Reviews: The Possum, Plastic Farm, and Nervenkrank

It’s time for me to review some more of the comics I picked up at SPACE this year!  I have 3 comics to review this week and they are very different from each other.

The Possum #2: Mexican Smackdown chapter 1 by Blair Kitchen is the first book on the list this week!  Blair did a short Possum story in the SPACE Anthology that I reviewed here.  The first issue of the Possum is available to read for free on Blair’s site, and I highly recommend checking it out!  Issue #2 pits our hero against a group of bank-robbing midget Mexican wrestlers.  Almost the entire story involves hilarious action with The Possum (Stuart Spankly) holding on to the hood of the villains’ getaway car.  The poor police in hot pursuit have little chance against the clever wrestlers, but The Possum cannot be killed (thanks to a zombiefying tic tac).  Not that he can do much to stop the wrestling robbers, but at least you can count on him surviving!  The story is mostly told with just pictures, and the midget wrestlers speak Spanish almost exclusively.  Even if your Spanish is as poor as mine, you should be able to get the gist of the villains’ dialogue and laugh along at the sight gags that fill the pages of this comic!  Then, like me, you can find someone fluent in Spanish to re-read it with you, and enjoy it all over again!

Plastic Farm One: Prolog by Rafer Roberts is very weird.  It’s mostly a story about the Kamakaze Kid, an old west drifter with some strange mystical-type abilities thrown in.  And that description doesn’t begin to explain him, or the comic.  I’d say Plastic Farm is one of those comics with the select audience, because I realize some people would be put off by the strangeness.  And it may be a little too strange for me, I’ll admit.  However, I found the weird story easy to follow and was surprised at some of the plot twists.  The art is weird too but tells the story well and fits right in with the story.  I think some people will totally love this comic, so check out the information at the Plastic Farm website for more details!

Nervenkrank May 2012 Preview by Katherine K. Wirick is the story of John Heartfield getting out of a military mental hospital. John Heartfield  was a real person, and though this story is based on fact, the author does not consider it strictly nonfiction.  So I’ll call it historical fiction.  This preview looks great!  I love the black and white artwork.  I hope the full version uses the same palette.  The atmosphere of the asylum is well depicted in both the well rendered expressions of the characters and the choice of camera angles.  Heartfield would eventually become an artist and political activist in Nazi Germany, but this story takes place in 1915 after Heartfield has been declared insane by the German army.  Check out more on Katherine’s website, of course!

Well, I have more comics from SPACE to review, but right now I need to get back to work on some statues for the upcoming Motor City Con!  I’ll show you the statues next post!  See you then!