The Beckoning Of Insanity! (Originally Ran on 8/5/2015)

Insanity, its something that can turn your average everyday normal Joe into a raving nut job for whatever reason. Or tear apart families in various ways in either how to handle the situation or it just simply being too much. Some may just be seen as insane just cause of a differing view or a radical idea that the name caller just can’t comprehend. Whether for good or ill, insanity is a thing in this world of ours and if you’re able to do something with it in a creative way for example, it makes life that much more fun. And the guys at Insane Comics certainly live to bring you some really crazy stories with their comics. Whether its about Gods, the future being a fairly hostile, Horsemen being douche bags, demons waxing poetic about life, or a ton of other things that Insane Comics has to offer from their catalogue. Its guaranteed they will have something for you that will be perfect on the road to insanity!

Now… Let’s take a look at Braiden Cox’s first issue of Reclaiming Godhood. Which features art by Samir Samao and letters by Ray Zepada Jr. “What? No colors!?” You ask? That’s right folks, no colors aside from on the cover! Now whether or not this hurts the comic is entirely up to you, but if you like black and white comics then you’ll like this quite a bit. Makes me curious to see how it would fair as a live action film in black and white, but since this is only the first issue I really shouldn’t get ahead of myself here! Now you might be wondering if Reclaiming Godhood is about the main God himself out to get back his status and I can tell ya now its not about him at all. Though I’m curious to see what he thinks of this whole mess that Jupiter has found himself in. A mess that certainly looks to not even be his fault!

“Wait, so Zeus done got betrayed and lost his Godhood!?” You exclaim with much shock to be heard in your voice. And yes, yes that’s the case here good reader! And by his own brother Pluto none the less! Guess all that time being disbelieved to be a planet really got to the guy and had to represent for his fellow name sake! Even if it was at the expense of Jupiter/Zeus that is. Though why Pluto has betrayed Jupiter remains unclear at this point in time, but the likelyhood of it being for power and a desire to rule from a less underworldly place would be motivation enough. Naturally our main man Jupiter’s fall from Heavenly grace gets witnessed by a lone girl and her Pug. Now the Pug is probably a bit smarter then what the girl is as she seems a bit naive in thinking the God is a Genie, which is somewhat hilarious and I can imagine him having a spluttering reaction he’d likely find undignified if he heard her comment about him.

And while Jupiter may be a bit down on his luck, he’s still no pushover and that’s very clear in Braiden Cox’s first issue of this story. He’s also something of a nice guy judging by an action he does at one point in this issue. An action that’ll likely prove quite troublesome for the guy as time goes on, though I could be wrong. But at least he’ll have some help along the way! Even though this is a bit short and jumps right into things with little explanation aside from dialogueless panels and lines from Jupiter during his fight to stay alive, I’d still recommend checking this out. If Braiden’s story doesn’t get ya hooked at first, Samir’s art certainly will!

Now… Let’s move on to Days To Come shall we? Featuring Garrett Gunn as the writer, Samir Samao on interior pencils, Jesse Hansen on inks with assists from Evan Quiring, and letters by Shawn Depasquale. This as you can see is another title to not feature colors aside from the cover. This book also jumps right into things with little explanation on how things got to the point they now are in this new era known as Post-Darkness. Or PD for short if you like a shortcut. Garrett nicely keeps alive the age old classic of a man and his best friend in this story as they face various odds to stay alive and stay fed. One thing I want to mention that out of the three books I’m covering in this, Days To Come is the only one with out Religious aspects to it like Gods, Demons, and Horsemen. So this might be for your if you’re looking to avoid those topics in your comic reading.

