"Satan's Blade" - 1984 Slasher Movie

In my further travels down the pathways of bad horror movies, I recently watched Satan's Blade. This movie was filmed in the early 1980's and released in 1984.
Our story begins with quite possibly the worst bank robbery scene ever put on film. This scene was a total head scratcher. Dude had to be smoking weed when he wrote the scene, smoking hash when he filmed it, and smoking dog shit when he was editing and decided to leave it in as the opening to his magnum opus. During the bank robbery, the two bank tellers, or whoever they were suppose to be, are gunned down just because the robbers are sadistic and crazy. One of the victims goes through a somewhat extensive death scene that seems to take its cues from Bugs Bunny's famous "you got me" death scenes in the classic  Looney Tunes cartoons. It is outrageously bad, and lets us know right away what we can be expecting from this long forgotten treasure.
After the robbery, our two would be John Dillingers make a hasty retreat to a ski resort to hide out, where they are suppose to meet their partner. At this point we finally see the faces of the bank robbers for the first time and discover they are both women. So, for no apparent reason, within thirty seconds of arriving at their hideout, one of them strips down to her underwear and begins to draw some bathwater. I mean, I'm not a professional screenwriter, but this puppy maybe could have used one more edit before the filming started, but I digress. Okay, bank robber chick one decides she doesn't wanna share the loot (fifty large in a shaving kit they hide in the heating duct) with bank robber chick two, so she guns her ass down in a topless fury on the bathroom floor. Bank robber chick one then starts dragging the bullet ridden and topless covered in blood bank robber chick number two by the ankles and is planning on tossing her in the lake. She doesn't even make it out the front door before a shadowy figure appears and stabs her to death.
The next morning, two cops just happen to be walking by the door and find the two mostly naked girls in a pile on the floor. During this scene, one of the cops is wearing either white high top tennis shoes or some kind of leftover 70's era white disco boots with his cop uniform. It went by fast so I couldn't identify it exactly, and I wasn't about to rewind it to double check, but it was odd. At least in later scenes he seemed to be wearing appropriate cop footwear.
The next scene is even stranger. The two cops are talking to the owners of the ski resort and tell them they can go ahead and rent the room out. Yes, just hours before, there was an apparent double homicide with multiple gunshot wounds, multiple stab wounds, naked bodies, blood everywhere, and some sort of ritualistic symbol written in the blood of the victims on the wall ala Helter Skelter. But go ahead and rent the room out TODAY. Why not? Just then our true main characters come into our lives. It's two married couples that are out for a nice getaway weekend of fun at the ski resort. At the same time we are introduced to a group of supposed college girls that arrive and are given the murder room to stay in, with most of the blood still visible on the wall. And you know what the resort owners are concerned about? They warn the college girls not to be partying til all hours of the night. That's right, there was a Manson Family style killing in this same room less than twelve hours ago, and that's apparently okay, just don't be partying all night. Good God.
Our victims, I mean characters, are told a legend by the lady that owns the resort. A legend about a mysterious giant man with a magic weapon that roams around killing people that come to his mountain. I kind of wished he would have offed this lady before the movie even started.
I have to speed this along now. There are some weird interactions between the married couples and the college girls. There is a bizarre dream sequence that is very strange. Parts of this movie seem almost art house style at times. Really weird stuff. About this time of course is when everyone starts getting picked off one by one. Nothing really special in the kills. Straight up stabbings by an unseen assailant. Evidently this is the Satan's Blade, a mystical weapon that possesses the soul of the person that wields it. I guess.
One thing of note is the score. Throughout the last half of the movie there is a near nonstop piano and synthesizer score that is obviously going for a John Carpenter type of a vibe, and it doesn't fail at this. It's rather monotonous but overall it probably helps build the tension a bit as we head for the homestretch of our film. At times the piano reminds me of the music from the 70's Incredible Hulk show with Bill Bixby. That music when he is walking out of town at the end of the episodes. Not bad.
Who lives? Who dies? Who cares? What the hell is even happening? I'm not sure.
To finish this up I must say that for all the crap I have been writing about Satan's Blade, I actually enjoyed this movie. It's horribly written, really frickin' weird and crappy, yet it has its charms. Out of the dozen or so actors in this movie, a couple of them are actually not that bad, which is a plus. I liked this lemon, but would only recommend it to similarly demented folks. Oh, and as far as "Satan's Blade" goes, it seems to have little to nothing to do with Satan whatsoever. Just a cool title. I actually own this thing on Blu-Ray. Wow.

