Ain’t Love Grand?

Or at least it could be for Jesse Moore, the architect engaged to heiress Emily Anderson, the main protagonist of Going to the Chapel. The comic, written by Spencer & Locke writer David Pepose, drawn by Gavin Guidry, and colored by Liz Kramer blends heist tropes with a cold-footed wedding to create something that feels fresh from the first couple pages. 

Going to the Chapel is more grounded than Pepose’s prior work Spencer & Locke 1 & 2, of which the second collection is now available for purchase. It would be easy to call this lighter than that book, but that isn’t entirely fair. Sure, there’s no explicit history child abuse or police violence (yet), but the threat and fear for both the wedding guests from the robbers is palpable. That isn’t even mentioning the fear the robbers have from authorities. This is a comic that wastes no time in establishing its characters and its stakes. While Pepose’s writing is characteristically strong at immediately grounding Emily and her fiance Jesse as relatable and distinct characters, Gavin Guidry’s art marries story to visuals. 

Emily is introduced completely alone,and while that framing emphasizes her feelings of not wanting to get married, the facial depiction shows her as earnest and sincere in her emotions. Jesse, by contrast, is also introduced alone,  but his panel is filled with other characters. He isn’t as lonely, and this is reflected in the character work by him being less apprehensive about his upcoming wedding. His face is telling as well. Unlike the more upfront reading of Emily’s anxiety, Jesse has a smile that looks more like an affect. While the full extent of his dynamic with Emily isn’t revealed in Going to the Chapel #1, it wouldn’t surprise me if things are not always copacetic.

After all, who goes to a bar an hour before their wedding? 

Readers jump from Emily and her dysfunctional family at the chapel and Jesse drinking with his groom party at a local bar. Jesse meets a friendly stranger named Tom and the two share drinks. When the comic catches up with its in medias res opening, the Bad Elvis Gang, some robbers in Elvis masks, interrupts the pending nuptials. The leader of the gang takes Emily to a secluded room to steal her priceless necklace. There it is revealed that he is Tom, the stranger that Jesse met at the bar. And not just that, but that he and Emily used to be together. 

It would have been too easy to make this black and white. A lesser comic would make Jesse a jerk and Tom a completely charming rogue. Pepose does such a good job in endearing readers to his characters, that we don’t see anything particularly wrong with Jesse, and Tom hitting him with the butt of his gun further engages the reader’s sympathy while clueing us to the idea that, despite the generally lighthearted tone of the comic, Tom is a dangerous individual. If wedding nerves are often the result of reality in conflict with an ideal, it’s interesting to see this mirrored in a microcosm when Tom hijacks the wedding. 

As mentioned, the art is terrific throughout. While Guidry is clearly skilled at conveying emotion through character facials and body language, there’s also an incredible flow throughout the panels. Readers are never stuck with a particular angle or perspective for too long, but never whipped around to the extent that anything feels jarring. The panel compositions are solid. Colorist Liz Kramer likewise strikes a balance between variations for interest and consistency for identity. The entire comic has a real preference towards purples, browns, and blues, and those colors look fantastic whenever they appear on-panel. 

Going to the Chapel #1 is strong debut issue of a series that will immediately endear readers to it. This comic is full of characters that live and breathe in a way that most comics wish they would, and its balance of characters you want to follow and a plot that zips around at an exciting pace makes it a hard one to pass up. 

As a quick refresher, Locke is a detective in what looks like Los Angeles, laying low in the aftermath of killing his crime syndicate-leader father who was using his childhood sweetheart / mother of his child as a drug courier in the school where she worked as a teacher. This world is pretty grim. But it’s okay, Locke’s childhood plush panther Spencer is there to help him through it. His troubled childhood is typically rendered in a Calvin and Hobbes pastiche. That childhood led to Locke being a person informed by his trauma, but his visualization of Spencer as a 7-foot tall anthropomorphic panther helps him navigate his duties as a detective, and also appears to his similarly traumatized daughter, Hero. Hero has been taken from Locke following the violent conclusion of the previous arc.

Spencer & Locke 2 #1 wastes little time in establishing Locke’s antagonist this time around in Roach Riley. There is immediate paralleling in the narrative between Locke and Riley. Riley’s past is also presented via highly referential comic strips, with Beetle Bailey being the comic referenced. Just like how Locke’s stylistic flashbacks highlight some of the unspoken sadness Bill Waterson imbued with Calvin, these Roach Riley flashbacks call into question how gross the central conceit of Beetle Bailey as a light military boot camp comedy really is. Within moments of meeting Riley, he murders a city councilman, with an implication a few pages later that this is his second murder of a public official.

Locke is called to privately investigate this matter, with the implication that if he does he will be reunited with his daughter. He refuses, because skirting the law like this is exactly why he is having a hard time getting custody of his daughter in the first place. Spencer protests, and before Locke realizes it they are already at the crime scene.

Spencer, during the first arc, seemed to be a primarily comforting entity to Locke. In fact, his appearance to Hero more or less confirms that. Spencer & Locke 2 #1 twists that idea in an interesting way. Series writer David Pepose manages to show that dynamic as something darker and more intrinsic to Locke’s problems, but does so in a way that is gracefully in-line with how he wrote the two previously.

