Resurrection Men 1. N.S. Paul (Writer), R. Donald (Art) www.nspaul.co.uk (2017)

 A hugely enjoyable and engagingly fresh take on zombies. a smart idea that is executed with confident skill and detail. A widower has his son involved in a fatal accident and somehow restores him. This attracts the attention of some very unpleasant people who are very interested in this talent. Leveraging grief and fear for his son they draw the father into their plans.
N.S. Paul has taken a different route into a zombie story and it creates a different atmosphere and set of story possibilities that are very enticing. A man who has lost his wife to death and may or may not have lost his son is already out of his depth in his own life, when he becomes entangled with someone who has plans for those who have been resurrected the depth increase as does the surrounding darkness and malice. The story sets up everything with deft economy and wonderful confidence. The reader can relax into the story as it unwinds in unexpected and engaging ways.
  R. Donald's art is a pleasure to read and brings the story forward on every level. The use of panels to control the story is superb, the pacing and flow of the story is carefully managed and the emotional tones are brought to the fore with subtle force. The cast are expressive with out ever overacting, the body language and their faces reveal them naturally and with impact. The colours are suitably subdued and used with stunning effect to create the compositions and give depth and detail to the art.
This is a great comic, all the elements work with each other to deliver the story and bring the reader into it, a great comic and a great story. The possibilities have been set up and I greatly look forward to seeing how they are embraced by the creative team.

Deluge 1-3. J.D.Oliva (Writer), Richard P. Clark (Art & Letters). (https://readcomics.io/comic/deluge-2016)

A hugely enjoyable and entertaining cat and mouse crime story set in the flooded  New Orleans in 2005.Following the flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina, a group of New Orleans police officers are patrolling using a rowing boat.Their reaction to a man stranded on a rooftop indicates that it may not be a search and rescue mission.S flashback introduces a undercover FBI agent who is working in New Orleans and is presently trapped by the flooding. Who is the cast and who is the mouse shifts nicely as the story unfolds and it nicely sidesteps reader expectations.
For a cat and mouse story to be effective there has to be a compelling context that effectively traps the cat and the mouse and can shelter or expose one or the other at any point. J.D.Olivia uses the  flooded New Orleans to great effect in this role. The flood limits everyone's room for maneuver and severely increases the pressure on all the cast as matters spiral out of control. The cast are engaging and economically introduced via action to the reader, they are as shifty and dangerous as the flood waters and everyone is struggling to maintain control.
Richard P. Clark's art is friendly and engaging, capturing the action and reaction as the cast respond to each other. The context is wonderfully evoked, the rooftops that are the small island in the the flood make you fiercely exposed as well as dry, the flood interiors can be a sanctuary or a trap. The cast are individual and expressive, the action has physical force and impact, the conversations ripple with tension. The colouring  brings definition and weight to the context and cast.
This is a bare bones story that stands or falls on the way that the action and cast are managed, the creators wring every drop of tension and engagement from the story, giving the reader a great deal of pleasure in the process.

Star Power Volume 1: Star Power and the 9th Wormhole. Michael Terracciano (Writer), Garth Graham (Art).

Very engaging and enjoyable science fiction superhero story. Danica Maris is employed on Space Station Sanctury Six as as assistant astronomer until she becomes the Star Power Sentinal, an ancient threath has returned and the Star Power Sentinal is needed again.
The story is a classic superhero set up delivered with tremendous confidence and energy that shows why the genre is so resilient, done well it is very engaging and enjoyable. Michael Terracciano respects the readers enough to provide a straightforward superhero story that embraces the genre with energy and confident skill. The two significant problems of a superhero storyy are managed with care and telling detail. The first is the origin of the superhero, Michael Terraccianohas chosen the transformation route which can be tricky to pull off. How to transform a slightly marginal character into the superhero without annoying a reader is a difficult task, this is part of the essential fantasy of a superhero, the key link for the reader to the character. The transformation in Star Power is very nicely done, Danica Maris is introduced and transformed with skillful economy and attention to detail, the story is in part the extension of the transformation as Danica Maris comes to terms with being Star Power.
The second problem is the opposition, if they are not  powerful enough to be a problem for a superhero then there is no dramatic tension in the story. Michael Terracciano has made this look easy, the threat is substantial and requires the full power and brains of the superhero to manage, it is a happily close fought struggle. The end may never have been in doubt, the journey is great fun and nicely unexpected. 
Garth Graham is a superb science fiction superhero artist, the cast, context and action are exactly what they should be. The cosmic context is created and supported with telling detail, the physical space of the space stations are done with tremendous flair, they feel right, functional and futuristic at the same time. The cast are great, Star Power is clearly a human female without being grotesquely disproportionate, the opposition are different, expressive and powerful. The colouring is science fiction colouring that captures the emotional tones and nuances of the story with care, it gives the context shape and definition critical to supporting the action.
Comics are a natural home for science fiction and Star Power is a hugely enjoyable comic that happily reminds readers why superheros are so much fun.

