Comic review: The Shrinking Man #1- Soggy Crackers

Original book by: Richard Matheson
Adaptation: Ted Adams
Art & Design: Mark Torres

Publisher: IDW Comics

Released: 29th July 2015


Is there a huge demand for new comic book adaptations of science fiction novels that were popular in the 1950’s?

I’m not trying to be a condescending a*** hole here. All I’m doing is posing a question that I myself would be interested in hearing the answer to.

I’m asking this question because I have just read a 2015 comic book that is setting out to faithfully adapt a 1956 novel, ‘The Shrinking Man,’ by Richard Matheson, and I’m thinking to myself, does this really have an audience?

I read ‘The Shrinking Man’ #1 blind, unaware of any of the history behind it, and my initial reaction to it was, why is it being set in the 1950’s?

Now I know, and I don’t quite know how to feel about it. The comic book certainly reads like an adaptation of a 1950’s novel. It’s slow, not much happens, and it’s all about the main protagonist, a bloke who is getting smaller and smaller.

This first issue tells the ‘before’ story of the shrinking man, exploring his thoughts and concerns about his condition. Understandably, he’s not very happy about it. During the book we see him moaning to his wife and going to some scientists in the hope that they can cure him. Evidentially they failed to stop the shrinkage, as when the book switches to the present he is shown to be just the right size to be gobbled up by a spider.

The spider action could have brought some excitement and danger into the narrative, but all the spider does is chase him. There is no confrontation, no fight, no dramatic escape, and when the spider is poised to attack our hero, the narrative jumps to the future, missing out on all of the exciting action that presumably happened in-between. I guess he survived the spider attack, because he’s still alive, but why wasn’t it shown? This is very unsatisfactory.

Strangely enough, the spider and imminent painful death isn’t our heroes main concern. His main concern is how he is going to get some food, and the issue concludes with a very hungry and frustrated little man looking at some soggy crackers. No imminent spider attack, no danger, no tension, no excitement, just boring old soggy crackers, a little man and a rumbling tummy.

Is that supposed to make me feel excited about getting the second issue? Soggy crackers are no cliffhanger. A venomous spider about to devour our protagonist as his hands slowly slip from a table is a cliffhanger, but soggy crackers? I’m sorry, that’s just not cutting it.

I love the retro cover (by Mark Torres), and I’m a huge fan of old comics, so I should have enjoyed this book, but there was something a bit too pedestrian about it all.

It should have been a thrill a minute rollercoaster ride with danger at every corner and a heart stopping cliffhanger to top it all off. That’s what it should have been, but what I’ve actually read here is a plodding narrative about a depressed little man and his box of soggy crackers.

The Shrinking Man will certainly be more interesting to read in trade-paperback, but as a monthly comic book it appears that the adventures of this miniature man from the 1950’s is going to be a long, slow, drawn-out, and not particularly exciting or urgent reading experience.

Rating: 4/10 (Slow, and lacking in moments of danger, tension, urgency and excitement)

Comic review: Gotham by Midnight (Annual) #1- One for the Goths

Writer: Ray Fawkes
Artist: Christian Duce
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 29th July 2015


I intensely dislike comic book narratives that feature order following dogs of the state (soldiers and cops) as the heroic protagonists, and this comic book had two of them in feature roles.

These two ‘heroes’ could have wrecked the book for me, but thankfully there was a third character in the narrative, a ‘Gentleman Ghost’ who was so interesting and charming that he saved, and redeemed, the entire book for me.

I haven’t read ‘Gotham by Midnight’ before, and if all it has to offer is a fiesty, punk comic book cliché young girl detective and her gay partner (who turns into some kind of Christian moral crusader when angry) then I wouldn’t bother with it. I’m not interested in these two characters. The girl is the kind of young girl that you will encounter in just about every DC comic book today, and the guy still struggling with his homosexuality needs to wake up and realise that it’s 2015, and that being gay is no big deal these days.

Thankfully, the book’s main focus was on the villain, and not the two boring cop protagonists. Jim Craddock ‘The Gentleman Ghost’ is an old fashioned, charming, jewel thief, who will steal the girl’s hearts and their jewels as well. It’s all very old fashioned and quaint, I know, and the only reference to modernity was a quick use of a computer (as opposed to a library) when the detectives are doing a bit of homework on their foe.

Gotham by Midnight #1 is one of those comic books that could be set in 1950, or 1970, or 1990, or 2015. It doesn’t reflect anything about the world today, and it’s not even trying to. That’s okay. I can read the occasional comic book that is going for fun rather than trying to say something, and for pure fun this was an enjoyable book. It offers a mildly pleasant diversion to everyday reality, and as a gentle tonic to soothe my soul against corporate neo-liberal hegemony and celebrity culture ignorance of 2015, I found it to be an effective, if temporary balm.

Get the book if you enjoy old fashioned Ghost tales involving romance, train-top chases lit by the full moon and intriguing, villainous rogues that women will always find far more interesting and exciting than their feminised boyfriends who are waiting patiently at home for them like 1950’s housewives.

I enjoyed the book, the art has a nice ‘Gothic’ feel about it, and it left me wanting to read more about Jim Craddock, the very intriguing, charming, and roguishly handsome Gentleman Ghost.

I hope that’s not the last I hear about him, and if he returns to the DC Universe in his own title, sign me up for that one. Craddock is a fascinating character with a bucket load of narrative potential, and with a bit of updating (give the bloke a mobile phone at least) then he would be far more interesting than a lot of the other drippy, dreary, drossy, dismally PC characters that DC are unsuccessful trying to force down it’s readers throats these days.


Rating: 7/10 (Old fashioned and fun)

Comic review: Justice League- Gods and Monsters- Superman #1- SuperMex Vs. Evil White Racists

Writers: J.M DeMatteis & Bruce Timm
Art: Moritat
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 29th July 2015

I really enjoyed this comic book. Not because it is any good, but because it is the perfect encapsulation of the politically correct, left leaning, ‘progressive’ cult of mind-control and censorship that is the US comic book industry today.

Have you noticed that the mainstream corporate whore media is a bit ‘liberal’ these days? Sure, you still get Fox news blasting out its nonsense to it’s scared an elderly audience, but Fox is for ‘old’ people. Cool, hip, progressive youngsters are all about the rainbows, feminism, Marxism, atheism and tolerance these days. There is a consensus collectivist mind-set that is being broadcast to young people today from the mainstream corporate media outlets, and it consists of the following:

1- Abortion is about equality and women’s rights, and has nothing to do with murdering babies.

2- Immigration is good, and if you complain about it you are a racist.

3- Men are troublesome. We need women to take over in order to make the world a better place.

