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Velard, Mark – Konehedz #4
Konehedz #4
The mystery of the missing two issues of Konehedz is revealed! Right there on the cover, actually, making it one of the quickest mystery reveals possible. And something I would have known if I had looked at it before I reviewed the last issue, but these things happen. This one picks up right after #1 (and after one of the more thorough and comprehensive recaps I’ve ever seen, so kudos to Mark for that; seriously, you could miss the first issue entirely and know exactly what’s happening here), with our heroes getting off the boat and confronting… a giant eyeball fish monster? Something along those lines. They find its weakness quickly, then run into zombies (?) with pincers, who may or may not be hostile, but our heroes ripping an arm off of one of them decides that allegiance for them. More chaos, more monsters, and one of our heroes discovers a giant robot suit. And yeah, you’d damn well better believe that the next several pages involve that giant monster suit causing all sorts of havoc. Eventually they meet some friendly aliens, or at least not outwardly hostile aliens, so they follow a series of them to their leader. Which is where we finally get some answers, but I’m not going to tell you them here. One quibble: Mark really needs to work on his spelling. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just the occasional word here and there, but there’s some long chunks of text towards the end and he misspells several words in most of the text boxes. The quality of his artwork improves as the issue goes on, and spelling words correctly is much easier and quicker than drawing, so… don’t do that! Or do it less, at least. That goes for all you young (or older and spelling impaired) comics artists out there: have somebody else read it over if you have to, but it’s an easy fix. That was a longer digression than I intended, and it really didn’t do much to lower my enjoyment of the book (not much cause for words in some of those glorious fight scenes, after all), which is still very much worth you checking out. Large portions of this one are even in full color! $3
Velard, Mark – Konehedz #1
Konehedz #1
So while I was reading Mark’s intro for this book I misread one bit of it and thought he said that this was a “scream of consciousness” book. That’s obviously not what he was going for, but it oddly fits the tone of this book, so let’s go with that. This is the story of two amorphous blobs who go on a bunch of adventures, often accidentally, as they also will themselves to evolve the various physical tools needed to complete those adventures. Huh, and here I thought I’d had some serious trouble describing the plot! There’s more to it, of course, but that’s about where the coherent descriptions from me stop. It’s chaotic fun through and through, with lots of funny lines and situations, which is all you can ask for from two rapidly evolving blob people. I don’t have the slightest idea how this idea can continue to escalate indefinitely, but Mark was nice enough to include #4 of this series, so he clearly managed. I’ll be solving that mystery in the coming weeks, but meanwhile there’s a lot to love here. $3
Velard, Mark – Kay H & Zee
Kay H & Zee
I am a sucker for these tiny, self-contained mini comics. I’m also a fan of longer series. Could it be that I just like comics? Huh, I might be onto something there. Anyway, this is one of those shorties that’s hard to talk about for long without giving the whole thing away. The basic setup is that two friends are hanging out and one of them (Zee) decides that he wants to show the other (Kay H) a secret. Once they find the tall, mysterious structure, they obviously have to climb it to see what’s going on. From there we get an epic stair climbing, followed by a peek at what’s on top of the structure. Sure, there are twists, and sure, there’s humor, but this is a short book and that’s the gist of it. I did have a slight technical issue with it, as it looks like the story was originally done in four panel strips, but now those strips are two on a page, making it look like one long story going across instead of two distinct sections being broken down into fourths. Eh, if you read the comic you’ll know what I mean, and at least Mark tried to make that clearer in places. Overall it’s just a fun little adventure comic, and the world could always use more of those.
Velard, Mark – Future Space
Future Space
Ever get the sense that you’ve already and reviewed a book despite a complete lack of evidence that this ever happened? No? Just me then. I guess it’s an occupational hazard of 15+ years rambling about comics. The weird thing is that this is a thoroughly unique book, and I still get that sense. My own mental issues aside, this is a mostly silent comic about a guy just trying to have a good time/lose himself for a bit. He has already had a lousy day, as he burned his food and couldn’t get his elevator to work properly, when he sat down by the futuristic equivalent to the television, scrolled through his choices and decided to take a virtual trip to the moon. Even this only seemed to slightly improve the mood of our hero, but then he decides to read the history of the place and discovers what’s coming right at him. Yep, I’m leaving out the conflict for you to discover. You all know my policy on spoilers, even for comics that I’ve already reviewed in an alternate reality. This comic was a treat, and Mark was nice enough to send me a few of his books, so we all get to see more of his stuff over the coming weeks. And I think this was his oldest comic, for what it’s worth. No price listed, but $2 maybe?
