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Reviews:
*Marked
#3*
A
man is out looking for a
job and gets sidetracked easily by temptation. He has also been tempted
to do other things that are not so nice or within the law. Well maybe
that is in question about the murders.
The art is quite simple. It does fit the story though which while
having some mystery is simple as well.
This
guy is a demon fighter. But are the demons just within himself. It
seems as if the only demons that exist are those he thinks are real. So
this is one disturbed guy.
~ Richard Vasseur, Jazma Online
*Marked
#2*
Possibly
missing out
on the first issue left this one left me a little confused. There was a
nice recap on the first page though so I wasn’t stumbling around in the
dark. The artwork in this minibook is really nice. Great shading work,
much like it says in their quote comparing it to Sin City. So minus a
few
points on the confusion, but overall a good paced nice looking action
filled
issue. I should add that the artwork in this book is 1.5" x
1.75"
it’s a lot of fun in a small package.
~
Decapitated Dan, From
the Tomb
Marked
#2 is a miniature
comic book with some meat in it! Mark was a demon hunter with a demon
inside
of him. However, his demon escaped on a demon hunt and is out to kill
him
and take the things that he loves. This would make a great full sized
comic
book – and yet it's all packed into a miniature book.
The
art could use a slight
bit more detail, but it definitely gets the story across. There are
some
good perspective drawings in it which add a lot of action to the story.
Luckily and unluckily a lot of the gory detail in this comic has been
left
out of the art and it found in words. It has a strange bittersweet
ending
with lots of room for another story.
Thank
you Brian Mitchell
and Jeremy Johnson!
~
Karen Maeda, Sequential
Tart
Jeremy
Johnson draws issue
two of MARKED, Mitchell’s tale of a man possessed by a demon that he
finds
a way to free himself from. Of course, what should be a happy occasion
isn’t quite so, since the beast goes on a rampage and begins looking to
kill and destroy everything the man cares about. MARKED works because
it
has some nice pacing and because Johnson finds a way to use the small
format
to his advantage.
~
Marc Mason, Comics
Waiting Room
It
may have finally happened:
Brian may have finally spread himself too thin with the pile of minis
he’s
putting out on a constant basis. I thought this issue was a
little
too pat, wrapped up a little too neatly. Things start off
with a
recap of the last issue (Brian has always gotten this right), then our
hero Mark the former demon hunter (called out of retirement in the last
issue) wakes up after taking a beating from his own inner demon, which
he had to unleash to defeat the other demons. The issue is a
mad
dash from there, with the demon killing Mark’s girlfriend in his
apartment,
Mark getting a train ticket to get out of town (as he understands
completely
that “my inner demon came to life and killed my girlfriend” wouldn’t
fly
with the cops), and the demon confronting Mark at the train
station.
I’m still having trouble putting my finger on exactly what it was that
felt… less in this issue than in the rest of Brian’s work.
The ending
was very neat, sure, especially when you consider how much trouble Mark
knew it would be to release his demon and the relative ease with which
their fight went (not to give anything away or anything, even though I
kind of just did. Dammit). With his
consistent record
of quality he’s earned the benefit of the doubt from me, so I’m
guessing
this inner demon thing will get explained more fully in future issues,
or maybe he’ll just ditch this series entirely and focus on the half
dozen
other series he writes. Still, there’s some great artwork by
Jeremy
on these tiny pages, and the story all by itself was
engaging. There
was just something a little bit lacking. Yes, I know that as
a reviewer
I’m supposed to be able to pinpoint exactly what that is.
Maybe Brian’s
desire to have all the issues be at least mildly self-contained, which
caused the fight to wrap up too quickly? That’s a noble goal,
to
keep everything satisfying if a person only buys one issue.
Ack,
I give up. There’s also the possibility that something in my
brain
wasn’t firing properly today; keep in mind that’s always a possibility
with these reviews.
~
Kevin Bramer, Optical
Sloth
*Marked
#1*
Jeremy
Johnson handles
the art chores on MARKED, one of the more commercial concepts Mitchell
has produced. A retired demon hunter (with a secret of his own) begins
investigating the death of his girlfriend’s sister, which sets him back
on a path for justice. This book is very high concept, and the ending
leaves
it wide open for further adventures of the main character. Johnson’s
work
is a little on the inconsistent side, vacillating between easy to
follow
and somewhat obtuse in its choices of angle and p.o.v. If there are to
be further installments, that’s something that would need to be worked
on.
~
Marc Masters, Comics
Waiting Room
…speaking
of mini-comics,
Marked takes the terminology very seriously and gives us a fun little
book
that’s literally about the size of a book of matches. It’s full of the
same visceral images found on the cover in the form of ghouls, danger,
and violence. The layouts remind me of some of the original Tijuana
Bibles
with a single wide open panel adorned by typed-looking text on the
bottom
of the page. Looking at the single images, Johnson uses shadow very
nicely
in the outdoor sequences, and especially on facial details like
obscured
eyes or stray wisps of hair. Taken as a whole though, the art doesn’t
flow
well page to page, with different slightly related images being strewn
together, held in place only with the narrated text on the bottom. I
like
that Mitchell’s story isn’t afraid of violence or disturbing images. It
never plays as gratuitous, simply a writer who doesn’t shy away from
the
story he wants to tell and has a clear picture of it in his mind. It
shows
confidence, which is always an attractive quality. On the down side, I
have a couple of quibbles with the text. The first is the use of the
ampersand,
“&,” which is a little jarring and questionable in spots. When
you
begin a sentence with it, it really disrupts the flow of the text. The
second is use of the term “prey.” I’ve never seen it used this way, but
two examples go like this: “for a vulnerable prey” and “an easy prey.”