Spencer during the first arc seemed more like a comforting entity to Locke, but Spencer & Locke 2 #1 shows a darker side to this dynamic. Spencer might keep Locke safe, but to an extent he encourages some of Locke’s more violent tendencies. He wants the two of them to investigate the councilman’s death, and the implication is that it isn’t necessarily to get Hero back. He wants to hunt.  It’s during Spencer and Locke’s argument that the two wind up at the crime scene despite the latter having no recollection of it. His dissociation is a nice touch and reinforces just how much of a manifestation of Locke’s inner life the panther is.

Pepose also seems keen to the fact that the immediate assumption is that Roach Riley is just an alter ego for Locke, given the similarities between the two, the fact that they both see Spencer, and Santiago Jr.’s depiction of the villain. This is immediately dispelled as Roach Riley gets arrested and is clearly shown as a separate individual. It’s a nice narrative touch that shows readers immediately that they don’t need to worry about a cheap Fight Club situation.

Just as Pepose’s writing has gotten more sprawling and ambitious in the sequel, artist Jorge Sanitago Jr. delivers an equally strong performance. Spencer & Locke’s first series had a distinct and visually pleasing style, but Santiago Jr. really doubles down on the noir and the environment of the story. The angles are more noticeable, the shadows more pronounced, and the facial expressions of everybody more varied. Delightfully, the blues and purples that littered the pages of the previous arc are in full display here. One interesting consequence of this color choice is just how unique Roach Riley looks by comparison. Spencer is a 7-foot talking panther, but his color scheme makes him look like a part of this world in a way that Roach Riley’s ugly military green does not.

As far as highly anticipated returns go, they don’t land much better than Spencer & Locke 2. You’re going to want to add this to your pull lists. It does a good enough job of on-boarding new readers that you don’t need to worry too much about the context of the previous 4 issues, though they do help in appreciating the subtle developments that this new series makes. When a creative team is at their best and a book is this good cover to cover, comics can be really great.

JE: The Weatherman has one of the best conceptual hooks I’ve read in years, that of a weatherman amnesiac on Mars being accused of wiping out the most of the population of Earth. Would you mind telling us how this comic came about?

JL: Where ideas come from is always a difficult question to answer. At least for me because there are so many pieces that pull from so many places. But years ago I was first starting to write and I was working on these kind of crime fiction short stories and I had this idea about a weatherman that was all smiles and finger guns on camera but then off camera was suffering in some way. I never really figured it out though and I put it down and went on about my life. I went on to become an editor in comics where I had to work on million projects at once–many with different tones and playing with different genre elements. So when it came time to go back to the writing desk my brain was just buzzing with ideas. I rediscovered this kernel of a weatherman character, started to build, and here we are. Soon this little crime fiction idea was this massive and totally wild science fiction epic where I get to play with genre fiction. And also work through some trauma in my past so there’s a very real emotional attachment to this story for me.

JE: Total Recall seems to be in the DNA of the series with both the terraformed Mars setting and the amnesiac protagonist. But where Verhoeven seemed concerned with a grimey and sleazy aesthetic, The Weatherman has a real depth to its characters and world that it’s easy to imagine it existing even when you finish an issue. Was there a conscious choice to incorporate inspiration from that film while also distancing the comic from it?

JL: No, not at all. WM is similar to Total Recall in that Mars is involved (though our version is completely different) and our protagonist has memory problems (though we’re going to a completely different place with it) but the similarities end there. WM is very much its own thing. Having said that there are definitely some influences from Verhoeven in terms of tone. Like him, we’re big fans of over-the-top violence and social satire.

JE: Nathan Fox’s artwork throughout the first six issues has been incredible. What has it been like to work with him on the series?

JL: It’s an absolute dream. For my money, Nathan’s one of the best artists of his generation. He’s a true genius not just with illustration but…storytelling, world building, character development, acting, big moments, small moments… There isn’t anything he can’t do and at the highest level. I really couldn’t ask for a better co-creator, artist collaborator, and friend. I’m the luckiest writer in comics as far as I’m concerned.

JE: As I mentioned earlier, your characterization and world building are some of the best aspects of The Weatherman. Did you come up with Nathan Bright first or the world he inhabits?

JL: The Nathan Bright character came first and then we built the world and characters around him.

JE: The soundtrack for The Weatherman is filled with heavy hitters from the synthwave scene each with stand out tracks. There isn’t much crossover between the worlds of music and comics, at least not in this capacity. How did that come about?

JL: Nathan Fox, Tom Muller (our brilliant designer), and I are all big fans of music in general and synthwave specifically. I often listen to it when I write. In fact much of WM Vol. 1 was written to music from the bands featured on our soundtrack. And bands like them. The pulp sci-fi and 80’s cinematic vibe puts me in my happy place…back in the R-rated, practical special effects days…and I’m able to focus better. There’s a lot of energy to it. I also like how synthwave sort embraces both the serious aspects of genre but the not-so-serious sides as well. It’s able to laugh at itself at times which is fun. We do the same thing with THE WEATHERMAN. There’s obviously some deadly serious moments in our book but it’s funny in spots as well.

