Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures #9 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The latest issue of Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures continues to follow our young band of heroes as they head to the planet Takodana to assist with the defence against the Nihil, but also delves into the history of Padawan Qort in the process – and features a very familiar face.

Whilst I’ve really been enjoying this series, one of the places where I think the story has been a little lacking sometimes is in character development. This isn’t a slight against writer Daniel Jose Older in any way, he’s done brilliantly with the series and focusing on certain characters. Rather, it’s been the limitations of a comic series, where there’s only so much room per issue, and you only get the book once a month. This means that readers will often have to wait a while to get to know characters that really intrigue them, especially in an ensemble piece like this. Luckily, I’ve not had to wait too long to get to know Qort, one of the more mysterious members of the team.

Despite being there from the beginning we don’t really know much about this young Jedi. We’ve never seen his real face beneath the skull like mask he wears, and he doesn’t speak Basic, meaning that we’re often left wondering what he’s been saying. Whilst this issue doesn’t reveal his words, or his face, it does explain where he comes from through a series of flashbacks scattered throughout the issue.

These flashbacks were a genuine joy, not just because we got to see a baby Qort being a little terror, but because the person who took him in and took care of him is none other than Maz Kanata, the diminutive pirate queen from the sequel trilogy. Considering this story is taking place on the Takodana, and that the Jedi temple they’ve come to defend is located on the same lake as her castle, I was expecting the character to make an appearance at some point; but to use her in this way, to tie her in so directly with one of our core cast of characters was a genius move.

Because of this we not only got to learn more about Qort, including an explanation of where he comes from and why he wears that mask, but we also get to see a bit more of Maz and get to see the kind of decent and caring person she is. Some of this is also shown in Sav too, and how she clearly has a deep caring for Qort. We don’t get much of their connection or past explained in this issue, but you can tell that the two of them go a long way back, and it really helps to flesh out her personality after her brief but amazing first appearance last issue.

The rest of the issue sees the various members of the group preparing the Jedi temple in case the Nihil return, and it moves the plot forward without overshadowing the much more interesting character story that’s going on throughout. Come the end of the issue not only have things been set up nicely for further confrontations to come, but now we also care a bit more about the people who are going to be caught up in it too, which certainly raises the stakes.

As with the previous issue, the art is provided by Toni Bruno and Rebecca Nalty, who do a good job at making Takodana feel big and bright, and a place of beauty. They also make the characters look engaging, especially Sav and Maz, whose aged and wrinkled faces seem to convey their emotions and thoughts wonderfully. The scenes where a baby Qort is causing chaos in Maz’s castle are also a lot of fun, especially how they always frame things in a way where we’ve still not seen Qort’s face.

But that mystery might be getting solved a lot quicker than we think, as the teaser image for the next issue shows Qort standing without his mask, face cast in shadows, as he crushes the mask in his hands. Knowing what we do now about the mask and his species, and with the promise that we’ll get to see what’s underneath, it leads to a very exciting next issue; one that I’m very much looking forward to.

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5 Scary Books For Halloween – Spooktober

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Whilst a lot of people enjoy curling up on the sofa with a spooky movie when the Halloween season rolls around (and this is always good fun) I think that an even scarier thing to do is lying in bed in the dark with a book that chills you, and makes you scared to stick your foot out of the covers just in case something grabs you! Here are five books that I’d definitely recommend reading this Halloween.

The Book of the Baku by R.L. Boyle

The Book of the Baku is the best book I’ve read this year, by a long margin. The story follows Sean, a young teen who has to move in with his grandfather following a tragedy in his past. We’re not let in on the secret about what happened to begin with, and thanks to Sean’s trauma causing him to go mute he’s not telling us.

But his grandfather is trying his best to help, even setting him up an art studio. When Sean finds a book in his grandfather’s library, written by his grandfather, called The Book of the Baku he discovers haunting short stories in its pages; stories that seem to summon a horrific entity to come and haunt Sean.

This book is incredibly interesting, and so well paced. You spend all of your time with Sean, trying to figure him out, learning more about him through flashbacks that help you as you try to figure out what led him to this point.

And mixed into this mystery are the short stories that begin to haunt Sean, dark and disturbing tales that begin to bleed through into the real world. There is so much in this book to draw you in, and the horror is so well crafted that it kind of sneaks up on you. But the thing that sets this book up as one of my all time favourites is the end. I won’t say what it is, but be prepared, because once I finished I was in tears.

