Hollow Testament: A Supernatural Noir Crossover Comic Book. Luke Cooper,Frank Martin(Writers) Matt Shults, Stamatis Tzatzakis (Art) Kicksterter

There are never enough good comics and the opportunity to help get one is very welcome.  Hollow Testament is a live campaign on Kickstarter now that I am backing and I hope will get enough support to be completed.

A deeply enticing mash up of two superb comics, Modern Testament by Frank Martin and Hollow Girl by Like Cooper. Hollow Testament has found a deeply intriguing point between the two stories that moves both forward in an very engaging way. The Hollow Girl is the willing vessel for spirits who have unfinished business with those who ended their lives on Earth. Modern Testament takes another look at the the Biblical cast and gives then a new context to shine brightly in.
The Hollow Girl becomes the temporary home for the first ever murder victim, Abel, Death finds that the Hollow Girl is uncomfortable competition, and a spirit wants to prevent a tragedy. All deeply engaging ideas in their own right, Frank Martin and Luke Cooper have a history of excecuting great ideas with confidence and flair.
I love mash ups, well done you get a new view on the individual stories and cast and the pleasure of a new story as well.  Good comics are clinically proven to increase your happiness in living and to improve your life.

www.ModernTestamentKickstarter.com

Good Cop Bad Cop. Jim Alexander. Planet Jimbot (2018)

A griping and deeply engaging story that is a grim and bloody pleasure to read. Detective Inspector Brian Fisher is assaulted while interviewing a suspect at a police station, the outcome is brutal, unexpected and the start of a chain of events that lead to a deeply satisfying, bitter conclusion.
Jim Alexander has deftly sidestepped the problems with the idea of a human containing two distinct personalities, one relatively mild manner and the other a walking pulse of rage with such confident ease that the reader  never has a reason to fall out of the story.
The writing is lush, there is never one word where two or more could do the job better and not a single excess word among them. The language creates the room for the context and the cast to develop and expand, pulling the reader deeper and deeper into the events as they unfold. The jet black humour lacing the story lives and breaths in the play of the words and the extraordinary energy they contain and deliver.
The cast are a joy, the DI Fishers do not dominate the story, they are articulate an, murderous, rageful and considered. They are clearly distinct and equally obviously related to each other. The way that they transition is perfectly staged and frequently unexpected. Jim Alexander carefully sets up readers expectations and then sidesteps them in the most satisfying manner, nothing can be taken for granted. Detective Sargent Julie Spencer, assigned to work with the DIs Fisher has a sharp and determined view of the work she is doing and the events that she becomes involved in. She pulls the story in a different direction giving it scope and room that it needs to bloom its its full glory.
The context for the story, a hellscape of Glasgow full of people busy doing terrible thing to each other is vital to the story, it groans everyone in a location that is utterly suitable for them. No one is too violent or horrible for this city.
One of the best things that Jim Alexander does is to avoid completely a staple of the crime genre , none of the cast are overly stupid. Some of the cast are severely limited in their thinking and problem recognizing and solving skills, their whole lives reflect this. No one is strategically stupid as required to drive the plot, there are a lot of very competent people in the story who act competently to achieve their aims. The lack of stupidity gives the book an increasing edge as it unfolds, the cast are very much doing what the intend to do and their actions can be brutal.
Jim Alexander has the confidence to take on an established idea and discover why it has become established, to develop and execute a griping story. The technical skill of the writing is unforced and an easy to glide over exactly as designed creating a grip on the reader as the story moves smoothly into darker and darker tones.
God Cop Bad Cop is a dark and deep pleasure to read.
Chief Wizard Note:  This is a review copy very kindly sent by Jim Alexander. Should you want to purchase GodCopBadCop, and it would be a very smart thing to do to ghive yourself the unlimited pleasure of a good book, it is avalible here:

UK

Amazon (print & digital): https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1916453503

Blackwell’s (print): https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9781916453500

Kobo (digital): https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/goodcopbadcop

US

Amazon (print & digital): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1916453503

Barnes & Noble (print & digital): https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/1129823698

Kobo (digital): https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/goodcopbadcop

Eleven Days, Stav Sherez. Faber and Faber (2013)

