The Occultist by Mike Richardson

An interesting story.  Rob works in a book store and his day is not going all that well.  It gets worse when a secret book decides it likes him and offers him the sword which is a magical power.  Soon Rob’s life changes in ways he never imagined.  He can have whatever he wants with consequences he never imagined.

Soon he’s a hunted man.  He connects to Detective Melendez and the adventures go from there.  I enjoyed the story.  Rob’s a likeable guy. 

The animation is decent, a bit fuzzy in my e-copy but enjoyable.  I loved the monsters and the story lines have lots of potential.  Can’t wait to see more.

Bloody Chester by JT Petty

The end of this graphic novel left me feeling unfulfilled so it’s hard to write this review.

The story is of “Bloody” Chester who starts off as a scrawny loser locked in the jail of a wild west town.  He’s offered a job – burn down plague afflicted Whale so the railroad can pass through the area.  Not thinking much of it, Chester goes to Whale.  There are 2 survivors and 1 man dying of the plague left.  All he has to do is convince them to leave and burn the whole place down – not a problem especially since the survivors are basically kids.

However, nothing is as it seems and soon Chester begins to unravel the origin of the plague and finds his job a lot more difficult than he thought.  At first, this story has a supernatural feel but everything is explained in “normal” terms.  That’s not the problem, I actually liked that it turned out not to be supernatural.  To tell you why the ending bothers me would ruin the story.  That may not be necessarily true – I just felt that the story ended in a weird place.  I needed a tiny bit more.  There may be an upcoming sequel which would explain why the strange ending but I don’t know.

The art is pleasing, muted but still colorful.  It reminds me of manga in the style.  I felt the art painted a full picture and gave me a real feeling of the life they were living.  There’s slight humor that made this book really enjoyable.  There is a small amount of violence that might disturb a sensitive reader.  The language is slightly more adult with some swearing making it not appropriate for a young reader.  I do see this appealing to teens and anything that gets them reading is a good choice.

Gary Gianni’s Monstermen and Other Scary Stories by Gary Gianni

This was an interesting collection. The first half consisted of five graphic /comic stories by Gary Gianni. His Monstermen series was introduced as a companion to the Hellboy series. Lawrence St George is a film maker and hunter of the supernatural. Partnered with Benedict, an ancient knight who can’t die, they search out and stop a variety of demons from taking over the world. They are quick stories reminiscent of those from the early days of movies. St George looks a bit like Vincent Price. I would believe these are set in a time such as the 1930’s if it wasn’t for the occasional glimpse of a computer or other technology now and again. I rather enjoyed these. I do prefer color to black and white but the drawings gave it a spookier, old movie feel. There’s enough action to pull you through and enough character development that you feel like you know the characters towards the end. I look forward to more Monstermen stories. The second half of the book didn’t delight me as much as the first. It was stories but not told in graphic/comic form. Personally, I think it disrupted the flow of the book. Not that the stories were bad but they felt like they should be a separate book. The stories were illustrated by Gary Gianni but not written by him which made it feel more like a separate book. Had they been additional stories about Monstermen maybe I would have felt differently.

Hellboy Volume 12 by Mike Mignola

This volume co-incides with the BPRD Hell On Earth Volume 2. It’s a fairly complete story of Hellboy fighting a dragon that signals the end of the world. It’s entertaining enough and easy to read separate from the other volumes. I will say the ending makes me wonder if there will be Volume 13. I love Hellboy and this graphic novel did not disappoint. It’s mostly action but I did feel there was not enough Hellboy wit that is common in most Hellboy stories. I like that this story incorporated the King Arthur myth. It’s definitely a good volume to pick up.

Locke and Key Volume 5 by Joe Hill

The first issue of volume 5 of the Locke and Key series proves that Joe Hill is still the master. I’ve read one full volume and have some understanding of the world of Lockcraft so this was not a difficult story to follow. I don’t think it’s be really difficult for anyone, except for the last panel which stumped me. This volume is set during the time just before the Revolutionary War. Two siblings have lost their family and are losing their home. Their family has been supporters of those who choose to fight against England. The hidden army uncovers something much more dangerous than the soldiers and it’s up to the boy to come up with a way to save their home and the army they have hidden. I need to get my hands on the full series – it’s wonderful. A mix of horror and fantasy, Joe Hill weaves a story that sucks you in and spits you out at the end shaking and in awe.

Cemetery Club by JG Faherty

This was supposed to be yesterday's post but I fell behind and didn't get it written. Cemetery Club started off rather slow. I did not like the beginning. The first few segments were snapshots of the history of Rocky Pointe but I wasn't connecting to the town. The modern day story started with Todd. Todd had just been released from Wood Hill Sanitarium after serving 20 years for killing several people in his teens. Todd is looking forward to spending his time reconnecting with his mother and continuing his research on what really happened to those people. He suspects he raised a demon. Meanwhile, whatever it was has risen again. John Boyd witnesses the aliens take over a cemetery maintenance man who kills another man before dragging his body into a neighboring crypt. Todd is beaten by police before they even explain why they are arresting him. It's at this point that I am convinced I can no longer read this book. I was so angry. So far the book had failed to grasp my attention and here, in this modern day, this man was completely violated by the men who are sworn to protect. I nearly quit. I nearly wrote a terrible review because I had had it. But I wanted to give the book a chance and I'm glad I did. Once Cody Miles, Todd's lawyer, entered the scene the story took on a completely different feel for me. I was sucked in and I couldn't stop. The fun thing about this book was the debate about what exactly had invaded the community - was it demons or was it aliens? There were good arguments for both and I wasn't disappointed when I learned what the truth was. The beings turn their victims into zombies and that was fun. I hadn't read a zombie book yet so it was great. I loved the characters. I loved how they were real and how they were really struggling with what was the right thing to do. There was even a human villain who I thought could have been used a little better but I could totally picture him in the movie. I didn't like the ending but then I liked the characters a lot and the ending hurt. I won't spoil it for you but I was disappointed. I wanted them to be my heroes and I wanted a happily ever after. The fact that the ending made me feel made it a great ending. I could completely see this movie. It's a small book so it may never happen but I would love to see that movie. There were some editing issues with the book - I won't lie. One character's name changed from Hank to Frank for a few pages and then back to Hank. It was a little off putting but I didn't care. I chalked it up to the quaintness of the publishing. It wasn't well formatted for a nook so there was some fun font issues but I ignored them and stuck with the story. If you like horror, especially Stephen King, I recommend this book. It reminded me a bit of IT but with zombies instead of clowns.