In this week’s Wednesday Comics column, Beasts of Boriken is a challenging and well-done first issue set in Puerto Rico, a new Last Starfighter comic takes flight, the Shaolin Cowboy returns, and much more! Plus, The Prog Report!
Beast of Borikén #1
Writer: Julio Anta
Illustrator: Daniel Irizarri
Colors: Patricio Delpeche
Letterer: Lucas Gattoni
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Review by Ricardo Serrano Denis
Puerto Rico faces the harshest reminder of its colonial status when a natural disaster strikes. The passing of Hurricane María in 2017 has not only been one of the most brutal reminders of this, but also one of the farthest reaching. It’s all in the recovery process. When the island was rebuilding, outside interests flew in to buy up land cheap and start construction on projects that benefited tourists and American corporate interests.
Julio Anta and Daniel Irizarri revive the legendary cryptid El Chupacabras to tackle this precise state of affairs in their new book Beast of Borikén, with colors by Patricio Delpeche and letters by Lucas Gattoni. This first issue also features a backup story by Justin Jordan, Tony Akins, and Aditya Bidikar titled “Seven Gates,” about an urban legend that tells of a series of gates in Pennsylvania that lead to Hell (fans of the movie Toad Road will pick up on it immediately).
Beast of Borikén follows Loli, an activist that’s leading the fight against an American investor that wants to build a fancy resort in the town of Aguadilla some 8 years after Hurricane María. Loli survived María but not without getting some very deep scars, the kind that operate more like a haunting rather than just a collection of bad memories.
The memory of María colors her determination, making the American developer an extension of the hurricane’s destruction. When construction for the resort begins, something awakens. And it’s something Puerto Ricans who lived through the 90s are well acquainted with, a creature that scared a nation while also becoming a part of the island’s narrative: el Chupacabras.
Anta and Irizarri showcase a great understanding of post-María Puerto Rico. Loli, for instance, seems like a character ripped straight from the headlines of the island’s newspapers. Anyone who’s lived there and has had to process the experience of the hurricane has known someone like Loli, a fighter that puts community above all else.
Irizarri illustrates her with that same energy, so her mission statement is always reflected in a physical sense. Anta makes sure her anger and her urgent sense of justice come through in each line of dialogue. She’s given additional strands of story to complicate her development that are best experienced while reading. Suffice it to say, Loli is wholeheartedly Boricua. She’s not a generic avatar for the reader.
The team also manages to present Puerto Rico as its own character with its own complexities. From scenes of hurricane-authored destruction (both during and after) to the way construction sites are set up with stone barriers in front of lush green spaces, it’s clear that capturing the spirit of the island was front and center. It’s almost journalistic in scope and detail.
This first issue is light on the Chupacabras action, and rightly so. The creature is such an important part of our mythic identity that it simply deserves buildup to fully appreciate. There are hints that the creature is going for a version of monstrosity that represents violent but justified retribution. It’s initially presented as if it were a protector of flora and fauna, channeling taíno culture to bolster the approach.
This isn’t necessarily the position the creature holds in Puerto Rico’s collective memory. The legend of the Chupacabras is more specifically rooted in the context of conspiracy theories and extraterrestrial speculation. It was less a protector and more a kind of unexplained phenomenon, something Agent Mulder would investigate in The X-Files (which he did in a Monster-of-the-Week episode in season 4 of the series, only it went for Mexico’s interpretation of the creature rather than PR’s, where it originated).
That said, El Chupacabras has become Puerto Rico’s own cryptid, a marker of identity that allowed us to stake our claim in the UFO and extraterrestrial community (PR has its own UFO airport as well, el ovnipuerto in Lajas). All of this to say, the creature at the center of this story very easily lends itself to the role Anta and Irizarri seem to be hinting at in this first issue. It’ll be interesting to see how it combines with the indigenous history the book alludes to as well. For the moment, though, it’s important to note that El Chupacabras is 100% Puerto Rican, a part of island’s many mysteries.
Delpeche’s colors do an excellent job of capturing the earthy tones and vibrant greens of the island. There’s life in these pages, and a lot is owed to Delpeche’s use of color to differentiate between the post-María scenes and the hurricane destruction scenes. It respects the natural elements of Puerto Rico and turns them into storytelling mechanisms of their own.
As of the time of this writing, concerned Puerto Ricans are protesting the development of a massive private resort/city known as “Proyecto Esencia.” It’s meant to have its own private schools, an airport, hotels, and luxury residences. It’s not a place the people of the island will be able to afford. Hence, it is not being built for them.
