This is a single comic book issue given in the Free Comic Book Day event of 2018, featuring an exclusive premiere of a comLady Mechanika for free!
This is a single comic book issue given in the Free Comic Book Day event of 2018, featuring an exclusive premiere of a complete, all-new short story of “Lady Mechanika”, along with a re-publishing of the very first of the saga.
THE DEMON OF SATAN’S ALLEY
Rating: **** (four stars)
Creator, Writer & Illustrator: Joe Benitez
Lady Mechanika is introduced in this very first story.
She doesn’t have recollections of her past, or why she has mechanical limbs.
Fate and chance, put her in the right path to meet another of the unusual creations of her maker, but also fate and chance, cut short this meeting where she was about to get vital information, but leading to the readers that they were about to a show with this Indy comic book!
TWO
Rating: ***** (five stars)
Writers: Joe Benitez & MM Chen
Illustrators: Joe Benitez & Martin Montiel
Lady Mechanika got through several adventures since her introduction, and while she still doesn’t know much about her origin, she already get a position of respect in London.
However, her acquaintance, Mr. Lewis, looks for her, telling about a new insidious experimentation by Blackpool Armaments, having a mechanical arm, very much like in the style of hers.
Therefore, Lady Mechanika needs to see that arm with her own eyes…
…but this new adventure will shock her, since she wasn’t the only model of her kind!
This TPB edition collects “Batman: Gotham by Gaslight” and “Batman: Master of the Future”, the two part of the elseworBatman in the Victorian Age!
This TPB edition collects “Batman: Gotham by Gaslight” and “Batman: Master of the Future”, the two part of the elsewords miniseries “Victorian Batman”.
Creative Team:
Writer: Brian Augustyn
Illustrator: Mike Mignola & Eduardo Barreto
Inker: P. Craig Russell
Letterers: John Workman & Willie Schubert
Introduction: Robert Bloch
GOTHAM BY THE GASLIGHT
I’ve known about this story since some years ago, but until now, knowing about the incoming direct-to-video animated movie adaptation is that I pushed myself to read it.
It was a good moment to do it, since last weekend (August 2017), there was a book fair in my country, Costa Rica, so I was able to buy this TPB with a good discount.
I like Batman, and I like to read about Jack, the Ripper topic, so why hadn’t I read it before? Well, so much good books, so little time, I haven’t any better reason to justify myself.
This miniseries is set in an elseworld (parallel dimension) where Batman risen 100 years before, during the Victoriana ge, but still set in Gotham City, USA.
Bruce Wayne suffered the same, with the unfair murder of his parents, BUT I liked a little detail in his origin here, where the bats instead of being something that he fears, it was something that saved his life, since a bunch of bats was the reason that the criminal wasn’t able to shoot him too. It’s wonderful how each new approach to the character of Batman and its themes, allow new angles to ponder about this comic book super-hero.
Bruce Wayne trained himself for 15 years, traveling around the world, consulting with several leading people in relevant fields, like Dr. Freud and certain detective from London, to become the costumed vigilante “Bat-Man” on his own city, Gotham.
Once his training is complete and he started his personal war on crime…
…Jack the Ripper arrives to his city!
The Batman vrs Jack, the Ripper!
What else can you ask?!
The terrible path of blood that started in Whitechapel, London, is beginning once again in the dark streets of Gotham City and it’s up to the Bat-Man to face his baptism of fire in his war on crime.
However, thing won’t be easy, since the citizens of Gotham don’t know who inspire them more fear…
…Jack, the Ripper or this mysterious Bat-Man.
MASTER OF THE FUTURE
A year later of the previous events, in the first part of the miniseries…
Bruce Wayne feels that his personal oath to his parents have been fulfilled and even he has now a fiancé, Julie Madison, so the “Bat-Man” costume hasn’t seen action since a while.
However, Gotham City always is in need of its dark protector…
…especially when a lunatic called himself “Master of the Future” (aka Alexandre LeRoi) is threatening the safety of the incoming cultural fair in Gotham City to celebrate the future of the town.
