FAIREST #14: Here’s a book that, to the best of my memory, has never made it into Cool Shit. Mostly, that’s because it’s an all right book. It’s just a hair under good. This time, though, Bill Willingham comes at us with a romantic story about . . . eating shit. Well, it’s not about eating shit, exactly, but fecal feeding plays an important role in this tale. What would you do if you won a date with one of the hottest women you’ve ever seen, and at dinner, she reveals that she only cares to eat manure? How far would you go with her? Would you kiss her? This is personally my favorite issue of this book ever, and it’s a shame it’s not a continuing story.
TIME WARP: [At this point, I’d like to remind you that Cool Shit regularly features spoilers. It’s been a while since I featured a spoiler, so if you don’t care to read such things, skip to the next book.] Vertigo has graced us with yet another anthology, and this one is pretty kick-ass. More than half of the stories are amazing, and that’s a great track record for an anthology. It starts out with Damon Lindelof—yes, THAT Damon Lindelof—writing a Rip Hunter story. Yeah, no shit. Rip fucking Hunter. I’ve never been a fan of that old book, but Lindelof does an incredible job with a story of many Rips and a T-Rex. It’s over-the-top awesome. And it’s followed up with maybe the second greatest go-back-in-time-to-kill-Hitler stories I’ve ever read. (The first greatest is I KILLED ADOLF HITLER by Jason.) Simon Spurrier also contributes with an amazing story of scatological science. The only thing is, I think they fucked up with their Dead Boy Detectives story, of which they feature part two in this issue. The problem is, part one was so long ago, it’s hard to remember what exactly happened in that book. To make matters worse, it’s to be continued again in the forthcoming THE WITCHING HOUR anthology, and who knows when that will be available? We’ll see how that works out.
LOCKE & KEY: OMEGA #4: Holy shit. The gloves are off. Joe Hill isn’t fucking around with these final issues of L&K. A lot of shit happens here. Caravaggio reveals his true self, the high school revelers in the cave meet with chaos, and Tyler finds himself in the worst predicament of them all. Interestingly enough, Duncan reveals that he kinda-sorta remembers his childhood with the keys. And then there’s . . . well, never mind. Just pick up the book. And check out the giant splash-page near the middle of the book. It’s one of the most beautiful images put to paper. Gabriel Rodriguez is an absolute animal. 3 ISSUES TO GO BEFORE THE END.
And that’s it for blogging for me for a while. I’ve got to focus on short story writing for a bit. I’ll probably get back to it with some C2E2 coverage, even though the fuckers didn’t give me a press badge this year. In the meantime, don’t forget I have a novel, STRIP, out, and announced today, StrangeHouse Books has released my second book, TALES OF QUESTIONABLE TASTE, on Kindle. Be sure to check them out and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading!