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Written by Manuel A. Carmona  For this #FridayFlashback I'm going back to the time I got the first look at my inked pages for Phazer #6 featuring Captain Action. I remember vividly how excited I was at the chance to work on a character like Captain Action and so many public domain characters like El Gato Negro, Black Terror and many others. What should've been the beginning of my career in comics quickly evaporated and I realized the grim reality for many creators in the comic book industry, and also that many people are in this business to take advantage of the people who actually do the work. A long time ago I was approached by someone and offered to work on a comic book project featuring Captain Action. For those of you who don't know who Captain Action is, he was an action figure created in 1966, equipped with a wardrobe of costumes allowing him to become Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Aquaman, The Phantom, The Lone Ranger (and Tonto), Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Sgt. Fury, Steve Canyon, and the Green Hornet. Captain Action was the Ideal Toy Company's answer to Hasbro's G.I. Joe—although the protagonist dolls of both toy lines were created and designed by the same toy-and-idea man, Stan Weston. National Periodical (DC Comics) licensed the character from Ideal and published five issues of Captain Action in 1968, illustrated at first by Wally Wood, then by Gil Kane. The scripts were by a teenage Jim Shooter and Gil Kane. In 2008 Moonstone Books began a new series and created a new back-story for the character. Captain Action was now Miles Drake, a former Marine who discovers a cache of alien weaponry during the Vietnam War. Moonstone Books published a new Captain Action comic book from 2008 to 2010, with the initial six-issue arc written by Fabian Nicieza. A Captain Action Special was also released in 2010 as well as a two-issue miniseries teaming up Captain Action with the Phantom, written by Mike Bullock. In July 2010, Captain Action Season 2, an ongoing series written by Steven Grant, debuted that lasted 3 issues. Moonstone planned on releasing Captain Action: Classified, which would tell stories of Captain Action's earliest adventures in the 1960s, but this did not happen. In 2013 Dynamite Entertainment put out a mini-series with Captain Action called Codename: Action that included several pulp and comic book characters in an origin story for Captain Action.
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 Hello everyone, Written by Manuel A. Carmona  Today on Truthful Reviews, since it's #ThrowbackThursday; we'll be taking a look at Red Knight #5. Written by Justin Cristelli and illustrated by JC Grande, Red Knight is a masked vigilante living and protecting the streets of Norfolk, Virginia. The book is in black and white interiors with a full color cover (which look great!) and is 30 pages long. The story is fun although it feels a bit wordy at times, but it never feels like you're not getting your money's worth.
There's a lot happening in this issue, a car that transforms into a robot (like the Transformers, I know), masked vigilantes, cops fighting bad guys, action, adventure, world building and an introduction to a brand new character known as Honeycut; all for only $2.99! I always try to buy every issue of this series whenever I see them. Good stuff! As always... keep it Truthful! Written by Manuel A. Carmona  Here we go with yet another installment of Truthful Reviews! This time we're reviewing Astropunk #1. Written by Robert Farinholt and Kenneth Centers. The story is based in Mars, centered around a female protagonist trying to solve a mystery/crime and she fights some cybernetically enhanced villains; a popular trope in science fiction. It has some cool action scenes, a cloaked villain and our lead character is looking for another female but we're not going to get all the details in the first issue of course.
Paul Gori handles the art chores on this book. The cover art looks great, I didn't enjoy the interiors as much as the cover though. I felt the artist didn't quite knew if he wanted to draw manga or "American" style, so he tried some sort of an amalgamation in the vein of Joe Madureira; but it didn't connect with me. Granted, the art isn't the worst I've ever seen but it wasn't enough for me to fully enjoy the experience. The colors, done by Paula Goulart; I feel elevated the art. On a positive note, this comic feels a lot like an Ultraverse comic book from the 90's; which is a plus in my book. I don't mean to sound be rude but I won't be getting the following issues unless I find them in the discount bins. What can I say, not all of them are winners and this is just my opinion; other people might feel this is the best comic they're read. That's the beauty of comics!. I do feel that if you enjoy Aeon Flux, Barb Wire, Total Recall, Blade Runner or any of those 80's/90's sci-fi action movies there's a possibility you'll enjoy this book; it just isn't for me. P.S. If you've read it I'd love to know what you think of it. Do you agree with me? Did you love the book? Let me know in the comments. As always... keep it Truthful!  On Saturday May 8th at 8PM Manuel A. Carmona will be on the Yeah-Nah Wepa Show LIVE on Youtube talking about Buy Indie Comics Day. Make sure to set your alarms cause his is going to be a fun time talking about the origins of Buy Indie Comics Day, what's ahead for the initiative and our mission to push comics creators, indie comics creators to be exact!
The Yeah-Nah Wepa Show is hosted by Dodgy & Al Mega and they talk about any and everything in a fun weekly show you do not want to miss. If you'd like to check previous episodes of the Yeah-Nah Wepa Show! to see what they're all about visit: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-RJpJvXeIJjRiL2cvAa1V_s86DOcIxNn As always... keep it Truthful! Written by Manuel A. Carmona  Today we're reviewing one of those books that you read and immediately know you'll be following for the entire run, this book is Aftershock's Undone by Blood #1! Written by Lonnie Nadler and Zac Thompson with art by Sami Kivela and colors by Jason Wordie, this book was great from start to finish. Fantastic world building, there are many questions yet to be answered but the World that Zac and Lonnie are creating is one I enjoyed reading about.
