The Further Adventures of Red Sonja may be the only omnibus collection whose existence was necessitated by American copyright law. While originally created for Marvel Comics’ Conan the Barbarian series as a pastiche of two of Robert E. Howard’s historic heroines—Red Sonya of Rogatino and Dark Agnes de Chastillon—Red Sonja has been run through her own LLC for several decades.
The practical upshot of this is that when Dark Horse Comics began printing omnibus editions of the classic Savage Sword of Conan magazines in 2008, they did not collect those stories starring Red Sonja. Stories where Sonja was a supporting character in Conan the Barbarian were apparently fair game, as she appears with regularity in the Conan the Barbarian reprints. So it was that, for a decade, the only way to enjoy those solo Sonja stories was to track down the original magazines.
Hither came The Further Adventures of Red Sonja, which collects all the Red Sonja tales originally presented in both Savage Sword of Conan magazine and the short-lived Kull and the Barbarians magazine. This would be good news for fans of sword-and-sorcery in general and the She-Devil with a Sword in particular if not for one issue; this is one of the most slap-dash reprints I have ever seen!
The chief problem is that Dynamite Entertainment elected to colorize every story in this collection. Presumably they feared modern comic readers would not want to read a Red Sonja story rendered in monochrome. While some of the colorized comics are not bad, the ones handled by Mike Kelleher are simply awful.
I have seen colorists whose work obscured the original pencils before. Kelleher is the first colorist who I have seen paint over the original inks! Beyond that, he clearly didn’t bother reading the stories he was working on. The text refers to Sonja’s horse as a black steed, and Kelleher renders it in brown. The narration refers to Sonja’s blue eyes closing, and Kelleher gives her green eyes.
It would seem the editors were similarly rushed in their work. Beyond nobody noticing Kelleher’s mistakes, there are two instances of pages being printed out of order in this book. Two of the stories in this volume; “The Road to Zamboula” and “Swordless Zamboula”—have their last pages placed immediately after their opening pages. That is a minor mistake, however, compared to this volume cutting the final page of “The Day of the Sword”.
“The Day of the Sword” is notable historically as the first telling of Red Sonja’s classic origin. It involves Sonja saving a man from being tortured by bandits, only to recognize the victim as the commander of the soldiers who killed her family and raped her. The final page of the original tale ends with Sonja abandoning the man to the wolves of the forest after realizing he’s lost his mind. There is no clear reason for this cut, apart from an apparent desire to make Red Sonja seem more heroic. It can’t be for the sake of content, as the flashback to Sonja’s assault is included in full and depicted again in a different story in this collection.
With all that being noted, I should say the Further Adventures of Red Sonja is not entirely without merit. Of note is “The Wizard and Red Sonja Show”, which writer/artist Frank Thorne adapted from his own stage show. Not even Kelleher’s bumbling can ruin this burlesque tale, in which a bumbling wizard summons multiple Red Sonjas and must determine which is the real one. The closing tale, a four-part adaptation of the first Red Sonja novel, The Ring of Ikribu, is also enjoyable. Despite this, I cannot recommend this volume to anyone but the most die-hard of Red Sonja completists.
The Further Adventures of Red Sonja is rated T+ for readers 16 and up. I would push that up to an Adults Only, should any librarian feel compelled to add this to their collection despite my warnings. While the bloodshed is on par with most OT manga, with severed limbs a common sight, it is the sexual content that is more problematic. There is a bare breast in one of the two comics depicting Sonja’s sexual assault and one provocative scene of her taking a bath. Beyond that, most of the stories open with a group of bandits threatening further sexual assault before Sonja teaches them a lesson. Empowering as this might be, it may also be triggering for some, though one of the stories does explore the idea of Sonja suffering from PTSD and the goddess who blessed her after her family died being a hallucination brought on by grief.
