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Jawbreakers #1
Jawbreakers: Lost Souls
The Jawbreakers are a group of ex-superheroes turned mercenaries. After burning bridges with the CIA while operating in the Middle East and losing their lucrative security contracts in Europe, they find themselves working as monster hunters in Africa.
122 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2019
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66 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 23, 2019
A group of superheroes face off against a King Kong-scale ape only to discover they're pawns in a larger game where friends become enemies and enemies become friends. Tucked in the back are two bonus stories featuring a hostage rescue and the first part of story where our powerful (but B-level) heroes face off against a technological god-king, Incredibles style.
I've been following "yaboi" Meyer since about June of 2018, as he excoriated the comic book industry for its various faults, and I think between this and IRON SIGHTS, the clearest thing illustrated is the vast gulf between criticism and creation.
Now, this is a fun book and I think he hit his target in a lot of ways. The physical quality is great. Even with the vicissitudes of putting this together, he has made good on the promises of his crowdfunding campaign. But in the "Comics MATTER with yaboi" tradition, I'm going to dig in a bit.
John Malin's line work is good, in that it's precise, emotive and reads well. That said it's not exactly to my taste. Partly this is the nature of the characters who are supposed to be older and somewhat haggard, even. When we meet Xaxi, for example, she's stunning, and tends to be throughout until we see her in fear or anger, then she takes on an exaggeratedly harsh aspect, like the other characters seem to throughout.
Also, the bodies are very much in a '90s style and I'm finding, e.g., Jack Kirby's work in Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 1 more to my taste. I didn't read comic books much in the '90s but when I did, I felt like the idealized figures were overblown. That didn't bother me too much.
Brett Smith's coloring is nigh-perfect. The only quibble I had was that it's very dark, especially up front. But it is all very, very nice to look at.
Eric Leathers lettering is crisp and clean and easy to read, except at one point—for thoughts or spooky psychic voices or whatever—it's light blue (like rough draft color) and these old eyes had a devil of a time reading them.
This would be a five-star book but, as I said, there's a gulf between critic and creator, and Meyer is just now starting to cross it. I know some stuff about the characters from his youtube channel that I would not have picked up from the book, and even so, I ended up with a lot of questions.
In the classic cartoon series "The Powerpuff Girls", the very first episode features Mojo Jojo turning the people into dogs. It's delivered sort of "in media res", as if we'd been watching the show all along—and we all knew and hated Mojo Jojo and understood exactly what was possible in the universe of The City of Townsville. In 12 minutes, you got such a good feel for what was going on that by the second half of the episode, you were thinking "of course, Seduca is trying to win over the Professor to get at the girls."
These were broad comedic and comic archetypes, of course. But by the end of Jawbreakers I was not really sure what our heroes could do. I didn't know why Kuffz was called Kuffz, though I did get that he was super-strong. Silk has some kind of psychic powers, sort of light Green Lantern-style. Hell Priest can see evil but I couldn't keep straight whether or not he was actually blind. Someone finally says outright that he is in the last book but it was hard to see how it was any kind of a disadvantage. (I think he snipes at one point?) Knifehand was pretty clear and cooler than I expected. I still don't know what Devil Dog actually does.
It's a lot to try to put into 56 pages, sure, and it didn't bother as much as it should have because the characters were actually pretty strongly drawn. But I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the first struggle of art is to realize that the audience isn't in your head and they don't know anything you don't tell them.
A story has to have some room to breathe, especially inaugural stories. Like the first issue of Superman: Trying to communicate this idea of a superhero to a mass audience that may not have had a strong reference for the idea at all. We don't have that issue today, obviously, but we do recognize that different universes have different rules and we don't necessarily know what the rules are here, which drains some of the drama.
There are a couple of dramatic beats missed, that Ethan Van Sciver pointed out in his video review: The discovery of the giant ape could've been stretched out to greater effect; Xaxi and Kuffz were sorta instantly bonded.
Over the past couple years I've gained increasing respect for those who are able to tell a full, compelling, fun story in 56 pages, much less 24, but if we're going to take these matters seriously—and Meyer makes the argument we should—we're going to also have to be very demanding.
That said, I did love the story. It was ballsy and bold and fun. The second two stories were also a lot of fun, and it's clear that the author cares a whole lot about what he's doing, who his characters are, and whether the audience is having a good time.
As such I expect Meyer's journey crossing that gulf into master crafstmanship is going to be a lot of fun to watch.
I've been following "yaboi" Meyer since about June of 2018, as he excoriated the comic book industry for its various faults, and I think between this and IRON SIGHTS, the clearest thing illustrated is the vast gulf between criticism and creation.
Now, this is a fun book and I think he hit his target in a lot of ways. The physical quality is great. Even with the vicissitudes of putting this together, he has made good on the promises of his crowdfunding campaign. But in the "Comics MATTER with yaboi" tradition, I'm going to dig in a bit.