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

Bird Box tells the story of an apocalypse that sweeps across the globe, one that causes the lead character, Malorie, to seek refuge inside a house with a group of strangers. We never get a clear answer as to what this apocalypse is, but quickly learn that some kind of entities are walking the earth, and that anyone who looks at them is driven to attack others and kill themselves. Trapped with people she doesn’t know, and with supplies running low, Malorie is forced to venture out into the world blindfolded, searching for a way to survive.

Chances are you’ve probably have heard of Bird Box thanks to the film adaptation produced by Netflix. When it first came out it was received well, though unfairly compared to A Quiet Place, which is ridiculous as the book came out long before. Even if you’ve watched the film you should pick up a copy of the book, as the two differ in a lot of ways. Whilst the film was intriguing the book is scary in ways the film never was.

It’s told from Malorie’s point of view, so when she ventures outside with her blindfold on we don’t know what’s around her, and the tension and paranoia this brings is brilliant; was that a leaf brushing her hair, or was it some kind of creature? Bird Box is a perfect example of a simple concept that is used to chilling effect, in a story that was so hard to put down I read it in a single sitting.

Soon by Lois Murphy

Set in an almost deserted town, Soon tells the story of the last handful of holdouts in a town terrorised at night by strange spirits and haunting visions.

After the winter solstice a strange mist descends on the small town, a mist that seems to move and change, bringing with it ghastly shades that pluck fears from people’s pasts. With the rest of the inhabitants having left, only those who can’t or won’t leave remain, continuing on in homes they love, making sure they’re back inside before nightfall brings the dark forces once again.

Soon is a very haunting book, one that relies on atmosphere more than anything else. The story begins long after the instigating event, when those who are left behind have become somewhat used to the spirits that haunt their nights, having formed careful practices to keep them all safe.

The book lets you get to know the characters as it slowly builds the tension, before bringing the horror crashing to the forefront. Whilst the book may be a bit slowly paced for some it gives you a lot get your teeth sunk into, and some truly creepy and disturbing moments that will linger long after the book is done.

The Troop by Nick Cutter

The Troop follows five teenage boys and their scoutmaster as they head out to a remote island off the coast of their small town, where they plan to spend the weekend camping and spending time in the woods.

Desperate to get the group of mismatched teens into the spirit of surviving outdoors, the scoutmaster has cut off contact with their families, leaving them almost stranded for the planned trip. When a small boat washes up on the island bringing with it a strange, malnourished man, the troop is weary. Little do they know, the strange man is infected with a virulent parasite that makes you ravenous for anything you can eat, that will destroy you as it grows inside you, and is highly infectious.

The other books on this list are more spooky stories, ones that deal with strange forces and hauntings, but The Troop is full on body horror. It’s gross and disturbing in ways that I’d never encountered in a book before, and because of this it’s one of the most affecting horror books I’ve ever read.

We learn quickly that none of the characters are safe, that even being a kid doesn’t shield them from parasites eating them from the inside, or bodily mutilation. The plot is filled with paranoia the characters soon start to fear everyone around them could be infected, and as the story unfolds it’s sure to get under your skin too.

Litany of Dreams: An Arkham Horror Novel by Ari Marmell

Based upon the popular Arkham Horror game, which is itself inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Litany of Dreams is a cosmic horror story that follows a local student as he searches for information about his missing roommate, and an Inuk tribesman as he searches for a relic stolen from his people.

As the two investigations seem to lead to the same place, the two men band together; but little do they suspect they’re about to stumble onto a dark force that’s trying to break through into our reality, a dark force that’s twisting a small town into monstrous servants to its cause.

The Arkham Horror books produced by Aconyte Books are some great horror stories, usually dealing in cults and secret societies that are out to advance themselves through occult means, but Litany of Dreams feels a little different. It’s a story less about humans making bad choices, and more about godly beings trying to gain a foothold inside our world. Even if you’ve had no experience with this game, or even Lovecraft’s fiction in general, you can read this book with no difficulty, and the horror inside its pages is sure to draw you in and disturb.

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Dark Souls – Throwback 10

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

It would have been hard to believe when it appeared on consoles ten years ago, that Dark Souls, a spiritual successor to a little known game, would go on to become one of the biggest names in gaming; a series that would be cited as some of the greatest games of all time, and the birthplace to a number of instantly recognisable memes and phrases.

Dark Souls owes a lot of what it is to Demon’s Souls, a game produced by FromSoftware in 2009 for the Playstation that saw players fighting through a dark fantasy world with giant, ferocious enemies, and unforgiving combat that would often result in player death. Because the game was not initially received well in review, in part because of the difficulty, it was not released outside of Japan. Despite this, it received something of a cult following, and FromSoftwars and director Hidetaka Miyazaki began work on a new game.

