Popgun Bullets v3 p3

- Bulleted mini reviews of the entire contents of Image Comics anthology Popgun Volume Three (the next 100 pages)

• p215 Alien Abduction - Isam S. Prado (Assistance from Alisa Stern & Amy Stern -Not my favorite piece, but not a bad piece really. The art is different enough from everything else, and well done for its style. It isn't a style that I love, but I won't say it's bad or anything. It sort of makes me think of the Rugrats cartoon in its style, and i am not a fan of that style either. It's at least a complete thought, and an original take on an aliens are real story.
  
• p224 Intermission: Just Outside Circus Liquor - Dan Brereton - This is a two page illustration with evil clowns in a sort of circus setting with what looks like some Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters people thrown in. Good stuff, but not my thing really.
  
• p226 Young Johnny Appleseed - Frank Gibson, Becky Dreistadt - I will call this piece sweet and unexpected. It feels to me like it was lifted right out of the 1970's for me. I remember a big focus on Johnny Appleseed then, and the cute characters look like products of that time. It's a cute thing start to finish.
  
• p231 Rex Onazuka, The Japanese Wasp in the GodFather of Monsters - Mark Andrew Smith, Johann 'Ullcer' Leroux - I have in the past said some things about Popgun seeming almost like a vanity publication for Mark Andrew Smith, and maybe one or two others, given the volume of their work appearing in the first two volumes. This volume doesn't have that feel at all. I LOVE the Rex Onazuka stories. The writing is great, the art is great, what's not to like. You get around thirty pages of really great story that gives you giant monsters and real characterization and story. It is nice to see a piece like this.
  
• p261 Ever Upward - Tonci Zonjic - This story made me look up Joe Kittinger. The art is great and distinctive, with a sort of Non-fiction historical cartoon feel to it. It documents a major accomplishment in test piloting, and memorializes a man who did some truly amazing things in his long lifetime.
  
• p267 Father of Two - Amanda Becker, Janet Kim - This is a creepy and wonderfully done sort of horror short. The art is amazing, and the story is just awesome. This is another story that seems to have the horror anthologies of old as its spiritual successor, but this is better than most in all ways. It focuses on two sisters living with their Father who has signed on to make monsters for the Nazis. Good stuff!
  
• p271 There's Always a First Time - Michael Dialynas - Cute and funny little love story featuring the Grim Reaper. I like stories like this a lot. Death meets a girl he is taken by, and dates her, but can't touch her. It ends how you might expect it to, and is just lovely.
  
• p285 Cave Pat and the Early Femenist Movement - Alison Acton - It's tough being a smart and independent woman in the time of cavemen. This is a pretty good one also. The art is really well done, and it's funny. I would love to see more antics with these characters in this setting.
  
• p299 Same Again - Ray Fawkes, Justin Randall - We end this on a string of really high notes. The art is stunning, and the setting and premise of this sort of put chills down my back. Seriously. I consider this a perfect anthology piece. It's four pages and uses all of them and requires not a single bit more than that to tell us a story that resonates and gives us something that will stick with you.