Las Vegas has been the geographical representation of sin, sex, and bad decisions for a long time, but most battles between good and evil in entertainment have taken place in big cities. That’s probably because broken windows and dark alleys speak to the inevitability of evil. They tell us that evil is forcing itself upon innocent people. Through Penny for your Soul, Tom Hutchison is telling us something else about evil and how it finds its way into once innocent souls, and what better setting is there to embody temptation than the City of Sin.

Early into first issue we are introduced to a young and sexy demon “from Utah” named Danica. Contrary to popular female characterization in Vegas, Danica isn’t some struggling college student who got swallowed up by the filth. Instead, she uses her allure to start the profitable business of buying souls for cold hard cash. Quite the opposite.

So forget about the Prophecy movies, Contantine, and the new Legion; and think Dogma. Making the war between good and evil a comedy rather than a drama is still just as fresh as it was when Kevin Smith did it. Who doesn’t like the idea of hot chicks betting to see how long it will take for a nun to stuff dollar bills in their panties?

If the storyline isn’t sexy enough for you, the art will finish the job. In addition to the round butts in shiny leather, the art as a whole is very high quality. Artist J.B. Neto does a great job with everything from facial close-ups (or butt close-ups) to large crowds. Meanwhile, Oren Kramek, who I assume is the colorist, shows us just how important color is.

There is a downside to all of this though, and it is shared by both the writer and the artists. This, of course, is class. Throughout this first issue, the creators tread the thin line between good and bad taste. Personally, I love to laugh at the church’s expense, but the level of sexual suggestiveness surpasses what I prefer to see in my comics. I’m not going to tell you that I’m not a typical guy, or that I don’t enjoy my fair share of T&A. But the constant “going down” references, among other things, tire my moral elasticity. Put it this way: getting smothered by a woman’s top side would be nice for a small while, but there is a limit. Mine is reached within the pages of Penny for your Soul.

Sex sells, and so does religious questionability. That said, I wonder: do the creators love to walk that line, or are they just great sales people? Doesn’t matter to me. Think of your most prized possession. Are you mad at the sales pitch that got you to buy it? No. The men at Big Dog Ink have some controversial stuff to sell, and I think that many readers will find that $3 is a steal. It’s just not my thing.

The first issue of Penny for your Soul hits the shelves this coming Wednesday (May 26, 2010). Check out the Big Dog Ink website to find out how to get your hands on a copy!

(3/5)

One of the things I love about getting involved with smaller titles is that they are engaging me with genres that I have been neglecting in my regular regimen of nerdiness. In the case of Kieth Holmes and his buddies at Enterlight Studios, the newly discovered piece of the puzzle is the supernatural. Yes, I realize that most of what I have read contains some supernatural substance, but I am talking about the archetypical supernatural: stuff like bigfoot and werewolves. That’s the supernatural sort of substance you will find in Enterlight’s Project: Archangel and Templar.

Unfortunately, the only bit of Project: Archangel I had the pleasure of reading was the eight page preview made available on the Enterlight Studios website. The six pages of actual story found here don’t really have the chance to establish anything but a general idea of the story that Archangel will become. In a sentence, Project: Archangel is a group of super-powered commandos that travel the globe in search of mythical monsters from which to protect the world. The preview gives us a glimpse of bigfoot being one of such creatures, and brings us the tagline “Bigfoot is not real, gentlemen. But that doesn’t mean that is does not exist.” That tagline confuses and excites me. Will Holmes give us an idea of the difference between reality and existence? Will that statement lead us to a philosophical question or a linguistic loophole? Time will tell, but my hope is for the former. Overall, the preview is an exciting look at what may be to come.

Of the two previews however, my favorite was Templar. Here, Holmes uses six pages of content much more efficiently. In the three minutes it will take you to read them, you will have an idea of who the hero is, his love interest (the narrator), and the villains (both human and supernatural). The hero looks to be a total badass. Hell, any good guy with a sword on his back and a gun at his hip is fine by me. The problem with Templar is that the preview is much more impressive than the web comic that follows it. The story and art of the first issue are just as good as the preview, but the creators decided against color (understandable if you are producing your own comic and you want to save money AND get your work out as quickly as possible). One can only hope that a print version will be released with full color. Another thing that was lacking was narration of someone outside of the supernatural world. I think having the sexy lady narrator brought the preview down to the reader’s level. Even though she doesn’t know that the love of her life was a werewolf-fighting, roof jumping ninja templar guy; I took comfort in the fact that she would have to be introduced to it at the same speed any other normal human being (like myself) would. But who knows what the next issue will have in store.

Between the two titles, a pattern emerges. Both merge supernatural stories with realistic ones. Scientific lobbyists in suits asking the government for money and strippers with high hopes that depend on fat criminals are realistic scenes that put the stories in the real world. Hot chicks flying on electric clouds to confront bigfoot and knights chasing werewolves through the New York City streets are the crazy scenes that make these stories belong in the comic book world. In my opinion, that juxtaposition is what gives these young titles some potential. To check these comics out for yourself, please head over to the Enterlight Studios website. Let me know what you think!

