Thursday Morning Superhero - Happy Bad Idea Day

I am a day late here at Nerds of a Feather, but I would be doing you all a disservice if I didn't take the time to wish you all a Happy Belated Bad Idea Day.  I have mentioned Bad Idea here in previous posts, but after over a year of promotion, an unrelenting button, a surprise ash can, and a whole lot of bad ideas, the first comic hit select comic book stores yesterday.

To get fans even more excited, it was announced that they were including not-first print editions for when stores sold out of the first print that actually had bonus materials.  Each store was given a special button to give to the fan who picked up the first Bad Idea book at their store and some fans even camped out over night.  

Unfortunately none of the stores here in Austin are part of the Bad Idea program so I had to order my first copy of Eniac #1 from Matt Kindt online.  Bad Idea is limiting sales to one book per person and have stated that there will be no digital copies of their books.  I will post my thoughts on Eniac once my copy is delivered, but the early previews have been stunning and I have not read a Matt Kindt book that I didn't enjoy.

The marketing may have been a bit odd, but Bad Idea successfully built up a successful hype train that was able to overcome obstacles due to COVID and I cannot wait to read their other books.  To see if any shops near you are part of their program or to pre-order any of their books online you can visit their website here.

While I may never forget them for forcing us to click on a button one billion times, it has already been a wild ride and I haven't even read a book yet.  Happy Bad Idea Day everyone.

POSTED BY MIKE N. aka Victor Domashev -- comic guy, proudly raising nerdy kids, and Nerds of a Feather contributor since 2012.

Thursday Morning Superhero: Holiday Gift Guide

As we inch closer and closer to putting 2020 behind us, I thought I would wrap up my Thursday Morning Superhero posts with my annual gift guide.  I wanted to include a variety of items that would be appropriate for a variety of nerds, so here goes!

For the nerdy sports fan:

Defector subscription - Like most of the sports fans I know, I was heartbroken when a change in leadership caused a mass resignation at Deadspin.  While fake Deadspin is still up and running, it is filled with imposters and no longer has the editorial freedom and heart that made Deadspin such a special site.  There has been a void in my internet browsing that has finally been filled with Defector.  The authors who left Deadspin recently launched Defector and its creator owned model is worth applauding. I subscribed prior to its launch and am delighted that the writers that I have enjoyed for so many years have a platform to amplify their voices.  Sports coverage is best when politics and humor are sprinkled throughout.   Despite working in sport, I enjoyed the NCAA and NFL getting called to task on issues like their handling of COVID and the treatment of NCAA athletes.  This is literally a gift that will keep on giving all year.  

For the nerdy gamer:

Gods Love Dinosaurs - This title puts you in charge of the food chain as you attempt to dominate the board with a combination of dinosaur eggs and actual dinosaurs. You will populate the game board with prey, predators, and of course, dinosaurs.  Dinosaurs need to eat prey to survive, and predators to lay eggs. Gods Love Dinosaurs is a terrific middle weight game and will appeal to a wide range of nerds.  If the sale is still on, you can also snag it as part of a bundle with the cooperative puzzle game Mental Blocks, and the pattern creating Passtally. 

Funko Games stocking stuffers - I am a sucker for licensed games that are actually fun to play.  When Funko entered the game market I wasn't sure what to think, but after spending over a year playing the addictive Funkoverse series, placing my workers to secure routes in Pan Am, and collecting ghosts in the Haunted Mansion, I am confident in the product that Funko games produces.  This year they have a wealth of licensed games that are asking to be put into stockings.  I already picked up the Christmas Vacation Twinkling Lights games and enjoyed it, but there is a Frosty the Snowman game, an Elf game, and more! 

For the nerdy comic book fan:

Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio - Having previously recommended this title earlier in the year, it should not be surprising that is the book that I recommend gifting to your comic book reading friends.  Or better yet, your literary friends that don't currently read comics.  This book is an example of how the medium of comic books can effectively educate readers from first hand accounts surrounding this tragedy.  Derf Backderf is masterful at immersing himself in a topic to really inform the story with a personal touch that is often missing. I recommend anything by Backderf, but his newest offering is one that should not be missed.

Locke and Key pendants - If you are looking for a classy comic book themed gift, you cannot do better than the new Locke and Key pendants from Skelton Crew Studios.  I already have a few pins and replica keys from Skelton, but these sterling silver pendants are truly stunning.  I am not much of a jewelry person myself, but you might catch me wearing a head key necklace once the convention scene reopens. 

