Red Light Properties (Web-comic)

Red Light Properties is a comic by Dan Goldman. This is the story of a marriage that just broke up and whose ex-spouses co-own a Realtor agency that cleans haunted properties and puts them back on the market. There are eight stories published so far online, with the first being the longest. The other seven range between 4 and 30 pages. I read the whole thing in one go and it was quite entertaining. There are page transitions that don't make a lot of sense, where the dialog and time sequence of events seems to be slightly off, but by and large It is a fun series. Great to read on your tablet, if you have one.
Story:3.5
Art:3
Overall:3.25

Supergod

Supergod, by Warren Ellis and Garry Gastonie is a high concept science fiction story of the last days of the world. Different nations created different super beings. The beings do not feel human and use the planet as their playground, with disastrous effects. In the end only one of the beings survives, and he does so by doing nothing until all other beings have killed each other off. The survivor is a good metaphor of the way its mother nation has always interacted with its neighbours. The story has clunky bits, which is surprising from Ellis, but is thoroughly enjoyable. The art is quite nice and very appropriate for the story. Go read it if you like Sci-Fi. Go read it NOW.
Story:4.5
Art: 4
Overall: 4.25

Caroline Baldwin, Tome 15 : L'ombre de la chouette

This is volume 15 of the ongoing french series Caroline Baldwin. This is a series about a Canadian woman detective that has a less than healthy life style. In the latest instalments of the series, Caroline has been tending towards healthier life choices and this volume starts with her cohabiting with a man on stable basis. During the 48 pages several mysterious things happen that on one hand place her and her partner in physical danger and on the other place their relationship close to the edge. This volume ends on a cliffhanger that will make me wait anxiously for the next volume of the series where the story will conclude. Lately Andre Taymans presents adventures that take two volumes to conclude. I have enjoyed this series in the past, and was somewhat disappointed by this story because it looked like a series of mysterious events with no connection. I had to take on faith that all of this will make sense in the next volume. On the other hand, the art is better than ever in its clarity and effectiveness. It is a pleasure to look at the pages. Anyway, this may not be the best volume to start with if you want to read the series.
Story: 3
Art: 4.5
Overall: 3.75

Bomb Queen (Vol. 6): Time Bomb TPB

Bomb Queen is a comic about the queen of a city within the USA that has been declared an isolated territory. All criminals are sent to this city and are allowed to roam about free. The city is governed by an hyper-sexed, hyper-evil, under-dressed woman that has brains that are as large as or larger than her breasts, which are of considerable size. In this installment, the newly elected Barack Obama decides that a city of criminals in the middle of the USA is not admissible and war between him and the Queen follows with unexpected results. Jimmie Robinson, the author, is a very smart man who really knows how to effectively draw. He uses this comic to take shots at everything in society and in comics, from the sexual objectification of woman, to politics, to the overuse of Obama in recent american comic books. If you are easily offended this is not the book for you. Otherwise, go pick it up and read it.
Story: 4.5
Art: 4
Overall: 4.25

Terres Lointaines T4

This is the fourth in a series of albuns by the Brasilian artist/writer Leo and artist Icar. In summary the story of a family on Earth whose father immigrated to a distant planet in order to make money for all of them. Years later, the father sends money so that the family can go and meet him. When getting to the planet, with a society that feels very much like the wild west with aliens, there no sign of the father. In this album, the son finally meets the father and it is not pretty. Leo is a master in creating and populating alien worlds (See for example Aldebaran, Betelgeuse, Antares, Les Survivants or Dexter London). This is series is his least successful effort thus far. It is, nevertheless, entertaining, both in story and art.
Story: 3
Art: 3
Overall: 3

Atar Gull ou le destin d'un esclave modèle

This is the story of the vengeance of one man, spanning three continents. A vengeance against enemy tribes, against white slavers and against another man. The story follows a slave, born in an African tribe, from his teenagehood until is late adulthood in Europe. Many things happen in the middle, and the strength of purpose of this man only becomes apparent more than half way through the book. That is also when the authors give us a lesson on how monstrousness and virtuousness can be one and the same. This graphic novel is very well written and the drawing is quite nice. Fabien Nury writes very effectively and Bruno draws very nicely with very few lines and with a good use of shadows and light. If you read French, you could do a lot worth than reading this.

