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.

Top 5 Book Covers in 2021

My top 5 favorite book covers this year are the following:

Wrap-Up of the 12th Annual Manga/Graphic Novel Reading Challenge

I signed up to read 12 comics this year but more than met the challenge with 39 books. At one point I thought that I would go for 52 books but gave up on that. 22 of the comics were written by new (to me) authors. Here is what I read:

Parenthesis by Elodie Durand

Irmina by Barbara Yelin

Run by John Lewis

Trauma is Really Strange by Steve Haines

The Grand Odalisque by Ruppert and Mulot

Women Discoverers by Marie Monard

Primer by Jennifer Muro

Freiheit by Andrea Grosso Ciponte

Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto

Reckless by Ed Brubaker

Redfork by Alex Paknadel

The Banks by Roxane Gay

Idle Days by Thomas Delsaulniers

Hawking by Ottaviani and Myrick

Credo by Peter Bagge

Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang

Hand Me Down by Alex Paknadel

The Pull by Steve Orlando

Sentient by Jeff Lemire

Sara by Garth Ennis

Double Walker by Michael Conrad

Where We Live by Will Dennis

Red Team by Garth Ennis

Tunnels by Rutu Modan

Sweet Tooth Compendium by Jeff Lemire

Snow Angels by Jeff Lemire

The Waiting by Keum Suk Gentry-Kim

COVID Chronicles by Ethan Sacks

Home by Julio Anta

Fire by Peter Bagge

The Father of All Things by Sebastian Girner

Pound for Pound by Natalie Chaidez

Let's Not Talk Anymore by Weng Pixin

Night Train by Steve Foxe

Rebecca and Lucie by Pascal Girard

Factory Summers by Guy Delisle

Hailstone by Rafael Scavone

The All Nighter by Chip Ddarsky and Jason Loo

Favorite Book:  Tunnels

2nd Favorite Book:  The Waiting 

3rd Favorite Book:  The Grand Odalisque

Least Favorite Book:  Snow Angels

Hailstone

The Hailstone edition I purchased contains issues 1 through 5 of a comic book series. I loved it.  The story follows Sheriff Denton Ross who is investigating the disappearance of a girl in an isolated town in Montana called Hailstone. With few police officers on his staff to help, Denton enlists the assistance of soldiers in the nearby military factory. The factory supplies the Union Army with weapons but after Denton sneaks in to the camp, he thinks something else might be going on there. He is pressured by the townspeople to look into the camp because they don't have much food to eat but the military officers have plenty. Denton's deputy Tobias sneek back in to determine what the factory is actually producing all while searching for the missing girl, Mary, who is the 4th young girl to disappear. I have never liked westerns, but Hailstone is a great read.