Comics

5 Skull Advance Review: “Rat Queens” #6

Published

10 years ago

May 6, 2014

Review by – Bree Ogden

“Rat Queens” is getting gritty as fuck and I love it. The signature blend between Wiebe’s graphic yet cunning dialogue and Upchurch’s curvy, vivacious, detailed, and loveable images will suck you into a world you never thought you could love so damn much. “Rat Queens” is EVERY SINGLE goddamn thing a comic should be. It’s risky, it’s funny as hell, it’s heartwarming—when it needs to be, which isn’t often, so don’t worry—it’s entertaining, empowering, focused, and distinguished. But perhaps the most impressive aspect of “Rat Queens” is that it’s becoming increasingly terrifying at a slow, natural pace that doesn’t slam your face into a wall of horror, but rather puts you in some hot water and slowly turns up the heat until you realize you’re boiling and there is nothing you can do about it.

WRITTEN BY: Kurtis J. Wiebe

ART BY: Roc Upchurch

PUBLISHER: Image Comics / Shadowline Comics

PRICE: $3.50

RELEASE: May 7, 2014

We last saw our girls throwing a party filled with sex, drugs, and booze—working off the tension of almost losing Violet. But something was amiss at the party, something wasn’t right in Dee’s world. And it’s issue six that explores this concern as well as the ramifications of their debauched night. But hardly… and I’ll explain why…

This issue does not belong to The Queens. It belongs to Sawyer. This issue is a deadly love letter to Sawyer’s past. A past he’s clearly not proud of, and a past that (shit!) might make us a bit wary of him. Sawyer’s gotten himself into some deep shit and some deep shit has gotten into him. I’ll just leave it at this: if you know me at all, you know how much I love a good Kraken tentacle. After this, I am straight terrified of them, son.

Wiebe knows how to unfold a mystery as if he is opening a beautifully wrapped Christmas gift with his mother shouting in the background, “Don’t rip the paper! I want to keep it for next year!” We are given bits and pieces of what we know will be Pixies-sized GIGANTIC story lines, but it’s not frustrating. It’s encouraging. It makes you want to go back and reread, and reread, and reread until you have memorized every line, every snarky remark, every curvy thigh and upturned nose. Because you know that’s the only thing you can do until the next month when you get your next fix. And that’s how an Eisner Award nominated comic is done, folks.

I would never use this term if I didn’t absolutely mean every word of it with the sincerity of one thousand suns, but there’s this Selma Diamond quote from Night Court in which she says, “I laughed, I cried, it became a part of me.” The only thing I might add to that is that I gasped in horror twice. Twice. GASPED. There is a scene that will haunt your dreams for weeks. Because Upchurch knows how to draw the hell out of a horror panel.

There is so much love in this issue and there is so much hate. (And a lot of Gary bashing. Poor Gary.) More than any issue, #6 truly shows us that the girls are a family. You know that shit saying, “blood is thicker than water”? Well, “Rat Queens” shows us that water is thicker than steel alloy, and these girls are bound by it. They would cease to exist without even just one of them, which means the stakes are high and Wiebe knows it.

Zac Thompson

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Comics

‘Witchblade’ is Getting Resurrected This Summer in New Comic Series from Top Cow and Image Comics

Published

6 days ago

April 18, 2024

Meagan Navarro

Witchblade, the popular comic series that initially ran from 1995 to 2015 and launched a TV series, is getting resurrected in a new comic series from Top Cow and Image Comics. It’s set to unleash heavy metal, black magic and blood this summer.

Look for the new Witchblade series to launch on July 17, 2024.

In Witchblade #1, “New York City Police Detective Sara Pezzini’s life was forever fractured by her father’s murder. Cold, cunning, and hellbent on revenge, Sara now stalks a vicious criminal cabal beneath the city, where an ancient power collides and transforms her into something wild, magnificent, and beyond her darkest imaginings. How will Sara use this ancient power, or will she be consumed by it?”

The series is penned by NYT Best-Selling writer Marguerite Bennett (Animosity, Batwoman, DC Bombshells) and visualized by artist Giuseppe Cafaro (Suicide Squad, Power Rangers, Red Sonja). The creative duo is working with original co-creator Marc Silvestri, who is the CEO of Top Cow Productions Inc. and one of the founders of Image Comics. They are set to reintroduce the series to Witchblade’s enduring fans with “a reimagined origin with contemporary takes on familiar characters and new story arcs that will hook new readers and rekindle the energy and excitement that fueled the 90’s Image Revolution that shaped generations of top creators.”

Bennett said in a statement, “The ability to tell a ferocious story full of monsters, sexuality, vision, and history was irresistible.” She adds, “Our saga is sleek, vicious, ferocious, and has a lot to say about power in the 21st century and will be the first time that we are stopping the roller coaster to let more people on. I’ve loved Witchblade since I was a child, and there is truly no other heroine like Sara with such an iconic legacy and such a rich, brutal relationship to her own body.”

“The Witchblade universe is being modernized to reflect how Marguerite beautifully explores the extreme sides of Sara through memories, her personal thoughts, like desire and hunger, in her solitude and when she is possessed by the Witchblade. So, I had to visually intersect a noir True Detective-like world with a supernatural, horror world that is a fantastic mix between Berserk and Zodiac,” Cafaro stated.

Marc Silvestri notes, “This is brand new mythology around Sara, and I can’t wait for you to fall in love with her and all the twists and turns. Discover Witchblade reimagined this summer, and join us as we bring all the fun of the 90s to the modern age and see how exciting comics can be. I can’t wait for you to read this new series.”

Witchblade#1 will be available at comic book shops on Wednesday, July 17th, for $4.99 for 48 pages. And it’ll come with multiple cover variants.