Beast of Borikén is clearly a comic for the times, immediate and aware. It’s an ecological call to arms that demands recognition and response. With some luck, maybe Anta and Irizarri’s comic becomes prophetic and we’ll see el Chupacabras join in on the fight to safeguard Puerto Rico from colonial corporate interests. Para que Puerto Rico siga siendo de los puertorriqueños.
Killer Influences #1
Writer: Joey Esposito
Artist: Valeria Burzo
Colorist: Inaki Azpiazu
Letterer: Alex Ray
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Review by Zack Quaintance
The new IDW crime comic, Killer Influences, is probably going to surprise you. It’s a complex, character-driven serial killer story, interested in dissecting the media industry that has sprung up around murder, and it’s doing it here with a first issue that excellently builds out a pair of fascinating characters.
Indeed, if Killer Influences was a film, we’d call it a two-hander, as it hinges on a pair of so-far equal leads. If you want to go into this comic entirely blind, I will tell you here that this is a good, smart crime/horror comic, and it gets my recommendation. I will also tell you that now is the point to turn back. I’m not going to discuss anything here that wasn’t in the preview text, but I am definitely going to discuss the things that were in that text. So, you’ve been warned.
So yeah, the two leads in this book are an ultra-efficient serial killer who is so careful he has wracked up dozens of kills without anyone noticing his work, or at least connecting or sensationalizing it; and a small-town newspaper reporter who hates where she lives and has big ambitions to get famous and get out. This is the story of the two coming together for mutual benefit. It’s essentially the story of a true crime podcaster helping a serial killer do murders that will make for a good show, and that’s a clever twist that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen done before.
Of course, a clever idea only takes you so far without great execution, but, thankfully, this comic is very well done. I’m a big fan of writer Joey Esposito, who wrote the absolute gem, The Pedestrian, and he’s back with another great script here. Esposito excels at Lynchian comics that posit something sinister or mysterious is lurking beneath the veneer of our small towns, and there’s a fair amount of that in Killer Influences. But I think what his script does best in this comic is efficiently build the two lead characters without ever feeling forced or plodding. In the course of one issue, I know both characters, their motives, and what they’re going to want for potentially the full run of this book. That’s no easy feat.
And, of course, it requires an artist in lockstep to pull it off, and Valeria Burzo is excellent in this comic. Everything from her character face acting to the gruesome instances of bloodied murder pops right off the page in this one, colored to perfection by one of my favorite colorists, Inaki Azpiazu. To be a bit corny, the creative team is as killer as the influences in this book.
All of that is to say that I am absolutely hooked for the duration after reading Killer Influences #1, and I can’t wait for the rest of this book.
The Last Starfighter #1
Writers: Benjamin Raab and Deric A. Hughes
Artist: Willi Roberts
Colors: Francesco Segala
Flatter: Agnese Pozza
Letters: Rob Jones
Publisher: Mad Cave Studios
Review by Clyde Hall
In the days of quarter arcade splendor, this movie had a clever concept going for its summer 1984 theatrical release. What if an exciting space combat video game dropped into arcades and storefronts around the world wasn’t simply a quarter-gobbling electronic entertainment? What if the Starfighter consoles were secretly a test, screening potential candidates with the right skills for actual training as pilots in the Star League, an intergalactic peacekeeping force based on the planet Rylos? And what if, against cosmic odds, a trailer park kid named Alex Rogan beat the game proving he had the right stuff to join the starfighter legion in its fight against the Xur and the bloodthirsty Ko-Dan Armada threatening the boundaries of their Frontier?
Which is exactly what happened. Except that the teen recruit didn’t want thrown into potentially lethal deep space combat where he was fighting for survival instead of just a high score. Alex turned down the honor of being chosen and was well on the way back home to Earth when a sneak attack destroyed all the other starfighters and left Alex as the solitary hope for Rylos and other member planets of the Star League. Their Last Starfighter.
Spoiler alert, the space opera ends pretty well for Alex and his alien co-pilot Grig, as well as for Earth, the Star League, the Starlite Starbrite Trailer Court residents, and Alex’s sweetie, Maggie. The Last Starfighter movie was a one-and-done affair with early computer animation, a cast of young versatile actors mixed well with seasoned veterans, and a stirringly heroic instrumental theme. Plus inspiration for gamers sitting behind their Galaga controllers and Star Raiders consoles to imagine, just maybe, somewhere beyond known space, aliens watched their high scores and level progressions with recruitment in mind… Probably a reason, along with being a memorable date night flick, for its eventual cult film status. It was enough, no need for a sequel.