This “Master of the Future” possess too advance technology, so the regular Police force isn’t able to deal in equal term with this strange new villain…
This is the third and final book in the “Nemo Trilogy”
Creative Team:
Writer: Alan Moore
Illustrator: Kevin O’Neill
Letterer: Todd KleiIreful mission!
This is the third and final book in the “Nemo Trilogy”
Creative Team:
Writer: Alan Moore
Illustrator: Kevin O’Neill
Letterer: Todd Klein
DINOSAURS, FEMBOTS & LIL’ CLONES
It’s the year 1975…
Janni Dakkar, daughter of the original Captain Nemo, now an old woman, already a grandmother, keeps to follow the legacy and she continues as the second Captain Nemo commanding the incredible submarine Nautilus.
Janni fearing the return of Ayesha (from H. Rider Haggard’s She, since the last time that they meet, it cost her dearly.
That’s why Janni isn’t waiting to respond anymore but taking the offensive.
Janni’s criminal operations (pirate, remember?) now they are powered by a society of felon allies: The House of Mabuse (from Norbert Jacques’ Dr. Mabuse the Gambler), Blofeld (from Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels) and Lord Horror (from David Britton’s banned novel in UK). The criminal society can’t confirm if the mysterious woman who had been seen, here and there, along two years, and now it seems that Ayesha (or whoever she is) is planning something and Janni won’t wait anymore, she will make a preemptive strike.
Along with the powerful submarine Nautilus, Janni hires Hugo Coghlan (from William H.D. Koerner’s Hugo Hercules comic strip) as her personal bodyguard. Coghlan and the Nemo family have plenty backstory.
Jack Dakkar, the very young grandson of Janni aboards the Nautilus without Janni’s knowledge and once he is discovered, they can’t afford the delay of getting him back to Lincoln Island.
Nautilus’s tracking of the supposed Ayesha takes the crew to the Amazon river, where they will have one heck of adventure dealing with elements from A. Merritt’s The Face in the Abyss, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World and both works by Ira Levin: The Stepford Wives and The Boys from Brazil.
The Nazi Reich is rising again, with new technological threars, and Captain Nemo II (aka Janni Dakkar) is the only one able to stop it!!!
The vendetta between Ayesha’s legacy and Nemo’s family is coming to a deadly closure!!!
Janni Dakkar, daughter of the original Captain Nemo, follows the legacy and she continues as the second Captain Nemo commanding the incredible submarine Nautilus.
Janni fell in love with Broad Arrow Jack (from old British penny dreadful novelletes) that he is part of her crew. They had a daughter, Hira, that now she is fifteen years old (and since at those old times, it was usual to be married quite young), Hira is married to Armand Robur (from Jules Verne’s Robur the Conqueror).
The Earth is suffering with the Second World War but you can guess that in a planet devised by Alan Moore, even the WWII won’t occur as it was in our own Earth, specially if he has the entire old films and classic literature at his hands…
…the Nazi Party is lead by Adenoid Hynkel!!! (Charles Chaplin’s version of Hitler in The Great Dictator).
But that’s not all!
Berlin, under the supervised work of C.A. Rotwang (from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis), it’s now a futuristic-look city, with vast technological advances, and thanks to Dr. Caligari (from Robert Wiene’s film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) now they have trustful Sleep Troopers (hypnotized sleepwalking soldiers). Even Berlin’s criminal underground is managed by Dr. Mabuse (from Norbert Jacques’s Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler).
Watch out, Allied Forces!!!
Good thing that Janni and the Nautilus, along with Hira and Robur and their mighty “lighter-than-air” ship The Terror, are fighthing against Nazi forces.
However, Ayesha (from H. Rider Haggard’s She), the enigmatic African Queen, is still pissed off about that Janni’s crew robbed some of her valuable stuff, sixteen years ago. And since Hynkel needs an influence in Africa, to secure Nazi settlement there. Well, it’s easy to know what are Ayesha’s demands to help the Nazis that suits them just fine since they’d need to deal with the Nautilus and The Terror eventually. So, why delaying the fun?
Berlin, the new metropolis never was more dangerous!!! The worse place to fall in a deadly trap!!!
And I didn’t approach about the deadliest menace there!!!