The Further Adventures of Red Sonja Vol. 1 By Roy Thomas, Frank Thorne, Christy Marx, and Bruce Jones Art by Howard Chaykin, John Buscema, Tony Dezuniga, and Esteban Maroto Dynamite, 2018 ISBN: 9781524107994
Company Age Rating: 16+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+)
Character Representation: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
In the future, a great Galactic Federation unites hundreds of worlds across the galaxy. But in the dark space between the stars and civilized worlds, evil flourishes. Pirates. Slavers. Mad scientists. Doomsday Cultists. All manner of evil-doer who seek to prey on those innocent settlers of remote worlds who cannot defend themselves.
Yet the final frontier is not completely lawless. For there is a vigilante who stands for those forced to bend a knee to oppression. He is a grim spectre who disappears as quickly as he appears. The tales of his deeds are many, yet his origins are a mystery. The one thing that is agreed upon is his name—Space Ghost!
Some say he is a lawman who abandoned his post to confront those criminals his bosses would ignore. Others say he is a literal shade, back from the dead to seek revenge on those who destroyed his homeworld. The only ones who know even a fraction of his true story are Jan and Jace, two orphans the Phantom of the Spaceways adopted. Two children, with a super-intelligent test monkey named Blip, who may come to know the heart of a hero, and in time, help to mend it.
Space Ghost was one of the most popular of the superhero cartoons created by Hanna-Barbera. Designed by the legendary Alex Toth, Space Ghost was unusual in that he was never given an official original story. He also enjoyed impressive longevity in reruns, with his original show only numbering 20 episodes. He is somewhat more famous (or perhaps infamous) as the star of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, a 1990’s talk show made with recycled animation, which set the stage for Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block of absurdist cartoons for adults.
David Pepose stays true to the spirit of the original animated series, while updating the general tone for modern audiences. This is no grim-and-gritty reboot, thank goodness. If anything, the comic sticks closer to its core concept of “Batman in space” than the original cartoons did.
This is a comic that runs with its science-fiction superhero premise and explores the intricacies of its universe in detail. Pepose does not shy away from the evil or insanity of the villains, but neither does he make them evil for evil’s sake. Even the mad mantis Zorak, reimagined here as a cultist who seeks to bring about the apocalypse, has a method to his madness. Despite this more mature tone, nearly every issue has a lesson to impart to the reader as Jan, Jace and even Space Ghost learn something from their latest adventure.
The artwork of Jonathan Lau is similarly detailed and driven. The action sequences where we first see (and then don’t see) Space Ghost are truly intense and magical. The designs of the many villains are clearly modeled on Toth’s work, but with subtle changes that make them into something new and generally horrifying. The color art is also amazing throughout.
Dynamite Entertainment rates this volume as appropriate for Ages 12 and up. I agree with that assessment. There is no sex or nudity in this book, unsurprisingly. There is considerable violence, however, and some truly intense moments. There is nothing inappropriate for a teen audience, however. Indeed, I think this book will mostly appeal to those fans of superheroes and science fiction looking for a step away from Batman. There’s broad appeal to both genders, as well, with Jan being the better marksman of the siblings and Jace being more comfortable piloting the Phantom Cruiser.
Space Ghost Vol 1: With Only Ghosts to Comfort Us By David Pepose Art by Jonathan Lau Dynamite, 2024 ISBN: 9781524126858
Company Age Rating: 12+ Related media: TV to Comic
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16)
Character Representation: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Aiyana would rather impress her new classmates than talk about old, boring Lakota stories with her cousin, Kola. Unfortunately, this leads to a fight on the bus during their field trip to Black Elk Peak, which results in Aiyana telling Kola to go away and stop talking to her. When they arrive at their destination, the “cool” girls dare Aiyana to take a selfie from the top of the building that is undergoing repair work and is off limits to the students. She climbs up and attempts to take a picture; however, a thunderstorm has rolled in, and lightning strikes the building, sending Aiyana tumbling down.
When Aiyana wakes up, she is in the spirit world and encounters the trickster Raven who tells her she must bring four offerings to Iktomi in order to return to the human world. If Aiyana cannot do that, she’ll be stuck in the spirit world with Raven forever. This starts Aiyana on a journey of self-discovery and cultural connection as she makes new friends on her way home.
