READ WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT AAZURN PUBLISHING'S DONE-IN-ONE, SHORT STORY COMIC BOOKS!

Jazz: Cool Birth

"Jazz: Cool Birth takes it’s inspiration form 1950s jazz album covers, using a strikingly stylish blend of colloquial prose and graphic design to tell its murder mystery set amongst the jazz bars of 1957.

"The imagery and the loose but controlled rhythm of the writing brilliantly evoke the sights, sounds and smoky atmosphere of a bygone era. You could listen to some Coltrane or Monk or Miles while reading this, but even without that extra stimulus the right soundtrack of cool jazz and bebop will be playing in your mind.

"A wonderful, unique comic book experience. 9/10"

Matt C.
Paradox Comics Group

"From the martini crowd at the uptown piano bars to the whiskey cats at downtown’s Skylarks, piano man Dean Fontessa had thought he’d seen it all. But when he agrees to beat chops with the local pounders about a nixed out gabriel, he finds the jazz crowd takes care of its own, dig? A Xeric Foundation grant winner, now in full-color!"

Ken, Editor, Heroic Times
Under the Radar

"Comic Design Award of the Week: 'Jazz: Cool Birth' by Gary Scott Beatty."

M. Hussein Masterson
Twitter.com

Jim: "At first, when I opened it up, I said, oh, it's very graphic arts style, and there's a lot of words, I'm going to hate it! I like pretty pictures and a few words. But, then I got into it, and it's this great, intriguing murder mystery type tale."

Joe: "This was a real neat telling of a story. All the language is great! The guy that wrote it must be a big jazz fan, because he really nailed some of the dialogue in it, the terminology and some of the slang that's used in the jazz scene. I definitely enjoyed it."

Jim: "I really was hearing that sort of smooth jazz in the background as I'm reading it. I thought it was really cool and a really great story. It's something different in storytelling. I thought it was great, so give it a shot. Something different, something new."

Jim and Joe
Comic News Inside Podcast

This is a major cool comic title...which absolutely captures the flavor of jazz clubs in the late '50s. It's unlike any other comic out there. A fantastic blend of art and text...It really puts the graphic in graphic novel. The most different comic twist I've read this year.

Paul Bishop
Bish's Beat

Seductions

"Shot from artist Bill Bryan's compelling pencils and enhanced by Beatty's colors, Seductions draws the reader into the vampire's hunt for "life" and love. One feels his pain even as one loathes his manipulative manner. Complete unto itself, this comic book is another satisfying done-in-one presentation. Seductions earns four Tonys."

Tony's Tips! by Tony Isabella
Comic Buyers Guide #1644

"A vampire love story. If you love vampires with human hearts, you are the target audience. If you're ambivalent toward the vampire genre but wouldn't mind reading a well-written one, you might like this book too...

"The art is beautiful, and the character development is strong and sensible, logically following the parameters of a Highlander-like immortal existence.

"Through a series of flashbacks, we learn how our antihero developed the attitude toward women that he currently has (he respects them considerably more than most people respect their food). He approaches his womanizing/hunting like a quest, seeking that certain je ne sais quois that he'll hopefully recognize if he ever finds it."

Rick Silva
Dandelion Studios

"I'm not partial to vampire stories, but this is less about blood, blood, and more blood, and more about the 'living forever' aspect of it. It certainly succeeds there. The surface theme, by which it discusses that, is the main character of the story talking about how he seduces his victims through the years, and that, too, is written well enough. The art is technically perfect - the eye catches all the right details in the right places - and the writing, while not to my favorite subject, is as good as it gets. I really can't see where this could be improved..."

Overall Rating: 10.0. Writing: 10.0. Artwork: 10.0. Packaging: 10.0. Value: 10.0

Jacques Treatment
Dimestore Productions.com

"Nicely designed package. The story by Gary is very entertaining...Overall everything works great here, coloring, lettering, and art all flow nicely with the story. I was drawn to flip the pages to see what was going to happen next. Totally unpredictable story. Great work!"

Allen Freeman
Small Press Newsroom
Syndicated Zine Reviews

"Striving to create an entertaining and socially informative comic book, writer Gary Scott Beatty has an interesting book up his sleeve. His new comic, Seductions, depicts the history of seduction, and how it has evolved with the changing attitudes and role of women - oh, there's also a vampire.

"Fans of subtle horror will appreciate the artwork, as Beatty and Bryan decided to go for a less gory style. While discussing the genre and motif, Beatty described it as, 'Sex and the City from a male perspective, with vampires.' With a description like that, Carrie Bradshaw could really say her last date sucked."

Scoop

Adam Among the Gods

"For the uninitiated (Welcome to you, by the way.), "done-in-one" means a single story in a single issue. No need to buy multiple issues, or multiple series, for that matter, to see dangling plot lines resolved. A rare phenomenon in the world of comics of which I'm quite fond.

"Artist James Lyle is one of those individuals who makes you glad there is a visual medium called 'comic books.' His clear, bold lines and well-defined figures lend just the right 'scrubbed clean with Clorox, but something nasty still lurks beneath the shine' look needed for this futuristic story...Lyle also handles striking contrast in amazing fashion, which he proves when Adam discovers..., WHOOPS! Let's just say that Adam discovers the shocking truth beneath the shine.

"From the get-go, Beatty gives us characters with whom we can sympathize...He also provides an engaging story at a crisp, but not rushed pace, with a satisfying conclusion...all in one issue...Adam Among The Gods is worth seeking out."

Mark Allen
Suspended Animation
4 Color Commentary.com

"Here's a radical idea for you: a 24-page comic story.

"As in, a story that is completely contained within 24 pages. It's not part of an ongoing, serialized storyline. It's not an OGN. It doesn't feature characters who have ever appeared before, or will ever appear again. It's just a simple short story in comic book form, no pre-existing knowledge or commitment to future issues necessary.

"Did I just blow your mind?!?

"...the story being told is a good, old-school SF tale of hubris and Big Ideas, and some nice, subtle touches that Beatty is smart enough not to pound home...Likewise, Lyle's...characters are expressive, and he does a good job of portraying Adam as deformed without making him overly grotesque."

Adam Prosser
rackraids.com

"Alex Toth's oft-quoted advice to other artists, 'To add to truth only subtracts from it,' is a beautiful and noble sentiment, one which can be found well demonstrated in a more practical sense with Jame Lyle's work on Adam Among The Gods.

"In this age of over-rendered, light boxed, ultimately static comic book illustration, Lyle's bold streamlined graphics are a genuine delight, harkening back to another near forgotten era of our craft when the flow of sequential panel storytelling, not pseudo photo-realism, was the primary goal of each and every comic illustrator.

"Lyle delivers on that oft forgotten approach to illustration with some of his most mature work yet as an artist. He does the real job in drawing comics and he does it very well, indeed."

Jackson "Butch" Guice
DC and Marvel artist

CLICK HERE to order Jazz: Cool Birth, Adam Among the Gods and Seductions!