Comic review: Think Tank #1- Government is young, sexy and cool (Err, hang on, are you sure about that?)

STORY BY: Matt Hawkins
ART BY: Rahsan Ekedal
PUBLISHER: Top Cow Productions
RELEASED: 6th April 2016



Okay Matt, here we go again. So, what is this one about?

It’s about super cool, sexy, young, quipping government employees designing weapons to be used in foreign policy murder campaigns for the banks and corporations that run the US government.

But how will the painfully progressive Top Cow guys and girls write a comic book about government agents and not mention that the people being murdered are their favourite tolerate friends, the Muslims?

Remember that you are not allowed to have Muslim terrorists as the villains in a progressive comic book. That’s a no-no. In the regressive progressive comic book world of empowered high kicking females and cuckold men, Islam is a religion of peace, and all of the wrongs of the world are caused by evil, right-wing (meaning Christian) white men. That’s the blind as a bat truth, as told in comic books, and if you disagree, then you are obviously a racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamaphobic, Trump supporting bigot.

Compromised hoodie. Slack Wives Matter?

You are not a racist, are you?

Sorry, but that’s how it works, that’s the indoctrination you get from your comic books. Sorry kids, but it’s true.

Don’t worry progressives, you can read this comic book and still feel good about yourself, as the tricky real world reality of global Islamic terrorism is not mentioned in this comic book. Top Cow gets around the problem by featuring some African terrorists that most people have never heard of, and by only referring to them by the name of their gang, and not by the name that really identifies them, that being: ISLAMIC TERRORISTS.

Of course the terrorists are Islamists, they always are, but that’s not mentioned here, so don’t worry your sweet progressive heads about it. Plus, all of the main characters are ‘diverse,’ and the hero has a black girlfriend, so you can be sure that he’s a good guy, or is he? He is a white male after all. Yes, you can read this comic book and feel progressively good about yourself, so don’t worry. Reality step aside, here comes the comic book choo choo train of politically correct unreality, driven by your friendly liberals at Top Cow Productions.

The book isn’t going to stress you with boring ‘politics’ talk. It’s more concerned with a cool guy with great hair, and an empowered young female working (as leader, obviously) in super- sexy government funded astrophysics swimming pool related research. The plot is paranoia central, with an idea coming from a book about the power grid going down. Err, hasn’t that been done before, like, a lot? Yeah, yeah, yeah, but you didn’t expect originality here, did you? Is it going to have desperate humans acting like zombies? Is it going to feature super-smart commentary on capitalism/shopping being bad, or something? Probably, we all like zombies, communism and old metaphors, right?

Hey Matt, writers write what they know, don’t they? I write. I write what I know. I don’t write about CIA agents because I don’t know a thing about CIA agents, mainly because I am not a CIA agent, and I don’t know any CIA agents either. (Insert passive-aggressive smarmy quip about ‘research’ here)

So, as a guy who obviously doesn’t do any research at all, what do I write about? I write about solitary blokes looking at the world from the outside. I write about anarchists, people outside, happily outside, and not looking to get corrupted by the beast of government, and then I read a comic book like ‘Think Tank #1’ and it’s all about government insiders.

US comic book industry, why do you keep on biting me on the butt? Why do you continue to ignore reality, and continue to suck? Why do I keep on giving you chance after chance after chance? I must be suffering from some kind of expensively made-up psychological disorder. Why do I keep on going back to my perpetual abuser? Somebody call me a lawyer, I can make some money out of this, can’t I?

President Matt is either already an insider, or he wants to be one. Wish fulfilment or writing your life? I don’t think that he’s cashing a cheque from the CIA, I really don’t. His persistent virtue signalling tells me that he’s just another modern US progressive, he writes what he believes in, that’s all. I don’t hate the guy. Either way, Matt is a statist kind of guy who thinks that state order followers are young, sexy and cool, so I can see why he has found his place in US comic books.

The US comic book industry is drowning in cultural Marxism, progressive politics and statism, so I shouldn’t act all surprised about this book.

He's cool, he's sexy, he's making guns for government.

It’s an advert, for the state: Join the cult of government. See the world. Shoot somebody in the head (from a safe distance, and with night-vision goggles) it will be a lot of fun.

