I still am in awe with all of the opportunities I've had to meet and interview folks around the comic industry.  Here I am, just some schmo with a blog and a youtube channel, and I've gotten to speak with countless amazing creators.  One person who just blows my mind with how wild he is, is Matthew Erman.  He is one of the most high octane and genuinely nice people I've gotten to meet about their work.  When I got to interview him, there was a greater force at work.....a little sprinkle of Kismet and I got to meet a person who's life path I am envious of!

What does this have to do with anything?  Given the subject of today's book, sometimes you may be predestined via fate, where other times you may just have a run of:

Our team's training is about to be put to the test in this particular chapter, as they are preparing to race for the core.  And as it seems, their training module may have been quite accurate in helping plot their path to secure the core, restore a balance of luck, and end Cassiopea's suffering. One of the most intriguing points of dialogue to me early on is when Chery makes an argument for why the children must live their path out.  It is interesting in terms of how in a world of "luck" one of the characters seems to believe in a sense of Calvinist predestination when Artie becomes the quick voice of breaking the trend and finding their own luck y securing the core.

The ride through books 1-4 of this series has been as frenetic as Erman's personality (which is a good thing).  If there is an artist who would be up to the task for a wild world of reality warping goodness, it is hands down Simeone.  Simeone has been absolutely crushing it in the art department in a wide array of books in the last year or two.  From "Mega Man"" to Shoplifters Will Be Liquidated" and now good luck, I am in absolute love with the variety of artistic style.  While I thought Erman and Criswell were a match made in heaven for Terminal Punks, again it seems as if kismet strikes again  with the pairing of Erman with another fabulous artist!

This series has been absolutely insane, and I can't wait to see what happens in issue #5 (and I don't know how long the series run is.....) but I'm along for the ride, because if anyone's luck can change, I'm hooked to see how Erman and Simeone deliver!

You can pick this up at your LCS on Wednesday, or you can order it from my buddies over at AMKM Comics now!

I was thoroughly excited when Boom! Studios first announced Eat the Rich. I really enjoyed issue one, it was in my top picks of the week when it was first released (on my definitive rankings video). I just loved how the first book was a slow peeling away individual layers of the onion of how perverse the wealth driven world was in issue 1.  With a large reveal at the end of the first book, I knew the moment Boom! sent out their previews email, I couldn't wait for:

Upon finishing the book, my heart was pounding harder than the conclusion of issue 1.  What is going on in Crestfall Bluffs is creepy as hell.  Finding out the juicy details of what/how everything gets orchestrated is also shocking, and we are only witnessing it via secondhand information.  I cannot wait to see what goes down at the brunch festival Jo walked into towards the end of the book, let alone what she may have to do with the information she received.

I absolutely think the full creative team is crushing it yet again, and I can't wait to get as many of the covers for Issue 2 as I can!  I also hope this book goes to a second printing did just like issue 1 (because that cover was HOT!!!)

Check out the preview pages below and get ready for the second course!  You should definitely try to pick it up from your LCS or order it from my buddies over at AMKM Comics!

I don't know how many times I can write about how much I love Something is Killing the Children....Seriously....see that search box over there, search the series, and look at how often I express my love for it! 

While we know that Erica has to receive the blessing from the order (you know....because of the first two arcs....) we get to live through the remaining heart pounding moments of her initiation.  After watching her successfully shut out the fear in issue 19, what can she do to muster up the courage to survive the initiation process and become a monster hunter?

​Check out the preivew pages below, and then make sure you've got your pre-order secured at your LCS for the September 29th release of this heartpounding issue!

Bringing officer Alex Murphy back to life, and programming him with four prime directives to make him OCP's perfect indestructible officer of the law is amazing, with inspiration from all sorts of comic and sci fi content preceeding it.

The moment I read the premise of Mullet Cop months ago, I knew I would absolutely love it!  I could finally find a way to write or talk about my love of: Robocop, Stay Tuned and Smash TV. Mullet cop feels like all three of these loves of mine combined!

It is during that night's massacre our hero Fred is lost, but lo and behold at the castle estate of Mall Security Enterprises our new mullet-clad hero is born.

While Fred returns to the mall for duty, he finds that he is no longer a uniformed officer of the law, however he is now the Manager of the Delicious Buffet, where all is not as it seems.  Upon questioning his new station in the mall, Fred discovers he is actually working at a super-secret security hub where the most technologically advanced microwave not only cooks, but it also offers detailed security briefings directly synced to Fred's new company-issued watch.

The Mall Industries Two-Thousand (or MITT) is not Fred's only new partner in crime.  Miss Parker who was destroyed by a grenade during the ambush is returned as a cyborg with laser eyes.  Delores is also back...but she's just Delores.  Who really steals the show is the new Assistant-Manager, Eddie, who is a chef with a natural sense of style (and also knows karate!).

What transpires through all 66 pages of this epic initial offering is an attempt of Fred, the Buffet Warrior, to monitor and potentially take down the Pink Dolls for the murder of himself and several of his friends.

One of the books I was extremely interested in adding to my pull list while researching one of my indie FOC videos for youtube was Maw #1.  Here's the summary from Boom! Studios.

"What happens when one woman becomes the real monster society has always made her out to be? Dragged by her sister Wendy to a feminist retreat on the remote island of Angitia, Marion Angela Weber hopes to gain some perspective and empowerment… that isn’t at the bottom of a bottle. But everything is horribly derailed after an assault on their first night there. The violent encounter awakens something in Marion she never imagined, triggering warped mutations in her body, and awakening a hunger she can’t bring herself to name. When the townsfolk react with suspicion and violence, what unforgivable act will transform Marion into the very monster they’ve made her out to be?"

The final floating question from the previews text resonated with me for quite a bit.  In coaching an activity (with a large squad of young women) they are all too often critiqued for being "bitchy" while males are "assertive." If they are critiqued for dressing "too provocative" for showing a shoulder or midriff.  They are branded as feminazis if they seen as "too progressive" in their views.  Given my experience in coaching/assisting young women through these unfair social norms, which will only age with them, I'm naturally drawn to the idea of the transition into the demons we make women out to be.  Which is why I was excited to grab a quick preview of one of Boom's new releases next week!

As we tour the island, we discover what empowerment may mean.  Is it elements of body positivity?  Embracing the goddess within?  Or giving birth to rage (from traumatic experiences these women have survived). The last part, rage birthing, I feel will be a far larger plot point given how the issue continues to unfold, and maybe offers a trail of breadcrumbs back to the first page.

I love how this is not just horror for the purpose of horror, the transformations and gore come with a point.  I am actively creating theories of how the events which impact Marion and the backstory of her's we learn may trigger some transformations or birthing of her own fear.  I am glad that I added this book to my pull, and now the goal is to grab as many of these amazing covers I've seen.  I'm intrigued to see what others feel about this book, because I am taken aback, and I am enjoying elements of the rhetorical criticism this book will present!

​Are you intrigued?  Let me know what you think in the comments down below.  And as always...thank's for stopping by, and have a good one!