Riley RossmoCritiques

Graphic Novel Bookclub 2016:

This book really was boring and wordy to me by the 22nd page, and as someone who loves comics as well as books that are 900 pages, that's saying something. It's not well organized, overly wordy and bothersome in that the storyline was very plot hole laden and more reliant on the "triplet shitck" rather than consistent story arcing.

Review will be in for both volumes

Graphic Novel Bookclub 2016:

This book really was boring and wordy to me by the 22nd page, and as someone who loves comics as well as books that are 900 pages, that's saying something. It's not well organized, overly wordy and bothersome in that the storyline was very plot hole laden and more reliant on the "triplet shitck" rather than consistent story arcing.

Review will be in for both volumes

Found it confusing and not fond of the art. Try Matt Ruff for really good MPD books.

A story about orchestrated suicide/sacrifice for an ideal. Full of philosophical, scientific, and psychological references to pop culture. A polemic against order and for anarchy and chaos. Breaks the fourth plane (or the third plane since its 2-D) multiple times with aside and self-reference. A cry against the lies and indoctrination rampant in our society. Ultimately a cry for peace and against real violence that fails miserably.

The kids aren't alright.

Listening to The Kids ARE Alright as covered by The Lolas.

A great premise, somewhat wasted by a much meeker current storyline. I liked that Spencer basically threw good taste and convention out the window in the initial set-up, but then he essentially fell into a much more common storyline that occurs ten years later.

The intervening ten years? Pretty damn hard to swallow, and with no real motivation to do so.

I rarely read Batman comics, but this is the one story I think this may actually have been better served as a Batman/Joker story. I'm guessing it would likely never have seen the light of day, unless it had come out under DC's long-lamented Vertigo imprint.

An okay story overall, and while the art wasn't necessarily my cup of tea, it actually served the story quite well.

i don't know what to think about this one. i'm not going to review it like i normally review books because i honestly don't even know how i'd do that.

the art? good.

the writing? great?

the weird plot twist where the shadow was given his powers by what looks like... cthulhu? uh.... what?

now, the majority of shadow related media that i consume is the radio show with just a dite of the 80s/90s era comics so this is uh kinda just out there for me. even the newer comics i've read didn't involve shads being an interdimensional being sent by the great old ones to maintain truth and justice on earth.

this plot point was a lot for me and even the artists drawing the joker like the fuckboy reject that he is didn't make up for it so it's a solid 4/5 for me.

I received this in exchange for a free review through the GoodReads 'First Reads'.

Its a Batman/Shadow crossover, which makes it very interesting just from the get-go. With Batman basically having been completely modeled off of The Shadow in the first place and created like a Shadow 2.0 back in the original DC comics when he was first introduced.

The story is pretty interesting itself, and it centers around Shadow/Stag and Batman/Joker though Joker plays a very subdued role and is more just a facilitator for The Stag's storyline. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but could have been more interesting if he had a bit of a more prominent actual role.

The artwork is good and comes with a few 'variant covers' at the back of the book. Overall its a good graphic novel and one that most people can jump into with minimal knowledge of Batman.

Duncan suffers from multiple personality disorder. Within his psyche rests four distinct individuals: a cowboy, a ninja, and a viking with Duncan functioning as the ringleader. Lieberman and Rossmo use this high concept as the centerpiece for their fun, conspiracy-laden adventure story. A failed super soldier experiment created an army of Triplets, people with three personalities all with different extraordinary abilities. Rumored destroyed by the government, Triplets re-appear, led by one of their own. The experiment's creator, psychotherapist Sebastian Ghislain, summons the most powerful of the Triplets, Duncan, to confront the progeny. Often confusing, at times grotesque, and always fascinating, Rossmo's monochrome art perfectly propels Lieberman's exciting, parody-riddled script. Sadly, the fascinating tale collapses near the last page when the series reaches an unsatisfying, all-to-quick conclusion. Even with its flaws, Cowboy Ninja Viking delivers an original, enthralling story.

Started off pompously and tedious, but halfway through everything changes. A real gamechanger.½

I really enjoyed the introduction to this series & am interested to see where it goes. It has a very nice balance of horror & humor mixed in with interesting characters. I love John Prufrock. I enjoyed the art throughout the first two books, but found some of the "Cryptoids" more distracting than beneficial to the flow of the story.

Upon reading the title of this graphic novel I knew I would be disappointed, however the idea was just to good to pass up. The art was unique. I have definitly never seen anything like it. That drew my attention more then anything. Beyond that, the story was a little weak. I stumbled along with it for a while and actually ended up putting the book down and coming back to finish a few months later when I didn't have aything left on my shelf to read.

There were moments, granted, that were comical. The idea of having a ton of multipersonality people in one room trying to converse should have been a goldmine. I did laugh, the set up was just to good to miss every chance, but by the end I was mostly let down. The execution was not there.

I hate to reveal plot points in a review the same as how I hate reading the back of a book. I don't want to give anything away or destroy that feeling of exploring a scene you never experienced before by giving you some idea of what might happen. So that being said its hard to say that you should not chance this book. That would be unfare to you, but I will say that given the choice, there are books much better suited of your time.½

For whatever reason, I was a little disappointed with this. As much as I enjoyed volume one, this story arc came across more as filler material then setting out a new storyline for the characters. There was also a major reveal with one of the characters turning traitor yet this seemed to be glossed over. I dont doubt the character will return but I would’ve liked to have seen the main characters dealing with the aftermath. My gripes are possibly me just not being in the mood for this book, and I by no means hated it, just felt a little let down considering how much I enjoyed book one.

A wonderful trade comic delving into an X files type unit, but instead of Mulder you get a American Bigfoot as he investigates cases of strange sightings. In this particular story, the creature is a Chupacabra, also known as an Mexican Bigfoot. This trade collects the first five issues and sees Proof teamed up with his new partner. It’s part setup story but also moves forward. The conclusion has a subtle twist and makes a refreshing change. An enjoyable read with wonderful artwork. Must seek out more of this.

10