‘We spent the next three days together. I didn’t want it to end’ – The Beauty, Volume 2

Sorry for no post last week! I was away in the middle of Wales, with really bad internet (just my luck). Fear not though, I am back and ready to get cracking with a tonne of comic reading!
Those of you that have known me long enough know that at university I wrote for the newspaper there, and reviewed the first issue of The Beauty (which I am sure is one of my first ever reviews) – Link found here!

Gorgeous and very, very dead – The Beauty, Image, 2015-Present

As you can see from my original review, I really loved the first issue and when I was gifted the second issue for Christmas of 2016 (where has time gone?!) I was over the moon! As I’ve previously stated; the premise of The Beauty – what happens when a sexually transmitted disease becomes desirable? Well, attainable beauty is one sexual encounter away. Issue #1 was very interesting – Two police officers, one with the beauty, looking for a way to stop it and halt anyone getting it again. After it basically heating people from the inside out – causing them to explode – has suddenly caused a panic in the public. This disease just seemed to go from amazingly desirable to unwanted in a split second.

 

 

 

The lady that exploded on the tube! – The Beauty, Image, 2015-Present

Issue #2 was very different to #1. We have said goodbye to our police officers and hello to Timo, a man who gives himself the Beauty to leave his former life and Bonita, born Isaiah who takes the Beauty to feel fully herself in her new skin. Both work for a man called Parks, who I never really understood as a character, but that’s probably just me – they are basically his hitmen. There’s less sexual content in the new issue, though there is a couple full-frontal shots. But there’s much more blood and violence!
I don’t want to give too much away (with it being a 2nd issue) but I didn’t find it is interesting as the first. This issue seemed to drag on and could really have been 5 separate stories – that’s how it felt anyway – only the last two seemed to connect to each other.

I am excited for Issue 3 to come out, purely because I love the idea of a wanted STI that isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I just hope that it brings back our lovely police officers from the first issue.

Have you read any of The Beauty? Would you get the disease to be glamorous even if it might blow you up in the end – or are you happy in your own skin? Leave a comment below! 

(Header Image: The Beauty, Image, 2015-Present)

 

‘I have allergies’ – Snotgirl Volume 1

Hope you enjoyed our guest blog last week! The Man on the Silver Mountain loved giving his review of the new Mummy movie, and I hope you’ll be hearing more from him in the future.

Onto this weeks review – Snotgirl! Lottie Person – a girl after my own heart; A blogger (like me), a girl with allergies (like me) and dyes her hair cool colours (like me… ish). Bryan Lee O’Malley, who you may know from film and graphic novel character Scott Pilgrim. I loved Scott Pilgrim, though I must admit I watched the film first (and own but haven’t read the books – I know… naughty me!), and couldn’t wait to see what characters O’Malley had created next.

Lottie Person, aka Snotgirl. A world renowned fashion blogger – Snotgirl, Image Comics, 2017

Snotgirl is someone I felt like I could really relate to – I too am a snotty and itchy wreck when my allergies (pollen and dust mites). I too am chugging pills to get rid of my stuffy, itchy nose and watery eyes. I really felt her pain – Lottie wants for no more than for someone to recognise her as she wants to be, not who she really is. I think she’s a character that everyone can relate to. As you can see she wishes to be ‘effortlessly chic’, but deep down she’s just a persona – this isn’t the real Lottie. In real life she’s a snotty 20-something year old, who’s ex-boyfriend is dating her old intern .

 

 

Lottie showing you how much effort goes into making her persona – Snotgirl, Image Comics, 2017

I do have a couple of issues with the story line, however. It seems to be (minor spoiler alert) that Lottie thinks she’s a murder, she’s killed the only friend that she feels like she can rely on. But at the end this new friend turns back up, and then disappears again. Lottie’s crazy behaviour seems to be a side effect from her new allergy medication; the bottle advises not to operate heavy machinery or ‘make important life decisions’. It seems like these drugs are giving her hallucinations. However, her descent to madness is too fast and sudden, it’s jarring.

 

But, other than that one small hiccup, I would suggest reading it. It’s funny and lighthearted, but there’s still a sense of danger.

Have you read Snotgirl? Are you like Lottie – a snotty person just trying to be amazing? Did you think it was too jarring at the end? Leave a comment down below! 

(Header Image: Snotgirl, Image Comics, 2017)

‘We’re born believers. We’re just made that way’ – Outcast Volume 1

I thought I would get in some 18+ horror comics. Now, if I were to watch a movie that was an 18+ horror, I would be cowering behind the sofa. I am not good with horror. But reading it is fine, easier to tell my brain that the big scary monsters not actually going come and eat me. With this in mind, I decided to order in Outcast Volume 1: A Darkness Surrounds Him, written by Robert Kirkman (who you may know from writing The Walking Dead).

Outcast Volume 1: A Darkness Surrounds Him –  Outcast, Image Comics, 2015

Now, dear readers, I have to admit before I write about Outcast that I didn’t like it. Not because it’s “scary”, because it isn’t – but nothing happens. Absolutely nothing. It’s such a slow burner, that I took none of it in. I had to turn back to the beginning to remember who someone’s name was because I got him confused with the main character. It was not an easy thing for me to finish. I actually can’t fathom how they made a TV series out if it – perhaps I need to sit down and watch that?

I have nothing against the art of Outcast. I like the gritty style, it fits with the idea of possession and the idea of eating people. However, I didn’t like the feeling of the constant jumping from one storyline to the next. As said earlier, I had to go back to the beginning of the book to check if I was in a flashback or not – I am pretty sure I got Kyle and Joshua confused more than once.

Kyle and Joshua mid-fight. What are these demons? Why are they after Kyle? – Outcast, Image Comics, 2015

I never understood the story hook about Kyle’s mum, from Reverend Andersron. When talking about it, it was made to seem like Sarah Barnes, Kyle’s mother, and Reverend Anderson were in a relationship. I don’t assume that’s the case, as no other reading around Outcast I have done says that, but feel free to correct me. There were just too many story lines that made no sense to me.

I will attempt to read the other volumes of Outcast – Volume 2: A Vast and Unending Ruin and Volume 3: This Little Light – that I have sat at my foot, and try to understand some of the story! I really wanted to like it, and I just couldn’t get on with it.

Have you read Outcast? What about watched the television series? Which do you like better? Did you struggle as much as I did? Leave a comment below! 

(Header Image: Outcast, Image Comics, 2015)