Un-American Chronicles

Most of us think of self-publishing as only books with words, but self-published comic books and graphic novels are a growing industry as well.  Most of the artists and writers who work for Marvel and DC's big titles also have their own "creator-owned" books with smaller publishers.

Un-American Chronicles is a new self-published series.  The first issue was only 99 cents, so I decided to pick it up and read it.  Despite being self-published, this is just as good as most mainstream titles, and better than many self-published ones I bought in a bundle a couple of years ago.  The art drawn by Juan Alarcón and colored by Carolina Bensler has a slightly different style for each of the five segments while the stories by Arcadio Bolaños vary in genres.

The first story "The Outsider" is more of a horror piece like the Stephen King story "The Body" that was made into the movie Stand By Me.  In this case three boys find a bank robber in a well and after they decide to leave her, they're haunted by presumably her evil spirit.

The next story is a drama about a boy who takes on a bully while at the same time his father is in one of the World Trade Center buildings on 9/11.

The third story is a humorous little yarn about a guy who keeps rejecting the advances of gorgeous women, not realizing these women all share a secret.

There are two more stories that are only a page apiece but they promise to be continued.

That's a lot of stuff going on for 23 pages.  Much more than you get in the standard superhero comic these days, most of which is punching and stuff.  Far less punching in this.

For 99 cents it's a really good value and hopefully the start of a great new series.  Buy it from Comixology and you can read it on your PC, tablet, phone, or whatever.

You can also visit the author's blog here for comic reviews written in English and Spanish.  (Which is impressive since I can barely do them in one language.)