by Joshua Williamson and Mike Henderson

Thus far, Monkey Brain’s Masks and Mobsters has been an extremely impressive series  from a indie digital publisher who has, by all rights, been consistently knocking it out of the park. Masks and Monsters is arguably the best of their acclaimed series. It is a story about a world of superheroes and mobsters and, “how the crime families deal with heroes who couldn’t be paid off, or even worse… Villains who didn’t pay up.”

MonkeyBrainComics.com labels this series as “… a noir crime anthology written by Joshua Williamson with a rotating team of artists to showcase the standalone stories set in the fictional Golden City where the mob has started to fight back against those who would try to steal their piece of the pie.” Who doesn’t want to read that? Anyway, this particular stand alone series focuses on one mobster telling the tale of where he was the night that Doctor Daylight was shot and killed and his run in with one of the “masks” of Golden City. The perspective on this story is great, and the anthology format of this series is a great way to sneak in this kind of story and get a different perspective on the “main story”.

Once again, Joshua Williamson weaves a fantastic story that flows perfectly and adds another building block to this crazy, noir world that he’s been constructing. He makes the characters come alive and makes you care about a world that feels like it has been around a lot longer–certainly not as new as three issues might suggest.

Mike Henderson’s art is also spectacular. It’s smooth, flawless and flows perfectly between the mobster sitting on a bed recounting his tale and the crazy, drug filled brawl with “The Deadly Bones”–who is dressed up like some sort of medieval knight and wields what can only be described as bone nun chucks. The heavy blacks and splashes of white and greys are spot on and I really hope to see Mike Henderson do more stories in the “Masks and Mobsters” world.

Over all, this comic sped by. At only 10 short pages, the team of Williamson and Henderson definitely swung for the fences and packed everything that was needed into these panels. There are no filler pages and everything is in this issue for a reason. This is .99 cents on Comixology and, frankly, there is no excuse to not pick this series up. It’s a quick, fun read and another great take on “masks” in an industry that is full of them. I definitely look forward to more.

Story: 9/10
Art: 9/10
Overall: 10/10

Follow Tyler on Twitter @rcbTYLER and follow the official RCB account @readcomicbooks.

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Founder/CEO/President/Editor-in-Chief at ReadComicBooks
Tyler is a life-long comic fan who forgot–probably due to some crazy bump on the head–his true passion for almost 15 years. Now, back into comics with a fiery vengeance that can’t be quenched, he focuses on ReadComicBooks.net daily–growing and nurturing the young community and website. Comics are something that he believes should be in the hands of anybody that just wants to read a good story and/or check out some amazing art. ReadComicBooks.net is a way to help share that idea and the passion for comics. Follow him twitter @readcomicbooks or @rcbTYLER.
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