Comic Review: VAMPBLADE SEASON 2 #12 from Action Lab-Danger Zone

VAMPBLADE SEASON 2 #12

Writer(s): Jason Martin

Artist Name(s): Winston Young

February 21, 2018
24 pages

Publisher: Action Lab - Danger Zone

32 pgs./ M / FC

$4.99

Cover A – Winston Young Regular Cover (unlimited) 

Cover B – Winston Young Risqué Variant (limited to 2000)

Cover C – Tony Fleecs Artist Variant (limited to 1500)

Cover D – Tony Fleecs Artist Risqué (limited to 2000)

Cover E – Dan Mendoza Variant (limited to 1500)

Cover F – Dan Mendoza Risqué (limited to 2000)

It’s the climax of season two and even with Katie fighting alongside The Intergalactic Cross-Dimensional League of Vampblades, it’s unclear whether they’ll be enough to save Earth. One thing’s for sure, it’s going to take… all the blades!!!

Features 3 covers each with a risqué variant – including one by Dan Mendoza (Zombie Tramp, DollFace)!

I’ll Take That Comic with Extra Cheese!

It all started when a good friend of mine at I Smell Sheep said “Hey, Jonathan, you like comics, right? Why don’t you write some comic reviews?”

I said, “Okay, I do like comics. What would you like me to review?”

Suddenly my inbox was flooded with comic options. There were so many comic options. A lesser comic lover would have been overwhelmed, but not me! I picked….

Vampblade Volume 2 #12

It’s written by Jason Martin with artist, Winston Young. Why did I pick it? Was it the pretty girl in the form-fitting costume? Was it the cool blades coming out of her back and the blood everywhere? Was it the cool title that suggested vampires? Yes! Yes! And Yes! The cover delivers. It screams, “Pick me! Pick me!” Isn’t that what a good comic cover is supposed to do?

In order to review this issue, I had to read the three issues that come before it. So, I picked up issue nine and began to read the story arch. The story arch gripped me. I was like, “Let me go, story arch!” and the story arch was all, “Bwa ha ha ha! I’ll never let you go! You must read me through to completion!”

There are no vampires in the conventional sense in this story arch. A young comic book shop worker, Katie, has these blades that feast upon the villains that fall prey to them. There’s a really cool little imp creature involved. It’s a complicated process that makes the reader go from, “What the? Where are the vampires?” to “Ohhh! Vampblade! Very clever, comic book!”

Here is the story in a nutshell. There are aliens bent on destroying the earth. There big purple nasty looking aliens, the kind that just won’t listen to reason. Throughout the comic arc they have the upper hand. It looks like they’re going to win. I went from issue to issue saying, “What’s going to happen next?” (Luckily, I keep a Bluetooth earpiece in my ear so people don’t think I’m crazy.) Along the way I enjoyed a story that was full of action, humor, and cheesiness (not stinky cheese but the good kind). It’s the kind of stuff you want to find in a comic book.

Issue twelve is the deus ex machina episode. The alien invasion is in full swing. Things are as bleak as they can get, when suddenly, the whole dynamic of the comic book is changed forever. If it wasn’t so brilliantly done, I might have gotten mad. Needless to say, there is much fighting and those vampire blades all get a proper feeding.

The artwork is bold and colorful. It’s full of eye-catching reds and purples. Lots of action and plenty of Katie to feast the eye upon. My eyes came out of this story quite satiated. Check it out!

The story arch ends in a cliffhanger that actually left me curious about what happens next. I give this issue a solid four sheep. I highly recommend it for the comic reader who is just looking for a fun read. There might not be any conventional vampire but there is lots of action and lots of fun.


