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Terminal Punks #1-5
Terminal Punks
Four greasy gutter punk teens are en route to their big show in the big apple, but when things go monstrously wrong and mutant animals are unleashed in the airport, our heroes must put on their combat boots, fly their Black Flag and survive a viral genetic mutant nightmare. Collects issues #1-5.
Kindle Edition
First published June 15, 2021
3 people are currently reading
34 people want to read
About the author
Matthew Erman
63 books61 followersMatthew Erman is a writer from Columbus, Ohio. Erman is known for his unique storytelling style which often blends humor and heart with the surreal and sometimes disturbing. He co-created the critically acclaimed horror series, "Long Lost,” and the roadtrip fantasy "Witchblood" with his wife, Lisa Sterle as well as being the sole creator for the sci-fi coming-of-age graphic novel “Bonding”. Erman also has written for popular properties such as Power Rangers and The Dark Crystal and has upcoming comics with Mad Cave Studios, IDW, and more.
You can find him online at www.matthewerman.com or in-line at your local Arby’s.
You can find him online at www.matthewerman.com or in-line at your local Arby’s.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
June 10, 2021
Punk Rock, by its nature, is a bit of a mess. Disorganized, cacophonous, aggressive, cynical, rebellious, raw, a bit silly, when it goes well it all adds up to something meaningful and magical. When it doesn't, it just feels like a pile of amateurish surface level discord. This punk graphic novel does some things really well - it creates characters you care about and captures the roiling emotions and anger at the state of the world of early adulthood. And my expectations were raised by the nice shoutout to Talking Heads on the cover. But the plot, the antagonists, the genetically engineered animals, the conspiracy theories, the action.....it's all a bit of a facile mess. 2.5 stars.
**Thanks to the artist, publisher, and NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
**Thanks to the artist, publisher, and NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
April 23, 2021
The short version: A really promising idea (essentially jumanji meets 28 days later) Gets bludgeoned to death in a text book example of how things go wrong when you tell don’t show
The long version: A bunch of mutated animals go on a murderous rampage in a locked down airport, sounds awesome right? Wrong! I apologize for the spoilers below, but I really can’t recommend anyone read this. When I read the description I was super excited to read this graphic novel, and I wasn’t even expecting anything deep or profound just a joyride through a harrowing hellscape. The joyride gets off the tracks almost immediately however. I understand this is a graphic novel and allow that exposition can be a little bit harder considering the medium, however terminal punks just info dumps everything without any nuance. At the same time the info dumping doesn’t really explain much of anything. The set up is that there is a rich man transporting animals and he doesn’t care what anybody thinks or anybody wants to know about it, but I still don’t understand exactly how the animals were transformed into their mutant varieties. I also don’t know the why or if it was just an accident.
The story is told through shifting POVs which allows basically no character development, so every character just says every single one of their feelings every single second. I’m so anxious. I’m misunderstood because I put up this hard exterior, but I’m really someone else underneath. On top of that, all of the people in the band are secretly in love with each other. The dialogue is clunky and doesn’t feel like what real humans would say, and there’s no subtext anywhere within the novel whatsoever.
Then there are the gaping plot holes. So the band, wins a battle of the bands even though their band has no name. OK, that might be a little bit nitpicky of me, but I don’t really think that would happen in real life. Putting that aside, the band is on a packed flight. When they get to the airport, all of a sudden they’re the only four people in the airport. Their luggage hasn’t been sent down the chute, every employee inside the airport is basically gone. What happened to the rest of the passengers? Then, worst of all they ultimately fight off some of these monsters. They go toe to toe with genetically modified monsters, with no real weapons to speak of, and come out with just a few scratches. I’m sorry, but I got into a knife fight with an ordinary panther, I’m pretty sure I’d get ripped to shreds before I did any kind of serious damage to the panther.
Then, on top of all of that, we have the WTF moments. The mayor of New York kills himself, just because I guess. The billionaire owner of the company that owned the animals strip down naked and starts running through the park. The behaviors make no sense whatsoever.
