'Kaijumax, Season Two: The Seamy Underbelly' by Zander Cannon continues the story from the first graphic novel.

Now that the giant Kaiju are out of prison, we find out what happens to them. Some want to go straight but get pulled back in to their former lives. Some go home to find things have been broken in their absence. Things aren't easy for the enforcement officers either. They face treachery and their own fears.

The story feels like it has ties to real life incarceration. Sure, it's giant monsters who want to squish people, and crush cities, but they are written with humor and emotion. After I finished the first one, I wasn't completely sure how I felt about the series, but having time to reflect on it, then read this one has left me liking this series.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Oni Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Review for publication so not suitable for publishing on Netgalley's website. ................................................................................................................................

I started reading this graphic novel but it didn't grip me and I couldn't continue. It wasn't what I expected but younger readers might really enjoy it.

I picked up season one of Kaijumax without knowing what I was getting into. I wasn’t expecting a hard-hitting, dark allegory about Japanese movie monsters in prison, but by the time I’d finished the book, I was sold and so ready for the next one. Season 2 delivers, and more. While Season 1 took place mostly inside the Kaijumax prison, Season 2 is about the world outside. It follows Electrogor and the Green Humongo who’ve escaped from Kaijumax and are on the run, and also Chisato, Mechazon’s robot sister, who’s joined the police force who hunt down Kaiju.

We already know life inside Kaijumax is hard for a Kaiju, but it’s not much better outside. The Green Humongo reunites with his brother, the Red Humongo, who’s out on parole and trying to stay straight. While Electrogor is only interested in getting back to his kids, the Green Humongo is itching to get back to his pre-prison life.



It’s still social commentary, a little more blatant than last time, but I enjoyed delving deeper into the characters’ backgrounds. The story lines this time reflect on the problems faced by marginalized groups outside prison, about ex-cons who try to go straight, and how structural racism affects them as badly outside prison as in it. There was a particularly poignant subplot (partially told in black and white flashbacks) about Warden Kang and his boss.

The art, while still candy-colored loveliness, is a bit more nuanced than in the first book. I absolutely love the art in this series – it’s a perfect complement to the story. I also loved the new characters introduced, though there’s a weird cameo that I thought was just odd and out of left-field. There’s some absolute brilliance, though, too – I mean, for goodness’ sakes, there’s a Lovecraftian ghetto at the bottom of the ocean that Electrogor passes through on his way home to his kids.

Overall, I liked this volume even more than the first, and I’m very much looking forward to the next season!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

With season 2, we move on from Oz to The Wire, moving out of the prison and focusing on a cop's and a robber's lives. Electrogor has broken out of prison and trying to make it home to his kids. Meanwhile Chisato, a robot, has joined the force. Still very much a social commentary, there are times where I don't know if I should be laughing or crying at the hard aspects of life Cannon is portraying like Lovecraftian monsters getting high off of being shown the cosmic truths before they come down and can't understand it. The best issue is when Electrogor goes to the depths of the ocean and hides in the ghetto which is where all the ancient Cthulhu monsters live.

Another awesome volume of Kaijumax! The volume continues on with the same characters, but also introduces some new ones. The illustrations are killer, and the story has my mind reeling. I just had to know what was going to happen, and I ended up tearing through all 3 volumes in one night. Honestly, probably one of my favorite graphic novel series now.

I have received a much appreciated digital copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

As entertaining the idea of a maximum security prison island for kaiju monsters is, the potential comedy and drama that can be derived from a satire of prison dramas is somewhat limited, too limited for an imaginative writer/artist like Zander Cannon. It's good to see then that the world of Kaijumax - and indeed the pan-dimensional multiverse - is expanded upon in Season Two: 'The Seamy Underbelly'. Cannon had already hinted as much in Season One that there's considerably more to play with here with occasional excursions into the world, the universe and the dimensions beyond, and in Season Two he takes those first tenuous steps outside the prison cells/craters of Kaijumax with the escape of Electrogor and the Green Humongo. Well, it is a prison drama after all, so inevitably there has to be an escape...

Cannon continues to play on the stereotypes, with the monsters as jive-talking criminal underworld types ("Yo mon!", "My lizza", "Move your ass, Megafauna") and comic incongruity of monsters in that kind of situation. So when there is a prison break, obviously the escapees try to lie low, which is kind of hard when you're the size of a 60-story building. They hole-up with Green's brother the Red Humongo, who has been let out on licence on parole, and is trying to go straight and hold down a regular job... well, 'monster regular' ...but you get the idea. Red doesn't need the heat that two escaped convicts bring, nor the jibes that Green fires at him about the pitiful conditions of the shack (the size of an aircraft hangar or abandoned warehouse) that a once proud terroriser of "Squishers" (humans) has been reduced to. Tensions arise, and when tensions arise between monsters, well, you soon know all about it...

And that's just one threat (and treat) that Season Two has to follow, but the wider expansion of the story has many other imaginative situations. There's a new superhero team in this collection tasked with monitoring and cleaning up monster activity in the region, Team G.R.E.A.T. who have their own personal and 'technical' problems; there's Corporal Singh's descent into drinking at a casino on Mars and his potential rehabilitation; there's the continuing story of Electrogor's concern to be reunited with his children that takes him to an undersea underworld of vice and addiction in a Kraken house. By extension then, the comedy and social satire continues to be just brilliant, showing a population wary of 'biological correctness', using the 'monsters' as a way of examining how society responds with prejudice and racism. Aside from that, in rampaging monsters, mad-scientist development of robot technologies and invasion from creatures from another dimension, you've got the traditional metaphorical undercurrents of fear of the dangers of seismic activity, nuclear disaster and destruction of traditional cultural values. And Zander Cannon's humorous take on it and his terrific creations. What's not to like?

I really tried to like this series but I just can't. I sadly couldn't fully finish this volume but I did read the first in the series and half of this one before deciding it's just not for me. The artwork is great. It's colorful and the kaiju are creative but also consistent. The writing just did not draw me in. I found myself not caring at all what happened to the characters. This one seemed to delve into some back story but I couldn't even compete an entire page before my attention wandered. Also, unlike the first, there was swearing throughout this one. The first had made up words or phrases that were slang used instead of cursing. Both had some violence but see my review of the first for a more accurate description. If this does seem like you're thing, don't let my review stop you from checking it out. It definitely isn't my thing though.

I would like to thank the publisher, author, and Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

The first volume was good, but this is better, as we see more of life on the outside and the model moves from Oz to The Wire - but still with giant monsters. Cops and guards, even once you root out the real bad apples, are torn between retribution and rehabilitation - each approach with very personal reasons behind it, each prone to going horribly wrong. One paroled monster tries to go straight, but human society still treats him like, well, a monster, and his old friends are dragging him back into the life with one thoughtless little action after another. And poor bloody Electrogor is still trying to get back to his kids, but ends up in a kraken house (the little linguistic flourishes remain delightful) in a bad neighbourhood. Which is to say, R'lyeh. In an afterword, Cannon talks about deliberately not making the parallels too direct lest they become ugly and offensive, which is a smart move (cf my doubts about Ruthanna Emrys' tales of unfairly persecuted moderate Cthulhu-worshippers), but he's too harsh on the "inch-thin logical structure" of his world. Yeah, the spoilsport who suggests that maybe giant robots aren't the best way to deal with giant monsters is in the wrong story, and gets a suitable comeuppance - but this world hangs together surprisingly well, and the travails of its people are often incredibly affecting, only in part because of their real-world echoes.

(Netgalley ARC)