McPhail shines brightest.  The wedge growing between Suzanne and Lance is just as important as the larger-scale conflicts the characters become involved in.

Fans of The Halfling’s Court and the Bad-Ass Faerie Tales series will clearly want to pick this title, but it is also a great fit for readers looking for a strong urban fantasy title that embraces the world of faerie.

Magic: The Gathering, Volume 4: Theros by Jason Ciaramella, Martin Coccolo, and Eric Deschamps

I briefly touched upon my interest in Magic: The Gathering in my review of Cory Herndon’s Guildpact, and I will now return to it.  One of the most recent releases in the game was a set called Theros, featuring vast monsters, epic quests, and active gods, in a setting very much inspired by ancient Greek mythology and culture.

Dack Fayden, whose first major story arc wrapped up in the third volume of the Magic: The Gathering comic series, returns in Magic: The Gathering, Volume 4: Theros.  After stealing an artifact that begins speaking to him, Dack travels to the world of Theros to uncover its secrets, and instead stumbles into a much larger mystery involving a being who is devouring the souls of the people of Theros by turning their spellcasters against them in their sleep.

Written by Jason Ciaramella, with art from Martin Coccolo and Eric Deschamps, Theros is a wonderfully exciting start to what is clearly a much larger adventure.  The comic also does a very nice job of getting the reader immersed in the story without having read the previous three Magic: The Gathering mini-series that featured Dack Fayden.

As a character, Dack is well fleshed out, and lots of fun.  The world of Theros is also presented as vibrant and rich.  All-in-all, Magic: The Gathering, Volume 4: Theros will get your attention, and have you looking for more Magic: The Gathering comics and graphic novels.  This book is perfect for fans of fantasy comics, in particular adventure fantasy.

Treasure Planet by Hal Colebatch and Jessica Q. Fox

Re-imaginings of classic novels seems to be very much in vogue in science fiction and fantasy in recent years.  From Dan Simmons’ tribute to Homer, Illium, to the more quirky Pride and Prejudice and Zombies from Seth Grahame-Smith, the genre seems to be enjoying this in all of its varieties.  At the same time, shared world environments also seem to keep on trucking along, from the huge successes of late in Warhammer fiction to the occasional release of a new Wild Cards book from George R.R. Martin, even to the Kindle Worlds program and the output of fan fiction flowing out.  Hal Colebatch and Jessica Q. Fox, in Treasure Planet, have created an intersection of these two trends.

Peter Cartwright and his mother live in an inn, where his friend Marthar spends a lot of time.  Peter and Marthar are at the same grade in school, and have a lot of common interests, but the two have a key difference: Peter is human, while Marthat is kzin, part of a species of feline-like aliens that fought a vicious war with humans.  However, on Wunderland, the planet the Peter and Marthar live on, the war is ended, and the two species live together in peace.

However, when an old spacer is killed at Peter’s inn, and pirates begin chasing Peter and Marthar with talk about a treasure planet, Peter, Marthar, and a host of other characters begins an exciting, dangerous mission to find the secret pirate treasure planet and solve the mystery found there.

Treasure Planet is a science fiction version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, following a young hero on an adventure full of pirates, intrigue, and treasure.  It is set in the Man-Kzin War shared universe, created by Larry Niven, and does feature some characters from multiple volumes of the series, but this novel is very new reader friendly, not expecting the reader to come into it with any prior knowledge of the characters, the conflict, or the setting.

Treasure Planet captures the excitement and adventure of its literary forebear, and is wonderful fun to read.  The adventures of Peter and Marthar are truly fun, and the novel makes for a great adventure tale just like the original it is based on.  However, Treasure Planet also suffers from being a little too closely related to Treasure Island at times.  With a peg-legged kzin pirate named Silver, a mysterious omen of treasure from the very start, even having the novel start with the protagonist at the inn, all speak to how diligently Colebatch and Fox stuck to their source material, but it also leads to a fair amount of predictability.  At times, this made the book a little tricky to get through, but the story at its heart, and the wonderful adventure writing from its authors, wins through, and builds to a very satisfying ending.

Fans of pure adventure science fiction will truly enjoy this novel, as will those who are fans of Stevenson.  With this novel working as an entry point to the Man-Kzin universe, it is very reader-friendly, and is more than worth the read.

Archeologists of Shadows, Volume 1: The Resistance by Lara Fuentes and Patricio Clarey

The sheer variety of comics available today, especially given digital distribution methods such as comics for the Kindle through Amazon and ComiXology, is staggering.  One graphic novel that takes its art in a non-traditional direction is Archeologists of Shadows, written by Lara Fuentes with art from Patricio Clarey.  The first volume, The Resistance, contains the first four chapters of what is clearly a much larger story.

Archeologists of Shadows follows two characters who could be the reincarnation of the two deities of the world, or two pawns in a large-scale revolutionary movement.  The government is forcing everyone to let their bodies be consumed by technology and industrialization, and while most people are following along, there is a resistance group looking to bring back the gods of the world to fight against the government-sponsored dehumanization of humanity.  This first volume establishes a steampunk, techno-nature world where the world hangs in the balance.  The art very much distinguishes itself from the field, uses a host of techniques to create an almost abstract, surreal 3D world.

Full of big concepts, it is unfortunate that Archeologists of Shadows does not live up to its potential.  The story isn’t nearly as engaging as it could be, with the adventure and journey seeming to lose its appeal quickly.  And while the art is certainly different, it isn’t an art style that will appeal to everyone, and can lack clarity at critical moments.  The setting is very interesting, and I would have liked to have seen a better story taking place there.

Archeologists of Shadows, Vol. 1: The Resistance isn’t a bad book, it just isn’t a great one.  However, for a very low entry price, curious readers can discover for themselves if this book might be their cup of tea.  For this reviewer, it wasn’t.