We Only Kill Each Other

Comixology has issued three releases to date of the We Only Kill Each Other comic by Stephanie Phillips. I have read all three. The 4th comic will be released on February 15, 2022 and the 5th on March 15, 2022. It is a gripping story about Nazi Party sympathizers in the United States before the beginning of WWII as well as the Jewish gangsters who oppose them. The story takes place in 1938 New York City and is based on actual events. Dark Horse will publish a paperback containing all five comics on April 19, 2022. I am planning to buy the paperback because this is a story that I will want to read over and over.

Levi Solomon and Jonas Kaminsky are Jewish gangsters. Jonas is a rising small time gangster who is embroiled in a turf war with Solomon and Solomon is an old time mob boss with millions of dollars tied up in gambling and booze. However, they have something in common. They both hate Nazis. Jonas is tasked with attending rallies held by Nazi sympathizers to stir up trouble and trouble seems to always find him. The Jonas character is the protagonist. We read about his life experiences with anti-semitism including being told he cannot play baseball because he is Jewish.

The comic reads like a traditional mystery novel. Each release ends with suspense and I hate having to wait another month for the next installment to be published. If you haven't tasted this comic yet you may want to wait until the paperback is published. It will be a joy to binge read the entire story.

.Self

 .Self (pronounced dot self) is one of the newest Comixology Originals limited series comics. It is a science fiction story that imagines what would happen if a piece of technology made a bootleg copy of your entire life and then showed up on your doorstep. Further imagine what would happen if someone hacked into that technology and made additional copies of you and sent them out into the world to pursue different life paths that you did not take.  This is what you get with .Self.

The story begins with Natalie Winters living a comfortable life in Seattle with her husband and a robot vacuum that she treats like a pet. Because her husband is a techie, Natalie has an account with Postscript, a service designed to allow people a sense of closure after death. Postscript gives people an opportunity to preserve themselves for one last visit with loved ones and works easily. All you have to do is swallow a capsule and Postscript begins logging your social media presence, your memories and everything else and saves it in a blank body. Upon your death, Postscript will give you 48 hours of an extra life to sort things out with your family and friends.  Our heroine Natalie discovers that her Postscript account has been hacked and is confronted by several blank bodies who think that they are her. In an effort to destroy Postscript Natalie smashes the device but she soon realizes that she has to find the uninstall pill to stop it.

The premise for this plot is phenomenal. Who would have ever thought about backing up your self onto a hard drive? Cartoonist Christopher Sebela! The Natalie character is a tough woman who can physically fight anyone. However, she is overwhelmed and angry from the angles that her blank bodies have taken. She soon receives many emails from friends and relatives asking her to explain herself but Natalie does not know what they are talking about. Her husband Simon is too busy with his medical practice to help her. He is really a secondary character in the story with Natalie and her additional bodies taking center stage.

.Self will be a 5 issue comic.  I have read the first and second issues, which were published in November and December 2021 respectively. I suppose that issue 3 will come out this month but I have not heard anything about it. In an interview between the author and syfy.com Sebela stated that the story will continue with Natalie's Postscript account being further hacked and the bodies of several different Blanks being uploaded to it, causing her more confusion. 

5 out of 5 stars.

Memoria

Memoria is a new horror-noir e-comic from Comixology Originals. It follows an aged and terminally ill detective, Tom Reynolds, and a young cop who drinks too much, Frank Daniels.  The two are partners assigned with solving an unsolvable crime. Photos are found of women who are bound, gagged and dead. Our duo is not even sure if the photos are legitimate. No DNA or fingerprints are on the photos. They decide to visit the last known residence of a hometown criminal, Samuel Crawford, to ask questions. However, his mother reminds them that she reported her son missing several years ago and that the police did nothing to try and find him. Soon the duo begin to unravel a conspiracy that points to the existence of a prolific serial killer. News reporter Maria Server is chasing down her own leads on the case and begins to believe that information has been buried by the police department. She acts as a third detective for the story.  

Noir is not a genre I enjoy. However, Memoria had a good plot which moved fast. There were several twists and turns during the investigation and it felt like a mainstream mystery story to me. The porno movie ring run by the town's wealthiest family was believable. As the duo continued to uncover more missing girls, as well as missing known crooks, they have a meeting with their boss. During the meeting they are surprised that the porn angle cannot be followed because there is no link to the killings. Well, they felt that there was but the police chief seemed to be covering up the activities of the town's most powerful men.  There is much more to this story.

Memoria was a fun read.  I am rating it 4 out of 5 stars.

River of Sin

River of Sin is TKO Short Limited Edition #7.  Written and drawn by Kelly Williams, it was published in September 2021. The story opens with children being found dead and mutilated in the woods. Alfonso fears that this might be the fate of his daughter Elizabeth. Feeling desperate, he and the parents of the other missing children decide to take matters into their own hands. They suspect that the kidnapper is Marge, one of the Brujas who steal kids, kill them and cook them, then bathe in their blood and fat. They are known to be able to squeeze into a home through small cracks and lie in wait until kids fall asleep. The group plans on confronting Marge to get answers and possibly find their kids. Along the way they meet the local sheriff who is looking into a report of blood on a trail in the woods. When they arrive at Marge's cabin they get a surprise. Sorry, no spoilers here.

This comic was a little macabre for me. I could not get over the artwork on the first page which showed an owl with blood spilling from its mouth. The owl was just too gory and affected how I experienced the comic. It made a grim story appear more gruesome than it was.  I have alot of questions about the storyline and looked for reviews of the comic. I did not find any reviews at all and will need to wait for reviews to be posted to fully figure this one out.

Since I do not typically read this type of comic I don't know what I should expect from it. Consequently, I cannot give a rating for it.

Roofstompers

Roofstompers is TKO Short Limited Edition #8. TKO issues 3 short comics every quarter and Roofstompers is from their September 2021 release. In this comic, New York City surgeon Carrie Thurston tries to unwind from her stressful job by going on a hunting trip to Wind River, Wyoming. However, she does not find any relaxation. Carrie is assaulted by a wild bear and taken in by an elderly couple who live in the woods. Adelei and Seraphine are helping her recover from her physical wounds but as the weeks go by, Carrie suspects that they are not what they seem to be. They have strange visits every night from what they call the roofstompers. The story then turns into sci-fi.

This comic is only 20 pages long but it still has a complete plot. There were many surprising twists and turns and each page forwarded the story using both dialogue and drawing. The eerie atmosphere added even more to the comic. I enjoyed the color scheme for the artwork. Ian MacEwan did both the drawing and coloring for the comic. The passage of time is shown through the use of colors. They show each of the seasons and one page can have more than one season on it. 

Simply fabulous!  5 out of 5 stars.