And for those saying, ‘But there’s a twist, the protagonist is actually fighting against the corrupt elites, blah, blah blah,’ that’s not really the point I’m making here. Of course there’s a twist, that’s how it always works in comic books, but I’m not going to be hanging around with the super cool sexy government employees whilst waiting for it. That costs me time, and money, and I’m not wasting it on a book like this.

I guess what really bugs me about ‘Think Tank #1’ is that the government characters are portrayed as wacky, interesting, sexy, cool individuals that you really would want to be friends with. Yuck. It would be like doing a book about Hell-hole Communist Russia with Stalin and all of his chums having wacky, super progressive and self-aware conversations, whilst our hero sexy guy is doing the twisty turny thing. Sod that. I’m not reading an entire arc full of smiling nut-job government twats in sexy land. Sod the mentalness of it, if that’s even a bloody word, and it should be. Sod it, sod this comic, and sod the progressively insane government-worshipping world of cloud cuckoo land leftism.

Humanity continues to suffer from the authority worshipping disease called statism, and ‘Think Tank #1’ portrays that brain-rotting disease to an absolute tee. The protagonist could end up being my kind of anarchist, turning against his programming in order to promote a new world of volunteerism and self determination away from the centralised tyranny of the state, but do I trust Matt Hawkins to write that? In short, no, I don’t. What I do expect is more of the same government worship that I have read in his other books. I expect calls for better pigs in the system (Ref: Animal farm), rather than real solutions to the problems caused by large socialist governments. I’m not reading that. I’m not subjecting myself to more of that, whilst hoping for an anarchist twist at the end of the book. Everything that I’ve read in issue #1 tells me that the writer thinks that government is cool.

I disagree.

Government is not young, sexy or cool. Government is a gun to your head, pay us our tribute, or you are dead. Government is a gangster, a thug coward who wants you to worship him like a God. Sod off government. You are not God. I will not worship you. I will not join your cult.

Time’s up Top Cow, last chance gone. I’ll look elsewhere for some sanity in this dark world, because I’m certainly not going to find it in anything that you are pumping out. I wish you the best, but I can’t get to where I want to go on your progressive ride to nowhere.



Rating: N/A (An anarchist rating a progressive statist’s love letter to government wouldn’t be fair, would it? It would be like an atheist reviewing the Bible. Err hang on, didn’t that Dawkins bloke make a career out of that? Oh well, low hanging fruits. I’ll choose to pass.)

The Tithe #6- A Microcosm of the Insanity that is the Modern US Progressive Movement

Writer: Matt Hawkins
Co-Creator & Layouts: Rahsan Ekedal
Artist: Phillip Sevy
Publisher: Top Cow/Image Comics
Released: 21st October 2015



The unholy marriage between progressivism and Islam is exposed for all to see in this unintentionally hilarious, blind to reality, desperate not to offend PC comic book.

A violent hate mob of ignorant Islamaphobes.

I love it, I really do. This is a perfect case of giving a progressive US comic book writer lots and lots of rope, standing back and then watching as he trips, stumbles, falls on his arse, and inevitably ends up swinging from a noose of his own creation.

I don’t wish any misfortune on writer Matt Hawkins, I really don’t. I want him to keep on writing these comic books, to keep on talking down to his readers, and to keep on exposing the self-destructive madness that is at the heart of the US ‘progressive’ left.

In The Tithe #5 good old left thinking Matt engaged in classic, textbook progressive doublethink. He wrote a book about an Islamic suicide bomber blowing himself up in a Christian Church, but being a progressive type he couldn’t bring himself to blame Islam for the murderous event, so he did what any progressive would do in such a situation. Yes, he ended up blaming white, racist, far right Christian skinheads for the bombing instead.

Muslims would obviously never dream of doing such a dastardly deed. Of course not and all of the things that have happened in Syria and Libya over the past couple of years must be part of the right wing conspiracy as well, right?

The story in The Tithe #5 was outstandingly ‘progressive’ work from Mr.Hawkins, but he was missing that one vital ingredient in his politically correct cocktail. That ingredient is duly added in The Tithe #6. What ingredient am I talking about here? What is this progressive text missing?  Take a second, think about it, and then come back to this review.

What does every ‘progressive’ comic book need in 2015?

Oh no, that poor man. Who will save him?

If you guessed ‘Young woman of colour as heroic protagonist’ well done, because that’s exactly what is added in The Tithe #6.