Due to the fact that Demon’s Souls was published through Sony, FromSoftware were unable to produce a direct sequel to the game. This meant that they had to create a new world for their game to be set in, and that they would need to make some tweaks to the game play to set it apart. This resulted in the creation of Dark Souls.

Set in a fantasy world once ruled by dragons, the second ‘Age of Fire’ is coming to an end. Having stolen fire from the dragons mankind had ruled the world for thousands of years, but as that fire waned a dark curse has spread across the world, a curse that results in people becoming undead, doomed to resurrect after death over and over until driven to madness. The player character is one of these undead, sent to an asylum for the cursed, before breaking out and making their way to the city of Lordran, where they set out to find a way to save themselves.

Much of the storytelling in Dark Souls is pretty light on the ground, and if you’re not paying attention you can end up missing a lot of the narrative. This is because the game doesn’t really employ traditional storytelling, there are no cut scenes where the character learns the history of the land and is told what to do, and other characters are so few and far between that you can be forgiven for forgetting they exist. Instead, it’s through item descriptions and narrative clues in the environment that players are left to piece things together, being allowed to come to their own conclusions and deductions.

But the story and setting of Dark Souls isn’t the main draw, and it isn’t what has made it a success. The one thing you’ve probably heard even if you’ve never played the game is ‘prepare to die’, and it’s a fitting motto for Dark Souls. There is no way to get through the game without dying, and if anyone ever tries to tell you they’ve finished the game without dying they’re lying. It’s just not possible. Where other games discourage dying, making it a mark of failure, Dark Souls makes it a part of the experience. Dying means that you’re learning, that you’ve come across an enemy you haven’t encountered yet and who you still need to figure out, or that maybe you just got too cocky.

Death is something that you come to expect from the game after a while, and whilst at first you might be cursing and shouting because you’ve just been hacked to pieces or crushed under a huge weapon, soon you’ll be shrugging to yourself and getting straight back into the fight. It is a strange way to play a game for sure, but one that becomes incredibly rewarding as you push yourself to do better, to make it just a little further each time before dying as you begin to master a tough game, but one that is never trying to discourage you from paying.

The success of Dark Souls is in this game play, in the world it created, and the challenge it gave people. Players suddenly found themselves up against something they’d never encountered in gaming before, and it was exhilarating. This formula has been copied by other studios and other games, and whilst there have been some successes FromSoftware, Dark Souls remains the king of this type of game.

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Star Wars Adventures: Ghosts of Vader’s Castle #3 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

As the spooky Star Wars Adventures: Ghosts of Vaders’s Castle continues on into its third issue, Cavan Scott treats readers to a story about frightening swamp monsters on Dagobah.

As with the previous two issues of this run, we start by catching up with some familiar faces who have previously been involved in adventures to Vader’s castle; this time it’s human thief turned Rebel soldier Thom Hudd, and the insect like Peasle Skritt, who’ve found themselves on a former Imperial facility on Kraken, where they’re trying to get the place up and running to be used by the Republic.

It’s whilst working away on the repairs, dodging the occasional swooping Mynock, that Hudd tells his friend that he’s been having bad dreams; dreams that feel strangely real. He begins to recount how his dreams see him journeying with Luke Skywalker as he searches for missing Jedi artefacts; a journey that takes them to the swamp planet Dagobah, former home to Jedi Master Yoda.

After trudging through the swamp, an experience that puts Hudd on edge and reminds him of some of the trauma in his past, the two of them come across the ruins of Yoda’s hut, now smashed beyond repair. Finding a small holocam within the ruins they play back the recording to see a group of developers had recently come to the planet, hoping to make it more habitable. The recording is cut short when some kind of creatures suddenly attacks them. Before they’re able to investigate further Hudd and Luke are attacked by the same entity, a large fish-like monster. Separated from Luke, Hudd has to trek through the swamp alone.

Horror is always a popular genre, but one of the parts of the genre I feel we don’t see often enough of is the swamp monsters. There’s The Creature From The Black Lagoon, but nothing really since then; and that was the 1950s. A monster rising up out of the dirty, murky water that surrounds you in a swamp is a popular image, and the fear of never knowing what’s around you is one that makes for great horror. Yet it’s rarely visited, and when it is it tends to be for things other than swamp monsters, such as the film Anaconda, which featured a giant snake. So getting a big fishman tearing out of the water, charging at our heroes feels unique and rarely seen when it happens here. Cavan Scott seems determined to revisit some of the best horror tropes of the 195s, and this is one I wasn’t aware I was missing so much.