As far as how our collaboration with synthwave bands came about…it all started with MAGIC SWORD. I knew just from being a fan that MS was into comics because they make their own based on the band’s music. (It’s fantastic by the way. Check it out on their website.) So on a whim I decided to reach out and see if they’d be up for collaborating. Fortunately they responded and I was able to get a foot in the door long enough to explain what we were doing and how the collaboration could work in a way that benefited everyone. Once they heard what we had planned and took a look at the book they were in. And we just went from there. MS helped us get in contact with the other bands and we worked it out. Now THE WEATHERMAN has an original synthwave soundtrack from some of the best to ever do it including MAGIC SWORD, MAKEUP & VANITY SET, POWER GLOVE, OGRE, BETAMAXX, LAZERHAWK, and LE MATOS. It’s amazing.

JE: Lazerhawk’s contribution to the soundtrack, “Sword of God”, has a real paranoid energy to it, which seems fitting considering it is named after the shadowy group that seem to be the series’ primary antagonists. Will the next volume of the comic explore the group more?

JL: I won’t get into when and where we’ll next see the Sword of God but I will say that they play a major role in the series. We’ll see them again for sure. And even when they aren’t on camera, they have a way of making their presence felt.

And yeah, Lazerhawk did a fantastic job with his track. Everyone did. And they’re all big fans of the book.

JE: Do you plan on releasing another soundtrack for the next volume of the comic?

JL: We’d love to. We had a blast doing it for Vol. 1. If any bands out there are interested hit us up at th****************@***il.com. I know some of the folks from Vol. 1 are up for returning as well.

JE: As far as coloring goes, Dave Stewart contributes a lot to the unique feel of the comic. The range of colors used seems very wide, and yet nothing seems haphazard or clashing. What has it been like working with him?

JL: Dave Stewart’s pretty much a legend at this point. Every artist in the industry wants to be colored by Dave because he’s just such a pro. And as you point out his palette choices are pitch perfect. He has a way of picking the exact right tones for any given scene so everything is balanced and beautiful to look at. One misstep and it could end up a complicated mess with elements being hard to parse out. But Dave is a master at his craft so that’s never an issue. So it’s been a dream to work with him as well.

Really though, it’s like that with the whole team. That’s what makes working on this book so special. I might go my whole life and never work with this many talented folks again. Vol. 2 colorist Moreno Dinisio, our letterer Steve Wands, designer Tom Muller, editors Josh Johns and Sebastian Girner, all of our cover artists…they’re all stone-cold elite ninja assassin comics badasses. You couldn’t create a better team in a lab. They’re the best in comics full stop. I feel the same way about our music collaborators.

JE: What are some of the movies, TV shows, or music that inspired you while creating this comic?

JL: So many influences. Too many to name them all for sure but Nathan Fox and I are huge fans of anime like Shinichirō Watanabe’s COWBOY BEBOP and SPACE DANDY and Takeshi Koike’s REDLINE.

I also love smart TV dramas like BETTER CALL SAUL, BREAKING BAD, and MADMEN. Those have less influence in terms of genre but the quality of writing in shows like that is inspiring.

Music-wise aside from synthwave I listen to a lot of metal and punk. Queen. Also hip-hop and post-rock. But that’s just in general.

JE: Are there any final thoughts you would like our readers to know?

JL: THE WEATHERMAN Vol. 1 collection is on sale now and we’re hard at work on THE WEATHERMAN Vol. 2 which is somehow even bigger and more insane than Vol. 1. That’s out this June but you can pre-order issue #1 at your local comic shop now. Pre-Orders help in a major way so if you’re interested in checking out the book let your local retailer know today. For the readers and retailers that have supported our book so far. THANK YOU.

Also check out our collaboration with the synthwave legends mentioned above on Soundcloud. And listen to the rest of their music! It’s amazing!

Finally you can follow our official account @WM_Comic on Twitter and Instagram for updates, killer art, and exclusive behind-the-scenes looks at THE WEATHERMAN.

See you in June!

You can follow Jody LeHeup on Twitter here and Nathan Fox on Twitter here.

You can follow Image Comics on Twitter here.

It’s another solid showing for Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Coronation, as the nearly flawless second issue of the series from BOOM! Studios’ Archaia imprint places comic in contention as the best of the Henson spinoffs. Simon Spurrier’s skill in crafting deeply compelling characters that never feel out of place in Henson’s universe gives this comic a beating heart that could pull even the most cynical of readers. Combining this with artist Daniel Bayliss’ skill for crafting the fantastical elements of the titular Labyrinth and colorist Dan Jackson’s visually striking choices gives readers a comic that seeks to be memorable, and largely achieves that goal.

The second issue continues the frame narrative of the first with Jareth narrating the comic as a tale he is telling the baby he kidnapped. This frame allows Spurrier to parallel the journeys between the original film’s Sarah and his own original character of Countess Maria. While we see a lot of the same passion at the heart of both characters, Spurrier takes care in ensuring that Maria is not simply a Victorian-era Jennifer Connelly, with Bayliss giving her enough visual distinction that she already feels at home in Henson’s universe. The medium allows for Spurrier and the art team to play with a lot of ideas and turns in storytelling that the special effects of the time of the film wouldn’t allow for, such as a mechanical puppet mermaid the lures Maria into a false sense of security before the kappa-esque monster controlling it seizes her and drags her to his lair.




