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McNamara, Jason & Talbert, Tony – The Gastometrist

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The Gastometrist

Anybody out there like those old cheesy Tales From the Crypt comics? I think you can tell from the cover that this is in the same vein. It’s hard not to give anything away for an eight page comic, but the meaning of the title is also kind of the punchline to the book, so I’m going to have to work around it. Most of what we see in here is a couple of guys talking at a bar, with horrific images coming up whenever the main guy talks about past “jobs”. It’s creepy and short; Tony does a terrific job of mimicking that EC comics feel with the artwork. Worth a look, probably around $2. Contact info is up there, as there’s nothing in here at all and that’s what you’re going to have to go with.

McNamara, Jason & Talbert, Tony – Less Than Hero #3

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Less Than Hero #3

I officially really, really like this book. Even though it’s been months since I read the last issue, all the characters in here are familiar and distinguishable, which is a considerable achievement considering that huge cast of characters. In this one, as you can see from that fantastic cover, The Punk’s girlfriend has been impregnated, and everything else that’s been going on is coming to a head, as #4 is the last issue of the series. They better keep this up with another title, as they’ll be sorely missed if they just quit altogether. There are very few characters more quotable than The Punk, and I think you should find them out for yourselves, as this book has funny or insightful stuff on literally every page. $3, I guess you could wait for the last issue to have the whole story collected in one edition, but the covers are worth the price of admission in my book…

McNamara, Jason & Talbert, Tony – Less Than Hero #2

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Less Than Hero #2

This is a preview edition, meaning that any complaints I might have about the art looking awfully scrunched up are useless, as I’m sure it was eventually put into a larger edition. Everything is noticeably starting to come together in this issue. The characters are starting to become incredibly unique, the art looks great (except for the fact that it needs a little room to breathe, but see the first sentence), and the dialogue is phenomenal. All kinds of quotable stuff in here, but I’ll just put up a good sample and let you check it out. I can see why they’d want to rush to get a preview edition out for SPX, as people reading this are much more likely to get hooked on this story than people reading the first issue. This is probably $3 and you’re not likely to find a smarter and more realistic superhero story. I almost hate saying that because I’ve gotten pretty sick of the “real people with super powers!” idea, but I promise that this is worth a look. Come on don’t you trust me?

McNamara, Jason & Talbert, Tony – Less Than Hero #1

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Less Than Hero #1

I’m breaking with tradition here and putting the back cover up instead of the front. Why? Well, it’s better than the front cover, frankly, and I thought it would help anybody who’s reading this to refer back to this synopsis to try and figure out what the hell’s going on. This is the first issue of a projected 12-parter, so I’m going to reserve judgment on the storyline. I didn’t get what was going on, but that’s because there are all kinds of characters, they’re all kind of thrown at you without an introduction, and I think they were trying to introduce too much in too small of a time. Still, points for ambition, and it might all come together beautifully. That being said, it’s time to start complaining. I don’t know what it is that some people have against punctuation, but, seriously, use it. Plenty of sentences in here where it just went on and on and it’s not like I can say anything about that but doesn’t it help to have a comma here and there to break up the sentence throw a little inflection into it do you know what I mean? Ahem. Also, for some reason a lot of the “n”s were backwards. Not sure if that was a stylistic thing or just a screw-up, but it stopped me in my tracks and I think that’s a bad thing. All that bitching aside, it wasn’t a bad first issue at all. Tony was obviously influenced by a lot of the great older artists and the book looks incredible, even if I couldn’t tell what exactly the superhero guy looked like until the full page spread. The writing is solid and the dialogue is believable and funny, for the most part. Look, my only major complaint is that they should have taken their time, maybe putting only one character per issue for a while. Sure, that was probably impossible due to finances, but putting out a few minis before this might not have been a bad idea. Anyway, this is $3 and worth a look, although you might want to wait a few issues to you can have a fair shake at figuring out what’s going on. Send them an e-mail

McNamara, Jason & Talbert, Tony – Less Than Hero #4

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Less Than Hero #4

Here it is, the last issue of the Less Than Hero series. Before anyone gets sad, they say that they’re hard at work on a new series, so more is on the way. That’s great news as far as I’m concerned, as this is the first superhero series to hook me since… geez, does Preacher count? No? Concrete? Whatever the case, it’s been a while. The reason this one hooked me so thoroughly is that, even though there are costumes, dorky names and fight scenes, this is mostly about the people. And the first scenes, when they’re cool enough. This is the end of the story of this series, so I don’t want to give too much away (as I’m demanding that everyone at least look at an issue of this), but this has one of the best fight scenes involving a whole town that I’ve ever seen. OK, The Sleeper (the main villain here) has made everyone in San Francisco fall asleep, and when people fall asleep they fall under his complete control. The Punk, as he can’t sleep because of the accident that gave him his powers, is all that’s stopping The Sleeper from having complete control of the town. Citizens are thrown at him in a never-ending wave of carnage that has to be seen to be believed. This is $3.25 (I think it’s a little bit heftier than the other issues) and these two should be able to take over the world in the next few years, if they keep this kind of pace up. Contact info is up there, send them some love!