World Comic Book Review

29th March 2024

Super Ready Battle Armour #1-4 (Review)

Super Ready Battle Armour #1-4
Team SRBA, 2016
Writer: Bradley Adan

New South Wales is very far from Japan. But Australian creators Bradley Adan and Michael Milhan have immersed themselves in the type of manga genre called akuma shonen, and delivered a story which is clearly a cousin to a title such as “Tokyo Ghoul“.

The protagonist, a young man with the unlikely and off-putting name “Infector”, has the power to see the extent of life and death in a living creature, represented as an battery symbol floating adjacent to the creature’s head. “I can see how much time some of us have left,” Infector notes in an inner monologue, “… and how lucky some of us really are.”

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Honor and Curse #1 (review)

Honor and Curse #1 (review)
Mad Cave Studios, 2016
Writer: Mark London

Writing historical fiction can be difficult, and particularly when dealing with a place which has a different language and culture from that of the writer. This title is set in sixteenth century Kyoto. As far as historical accuracy goes, this comic does not capture it, with its improbably green-eyed heroes sporting long Dragonball-esque pony-tails instead of chonmage (the traditional topknot worn by Japanese fighters in the Edo period). If this issue has any significant flaw, it is that the writer, Mark London (who we assume like the publisher, Mad Cave Studios, is based in Florida), did not take more care to ground the story in medieval Kyoto by reference to landmarks which exist to this day, like Kamigamo-jinja Shrine.

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The World Hates Jimmy #1 (review)

The World Hates Jimmy #1 (review)
WP Comics Ltd, October 2016
Writer: DC Johnson

John Kricfalusi is the founder of a curious, zany comedy style characterised by manic extremes of emotion and visually disgusting concepts all sitting in the vehicle of a children’s cartoon. Examples of this style range from “The Ren and Stimpy Show” (1991-1995) to “Spongbob Squarepants” (1999-present).

This title sits firmly within Mr Kricfalusi aesthetic vision, and the writer, DC Johnson, is clearly Mr Kricfalusi’s acolyte.

The protagonist, Jimmy, has a girl problem. His long-standing crush Holly is murdered in an explosion by a psychotic female classmate, who ultimately kidnaps Jimmy, coerces him into a wedding, and guilts him into armed robbery, with the two reduced living in a cardboard box. If this grim scenario was a live action television show on Netflix it would have a mature rating.

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Shake the Lake #1 (Review)

Shake the Lake #1
North Air Entertainment and Elevated
Writer: Zach Block

“Dude, I know you need college money but you gotta unwind. No goals. I’ve got it under control. Always do. I need to hear you say that.”

“Shake the Lake” #1 is an enigma. On the face of it this is a coming of age story based in Lake Shasta in California, whereby a group of male friends in their late teens spend all of their spare time wake boarding and partying. The crew bounce on trampolines indoors with wakeboards strapped to their feet and thereby break the ceiling fan in their rental house. They drink to excess and make monumental beer can pyramids. “There’s a naked man in a tubie and a spray painted goat in the front yard!” yells Akbar the landlord as he evicts his youthful tenants. It is the essence of the college frat house motion picture “National Lampoon’s Animal House”, but set in 2016 instead of 1962.

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