I’m working my way through the big pile of comics, many of which are from the Baltimore Comic-Con and my LCS’ quarter-bin sale over Thanksgiving weekend. I thought I’d try and pop in from time to time with lists of mini reviews covering what I’ve read.

For this, it’s a smattering of comics from Image, Boom, IDW, and some random independent publishers.

And I’m not going the sell or donate route with these unless I specifically know where they will be sold or donated to. So you’ll see a lot of “keep” or “trash” ratings in here.

The Last Broadcast (Archaia) #2-4. I found these in the quarter bins and they looked interesting enough to grab and then see if I wanted to collect the remaining comics in the series. The series is from 2014 and the premise seems to be about magicians and some murders and other nefarious things that have happened. The covers were interesting enough and the artwork definitely had a manga influence in places. Ultimately, though, magic isn’t my favorite thing and while the books were entertaining, I don’t think I’m going to track this one down. Trash.

A Thing Called Truth (Image) #1-3. On the other hand, this series was fun as hell and I’m definitely going to track the rest down. The premise here is that a workaholic doctor who has just been recently fired (well, she “resigned” even if she doesn’t remember doing so) winds up on a road trip through Europe with a random girl who stole her car while she was sleeping in it. The girl is completing a “movie scenes” road trip list that her late brother left behind. And I’m pretty sure they’re going to fall for one another. The characters are likable and fun and there seems to be a little bit of mystery behind it? It’s a five-issue miniseries, so hopefully finding the other two issues won’t be hard. Keep.

Ghostlore (Boom!) #1. I had to look it up to see how many issues this series was because the company did not put “of 12” anywhere. Ugh. Anyway, this intrigued me because Cullen Bunn is the writer and I’ve been reading some of his books from Ignition Press lately and have been really enjoying them. The premise of this one is that a family gets into a nasty car accident and it looks like the dad and daughter are the only survivors. Then its gets freaky with ghosts and a story that the dead brother tells involving a girl who could turn into a creature? Well, I’m not sure what it’s going to lead to, but since this is the first of twelve issues, I will say that I’m hooked enough to go find issue 2. Keep.

Sheltered: A Pre-Apocalyptic Tale (Image) #1. This one’s a series from 2013 that takes place in a doomsday-prepper compound. Our main characters begin a more permanent move to the compound–even though it’s not even shown whether or not doomsday has happened–and things go sideways when the teenage children start taking over and killing the adults. The twist at the end of the issue is enough to see where this might go over the course of the 15 issues of the series. Keep.

Demonic #1 (Image). I thought I’d be more into this one because it involved, well, demons. But this seems to be about a guy who winds up becoming a masked vigilante/agent of a demon. It’s a bit Azrael and a bit Spawn. The issue wasn’t bad, but I was a little disappointed that it went the “masked guy” route toward the end of the issue. Trash.

Getting the Sex Out of the Way (Meat Haus). Okay, this is where I full admit that I only bought this for the title, although this does have early work by Raina Telgemeier. It’s dark satire of marketing, as people doing market research for a tissue company are watching the lives of a group of friends to determine what works for their product. Some of the sequences are funny and it’s very early 2000s indie (this is from 2002), the type of stuff you’d see at the SPX at that time. I’m not interested in holding onto it, but I will say that it would be interesting to see Raina Telgemeir do something more older teen/twenties/adult. Trash.

Remote: Dead Air (Double Take) #1. Got this because there was a gigantic naked redhead on the cover. Inside is the story of a woman in the 1960 working a deejay shift at a radio station during the zombie apocalypse portrayed in Night of the Living Dead. It’s connected to a bunch of other comics from the company. This was a fun comic because the writers went for humor and not horror, especially toward the end where she hosts a zombie dating game on the air. I think that finding more of these in other quarter bins might be worth the pickup as a one-off, but not to hold onto or collect. Trash.

Naked Fangs: Tales of Vampire Romance (Acid Rain Studios) #2. Oh man, it’s the type of thing you would found in the depths of Previews in 1994, complete with a good amount of vampire cleavage on the cover (and seriously, I don’t know how the breasts on the cover are in any way anatomically possible). I love running across random independent crap like this, especially from the days of the comics bubble. And … well, I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but it’s pretty terrible. The story is about a guy in a pharoah’s tomb who gets seduced by an ancient vampire. I think that the writer and artist were kind of going for an EC story vibe, but it didn’t work because it seems very “let’s make a comic and get someone to publish it for a few bucks” type of thing. Still, ya gotta love finding these artifacts. Trash.

Lowlifes (IDW) #1. The cover to this one seemed intriguing–dead woman drawn in a style that suggests something different than the typical crime comic of the day. But the story inside is about crooked cops and organized crime that while interesting read like so many of the others I’ve come across in recent years. Trash.

Energon Universe 2025 Special (Image). I have to admit that I really don’t read any of the comics that tie into toys I had when I was a kid. This is a book that is the comic version of taking all of your toys out of the closet and playing with them all at once. The main story is a G.I. Joe/Transformers story that features a cameo by Matt Trakker from M.A.S.K. The second story is a preview of an upcoming storyline in the comic Void Rivals. It’s a fun one-off, but nothing to make me want to buy anything more Trash.

Bug Wars (Dark Horse) #1. The premise for thie one is “What if A Bug’s Life was a literal war between different species of insects and arachnids?” A family moves back into a house that has a huge yard where said war is taking place. Dad was an entymologist but died in that very house. They’d been living elsewhere and there’s tension between the two brothers, one of whom found dad eaten alive by the bugs he cared for; other other of whom wants to be just like his father. And let’s just say that one gets pulled into the bug world like it’s Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. A fun read but nothing I’m going to keep going with. Trash.