I enjoyed the storytelling and Lakota culture. As I am not familiar with their stories, I cannot speak to the accuracy, but I thought it was a good introduction to several culturally significant figures. I did not like the cartoony art style of the interior, which does not match the cover art made by a different artist. I was also confused by some of the color choices. At first, I thought the artist was differentiating between day and night, but that was not consistent. So, then I thought maybe it was to highlight the difference between our world and the spirit world, but that doesn’t seem to be the case either. Sometimes the art is bright and colorful and other times it is muted or monochromatic. If there is a pattern, I was not able to identify it.
I think this would make a good addition to a middle grade collection looking to add diverse stories inspired by and made by Lakota creators. A brief explanation of language and the chosen spellings of Lakota words included in the story is provided on the back inside cover.
Thunderous By M.L. Smoker, Natalie Peeterse Art by Dale Deforest Dynamite, 2022 ISBN: 9781948206464
Publisher Age Rating: 8-12 years NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11)
Creator Representation: Anisinaabe, Sioux Character Representation: First Nations or Indigenous
The nineties were a time when a company could sell a comic simply on the artwork, of what many would call style over substance. It was a time of holographic covers, collector’s issues, and the gorgeously-rendered characters within these books all possessed a gritty, acerbic aesthetic and attitude (in short, a typical ‘90s attitude). Some might look at these kinds of characters with a feeling of nostalgia while others might simply find them exhausting. The main character in Purgatori: Witches Get Stitches, the latest Purgatori collection written by Ray Fawkes and illustrated by Alvaro Sarraseca, highlights this dichotomy.
The character of Purgatori looks more devil than vampire, complete with fiery red skin and leathery bat wings. She is a thousands-year-old vampire who sustains herself from the blood of others, not only stealing their life essence, but also their memories. Feeding adds to Purgatori’s own skills and abilities, but it also leaves her with a swirling cacophony of memories and emotions all struggling for dominance. A coven of young witches seek to take advantage of this and use Purgatori for their own selfish purpose. Purgatori must stop them before she begins to lose control of herself.
Ray Fawkes inserts some interesting folklore creatures and the people who hunt them, but the very nature of Purgatori, and Fawkes’s rendition of her, makes Purgatori a character that doesn’t seem capable of having her own identity. Purgatori is basically a cypher who absorbs the memories and personalities of those upon which she feeds to the point that she is swept away on the experiences of her victims. She even comments on how she feeds on bad people for awhile, until she becomes bad, then she feeds on enough good people to point her moral compass the other way. Purgatori has a distinct lack of agency in her long-lived existence, and with her dialogue being mainly snarky and suggestive one-liners doesn’t allow her to be a multifaceted character. Purgatori’s dialogue also affects the story. When humor is purposefully inserted into horror, it creates moments of levity in what could otherwise be suffocating darkness. When humor is used too much, it saps all the tension from the story..
Sarraseca’s artwork offers some eye-catching horror moments, such as the shapeshifters Purgatori encounters and the witches combining more than just their energies to attack her. However, it doesn’t detract from the scantily clad, centerfold-adjacent renditions of the heroine, whose uniform is a black leather bikini. Purgatori isn’t contorted into unnatural shapes that defy physics and anatomy, but there’s also no denying that Purgatori’s pin-up looks are a major part of the book’s appeal. The book tacitly admits this in their cover gallery by inserting photos of a few professional models dressed up as Purgatori among the other sexualized drawings of the book’s star.
As for this book’s purpose in a library’s collection, it might find some circulation among other gen-X and millennial males who spent their hard-earned money at their local comic shops, and in that vein, it could even be considered an artifact of a long-ago age. But unless a library has a collection featuring other pin-up fantasy comic heroines like Vampirella and Lady Death, this book could probably stand to be lost to history, or at least passed over when making selections.
