I really hope Laurell K. Hamilton, the author of the “Guilty Pleasures” novel adapted here, got paid. As a New York Times-bestselling author, perhaps a massive amount of money will help her sleep soundly, despite knowing Marvel produced this pile of crap with her name on it. Who knows? Maybe Laurell writes total shite, as well. That would at least be an excuse for six issues of “Anita Blake Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures” horribly written by Stacie Ritchie and collected in this TPB.

Anita Blake is a survivor of a vampire attack who has some mystical ability to raise the dead and lends investigatory and ass-kicking skills to the police. Sounds like a great start. But who would have thought that a character dubbed “Vampire Hunter” would be penned so emotionally weak and insecure? Embarrassing. The character interaction, and basically the entire story, consists of Anita Blake and supporting characters either eying each other seductively or issuing veiled threats to one another. Bitch-slaps occasionally thrown in for effect. Ritchie introduces and tosses the supporting characters with such abandon that I wonder what the point of introducing them was in the first place. By the end of this collected book, I basically don’t care if every character were to die. Including the main one. That’s not normal.

The art doesn’t help me enjoy this either. Brett Booth apparently can’t draw anything other than sullen emos and goths striking booby and ab showoff poses. Thank Imaginary Friends Studio for giving this tome of awkward and unvarying pin-ups an ounce of depth through digital coloring. The number of straight-on same-level face shots is LEGION. The number of fore-shortened poses is very very FEW. The number of wide-angle city-scapes or establishing shots is ZERO. Depth, perspective, and shading are simply not drawn. Damn, can I get A cross-hatch? Just ONE? If this is what passes for “hot” these days in comic-dom, I’ve got one word for it: Liefeld.

I gave it a shot, but “Anita Blake Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures Vol 1” left ME feeling guilty that I wasted $15 on such obvious comic book cheesecake. Thankfully I waited for the paperback instead of plunking down for the HC. And at least I can create a mental filter now that ensures I don’t buy anything more written by Stacie Ritchie or drawn by Brett Booth. Money in the BANK!

I finally got around to reading Ben Templesmith’s “Singularity 7”, albeit in TPB format.

The story is pretty decent. It’s sci-fi horror. Nanobots decimate Earth. Some folks survive. Barely. Regardless, the outlook’s grim for them and the luckier few who “evolve” as nanobot-enhanced badassen. Earth’s remaining humans are being systematically hunted by evil cleanup crews and it’s time to go on offense, or die. Or both. Sword-swinging and automatic weapon-wielding with that aforementioned sci-fi horror twist ensues.

Dialogue is gung-ho, out-of-place, and totally quip-a-rific. Lines like: “I am a bomb. I have to explode now.” Scary. Serene. Matter of fact. Lazy, but fun.

Ben Templesmith’s art is Templesmith, no doubt. And that’s simply how it has to be described. Templesmith has his own category. His own rating. His own level. It so surpasses Sienkiewicz it’s not funny. No, really. And Sienkiewicz is stellar. This 30-something kid with crazy lines via Wacom digital tablet, plus sick washes, kicks MAJOR ass. There are very few people who violate the comic book medium with impunity like this; disposing of proper notions with glee, that somehow results in your fervent gratitude for being allowed to witness “the new”. Paul Pope quickly comes to mind. Fuck yeah. Ben Templesmith is one of those people, too.

In the midst of slinging sloppy fight-scene mechanics that I become strangely infatuated with, he pauses to scribble above our posing heroes: “[ standard group shot ]”

This thing reads FAST. Like, done-in-an-hour kinda fast. Longer if you linger on the art, which I did on the second and third readings. Yeah. You’ll do that, too.

Atomic Robo is a Tesla-designed Earth-saving badass robot. “Atomic Robo” is a Red 5 Comics-designed badass comic book title. Learn it, live it, love it.

Brian Clevinger spins heart-warming, humorous, and mission-impossible tales for Atomic Robo, the sarcastic and lovable, albeit physically heartless, main character who saves the world on behalf of a grateful nation. What? Not for dough? Well of course not, what would a robot spend his hero dough on anyway? Clevinger proffers “Helsingard” whom I assume will be a recurring arch-villain / nemesis. Helsingard is a brain-with-no-body “B.P.R.D”-ish antagonist, but definitely distinct, thanks to Clevinger-born, salty, intimate, non-stop, hero-vs-villain banter that tastes of history we are not yet privy to. The lines throughout are not memorable, but only because there are SO MANY that crack you up. They are carelessly quipped by the characters, and at such a rate that, while you may be immediately endeared and giggling to Robo and his supporting cast, you’re doomed to replace each dialogue moment with the next FRAME’s drop-dead funny line. Clevinger jumps back and forth in Robo’s history of adventures, taking breaks from the intimated hunt-for-Helsingard grind to bring us period tales of WWII dogfights or Mars landings. Clevinger has brilliantly succeeded in writing fresh and extreme adventure comic book tales with a wonderful hero who has impenetrable verbal wit to go along with his indestructible metal hide. I just cannot wait to read the the Atomic Robo stories scattered across “history” that Brian Clevinger will eventually bless us with.

