Sheep Comic Review: Fatale #19

Fatale #19 
Story By: Ed Brubaker
Art By: Sean Phillips
Art By: Elizabeth Breitweiser
Cover By: Sean Phillips
Cover Price: $3.50
Digital Price: $2.99
Diamond ID: AUG130693
Published: January 8, 2014
Image Comics

Rock 'n' roll, robbery, and ritual murder collide in '90s Seattle as the fourth arc of FATALE comes to a shattering conclusion... and the secret identity of Nic's present day helper is revealed. Is he who he claims to be?

And remember each issue of FATALE contains extra content, articles, and artwork that are not available anywhere but the printed single issues.
Just when I think the story can't spiral any further down into the darkest depths of human frailty, the next issue comes out and my jaw hits the floor ... again.

In the last issue, the music video turned into pure, carnal pandemonium with Jane as the centerpiece. The band retreats to their farmhouse with no idea where Jane is, how long before the cops come knocking on their door, and what they're going to do with Skip, their dead band-mate left rotting in the basement.

Now, it looks like things are coming to a head. After what happened at the video shoot, word is bound to spread, and Jane has decided to run. Her absence leaves everything going a little battier than they were already, including the psycho cop trying to get her back.

It's bedlam before the issue is all over and when Jane feels drawn back to the farmhouse, she realizes there's good reason because as bad as her presence was for the band, there's something even worse in store for them.

I sure wasn't expecting a happy ending, but even I didn't foresee such a grizzly, unrelenting showdown. It's not over yet though, not by a long shot, as the epilogue reveals. Brubaker's writing and Phillips's artwork, not to mention the coloring scheme of Elizabeth Breitweiser, maintain an alluring and alarming portrait of mid-90s lawbreakers and lust. Where it all goes from here, I've no idea, but I'm still totally captivated.

Gef's Fatale reviews

5 Sheep 

 Gef Fox
Wag The Fox  

Comic Review: Fatale #18

Fatale #18
Image Comics
Story By: Ed Brubaker
Art By: Sean Phillips
Art By: Elizabeth Breitweiser
Cover By: Sean Phillips
Cover Price: $3.50
Digital Price: $2.99
Diamond ID: JUL130523
Published: November 6, 2013
NOMINATED FOR MORE 2013 EISNER AWARDS THAN ANY OTHER COMIC!

Everything goes wrong when Josephine appears in a Seattle band's music video, and her effect on those who desire her runs wild, as the most exciting arc of Fatale continues.

And remember, each issue of FATALE contains extra content, artwork and articles that are only available in the printed single issues.

Holy moly, this series is just bound and determined to find out how far down the rabbit hole goes.

Skip's dead. Jane killed him ... sort of. After Skip tried to force himself on her while the rest of the band was out, Jane worked whatever mojo she has in that noodle of hers and made Skip dunk his head in the toilet until he drowned himself. Eesh.

Now, when your drummer dies, you'd think that would be a sobering moment that might have you reexamining the choice you've made in life recently, but you're not smitten with Jane like these guys. Nope, they move the body to the basement and argue over how to dispose of it--and try to figure out how to keep people asking too many questions when they do their music video shoot the next day.

In all of this madness, Darcy is the only one thinking straight. Maybe Jane can only affect men. Whatever the case, her common sense approach to things inside that house is gonna get her killed, I can just feel it.

Aside from some panels that felt a little uneven compared to the rest, the artwork effectively captures the dark, twisting descent this rock band is taking. And when it comes time for the video shoot ... well, my oh my, you will just have to see that to believe it.

The serial killer cop, the horrifically scarred mob boss, and the double-crossed fugitive take a backseat in this issue, but I think things are gearing up for one helluva climax in the next couple of issues. And I ... can't ... wait.