Time for a brief tangent about why mediums work the way that they do and how that benefits Labyrinth: Coronation. Despite all the time and money that goes into them, a lot of film fans groan at CGI-fests in movies and tend to speak fondly of films laden with practical effects, such as The Thing or every 80’s Henson production. This is because even though it might not look 100% real, it still exists in the same space as everything else. It might not look real in isolation, but in context, it still looks like it belongs. Comics are an excellent medium for exploring elaborate, difficult-to-recreate sequences because it all happens within the same medium. Everything else exists in the comic, so whatever outlandish thing you see never takes you out of the fiction itself.

Rant over.

Readers will no doubt find themselves fawning over just how visually enjoyable this comic is courtesy of Bayliss and Jackson. Bayliss’ strength comes in two forms. His character design work is exemplary and gives the already charming comic one more layer of likability. The second is the way in which he is able to balance the more straightforward panels with the spectacle-filled set piece panels that will likely be some of the best comic art you’ve seen all month. There is no better example of this than the splash of Jareth looking into his crystal ball into the Owl King looking into his crystal ball to Maria navigating the labyrinth.

This layering of panels and frames gives an extra bit of gravitas to Jareth’s overall narration of the story and also makes everything seem like a rabbit hole. The Labyrinth is surreal and often has one foot placed squarely in the absurd, and Spurrier, Bayliss, and Jackson ensure that this already foreign world seems that much more unfamiliar. You could have watched the original film a thousand times and still have no idea what is in store for Maria, and for any comic that is a good sign. For a comic based on an existing story, that’s above and beyond.

Our Rating: 5/5

While Buffy the Vampire Slayer plays a little more into 90’s nostalgia than our preferred brand of 80’s nostalgia, there’s no denying the streak of quality that the comic continuation has been on since the Season 11 comics started. If you haven’t been following the comics but loved the series, then Buffy Season 11: Giles Vol. 1 will be a perfect jumping on point for you! Giles is a great character and getting a glimpse of his teenage years is every bit a joy as it sounds.

9. Paradiso Vol. 1: Essential Singularity (Image Comics – Release Date: May 22, 2018)

Paradiso is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi story that owes a lot to 80’s and 90’s anime and manga, drawing influences from Battle Angel Alita and Akira, two titles that we love here at NRW. While Ram V’s writing is definitely an exciting part of the story and gives everything a very grand feel, the art team of Dev Pramanik and Dearbhla Kelly deserves special mention. Every inch of the world in Paradiso is stylishly drawn and feels immersive. 

8. The Way of Tank Girl (Titan Comics – Release Date: April 17, 2018)

If you aren’t familiar with Tank Girl, you might immediately recognize how much the cover of The Way of Tank Girl evokes Gorillaz album artwork. That would be because Tank Girl co-creator and illustrator Jamie Hewlett is responsible for the image of Gorillaz. Tank Girl’s other co-creator, writer Alan Martin, is sometimes not given the credit he deserves.

That’s a shame because Martin is very funny. The comedy in Tank Girl is not only funny on its own merits, but does so while utilizing the medium of comics to the fullest extent. It does to comics as a medium what Watchmen does, but does so without taking itself as obnoxiously seriously as that series, and as comedy it doesn’t garner the kind of acclaim. While The Way of Tank Girl is best suited for fans of the series, the collection of rarities will make a fun introduction and coffee table book for anybody.

7. Bloodshot Salvation Vol. 2: The Book of the Dead (Valiant Entertainment – Release Date: Sept. 25, 2018)

What Valiant does better than perhaps any comic book publisher is making jumping on points for their ongoing characters. Few publishers are as new-reader-friendly, and Valiant stands far above Marvel and DC in that regard. Their comics are consistently high quality. Each year brings at least one title that stands clear above the rest,  like 2017 with Secret Weapons. In 2018, it seems to be Jeff Lemire’s Bloodshot Salvation is primed for that spot. The second arc of the title has only just begun, but it was such a strong opening that it’s hard to not seriously consider pre-ordering The Book of the Dead this far in advance.

6. Cult Classic: Return to Whisper Vol. 1 (Vault Comics – Release Date: TBD 2018)

Vault Comics Cult Classic metaseries has kicked off with a tremendous start on the back of Return to Whisper. It has a kind of Fright Night aesthetic and energy infused with a Stephen King influenced plot that balances its humor and horror in equal measure. It is one of the most fun comics currently running. This is an easy recommendation for most comic fans. Time will tell, but this bodes well for the future of the Cult Classic line.

5. Long Lost Vol. 1 (Scout Comics – Release Date: June 27, 2018)

Long Lost has been promoted as Stranger Things meets Ghost World, but that doesn’t really do the series justice. It has been one of the most visually and narratively unique comics of 2017/2018. The series is the perfect example of the kinds of stories that indie publishers tell when at their best. It’s strange, it’s heartfelt, and it’s often haunting. Writer Matthew Erman and artist Lisa Sterle compliment one another perfectly. This story of two sisters reconciling the mysteries about their mother and their own childhood damage make for a stand out Southern gothic tale. 

4. Deathbed (Vertigo [[DC Comics]] – Release Date: TBD 2018)

This might seem premature, but the relaunch of the Vertigo line warrants deserved hype. Vertigo in decades past was like Young Animal is today, but somehow more unexpected and more trailblazing. Some of the best stories told in comic form came from the imprint, and Deathbed seems poised to vie for similar acclaim. Some of the violence so far has been over-the-top, but in a way that makes sense for the story being told.

