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Papercuts: 05.28.2017

Papercuts: 05.28.2017

By Ryan “HB” Mount

Blood Blister #2 (Aftershock)

Issue #1 of Blood Blister was twisted, gross, and a perfect start to a creepy story.

Issue #2 was the definition of a sophomore slump and a bit of a letdown in comparison.

The art overall had a very different feel overall.  It had too much black ink covering up Tony Harris’s typically wonderful art and dampened the enjoyment of this issue.

The story telling in this issue also seemed to be very chaotic and found myself turning back a couple pages to see if there was something missed.  I do not mind non-linear storytelling, but this felt almost frantic and disjointed.  And at the end of it, the plot and character development seemed to crawl forward if at all.

Overall, knowing Phil Hester and Tony Harris are some of comics best creators, this issue feels like a disappointment, but due to issue #1 being so incredibly strong, despite this issue, readers should continue to check out this series, especially those who love the body horror genre.

Ratings: 2.5 out of 5

Underwinter #3 (Image)

This comic is not going to be for everyone and that is okay.  This appears to be a series that people are either going to love or hate.

The art is very, VERY, lose.  It is a mixture of simple pencils and watercolors with no real definition and very little texturing.  Seeing an artist pencil lines in a main stream comic is not something I want to see all the time but found it to be a treat for this series.  Overall because the art is so loose and sparse, it challenges the reader to put the story together and makes it feel more like interpreting a painting than reading a comic.

The story is rather simple, one of a group of dysfunctional and struggling classical musicians given a chance to perform under strange circumstances and something darker and evil guiding them.  The first issue was the introduction to the players and their employer, and the second issue took a deeper dive into character development.  This plot was nearly loose as the art on issue #3 and now that we know the characters and what they are doing, something is happening to them for the worse.

Ray Fawkes is the creator, writer, and artist and deserves to be commended for pushing boundaries of the comics medium and still offering up a compelling story.

Ratings: 4 out of 5

Plastic #2 (Image)

Writing a compelling serial killer as a main character is not always easy, but works like Lady Killer over at Darkhorse and TV’s Dexter that you can write a character who is normal in all other aspects other than their night activities and have it be compelling.

Writing a deranged, unhinged lead character is often a struggle.  They often turn into humor pieces like Marvel’s Deadpool.  Or worse yet, Marvel’s newest attempt to give Bullseye his own solo series that ended up being humorous for the wrong reason or lackluster at best.

Yet, in Plastic #2, Doug Wagner gives us the story of a man, off his rocker, obsessed with plastic and his blow-up girlfriend and are invested in a character that in the wrong hands would be a disaster.  Without having to state a code of ethics for the character, Wagner works with artist Daniel Hillyard to show that he is not out to kill everyone for the sake of killing, but there is a method, although not completely understood method to his madness.

Hillyard’s art has simple line work and is cartoony, but helps keep the story from being too dark and creepy.  There is an overall lightness that comes from his human expressions that works perfectly.

Ratings: 4 out of 5

 

If you like what you read, make sure to like it and share it on all your social media platforms.  If you want to suggest a book to review, make sure to tweet at me @hebruise . Make sure to follow me and check out all my comics work at horror-writers.com (@horror_writers) and over at twoheadednerd.com (@twoheadednerd)