4 Sheep

Jonathan Harvey
Author of Shades of Plaid (A Very Unconventional Weekly Journey into Christian Living)
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Read my online comic The Terrible Turtle Conspiracy

Comic Review: Zombie Tramp #1-#8 by Dan Mendoza (Action Lab)

Zombie Tramp # 1
Creator: Dan Mendoza
Writers: Dan Mendoza & Jason Martin
Artist: TMChu
Colors: Jason Martin
Letters: Jason Martin
Covers: TMChu/Colors Scott Erwert

Action Lab: Danger Zone
Zombie Tramp begins her new ongoing adventures, learning more about her growing supernatural abilities while traveling the seedier streets the US has to offer… and what better place to start off than Sin City! But can Janey survive her encounter with the “King” of the Las Vegas sex trade? Collects the first four issues of the wildly popular sexy and dangerous new ongoing series.

128 pgs./FC/ Mature Readers $14.99 USD

Zombies are not sexy. I mean, have you seen 'em? Blech. About the only way you could make a zombie into a sex symbol is through some weird kind of magic to take the rotting flesh away, or at least disguise it with a veneer of regular, non-peeling skin. And that's exactly Dan Mendoza has done with Zombie Tramp.

Janey Belle used to be a high-priced call girl living the life in Hollywood, but then she ran afoul of the undead and wound up one. After running across more than her fair share of fellow zombies of the good, bad, and ugly varieties, Janey finds herself in possession of a Necronomicon that gives her the inside track on keeping one step ahead of those that want her dead or under their control.

This is apparently the third outing for Zombie Tramp, but having not read the two previous series, I didn't feel too out of the loop. Thanks to the free #0 issue from the middle of last year, I managed to pick up just enough backstory to catch up and hop on the bandwagon.

As it stands, the setup is really easy. Zombie Tramp is a wayward soul, literally and figuratively, roaming the countryside akin to the old Incredible Hulk did on 70s TV. Only difference being, Banner turned green when he got angry and strived to do good for those in need. Zombie Tramp is a bit greenish all the time, except when she uses an incantation to look a little less decomposed. And her motives are far less altruistic than the Hulk, as she doesn't hesitate in munching on the brains of passersby if they so much as look at her funny.

The pulpy action is at a high level with this series, which features an amorous Elvis impersonator, sex trafficking siblings, werewolf bikers, and sex-starved nerds. Oh, it's all in this series, all right.

panels from ZOMBIE TRAMP ONGOING TPB

Raunchy? Yup. Irreverent? Of course. Arousing? No comment.

I suppose if you're looking for a series that doesn't play so fast and loose with magic system and world building, you might be turned off with Zombie Tramp. I mean, if Janey was a hooker turned zombie and just that, there'd still be plenty to toy with for subject matter, but the magical elements see her body being mulched and her spirit possessing random passersby--as long as their hot, 'cause she has standards after all--and the book of spells she carries around seems to have a deus ex machina for every occasion.

It gets weird, that's for sure.

But if you're looking for a wild, take-no-prisoners, romp through a grindhouse wonderland, then Zombie Tramp should feel like it was custom-made just for you.

4 Sheep

Gef Fox

Find Zombie Tramp on Amazon

Zombie Tramp

Interview: Jason Martin - President of Action Lab: Danger Zone

One of my favorite comic book small presses is Action Lab (Princeless, Skyward) and their mature readers imprint Danger Zone (Ehmm Theory, Double Jumpers). I thought it would be fun to talk to Danger Zone's president Jason Martin, but it was harder to track him down then Waldo in a candy cane factory, but I did it! We talk about the comic he wrote, Night of the 80's Undead, and growing up in the 80's. So put on your Vans or leg warmers and turn up your boombox!

Sharon: Could you tell our readers a little about yourself, Action Lab: Danger Zone and your comic Night of the 80's Undead?

Jason: I run the new mature readers imprint for Action Lab Entertainment, Action Lab: Danger Zone. Danger Zone is a very cool lineup of creator-owned books all featuring imaginative genre-vexing concepts.

Night of the 80’s Undead is my book which I write and color, with artwork by Bill McKay. It’s a three issue series, with issue 1 out, and issue 2 that’s just come out (on 10/9).

