I feel funny whenever asked to review anything. I mean who am I to critique someone else’s work? And what do I base said critique on? Do I go the snobbish route and critique the writer/artists form and style, his punctuations and grammar for instance? I elect to leave those assessments to the real critics. I am not a critic. I like what I like plain and simple. Some may agree with me, others may not. With that said lets get on with the review.
Last September I reviewed the first issue of Miles Gunter’s four part series Yeti Vs Vampire, a cool, quick paced, action extraordinaire pitting everyone’s favorite Himalayan ape-man against the forces of evil. I loved it. Sure it was full of crude, juvenile humor, but it was also creative, entertaining and laugh out loud funny with monster battle royals around every corner, something the monster lover in everyone could enjoy.
Miles is back this week with a new three part series called Demon Cleaner from Antarctic Press. The premise is simple: The tormented Demons of Hell want to escape their pits of torment to wreck havoc upon the earth. However, getting out of Hell is apparently quite the difficult task. Enter a bunch of wealthy socialites from all over the world who’ve paid a healthy one million dollars for the opportunity to dine on the flesh of three demons conjured by a whacked out sorcerer who reminds me of Iggy Pop with robes and a hood-don’t ask. The sorcerer screws up the sacrificial feast, the demons kill everyone in the restaurant and escape into the world where they are now free to unmake Earth “the way that you or I can make scrambled eggs.”
Enter the Demon Cleaner, a natural force from Hell residing on earth exactly for problems such as these. Armed with a couple fancy hand cannons and an array of various go-to-in-a-tight-spot weapons he takes on the children of Hell (and Gandhi) in an all out action packed chase throughout the city. Short on time the Demon Cleaner is guided by a mysterious chain smoking blond with a tight skirt and a biohazard clean up team.
Lacking explanation, Demon Cleaner is basically a no holds barred, ass-kicking chase comic. The only problem I have with these short series’ is the lack of depth allowed. For instance how did the Demon Cleaner get to be in the position he’s in? Where did the girl and the rest of the team come from? Are they demons as well? Simple little questions that would have added a bit of history to the story had the series been a couple issues longer. However, perhaps that isn’t necessary to the overall impact of the story. Maybe the critic in me is looking for something that isn’t required to enjoy the events unfolding from page to page. Demons escape Hell, another Demon is sent to stop them, plain and simple.
Overall I enjoyed Demon Cleaner. The cover work by Kelsey Shannon lured me in and Victor Santos’ art throughout the comics gave the story a visual depth and explosiveness. I’d like to see what kind of a crazy monster/demon infested world Miles could come up with say in a graphic novel, not unlike his work with Zombee(1996) where he would have the time to cut lose his imagination and give us a more detailed glimpse into the nightmarish wackiness of his mind with a plethora of different monsters.
Get to your local comic shops this week and pick up the first issue of Demon Cleaner. Read it in your car in the parking lot, or on the bus ride home, or in the back yard at night with a flashlight and a beer. The following two issues should hit shelves in the next couple of months so you wont have to wait to long to see what happens, and trust me, you’ll wanna know how this fight ends.
For more info on Miles Gunter check out www.milesgunter.blogspot.com
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