Gather The October Faction, Vol. 1 Documented By Steve Niles Issued As Copy

is a pretty middleoftheroad 'Supernatural' style monsterhunting family story, A retired monster hunter finds his family pulling him back in as the next generation chomps at the bit to pick up the mantle, There are werewolves, monsters, zombies, and robotchildren which is admittedly somewhat unique, even if they do look like Edward Scissorhands rejects, and some decent action sequences.
The relationships are the heart of the story, and they are admittedly pretty strong, And the art works pretty well, recalling Niles' style even if he isn't the one doing the drawing, While a bit dark and muddy, it fits the theme and style of the title,
I'm interested enough to see where this is going, but it's not something particularly novel, at least not in the first volume, Enjoyable, but not unique. The Allans, a family of supernatural monster hunters, are pulled out of retirement by a werewolf friend with cancer, a blueblood with a grudge and an evil plan, and a hybrid machineboy who blames the patriarch for the death of his creator.


Disappointingly stupid. October Faction is neither as clever nor as witty as it thinks it is, A lot of the attempts at humor made me cringe, The characterizations are inconsistent: the protagonist family veers wildly between coldly aristocratic and cheerful cheeky warm fuzzies,

Then there are the logical inconsistencies, Werewolves are apparently monstrous, ragefilled killing machines, yet when one of the good guys gets turned hes conveniently calm and lucid, A good guy with fangs, And somehow the Allans turn a vengeanceobssessed enemy into a beloved adoptive child in about three minutes over dinner, using nothing but smarmy “power of kindness”.
UGH.

I have mixed feelings about the illustration, The oldportrait style pages are dark and creepy as hell, very cool, But most of the time it just looked like confused smears of color,

October Faction is not worth the read, Even in October.

I really enjoyed the vibe of this comic, I love a spooky family, mysteries, and some macabre fun, This had some flavors of The Addams Family and The Munsters, My favorite part was probably the art style, It's very dark and murky, but nicely detailed, It was fun to read, and not exactly what I was expecting,
I watched the Netflix adaptation before reading the source material, and I don't really know what the show was doing, I do not understand why big changes happen when things get adapted, or why the change the whole flavor from the source material, There are similarities between the comic and the show, but there's a whole lot of differences, One of the big changes seems to be the overall set up, Our kids in the comic already know about the spooky stuff going on around them, while the kids in the show are oblivious to it all.
I

know I've only read the first Volume, but I think the comic wins over the show, I'm not terribly surprised the show didn't survive and go on,
I'm definitely interested in reading more of this, I really like the art style and I want to see what happens next,

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL./
Spooky spooky.
I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review,

Not sure what I expected from this one, as I hadn't heard of this title before, But I'm familiar with Steve Niles' work onDays of Night, and knew it should probably be pretty good,

It was VERY good! The story follows retired monster hunter now teacher Frederick Allen who's being forced back into this job because of a threat on his very strange family.
This volume collects the first six issues, and basically sets up the story with little snippets of background so the reader isn't completely lost,

The artwork is outstanding, and sufficiently dark and creepy, perfect for this type of story, I'll definitely be hunting down the next volume! Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review,

Frederick Allen is a retired monster hunter who now devotes his time to teaching, his two grown children want to follow in their fathers footsteps which he is against until secrets from his past come back to haunt him.
His wife is also involved in something that will ensure his past catches up to him, His ex partner has also come back into his life with news that upsets him however not all is as it seems,

Loved the art in this graphic novel dark and gritty with a vibrant use of colour, it ticked all the right boxes for me.
Each panel was consistent in style and seemed to ooze dread and atmosphere,

Story wise it was a little muddled at times but I got the gist of it for the most part, This volume really just sets up the future family business of monster hunting and I really hope it continues as it would be a great start to a series.


Gorgeous artwork and hopefully a start to a promising graphic novel horror series,

Recommended.
The October Faction is a graphic novel about the adventures of the retired monsters hunter Frederick Allan and his family,  

Initially was I a bit put off by the art in this volume, I thought it was too dark, too gritty, too weird looking, not at all that kind of art that I like when it comes to graphic novel, but in a strangely weird way I came to really like the art as the story progressed, it just suited the story perfectly.




It's a dark story so the art short be dark and a bit weird, And, what a story, a monster hunting family man with a dark past and two quite odd children that very much want to be monster hunters also and we also have robot faced Dante out to kill the man who killed his "father" and an old friend of the family who happens to be a werewolf.




In the end I just devoured thepage long graphic novel and now I want more!

I received this copy from the publisher through Netgalley in return for an honest review! Not what I was expecting but truthfully I'm not sure what I was expecting to begin with.
Although it was darker then I generally prefer it still ended up being a really good story with okay graphics,
arc from NetGalley The artwork here was incredible and I liked the colouring changes that occur throughout, I was going to give this a five which was a,but the overall story was a bit of a mess, Having the new addition to the family was very quick, carried no weight, no real explanation and just didn't make a lot of sense, I'm interested yo see where this series goes but I'm finding Niles is very hit and miss within the same book, I'm unable to get my hands on theDays of Night volumes and I've heard these were quite good, I liked the mythology created here and hopefully it leads up somewhere but I won't have the chance to read these until the library brings them in.

Courtesy of Netgalley.

This is how a graphic novel should be written, The perfect amount of dialogue, the rest of what needs to be said is on each character's face, or in the artwork, or in the silence between characters.
The lives of the Allan family and company are illustrated through emotional interactions, flashbacks, violence and action, mystery, It unfolds at the right pace, not too much and not too little revealed at any one point,

There is a delicate balance walked throughout the volume, between hard and soft, The subject matter is hard, the violence is blunt, but the characters are human and even those who aren't technically human are human, Family is a big theme they have their issues but all really love each other, The brother and sister relationship was great, adding just the right touch of softness to the subject matter, There's a great scene where the siblings and their father are burying the body of an enemy he's just killed, It should be dreary, shocking, dark, but the subtle humorous banter throughout the scene between kids and father makes it so
fantastic,

Kids: "So is grave digging a big part of the work"
Dad: "Only if you do it right, "

The artwork is amazing, and strategic, just when you think its a bit too dark aesthetically, the next panels lighten up a bit and relieves the eye and the mood.
The background go from thickly dark to splotchy and ethereal, creating depth and richness on each page, I love the hard lines and the use of color, I love the perspective from frame to frame, It is impeccably creative.

Going to look up Volumenow! Story:,
Art:

A real funny octoberhalloween comic book and the artwork was really great.

It was like reading Addams family gone monster hunters, Buffy the vampire slayer style, . . with a pinch of Green Hornet,







The class blackboard monster list in first issue reminded me the one in the awesome "Cabin in the woods" movie.
:D





Not a bad read at all, but it could be a far better one, .