Here she comes, the biggest cliché in contemporary comic books, jogging down the street, listening to feminist icon Beyonce, coming across a bunch of ignorant, racist ‘rednecks’ beating up a poor innocent Muslim, and jumping to his rescue with high kicks and empowered punches to the face. Oh, throw in the fact that she’s a Muslim, of course she is, and you have that progressive wet dream of a fictional character, the empowered Muslim girl fighting against evil, ignorant racists.

This empowered female Muslim character gets around quite a lot in comic books today, and she’s always fighting against evil men. Not Muslim men of course, she never does that, but she sure does know how to kick ignorant Christian butt. It's strange that, don't you think? Why is the liberal comic book world full of empowered Muslim girls who don't appear to be doing anything to stop what is happening within their own Muslim communities, preferring instead to kick a load of white guys around? Ummm, strange that, it's almost like comic book writers are trying to avoid something.

A couple of weeks ago the WWE toured Saudi Arabia. The female wrestlers did not attend the tour, and all of the shows played to male only audiences. Back home on US television the WWE continued to push it's female division as feminist icons for young girls to look up to, even though none of the female wrestlers said a word about not being allowed on the tour of Saudi Arabia. And what did feminists say about the WWE touring a country where females are not even allowed to drive a car? Absolutely nothing. That’s how pathetic it all is, and it just goes to show how blind to reality the modern feminist movement really is.

The progressive cliché heroine is the only addition to the narrative in 'The Tithe' this month, apart from a guest appearance by a right wing Donald Runsfeld look-alike politician. He’s the guy behind the skinheads, and his genius plan is to stage terrorist attacks all over the US in order to demonise the poor innocent, peace loving Muslims and to ensure he gets elected as the next US President.

Don't fret worried citizen, here comes liberal wet dream Girl.

I’m not joking here, that’s the actual story in The Tithe. This book is so ignorant to the reality behind extremist Islam (Sunni and Shiaa) that it cannot conceive that Islamic suicide bombers blow themselves up for the simple reason that they are faithful believers in the violently intolerant group-think, collectivist ideology that is the religion of Islam.

All of those beheadings and suicide bombings that we see every day on our television sets and all over the Internet in graphic detail, have nothing to do with Islam. No. It’s all a big right wing conspiracy of racist, sexist, white Christian lunatics, and as this book ‘progresses’ I’m sure that this devious plot will be uncovered by the progressive wet dream Muslim girl and her reluctant (he’s black, so he’s a good guy) cop father.

The whole thing is so completely ridiculous, not just because it flies in the face of reality, but because the FIRST people that would be blamed for any ‘Islamic’ terrorist attacks in the US right now would be right wing groups. It’s the first thing that would spring to the progressive mind, and that progressive mind is all over the mainstream media right now. It’s not a fringe belief, it’s the status quo consensus and it’s pushed by the corporate media on a hourly basis, not just in their ‘news’ reports, but all over their drama programming (usually about cops) as well.

Why do progressives always blame somebody other than Muslims whenever Muslims commit a terrible crime? For a recent example look at what happened in Israel last week with Palestinians randomly stabbing Israeli citizens in the streets. Look at who is getting the blame for that. It’s not the hate filled, knife wielding perpetuators, is it? No, it’s the Israeli’s who are getting the blame because they are defending themselves from getting stabbed.

That’s how ridiculous the progressive mind-set is. They have victim categories, and if you are not black, Islamic, female, gay, transgender, or whatever is trendy this week, then you must be part of some evil, sexist, right wing, patriarchal conspiracy, as is pushed in this comic book.

The progressive left doesn’t appear to understand that if Islam starts to have a major influence in the west (and that is the goal) then the first people to be targeted will be the progressive left themselves. All of the victim groups that they themselves are supposed to be championing would be hit the worst. I’m talking about women who disobey their husbands, atheists, new-agers, homosexuals and many of the other groups in the west that are currently enjoying freedoms that simply do not exist in the Islamic world.

Under Islamic law many of the freedoms that have been won from the tyranny of the state over hundreds of years of western civilisation would disappear overnight. That’s why the state loves progressivism, that’s why the television and newspapers push it, and that’s why we should be doing all that we can to stand up to it and call it out as the self destructive ideology that it is.

The sexy agents of the US police state.

The progressive mantra of ‘tolerance’ is opening up the western world to a group of people who are as intolerant as you can possibly get, so intolerant that they will chop your head off in the street if you disagree with them.

