New Comic Book Day Swag Bag 31.1.15

New Comic Book Day Swag Bag 31.01.2015

Whats in my swag bag this week:

The Li'l Depressed Boy volume 4: I looooove Li'l Depressed Boy! LDB has a new lady in his life will their new romance blossom or bomb?

Colder Volume 1: A former mental asylum inmate's body temperature drops slowly over 50 years he doesn't feel pain and get can get into your mind. Great cover art, caught my attention.

Bitch Planet #2: The badass bitches continue to kick ass. Kam is offered a choice she says no but the other inmates suggest she reconsider.

Bodies #7: Second last issue in this series. Our body is alive again in all times how is that possible? How did Sahara survive the blast?

Gotham Academy #4: What's in the tower? Will it kill our heroes? Probably not it is only issue #4 and rated T.

Revival #27: Where is the professor? What will happen to that racist shit bag Edmund? Is he making a bomb?

Intersect #3: Seriously Intersect this is your last chance to start making sense or I'm not buying you again.

Big Trouble In Little China #8: Jack Burton is on his way back to face Lo Pan with his new army of Chinese gangsters.

Effigy #1: Some child TV stars grow up to be regular people like police officers. What happens when murders start replicating their old TV shows?

Princess Ugg #7: Free from their captors the princess' still carry on with their performances and the tides turn as the other princess' finally tell Julifer what they think of her mean spirited behaviour.

Thor #4: We find out how original Thor got his new arm but more importantly WHO IS THIS NEW THOR?!?!?!

Sex Criminals #10: Teehee sex. Our two sexy heroes now have another person with sexy powers on their side.

How To Make A Friend: A super sweet local comic done by Chris McQuinlan. There is no text because you imagine the story the way you choose. Super cute and SUPPORT LOCAL TALENT!!!

Zombie Fairy Tales: Deadlands - It should have stayed dead

Zombie Fairy Tales : Deadlands Issue #1

Zombie Fairy Tales: Deadlands Is written and drawn by Zechary Gray & Fred Perry and published by Antarctic Press, please don't hold this against these people or this publishing company.
Three of my favorite things in life are comic books, fairy tales and zombies so when I saw a comic combining all three I was hopeful that it would be full of fairy tale characters being munched on by frightening zombies. Instead what I got was a confusing and incoherent mess that was not so much fairy tales as it was Alice in Wonderland, although they never actually refer to it as Wonderland or any of the characters by their names such as the character that should be the Mad Hatter calls himself The Hatter but other characters refer to him as Doc.

Boobs don't really look like that

Zombie Fairy Tales begins with Alice, now an old woman in a mental institute, having a meeting with her doctor who tells her she has been free to leave at any time for the past ten years but Alice says she prefers to stay. We find out that Alice's new doctor is actually the "Hatter" (again not the Mad Hatter just the Hatter) as a cat, supposed to be the Cheshire Cat I presume although he doesn't grin, turns up to tell the Hatter that "she" meaning the queen of hearts (again never called this) has managed to turn nearly everyone (screw it I'm calling it Wonderland) in Wonderland into zombies and is trying to get to Alice to have her revenge. The Rabbit, again supposed to be the white rabbit if he was sewn together from odd socks, turns up and kidnaps Alice. The Hatter and the cat say that they are the last line of defense for Alice. As this happens Alice's granddaughter who's name is Alyce (really guys, really?) turns up to celebrate her grandmother's birthday and is taken to wonderland as the secret weapon for fighting the queen.

This is what young, innocent, wide eyed Alice turns into

The art for this book wanted to be manga, it tried to be manga but it just didn't get there. The art is black and white and really not great, it looks like it was drawn by high school students making their first comic. Alice (the original Alice) becomes young again when she returns to Wonderland and it becomes almost impossible to tell apart from her granddaughter Alyce. The Characters ages seem to change from panel to panel.

On the left is Alice and the right is Alyce.... I think.