POSTED BY MIKE N. aka Victor Domashev -- comic guy, proudly raising nerdy kids, and Nerds of a Feather contributor since 2012.

Best Cinematic Comic Adaptation Tournament (Round 2)

My fellow nerds, in this time of contention and uncertainty, I want to assure you that YOUR VOTE MATTERS!

While there weren't a ton of surprises in Round 1 — a couple of 5-seeds over four-seeds, but no major upsets, despite Scott Pilgrim's best efforts — I can tell you that three votes prevented an All-Batman DC round. V for Vendetta defeated Batman Begins by two votes, and the Man of Steel held off the Dark Knight by only a single vote in the battle of franchise sequels (Batman Returns vs. Superman II).

While the campaigns go back to their war rooms for new talking points or the teams go back to their benches so the coach can draw up a new play, depending on which direction you want to take this metaphor in an election year, Round 2 begins.

Click to expand

Staff-favorite Dredd barely held off the spirit of Brandon Lee to make it to this round. Can it power through? Which funny Marvel movie is the better-suited to square off against either Cap or a team of mutants? Kick-Ass looks vulnerable. Can Red drop the fist on it? And our International Region is now fully subtitled, but not fully animated. Can the one standing live-action movie make it to the next round? These questions and more...or, actually, really just these questions...will be answered next Monday.

Previous rounds here and here.

Marvel Region

DC Region

Indie/Imprint Region

International Region

Best Cinematic Comic Adaptation Tournament (Round 1)

The field is set, thanks to everyone who participated in the play-in round voting.

Are there any upsets waiting to happen? How many Batmen are too many Batmen? Have any of the box office bombs made enough fans since to bump a bigger hit?

Click to Expand

To recap: We invited all 13 of our writers to nominate their favorite big-screen comics adaptations in the Marvel, DC, Indie or Imprint, and International Regions. For the International Region, our requirement was that the source material originate outside of the U.S., even if the adaptation did not. From there, based on a point system built on the number of mentions for each movie and literally hundreds of emails between the team, we narrowed down the field. In the end, we got the field set and seeded based on everybody's input, and the public voting in the play-in round set the final spot in each Region.

Vote as many times as you like, and spread the word. Argue with everyone! We will post the final results of Round 1 and open Round 2 for voting next Monday.

Marvel Region

DC Region

Indie/Imprint Region

International Region

COMICS ELIMINATION CHALLENGE: 6 First Issues

I've been traveling for almost a month now, with my handy iPad and a whole lot of ebooks and digital comics as my primary entertainment vehicle. So I figured: "why not start a new comics-related feature for Nerds of a Feather? Something (monthly) to complement Mike's awesome (weekly) Thursday Morning Superhero series!" Of course, since I sort of fell off the comics wagon a couple years ago, I was starting anew; and since I wouldn't be able to keep up week-to-week, I could just pick and choose interesting books from the last few years. I also decided to make a game out of it.


Scoring System and Rules

The scoring system I devised is based on a simple question: do I want to keep reading this book? Anything above a 2/5 is a "yes" and anything below is a "no." As with Nerds of a Feather scoring in general, 5s and 1s will be issued sparingly. The score sheet:

5/5: highly recommended.
4/5: strong overall but not as good as it could have been.
3/5: just good enough to read the next issue.
2/5: some limited potential.
1/5: objectively terrible. 

And here's how the game works. In true NoaF fashion, I chose 6 first issues to read. Going forward, I'll continue with each book that scores above a 3/5. Anything scoring below that threshold gets thrown out and replaced with a new book, starting from issue #1. After 6 months, we'll see who's still standing. Sound good? Good. Now on the books themselves... 


The Books: August 2014

Magneto #1 (Bunn/Hernandez Walta: Marvel, 2014)

Magneto has always been my favorite Marvel villain, in large part because he’s so relatable. You might be horrified by his methods, but you understand where he’s coming from. Part of you cheers him on; the rest of you hopes Charles Xavier can bring him to his senses. The new limited series appeals to the first part. It’s classic revenge-noir, where a force of nature wreaks horrible vengeance on those who deserve it. Cullen Bunn's writing is tight and Gabriel Hernandez Walta's art is nicely stylized. 5/5: highly recommended.

