NOLA Comic-Con 2009

Tomorrow April 25, 2009 will be the first Comic-Con in the New Orleans area in many years. I will be participating promoting my webcomic Strange City Heroes A full report coming next week. And hopefully I can read some comics too.


Media Underground Comics presents NOLA Comic-Con 2009.

$5 Admission (Children 6 and under Free)

Special Guest Derec Donavan Artist For: Youngblood, Conner Hawke, Robin Annual

Tim Lattie Artist For: White Picket Fences, Return To Point Pleasant

Kevin P. Johnson Artist and Creator: Strange City Heroes



- Kevin P. Johnson

SCUD The Disposable Assassin : The Whole Shebang! Beginning - Middle - and End

This image is copyright © 2008 Image Comics and Rob Schrab and is used as Fair Use Review images only. Image will be removed upon request of Image Comics or Rob Schrab.

Ok so its not Friday and barely Saturday anymore but it is an update!
SCUD The Disposable Assassin by Rob Schrab can only be described with one word and that word is WEIRD! But weird is good. The Whole Shebang! takes the entire twenty-four issue SCUD comic book series and puts it all in one massive book.
I have currently read eight issues worth of the book and I have to say that I wish I had bought this when it was coming out in issue format but am more than happy to have it in this nice thick book. SCUD is a robotic assassin who comes from a vending machine and his only mission is to carry out and assassination of your choice and upon completion of this task the unit will self destruct. SCUD figures out that he will die if he kills his target and decides he doesn't want to do that. I won't spoil what he does to stay alive but it is quite interesting.
The world SCUD lives in is not typical and that is the real fun of this book. Rob Scrab creates creatures out of what seems to be any random thought that enters his head . . . I love it! There are humans, robots, dinosaurs and the things I'll call the WTF's. My two favorite WTF's are Drywall and Jeff. Drywall is the sidekick of SCUD who seems to be a burlap sack with a ton of zippers he doesn't talk words (yet) but SCUD undestands him and he has an endless supply of everything inside of him. Jeff is the target SCUD is supposed to eliminate this guy is awesome he is a monster that has a plug for a head, a large squid tied to his chest, arms for legs and hands for feet with knees that have mouths that say the craziest things and are often pop culture references. Jeff also has mousetrap hands and the ability to take random thing and add it to itself for weapons or new appendages.
The story is odd and a little hard to read a lot of in one sitting but reading an issue at a time and taking a few days off (as I'm doing) helps it sink in more and has you ready for more. The artwork is what I love most about SCUD it is simply amazing black and white drawing that I wish I could look at every day and I don't think that it ever would need color even though I've seen plenty of color covers and images of SCUD.
I don't know how this book ends and I'm in no hurry to find out because I'm enjoying the adventure so much that I wish it could go on forever.
Kevin P. JohnsonCopyright © 2009 Kevin P. Johnson

DMZ Book 5 The Hidden War

This image is copyright © 2008 DC Comics and is used as Fair Use Review images only. Image will be removed upon request of DC Comics or Vertigo Comics.

DMZ is a comic created by Brian Wood for Vertigo Comics. The premise is what happens after a second civil war breaks out in the United States and New York City becomes the DMZ. The story follows reporter Matty Roth as he tries to tell the real story of the DMZ to the Free States of America.

I buy DMZ in trade paperback so I don't get the story right away and actually I'm one trade behind but I wanted to review this book because I found it an interesting choice that Brian Wood made and also kind of risky. The Hidden War reprints DMZ issues #23-#28 and up until this point it has been all about survival in the DMZ but these six issues flip the script and make the main characters background characters and introduce new characters to the story. This seems like an odd choice to put out 6 consecutive issues of a comic that has nothing to do with the main story from the main characters point of view. I liked the book but if I was reading it monthly I'd probably be kinda upset at the turn the book took. I think these issues would have worked better as a series of one shots.

The characters that are introduced are good and have a lot of potential and should help take the story into new and interesting places in the long run. "The Militant Mob Boss Of Chinatown" story is excellent and I hope that he becomes a major player in the series. The aging Graffiti artist story was very interesting too.

DMZ book 5 overall is good stuff but I just want to be back into the main story. Hopefully book 6 is in my near future.

Kevin P. Johnson
Copyright 2009 Kevin P. Johnson

My Return to the blog

So I've been away for a while and have neglected this blog completely. I've been working on my webcomic Strange City Heroes and have got things to a point where I can attempt to come back to this blog. The schedule for this blog will be to make a post every Friday (no set time) and if there is time post whenever possible.

- Kevin P. Johnson