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Graphic Novel Review: Pretty Deadly Volume 2: The Bear by Kelly Sue DeConnick, art by Emma Rios

Pretty Deadly Volume 2: The Bear - de Connick, Kelly Sue

Pretty Deadly Volume 2: The Bear by Kelly Sue DeConnick, art by Emma Rios

Image Comics, 2016

ISBN-13: 9781632156945

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:  Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com

 

Pretty Deadly Volume 2: The Bear moves the first volume’s timeline ahead to World War I. Sarah Fields lays dying, and her children want nothing more than their brother, Cyrus, to arrive in time to say goodbye. They approach Fox, formerly a blind man traveling with young Sissy, now a dapper sighted reaper, to give their mother until the next full moon to take her. He takes this to Sissy, who agrees. Sissy herself has changed, as she has taken on the mantle of Death, and appears as a blend of human and shrouded vulture. The problem is that Cyrus, now a young man, is fighting in the war in the trenches of France, where the Reapers of Vengeance and Cruelty run rampant. Deathface Ginny and Big Alice ride together for similar purposes.

 

Things have changed for everyone.

 

The second volume is easier to follow than the first, but just as strong. (See my Monster Librarian review for Pretty Deadly Volume 1: The Shrike here.) DeConnick used a more linear storytelling method for this installment. However, she did not lose any of her philosophical integrity in addressing very human questions regarding war. There is a deeper meaning here.

 

The artwork by Rios is incredible. It is easy to get lost in panels that have so much energy to them, but deliciously so. Scenes on the battlefield are intense, between the movement and Jordie Bellaire’s color palette. The updated character design for Sissy as Death is beautiful, and Fox as a reaper cleans up nicely, as the saying goes. Seeing more of Deathface Ginny and Big Alice was fantastic. Highly recommended.

 

Pretty Deadly Volume 2: The Bear collects issues 6-10.

 

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on July 1, 2024 by , Reply

Graphic Novel Review: Manga Classics: Dracula by Bram Stoker, adapted by Stacy King, art by Virginia Nitouhei

Manga Classics: Dracula by Bram Stoker, adapted by Stacy King, art by Virginia Nitouhei

Manga Classics, 2021

ISBN-13: 9781947808058

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

Buy: Amazon.com

 

Manga Classics brings us a manga version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. By now most readers are familiar with the vampire classic’s general story. Jonathan Harker, a young English solicitor, travels to Transylvania to assist the mysterious Count Dracula with a real estate transaction in England. However, he soon realizes that he is a prisoner on the count’s vast estate. Through observation, he notices the count is not all he seems. While the young Harker is trapped in the castle, Dracula travels to England, where he begins preying upon Lucy Westenra, a young woman engaged to Jonathan’s friend, Arthur Holmwood. A patient of Dr. John Seward’s, Renfield, under the employ of the count, becomes increasingly obsessed with consuming the living a leaves cryptic clues as to the nature of his boss.

 

As Lucy falls ill with an unknown malady, her friends Arthur, Dr. Seward, American Quincey Morris, and vampire hunter Professor Abraham Van Helsing are determined to save her from the vampire menace. Unfortunately, Lucy succumbs to Dracula’s influence and becomes one of the undead. The friends turn their efforts on hunting down and destroying Dracula where he poses a threat to Mina Murray, Jonathan’s fiancée, and others. With teamwork and the aid of modern technology, they pursue Dracula for a final bloody confrontation.

 

This is the first Manga Classics edition I have picked up. I read the hardcover version from my library, and I have to say it is worth it. King, editor for Manga Classics, does a great job of adapting the original text. As the story is told through letters, diary entries, recordings, newspaper articles, and ship’s logs, I was not sure what to expect from a manga version. Everything lined up and flowed nicely from page to page. The mangaka for Dracula is Virginia Nitouhei, who is a featured artist for “The Tell Tale Heart” in Manga Classics: The Stories of Edgar Allen Poe, which I will also be reviewing. She has a classic style to her art that lends itself well to a story like Dracula. The detail Nitouhei puts into the characters’ costuming alone is exceptionally beautiful.

 

At the end of the book, the editor and creators include information on themselves, an article on what it took to adapt Dracula to manga, and other helpful tips on reading this book. It would make an excellent entry point for readers who want to read classic horror, as well as manga. Highly recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on June 29, 2024 by , Reply

Book Review: F.U.B.B by Daniel Volpe, Candace Nola, and Jasper Bark (Dark Tide Horror Novellas Book 14)

F.U.B.B. by Daniel Volpe, Candace Nola, and Jasper Bark (Dark Tide Horror Novellas Book 14)

Crystal Lake Publishing, 2024

ISBN: 9781957133928

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy: Amazon.com

 

 

If you’re going to title a book F*cked Up Beyond Belief, you had better back it up.  And man, do they ever in this one.  These three hardcore novellas are exactly that: blood-drenched gorefests, with excellent stories and writing to boot.  These are like Eli Roth films, the main difference being these actually have good plots and are addicting to read.  Let’s look at the basics, shall we?

 

“Church of the Splatter Spray Saints” is a crazed take on modern tent-pole revivals, although the basic theme fits with some real-life ones, like ‘screwing the people for fun and profit (mainly profit).’  In this case, the revival is run by organized crime, and they have a sentient virus to contend with that may bring the whole house down.  For a horror novella, it has a fairly intricate plot, and all the pieces fit perfectly.  Body parts fly and pain abounds as people pay to witness voluntary suicides, all in the name of worshipping the Blood.  Totally screwed up, and totally fun.

 

“Double Feature” is my personal favorite.  Combine a typical Friday night at a hick town drive-in with a group of redneck nuts somewhat resembling the lunatics from the movie Wrong Turn, and you have a story, and a  very well written one it is.  A good setup and absolutely breakneck pace keep this one firing till the end.  It’s frightening to think of any people actually being like the antagonists in this one: they have absolutely no remorse for the warped things they do.  And, their motive?  Money.  The best part is that author Candace Nola excels in misdirection.  Every time you expect the story to zig, it zags instead, right to the hilariously ironic ending.

 

“The Chatter of the Night Bugs”: is an agonizing story of “white trash”, snuff films, and black magic.  Fair warning: this one is the most difficult to read of the three. The torture sequences are brutal, made all the worse by the fact that you care about the victim in this one.  However, payback is a wonderful thing, and old mountain magic provides the means for punishing the evildoers a hundred times over, in the form of bugs, and… something else.  This was a creative take on old Appalachian legends.  Revenge has never been sweeter than in this story.

 

The ol’ bottom line? This book should win some sort of award for best horror story collection this year.  For horror fans in general, and gorehounds in particular, this is a can’t miss.  Highly recommended (to those with a strong stomach, that is).

 

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

Posted on June 18, 2024 by , Reply
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