AUFMERKSAMKEIT LESER
An interesting thing is that when German people talks in their native language, well, you read German language! Of course, I hadn’t the slightest idea what the heck the characters were saying, (while my international favorite soccer club is Bayern Munich and my favorite national team (besides obviously the one of my own country, Costa Rica) is the German National Soccer Team), still I don’t know much German language, but it’s not vital to understand the story.
I think that it was cool detail, but not unusual in Moore’s work, since in From Hell you found some pages in German language too.
In my humble opinion, Moore’s intention is to celebrate German culture and to make people to remember that Germany has a lot of wonderful things to offer to humanity, that they are more than just the Nazi era, that they have contribute a lot, before and after that time.
And in this book, The Roses of Berlin, there are even some dialogues in French.
So, if you don’t know German or French, you’ll deal with the same language barriers that you may face, if you were in same situation of the heroes of the story.
But again, don’t worry about it, since you will be able to understand what is going on, in the adventure, since English is still the main language used in the book.
The same creative team responsible for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series, is reunited once again, now to tell the trilogy of Nemo…
…the Daughter of Nemo to be precise!
It's 1925...
Princess Janni Dakkar, daughter of the original Captain Nemo (aka Prince Dakkar), now in command of the marvelous Nautilus submarine and its crew.
Janni is eager to prove to his crew (and specially to herself) that she’s up to the challenge of being the new captain of the Nautilus. So, checking his dad’s logs, she found out about an Antartica expedition that it did go wrong when original Captain Nemo conducted. Janni thinks that she’s her chance to make right a mission that his dad wasn’t able to pull out.
Of course, an easy robbery (remember that they’re pirates!) is useful to fund the expenses of the expedition…
…too bad that while was easy the theft, Janni isn’t aware of WHO she robbed…
…nothing less than Ayesha (the lead character of H. Rider Haggard’s She)!
So, Charles Foster Kane (from the film Citizen Kane!) hires an ingenious trio (from popular dime novels) to produce a counter-offensive against the Nautilus crew!
However, not Janni’s crew or Kane’s people are prepared for what they will find in Antartica…
…nightmares from H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos!!!
Along with meeting secret cities from the works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.
Let’s sail away aboard the Nautilus once again to the wonderful world of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen where literature & film characters mix with historic people!!!
This is the Free Comic Book Day edition of “2000 AD” magazine given free in the event of 2016, featuring seven differenA great 2000 AD experience!
This is the Free Comic Book Day edition of “2000 AD” magazine given free in the event of 2016, featuring seven different short stories.
The general rating is an average sum of the ratings given to each story contained in this comic book.
JUDGE DREDD: UNCIVIL PARTNERSHIP
Rating: ***** ( 5 stars )
Writer: Alec Worley
Illustrator: Eric Powell
Drokk! Geek-Riot!
The most popular movie actors, Charlie Zamm and Breck Horsepower, were a romantic couple but now they are separated and just now both will be premiered their own films “Captain Sensitive” and “The Republican” respectively. In the same movie theatre, at the same time…
…the perfect formula for trouble.
Especially since the raging hordes of fans of each actor are camping outside.
Even the hired private security are unable to deal with this uncivil war between wrathful geeks of “Team Breck” V. “Team Sensitive”, in the dawn of insanity, that’s why the Judges sent their best officer…
…Judge Dredd!
This hilarious and ingenious story, full of crafty parody as only 2000 AD can deliver, it’s a perfect example of what Judge Dredd is!
FIENDS OF THE EASTERN FRONT: FODDER
Rating: ***** ( 5 stars )
Writer: Hannah Berry
Illustrator: Dani
Nothing rouses the blood like revenge.
It’s 1968, in the Quang Ngai province, in Vietnam.
A native woman follows the mysterious voice of somebody talking to her through a walkie talkie, since she wants to know what really happened in her village.
She will wish never have known.
Brilliant and scary tale with a delicious unexpected twist.
THE ORDER – PART ONE
Rating: **** ( 4 stars )
Writer: Kek-W
Illustrator: John Burns
It’s a good tale. I’ll give you that.
