In FREAKY TALES: DOUBLE FEATURE #1, available now from Evoluzione Publishing, readers are given the first chapter in two tales. “Three Horns” recounts the story of three adopted sisters with magic abilities that roam the countryside to rid the towns of demons. “Titanium: Blade” is set in a post-apocalyptic world filled with alien invaders, kaiju, and mechas.
The Details
- Written By: Guido Martinez (Three Horns), Marcell Dupree, Joshua Metzger (Titanium: Blade)
- Art By: Torn-S (Three Horns), Matteo Leoni (Titanium: Blade)
- Letters By: Guido Martinez (Three Horns), Marco Della Verde (Titanium:Blade)
- Cover Art By: Torn-S (cover A)
- Cover Price: $X5.00
- Release Date: Available Now
Was It Good?
Yes, It’s a largely strong doubleheader from an indie publisher. Each story has its strengths and weaknesses covered below. For the cover price, readers get a lot of story, high-quality art, and interesting cliffhangers to warrant coming back for Chapter 2.
Each story is heavily influenced by manga in style, tone, and characterization. Given completely separate creative teams for each story, the output is significantly different as readers transition from one to the other.
Take a peek at the art and some of the concept designs in our FREAKY TALES: DOUBLE FEATURE #1 preview.
What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD]
“Three Horns”
Gala, Cayla, and Seyelia are three adopted sisters roaming the country to rid their country of demons in exchange for payment. They each unique powers and strengths — Gala is an expert martial artist with Drogaonball-esque special moves. Cayla is a super-strong tank specializing in massive melee weapons. And Seyelia is the magic wielder.
In a lot of ways, this trio is reminiscent of a grown-up and well-endowed manga version of The Powerpuff Girls, right down to their personalities. Seyelia is the bubbly blond who’s slightly ditzy. Gala is the no-nonsense leader. And Cayla is the tomboyish sort who likes to get her hands dirty.
The trio, under contract, enters a town to wipe out lower-level demons killing the townsfolk. They finish off the monsters with ease and head to the main castle for payment.
The town’s leader pays with a generous bonus on top. However, he is overly-assertive with attempts to get the trio to stay longer “just in case.” It’s clear there was more to the demon invasion than the leader is admitting. The trio refuses and they head out.
Before long, a larger and more powerful demon arrives in the town, and the trio is obliged to return to make good on their agreement to rid the town of all demons. This demon, as Cayla explains, is more powerful because it has a horn. The more horns, the more powerful the demon.
What’s noteworthy up to this point is the beauty of the art, especially during the fight scenes. Torn-S makes every panel beautiful and energetic and (pardon the language) kickass.
With extra effort and a big-boss move that requires the trio to combine their powers, the sub-boss demon is defeated, but not before he says something that casts doubt for the trio about why the town keeps getting invaded.
Great art. A clear, concise, fun story. The only mild down is slightly clunky dialog.
“Titanium: Blade”
Earth is under alien occupation and has been for many years. Humans are treated as slaves living a meager existence among the ruins of Earth’s cities. Once in a while, massive kaijus show up to create mayhem.
This story is the weaker of the two in this double-header. That’s the risk you run with two separate stories and two separate creative teams in the same book — comparisons are inevitable. The art is good, but not as good compared to Three Horns. And the story is too lacking in setup and context for it to completely make sense.
Large aliens (~12 feet tall) rule the Earth and cruelly force humans into servitude. During the opening prologue, a human working in what looks like an underground command center accidentally spills a tray of food on his alien overlord and is severely beaten for his clumsiness. While the scene plays out, you see a computer screen showing the aliens are looking for someone who looks like a human with pointy ears; possibly a different type of alien.
Cut to a frantic car chase weaving through city streets with semi-destroyed skyscrapers. The car is being chased by a kaiju with cybernetic implants — a kaiju/mecha hybrid. The drivers manage to escape by using a laser cannon to collapse a building on top of the hybrid.
What makes this story less good is the complete lack of names except for Miles, the car’s gunner. The reader is forced to rely on the character’s visual distinctiveness to keep track, and that works for the majority of the chapter, but referring to characters as “the one with the pink hair” doesn’t land well.
The drivers return to another underground command center apparently under full human control. Without saying it explicitly, it appears a faction of humans have formed a rebel alliance to organize and arm themselves.
Inside the center is a large mecha, and Miles spends his spare time trying to get it operational. The mecha is alien in origin and only responds to alien DNA, but Miles hopes to reverse engineer its controls to get it to activate for humans.
Soon, Miles, the one with pink hair, and the one with brown hair arm up and drive out for a “pickup” — a sort of underground railroad to sneak humans out of the city and away from the alien overlords. Emerging from a larger sewer drain with their latest group of refugees, one of the humans, the stubborn one, decides the trek out in the open to a transport ship is too dangerous and wants to go back. The one with brown hair holds him at gunpoint with the order that they can’t let anyone return in case they give away their operation. This scene is well-acted, tense, and the best example of drama in this entire chapter.
Suddenly, the group spots a body covered in a cloak lying out in the desert. It’s a naked girl. When she wakes up, she has no memory of who she is, how she got here, or any knowledge of an alien invasion.
The group decides to turn back to the command center with this amnesiac stranger to the rebel command center. When they get there and start walking to the medical bay, the abandoned mecha comes online. That’s when they realize the girl is an alien, and she appears to be the same one the tall aliens were searching for at the beginning of the chapter.
There’s decent art. The story is not bad if a bit convoluted. The premise is certainly original, and it contains enough to make one curious for the next chapter.
Final Thoughts
FREAKY TALES: DOUBLE FEATURE #1, available now from Evoluzione Publishing, is imaginative, eye-catching, and gives you more than your money’s worth for the cover price. If you’re looking for an indie comic with heavy manage influences, give this one a try.
Score: 8.5/10
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