Geek-Girl #9 - Markosia Enterprises

GEEK-GIRL No. 9, December 2021

Containing two simultaneously told story threads involving the comic’s titular character and its ‘new upcoming star’ Cabra Cini, Sam Johnson’s narrative for Issue Nine of “Geek-Girl” must surely have pleased its 158 backers following its successful Kickstarter in May 2021. Sure, the twenty-page periodical’s more action orientated moments initially sit entirely with the Voodoo Junkie Hitwoman as opposed to Ruby Kaye’s super-powered alter-ego. Yet once the “hot popular Maine College” attendee confronts Mean Girl in a shopping mall, the glass-wearing crime-fighter soon establishes a dynamic narrative all of her own; “Don’t worry. This doesn’t last long and now you know this trick you’ll be better prepared next time --”

Foremost of this book’s plots however, has to be Cini’s enthralling exploits in The Infinite dimension, which grab the reader straight from the start and subsequently take them on a surreal adventure with huge, sword-wielding trolls, blade-carrying harpies and dart-firing stone heads. Indeed, it’s arguably hard to imagine a more bizarre environment than the one the “co-creator of The Almighties” conjures up for this publication, and once “the Voodoo lady” starts slicing through her fantastic-looking foes using a combination of close-combat skills and bullets, it soon becomes abundantly clear why Cabra has already been given a mini-series of her own.

Equally as intriguing is Geek-Girl’s latest ‘arch-frienemy’, whose bemusing mixture of devastating Kung-Fu kicks and hallucination-inducing phone selfies certainly seems to catch a somewhat overconfident Kaye completely off-guard. Just how Mean Girl’s special unicorn-based ability works is anyone’s guess, but having severely injured Whupper with a shoe-spike straight out of an old “James Bond” movie, it appears certain that the colourfully-costumed shoplifter with a penchant for pink is going to be involved in a highly-anticipated rematch at some point soon.

In addition to Johnson’s penmanship, Carlos Granda and colorist Chunlin Zhao genuinely imbue all this comic’s cast with plenty of vitality and ‘believability’, even during some of their more sedentary moments such as when Summer James decides she wants some powers of her own. The pencilling of Cabra’s fantastic swordfight with two blubbery, big-bellied minions of The Rook is particularly well-done though, and alongside Mean Girl's gruesome kick to an unsuspecting Whupper's chest, is probably the highlight of this book.

The regular cover art to "GEEK-GIRL" #9 by Carlos Granda & Chunlin Zhao