The marriage between Islam and progressivism then is completely one-sided, with the soft left welcoming a patriarchal death cult that will put them to death as soon as speak to them. It’s completely nuts, and that’s exactly the kind of suicidal mindset that is exposed for all to see within the pages of this painfully PC comic book.

I’ll conclude this review by restating something that I said at the beginning. I love it, I really do. This comic book is perfect, and long may it continue. What it is unwittingly doing is exposing the self-destructive unreality that is at the heart of politically correct, identity politics progressive ideology.

Matt Hawkins has been given some rope, and just look at what he’s done with it. Great job Matt, keep up the good work. What you are exposing here is vital, and your attitude of tolerance towards violent intolerance is a message that we all need to understand, correct, and start to do something about, something that involves defending ourselves, rather than waiting for the inevitable downward arc of the Jihadi Islamic blade.


Rating: 7/10 (A vital comic book that must be read in order to understand the insanity that is at the heart of the modern US progressive movement)


* Credit goes to writer Matt Hawkins (really) for pointing out the differences between Sunni (Saudi Arabia, ISIS, Wahabi, supported by the west) and Shia (Iran, supported by Russia, feared by Israel, for very good reasons). There is some real ignorance and street level bigotry caused by a confusion between the two sects, and some of this is explored within this comic book, though not in the detail that I would like, plus it's very convenient for narrative and ideological reasons as it frames 'rednecks' as ignorant people who don't know the difference between the two groups. The problem with Islam is not our ignorance between the two major groups, the problem is bigger than that. It's a problem of an entire group of people that want to completely change every single thing about western civilisation and the freedoms that we now have after hundreds and hundreds of years fighting against the state, usually backed up by the collectivist ideology of religion.  Islam is a backwards, intolerant religion that does not respect women's rights and the right of the individual to live his life free from the collective ideology of religion. Islam is a step backwards, and the west needs to be very, very careful with it.

Comic review: The Tithe #1- The best comic book in the world

Co-creator and Writer: Matt Hawkins
Co-creator and Artist: Rahsan Ekedal
Publisher: Top Cow Productions/Image Comics
Released: 15th April 2015


Do you know what I think is the most important, vital issue that is threatening the very existence of humanity and the planet Earth today?

Is it international banks and corporations owning and controlling western democratic governments, robbing people of their freedoms through neo-liberal consensus politics and giving people the illusion of freedom through social justice campaigns that obsess over race, gender and sexuality (but only in the west) issues?

I love the masks. Very edgy.

Nope, none of that stuff is important at all. What is REALLY important is Christian television evangelist fraud scandals from 1989. That’s what I’m really concerned about, and that’s why I absolutely love ‘The Tithe’ #1.

This book really is cutting edge. I love how it’s unafraid to hit those evil Christian Pastors where it really hurts, exposing their big Church donation based corruption for all the world to see. These big name US Christian Pastors have been getting away with their scams for far too long now, and it’s about time that somebody like brave writer Matt Hawkins and artist Rahsan Ekedal put their heads above the parapet and exposed these con-men Christian Churches for what they really are.

Co-creators Matt Hawkins and Rahsan Ekedal are taking a big career risk on this one. Just think of all those angry Christians who are going to be screaming blue murder about what is being exposed here.

Writer Matt Hawkins himself knows that there will be a HUGE backlash after what he has said about 1980’s Southern US Mega-Church Christianity in this whisteblowing paradigm shattering comic book, so he’s cleverly put a ‘good’ Christian character in the book as well to rebalance that situation.

It’s a wise decision, as the hard-core, militant, extremist Christian backlash against this book is going to be huge. I just hope that nothing violent happens as what this world needs right now is more people like brave, heroic, intelligent, cutting-edge, scandal breaking warrior writers like Matt Hawkins to really shine a light on the seedy underbelly of those Devilish, evil, satanic, scumbag, disgusting 1980s’s US Churches.

Great job Matt. Great job Ekedal. You’ve created something very special here, very special indeed.



Rating: 10000000000/10 (By far and away the best comic book in the world)

Comic Review: Postal #1- White, Christian, Misogynist, Homophobic, Violent, Criminal, Racists.

Writers: Bryan Hill & Matt Hawkins
Artist: Isaac Goodhart
Publisher: Image Comics for Top Cow Productions.
Released: 4th February 2015


***Spoiler in review***


Get ready, because here I go on another bout of liberal drip bashing, guaranteed to offend every tender ‘politically correct’ soul lisping away in simpering denial of reality in their safe under prison lights, carbon neutral, agenda 21 box of white guilt solitude.