John Malin's line work is good, in that it's precise, emotive and reads well. That said it's not exactly to my taste. Partly this is the nature of the characters who are supposed to be older and somewhat haggard, even. When we meet Xaxi, for example, she's stunning, and tends to be throughout until we see her in fear or anger, then she takes on an exaggeratedly harsh aspect, like the other characters seem to throughout.
Also, the bodies are very much in a '90s style and I'm finding, e.g., Jack Kirby's work in Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 1 more to my taste. I didn't read comic books much in the '90s but when I did, I felt like the idealized figures were overblown. That didn't bother me too much.
Brett Smith's coloring is nigh-perfect. The only quibble I had was that it's very dark, especially up front. But it is all very, very nice to look at.
Eric Leathers lettering is crisp and clean and easy to read, except at one point—for thoughts or spooky psychic voices or whatever—it's light blue (like rough draft color) and these old eyes had a devil of a time reading them.
This would be a five-star book but, as I said, there's a gulf between critic and creator, and Meyer is just now starting to cross it. I know some stuff about the characters from his youtube channel that I would not have picked up from the book, and even so, I ended up with a lot of questions.
In the classic cartoon series "The Powerpuff Girls", the very first episode features Mojo Jojo turning the people into dogs. It's delivered sort of "in media res", as if we'd been watching the show all along—and we all knew and hated Mojo Jojo and understood exactly what was possible in the universe of The City of Townsville. In 12 minutes, you got such a good feel for what was going on that by the second half of the episode, you were thinking "of course, Seduca is trying to win over the Professor to get at the girls."
These were broad comedic and comic archetypes, of course. But by the end of Jawbreakers I was not really sure what our heroes could do. I didn't know why Kuffz was called Kuffz, though I did get that he was super-strong. Silk has some kind of psychic powers, sort of light Green Lantern-style. Hell Priest can see evil but I couldn't keep straight whether or not he was actually blind. Someone finally says outright that he is in the last book but it was hard to see how it was any kind of a disadvantage. (I think he snipes at one point?) Knifehand was pretty clear and cooler than I expected. I still don't know what Devil Dog actually does.
It's a lot to try to put into 56 pages, sure, and it didn't bother as much as it should have because the characters were actually pretty strongly drawn. But I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the first struggle of art is to realize that the audience isn't in your head and they don't know anything you don't tell them.
A story has to have some room to breathe, especially inaugural stories. Like the first issue of Superman: Trying to communicate this idea of a superhero to a mass audience that may not have had a strong reference for the idea at all. We don't have that issue today, obviously, but we do recognize that different universes have different rules and we don't necessarily know what the rules are here, which drains some of the drama.
There are a couple of dramatic beats missed, that Ethan Van Sciver pointed out in his video review: The discovery of the giant ape could've been stretched out to greater effect; Xaxi and Kuffz were sorta instantly bonded.
Over the past couple years I've gained increasing respect for those who are able to tell a full, compelling, fun story in 56 pages, much less 24, but if we're going to take these matters seriously—and Meyer makes the argument we should—we're going to also have to be very demanding.
That said, I did love the story. It was ballsy and bold and fun. The second two stories were also a lot of fun, and it's clear that the author cares a whole lot about what he's doing, who his characters are, and whether the audience is having a good time.
As such I expect Meyer's journey crossing that gulf into master crafstmanship is going to be a lot of fun to watch.
July 7, 2019
Very meh!
Most of the artwork is good, good enough to pull it from 2 stars to 3 but the story just isn't strong enough.
The story is all over the place and characters are thrown in with no notion of a point to them. The main team is weak and has no substance. All of this doesn't make for a terrible story but it's the bad cliches that do this, the only black character in the team is a 1970's caricature of a black man and none of the humour works, which changes it from funny to plainly racist. I sort of get were Meyer was going with this, by throwing in the odd references to him trying to be cool and fulfill people's expectations of him but it doesn't work, especially when he goes full Ali G and asks "Is it because I'm black?"... And Xaxi... I wont even attempt to dissect... i could try to speak about each character but there just isn't any point, it's not worth it. All that being said, there are some good ideas in this book. I like the general idea of the team but it feels weighted by lack of experience on the writers part, it feels a little too much like The Boys, but carried out badly.
I do think that Hellpriest could be a decent, likeable character with some backstory.
All in all I wouldn't recommend it, it took me about 45 minutes to get through but it would be a waste of 15 minutes let alone 45. It seems like someone really wanted to write a comic but unfortunately hasn't got enough good ideas. Sometimes it's ok to take inspiration from other media but pretty much everything felt like its been done before.
A shame really but it shows why indie titles aren't mainstream.
Most of the artwork is good, good enough to pull it from 2 stars to 3 but the story just isn't strong enough.
