Ruby’s thirteen. She sells newspapers for pennies. And she’s got The Green Hornet’s gun. Will Hornet and Kato find Ruby before the mob does…or can THE GREEN GUN GIRL save herself? The original Green Hornet in a super special tale from writer Nate Cosby (Cow Boy)!

The Green Hornet Year One Special is written by Nate Crosby and illustrated by Edu Menna. Marcelo Pinto handles colors while Marshall Dillon provides letters. This special features a story within a story, and the old style comic sequences are done by Evan Shaner. So is the Green Hornet Special really special or are you left feeling stung?

The story is a Green Hornet tale told through the perspective of a young girl named Ruby. Ruby is a thirteen year old who hocks newspapers on the street corners. The news isn’t great, but everyone wants to read what The Green Hornet is up to. The masked menace captivates the young and old alike with his exploits plastered on the front page of the Daily Sentinel. Ruby’s mind tends to wander as she imagines herself as a young sidekick of sorts to Hornet and Kato. While selling papers or sneaking into the home of her alcoholic father, Ruby fantasizes about a particular episode where only she can save the Hornet from the circus thug. When Ruby’s fantasy world comes into existence as Hornet and Kato try to stop thugs on her street, can Ruby be as cool and collected as she is in her dreams?

Crosby crafts a great and touching story. Having a young dreamer cross paths with their hero isn’t a new story, but the way Crosby weaves the imagined with the real keeps it fresh and interesting. There’s enough character development with Ruby and her world to keep the reader entertained while they wait for the inevitable appearance of The Green Hornet. Menna does an apt job with the comic. At times the art looks and feels a little rough, but the street level scenes come off really well. The old comic strip style of Ruby’s fantasies are handled brilliantly by Shaner. It looks like it was lifted straight form an old comic serial.  The way the page and words fade into the old style strip is fantastic.

Bottom Line: The Green Hornet Year One Special is truly that, special. With a touching story by Crosby and astounding old comic serial images, this book is one for Green Hornet fans new and old. With a different take on the dreamer meeting the hero angle, the script and art make something really fresh. Check this one out 4/5

Cody "The Thorverine" Ferrell, Review: Green Hornet: Year One Special

This series, a collision of comedy, sex, and violence, follows the misadventures of America’s most dysfunctional family as they go head-to-severed head with an Oprah-loving ax murderer, a cult-crazy soap opera star, and a neo-Nazi prison gang.
First issue: Todd wants desperately to make friends, but every kid he approaches winds up decapitated. Or worse. Meanwhile, Todd’s mother is on a mission to get even with her husband who she believes is having an affair.

Todd, The Ugliest Kid On Earth is a new four issue series with a story by M.K. Perker and Ken Kristensen. The issue is written by Kristensen with art and letters from Perker. Cemal Soyleyen joins the duo by providing colors. Todd is an odd new book, but is it worth checking out?

A new family is moving into their new home when Todd, the ugliest kid on Earth, comes over to try and make friends with the nice little Korean girl. Todd frightens most other children his age because he walks around with a giant paper bag covering his face. But Todd is a nice, sweet kid who just wants to make a friend. That’s hard to do when Mike, the neighborhood bully, and his gang roll up on the scene to harass Todd and cause him to get into trouble. Mike is the little devil that bullies everyone but uses his silver tongue to talk his way into the good graces of the adults. Back at home Todd has to deal with his drunken father and inattentive mother. While watching the news, the family learns of an axe murderer on the loose who targets children. While the news report tells parents to keep their children inside, Todd’s mom wants him to take out the trash…in the rain…with an axe murderer in the area. You might be able to guess what happens. That sets off the comedy of misunderstanding that ensues.

Perker and Kristensen have a truly unique story on their hands. This odd, politically incorrect, and wacky story features a cast of messed up characters and humor that should hook any reader. While it’s hard to say there’s anything quite like Todd, the nearest compression would be something along the lines of The Maxx and The Oblongs. The art is absolutely amazing. Perker along with Soyleyen’s colors make a beautiful book. I mean this as a huge compliment, but it looks similar to what you would see in a children’s book. You have some cartoony looking art with bright and vivid colors. The backgrounds are fantastic and the characters are slightly exaggerated in their face, size, and features.

Bottom Line: Todd, the Ugliest Kid on Earth is a fantastic book like no other. This oddball story features slightly risqué humor with fantastic art. Perker and Kristense have a lot to live up to with the remaining three issues. If it’s anything like the first issue, we’re in for a great ride 5/5

Cody "The Thorverine" Ferrell, Advance Review: Todd, The Ugliest Kid On Earth #1

“NEVER GET CAUGHT”
We learn the secret past of the Steadfast Security’s chief operator as clues begin to appear regarding the mysterious KODIAC protocols. Someone gets out of jail, someone gets divorced, someone comes home dead.

Secret follows on the heels of Jonathan Hickman’s other Image comic, The Manhattan Projects, which I absolutely love. You can check the reviews on that series out after you finish this one. Secret is a spy comic that dives into the world of legal, accounting, and private security on the surface. There is a lot going on that we don’t know, and it’s up to us to piece it all together. Issue 2 starts off with a flashback but picks up after the events of the first issue.

To say that Jonathan Hickman is a good writer is an understatement. Hickman has crafted another fine story, but as usual it’s all about the long term arc and not short self-contained stories. Hickman does a good job as always, but the true stars of this book are artist Ryan Bodenheim and colorist Michael Garland. Colorists don’t get a lot of credit. We know when they don’t do a good job, but we never really hear about them when they do an excellent one. The colors are simple, selective, and beautiful. We get amazing color shifts to convey different parts of the story that match the overall tone and information of each panel. Panels are generally one color, but there are often splashes of another to accentuate the tone- red rage, yellows and oranges of tension and uncertainty. The art is just as good. It is nice and stylized, and rough where it needs to be.

The story feels like a spy movie, there is little character development over the first two issues but we do learn a something about a couple of characters. The long planned story is perfectly fine if you can hold the attention and pace of the single issues, and this one was hit and miss. The first issue really grabbed you, but the second one throws up more questions and leave us wondering what is really going on.  It’s a good enough story, but we won’t really know anything until we get more pieces. That works at times, you want readers coming back and finding out how it develops. This one will probably play out better with further issues, but as a standalone it leaves a little to be desired. There’s questions I want the answers to so I’ll be sticking around for now.

Bottom Line: The story will play out better later, but for now the art and colors elevate this book to another level. Hickman is a great story writer so I have no doubt he knows where this is going and how we’re going to get there. Hopefully this is just a layover to the next destination. Because the colors and art helped this one out until we get more puzzle pieces, I give Secret #2 a solid score of 3/5.

Cody "The Thorverine" Ferrell, Advance Review: Secret #2 By Jonathan Hickman