But that didn’t mean it lacked threads aplenty for moving forward with more tales of the Legion and the rise of a new Star League force replacing the one which was lost. This week, writers Benjamin Raab and Deric A. Hughes begin weaving those threads together in a 5-issue miniseries continuation of The Last Starfighter, picking up soon after the film’s conclusion.
The film narrative’s wrap was upbeat, neat, and tidy. But even young viewers realized that was a matter of cinematic convenience. ‘Cause the Ko-Dan Armada may have been toast, but Xur had escaped and he was a level of cosmic psychopath Ming would have admired, Thanos would have derided, and Darth Vader might have Force-choked rather than risk his becoming a Sith. The starfighter legion has to be rebuilt and new pilots found, then trained by Grig and the rookie pilot Alex. And in the first issue, we see the League ambassadors and elders, while grateful for the Hail Mary save Alex and Grig managed, are dubious regarding how formidable a defense force they’ll muster on short notice. Cobbled pieces of demolished gunstars are being turned into makeshift fighting craft and pilot recruitment drives are underway. But it’s an overwhelming task for an 18 year old Terran kid, and complications soon develop.
There’s bountiful attention paid by Raab and Hughes to the original film, and the issue is peppered with references fans will appreciate. Maggie, joining Alex on Rylos, is seen learning to use alien blaster technology on a practice range. The scene calls back to her Granny being the one who brought a double barreled shotgun to the alien housewarming party in the trailer park when Alex returned home from battle. She knew how to use one, and taught Mags the same. In short order, Maggie has a role to play in the enlistment process which fits with her can-do attitude in the movie.
Such concerns are still in the area of space opera, and the film definitely had more astroducks lined up in that constellation than in hard sci-fi. But, just as a Green Lantern story may lend itself to either interstellar buddy cop actioner or hard science fiction exploration of new civilizations, The Last Starfighter premiere touches on elements noodging it in sci-fi’s direction. The variety of not only alien races but distinctly non-human ones is a plus in this respect. The Zando-Zans, Rylans, Ko-Dans, Centauri’s race, Grig’s people, and other new recruits from across the galaxy in this issue widen the variety still more.
Redemptive and heroic journey echoes sound throughout these pages as well, fleshing out that space opera stage. A hint of Dirty Dozen here, a nod to the young hero Theseus’s travels there. If they’re aiming for a cosmic mythology spanning remote star ways with a galactic Iliad focused on not only Alex but members of his starfighter recruits, it’s a fair start.
As for the art, Willi Roberts shines capturing the aesthetic of the film. Characters are recognizable as are the starcraft and tech designs. Comparing the blaster Maggie’s practicing with and screenshots of the prop, you see diligence in the details. And just as the alien lifeforms variety is wide, so is the tech design of the film. These blasters aren’t simple zap gun affairs; they’re complex. And Roberts more than matches the intricacies. Like the original film’s cinematographer, he also deftly slips from exposition scenes to dialogue panels, then straight into action sequences seamlessly.
Readers familiar with the movie will quickly find these creators have personal stakes in the game. On differing levels, they are fans of the movie with an abiding appreciation for the source material. We see it in post-story blurbs by the creators, but we already know. Their work here puts that dedication fully on display.
It doesn’t end there. Admiration must go high on the company ladder because Mad Cave’s making the 1984 Marvel comic book adaptation of the film available concurrently with the new miniseries.
Maybe readers will ask the harder questions, though. Did we really need a comics continuation of a humble summertime matinee and drive-in feature approaching its 42nd anniversary? No. But that hasn’t prevented less deserving films and franchises from getting more (sometimes seemingly endless) continuations, reworkings, and sequels.
The difference here is the care those writing and rendering the launch pad for further adventures in The Last Starfighter universe have applied in getting it right. Fans are going to love it. And for those who don’t know the film, I expect a surge in online viewership from connoisseurs of ‘80s culture and younger sci-fi film buffs streaming it thanks to this miniseries. They’ll hear and read Robert Preston’s Centauri welcome with, “Greetings, Starfighter! You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada. Get ready! Prepare for blastoff!” Then, just stay steady. Don’t fight the chair. Take your time, watch your gunsights, lead your targets, and above all…relax as you read the first issue!