Anna Kohl, young German woman, member of The Order, that it’s only what stands against The Wargvolk, the Wolf Nation, is looking for the truth about his father’s fate.
Anna won’t need to wait much to find her answers.
Wonderful tale merging paranormal fantasy and steampunk genres.
BAD COMPANY: FIRST CASUALTIES – PART 1
Rating: ** ( 2 stars )
Writer: Peter Milligan
Illustrator: R. Dayglo & J. McCarthy
It’ll give you nightmares…
Too brief accountance of a rag-tag military squadron who fought against aliens.
They got too few pages and therefore it’s impossible to get anything coherent out of it.
STRONTIUM DOG
Rating: **** ( 4 stars )
Writer: John Wagner (co-creator of Strontium Dog)
Illustrator: Carlos Ezquerra (co-creator of Strontium Dog)
Maybe we just leave it, Johnny. Is not our problem.
Classical tale taken from the beginnings of Strontium Dog (created by John Wagner & Carlos Ezquerra (the same ones whom created Judge Dredd)) with Johnny Alpha, the best mutant bounty hunter of the organization “Strontium Dog”, along his normal partner Wulf Sternhammer.
This a comic book series set in the same universe of Judge Dredd. However, instead of being in Mega-City One, the stories are usually developed in deep space.
They are lured into a trap, in a remote space vessel, that they will need to act quickly to avoid being the new additions of an unique collection.
THARG’S TERROR TALES: THE DEATH OF DEATH-MAN
Rating: *** ( 3 stars )
Writer: Barry Island
Illustrator: Henry Flint
Bugger.
A fast action-packed adventure featuring “Death-Man”, a street vigilante who wishes to die but Death only mocks of him.
RATFINK: THE BIG EMPTY
Rating: *** ( 3 stars )
Writer: Matt Smith (No, not that one)
Illustrator: Joelle Jones
You don’t know. You don’t know what’s out there.
This is a quick raw thriller with “Ratfink” (created by John Wagner & Carlos Ezquerra (the same ones whom created Judge Dredd)) showing a deadly menace in the Cursed Earth, in the forbidden wastelands outside of Mega-City One.
This comic book series is set in the same universe of Judge Dredd, but 30 years in the past.
Imagination flourishes at Elizabethan Era of Marvel Universe!
This TPB collects “Marvel 1602” #1-8.
Creative Team:
Writer: Neil Gaiman
Illustrator: AnImagination flourishes at Elizabethan Era of Marvel Universe!
This TPB collects “Marvel 1602” #1-8.
Creative Team:
Writer: Neil Gaiman
Illustrator: Andy Kubert
Digital Coloring: Richard Isanove
Covers: Scott McKowen
Lettering: Todd Klein (best letterer in the business!)
A NEW UNIVERSE BORN IN THE PAST
Nowadays the universe of Marvel 1602 is managed as a parallel dimension in the Marvel Comics Universe, BUT…
…a key factor when the story was originally published is that it was considered the Earth-616, that for non-Marvel fans, it’s the official classification of the primary Earth in the multiverse of Marvel, but…
…if so, how is that so many known Marvel characters are born “again” but in that past?
Ah, my fellow readers!
That’s the mystery to read in this book!
Why characters that they were supposed to begin to exist until the 1960’s New York City of Marvel Comics are rising in the distant past of 1602´s Elizabethan England?
And as if that wasn’t enough, the sky is red (that in Marvel Universe NEVER is good sign) and the end of the world seems nigh, but if this “new” universe is truly Earth 616…
…what would happen to the “present” if this seemingly impossible past would be no more?
Certain events, in certain realities, are so powerful, so meaningful, so crutial, so fateful, that when something meses with that kind of events…
…curious things happens!
And nature finds ways to defend itself.
FATE VERSUS THE ORDER OF THINGS
The sky is read and Queen Elizabeth I calls for her most trusted advisors…
…Sir Nicholas Fury, head of England’s Intelligence, and Dr. Stephen Strange, Queen’s head physician.
The end of the world seems to be imminent.
Meanwhile certain kind of weapon is transported from Jerusalem that it was being guarded by Templar Knights and it may be crutial to avoid world’s end.