4- The only people that need to have guns are the Police, and those with government approved authority. The Police (and the government) are our friends, and it’s their job to protect us from bad guys.

5- Opposing gay marriage is morally wrong. People need to get with the times and stop being so homophobic.

6- Christians are like gullible children. You can tolerate them, but they must be taken away from all decision making.

7- Islam is a religion of peace, and if you criticise suicide bombers or the latest massacre you are Islamaphobic.

8- The State is legitimate, and we are ‘free’ because we are allowed to vote between two pre-selected corporate parties.

9- Order followers are heroes, even though they operate with no regards to personal responsibility or morality.

10- Racism means white people hating black people. There is no such thing as a black racist.

11- Feminism is about empowering women and defending them against a big conspiracy by evil white men called ‘Patriarchy.’

There are more, but I think that I nailed the most important ones here. Now, bearing all of the above liberal assumptions in mind, what would you expect to see in a DC Comic book about a Mexican superman?

That’s what Justice League- Gods and Monsters- Superman #1 is by the way. It’s a book about a Mexican Superman growing up with his immigrant family in America. Stop reading this review now, and write down some of the things that you would expect to see in a corporate whore liberal PC comic book in 2015 about a brave and heroic Mexican Superman.

Are you still here? Stop reading, go on, do the list, and then come back to this review.

Okay then. I hope you’ve done your list. I’ve also done a list. Here is my list of the PC cliches that make up this story about SuperMex:

1- An unrealistically perfect young female is the heroine of the narrative.

2- The young SuperMex is troubled, and needs to be corrected by positive female influences, as opposed to positive male role models.

3- Immigrants are honest, hard working and downtrodden.

4- The white (male) locals are bigoted, idiotic, violent racists.

5- SuperMex is going to change the world, but only because he listened to his perfect young sister.

6- It’s okay to murder people, but only if they are criminals.

7- The people that need to be eliminated are those who operate outside the law, not the Government, banks and corporations who are the real slave owners of the world.

The book has a drug cartel as it’s main villains, and if you are wondering how they make that fit into the PC narrative then I’ll tell you. They make the leader of the cartel a young man with blonde hair. He’s a (very) white Mexican, but let’s be honest here. He’s a white man, so he’s the obvious bad guy of the narrative.

At the end of this book SuperMex has become a class warrior for the downtrodden Mexican immigrant females. These females are perfect, obviously, because they are women, but even better than that, they are women with a tint to their complexion. They are women, and not white. Wow, that’s a two in one there.

Men still suck of course, but if they listen to the great, innate wisdom coming from these perfect embodiments of wisdom and compassion (young females) they might have a chance to bring some good into the world. Men, if left alone, are only going to be selfish, stupid, aggressive and self-destructive. Why? Because, that’s just what men do, isn’t it?

In other words- Masculinity is inherently bad, whilst femininity is inherently good.

I’m not joking here. This is seriously how the comic book goes. It’s not an aberration by the way. This is how all of the DC and Marvel comic books read today. There’s a consensus, and if you go against it you are opening yourself up to charges of sexism, misogyny and bigotry. Thanks for coming kid, but your career ends here, unless we get a brand new attitude from you where all of your female characters are young, feisty, strong, independent, brave, in charge (preferable wearing a government badge or uniform) and kicking plenty of male buttocks.

That’s how big a joke it’s all becoming now within mainstream US comic books. Liberal types like to mock Fox news (and I’m not a fan of it myself) but they need to look in the mirror and see what they have become. What they have become is a big old circle jerk that congratulates itself on how ‘tolerant’ and ‘progressive’ they all are, when all they are really doing is creating a new corporate status quo that is every bit as dangerous as the right-wing nonsense coming from Fox news.

This new corporate consensus is not really about human rights and equality. If liberals really cared about human rights and equality then their number one target would be the religion of Islam, the most violent and backwards looking, female and gay hating cult in the world today. But do you ever hear liberals say anything to criticise Islam? Of course not, because they don’t really give a damn about equality and freedom at all.

What they do actually care about is acting like moral crusaders whilst telling people what they can and cannot think and say. They are totalitarian fascists and a comic book like JL-Gods and Monsters- Superman #1 is supporting this PC/Progressive/New World Order cult of mind control and censorship. Get the book if you are a student writing an essay on the new totalitarian left, but for anybody else, for anybody interested in liberty, free speech and individualism, there is nothing here for you.



Rating: 3/10 (For its insights into the cult of progressivism and its unintentional comedy value)

Review: 2000AD PROG 1941- Outlier/Dark Symmetries is starting to get really good.

Artists and writers: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 29th July 2015



Here’s a new writing experiment for anybody reading this ‘review’ to enjoy, or dislike, depending on how it goes.

What am I going to do is write this review as I read the comic. One story at a time, I’ll let you know what I think.

First off, the main cover looks pretty nice. The colours work well, and the concept of creeping evil invading mundane reality is both creative and interesting.

Inside the book then, here I go. The little cartoon strip ‘Droid Life’ is a joke about antagonism towards technology. It’s silly, and slightly funny, though not exactly something that I will remember as being particularly insightful or hilarious.

Tharg’s spiel is always worth reading, mainly because he frames the context into which the preceding stories should be read. Let’s see what he has to say this month. Err, not a lot, he’s just saying that the people working on 2000AD work hard and that they appreciate their publishers. You’re being a bit dull this week Tharg, a bit dull. We know that they work hard, so do bin-men.

Onto Judge Dredd, the hero of 2000AD, and a perfect symbol of the morally vacuous, order following society that we are living in today. Here we go again, with the assumption that order followers in uniform exist to serve and protect the poor, innocent, helpless civilians. I hate that assumption for one reason. The reason being that it is a lie. After that assumption the story washes over me. I enjoy the art, but this pushing of an authoritarian anti-freedom, anti-humanity lie is all I can take from the story. This lie needs to be exposed, not reinforced, and all this story is doing is reinforcing the illusion that those in positions of authority serve the people, and not the corporate state. We all know whom they really serve by now. Don’t we?

Next story is Absalom/Under a False Flag, the most smug, self-satisfied, self-aware piece of media student post-modernism since fatso Kevin Smith arrived on the scene. Oh crap, I’m not looking forward to reading this one. Let’s see how many safe 1980’s references I get in this week’s instalment. Okay then, he starts with a reference to ‘kettling’ and ‘hippies.’ That’s a weird amalgamation of modern Police tactics with a 1960’s CIA sponsored movement. It’s very odd that he thinks that modern protestors are ‘hippies,’ because as far as I’m aware most hippies are either dead or very elderly in 2015.

