“Yesterday’s” Comic> Holmes Incorporated #2

“I found your contact lens. Not sure you want it back.”

Holmes Incorporated #2

Ty Templeton’s Comic Book Boot Camp (August, 2012)

CREATOR/EDITOR: Ty Templeton

COVER ART: Leonard Kirk

COVER COLORIST/LETTERER/PRODUCTION: KT Smith

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Rob Pincombe

For those of you who missed the previous issue, this comic is Templeton giving his students a chance to publicly show what they can do and start building a comics resume. I’m okay with that but if you read my review of the first issue, some of them weren’t quite ready yet, or at least they didn’t work for me. Two more issues are available for free on Drive Thru Comics, so download and join with me on the second issue. The creator list is so large they had to add listings on the inside back cover. That means this isn’t just a speed run, it’s a speed super run.

Meet Holmes Incorporated

WRITER/PORTRAITS: Rob Pincombe | GRAPHIC DESIGN: Ty Templeton

It’s just the cast introduction, telling us that Irene Adler is where the first Holmes kids come from and that Artie is still going to make me hate him!

The Family Name

WRITER: James Cooper | ARTWORK: Daniel Wong

Someone breaks into Sherlock Holmes’ grave and steals his spyglass (confirmed last issue that he was buried with it) as part of a plan to enhance his own mind. Too bad he’s a total loon. Nice to see Trey and Elizabeth, but being slightly off model is my only issue with the otherwise good artwork. The story is also pretty good for the length.

The Old Man And The Sea Serpent

WRITER: Dino Caruso| ARTIST: Pierce Desochers-O’Sullivan

Holmes Sr once tried to protect a monster from a mad general who wanted to clone and weaponize it. He and Arthur, who is at least less annoying than usual, try to deal with the clone. The art style is not for me, and this is way too sci-fi for a story about Holmes’ descendants solving crimes…and the last story involved lasers for shovels and a device that was supposed to transfer genius through smart guys’ old property. Not terrible, but it didn’t work for me personally.

The Last Tango

WRITER: Darius Fox | ARTIST: Christopher Yao

Ryan is kidnapped to force Trey to steal a rare book without getting caught by her family. It’s a great idea in concept, gives us insight into some of the family’s skill levels, and could have been a good moment for Ryan and Trey as a couple but falls flat on that. At least Ryan is cool enough to hang with his girlfriend.

Poker Face

WRITER/ARTIST: Rain Infinity

Senior and Trey investigate a man Trey really hates, which seems to work against their investigation. Seems. Senior doesn’t look old enough and having a bodyguard who dresses like Mr. T and goes by “Equi-T” are my only issues with the story.

Old Wounds

WRITER: Mike Marano | PENCILER/TONES: Grant Howarth | INKER: Kellam Templeton-Smith

Artie and a tech named Morty are installing a new liquid core computer, when the computer grabs Morty and turns him into a reborn Moriarty. With half of the team on lockdown it’s up to Artie, Trey, and Sherlock the third to bring him down. It’s a great plot, but the execution doesn’t really feel as thought out as it could have been. It needed more time to cook before the comic was made. Also, why is Trey speaking in magic spell speak? She doesn’t know magic.

Mind Spiders Of Madagascar

WRITER: Rob Pincome | ARTIST: Dawson Chen

Brother and sister Edgar and Trey team up when spiders start controlling people’s minds, like it says on the tin. It’s a good story, but Trey’s breaking out the mid-fight poetry again and it just distracts from fighting a giant spider and his spider lady bride. Don’t distract from the cool part. Yeah, this issue is seriously leaning into the sci-fi.

Reliable Sources

WRITER: Kathleen Gallagher | GRAPHIC DESIGN: Ty Templeton

I didn’t even realize this was an official story. It’s just a couple of pages of random emails.

Underwater

WRITER: Yolanda Cheung | PENCILER: Rob Pincombe | INKER: Kellam Templeton-Smith

Senior and I think Elizabeth investigate a friend’s undersea laboratory and after fighting the guards…finds nothing wrong. Just a man avoiding the paperwork. Seemed kind of pointless.

Eight Seconds To Mayhem

WRITER: Kathleen Gallagher | Danny Setna

A philanthropist wants to use a rodeo to show off his new reduced farting cows. Yes, really. An eco-nut wants to stop him, as does the person he’s working for. Edgar Junior really comes off as so much of a pompous jerk that his sudden turn to a positive view of Texas and the rodeo doesn’t make sense. This was not a good story.

Enabled

WRITER/PENCILER: Vince Tourangeau | INKER: Jeff Longstreet

Elizabeth tried inventing an intelligence boosting drug but it just drove all the test subjects nuts–except for Edgar, who just saw into the future or something and became hooked. When someone tries to get the secret of the drug, they have to stop him. I don’t know. This was just off on so many levels. The art wasn’t that great. It doesn’t paint Edgar in any better light than the last story, and just felt very by the numbers.

Polarized

WRITER: Sam Ruano | ARTIST: Gibson Quarter

Elizabeth and Edgar again, this time with some apparent shipping. (She’s Watson’s descendant, remember.) i thought this was going to be Holmes Incorporated versus The Thing From Another World, but instead of shapeshifting we get a parasite that boosts the target’s deep emotions. It just wasn’t for me.

The Green Blooded Murder

WRITER/PENCILER: Marshall Geddes | INKER: Jeff Longstreet

A old woman is shot in the retirement home and her blood is green (this is a black and white comic, so we’re taking their word for it). What follows has zero clues and is just Edgar and Arthur figuring out what’s really going on, and it’s a dude with a beef against Edgar because he’s not as famous though his college grades were higher. It’s just a bunch of stuff thrown at the reader, though at least neither of them are as big a jerk as they’ve been. Also, why does the villain think Holmes, Inc needs to investigate every crime? Police exist in this world. They only handle the really hard ones pro bono.

Safe

WRITER: Aaron Feldman | PENCILER: Rachael Wells | INKER: Ty Templeton

In our thankfully final story (more on that in the “overall”) Elizabeth is hurt but still wants to find why the left handed children were kidnapped. This was a very different story, as Elizabeth ends up killing the kidnapper, forcing the kids to make IED because his dad is the president of the country’s he’s in. The man’s too evil to live, and I have to admit even I kind of side with Elizabeth on this one. We also see her childhood training from her dad and how it comes in handy in this case. Overall a pretty good ending.

overall

Trying to write all that before I started the review already told me there were going to be way too many stories for 84 pages. After having read it, I was right. This took way too much time to read in one sitting, especially when most of the stories were kind of mid at best. There’s one more issue but I’m going to wait until I have more time to actually read it, maybe write the review in parts. Between two Golden Age anthologies already on my list this eats up a lot of time.