The story is all over the place and characters are thrown in with no notion of a point to them. The main team is weak and has no substance. All of this doesn't make for a terrible story but it's the bad cliches that do this, the only black character in the team is a 1970's caricature of a black man and none of the humour works, which changes it from funny to plainly racist. I sort of get were Meyer was going with this, by throwing in the odd references to him trying to be cool and fulfill people's expectations of him but it doesn't work, especially when he goes full Ali G and asks "Is it because I'm black?"... And Xaxi... I wont even attempt to dissect... i could try to speak about each character but there just isn't any point, it's not worth it. All that being said, there are some good ideas in this book. I like the general idea of the team but it feels weighted by lack of experience on the writers part, it feels a little too much like The Boys, but carried out badly.
I do think that Hellpriest could be a decent, likeable character with some backstory.
All in all I wouldn't recommend it, it took me about 45 minutes to get through but it would be a waste of 15 minutes let alone 45. It seems like someone really wanted to write a comic but unfortunately hasn't got enough good ideas. Sometimes it's ok to take inspiration from other media but pretty much everything felt like its been done before.
A shame really but it shows why indie titles aren't mainstream.
![Profile Image for [Name Redacted].](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.gr-assets.com%2Fimages%2FS%2Fcompressed.photo.goodreads.com%2Fusers%2F1347082397i%2F287915._UY200_CR0%2C0%2C200%2C200_.jpg&w=128&q=75)
March 23, 2019
The first story is an especially fun sci-fi action romp, and even had some pretty funny lines. The romance does feel a bit too quick...as long as you ignore the actual motivations of Xaxi. I get the feeling people complaining about that just weren’t reading too carefully. Also, people complaining about Kuffz dialogue don’t know his backstory (a white collar criminal pretending to be gangsta because he’s insecure & wants to live out a childhood blaxploitation fantasy) which isn’t fully revealed here.
The second story is a revised & redrawn version of the first "Jawbreakers" story -- the art is okay, more in line with 1980s GI Joe (which is the point, I suppose), and the pacing is actually better than the newer story...but it's also sadder & darker. Highlights again include Kuffz, this time caught up posing dramatically in the middle of a fire-fight (because he's completely invincible and forgets that other people are still in danger).
The third story is my favorite, balancing the lighter side of the first & darker side of the second, with a perfect fusion of the classic art style of the latter & the new sleek art style of the former. It's crazy, it's wild, it has some classic 1960s Batman-style villains, etc. SOLD!
The second story is a revised & redrawn version of the first "Jawbreakers" story -- the art is okay, more in line with 1980s GI Joe (which is the point, I suppose), and the pacing is actually better than the newer story...but it's also sadder & darker. Highlights again include Kuffz, this time caught up posing dramatically in the middle of a fire-fight (because he's completely invincible and forgets that other people are still in danger).
The third story is my favorite, balancing the lighter side of the first & darker side of the second, with a perfect fusion of the classic art style of the latter & the new sleek art style of the former. It's crazy, it's wild, it has some classic 1960s Batman-style villains, etc. SOLD!
February 24, 2019
Possibly the 2nd worse comic I have ever read. The character Xaxi is nothing of substance, just boobs, a damsel in distress, a Judas, and a damsel in distress again. The one black member of the team talks like a caricature of a stereotype from a 1970s movie. The plot jumps all over the place. The art looks like someone wanted to copy Rob Liefeld but came failed miserably. He has no concept of anatomy or panel layout. All in all if you paid 25 dollars for this you were ripped off. (Un)Luckily the author sent me mine for free because even though I cancelled my order for the book he refunded my money and sent me a copy anyway because I guess he wanted to torture me by having me actually read his piece of trash comic.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 30, 2019
This is a combination of 3 separate stories. Each has the same writer and each has a different artist.
1st story - Fairly bland GI Joe rip-off. Elite commando team, the Jawbreakers, infiltrates enemy base, frees hostages. The art, drawn by the writer himself, is just above passable for an independent comic book, writing is boring and uninteresting. Honestly not much more to say here.
2nd story - Ho boy, now we're talking. First the art. Since this particular story was the main push of the book (the title and cover being about this story), the writer farmed out the art to a "professional." For those of us that have been reading comics for a few decades, the art here is very reminiscent of 90's art. Not the big name mega popular artists you loved, but the guy that replaced said artist when he was moved on to something else. Remember that feeling (before the internet kept fans alert of creative team changes on books) of picking up a book only to discover that the superstar artist that had drawn the previous issue, and even did this issue's cover, had been replaced by someone trying their darnedest to ape the superstar's style? Remember how there were droves of not-ready-for-prime time artists thrust onto major publisher's books because superstars were leaving the big 2 (Marvel/DC) in droves to make creator owned books? The artist here would fit into the bottom of those fill-in artists. Hands look weird. Drawing feet is avoided. Body proportions are out of whack. The art here is genuinely terrible.