The writers seem like they are dancing around using any actual character names that could get them sued so it feels like they are telling only half a story. That said they really don't seem to know where they wanted to go with this comic there are 16 pages that are entirely set up, which is not unusual for a first issue, but then the great evil queen is defeated and the story is wrapped up in only 5 pages. It looks like the story would continue with the newly formed team going out and clearing Wonderland of zombies but you know, The Walking Dead is a thing and its much better than this. The editor really dropped the ball on Zombie Fairy Tales as there is an incomplete sentence on the third page which is really not good enough for a published comic that expects to be taken seriously.

The Hatter....... Without a hat

I understand that comic books are a lot of hard work to write and illustrate but I really feel like this was a rushed job and I'm sorry to say that I did not like Fairy Tale Zombies and when I first bought it I didn't actually finish reading it because I really didn't care for it the only reason I went back and finished reading it was for this review. I feel if the story had of taken a comedic route it could have worked much better but this comic takes itself so seriously it loses any chance at redemption by being funny.

I give Zombie Fairy Tales 1/2 out of 5 odd sock sewn together white rabbits.

I'm made of old socks

Get Zombie Fairy Tales here ...... or you know, don't.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl - You'd be nuts not to love it!

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is published by Marvel and let me tell you it is so funny that I laughed so hard when reading it the first time that I accidentally spat on the pages. Droeen Green is Squirrel girl who has the super powers of having the same proportional strength and agility of a squirrel as well as the ability to talk to squirrels. Her sidekick is a squirrel named Tippy-Toe who also has the proportional strength and agility of a squirrel. Doreen is moving away to college so now she needs to have a secret identity so she can have a mostly normal college experience and protect her loved ones. It is all going well until Kraven the hunter shows up and threatens Tippy-Toe. Now I really don't want to spoil how the fight ends up so all I'm going to say is that she uses Deadpool's guide to super villains to gain the upper hand.

Most of my daydreams look like this too

The art in Squirrel Girl is bright, colourful and cartoony and works well with the overall goofy feel of this comic but is really nothing especially different. One of the best thing about this comic are the character's facial expressions which are the perfect balance of clear emotions and over the top nuttiness.

Truly the poet of our generation

The writing is great and will have you chuckling the whole way through. The comic begins with Squirrel Girl singing the Squirrel Girl theme song (which is the tune to the spider-man theme song of course) while beating up some would be muggers. There are hilarious one-liners, nut based puns and some head-scratching reasonings. My favourite part in the whole comic is when Squirrel Girl is fighting Kraven The Hunter and she simply decides to throw him in the air repeatedly while she thinks about how she is going to beat him. Something I didn't notice on my first read through is right down the bottom of the page in teeny tiny writing Squirrel Girl comments on the things that are happening and they are just the cherry on top of the comedy sundae.

You can hear it can't you? this to the spider-man theme song

Squirrel Girl is obviously going to be a comedic comic but with all the gritty reboots and dark themes with a lot of superheros at the moment it will be nice to see a super hero who is a bit dopey and may end up solving her problems by talking to the villains rather than punching them. I have a lot of faith that The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is going to be a much loved addition to many pull lists including mine.

I give The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1 4.5 out of 5 Squirrels in pants attack

Get a digital copy of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl here

Wytches - Bringing scary back, YEAH!

Wytches - Issue 1

Wytches written by Scott Snyder, ink by Jock, colours (which are amazing) by Matt Hollinsworth and published by Image Comics and let me tell you Wytches is bringing scary back in an amazing way. A family recently moved and begins a new life after the mother was in an accident leaving her a paraplegic and their daughter, Sailor, was being mercilessly tormented (not bullied I mean seriously tormented) by a girl called Annie. Sailor is concerned that the other students in the new town will "know about her" as it turns out people think that she murdered Annie but in reality Annie was violently taken by "something".

NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE!!