"ICED" - 1988 Slasher Movie

There were a lot of good slasher movies released in the 1980's. Iced was also released in the 1980's, but that doesn't mean it's good. It just gets a few bonus points for that fact. Iced came out in 1988 and I saw it ages ago on VHS and recently took the time to view it one more time and see how it was. What a bad movie.
Basically what we have is a group of friends are at a ski resort and two of the dudes are playing a game to see which one of them gets to pursue one of the gals in their group, because they both are interested in her. The guy that lost the game got pissed and he went on a late night ski run down a hill on a path that ran through the woods. He ends up falling onto a pile of rocks and impaling himself and dying.
Flash forward five or so years and the remaining six members of the friends group all receive invitations for a free weekend stay at that same ski resort. Evidently it had closed down soon after the guy died on the rocks, but now was reopening under new ownership. Included amongst the six friends are the guy and girl that got together after the tragedy that killed their friend and they are now married.
As you can probably guess, people start getting picked off one by one over the course of the weekend. This all leads up to a shocking climax that really isn't very shocking or effective at all and you end like feeling very indifferent altogether with the entire ordeal.
The only cast member of any note is Lisa Loring, who of course played Wednesday Addams on the Addams family and later played Cricket Montgomery on As The World Turns. She is actually a pretty good actress and turns in a decent performance in Iced. She also ends up naked quite a bit.
There was another similarly themed slasher that came out in 2003 titled Shredder that is damn near the same movie as Iced, only definitely a better version.
There are worse slashers out there than Iced, although not that many. This one is for sure on the lower end of the spectrum in this genre. I could only recommend Iced to serious slasher movie fans and hardcore 80's B horror weirdos.
Without any exaggeration, I could sit down with a few friends and some refreshments and come up with a better script over the course of an afternoon. Oh well, that's what makes watching movies like this fun, you never know exactly what you are gonna get when you press play.

Music Spotlight - DARKNESS The Gasoline Solution

Darkness - The Gasoline Solution.
Darkness was a raw sounding German Thrash band that put out three albums in the late eighties. They had a dirty beer soaked sound that was never easy on the ears. Flash forward to late 2016 and out of nowhere there is a new Darkness record. What have these guys been doing for the last twenty five plus years? I love it when that happens.
The Gasoline Solution is just as raw and grimy as the stuff they put out thirty years ago. It's a short record, thirty something minutes in length, which is plenty long enough for a band like this. This disc is pummeling and rough and brilliant. My two favorite songs are the title track, which has incredibly ridiculous lyrics and a catchy as hell chorus, and the absolute classic song Tinkerbell Must Die, which is amazing. Awesome lyrically and musically.
"All the heroes of my childhood told me lies,
Kill Superman, Kill Peter Pan,
And even Tinkerbell must die."
Another group of fifty something year old dudes that can still bring it hard. So cool.

Comic Review - Doctor Crowe #1 (215 Ink)

I came across Doctor Crowe in the Previews Catalog and it looked like a book I would like so I picked up issue one to check it out.
Overall I would say that Doctor Crowe was worthwhile. It has a great cover by Garry Brown who has been doing some really nice art on a few books lately such as Black Road from Image Comics. It consists of three short stories that seem to be totally separate from one another. Corey Fryia is the writer of all of the stories with different artists for each.
The story set up is somewhat vague in this first issue. Doctor Crowe is a supernatural adventurer that seems to travel around and take care of issues regarding monsters, werewolves, ghosts, etc. with a bit of a gothic steampunk sort of a pulp adventuring vibe. As a first issue without any real introduction you are just thrown in to the middle of Doctor Crowe's life, which was okay but not as good as it could have been had we been given some back story or knowledge of this world or the Doctor. Basically we get Doctor Crowe, who looks pretty cool with the Plague Doctor mask and such, and his assistant as characters that carry over from story to story. With the three little short stories in this issue and the subject matter it has very much a Hellboy crossed with Doctor Who kind of a feel. I think that is what they are shooting for. This comes across as a book by someone fairly new in the field of comics creation, which isn't a condemnation, it's just not on the same level as Hellboy or The Goon obviously, that tread similar themes but are executed on a much higher level.
 I may read the rest of the mini series just to see what kind of growth, if any, there may be. Also, I like to see this type of an independent book find a niche, to allow the creators a chance to ply their craft and grow. I think the character of Doctor Crowe is interesting and has potential. Wanted it to be better than it ultimately was, I would put it at a C+, and would encourage them to keep going.