Oh well, on I go. It gets even weirder. A supposedly ‘anti-authoritarian’ and ‘rebellious’ Police detective gets to act like he’s helping out abused kids, when in reality everything that I hear about the real-life UK child abuse cases involves the cops refusing to investigate high level paedophiles, not exposing them. This story takes a huge leap of faith and assumes that cops act as some sort of independent body that properly investigates and prosecutes child abuse. Here’s a reality check, they don’t. The Police are the dogs of the state. They investigate what they are told to investigate. In the real world ‘mavericks’ like Harry Absalom might try to investigate, but if they get too close to those in positions of power (see the case of fat bas**** paedophile MP Cyril Smith) then they will be taken off the case, demoted and sent packing. That’s the real world, and I’m not seeing it in this comic strip.

Next story is Helium, and I’m already smiling before I’ve even read the strip, as it’s so bright and colourful, and such a nice contrast to the dowdy black and white drabness of Absalom. I’m going to read it now, hope it’s good. Okay, now I’ve read it, and it’s like a WW1 aerial battle war movie, but with horrible men after a brave female. That’s okay, I know how it works now. If you read contemporary comic books you are always going to get young females as the feisty, brave and independent protagonists, acting like men, in the driving seat and taking control. It can get a bit much, but I like Helium and the feminism is just simmering in the background of the narrative, and not bashing you over the head as many Marvel and DC titles do today.

I also appreciate the fact that Helium is a simple story, lacking in Absalom style self awareness and smart arsery, and instead preferring to tell a fun story, keeping it simple and keeping it reader friendly.

Next up is Outlier, a story that took a while to get going, but was actually pretty enjoyable last week. Let’s see how it goes this week. I tell you what, it has a great start, with a narrative structure that is very enjoyable and works very well. The rest of the story is really good as well, as it’s getting me very excited for what is going to happen next within the narrative. It’s hooked me, and I’m really enjoying this story. This is a bit of a surprise as this one started slowly almost lost me, but now it’s getting really, really good, and the art is pretty sweet as well.

Last story in 2000AD this week is Jaegir, a story that to me is reading a bit like a child’s war story, but with a modern style female heroine as the main protagonist. I haven’t particularly enjoyed it so far, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best this week. Okay then, read it now; here’s what I thought. ‘I bring war criminals among my own people to justice.’ That’s the first quote of this narrative, and already it’s ignoring how the real world actually works. Since when do countries do this to their own people? A few low level soldiers perhaps, but the real criminals, the people who gave them the orders? No chance mate. See Tony Blair, George Bush, WMD’s and Iraq for more details.

How can I take this story seriously when it is putting forward the idea that countries properly investigate war crimes, and then prosecute those responsible like they are some kind of unbiased, fair and moral third party. That doesn’t happen. What actually happens is that war breaks out, one side wins, and the other side loses. The winning side then sets up show trials (see Saddam Hussein) and executes anybody on the losing side for ‘war crimes.’ The war crimes committed by the winning side are ignored, and all those responsible for them get promoted and then get to write books where they tell lies about what went on, and those lies are then called ‘history.’ That’s reality, and that’s how the world works.

I give Jaegir credit though, as the female responsible for investigating war crimes committed by her own people ends up almost being killed, by her own people. That makes a lot of sense, so I guess that the story is saying something after all, in a roundabout way.

Flicking back through PROG 1941 of 2000AD I didn’t really enjoy the first two stories, the third was simple, colourful and fun, the fourth was really good, and the final story was better than usual. That’s alright, I’ll take that, and with the very nice front cover that’s just about enough to give 2000AD a thumbs up this week.


Rating: 7/10 (After a slow start, Outlier is getting surprisingly good)

Comic review: C.O.W.L #11- The Final Issue

Writers: Kyle Higgins & Alec Siegel
Art: Rod Reis
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: July 2015



I’ve read the entire run of C.O.W.L, and now it’s over.

So, was it worth it?

Just about.

I had problems with it. I still don’t understand why it was set in a make-believe version of the 1960’s. I don’t understand why you would do that when the world of NOW is so fascinating and there’s so much that you could say about it in a truly controversial comic book narrative.

The creators of C.O.W.L have already announced their next project. It’s an alternative history book, set in a future where the cold war tensions of 1985 led to nuclear detonations in Moscow and New York City.

Again, why do you need to go back? Is there not tension between Putin’s Russia and the neo-liberal, corporate US imperialist war machine of today?
Why not use that as a fictional launching pad as opposed to cold war tensions of over thirty years ago?

What are they scared of?

It bewilders me, but then again, perhaps not. Do US comic book writers really want to shine a spotlight on their country, and look at what they have actually done to the world in the past decade alone?

Looking at contemporary US comic books, it appears that they would rather not look.

I read comic books and I see safety, identity politics, personalities not issues, and a refusal to address the neo-liberal corporate consensus of our times. That’s what I see, and it depresses me that writers are either not smart enough, or not brave enough to tackle the important issues in our world today.

C.O.W.L #11 concludes with a whimper. The guy in charge of protecting the people from villains is the biggest villain of them all, and is probably funding, manufacturing or controlling all of the threats in order to justify and maintain his position.

Of course he is, that’s how it works. See the F.B.I and their counter ‘terrorism’ 'work' in the US for the past decade alone for more details.

That one idea, that those in charge of stopping threats have to manufacture them, is not enough to sustain an entire comic book series. It’s not really enough to sustain a one shot either, as it’s a twist that isn’t really a twist at all. For anybody paying attention to how the world actually works, it’s a given.

Perhaps I’m making assumptions here? Perhaps other readers think that the law exists to protect them? Perhaps other readers still think that cops are heroes and that politicians represent their voters? I don’t know about that. I like to credit people and assume intelligence rather than assume the worst.

Having said all of that, the main problem I had with C.O.W.L was not the obviousness of the plot. It was the needlessly complex structure of the narrative itself. This was a difficult comic book to read. It wasn’t just ‘involving’ it was a bloody maze with prickly thorns on every corner. I like reader friendly books, and I could never describe C.O.W.L as reader friendly.

There were too many people, too many plot threads, and too much going on. It was far too crowded and that took the fun out of it all. It should have been a simple comic, but it became too convoluted, too pofaced, not enough fun, and far too serious for it’s own good.

C.O.W.L probably thought that it was a bit cleverer and more important than it actually was. I hoped that it would be about something more than personality conflicts and office politics, but in the end, it really wasn’t. It was a book with a coathanger of a theme, but what it was really about was the individual characters and personalities involved.