The horror factor for this issue is probably the best of the series so far, and the entirety of Dagobah feels off-putting and wrong, even before the monster shows up. Some of this is down to the horrific visions that Hudd has, seeing the twisted face of Vanee in the trees, or seeing the skeletal bodies of his friends in the water beneath him. But a large part of why the place feels so wrong is down to the art by Robert Hack, who handles the nightmare sequence this issue.

Hack’s art has an almost watercolour feel at times, with the backgrounds of his panels feeling like they’re in constant motion within water, even if they’re just a solid colour. It feels like the twisting, changing waters of the swamp have permeated every part of the book, even the art. The plants and the people sometimes take on odd, elongated angles as the panels of Hudd’s perception begins to warp. This art style is also helped by the thick, heavy line work that Hack uses, which gives certain parts a more angular and harsher aesthetic, which helps to balance out the look of the colours.

The rest of the issue, as with previous issues, is supplied by Francesco Francavilla. I don’t know what to say here that I haven’t said about his work in the other reviews for this series, other than his artwork is wonderful for establishing the dark and scary tone of the book, and that it helps the horror of the nightmares pervade into the waking world.

With it looking like the crew might all finally be together for the planned rescue of Milo Graf I’m looking forward to seeing what the series does next. Will it continue to feature the nightmare sequences, or will it focus more on the real world? Will there be very real horrors waiting for our heroes on Mustafar? And, what awful things does Vanee have planned?

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Star Wars Adventures: Tales of Villainy #10 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The latest issue of Star Wars Adventures: Tales of Villainy not only concludes its Clone Wars story by bringing two powerful Force users into combat with each other, but brings a few characters from Star Wars Legends into Disney canon for the first time.

The first story in this issue, ‘Separation Anxiety, part two’ by Michael Moreci picks up where it left off last issue, with Jedi Master Mace Windu and his squad of Clone Troopers coming into conflict with Separatist forces, as well as strange ghost-like creatures on a planet during an eclipse.

Where the first part of this story was something of a mystery, setting up the oddly deserted world, and introducing these strange ghost-like creatures that seemed to defy explanation, this part is focused squarely on action, as the opposing sides in the war find themselves clashing for control. The last issue left off with Count Dooku rising up out of a huge pit, riding on top of a Battle Droid transport as his forces, and the ghost creatures, come after him.

We get a brief explanation as to what these creatures are before he and Windu clash sabers, whilst Ponds and the rest of the Clones are left facing the rest of the enemies on two sides as the droids and the creatures close in on them. The battle is fairly brief, with the two force users seeming quite equally matched, whilst the Clones make short work of the Droids, but find themselves unable to deal with the creatures. However, due to the creatures seeming to be tied to the eclipse, and the eclipse coming to an end, the battle kind of peters out, and Dooku leaves the planet. This feels a bit anticlimactic, and if it wasn’t for Windu having to then deal with the ghost creatures it would feel like the good guys did very little here. The first part of the story had a lot of promise, but this part doesn’t seem to do much with it, which is quite a shame.

Michael Avon Oeming and Chris O’Halloran return for the art on this second part, and for the most part it’s okay, but there are times where Mace Windu and Dooku feel really odd looking. The alien creatures and the men wearing helmets all look alright, but occasionally the faces of characters we know seem to become quite distorted, with strange proportions and features that seem almost inhuman at times. Whilst it isn’t bad, there were times I found myself being taken out of the story because of it.

The second story of the issue is ‘Grave Digger’, a single part story written by Dave Scheidt. This is a story that some Star Wars fans might find interesting, as it centres on Zak and Tash Arranda, as well as their tutor and adopted father Mammon Hoole, as well as their droid DV-9. These are characters that haven’t appeared in canon since Disney acquired Star Wars, and as such were relegated to ‘Legends’ status; but now they’re back. The stars of the ‘Galaxy of Fear’ novels are now part of the new canon, and that’s pretty damn cool.

The story focuses on the two children as they spend time on an unnamed planet, studying the strange energy spiders that live in this system. Bored with their studies, the children decide to sneak out at night to go and explore, and to investigate the strange feeling one of them had during the day. This feeling, an obvious nod to their Force sensitivity from the books, leads them to an amulet decorated with a spider motif. Unfortunately for them, a rather scary looking group of robed cultists are also after the amulet, leading to the two groups coming into conflict.

This is a pretty fun story, one that feels very true to the spirit of these characters and their adventures in the old canon. It’s a very short story, one that seems to be more establishing the fact that they all exist in the current canon, and that they’re very much still the characters we know. Which is actually absolutely fine. I really didn’t feel like I needed more from this. It was a fun story that genuinely added something to the universe.

