For adult manga fans, the pickings aren’t exactly great. At the end of the day, US translation of manga is skewed towards younger audiences; so a good mature read can be hard to come by. Thankfully we do have some imprints bringing some great stuff to our shores, and today I’m going to introduce you to two decidedly underappreciated gems from VIZ. Terra Formars, a gory sci-fi action series that’s Starship Troopers by way of X-Men, and Food Wars, a cooking manga with a twist. Hit the jump for all the details!  

Today, I’m glad to bring you a review of Star Wars: Darth Maul – Son of Dathomir. This book is a hell of a lot more than you’re expecting, unless you already know what it is we’re getting into. Darth Maul is easily the most visually striking character the Star Wars prequels gave us; and SoD gives us another entry into his continued story. We have a lot to talk about with this one, so let’s get down to brass tacks.  

Dark Horse’s Colder: The Bad Seed is absolutely insane. Which is pretty good for a book entirely about insanity. Another of Dark Horse’s ongoing horror books, Colder is climbing the ladder that several other great current horror or thriller titles have already scaled. But, Colder is a strange beast. There’s a lot to talk about with this one, so let’s get right into it. Is Colder worth your time and money? Let’s find out.  

It’s officially Fall; and that means its horror comics season. Time to crack open the long boxes and dust off some October classics, and if you’re looking to buy some weirdo funny books than you’re in luck! Every publisher under the sun will be doing just that and are already  getting the shelves fit for new books and reprints galore; and no publisher more so than Dark Horse. And for your money, it doesn’t get any better than their Eerie reprints. Every four months we get another slab of old horror goodness, but this is the 6th year of reprints from the Eerie vault. But what the hell is Eerie you ask, and why should you care?  

The new album before me today, Let Time Begin by BEAK, is a big ol slab of Heavy, with a wide field of view of genres, excellent playing, and a pure brooding atmosphere. Its a pretty good listen, but that’s not really saying much, eh? More after the break!  

The Corpse has risen from its grave, and Its hungry! The new Cannibal Corpse album, A Skeletal Domain, has bared its teeth and is dripping its way toward your collection this Tuesday! After the break, I’ll bring their sins to light in a review of this great new tombstone from the American Death Metal stalwarts!  

Giant-Size Kung Fu Bible Stories is just as unpredictable as it seems; trust me on this. I for one had absolutely zero idea what I was getting into with this one. And if you have any educated guesses based on that wild title or cover rest assured that they’re probably off base too. But at the end of the day this is a book that I’m supremely glad I let surprise me, because this is a real doozy of a collection. But enough vagueness, what exactly is Giant-Size Kung Fu Bible Stories? Is it worth your hard earned greenbacks? Find out after the cut.   

Recently, I have been on a non-traditional metal kick, and have seen some amazing bands. One such forerunner is All Them Witches, an american band out of Nashville Tennessee, who list themselves as Psychedelta Blues, and which could also be described as non-trad Doom with Ozark Mountain Blues threaded in. The band itself is a four piece, who use guitar, bass, drum, and occasional piano/organ to create an amazingly complex sound that is just filled with emotion and depth. The album I started with was the debut, Our Mother Electricity, which is almost perfect. Almost, only because its not just slightly heavier, but it gets any job done. The album is complex, song-wise, as it goes from just a heavy blues/rock sound (Heavy/Like... 

Fewer names are more respected in comics than Conan the Barbarian. Conan is one of those characters that stands larger than his source material; Conan is an institution and a downright modern myth. If this book were just an interesting Conan book it’d have my recommendation. If this were just a Groo the Wanderer comic, I’d still say check it out.  

2014 is definitely a great time to be a high fantasy fan. Fantasy of all kinds continues to be in vogue in 2014, and that means publishers are going to pull out all the stops running some new fantasy titles to capitalize on this wave of interest. Thankfully for us comic book fans that means some great characters can finally get the attention they deserve! One such character more than deserving of her comeback is Red Sonja.  

Review of Exmortus, featuring openers Archaos and Another Texas Murder Scene, on their current tour for their newest release, Slave to the Sword, in Amarillo, Texas  

This past weekend, the 4B Wild West Biker Rally to Fuck Cancer 2014 happened! Along with several sketchy vendors, bike shops, sketchier attendees, and several more sex toys than one would think out in the open, Metal Machine was pleased to witness the stage stylings of Warrant (fronted by Robert Mason), LA Guns, Drowning Pool, and some band with the Redneck Nation in the title. It was Texas Country, so no loss. On to the review!!!!!