The art was absolutely beautiful, enough detail and grittiness to make the World these characters inhabit believable, be it present day or the old west era. The book is so well written that I couldn't tell if the story is fiction or based on historical facts, that's how you know the writers did their homework and their research into the eras they're depicting. This book will be at the top of my pile for the foresseable future! As always... keep it Truthful! Written by Manuel A. Carmona  Today on Truthful Reviews we'll be looking at a comic that left us scratching our heads, I don't quite know if this is the work of a genius, a madman or both! Let's look at Atomic Hercules #1. The story synopsis on the Comichaus app describes this book quite eloquently...
"24 pages of devastating violence and smutty passion, Tony Esmond (Story) and Adam Falp (Art) deliver one of the most outrageous independent comics you've ever seen! Mature readers warning!" That is a spot on description for this book. This book is fun, insane, irreverent, vulgar and laugh out loud funny at times; obviously if you're on the conservative spectrum I'd suggest you stay away from this one. I mean, the first page opens on a splash page of a green female alien performing oral sex on our protagonist; that should tell you everything you need to know about this book! The art is very peculiar and suits the book quite nicely. The art has a very Don Simpson (Megaton Man) quality that you don't see often in comics but works great for fun and crazy stories like Atomic Hercules. This version of Hercules is a drunken demi - god who punches his way in and out of trouble and fights mutants and robots on a far different planet Earth than the one we currently inhabit, come to think of it; Hercules has been depicted like this in previous stories but I feel this one is more decadent and funny. This is a fun and crazy book that I'll be checking out and you should too. As always... keep it Truthful. Written by Manuel A. Carmona  This time around I'll be reviewing the fun sci-fi anthology Inter Space! Published by Piddley Pix, this is a 40 page, full color ALL AGES anthology produced to raise money for charity! Inter Space is a collection of short comic stories from some of the best small press and industry professionals in the UK. Featuring the work of creators such as: Marc Laming (Star Wars, Planet Hulk, X-Men), The Etherington Bros (Long Gone Don, Baggage, The Phoenix Comic), Steve Becket (The Beano), Chris Imber (Last Sheriff), Jon Laight (Level-8 Comics), Susie Gander (Perrywinkle), Dan Harris (Attic Studios), James Lawrence (The Legend of La Mariposa), Gavin Mitchell & Emili B Owen) Grumpicorn & Pup, Tony Esmond (The Awesome Comics Podcast) Nick Prolix (Slang Pictorial) and many more!
This book was a treat! A bunch of great and fun stories ranging from a female Luchador named La Mariposa, a Kung Fu Kangaroo battling a Kaiju, a Unicorn and his doggy sidekick, a touching story of a kid who grows up to follow in his father's footsteps and much more! So many art styles, so many stories and each one it's own unique qualities. This is one of those books that you can read to your kids, your grandkids or you can read them just to get a good laugh and cleanse your palette from all the dark grittiness that is so common in comics nowadays; and if that wasn't enough 100% of the proceeds from the sales go to charities! I found this book on the digital app Comichaus which I cannot recommend highly enough, for only three pounds (around $4.25) a month you can read thousands of indie comics such as this one with hundreds more being added each month. Do yourself a favor and sign up for a Comichaus subscription and read this book! As always... keep it Truthful! Written by Manuel A. Carmona  In the spirit of Throwback Thursday we decided to share a Truthful Review from a few months ago just cause' we love the story and the creator so much! The book we're reviewing today is Half Bloom, published by Saberdog Art; Written & Illustrated by the talented Kristin Mehaffey!
The premise of this story is about a teenage girl having an existential crisis of sorts. Lyca feels she's not where she should be in life compared to everyone around her because you see, the World in which this story takes place is populated by monsters; and she hasn't evolved into her monster self yet even though her friends and everyone at her school are already starting to or have fully turned into monsters. Her dad is a Werewolf, her mom a Medusa and so far she's struggling with her existence looking like a normal teenage human going to school in a monster World. This comic is very funny and charming, the interactions between the main character and her friends, her parents and all the characters that populate this World are pure comedy gold! The sketchy artwork gives the comic a lot of personality, I would even go as a far as saying the art style is almost another character in the story; if you get my meaning. I feel that if the comic had been illustrated in a "cleaner" line it would've taken away from the feel of the comic, especially since it's a monster story; the art and the story are a perfect marriage. I give it two demon talons up! I highly recommend you read Half Bloom today!!! You can read Half Bloom HERE! As always... keep it Truthful!  Here we go with another installment of Truthful Reviews! This time we review Jordan Kroeger's The Fist #1! This book was pure, unadulterated fun from start to finish and weird in the best kind of way. The story is a Mortal Kombat-ish type story, warrior goes a battle planet and fights his way through life.
The main character is known only as "The Fist" and his wife is a spaceship, yes you read that right; his wife is a spaceship. I don't want to give too much away because I'd like for everyone to check this book out but there's a character in this book who's almost a mix of Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage that steals the show! Also, the two combatants our protagonist faces are derivative of two huge pop culture characters but I'll let you discover who they are. This book is wild and the art style fits the story perfectly! The book looks like you're reading the comic after taking a hit of hallucinogenics. Sketchy, frenetic, colorful, beautiful, unique and violent as all get out, this book holds no punches! ;) |
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