Brass Sun #1 (Edington/Culbard: 2000AD, 2014)

Brass Sun is stylish dystopian SF about a steampunkish society and a nascent rebellion against its theocratic religious order. The concept is sound and the art is quality, so I’m curious to see where things lead. Unfortunately, the first issue is weighed down from pacing issues, stilted dialogue and thin characterization. 3/5: just good enough to read the next issue.

The Wake #1 (Snyder/Murphy: Vertigo, 2013)

Scott Synder and Sean Murphy’s underwater SF adventure is one of the most talked about comics in recent memory, and issue #1 doesn’t disappoint. The writing is unusually fluid and the art has a pencil-heavy feel that suits the subject matter perfectly. I was, however, more than a bit annoyed that Snyder resorted to the “scientist adventurers gathered together by mysterious patrons” trope. I’d thought that AVP and Prometheus had killed that trope dead. 4/5: strong overall but not as good as it could have been.

East of West #1 (Hickman/Dragotta: Vertigo, 2013)

Another one I had high hopes for. Unfortunately, this steampunk-y/post-apocalyptic-y/Warren Ellis-y Western is a hot mess, weighed down tropeyness, lazy ultraviolence and one of the most egregious and annoying infodumps I’ve encountered in a long while. East of West #1 feels like a lot of other comics you’ve read, but diluted by time and repetition of the same themes over and over again. 2/5: some limited potential.

Hawkeye #1 (Fraction/Aja: Marvel, 2012)

I’ve never had much love for Hawkeye, but this book has gotten so much hype that I had to give it a shot. And I’ll give it this: Hawkeye a real departure from the Big Two way of doing things, even more than Magneto is. I mean, a fragmented narrative, no spandex action AND a story that’s pretty much about ordinary people struggling to get by? Progressive as that is (and it is), the storytelling doesn’t quite live up to the ambition—or the art, which is crazy good. Huge potential, not quite realized yet. 4/5: strong overall but could still be better.

The Last Phantom #1 (Scott Beatty/Eduardo Ferigato: Dynamite, 2010)

I grew up with the Phantom—well, with Fantomen, the Swedish version. But everyone knows that’s the best one (sorry, Lee Falk). This 2010 revamp gives the classic hero the “Vertigo grit” treatment, making it feel like a pulpier version of Scalped or Unknown Soldier. Unfortuntately, the book retains the Phantom’s central problematic: the hero is still a white man protecting an otherwise helpless African country. Why not make him black or mixed race? Seems like a missed opportunity to really update the franchise. Otherwise this is a decent enough read. 3/5: just good enough to read the next issue. 


...and there you have it! 5/6 books (Magneto, Brass Sun, The Wake, Hawkeye and The Last Phantom) will return in September, while we say happy trails to East of West. And without further ado, we crown our...

MONTHLY WINNER: Magneto #1 (Bunn/Hernandez Walta: Marvel, 2014)

Until next time! 


***

POSTED BY: The G--purveyor of nerdliness, genre fanatic and Nerds of a
Feather founder/administrator (2012).

Best of All of Us: Year Two

Today we nerds of a feather celebrate our second anniversary! It's been real--and at times surreal. But it's always been fun, thanks the the crew of smart, interesting and generally likeable people Vance and I have enticed, sweet-talked, cajoled and coerced into contributing to the site. We now have a grand total of 10 (10!) regular writers, including ourselves--not to mention the individuals who have generously donated their time and thoughts as guest writers and interview subjects (more on them next week). For now, though, to celebrate, I thought I'd compile the Best of All of Us: Year Two (regular contributors edition). For each writer, I provide the most popular post since April 11, 2013 and my personal favorite. And for those who have been with us since the beginning, you can note that I've put our contributors in the order by which they joined.

Oh, and how could I forget? Thanks to all everyone--readers, fellow bloggers, authors, filmmakers and so forth--who have supported and continue to support us as we go forward. You are what makes this whole project special to all of us, and for that we are eternally grateful. 

Now, on to Best of All of Us: Year Two... 

-The G



The G

Most Popular: Draft Hugo Ballot 2014 (1/22/14)

Favorite: True Detective Conquers All (3/11/14)

The Hugos thing was fun to write, as it gave me the chance to heap praise upon some deserving folks. But as far as personal favorites go, well, it's got to be the love letter Philippe and I wrote to the Greatest Television Show Ever. The most fun criticism to write, after all, tends to be that which come from intersections of rational consideration and emotional fervor--either of the proselytizing or righteous condemnation variety. And, frankly, Philippe and I might as well have been hawking "mainlining the secret truth of the universe" tests on Hollywood Blvd. Yet while we might be accused of True Detective zealotry, everything we say about the show is true!

