Nowhere Men #1

Nowhere Men #1

W: Eric Stephenson

P: Nate Bellegarde

C: Jordie Bellaire

I love #1 issues. They open up with such promise and possibility. Each opened page could lead to the next book that I will love. Another thing that is great about #1 issues, especially for an unemployed vagrant such as myself, is a lot of them are free if you catch it at the right time on the Comixology show. The comic industry has learned a lot from the narcotics trade. If you are willing to give the consumer that first taste for free, and provide them with a quality product, you will have them hooked and wanting to spend more money on subsequent issues. This is especially true for books like Nowhere Men, which has a relatively unknown creative team (despite Stephenson having worked on many popular image books, and himself is a big wig at the company) and a fresh idea.

Nowhere Men starts out with a flashback set up years in the past. We see four brilliant scientist coming together to present an idea to a global organization. Flashback can be overused in comics. They can drag on for pages and really hinder a story. This is not one of those flashbacks. This last about 4 pages, shows one simple scene, and is just enough to let you know the personalities of the main characters in the book. The other great thing this book does is after a who's who style page right after to truly catch the reader up. 

The story then fast forwards. The Nowhere men are now the head of a corporation. There is a rift and the age old debate on whether scientific advances should be done for profit or simply for the good of man.  Simon, the leader, believes the profit will bring them forward to more advancements, but not everyone on the team agrees. 

We then meet the team being funded by the Nowhere Men. They have issues and seem to all be infected with some horrible pathogen out of every science fiction nightmare. I would think that future issues will jump between stories of the nowhere men that are funding the exploration, and the infected that were being funded. 

I thought this book was extremely well done, and if I had the money I would love to continue reading it. It does seem that this book suffers from a lot of the same things that most image books suffer from, horrible delays. This issue was released in November of last year and the next issue is not supposed to be out until July. I will definitely be looking for a comixology le on this though as I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

In Her Darkest Hour One Shot

Next read out of my DCBS Box is In Her Darkest Hour One Shot

This was a one shot the Was Written and Penciled by Newcomer Fernanda Chiella (and when I say newcomer i mean this guy has done nothing else but this book according to the comic book DB)

First the Art: This is a Black and White book that mixes styles slightly throughout the book. There are times when things are a little cartoony and some is a little more realistic. You can tell that the artist relies a lot on the digital art. There are some panels that play out like a TV show or movie where there will be two identical panels side by side but with the focus on Two different subject. In all i Liked the art I will give it an 8.

The Story: This was a dark story(what should I have expected with the title.) It basically focuses on a girl who is fighting with the idea of suicide. A boy that she befriended shows up after receiving a voicemail from her. When he arrives, there is also a shadowy figure in the room that is basically trying to get her to do it. The book is just these two people trying to convince her to either to kill herself or not. It is well written and also very well paced. Another Solid 8.

Sorry about the lack of humor here but suicide kind of does that to me.

Catch y'all later with some more reviews.

TJ

MIce Templar #1

Well i said I might post more today and here I go. and I will forewarn i am going to spoil some things.



The first book i read out of my box was Mice Templar #1







This book was written by Brian Glass and Penciled by Michael Avon Oeming.



First I have to say Oh My god!!!! This books art work is amazing. for some sample images please go to http://imagecomics.com/messageboard/viewtopic.php?t=35538.


It really is breathtaking.


Now to the story. It is about a community of mice that get along together and pass on through oral tradition the story of the Mice Templar. People (for gods sake TJ they are mice get that through your skull) don't know whether or not the stories are true or just legend including or hero. Then the action picks up with the Village being overrun by the Villains of the book. Can you guess what they are people, Come on i know you can. Well your wrong it is not cats it is actually rats. They are searching for the last remaining Templar who turns out to be the Blacksmith. After the battle is over the Hero (whose name is not on the tip of my tongue, sorry but they have Tolkien like names and there are tons of them) because a crusader for the Templar.


Here is the problem with this book. All the f'ing Mice look the same. I really took effort to figure out who was talking. And can we get one Smith or Johnson (ha ha I typed johnson) for god's sake. Why do we need to have all the Fantasy names like Leito, Deishun, and some other unpronounceable syllables. Mike, please for the love of god Lets ad some different facial expressions and even some color to the mice to differentiate. This is fantasy can we get something other then white mice. This 56 page book with no ads(yes that was also fantastic) took me almost an hour to read. Not only because it was that deep but some of that time was spent just trying to figure out who the hell was talking.


The end was engrossing enough that i want to pick up #2 but if it hurts my head squinting just to see "oh that one has blue eyes slits rather then green eye slits so it must be Leito" I will be stopping there.