Purgatori: Witches Get Stitches By Ray Fawkes Art by Alvaro Sarasecca Dynamite, 2022 ISBN: 9781524121679
Publisher Age Rating: 13 and up
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18) Creator Representation: Canadian,
By most accounts, Bettie Page did not have a happy life. Billed as both the Queen of Pinups and Queen of Bondage (despite doing shockingly little BDSM photography), she retired from modeling and became an evangelical Christian just four years after becoming one of the first Playboy Playmates. She struggled financially in her later years, trying to assert control of her likeness despite most of the photos she’d posed for falling into the public domain. There is a cruel irony that Page may be more successful in death than in life, as her estate has made Forbes’ annual list of top-earning dead celebrities several times since her passing in 2008.
This knowledge makes Bettie Page: Curse of the Banshee seem somewhat distasteful. Although there were comics based around an idealized accounting of Page’s life as a model and actress published over a decade before her death, Dynamite Comics has gone a step further by publishing several series based around the idea that Bettie Page was also an agent for an unnamed bureau of the United States government. In these stories, she gets into all manner of shenanigans involving time travel, alien invaders and murder mysteries when she isn’t posing for girlie mags.
Bettie Page: Curse of the Banshee’s plot is pure creature-feature shlock. Paired with another agent named Lyssa, Bettie is dispatched to Ireland to investigate some strange murders at the request of the Irish Intelligence Agency. Bettie is chosen for this task because she and Lyssa are reportedly the best they have when it comes to supernatural cases. Soon they are butting heads with the local authorities, who are skeptical of both the idea that a monster could be responsible for the killings and that two attractive young women could truly be American spies. Naturally, the rumors of a ghostly figure are quite real and Bettie Page soon falls prey to… the Curse of the Banshee!
The script by Stephen Mooney resembles an Ed Wood movie in all the right ways. Mooney delves into some real Irish history and mythology with his discussion of how the stories of banshees were likely inspired by the Celtic tradition of keeners singing sad songs at funerals and the best keeners being called “bean sidhe”, or fairy women. This winds up having very little to do with the story, which degenerates into a zombie-fighting horror comic, as those slain by the banshee rise in its service, but it does show more craft and forethought than many horror comics.
Unfortunately, the characters are as flat as Bettie Page is not. All of the characters came straight from central casting, from the Irish cops who give Bettie and Lyssa a hard time to the priest who tries (and fails) to perform an exorcism on a seemingly possessed Bettie. Even Bettie and Lyssa don’t have much personality beyond “feisty heroine” and “beleaguered best friend.” While this does fit the genre, it is somewhat disappointing given Page was famous for the fun spirit she conveyed in her photos and the writing doesn’t quite capture that.
The artwork is similarly conflicted. Jethro Morales can draw a beautiful woman and does a good job of capturing Page’s likeness. Unfortunately, Morales’ figures seem stiff when they are required to move and many of the action sequences are (like Bettie Page herself) unnaturally posed. There’s also some incredibly obvious panel recycling, which would be bad enough if it weren’t occurring in a static scene of three characters talking while one of them is reading a book.
Bettie Page: Curse of the Banshee is rated for audiences 13+ and I think that’s a fair assessment of the comic itself. It may not be a fair assessment of some of the variant covers in the gallery that takes up nearly one third of this book’s total page count, as there are several photo covers that are fairly risque, even with CENSORED bars covering certain key areas. Fans of Bettie Page will probably find a lot they’ll want to look at in this comic, but vintage horror fans looking for a fun read should look elsewhere.
Bettie Page: Curse of the Banshee By Stephen Mooney Art by Jethro Morales Dynamite, 2022 ISBN: 9781524121372
Publisher Age Rating: 13+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
If you’ve got horror comic fans at your library, they might want to check out Army of Darkness, 1979.
Just when Ash is getting his life back together, the Necronomicon finds him again and he’s sent through the vortex to 1979 New York City – and MAN, he doesn’t like that. He still remembers why he left the first time!