3. The Ballad of Sang (Oni Press – Release Date TBD 2018)

The Ballad of Sang is, in no uncertain terms, awesome. It’s bombastic, hyperviolent, highly stylized storytelling. The first issue was one of the best comics of 2018 and the series should be on your radar. This is an easy recommendation for comic fans and non-comic fans alike. If you like 70’s yakuza films or Kill Bill then this is a kitana-sliced no-brainer, and a quick flip through the pages would let you know instantly if it is the kind of thing for you.

2. The Power of the Dark Crystal Vol. 2 (Archaia [BOOM! Comics] – April 24, 2018)

Surprising nobody, the conclusion to The Power of the Dark Crystal is an easy pick for a graphic novel to keep on your radar. The art and storytelling in this series is some of the best in all of comics during its year-long run.  The conclusion has been every bit as satisfying as the set-up, but you can read all about that in our review here!

1. DC/Young Animal: Milk Wars (Young Animal [DC Comics] – June 19, 2018)

Young Animal is the best thing happening in comics for two years running. Most of the titles that the Gerard Way-led imprint produces will be the comics that create comic fans for years to come. Comic book events are, almost as a rule, the worst. There are exceptions, as Hickman’s Secret Wars was an example of a straightforward event done right, as was DC’s Rebirth. That said, the endless tie-ins and events set to coincide with film releases leave readers drained. It doesn’t help the industry, and short-term rewards betray long-term reader investment.

Milk Wars is different. For starters, the event only really requires a knowledge of two or three of the involved titles, but also sets the stage for Young Animal’s 2018, which proves to be stranger and more isolated from the DC Universe. There’s a lot that could be written about Milk Wars, but it is probably best experienced blind. The quality and strangeness of its pages can’t be denied, and it earns the top recommendation from NRW.

Things go so wrong so fast as The Power of the Dark Crystal finale, and yet it manages to pull of a bombastic finish to its equally tender and epic tale without drowning most of the comic in action sequences. Simon Spurrier and Phillip Kennedy Johnson have consistently delivered since the first issue, and though the comic has had some flaws in terms of keeping track of the story it wants to tell, the two have really made Thurma and Kensho into believable and well-rounded protagonists that often surpass the somewhat blank main characters from the Jim Henson classic. A world is shattered and a world is reborn, and The Power of the Dark Crystal #12 excels in its tender portrayal of cataclysm and hope.

Within the first six pages of the issue, the shard that has been the crux of the entire plot is lost to the abyss beneath the crystal and a vile skeksis murders the gelfling Kensho in a scene that is genuinely shocking as a juxtaposition of awful violence with the somewhat cartoonish style of illustrators Kelly and Nichole Matthews. That said, the Matthews sisters are a major part of why this scene and this opening is as effective as it is. Throughout the series, they have never failed to play up the innocence of Kensho and his fireling comrade Thurma, but they also have never failed at delivering emotional beats through their drawings of the odd faces that Henson established. When Kensho dies, the reactions of both him and Thurma are heartbreaking. Kensho was with us a full year ago for The Power of the Dark Crystal #1 and was introduced through unfortunate circumstances. This wasn’t how it was supposed to end for him. He was supposed to escape the turmoil he had been living in.

Thankfully, he does. As Thurma dives for the shard and into what is presumably certain doom, she lands softly as readers are reminded of the various offerings that have been made to the Crystal presumably since the end of the film and depicted in the opening scenes of the first issue. Spurrier and Johnson’s consistency here is a real treat, as the finale issue feels like a complete unit with the opening issue and it is clear that the ending was concocted alongside the introduction to the story, so most of the events have been building toward this.

The problem, it seems, is that the offerings made to the crystal have sealed the world of the firelings away from the world of the gelflings, and by extension away from the Crystals’ life-nourishing light. When that block is destroyed, the crystal shatters and reforms, once again eliminating the power-hungry Skeksis and unifying the world of Thra. If The Dark Crystal was a film about two people with seemingly no social power restoring balance in an unfair and unjust world, then The Power of the Dark Crystal is about two people with vastly different backgrounds reconciling those differences for a greater good and learning to not be afraid of something that might be different from what they are familiar with.

The main flaw in this comic has been the flaw that has dogged the series from the get-go. While the visuals and dialogue / narration reach incredible heights when they work in tandem, there are a few moments where everything becomes a little hard to follow and readers may find themselves glazing over a few pages. Thankfully, this issue suffers from that far less than some of the middle issues of the series, and the final dozen pages or so are some of the best that the comic has produced in its run. The art team is at their most dizzyingly glorious and the narration carries the gravitas that helped establish the series as such a strong comic book presence in 2017, and it provides a strong sense of closure as it culminates in 2018.

NewRetroWave Rating: A-

The Jim Henson-verse of comics published by BOOM! Studios’ Archaia imprint have quietly become one of the most consistent string of series to follow after the remarkable showing that The Power of the Dark Crystal had in 2017 and that Labyrinth: Coronation #1 aims to continue. Si Spurrier, the writer of both series, is proving his position as one of the most reliable voices in comics for transporting readers to far off worlds to an extent that it’s hard to imagine these extensions of Jim Henson’s original groundbreaking work being written any other way. With art from the always great Daniel Bayliss, it’s hard to not to feel overly excited for this peek into the history of the Goblin King. Fortunately, this comic lives up to the hype that die-hard fans of the cult classic will undoubtedly bring.