So, it’s imperative to provide enough security to this, so a secret agent without fear and the most dangerous lady in Europe are called to the task. And certainly the precautions are wise since the powerful Count Otto Von Doom is desiring to put his armored gloves on that mysterious weapon.
Also, the first British girl born in the new world (America) is traveling, along with her trusted bodyguard, to England to ask for help to the colony of Roanoke. However, this girl is more than meets the eye and her role in all this mess is still unknown.
And as if you hadn’t enough…
…the Grand Inquisitor is highly interested in certain school at England leaded by Carlos Javier, since it’s suspected that his students are witchbreed!
And many other Marvel characters will rise in the least suspected moments!
While this is a short story set in the fictional universe of Doctor Who, none ofAn adventure with the Great Detective!...
No, no that one...
WHO
While this is a short story set in the fictional universe of Doctor Who, none of his regenerations participated in the story, not as a cameo or even mentioned.
The Paternoster Gang:
Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint and Strax
WHERE & WHEN
Victorian London (19th Century)
WHAT
The Paternoster Gang is an assembled team of private detectives, appearing for the first time in the TV episode, "A Good Man Goes to War" (Season 6 of the New Series era, with the 11th Doctor) where Vastra, a female Silurian, and Strax, a male Sontaran, both were in debt with The Doctor. After helping The Doctor, they along with Jenny Flint, a female human, decided to work as detectives, occasionally helping to the London Police and Scotland Yard, but also accepting private clients. People refer to Madame Vastra as "the Great Detective" giving a hint that maybe, just maybe she was some kind of inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for his novels. Jenny Flint pretends to be a chambermaid for the house of 13 Paternoster Row, and Strax, the butler of the same house, which is the headquaters of the detective team. They have access to heavy weaponry, mostly from Sontaran technology, but they usually prefer swords and other more common tools to avoid to polute the timeline of the Victorian London.
This is a short story where the Paternoster Gang are caring for the safety of an orphan child who is the main witness of a nasty murder involving weird elements.
The premise sounded quite good, and since I have watched recently the first episode of the Season 8 of Doctor Who, "Deep Breath", debuting the 12th Doctor, I thought that it was a wonderful timing to read this short story since the Paternoster Gang played a supportive role in that episode.
The characters: Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax are really wonderful and their interaction between each other and with other character is delicious and priceless. However, sadly, I have to admit that I found the mistery quite simple and that they took too much time to solve simply because they make too many "circles" around the case, not examining well the main crime scene, demanding to visit it several times, also not reacting at once to obvious clues, and doing naive mistakes during their investigative process.
Still, if you want to read a brief tale involving these three great characters, definitely it's a worthy option.
Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.
Well, finally I read the original novel after watching infinite film adaptations, variations of Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.
Well, finally I read the original novel after watching infinite film adaptations, variations of the theme and even odd approaches to the topic.
I was sure that I would enjoy a lot the novel but sadly, compelled to write an honest review, I have to say that barely I was able to give it a 3-star rating, that I think it's the fairest rating that I can give to the book.
The original premise is astonishing, the following impact in popular culture is priceless and certainly the story "behind-of-the-scenes" of the creation of the novel is fascinating.
However, the actual writing of the book is tedious, the narration style is odd and the rhythm of the story is too slow.
THE GOOD
The creation of life has been a subject that captured the imagination of man, along with the chance of beating death and/or getting back from the dead. Mary Shelley, the writer, was able to show an impressive premise that not only is one of the early instances of horror novels but also easily one of the first examples in science-fiction/steampunk works since the process to give "life" to The Creature is through science instead of recurring to magic or some kind or paranormal force.
The socio-cultural impact of this novel has been monumental in all kind of media. Some remarkable examples are the 1931's film adaptation with Boris Karloff; the filmed sequel Bride of the Frankenstein of 1935, the 1974's fantastic parody Young Frankenstein with Gene Wilder, Mel Brooks and Peter Boyle; the 1985's twist movie The Bride with Sting and Jennifer Beals; the 1994's film adaptation with Robert De Niro; the two adaptations of Frankenweenie by Tim Burton in 1984 & 2012; and even the outstanding current TV series (2014- ) Penny Dreadful which includes this theme on its merged story.
