DON’S COLUMN

(Week of July 25 to July 31, 2010)

Hello and welcome to the second installment of Don's Column.

Let's jump in shall we?

REVIEWS:

SCATTERED COMICS (Vol. 2)  #1

Scattered Comics Studios

Jason Dube, Artist and Writer

$5.00

Wow.

Just...wow.

The comic truly lives up to its title. To read this comic is like taking a ride on a roller coaster. You have no idea what is happening, but all you can do is hold on and scream with joy.

I will admit the narration can be stilted and it is difficult in some places to know exactly what is happening, but a little re-reading will solve many of those problems and Jason Dube's opening character cheat-sheet proves its worth.

However, the art steals the show.

In Dube's "Scattered" world, angels, demons and spirits mix it up with teenagers, the world of the living. Also, there's all kinds of fun martial arts popping up in here.

It is trippy, odd and nutty, the way a superball is trippy, odd and nutty. Go ahead and turn away when one is bouncing.

Dube is distancing himself as one of the premiere independent creators in the likes of Rob Brown ("Bane of the Werewolf") and Adam Withers and Comfort Love ("The Uniques").

Dube is clearly influenced by manga but because he is a true creator, he has made the style and comic his own!

This is an awesome comic.

To get Dube's comic, you can get it here.

EX-OCCULTUS #1

Saint James Comics

Robert James Russell, writer and creator

Jesse Young and Robert James Russell, story

Sandra Lanz, art

Tim McDonley, colors

$2.99

Wakefield and Fergus are two 19th Century adventurers who catch word that children are disappearing from a village in Scotland. The two stumble upon Castle Langavat and find a cult of werewolves were sacrificing children to their pagan gods. It is up to Wakefield and Fergus to save the day.

This is the first issue of EX-OCCULTUS, and based on the Saint James web site, it is great to see Robert James Russell and Sandra Lanz have continued with the series.

The story reminds me of the fun of HELLBLAZER (specifically Keanu Reeves's CONSTANTINE). Russell knows how to weave a story.

In some of the close up shots, the art is a bit stiff, however, since this is Sandra Lanz's early work, it shows serious, serious potential.

However, Lanz really shines with landscape portraits and the monsters.

EX-OCCULTUS will do very well as a series and I can't wait to see what is next from these two.

To get the first issue of EX-OCCULTUS, visit here.

FRIEND'S OF DON

J.T. KRUL’S MINDFIELD/ ROB BROWN’S BANE OF THE WEREWOLF.

In my last column, I wrote about J.T. Krul’s MINDFIELD and Rob Brown’s BANE OF THE WEREWOLF. I forgot to say where people can purchase the issue.

You can get MINDFIELD here and BANE OF THE WEREWOLF here.

THA JACKAL’S HEAD

On midnight (Sunday going into Monday) on July 26, both InvestComic columnist Robert Heske and myself had the privilege of being a guest on his internet radio show at Tenacity Radio. You can see their sites here and here.

We talked about InvestComics™, the 2010 San Diego Comic Con, Green Lantern movie, Batman, Superman, the world of comic books, Christianity, faith, my time at Bluewater Comics, Robert Heske’s 2012: FINAL PRAYER book, Jason Dube of Scattered Studios and my buddy Darth Andrea with her Wheel of Time Column.

And, of course, we talked about InvestComics™ guru and godfather Jay “Black” Katz.

When the archives become available, I will pop them up here.

THE LIBERTY BELLE HOUR

While she is not a comic book person, she is a cool person and a friend of mine. She is moving her internet television show to Blog Talk Radio.

Check out her new page here! She talks culture, politics and is a blast!

Thanks everyone for stopping by! See you soon.