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Palm, Marc – The Fang Volume 1: Moon Light Snack

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The Fang Volume 1: Moon Light Snack

Werewolves! Ghouls! Witches! Human Slime! And Muppets! I assume you’re already sold, but just in case you’re still skeptical, I’m talking about the Fang. I reviewed a few of Marc’s comics years ago (2012 to be exact), but he’s been making comics for lots longer than that, and The Fang seems to be his ongoing series. Which is great, because this comic is something else. How anybody could pass this up based on the cover alone is beyond me, but the insides are just as good. The Fang is a paid assassin of monsters, which leaves the world of the series open to all sorts of exploration. This one opens with a werewolf on the run after his date has gone horribly wrong; it turns out that he was on a date with The Fang, she has been chasing after him for months and lets him know that she’s there to kill him. Once she has him at her mercy the thrill wears off a bit, and the werewolf is able to talk her into a date the following evening. From there our hero takes on the a Human Slime, has a therapy/smoking session with the Hash Hag (she’s not there to kill the hag, just to chat and smoke) and finally she goes back to meet the werewolf to continue their date. Along the way it’s hilarious, graphically sexy and violent, and goddamn gorgeous to look at. Oh, and there’s a bonus story at the end that shows here encounter with a giant monster baby, but I don’t want to spoil a thing about that. If the concept of a muppet monster hunter doesn’t get you interested I don’t know what will, but if you’ve been waiting for it… you’re in luck! $7.99

Various Artists – On Your Marks #1

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onyourmarks11

On Your Marks #1

Oh, what a crank I am. I get a pretty damned great anthology filled with small press people living in Seattle who could use a little more exposure and I can’t help thinking that I would have liked it better with a clear indication of which artists did which pages. They’re even all listed on the inside front cover, but they’re inside of a drawing, which makes some of them tough to make out. Does this take away from the quality of the content? Not one bit, no, as it’s not like it’s impossible to figure out who did certain pages with a little bit of work. Eh, I blame it on the general tone of the holiday season. All this Christmas music everywhere just bugs me. And if you ever needed more proof that I am in fact a total curmudgeon, there you have it. Anyway! This is a collection of mostly one page strips, done by all kinds of people that you either already know about or should be ashamed of yourself because you’ve never heard of them. Stories include Ben Horak having the comic he made when he was 6 read by adults (with a perfect final panel), Tom Van Deusen’s creepy piece about a head growing out of a roof and what happens when it’s removed, Bobby Madness and the sacrifice he made for the environment, Kelly Froh’s traumatic moment on an aimless afternoon, Pat Keck and his dungeon Gremlins, Aarow Mew and the result of his “spider” bite, Julia Gfrorer’s tale of a creepy ouija board experience, Rick Altergott and Pat Moriarty’s story of what cats think is going on with their litter boxes, Marc Palm’s Flannelwolf and Frankcan, Robyn Jordan’s worries about what she’ll be like in 10 years after she has kids, David Lasky’s questions about what you would do if you were a superhero, and Max Clotfelter’s mistaken assumption involving getting his older brother involved in protecting him. Like I said, it’s a damned solid anthology, full of ridiculously talented people. Maybe next time they’ll put page numbers on the pages to lessen my crankiness, or maybe it’s something I need to work on on my own and I’m sharing too much here… $4

onyourmarks12

Palm, Marc – Save the Ruined

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Save the Ruined

One of these days I’m going to smarten up and do capsule reviews for tiny mini comics like some of the other review sites out there. This is an 8 page mini (although the cover is technically one page that folds over, making it a 7 page mini) dealing with a pile of ruins. Where did it come from? Who is it supposed to honor? And, most importantly, why aren’t people allowed to disturb a scattered pile of rubble? Is it going to become more disorganized and, if so, who would care? It’s an interesting batch of questions and a very thoughtful comic. The man can certainly draw rubble, and I’m happy to see something completely different from the last comic of his that I reviewed. Huzzah for being kept guessing! So I’d say that this is worth a look, but you should definitely get it in a pile of other comics unless you want your Marc Palm comic experience to be about 30 seconds long. Hey look, I basically did a capsule review anyway! $1

Godzilla King of the Monsters #1 – Marc Palm

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Godzilla King of the Monsters

Was there ever a Godzilla movie that was told from the perspective of the monster? I know there are dozens of Godzilla movies by now, so they’re bound to have thought of that at some point. Still, Marc uses this comic to answer that question and tries to come up with what Godzilla was thinking when all this shit went down in the first movie. After all, the trouble begins when people start driving boats over his home, dropping bombs and radioactive residue down into it, so why wouldn’t he be a little annoyed? The rest of the comic deals with his potential motivations every step of the way, up to and including how the humans most likely treated what was left of Godzilla when they managed to kill him off. Even though, like I said, there were dozens of sequels with a living, healthy Godzilla. Marc also wonders how future movies went if that’s the case. Hey, I know: he could review/interpret them like he does here! That would end up being a hell of a lengthy series, assuming that he doesn’t get bored a few movies in. This was an interesting read, and my only problems with it are technical, as there are the usual few spelling mistakes/bad usages of “your.” And it’s more like a zine than a comic, but I’m the one reviewing it on a comics website, and I don’t see anything on here making the claim that this is a comic. But yeah, if you’re looking for a new take on Godzilla, you could do a lot worse than this. No price, so let’s say $2.