12.10.14 [#PicksOfTheWeek]

#PicksOfTheWeek is brought to you with generous support from my retail sponsor Yesteryear Comics. Make Yesteryear Comics your choice in San Diego for great customer service and the best discounts possible on a wide selection of mainstream and independent titles. Customers receive an attractive 20% discount on new titles during their first week of release. Yesteryear Comics is located at 9353 Clairemont Mesa Boulevard.

Copperhead #4 by Jay Faeber and Scott Godlewski takes the lead this week, amid a fantastic group of offerings from Image Comics. It’s almost literally a Sci-Fi Western, with Clara Bronson (a most deliberate name choice I’m guessing) acting as the new Sheriff in town, in a mining colony full of outlaws, multi-racial issues, and a sense of the wily frontier being alive and well.

It seems like this series hasn’t shown up for a while, so I’m happy to see East of West: The World, a one-short sourcebook of sorts, packed full of timelines, encyclopedia entries, and additional character information and plot elements enhancing the regular series. I’m a sucker for this type of companion piece that is pure world-building.

Image Comics also has Antony Johnston and Justin Greenwood’s The Fuse #8, the police procedural in space that I always sell at the LCS as “CSI: Galactica,” as well as Supreme: Blue Rose #5, one of Warren Ellis’ latest takes on psychological sci-fi, teaming with rising star Tula Lotay (nee: Lisa Wood, Director of Thought Bubble UK). If you’re after yet another take on sci-fi, this time featuring a women exploitation riff, there’s the debut of the much-anticipated Bitch Planet #1 from Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro.

I’m really excited for Punks #3 by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Kody Chamberlain, a true piece of contemporary art that relies heavily on the recontextualization of found objects and imagery. There’s also modern favorites like Sex Criminals #9 (Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky’s irreverent instant success), as well as “The Jasons,” Aaron and Latour, with Southern Bastards #6, a series which took a very unexpected turn at the conclusion of the first arc, and like Scalped before it, carves out another misunderstood slice of the American Tapestry for deeper examination.

I’ve been underwhelmed by new titles from the Vertigo imprint lately, so it’s a good thing they have Astro City #18 by Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson to anchor any interest at all in their offerings. Over at IDW, there’s the continuation of Chuck Dixon and Butch Guice’s post-apocalyptic series with Winterworld #5, and the drop-dead gorgeous reimaging of a classic by Eric Shanower and Gabriel Rodriguez in Little Nemo: Return To Slumberland #3.