All Star Recommends!

We're back with a couple of cool recommendations that we think you should give a go. A nice long look at a new Bendis book and a few quick looks at some Image titles. Prices listed below are shelf price, standing order customers receive a 10% discount. 

Takio

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Artist: Michael Avon Oeming

Recommended By: Jess

Before I picked up this little nugget of goodness, I read a few excited previews suggesting this was a great way of getting young girls into comics. Bendis created the book with the help of his daughter, blending her ideas with his writing style. It's aimed at all ages and the art, dialogue and narrative style stick to that brief.

The protagonists, older Taki and younger Olivia, are adoptive sisters who are at the overprotective mercy of their widowed mother. They live in a world that doesn't have superheroes, so when they're accidentally given powers, the first thing Olivia wants to do is be a hero and use her powers for good...and fun. Throw in a nemesis and secret identities and you have the standard superhero/coming of age story.

The art is dynamic, with what seems like a blur of the action physics rules that would match an excited retelling of the fight rather than the actual event. The facial expressions, body language of the characters and the framing of each scene match the pitch of the dialogue, which is fast paced and expansive.

So yes, it has elements of a gateway comic, but it doesn’t just appeal to young girls or even children. What infuses the story and makes it so enjoyable to read is the enthusiasm and moral code that we all had once perhaps when we first picked up a comic or watched a cartoon. Bendis uses that childhood excitement and extrapolates the idea of 'what would you do?' with a realistic approach that will appeal to kids on the story level, and to adults on the thematic level.

Takio tapped into my forgotten well of childish glee at the idea of superpowers and really, I'd love to yell KUNG FU TELEKINESIS! when I fight someone.

Takio is available now at All Star Comics for $14.95.

Skullkickers Vol 1
Writer Jim Zub
Artist Edwin Huang
Recommended by: Eddie

“Who ever heard of a fat werewolf?” This is the fantastic opening line to an amazing trade paperback and in a way, it sums up all one needs to grasp this series. Yes it is fantasy and yes it doesn’t take its self too seriously. You also get to witness a fight scene between a Dwarf and the earlier mentioned fat werewolf.

Jim Zub does an amazing job bringing you right into the world of the Skullkickers. It is a dwarf and bald guy buddy mercenary story that barely lets up. In almost Indiana Jones style these characters keeping moving from one bad situation to another in their attempt to solve an assassination mystery, and to earn some money for mead and shagging.

The action is crazy but fun (male readers may not look at a battle axe the same way again) made even more impressive by the stand out art by Edwin Huang who going on his work here is set to have a big future. Also a true standout of this book is the beautiful colour work by Misty Coats.

Not in the mood for a heady read, but just want a pure fun comic, action adventure and a few laughs? Try Skullkickers! 

SkullKickers Vol 1 is available at All Star Comics now for $14.95.

The Mission #1
Writer Jon & Erich Hoeber
Artist Werther Dell’Edera
Recommended by: Eddie

What would make you kill someone? Could you do it if someone asked you to? What if that someone was God? This is what is being asked of the protagonist Paul Haskell in “The Mission” when Archangel Gabriel asks him to kill Neal Corman in the name of god.

Why is Paul being asked? Is Gabriel really an angel? Who is Neal Corman? These are questions both the reader and the main character share mere pages into this issue.

Most of us are happy to go about our lives, as Paul tries to do, however, could one ignore an order from “God” and expect to go back to a normal life? So what drives Paul to find out who Neal Corman is? Does knowing someone make it easier or harder in your choice to kill them? It is these questions that make this an intriguing first issue to a series that is sure to be an interesting look at faith.

The Mission #1 is available at All Star Comics Now for  $4.50.

For Previous Recommendations, click here to see the All Star Recommends Archive.