A lot of comic book (and other fiction) readers, love to read about characters and personalities and how they manipulate each other in a big old gross Game of Thrones kind of way. They love that human intrigue stuff. They love the sex and violence, and betrayals and scandals and outrages. I personally couldn’t care less. I’m interested in issues, not personalities. People bore me, they always have done. I know you aren’t supposed to say that, but sod it, it’s true. I’ve always found people to be tiresomely predictable. They pretend to care, but only really care about themselves. I don’t want to read about people. I want to read about something more interesting than that.

I was the only person in my comic book shop that was reading this book. I had it on sub. Nobody else was interested. I thought that it was okay. It was not a bad book. It had one thing going for it, that idea that those in positions of government sponsored authority sometimes have to manufacture enemies in order to justify their budgets and positions. Apart from that though, it won’t linger long in the memory.

C.O.W.L (Chicago Organised Workers League) was a comic book about the 1960’s, a fake 1960’s. It had superheroes and unions in it. It had lots of characters, too many characters. They were all screwing each other over. It was very serious. Readers were turned off because it looked like a boring book about union issues and politics from fifty years ago. I think that it was trying to get an award, or something. Okay then, that’s a comic book.



Rating: 6/10 (C.O.W.L is no more. It lasted too long, was okay for a while, but I’m happy that it’s over)

Swindon Town- The iGeneration- Passing me by

I live in a nice little English town.

Swindon town.

There’s a football team here.

And a magic roundabout.

The former consists of those that want to be somewhere else.

Swindon shops, always busy.

The later is a traffic jam in the middle of the town centre.

The people here, in Swindon town, live in little houses, and in their cars, and at work, or school.

Occasionally they walk, or cycle.

Plugged in to ithings.

Listening to something else.

Going somewhere else.

I watch as they pass me by.

They’re so busy.

On their way to work.

Or school.

Or shopping.

Or whatever it is that they do.

Because I don’t really know what they do.

I can guess.

But they don’t talk to me.

They just pass me by.

Off they go.

The magic roundabout, always busy.

Whoosh.

Whoosh.

Zoom.

Zoom.

They're so busy.

With so little time.

I live in a nice little English town.

Swindon town.

I’ve lived here for over thirty years now.

There are people here.

Nice people.

I think.

I don’t really know them.

And they don’t really know me.

Are we happy?

I don’t know.

We don’t speak.

The infiltration of marxist, feminist, neo-liberal, progressive, collectivist ideology in contemporary US comic books: Can you see the Elephant in the living-room?

I haven’t reviewed many comic books this week, reason being that there hasn’t been anything released that is actually worth reviewing.

I don’t want to repeat myself, and I don’t want to waste my money, so why should I bother with DC, Marvel, Darkhorse (and the others) and their weekly round of identity politics, ignoring reality, nonsense?

If I want to see emasculated males and empowered females acting like the worst of men I’ll watch mainstream television. I’m not a fan of mainstream television. The anti-family/anti human programming is getting out of control now. If the collapsing Roman Empire had television I strongly suspect that it would look a lot like mainstream television looks today.

A culturally programmed ident-kit PC generation.

Blood, sex, violence, torture, inhumanity, pandering to corporations, banks and their puppet political parties, pushing drugs, pushing junk celebrity culture and ignoring all of the important issues of our times, whilst lying to us and telling us that ignorance is strength and that freedom is slavery. Who is running television these days? I assume it’s promoted idiots pushing an agenda that they don’t know about, not that they would care anyway, just as long as they continue to enjoy their lovely careers as the propaganda chiefs of a sick and decaying culture.

Television is a non-stop parade of freaks, creeps and idiots, and it’s all aimed at the mindset of a brain damaged perpetually adolescent child. It’s sick, so sick that it needs to be put down for it’s own good.

Contemporary US comic books take the satanic sickness of mainstream television, make every bloody story about a government sponsored teenage girl, and off they go, empowering the world by pushing marxist feminist, progressive, liberal slavery to the state.

Soft, cute, cuddly and deadly.

I’m a forty-two year old guy who grew up in a world that wasn’t completely taken over by the new world order banks and corporations that run it (the west anyway) today. I grew up reading stories where men were still men. I grew up reading stories that promoted freedom, not collectivism. I grew up reading stories that cared more about telling a good adventure yarn than pushing identity politics and cultural marxism.

So when I read a contemporary comic book in 2015, and read panel after panel, book after book of something that looks like it was constructed as a group project from a neo-liberal, feminist/marxist college class, how do you think I am supposed to react?

I’d be a bit odd if I liked it. I’d be a bit odd if I pretended that the programming wasn’t there, and I would be an out and out LIAR if I didn’t mention it when I reviewed a comic book.

So I mention it. I mention the nonsense that is going on in contemporary comic books, and I go online and check out all of the other reviews of the same book. And what do I read? I read positive reviews, negative reviews, indifferent reviews. They discuss the art, the dialogue, the plot twists, the panel layout, the individual characters (it’s all about the characters really) but none of them mention the big old FARTING AND SNORTING ELEPHANT in the living-room.

It bewilders me. Can they not see it? They are reading a comic book that is full to the brim with cultural programming, yet to them, it’s as normal as breathing air as you sleep, which is an apt comparison, because it appears that that is exactly what is happening here. A generation programmed with cultural marxism as they sleep, and they don’t even know that it is happening.

New boss, same as the old boss.

Am I being unfair here? Maybe they do see it. Maybe they like it. Maybe they want it. Maybe, the prisoner/slave training is so advanced now, that anybody under the age of his/her mid-thirties is unable to differentiate between living in a cage, and living as a free human being?

You know the old story about freed slaves not wanting to be free, right? Perhaps that’s what’s happened to the west today? Decades of cultural programming has left us defeated, unable to free ourselves, and worst of all, unwilling to even try, because we like it, we like being slaves, and all we really want, is more slavery?

It’s a terrifying thought, but this might be the end. The new generations are tied up in identity politics. They are slaves and they like being slaves, just as long as the new slave master is of the right gender, skin tone and sexuality, of course. This is just a short little rant, and I’ll end it with a couple of questions. Answer if you like. Carry on reading comics as usual if you don’t even care.

Can you see the elephant in the living-room?

And if you can, does it even bother you?


My video on YT plugging this artcle: 

Comic review: JL- Gods and Monsters- Batman #1- Dangerously Stupid

Writers: J.M DeMatteis & Bruce Timm
Artist: Matthew Dow Smith
Colours: Jordie Bellaire
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 22nd July 2015



Justice League- Gods and Monsters- Batman #1 is a very dangerous comic book.

Why is it dangerous?