The Dogsitter #1
Writer: Jamie S. Rich
Artist: Megan Levens
Colors: Nick Filardi
Letters: Crank
Publisher: Ignition Press
Review by Gianni Palumbo
I love a good rom-com. Annie Hall, When Harry Met Sally…, It Happened One Night, the Nancy Meyers filmography, and so many more, are huge favorites of mine. Unfortunately, if the past 10-15 years are any indicator, the quality studio romantic comedy is largely dead and has been replaced with Lifetime-esque Netflix streaming slop that looks like it was filmed in a backyard, devoid of charm and unique storytelling. The Dogsitter from Ignition Press falls somewhere in between those two extremes for me.
Written by Jamie S. Rich with art by Megan Levens, it follows Gemma, a veterinarian student with financial struggles doubling as a flower shop worker and dogsitter (hence the title), who’s struggling in the dating world until she “meet-cutes” and hooks up with a stranger named Neal at a veterinarian animal costume party. And that’s kind of it for this first issue. It kind of just stops right when they hook up in the bathroom and it doesn’t really intrigue me enough to continue with the series. Before they meet, we get a montage of generic toxic male archetypes hitting on Gemma as she drinks the night away. When she and Neal do meet, there isn’t enough on the page to make me care about how their relationship may evolve.
To me, great rom-coms have to have an interesting hook to make it stand out from the rest. There are so many stories in this genre but the best ones stand out because of their uniqueness. My biggest issue is that this feels generic and formulaic. This first issue is all montages with very little dialogue and intrigue, and all of the players introduced so far feel more like archetypes rather than characters. Ignition Press has been publishing some really great titles, and I was really looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, this didn’t really work for me.
Faceless and the Family: Maze of the Mechanical Aliens #1
Writer/Artist: Matt Lesniewski
Letterer: Ferran Delgado
Publisher: Oni Press
Review by Khalid Johnson
Faceless and the Family: Maze of the Mechanical Aliens by Matt Lesniewski is so visually interesting, I’m probably going to think about it whenever I pick up a pencil.
The way that shapes and forms compound on each other yet there’s still a clarity and legibility is masterful and creates gorgeous results and contrast. The work is so expressive, one of the strengths being how easily identifiable characters are, and Lesniewski dials up that expressiveness with mechanical alien suits which are built out of these ornate block shapes that extend in moments of tension. I immediately thought of Marvel’s symbiotes but then the story takes the concept and pulls it’s narrative threads with a sense of ostracization attached to the suits on top of a general xenophobia.
I was really taken with how the story grounds itself in the characters here, letting Faceless take a backseat of sorts to set up Katari, a man who shares the struggle of a mechanical alien suit while holding family struggles of a dying dad and wanting to step up to help. Katari in this first issue feels incredibly fleshed out and when he meets Faceless, everything is seamless. The art and the story have a real weight to them and I think this issue is more than worth picking up.
Shaolin Cowboy – Staying A.I. Live #1
Writer and artist: Geof Darrow
Colorist: Ian Herring
Color Flats: Casbri Studios’ Alina Bartolini, Lea Mascareno, and Anubis Gil
Letterer: Nate Piekos of Blambot
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Review by Jordan Jennings
Geof Darrow has again returned to his signature creation, the Shaolin Cowboy with Shaolin Cowboy: Staying A.I. Live #1. The issue serves as a cutting and sharp satire of our broken world. To create this hatefilled environment, Darrow turns his eye for detail towards the landscape. In every panel, on every building you cannot escape the cacophony of Rebel battle flags, porn advertisements, Nazified business names, and many more. This is a land with streets named after prominent members of the current Presidential administration and the German Nazi party.
I applaud Darrow for not playing it safe here in his critique of the current administration that has overseen ice raids, concentration camps, and much more. As a new reader going in, this thick layer of racism may be a bit off putting at first but it quickly becomes apparent that Darrow knows writers that use subtext and he thinks they are all cowards.
Let’s be clear here, this comic isn’t solely about how screwed up America is right now. Nope, this environment is purely that. It permeates the world around the story. The story itself features Darrow taking the eponymous Shaolin Cowboy and throwing him into this xenophobic hellscape. The primary catalyst for the adventure is a noble cause for the Cowboy: deliver a message from a deceased son to his mom. Unfortunately, the Cowboy becomes blamed for a murder and is implicated as a suspect thanks to a shoddy AI program. The setting informs the story but Darrow is not letting the satire dominate the story.
The art is, as previously mentioned, super detailed with so much jammed into the background that I cannot imagine how much time it took to fill it all in. This detailing is critical for setting the tone of this twisted world. Yet this comic isn’t just about impressive landscapes, it is an action comic first and foremost. It’s impressive how Darrow is able to evoke a sense of action through the utilization of varied panels size and layouts. Even the panel compositions are varied between larger establishing shots and a mix of quick cuts and close ups. The frantic action combined with the slower-paced quiet moments you get an overall great sense of pacing.