"Sure, True Detective came in familiar packaging--the police procedural, the hardboiled detective story, the hunt for a serial killer, etc. But it kept hinting that it would metamorphose into full-blown horror. There were the little hints sprinkled throughout the season--the recurring patterns, the more-than-coincidental names, the literary references, the signposting. The Yellow King! Carcosa! We grew certain of such things. But in truth, True Detective used the symbolism and iconography of horror to establish its apocalytptic atmosphere. This is noir, pure and simple, a small-scale holocaust of the human soul--Lovecraft without the tentacled bodies; Revelations without the horsemen."

Vance

Most Popular: Beer and Sci-Fi Pairings (3/25/14)

Favorite: Spurs to Spandex: Why Westerns Died and Superheros Fly (5/13/14)

Vance's pairing of craft beers to speculative/SF television programs has become our all-time most popular post. But while its awesomeness cannot be denied, I nevertheless prefer the essay where he relates the shift in Hollywood film archetypes, from the gunslinging cowboy to the superpowered vigilante, to changes in how Americans view the society they live in, their socio-economic prospects and the attainability of "the American Dream." It's probably the most serious thing we've ever published, and by extension, might be the best.

"But reality has begun to approximate this magical aspect of our daily narrative. Peter Parker, Steve Rogers, Harry Potter, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson, Snooki, and all of the Kardashians share one thing in common: they were unknown, regular people who had something inside of them just waiting to be discovered and exploited on a larger stage. They were destined for greatness. We watch reality TV and Superhero Movies wishing that someone would see past our own humble situations, recognize our latent talent or nobility, and lift us out of our everyday lives."

Molly

Most Popular: Comic Con from Afar -- Second Annual Lamentation (7/23/13)

Favorite: Ender's Game: Heart But No Smarts (11/4/13)

Every year Molly compiles the best intel and video footage from San Diego Comic-Con--wishing from afar that she were there. It's something I've come to look forward to in July. But my favorite post of hers has to be this conflicted review of the Ender's Game film adaptation. See, like me, Molly finds Orson Scott Card's political activism nauseating. Unlike me, though, she loves the Ender novels. This review is thus both a fan confronting a flawed adaptation of a treasured book and a fan navigating difficult questions of whether art can be separated from the artist.

"The movie left out pretty much all the thinkier parts of the book - the entire subplot of Peter/Locke and Valentine/Demosthenes manipulating the politics on Earth, the complex strategies in the battle room, and the denser moral debate on xenophobia. For the most part, it was ok to me that the movie was a heavy-handed spectacle, because that's how Ender's Game the book fits into the rest of the Enderverse: it's a prequel, a flashy podracery bit of awesome that appeals to our baser, pubescent tastes of violence and space war."

Mikey

Most Popular: Tales from a Board Gaming Convention: Geekway to the West (5/16/13)

Favorite: Tales from a Board Gaming Convention: Geekway to the West (5/16/13)

Mikey does a lot of things for this site--including his weekly (must read) roundup of new comics. But his con coverage just can't be beat--and this assessment of five wholly different but equally compelling board games convinced me to bust out the Catan box and get that wood-for-sheep business going again. Next time I'm in Mikey's neck of the woods, you know I'm dropping by for a session of Space Alert (which I really, really need to get my hands on, by the way).

"Space Alert is a real-time, cooperative game in which you assume the role of a crewman of a spaceship stranded in an asteroid field.  As a team you work together through a series of rounds as dictated by a CD that takes you through a 10 minute senario. During these frantic 10 minutes, the players all play their actions face down and communicate to one another what steps they are taking. Whether you are giggling the mouse to keep the computer from falling asleep to firing lasers at a target you hope is in range, you won't know if you were successful until you resolve everything upon completion of the CD."

Philippe

Most Popular: Microreview [book]: The Revisionists (7/10/13)

Favorite: Man...or Astroman? (And some stuff about the nineties, Bakersfield, and sci-fi) (5/10/13)

Philippe's posts often have an nostalgic air, drawing lines between the products of geekdom and his personal journey through three decades of nerd culture. While I love his reviews, this piece about the retrofuturist surf band Man...or Astroman? really hits the spot for me. It's funny, personal and skewers the inauthenticity of today's endlessly cycling nostalgias. Plus it's about an awesome band. 

