Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath Review

Samantha Strong is a pillar of the community in her small town of Woodbrook.

She’s also a serial killer.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Volume 2: NYC vs. TMNT Review (Jason Aaron, Juan Ferreyra)

An evil district attorney has somehow replaced the NYPD with Foot and somehow turned the city against the Turtles! The boys have to battle Foot nightly while saving innocent civilians - but they will have their day in court for stupidity’s sake. Splinter’s still dead, Casey’s in a coma, and April finds herself drawn to a new persona because nonsense. Meanwhile, the boys are still divided - can they reunite for the good of the city? Duh.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Volume 1: Return to New York Review (Jason Aaron, Chris Burnham)

The Turtles are broken up and scattered across the world: Donnie is enslaved and forced to fight cage matches against mutant-haters; Mikey’s starring in a hit Japanese TV show about his life; Raph’s in prison; Leo’s in India, meditating with non-mutant flesh-eating turtles. Meanwhile in New York City, a brutal new mayoral candidate seeks to consolidate his populist anti-mutant platform with the help of the Foot Clan.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin Review (Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird)

Set in a dystopian future where a major city is ruled over by thugs, the elderly but legendary hero returns for one last adventure - one last gasp to stand up to evil. Joining him is a young female sidekick, representing the future of justice - can the two of them bring hope to a bleak world? This is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Turtle Knight Returns!

Yellow Cab by Christophe Chaboute Review

Christophe Chaboute adapts filmmaker Benoit Cohen’s 2017 book Yellow Cab into a comic of the same name, wherein Cohen decides to slum it as a NYC taxi driver for a few months in 2016 to gather material for a new film.

The Comic Book History of Animation Review (Fred Van Lente, Ryan Dunlavey)

Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey, the creative team behind similarly edumacational comics Action Philosophers and The Comic Book History of Comics, are back with a new chin stroker: The Comic Book History of Animation - and it’s a cracking read!

Judge Dredd, Volume 2 Review (Duane Swierczynski, Nelson Daniel)

Droids is revoltin’ in Mega-City One – and they’re also turning against the human populace, yukyukyuk! That means Dredd’s outta his usual weaponry and he’s gotta save the life of a bestselling teen author from the rioting robots with just his mitts and wits. No Lawgiver. No Lawmaster. No problem. Also, clones for some reason?!

30 Days of Night Review (Steve Niles, Ben Templesmith)

This is one of those books where I know the author isn’t very good but the title is so well known at this point that I feel obligated to read it as a fan of the comics medium. At least 30 Days of Night is short!

Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II Review (James Tynion IV, Freddie E. Williams II)

If could do just one long burp, that’d about sum up this book. So Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cross-over again because I suppose the first one sold well enough!

Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures Review (Matthew K. Manning, Jon Sommariva)

The Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show crosses over with Batman: The Animated Series in this dreariest of comics. Batman’s rogues start jumping into portals appearing around Gotham and get transported to the Turtles’ world – Batman and the Bat-family follow. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwnnn! 

Gawd amighty it’s a challenge to stay awake reading this one! NOTHING matters, every character plays their clearly defined role predictably, the goodies effortlessly defeat the baddies, and there are zero stakes. It’s so unimaginative and no part of this is in the least bit entertaining. The story is so lacking in anything remarkable. Donnie has a thing for Batgirl and Mikey cocks up the Batman Animated Series intro HAHA… boring, safe rubbish. 

Not that it’s a great comic either but if you’re after a better Batman/TMNT crossover, check out James Tynion IV’s version and give Matthew Manning’s feeble, tedious effort a miss.

Judge Dredd, Volume 3 Review (Duane Swierczynski, Nelson Daniel)

Hmm. I am NOT having much luck picking out good comics this week! I’m not a huge fan of Duane Swierczynski’s but he’s written some ok books in the past. Unfortunately I seem to have managed to grab two of his worst comics efforts with Birds of Prey Volume 3 and now Judge Dredd Volume 3 - and I’m gonna be avoiding any books with his name on going forward! 