Rather than beginning in Jareth’s past, Spurrier opts to begin midway through the plot of the film, which acts as a frame for him to recount his story to the infant Toby. This works for a few reasons. For one, it gives a readers something familiar to latch onto before diving into the brand new material, while also paying narrative homage to the story that made everything possible. It also gives Bayliss an opportunity to illustrate some of the incredible scenes that Henson so brilliantly envisioned, with the opening panel of the Oubliette being a prime example.

When Spurrier takes us back to Victorian Europe, it’s astonishing just how quickly he makes the Goblin King relatable and tragic. Jareth wasn’t born the Goblin King, and just like the original film used the iconic and fourth wall leaning audience of Goblins to relate to the audience that Sarah needs to wish Toby away, the goblins huddling around the panels of the comic and crouched in the page margins inform readers that Jareth, who is actually Albert, needs to wish to be the Goblin King for it to be so, and has been plagued by visions of the goblins and their world. It’s fascinating given the lines are drawn between Jareth and Sarah in the film, but also because it furthers the thematic idea that escapism and wish fulfillment have their limits. We know that this wish is bad for Jareth, but we also know it is inevitable. Of note, the scene also gives us some early interactions between Albert/Jareth and his love, the lower class Maria. These interactions so Albert being challenged by a strong-willed woman and the extent of his power over her being tested, as the movie takes to a greater length between Jareth and Sarah. It also immediately addresses the idea of rank and class. Jareth is of a higher social class of humans, and before long will be at the top of the caste of goblins.

Bayliss illustrates this all wonderfully, and his marriage of the elaborate world of the goblins with that of Victorian Venice is truly impressive. Also worth mentioning is Dan Jackson’s colors, which are strong in both their vibrancy and in the way he plays with lighting sources in a few scenes throughout. Overall, this is a comic that is an easy recommendation for fans of the movie, regardless of if they are typical comic readers. Its well-written and well-drawn, but best of all it is interesting. It takes full advantage of the medium in a way that many superhero comics often fail, and it is definitely a comic to have your eye on in the coming months.

4.5/5

It doesn’t bode well for a series with an already limited run of six issues to feel like a chore by the third installment. Big Trouble in Little China: Old Man Jack had more hype than even the Big Trouble in Little China / Escape From New York crossover. That may have been the melding of two iconic John Carpenter characters, but this series saw a return to the driving seat for the director, now utilizing a medium far different from the films he once made. The unfortunate truth is that a lot of the strongest parts of this comic are elements that were already established, either by the source material film or by the often stellar Big Trouble comics that lead to this point, and a lot of the weaker elements seem to stem from a creative team that’s dragging their feet.

In a narrative sense, not a whole lot happens in the issue. The comic opens with Jack Burton and David Lo Pan riding Jack’s truck through the hell that Earth has become, and it closes with Lo Pan throwing Jack from the truck upon learning that Jack is responsible for everything bad that has ever happened to Lo Pan, as well as for summoning the evil demon Ching Dai, of whom even Lo Pan is afraid. The character moments in the comic where we learn that Jack summoned Ching Dai out of guilt for being responsible for Wang’s death is really good, as Wang has always been a humanizing force in Jack’s often overly idealistic presentation. It seems completely plausible that Jack would resort to the Dark Arts to bring him back.

The mechanics of this interaction are another issue entirely. Ching Dai needs human flesh to bridge himself into this world, and so he takes Jack Burton’s arm as part of the deal. When he arrives in the realm of Earth, he gives Jack’s arm back. As fantasy obviously anything goes with this kind of thing, but the weird choice of returning the arm feels built out of a desire for Jack to have both arms during the lead up to this comic, or worse, like it was written on the fly.

The art, long one of the strongest suits of the Big Trouble in Little China comics hurts this issue as well. While the coloring is good, the actual art itself is confusing and often difficult to follow. It has an exaggerated, cartoonish quality, but never pushes the stylistic choices so far to be visually interesting, and never pulls back enough to give readers a sense of space in the panels. Reading through Old Man Jack #3, it’s hard to figure out the physicality of the locations. It just doesn’t feel like a place, and so the action feels less important. The backgrounds are also often lifeless and void of, well, anything.

With how long the comic adaptations of Carpenter films have been running, it’s hard to think that they’ll end here. Fans of the series so far might want to wait this one out and buy the trade for completionism rather than read through something that feels thrown together.

Spencer & Locke #4 comes out July 19th, 2017.

Spencer & Locke #4 provides an emotional conclusion to the four-issue series and one thing is for certain — Augustus Locke will most definitely be harmed. The David Pepose-written and Jorge Santiago Jr.-drawn series has been the most consistent comic of the year and is a shoe-in for top three comics of 2017. With this final issue, the team, along with colorist Jasen Smith, deliver a satisfying conclusion with a second act that’s among the best comic moments of the year.