Snow by Night. Volume 1: Calcination. Eric Menge (Writer, Letters), Brittany Michel (Pencils, Inks), Natalie BaakLini, Britany Michel (Colours), Mythmakers LLC (2017)

A charming and enjoyable fairy story that a very welcome edge. Two thieves, Blaise and Lassart  make a fine living in the town of Sherbourg. Then they find that someone else is getting to their targets ahead of them, a very capable thief who is also robbing from people who have paid protection to to Blaise and Lassart. They hset out to discover who the thief is and when they do they realise that there is much more going on that they had thought.
Eric Menge uses the genre of charming rogues who find that they are playing for higher stakes than they had counted on to great effect by confidently making the rogues rather less charming and rather more thoroughly criminal. They are professional thieves, they may be able to be charming, they are also professionally hard and willing to act harshly to achieve their aims. This gives the story a greater bite and force and means that those who are equally professionally putting pressure on Blaise and Lassart are a genuine threat. Putting the new thief into this mix is skillfully done, a very different motivation pushes the story nicely and sets up the story possibilities in a very engaging and enjoyable way.
The art is engaging and enjoyable, the faux historical context is drawn with detail and energy, this is a costume adventure story with taverns, merchant houses and tricorn hats. Brittany Michel takes advantages of the possibilities to dress the cast with care and the relevant details are provided to ensure that the action is always given the setting it needs. The cast are strongly individual and full of expressive personality, they move through the context with physical force and speed. The fairy tale elements are very nicely integrated within the story and they do not overwhelm or undermine the story.The colours capture the tone of the story with subtle care and give the details of the story shape and clarity.
The creators confidently mix genres  and drive the story with deep skill, balancing the elements so that the reader is engaged and charmed while the story has enough depth and possibilities to leave them waning to see how it will unfurl.

Plume.Volume 1 K.Lynne Smith. (Writer & Art). plumecomic.com

A very engaging western that uses supernatural elements to great effect. Volume 1 contains chapters 1- 5 the whole story is archived at the website. Vesper Grey is  dying of boredom at her aunt's house, left there by her father, an archeologist (Indiana Jones variety),  when he returns and takes her with him on a journey. He is robbed and killed and Vesper pursues a trail of revenge with a companion Corrick. The story is  beautifully balanced between the demand of the two genres, Western and supernatural adventure and the result is tremendous fun.
Vesper is very engaging, emerging into her true self as she set out on her journey and discovering the relish for adventure that is vital to the story. She is determined, dangerous and compelling, engaging the reader from the opening with a sharp wit and forceful personality. She is a tremendous Western lead character, capturing the genre requirements and nailing them. Corrick is the other element of the story, his presence never undermis or overwhelms the Western element, it is a smart counterpoint that instead brings out the depth in the genre and gives a additional depth and flavour. The action takes clasic Western sets up and uses them with joyous confidence and zest, they are neatly and cleverly subverted without ever being mishandled.
The art is a pleasure, from the opening sequence, the powerful expressiveness of the art captures the context and cast with force and care, the core of the story and the cast are established with astonishing economy and effectiveness and as the story doubles back and the details are delivered, the promise of the opening is delivered upon in spades.
The colouring is great, it gives the details definition and weight as well as capturing the tone of the story and strongly expressing it. The sound effects are spot on, they give the story the required boost when needed. There are never enough really good Westerns, Plume is one and a delight to read.

