Review - Aleister & Adolf (NSFW)

I came across this either as a recommendation or while browsing for graphic novels to read. But the title caught my attention. I have had an interest in the occult since being a teen, and of course, hearing about Aleister Crowley from so many rock sources such as Ozzy Osbourne, and Led Zeppelin, etc. Who hasn't heard the song Mr. Crowley? Below is a YouTube video if you have never heard it :x

But alas this is a review about the graphic novel Aleister & Adolf, and not Crowley. I will admit that I am not a big fan of black and white comics. And this one did start out kinda weird, disjointed and slow to start. But I kept on reading it, and it grew on me. The basic idea behind this is that Crowley being a mage, and master of the occult was sought out to work against Hitler. With the use of icons and semiotics the tide of World War II could be turned. Being skeptical and thinking this was just for the story I researched this and yes this was based on a true story. I had heard that the occult was something Nazi Germany was researching but didn't realize just how deep they were into it. Realizing this was based on a true story and getting a glimpse into the mysterious Beast along with the surrealistic/psychedelic artwork I was hooked. 

So as you can see from the above sample of the artwork this is a mature title. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this title and rated it 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. If you are into historically based on true story graphic novels then this is where it's at. Or if you are into trippy art and or the occult you may enjoy this too. 

International shoppers get your copy here - http://www.bookdepository.com/?a_aid=geekpron

Review: The Gravediggers Union Vol. 1 by Wes Craig

I saw this book come up as a suggested read on Goodreads, and I'll admit that the title had me intrigued. I wasn't exactly sure what this book was about but I had my suspicions that this was a supernatural book just by the title alone.

Right from the start, we see the action and what the Gravediggers Union's main purpose is....to protect the living from the undead! We see them fight back hordes of zombies and vampires. We later learn just what kind of sinister world this is which is overseen by the rich who are in league with an evil cult called the Black Temple(sounds like the Illuminati, right?). These people hope to bring the dark gods back to earth so that they may reap their rewards. Typical selfish rich people...ya know. We also see the origins of the supernatural in this world which features Lovecraftian creatures...Cthulu anyone? Kinda like 2001 Space Odyssey with the monkeys and aliens...just plain weird and fun shit going on in these panels. 

It's kinda obvious that this is a horror comedy and not a super serious plot....if compared to a tv series I would compare it to Ash vs  Evil Dead. This book is kinda campy. If you are looking for a more serious horror/supernatural title I would check out Nailbiter or Harrow County. 

First off I was super impressed by the artwork of this and the use of color. Toby Cypress is the artist for this series. I kinda liked the sketchy way the figures are drawn and really liked the splash of color randomly placed on certain scenes which kinda gave this a 60's/70's horror vibe. To be honest that was the strong point of liking this book...that and it's campy horror vibe. Now I know that this is not a series for everyone. The ratings for this are not too high and I hope they do not cancel it before it really gets going. I myself rated this 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads, and am looking forward to reading more of this series. 

Review: Hellboy: Oddest Jobs

I totally thought this was a graphic novel at first, and it was a subtle surprise. I say this as I tend to avoid reading novelized books about comic book characters. Come to find out that this is the 3rd book of a trilogy of books about the title character. The fact that this was a collection of short stories really helped for me to get into and enjoy this book. Had it been one big novel about Hellboy I don't think I would have liked it that much. don't get me wrong I like HB, but like I said I tend to avoid those kinds of books. Of course, I rated each individual short story using a 5 point star system and came to an average overall rating for the collection based on those total sum ratings.

Each story was written by a known author such as Garth Nix, Joe Lansdale, and a few others who I had never heard of but after reading their tales of HB I may have to look them up. The story I enjoyed the most was by an author I had never heard of named Stephen Volk. His short story was called Monster Boy which was about a little boy who seemed to be in the spectrum based on his description who shared a common interest in movie monsters with his grandfather. The story I disliked the most was called Feet of Sciron by Rhys Hughes which featured a very strange character named Foggy Dicks. Apparently Foggy has an ectoplasmic power and he left the BPRD team to pursue a career in porn...yeah you heard me right....porn.

Each and every story could be read out of order, and I'm assuming the same could be said about the previous 2 volumes in this series. So I will have to go ahead and read the previous volumes. I rated this collection of short stories 3 out of 5 stars based on the above calculation. It is a decent collection of stories some of which I really enjoyed and some not so much. The majority I felt were just okay, but overall this book is worth checking out if you are a fan of the Hellboy series.

