Tag Archives: beth varni

Review: Maggie X, Bitch With A Chainsaw #1

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Maggie X Bitch With A Chainsaw #1

As a child born in 1970s but really raised in 1980s, the movies I grew up watching what are now considered cinematic classics. The movies of Dennis Hopper and George Lucas showed two different sides of growing up in this era. Easy Rider gave birth to a generation of filmmakers whose love for storytelling gave new and exciting visions. Then there are those films made by Roger Corman and Henry Hill, which some looked at as “B” movies while others saw them as simple exploitation films.

As someone who fell in love with movies, these films entertained and kept my eyes glued to the screen. These movies, now affectionally referred to as, “Grindhouse,” were everything everyone had said about them but actually so much more. They showed fearlessness that few film auteurs dare to show today. The stories told were outrageous but fun and enjoyable. In the debut issue of Maggie X, Bitch With A Chainsaw #1, we’re taken to a post-apocalyptic world and a woman with an extraordinary skill set for taking out zombies.

Meet Maggie X, a zombie killing agent, who is going through her routine psych debrief. She’s forced to talk about all her feelings. One would think with all the blood and gore she has seen she’d be traumatized. She’s instead resolute. This world is a reality where zombies outnumber humans and the agency Maggie X works for is one with its own share of secrets. Maggie X has to take on a new partner Jed, an agent who she has had a contentious relationship within the past. They’re soon dispatched to a strip club where their intel suggests a zombie infection has spread amongst the strippers. What they discover is far worse than what they ever expected.

Overall, the debut issue is an engaging story that is both fun and gory. The comic is a must for exploitation film fans. The story by Bryce Raffle is funny, contains well-written dialogue, and is action packed. The art by the creative team is vivid and realistically drawn. Altogether, a story that gives a dose of fun into the zombie genre.

Story: Bryce Raffle Art: Beth Varni, Rodrigo Ramos, and Lettersquids
Story: 10 Art: 9.5 Overall: 9.7 Recommendation: Buy

Review: Active Voice: The Comic Collection

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In the world we live in, rapidly “being accepted,” is such a rare trait for humans to have. Suddenly, in our world, it has become so vogue to hate people. No longer are morals and good will, commonplace, but more of a trait that only exists in certain human beings and ones that people try to fake. As the recently passed Nelsan Ellis once said, “Being different makes me beautiful”.

Never has truer words been said and needs to be said especially in our current social and political climate which begs one to wonder are we seeing the decline of civilization? I like not to think so, I would like to think that people can accept everyone for who they are and we thrive because of our differences, not because of our shared commonalities. Recently, I heard of the PRISM awards, and was glad to hear of some of these comics that do not necessarily get the spotlight they deserve. One of those books was Active Voice – The Comic Collection, which incidentally started out a column.

In the first comic, “The Birth of An Activist,” P. Kristen Enos dives into what is not only an educational and horrifying look into racism and homophobia during the 1980s. In “First Day in The Sun.” Enos dives into the first LGBTQ parade they attended where they witnessed the beauty of queer diversity. In the comical “Mind Games,” Enos has multiple nightmares, where they dream of living a societal conformant life. In “The Republican Toastmaster,” Enos dives into a Toastmaster meeting, where everyone gets to do a speech, and one of them being clearly biased against LGBTQ individuals, infuriates them to the point where Enos introduced themselves as a Lesbian. In one of my favorite stories from the collection, “Above and Beyond,” Enos dives into a classmate’s unspoken family connections where her mother never identified to her children that was a Lesbian, despite the numerous clues, which leads her to be a minor sleuth.

Overall, an excellent collection of stories, although I highlighted a few of the stories, every one of the is equally germane and powerful, which just so happens to be true and allows to reader to check themselves in their behaviors and attitudes. The stories by Enos, is funny, smart, eye opening and very much relevant. Altogether, an interesting set of stories that will give the reader, a better understanding of who we are as humans.

Story: P. Kristen Enos and Heidi Ho
Art: Derek Chua, Leesamarie Croal, Casandra Grullon, Beth Varni, Dan Parent
Story: 10 Art: 10 Overall: 10 Recommendation: Buy