Guilded Age. Volume 1 T. Campbell, Phil Khan (Writers), Erica Henderson (Art) . (http://guildedage.net/)

A hugely engaging and enjoyable heroic adventure that embraces all of the genre requirements and confidently updates and subverts them with very smart story telling and sharp humour. A group of adventurers are hired by the leading power in the continent of Arkerra, Gastonia, as a special team of "Peace Makers". The team are well aware that "Peace" is not really their remit, still they acknowledge that Gastonia are a the lesser of two evils in the fight between Gastonia and the Savage Lands. As importantly they are all adrenaline junkies and action and adventure are as necessary to them as breath and food.
T. Campbell, Phil Khan take a well established genre framework and have a great deal of fun with it without ever betraying or undermining it. The story is smartly structured, opening with an episode that introduces the team in full action before moving back to introducing the team and leading up to the event that lead them to start working together. A pirate band have kidnapped several children of very rich citizens of Gastonia and the lure of adventure and money is potent. The episode unfolds with tremendous confidence and force as the team meet and work together and find that they are good together.
The cast are sharply individual as well as matching genre stereotypes, they are both entirely themselves and who they should be in the conyext of the story. This very difficult task is made look easy and natural by the writing that smarly uses very funny jokes to sharpen the story and give the cast a chance to step out of their genre boundries and reveal themselves as individuals.
Erica Henderson's art is wonderful, it is a pleasure to read, delivering the fantasy version of magical middle ages that is needed by the context. The cast, both the leading players and the walk on parts are given great expressiveness and they move through their context with physical weight.
The colouring brings out all the tones and nuances of the story with subtelty and care, the details are given clarity and depth and the emotional tone of the story is always captured and expressed.
Guilded Age takes readers seriously enough to ensure that the story has depth and reach and at the same time is very funny, the very talented creators mix the elements with subtle
confidence and skill making this a deep pleasure to read.

Discord Volume 1. Simon Watts (Writer), Michael Wojciechowski (Art) (DiscordWebcomic.com)

Very engaging and enjoyable science fiction comic that sets up the context and cast very well and then delivers a substantial event. Discord is a library that lies between the thirteen dimensions of the multiverse, providing knowledge to those who need it. Flora, a young girl who has just moved to Washington DC with her father finds Discord and borrows a book. This turns out to be a bit more complicated than it would appear and Flora becomes an employee of Discord. Discord becomes involved in a major problem on a planet in one of the dimensions, the planet is under attack by the Dread Shark and things do not go well for anyone.
 Simon Watts has solved the problems of starting a story with confidence and nice attention to detail. Discord and the staff are introduced in a natural and effective way that gives each member of the staff a chance to establish themselves. From the good looking adventurous staff, the pedantic robotic staff and the crusty librarian there are no surprises, they all quickly establish themselves ap personalities in their own right and the internal politics of Discord give them depth. When the action starts,  Simon Watts shits the gears of the story seamlessly, mixing a planetary event with up close and personal action by the cast that never looses the balance of the story or slows the momentum. One very welcome aspect to the story is the hard won optimism that emerges.
Michael Wojciechowski's friendly art is a pleasure to read. The lines are soft and inviting, the cast feel organic and are strongly expressive. The aliens are a nice mix of shapes and sizes, all move through the story with force and intent. The art captures the subtle toughness and strength of the writing, there are sharp dark corners in the story that are brought to life with equal force to the quiet moments, the weight of the story is strongly carried forward by the art. The colouring is lovely, it brings out the details of the story and the cast and gives consistent emotional tone to the story. The lettering is quiet and natural except when it delivers the vital sound effect  to make a scene jump off the page.
Discord is a great story and a very inviting comic, it manages to be playful when needed and bitter when required without ever loosing the essential  thread that runs through the story, Discord is a resource to help others and it does so.