Still, I wanna give credit where it’s due. The artwork in the novel is pretty good. The only problem I have with the artwork is the band is supposed to be a group of teenagers, but they look about the same as all the adults. Otherwise this is well drawn, and the renderings of the animals are fun.
Overall I’d say 1.5 stars, mainly because of the artwork.
Component Ratings
Idea/Concept: 4.5 out of 5
Artwork: 4 out of 5
Dialogue: 0 out of 5
Plot: 1 out of 5
Theme; 2 out of 5
Ending: 1 out of 5
The long version: A bunch of mutated animals go on a murderous rampage in a locked down airport, sounds awesome right? Wrong! I apologize for the spoilers below, but I really can’t recommend anyone read this. When I read the description I was super excited to read this graphic novel, and I wasn’t even expecting anything deep or profound just a joyride through a harrowing hellscape. The joyride gets off the tracks almost immediately however. I understand this is a graphic novel and allow that exposition can be a little bit harder considering the medium, however terminal punks just info dumps everything without any nuance. At the same time the info dumping doesn’t really explain much of anything. The set up is that there is a rich man transporting animals and he doesn’t care what anybody thinks or anybody wants to know about it, but I still don’t understand exactly how the animals were transformed into their mutant varieties. I also don’t know the why or if it was just an accident.
The story is told through shifting POVs which allows basically no character development, so every character just says every single one of their feelings every single second. I’m so anxious. I’m misunderstood because I put up this hard exterior, but I’m really someone else underneath. On top of that, all of the people in the band are secretly in love with each other. The dialogue is clunky and doesn’t feel like what real humans would say, and there’s no subtext anywhere within the novel whatsoever.
Then there are the gaping plot holes. So the band, wins a battle of the bands even though their band has no name. OK, that might be a little bit nitpicky of me, but I don’t really think that would happen in real life. Putting that aside, the band is on a packed flight. When they get to the airport, all of a sudden they’re the only four people in the airport. Their luggage hasn’t been sent down the chute, every employee inside the airport is basically gone. What happened to the rest of the passengers? Then, worst of all they ultimately fight off some of these monsters. They go toe to toe with genetically modified monsters, with no real weapons to speak of, and come out with just a few scratches. I’m sorry, but I got into a knife fight with an ordinary panther, I’m pretty sure I’d get ripped to shreds before I did any kind of serious damage to the panther.
Then, on top of all of that, we have the WTF moments. The mayor of New York kills himself, just because I guess. The billionaire owner of the company that owned the animals strip down naked and starts running through the park. The behaviors make no sense whatsoever.
Still, I wanna give credit where it’s due. The artwork in the novel is pretty good. The only problem I have with the artwork is the band is supposed to be a group of teenagers, but they look about the same as all the adults. Otherwise this is well drawn, and the renderings of the animals are fun.
Overall I’d say 1.5 stars, mainly because of the artwork.
Component Ratings
Idea/Concept: 4.5 out of 5
Artwork: 4 out of 5
Dialogue: 0 out of 5
Plot: 1 out of 5
Theme; 2 out of 5
Ending: 1 out of 5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 6, 2021
🤘Terminal Punks 🤘
Don't read this book if you're expecting complicated and realistic world-building and scientific explanations. Absolutely do read it if you want to see some punk kids fight mutated killer animals with vape flavour names in an airport.
The graphic novel has excellent dark humour, trans and genderqueer characters, cute romantic sub-plots that actually make sense, lots of punk rock and really cool illustrations. And mutated killer animals, of course.
Don't read this book if you're expecting complicated and realistic world-building and scientific explanations. Absolutely do read it if you want to see some punk kids fight mutated killer animals with vape flavour names in an airport.
The graphic novel has excellent dark humour, trans and genderqueer characters, cute romantic sub-plots that actually make sense, lots of punk rock and really cool illustrations. And mutated killer animals, of course.
