COGREVIEW — NEON NOIR

“Hey, that’s actually pretty cool.”

This was my first reaction to “Neon Noir” by Johnathon O.Lyon and Michael Kennedy. Though both authors are inexperienced, this 10-page comic book looks solid - both cleverly written and excellently drawn. Since it is made on a professional level, it deserves not just a simple praise, but a complete review as well.

WEEKLY COGWHEELS #4

Fourth installation of Weekly Cogwheels, our regular column about… wait what… regular? We did not write anything for the previous week, and also screwing up our Monday deadlines. Whoops. This Wednesday we are going to talk about comics, published week before. The Wicked + The Divine #4, Daredevil #8, All-New X-Factor #14, Copperhead #1 (this one dates two weeks before), Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Witches #1. Trying to make it up to you!

As always, this issue is brought to you by Andrew Stroke and Victor Ark.

COGPICKS (17.09.2014-23.09.2014)

COGPICKS is my pull-list of newly published comics that I am going to read. It is just a small recommendation list, accompanied with comments about different stuff, which comes out this week.

First of all, The Wicked + The Divine #4 comes out today! My favourite comic book on the shelves.  Issue’s preview suggests that we are going to meet the majority of Pantheon this time. Pretty exciting, eh? I just hope they won’t concentrate their attention entirely on the gods’ exposition.

Multiversity: The Society Of Super-Heroes: Conquerors Of The Counter-World #1 is the second part of Grant Morrison’s “Multiversity”. This time’s artist is Chris Sprouse. This issue will tell us about the heroes of Earth-20, and is described as “pulp Super Hero action with a post-modern twist”. Holy crap.

Avengers #35 jumps 8 months forward in time. Marvel Universe has distinctively changed, and we are yet to find out how. I’m intrigued. Also: Amadeus Cho!

Edge Of Spider-Verse #2 sees the debut of Spider-Gwen, Gwen Stacy from another dimension, where she was bitten by a spider instead of Peter Parker. Spider-Gwen won the hearts of thousands of comic readers, just by showing off her costume design with neon webbing. I think it is going to be fun.

Aside from “Big 2 comics”, I would like to point out Dark Horse Presents #2, which features short story by Jordie Bellaire (as colorist AND writer) and Declan Shalvey. This anthology also features new “Sabertooth Swordsman” story by Damon Gentry and Aaron Conley, and Brendan McCarthy's “Dream Gang”, whatever that is.

On top of that, trade paperback of Artyom Trakhanov’s UNDERTOW comes out, and I encourage you to order it. Besides the collected issues, it features pin-up from Tradd Moore, Giannis Milonogiannis, and other awesome artists.

Other comics, that I’ll pick up today: Daredevil #8, Superior Spider-Man #33, Uncanny X-Men #26, All-New X-Men #32, Elektra #6, Life After #3, Trees #5

Other new comics, that worth being mentioned: Deadly Class #7, Delinquents #2, Translucid #6, Stray Bullets Killers #7, Supreme Blue Rose #3

What comics are you waiting for today? 

   

   

   

COGPICKS (10.09.2014-16.09.2014)

COGPICKS is my pull-list of newly published comics that I am going to read. It is just a small recommendation list, accompanied with comments about different stuff, which comes out this week.

Today the “Kate Bishop in LA” line from “Hawkguy” ends. That means that we (probably) won’t see any more Annie Wu’s fantastic art on the book. I wonder if she has new projects on the way - I would look into them, that’s for sure.

“Captain Victory and the Galactica Rangers” is a tribute to Jack Kirby by Joe Casey and Nathan Fox, and it looks like an interesting one. And Michel Fiffe draws some pages from #2, which is awesome news! Speaking of Fiffe, I am still willing to follow his “All-New Ultimates” until its cancellation, despite that is definitely not a decent read. It won’t be that long, I guess.

Another artist, which I admire, is Jake Lawrence - his art is simple and bright. As far as I know, today’s “Teen Dog” is his first published work. Which is a big step for Jake, and a great book for us, readers. No doubt, it is going to be awesome.

“Annihilator” by great duo of Grant Morrison and Frazer Irving is coming out today.

Talented David Hine and Fabrice Sapolsky returns to writing one of my favourite versions of Spider-Man, Spider-Man Noir. Holy crap, the original series was thrilling. Might want to re-read that. Carmine Di Giandomenico is replaced by Richard Isanove, which I have no problem whatsoever - Isanove’s art is gorgeous. Overall, the tie-ins like “Edge of Spider-Verse” look interesting, though the general idea of “Spider-Verse” is dull and dumb.

Greg Rucka starts another “Stumptown” volume, without Matt Southworth this time. I’ll get to it when it will be published completely.