More cowardly Christian bashing

Raise your hands high to the spaghetti monster in the sky god of Richard Dawkins atheism, state dependency and worshipping of the lying box. We’ll have no discrimination here. All are welcome, just as long as your brain has been state sanctioned to acceptable levels of PC cleanliness. Please leave your ability to discern reality, your morality, your common sense, and most importantly, your right to defend yourselves at the door.

What am I going on about here? Perhaps I really am going ‘Postal’ this time? Have I finally snapped? Has it all becoming too much for this sane person to take? Probably, because after what I’ve just read in Postal #1 by Top Cow Productions I feel that the only thing ‘left’ for me to do is to run out into the street, wave my hands in surrender and join the maddening crowd of murder hungry mainstream media watching somnambulists.

Sorry. I’ll calm myself down now, and attempt to explain what has driven me into this state of manic, bozo the clown, bouncing off the ceilings ‘state’ of despair and surrender inducing incredulity.

You can tell a lot about a book, and the world-view presented by its authors, by studying the characters that it contains. Postal #1 includes helpful biographies that clarify exactly who the characters within the narrative are supposed to be. I find it very telling that their biographies are presented in the style of a Police report, because that is exactly what this book is, a comic book that reads like it has been written by a team of government employees or police officers.

I’ll briefly scan those characters now, as they will illustrate everything that you need to know about this book.

Character No 1: Daniel P. Messersmith- An armed and dangerous drug taker, dealer, and criminal deviant. White guy, middle aged.

Character No 2: Atticus F. Nixon- A Christian pastor, and member of both the KKK and Aryan Brotherhood. Narcissistic, violent and dangerous. White guy, middle aged.

Character No 3: Dana Shiffron- Mayor, female (but likes misogynists for some reason) involved in organised crime, drug dealing, firearms distribution and has conviction for ‘conspiracy to murder.’ White female, middle aged.

Here's our mentally ill 'Sheldon' protagonist

Character No 4: Rory Ashley Lafleur- Sheriff, criminal, dishonourably discharged from army, ex Hells Angel, frequenter of prostitutes, homophobic, insecure about his own gender identity. White guy, middle aged.

Character No 5: The Chef- French anarchist, criminal, terrorist speaks only in French, unpleasant and rude. White guy, middle aged.

Character No 6: Mark Chiffon- No criminal history. Young and good looking. Has Aspergers syndrome. Childlike. Main protagonist of narrative, with the reader being introduced into the story from his first person narration, thus we are encouraged to empathise with this individual. White male, young adult.

Character No 7: Margaret Prendowski- Pretty young waitress. Criminal records for non-violent, victimless crimes involving marijuana and tax evasion. Portrayed as somebody the reader should have empathy with as she befriends the main story-telling protagonist. White female, young adult.

Character No 9: Robert R. Sampson- A giant Indian with outstanding warrants for criminal trespass and sexual assault (I expect that these warrants will later be shown to be false). This stereotypical character is the voice of nature, and a reminder that evil white men are destroying it.

All of these characters are living in a self regulating, isolated commune/town and are criminal fugitives from the law, with the exception being the Aspergers suffering main protagonist who is living with his criminal mum. I’m not exactly sure why, but the FBI, rather than going into town and simply arresting everybody in it, are instead trying to infiltrate it with informers.

Anarchist French Chef. So unpleasant.

The book begins with some predictable Christianity bashing (portraying them as violent, gun crazed zealots) and concludes ***SPOILER ALERT*** with a murder on the commune. The narrative will continue with an investigation (from the point of view of the Aspergers suffering protagonist) and I expect the local ‘authorities’ to use the murder to try to gain legal access into the community.

Did the authorities commit this murder, or is it something more mundane? I expect the later, but the former is not out of the question if the book wants to be ‘dangerous’ and accuse the beloved, state sanctioned Gods (aka the Police) of doing such a terrible thing.

Here’s my problem with the book, and please bear in mind that I don’t have a crystal ball, so I cannot look into the future and envision where it’s eventually going to go:

The criminal fugitives in this town/commune are portrayed as racist, religious (Christian, of course) bigots, misogynists, KKK members, drug dealers, drug abusers, tax cheats, terrorists (not Muslims, obviously), anarchists, violent criminals, narcissists, homophobes and sexually deviant gun nuts, and they are white, very, very white.

