In a bid to broaden the number of comics we cover at ComicsXF, we give you, the reader, these mini reviews of some recent releases.
Exquisite Corpses #1
W: James Tynion IV | A: Michael Walsh | C: Jordie Bellaire | L: Becca Carey | P: Image/Tiny Onion
Every five years on Halloween, the wealthiest families in America play a game. Twelve of the deadliest people in the world are dropped into a small town with just one goal: last killer standing wins. For the citizens of Oak Valley, Maine — this year’s unlucky arena — the goal is much simpler. They must survive the night.
You get a lot for your $4.99 in the first issue of this Image Comics maxiseries. A lot of pages — 68, whereas most Marvel Comics that cost $4.99 are 20-something. A lot of characters — 12 colorful serial killers, their rich and powerful sponsors, their support system and the small-town locals who will run, hide and fight them over the next 13 issues. A lot of story setup — a book made with less care would not be able to successfully establish its premise and get you invested the way this one does. And a lot of potential for more mayhem to come.
The motley crew of assassins who all come together and have to kill each other for some sort of prize is a familiar trope. In writing about this series previously, I was reminded of Kyle Starks and Erica Henderson’s 2019 Image/Skybound comic Assassin Nation, in which 20 of the world’s best killers fight it out to determine who is the world’s best (Dave + Fuck Tarkington 4 Life). However, that was a comedy book inspired by bad ’80s action movies made by two people making each other (and the readers) laugh. Exquisite Corpses promises to be far more violent, far more scary (you don’t set a comic during Halloween for nothin’) and to take readers far more places than your average hyperviolent comic about contract killers.
Exquisite Corpses is not just a Tynion & Walsh joint. It is the opening salvo in a round-robin story that will pass through a number of brilliant creators before it’s through. Picture killers like Rascal Randy, Nurse Pete and the Fox Mask Killer in the hands of folks like Tyler Boss, Pornsak Pichetshote, Adam Gorham and Gavin Fullerton. We have a good idea whom Tynion and Walsh intend to be the viewpoint killer of this story, but that’s just them. Who are the others rooting for? Which killers do they want us to know? How many of us will walk away from this book with a busted bracket (Oh, there’s an NCAA March Madness-style bracket at the back) because Che Grayson hit us with a swerve partway through the series?
And one more reason to get this in physical AND destroy it? There’s a trading card at the back. That’s right, Exquisite Corpses is also a game you can play with your friends, a la Pokemon or Magic: The Gathering, and make your own version of the story. Now that’s that good business-brained Tiny Onion stuff. Happy hunting!
— Dan Grote
Buy Exquisite Corpses #1 here.
The Great British Bump-Off: Kill or Be Quilt #1
W: John Allison | A: Max Sarin | C: Sammy Borras | L: Jim Campbell | P: Dark Horse
Hark, and listen well, for I have found the coziest mystery!
Former teen detective Shauna Wickle is back and ready to solve another low-stakes crime surrounded by charming characters, this time in a canal-side shopping village where she takes a job at a fabric store after she scrapes her uncle’s boat along the canal banks due to the distraction of a cute boy and a lack of knowledge about knots. A cliffhanger explosion sets off the mystery of the miniseries.
Allison’s comics are a balm for the soul. He’s lived with some of these characters for more than 20 years now, and in a way they’ve become the 2000s indie comics equivalent of your boomer parents watching Murder, She Wrote or Columbo on MeTV. But they are always, always enhanced by the art of Max Sarin, whose facial acting alone is some of the best in comics but who excels at heightening certain moments — such as when Shauna receives the bill for her little boating accident and turns into a literal puddle — in a way that puts the “cartoon” in “cartooning.”
Will this comic make me want to get into quilting? No. But will it make me want to wrap myself in one of my wife’s Vera Bradley blankets and read more Allison comics while cradling a mug of coffee with two hands? Very yes.
Full disclosure: This reviewer is not related to Allison mainstay Charlotte “Lottie” Grote, who cameos in this comic, but appreciates the fact that there’s a fictional character out there with his last name.