The comic recreates all the deadpan humor from the movie that I remember watching over and over in 1992, but you don’t need to know anything about Ash or the Necronomicon—the comic catches you up and is a complete story arc. The comic’s pacing doesn’t have the magic of the 1992 movie, though. Or maybe I’m just old now? What it IS, is really splattery. I mean REALLY splattery. More than the old movie EVER was. Ash is introduced to a non-stop parade of increasingly comical and very diverse gangs who fight for the right to be the ultimate power in NYC. Unknown to most of them, the Necronomicon has adopted one gang member leader, who can turn them all into instant goop in a word!
There are lots of funny late seventies “in-jokes” folded into these pages that only someone my age will get – so, is the comic written for the adult market? I’m not completely sure. Certainly, no teen or pre-teen who enjoys this kind of splatter-fest can afford the prices I saw quoted on Amazon. BUT Ash still has his arm chainsaw, a wicked sense of timing, and the ability to unify all the gangs into one final assault on the wicked gang leader and his followers. What will the Necronomicon do next?
Asking if there is objectification of women in this comic is missing the entire reason a comic like this exists, but one skimpily dressed woman gang member and the constant blood and death storyline place this comic firmly in the adult collection. It’s an optional purchase.
This title comprises the mini-series #1-5 from Dynamite Comics.
Army of Darkness 1979 Vol. By Rodney Barnes Art by Tom Garcia Dynamite, 2022 ISBN: 9781524121525
Mars Attacks Red Sonja is the sort of project that only comes about because of corporate fiat. On the one hand, we have Mars Attacks—a science fiction story dictated through a 1962 Topps trading card set, which was later adapted into a 1996 movie. On the other hand, we have Red Sonja—a fantasy heroine originally created for Marvel Comics in 1973 to meet the demand for a female Conan, revived later by Dynamite Entertainment in 2005.
There is no logical way to bring these two franchises together. There is also no aesthetic reason for Dynamite Entertainment to do so. The only reason this series exists is to hoist a plethora of variant covers upon the teaming masses of comic book speculators, who will happily buy dozens of comics to secure the 1:100 variant where Red Sonja, clad in nothing but an anachronistic thong, faces down a Martian death machine several times her size.
The damnable thing is that writer John Layman does a fair job of justifying this madcap idea. The story is set in the distant past of both Mars and Earth, when the Martians were an advanced and peaceful people and Earth was savage and untamed. Enter Chief Science Advisor Xi’Zeer, a xenophobic soul who dreams of a Martian empire built on conquest. He heads to Earth on what is nominally a mission of exploration and peace, but really an excuse for him to take over Hyborian Age Earth, use the helpless humans as fodder for his weird science, and generally be a jerk without the Martian Emperor around to stop him.
The only thing standing in his way, of course, is Red Sonja. Well, Sonja and a few other random fantasy heroes who are barely given names and mostly not given dialogue, so really it is just Sonja. The setup isn’t bad, but it is a bit cliché, even by the standards of genre fiction and there’s nothing done with this war between the worlds that hasn’t been done before and done better elsewhere.
The artwork is flat and lifeless, for the most part. This is odd given how much bloodshed the story contains. Unfortunately, there’s little personality to any of the human characters and the Martian villains all maintain the same expression from scene to scene, showing emotion only as their heads are being crushed or sliced by the barbarians fighting them. The colors don’t help, with most of the comic rendered in muted pastels that don’t match the vivid coloration of the original Topps trading cards or your average Red Sonja comic.
This volume is rated Teen Plus for audiences 13 and up. I seriously question that rating, given as the violence within this book, ineffectually drawn as it is, retains enough detail to be worth a 16 Up rating, at least. There are several scenes of people and horses being cut in half, Martian and human heads being crushed with viscera leaking out, and one intensive scene involving Red Sonja being beheaded. Unfortunately, while some of the variant covers in the gallery that follows the story are inventive in paying tribute to various B-movies, the actual comic book story is easily skipped.
