Flash Gordon 2014 Holiday Special
Written by Dan McCoy, Elliot Kalan, and Stuart Wellington
Art by Lara Margarida, Stephen Downey and Joseph Cooper
Colors by Omi Remalante
Letters by Simon Bowland
Covers by Evan Shaner & Jordie Bellaire and Ken Haeser & Blair Smith
Dynamite Entertainment
Cover A | Cover B
Release Date: December 17, 2014
Cover Price: $5.99

The Flash Gordon 2014 Holiday Special is a gift in itself. I mean, how many OTHER publishers put out Holiday specials this year? I believe Dynamite was one of only two. And what better character to get his own Holiday special than Flash Gordon? Sure, it would’ve been interesting to see a Holiday book from either The Shadow or Doc Savage or Red Sonja or even Battlestar Galactica, but in my opinion, the Flash Gordon universe offered the most opportunity story-wise, and the creative teams didn’t disappoint.

Cancertown Vol. 1 & 2
Written by Cy Dethan
Art by Stephen Downey
Colors by Melanie Cook
AAM/Markosias
Release Date: November, 2012
Cover Price: $19.99

The trouble with a lot of the comics I review is that they just try too damn hard. From hack dialogue to characters that are more caricatures than actual heroes or villains, some comics just scream inauthenticity. It’s not that there is no place for over the top dialogue or characters *cough The Big Two cough* it’s just that for most indie comics, subtle is better. Cancertown by Cy Dethan is anything but subtle. Part Silent Hill part 100 Bullets, this is a comic that samples from every classic genre and, for the most part, comes out on top.

Cancertown starts in a frenzy and pretty much keeps that pace up through its entirety. Even now, if you were to ask me to sum up this book in a sentence I’d have a hell of a time trying to figure it out. But, since it’s my job to sum things up in sentences, here goes. Cancertown follows Vince Morley as he traverses the darkest depth of madness, his own sickness, and the dark-world known as Cancertown.