Friday, March 28, 2014

Review - CARTER ALLEN: Monster Maker

CARTER ALLEN: MONSTER MAKER
CANDLE LIGHT PRESS/Warning Comics – @candlelightpres

WRITER/ARTIST: Carter Allen
Paperback – 8.2” x 11.7” (2014)
28pp, Color, $10.00 U.S.

Carter Allen previously released two art books:  All These Worlds: The Artwork of Carter Allen and Galaxy Girls and Hell Hounds: All These Worlds, The Artwork of Carter Allen.  Allen is a comic book artist and a prolific producer of graphic novels (including the Dub Trub series).  Allen is also the creator of the comic book series, Nikki Harris the Cybermation Witch.

Now, Carter Allen offers another soft cover album of drawings and illustrations, and it is entitled Carter Allen: Monster Maker.  Allen even draws admiration from comic book artist Phil Hester, whose praise is used as a quote on the back cover of Monster Maker.

Subtitled “An Illustrated Creature Feature,” Carter Allen: Monster Maker has as a dominant theme giant monsters.  The favored giant monsters in Monster Maker are the kaiju, known for their roles in Japanese monster movies and for being the Earth-stomping, Armageddon-bringing baddies in Guillermo del Toro’s 2013 monster mash, Pacific Rim.  Monster Maker also offers gods, zombies, mecha and other giant robots.  Most of the art here is recent work, with several pieces apparently produced this year.  Even Nikki Harris, that outer space kicker of monster butt, makes an appearance.

There are even mock movie posters, and reading this book, it is easy to see that Allen is summoning up the ghosts of Saturday matinees past – both at the local theatre and on local television.  The film industry might not make monster movies like they used to, but someone apparently still has the kind of imagination that once dreamed up big monsters.  That’s Carter Allen, and Carter Allen: Monster Maker wants to make you stretch your vision and imagination to see the biggest and the baddest monsters.

A-

Carter Allen: Monster Maker ($10) is available at this link:
http://candlelightpress.tumblr.com/monstermaker.htm

www.candlelightpress.com
candlelightpress.tumblr.com
www.nikkithewitch.com
www.warningcomics.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.


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