The Comic Chat

Who likes comic books? I do. I owned my own shop for almost seven years. I had five good years but then the local economy tanked and the Canadian dollar sank. Streaming services replaced CD's & DVD's and suddenly "record stores" are selling collectables and super-hero t-shirts. The last two years were pretty grim but I still love comic books.

I've hosted a weekly comic book show on the local community radio station for more years than some of you have been alive. Like over 20. I've lost track of the exact number because the show was originally a 10-minute segment during a music program I hosted on Saturday nights. It's now a half-hour program and broadcasts every Friday at 6 pm. I co-host with a fellow named Pat who owns a local comic shop. It's called The Comic Chat with Theo and Pat because comics have a love affair with alliteration. There's a live stream here if you ever feel like tuning in http://cfcr.ca/onair

We've talked about providing a podcast version and I hope to bring it to Steemit one day soon.

Here's a couple of the new comics we reviewed this week.

Mother Panic: Gotham A.D. #1
Written by Jody Houser
Art by Ibrahim Moustafa
Colours by Jordon Boyd
Cover by Tommy Lee Edwards

Mother Panic: Gotham A.D. is a re-launch of the original Mother Panic series. It's a title that falls under the Young Animal banner. Young Animal is a line of DC Comics curated by Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance fame. Way is no stranger to the world of comics. One of the first comics he wrote, Umbrella Academy, is about to become a new series on Netflix.

In the first Mother Panic, we meet Violet Page who's like Gotham City's Paris Hilton. Her dark secret is that as a child she was experimented on by a sinister group called The Collective. Now she's out for revenge which involves dressing up in a white costume with a cool helmet and running across the rooftops of Gotham City.

I'm not sure how well the Young Animal comics were selling but all the titles just got relaunched after a cross-over event called Milk Wars featuring Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Everything crosses-over in comics these days.

Which brings us to Mother Panic: Gotham A.D. After Milk Wars, Paige finds herself in a future Gotham where The Collective is running things and Batman is nowhere to be found. I was a little lost because I only read the first few issues of the first series but I really enjoyed this one.

The art is exceptional. Joker is lost without Batman and there's an especially creepy sequence where he blows up a long green balloon and twists up a Tommy Gun.

I haven't posted every panel in this sequence. Don't read it. It won't make sense. Just admire Ibrahim Moustafa's art.

This is a good book if you like Batman comics with a lot less Batman. Mother Panic: Gotham A.D. scores 7.5 out of 10 Batarangs.

Breathless #1
Written by Pat Shand
Art by Renzo Rodriguez
Colours by Mara Jayne Carpenter

Breathless is published by Black Mask Studios which was formed in 2012 by writer Steve Niles, producer Matt Pizzolo and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. Black Mask brings the punk rock ethic to comics and in Breathless the target is the pharmaceutical industry.

Scout Turner has really bad asthma and her medicine ain't cheap. It's the same for writer Pat Shand and "Pay to Live" is the book's tagline (it's writ in giant red letters on the back cover). Turner is a cryptozoologist and while dissecting a creature at work she cuts the wrong thing, get's a face full of gas, and poof, no more asthma. Her annoying yet loveable assistant leaks the news on Twitter and suddenly our unlikely heroes are on the run for their lives.

Breathless is wordy at times but the art saved me from getting bored. I don't mind the extra words if you give me something pretty to look at. Rodriguez has a very clean and detailed style and reminds me of George Perez at times. The creatures are weird and horrific.

Turner's informant is a succubus who lives in an alley in a cardboard castle. In comic books, all scientists have streetwise informants

Silly, spooky with a side of social commentary. Breathless scores 8 out of 10 Shkrelis.