"The nineties had little of today’s triumphalism, the constant lauding of how awesome and connected things are today. Networks and such. This is an era that has little time for the past. The past is still mined—we’ve gone through the eighties over the last few years—without the conscious, often celebratory nostalgia that accompanied nineties retro. Is anyone actually looking longingly at the eighties? Nineties surf bands with sci-fi personas were homages to a simpler time."

Jemmy

Most Popular: Microreview [book]: The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch (8/19/13)

Favorite: All Hail the Black Company! (11/5/13)

Jemmy's review of Scott Lynch's latest swashbuckler has been a huge hit for us--and is slated to appear in in Speculative Fiction 2013, an anthology of the best blog commentary on SF/F. However, I'd argue that Jemmy's paean to Glen Cook's gritty "band of brothers"-style fantasy series is far and away his best work of our second year. I mean, come on--he takes one of the most underrated and important fantasy series of the past 40 years and elevates it to the level of greatness it rightly deserves! And it's beautifully written too.

"Glen Cook's series presaged the darker turn in fantasy--to the grit and darkness that we now tend to associate with writers like Joe Abercrombie, George R.R. Martin, Steven Erikson, Scott Lynch, and Ian Esslemont, to name but a few of the good ones. But Cook's original novel, The Black Company, was written in 1984. That's nearly thirty years ago! Twelve years before A Game of Thrones! So I expected a rather quaint version of grimdark (a quaint pseudo-grit?). After all, wasn't Cook writing in the era of Terry Brooks and David Eddings, when heroes existed to save kittens, pet bunnies, fulfill prophecies, and tell the reader that the world will work out just fine?"

Brad

Most Popular: Tiny Tina's Assault on the Dragon's Keep (7/1/13)

Favorite: Tiny Tina's Assault on the Dragon's Keep (7/1/13)

Brad's series on the various Borderlands expansion packs have been hugely popular, and the game series' goofy humor seems to perfectly fit Brad's own. I routinely laughed out loud, and nowhere more than in his review of Borderlands' send-up of epic fantasy. Plus Bunkers & Badasses.

"Nearly everything...is a melange of Tolkein, Game of Thrones, and D&D, down to the vending machines. Marcus Munitions has become Marcus Missiles and it warns you to, "Watch out for those orcs!" Zed's Apothecary quips, "Have fun storming the tower." There's another reference to a movie I just watched, The Princess Bride. It felt a bit like walking around in Skyrim with corrosive sub-machine guns and missile launchers...."

Dean

Most Popular: AiIP: The Self-Publishing Manifesto (4/15/13)

Favorite: AiIP: Support Your Local Bookstore (even if you buy digitally) (7/15/13)

Dean's self-publishing column is a monthly highlight, and his running series on how indie authors can avoid the Amazon trap has been very informative. My favorite installment is the one where he discusses how indie authors can support local bookstores--even when selling ebooks. Independent bookstores are very important to me, and so this is naturally my personal favorite. 

"I see a lot of authors buying into the Amazon-or-nothing thinking. Amazon has anointed Hugh Howey as the king of self-publishing for his Wool series, including his comments in such places as their GoodReads acquisition press release, wherein he compares Amazon to 'the cool guy next door marrying your mom'...But why at the exclusion of everything else? What possible benefit does that have for the author, the reader or the literary community?"

Zhaoyun

Most Popular: We Rank 'Em: Best Computer (PC) Games of the mid-1990s (8/2/13)

Favorite: Microreview [book]: A Kingdom Besieged by Raymond E. Feist (7/13/13)

This was a tough one for me, because I really like how the 1990s PC game essay captured the nostalgia-seeking mentality of the thirty-something geek (even if I don't agree with all of the individual choices). But as good as it is, Zhaoyun's epic takedown of Raymont E. Feist's mailed-in latest takes the cake for me. The result is highly entertaining, if slightly depressing, and exemplifies what we're trying to do with our review content.

"Weep for Feist—how far he has fallen! How sloppy his writing has become, how formulaic his plots, how uninteresting his characters. My theory? Blame video games. He stopped writing full-time so he could help create several games based on the Midkemia world(s), notably Betrayal at Krondor (excellent) among many others (most of which were utterly forgettable/bad). Unsurprising, given this context, that he...has written less a novel and more a novelization of a game concept: generic characters no reader would identify with who are exposed to a range of uninspired role-playing-esque encounters."

