Toothville Issue 1. Kim Roberts (Writer), Gabe Ostely (Art), Chris Allen (Colours & Letters). Swamp Line Productions (2017)

Very engaging and enjoyable first issue that develops an unexpected set up with with skill, detail and tremendous energy. There is trouble in Toothville, home of the tooth fairies, thanks to the new toothpaste, Decayless developed by Johnann Dipplurger. Tilda Hillfairy, the most unemployable tooth fairy in Toothville has developed Toothrot which could be the answer, unfortunately Tilda's demonstration is far too successful and she is banished. Determined to rescue Toothville Tilda finds out that Dipplurger is much more than a dentist and sets out to discover what he is really up to.
Kim Roberts has delivered a lot of story that solve the problems of a first issue with great energy and style. Toothville and Tilda are introduced with great energy, Tilda is not someone who fits into the traditional roles in Toothville, she has an exploring mind and the energy and patience to pursue her goals. She is also awkward and impatient, getting into trouble because she is in such a hurry. She has energy, confidence and a crackling charm that captures and engages the reader. A classic outsider who wants to be an insider, Tilda is off to discover much more than just the truth behind Decayless. Johnann Dipplurgerr is a suitable villain, he is determined and competent, his pursuit of secret knowledge was successful because he knew what to do to get what he wanted. Dipplurger and Tilda will make engaging opponents and the story possibilities that have been set up are deeply enticing.
Gabe Ostely art is perfect, it has energy and force, Tilda has the bright eyed approach and forceful presence that she needs. Johnann Dipplurger is a supervillian from his utterly insincere toothy smile to his wonderful swagger and careful preparations. The discipline of the art is very impressive, very tight control of the panel lays out manages the pace of the story with care and attention. The cast and context need to be slightly exaggerated to succeed without ever becoming overly cartoony. Gabe Ostely keeps the cast hugely expressive without ever betraying them, there are real emotions streaming through the cast.
Chris Allen's colours are a pleasure, they are bright and glowing as the fairy tale roots of the story and are a dark when they need to be as a fairy tale should be. They bring out the nuances and details of the story and the art with subtle effectiveness, they illuminate the story. The letters are natural and easy to read, the sound effects provide the emphasis needed to for the action and give the story the loud crunch that it deserves. A great fun comic that holds the promise of much more fun to come.

Jeb Clucker's 100 Acres of Hen. Kim Roberts (Writer), Gabe Ostely (Art), Chris Allen (Letters and Colours) WP Comics (2017)

Very funny and horrifyingly gory, a clever take on a horror staple that uses a simple change to give allow humour and gore happily work together. A tourist party on a camping trip take a wrong turn and find themselves camping in a unscheduled location. It does not go well.
The fact that the entire cast are chickens is a simple and very smart shift in story. The room for chicken related jokes is taken at every opportunity by Kim Robert, who does so without every killing the central joke. In a very short space the cast are introduced, and different enough so that they are clearly individuals, the reader has enough chance to register them before the inevitable happens. The story structure correctly follows a familiar format, the ideas are used very effectively to counterpoint the inherent absurdity of the cast.
Gabe Ostley's art, from the wonderful cover and throughout the book is a joy to read. It manages the difficult task of being completely absurd and satisfying forceful, the cast are chickens acting like humans who are involved in savagely violent events. A tricky balance has to be maintained all the time for the story to be successful, the element of parody has to be respected and the gore has to have a genuine impact. Gabe Ostley achieves this balance with confident skill and amazing detail.
Chris Allen's colours are bright and exuberant, not horror colours at all, they work fantastically in the context of Kim Roberts smart story structure and Gabe Ostely's art. They give the vivid expression to the absurdity and the gore. The sound effects are exactly the right side of cartoony.
What makes this comic work is that beneath the bright and wild story there is real menace arising from the tension between the story structure and the delivery. A very funny story that never forgets that it is a horror story.
Chief Wizard Note: This is a review copy very kindly sent by Kim Roberts. To purchase a copy of Jeb Clucker's 100 Acres of Hen, you should to usher in the 2017 with a really good comic and give yourself the best possible start, it is available from http://www.wpcomicsltd.com/comics

Eagleburger. Rudy Dean, Jef Stout (Writers), Gabe Ostely (Art) WP Comics (2016)

A dense, engaging and very inclusive conspiracy comix. This is very much in the tradition of earlier generations of underground comix, it explores the true history of recent decades via the conspiracies that swirl around Area 51, the Kennedy assassination, Elvis Presley and the notions of secret organisations that really run the world.
Dale Eagle, a fresh and deeply enthusiastic recruit to the CIA is transferred to Area 51 where he meets Agent Balzac and Deep Throat. Area 51 is not what Eagleburger expected, it proves not just to be a hidden site for the examination and exploitation of alien technology, it has layers of secrecy and conspiracy that suck the agent in far over his head. The action steadily gets more and more entangled, with details of one conspiracy bleeding into another until they are all finally drawn to together in an epic court case and and a conclusion that manages an effective change of tone.
The story is fabulously dense with detail and incident, Rudy Dean and Jef Stout have managed to include a bewildering array of conspiracy theories and loudly and savagely mock them all. This is a comedy not humour, the laughs come from the savage collisions of the cast and the plot. The unexpected use of well known characters like Elvis, J.F. Kennedy, Robert Oppenheimer is very well done,  rarely have they been used with such brutality and brutal effectiveness.
The extraordinary aspect to this comix is the discipline of the writing, the story is told in a hysterical key, everything is at top volume and there is no room for nuance. Keeping this coherent and on target is a very considerable achievement. The story travels in very wide loops to come back to nearly the same point of departure before looping off again. The powerful control that is exercised to ensure that the whole edifice does not collapse in on itself is rare, the story is unbalanced by design and that takes impressive confidence, technical ability and talent.
Gabe Ostely art catches the momentum and the ferocious comedy of the writing and explodes it onto the pages of the comix. The cast are all near caricatures, except where they are outright caricatures, they move through a fractured and absurd context with force and manic energy. The colouring is fantastic, it changes as the narratives move from one story to another, the different colouring is the key that keeps them organised and lets the reader move from one to another. The panel layouts control the pace of the story, from multiple close ups for conversations to full page spreads, the reader is consistently given variety to read.
The enormous ambitious density of the story and the high energy of the art play a bit against the overall impact of the comix. It is so dense that it is a little overwhelming for the reader, there is so much information on every page that it can be difficult to keep up with all the layers to the set up. The story is so dense that without the enormous energy in the comix the story would not lift off at all, let alone as successfully as it does. This is a mighty blunderbuss of a comix, apparently scattershot, with a very smart story engineering directing the delivery. This is made clear in the conclusion where the calm tone allows for something nasty to appear and to give the work the sharp edge it needs.
Chief Wizard Note: This is a review copy kindly sent by Kim Roberts. To purchase a copy of Eagleburger, reading a vibrantly passionate, creative and pummeling comix is a great form of exercise clinically proven to improve you mental muscle tone, it can be purchased here http://www.wpcomicsltd.com/comics