Scott Wegener draws your socks off. The art, at first glance, is cartoon simple with obvious Mignola flavor. Pay a bit more attention, and you realize that Wegener did too. His “cartoony” ends up being not too far from “realistic”. Weapons are weapons. Physics are respected. Robo looks and feels like a robot. The expression picked up from Robo’s eyes, however, is spot on with emotes. Action sequences can be naturally followed. The framing and angle of scenes is very well matched to, if not singularly defining in some cases, mood. Wegener, on more than one occasion, totally nails “irony of the situation”. Or, “you gotta be shitting me”. Completely absent of dialogue even. Wegener’s detail is just enough throughout—this guy is a master at line conservation. While I would normally prefer significantly more blacks for lighting contrast / effect, Wegener appears to intentionally hold his blacks in reserve, so that when he whips them out, it REALLY means something. His not-so-heavy style goes well with the light nature of Clevinger’s dialogue anyway. Hrm. I’m now a fan.

Ronda Pattison, with her thoughtful and themed coloring, does a wonderful job at adding just enough depth to Wegener’s art. “Atomic Robo” owes much of its visual liveliness to her. Jeff Powell’s lettering is clean and solid, and does a splendid job of distinguishing Robo’s speech, radio chatter, and HUGE sounds. Nice touch, and a great rounding out of the team.

So yeah, this was GREAT! The “Atomic Robo Vol 1” TPB collects issues 1-6 of the wildly popular, and for good reason, “Atomic Robo”. You’ll be challenged to find individual first printing issues of this killer title. Save yourself dough and eBay frustration and just get this collected volume NOW.

The mission-to-Mars was my favorite tale of the bunch in this book, BTW.

Atomic Robo: “I know it seems like a small thing, but I’m gonna need more than FIVE MAGAZINES to entertain myself for a TWO YEAR ROUND TRIP.”

“Robotika” is a self-described “far future” tale that features killer sci-fi samurai, cybernetic gunslinger action, and goal-driven RPG-like group adventure, in violent, ironic tales, peppered with fantastical creatures and bad guys. Niko is a non-speaking, pain-sensor deprived swordsman and a major badass. CG is a bald, weapon-wielding beauty, and a badass. Bronski is a one-normal-eye one-cyber-eye pistol-packing cowboy, and a badass. Lets hear it for badasses, including the writer and artist, Alex Sheikman.

Sheikman has put significant thought into his “Robotika” world here, and for the added benefit of the reader, he takes great care to dampen the shock of “Robotika”’s in-your-face wonder, way-obvious abnormalities, and not-so-implied massiveness. Sheikman pulls this kindness off through sufficient back story, serene and fluid imagery, goal-based stories, and colorful, unique, characters you can quickly start rooting for. Much appreciated. Dialogue is a bit inconsistent; it feels forced and awkward in some places, yet natural and spot-on in others. Niko doesn’t speak, and doesn’t need to, so no complaints there. And there’s an obvious excuse for CG’s poor verbal timing. Pop-up antagonists, however, really throw things off with their dialogue. The gunslinger Bronski is Sheikman’s dialogue ace, though. Yay for Bronski! And as mentioned, you really do root for the three yojimbos. Sheikman does a wonderful job of introducing the heroes, challenging them individually and as a group, and keeping the reader interested AS they gel. Niko’s moments of introspection, either externally coerced, during virtual training, or during meditation, are placed well throughout by Sheikman; giving us a way to connect to a character we’d otherwise think of as just a talented killer.

“Robotika” is artsy! A welcome detour from simple sequential storytelling. Alex Sheikman has a solid command of anatomy, motion, and fight kinetics. Niko’s silly shoes fall off at the beginning of a brawl, just like I thought they would. heh. Throughout “Robotika”, I was always eager for a fight scene to pop up—they were SO good. Zooms, symmetry, and symbolism are used extensively in “Robotika”, but in a thoughtful manner. While there’s a lot of posing throughout “Robotika”, it’s not gratuitous or unnatural. Instead, the placement of characters, in sword-swinging flight or in pensive pause, is for significant effect. There’s not much fore-shortening, as Sheikman opts for near-vs-far proximity placement of characters to create depth extremes, but I didn’t mind that. Sheikman’s style and attention to detail trumps tradition. For many an example of attention to detail, Sheikman does not appear at all afraid to draw HANDS, in all manner of poses and grips, which I TOTALLY appreciate… and immediately envy. While the rare scenery or establishing shot feels a bit cobbled together, I truly enjoyed those frames as well. A bit of a personal nag here, Sheikman leaves a great deal of space unused, and it appears as if that’s intentional, as if to tease the viewer into begging for more. Grr, I say. But what we are blessed with, contrasting those open spaces, is just wonderful.

Sheikman’s wonderful art is also rather unique, in my opinion. I can’t really put his art in a cubby of classification or artist comparison. I’ve seen bits of commentary with comparisons to Tony Harris, and I think those moments in Sheikman’s art are fleeting at best. If this hadn’t come out before “The Dark Tower”, I’d swear Sheikman was heavily influenced by Jae Lee’s recent work. Now I’m wondering if Lee soaked up some Sheikman. “Robotika” art feels very RPG-ish, and that’s very consistent with the writing, and that’s quite alright by me. Enough with the comparison, inspection, and disassembly—”Robotika”, all on its own, is just really damned good, and so is Alex Sheikman.