Derelict. Book 1: Deluge. Ben Fleuter

A very engaging and enjoyable dystopian science fiction comic. The earth had become hostile to human life, the survivors have been driven off the land onto floating cities. On land strange creatures, misamics rule, creatures of the dangerous fog. Dang Thu Mai is a human scavenger, sailing alone along the coasts and retrieving what she can. She encounters severe trouble and later finds a deserted ship that contains a lot of unexpected information.
Ben Fleuter has created a credible world full of unexpected dangers with wonderful confidence. The silent pages reflects the isolation of Dang Thu Mai she sails her ship on her salvage. The hard work and the megre rewards matched with great risks are displayed with care and detail. The reader is drawn deeply into the world and the struggle for living before the action starts to kick off. When it does it is sharp and fast, the lonely life of a scavenger makes Dang Thu Mai a target for others who see her as an opportunity to scavenge themselves.  Dang Thu Mai responds to the problems in a way that clearly establishes her determination and willingness to defend what she owns.  Another encounter shows just how many creatures now inhabit the earth, before the story shifts a gear with the discovery of the human exploration ship and the assault on a major misamic location.
The art is lovely, the destabilised world littered with the remains of technology and the bones of the hums who used it are provided without ever crowding out the cast or the action. The details show the world and free the cast from the need to tell, the action reveals the story in a very natural way. The cast are very expressive, they are individual and full of personality. The leads and the walk on parts are all given an opportunity to register with the reader and narrative never falters.
The colouring is superb, it catches the mood of the story and gives depth and clarity to the cast and the context. The lettering is clear and easy to read.
Dystopian science fiction has a difficult balance to achieve, the problem has to be big enough to threaten everyone, the survivors have to adapt and still want to reclaim what was lost and the will to struggle. If there is no hope there is no story, if there is no serious struggle there is no drama, Ben Fleuter has managed the balance very well. The problems and difficulties are immense and the personal cost is significant, the will to live shines strongly and that drives the story and hooks the reader in a most enjoyable way.

The Kill Call. Stephen Booth. Harper (2010)

An enjoyable police procedural set in the Derbyshire moors. Hounds from a local hunt find the body of a man with severe head injuries, an anonymous call had place a victim some distance away. Detective Sergent Diane Fry and Detective Constable Matt Cooper have a problematic start to the investigation. The presence of the hunt with the attendant friction between hunters and objectors is a complicating factor. The threads of the investigation pick up with the identification of the victim and his links with the meat industry. The investigation  unfolds carefully as the range of activities the victim was involved in start to increase the number of potential suspects. A split narrative regarding a little know piece of military activity related to Cold War fears comes to a satisfyingly bitter conclusion.
The plot mechanics are the better part of this story, the cast are a little too subdued to actively engage the reader. Diane Fry is a spiky conflicted character who finds that her past is catching up with her in a way that considerably increases the pressure on her in her current position. She is a fish out of water in the rural setting, seeking to escape and finding herself somewhat unmoored rather than free. Her anger and frustration are vividly realised, they just are not applied effectively in the story. The investigation does not move her anywhere further, the circumstances she finds herself in are left open so she is effectively dancing on the spot.
Ben Cooper is from the local area and has deep roots in the community and again he is vividly realised but the interaction between the character and the plot is not very profound. The lead characters have come to critical points in their lives and they wrestle credibly with them, the plot and the investigation runs along side them on a parallel line. This is disappointing as the writing is excellent and it feels like a missed opportunity to give the investigation a greater force and impact. The second plot thread avoids all these issues as it captures with brutal precision the way the past can grip someone and blind them to the present leading to a terrible result. This is so well done it rather highlights the failure of the main story to achieve the same impact.This is a very good crime story. well worth any readers time, the fact that it misses being a great crime story is as much a tribute to the expectations it creates as it is a criticism.