How the novel was created could be covered as a "reality TV show" nowadays: "So You Think You Write Horror: Pros versus Rookies"...watch it only here on GRTV!!! Since all began with a friendly contest, of who can write the best ghost story, between four friends: Percy Shelly (Mary's husband, a famous poet & novelist), Lord Byron (another famous poet), John Polidori and of course, Mary. And the winners are... The rookies!!! Since while Percy Shelley and Lord Byron were acomplished writers, they weren't able to come up with something to compete against Polidori's The Vampyre and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Also, there is the tale of how Mary Shelley came up with the basic idea of the book. She claimed that she had a dream showing the lab with the mad scientist giving life to a hideous creature through the power of a lightning. I won't question her version. I only want to point out the existence of an actual Frankenstein's Castle, located in a town of Germany where, besides several paranormal stories about it, there is a local rumour, that a fellow with the name of Johann Conrad Dippel was a supposed alchemist that created a monster using a bolf of lightning (Where did I heard something just like this? Where?!), even a related rumour tells that this legend was told to Mary's step-mother by none other that the very Grimm Brothers!!! (Ah? Ah?! Try to came up with a cooler legend!). However, Mary always declared that she wasn't aware of that castle and the legends tied to it. Let's take out the part of the step-mother and the Grimm Brothers. It's virtually impossible to believe that Mary Shelley never heard, in some way, about the existence of Frankenstein's Castle and the particular tale of Dippel.
Without irrespecting the memory of Mary Shelley, this is just like the story of Diablo Cody, winner of an Oscar for Best "Original" Screenplay for the film Juno of 2007. The main theme of this film is about a teen pregancy. However, in 2005, there was a South Korean film titled Jenny, Juno that it was a romantic dramedy movie about teen pregnancy too. Diablo Cody declared that she never heard before of that South Korean film. Sure, because Juno is such a common name in America that it was an innocent coincidence. (By the way, Juno is the name's boyfriend in the South Korean's movie, instead of the female Juno performed by Ellen Page).
American Juno and South Korean Jenny, Juno have totally different stories, different approaches to the subject and even different reactions to the event along with different endings. The only dang similarity is that both are about teen pregnancies. I am not accusing Diablo Cody of plagiarism. That's not the point. I only say that was so hard for her to admit that she watched or heard about the South Korean film and that gave her an inspiration for her own screenplay?
In the same way, was so hard for Mary Shelley to admit that she got in contact in some way with the legend of Dippel and the Frankenstein's Castle and she used it as inspiration for her own original book?
TIP: If you are using legends, books and/or movies as your own inspiration for your work... change the dang names!!! At least that will make harder to make the connections and even making a more plausible deniability!!!
I could not understand why men who knew all about good and evil could hate and kill each other.
THE BAD
The writing of the book is tedious, or to be more accurate is a too slow burner that it took too much to get into the real story and even worse, once the "action" started, you have again intervals of tedium. It's indeed a roller coaster but in a bad sense, since you took too much time in the tedious way up and the moments of intensity are like split-seconds on the way down.
The narration style is odd since the book begins with some letters written by a ship's captain, and the first four letters are boring filler stuff non-relevant to the actual story, and until the fifth letter the story really started. However, later of that, the narration changed to the "voice" of Dr. Victor Frankenstein, but again, our good mad scientist takes too much time to get to the point telling a lot of non-relevant boring details, even worse, it's told in the most tedious "tone of voice" that you can imagine. Without emotion or trying to entertain to the reader. The chapters of the Creature are more entertained but also, sometimes you wonder how possible is that this monster so submitted to rage and murder is able to articule so well his part of the story.
So, between that the novel is slow burner, and the moments of real horror with awful deaths are so scarce and presented so quick that you can't even develop the proper emotion on that moments, I wasn't able to enjoy this book as I expected that I would. However, I can't deny the relevant place that this novel has in the history of literature and its impact in multiple ways of the spectrum.
Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?
I was contacted by the author and I received a copy of this book in exchange of a honest review.
DISCOVERING THE BOA strange reading experience.