It’s dangerous because of the following assumptions that it makes:

1- Villains are those who break the law.
2- Following the law makes you a moral person.
3- Breaking the law makes you an immoral person.
4- Villains are those who operate outside of the corporate/state control system.
5- Villains carry out their immoral actions within ‘organised crime.’
6- Murder is justified, along as you are murdering the ‘villains’ who operate within organised crime.

These assumptions give the woefully ignorant and anachronistic impression that there are two sides to society:

A- The respectable, law and order side, with morally decent people working within the system to make the world a better place for everybody.
B- The criminal underworld, down the docks, where immoral gangsters operate their criminal empires, working outside of the system, and making the world a worse place for everybody.

The superhero (Batman) in this contemporary comic book targets group B. Of course he does, why wouldn’t he?

Do you see the problem here?

After all that has happened over the past ten years, with the illegal wars, surveillance, banker bailouts, and government authorised criminality, you’d think that comic books would start to point out that the real big-shot criminals of our era operate within the law, not outside of it, wouldn’t you?

Real world criminal gangsters don’t hang out down the docks, they operate within corporate and banking boardrooms, doing perfectly legal business, not breaking any laws, because they made the laws in the first place.

Nice colours, bad art.

JL- Gods and Monsters #1 gives readers the impression that criminal masterminds work outside of the structures that have been erected to accommodate rampant corporate criminality. What kind of an idiot would do that?

What kind of an idiot criminal would work outside the law and allow himself to be arrested like a common, petty criminal? It doesn’t happen. The top criminals of our era are the most respected men in town. They operate within government, within banks, within corporations, and the entire neoliberal consensus structure is designed to let them get away with their criminality, and to be rewarded and lauded whilst doing so. That’s how it works, and we all know it by now.

The narrative in this book doesn’t really care about all of that pesky real world reality stuff. Instead it features a vampire (bat) who needs to drink blood to live, and because he’s a nice vampire (bat) he hangs around the docks looking for old movie villains (Circa Humphrey Bogart) to have a nibble on.

This hero/villain bat/vampire-thing has a temper tantrum in a restaurant, and finds a new best friend through talking to a stranger in a public art gallery. Yeah, that’s how you meet best new friends, by hanging out in art galleries. I should try that one out myself.

The book features a ‘twist’ at the end that’s not very surprising, and does nothing but further empathise the comedic stupidity of the main protagonist. All of the dialogue is heavy laden with exposition, and none of it reads like real people talking to each other. The art is very loosely pencilled, and the heavy inking and colouring attempts to disguise the lack of detail throughout. It’s a one shot story that you will have read many times before, and this time next week you’ll have completely forgotten about the entire book. If that’s what you are after, get the book. Have fun with it, if you can.

What I am reading here is a deliberately stupid comic. It reads like something designed for children, in the 1930’s. There are no mobile devices, no izombies walking down the street, head down, oblivious to those around them, no references to the Internet and no references to anything contemporary actually.

The protagonist is a laughable Cartman-esque clown who tells his story first person, loading every sentence with a bucket load of exposition as he plods through his ridiculously inconsequential adventures.

The entire book is completely laughable, even more so because it’s written with a pofaced seriousness and inability to recognise just how babyish and stupid it all is.

The art looks rushed, the facials are lacking in expression or movement and it’s all washed in a thick pallet of heavy colouring in an attempt to put some life into the dead and rushed pencil work.

It’s the seriousness of the book that really kills it. If it was scripted with a wink, nod and a sense of irony, then it could have been fun, it could have been a laugh, and it could have been worthwhile. But no, it’s as serious as cancer, and about as much fun as staying up all night and watching the latest suicide inducing election results.

This is a really, really stupid book, and the underlying assumptions that it makes about criminality and morality make it a very dangerous book as well. I wouldn’t want a young kid to read something as dangerously stupid as this comic book. It’s going to do nothing for a delicate young mind other than to lead him into a slave job working within the corporate system, thinking that he’s a good person just because he is following orders and obeying corporate laws.

That’s not good, all it’s doing is preparing the next generation of compliant worker slave drones for the corporate/banking ‘elites’ prison camps.

JL- Gods and Monsters #1 won’t be read by many kids. The majority of it’s readers are going to be adult statists, stuck in the matrix, hiding from reality, not because they are unable to look at reality, but because they don’t want to look at reality.

It’s a comic book for people who want to forget the world and read something stupid that will distract them from the mundane horrors of the everyday, uneventful lives. If stupid and ignorant is what the writers were going for then they’ve succeeded with this one. Well done lads, you’ve done it again. Poop out the story, extract the money, poop into the minds, poop into the landfill. Hey man, it’s the American way.


Rating: 2/10 (For the colours. Nothing else about the book has any merit)

Comic review: 2000AD PROG 1940- Is Judge Dredd a Nazi?

Writers and artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 22nd July 2015


There’s some fun to be had in PROG 1940 of 2000AD. Here’s a quick scan of what it has to offer:

Judge Dredd is all snowy this week, and snow always looks good in comics. It features a poetic omniscient narrator telling the tale, and the voice works really well, injecting moments of philosophy and poetic colour into the tale as the story unfolds. It’s still a book about order followers though, the worst kind of people, villains that are routinely portrayed as heroes within out toxic corporate culture.

This has always been my main problem with Judge Dredd, the fact that an authoritarian order follower is portrayed as a cool, empowered hero. This portrayal drips down into our own world where cops and soldiers are routinely portrayed as heroes, when in reality they are dogs on a leash, a leash controlled by corporate/ banking interests. Judge Dredd makes wearing a uniform look cool. That is very dangerous.

Having said all of that, I read Judge Dredd very closely this week, and noticed an acknowledgement of reality, a sentence that reminds readers of what Judges actually are:

‘They were all ‘yes’ men. They’re Judges after all. Respect the chain of command. Respect the badge.’

Do you know what that sounds like to me? It sounds like an acknowledgement that Judge Dredd is an order following Nazi. Am I calling Judge Dredd a Nazi? Yes, yes I am, because that’s exactly what he is. All order followers are Nazi’s. As long as you do what you are told, with no regard to whether it’s right or wrong, that automatically makes you a Nazi.

Absalom has a cheap pop at the IDF this week and references a television personality (Frank Bough) who last had a presence on UK television in 1993. There are lots of references in this story, and they’re all old, or safe. This is a perfect example of how to appear edgy, whilst pushing views that wouldn’t be out of place on suicide inducing daytime television. This is bland, bland stuff, and the veneer of rebellion is as see-through fake as Question Time on BBC One.

Helium is better, mainly because the main protagonist is likeable, and the dialogue is fun, as opposed to self satisfied and irritating. The art is big and colourful and I’d have to be a right old grump to dislike it. I don’t. It’s good, enjoyable stuff.

