Geek-Girl #8 - Markosia Enterprises

GEEK-GIRL No. 8, December 2021

Packed full of a plethora of plots, Sam Johnson’s script for this “extra-sized issue” certainly does a good job in ‘hooking’ its readers, whether they stay for Geek-Girl’s big battle against the formidably-sized Digger Mensch, the mysterious discovery of an old man and his cloned wife living deep inside Johnny Carlyle’s multi-storied Headquarters in Maine, or the incredible, dimension-jumping exploits of Cabra Cini. In fact, in many ways it’s a shame this twenty-four page publication isn’t even larger so as to give the likes of the “Voodoo junkie hitwoman” and the bizarre happenings inside the Infinite even more ‘screen time’.

Foremost of these story-threads however, has to be Tyler’s unearthing of Gerry and Theresa. The elderly people’s plight is actually quite heart-breaking, with the building’s cold-hearted owner appearing to be as ruthless a landlord as he was a scheming salesman of high-tech weapons. Luckily, things appear to have been resolved in the short-term when Ruby Kaye decides it would be fine to give the pensioners a ‘stay of execution’. Although, that status quo sadly doesn’t last all that long once the criminally-inclined Digger arrives to permanently remove the former residents; “Yeah. I’m just here to do a job -- Johnny needs them out… They were s’posed to be gone yesterday.”

Just as intriguingly enjoyable are the insights Johnson’s writing provides on the portal-ridden universe of Cabra Cini. The Lady of Voodoo’s ability to traverse “Limbo’s crazy cousin -- locked away in the attic”, courtesy of some magical symbols, looks set to generate some sense-shattering shenanigans in this ongoing series’ future instalments. But in addition, the twisted domain also seems to have a second connection to our modern day world, thanks to the comatose hospital patient Kristina and her eyeless duplicate who is depicted dinning on chicken, vegetables and potatoes with a disconcertingly masked Lisa back in the Infinite.

Providing this periodical with some prodigious pencilling is Carlos Granda, who really does a splendid job during this comic’s opening of showing just what a massive, sprawl of corridors and doors the super-team’s premises consists of. Likewise, the artist really imbues Mensch with all the angry frustration a bibliophile might expect from a criminal whose “crooked drinking buddies” are starting to deride, now his boss has seemingly turned away from numerous nefarious activities.

The regular cover art to "GEEK-GIRL" #8 by Carlos Granda & Chunlin Zhao