Mars Attacks Red Sonja By John Layman Art by Fran Strukan Dynamite Entertainment, 2022 ISBN: 9781524119935
Publisher Age Rating: 13+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18) Character Representation: Bisexual
Say the name “Daredevil” to a superhero fan and certain things will likely come to their mind immediately. Images of a crimson-clad figure running across the rooftops of Hell’s Kitchen. Alliterative names like Matt Murdock or Charlie Cox. Few, however, will think of a figure in red and blue tights with a spiked belt and a pair of razor-sharp boomerangs, for few recall that there was a superhero called Daredevil long before Marvel Comics first published the adventures of their own Man Without Fear.
This Daredevil is now in the public domain and has been pressed into service in many series by many publishers, including Image Comics, AC Comics and First Publications. To avoid legal battles, he’s been renamed Reddevil, Doubledare and the Dynamic Daredevil. Now, Dynamite Comics have put their own spin on the character with Death-Defying Devil.
The Devil presented in Our Home is a man of mystery, even to himself. He appears out of nowhere and comes to the rescue of a young couple threatened by gang members. Soon he’s adopted by them and the other tenants of a boarding house under siege by gangs and crooked police officers. All of them are in the employ of a sinister businessman called Donovan, who has an interest in acquiring their home for himself. The Devil becomes the unlikely champion of these oppressed people, though his own grip on reality is shaky at best and it is unclear if the demonic forces he sees himself fighting are an illusion brought about by Donovan or part of his own madness.
Gail Simone’s script is full of psychodrama and the story of Our Home is open to interpretation. The Devil could be a madman in a colorful costume who suffers from PTSD and some other mental illness. He might also be, as one of the tenants suggests, an eternal warrior pulled across time and space by the wish of a ghostly girl. In either case, the story runs wild, with the Devil hallucinating that he’s a barbarian, an Old West vigilante, an actor playing an Old West vigilante and an old man in a corrupt nursing home at different points in the narrative. In any case, the story benefits from at least one rereading so that all the points of view may be considered.
The artwork by Walter Geovani is fantastic all around. Geovani is one of the most underrated artists of his generation, being capable of working in a variety of genres. Simone’s script gives Geovani a workout, allowing him to draw superheroic action, sword-and-sandal fantasy and Western adventure. Geovani even manages the seemingly impossible task of making an action sequence set in a hospice with an octogenarian hero seem lively and exciting.
Death-Defying Devil: Our Home is rated Teen+ for audiences 16 and up and I consider that a fair rating. While far less graphic than your average R-rated movie in terms of language and sexual content, this is a very violent book, with the hero cutting a gang member’s ear off In the first fight scene and the action escalating from there. While no ethnic slurs are used, there are also several scenes where the minority tenants are threatened with racially intimidating language by Donovan’s henchmen that are uncomfortable to read and could be triggering for some readers. The same is true with the threat of rape many female characters’ experience. This is balanced, however, by the book’s message of empowerment and the climax, in which the tenants make their own heroic stand against the forces of evil.
Death-Defying Devil: Our Home Vol. 1 By Gail Simone Art by Walter Geovani Dynamite Entertainment, 2021 ISBN: 9781524114817
Publisher Age Rating: 16+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18) Character Representation: Ambiguous Mental Illness, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
While not hard to follow for a new reader, The Boys: Dear Becky serves as an epilogue to the 72 issue series The Boys and is intended for fans of the series.
Set 12 years after the events of the series, the comic follows Hughie as he receives a diary with entries by Billy Butcher. These entries are presented as flashbacks to the timeframe of the series featuring the eponymous boys: Billy Butcher, Mother’s Milk, the Frenchman, the Female, and the Colonel. Thinking his time with them long past, Hughie finds himself slowly falling back into old habits as he reads through Billy’s past.
Writer Garth Ennis penned the entire series, and returns for this 8 issue mini-series. He writes “arsehole” characters well, as he seems to have many of these tough dude archetypes present in works like The Boys and more famously Preacher. However, as this story takes place both before and after the series, we end up getting a reflection on Billy’s brutality and overall demeanor as a character. Ennis writes a story that deconstructs Billy as a character, but unfortunately I think it relies on too much foreknowledge of the character’s actions in the overall narrative. For example, Billy’s violent side is described early on in the mini but we never really see it until near the very end of issue seven. Sure there is a fight scene and a maiming of a superhero early on, but the reckless Billy Butcher everyone is afraid of never appears until too late in the narrative for a new reader to care.