Project: Archangel (3.5/5)
Templar (4/5)

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I am sure that by now we have all seen plenty of “gangster” movies, read gangster books and comic books, and hell we even listen to gangster music . Well some of us do, I guess. But the creators of HollyVOOD (http://www.hollyvoodsite.com/) claim to be reinventing the gangster story in a way that we have never seen before.

The title HollyVOOD seems to be an allusion to the foreign gangsters that fill its pages and their inability to pronounce the English “w”. But don’t worry, writers Vem (http://www.vemdirector.com/) and Steven Thadeus won’t go so far as to jumble the dialogue in an attempt to display accents. To tell you the truth, there isn’t too much dialogue here at all.

The first half of the issue spends time looking at the main character Krikor’s escape from war-torn Georgia (no not the US state) and into Los Angeles. The second half introduces a few characters including Ruzo, a greasy gang leader who likes to torture people for god knows what reason.

The story itself is intriguing, but unfortunately it is in the nature of preview issues to give a limited amount of that story before they end abruptly. The writing style takes some getting used to, as the writers seem to like to split sentences up into each frame. I know that a lot of comic book writers do that, but if you take look at this issue you will see why it jumped out at me.

And this issue definitely is worth taking a look at. The story itself is a comfortable mix of tragedy and comedy, but the bulk of its impressiveness is how it works together with the fantastic art by Anthony Diecidue (http://www.artofant.com/). Sure, it’s rough around the edges, but the style works amazingly with the vibrant colors he uses. The double page spreads really will put a tear in your eye.

As an independent group of creators, the three threw together a terrific piece of art here. Unfortunately, it’s hard to get a small-time comic on shelves across the country, so they ingeniously made their preview issue available here. Check it out!

(3.5/5)

PS- Mr. Thadeus was kind enough to supply me with a copy of the preview issue, and was humble enough not to toot his own horn. He didn’t mind tooting the horns of his co-creators, however. Vem has directed several commercials and music videos, and he is now working on some stuff for television. Diecidue is currently working with Disney and the great Stan Lee on “Time Jumpers”. $1.50 really is a bargain to get the collaborative work of a team like this. Check it out before they catch on and raise the price!

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I have mixed feelings on Outsiders 20. So far I have really liked Peter Tomasi and Lee Garbett’s run, The Deep. Each issue seemed to have plenty of info, plenty of action, and plenty of surprises. I can’t say that this issue was no good just because it didn’t have any surprises. I guess when you get to the conclusion all the cards are on the table, and it’s just a matter of how you play them.

The Outsiders is a team composed of some of the least popular characters in DC, but Tomasi really brought them up to the best they can be. I said before (and I’m standing by it) that Ousiders: The Deep has been my favorite read for months. Even when I hadn’t gone to the comic shop for three weeks and came home with a fat stack of books, this was the first one that I delved into.

In this issue, we get to see a dope villain team-up with Ra’s al Ghul and Vandal Savage, the two immortal bad asses of the DCU! My one complaint is that we just didn’t get to see enough of them before the end of this arc. Issue 18 ended with a glimpse of Savage while issue 18 had him meeting up with Ra’s. Why couldn’t their plans have been included or at least alluded to in the previous issues? I can’t complain though, because I was pretty distracted in the meantime with the Deathstroke excitement.

I’m not sure if these two plan to continue their work on this title with a new story arc, but god I hope so. Tomasi has really kept me excited with the outsiders month after month, while I couldn’t see anyone drawing these characters other than Mr. Garbett. Few pairs of artists seem to work as well together as these two do, and it would be a shame to see them split up.

Ps- Long live the Creeper!

(4.5/5)

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There are more than enough problems to go around in the conclusion of Emerald Eclipse, as things start wrapping up for the emergence of Blackest Night. Just as the Alpha Lanterns were able to provide the final push in quelling the riot in the sciencells, the Green Lanterns look up to their beloved Oan sky only to see that it is beginning to fall apart. Trouble is on the way!

Soranik Natu (still on Korugar) is having trouble dealing with her daddy-issues (what child of Sinestro’s wouldn’t?) while Arisia and the newly empowered Daxamites are able to finally kick the last of Mongul’s faction of the Sinestro off of Daxam. Most of the issue however is spent on Lanterns Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner standing up to the Guardians’ execution order of the attempted sciencell escapees.

Over the past few months, I have given Peter Tomasi and Pat Gleason a pretty hard time for their (in my opinion) shortcomings on the Emerald Eclipse story arc. I didn’t care for Tomasi’s seemingly short attention span, nor for Gleason’s stretched out character faces. The strengths of these two as a team seemed to be action. In this issue (and the past couple), I have noticed that I do like how well Gleason can draw a large scene like the outdoor execution and argument sequence.

All in all, Emerald Eclipse was an ambitious story with quite a bit going on and simply not enough space in each issue to address it all. I am still fairly new to this title, so that might just be how it has to go. Maybe someone could point out to me the reason I preferred Sins of the Star Sapphire over this arc.

(3/5)