REVIEW: Mother Russia #3: Good For the Price

I have followed the Alterna newsprint line since it’s inception and have found a lot of original and really well done books.Â TrespasserÂ immediately comes to mind as the world they created is intriguing and desperately needs a sequel.Â Lillith DarkÂ was another great title that was fun and swept you up in its story. However this time out I was a little disappointed inÂ Mother Russia #3.

It’s not that the book was bad, it was just a little underwhelming and did not meet my expectations. The book seems to be the work of one man, Jeff McComsey, as his story and art credit is the only one to be found in the book. I hope that he did the lettering himself as well rather than not crediting the letterer as letterers are very under appreciated and deserve to be credited. Also I assume he was his own editor as that role is also not credited to anyone.

The story is a pretty generic zombie story, the likes of which we’ve seen many times. The story which centers around a Soviet sniper during World War II who risks her life to protect an innocent baby boy when a zombie apocalypse occurs, is not a bad story, but just did not have anything interesting or different enough to set it apart from the overwhelming amount of zombie material available.

The artwork fell a little short for me as well. Much like the story it wasn’t bad, but was just ok. It felt as if it was trying to emulate the art style of The Walking Dead.Â For a book that needs a way to stand apart from the pack, trying to copy the style of an existing and successful property seems like a huge disservice to the story and to readers who deserve better than a pale imitation.

The book is part of Alterna’s newsprint line and has a cover price of $1.50. For that price it’s worth picking up for a fun quick read, but at a more standard cover price I would have to pass on it. I hope that this is not an indication that the newsprint line will start to put out material regardless of quality just to keep its momentum. What Alterna needs to realize is that the novelty of cheap newsprint books will fade and so will readers unless you give them books worth staying for.

Story: 2
Art: 2
Overall Rating: 2

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(W) Jeff McComsey (A/CA) Jeff McComsey