BotTalk Reviews

eBook by Brian D. Anderson Cover by E. M. Gist  From Titan Books and Heroic Signatures Spoilers! Spoilers!  Central Kush. Conan and others are protecting their employer Marisova Mella, Mella's caravan full of silks and linens, Mella's wife Shayistra and young Joni (Shayistra's secret lover). Kushite mercenaries attack the convoy! Titus Havarius (also a Kushite) saves his Cimmerian friend's skin once again. Mella gets murdered. The attackers retreat. Titus suspects that Mella's wife hired the killers to kill her husband. Shayistra refuses to pay Conan and company, Conan threatens her gigolo and to make her mariticide known to the magistrate... they get paid in gold. Conan, Titus, and the Hyrkanian cousins: Asher & Cabil leave the caravan for the small village of Albon.  Titus has to leave Conan, he is wanted back home. Kush. Conan and twenty soldiers of fortune are now working for Lord Gulan Adria to end a siege. Lord Adria had seized nearly all the harvest of hi...

eBook by James Lovegrove   Cover by Jim & Ruth Keegan Illustrations by Patrick Zircher  From Titan Books and Heroic Signatures Spoilers! Spoilers! Pamir Mountains (Tajikistan, Central Asia). The Texan adventurer, gunslinger know as El Borak ("The Swift") aka Francis Xavier Gordon saves an English rug merchant and his guide, Aarav Choudhury (a Pundit explorer) from carnivorous snow leopards. The soldier of fortune from El Paso, knows that they are actually Crown servants... clearly British military spies.  British Lieutenant John Stock comes clean that they are on an intelligence mission. Stock, just like Gordon, wants to know more about the ruler of the remote city of Lamakan who stands against the Russian invaders... Queen Zohra. Gordon, a self-appointed "keeper of the peace", feeds the starving Stock and Choudhury. Major Andrei Razin (not the singer, not the hockey coach) and a military unit have been sent by Tsar Nicholas II to stamp out Zohra's rebellio...

A seinen manga by Osamu Tezuka  Spoilers! Spoilers!  CHAPTER 1: The Department Store Woman (Shinjuku Station (Tokyo, Japan). Young, warped, famous novelist Yosuke Mikura meets Barbara, a mysterious fuuten/vagabond who is a chronic alcoholic and the youngest daughter of Mnemosyne. Mnemosyne? The Greek goddess of memory who previously had nine daughters (all muses) with Zeus? Will Barbara be able to make Mikura realize that he's romancing a mannequin (Maname Sugata)? "Chanson d'automne" and "Le ciel est par-dessus le toit" by Paul Verlaine get quoted. The 1973 Japan National Railways strike, Bacchus (Roman god) and "Pavane pour une infante défunte" by Maurice Ravel get mentioned.) CHAPTER 2: The Woman and the Dog (Will Barbara be able to make Mikura realize that he's romancing the Afghan Hound (Sonya) of Rumi Nagahama (Hiroyuki Yotsuya's fiancé)? The Box Man by Kobo Abe, Guillaume Apollinaire and Franz Kafka get mentioned.) CHAPTER 3: The Bla...

Creators : Larry Hama (writer), Chris Mooneyham (art) Story : A high-tech blimp approaches the Pit as Snake-Eyes and Dawn return and put on their ear protection for small-arms training.  Before the Joe team can shoot it down, the blimp begins a sonic attack on the Joes, disabling most.  Dawn and Snake-Eyes then don jet packs and take the fight to the airship, eventually overcoming their foes. Writing :  This is a special "anniversary" issue of the original Silent Interlude (G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #21) which appeared 300 issues ago.  Like that original issue, this one has no word "balloons", however, Hama is able to craft an interesting story without using any text. Art :  Mooneyham is on top of his game in this issue.  With the story relying solely on his art, he really brings his A game.  Details are crisp and the colors are spot-on.  We can easily tell who each classic Joe character is and see some classic vehicles throughout the story. ...