The artwork, provided by Stefano Simone, is absolutely gorgeous, and stands out in stark contrast to the gloomy looking art of the previous story. Simone uses bright but muted colours for the daytime parts of the story, and a darker, more oppressive palette for the night time parts. But where it really stands out is the character design. The characters have a sense of elegance to them, but also a stylised look that makes it feel different to other comics in this series. It really reminded me of independent European comics, and it was great to see in this book.

Whilst the first story in this issue felt like a slightly fumbled conclusion over last month’s, the second story was an absolute highlight of the series so far. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that we’ll be seeing more of the Arrandas again in the future.

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Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw - Book Review

 

'A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company. It’s the perfect wedding venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends.

'But a night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare. For lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart. And she gets lonely down there in the dirt.'

Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a spooky new novella from Titan books and author Cassandra Khaw steeped in Japanese mythology that makes its arrival just in time for Halloween.

The story follows five young friends as they travel to a remote mansion ruin deep in rural Japan so that two of the group can be married, one of them having always wanted to get married in a haunted house. There's a few problems though, first of all, none of them really like each other all that much; and you quickly begin to see the cracks in this fragile friendship, a friendship that probably should have ended long before this point. The other, bigger issue, is that the story around the mansion, of the ghostly bride buried alive beneath the foundations who haunts its halls is more than just a story; and now the five of them are going to have to fight to survive the night.

As someone who loves Japanese fiction and mythology I was hugely excited for this story. There's something about Japanese ghost stories that hit so much harder than those we get here in the UK that makes them so much scarier. The imagery is more frightening, there are rules around things like ghosts and yokai, and usually it's people who deserve something awful that happen to be the ones getting haunted to death.

And whilst this book has a lot of this, and there are moments of great tension built up in the descriptions of the environments and the things lurking just out the corner of your eye there's one area I unfortunately felt the book didn't give me enough. The characters. We get titbits about the five people that make up our cast, and very quickly learn the broad strokes of their relationships and how they feel about each other; but as things progress it's clear that these first impressions aren't telling us everything, and that most of these characters are really bad for each other.

We get a few hints as to what's going on, such as one of them having not liked another when she started dating her friend, and thought the relationship should have ended; or how another of the friends had secretly slept with the bride in the past. But for the most part the details aren't really there. Whilst this doesn't really affect the story in any great way, and it's more of what's happening in the mansion whilst they're there that's the most important I really wanted to understand these people more, to see what their issues were and to understand their relationships better. 

I think some of this is down to the fact that this is a novella, and as such there's pretty limited space given over to these in-depth character dives and explanations, and that if the book was longer I'm sure we'd have gotten a lot more of that. What we do get is very intriguing though, and it's clear that Cassandra Khaw can write complex and flawed characters, even if they're going to be characters we only know for a brief while.

Where Khaw really excells, however, is in the atmosphere. A lot of attention is given over to the setting of the book, and very soon the reader gets a good sense of what the old mansion is like. You feel like you're in the hallways yourself, peeking in at these lonely, haunted rooms. There's a sense of pervading darkness and gloom that flows throughout the book, and there were times the descriptions were so vivid and so detailed I felt like I could reach out and touch the crumbling walls and smell the dampness.

The same level of attention to detail is given over to the main star of the book too, the ghost. It's clear Khaw hasn't just replicated the 'standard' Japanese ghost image that most of you would probably think of if asked to imagine one, but has drawn on other sources too; such as the monstrous yokai. The ghost is a figure that's gone beyond what you would expect of a human, taking on a more demonic and twisted form, one that sends chills down your spine and really sticks with you.

Whilst this is a short read, and we don't get a lot of time to know the characters there is a lot to like about this book. The story is chilling in a way that I absolutely loved, and I wanted it to keep on going because I was enjoying it so much. Thanks to this book I'm definitely going to be checking out more of Cassandra Khaw's work.

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Star Wars Adventures: Ghosts of Vader’s Castle #2 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The second issue of Star Wars Adventures: Ghosts of Vader’s Castle continues to recreate some of the best tropes of horror fiction, tackling giant monsters in a very fun, slightly silly way.

The stories continue on with the mystery that’s been building, with Darth Vader’s attendant Vaneé continuing to collect sacrifices for his ritual. It now seems like his gaze may have shifted from Milo Graf to his sister Lina, who has been having nightmares of her brother trapped inside Vader’s castle, calling for help. Knowing that she can’t get to Mustafar on her own, Lina asks Mon Mothma to help, but Mothma refuses to give her a ship. This results in Leia advising Lina where she can find a competent smuggler and pilot who can get her where she needs to go.