The Shadow Volume Three: The Light of the World. Chris Robertson (Writer), Giovanni Timpano (Art), Fabrico Guerra (Colours), Rob Steen (Letters) Dynamite (2014)

A very enjoyable Shadow story that is really for existing fans. A series of very brutal murders attracts the attention of the Shadow, there is no apparent link between the victims other than the way they are killed and reports of a ghostly figure seen near the crime scenes. As the Shadow investigates the link becomes clear and the Shadow finds a thread that could lead to the killer. The story is very well staged, the action is tremendous and the climax is satisfying. The story uses all the beats of a Shadow story with care and skill, everything a existing fan would require is present and that is the problem. It is a very good Shadow story for a fan, it does require a degree of prior knowledge to appreciate the details of the story. It does not quite catch fire and become a deeply engaging Shadow story nor does it offer an invite to a casual reader to discover the joy of The Shadow.
Chris Robertson has written a smartly constructed and credible Shadow story, the crimes are bold enough to attract attention, the period details are used with effect, never calling attention to themselves they just confidently support the context. The cast are all given the room to be themselves and have a part to play other than being a roll call. The Shadow is given the force and drive that is needed to push the story, his encounters with the killer have weight, the killer is a formidable opponent and this means the Shadow has to work hard to achieve his goal.
 Giovanni Timpano's art captures the physical context with telling detail and the cast move naturally through the context. The Shadow has a brooding, powerful presence that gives him the menace that requires. The action is great, there is a force and weight to the movements and the cast engage directly with each other. The quieter moments are done with care and skill, they bring the reader into the story. The lines are a little too soft for my taste, the cast need a bit more definition in their faces to emerge with a real individuality, they do not quite look like they have lived the lives they have.
Fabrico Guerra's colours are great, they give definition and depth to the cast, they bring out the tones of the story with subtle care. They time shifts are clearly signaled without overwhelming the narrative drive of the story .
Rob Steen's letters are natural and easy to read, they never draw attention to themselves, the sound effects are excellent, they never get in the way of a story where the colouring is used to as a special effect. Any Shadow fan will enjoy this comic, I do not think it would create any new ones.

Rip Haywire and The Curse of Tangaroa!. Dan Thompson (Writer and Artist). IDW Publishing (2011)

A hugely enjoyable and engaging adventure comic that is also laugh out loud funny. Rip Haywire was born to adventure, working with is mother on top secret missions during his school holidays. When Rip has the chance to meet up again with the extremely dangerous Cobra Carson and find the ghost compass he naturally leaps straight in. The following adventure is jet powered two-fisted adventure as Rip discovers that the past is more dangerous than any pit of alligators. The story moves at break neck speed, the action scenes are fantastic, the jokes are superb and the climax unexpected and moving.
Dan Thompson has created something special with Rip Haywire, a thoroughgoing adventure that takes itself seriously enough for the jokes to deliver, they never undercut the story, they enhance it. Rip Haywire is the perfect updating of the adventures from the heroes of previous generations of newspaper strips. He lives for adventure, travels a world full of hidden tombs, elaborate traps in steamy jungles and never met a villain he was not happy to punch.
Cobra Carson is equally iconic, an hourglass figure, and as dangerous as her namesake, she is the femme fatale who doubles as the damsel in distress when needed who finds her soulmate with Rip.
Two walking cliches that should just be stale and faded burst into glorious life due to the stunning combination of Dan Thompson's writing and wonderful art.
The art is deceptively simple, the context is never very detailed, it does not need to be, enough to set the scene for the wonderfully expressive cast. All of the cast, including the walk on parts are given the spark of life that engages the reader so that the action always has depth and consequences. Slathered with humour it is never ridiculous, Dan Thompson clearly established the terms of the story and delivers wholesale. The heroes are larger than life, the villains are completely villainous, the clash is epic. Threaded throughout this is the relationship between Rip and his mother and Cobra and Rip, it is never shortchanged nor is it pushed at the expense of the action. It brings the required depth and humanity to Rip, Cobra and Rip's mother and gives the story the weight it needs to drive the climax.
As well as being a great fun read this is a great comic, it uses the possibilities of mixing art and story with tremendous skill, confidence and talent. Dan Thompson has made a very difficult task look easy and natural, an unlimited pleasure.