A grim and brutal crime story that is deeply engaging and enjoyable.  In the countdown to Christmas a Catholic nun's convent is gutted by fire in a wealthy, discreet London suburb. The discovery of 10 nuns dead in a locked room makes arson into murder. Detective Inspector Carrigan and Detective Sergeant Miller are involved in the investigation which is getting intense attention from a very senior police officer. The investigation is complicated by the discovery of an eleventh victim in the chapel. As the investigation starts to develop the involvement of some very violent criminals becomes clear and the investigation is not helped by the attitude of the church hierarchy. The reveals are superbly staged and the gripping plot mechanics are unfolded with confident skill and extraordinary timing. The investigation is methodical, committed and conducted under intense pressure. The twists and tums are natural and unexpected right down to the savagely bitter. conclusion.
Di Carrigan and DS Miller are suitably conflicted characters, their private lives are messy but not actually dysfunctional. They are both struggling with the wreckage of the past and throwing themselves into an investigation is a relief from the turmoil. Both are capable, competent and dedicated, they work in the police hierarchy and try to maintain their equilibrium. The supporting cast are given sufficient room and energy to make a strong impression on the reader and in particular as the actions of the gangsters intrude more and more closely onto the investigation.
The plot mechanics are superb, the circles of secrets and justifications that surround the nuns and the pressure to keep the investigation as low profile as possible collide with near physical force. As the history of the nuns in the convent becomes clearer the reach of unresolved history becomes clearer as does the way that a descent into violence can seem utterly rational.Stav Sherez has written a first rate crime novel that takes a difficult situation and shows how actions and consequences are rooted in the people who commit and sufferer them and how they circle back in the most relentless fashion. Grim, brutal and unputdownable.

The Secret Life of Cows. Rosamund Young. Faber & Faber (2017)

A deeply engaging, charming and thoroughly unsentimental book about farming cattle. Rosumund Young and her family run Kite's Nest Farm on the edge of the Cotswolds escarpment. It is a commercial enterprise, the animals on the farm are raised for food. The farm is managed using a very simple idea, that animals are sentient beings who flourish in freedom and proper attention. Animals raised like this produce better tasting beef or pork or chicken which is economically sustainable and rewarding. Based on her close up experience of rearing farm animals Rosamund Young takes aim at factory farming of animals on ethical and economic grounds and makes a very persuasive case.
Her main focus is on cows, pretty much the archetypal dumb beast, standing chewing a cud in a field, they are the picture of vacancy on legs. Without sufficient variety to stimulate them any sentient creature will be reduce to the minimum required to cope with very limited circumstances. They will shrink to fit, given access to water, shelter and food the same creature will expand to fit the circumstances. Rosamund Young writes form her observations of how widely cows will expand to fill the available space, respond to trust and careful attention.
Cows are herd animals, they communicate strongly with each other and anyone who interacts with them if they are willing to be communicated with. Anthropomorphism generally gets a bad name as a sentimental ruse to try and communicate with animals, bridging the gap by ascribing human attributes to animals. As anyone who has had prolonged contact with an animal,domestic or farm, will know that animals have individual characters, preferences and vividly expressed and felt emotions. This is not imposing a human facade on an animal, it is the exact opposite, it is observing them on their own terms. This is what Rosamund Young does and she writes about these observations with sparking wit and a deep appreciation for the animals.
She writes about the ways they respond to living, interacting with their own and with humans. The cows are named individuals because they are clearly individuals and it would be wildly insulting to treat them as anything else. The writing is never twee or cute, the fact that the background is commercial farming makes a considerable difference. There are no gentlewoman farming rearing pets in the guise of farming. This is straightforward observation based on close and continuous contact driven by the desire to produce better beef as cost effectively as possible.
Rosamund Young points out that they made a deliberate choice to stop being a dairy farm and concentrate on beef and this is fundamental to how the cows are managed. If the product is not milk it gives the cattle a very different life path and avoids operational and commercial problems that dairy production bring with it. The fact that these problems provide a very convenient cover for the agriculture industry to not directly engage with the concerns and ideas that are raised in the book is illustrated by a simple thought experiment. When reading the book replace the word cows with the word staff, the effect for anyone who has ever read anything about employee engagement is depressing. Units of farm production or units of headcount the view from the governing spredsheet is the same, cattle farm or cube farm it makes no difference.
The Secret Life of Cows is a pleasure to read, Rosanund has a great series of stories to tell and tells them wonderfully well.