Review: Fetale #15
Review: Fatale #16

Review: Fatale #17

4 1/2 Sheep

Gef Fox
Wag the Fox: Den For Dark Fiction

Sheep Comic Review: Fatale #17

Fatale #17

Story By: Ed Brubaker

Art By: Sean Phillips
Art By: Elizabeth Breitweiser
Cover By: Sean Phillips
Image Comics
Price: $3.50Diamond ID: JUN130542
Published: September 25, 2013

The Bishop disappeared in Los Angeles in the late '70s, in a fiery scream, but he's never really been gone, and now he's finally got Jo's scent again. And remember each issue of FATALE contains extra content, articles and artwork that are not available anywhere but the printed single issues.

Okay, things are getting weird--and I'm loving it.

Fatale #17 begins with another interlude featuring the one-legged fugitive, Nick Lash, and his grizzled ol' liberator,, Nelson. They're still on the run, laying low, and the more time they spend together, the more it looks like Nelson is outhouse crazy.

After the interlude leaves off with a really great cliffhanger, the main story set in the mid-90s resumes with Lance, the guitarist/bank robber, and Jane, the alluring amnesiac. Now that she is firmly entrenched with the band in their farmhouse hideaway, her hold on the men of the house has reached a new level of obsession and depravity. Now, she is joining in on the robberies with Lance, while the other guys each grapple with Jane's mind-altering machinations.

Oh yeah, and the detective/serial killer is slowly closing in on them, too.

Along with all of that, a new player enters the stage who wants a piece of Jane.

Jane's secrets are slowly coming to bear, but there's still plenty of mystery behind what she is doing to these men and why. It's such a gripping piece of noir and fantasy, I simply enamored by Brubaker's storytelling and Phillips' atmospheric artwork. At this point, it feels like we're on our way to some kind of collision with all of these storylines, and it's shaping up to be a truly memorable one. At this rate, Fatale is going to wind up my favorite comic book series of 2013.

Review: Fetale #15

Review: Fatale #16

5 Sheep

Gef Fox

Wag The Fox: a den for dark fiction

Sheep Comic Review: Fatale #16 by Ed Brubaker

Fatale #16 
By: Ed Brubaker 
Image Comics 

Nicolas is on Josephine's trail of secrets, and they lead him back to 1990s Seattle, where a rock band, a gang of bank robbers, and a wandering serial killer all circle around a mysterious woman with no memory... And remember, each issue of FATALE contains extra content, artwork and articles that are only available in the printed single issues.

The irresistible allure of the nameless beauty comes to bear in this issue, giving Fatale a bit of a supernatural element I wasn't expecting to go with the noir atmosphere.

At the end of the previous issue, we saw the woman had escaped the makeshift dungeon of a psycho-cop serial killer. To start Chapter Two, we get a glimpse into his madness and what propels him to kill, and why he had such an obsession with our femme fatale. Meanwhile, the woman in question has taken on the name Jane Doe and effortlessly charmed the young bandmates with whom she's now living.

Lance, the guitarist/bank robber, becomes so enamored by Jane he convinces her to star in the band's music video. Trouble is they don't have enough cash. Lance figures the easiest solution for that is to rob another bank. As he is off making plans for the next robbery, Jane works her magic on the reclusive songwriter, Tom, much to the chagrin of his girlfriend, Darcy.

The story has a lot of moving parts, and despite not starting into this series earlier, issue #15 provided an easy enough jumping on point and this issue has managed to ease more of the backstory into the forefront. Things towards the end of the issue felt a little murky for me, but nothing has felt convoluted or impassable thus far. The nature of Jane and the effect she has on the men around her is gradually coming into focus, but I think it's the relationships among the bandmates, as well as the desperation of the killer on Jane's trail, that will provide the most intrigue for the next little while.

Bring on Chapter Three. 

4 1/2 Sheep 
Guest Reviewer: Gef Fox
Wag The Fox

Comic Review: Fatale #15 by Ed Brubaker

Fatale #15 
By: Ed Brubaker

Published: June 26, 2013

Image Comics

A NEW ARC BEGINS!FATALE finally arrives in modern times, as Nicolas Lash's research from his prison cell draws out old enemies. And him with nowhere left to run. And remember each issue of FATALE contains extra content, articles and artwork that are not available anywhere but the printed single issues.