April 19, 2021
This comic stinks on ice! Thematically it's all over the place, the characters are complete 2 dimensional caricatures, the art style is completely wrong for the kind of story this is, I absolutely hated this.
April 3, 2021
Awkward. Four teenagers who haven't even been told punk music died in the '70s head to New York to prove a battle of the bands win wasn't the end of their career in music. They land at Idlewild just in time for the plane directly behind them to crashland, for the exotic animals on board have mutated into monsters and killed everyone. Cue a select few people, our young throwbacks included, stuck in the terminal with the death-dealing, body-ripping beasties.
What this wants is to have some of the gonzo, low-budget, drive-in feel, especially when the enlarged monkey thing starts doing his decapitating. You can easily imagine this as a sub-70 minute, one-set movie, shot and edited in a fortnight with Roger Corman's name on it somewhere and featuring some never-heard-of-again four-piece. What it actually is, however, is a hot mess. It forgets to make the kids likeable; it tries to have some Trump-styled hubris in the animal owner but still seems to mismanage that as a theme; and it has just the worst, most irritating and annoying, second-person monologuing out. Each person's internal thought bubbles are given a different colour, and a flash of an ident to begin with (someone's instrument, the shape of their specs, etc), but it's the way these are written in such an utterly unrealistic manner regardless of who they're written for, that really made it a turn-off. There is just about enough quippage here, and some dramatically novel scenes (unrequited lovers riding bucking bronco on the back of a mutated elephant in an airport, anyone?), but when so much of the script seems to be Basil Exposition writing the thoughts of people he cannot understand in a third language he hardly speaks, it's rather hard to like.
What this wants is to have some of the gonzo, low-budget, drive-in feel, especially when the enlarged monkey thing starts doing his decapitating. You can easily imagine this as a sub-70 minute, one-set movie, shot and edited in a fortnight with Roger Corman's name on it somewhere and featuring some never-heard-of-again four-piece. What it actually is, however, is a hot mess. It forgets to make the kids likeable; it tries to have some Trump-styled hubris in the animal owner but still seems to mismanage that as a theme; and it has just the worst, most irritating and annoying, second-person monologuing out. Each person's internal thought bubbles are given a different colour, and a flash of an ident to begin with (someone's instrument, the shape of their specs, etc), but it's the way these are written in such an utterly unrealistic manner regardless of who they're written for, that really made it a turn-off. There is just about enough quippage here, and some dramatically novel scenes (unrequited lovers riding bucking bronco on the back of a mutated elephant in an airport, anyone?), but when so much of the script seems to be Basil Exposition writing the thoughts of people he cannot understand in a third language he hardly speaks, it's rather hard to like.
August 30, 2025
In concept, this is an interesting story, but in practice, it's kinda really bad?
I'm really surprised that this isn't listed as a YA story because there really isn't anything there for adults. Sure, there's the lesson that capitalism leads to more pain and suffering than innovation, but that's like, punk 101. There really isn't anything punk about the story or the characters aside from the way they look and the fact that they're in a band, but I should have guessed it was written by someone more into the aesthetics of punk than the politics from the playlist at the beginning of the book.
The internal dialogue from every character is an interesting literary style, but I don't think it added anything to the story other than saying who has a crush on who (more YA bullshit). So much is just presented to you throughout the story that adds to the weak writing- so much is just to you rather than showed to you, which is really strange especially in a comic book.
All in the all, the art was basic, the writing was mediocre and I'd place it at "poser" on the punk scale.
I'm really surprised that this isn't listed as a YA story because there really isn't anything there for adults. Sure, there's the lesson that capitalism leads to more pain and suffering than innovation, but that's like, punk 101. There really isn't anything punk about the story or the characters aside from the way they look and the fact that they're in a band, but I should have guessed it was written by someone more into the aesthetics of punk than the politics from the playlist at the beginning of the book.
The internal dialogue from every character is an interesting literary style, but I don't think it added anything to the story other than saying who has a crush on who (more YA bullshit). So much is just presented to you throughout the story that adds to the weak writing- so much is just to you rather than showed to you, which is really strange especially in a comic book.