I was contacted by the author and I received a copy of this book in exchange of a honest review.
DISCOVERING THE BOOK
This is interesting reading which combines several genres in a fairly way. It's like Treasure's Island meets The Mysterious Island with far less pirates substituted by archaeologists.
The cover of the book is very well done guaranteeing a professional writing work.
The novel indeed is very well written with an entertaining rhythm. Creating colorful characters with ambivalent personalities which makes unpredictable their reactions on each scene.
Also, the author developed an alternate world where things are not the same as in our world's history, but with taste and not trying to overwhelming with too much differences. Just the right amount of details to establish that you are in a parallel dimension.
Maybe one of the criticisms is that while it's clearly that the storyline is expected that the main characters will engage in a journey by boat to some unknown island, well, the story took too much time to reach that point, overdetailing how they are able to acomplish that even narrating dead ends in those efforts. I think that a quicker starting point to the journey to the island could increase the possitive impact of the reading.
There are some elements that remain unexplained on the island after the ending of the book and certainly that it's kinda dissapointing since the whole point of the novel is the expedition to the island to discover the mysteries there.
But in general, is an entertaining novel written with style and good taste.
The author contacted me and I received a copy of the book in exchange of a honest review.
I really wanted to like this book but sNot my cup of tea.
The author contacted me and I received a copy of the book in exchange of a honest review.
I really wanted to like this book but sadly I didn't enjoy much the reading experience. However, no two people read the same book so maybe one of you will be able to appreciate in a different light this novel. Maybe I wasn't the target reader for this particular book.
THE QUICK
It's a steampunk novel where alien vampires go back in time to Victorian-era London provoking an alternate history to the events of "Jack the Ripper".
THE GOOD
It has a good premise generating interest on reading the book.
The cover is very good, also the chosen title for the book.
The character of "Seamus McCoy" was my favorite and definitely one of my reason of finishing the novel.
THE BAD
The story "hit" you with just too much information, too soon. When you are reading a "tie-in" novel, the writer can expect that the target readers with have enough previous knowledge so they can get into the story quick enough without worrying alienate the readers. However, when the writer is creating his/her own universe, with characters, elements, technology, etc... I think that you can't saturate the reader without giving him/her time to get "comfy" in the book.
Also, you have two storylines that they didn't really met until you have already read like 50% of the book, so while you are reading a quite understable story about the investigation of the murders of "Jack, the Ripper", you have to deal with the second story where you aren't understanding the motivations and background of so much characters and elements. Once both stories are merged, the reading experience got better but in my particular case was just too late to change enough my initial discomfort with the book.
THE ODD
Characters' and elements' names: First, you have a character named "Vampiress", and at first, I thought that it was some kind of royalty title like a Vampire Empress, but later I realized that it was indeed her name... Vampiress...
Also, you have planets' names like Kaotika and Atlas...
Again, maybe I am not the target reader but I found all that kinda campy, and if the book would have a campy mood or some semi-humorous style like in a Doctor Who's novel, it could fit just peachy but since the book has a really serious tone, well, that names sound like out of place in some degree, at least to me.
I read this book the very same day that I bought it (back then, on June, 2013).
I loved it!!!
It was a fun graphic novel to read. It seems that not much people know about this graphic novel and it is a shame since it's quite good.
The creative team of Matt Fraction, as writer, and Steven Sanders, as illustrator, is remarkable since they understand each other in how to present the story, since even there are moments where there is not dialogues and the very art tells gracefully the panel.
I didn't think twice to buy the graphic novel since the heroes in the story are Mark Twain, Nikola Tesla and Bertha Von Suttner. And while I admit that I didn't know about Bertha Von Suttner before this reading, I am always a fan of Mark Twain and specially of Nikola Tesla.
The nasty villains are none other than Thomas Edison, J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie and Guglielmo Marconi.
All characters are manage quite well, but I have to highlight the way of how Twain was developed since it was absolutely wonderful.
It's great to read a story that you can't predict how it will develop not even less how it will end.
This story doesn't have the typical ending and that's one of its charms.
This book is cleverly written, stylish drawn, with a masterful character development, and indeed truly fun to read.
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