Now to say Wytches is scary is an understatement it is downright terrifying sometimes. everything about this comic is spooky, the story is spooky, the art is spooky, the atmosphere is spooky, its just all around spooktacular. As the story continues there is a foreboding sense of doom that grows with each page.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

You really feel for the characters in the story especially poor Sailor who suffers from anxiety issues and is just trying to put the traumatic events of the tormenting, death threats and assualts by Annie and the whispers and accusations that followed her disappearance behind her. The father and mother, Charlie and Lucy are just parents struggling to make life as normal as possible for their troubled daughter. You feel intensly for Charlie as he struggles with trying to keep Sailor from having panic attacks and make their new home accessible to Lucy in her wheelchair.

The art is amazing and has a hazey dream like quality using a lot of dark blues, purples and greens. What makes the art particularly creepy is the fantastic use of a splatter effect used over all the pages. With dark sketched backgrounds showing the forests around the houses give them a really evil look and you can tell that something very very bad is lurking within them.

Don't go out to the woods today

Wytches first issue is fantastic and really grabs you from page one with its frightening art. You really feel for the characters and hope that they do make it through whatever nasty thing is waiting for them as the story continues.

I give Wytches 4 out of 5 Deers vomiting up their own tongues

I'm not even taking this out of context

Get Wytches here at Image Comics.

New comic book day swag bag 10/1/15

New comic book day is the best day of the week.


Here's whats in my swag bag for this fortnight:

Bag of swag

Feathers #1 from Boom!: A little boy is found growing feathers where did he come from? involves a musical man who kidnaps children and a plucky noble girl called Bianca. Very cute mini series which will contain 6 issues.

Angela Asgard's Assassin #2 from Marvel: Angela lost daughter of Asgard. Angela and Thor are gonna fight! very cool.

Intersect #2 from Image: Honestly I didn't really "get" the first issue so I thought I'd give it another issue to see if it starts to explain whats going on better. Very pretty but I'm lost.

A Town Called Dragon #1 & #2 from Legendary: It has dragon in the title and I like dragons. No idea yet.

Wolf Moon #2 from Vertigo: A werewolf tale with a different spin. A person is only a werewolf during the full moon and then the curse moves to another person. Creepy and Gory mini series that will contain 6 issues.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1 from Marvel: Squirrel girl is adorable and funny. Just have to say this comic starts with her singing her own theme song while beating up bad guys. Hilarious.

God Hates Astronauts # 5 from Image: Just the most random collections of pictures and words strung together. Rolling on the floor laughing funny.

Locke & Key Volume 2 from IDW: Returning to Lovecraft to see whats happening with the Locke family. What will the new key do? Great series.

The Li'l Depressed Boy volume 1 from Image: I don't know anything about it I just keep hearing it's name come up. If I like it I will review it later.

Afterlife With Archie volume #1 from Archie Comics: The squeaky clean world of Archie is overrun by zombies ARGH!!! Very popular at the moment should be good.

Red Sonja volume 1 from Dynamite: Red Sonja is a warrior woman who will be to hungover to bother with bandits. Written by Gail Simone so you know its gonna be good.

Be back in two weeks with my next swag bag!
xoxo Mama Jane

Where should you start - Superman #1 right?

Where do I Begin?

People ask me all the time "what kind of comics do you think I'd like?" (one, exactly one person has ever asked me this) and I thought I'd write a guide on trying comics to help people find somewhere to start in the wonderful world that is comic books.

After 20 minutes of me talking this is the face most people pull

What do you like?
Starting out you need to think about what you like, do you like mysteries, horror, super heroes, or comedy? If your interest has been sparked by the new trend of superhero movies then maybe try some of the superheroes that you like the most. Comics are a lot like movies in the way that there is almost always something that will suit your tastes,

Ummm..... Yeah I guess, we could find something like that

Single issues, trades & omnibuses, oh my!
A story arc is usually between 4-6 single issue long and can be compared to seasons on a TV show. A trade paperbacks or "trades" usually contain between 4-6 issues which is often one entire story arc so basically it will tell a story from start to finish. An Omnibus contains an entire series or large amount of issues usually up to 50 or so. When starting with a new series that has only just come out you have no options other than to collect the single issues or wait for the trades to come out but remember low single issues sales (especially with creator owned comics) means that a trade is not guaranteed to come out. So the general rule is established series start with a trade or omnibus new series grab the single issues.