— Dan Grote
Buy The Great British Bump-Off: Kill or Be Quilt #1 here.
Dark Regards #1
W: Dave Hill | A: Artyom Topilin | C: Brittany Peer | L: Troy Peteri | P: Oni Press
Twenty-ish years ago, a comedian named Dave Hill began emailing a Scandinavian black metal label proclaiming himself Lance, the King of Black Metal, resulting in an extended back-and-forth that you can read here (or try to — it’s white text on a black background with early-internet flames all around it; it will give you eye strain, but that’s what makes it so metal).
Dark Regards tells a heightened version of that story, in which Hill is summoned through his dreams by Lord Abscess of the Blood-Soaked Warning Ignorers to become Lance and form a band called Witch Taint. In this version, his emails to Scandinavian black metal producers are so annoying, a group of them — one of whom looks and dresses like Illyana Rasputina — boards a plane from Oslo to the United States to find and kill him.
The stuff about telling his story to Malcolm Gladwell really happened.
IRL Hill is a musically inclined comedian who regularly does bits about food and true crime on his YouTube channel. His greatest claim to fame may be writing the song that opens John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight on HBO. This is his first foray into comics, and if you have a passing knowledge of struggling New York comedians, Scandinavian black metal, record store clerk stereotypes and where to find the corpse paint at Ulta, you’re in for a good time. Artist Artyom Topilin deftly mixes comedy and the trappings of black metal, leaning toward the former as we learn more about the latter. We saw him perform a similar balancing act in his comedy-horror Image series with Kyle Starks, Fuck This Place.
It’s hard to tell how high the stakes will ramp up in issue #2, but the first issue does a good job of introducing the lore that sets off the story.
Oh, and bonus points to anyone who spots the Mighty Boosh reference.
— Dan Grote
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #32
W: Cody Ziglar | A: Marco Renna | C: Bryan Valenza | L: Cory Petit | P: Marvel
I gotta say, this gods crossover is much more interesting than the Deadpool crossover in previous issues. Agent Gao was the hook for this, as he was “god-touched” by Ares, the god of war, during the Deadpool crossover. However, Miles is the champion of Anansi, and the Asgardian gods and the Vodu gods that Anansi belongs to are forbidden from fighting each other. In this issue, we see Ares find a loophole in the form of Zip Zephyr, a demigod who resents the Olympians.
Before I get into the mythological family drama, I want to shine a spotlight on the first couple of pages that show Miles having a VR therapy session with Dr. Kwan. I’m reviewing this issue in May, Mental Health Awareness Month, and I find these pages beautiful given how therapy and mental health issues are sometimes stigmatized among the Black community. I love how Dr. Kwan uses VR to give Miles a comforting space to talk about his feelings and recent Spidey-events. I haven’t seen therapy depicted in such a poignant light in a superhero comic since Silk’s first series, and I’m thankful to Cody Ziglar for writing this scene so well.
Now for the mythological stuff. I personally haven’t seen a demigod hate the Olympians since I read the Percy Jackson books in high school, but I gotta say Zephyr is a fun opponent that Miles ends up scrapping with, at school no less. Shoutout to Anansi’s trickster smartass for cleverly devising a way to give Miles some backup. I still very much love Corey Petit’s lettering for Anansi and Marco Renna’s character design, which enhances Anansi’s coyness when he first appears before Miles upside down.
Anyway, thanks to the loophole Ares has exploited, we now have a tournament of gods on our hands! Things are heating up, and I am looking forward to what happens in the next issue.
— Latonya “Penn” Pennington
Buy Miles Morales: Spider-Man #32 here.
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Dan Grote is the editor and publisher of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Paul Winston Wisdom. Follow him @danielpgrote.bsky.social.
Latonya "Penn" Pennington is a freelance contributor whose comics criticism can be found at Women Write About Comics, Comic Book Herald, Newsarama and Shelfdust, among others. Follow them @wordsfromapenn.com on Bluesky.
