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Graphic Novel Review: Moonshine Volume 2: Misery Train by Brian Azzarello, art by Eduardo Risso

Moonshine Volume 2: Misery Train by Brian Azzarello, art by Eduardo Risso

Image Comics, 2018

ISBN: 9781534308275

Available: Paperback, Kindle and comiXology editions

 

I need to be up front about a few things in this volume. There is racist language, and physical and threatened sexual violence against PoC.

The second volume finds gangster Lou Pirlo, Delia, and some of her family in a train car, running from the police. With Hiram Holt missing or dead, with his family wanting revenge, and the gangsters back in New York City equally wanting his head on a pike, Lou  finds himself clapped in chains and thrown in a different type of gang altogether. He also has another problem; he was bitten by a werewolf. When a cottonmouth snake strikes him, and doesn’t end up killing him, his fellow prisoners know something is not quite right. The gangsters are also wise to the werewolf menace in Appalachia, and have sent a deadly monster hunter on their trails.

 

Volume 2 is better than the first, with a more cohesive story and intense action. One of the gangsters from volume 1, L’Ago, is much more front and center dealing with the Holt family. However, the story is still missing something. I still can’t get invested in the characters, perhaps because they are too flawed and stereotypical. I had high hopes, since it is a 2018 Stoker nominee, but I don’t feel invested in any of the characterss. As much as I enjoy reading about flawed characters, there needs to be something redeemable, or at least worthy of respect, for me to engage with the text. I don’t get that here. If you want a good noir crime series by this team, pick up 100 Bullets. Recommended, with reservation.

 

Contains: blood, nudity, racism, threatened rape violence

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

 

Editor’s note: Moonshine Volume 2: Misery Train is a nominee on the final ballot for the 2018 Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel.

Posted on May 5, 2019 by , Reply

Graphic Novel Review: Moonshine Volume 1 by Brian Azzarello, art by Eduardo Risso

Moonshine Volume 1 by Brian Azzarello, art by Eduardo Risso

Image Comics, 2017

ISBN: 9781534300644

Available: Paperback, Kindle and comiXology editions

 

Editor’s note: This volume contains racist language, which is especially jarring coming from a child character.

 

Moonshine Volume 1 is set in Appalachia during Prohibition. Lou Pirlo, a gangster from New York City, is sent to negotiate a deal with the best moonshine hustler in the region, Hiram Holt. The boss back in the big city, Joe Masseira, wants to increase supply and sales of alcohol, and needs Lou to seal the deal. Lou thinks it will be an easy in-and-out trip, believing he has more brains than the backwoods hicks he will be dealing with. Unfortunately for Lou, he underestimates the iron-fisted Holt and his family, as well as the family secret. However, Holt also underestimates most of his sons, who want to double-cross him. Then, there’s Holt’s daughter, Tempest, who has her blue eyes set on Lou, which Lou tries to keep from the overbearing father. A black man ends up dead, Lou has Joe breathing down his neck, other gangsters show up to help their “friend” out, and more people end up drunk, imprisoned, or dead.

Azzarello and Risso created 100 Bullets, a noir crime comic series that was very well executed. I was hoping for more of that with Moonshine. The first volume is a bad guys versus bad guys shoot ’em up story…werewolves. In fact, the werewolf storyline could have been left out altogether. Oh, and Lou is haunted by the ghost of his dead sister. The characters are relatively dull and I didn’t care about what happened to any of them,  with the exception of Delia, a black woman who takes care of Lou after he ends up almost drowning when his car runs off the road. She would be a great character to follow. As far as the rest, flawed characters can be done well, and I know Azzarello can deliver on that better than he did here. I did like Risso’s art throughout, and his color palette lent the proper tone to what was going on in each scene. Moonshine Volume 1 may have an audience, but it just doesn’t do it for me. Recommended with reservations.

Contains: blood, gore, nudity, racism

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on May 4, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: Howl-O-Ween by Gary L. Holleman

Editor’s note: In the past, Monster Librarian participated in seasonal collaborative review projects with other horror fiction review sites, such as Hellnotes, Horror World, Dread Central, Horror Fiction Review, Horror Web, and DarkScribe. Each site reviewed books related to the season and then linked to the other sites’ reviews. In my (very slow) cleanup of the site, I saw that most of the links for our collaborative Halloween projects in 2007 and 2008 no longer exist, but our own still work, of course. Most of the reviews are also located elsewhere on the site, but I’m sharing one of them here today as, due to the number of links that don’t work on those pages, I plan to take them down shortly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Howl-O-Ween by Gary L. Holleman

Leisure Books, 1996

ISBN: 0843940832

Available: Used

Cyrus, a bodyguard-for-hire, takes a job protecting Kyna, a diamond runner, who is being pursued by a voodoo shaman trying to retrieve a powerful mystical necklace the diamond runner unknowingly has in her possession.  In order to get the necklace back before Halloween, the shaman leaves a bloody body count behind him, using a variety of creatures.    In one of the attacks, Cyrus inadvertently gets bitten by a supernatural wolf,  and becomes a werewolf. A minor flaw in the book is that the author includes several sex scenes that do not seem to further the plot, and slow down the pacing. Additionally, the ending is a little confusing. More disappointing than either of these is that, with a title like Howl-o-ween, and a cover sporting an evil-looking skull rising out of a pumpkin, readers will expect Halloween to play more of a central role in the story when in fact the relationship to the holiday is pretty weak.  Despite the unimpressive role of the holiday, distracting sex passages, and confusing ending, Howl-o-ween is worth a look. Holleman does a fine job with the werewolf and other little beasties, giving readers an entertaining little monster mash.   Ultimately, those looking for a action filled werewolf tale will probably enjoy the title, but there are stronger titles for Halloween themed horror.

Contains: Gore, sex, torture, violence

Reviewed by Dylan Kowalewski

Posted on April 23, 2019 by , Reply
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