Anyone expecting this to be Han Solo obviously didn’t pay enough attention to the cover, as Lina finds herself going to Jaxxon T. Tumperakki, everyone’s favourite rabbit man. It’s here that we discover that Jaxxon, like the Graf siblings, has been having nightmares, and he recounts his tale. Now, this is where the issue gets pretty ridiculous, as Jaxxon describes a dream where Chewbacca is transformed into a giant monster and starts to trash the planet. It’s silly, it’s over the top, and probably one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen in Star Wars, but I honestly loved it.

Where last issue we had a zombie story, this one we get a love letter to the classic kaiju movies, and it’s so wonderfully weird. Chewie becomes this giant creature and causes havoc, destroying settlements and terrorising the regular sized folk, so just like with kaiju movies they need to send another giant monster to fight him – by making Jaxxon into a giant monster too. It might make zero sense, but it doesn’t have to. This is just a nightmare that Jaxxon had, and it’s a ton of fun to read so there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this.

Much like the first issue there are two different artists working on this book. Francesco Francavilla once again provides the art for the ‘real’ parts of the book, those that are actually taking place outside of the dreams. Just like the first issue, his art has a frantic, messy style to it that suits the tone of the story. But I was also pleased to see just how well he’s able to capture the likenesses of certain characters too. For example, I instantly knew Leia was in a scene even before anyone called her by name because he captured her face wonderfully, without having to change his style in any way.

The dream sequence parts of the book feature a different artist than last issue, with Derek Charm providing the line work and colours. The difference in art styles is less jarring here than in the first issue, and they’re similar in a lot of ways. But whilst the art in the first issue’s nightmare was supposed to capture the creepy feel of a zombie film and was quite simple and realistic, this art goes a little bit more cartoonish. This works brilliantly with it being a nod to giant monster films, which were always a bit goofy, a bit childish, and often bright and in your face.

With more hints at a bigger plot forming, more characters coming into the story, and some brilliantly fun moments this is a great issue, and one that is continuing the energy and excitement of the first issue. With a small preview of the next issue at the back seeming to hint that we could be getting swamp monsters next, this is quickly turning into one of the best Star Wars comics around.

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Seahorse: The Dad Who Gave Birth – Documentary Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Whenever the subject of pregnancy comes up there’s a chance that comments will be made about what things would be like ‘if men could get pregnant’. People joke that men couldn’t handle the pain, that the changes would horrify them, or that if men had to go through it it’d be a lot easier as they’d go out of their way to make it a better process because it’s no longer something that only women can go through. The thing is, men can get pregnant. Men can give birth. And Seahorse: The Dad Who Gave Birth gives viewers an insight into this reality as it follows journalist Freddy McConnell as he gives birth to his son.

Freddy is a trans man, and as such has the capacity to become pregnant if he wants to. With him entering his thirties, and after a long contemplation, he comes to the conclusion that he wants to start a family of his own, and the best way of doing that is to give birth himself. No pregnancy is an easy process, but this is even more difficult for Freddy, who has to begin by stopping his hormone replacement therapy. Stopping this process allows Freddy’s periods to start again, meaning that he can become pregnant; but it also comes with some negative side effects. We see quite quickly how the change in his body chemistry changes his outlook on things, how he instantly feels less himself, more feminine, and how this brings self doubt, and depression along with it.

Whilst this film is focusing on Freddy’s pregnancy, this moment offers a great insight into how some aspects of gender dysphoria work; how something as simple as the wrong hormone coursing through your body can affect you. For the most part Freddy doesn’t seem to change that much, you still look at him and see a man, yet he feels that’s not true. He feels like his body is reverting, he feels like he’s not getting to be himself anymore, and you can see how much this hurts him, even if it is something he has to go through to reach his end goal.

This isn’t the only hurdle that Freddy has to navigate though; simply being a pregnant man brings with it so much more hardship thn you’d first think. Freddy has to go through all of the pain and discomfort that anyone who’s pregnant has to deal with, but there’s a sense of isolation and loneliness around him because he’s not a woman going through this, and that sets him apart from others. There’s a moment in the film where his family gather together friends and relatives to tell them of his pregnancy, and the people there are trying to be supportive, yet they keep talking about ‘pregnant women’ and ‘women who have babies’.

There is a moment in this scene where everyone around Freddy is chatting and laughing with each other but he’s there in the middle of it, silent, looking withdrawn. It seems that these people, who do support and love him, talking about women’s maternity clothes and if he’d be called dad rather than mum, seems to isolate him further; that it reminds him his pregnancy is something that is making him isolated from the vast majority of other pregnant people.