200 years ago someone did something that was likely very stupid to do and thus ended the civilized world and survivors ever since have most likely been cursing that person’s name ever since! If they even know his name that is anyway. Course they probably don’t even need to know his name and have likely come up with some very colorful names of their own to describe the world ender! Kevin the faithful dog companion’s owner is certainly a smart guy and even a bit nice himself since he’s willing to a certain extent to be a Sheriff for those in need in the area he and Kevin live in. Something I don’t think I envy the man in having that job as its likely got some dangers most probably wouldn’t live through! His and Kevin’s main enemy known as the Hive are certainly some ugly lookers too. Though I’m curious if they are a result of nuclear radiation or experiments that simply went and started taking control as the years passed since the beginning of the Post-Darkness world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Their boss Damien Bones certainly also seems like a real unpleasant guy too with what he has mind! He’s also not much of a pretty boy either and something tells me his idea of a private chat doesn’t involve a lot of talking. And as you’ve noticed, Samir is also handling art duties for this book. Which is likely why the helmets the Hive have look so much like Jupiter’s helmet from Reclaiming Godhood. Whether or not I’m just seeing what isn’t there or Samir decided to keep it simple with helmet designs is entirely up to you once you’ve read this. Or if you already have, feel free to leave a comment below! Other then that bit with the helmet design, Samir’s art continues to be enjoyable.

Now one thing that confuses me is when Kevin’s master makes a remark about an ‘Original’. Is he referring to Bones before he realizes who it is? Or is he referring to the girl who wants no part in Bones’ crap anymore? And what does it mean exactly to be an ‘Original’? These are questions I certainly look forward to seeing be answered in future issues of Days To Come. Cause who wants to see a question go un-answered? Not me, that’s for sure! I’m looking forward to seeing what Kevin’s master does next or if Kevin himself has to force the issue to get the guy moving in the right direction. Something I’m sure the guy will not be happy about it if Kevin gets him to doing something he’d rather not be involved with! So with that said… Garrett… Bring us more please!

Now for the final piece of this little write up of mine. And I’m something I’m sure you’ll like just as I have and are strongly wishing for more of it then you are in wishing strongly for Justin Bieber to go away for good. What is this book you ask? Why none other then Modern Testament: Anthology of the Ethereal! Now that’s one heck of a title if you ask me! And you should ask me anyway cause I have some great answers! Maybe not Roddy Piper level answers, but answers all the same! Modern Testament goes further then the first two books by being well, an anthology by featuring three separate stories that does have me wondering if they all share the same universe. One story called Fallen Angel being about an Angel who quit being a savior cause he got tired of how us humans were being morons and went to go drink his time away. Not to mention being an idiot to reject a really hot redhead! Who does that!? I mean really!

You gotta be crazy to do such a thing like that! Now Samir’s art isn’t present for Fallen Angel, The Bad Guy, or Feast or Famine. Now you might suddenly be finding yourself weeping from the horrors of that, but I’m here to assure you that the artists for these stories are just as awesome to bring before your eyes as you read this anthology of angels, demons, and douche like Horsemen! Now the pretty cool thing about this book is that Frank Martin writes all three stories and each tend to have a lesson of some kind in them. Not to mention giving us readers a fairly good idea that the little demon pest in The Bad Guy is a big fan of Al Pacino. Heck he probably even looks up to the guy and would be likely to possess him just to live his life!

Kel Nuttall also covers lettering duties for all three stories and frankly, I think it really shines when the Heavenly sort is talking with the Angel over the guy’s decision to quit his job, and then it shines again over in The Bad Guy when we see the thoughts of the demon as the story goes on. Now let’s backtrack a little to Fallen Angel, which has Federico Zumel on pencils, Jeff Coney on inks, and Jay Moyano on colors. We get treated to our buddy Angel in a bar drinking his time away cause hey, what better way to spend your time right? Until he gets approached by that hot redhead I mentioned earlier. Whom I think would have really brightened up his life to the point he’d have a whole new outlook on things! Heck maybe if a certain unwanted visitor hadn’t shown up, he might have changed his mind about the girl. Whom would have been really happy with that decision!

Who knows, maybe somewhere down the line these two star crossed would be lovers will find their way to one another again. If she’s not a nun or something after the events of this story anyway. Of course our Angel buddy here will have the unwanted visitor to blame for that happening should things go that way. Gotta admit, I like that the encounter between the Angel and the visitor served a purpose rather then it just being some ‘wham bam, oh that’s gonna hurt in the morning!’ kind of thing. And if you’re thinking dirty with that, then clean that gutter brain out! Yeesh! Whether or not the final outcome served its purpose and it gets our guy motivated again remains to be seen.

