World Comic Book Review

19th March 2024

Mayfield Eight #1 (Review)

Mayfield Eight #1 ChupaComics, September 2017 Writer: Tim Larsen Perhaps writer/artist Tim Larsen lives in New Mexico and has a stack of yellowed, fragile newspapers dating back to 1974, preserved in his dad’s garage by the dry heat. Whatever his source material is, the result of his research is a mesa sandstone original. The stale … Read more

Wolverton, Thief of Impossible Objects

Wolverton, Thief of Impossible Objects Burnt Biscuit Books, 2017-2018 Writers: Michael Stark and Terrell T. Gerrett This charming comic book, the subject of a fully-funded Kickstarter campaign, is concerned with a thief who goes by the sobriquet “The Black Cat”. His real name is Jack Wolverton, a thief and adventurer who “specialises in the arcane, … Read more

Aldous Spark: Meddler in History and Other Unsavoury Affairs #1 (review)

Aldous Spark: Meddler in History and Other Unsavoury Affairs #1 Grenade Fight Inc., 2017 Writers: Andrew Maxwell and Peter Miriani This steampunk comic book aims for a particular target. Aldous Spark is a member of a Victorian era society of do-gooders. In order to achieve his purposes, Aldous deploys an array of steampunk devices including … Read more

Shaolin Grandmaster Killer #1 (Review)

Shaolin Grandmaster Killer #1
Zteroid Entertainment, 2017
Writer: Thomas Sluzalek

Many independent comic creators have turned to the fundraising site Kickstarter.com for investment, with varying degrees of success. Thomas Sluzalek, the writer and artist of this new title, “Shaolin Grandmaster Killer” is one of them.

Notwithstanding the grandiose and Chinese martial arts-inspired title, this story is submerged in a decidedly British comic book ethos. By this, we refer to the off-best science fiction- themed comic books published by 2000AD Comics, the influence of which is a monolithic shadow over the British comic book scene since the late 1970s. This is most evident within “Shaolin Grandmaster Killer” upon examination of the denizens of a dystopian establishment, a lawless, futuristic and decadent black market, located on the back of a flying and “tamed” kaiji called Megara. People with 1980s mirror shades, spikes for hair, and a total absence of civility occupy this haunt. Undiluted violence and gore abound. Drugs, alcohol, slaves and sex are the stock in trade, but also, quirkily, classic action figures. It would not have been out of place in this morally toxic but oddball habitat to have stumbled upon Captain Skank, a cyborg foe of 2000AD Comics’ Judge Dredd, or 2000AD’s Strontium Dogs.

Read more