Other comics, that I am going to pick up this week: Ms. Marvel #8, Magneto #9, Amazing Spider-Man #6, Spread #3, Invincible #114 (I need to get away from this retarded book)

What comics are you waiting for today? 

   

  

   

WEEKLY COGWHEELS #3

Third installation of WEEKLY COGWHEELS, where we are working on improving the format of the column. Both in terms of appearance (new headlines design) and in terms of writing. As I had written before, WEEKLY COGWHEELS is a compilation of mini-reviews, and that’s why they obviously should be small. Which is why Victor and me set word limit for each review - to write more reviews! Aaand we had written less.

Today we are recommending Southern Bastards, not recommending Original Sin, and comparing new “Moon Knight” run with a previous. 

OFFTOP - The Shield (2002-2008)

Today were are going to talk about great TV show “The Shield”, because, let me repeat myself, it is totally great. I was somewhat surprised, that it is not as popular as “Breaking Bad” or “The Wire”, considering how exciting and twisted this show was. And it is as much as dynamic, thrilling and addictive to watch, as the examples, mentioned above.

What is it about? “The Shield” follows the life of detective Vic Mackey (portrayed by matchless Michael Chiklis), and his elite task force Strike Team, who are keeping streets of fictional LA district Farmington safe and clean. The problem is, Vic, Shane, Lem and Ronnie are no good cops - in fact, they are the worst kind of cops. Excessive force use, drug dealing, covering gang members for money - Strike Team is corrupted from top to toe. Somehow, their methods work, but is only a matter of time, when Vic decides to raise the bar. Until then he successfully hides the truth from his superior, Captain David Aceveda, his fellow colleagues, detectives Dutch Wagenbach, Claudette Wyms and officer Danny Sofer, as well as his own family.

COGPICKS (03.09.2014-09.09.2014)

Our regular readers will recognise this column. Previously called Wednesday Pull-List, COGPICKS is a list of newly published comics that I am going to read. It is just my small recommendation list, accompanied with comments about different stuff, which comes out this week.

This is the first week of September, which means, that DC Comics traditionally starts putting out numerous tie-ins with 3-D motion covers to another crappy event. It is called “Futures End”, you know. So, today’s ongoing series, such as Green Lantern or Swamp Thing have “cool” 3-D motion cover and even some plot, I guess. I am only interested in Green Arrow Futures End #1, which is the end of Jeff Lemire’s and Andrea Sorrentino’s fantastic run on the book. Though I still guess, it is going to suck, because of its direct connection to the “Futures End”. We’ll see.

Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey off the “Moon Knight”, Brian Wood and Greg Smallwood in. I am going to follow this ongoing nevertheless, because I like Moon Knight as a character. Also I’ve seen Smallwood’s pages and they look awesome. Even if Wood’s writing would be poor (he has equal amount of works that I like and dislike), the art would be pleasant to look at.

Aside from those, there are new issues of my favourite comic books right now - The Superior Foes of Spider-Man, Iron Fist - The Living Weapon, She-Hulk, Southern Bastards. I will also check the conclusion of “Original Sin”, though the series itself is boring and slowly paced.

Also, out this week: Death of Wolverine #1, Detective Comics Futures End #1, Usagi Yojimbo Senso #2, All-New Doop #5, Rocket Raccoon #3

Here goes our usual question. What comics are you waiting for today? 

   

  

WEEKLY COGWHEELS #2 (feat. WUTYA)

Here is our SECOND instalment of WEEKLY COGWHEELS. We cannot believe it, can you? Anyway, this issue is even bigger than previous one. Me, Andrew Stroke, and our [now promoted to] regular resident WUTYA are going to discuss comics! What a shocking revelation!

Today I am going to criticise All-New Ultimates, review POP and Avengers, and praise Megahex by Simon Hanselmann. WUTYA decided to review Wayward, Wolverine & the X-Men, as well as Dead Boy Detectives. He also read Batman: Eternal for some stupid reason. And even reviewed it, so you would not have to go through this garbage.

WEEKLY COGWHEELS #1 (feat. Victor Ark)

Welcome to the first instalment of Weekly Cogwheels! Here we are going to put together our thoughts about new comic books, and form one post with mini-reviews.

Well, originally, we were planning to release it on Monday, but due to my uncanny ability to screw any deadline… here we are. Now, we will be talking about different comics that were released on the 20^th of August. My friend Victor Ark joined me today to discuss Magneto and Life After, while I shared my thoughts on Original Sins, All-New Ghost Rider and also criticised last issue of The Wicked + The Divine a little bit. I will also write about Multiversity #1 some other time. There were other books that are worth mentioning, such as Ms. Marvel, Secret Avengers, Dark Horse Presents, Trees, etc. We just did not have place to discuss them this time.