Jim Zub's The Nomad: A Tale of Conan the King A mysterious migrant arrives in Tarantia, the capital of Aquilonia, he tells the guards that he wants an audience with Conan. High councillor, Publius and King Conan (the Ruler of Aquilonia) welcome the pale stranger. To obtain his "gift", Conan needs to offer his cadaverous visitor three days of hospitality. Conan is well aware of Melnibonéans (Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné appeared in Conan the Barbarian (1970) #14 & #15), so he gives the frail drifter the benefit of the doubt, a chamber and servants. Day 1 of the stranger's stay. Pallantides, the General/Commander of the Black Dragons (the king's guardsmen) thinks that Conan has gone mad. Could the offbeat foreigner be a white wolf in sheep's clothing? Conan defeats Pallantides in a sparring session. Day 2 of the stranger's stay. Queen Zenobia informs her Cimmerian husband that the newcomer is making her and her servants nervous... the nomad ...

And now the conclusion! The crew is in 1985 on Earth attempting to find extra whales to help keep the species alive in the 24th century, along for the journey are the two beluga whales, will they find these whales and make it back? For some reason there’s a Klingon ship in orbit! For reasons! This second part is an improvement over the first part if nothing else. The landing party manage to find a way out to sea, they manage to wrap everything up and for some reason there’s a Klingon ship in orbit as well that they dispatch easily as it’s a 20th century Klingon ship. For all that, the plot is pointless and throwing in a Klingon ship (for reasons!) doesn’t add anything to the story, not even tension, it’s at least an enjoyable read where you’re at least not bored and just wondering when it ends. At least it moves along if just a bit rushed, but they only have so many pages to wrap this story up, at least this time they avoided the usual time tropes of pointing out how weird and crazy th...

New World Era! With Robert Kirkman’s Void Rivals having launched Skybound’s Energon Universe, he now takes the writing reins of the flagship Transformers comic series as well, with Dan Mora now on pencils and Mike Spicer still on colors. Previous artist Jorge Corona also contributes to this inaugural issue as Kirkman begins to reshape the Energon Universe! In this extra-sized twenty-fifth issue, it’s a new day as the Autobots and Decepticons recover from their last epic clash. Megatron stews in the failures of his troops, while Optimus prepares to make new human allies. And on Cybertron, Elita One comes to a momentous decision! So what’s up with this “Kirk Man” fellow? He any good? If you’ve been reading these reviews, you know I haven’t been a fan of Daniel Warren Johnson’s writing on this series, so I was looking forward to someone, ANY-one taking over. Robert Kirkman has never been my favorite comic book writer, but he HAS a track record of producing stuff I’ve enjoyed. I’m happy to...

Creators : Tim Seeley, Juann Cabal, and Rex Lokus Story :  Decades after their fame, journalist Hector Ramirez of "Twenty Questions" tracks down the members of the Heavy Metal band Cold Slither to see what they are up to now.  We follow Hector as he visits each member in their new lives and how they remember those old days.  Writer :  What a "banger" of an issue.  This just plays up the classic "Behind the Music" trope while incorporating aspects from classic G.I. Joe (mainly, Mr. Ramirez) with a bit of modern-technology added into the storytelling.   You can tell the team had a few directions they could have taken this story and had fun doing it.  There are references galore to old G.I. Joe stories sprinkled here and there in this issue.  Art : Art is great; for their modern look, some of the Dreadnoks got some sensible updates but you can still easily tell it's them. Colors are good as well.  Some nice references to other Hasbro animated te...

Three of the red shirts dangle on the antenna array while taking sniper fire.  Meanwhile, inside the base they discover a warp core.  The base is actually a starship.  As the core is brought online two of the Romulans make it to the Beam Out point, only for one of the red shirts to jump into the matter stream.  The result is horrifying once it materializes.  The other two red shirts that were on the antenna are beamed out by a cloaked ship in orbit... one that belongs to the Klingons. One of the Romulans operating from the Bird of Prey is named Neral.  I'm not sure if this is supposed to be the same character from TNG and DS9.  As that character eventually becomes Praetor, I assume it is.  Honestly that name drop is the most interesting thing about this issue.  More red shirts perish.  The story continues to meander along.  The introduction of Klingons here could be interesting.  But I expect it will be just an excuse to up the...