Godzilla: The Half Century War by James Stokoe Review

A Japanese soldier called Ota Murakami reminisces on his 50 year relationship with the giant irradiated monster known as Godzilla - the time they went to Paris and Godzy proposed to him in front of the Eiffel Tower, getting their first house together, becoming grandparents… Just kidding! It’s Godzilla fighting one kaiju after another with this dude watching from afar.

Who Killed Kurt Cobain?: The Story of Boddah by Nicolas Otero Review

Who Killed Kurt Cobain? asks the title and the following comic answers what everyone already knew: Kurt Cobain. I thought with the subtitle, The Story of Boddah, that Nicolas Otero would try to frame it as Cobain having a split personality (Boddah was Cobain’s imaginary childhood friend) with “Boddah” taking over and “killing” Kurt, kinda like a Fight Club interpretation. But no, Boddah’s a supporting character who appears throughout, chatting with Kurt but not really playing a major role in anything. 

Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Volume 1 Review (James Tynion IV, Freddie Williams II)

It’s time for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover which means someone’s been fucking with a portal causing the Turtles to wind up in a different universe - it happened when they crossed over with the Ghostbusters and it’s happened again with Batman! This time Shredder and the Foot have also gone through the portal and allied themselves with Gotham City’s villains - Batman and the Turtles must team-up to defeat them because that’s what they do! 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Black & White Classics Volume 1 Review (Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird)

Heroes in a half-shell - Turtle Power! You know them, I know them, they’re the Teenage Motherlovin’ Ninja Turtles! I watched the cartoon, the live-action movies, bought the toys and played the awesome NES video game (the second one) - I was a huge fan as a kid. Haven’t really liked the recent IDW comics but I heard that the original Peter Laird/Kevin Eastman comics from whence the Turtle empire sprang were some hardcore adult shit, not like the sanitized kiddie stuff I was familiar with - I had to read them! 

The October Faction, Volume 2 Review (Steve Niles, Damien Worm)

The Allan kids, Geoff and Vivian, are learning the family trade: monster hunting. Elsewhere, one of Frederick Allan’s enemies has returned for revenge and the kids discover a dark secret about their pa… 

What the hell happened to this series?! The first volume was so good - the second one’s garbage! And why’s it taken nearly a year to come out? Oy…

Insufferable, Volume 1 Review (Mark Waid, Peter Krause)

The city of St Barrington has two famous superheroes: Galahad, the young, social-media savvy hero with a huge following, and Nocturnus, the older, brooding superhero who lives in the shadows. The pair were once a team but had a falling out. Now, a dark secret and a mysterious villain is bringing the two together after years of estrangement – but who and why? 

Johnny Boo, Book 7: Johnny Boo Goes Like This! by James Kochalka Review

Yeah yeah yeah, I knows Johnny Boo is for the kiddles and isn’t for (supposedly) grown-up men like me but I still read it anyway. I’ve been a James Kochalka fan for years now and one thing that could definitely be called his style is the innocent, child-like look and tone of his comics whether he’s writing them for the youngs or the olds. That means that, if you’re a fan like me, you’ll always get something out of reading his comics, whatever audience he’s aiming for as they’re always pure Kochalka. 

Star Trek: Khan Review (Mike Johnson, Claudia Balboni)

The framing of this book is set post-Star Trek Into Darkness but as it’s Khan’s origin story it’s set mostly in the past.

How does a white guy get an Asian name like Khan Noonien Singh? Plastic surgery! Wha… ? Yeah, there’s a few weird revelations about Khan here. Like how he started life as an Indian orphan and became tyrant of Earth in the late 20th century without, somehow, leaving any records from the time to verify this! 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters Review (Erik Burnham, Dan Schoening)

Donatello builds a stargate and accidentally teleports himself and the other Turtles to a different New York – the Ghostbusters’ New York! The two franchises proceed to putz around for as long as they need to and then it ends.