Hamish SteeleReseñas

Gotta admit, I was a little bored with the first half as it worked its way through the old cliche of reality changing and the only person who remembers what it was like before has to get the band back together.

The unity from division theme of the ending sorta suggests that we need to reclaim Make America Great Again by focusing on ten years ago, y'know, before Donald Trump entered the national stage as a presidential contender. Marriage equality. Abortion rights. Facts recognized as facts. Good times. Let's get 'em back.

A rather enjoyable graphic novel that touches on different versions of the myths included in really neat ways. If you're a fan of Egyptian mythology and are okay with adult humor, this is a really great pick. The art reminds me a bit too much of the Simpsons at times, but overall it's pretty cute.

Perhaps my biggest criticism is the "family tree" at the front. Family trees are typically designed in specific ways for legibility. Although a lot of Egyptian mythology includes gods being renamed and incest, I've seen a lot of people who successful get across the convoluted nature of the tree while making it understandable to read. The tree here is just a visual nightmare, and more useful as an aid for which god is named what. But like the book says, there's always google research if you're struggling here.

Overall, though, this is really cute. As someone who loves Egyptian mythology and has always loved mythology picture books but appreciates seeing the more adult elements of being left in, this was quite good.

I did not intend to read this entire thing in one sitting, omg

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through Edelweiss.)

Several months have passed since the tragic events of DEADENDIA, VOLUME 1: THE WATCHER'S TEST. Norma and Badyah have rebuilt Dead End, bigger and better than ever: by day, it's a haunted house in Phoenix Park; at night, they transform it into a hotel for angels and demons visiting the supposedly "neutral" plane 7. The duo has little trouble booking to capacity, thanks to a little help from ambassador Courtney and the friendly angel Fingers.

But things are far from rosy. The Scooby Gang has split up, for one: after his beloved dog Pugsley died, Barney quit his job at Dead End and ran away (eventually moving in with Logs - errr, Logan). Days went by, turning into weeks, then months - and, wracked with guilt, neither he nor Norma have been able to bridge the gulf between them. Meanwhile, Norma is a ghost who, while imbued with magical powers, keeps splitting from her body in times of extreme duress. Badyah, having rescued Pugsley's book of magic from the rubble of the old Dead End, tries to help her friend back to her body by way of a seance; but will this dark magic corrupt her, like it did Pugsley?

On the other side of town, down and out Barney is approached by a demon and offered an ungodly sum of money to be the first human to compete in the Demon Wrestling Federation. While he's dominating in the ring, the cash quickly goes to Barney's head, threatening his relationship with Logan.

All these plot lines come to a head when Dead End hosts a DWF match - featuring none other than Barney vs. a Demon King. But not just any Demon King: Temeluchus's brother, Baal, along with their remaining siblings Paimon and Zagan. (You didn't forget about the coming war between angels and demons, did you? Also: insert "It's a trap!" gif here.)

Volume 2 of DEADENDIA features all the characters we've come to know and love/hate: Barney, Norma, Courtney, Badyah, Logan, Fingers, Kushiel, and Tartarus. We also gain a better (and more terrifying) understanding of the angels (read: not necessarily the "good guys," just the guys that live upstairs). Of course, one character is noticeably absent: dear Pugsley who, imho, stole the show in THE WATCHER'S TEST. THE BROKEN HALO is a bit drabber without him. (That said, I shrieked so hard at the ending that my cat jumped off my lap and ran out of the room. I KNEW IT!!!)

Courtney helps to fill the void left by Pugsley, if even just a bit. (The flashbacks of when Norma and Courtney first met? *chef's kiss*) I loved getting to know his backstory, and the ending is just heartbreaking, filled with pathos yet also a thin thread of hope.

The ending is a tear-jerker, though not quite the absolute sob-fest that was THE WATCHER'S TEST. (Reader, I cried for days. That's why it took me almost three months to pick up THE BROKEN HALO.)

Weirdly enough, THE BROKEN HALO feels more like a cohesive story, which I initially thought I wanted from THE WATCHER'S TEST - but maybe not so much? The disparate story lines made the first volume feel that much weirder.

As far as sophomore efforts go, THE BROKEN HALO is more than solid. I mostly just missed Pugsley, hence the four-star rating. Still a really great read, and one of my favorites of the year. Don't sleep on this one!