I'd been reading some good things about this series from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, but with it being fourteen issues deep I was a little hesitant to take this fifteenth issue for a test drive, since I'm conditioned to reviewing comic books from the inaugural issue onward. Fatale #15, thankfully, feels like the start of a new story arch, making the learning curve a whole lot easier.

Nick Lash seems utterly doomed, but at least he knows it. Framed for murder, his dead uncle's manuscript stolen, his lawyer killed in front of him, and on the run with a man named Nelson who did the killing. Yeah, Nick is doomed.

That's just the prologue though, as the main story goes back to the mid-90s where a struggling rock musician, Lance, robs a bank to fund his band, only to botch the getaway and stumble across a naked beauty on the side of the road, covered in nothing but a bed sheet and a lot of blood. Even weirder is the fact that the blood ain't hers and there's somebody with a basement full of dead women looking for her.

If you like your crime fiction brazen and bloody, Brubaker and Phillips are your guys. Don't ask me how the first part with Nick Lash ties in with Nelson's heist gone awry storyline, at least beyond the femme fatale Josephine, but I think I'm going to enjoy finding out. The main characters all have the classic combination of empathy and ineptitude; guys in over their heads and can't help but dig their own graves a little deeper. With Nelson, all he's really done in this issue is take a strange girl home, but the atmosphere is as powerful as it is pulpy, and leaves things off in such a way that I can't wait to read Fatale #16.

If you're like me, and you haven't bothered with the first fourteen issues of this series for whatever reason, now might be a good time to give the series a chance, because it's either getting good or it's getting even better.

4 1/2 Sheep
Guest Review: Gef Fox
Wag The Fox  

Image Expo 2013: what's to come!

At Image Expo in San Francisco, Image Comics Publisher Eric Stephenson revealed the much-anticipated new projects from the independent comics publisher, as well as the identity of Image Expo’s “surprise guests.”  A crowd of more than 500 Image Expo attendees in the Lam Research Theater at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts were the first to see art from new titles and learn the identity of the latest creators who are coming to Image.  Two of the new projects announced are by creators who have current titles with Image Comics. VELVET is a dark and evocative twist on the spy genre featuring a female protagonist by Image Expo guest Ed Brubaker (FATALE) and his Captain America: The Winter Soldier collaborator Steve Epting. J. Michael Straczynski (TEN GRAND) continues to expand his Joe’s Comics mini-imprint with two former Marvel ICON titles, rescued from oblivion with new issues from Image Comics: DREAM POLICE and THE BOOK OF LOST SOULS, drawn by Colleen Doran. With these additions all of Straczynski’s creator-owned titles are now published by Image Comics under the Joe’s Comics line. The surprise guests announced by Stephenson included another current Image creator, Matt Fraction, creator SATELLITE SAM with Howard Chaykin (BLACK KISS II) and SEX CRIMINALS with Chip Zdarsky, who is announcing ODY-C, a psychedelic science fiction comic created with artist Christian Ward (INFINITE VACATION). The first issue of SEX CRIMINALS is scheduled to go on sale in September. Stephenson also revealed the return to Image Comics of Rick Remender after three years of writing exclusively as one of Marvel’s “Architects.” Remender is bringing two new projects to the publisher: BLACK SCIENCE, a classic science fiction story scientists adrift between alien worlds, created with artist Matteo Scalera, and DEADLY CLASS, a 1980s flashback set in a school for budding assassins, created with artist Wesley Craig. Another former exclusive Marvel writer and Architect coming to Image is surprise guest Jason Aaron, who is collaborating with fellow surprise guest artist Jason Latour (B.P.R.D.) on the series SOUTHERN BASTARDS. Comic Book Resources has more on this landmark new title. Stephenson capped off the announcements of new projects with the reveal that Image Comics will be publishing the official comic book adaptation of Darren Aronofksy’s upcoming film Noah, which recounts the story of the Biblical patriarch. “Image Comics was founded by and for creators,” Stephenson said. “Whereas the dominant conversations at other companies are about licenses and franchises and the executives steering their ‘properties’ toward success, the conversation at Image – the only conversation at Image – is about the creators.”