Here we go with another small stack of indie comics and one graphic novel that I got at both my LCS’s quarter bin sale and the mystery pack from the Baltimore Con. I’ve been trying to get through as much as I can lately, but stacking them in an “order” that makes some sort of sense or at least doesn’t burn me out.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve got.

NVRLND Vol 1. This is a reimagining of Peter Pan in the setting of the club scene and other aspects of contemporary teen/young adult life. Captain Hook is a creepy criminal/dealer type, and Wendy is a teenager who is the daughter of a politician. This first volume introduces the concept and gets her involved with the Peter Pan character. It’s interesting, but about halfway through it, I was reminded that I don’t like Peter Pan. I wish I could say why; I saw it on a theatrical re-release in the late 1980s and just did not like it. Anyway, I’m going to pass on reading more and also holding onto it. Donate.

The Scorched #42 (Image). This was in the mystery pack and is fairly new (cover date is June 2025). We’ve got a good-lookign redhead in a costume with spikes, chains, and a gun. Okay, I’ll bite. One page in and I see Sam and Twitch and it takes less than a second to understand that this is part of the Spawn Universe. Now, I stopped reading Spawn right around issue 81 (I think … it was definitely before #100) and that was around 1999, so I haven’t followed anything about the character in more than 25 years. It stars a number of character I’d first seen in those early issues of the original title–Overtkill and Medieval Spawn being two of them–and they appear to be some sort of special ops team. The story in this issue is of them taking down some secret facility only to realize they’re attacking a portal to hell. It’s definitely action packed and I think that if you were a reagular reader, you’d like it, but it’s not a book I’m going to read on the regular. Trash.

Red Sonja #8 (Dynamite). I’ve read a few Red Sonja books here and there and they’re alway fun. This particular comic was the “cosplay variant” cover, and out off all of the books in this entry, was the best of them. That’s probably because I got from Red Sonja the exact same thing I expect from Conan the Barbarian. And that’s perfect. I’m actually interested in reading more of her comics, but I think I am going to go and seek them out via the library or Libby instead of adding it to my pull list Trash.

The Lot #2-4 (Bad Ida). Something tells me that I once owned the first issue of this book, but when I went to look for it, could not find it. I grabbed these out of a quarter bin. Written by Marguerite Bennett, it’s the story of a Faustian Bargain made by people in Hollywood and a team of investigators that’s going to try and reveal it. But the demons are collecting on their debt and those who made the bargain are dying. By the end, one of the investigators becomes the demon and it seems that justice is served. I know I missed the first issue, but being that this is only a four-issue miniseries, I have a feeling that trying to read the whole thing will be a bit of a disappointment because it seems like it could be six or eight issues and have a much more robust story. Trash.