Why so many choices?!?!

Start at the beginning but not always at #1
When you start reading comics you want to try and start at the beginning of a story arc but not always at issue #1. Buying issues in trade is a good idea because each trade usually contains an entire story arc. You want to try and start at #1 in trade if you can but depending on the kind of story this isn't always necessary but I do NOT recommend doing this with a mystery comic (such as Morning Glories) because you will be completely lost. Some comics will advertise a great "jumping on point" this usually means there is already an established story but it is about to begin a new story arc and can be a good place to start with long running series.

Yeah, probably don't go this far back.

Digital - They have the Internet on computers now.
Digital comics are a wonderful thing with apps like ComiXology making almost all comics available to you without even needing you to get out of your pyjamas. An Ipad or similar sized tablet work very well for reading comics but I do not recommend trying it on your smart phone unless you plan on using a magnifying glass to read the text. Digital comics are usually a little cheaper than buying hard copies in the store but you do miss out on some of the extras in the back of single issues such as words from the writers and artist, announcements and fan letters. I will often buy the first single issue of a new series on ComixXology to see if I want to add it to my regular reading list.

I'm sorry but if I left the house to buy comics I'd have to put a bra on

New school or old school?
When starting with superheros and characters that have been around since the 30's or 40's trying to catch up on 80+ years of story is not a great idea. you can usually find arcs/reboots that have been within the last couple of years that you can grab in trades. Another major thing to remember is that comics do age with the times so anything you read from the 70's will be heavily influenced by the "peace , love and music" attitude of the times and so on. Personally I don't like a lot of what came out in the 90's I find that the art was weird and the stories were weirder (so so many clones). I find it best to start with something modern and then work your way backwards if you enjoy a certain character.

Old doesn't mean bad maybe just less good

Don't be afraid of whats popular -  Look a bandwagon lets jump on it!
Never be afraid of jumping on with what is currently popular, such as the Avengers or Guardians Of The Galaxy, because remember theses things are popular for a reason. The most important thing to remember is that everybody needs to start somewhere and you don't need to justify your fandom to anyone and if anybody tries to make you just ask to see their certificate declaring them supreme ruler of comic book fandom.

Don't listen to this guy, he was a beginner once too

Marvel or DC? There are so few choices!
Marvel and DC are "the big two" and of course the two most well known companies and have a large range of mostly superheroes to choose from. There are also many many other brands including Image (The Walking Dead, Saga & Spawn), Dark Horse (Hellboy, Buffy, Angel & Firefly), Boom! (Big Trouble In Little China, 28 Days Later & Planet of the Apes) and an uncountable number of independent companies. With so many different companies around both well known and relatively unknown there is something out there to suit almost any taste. Personally I prefer Image as a most of their comics are creator owned which gives the creators the freedom to do anything they like with the comic with plenty of room to move which I find Marvel and DC lacking in as with the already established characters as they do need to follow a rough outline for the characters (Batman isn't going to suddenly start killing people, Jean Grey from the X-men isn't ever going to stop dying).

Way more than just these guys

Try new things all the time
I have new comic book day every 2nd Saturday and make an effort to always try something new whether its a brand new series that's just starting up or picking up an already established series in trade. This is a good way to explore different types and genres. I have found things I love and found things that I want to destroy with fire but its always interesting to try new series. Another little tip is don't ignore your local talent some local creators put out some pretty interesting and entertaining things.

New comic book daaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!

Get out there and get reading comic lovers!!

They're Not Like Us- they're not the X-men

They're Not Like Us - Issue 1

They're Not Like Us is a new comic published by Image and shows a great deal of promise as s new interesting series. It begins with a young woman standing on a ledge of a tall building considering jumping as it will be the only relief she will ever get from the voices she hears. A mysterious man appears behind her and tells her that jumping will not save her.
The woman wakes up bruised and battered in a hospital bed and the stranger tells her that he will take her to meet the others and kidnaps her from the hospital.

