Sirk TV Comic Review: Dark Horse Advance Previews [10-24-12]

The elements of the advance preview for October 24th rotate in an interesting stratosphere between fully formed ideas and the possibilities of what might transpire. The angle of Dark Horse Presents presents this fully with ideas such as "The Deep Sea" working well while the later issue of "Spike" has a necessitative tone but doesn't quite know how to bring it to fruition.Dark Horse Presents #17 The anthology plays through will more thoughts. The first "Finder" has a bit of demon children playing with their toys in a seemingly created world where the ark of Noah is playing its way through life surrounded by a lot of creatures from dogs to velociraptors. The children are safe inside bars while eggs are waiting to be cracked. "City Of Roses #2" shows a girl in play on stage. Likely story as she is abused in one way or another but understands the key to survival. The art has a dirty beauty to it like it might melt off the page with just a little bit of tears, just before the next dance starts. "The Girl With The Keyhole Eyes" takes the notion of nuances we know about people and turns them on their head. The ideas of celebrities versus normal humans paints itself into a day-glo world with what passes for normalcy simply becomes a paradigm on the nature of boredom. "Aliens: Inhuman Condition - Chapter 6" focuses on a girl who knows she hasn't got long to live inside a colony. Though she is not a clone like Winona Ryder in "Alien: Resurrection" she has resided herself to the fact of her destiny. Balancing the aspect of almost self-accepting annihilation, her drifting is almost peaceful, especially when her bear starts talking to her. "The Deep Sea - Part II" has a crew that was lost underwater in a submersible being recovered 50 years later. Their only memory was of weightlessness and being exposed to a white light. One of their crew left behind has aged 50 years. The explanation unknown until a tentacled beast (ala The Kraken) emerges towards the ship. The progression is disjointed though the action in the art at the end comes fast and furious. "The Sleeper" tells the story of a man in the mid 19th Century, not unlike a Poe, torn between two lovers and living like a fool. One provides him with the life he leads but his desires are too reproachable in her eyes. He becomes enamored of the negro maid whom encourages his advances. They try to figure a way to their ultimate consummation. The color tones of this tome work quite well in their use of shadow and almost black and white missiveness while the recollection of the time of brutality is almost colorfully sepia. "The Sacrifice" points to a "Game Of Thrones" temperament whereas the sacrifice of the son, primarily against his own will, serves the ultimate gains of the father. The young son believes that he is achieving the rite of manhood by recovering a impervious sword only to see his own mortality in its edges. The white and red melting of color plays against the exposition bubbles which play too quietly in the background. "Concrete Park Book - You Send Me - Chapter 7" watches at the aftermath when a spaceship crashes on a desert-like planet with two suns. Some of the prisoners, now freed, don't know quite where they are. They might be clones. The nearby town of definite humanoids are coming to meet them, glad for a new salvage in turn. The underlying tone owes to elements of "District 9" though its ultimate reasoning is unclear. "UXB" shows an apocalyptic, almost zombie-fied world where monsters are born of clean air as illusions and yet "Star Wars" references are still made. Food seems scarce for lack of a better word as mercenaries carry dead bodies and scraps of arms to use as currency. With the green and browns signifying an organic breakdown, life seems bleak. "Mr. Monster: Back From The Dead" plays more like a Tex Avery cartoon mixed with the "The Twilight Zone". Like "Lobo" with a much more day-glo personality, the distinction becomes battling as many adversaries as you can so it becomes almost a parody of itself. Munden's Bar is like any out of the way place where you run into people you just can't stand though Mr. Monster seems to take it in stride though he destroys the place in the process.Ghost: In The Smoke & Din #1 The idea of a box opening a door and pulling things (whether demon or angel) through is an old formula that permeated many mythological tomes over the years. The idea infers that there is a ying/yang in every situation despite the reasoning of whether or not the players are aware of this or not. Within this story, homage is paid to the Greek gods via the form of Athena. Caroline, who transforms back and forth from solid girl to ethereal angelic beast, doesn't quite know how to control who she is but she need to find out. Her guides who pulled her from her past life are two reality TV lugheads who functionally don't quite know what they are doing. In consecutive structure, a woman battling with the beauty myth and definitely forming a psychotic break takes her anger out on one of her pursuers. However her true patron turns out to be the devil. The art plays with the normality issue but the true intention of the characters does not full come to bear though the political undertones bade the tendency of the plot.Spike: A Dark Place #3 Escaping from the world of Buffy and the girl that has so much to offer might drive a character like Spike mad. However his texture of functionality is more like that of the Mad Hatter. Flying around the moon on a spaceship with gigantic bugs as his crew and pilots has the makings of a vaudeville skit but works well in tandem with the almost pirate-like progression. Spike begins this specific adventure interrupting coitus between a demon bug and a generally hot female demon who needs to be impregnated. Spike gets in between the consummation because the bug wants to eat his mate. The humor and how the structure plays out is not lost. Spike escapes back up to his ship from the moon with a passing comment of atmosphere bringing along a brunette of questionable origin who might or might not be a succubus. Alluring as she may be, her progression to Hellmouth is definitely being enhanced by her sex. The tone is slightly off within Spike but the pacing and vibe definitely bode for more readingThe Untold Tales Of Dog Mendonca & Pizza Boy Using a self-reflexive moniker off a pop culture phenomenon just trying to make a buck, this ditty definitely gets its own humor though its ultimate personification feels more like a satire from Mad Magazine. The lead man in question: Dog was born to family of all girls but of course the only son would inherit a curse where he would become a werewolf. His dad figured out how to make money on the proposition by creating a circus. Soon, men in black (Nazis by extension) came to take Dog away. When his father refuses, his family is killed. The dark greens and blacks consumed with the orange fire burnt into the page definitely creates an interesting mood when balanced with the present day flash forwards where Dog just tries to placate to Dark Horse Comics and sell a special cola. The character of more interest is the 1000 year old demon that hangs out with him who looks like a little girl and doesn't say a word. Pizza Boy is just the unpaid intern. Ultimately the second story about the Lochness Monster seems a little redundant and lazy in terms of approach.