New Year, New Read

It's always good to start off the year with something new. Something that caught your eye and you figured you'd take a chance on. Or perhaps you're looking for something new to read to kick off the new year. Well, here at Comic Addicts we've found something new and we're going to share it with you.

Back on November 12 at the Coast City Comic Con in Portland, Maine we got talking to a couple of interesting chaps who are completely into cryptozoology. Their names are Todd Dezago and Craig Rousseau. These two created The Perhapanauts. After talking to them and their love of cryptozoology (the study of mythical and folklore creatures such as Big Foot, Mermaids, and Mothmen to name a few) they suggested we check out their book. Which of course we bought the graphic novel Dark Days after getting them to sign it.

If you're a fan of Hellboy, you'll enjoy The Perhapanauts. It's about a secret government agency BEDLAM aka The Bureau of Extra-Dimensional Liabilities And Management. These folks look for rips in the space time dimensional fabric that could allow something to come through that shouldn't. They then asses the situation and correct it as they detain whatever it was that got through the rip.

Of course it's the characters that really make the story. In the case of The Perhapanauts it's the Blue Team. The Blue Team contains quite the cast of characters. There is Arisa the Blue Team leader who is a powerful psychic. Then there's MG who is a slider which means he can slide between dimensions. There is also Molly who is a ghost. Those are the "normal" ones for the most part.

Then there is Choopie and Big. Choopie is a chupacabra and Big is a Big Foot. Both Choopie and Big were put through an evolution ray to make them smarter. Big now is very much like Hank McCoy in that he's the smartest member of the team as well as its strongest member. Choopie acts like a 12 year old boy. He refers to vampires as, "blood suckin' freaks" when in fact being a chupacabra he is a blood sucker himself.Every now and then a couple of characters from the Red Team pop their heads in. Peter Hammerskold is a former Marine and leader of the Red Team. He has little to no tolerance for Arisa and the creatures that make up her team, but he desperately wants to be Blue Team leader. There is also Karl who is a mothman who lends a hand, er, wing from time to time.

The group dynamic works extremely well and the characters have a family feel about their relationship with one another. Of course Choopie is the trouble maker with his, "mess you up gun" and so is the one who needs the most supervision. Arisa and Big are the two that hold everything together and keeps everyone focused. Like any family they don't get along perfectly, but they are able to work out their differences rather quickly.

So if you're looking for something that has a Hellboy/X-Files feel The Perhapanauts is for you. The storylines make it a quick and enjoyable read as well as putting an interesting spin on those classic urban legends and folklore tales. Craig's artwork is a style that falls between the gothic and classic sci-fi. Which means it fits the characters and the story perfectly.

For more information about Todd and Craig's Perhapanauts visit their website:

http://perhapanauts.com/

M’s Pull List: Weekly Ramblings

Welcome to the first edition of M's Pull list. This column provides some skewed views on the latest comics released in this week! Don't forget to drop us a line in the comment section below to let us know what you thought of them.

Aquaman meets Parallax'ite wannabe

 Aquaman #4 : I am sorry guys, but I seriously do not get all the praise Aquaman is getting. Yes he is a badass., we get it.. so just lay off and focus on the story. And please less compressed storyline. Four issues in and Aquaman has just saved a few people from the villain of the day ! Bah! I liked Peter David’s run, much better. 

Comicon Express Mumbai : A Comic Addict's journey from Delhi to Mumbai

It was a Friday night (yesterday, apparently) and the world was partying, while I was in the office, trying to wrap up my work as soon as possible so that I could go back home and finish my packing. After all, I was leaving Delhi early morning for Mumbai to attend the Comic Con Express – Mumbai representing Comic Addicts

Try hard as I might, it was 11.30pm before I could leave my office and reached home at 12.15am, past midnight, and was dead tired. Took an hour to pack up, another hour to grab a bite and rest my feet for a while and do my part of the preparation for the Comic Con. It was almost 3.30am by the time I was done, and the reporting time for our flight was 5.30am, so I decided not to close my eyes, coz if I did, I was pretty certain that I would miss the flight.

 At 5am I called Mayank and from his greeting it was certain that he had just got up!!! I told him to hurry up and left for the Airport. I reached at 5.30am and strolled around a bit and try to get some fresh air, for a change. I was expecting these guys to arrive any second. At 5.45am I called Mayank and he told me that he was just leaving his house!

Adventures of the Kite Family

Adventures of the Kite Family written by Dan Brader with the first issue illustrated by New Zealand artists, Yi Lang Chen & Csaba Mester.

Dan and I have been FB friends since I first was contacted by him a few months back, when he asked me to check out the first issue of Kite Family. Because the series is a Real Life genre book, the issues and situations in it, felt like it was speaking to me personally as an adult male. I felt at one with the character, even though there isn't much revelation about why Donnie is back from where ever he was. The story allowed me to put myself in Donnie's place and think about the shit, for lack of a better adjective, that I had/have been going through after my own split and returning to my parents home to recoup for a while before I decided it was time to stand up.

Nish's Notepad: Sufi Comics

Hello There!
I know most of you know me as The Gotham Guy: Nishkarsh Chugh but what's better than a combined blog where you have all the stuff at only one place. This is my first official post, I've written twice here but that wasn't OFFICIAL.
Enough talks, I'll be writing every Tuesday here and for some weeks, I'll be reviewing comics and graphic novel's of different genres, different companies and different ages. Special thanks to Mayank, without whose support we wouldn't be able to come on a single platform and write.


So today, I'm going to review 40 Sufi Comics, short comic strips illustrating eternal truths in the teachings of Islam.

Art: Mohammed Ali Vakil
Script: Mohammed Arif Vakil and Mohammed Ali Vakil

"One's own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one's Maker and no one else's.

-Mahatma Gandhi

I'm a Hindu. I spent my early childhood days reading Amar Chitra Katha (because it was an easy way to understand the vast Hindu Religion) . I didn't know about the the teachings of Holy Qur'an and Islamic Religion. Just some weeksa back, I ordered 40 Sufi Comics and some days back, it got delivered. The cover page said it all.. "Heaven is just two steps away" (read the whole review to get the answer)..