Movie Vault - Oblivion from Full Moon Pictures

"From the vault of Captain Creepy"
I hadn't seen this in years so I recently watched Oblivion. A really bad, yet fun Full Moon Pictures release. A movie that probably ten people in the entire world would be interested in.
My quick synopsis for the movie.
When wayward slacker Zack Stone's father, the sheriff of Oblivion, is killed by the alien bad guy Red Eye, Zach returns home to take his fathers place and exact revenge, with the assistance of the cyborg deputy, his possible love interest lady from the General Store, Catwoman, and a wise and over talkative Indian that he rescued.
A science fiction western for the ages, but not quite Firefly.
Oblivion has a fun cast including Andrew Divoff, Julie Newmar, Issac Hayes, Meg Foster, and George Takei as a drunken barber who throws around not very subtle Star Trek references at every opportunity. The screenplay was written by the great Peter David, famed comic book and Star Trek writer.

This is a total B-Movie in every sense. There was a sequel made a few years later titled "Backlash, Oblivion 2." I have that movie also and maybe will rewatch it and write something about it soon. Action Lab Comics also just did a four issue mini series that follows the second movie in the continuity. I haven't read that yet but plan on checking it out soon. Good stuff if you are one of the ten.

Stalking The Herd - Quick Book Review

Stalking The Herd is the most comprehensive collection of information about the cattle mutilation mystery that I have ever seen. Chris O'Brien has painstakingly compiled and collated numerous cases over decades in this troubling area of research and the result is the undoubted best book on the market in this subject. By no means is this a breezy summer afternoon read, there is a lot of meat here (pun intended), but Stalking The Herd is essential for your library. Chris doesn't give you a bunch of BS or unfounded nonsense, just solid research. I had to digest this book in bite size pieces, putting it down and then going back to it at a later time. It's work to get through, but it makes you think and gives you a lot to chew on if you have any interest in the bizarre subject of cattle mutilations.

Nailbiter #16 - Image Comics

Publisher - Image
Writer - Josh Williamson
Artist - Mike Henderson
 - POSSIBLE SPOILERS EVERYTIME -

Nailbiter has been a great series since issue 1. Of course the basic premise of the series is there is a town named Buckaroo Oregon and sixteen known serial killers have been born and raised there. A researcher came to town to investigate this phenomenon and he disappeared. His friend, who is a disgraced former Army interrogator and facing issues of his own, follows him to Buckaroo to search for him. We are introduced to many of the townsfolk, including the Nailbiter himself, Edward Charles Warren. He got his nickname because he would chew off the nails of his victims before killing them. He is a sick dude, but a really interesting character just the same. In this issue it is Halloween and a group of kids are going to do what they call Three Knocks, but what we use to call Ding Dong Ditch in my youth. The problem is they are going to do it at the Nailbiter's house. Not a good decision. He catches them and they are amazed to discover that he is a serial killer with principles and he doesn't kill children. How uplifting! There is another plotline going where we discovered an issue or so back that this teenage girl that has been a background player throughout the entire series is in fact the daughter of the Nailbiter and the sheriff. Serious soap opera action going on here!
Josh Williamson has been doing great work with Nailbiter since the beginning and I have yet to miss an issue. It has horror, mystery, soap opera elements, and a touch of dark humor. Another fine issue from another fun series. I'm not sure how long this series is planned to run but it has been a fun ride and I would say grab the first trade paperback and start getting caught up!

Plutona #1 - Image Comics

Publisher - Image
Writer - Jeff Lemire
Artist - Emi Lenox

 - POSSIBLE SPOILERS -

Plutona is a new series from Image Comics that I guess is suppose to be a 4 issue mini. That's a shame because I wish it would go on for much longer. This issue was so good! Plutona shares some thematic elements with the new Paper Girls book by Brian K Vaughn. We have a group of outsider kids that are brought together and end up being in the middle of a big adventure. The kids come across a dead body in the woods, much the same as the Stephen King short story The Body that was made famous in the classic movie Stand By Me. The body in question belongs to a superhero named Plutona, one of the greatest superheroes in this universe it seems. This first issue gives us a bit of a look at each of the kids in the group and is written so well. Jeff Lemire is on his "A" game. Emi Lenox art has an indy vibe that fits this story so well and the colors by Jordie Bellaire also work perfectly to convey the feel of the book. Plutona totally has its hooks in me. Reminiscent of some of the great kid adventures that I love. Things like Monster Squad, Goonies, Stand By Me, Silver Bullet, and The Lost Boys.  Can't wait to read more of Plutona and see what Jeff Lemire has in store.