Artist Russ Braun also previously worked on over twenty issues of the series, so his depiction of fan favorite characters like Hughie, Annie, Billy, and the rest of the team will be familiar to longtime readers. Braun likes to make his characters expressive, with Hughie’s underwater face in one panel or the headshot cutaways to Billy after he makes headway on a plan. Interestingly enough, because of the ending of the series, there are not that many superheroes left in the world. This results in the 2020 scenes feeling more grounded in reality than the flashbacks to early 2000s when the celebrity crazed superheroes ran amok.
Overall, I would not recommend this title to libraries who do not already own the entirety of The Boys. Not only is it not a great introduction to the world, it woefully fails to clue in the reader to why any of what is going on matters. If a new reader picked it up off the shelf, they probably wouldn’t know this is actually volume 13 of a series that ended in 2012. Unfortunately, there is also a trans character in the book who feels a little off in the voice they were given. I am not sure if the character is carried over from the series, but I found the handling of Bobbi’s story to be distracting from the overall narrative.
Dynamite suggests this for mature readers, and I definitely agree with the rating. Language, blood and gore, references to genitalia, and even depicted sex acts are all included. If you have ever seen Garth Ennis’ work before, this content warning shouldn’t really shock you, but I’d compare his overall aesthetic to a more vulgar Quentin Tarantino at times. Again, I would not really recommend this title unless your library already owns The Boys.
The Boys: Dear Becky By Garth Ennis Art by Russ Braun Dynamite, 2021 ISBN: 9781524119904 Publisher Age Rating: M
Most people know of Elvira, the character created and played by Cassandra Peterson, from her TV and film appearances. They might simply recognize that particular iconic look: big, dark hair; short, tight, dress; and white makeup with black lipstick. Horror fans might recognize her as the Mistress of the Dark, a purveyor of schlocky B-movies that feature buckets of blood and bad acting. There was even a time where Elvira’s face was on everything from T-shirts to cardboard cutouts in beer aisles. Elvira is not only a character; she is most definitely a brand, a brand that fits all things both spooky and silly. Spooky and silly are, for better or worse, the main adjectives that describe Elvira’s latest foray into comics, Elvira: The Shape of Elvira.
The story follows the character of Elvira as an actress who gets a starring role in a movie directed by big time horror director Billy Bullworth, which could mean big money and perhaps an Oscar (specifically mentioned by Elvira). This movie is, of course, a movie about a scientist falling in love with an Amazonian river monster (confession: it was a few days after reading this comic that I realized the title was actually a play on Guilermo Del Toro’s The Shape of Water). Art, of course, imitates life as Elvira begins to sympathize with her monster costar, who may not only be an actual monster but also a prisoner. Elvira, with the help of a nerdy but endearing writer, investigates, and hijinks ensue.
Those familiar with the character of Elvira will feel at home with the overall tone of this piece created by writer David Avallone, as well as his depiction of Elvira. Elvira has always been known as a character who’s quick with the quip and the double entendre, a fact that pushes this title into an older teen/adult rating. Elvira, whether she’s hosting B-movies or actually starring in them, is a character who has always straddled the line between gothic beauty and self-deprecating sarcasm, bombarding her audience with one-liners even as she navigates various outlandish situations. The situations she finds herself in with this story are no different. Apart from a writer with whom she adorably flirts, Elvira is the star of the show, with most of the appeal of this title coming from her reactions to the various weirdness around her.
Fran Strukan’s artwork is passable, serving the purpose of the comic’s narrative tone, but is also inconsistent. Elvira has the typical big hair and tight dress that she has worn for decades, despite still looking like she’s all of 25 years old, but she also looks nothing like Cassandra Peterson, the actress who brought her to life. For a story so focused on an iconic character, that may be a cardinal sin. The river monster does, however, strike the right balance between a monster and an emotive character, but the humans overall look somewhat generic. Readers can tell the difference between characters by their outfits and their body builds, but faces largely look the same.
