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Victoria's Electric Coffin 2 by Ikuno Tajima

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


It opens with Eins still fighting Willa for reasons no one but Henry understands (but it seems more like no girl is going to out science him and worse turn him down because Henry appears to be petty like that). Things go from bad to worse when he sets Willa out of control on Eins who doesn't have the physical alterations Willa does.

This isn't enough for Henry though, he needs to humiliate both Eins and Victoria more by exposuing Eins' dark history. So the far more interesting part of this is Ein's back story which is every bit as tragic as you might be hoping for between the plight of immigrants in NYC in this time period, ditto rampant disease and organized crime. Eins becomes a much more sympathetic character IMO at the end of this. The art is still very nice and I'd like to see what comes next.



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The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This definitely follows the first (and in my volume they're now one book which seems right). It reads more as gothic romance than anything as a bulk of the story is about the whirlwind romance and marriage of Percy and Alexi. But the Whisper World isn't ready to let her go. The Darkness wants her to continue to be Persephone, goddess of the underworld and he's not the only thing after her. Lillian, not entirely vanquished last book, is after her and for some reason, Beatrice is creating new doors to the Whisper World through the school.

Percy marrying Alexi had changed the dynamics of the entire guard which they must deal with. Alexi, on the other hand, I wanted to punt more than once with his jealousy and mistrust (the jealous lover is certainly a romance trope but it's one I don't care for). Later we learn this is being influenced by the Whisper World.

It has a few surprises at the end and the climax is a good action scene. I think the story wrapped up very nicely.



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Malum by Stacy Bender

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This self pubbed gas light fantasy has some very fun ideas on one hand and some lacking character development on the other. Josephine has had a hard life. Her mother hated her because of her paranormal abilities and her gambler father has sold her to a wealthy monster of a man who wants her for his homosexual son as a beard (and full on plans to rape her to get the 'grandkids' he wants)

She's saved by by her bohemian aunt Sylvia who shares her gifts. Once in an unnamed city (I'm assuming London though the only thing rooting this in our world are Beethoven and Rossini and Cockneys and in a way that threw me), Sylvia (who was an actress who married well) confronts the man Josephine was purchased by to say in no uncertain terms would this happen unless it was Josephine's will (why her husband is never seen until the last chapter is never explained). Needless to say this doesn't go down well.

In the mean time, workers accidentally release a demon and Josephine's powers awakens all the gargoyles in the city. They are the ones who have helped the heroes fight demons over mankind's history. Josephine with her serious inferiority complex takes a lot of prodding from Sylvia to engage in any of this (and she spends half the book hiding the gargoyles from her aunt).

Into this comes Oscar Bennet, an eccentric inventor and his friend Edward Blair. Oscar has many inventions using new tech: electricity. Oscar takes the existence of gargoyles rather well. They plan to stop the demon even as it (and Mr. would-be rapist) try to stop them.

As I said, the story's plot is an interesting one and it is entertaining. However, there isn't much in the way of character development for anyone, especially Josephine. She ends up the same at the end as she started. Mousy, without any real agency. Without her aunt, she'd be nothing. She doesn't really stand on her own two feet.

The other thing that bothered me was the choices made, two very small things really but they nagged at me. For one, the man who helped free the demon didn't need to be so nasty. If he lasted more than one chapter or purposely freed the demon maybe I could get it but no, that's not how it went so why work in derogatory comments about Jews, Blacks and the Irish into one chapter? Also part of Sylvia's theater craft is to make herself unrecognizable for her duties in seances so she chooses to look Moorish. I'm like of all things to pretend to be of color (which granted in the last 1800s no one would have thought twice)

It does wrap up nicely and sets up the possibility of more. If there is, I hope Josephine has more agency.



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The Amazing Screw-on Head and Other Curious Objects by Mike Mignola

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Again I feel like I'm seeing The Emperor's New Clothes. Don't get me wrong. I like Mignola's work. Love Hellboy but this isn't that great and I'm stupefied that it won Eisner awards. The titular story wasn't awful. It has that steampunk feel I like. There is surrealistic sort of fun watching Abraham Lincoln calling out Screw-On Head.

Mr. Head is just that a head that can be screwed into various robot bodies that suit his needs (and is also capable of hopping on his screw on bits) Mr. Groin (I am not making this up) is his valet and partner in fighting crime. Lincoln needs them to stop the Zombie Emperor before he gets some ancient artifact that will let him take over the world.

Honestly if this was the whole of the graphic novel I'd have rated it higher. Screw On Head did amuse me (not to Eisner levels mind you) but the rest of the anthology is just a let's round up all of Mignola's scribbles and tiny one offs and jam them into an anthology without a theme or anything cohesive about it. You get a glimpse of a name or artistic Easter egg to tie it together but it's not enough nor are the other stories memorable. Like at all. Like I read this last night and have forgotten it already.

The muted color palette fits the Victorian theme (okay it really doesn't. Victorians had color but steampunk has embraced brown) but this art is so muddy and sketchy. I didn't like it at all. I'm disappointed all around.



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Judas Complex by Son M

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Sometimes you take a chance and it works out. I backed this on kickstarter and I don't regret it. The art in this is lovely with a great color scheme that is so often missing any more in the non-Superhero books from the major comics publishers.

Desmond was a high school football player in the 90s and his coach provided them a little pharmaceutical help to have the best senior game of their lives. All Des remembers is blood and running away. He's the sole survivor of the massacre.

Now in the early OOs he's working with Constantine as a private investigator. The tattooed young Constantine doesn't like going out in the sunlight if you get my drift. They get a case from a young grad student the goth-leaning Erika, whose friend is missing. It's a case that takes Des right back into the nightmare of his senior year.

The story did feel a little rushed in places. Constantine needs more fleshing out but the story is told from a relatively close third person point of view from Des's pov. But I really enjoyed it in spite of that. The ending is open for this to be a series and I hope it does. I would certainly back it if it does.



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