Story: 3.5
Art: 4
Overall: 3.75

Green Lantern Corps: The Weaponer [Hardcover]

This is another installment in the continuing saga of the universal security corps of the DC universe, known as the Green Lantern Corps. The concept is reminiscent of the Lensmen by E. E. Doc. Smith. A group of people from different planets is given a green ring that can project energy constructs that are limited by the imagination of the bearer alone. They band together in a corps and protect the universe. Other corps, with different goals, have rings of different colors. They interact in many different way that go from love to hate to testosterone filled confrontations.
In this book, the builder of the yellow rings goes out to attract and get revenge against the main bearer of said ring, by kidnapping his daughter, who bears a green ring. This means that green and yellow corps go after the weapon maker, with the expected pathos and destruction following. A more or less surprise ending makes the story interesting for those who follow the series. For those who do not, this book may just be a tad incomprehensible.

Story:3
Art: 3
Overall:3

Chew (Vol 4): Flambé (TPB)

Chew is an ongoing comic book about a cop that can see the past story of the stuff he eats, in a world where the most powerful law-enforcing entities appear to be the FDA, NASA and other regulatory bodies of the same sort. This comic is plagued with interesting and very weird food-related powers. It is fun and outrageous. In this volume, the leading character Tony Chew has to deal with an alcoholic partner, a boss that is trying to kill them both by always sending them to the more dangerous missions, a daughter that has some highschool secrets and is kidnapped and a sisters who works at NASA and hides that she too can see the history of what she bites. The art is distinctive and nice and the story is quite fun.
Go read it.

Art: 4
Story:4
Overall: 4

Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates Hardcover: Death of Spider-man

For those of you who know Mark Millar, this is just him being him. For those of you who don't, this is a super-heroes story with a spy flick twist in the middle. The book takes place in Marvel's Ultimate Universe and follows the comings and goings of a set of Counter intelligence organization-sponsored super powered people, after some disaster has scattered them in the middle east. This is mostly a predictable device from the writer to distract from the real story, which is simply a childish power play between the bosses. Millar writes lightly and everyone seems card-board Paris Hilton-y in their reactions. Easy and fast to read, fun and with many in-jokes for people who have been following previous book. However, sufficiently well written for these in-jokes to go unnoticed by the uninitiated.
Leinil Yu and Steve Segovia do a good job with the art and the book looks nice.

Story: 3
Art: 3.5
Overall:3.5

Love & Rockets #4

The new installment by the Hernandez brothers is a delicate book, but one would never guess it from the first story. It starts slowly by following a slice in the life of Maggie as she tries to get her life back to what it was at the beginning of Love & Rockets. After, the stories slowly build up and the phantom vampires stories already has a very effective conclusion. The surreal intermezzo with the five question game being played between Fritz and someone else is quite moving and the final story is just the strongest final that this book could have. The art is as good as always in its clear line influence.
Highly recommended, even for people who do not regularly read Love & Rockets.

Story:4.5
Art:4.5
Overall:4.5

Holy Terror

Holy Terror is the new book by Frank Miller. It will not leave anyone reading it indifferent. As Miller states, it is propaganda and propaganda alone. This makes the story flimsy at best. In fact, it is often non-existent, when you follow through the book. However, overall, I thought this was a worthy buy. Miller continues to evolve as an artist and his graphical storytelling abilities are still at the top of the profession. He can show more with a few ink stains than many artist with laboriously rendered drawings. He seems to be evolving away from the regulars blocks of shadow and light that were typical from his previous works in Sin City and 300 into more organic and psychedelic uses of ink blots. However, in comparison with another artist that also uses similar approaches, Bill Sienkiewicz, Miller's ink blots are much more intelligible and easy to interpret. Nevertheless, at times you see Miller's laziness sprouting here and there, even in the art.
All in all, I like the art book and decided do completely ignore the story.

Art:4.5
Story: ---
Overall:---

3''

3'' is a French graphic novel by Marc Antoine Mathieu. It is the story of three seconds in a day. The authors tells a set of stories that happen during these three seconds simply by following and zooming on the light that is reflected by objects with shining surfaces. There are no words whatsoever and yet it probably the album that took me longer to read in many month. The intricate artwork, the stark black and white contrast and the camera movements are nothing short of a magical tour de force of the 9^th art. On top of all the graphical inventiveness, the story is a fairly interesting thriller that is only grasped on a very slow first or second reading.
I highly recommend that people buy this book. When you do so you get a password that gives you access to the book in movie form. You can view the progress of the story as slowly as you wish.

Art: 5 stars
Story: 4 stars
Overall: 5 stars