Geek-Girl #5 - Markosia Enterprises

GEEK-GIRL No. 5, October 2019

Successfully funded by 175 backers in 2019 as part of a much larger “Kickstarter” project to get this comic book series’ earlier editions available as a trade paperback, this “extra-sized jump on issue” must most assuredly have opened the eyes of its readers to the significantly larger world “Geek-Girl” creator Sam Johnson was planning to populate following his decision to make the title an ongoing publication rather than just a limited run. For whilst this ‘Markosia monthly’ still provides plenty of focus upon Ruby Kaye and her ‘best friend forever’ Summer James, the twenty-five page periodical also literally introduces a planeload of brand new super-powered characters for its fans to wrap their brains around.

Foremost of these intriguingly different ‘capes’ has to be the Whupper, whose introduction, courtesy of a long haul airline flight sat alongside one of the most irritatingly talkative passengers imaginable, cleverly causes this book’s audience to immediately sympathise with the incredibly patient stubble-faced man. Such pathos is then quickly turned into likeability when the unassuming gent does all in his power to save the life of the overly-chatty lady sat beside him following their aircraft’s sudden mid-air destruction; “Holy c%$p on a stick!!! Put this on!”

Somewhat less heroic looking, though equally as interesting, are the disconcertingly named Minger, Digger Mensch and two of the doomed plane’s other occupants, Guano Guy and Mister Marvellous Man. Apart from helping to re-build Acorn Ridge Main Street Police Station, embarrass Ruby with her dorky secret headquarters introduction video, and seemingly selflessly flee the burning airliner whilst someone else saves the day “for free”, this quartet of gaudily-costumed oddities aren’t admittedly given enough of this publication’s finite sheet space to properly develop or sparkle, yet still manage to make a positive contribution to the comic's creation of the "newly-formed Kaye Foundation".

Equally as strong an asset is the excellent illustration work of Carlos Granda, whose dynamic pencilling really helps imbue Johnson’s slightly dialogue-driven script with plenty of visual pace and dynamism, even when simply sketching some of the scenes aboard the aforementioned doomed aeroplane. In fact, this book’s opening sequence, featuring a chanting Satanist being brutally gunned down at his flat’s front door, generates an almost palpable air of mysterious menace to the book's proceedings, which the artist then maintains throughout the rest of the magazine.

Writer: Sam Johnson, Artist: Carlos Granda, and Colorist: Chunlin Zhao