2/17/11 HHH Review: The Waking

This week I get into Zenescope's The Waking (zenescope) tpb $12.99 by Raven Gregory , art: Vic Drujiniu

tpb cover  by David Finch. Kids can be the creepiest little fucks on the planet

#3 variant by Eric Basluda/ Neil Ruffino

Plot/Premise: 

   In the big city, police detectives investigating routine murders discover that the victims of these crimes are coming back from the dead in search of those responsible for ending their lives. Now the detectives are in a race against time to find the source of the recent "wakings" before the victims deal out their own brand of bloody justice. Meanwhile, a father with an incredible ability must choose between avenging his daughter's death - or losing her forever!

from the opening pages The Waking will hook you

Gord Says:
   I wouldn't be spoiling anything if I said this was a "zombie tale with a twist". For everything that I like about The Waking there were some lesser issues that nagged me while reading this.  


   Let me say right off the bat that most of my criticisms of this book are a result of the constraint space. This book should've easily been a 6 issue set opposed to the 4. One of the main issues I had was the underwhelming execution of plot points , in how they ended so abruptly and that was a result of not having enough time to extend scenes. 

   The opposite end of my critique is the back bone of the storytelling and that's the suspense build up. Gregory did a masterful job in building the suspense and stringing me along. Unfortunately as previously mentioned the limited space cut scenes short and somewhat under minded the incredible work Gregory did. It was like playing spin the bottle and waiting for the bottle to stop spinning , the butterflies are exploding , the anticipation is melting your innards , your excitement to see where it stops is too much... then the bottle stops and you get a peck from whomever. Happens so fast you dont get to enjoy it or even notice who it was. 

     I'm not familiar with Drujiniu's art but he's pretty good , he has a good sense of perspective and playing with angles. He made some scenes move off the pages, in particular ones when the action starts to pick  up, There's some good chemistry building here between Drujiniu and Gregory. 

    

Lets get an investigating team on how a dude whom wears tighty whities gets laid

The Good:
    Everything in general from characters , plot , dialogue ,...etc. You ever hear the expression " jack of all trades , master of none".. The Waking was very good in all areas but didn't  knock it out of the park in any specific area. Though if this was 44+ pages longer , who knows...

 You can just hear the windshield wipers

The Bad:
   Aside from not being long enough. The book itself had a 8 page preview for Neverland and some more ads. I'm not a fan of previews and ads.. Im not paying to get a 8 page glimpse of Neverland. However I'm a little more forgiving  with indie publishers understanding that they need to promote from within. So I wont be as scathing as I am with Marvel and DC with their selfless preview garbage. 


Verdict: Dig it or Ditch it
I Dig it to own it. I dig it like I dig making out with any girl caz.. its any girl. It's original ,  its well thought out and in the end I had a fun time with this book. Its worthy  of shelf space for any collection.


Value Rating: $13 cover price.. I'd pay $10.50/$13 for this. 

#4 variant cover by Eric Balsuda/Neil Ruffino

As powerful as Hate can be ... Sorrow can be just as strong. 
But In the end ..its our love that makes us fall

Jan.20/11: Amerikan Freak tpb (zenescope) by John Leekley

      I love to shop in the bargain bins for graphic novels and that's  where I found Amerikan Freak. I paid $1.99 for this title , the cover is 10 bucks.

Amerikan Freak (zenescope 2007) by John Leekley , art: Clay Sparks

see! not a typo!  Amerikan Freaks tpb

Jason the outcasted goth kid walking through the halls of his high school which apparently goes up to grade 26

plot/premise:
      Jason and Jesse went to a high school where the rich preppies and the blue-collar factory kids circled each other, like wolves from rival packs. They called Jason the Freak, he never belonged to a cool crowd. His big brother Jesse was always the protector. When they murdered Jesse, it was the biggest mistake this town would ever make. Out of Jason's rage came the darkness he had always feared, his dead brother Jesse bursting from his ripping flesh, the brothers merging to form one savage monster. Now there's hell to pay. 

turns out Jason is quite the artist and Jesse I initially thought was a pedophile caz he was dating one of Jason's clasmates but turns out they're closer to age than appeared

Gord Says: bleh...
    The story and plot was so generic and bland , I recommend taking some illegal narcotics before reading. It was so stale and uninteresting from the get go and for a super natural story , it felt so unnatural.

     The characters were cookie cut from the book of cliche. Take the bad guys for example... a group of  jocks in their letterman jackets and the lead jock's dad is the town sheriff  *yawn* I was waiting for Judd Nelson and Kevin Bacon to pop out of the bushes and start dancing. Talk about sleep walking through a project , John Leekley just dotted down some ideas on a bar napkin and violah! a graphic novel!

The art:    It bewilders me when artist don't know how to draw teenagers.  To be fair to Clay Sparks he isnt the only one , my idol John Byrne couldn't draw kids faces properly either. The kids in this story look like aged adults , Sparks would've been perfect for the Beverly Hills 90210 comic. Other than that I would say the art was ok , there was some good hazy eerie imagery. The mood was spooky  , lots of dark panels but that hardly makes up for such a bed pan story.

.

 For a loner goth kid he's clean of tats , piercings , he even looks tanned along with the fact he clearly frequents the gym.. shame on me for  my ignorance in stereotyping.


Good News:  The lady in the lake was intriguing whom turns out to be very important to the boys.  Spooky broad that made a sinister deal for Jason's soul  when he was younger and she came to collect. They should've ditched the boys story and did her story.



Bad News: page 1 to 100. 

Verdict:    Remember when you were a kid  buying a chocolate bar , and you feel a little frisky to try something new. So you pick out a bar that catches your eye , it looks good on the label... then when you bite into it , it taste like the monkey bars but your sugar addiction kicks in and you end up finishing it despite its raunchy lingering taste.


      That's what Amerikan Freak felt like. I tried a new title i never heard of.. looked good but when its all said and done , this isn't even worth to occupy my mind while I pinch a loaf. My expections were low and it still fell short.


Dig it or Ditch it

DITCH IT If I offer this book to you for free , take it as an insult and toss your coffee into my face.