Luckily for the artist, the writing is just as bad so he doesn’t have to take all the blame. There is an attempt to make the commandos have personalities, but it is so laughably bad that it come off as someone doing a caricature of a caricature of a mockery of a bad stereotype. There is a martial artist character that doesn't speak (a 100% rip-off of GI Joe's Snake's) named Knife-Hands. There is a character I had to go over the story 3-4 times before I realized was supposed to be blind. There is a female whose sole purpose is to wear skimpy clothing and to really drive home the "Africans are nothing but savages" stereotype. The one black team member is named Cuffs, as in he only has superpowers when he's in shackles. Wait, stick with me here, it gets worse. He has a catchphrase. It's "I’m about to rock this fool, WITH THE POWER OF 1000 SLAVES!” Just in case you we still wondering if the writer was inept or simply trying to force in some form of racial/political statements here, there are multiple "Ha it's funny because he’s a black man that voted for Republicans” jokes. All of this makes for either bland or horrible stereotyped characters fighting King Kong. There is an attempt to give the main character some sort of arc, but it falls completely flat as there no more than a few panels dedicated to this. Same with the almost naked female “savage African” woman there team picks up and is later betrayed by (for what reason we’ll never know).
3rd story – This story is part one of story that is to be continued at a later time. Yes, you just purchased a collection of stories bound into to a 122 page book only to be left without a conclusion. Since I spent so much time reviewing the feature story (2nd story) I will attempt to keep the review of this partial story brief. Art is an improvement. The artist on the third story is of a caliber that I could see him getting published by larger comic company. Not quite ready to headline a feature Marvel or DC book, but would definitely NOT turn me off from buying this art in a Dark Horse or Image creator owned property. The writing, while not feeling like the writer is forcing an agenda as much, may actually be worse here. There are multiple pages where I had to turn back to see if I had missed something or if there were pages that had been stuck together. Nope, the story just randomly decides to take weird detours or simply doesn’t make any chronological sense. (And yes I aware that the plot involves a god like being manipulating reality, but it should still have some flow and be semi-intuitive to follow). There is a character reveal/turn that comes so out of nowhere I’m surprised the entire story doesn’t have a whiplash warning printed on it. Imagine if in Ghostbusters, Dan Aykroyd’s character, in the middle of the fantastic meeting of the Mayor scene, started reciting the “THIS IS SPARTA” like from 300 and then grew wings and flew into the sun. As I said, completely out of nowhere and nonsensical. To top it off, the story simply stops. The abruptness of this was such that I actually contacted a few people I knew that also bought the story to see if I was missing pages. One of the characters simply completes a statement and the next page is the back cover. Not even a “to be continued…” or “Jawbreakers will return…” message.
Over all impressions and takeaways. The writer really doesn’t know how to properly structure a comic. If this was some form of attempt at an experimental comic, I could understand the lack of basic comic book necessities such as: page turns (if you’re unfamiliar with the term, feel free to Google “comic page turns”, realistic dialogue ("power of 1000 slaves"…oof), competent lettering (letterer constantly, RANDOMLY bolding WORDS FOR no REASON at all), coherent and complete story, and less than one dimensional (1/2 dimensional?) characters, but since this is really an attempt at a fairly bland traditional action superhero comic, it is a total failure. I cannot recommend you purchase (or even borrow a friend's copy to read) this book unless you are interested in viewing and mocking bad comics much like the crew of MST3K and RiffTrax watch and mock horrible movies.
1st story - Fairly bland GI Joe rip-off. Elite commando team, the Jawbreakers, infiltrates enemy base, frees hostages. The art, drawn by the writer himself, is just above passable for an independent comic book, writing is boring and uninteresting. Honestly not much more to say here.
2nd story - Ho boy, now we're talking. First the art. Since this particular story was the main push of the book (the title and cover being about this story), the writer farmed out the art to a "professional." For those of us that have been reading comics for a few decades, the art here is very reminiscent of 90's art. Not the big name mega popular artists you loved, but the guy that replaced said artist when he was moved on to something else. Remember that feeling (before the internet kept fans alert of creative team changes on books) of picking up a book only to discover that the superstar artist that had drawn the previous issue, and even did this issue's cover, had been replaced by someone trying their darnedest to ape the superstar's style? Remember how there were droves of not-ready-for-prime time artists thrust onto major publisher's books because superstars were leaving the big 2 (Marvel/DC) in droves to make creator owned books? The artist here would fit into the bottom of those fill-in artists. Hands look weird. Drawing feet is avoided. Body proportions are out of whack. The art here is genuinely terrible.
Luckily for the artist, the writing is just as bad so he doesn’t have to take all the blame. There is an attempt to make the commandos have personalities, but it is so laughably bad that it come off as someone doing a caricature of a caricature of a mockery of a bad stereotype. There is a martial artist character that doesn't speak (a 100% rip-off of GI Joe's Snake's) named Knife-Hands. There is a character I had to go over the story 3-4 times before I realized was supposed to be blind. There is a female whose sole purpose is to wear skimpy clothing and to really drive home the "Africans are nothing but savages" stereotype. The one black team member is named Cuffs, as in he only has superpowers when he's in shackles. Wait, stick with me here, it gets worse. He has a catchphrase. It's "I’m about to rock this fool, WITH THE POWER OF 1000 SLAVES!” Just in case you we still wondering if the writer was inept or simply trying to force in some form of racial/political statements here, there are multiple "Ha it's funny because he’s a black man that voted for Republicans” jokes. All of this makes for either bland or horrible stereotyped characters fighting King Kong. There is an attempt to give the main character some sort of arc, but it falls completely flat as there no more than a few panels dedicated to this. Same with the almost naked female “savage African” woman there team picks up and is later betrayed by (for what reason we’ll never know).
