Savage Things #1
Vertigo Comics, March 2017
Writer: Justin Jordan
In the 1963 paper titled “The Threat to Kill,” psychiatrist J.M. Macdonald proposed the concept of a so-called “homicidal triad” – animal cruelty, pyromania, and persistent bedwetting – as directly linked to homicidal or sexual predatory behavior upon reaching a certain age.
Moonshine #5
Image Comics, February 2017
Writer: Brian Azzarello
It’s hard to think of a current comic with a pulpier premise than that of Moonshine by American publisher Image Comics. The series, in short, tells a Southern tale of hillbilly werewolves and the mafioso gangsters who want them dead.
Luckily, pulp is where creators Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso are most at home. The duo began their collaboration with the lauded noir tale “100 Bullets” as part of DC Comics under the Vertigo imprint. After forays into the superhero and science-fiction genres, the duo’s arrival at Image Comics marks their return to crime-driven stories.
Oni Press, Inc. April 2016
Writer: Christopher Sebela
Review by Neil Raymundo, April 24, 2016
Christopher Sebela’s “Heartthrob” explores second chances, short lives, and shared consciousness. The protagonist is a woman named Callie Boudreau, who was born with a congenital heart disease that gave her a very defined expiration date. We meet the character after a successful heart transplant procedure, where she is shown haranguing the doctor for the identity of the donor.
The Fix #1
Image Comics, April 2016
Writer: Nick Spencer
Review by Neil Raymundo, April 10, 2016
In January 2016 a group of would-be security box thieves called the “Hatton Garden Gang” were apprehended by London police. The unique element to the robbery was that the apprehended thieves were all veteran villains, with the oldest, known as “The Master” or “The Guv’nor”, aged 76. The criminals burrowed though concrete and ransacked seventy-six security boxes, securing 14 million pounds stirling of gems, but seemed entirely ignorant of contemporary problems such as street surveillance cameras. Save for “The Master”, who suffered a stroke in prison and was deemed too unfit for sentencing, most of the robbers were sentenced in March 2016 to seven years in prison.
The first issue of this title begins with an internal monologue decrying the rapid advancement of technology, and how it has made virtual crimes very lucrative while conventional rank and file criminals languish in obsolescence: tech-savvy teenagers steal and defraud millions and use the funds to go on luxurious early retirements, while the old guard struggle with adapting now that people and banks have gone digital. The internal monologue is then revealed to be coming from a ski-mask wearing robber, who, along with a Hawaiian-shirt wearing partner in-crime, have decided to rob an elderly care facility.