Do you get my point here? They are the most politically correct, liberal friendly, expedient group of white-faced bible loving Christian criminals that this world has ever seen.

Do you suspect that there might be an agenda going on here, or is it just another unimportant comic book that I’m reading far too much into?

And here's the 'Penny' of the book.

Look at all of those character profiles again. The message of this book is very clear, and that message is that if you are not a good little politically correct, government supporting, tax-paying slave to the neo-liberal corporate whore consensus then you are a criminal, and you’re probably racist, and white, and all of the rest of the things that I’ve previously mentioned in this review.

Still think it’s just another unimportant comic book that I’m reading too much into? Look at the main protagonist of the book, a mentally ill young man who is portrayed as a beacon of kindness, light and sincerity amongst all of the horrible racist white people living amongst him. Do you know what that is saying to me? It’s saying that it’s cool to be a mentally ill liberal. That it’s cool to act like Sheldon in the wetter than a haddock in a raincoat television show ‘The Big Bang theory.’ A show where socially awkward losers are made to look like the most fascinating guys in town, a show where liberal losers get to date girls who wouldn’t go anywhere near them in the real world.

Tell me that I’m wrong. Tell me that the comic is cleverer than that, tell me that in five issues time the people living in this commune/town will be flipped, and portrayed as the good guys, and that the mentally ill young liberal substitute will be the villain of the narrative. Can you really suggest that this is going to happen, because at the moment this story can only go in one direction, and that direction my friends, is straight to statist, neo-liberal, politically correct Hell.

Rating: 4/10 (For the clear art with easily discernible character types, and easy to follow script)

Comic review: IXth Generation #1- Supermodel world controllers in space

Writer: Matt Hawkins
Artist: Stjepan Sejic
Publisher: Top Cow Productions
Released: 7th December 2015

There’s not a lot for me to say about this comic book. I know it's a cross-over thing, but as a new reader it didn't offer me much at all.

The narrative is set in a spacey future where an elite group of immortals rule over a race of genetically advanced humans. These ‘nine heirs’ are your usual comic book types, young, attractive, wearing tight costumes and of various PC multi-racial/gender classifications.

I never realised that world controllers could be so cute.

The story begins with them arguing amongst themselves, fighting (although it’s pointless as none of them can be killed) and it concludes with one of their party being revealed as some kind of a threat to their status quo.

The biggest problem that I have with this book is that I’m not sure why I should I care about any of ‘heirs,’ as they are unelected dictators, a ruling elite in the same mould as our own hidden ruling elite of corporate/banking interests.

The protagonists in IXth Generation #1 couldn't help but remind me of the handful of families that control our own, real-world reality.

I’m talking about the real power behind our puppet politicians, the corporate decision makers who hide under the illusion of western ‘democracy,’ using a controlled election system where every few years their slave tax base get to choose between right corporate fist or left corporate fist. A system that cleverly gets slaves to choose the colour of the uniforms worn by tax collectors and prison guards, whilst telling the slaves that they are not slaves at all because they freely chose the uniform colour of their oppressors.

I might be a bit strange, but I don’t naturally empathise with unaccountable, slave controlling elite’s. That’s what you get in this book, so it’s an immediate turn-off for me. I don’t like them, and I don’t want to read about them. It doesn’t help that the story seems inconsequential due to their immortal nature either, and I couldn’t find anything in them, or in their struggles that held my interest. Perhaps if the story focussed on some of the ‘little’ people living in this new world I would have cared, but by focussing solely on the world controllers themselves the book has lost me already.

The art is nicely shaded and coloured in sections, but the story holds no long term interest, so unfortunately this is going to be a one and out for me. Simply put, it wasn’t interesting enough for me, and it falls into the chasm of blah that I’m going out of my way to avoid these days. I wish them luck, but Top Cow needs to put out better stuff than this if they want to win me over and to become a regular reader of their titles.

Rating: 3/10

Comic book review: Death Vigil #2- Fluffy, irrelevant and lightweight, yet it made me giggle

Writer and Artist: Stjepan Sejic
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 13th August 2014

It’s the amusing dialogue that makes this book the amusing diversion that it is. There’s nothing particularly original, contemporary or socio-politically relevant about the book, so it’s never going to get a top rating from this reviewer, but it makes me smile and it’s not bashing me over the head with the usual feminist liberal agenda that so many comic books carry today.