Spider-Man 2099 (2015) #1

Publisher - Marvel
Writer - Peter David
Artist - Will Sliney
- SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT -
A temporal distortion threatened the stability of the future timeline in which the Spiderman of the year 2099, Miquel O'Hara, resides. Now he is stranded in our time. He is currently working as the head of Research and Development at the New York office of Parker Industries. Peter Parker is his boss. Miquel is trying to figure out and fix whatever caused the destruction of his future world.
This issue starts with Miquel and Tempest, his girlfriend, who is now healed from her terminal illness due to events in the previous volume of this title. They are at an American Ninja Warrior event (Ninja USA) in which Miquel is competing. He flies through the course in record time and qualifies for the finals. Later on back at Parker Industries, Peter expresses consternation at Miquel for showing off his skills in such a public arena. Miquel isn't concerned because he feels between Peter, Silk, Spider-Woman, and Miles Morales, he isn't needed as a Spider person anymore.
 Miquel made a power play and Alchemax were thwarted in their attempt to build a super villain prison. Miquel hopes that this event will be enough to alter the future and save his timeline and he ventures to a basement level high security vault which houses the temporal portal to 2099. He enters hoping for good news but discovers the future to still be in ruins. Alchemax are introduced to an agent of the Department of Internal Security who believes that their prison may be needed, and could be brought back into play.
The final scene has Miquel and Tempest in a restaurant expressing their love for each other when Tempest leans in and begins to whisper some rather huge news to Miquel when a car bursts through the front window of the restaurant and explodes. Temple is found in a pile of rubble and she is unresponsive. The end.
David and Sliney are obviously very comfortable with the characters in this book. They slide into them with ease. Peter David has a writing style that is very welcoming to me. I enjoy it greatly. I have a complete run of Spidey 2099 from the 90's original run of the title and it is still a great book. I'm pleased to see this title in the soon to be post Secret Wars Marvel Universe. I will be back. Captain Creepy says Spider-Man 2099 issue 1 is a winner!

The Hangman #1 - Archie Comics

Publisher - Archie/Dark Circle
Writer - Frank Tieri
Artist - Felix Ruiz
SPOILERS-SPOILERS-SPOILERS

The Hangman is another one of the Archie Comics/Dark Circle re-imaginings of older characters done in a much darker vein. What I know of this character coming into this book is there was an innocent man that was being hanged when a phantom type force came to him and offered a deal. Now he roams the earth protecting the innocent and hanging (literally) the guilty.
The story begins with a man named Mike Minetta getting ready to leave for work in the morning. He is lovingly interacting with his wife and young daughter and seems to have a wonderfully happy life. As he leaves for work we discover he has a man bound and gagged in the trunk of his car. Uh oh. As Mike drives away we catch a glimpse of a silhouetted Hangman watching from a distance. Mike takes the dude out of the trunk and down to the river and beats the living crap out of him. Come to find out Mike is known as Mad Dog Mikey Ice and he is some sort of a hitman or mob enforcer. He covers the poor bastard with strawberry jam and watches as the man is swarmed by a mob of rats and is slowly eaten. When Mike gets in his car and begins to leave the scene he sees the Hangman outside his car. He shoots at him and tries to run him over, to no avail. The Hangman appears inside the car and throws Mike through the windshield. He throws a rope over a light pole and hangs Mike from it, but as he does something strange begins to happen. Twinkling lights appear around the Hangman and he dissipates and ascends into the sky. We are left with Mike hanging from the light pole. The end. Evidently we are getting a new Hangman in issue 2.
This was a decent issue but it read very fast. If this were an episode of a tv show the content of this entire issue would have been the scene that takes place before the opening credits. The art is extremely sketchy and scratchy by choice, to fit the gritty tone. This works fine but some panels are a little hard to follow exactly what is happening or where I should be looking. Felix Ruiz draws the Hangman hauntingly, which is effective, and the cover is great. Overall I enjoyed this issue but for $3.99 I want a little more. There are many good books being published these days competing for my money so a book needs to grab me right away. I am curious as to what happens next. Does Mike become Hangman? I am curious but probably not enough to buy issue 2. Captain Creepy says The Hangman #1 is okay, but slightly disappointing.