3rd story – This story is part one of story that is to be continued at a later time. Yes, you just purchased a collection of stories bound into to a 122 page book only to be left without a conclusion. Since I spent so much time reviewing the feature story (2nd story) I will attempt to keep the review of this partial story brief. Art is an improvement. The artist on the third story is of a caliber that I could see him getting published by larger comic company. Not quite ready to headline a feature Marvel or DC book, but would definitely NOT turn me off from buying this art in a Dark Horse or Image creator owned property. The writing, while not feeling like the writer is forcing an agenda as much, may actually be worse here. There are multiple pages where I had to turn back to see if I had missed something or if there were pages that had been stuck together. Nope, the story just randomly decides to take weird detours or simply doesn’t make any chronological sense. (And yes I aware that the plot involves a god like being manipulating reality, but it should still have some flow and be semi-intuitive to follow). There is a character reveal/turn that comes so out of nowhere I’m surprised the entire story doesn’t have a whiplash warning printed on it. Imagine if in Ghostbusters, Dan Aykroyd’s character, in the middle of the fantastic meeting of the Mayor scene, started reciting the “THIS IS SPARTA” like from 300 and then grew wings and flew into the sun. As I said, completely out of nowhere and nonsensical. To top it off, the story simply stops. The abruptness of this was such that I actually contacted a few people I knew that also bought the story to see if I was missing pages. One of the characters simply completes a statement and the next page is the back cover. Not even a “to be continued…” or “Jawbreakers will return…” message.
Over all impressions and takeaways. The writer really doesn’t know how to properly structure a comic. If this was some form of attempt at an experimental comic, I could understand the lack of basic comic book necessities such as: page turns (if you’re unfamiliar with the term, feel free to Google “comic page turns”, realistic dialogue ("power of 1000 slaves"…oof), competent lettering (letterer constantly, RANDOMLY bolding WORDS FOR no REASON at all), coherent and complete story, and less than one dimensional (1/2 dimensional?) characters, but since this is really an attempt at a fairly bland traditional action superhero comic, it is a total failure. I cannot recommend you purchase (or even borrow a friend's copy to read) this book unless you are interested in viewing and mocking bad comics much like the crew of MST3K and RiffTrax watch and mock horrible movies.
March 1, 2019
Great art in "Lost Souls," and good art in the other two stories. Cool comic.
June 28, 2019
I don't regret getting this because I want to support the indie comic scene and I think the the major companies have really let their quality slip.
That being said this just isn't that good. I don't really care about the politics and the controversy involved, and while you can clearly tell it's written by someone leaning far in one direction, that's really not where it falters.
The story is choppy and at times hard to follow, and despite the huge scale of events happening it all feels kind of inconsequential somehow. Lost Souls is much better in both story and art than the others, but it shares the same issues.
I hope the quality improves if there is more Jawbreakers to come, because even with the issues the characters are interesting and I'd like to see more of them.
That being said this just isn't that good. I don't really care about the politics and the controversy involved, and while you can clearly tell it's written by someone leaning far in one direction, that's really not where it falters.
The story is choppy and at times hard to follow, and despite the huge scale of events happening it all feels kind of inconsequential somehow. Lost Souls is much better in both story and art than the others, but it shares the same issues.
I hope the quality improves if there is more Jawbreakers to come, because even with the issues the characters are interesting and I'd like to see more of them.
May 23, 2020
Not quite my idea of good comics. Good bang for buck on page count, as far as crowd-funded comics goes, and I was happy to support one of my favorite Youtube channels, since I adblock. Also happy to help fund a lawsuit against someone who *has* made good comics, but decided to abuse his position against folk he doesn't like, so there's no buyer's remorse, here (except I backed one other project before reading this and it's followup, G0DK1NG).
On the other hand, things get a little better with the next volume, so it's kinda inspiring to watch someone grow in realtime.
On the other hand, things get a little better with the next volume, so it's kinda inspiring to watch someone grow in realtime.
July 21, 2019
I’ve been a fan of the author’s YouTube channel almost from the beginning. His criticism of how, in his opinion, the comic book industry has changed for the worse in chasing more progressive politics at the expense of characters and stories. While I don’t agree with everything he mentions, you can see he is a massive fan of comics and that his criticism has made him some big enemies in the comic book industry. They challenged him to see if they could do any better. So, he wrote one (if you follow his channel, they even tried to stop this getting printed the way he wanted).
