The Becoming Anthology 11 review part 3 of 3

Compiled and edited by Lynsey G and Jayel Draco

15 stories total, last 5:
Lomack, The Giant Warrior Angel by Miguel Colón
Children of Gaia by Jayel Draco
Ziegler Box by Chaka Brown Freeman
Bloom Squad Part 3 by James Wayne Johnson
Pack 4 Chastity by Lynsey G

11. Lomack

written, illustrated and lettered by Miguel Colón

Not much happens in these 8 pages. The severe use of blacks and contrasting shadows gives this a great dark mood, though. A mutant-warrior approaches a large fortress, asking the keepers above to join him on a revenge quest. Little later we flip over to the 'maiden in distress' to be rescued, tied down by the bad guy. All in all this is a very solid read, and I would like to read more.

12. Children of Gaia

drawn by Jayel Draco, story by Chris Covelli and Jayel Draco

Like the Tracy Queen story earlier, Jayel's style is very colorful and rounded. Everything looks ripe and slightly swollen. He had a very good 'jump scare' panel later in the story involving the monster. This story's basically your 'Jules Verne' type of adventure tale set firmly in the 19th century, replete with mutton chops and large sailing ships.

13. Ziegler Box

written by Chaka Brown Freeman, art by Vicente Alcazar, dialogue by Greg Gallagher (?), lettering and PG-8 art by Nouri Zander

This one's a head scratcher. The lack of panel borders (gutters) and the general mish-mash of visuals -plus several different lettering styles- all conspire to keep this unreadable. There's a story of vampires, and travel to other countries, and guns, and screaming people. Ugh! Help! This isn't a comic book. It's a collage of images, like an over-stickered back side of a bus stop sign.

14. Bloom Squad, Part 3

written by James Wayne Johnson, illustrated and lettered by Marcelo Salaza

A man listens to a TV announcer who's selling you preventative measures for deflecting mental 'telepathic' interference into your head. There's warring groups. This has the look of a movie you just started watching in the middle. There's a strong sense that this was meant to be color too. The whites seem too bleached out, too blank. The action does pick up well on the last panel, though. Too little, too late.

15. Pack 4 Chastity

written by Lynsey G art by Jayel Draco

It's to be expected this anthology finishes off with another entry by the ones who put this whole thing together. There's a heck of a lot of set-up to this story. Cops hanging around a coffee shop. Patrons at a bar. A boy reflecting on his ill treatment at the hands of a police officer, he was looking for his dog. All the while the whole story's supposed to be about dogs forming wild packs that potentially could be dangerous to people. Given the few pages they had to work with, they should have started the story way farther in, going straight for the boy losing his dog.

Well there you have it!

Anthologies like these are great in that they allow new talent to get their artwork out into the world without the huge expense of self-publishing. I look forward to reading their next anthology. You can find older books in their store site

Next Tuesday:

Back to another weird deep dive into the haunted house's water works with Pipe Creepers 2! by Frank Martin

10454 Lomita Ave #B, Felton
United States

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