Review: Ramses the Damned- The Passion of Cleopatra

Finally finished reading the long-awaited sequel to The Mummy or Ramses the Damned by Anne Rice. Safe to say I read the first book around the time of its debut in the '90's and loved it. I really enjoyed everything I read by her during that time period. She was right up there in my fave authors list along with Stephen King and Clive Barker.

But enough with the trip down memory lane. I received a digital copy from NetGalley for a fair and honest review. This sequel was co-written with her son, Christopher Rice who I have added a few of his books to my TBR but have yet to read. Even though it has a been a very long time since I had read the prior book the authors give a refresher as to what had happened previously in the first few pages. So of course I quickly got up to speed on what had happened and the story rolled right into the events of the present happenings of this one. This book focused more on the character of Cleopatra and her dealing with her new found immortality. (Not to get too far off topic but this took me quite sometime to finish and I can only imagine how thick a paperback copy of this must be.) I still enjoyed reading this follow up but I felt that it dragged on way too long. There were some very long scenes that just could have been shortened for the sake of keeping the reader interested. I pressed on as I did because I had enjoyed the first book, and being that I liked Anne's writing I felt I should finish this. There were times I became overwhelmed by too much story that I put it down for days on end. The ending of the story seemed to be rushed as in it kind of left much to the imagination and was not very clear. This was a portion of the story that could have been more embellished versus the boring back story of certain characters that I just felt were not that important to the plot. An explanation of the title characters connection could have been explained further. Also one fo the things I felt that this book lacked to the prior book and others by her was the hot and steamy sex scenes that she was known for. I do not know if time and age has tamed her writing of sex, but I felt the romance between characters to be very flat and dull. Don't get me wrong I liked this, but felt it was nowhere near as good as the first or prior books by the author. I rated this 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. I would say that if you had read the first book you may want to read this to discover what has happened further to the characters.

Review: Clean Room Vol. 1 Immaculate Conception

This was on my recommendations list for quite awhile before I finally got around to reading it. I mean the title seems not to lead to any real clues as to what it's about and the cover seems kind of generic. So that was why I was not in a big rush to read this. But this is not too bad. I totally did not expect it to be what it is. Which is kind of hard to explain and even harder to pinhole this into one genre alone. I would say Weird fiction is the best match as it combines elements of horror, the supernatural, and possibly science fiction....along with a good dose of mystery and suspense.

The story revolves around a few major players who are apart of the mystery which I will not go into detail as that would spoil part of the charm of this book. Others have compared this to Fatale, and I can see the comparison being a worthy one, as that series also relied heavily on supernatural and mystery elements to keep the reader interested. But with this being said this is not a book for everyone. It does contain mature subject matter and at times disturbing scenes/imagery. I rated this book 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. Some folks loved this and others just didn't like it. I thought it's a decent enough read and I will continue on with the next 2 volumes although I did find some things kind of silly.

Click the above link to purchase your own copy. 

Kill or Be Killed Vol. 1 Review

First off I want to say that I am no stranger to Ed Brubaker's writing. Honestly, he has written some of my favorite series. One of his most popular being Fatale, which was another story that blended the crime and supernatural to make a fantastic story that many enjoyed.
Kill or be Killed is also a blend of the same elements, but this time around it doesn't have a pulp fiction feel that Fatale had. This book starts out by getting into the thick of it, and then slowly back tracking so that the reader understands just what the main character has gotten himself into. So it's written from the point of view of the guy who is doing the killing. I found the character kind of relatable as he lives a hum drum life and his best friend, who should be with him is with his room mate. Being that his life kind of sucks he decides to commit suicide, but it doesn't work out the way he planned, and next thing you know he has unwittingly made a pact with a devil. In order to keep living, he must take the life of someone deserving of dying...someone bad.

So sometimes due to the main character getting behind sometimes in the direction of the story, it helps for it to be serialized as a monthly comic. If you like action, and movies that have lots of guns, and shooting than this is right up your alley. I loved this book and rated it 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.  I have already started reading the second volume.

Get your copy here by clicking the above image it will take you to Amazon where you can get your own copy. 

Book Review: The Radleys

I was thinking of making this just a written review, but when I discovered that there were just not many video reviews about this book that seemed to become trendy 2-3 yrs ago due to bookhauls. I know at one point it had a 4star or almost 4 star rating, so of course being that it is vampire fiction I had to see what all the hype was about.  The above video is my impressions and opinions about this book. It is a fair an honest review. Basically I read it so you don't have too.

Comics Weekly Wrap Up 2/7/15

This week's books. Mostly a lot of Robert Kirkman books. Maybe you are interested to know about what he has written beside The Walking Dead -

1. 2. 3.4.

5. 6.