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mehsi's review
5.0
I saw these (Ellerbisms and Chloe Noonan) being promoted on Twitter (download + name your own price), and thought, why the hell not? I love comics, and the art looked great and I loved the idea of Buffy just without superpowers. And I am real glad I bought these books, because they are great. While Ellerbisms is more realistic/non-fiction, this one is silly, magical and kick-ass.
I just loved the premise, what would happen if we take Buffy + monsters, but strip Buffy of all her superpowers? Well, you get Chloe. A girl who has to hunt monsters but can't do anything special. She will just have to use her wits, her words and bombs and whatever is close at hand to fight the monsters and capture them. As you can imagine this makes for some great and hilarious scenes. I actually felt sorry for the poor Kraken, he just wanted to take over the world and then he gets Chloe. Poor, poor Kraken.
Of course a lot of the missions don't really go well. Chloe gets punched, hit, is called names and often loses her monsters. But, she does her best, albeit with an attitude of: Do I really need to do this? I got something else to do *sigh, rolls eyes*. It makes her more likeable than if she would just do stuff instantly and without the complaining or the bitching. I also like that she just has to use whatever is available to get the monster, it makes her character more rounded and more fun than if she was a superhero who just had to flick her finger and bang the monster is captured. That just gets so booooring after a few times.
I loved Chloe for how she was, how she was around friends, how witty and quick she had her comebacks ready. The banter between Chloe and her friends, or the professor was really fun.
Zoe was a brilliant character and she truly makes the book even better with her wit, her ditziness and her readiness to kick some monster ass. Yes, she knows about Chloe and what she does. Oops? :) I also loved her effect on the male population. How men just reduced to nothingness when she talked or when she was around.
I loved how she tags along with Chloe at times (and making snarky remarks about Chloe's inefficiency).
Most stories are kind of like an episode of Buffy, or like an episode in any monster anime. Monster of the day/week/time. Not all of them are bad, not all of them are being kicked, but it was still funny to see.
Of course Chloe also does other stuff next to the whole monster hunting business. She goes to college, is in a terrible band that shouldn't exist, goes to clubs, goes for Halloween stuff and much much more. It was really fun seeing Chloe go through her life.
There are lots of puns, hints to other pop culture stuff (Moomins, Buffy, Spongebob Squarepants, and many more), it was all delightful to see them pop up and recognize them!
The art is great, I really like Marc Ellerby's style of drawing, and I am happy to see that he apparently decided to colour the art for this omnibus/combined bundle.
I also love that this one includes sketches and some stuff about his storyboards and how he makes the stories. It was really interesting and it gave the book some extra sparkles. :)
All in all, I would highly recommend everyone to read the books, you can find them on Marc Ellerby's website at the ebooks section and you can just name your price and download them. Of course, you can also buy them in paper format or if you live in a country that has English as a native language you can probably also find them in a book store. And yes, this is promotion, and no I don't do it because I am buddies with the author or he is paying me or whatever else. This is just me, a comic book/graphic novel lover, motivating other lovers of said comics and graphic novels to try out this book (and the other one), especially now that it is available like this. Go forth and find this and the other book and read them!
Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
I just loved the premise, what would happen if we take Buffy + monsters, but strip Buffy of all her superpowers? Well, you get Chloe. A girl who has to hunt monsters but can't do anything special. She will just have to use her wits, her words and bombs and whatever is close at hand to fight the monsters and capture them. As you can imagine this makes for some great and hilarious scenes. I actually felt sorry for the poor Kraken, he just wanted to take over the world and then he gets Chloe. Poor, poor Kraken.
Of course a lot of the missions don't really go well. Chloe gets punched, hit, is called names and often loses her monsters. But, she does her best, albeit with an attitude of: Do I really need to do this? I got something else to do *sigh, rolls eyes*. It makes her more likeable than if she would just do stuff instantly and without the complaining or the bitching. I also like that she just has to use whatever is available to get the monster, it makes her character more rounded and more fun than if she was a superhero who just had to flick her finger and bang the monster is captured. That just gets so booooring after a few times.
I loved Chloe for how she was, how she was around friends, how witty and quick she had her comebacks ready. The banter between Chloe and her friends, or the professor was really fun.
Zoe was a brilliant character and she truly makes the book even better with her wit, her ditziness and her readiness to kick some monster ass. Yes, she knows about Chloe and what she does. Oops? :) I also loved her effect on the male population. How men just reduced to nothingness when she talked or when she was around.
I loved how she tags along with Chloe at times (and making snarky remarks about Chloe's inefficiency).
Most stories are kind of like an episode of Buffy, or like an episode in any monster anime. Monster of the day/week/time. Not all of them are bad, not all of them are being kicked, but it was still funny to see.
Of course Chloe also does other stuff next to the whole monster hunting business. She goes to college, is in a terrible band that shouldn't exist, goes to clubs, goes for Halloween stuff and much much more. It was really fun seeing Chloe go through her life.
There are lots of puns, hints to other pop culture stuff (Moomins, Buffy, Spongebob Squarepants, and many more), it was all delightful to see them pop up and recognize them!
The art is great, I really like Marc Ellerby's style of drawing, and I am happy to see that he apparently decided to colour the art for this omnibus/combined bundle.
I also love that this one includes sketches and some stuff about his storyboards and how he makes the stories. It was really interesting and it gave the book some extra sparkles. :)
All in all, I would highly recommend everyone to read the books, you can find them on Marc Ellerby's website at the ebooks section and you can just name your price and download them. Of course, you can also buy them in paper format or if you live in a country that has English as a native language you can probably also find them in a book store. And yes, this is promotion, and no I don't do it because I am buddies with the author or he is paying me or whatever else. This is just me, a comic book/graphic novel lover, motivating other lovers of said comics and graphic novels to try out this book (and the other one), especially now that it is available like this. Go forth and find this and the other book and read them!
Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
narflet's review
5.0
Things I liked about this:
* It's British. I'm not sure I've read a British-set comic written by a British person before.
* It's hilarious.
* Part of it's fun comes from it's many, and excellently done, pop culture references. It's spot on.
* Pixies! I was enjoying it from the start, but 11 pages into the 1st story and this is what sold me on the series:
* The fun references only continue from there. The deconstruction of the Amy Pond insult! The 'Mewmins'! Amazing.
Just read it. It's quick to get through, wildly entertaining, and I want more of it now!
* It's British. I'm not sure I've read a British-set comic written by a British person before.
* It's hilarious.
* Part of it's fun comes from it's many, and excellently done, pop culture references. It's spot on.
* Pixies! I was enjoying it from the start, but 11 pages into the 1st story and this is what sold me on the series:
* The fun references only continue from there. The deconstruction of the Amy Pond insult! The 'Mewmins'! Amazing.
Just read it. It's quick to get through, wildly entertaining, and I want more of it now!
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