Carnage (2015) #1

Publisher - Marvel
Writer - Gerry Conway
Artist - Mike Perkins
- SPOILERS SPOILERS -

Captain Creepy has never been much of a Carnage fan. There have been times that I enjoyed his tales more than others but as a rule he hasn't been one of my favorite characters. Well, this first issue of the new series is aiming to change my perspective a bit. Starting off with a brilliant cover by Mike Del Mundo and featuring very pleasing art throughout by Mike Perkins. We are re-introduced to Cletus Cassidy sitting in a diner having lunch while the news plays on a tv in the background. They are talking about him on the news. It seems they are attempting to lure him to a mine in West Virginia as a trap and they are using Manny Calderon as bait. But who are "they"? We are also introduced to Colonel Jameson, the heroic son of J. Jonah and a man named Barry Gleason, managing director of Grey Ridge Investments. The story is that Grey Ridge Mine is played out as an investment and Gleason discovered the connection between Calderon and Cassidy when he hired Calderon as his head of security. She was the sole survivor of Carnage's first rampage and he killed her family. So Gleason contacted the military to offer the use of his mine to capture Carnage. Eddie Brock is also on hand as plan B. If the plan doesn't work, Brock, as Toxin, will enter the picture. Well, Carnage takes the bait of course. The military Psyops team think they have him where they want him but there is a collapse in the mine and Carnage is loose. Time for Plan B.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I thought it was great. It has a meaty story, introduces many interesting characters, sets up the next book and delivers outstanding art along the way. This was a 9 out of 10 for me and I'm in. Great stuff.

The October Faction #9

Publisher - IDW
Writer - Steve Niles
Artist - Damien Worm
- POSSIBLE SPOILERS -

I have been enjoying The October Faction quite a bit. Steve Niles is one of my favorite horror writers and I am a big fan of most of his stuff. His Cal McDonald Criminal Macabre is classic in my eyes. Niles doesn't disappoint on this title either. What is happening is the Allan kids now know what their parents really do, or at least they think they do, and they are in the process of being trained to become monster hunters themselves. The current class they are in consists of mom hunting them in the house. While they are hiding they come across some journals from long ago that expose the fact that the children were adopted by their parents after their biological parents were murdered. Murdered by their adoptive parents that is. Now mom and pops feel they must tell the kids everything. Key dramatic music. Play end credits.
The October Faction is a good book. The story is good as is the art by Damien Worm. The art style brings thoughts of Ben Templesmith or something in that vein. Very dark, somewhat surreal and off putting in a good way. It works. My only problem is at times it seems the issues read extremely fast. Good story told very quickly. You can read the issue in about five minutes. Not the end of the world by any stretch of the imagination but my money is limited and for $3.99 that's not a lot of entertainment.  It's a solid and fun book though and I recommend it.

All New Wolverine #1 Comic

Publisher - Marvel
Writer - Tom Taylor
Artist - David Lopez
- POSSIBLE SPOILERS -

The Weapon X program tried to create a clone of Wolverine. They were unsuccessful until on the 23rd attempt they used female chromosome. It worked and X-23 was born. Her surrogate mom was one of the doctors on the program named Sarah Kinney and X-23 became known as Laura Kinney. Laura has been a very good character for the last decade or so for Marvel and this is her new book.
Laura is in Paris and she is in the middle of trying to save someone from being assassinated by a sniper. She is shot in the head. We go to a flashback of Wolverine talking to Laura telling her she is the best there is at what she does but she doesn't have to do it. She doesn't have to kill. Back to present time and Laura is on the ground with a pool of blood surrounding her head. She wakes up and says her brain is knitting itself back together. Evidently her healing factor is now working. Laura stands up, takes off her long coat revealing the classic yellow and blue Wolverine costume, and pulls the cowl onto her face. She goes after the sniper in a tower and after a fight discovers a drone airplane is going after the intended target of the assassination. The All New Wolverine jumps from the tower and is caught in mid air by the young version of Angel from the All New X-Men. Angel drops her onto the drone and she brings it down into a fiery crash on the street. Laura is hurt but again the healing factor kicks in and she quickly recovers. Angel and Laura return to where she had fought the assassin in the tower and upon unmasking the assassin they discover that it is apparently a clone of  Laura. The authorities arrive and Warren grabs Laura and they fly away, promising to get to the bottom of what is happening. The end.
I thoroughly enjoyed this issue. Tom Taylor is a great comic book writer. His work on the Injustice book at DC for a couple of years was really good and he is beginning to get some recognition for his abilities. There was action, intrigue, and questions needing to be answered. A very good first issue. David Lopez art utilized some interesting panel layouts and I love the way he draws Laura. The issue read fairly quickly but I still felt as though I had gotten enough story to make it worthwhile. All New Wolverine looks to be a fun series and I have added it to my list of books to buy and read on a regular basis. Good one Marvel! And great choice in having Tom Taylor write this book.