After the best Waterson-inspired cold open of the entire series, Locke and his anthropomorphized and by now largely explained panther Spencer pick up with their hunt for Locke’s father, Augustus Locke, in connection to the murder of Locke’s childhood sweetheart. The scenes that occupy the first two thirds of the book, and especially the middle third, are the peak of a series that continues to surprise and impress, even when its fourth issue already has high expectations. Thematically and tonally this issue has a lot in common with arguably Cowboy Bebop’s best episode “Ballad of Fallen Angels”. Like that episode, this comic balances excitingly between moody noir and action that wouldn’t seem out of place in a John Wu film. Pepose’s weaving of narration with dialogue and action is nothing short of masterful throughout the comic, and Santiago Jr. and Smith’s art is at the best that it has been for the entire series. The best art comes in the form of a splash of a wounded Locke walking into what seems to be a suicide mission and an individual panel of Hero, Sophie Jenkins’ daughter, holding stuffed-animal Spencer in one hand, a gun in the other, with a calm look on her blood-splattered face. The panel, despite being devoid of Locke and of an anthropomorphized Spencer, is probably the single most indicative of the atmosphere that has permeated the series.  

The series has never had a reliable narrator as Pepose has put us squarely in Locke’s POV from the first page. This biased perspective reaches a subtle peak as the comic concludes. Locke, fresh from murdering his drug lord father, finds himself confronting Principal Scabtree over the murder of Sophie Jenkins. There’s a lot to unpack in this resolution. For one, Sophie is no longer the embodiment of purity in Locke’s world. She was in cahoots with his father to sell drugs at the school where she worked. Locke, who has killed his mother, has just killed his father. The text implies that both parents deserved this fate, although the psychological toll on Locke is apparent. He gets away with both murders in a legal sense, but the mental damage he endures from it makes it clear that this is not necessarily ideal. He never turns himself in. He does, however, find it appropriate to apprehend Principal Scabtree for the murder of someone who was dealing drugs to children. There is an uneasy tone to the last few pages that seems to indicate that this is an intentional dissonance — with Scabtree’s condemnation that Locke is a “self-righteous prick” and that she was “doing what needed to be done” almost feeling justified to the reader. With the tone that Spencer & Locke has been imbued with since the first pages of Spencer & Locke #1, there was never going to be a conventionally happy ending to this story. In short, nothing could fix Locke. The ending does see Locke being, for lack of a better word, fine, and that’s enough for the kid who opens the issue with the heart wrenching “Everything hurts, Spencer. Everything hurts so much.”

Good comic series can be enjoyed on either an intellectual or an emotional level, with great comics being able to do both. It’s rare that a comic can do both so well and with such a laser-guided focus. The biggest drawback to this series has, from the onset, been the four-issue constraint. A lot of ground was covered in these four issues, and I don’t think readers are going to be ready to move on once they’ve finished this stellar conclusion.   

Spencer & Locke #4 – 4.5/5

The first two issues of The Power of the Dark Crystal were fantastic comics that allowed its primary cast to shine alongside the world that it was elaborating upon. Knowing that the series had 12 issues to work with, it initially seemed like the conflict of Thurma needing to shatter the crystal and damn the world of Thra to save her own world would potentially lose the sense of wonder and grandiosity that made the Dark Crystal film so exceptional. As thematically rich as Thurma’s conflict is, the latest issue confirms that this story will be a character-filled epic. The Power of the Dark Crystal #3 rapidly expands the scope of the well-paced 12-issue series and further cements it as a comic you should be reading. 

The second issue ended on a game-changer of the Fireling Thurma taking a shard from the crystal for the purpose of saving her homeworld. The immediate consequence of this is the return of the Skeksis. The less thought about consequence is the release of the Mystics. The fallout of these two parties returning is interesting and very unfortunate for the Geflings. While Skeksis attempt to kill the Geflings, the Mystics simply sit and meditate. The Mystics in the original film are presented as an ideal of spirituality and morality. It’s interesting then to see that their principles, as noble as the may be, could arguably leave them as potentially responsible for what happens to the Gelfings, or to Thra in general. Writer Simon Spurrier is at his best when dealing with these moral dilemmas. 

Artistically, this series is the most visually engaging comic on the market. Kelly and Nichole Matthews have an engaging style that toes a line between the lush and cartoony with earthier textures. When they draw Thurma or the Pokemon-esque Tumbeloth’s, this really shines. The color work is equally phenomenal. It’s one of the few books that is enjoyable on a purely aesthetic level. The Power of the Dark Crystal isn’t just for fans of the Dark Crystal, but it does help to know about the source material. Ultimately, this is something that non-comic fans can really sink their teeth into.

Misfit City is, in many ways, a perfect microcosm of why the retro-revival scene has such a fervent modern following. What do we want when we pine for the 1980’s? Do we want to actually live the historic 1980’s of America? Do we want a time when the seeds of our corporate-centric society were sewn, or when the AIDS epidemic was arguably at its worst, or the economic hardships that affected many working class families beginning in 1982?

No, probably not.

When we talk about retro, we talk about certain moods. There’s a feeling of retro. It’s why somebody can post an image that is objectively from the 1980’s and the debate over “Is this retro?” can still rage. There’s a reason that a lot of synthwave music is so cinematically focused and feels like a film score. The nostalgia we have isn’t for the 1980’s. It’s for the 1980’s as depicted in film and art. Because that’s where things are perfect. 