But I hope Frank Martin does bring us more of this guy as I want to see where he goes from here. Heck, the Angel would even have at least two enemies to deal with if the demon in The Bad Guy and the Douche like Horseman in Feast or Famine are a part of his world. Which I hope they are cause it would make for a nice crossover and see how they all interact. And if the team Martin has with this is along for the ride of a continuing series, then heck to the yeah on that! But enough about that, let’s get busy with The Bad Guy! In which our naughty little demon talks about life and why he does what he does and nicely enough doesn’t justify it! As after all, he’s merely laying down the cold hard facts! Even if some poor girl is getting the wrong end of the stick while he’s around. The Bad Guy has Branco Jovanovic (such an awesome sounding name!) on the art and Eugene Betivu on the colors. Further helping to bring our little demon pal here into vivid clarity even more in all his evil little glory!

I wonder if Frank has a daughter cause he captures teenage rebellion pretty well in this second story. Then again you don’t have to look far on various forms of media to get a good idea of a rebellious teenage girl. Though if you aren’t a parent to a teenage girl who is rebellious, you probably are headache free! Thankfully there’s no vomit to be found in this story, though I’m sure the girl will want too once she realizes what she just went through and if the demon happened to have left any surprises with her. Branco in my view captured the possessed look of the girl perfectly and I know I certainly wouldn’t want to encounter that being in an alley alone! Eugene’s colors also bring the possessed girl to life really well too and I hope these two guys are around for future stories with this demon who likes to run amuck.

I’m curious however if he did all this to make the girl realize the errors of her ways or if he was just simply doing what he was meant to do regardless of the outcome. And all without a thank you too! Which is just terribly rude! Would he and the Horseman get along though considering that guy is a douche? Or would the Horseman be naturally opposed to the little guy? Certainly would be fun to see be explored in a comic, that’s for sure!

Now to cover the Horseman I keep talking about who is running amuck in Feast or Famine and being a real jerk to one unfortunate individual. If other big folk found out about it, they might just riot against the guy! Whether or not they die in painfully horrible ways is another matter entirely. Feast or Famine also features Tomasz Witas on the art with Sara Machajewski on the colors and both certainly do an excellent job on bringing this story to life! “But why are these stories colored but the other two books aren’t!?” You ask with curiousity laced in your voice. And honestly? I just don’t know! Perhaps the writers of the other two books felt that colors just weren’t needed! After all you don’t always need colors to run wild in a comic book, especially with certain themes. Now as you might have guessed, the Horseman in question thanks to the title is Famine.

And he’s not particularly nice either, which I’ve already alluded to that several times here but I’ll allude to it again. Cause I’m awesome and stuff like that. His little guest can even attest to the fact he’s not nice! While Famine’s brothers are out being useful and doing things that are the exact opposite of what they are meant for, (which is freaking cool to me) ol’ Famine isn’t doing anything like that and instead is giving out lessons related to human nature when it comes to food. Can’t say I’d want to experience one of those lessons but he’s showing himself to be one heck of a hard ass taskmaster! I wonder how his fellow Horsemen would react if they learned of what he was doing? Which that is another thing I hope to see explored in the future.

Lessons are a theme of sorts as I mentioned earlier in this review, and pretty much the lesson that shines here in this story is that you shouldn’t over indulge with food and be grateful for what you do have by being respectful about it. Famine likely could and should have gone about it in a different way cause you just know his little guest is gonna need some serious therapy after all that. Well… If he lets her live anyway since she knows his face and all that. Kudos to Frank for saving this more brutal story for last as it will likely leave you thinking about things after you’ve finished reading it.

All in all, these three books are one way to get yourself perfectly immersed in the world of Insane Comics! And if you go a bit insane yourself? Well you’ll have these guys to thank! Most especially James Munch himself as he’s the head of the whole she-bang! And don’t forget to check out the final pages in this anthology either, as they are pretty freaking great if I might say so! The fact all three of these books are pretty cheap is a huge plus as well, not only that but they also come in both print and digital! What’s not to like about that!? Now… LETS GET INSANE!!

Written by: Rob Wrecks