Spongebob Comics #49

Publisher - United Plankton Pictures
Writer - Derek Drymon, various
Artist - Gregg Schigiel, various
Cover Artist - Kelley Jones

SpongeBob Comics isn't a title I buy on a regular basis. It's a title that I purchase maybe a couple of times a year or whenever the mood strikes. It is never a disappointment though, every issue of SpongeBob I have read has given me a few chuckles and has been worthwhile. There is normally a main story and several short backups of various degrees of quality. The reason I bought issue 49 was simply for the amazingly awesome cover art of Kelley Jones. Kelley is one of the best artists of monsters and monstrosities currently active in the comics field and I couldn't pass up this book when the cover caught my eye.
The main story in this issue is that Squidward has been hiding leftover Krabby Patties under a loose floorboard at  the Krusty Krab for quite some time and somehow the burgers have congealed into a giant monster that is coming after him. The monster in the story is drawn by equally legendary monster artist Stephen Bissette. Great stuff! The rest of the issue consists of several short stories including a really good one called Monster Canyon. Typical SpongeBob goodness.
As I said, this isn't a title I buy every month, but it is really fun. If you enjoy SpongeBob Squarepants you should pick this up and give it a try. Check out that cover!

Jirni - Aspen Comics

Publisher - Aspen
Writer - J.T. Krul
Artist - V Ken Marion
- SPOILERS SPOILERS -

There are many series from Aspen Comics that I enjoy. At times I wish they would get more books out there as they generally have very good quality stuff. Aspen are known for there cheesecake style covers and get a bit of a bad rap. Many people think the cheesecake is all that Aspen titles have going for them and that just isn't true. Very much like Zenoscope, if you give Aspen Comics a try you may discover there is a little more substance than what you have been led to believe. Jirni just might be my personal favorite from Aspen. A couple of years ago there was a mini series of Jirni that JT Krul wrote and it was good. It is the story of Ara, a young princess that discovered her mother is a D'Jinn. Or a Jinn. Or a genie. Her mother was captured by an evil wizard and taken away. Ara then discovers that she also has powers as she was unaware of her hybrid Jinn background. Ara tried to rescue her mother but was not successful. That brings us to this second mini series of Ara's adventures where we are in book three of five, smack dab in the middle of the story.
Ara is still trying to find her mother and she has hooked up with a trader/pirate named Boro. She is currently a passenger on his ship and they are traveling across the waters and come to a huge port city named Montessa. Boro is there with the intention of trading the Ziar Ore that was acquired in an adventure in a previous issue in this series. Ara discovers Montessa has just about anything and everything. There is even a man that manufactures and sells flying ships, which Ara is greatly intrigued with as her mother was taken away in a similar ship by the wizard Torintal. Ara becomes greatly disturbed when Boro trades his Ore for a bunch of beautiful women that he means to trade at another place at a later time. She is disillusioned by seeing Boro a bit more as he really is, a slave trading pirate. Ara has an argument with Boro and says she can no longer travel with him. The issue comes to an end as we are shown the slave women being loaded onto Boro's ship and we see that Ara has taken up a disguise and is passing herself off as one of the slaves.
Jirni is a fun series. It is on the light side storywise. Light adventuring I guess. I have heard comparisons saying Jirni is along the lines of the old Pirates of Dark Water cartoon series from twenty of so years ago. That seems about right. V Ken Marion lays down some beautiful pencil work and he has a bright future if he continues to develop his craft. The colors are really good also. If there is a house style of art for Aspen it would be no surprise that it is reminiscent of Image artwork from back in the day. Specifically along the lines of the Top Cow side of things, which is no surprise since Aspen was founded by Michael Turner and that is where he cut his teeth. Very nice art style, but not yet fully developed to the point of being ready for a big time book. By no means is Jirni essential reading, but it is a fun light hearted adventure with an enjoyable story and art.