And just like the title suggests, it’s the story of a Russian zombie virus contaminated Colombian cocaine supply, that’s unleashed on a big Hollywood party circa 1986, and a group of teens who crash the party only to find they must now survive the escalating coke zombie carnage!!!

Sharon: When did you get the idea to have a zombie comic set in the 80’s?
Jason: In early 2011… I had exhibited at a convention in Seattle called ZomBcon, and had also recently published a comic, Zombie Tramp, and those two things convinced me it was silly to resist doing my own zombie comic book. I’m a big zombie/horror/genre fan, but thought the market was oversaturated with zombie concepts… I saw the light, was blessed by Romero, course corrected, and then quickly came upon the idea of 80’s icons as zombies!

Sharon: How did you hook up with the artist Bill McKay? Does he share your love of all things 80’s or did you have to teach him?
Jason: After coming up with the concept, I quickly also shaped a plot, and in the meantime I’d met Bill via DeviantArt and we’d been talking about collaborating… then, upon developing 80’s Undead, it was the perfect fit for his talents. Also, to your point, we’re both generation X, about the same age, so we were raised in the 80’s, and it’s all natural life experience/nostalgia on both our parts. I won’t say which one of us had a raging coke habit, or slaughtered the “undead” with automatic weaponry though…

panels from issue #2

 

Sharon: What would say was the best thing(s) we got from the 80’s? What is the worst?
Jason: The movies!!! Blockbusters, VHS horror, sci-fi, action, it was a golden era for pop culture film! No wait, video games!! No, no, personal computers!!!! Wait… old school rap!

As far as the flipside? I dunno, again in geek terms… probably the loss of the newsstand market for comics… we’re still trying to get mainstream readers back into the fold! (Sorry, I know things just got a bit dark there)

Sharon: If you could live the life of an 80’s celebrity who would it be?
Jason: Burt Reynolds! The Trans Am, the mustache, haingin’ out with Dom DeLuise?!?! Come on!
Fun Burt Reynolds trivia, did you know, he used to pull nose hair to turn on the waterworks for scenes that required crying? …I mean, the man gave us so much.

we will all take a moment to appreciate the 'stash 

Sharon: If you could go back in time and talk to your 80’s self, what would you tell him?

Jason: Buy stock in Apple, Starbucks, Marvel… keep a better eye on your pet dogs man… uh, don’t worry, new Coke is a gimmick… stuff like that.

Sharon: What’s next for you and Danger Zone?
Jason: Bill and I are finishing up issue 3 of 80’s Undead currently. Then I’ll have to carve out some time for a new project or two of my own… possibly a sequel? 
As far as Danger Zone, we’ve got our first volumes wrapping up and coming out in trade paperbacks, and then some new series debuting. Some really exciting stuff like Zombie Tramp volume 2, Bo Plushy Gangsta, Itty Bitty Bunnies in Rainbow Pixie Candy Land. Lots of great stuff!

Sharon: Thanks for taking the time!
Jason: Thank you, those were some really fun questions!

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About the author:
Publisher – Action Lab: Danger Zone
Creator – Night of the 80’s Undead, Super Real, Pulp Girls
Find everything 80’s Undead on my blog 
An artist, creator, and publisher, Jason first broke into the industry in 2005 with his self-published comic, Super Real. From there he moved on to publish works by other creators, in addition to completing Super Real as a graphic novel, and has done freelance art for clients including Marvel Comics, Cartoon Network, and more.

“I’m incredibly excited to take my efforts at showcasing boundary pushing, genre redefining material that I began with my Super Real Graphics to an even larger audience with the backing of the talented folks at ALE,” exclaims Martin. “I’m as passionate for comics as a person can be, especially the creative and quirky ideas born from creators with a story to tell in this graphic medium, and truly love working with them to share their visions and mine.”

Say hi to artist Bill McKay