This sense of having to do it alone is further compounded when Freddy’s partner CJ decides that they no longer want to co-parent with him, and backs out of the process. There’s also a point where Freddy reveals to his father via email that he’s pregnant, and going to be a dad, because he’s too afraid to do it in person due to how he expects his father to react. Considering that shortly after this we see Freddy in tears over the response from his father you can’t help but understand why he never had that discussion with him in person. But it’s not all loneliness for Freddy, as every step of the way his mother is with him.

Freddy’s mum in one of the best things about this documentary. She supports her son completely, she’s there to hold his hand as he goes for his first scan, she’s helping him prepare his home for his son, and she’s beside him as he gives birth. There’s an interview with her in the film where she describes Freddy and what he’s going through as being one of the the most amazing things in the world, and how in awe of him she is. This is a parent who loves her child completely, who is there for him every step of the way; the kind of parent every trans person deserves to have in their life. Put simply, she’s wonderful.

Putting together a film like this isn't easy for several reasons. The story of Freddy and his journey takes place over a long period as he works his way towards getting pregnant; and then has to give birth to his son. It could also be easy to fall into tropes around trans documentaries that whilst probably don't come from a bad place, kind of lead to a film that feels exploitative; like the subject is there simply to be something of a sideshow attraction. Luckily, director Jeanie Finlay is not only an incredibly accomplished filmmaker, but clearly a decent human being. She manages to craft this story not only into one that is easy to follow and where you don't feel for a second that Freddy is being exploited, but one that pushes the reality of trans pregnancy and the challenges that come with it into your face, forcing audience members to have to confront their own preconceptions and misinformation. In the hands of a lesser director this wouldn't have been done half as well as it is here.

I know that – with how much hatred there is for trans people in the world right now; with how constant the attacks against us are; and how people are actively fighting to take our rights and protections away from us – there will be people who look at this film and scoff. They’ll say that it’s ridiculous, that men can’t get pregnant, that Freddy isn’t a man, or that trans people shouldn’t be allowed to have children. But they’re wrong. They’re completely and utterly wrong, and I don’t believe that anyone could for a second watch this movie and say that Freddy isn’t a real father, that what he did wasn’t amazing, and that all people like him not only deserve support but should receive the utmost respect for what they do.

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Plainer Jane #3 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Plainer Jane continues to follow the dual life of Jane, a young woman trying to find her way in the world as she splits her time between her studies as a student nurse, whilst also living her dream of being a killer for hire.

A lot of this issue focuses on Jane and her ‘regular’ life, and we spend a good amount of time with her and her best friend, Kat, as they perform their duties in Manchester Hospital. In the previous issues there was definitely a sense that contract killing was really the only thing that Jane wanted to do, and that any career she’d choose as her day job would really only be to pretend that she was living a normal life, as well as paying the bills between killing gigs. And this definitely seems to be the case here.

Kat is passionate about the work, she’s trying her best to learn what she can, to do what’s asked of her, and to be kind to the patients around her. Jane, on the other hand, really doesn’t seem to want to be there. She’s annoyed that her job is basically collecting urine samples, cleaning up bodily fluids, and generally being something of a dogsbody. These aren’t glamorous parts of the job, and no one would really enjoy them, but it really seems more to be that this just isn’t the right place for Jane. The way she talks to the husband of one patient really exemplifies this, as she basically tells him his wife isn’t going to recover and he should just let her die. Not exactly great bedside manner.

We also get an insight into what Jane has been doing in her other job during this section of the book, as people discuss the recent increase in gang related killings around the city. This leads us nicely into a small scene where a couple of criminals meet up to discuss the situation, with one clearly higher up in the chain making some very clear threats to his underling to get things sorted. A hooded figure is watching over this from the other side of the bar, and messages Jane information about it.

It would seem that Jane has been getting some repeat custom from this man, being hired multiple times to kill various members of this criminal enterprise. It’s not clear in this issue who this might be, or why they’re doing this, but it’s something that I’m looking forward to finding out, and it adds a layer of mystery to the series. Is this someone from a rival gang wanting to kill off competition? Someone in that gang wanting to kill off people so they can move up the chain? Someone who wants to see the criminals gone because they oppose crime? Or is it a rogue cop doing whatever they can to get rid of crime in the city? There are a ton of possibilities, and it feels like this is going to be a central narrative going forward, which was something the series felt like it was missing in the first two issues.

The art for the issue continues the trend as in issues one and two, with very clean black and white illustrations with minimal background details or shading in order to make the characters and what they’re doing stand out more on the page, with the only colour being used being splashes of red here and there. There are a couple of exceptions to this, however. At the beginning of the issue the art style – by Donna A Black – is completely different, taking on a full colour, painted style that’s a vast contrast to the rest of the work.