English Scribbler

Most Popular: Microreview [book]: Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor (3/19/14)

Favorite: Microreview [book]: Once Upon A Time In Hell by Guy Adams (12/30/13)

English Scribbler is not only our newest regular contributor, but probably also the funniest. And so I have to bypass his excellent review of Lagoon for the more tongue-in-cheek charms of the review he did of Guy Adams' second B-movie inspired horror/western mashup. I mean, the following quote needs no exposition, does it....

"Sure, I've been to a cowboy boot store in Kansas, I've drunk whisky in Santa Fe and I've successfully panned for gold (in Legoland in Denmark, but it still counts), but I have no right to write such cod Wild West nonsense. I'm sat in a Victorian flat in London wearing a cardigan and sipping ginger tea. The only Westerny things in my eyeline are the 'Dude' in the 'Dude, Where's My Car?' credits on the telly, and the cat's Lee Van Cleef stare. Ok, at the time I wrote the review I was actually sat by the side of the Mekong river so had at least a little Martin Sheen voiceover in my head but that's no excuse. Especially concerning a book written by a Brit with a superb and uncorny usage of Old West lingo."

Gilbert Hernandez in LA Tonight!

I can't go. But you should. More info here.

Microreview [Comics]: Black Lung

The Meat

A teacher gets shanghaied by pirates, becoming an unwilling witness to the depths of human depravity and brutality on the high seas. Were it not for his literacy and a psychopathic guardian angel, things would have been much worse for the old fop. Things still went real bad, though. That’s what happens when you hang out with pirates.

A pirate comic? By gar it’s been a while.

Yes, but this is a pirate comic from Fantagraphics. And writer-artist Chris Wright (Inkweed) seems like the kind of creator with pretensions. Arty pretensions – pretensions that Fantagraphics often likes to indulge. Don't misunderstand me: Fantagraphics has put out wonderful books. In fact, some of the best comics ever. But they have also produced smug, pointless comics, books that are little more than the masturbatory scribbling of self-indulgent artistes. And they burned me too often in my twenties.

So I didn’t entirely expect to enjoy Black Lung as much as I did.  Then somewhere around page five I realized that there’s an actual story in Black Lung, a human story. Granted, despicable and truly damaged humans. Pirate humans. But humans none the less.

Chris Wright’s story is bleak and brutally violent. There are few redeeming characters in Black Lung, just your everyday, run-of-the-mill collection of wharf rat gangsters, mad priests, syphilitic first mates with penchants for finger removal, and the good Captain Brahm – a man whose sole goal in life is to commit enough violence so that he’ll be damned to hell, and thus rejoined with his heathen, whore of a wife.

Eschewing the easier path of gore and glorification, Wright portrays this violent world in a detached, realist manner. There’s no glory, simply blood lust. No bravery, only brutality. Wright seeks to understand his characters, allowing them explore and explain their violent behavior. For some, it’s necessity. For others, motives are purely mercenary. Some just like to kill. Wright does not shy away from exploring the drives and doubts of his characters  – who are, after all, murderous, scheming pirates.

The subtlety of Wright’s story and lyricism of his dialog is contrasted by his surprisingly mesmerizing artwork. Surprising, because I did not expect to be drawn in by what appears on the surface to be intentionally ugly cartooning. Wright’s often grotesque characterizations fall somewhere between Lewis Trondheim and Klasky-Csupo. His figures are neither anthropomorphic nor humanistic. Some resemble furry animals, others ugly humans, and still others look more like an amoeba than a mammal. Quite often, they look like muppets. Terrifying muppets. Pirate muppets.

Wright’s genius is further evident in his ability to use these aberrant cartoonish characterizations to convey human emotion, particularly terror. Wright’s portrayal of violence is stark and chilling – despite or perhaps because of his singular style. His artwork expertly combines contrasting elements, frantic inking, and subtly detailed backgrounds to create a unique visual and unexpectedly unsettling experience. 

Black Lung worked on all counts. Plus, pirates.

The Math

Objective Score: 8/10

Bonuses: +1 for pirates

Penalties: None. Damn the rules.

Nerd Coefficient: 9/10 "Very high quality/standout in its category"

[Check my math here, nerdlinger.]