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through Edelweiss.)

When Barney feels unsupported by parents who claim to be accepting of his gender identity, he runs away from home, landing in Phoenix Park. Created by 'triple threat' Pauline Phoenix* as a celebration of her career in entertainment, Barney's friend Norma hooks him up with a job in her realm - the uber-creepy haunted house attraction Dead End. Turns out that the spooks and specters aren't entirely fabricated in Dead End: it's home to an honest-to-goodness elevator to the other twelve planes** - and a demon ambassador named Courtney to oversee it, to boot. Along with his magical talking dog named Pugsley, Barney, Norma, and their friends/co-workers get into all sorts of animated supernatural hijinx.

Each chapter in DEADENDIA features a different story line, with one larger thread tying all the stories together. The craziness kicks off when Temeluchus, the chief angel of torment, possesses Pugsley as part of his plot to take over the world. In capturing him, Norma also traps a small piece of Temeluchus in Pugsley, endowing the loyal pup with strong magic. Then an echo illegally hops the elevator to plane 7 and Barney has to figure out how to send him back before Kushiel, the angelic punisher finds it. (Turns out that Kushiel was actually looking for a time-traveling cowboy, in our first look at the Watcher character.) One domino fells another, until the gang's inevitable Final Showdown with the mysterious Watcher.

Having slept on the Netflix series (DEAD END: PARANORMAL PARK), I wasn't really sure what to expect of DEADENDIA. It seemed like a cute enough concept, and I'm a sucker for both LGBTQ representation and anthropomorphized, talking animals (dogs especially). Turns out that DEADENDIA, while a little silly, is also heartwarming, wholesome entertainment that's brimming with heart and humor. (Not to mention a cast of diverse characters that feels genuine and organic.) The ending had me in tears and yelling at my ipad (if you know, you know) - I really didn't anticipate the FEELINGS this comic would elicit.

I almost don't want to read volume two now that you-know-who is missing, but hey: no one's truly dead when there are ghosties flying about, and wizards who have the power to resurrect them. I can hope.

* Giving strong evil Dolly Parton vibes.

** Planes 1-6 are for the angels; 8-13 belong to the demons; and plane 7 is the "neutral" plane where humans (gross!) and other animals reside.

I laughed so much when I read this. I must track down other work by Hamish Steele. It’s definitely not for kids—it’s sweary and explicit—but I highly recommend it to adult readers, whether or not you normally read graphic novels. It was great medium for Steele’s clever intro to Egyptian mythology.

What immediately intrigued me was the art style, which reminded me so much of Gravity Falls I had to go look up Hamish Steele, only to find that my instincts were correct and he did, indeed, work on Gravity Falls.

While DeadEndia is not a carbon copy of the show, it shares much of the same DNA: cute, cartoony characters juxtaposed with creepy happenings. In DeadEndia, Barney and Norma work alongside a secret portal to hell, which causes Barney's dog Pugsley to become infected with a demon and, later, his magic. And this, of course, brings about the end of the world.

Cute, sweet, charming, and with great diversity, if not necessarily ground-breaking.

teen/adult graphic adventure (demons, ghosts, talking dogs, apocalyptic battles, humor, with diverse cast/LGBTQ interest)
*reviewed from uncorrected e-galley*

I picked this up because of the art, and was pleasantly surprised by the high-quality storyline and interesting characters. If I could give this 6 stars I probably would.

So much fun!! I loved all the characters and the ridiculousness and the queerness and diversity. I will say just about every chapter included a heavy-handed moral about acceptance that maybe didn't have to be there in that way because I feel like it was addressed more deftly in the plot overall, but the hilarity quickly resumed, so it didn't wallow too much. Would 100% read the next installment.

That was hilarious and crass. It also used the word "literally" waaay too frequently and I was bummed Seshat never made an actual appearance, but I would definitely read more of Steele's Egyptian mythology recaps.

This is definitely not for kids, but I really enjoyed this romp through Egyptian mythology. No idea how true to the actual myths it was, but it probably doesn’t matter. It even came to a pretty satisfying and almost reverent conclusion, which honestly came as a surprise. Lots of potty humor and dick jokes. Still, fun stuff, and all done in a really matchingly fun cartoony art style.