He's had stuff published before, a Kickstarter just last year but a few graphic novels he had published about 5 years ago. But this is his first real superhero ‘classic’ comic, that he’s had the idea for a while. He even released a very early draft of a Jawbreaker story, when he started his channel asking for it to be roasted to hell. Which it was.
With his comic reviews and take on the industry, he’s got into contact with some big hitters in the comics business. The art for the first comic in this novel is by Jon Malin, who has done many big Marvel comics. And the quality of this first comic, it shows. The art for ‘Lost Souls' is very good, especially for a first issue and for what is essentially is an indie book.
The story for the one-shot; Lost Souls, is that the Jawbreakers; a bunch of aged super powered mercenaries in a sort of mix of the Expendables with superpowers, have burnt their bridges in both the US and Europe and have gone to do contracts in Africa. Hired by a beautiful tribes woman they find themselves pitted against a giant inter-dimensional gorilla (?) and the militia chasing it.
The plot is nuts, a Godzilla sized super ape travelling through alternate dimensions, that a cyborg warlord wants to kill, to get the gold, weapons and armour that the gorilla has eaten from the armies that have attacked it. Throw in the fact the gorilla has lost its soul from travelling through inter-dimensional portals. And the Jawbreakers must capture the super Gorilla, defeat the militia, return the ape’s soul and get it back through the right portal. Like I said, crazy.
But it does it well, I was able to follow the story well enough with both the pacing and dialogue, making the story both easy to follow and enjoyable. The plot is one that could only really be told in a comic and kind of being a mix of action and superhero stuff really appealed to my kind of tastes.
The characters are a mix bag. I wouldn’t say there’s a bad character it’s just some you seem more drawn to or just appear to be more interesting. I think everyone’s favourite is Hell Priest, a blind priest who’s the team’s sniper. Silkworm, a sort of disgruntled Spiderman with his silk-fibre generating powers and super strength is decent as the leader of the group. His buddy-cop relationship with Kuffz is good, and if improved would be a big boost even if the jokes about him being the only black member can spill over into a bit of a cringe. Both Devil Dog, who I think is like a weapon expert/ninja type hero and Knife Hands whose power that his hands can cut through anything look cool but never given any real depth like the others. The villain is ok, a bit standard, like villain from a decent superhero film; serviceable but not really a standout.
The designs of the Jawbreakers are good, while the powers and style aren’t exactly original, they are good to build the type of stories around what I think Meyer wants to write.
The rest of the book is a redrawn (remastered) version of his original Jawbreakers comic, which was meant to be their first issue. As its based on the original, the standard in both art and writing from Lost Souls is massive and has that more of an indie comic look than the new release.
Here are essentially the first two comics in a larger story. I won’t go on about this, as he has a new Kickstarter out writing the next volume in this story, but the was intrigued by the world set up in this issue, of the Jawbreakers being brought in after superheroes in New York being killed off.
Judging from the Lost Souls story, in its art, which is very good and the type of stories that he seems to be aiming towards are up my street. While not the best comic I’ve read, it was fun and enjoyable to read, and I preferred it to Iron Sights, his other comic. I’m looking forward to the next in this series, having already given to the Kickstarter. It may not be to everyone’s taste, but credit should be given for Meyer answering his detractors by writing a half decent action comic.
He's had stuff published before, a Kickstarter just last year but a few graphic novels he had published about 5 years ago. But this is his first real superhero ‘classic’ comic, that he’s had the idea for a while. He even released a very early draft of a Jawbreaker story, when he started his channel asking for it to be roasted to hell. Which it was.
With his comic reviews and take on the industry, he’s got into contact with some big hitters in the comics business. The art for the first comic in this novel is by Jon Malin, who has done many big Marvel comics. And the quality of this first comic, it shows. The art for ‘Lost Souls' is very good, especially for a first issue and for what is essentially is an indie book.
The story for the one-shot; Lost Souls, is that the Jawbreakers; a bunch of aged super powered mercenaries in a sort of mix of the Expendables with superpowers, have burnt their bridges in both the US and Europe and have gone to do contracts in Africa. Hired by a beautiful tribes woman they find themselves pitted against a giant inter-dimensional gorilla (?) and the militia chasing it.
The plot is nuts, a Godzilla sized super ape travelling through alternate dimensions, that a cyborg warlord wants to kill, to get the gold, weapons and armour that the gorilla has eaten from the armies that have attacked it. Throw in the fact the gorilla has lost its soul from travelling through inter-dimensional portals. And the Jawbreakers must capture the super Gorilla, defeat the militia, return the ape’s soul and get it back through the right portal. Like I said, crazy.
But it does it well, I was able to follow the story well enough with both the pacing and dialogue, making the story both easy to follow and enjoyable. The plot is one that could only really be told in a comic and kind of being a mix of action and superhero stuff really appealed to my kind of tastes.