The faults of this book can be overlooked by its true audience, the longtime fans of the Mistress of the Dark. There are those out there who have collected memorabilia with Elvira’s face and body on it for decades. The title does capture the spirit of who Elvira is as a character, her humor, her down-to-earth appeal, and that might be enough for fans, but it might become an issue for librarians deciding what to put in their collection and weighing how many Elvira diehards among their patrons would want them to get this book. For me, I’d probably skip this one unless there was a high demand for the Mistress of the Dark. There are frankly better books, even better horror comedy books, with which to build a graphic novel collection.
Elvira: The Shape of Elvira By David Avallone Art by Fran Strukan Gardner Dynamite Entertainment, 2021 ISBN: 9781524111977 Publisher Age Rating: 16 years and up
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
law. While originally created for Marvel Comics’ Conan the Barbarian series as a pastiche of two of Robert E. Howard’s historic heroines—Red Sonya of Rogatino and Dark Agnes de Chastillon—Red Sonja has been run through her own LLC for several decades.
civilized worlds, evil flourishes. Pirates. Slavers. Mad scientists. Doomsday Cultists. All manner of evil-doer who seek to prey on those innocent settlers of remote worlds who cannot defend themselves.
Aiyana would rather impress her new classmates than talk about old, boring Lakota stories with her cousin, Kola. Unfortunately, this leads to a fight on the bus during their field trip to Black Elk Peak, which results in Aiyana telling Kola to go away and stop talking to her. When they arrive at their destination, the “cool” girls dare Aiyana to take a selfie from the top of the building that is undergoing repair work and is off limits to the students. She climbs up and attempts to take a picture; however, a thunderstorm has rolled in, and lightning strikes the building, sending Aiyana tumbling down.
substance. It was a time of holographic covers, collector’s issues, and the gorgeously-rendered characters within these books all possessed a gritty, acerbic aesthetic and attitude (in short, a typical ‘90s attitude). Some might look at these kinds of characters with a feeling of nostalgia while others might simply find them exhausting. The main character in 
By most accounts, Bettie Page did not have a happy life. Billed as both the Queen of Pinups and Queen of Bondage (despite doing shockingly little BDSM photography), she retired from modeling and became an evangelical Christian just four years after becoming one of the first Playboy Playmates. She struggled financially in her later years, trying to assert control of her likeness despite most of the photos she’d posed for falling into the public domain. There is a cruel irony that Page may be more successful in death than in life, as her estate has made Forbes’ annual list of top-earning dead celebrities several times since her passing in 2008.
Mars Attacks Red Sonja is the sort of project that only comes about because of corporate fiat. On the one hand, we have Mars Attacks—a science fiction story dictated through a 1962 Topps trading card set, which was later adapted into a 1996 movie. On the other hand, we have Red Sonja—a fantasy heroine originally created for Marvel Comics in 1973 to meet the demand for a female Conan, revived later by Dynamite Entertainment in 2005.
crimson-clad figure running across the rooftops of Hell’s Kitchen. Alliterative names like Matt Murdock or Charlie Cox. Few, however, will think of a figure in red and blue tights with a spiked belt and a pair of razor-sharp boomerangs, for few recall that there was a superhero called Daredevil long before Marvel Comics first published the adventures of their own Man Without Fear.
While not hard to follow for a new reader, 
Most people know of Elvira, the character created and played by Cassandra Peterson, from her TV and film appearances. They might simply recognize that particular iconic look: big, dark hair; short, tight, dress; and white makeup with black lipstick. Horror fans might recognize her as the Mistress of the Dark, a purveyor of schlocky B-movies that feature buckets of blood and bad acting. There was even a time where Elvira’s face was on everything from T-shirts to cardboard cutouts in beer aisles. Elvira is not only a character; she is most definitely a brand, a brand that fits all things both spooky and silly. Spooky and silly are, for better or worse, the main adjectives that describe Elvira’s latest foray into comics, Elvira: The Shape of Elvira.