There’s also a small section at the end of the issue, a kind of back-up feature called ‘How Jane Met Kat’, that’s drawn and coloured by guest artist Guiseppe Sabe Di Stefano. This part of the book is also in full colour, but unlike the colour section provided by Black, feels a lot more comicbook-like in the sense that it still looks hand drawn, though with a style and look that makes it clearly very different to the rest of the issue.

This feels like it’s the most developed issue of the series so far, with some insights into Jane and Kat, as well as it feeling like a major narrative thread that’s going to last a while has begun to make an appearance. I’ll be interested to see where things go next for our young contract killer.

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Star Wars Adventures: Ghosts of Vader’s Castle #1 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The release of this new series of Star Wars Adventures: Ghosts of Vader’s Castle feels very fitting as we begin to make our way towards the Halloween season, as this latest story in the Star Wars universe sets aside the science fantasy to embrace the horror of a galaxy far, far away.

Set after the fall of the Empire and the death of Darth Vader, readers once again return to Vader’s fortress castle on the fiery planet of Mustafar, as the spirit of Vader, or what’s at least claiming to be the spirit of Vader, instructs his attendant Vaneé to perform a ritual to gain revenge on those who have wronged him. Now, you’d probably expect the target of Vader’s revenge to be someone like Luke Sywalker, but no, instead we find ourselves checking in on Milo Graf on Orchis 2.

Having not yet read the previous Vader’s Castle titles I was unaware that the Graf family made appearances in those books, but as someone who read the Adventures in Wild Space series it was great to see Milo, Lina, and CR-8R showing up here.

It’s whilst searching through the remains of the Graf Library that Milo recounts a strange dream he had to CR-8R, a dream where he was the Jedi bodyguard to a Republic senator. Thus begins the main bulk of the issue, a dream sequence/possible flashback to the Clone Wars, as Anakin, Padme, R2-D2, C-3PO, and Jar-Jar Binks investigate the planet Rubinero after all contact with it was lost.

This is where the spooky elements of the book jump up a few notches. We’d already had some great, creepy stuff so far, but it’s during this sequence that we see our heroes having to fight through what is essentially the Star Wars version of a zombie outbreak. As you can guess from the cover and the title of the comic, it involves some kind of infection spreading through droids, turning them on people. If that isn’t bad enough, it doesn’t seem to be isolated to just mechanical beings, putting even more horror into things as the infection tries to take over living people too.

This is a great section of the comic, and seeing Anakin having to cut down C-3P0 with his lightsaber because he’s trying to kill him is a shocking and brutal moment, though not as shocking as the droid coming back together in a mass of tentacle-like wires as he gets back up to try and kill his creator yet again. There are some genuinely scary moments here, and some shocks that feel well earned, as characters we know and love are left fighting for their lives in one of the most horrific moments in any Star Wars media I’ve ever seen. And the issue ends on two shocking moments that made me genuinely angry I didn’t have the next issue because I needed to know what happened next.

Cavan Scott has crafted an incredibly good horror yarn here, teasing a sense of unease across the first few pager, before shifting things radically as we enter the dream/flashback that builds its own tension in a very different way before suddenly turning full horror. This isn’t the first time that Star Wars has done horror, ‘Legacy of Terror’ from the second season of The Clone Wars and the Death Troopers book are two great examples of this, but this might be one of the best done.

The artwork really works well for the spooky feel of the story too. Francesco Francavilla provides the art on the sections of the book that are set in the present time, taking place on Mustafar and Orchis 2. His art style is somewhat messy, with thick, bold lines that look like they’ve been drawn with a bit of speed. For example, the straight lines haven’t been drawn to look perfectly straight, and you can see wobble as if they’ve been drawn freehand. This, along with the darker colour pallete, and the sickly colours used give it a very primal look, almost like a nightmare where the details might be missing, but the atmosphere is one designed to make you feel ill at ease.

In contrast to this, Megan Levens and Charlie Kirchoff provide the art of the dream/flashback section, and it has a completely different style to the rest of the book. The line work is a lot neater, with thinner, more precise lines, and the colours make it all feel very muted and adds to the idea that this was Milo’s dream. It makes it stand out from the rest of the book, and works to show that thematic difference, as well as having some brilliantly detailed horror moments too.

Star Wars Adventures: Ghosts of Vader’s Castle is a great start to the new series, one that sets a great tone, has a ton of atmosphere and a story that I’m desperate to find out what happens next in. If you’re one of those people who discounts the Star Wars Adventures series as ‘just being for kids’ you’re doing yourself a massive disservice by not grabbing a copy of this.

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