I think those phrases could have omitted needless words and simply been
“for
vulnerable prey” and “easy prey.” While the original use might
technically
be grammatically correct, it’s extremely clunky sounding. Marked ends
with
a twisty cliffhanger and despite some small glitches, I’m intrigued by
the size, reasonable price point, and plethora of additional titles
available
at: www.silbermedia.com/comics. Grade A-.
~
Justin Giampaoli, Poopsheet
This
book is the newest
series from Silber - yet apparently, one of the author’s first, having
been through a myriad of different artists before reaching this point
in
time. It’s a fairly good story, but one that invokes “rape” right near
the beginning, which pulled me right out a bit. There’s just too much
rape
in comics nowadays, I swear.
Anyway,
the rest of the
story (concerning a man whose mission in life is to kill monsters) is
pretty
solid, but definitely reads like an earlier work. While newer offerings
have slimmed down the text content, this one remains very verbose,
almost
to a fault. Still, it’s not a bad read... just one that’s not quite to
my tastes.
~
Brandon Schatz, Comixtreme
Hey,
why not one more
series? He already has 4 going strong. If you make
comics and
this guy doesn’t make you think that maybe you should be a little more
productive, I don’t know what would do it. Productive and
consistently
entertaining, all while using different artists for different projects,
is impressive no matter how you look at it. In this issue an
old
monster fighter comes out of retirement after his girlfriend’s sister
is
brutally murdered at a local park. No, I’m not sure what
being a
monster fighter entails either, but I’ll bet we learn that over the
course
of the series. Anyway, he manages to lure the murderers out
of hiding
by pretending to be a drunk (i.e. dousing himself with booze), but the
fight doesn’t go well and he’s forced to take a desperate and drastic
action.
I get the fact that I’ve been praising all these books for months now,
so this probably won’t have much impact, but this comic
sings. The
cadence of the dialogue, the fight scene (even with it being all
scrunched
up in this tiny comic, it didn’t suffer a bit), and that ending were
all
pitch perfect. These comics are all ridiculously affordable,
and
you’d have a hard time going wrong trying any of them. Today
this
has the potential to be my favorite of the bunch, but talk to me
tomorrow
and I’ll go with a different series. That speaks to some
serious
range, and if he’s able to do another five series at this high level I
say go for it.
~
Kevin Bramer, Optical
Sloth
Marked
is a departure
from Brian’s other work. Yet, at the same time, it falls victim to the
author’s own personal clichés.
Brian
John Mitchell seems
to use the “damsel in distress” model frequently. In particular, sexual
abuse and rape are very prevalent (violence in general is prevalent in
his work).
Point
is, I like the
overall concept — I’m just sick of seeing the author write male
characters
fighting for the honor of sexually abused women who are often often
portrayed
as miscalculating and defenseless.
The
art here by Jeremy
Johnson is very solid. It’s got a traditional superhero flair to it,
which
feels very fitting.
The
excellent concept
I mentioned before is part superhero, part modern horror anime, and
part
MTV’s The Head — “He” is retired monster hunter / demon killer that
gets
thrust back into the business and ends up in some deep @#$%.
It’s
a good hook and
I look forward to Marked #2.
~
Nick Marino, AudioShocker
Another
new title in the
latest round of Mitchell's minicomics is “Marked.” This
supernatural
series revolves around a retired monster hunter who gets sucked back
into
his former life when his sister is brutally murdered. Jeremy
Johnson
does an amazing job on art, and lends great atmosphere to the
story
with just one panel per page. In the fist issue, the monster
hunter
confronts the demons that killed his sister, and we find out he's got a
big secret of his own that he just let out.
~
Brian LeTendre, Secret
Identity Podcast
Although
the story in
the first issue of Marked is relatively self-contained there's little
doubt
it's just the opening salvo of a much longer saga.
The
hero in Marked is
a demon fighter. He's drawn out of retirement when he learns the sister
of his girlfriend was violently murdered. He goes to the scene of the
crime
to avenge her death.
Mitchell
is a great storyman
and he uses the format of his micro minis to great advantage, slowly
revealing
information and building tension with every turn of the tiny pages.
The
artwork by Johnson
is a nice match to the story. It's great to see artist and writer
working
together like this to make the overall package stronger and more
dramatic.
Marked
is 56 b&w
pages, which includes the self-cover. Approximately 2" x 2.25",
handmade,
untrimmed, with saddle stitch binding. It's available for $1, like
Mitchell's
other micro minis through the Silber Media website.
~
Midnight Fiction
Links:
Jeremy
Johnson - website
Brian
John Mitchell -
xo
mini-comic
Brian
John Mitchell -
Lost Kisses
mini-comic
Brian
John Mitchell -
QRD
interview zine
Brian
John Mitchell -
band
Remora