Outlier is better this week. The story is easier to follow and I’m finally getting into it. This one took some time to get going, but it has its hooks in me now.

Jaegir still isn’t doing anything for me. It’s still a daft story about an order follower investigating other order followers. It’s pretty stupid, as we all know that those in uniforms pretty much do whatever they like, as long as they follow the dictates of their masters. The only order followers ever thrown under the big bus of statism are low level morons, and pretending that is not the case just means that you are deliberately not paying attention to reality, and how things actually work.

I don’t like to admit it, but I actually enjoyed Judge Dredd this week. The snowy art helped, but there was something about the omniscient narration that made it more enjoyable than usual. Helium and Outlier also read well this week, so that’s good enough for me, and enough for me to give PROG 1940 of 2000AD a ‘thank goodness it’s not all about feminism this week’ thumbs up.


Rating: 7/10 (Not great, but better than it has been recently)

Comic review: Reanimator #4- A gloriously daft ending to a thoroughly enjoyable series

Writer: Keith Davidsen
Artist: Randy Valiente
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Released: 15th July 2015



It’s Friday, the end of my comic book reviewing week, and it’s been heavy. All week long I’ve been talking about politics, order following, statism and officially sanctioned corporate evil.

Godzilla in Hell #1 was fun, but check out my review, somehow along the way I get wrapped up in life again and go on a big rant about quiet acquiescence to real world evil. And if you think that’s an over the top, self-righteous rant, check out my review of this week’s 2000AD.

Wow, I really go overboard on that one.

I guess I’m just a crazy loon who can’t help himself. I read a book, sit down to review it, and off I go, on a wild reality tangent, coming across like a crazy (or should that be ‘manic’) street preacher.

‘Reanimator’ allowed me to take a break from all of that. I read it, enjoyed it, and that’s that. Here is a book about reanimated corpses, voodoo, swamps, monsters, magic and mayhem, and it’s all very, very daft.

I've enjoyed this series because it’s being deliberately silly, and it’s not trying to do anything other than that. There’s no forced, ironic cleverness to the dialogue. The characters talk to move the story forward, explain the silliness, and to make sure that there is no confusion going on. I like the fact that writer Keith Davidsen is making sure that nobody is confused. It’s not patronising, it’s reader friendly, and I really appreciate it.

Too many books today try to be subtle, and all they end up doing is confusing me. The worst kind of comic book is the book that you read, put down, and think, ‘What the Hell was all that about then?’ Give me something simple, and silly, and I’m fine with it. That’s probably why I enjoyed Godzilla in Hell #1 so much as well.

I’m not that hard to please. All I want is a bit of fun, a bit of silliness, and an occasional good book that deals with important issues, a book that has broken free from the mainstream education promoted ideology of Cultural Marxism that is sweeping through, and destroying, mainstream comic books in 2015.

Reanimator isn’t going to go down in history as a revolutionary, paradigm shifting comic book, but that’s okay, because it’s not trying to force any ideology down your throat.

I read it as four issues of forget the world, kick off your working boots, sit down, relax, and enjoy the fun. I’ve enjoyed the arc, not because it was saying anything, but because it wasn’t saying anything.

The lack of agenda or ideology allowed me to relax, to laugh and to enjoy the book for the silly, escapist bit of fun that it was supposed to be. The ride is over now, and there’s a gap in my diary for silly, throwaway, escapist, daft fun. I’m going to miss this book. Fun and comic books don’t always go hand in hand today.



Rating: 8/10 (I was hoping for a delightfully silly final panel to wrap up the story, and that’s exactly what I got here. Leave me smiling and I’m a happy comic book reader)

2000AD PROG 1939 (Review)- Joining evil, to change evil

Writers: Numerous
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 15th July 2015



The IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission) is the body that investigates public complaints against the Police in the UK. The commission is made up of twelve Police commissioners, so what you have is the police investigating complaints against themselves.

Expecting impartiality or justice out of the IPCC would be like expecting impariality and justice out of the INCC (Independent Nazi Complaints commission) a body that I just made up, consisting of Nazi’s investigating complaints against Nazi’s.

‘It has been noted that "no policeman has ever been convicted of murder or manslaughter for a death following police contact, though there have been more than 400 such deaths in the past ten years alone." (From the IPCC Wiki page)

The IPCC is ridiculous. But it’s a good example of how those in government approved positions of authority always investigate themselves (and call themselves ‘Independent’ when doing so) thus ensuring that officially sanctioned criminality is allowed, just as long as it maintains the positions and power of those in governmental positions of authority.

PROG 1939 of 2000AD features three stories with individuals playing the role of the IPCC. Three stories with officially sanctioned individuals investigating corruption within the establishments that they are working for.

Tellingly, the irony is not pointed out, it's taken as a given that the authorities investigate the authorities, that's just how things work, isn't it?

Judge Dredd investigates, finds corruption, kills a bunch of low level order followers, and scowls.

Absalom investigates, finds corruption, has a go at Guardian readers, and sends in some police goons to beat up some silly demon types.

Jaegir investigates, finds corruption, shoots a gun at zombie monster types, and gets a scary new boyfriend.

What they all have in common is the assumption that the system that they serve is perfectly fine. All they need to do is keep doing their job, keep on putting on their uniforms, and keep on maintaining the status quo. The system is fine, it’s the rotten apples within that system that need to be sorted out.

That’s the mindset that maintains perpetual human enslavement to governmental control systems, the mindset that it’s okay to join evil, because you can change the system from within.

It’s crazy, but that’s what you get in mainstream comic books in 2015. There’s an idea that the individual is stronger than the system. Apparently, all that we need is new people (usually young women) in positions of authority, and then everything will change.

The tyrannical control systems (centralised government, countries, kings, queens, political leaders, political parties, tribes, races, religions, ideologies) that have kept humanity enslaved for thousands of years will suddenly transform, and all we need for this magical transformation to suddenly spring into life is a personnel change.

Hey kids, remember to keep on voting. You know it makes sense.

This is extreme idiocy, and it’s pushed like it’s common sense. This ideology of the transformative effect of the ‘good’ individual in a corrupt system, is perfect for the system itself, because it offers false hope, maintains the status quo, and allows a never ending new supply of corporate recruits eager to join said system of human enslavement.

Hey, join the army, the cops, the government, the local council, the educational system, the pharmaceutical corporations, the cancer charities, the banks, the mainstream media, join, join, join, you can change it from within, promise you can, would we lie to you?

And that is how the slavery business of modern western neoliberal consensus corporate statist hegemony is maintained, forever.

The ridiculous, deluded belief that change comes from the ‘good’ individual working within a corrupt and evil system is an insidious lie that hides the truth about how the world actually works.

