Comics
[Comic Review] “Imperium” #5 Messes With Your Mind
Reviewed by Brady Steele. The war has begun and one side didn’t even know it. Imperium #5 kicks off the promised Resource War from the end of last month in fine mess-with-your-mind fashion. Toya Harada’s team of monsters is all but assembled to begin pushing the world towards the future their leader envisions. Let the impending Utopia begin now.
WRITTEN BY: Joshua Dysart
ART BY: Scot Eaton
PUBLISHER: Valiant Entertainment
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: 3 June 2015
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Professor X, The Vision, an Alien/Predator hybrid, Marv from Sin City and an other-dimensionally possessed amoral scientist walk into a bar…yeah, me neither. Writer Joshua Dysart has genuinely made something remarkable here inImperium. He has put together a book in the tradition of Suicide Squad where virtually none of the main players want to be there. In fact, most of them want to kill their leader, Harada. This precarious combination makes for a great place for unpredictable storytelling.
One of the many clever things writer Dysart accomplishes this month is set up a heist in the middle of geo-political power struggle. At first, it appears paranoia has set into Harada’s opponent, Director Kozol’s mindset. He’s constantly checking security on his submersible fortress: both physical defenses and psionic ones too.
Kozol is CEO of Rising Spirit, the superhuman making company that also now has a cold fusion reactor. He knows this makes him prime target #1 for Harada and his minions. The best part is… he’s not wrong but literally no one can see them coming. Just like the readers themselves, no one really knows what’s happening until midway through this issue! It’s genuine brilliance to behold.
The second half, like all good caper films, shows off just how they pulled it off. The only thing that takes away from the story is the art by Scot Eaton. There’s nothing wrong with his work. He’s a very capable artist in the traditional sense and approach to comic book storytelling. However, it lacks the menace; the grit and the eeriness that helped establish how atypical this book is. Hopefully it steps up next month. This story is so refreshingly original I look forward to seeing what happens next. You should too so keep reading.
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Mr. Steele enjoys all things comics and imagination-based. Using his lifetime of comic-fu-dom for good, he imparts his knowledge for the universe to enjoy and for you, dear readers, to pass it on.
Twitter: @mrbradysteele
Comics
‘Curse of the Where Wolf’ Bites Into August Release With Trio of Werewolf Theatrical Screenings [Exclusive Preview]
Larry Chaney‘s hairy misadventures are continuing in the sequel graphic novel Curse of the Where Wolf from creative team Rob Saucedo, Debora Lancianese, and Jack Morelli, and its author is celebrating with a trio of horror’s greatest werewolf films.
The Curse of the Where Wolf hits shelves on August 7 from Encyclopocalypse Publications.
That coincides with the launch of a theatrical screening event in Houston, Texas, featuring a trio of seminal werewolf flicks turning 45 this year: The Howling on August 7, Wolfen on August 14, and An American Werewolf in London on August 21.
Each screening features a “werewolf in film” presentation as well as a book signing from Where Wolf author and River Oaks Theatre artistic director Rob Saucedo.
In the new graphic novel, “Being a werewolf sucks. Reporter Larry Chaney wanted to be a hero. Instead, he became a werewolf. Now, caught between incredible new powers and a desire to eat everything (and everyone) in sight, Larry must find a cure for his curse. Or die trying.”
“With Where Wolf, I wanted to tell a whodunit set in a furry convention, so the story was pretty contained within a very specific setting and genre. With Curse of the Where Wolf, I wanted to celebrate everything I love about the possibility of comic books. Curse of the Where Wolf is a funny book, in every sense of the phrase, but it’s also an earnest look at a person’s struggle to become a better version of themselves, especially when the alternative is to become a literal monster,” Saucedo says of Curse.
The original graphic novel was previously serialized as the first webcomic hosted on Fangoria before being collected by Encyclopocalypse Publications in 2023 and has already been optioned for film, podcast, and television development ahead of launch by producers James Fino (“The Freak Brothers” for Tubi, “Rick and Morty” for Adult Swim) and Charles Horak (First Date for Magnolia Pictures).
Expect Larry to find himself in even weirder situations in the 362-page full color sequel; Saucedo has provided Bloody Disgusting with exclusive art pages from the upcoming graphic novel that showcase lupine humor.
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