That brings us to Misfit City, screenwriter Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith and Kurt Lustgarten’s comic about dealing with that sense of fiction-focused nostalgia, but also about what friends do in small towns in America, and how much of our time is spent waiting out the clock for anything exciting to happen. The story takes place in Cannon Cove, Oregon, the in-comic setting of the classic film The Gloomies, involving several kids and their hijinks in Dead Man’s Cave. In other words, it’s the Goonies but nobody wanted to get sued. 

For our core cast of townies, the coincidence of their hometown is just that. They don’t care that the movie took place there. They just want to live their lives. Because the movie was such an important part of so many people’s lives, tourists are drawn to Cannon Cove out of that sense of nostalgia. One of the most interesting things that the narrative does is explore the odd sense of disappointment that tourists feel when comparing the reality of the town with what meant so much to them from the film. What they long for and what has significance to them is Cannon Cove, but it isn’t this Cannon Cove. And so they gawk over a character’s sweatpants from a famous scene.

The core cast end up discovering a treasure map to pirate Black Mary’s treasure, setting up a Goonies adventure in a post-Gloomies Cannon Cove. The writers, fortunately, show tremendous restraint when it comes to those sorts of referential elements. It would have been painfully easy to make this a very meta and self-aware comic, but by doing so it would have lost something that the comic holds as a strength: the characters. The characters are the beating heart of this comic, and the way that they are fleshed out over the span of 26 pages is really impressive. There personalities and motivations are effectively conveyed. 

Where the comic struggles is its sense of pace. With a lot of #1’s, this is a problem. Smith and Lustgarten clearly have a destination and arc in mind, but a lot of this issue feels sacrificed to get everything into position for that story rather than making this the proper start. Of course, speeding up the pace would potentially sacrifice the character work of the fairly large cast, so perhaps I’m asking too much. 

The unique personalities of each character is accurately conveyed by artist Naomi Franquiz’s work throughout the issue. Facial designs are noticeably varied, and the expression work is particularly strong. When the comic kicks into its high gear during a night scene, her color work in particular shines. It captures the hues of the night time perfectly, and the way that lights and colors bounce off of various surfaces.

Misfit City is fun. That’s probably the best way to describe it. It is at its most enjoyable as it concludes, leaving me hopeful for #2, both in terms of the plot and the opportunity to explore the hinted at themes and to watch these believable characters bounce off one another. 

Misfit City comes out May 10, 2017. Support your local comic shop. 

Misfit City #1
3/5

Noir is a tricky thing, particularly as a genre for comic books. On one hand, it depends very much on a series of tropes to act as signposts to help readers understand that a story is operating within the language and structure of a noir story. The unfortunate downside is that it often leaves a very limited amount of ground for a story to cover that hasn’t been covered by prior entries to the genre, and it has a tendency of leaving artists with a narrow frame to work within. The debut issue of Action Lab Entertainment’s Spencer & Locke avoids the limits of noir conventions by either savagely throwing something unexpected at the reader or by weaponizing those conventions against the genre itself. In doing so, it accomplishes something that very few works of art can claim, being both immediately ambitious and immediately accessible.

There’s a fan theory that Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes grows up to be the protagonist of Fight Club. That’s obviously ridiculous, as we all know Calvin would never be that into IKEA end tables. What he would grow into, however, is Locke,  Spencer & Locke‘s main protagonist, as this issue shows a boy with extremely active imagination fully grown as a detective with his stuffed-panther-imaginary-friend Spencer still by his side in a surreal way. What comes off as creative and lighthearted as a boy is shown as something darker and more melancholic as an adult. This is a man who hasn’t grown out of his comfort item. Spencer & Locke #1 makes no direct answer to why its hero had and has such an intense need for a coping mechanism but scatters hints throughout its two dozen pages. 

That really highlights one of the best aspects of David Pepose’s writing in this book. There is a real awareness of when narrative elements should be subtle and when they should be, for lack of a better word, loud. In fact, as far as narrative flow is concerned, this is stronger than most of the titles coming from the best Marvel and DC have to offer. There’s a cinematic quality to the writing and the way that the scenes unfold. It manages to bounce from captivating mystery to dread to comedy to action to heart, something with which noir as a genre is consistently struggling. For a comic where one half of titular characters are stuffed panthers with a button for one eye, it is an intensely human affair. Pepose knows these character from the onset, so watching them wade through an increasingly deepening mystery is satisfying.

Stylistically, the comic fluctuates between it’s two most obvious inspirations: Frank Miller’s Sin City and Bill Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes. While in the present, artist Jorge Santiago deviates from the traditionally pulpy noir comic style enough that this series has a completely distinctive look. It’s impossible for it to be lost in the shuffle with other comics. Santiago helps keep the story in the difficult tonal space of being part bleak and part hopeful. When he renders scenes from the past, the Watterson inspiration is apparent. The tone is never lost in these aesthetic shuffles, and it pushes a comic that was already very good into the realm of being something quite special. This stylistic scattershot leads to one of the most memorable fight sequences at the climax of the book. 

All of this comes together for a comic where everything feels in its right place. The exemplary storytelling and outstanding artwork make this a must-read that even casual comic fans will find gripping. It never pulls any punches but makes sure the reader knows that things are only going to get more intense in the subsequent issues. Spencer & Locke #1 comes out April 12th digitally and in print. You can find your local comic shop here (http://www.comicshoplocator.com/Home/1/1/57/575) and ask them to carry the book if they aren’t planning on carrying it already. 

Spencer & Locke #1

5/5