The truth is that the 'good' individual soon becomes just another compromised individual, and another brick in the wall of perpetual human enslavement. S/he joins the system full of hope and a desire to change the evil that has afflicted the world, and s/he ends up drunk on impotence, horrified that s/he bought into the lie and has become just another cog in the machine.

For more details see the life and times of Charles Kennedy (MP, RIP) the poor bloke.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jun/02/charles-kennedy

I could say more about the content of PROG 1939 of 2000AD, but I want to leave this ‘review’ with a quotation that I feel is apt, a quotation that is a warning, a warning to ‘good’ people who think that they can change evil, by joining evil:

“In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.” (Ayn Rand)



Rating: 5/10 (Dredd concluded on a downer. Absalom continues to be smart-ass and annoying. Helium continues to tell a good story. Outlier finished on an intriguing high. Jaegir could be interesting, but it’s a bit confusing at the moment).

Comic review: Martian Manhunter #1- Real world hints, then back to comic book unreality

Writer: Rob Williams
Art: Eddy Barrows
Publisher: DC
Released: 15th July 2015



There are hints at real world realities in this book:

‘Multiple terrorist attacks. I want to know who you can trust these days.’

Hints.

‘This terrorist attacks around the world the television talks of, the calls for a worldwide war in response. I know who is really behind it.’

The book also criticises Dubai:

‘I’m just an orphan thief from the mess and ugly and vomit of hope that is Dubai harbour.’

The hint is that terrorism is not what it appears to be, and that the obscenely wealthy corporate elites of all countries are working together and playing us off against each other.

However, this is a comic book published by a massive corporation, so that’s as far as it can go. There will be no revolution in comic books.

Islam is not mentioned.

Intelligence agencies are not mentioned.

Terrorism is portrayed not as a religious or sociological problem, but as an alien threat from Mars.

The Dubai angle is just a reason to get a young female protagonist into the story, and to push her as a new hope, a representative of the people, just like they do with all of the other mainstream corporate comic books of today. In the middle of issue #2 this young girl leaves Dubai, and is now on a ship to the US to join all of the other heroes. Her back-story over, she’s just another DC feminist girl hero now.

What is happening within the pages of this book is a good example of a writer using real world concerns to give an air of contemporary legitimacy to his narrative. That’s not a criticism, it’s a compliment. But having used these concerns to frame the narrative, the book is now turning into just another character based, corporate friendly superhero narrative.

Mr. Biscuits, the best thing about the book.

The ‘terrorism’ word will become background now, and religion will not be a feature of this book. Linking terrorism with Islam is something that mainstream comic books will not do. They’ll link Christianity with terrorism of course, but never Islam.

The one person who criticised Islam in a comic book was Frank Miller. He did it in a book called ‘Holy Terror,’ a book that was supposed to be a Batman DC book. They refused to publish the book, so he had to self publish. That’s how much of a taboo it is at the moment. Terrorist attacks in the real world are predominantly linked to Islamic fundamentalists (with an ideology coming from the western friendly Hellhole that is Saudi Arabia) but you will not see this being represented in mainstream corporate comic books.

That’s okay. I don’t expect anything else from a DC comic book, and it was nice of writer Rob Williams to sprinkle a couple of hints at reality before he got back to paying his bills and knocking out another corporate friendly superhero narrative.

Is the book worth getting? Yeah, it features a character called Mr. Biscuits, and he’s a lot of fun. The art is pretty nice as well, and I quite enjoyed reading along whilst looking for nuggets of real world truth within the daft aliens are invading story. I didn’t hate the book. It’s better than most of the other lame comic books out there at the moment, but there’s nothing particular special or revolutionary happening here, so although it might be fun, in all honesty, it's just another corporate friendly comic book, and not something to get too excited about.


Rating: 6/10 (Hints at reality, then back to a standard alien threat narrative)

Comic review: Guardians of Knowhere #1- Bendis poops out another classic

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Mike Deodato
Colours: Frank Martin
Publisher: Marvel (Disney)
Released: 15th July 2015


I haven’t read any Bendis for a while. I’d been deliberately avoiding him, mainly because I was fed up with the way that he writes jokes into his dialogue, mimimising what is happening, turning every character into a vehicle where he can show off just how witty and clever that he is as a writer.

I used to enjoy him, but I changed. I started to read, to learn about important things, and the cleverness of people like Bendis and Tarrantino and Kevin Smith no longer had any power over me. The magic diminished. I was no longer young and obsessed with cool. I started to hate clever, started to hate cool, I wanted real, and I wasn’t seeing real in any of my old reading and viewing material.

Now, when I see a Tarrantino flick I’m disgusted with the violence, the casual disregard for human life, the swearing, the cool factor dripping in gore, it disgusts me. Kevin Smith is a joke to me now, a drugged up blob who cannot fit into an airline seat. A masturbating child-man, regurgitating young man stoner jokes, unable to reflect anything but ego, a self-love touring machine, cleverness declining, he had some good jokes, but now has nothing to say.

And Brian Michael Bendis, the comic book genius of my past. He’s still here in 2015, and he’s still up to his old tricks. Why did I pick up this book? I really don’t know. Call it an accident, or call it fate, but I purchased the book, and here’s what I thought of it.

In ‘Guardians of Knowhere #1’ writer Brian Michael Bendis is working with a brilliant artist in Mike Deodato, and an equally as talented colourist in Frank Martin.

They hide his flaws so very well.

The narrative is, as is usual with Bendis, unimportant. It’s the characters, the quips, the dialogue, and the cool factor that is important. The plot is background to the characters, just as it always is. There’s vague references to not believing in God/Doom, but not believing in a higher power is common place today, especially amongst the young, and there’s no real rebellion coming from them, none that I can see anyway, so sod the young. If this book engages in a bit of religion/god bashing, then all it’s going to be doing is preaching to the already long converted. There’s no controversy there, well, not unless it mentions Allah, and I’m 100% certain that it’s not going to be doing that.

The narrative meat of issue #1 involves an order follower doing what order followers do, and a bunch of rebels doing what rebels do, fighting and eventually running from the aforementioned order follower. In comic books the order followers are evil because they work for dictators. In reality order followers will work for anybody. Pay them to kill, and they will kill. It’s not about dictators; it’s about the immorality of following orders in the first place. Comic books hide that truth, because the truth is hidden within the lie that is democratic, neoliberal statism, the lie that is the backbone not just to comic books, but the entire western world as it is today.

So is Bendis going to say something about statism, neoliberal democracy and the immorality of following orders in this book?