The characters are a mix bag. I wouldn’t say there’s a bad character it’s just some you seem more drawn to or just appear to be more interesting. I think everyone’s favourite is Hell Priest, a blind priest who’s the team’s sniper. Silkworm, a sort of disgruntled Spiderman with his silk-fibre generating powers and super strength is decent as the leader of the group. His buddy-cop relationship with Kuffz is good, and if improved would be a big boost even if the jokes about him being the only black member can spill over into a bit of a cringe. Both Devil Dog, who I think is like a weapon expert/ninja type hero and Knife Hands whose power that his hands can cut through anything look cool but never given any real depth like the others. The villain is ok, a bit standard, like villain from a decent superhero film; serviceable but not really a standout.
The designs of the Jawbreakers are good, while the powers and style aren’t exactly original, they are good to build the type of stories around what I think Meyer wants to write.
The rest of the book is a redrawn (remastered) version of his original Jawbreakers comic, which was meant to be their first issue. As its based on the original, the standard in both art and writing from Lost Souls is massive and has that more of an indie comic look than the new release.
Here are essentially the first two comics in a larger story. I won’t go on about this, as he has a new Kickstarter out writing the next volume in this story, but the was intrigued by the world set up in this issue, of the Jawbreakers being brought in after superheroes in New York being killed off.
Judging from the Lost Souls story, in its art, which is very good and the type of stories that he seems to be aiming towards are up my street. While not the best comic I’ve read, it was fun and enjoyable to read, and I preferred it to Iron Sights, his other comic. I’m looking forward to the next in this series, having already given to the Kickstarter. It may not be to everyone’s taste, but credit should be given for Meyer answering his detractors by writing a half decent action comic.
March 30, 2019
Much Improved
Review of the 1st Indiegogo paperback edition shipped during Feb/March 2019.
Richard C. Meyer is in the forefront of the current crowd-funded independent comics/graphic novels movement. His primary YouTube channel called "Comics MATTER w/ Ya Boi Zack" (Ya Boi Zack being the name of Meyer's YouTube persona) has grown to almost 100,000 subscribers and 34 million views in the 2 years since its beginnings in April 2017. "Comics MATTER..." reviews comics and editorializes on the state of the mainstream comics industry with 2 or 3 postings per day and propagates a steady fan/customer appreciation message. A secondary channel called "Splatto del Gato" (Splatto the Cat) reviews movies and TV shows on a more occasional basis (perhaps 1 or 2 postings per week). Meyer believes in not showing his own face in reviews but often features his friend's Luna the Boxer dog that he is frequently pet-sitting. Fan favourite Luna gets a cameo at the end of this current book.
Meyer's 3 crowd-funding campaigns to date on Indiegogo have raised $551K U.S. with 14,000 backers. Meyer's first and second (a charity fundraising edition for The Trevor Project suicide hotline) campaigns were offers of his Texas-noir IRON SIGHTS which was done in a rough and gritty, black and white, movie storyboard style which felt unfinished, at least as a comic book product.
"Jawbreakers: Lost Souls" is a much improved creation with full drawing and colouring from various artists and colorists across 3 stories. There is the main 50-page story "Jawbreakers: Lost Souls" and then bonuses of a 34-page "Jawbreakers: Book One Remastered" and 26-page "Jawbreakers: Book Two." The "Book One" apparently exists in an earlier edition that was presumably funded through a pre-2017 alternative crowd-funding source. This new edition is "revamped and occasionally remixed." The Book One and Two exist as prequels to a promised future "Jawbreakers: God King" story.
Meyer continues to write in an Iceberg Theory style where character backgrounds are not fully stated and explained, but about which the audience can usually make reasonable assumptions. The 5 main superhero team members display their powers throughout by showing and not telling and even after reading the book I am actually not clear about all of them. But there is enough there to keep things intriguing for the future. The artwork is quite spectacular in places, especially in the larger full page and double page panels.
Although the current "Jawbreakers: Lost Souls" campaign is sold out, a 2nd edition should be made available prior to the "Jawbreakers: God King" campaign. The only edits that I would recommend are to drop the light blue-coloured font for the occasional silent unspoken thought text balloons, which seemed pale and unreadable compared to the conventional spoken text in black-coloured font. I thought the convention in comics/graphic novels was to use a multi-bumped cumulus cloud shaped balloon for silent thoughts. A different coloured and hard-to-read font seems unnecessary. The single typo that I spotted was "Forward" instead of "Foreword" in Meyer's "Book One Remastered" introduction, but that might be an intentional nod to or unintended tic of his military service background.
Trivia
Meyer promises "a number of hidden 'Easter eggs' to find throughout" in his Forward (sic) to the 2nd story "Jawbreakers: Book One Remastered." I've only found one, .
Review of the 1st Indiegogo paperback edition shipped during Feb/March 2019.