The only knock on the issue is the ending doesn’t really feel like the end point of a comic. It feels like the comic ends mid-sentence and not at the end of an idea. It isn’t a bad ending either and works fine enough. It just feels abrupt.
Overall, Shaolin Cowboy: Staying A.I. Live #1 is a great start to this new mini series full of lush world building and thrilling action. Longtime fans of the Shaolin Cowboy will be pleased with this newest volume.
Adventure Time – Quadruple Feature #1
Writers: Mariko Tamaki
Artist: Brenda Hickey
Colorist: Leonardo Ito
Letterer: Shawn Lee
Publisher: Oni Press
Review by Jared Bird
The newest comic series based on Pendleton Ward’s beloved cartoon series Adventure Time sees Finn the Human and Jake the Dog, alongside their friends Marceline and Lumpy Space Princess, itching for a trip to the movies. The problem? They can’t all agree on what to watch, and so we follow them on an adventure across genres and Hollywood history through four different screenings.
Jake The Dog is the first one of the group to suggest checking out different films, buying himself a ticket for a 1940s comedy titled What’s Up, Princess?. Across this wonderful first issue, we see Jake’s experience both watching and starring in the film, which sees him as a stage actor who ends up getting in an entanglement with the fiery and hotheaded Flame Princess. An ode to classic genre films at the time, it’s brilliant stuff, perfectly emulating the visual style of both screwball comedies of the time and the cartoons that contained similar slapstick comedic elements. It’s a fun little narrative treat too, as Jake and Flame Princess bicker and flirt in a way that’s hilariously entertaining throughout. It’s a testament to how fun the concept of this series is that I immediately itched for more, but perhaps that is also because of my own personal bias as a cinephile.
Mariko Tamaki’s script is electric throughout. It should come as no surprise that Tamaki excels here given her consistently brilliant body of work in recent years, but she does a phenomenal job emulating the dialogue style and tone of 1940s comedies whilst still making it entertaining for the modern reader. She also understands the Adventure Time cast perfectly, as Jake is so in character here you can almost imagine John DiMaggio reading out some of this dialogue. I’m curious to see if it will be the same with other character perspectives as the series goes on, but I’m almost certain it will be given Tamaki’s skillset as a writer.
Brenda Hickey’s artwork is wonderful as well. Best known for her work on various My Little Pony comic series, she brings a cartoony and zany energy to this that suits it perfectly. The film itself is brilliantly illustrated, reminiscent of things like Cuphead which reinterpret the classic cartoon style of the time for a modern audience. Flame Princess and Jake are given so much personality in the film through how they are drawn, in an amazing showcase of stylisation and character expression work that perfectly suited the material.
Overall, Adventure Time: Quadruple Feature #1 is a wonderfully entertaining start to what could be a fun and delightful series that sees beloved characters exploring the history of cinema. Perfect for fans of the franchise both new and old, it’s crafted with so much heart that you’ll struggle not to adore it, especially with Tamaki’s amazing script and Hickey’s brilliant artwork that truly brings out all this concept has to offer in its debut issue.
The Prog Report
- 2000AD #2487: This week’s 2000AD brings us the second bumper issue of the year, and it’s one where in my opinion the endings steal the show. The first ending we get this week is for Judge Psi Dee, which is written by Ben Wheatley, with art by Simon Coleby, colors by Jack Davies, and letters by Simon Bowland. This has been one of the most interesting stories in The Prog this year, and one of the most unpredictable. It suffered a bit from a break in the middle, which makes me excited to read it in full. The ending certainly caught me off guard, seeding as it does a potential continuation that I did not expect for this strip. I don’t know if they do intend to continue this story, but the door is open. Next, we get a conclusion for Helium: Red October by writer Ian Edington, artist D’Israeli, and letterer Annie Parkhouse. And I’m sad to see this one end. It’s been a blast, with D’Israeli’s often monochromatic color work providing a fun cap for the past 12 weeks of issues. All in all, this feels like a bumper issue that rewards current readers more than some recent bumper issues, but I enjoyed it. This week’s cover (above) is by Toby Wilsmer. As always, you can pick up a digital copy of The Prog here. And it is also now available weekly in US comic shops! —Zack Quaintance
Column edited by Zack Quaintance
Read past entries in the weekly Wednesday Comics reviews series or check-out our other reviews here!