Don’t be daft. He has a career to think about, so all you are going to get here is more evil dictator stuff, and so it proves at the conclusion of this limp first issue.

Most of the characters in the book talk like teenagers. I find that to be very telling, as that is the mindset and level of emotional maturity that the book is set at. The readers might not be teenagers in physical years, but ‘Guardians of Knowhere #1’ is a book that only a teenage mindset could enjoy.

‘That was like, so totally uncool and disrespectful man.’

That line wasn’t actually in the book, but it might as well have been. I can’t stand this teen idiot talk. I’m forty-two years old, and this too cool for school teen dialogue is annoying the heck out of me. Every line of dialogue concludes with a knowing joke, or a pun, or an attempt to be cool. It’s annoying, really, really annoying. People don’t talk like that in the real world. The only people that talk like that are characters in a bad US television show that is being played for cheap laughs. What is being created here is a world where nothing is real, nothing is important, and nothing matters. It’s a sad clown joke where you fart, laugh and savour the pungent aroma of cool, clever, smug self-satisfaction that is suffocating the life out of everything.

It’s amazing how far you can go on cool, clever, smug self-satisfaction. With this prized combination you can enjoy a lengthy career writing comic books. People will queue up and worship you, not because you have anything to say, but because you do the postmodernism thing, because you make things look cool, and because you come across as ‘one of the fans.’ Readers can convince themselves that they are part of a select little club, that they are clever, that they are cool. They understand the knowing jokes and references. They are educated. They have a degree. They love it. Give them more of the wisecracking Racoon, they’ll eat that s*** up with a spoon. They love the Racoon, they are smart, they have joined the super secret special team, and you (as the great writer) can sit at the convention and have these poor saps bow to you, worship you, and to literally throw money at your no-nothing, saying nothing feet.

Yay, team geek, the saddest people in the room, telling themselves that they are cool over and over again until they become so deluded that they actually start to believe that it’s true. Sorry kids, it’s not true at all. Losers buy comic books. Winners write and draw them, and they look at their customers as walking bags of money. Welcome to the latest big comic book convention, populated by walking bags of loser money and corporate vampires. How depressing it all is.

I paid money for this book, and now it’s sitting on my computer desk laughing at me, telling me that I’m the fool. I’m the moron. I’m the sucker. I’m the dupe. I’m the loser. Oh crap, I hate it when the talking comic book is right, and now I hate myself because that last line read like something that bloody Bendis himself would write.

I need to flush this one away as soon as possible. I need to wipe away the soiled memories and get back to reading something of worth. I was such an idiot as a young man, and this comic book reminds me of the idiot that I used to be. It reminds of my wasted youth, of reading cool nothingness from corporate clones, and I don’t enjoy that empty feeling anymore. I’m over cool. I’m all grown up now, and I no longer have time to waste on pointless, nauseating, cool and clever comic books.

Reading this book took me back to a time and place that I no longer recognise. It’s funny how the past becomes alien after a while. Was I really there at all? Did I really think and do those stupid things. I did, but I’m not the same person anymore. My past embarrasses me, and this latest comic book invitation to return has never felt less appealing.


Rating: 6/10 (More of the same from the Bendis machine, this time with superior art helpers)

Comic review: Godzilla in Hell #1- Awesomely daft kick ass comic book fun

Writer & Artist: James Stokoe
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Released: 15th July 2015



If you want a two-minute book about Godzilla falling into Hell, and smacking demons upside the head, then this is the book for you.

There is no dialogue, Godzilla doesn’t talk, he gets angry, and beats things up.

There is no story other than Godzilla walking, coming across a threat, eliminating said threat, giving his ‘Is that all you got?’ look, and moving on to beat up whoever else dares to threaten his physical well-being.

I like his attitude. Leave him alone, and he’ll leave you alone. Cause him trouble, and he’ll sort you out.

The art in this book has scope, it’s big, it’s red, it’s fiery, it’s dangerous, it’s hellish, and there’s Godzilla amidst it all, not caring one jot. It’s big here, but so what? Its bottom kicking time.

This is a fun book, but there’s one note of seriousness that I want to address. The Hell in this book is full of people, tides of people, they are faceless, grains of sand in an endless storm of misery.

Why so many people? Surely you have to be really evil to get thrown into the fiery pits of Hell? Don’t you have to do something really, really, really bad to get there?

Nope, you don’t have to be Hitler or Tony Blair to get into Hell. All you need is to be the ‘good’ sort who spends his life keeping his head down, not making waves, paying the bills, paying taxes, paying for the state.

Hell is full of people who tolerate evil, and spend their lives doing nothing to stop it. It was easier to go along to get along, rather than doing something to make the world a better place, so they do nothing, and evil continues to rule the world.

This mentality of co-operation allows tyranny to continue, not just in the past, but today as well, and the people in charge only maintain their positions because of the quiet acquiescence of the silent, cowardly masses.

That silent, cowardly acquiescence has a price, and the Hell of the afterlife is a living metaphor that becomes all too real when you put down your comic book and take a look at the world around you.

Have a look. Who is in charge of the world? Evil mate, evil is in charge of the world, and who put it there?

That was us, we put it there, and we continue to support it every single day.

Hell is not an abstract construct, a child’s story fed to you by religious leaders in order to scare and pacify you into obedience to their control system. Hell is what we have created through passive, silent, quiet acquiescence to uniformed, governmental authority figures.

Hell is not underground.

Hell is not in the after-life.

Hell is this world.

We are living in Hell.

Hell is now.

Don’t kid yourself about this book. It’s very basic, very, very basic. It’s a toilet book. A book that you will flip through on the bog, enjoy the art, colouring and ass kicking, and then stick on your wall, or keep for your collection because it was a lot of fun and you really like the cover.

I got the Jeff Zornow cover (the one at the top of this review) and it’s cool, really, really cool. I love it, it’s going on my wall, and it’s going to look bloody amazing there.

I enjoyed Godzilla in Hell #1 as the two-minute funfair ride that it is. The book made me smile, that’s enough for me, making me smile is not so easy.  I’m an overly serious bugger, so big kudos to Mr. James Stokoe, the artist and writer of this comic book. You achieved the damned near impossible James. You made this ranting and raving reality junkie comic book reviewer drop his guard, relax, smile and actually enjoy himself for a change.

Cheers mate. Thanks for the book, sorry about the Hell rant in this review, but that’s what I’m like. Annoying, relentless, self-righteous git that I am, one hint of real world concerns and off I go, ranting away, screaming into the vast, empty, indifferent Internet void, chopping away at the beast that controls the world, and sounding away like the only sane person left in a world-wide psychiatric ward.



Rating: 7/10 (Silly colourful comic book fun)