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Devil May Cry 5 certainly leaves an impression. What felt like a franchise unable to come back from the brink, now feels like one with a future.
Posted in: Comics | Tagged: chroma, Comics, dead man's party, entertainment, Flutter, indie spotlight, Serving Supes
Indie Spotlight On Serving Supes, Chroma, Flutter And Dead Man's Party
By Shawn Perry, the return of Indie Spotlight featuring coverage of Serving Supes, Chroma, Dead Man's Party and Flutter Volume Two…
Serving Supes by Steve Stern, Matt Yuan and John Yuan is a buddy comedy following the misadventures of Cheech and Clive O'Huang as they attempt to earn their living by, as promised, serving court summons to deadbeat superheroes. You might ask why limit themselves to such an small niche and this exact question is addressed in one of my favorite exchanges in the book with an air of self-aware humor that really gives this book its charm. The first issue features strong artwork from the Yuan brothers and follows our heroes as they try to solve their money woes by chasing a big score with the help of a well-rounded cast of co-workers featuring a braniac alien, an ex-sidekick and a smarmy tactical sergeant who helps chase down their lead at Ladies Night which leads to her getting a date and the brothers getting wrapped up in their targets' whip of truth all night…with hilarious results. The first issue is currently available on the 1First Comics website along with other great series like Captain Freebird and Frickin' Butt Kickin' Zombie Ants by Stern and the Fillbach Brothers.
A while back I went to a Smoke-and-Draw event at the Tobacco Shop in Hartford where a number of eclectic art social events are held, all of which involve great cigars and BYOB regulations, where I met a couple of great artists who introduced me to Chroma. As featured artists John Cardinal and Adam Miller explained in a video interview from Tryptic Press, Chroma collects the work of New England-based artists and allows them a platform to tell personal stories about their artistic process as well as showcase their work. Some of my favorite pieces in the first volume were a surrealist take on Starry Night in New England by Miller along with Cardinal's powerful vision of a zombie outbreak in New York City. Along with Miller and Cardinal, some of the artists included in volume one are; Dan Blackeslee, Robert Gill, James Weinberg, Emily Dumas, Scott Mulcahey, Michael Crockett, Greg Orfanos, Raul Gonzalez III and Andrew Houle. The thing that struck me the most while reading Chroma was that that collective product was much stronger than the sum of its parts, which, despite not including one traditional comic book story really says volumes about the comic book community we have here in New England. The first two volumes of Chroma are available on their website and a third volume will be out later this year.
While I am the last person who should be complaining about things being late considering I am perennially behind schedule, because I enjoyed the first volume so much, it has been an agonizingly long wait for the next chapter of Flutter by Jennie Wood. This gender-swapping tale follows Lily as she balances growing up with keeping her super powers a secret and once again features brilliantly-smooth artwork and layouts from Jeff McComsey (Fubar), who is also joined by Chris Goodwin and Jeff Mcclelland on colors and letters, respectively. The first issue of volume two takes us right back to where we left off after Lily, who possesses the power of transformation ala-Mystique form the X-Men, did the whole 'girl-meets-girl – girl uses super-powers to swap genders – girl gets girl as boy – girl-as-boy meets cool punk chick – girl learns about the value of self-acceptance – girl-as-boy gets embroiled in government conspiracy due to her mysterious origin' trope.
Still with me?
This book was easily in my top five books of last year so if you haven't read the first volume yet, please, do so before reading on because (spoilers) in the first issue the plot has already thickened considerably on all fronts as Lily and Penelope begin to confront the issue of how Lily's mysterious powers will affect their future. Meanwhile, everyone is searching for them including Penelope's step-father who brought an interesting touch of moral ambiguity to the first volume with his textbook pattern of abuse-protect-apologize, both as an parent and no-shenanigans small town cop. We also spend some time with the mysterious government agency that has been chasing down Lily and her surrogate father since day one and are introduced to Penelope's biological father, who is found in self-imposed exile by Agent Ada who explains to him that Penelope is missing and we learn more about her tragic past. In a telling touch of foresight Wood cleverly employs forward jumps in time that give us a glimpse at a future where things do not go as planned for Penelope and Lily…but for more on that you will have to wait until the next spotlight or find out yourself by picking up volume two of Flutter which is available online and at your local comic shop (if they're cool).
Dead Man's Party by Jeff Marsick (Z-Girl and the Four Tigers) comes from Darby Pop Publishing and Magnetic Press and follows an assassin known only as Ghost as he does the unthinkable and puts out a hit on himself to give his fellow compatriots in the assassin game a chance to kill him either as an act of respect or revenge in a sort of insane riff on the Viking funeral concept. Why he does this is something only the people who read the book will find out, but I will add is that the hit is irrevocable which means if Ghost just did this when he was just having a bad day or did it as a joke there is no calling it off now.
I love the hook here as the best enemies are always the ones who know you best and I am very interested to learn about why Ghost picks the five assassins to do him this unique solid and how he's going to deal with each of them. What's the bigger picture? As you can see in the books video trailer the book features some great artwork by Scott Barnett and you can get the first two issues on Comixology with the third issue coming out soon.
Til' Next Time Bleeders!
Shawn Perry is a comic book and film enthusiast striving to be here now. He currently resides in East Hartford, Connecticut. Tweet him @thesperry and email him about life and your stories at Shawn.Perry88@gmail.com.
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