Pretty good, but suffers from keeping the core characters separated for most of the book. One storyline has Norma and Badyah dealing with new supernatural powers and the nature of their relationship. Another storyline has Barney hanging with his boyfriend and becoming a professional wrestler. A third storyline is a flashback to Courtney's origins and the start of their relationship with Norma. The convergence of all these streams in the finale helped end the book on a high note even as things go very wrong in what is obviously the middle segment of a trilogy or something longer.

I must admit I hope it is a trilogy, and that Steele goes on to something a bit more interesting after the next volume.

Weird graphic novel about friends that work in a haunted house in a theme park.

Series Info/Source: 2nd book in the Deadendia graphic novel series. Got a copy from Amazon Vine for review.

Story (4/5): This book continues the quirky and crazy story that started in the first book. Dead End has been reopened as a hotel and features an elevator that travels between the different planes of heaven and hell (with Earth be a neutral in-between plane). Norma is still struggling to keep her ghost in her body and her friendship with Barney is on the rocks. Barney decides to take up demonic wrestling and the next thing Norma knows, the hotel has turned into the location for a literally hellish wrestling ring and Barney is the star.

This book is so off the wall and weird that I love it. I felt like this book wasn’t quite as unique as the first one, but still really enjoyed it. It also wasn’t as humorous as the first book in the series. That being said this was still highly entertaining and well done. I did really like Courtney’s back story and how this tied in with everything else.

Characters (4/5): I really continue to enjoy the crazy characters throughout. Barney is trying to make something of himself (no matter how misguided he is). Norma is struggling to stay attached to her body. We learn a ton about Courtney’s history and how he ended up becoming a demon. Each chapter starts with a character profile showing their ratings for style, bravery, etc. The characters are a big part of what make this a great story.

Setting (4/5): I love the Dead End hotel and the different planes of Heaven and Hell. The whole world is very creative and fun.

Writing/Drawing Style (4/5): I enjoy the illustration style here a lot. It’s very cartoony with bright colors. It’s easy to follow and fun to read. Dialogue sounds natural and the story is well written.

Summary (4/5): Overall, although I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the first in the series...I still liked it a lot. I think part of the novelty of this crazy world and insane characters has worn off for me a bit. However, the illustration and story were still very entertaining and well done. I would recommend to those who enjoy off-the-wall paranormal graphic novels.

Witty, charming, aptly lewd rendition of Egyptian mythos. I loved it. Art is fantastic.

After his delightfully obscene Pantheon, Steele tones things down considerably for a pretty engaging supernatural YA graphic novel.

I liked the diverse cast of characters and several of the episodes collected here, but the overarching story about a mysterious wizard in the future was pretty lame and didn't make a whole lot of sense since it involved time travel paradoxes. Still, the ending got me a little emotional and left me curious as to what happens next.

This is the first graphic novel in the DeadEndia series, from the brief research I did it looks like this was a TV series first. I really enjoyed this graphic novel; I loved the illustration and the story was crazy, bizarre, and engaging. It’s quite different from other graphic novel series I have read and I loved every minute of it.

Barney and Norma both work at Dead End, a haunted house in the Pollywood theme park. It might sound kind of boring but Dead End also contains a dimensional gate that goes both to demonic and angelic realms (it’s complicated). So, aside from keeping Dead End ship shape and running haunted house tours...they also have to fight occasional demons.

This was an incredibly creative and engaging story about a group of diverse characters that constantly find themselves involved in bizarre supernatural situations. The illustration is amazing and I loved the coloring. The graphic novel is easy to follow (despite how bizarre the story gets) and I really ended up loving it.

While there are some LBGTQIA elements (one of the main characters is transgender) that really isn’t the focus of the story. The focus of the story is saving the world from DEMONS!!! The book does show how a unique and diverse group of people can work together successfully (and hilariously) to do this.

Overall I absolutely loved this graphic novel and plan on continuing the series. The storyline is bizarre, amazingly creative, and incredibly engaging. I don’t even really know who to recommend this to, just read it! This was a such a fun read and I loved the crazy supernatural elements to the story as well.

Hilarious and perfectly crass.

Well, that was amusing. And due to my general ignorance of Egyptian mythology, filled with surprising plot turns.