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Review: George R.R. Martin’s ‘Skin Trade’ #2

Published

11 years ago

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With the monstrous success of Game of Thrones, author is George R.R. Martin is currently red hot. His books are flying off the shelves of book stores and Avatar Press was smart enough to scoop up the comic book rights to his gory werewolf novel. Using Martin’s prose novel “The Skin Trade” as the source material, Avatar has tasked writer Daniel Abraham and artist Mike Wolfer with adapting “Skin Trade” into sequential form.

WRITTEN BY:George R.R. Martin & Adapted by Daniel Abraham
ART BY: Mike Wolfer
PUBLISHER: Avatar Press
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: August 7th, 2013

The series follows private investigator Randi Wade as she digs deeper into a pair of murders that left victims brutally skinned alive. She quickly finds a connection to the case she’s investigating and the murder of her father, which leads her straight into the mouth of danger. Willie Flambeaux, an asthmatic sort of repo man, knew one of the victims and is out to bring the killer to justice. Flambeaux enlists the help of Wade and together they set out to solve this murder mystery. But Willie is holding onto some secrets he’s not telling Randi, which leads to him butting heads with the Harmons, a powerful family that hold enormous power within town.

Abraham and Wolfer are executing this book with deadly precision. They are taking the time to build the characters and bring things to a slow boil. The pacing of this book is perfect and they are revealing just enough to keep readers intrigued and salivating for more. We are slowly learning things about this world and the major players within it right with Randi Wade as she tries to decipher each piece of the puzzle. With each revelation comes more questions as they continue to build a great foundation of mystery and suspense.

In the past I’ve never been a huge fan of artist Mike Wolfer’s artwork, but here in “Skin Trade” he is turning in some of the best work of his career. He’s able to perfectly capture the intensity of the scenes, as well as the emotion of the characters in each carefully constructed panel. When Wolfer is finally unleashed, he delivers some fantastic action sequences and a brilliant stomach turning image of the murder victim’s skinned body in issue #2. In “Skin Trade”, Wolfer has really stepped up his game to pack the same potency as the story.

“Skin Trade” is another fantastic addition to the stable of Avatar Press horror books. There is the perfect balance of mystery, intrigue, suspense and character development. The only complaint is that this book might be better suited as a graphic novel, because the intricacies of the story would have more impact in one reading rather than the current monthly format.

4/5 Skulls

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‘The Toxic Avenger’ Returns with Cover Artwork for First Issue of New Comic Book Series [Exclusive]

Published

1 week ago

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May 13, 2024

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With a remake on the way and a new 4K restoration of the original classic now streaming, it’s a good time to be a fan of Troma’s The Toxic Avenger. Additionally, Matt Bors — the founder of The Nib and a political cartoonist who has twice been named a Pulitzer Prize finalist —and acclaimed artist Fred Harper (Snelson) are collaborating on an all-new 5-issue comic book series starring the satirical superhero of the Troma Films cult classic films!

TOXIC AVENGER #1 will land in stores on October 9, 2024.

While you wait, you can exclusively check out the issue #1 cover art from Fred Harper below, along with a set of emojis designed by Harper for the extremely online teens of Tromaville.

“The Toxic Avenger delivers what Troma fans want,” said AHOY Comics Editor-in-Chief Tom Peyer. “The series has violent action, gross mutations, bursting pustules, eye-popping visuals, and trenchant humor.” 

“If there was ever a superhuman hero for these toxic, miserable times, Toxie is the one!” said Lloyd Kaufman. “Only AHOY Comics and Bors & Harper could pull this off…er…mop this up! Toxie and the Troma Team can’t wait ‘til you read -no, experience – the art and stories that the Toxic Avenger Comic Book will explode in your brain, your soul, and your heart. Above all, remember – Toxie loves you and so do I.”

“This series will combine elements of the original films with the Toxic Crusaders cartoon and characters in familiar ways, updated to tell a story of environmental devastation, corporate control, and social media mutation,” said Bors. “The Toxic Avenger is first and foremost an environmental satire, one about a small town and its unremarkable people trapped and transformed by circumstances they don’t control. The story Fred Harper and I are telling is about people frustrated by authorities telling them not to worry about their life, that things are fine, even as their dog mutates in front of their eyes. And at its core it is about a powerless boy, Melvin, who finds out he can be incredibly strong, hideously mutated, well-admired, and incredibly heroic… but still ultimately powerless over human behavior.”

In The Toxic Avenger, teenager Melvin Junko helps run his parent’s junkyard in Tromaville, a small town in New Jersey where nothing much ever happens — until an ill-timed train derailment of toxic waste transforms Melvin into a hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength: the Toxic Avenger!

Under a media blackout imposed by Biohazard Solutions (BS) and their PR-spewing Chairwoman Lindsay Flick, Melvin emerges as a hero fighting against BS and the mutated threats that keep popping up around Tromaville.

Eventually Melvin uncovers a vast conspiracy more far-reaching than he could have ever imagined — but he knows if everyone is simply made aware of the crisis, they’ll act to stop it. Right?

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