Dungeons & Dragons: Evil At Baldur’s Gate #1
Print Edition | Digital
Written by Jim Zub
Art by Dean Kotz
Colors by Stefani Rennee
Letters by Neil Uyetake
Covers by Max Dunbar and Joanna Lafuente, Dean Kotz and Joanna Lafuente, Dean Kotz, Max Dunbar
IDW Publishing
Release Date: April 25, 2018
Cover Price: $3.99

Straight from the hip, there is nothing serious about Dungeons & Dragons: Evil At Baldur’s Gate #1 except that it is seriously fun. Imagine, if you will, that we had a mashup of the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon with Teen Titans Go! and it was presented in comic book form. That is essentially what we have here. It’s certainly entertaining, but also, just as certainly, not deep in plot or characters.

Krampus #1
Written by Brian Joines
Illustrated by Dean Kotz
Colored by Ron Riley
Lettered by Charles Pritchett
Cover by Dean Kotz
Image Comics
Release Date: December 18, 2013
Cover Price: $2.99

What happens if you mix an adventure worthy of Indiana Jones with the sass and sarcasm of Hellboy, and then sprinkle it with a heaping helping of holiday magic? You get the surprisingly entertaining dark comedy from Image Comics: Krampus #1 by Brian Joines.

It’s probably tough to pull off a Christmas-themed comic that actually appeals to fans who prefer a gritty story over one covered in sugarplums and dipped in chocolate, and I say this because I recall only one other (The Last Christmas by Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan) that managed it. Brian Joines, however, has stepped up to the Christmas comic challenge and has emerged victorious thanks to his delightfully wicked “hero” and his own twisted sense of humor.

Poe
Trade Paperback Edition
Written by J. Barton Mitchell
Art by Dean Kotz
Colors by Digikore Studios
Letters by Marshall Dillon & James Dashiell
BOOM! Studios
Price: $16.99
Release Date: April 14, 2010

When I first heard that there was going to be a book where Edgar Allan Poe was going to help his policeman brother solve crimes, I was on board. I really enjoyed this exploration of the invention of detectives and detective stories through the eyes of the original inventor of the genre.

The story follows Edgar Allan Poe, who is dealing with his wife’s passing, and his brother William, the cop who is having trouble solving the murders of local citizens. While Edgar is with William at one of the crime scenes, he points out clues to the murderer, so William realizes he could use Edgar’s skills to help him solve the question of who the killer is. Of course being a story involving the Poe family there is a supernatural twist to the tale.