Richard C. Meyer is in the forefront of the current crowd-funded independent comics/graphic novels movement. His primary YouTube channel called "Comics MATTER w/ Ya Boi Zack" (Ya Boi Zack being the name of Meyer's YouTube persona) has grown to almost 100,000 subscribers and 34 million views in the 2 years since its beginnings in April 2017. "Comics MATTER..." reviews comics and editorializes on the state of the mainstream comics industry with 2 or 3 postings per day and propagates a steady fan/customer appreciation message. A secondary channel called "Splatto del Gato" (Splatto the Cat) reviews movies and TV shows on a more occasional basis (perhaps 1 or 2 postings per week). Meyer believes in not showing his own face in reviews but often features his friend's Luna the Boxer dog that he is frequently pet-sitting. Fan favourite Luna gets a cameo at the end of this current book.
Meyer's 3 crowd-funding campaigns to date on Indiegogo have raised $551K U.S. with 14,000 backers. Meyer's first and second (a charity fundraising edition for The Trevor Project suicide hotline) campaigns were offers of his Texas-noir IRON SIGHTS which was done in a rough and gritty, black and white, movie storyboard style which felt unfinished, at least as a comic book product.
"Jawbreakers: Lost Souls" is a much improved creation with full drawing and colouring from various artists and colorists across 3 stories. There is the main 50-page story "Jawbreakers: Lost Souls" and then bonuses of a 34-page "Jawbreakers: Book One Remastered" and 26-page "Jawbreakers: Book Two." The "Book One" apparently exists in an earlier edition that was presumably funded through a pre-2017 alternative crowd-funding source. This new edition is "revamped and occasionally remixed." The Book One and Two exist as prequels to a promised future "Jawbreakers: God King" story.
Meyer continues to write in an Iceberg Theory style where character backgrounds are not fully stated and explained, but about which the audience can usually make reasonable assumptions. The 5 main superhero team members display their powers throughout by showing and not telling and even after reading the book I am actually not clear about all of them. But there is enough there to keep things intriguing for the future. The artwork is quite spectacular in places, especially in the larger full page and double page panels.
Although the current "Jawbreakers: Lost Souls" campaign is sold out, a 2nd edition should be made available prior to the "Jawbreakers: God King" campaign. The only edits that I would recommend are to drop the light blue-coloured font for the occasional silent unspoken thought text balloons, which seemed pale and unreadable compared to the conventional spoken text in black-coloured font. I thought the convention in comics/graphic novels was to use a multi-bumped cumulus cloud shaped balloon for silent thoughts. A different coloured and hard-to-read font seems unnecessary. The single typo that I spotted was "Forward" instead of "Foreword" in Meyer's "Book One Remastered" introduction, but that might be an intentional nod to or unintended tic of his military service background.
Trivia
Meyer promises "a number of hidden 'Easter eggs' to find throughout" in his Forward (sic) to the 2nd story "Jawbreakers: Book One Remastered." I've only found one, .
April 26, 2019
Strong 4. The main story, Lost Souls, assumes a little too much knowledge of the characters but is a solid, fun story with excellent art and colors. I like the G0D-KING story better as the characters are more fleshed out, so to speak, one gets a better sense of their personalities. Meyer writes as well or better than many professionals in the industry and it's a shame politics (literally) have gotten in the way of more readers discovering him.
April 21, 2019
Classic superhero story. There are superheros, a bad guy, and some awesome battle scenes. I felt like a couple of things could have been added to make the plot a little smoother, but overall an enjoyable read. I couldn't help but laugh at some of the antics, and loved the twist on the giant ape. The bonus chapters at the end of the book were nice additions too.
January 19, 2020
It's exactly what it sets out to be. A good, solid 90's-style action superhero / mercenary story. Fantastic looking book that has one of the "coveted" display locations in my collection :) Recommended.
September 5, 2019
Great story and enjoyed it. A true comic story.
September 18, 2019
exactly what it promises. 80s 90s style over the top action with plenty of beefcake and cheesecake. If you liked Image, DC or Marvel in the 90s, you will like this.
October 29, 2019
I had twenty dollars and now I don't.
May 31, 2020
Zack has shown true courage in the face of slanderous attack to almost personally bring integrity to the comic book industry.
July 9, 2019
Like JustSomeGuy said, there are shortcomings in a couple places where there seems like there are panels or splash pages missing, They ended up putting the story with the little character introduction tags at the beginning of the second story and not in the first story, so that was a pain, I didn't care for the killing off of a certain character who didn't get enough development to justify it, but all in all a really good couple of stories albeit the second one ends on a cliffhanger. Now I gotta wait forever for the next book!
Minor complaints aside, I laughed out loud nearly a dozen times.
A thoroughly entertaining read.
This is what comics are meant to be.
Minor complaints aside, I laughed out loud nearly a dozen times.
A thoroughly entertaining read.
This is what comics are meant to be.
April 6, 2019
I can see the development in Meyer’s story telling and In his political writing. Although it would have been less jarring to have all the stories drawn and inked by the same artist, it certainly shows improvement. I look forward to more.
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