All in the all, the art was basic, the writing was mediocre and I'd place it at "poser" on the punk scale.
July 3, 2021
'Terminal Punks' by Matthew Erman with art by Shelby Criswell is a graphic novel about a struggling band of punks stuck in an airport full of monsters.
Four band members are on the way to a gig in NYC when things go haywire. A plane-load of animals comes in to contact with odd vape flavors and mutates. Now the band is caught between the ravenous monsters and a corporation looking for a cover up. Will they ever get out, and, more importantly, find a name for their band.
This was a goofy, gory ride, and I kind of liked it. The characters are interesting. The premise is fun. I liked the art style a lot.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Mad Cave Studio, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
Four band members are on the way to a gig in NYC when things go haywire. A plane-load of animals comes in to contact with odd vape flavors and mutates. Now the band is caught between the ravenous monsters and a corporation looking for a cover up. Will they ever get out, and, more importantly, find a name for their band.
This was a goofy, gory ride, and I kind of liked it. The characters are interesting. The premise is fun. I liked the art style a lot.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Mad Cave Studio, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
January 26, 2025
Why are yall hating? this was so fun. im literally a lit snob and i found this graphic novel very enjoyable. The story DOES NOT have to make sense to YOU for it to be good. Have yall read any Kafka books? Just sit down and enjoy it. Its PUNK and its not trying to be idk fucking persepolis or smth. This gn was exactly what i needed and i found the design and storyline of the animals so entertaining. and Sway's relationship with marmalade was adorable. And for those complaining about the gore-- its a punk gn and its not being advertised to children. CHILL. anyway i hope the author is actually punk and not some kind of zionist or smth. Bye!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 19, 2021
I received a free eARC of this title through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
So, this review is going to be pretty short as I do not have much to say about it.
I thought this was an interesting title. It’s pretty campy and gruesome. A lot more blood than I was expecting. However the diversity of the characters involved in the story was nice. It’s a fun ride.
If you like punk rock and campy horror, you may like this graphic novel.
So, this review is going to be pretty short as I do not have much to say about it.
I thought this was an interesting title. It’s pretty campy and gruesome. A lot more blood than I was expecting. However the diversity of the characters involved in the story was nice. It’s a fun ride.
If you like punk rock and campy horror, you may like this graphic novel.
April 9, 2021
The story goes for ridiculous, sort of what would happen the Scooby-Doo team became disaffected punk rockers and were stuck in an airport with mutants. Basically, Scooby-Doo the Nirvana version with some gore added. Although this sounds like a fun concept and there are times when it's snarky and clever, most of the time it was too cynical and juvenile for my taste.
May 1, 2021
3.5 Stars.
Review submitted to Diamond Bookshelf for potential professional publication.
Review submitted to Diamond Bookshelf for potential professional publication.
December 19, 2023
This book was silly, but also extremely gory. I liked the interactions between the four main characters.
July 24, 2024
It was a little all over the place, especially in the tone, and I didn't really connect with any of the characters.
March 21, 2025
Odd, silly, queer, and very punk. It also comes with a soundtrack, which is cool.
Read
July 2, 2021DNF at 22% // The eARC was missing chapters 2 and 3. But I did read the chapters after that. So yes, I know the what happened in the beginning and how it ended. However, I don't think I can provide an honest review if I haven't read it in its entirety.
~ Thank you to NetGalley and Mad Cave Studios for the review copy. ~
~ Thank you to NetGalley and Mad Cave Studios for the review copy. ~
December 18, 2022
Terminal Punks is about a punk rock band heading to their big break gig, but they get sidetracked by mutants in the airport terminal and must use their skills to save the day. This book features endearing and diverse, queer characters; references to famous punk artists and music; and an environmental message that fits the philosophy of punk. The illustrations are colorful, fun, and there's even a playlist to go along with each chapter. Although at times I was left wanting more, I am still definitely open to reading future volumes!
Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy.
Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews