Customer Reviews

Black Metal Volume 1 (v. 1)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Since day one, the genre of music known as "black metal" was asking to be spoofed. Grown men in pseudo-KISS make-up, singing about trolls, frost, castles, and frost trolls that live in castles. It's pretty silly. But I've always loved it, none-the-less.

When it comes to Spear's & BB's graphic novel take on black metal (called Black Metal, of course. I mean, c'mon!), I feel the same way- it's over the top and silly. And that's the point. However, one can't really call this a spoof, because it's obvious these guys love the genre, and aren't simply laughing at it. They're honoring it in the best way possible- with a good mix of humor, violence, action, the supernatural, and an itty-bitty dash of romance.

A truly grim and epic adventure!

This book is a fun, intriguing read from start to finish. Great character designs and an epic story propel the reader into a cartoony homage to the grim music of Black Metal. You can tell this book is a labor of love. Keep more stuff like this coming.

i'm not much of a comic reader, but this is definitely the exception to the rule...THIS RULES!!!! Shawn and Sam Stronghand are the reincarnation of a hellbound entity split in twain, and realize their quest for dominance by how? playing a record backwards, summmoning the dark forces that have shaped their lives from the uterus! GET THIS, OR DIE SUCKING!!!!!

HAILS TO SPEARS AND BB FOR CRAFTING A TRULY GRIM MASTERPIECE OF CHAOS!

This book is for any fan of the finest of metals. It's like listening to the best Immortal or Darkthrone or Bathory album WITH YOUR EYES! A non-stop riveting adventure from page one on, I cannot recommend this book enough. Unless you are too weak to handle the brutality of it all, pick this baby up.

Pretty silly story about a pair of death metal misfit brothers living their wild style in suburbia. They finally meet their death metal heroes and get sent to the netherworld that exists in their fantasy-laden lyrics where they battle with buff, topless macho monster men.
Rick's writing is cute and I think Chuck is a cool and funny artist. I really enjoyed Oni's paperback novel-sized format. Oni is a pretty underrated comic house in my opinion. They deserve far more attention than they've been getting.

Great fun! You don't have to be a BM fan to enjoy this graphic novel, though it helps. The first third of the book is the best, but I like the illustrations throughout.

Can't wait for a Volume 2!

I really liked this book a lot. The art was great and you can tell these guys respect the Black Metal. If you like comics or if you like Black Metal, or music in general, you will like this. But you don't have to take my word for it ... (go get it yourself is what I mean by this).

I've been a fan of black metal music for about 2 years now, and I absolutely enjoyed every page of this book! It is about the adventures of two brothers who are black metal fans who find out they share a secret...it's filled with humor that only black metal fans or people familiar with the black metal scene will GET. My favorite moment was when they are thumbing through vinyl in a metal store and they spot a particularly EVIL looking black metal LP. One of the brothers says - It calls to me! - That rang so true to me, and was also hilarious! The book is filled with great illustrations and moments like that, with many references to imaginary AND real black metal bands. I am looking fwd to the next volume...I'm SO GLAD there are other people who have a sense of humor about black metal - but obviously love it.

I really wanted to like this book but when it finally arrived it just went downhill really fast.

What turned me off was the lame, melodramatic, stereotypical black metal 'speak' that the main two characters talked in. Some of it wasn't that bad but it became overdone and boring and eventually pretentious. It just didn't let up.

But, by far the most annoying thing about this book was the artwork. To me, it seemed like the artist did not enjoy drawing the book and rushed through it. There were really only maybe 3 emotions expressed throughout the whole thing, but most of the expressions are what can be described as a 'metal grimace' which got old really fast. This book doesn't seem like a work of love but instead of monotonous thick lines and flat characters.

The dialogue was juvenile and lame. Really lame. Especially towards the end. Maybe it just wasn't meant for an older audience but I still don't see that as an excuse for crappy artwork and weak dialogue.

As for the story, like I said in my title, it could have been so much more but instead reads like you want to finish it as fast as you can. I wanted to put it down many times but I paid for it so I might as well bear it to the end. Who knows, maybe it picks up and gets better? It didn't and I wouldn't put yourself through this trash if you were tempted by the title as I was.