Jumping off buildings rarely ends in puppies and ice-cream

The young woman is taken to a beautiful mansion where she learns the stranger's name is The Voice and she meets others like her, others with special powers ranging from the ability to create illusions, super speed and see into the future. She is given the new name Syd and told she now has to leave her old life behind because she is special, she is different and she is better than the people in her old life. She is left with a choice that will end up being a very difficult and may make or break her new found sanctuary.

The art used is nice and simple and a little on the scratchy side. Scratchy art is usually an issue for me but They're Not Like Us seems to balance the scratchiness of the art with colours just bright enough to not make it look gothic and it actually works quite well. The colours are, for lack of a better word, a little on the bland side which is actually not a criticism as it is nice to see some comics without fluro pinks, greens or yellows to assault your eyeballs.

Not assaulting your eyeballs

The first issue and meeting of the group is very reminiscent of the X-men with the confused and overwhelmed Syd finally meeting others like herself and a place where she belongs. But this new group doesn't seem to be the protectors and heroes that the X-men are and seem to be more of a combination of Professor X's "teach them to use and appreciate their powers" and Magnetos "We are better than others and deserve better" which is evident when The Voice tells her they do and take whatever they want "because [they] can" and that fate has chosen them to be better then other people and "thats' all that matters".

If you don't know who these two are you're probably lost

They're Not Like Us had a good first issue and shows potential on being a very interesting series where the lines between hero and villain are not entirely clear. The writers will need to be careful that the series doesn't just become an X-men knock off but so far it is no more similar to the X-men than any other comic using team of people with special abilities.

I give They're Not Like Us 3 out of 5 super secret mansions

Get They're Not Like Us here from Image Comics

Princess Ugg - The best worst princess ever

Princess Ugg - Volume 1

Princess Ugg is written and illustrated by Ted Naifeh (colours and letters by Warren Wucinich) and published by Oni Press. The story is about princess Ülga who attends the princess academy to learn all of the essentials princess skills such as proper table manners, dress making and tea drinking, The only problem for princess Ülga is that she is a barbarian princess from the highlands and is far more comfortable handling her battle axe than she is handling a tea cup.

Not great with crockery

Princess Ugg is an adorable story that almost everybody who has ever felt out of place, and let's face it that is all of us, can relate to. Princess Ülga is attending the academy after making a promise to her dying mother and must make the choice of trying to stick it out in a place that is entirely alien to her and seems to be intent on spitting her out or returning to the highlands and breaking that promise.

Now of course the fish out of water story about somebody who just doesn't fit in is nothing new but the reason this story works so well is the beautiful art. The character designs are diverse and include not only your standard beautiful blonde damsel in distress princess Julifer but Chinese princess Jasmin, African princess Phoenicia, gothic princess Desdemona and finally our hero the heavily viking inspired princess Ülga. Princess Ülga looks is very different from your standard princess with her heavy muscles with one of the other princess' commenting that they don't know how "a girl gets that lumpy",  clothes made from fur pelts rather than fine silks and riding into town on a giant war mammoth named Snorri rather than in a carriage with a beautiful pony. This is a refreshing look for a princess to be muscular instead of dainty but still trying to learn something form the other side of the coin rather than blindly dismissing it. There is a fine balance between being true to yourself and still realising that just because you don't understand something doesn't make it invalid or wrong.

Although the characters are enjoyable and the story entertaining the thing that really makes Princess Ugg work is the art which is beautiful water colour with a lot of attention paid to scenery and backgrounds. the characters faces are extremely expressive and you can easily see the emotions that the characters are expressing without needing to be told through dialogue.


The dialogue is quite interesting and is especially good at making you hear princess Ülga's accent. The way the princess' talk to each other has a very heavy feel of the mean girls movie with back handed compliments and whispered gossip and I'm sure will remind us all of that one person they knew that could never give a true compliment.



If you are looking for a comic that is mainly story driven with a complex plot maybe give Princess Ugg a miss but if you enjoy a simple story with some beautiful art its definitely worth picking up.

I give Princess Ugg 3 & 1/2 out of 5 war mammoths

Get Princess Ugg here from Oni Press