I can forgive the cuteness, the fluffiness and the self-aware comic book puns and just read it, smile and leave it at that. Issue #2 clarifies the world that is being created, has a fight-scene interlude to break up what might otherwise have been an exposition heavy issue, introduces a new threat, and that’s about it really.

The characters are loveable and playful and self-aware and they all have great hair, and they are the cool little club that you wanted to join, but couldn’t find except perhaps on the television or in a comic book like this, and they all have cool names that are deliberately geeky, but chic in a hipster kind of way, and they all have cool special abilities, and the animals talk like those old Sandman comics, and they are saving the world, or something, and they look a bit Gothic like a My Chemical Romance video, and they live in a big College era type house, and I’m sure they’ll all have relationships with each other whilst battling the evil emo guys, or whoever the villains are, and it’s going to be a lot of fun, and the dialogue is post modern and witty, and the art is all swirls and double page magical lighning flashes as they swoosh into the night’s sky full of stars with horrible looking creatures biting at their toes.

Okay, so it’s lacking in originality and it’s not really saying anything, about anything. It’s set in a no time as well, a time that looks dangerously close to the mid 1990’s time setting so beloved (because it’s politically safe) of contemporary mainstream comic book writers. It could be 1978 or it could be 2078. The world is merely a backdrop for the cool get-along gang of Emo/Goth dead kids with cool haircuts and swiggly magic powers, but I’m reading it, and the dialogue is funny, and I need something fluffy every now and then, and it fits the bill nicely.

Death Vigil is an average, post-modern, fluffy comic book about skinny dead Goth kids who are far more interesting and verbally witty than their real world counterparts. Compared to my own world it's infinitely more appealing. I'll explain that world to you, the world that surrounds this man, and don’t worry about me. It doesn’t effect me now, not like it used to.

I live in a world of predictable drip, drip, routine, get old, get replaced, no wisdom here. A world of indifferent android people stuck in the ruts and routines of their own creation. Yes, when you compare the world of Death Vigil to my own imitation of life why would I not happily jump into this fluffy, amusing little realm, at least for a while?  The people there are very cool, they talk to each other about interesting things (not sport), they seem happy, they have a cool little gang and I’m really enjoying their amusing verbal interplay. It’s not exactly a revolutionary, matrix shattering, world changer of a comic book, but it makes me smile and that’s good enough for me.


Rating: 7/10

Blitz review: Death Vigil #1- A cool little club of dead people

Writer: Stjepan Sejic
Artist: Stjepan Sejic
Publisher: Image Comics (Top Cow Productions inc)
Released: 9th July 2014

It’s easy to write a comic book that I’ll enjoy and say nice things about in one of these reviews. All you have to do is write a book with likeable characters and decent art. Add that to a good story with a few unexpected twists, interesting and believable villains and none of that feminist liberal nonsense and I’m happy. If you deal with contemporary new world order issues then I’ll be even happier, but as long as you don’t insult me and pretend that it’s still 1993 I’m okay if you don’t want to go too deep into 2014 reality. I won’t give you a 10/10, but I’ll still read a 7 or 8 out of ten book.

Death Vigil doesn’t do the contemporary new world order stuff that would make it a 10/10 for me, but it’s a pretty entertaining read, with characters that I actually liked. It was well written, you get a lot of story for your money, and it looked all right as well. I don’t go too much into the plots and characters in my reviews as I find that really tedious in other reviews that I read. All you need to know about this book is that it’s about a cool little club of Goth types who protect our world from evil spirits and demons. They are dead, but they can walk around and interact with you and me, but they can’t crap and they can’t puke. I learnt that in this first issue.

I enjoyed the book because of the tone of the writing, it had a strong opening, and it had a nice little plot surprise in the middle as well. The characters were written with a smile, and they put a smile on my mug as well. I want to see what they get up to next, and if I were dead then I’d love to join their little club. It’s a cool little club, the kind of club I wished I could have joined during one of the many periods in my life, instead of all of the silent and apathetic people I actually did meet in my teens, twenties and thirties. I’m in my forties now, and I’m still waiting for that cool little club. Oh well, that’s what comics books are for isn’t it? To meet people far more interesting than the boring drone repeaters you meet in your everyday life. So a good book, not great, but it was fun and I’ll keep on reading.
Rating: 7.5/10