Summary: An ancient evil was defeated and the heroes who did it were made rulers of the land...but what if was all a lie?
Plot: Due to finding Azzarello's Batman: Damned nearly unreadable(despite enjoying his past takes on Batman) and finding Snyder's take on Batman once again to be overblown I kind of checked out on DC's black label and so I missed the announcement on this new sword and sorcery book entirely. I'm incredibly glad DC decided to over ship this as if it hadn't I never would have gotten my hands on it and I'm hoping their strategy pays off as I love that they're trying to reach out to new audiences by exploring other genres. That said the story itself fell a little short in my eyes, feeling more like the exposition heavy beginning to a D&D campaign than an introduction to a fantasy world I want to visit again and again. The book begins promising enough with with an interesting concept; the tales told throughout the lands are lies. Opening on a brazen truth and not keeping it a mystery is different, but this change in story telling is the only moment The Last God really feels unique as the rest of the character introductions feel really rote: a noble barbarian slave, an elvish thief and a scantly clad female magician make up the party(yawn). I feel like if this had a higher page count it would have felt less exposition heavy and allowed us to get a better feel for the world and the characters in it, so I'm hoping that with more issues it will even out better.
Art: The real highlight of The Last God, and the real reason I want it to do well, is Riccardo Federici’s art. Federici’s pencils remind you of the classic fantasy art you grew up loving on the covers of 80's fantasy paper backs. The kind of art that made you want to buy the book just because the cover was so damn awesome and that's what Federici does here with his excellent mix of brutality, mature high fantasy design, and realistic anatomy. It's all just amazingly beautiful and the muted color pallet by Sunny Gho and Dean White give it a misty, mysterious look that really draws you eyes in to feast on all the details. This is definitely a book where the art really caries the day.
Grade:8/10

Summary: A gang of petty criminals are on the lamb in a small coastal town in Maine encounters the unexpected during a raid.
Plot: Before opening this up I was really kicking myself for reading the previous Hillhouse primer; despite loving the taste it gave us of what to expect part of a good horror experience is not knowing what to expect so I thought I may have spoiled this book. Surprisingly though, despite all of the pages from the preview being in the book they were edited in such a way there that although they told a tantalizing story of their own in the preview the added context of panels and in some cases whole pages in-between them meant that nothing here felt like a retread of what we read previously making the first issue entirely fresh and unknown in feel. The result was a fantastic first issue, giving a great introduction to the cast, setting and premise with out ever feeling exposition heavy. This was a perfect read for a stormy Halloween.
Art: I've never had the pleasure of experiencing Italian artist Leomacs work before but as of right now I'm in love. The character work, attention to back ground detail and shadowing and mood are all incredibly lush making for a truly excellent read. Run, don't walk, as you go to pick this up right now!
Grade:10/10