Salvager Vol 2. The Wreck Raiders. Bob Salley (Writer), George Acevedo, Chris Gevenois, Eric Godeau (Artists), DeSika, Fahriza Kamaputra (Colours), HdE (Letters). Source Point Press

A wonderfully unexpected and engaging continuation of the Salvagers story. The crew having survived the journey to salvage the wreck are returning to the space station to offload the cargo and settle the debts. The cargo is not quite what it seems and that is the point where Bob Salley takes an unexpected route with the story. There is a vivid and deep expansion of the context with the introduction of the Klandarian Pirates. They are not simply roving thieves, there is a strong and sharp back story that intersects nicely with the salvagers. The greater political and historical depth gives the story considerable depth and gives the action a considerably sharper edge. The Klandarian Pirates have been employed to recover the cargo the salvagers now have, they get more and less than they expected when they arrive at the ship and the plot reveals are very smartly staged. The following conflict has a increased set of layers that are carefully put together to mover the whole story very far forward.
Bob Salley has the confidence to move the story out of the expected while still managing to hit all the genre beats, they all take a different flavour in the light of the extended context. The hovering threat from Blackbane, a private security force comes into focus and the political and social wreckage from the Galactic War becomes significant. The developments arise naturally and steadily from the story and they  draw the reader further and further into the action.
George Acevedo, Chris Gevenois, Eric Godeau continue to shine with the art, the space opera context is delivered with all the relevant detail and physical weight. The new cast members are as energetic and forceful as the rest, they have a determination to pursue their aims that make them very powerful. The social and political context is captured with sufficient detail without ever overwhelming or slowing down the action. The action kicks up a notch as the plot threads starts to wind around each other and cast respond expressively and energetically.
DeSika, Fahriza Kamaputra colours give physical depth and weight to the dynamic art, they bring out the subtle differences in the cast and make the body language clear and critical.  HdE's lettering and sound effects are as subtle, unobtrusive and vital as they were in the previous volume.
Really good space opera is a rare treat, Salvagers has the confidence and talent to deliver it, using of the unlimited budget of comics and the superb story this is the real thing. Taking the reader seriously enough to push the story possibilities, having the confidence to dive deep into the genre this griping story is just a deep pleasure to read and enjoy.

Salvagers Vol 1.Abandonded Cargo. Bob Salley (Writer), George Acevedo, Chris Gevenois, Eric Godeau (Artists), DeSika, Fahriza Kamaputra (Colours), HdE (Letters). Source Point Press

A very enjoyable and engaging space opera. After a Galactic War a precarious peace exists, within this there is still trouble and problems. These can leave wreckage behind, abandoned ships or space stations that need to be recovered for their residual value. Salvagers are commissioned to recover these wrecks, take the risks and get the , sometimes, high rewards. The salvagers are often the flotsam and jetsam of the war, finding the stability of peace a little to restricting and enjoying the danger of salavaging.
Bob Salley takes a familiar route in this story, a crew member causes a problem that needs to be resolved by the rest of the crew embarking on a dangerous salvage mission. When they arrive at their target there is significant trouble and getting out alive, let alone with any cargo becomes a significant problem. There is a really good reason these story lines are familiar, they work really well if the writer is committed enough to give them the room to work. Bob Salley has a confident grip on the plot mechanics and the genre requirements and gives the story momentum and a nice tension. The reveals are neatly staged, the action is fast and very well staged, the crew have the energy needed to register with the reader as individuals.
The art by George Acevedo, Chris Gevenois, Eric Godeau is a pleasure to read and it captures all of impaction's and context necessary for the story to work. The context details are critical, they create a sufficiently different location planet side and on board the space ships to ground the story in a solid physical reality. The cast move through the context with confidence, they are strongly expressive and sufficiently varied to give a sense of the variety of lifeforms in the galaxy. The leading female character is physically likely, tough and engaging enough to never be walk on eye candy. The aliens are more or less humanoid bipeds, there is enough variety to keep the mix interesting without ever creating a problem for action when needed.
The colouring by George Acevedo, Chris Gevenois, Eric Godeau is wonderful, it brings out the details of the art in a quiet and subtle way, it gives the story depth and force that it should have. The lettering by HdE is quiet, the sound effects are not both flow naturally with the story and art without ever distracting from either.
Saying a story is a really good example of a genre always seems like damming with faint praise and that is the opposite of what I intend. Grasping genre requirements forcefully in a story and using them effectively is a rare talent, delivering the thrill that a space opera fan like myself is looking for is a tough job to pull off. All of the creators on this book work strongly to deliver a vivid engaging story. A treat for science fiction comic fans.