4.29.15 [#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.

I’m most excited for They’re Not Like Us #5 (Image Comics) this week. I’m really loving the way Eric Stephenson and Simon Gane ground latent adolescent power manifestation in a rich indie style that asks some compelling moral questions along the way. I’m also curious to check out Pisces #1 (Image Comics) by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Johnnie Christmas. While I don’t follow the work of Wiebe very closely, I’m a big fan of Johnnie Christmas’ stylized and emotive art, so I’ll give this “sci-fi psychological body horror” a chance to hook me.

The House of Creator Owned also has The Fuse #12 (Image Comics) by Antony Johnston and Justin Greenwood, Bitch Planet #4 (Image Comics) by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro, and Outcast #8 (Image Comics) by Robert Kirkman and Paul Azaceta. Of the trio, The Fuse is at the top of the list for me. Not only is it an intricate police procedural wrapped in a high-quality sci-fi world-build (that’s three hyphenated words in a row!), but in the wake of the recent frown-inducing Umbral Hiatus Announcement, now’s a great time to be vocally and financially supporting the books you care about from the creators whose voices and styles you feel are important. Now, I don’t mean to go off on a rant here, but this really upset me.

Umbral was a joyous spectacle of lavish art, color, and moody imagination that disrupted established genre conventions, and its greatness was rewarded with lackluster sales.  So I’ll say it again, if there’s a book you like, fill out your Previews Order Form so your sales vote can be tracked where it counts (the retailer is the true customer in the direct market), and then buy it, loan it, gift it, review it, advocate for it at your LCS, tell your friends, blog, tweet, and tumble it so the cool thing you like can continue to exist, and the creators whose work you enjoy can not only make a living doing the thing they enjoy, but can continue to make more new things for you that you’ll probably also enjoy. End Rant. Ahem.

There’s also Jem & The Holograms #2 (IDW) by Kelly Thompson and Sophie Campbell, a book I enjoyed for the sheer modern diversity of characters and thoughtful way it captured the voices and attitudes of a generation younger than mine. I might also check out G.I. Joe #8 (IDW) by Karen Traviss and Steve Kurth, with dope modern art covers by Jeffrey Veregge, a series which has proven itself to be a really strong look at contemporary politics as much as it is about bang-bang spec ops soldiers with cool gear and code-names.

On the collected edition front, I’ll recommend the sweet consensual kink of Sunstone Volume 2 (Image Comics) by Stjepan Sejic and the Headspace TPB (IDW) by a couple of real emerging talents, Ryan K. Lindsay and Eric Zawadzki, all about the frail separation between reality and fantasy.

4.22.15 [#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.

It seems like it’s either boom or bust for my weekly pull. I think I only ended up buying two books last week, so naturally there’s about a dozen this week that I’m interested in. Drones #1 (IDW) by Chris Lewis and Bruno Oliveira looks interesting, pitting the notion of post-9/11 covert drone warfare up against a terrorism themed hotel on the Las Vegas strip. Whaaa? It’s just crazy enough that it’ll probably be totally great or totally crash and burn. We’ll see!

Image Comics is bringing two of their absolute best this week, with Lazarus #16 (Image) by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark, and Manifest Destiny #14 (Image) by Chris Dingess and Matthew Roberts. If you follow my best of the year lists, both of these were selections last year, so you should definitely check them out. Lazarus brings a dystopian future based on a) organized crime corporations ruling the world, b) severe income inequality fast-forwarded to apocalyptic proportions, and c) rapidly advancing biotechnology creating hardened super-soldier enforcers. Manifest Destiny tickles my fascination with historical speculative fiction in a time period that’s super cool, tracking Lewis & Clark’s fabled expedition into the monster-filled territory of the Louisiana Purchase.

Image Comics also has the non-nuclear family dynamics of assassin kids within an 80’s cultural context in Deadly Class #12 (Image) out from Rick Remender and Wes Craig, the follow up issue to Gabriel Hardman and Corinna Bechko’s very strong politically-charged sci-fi debut with Invisible Republic #2 (Image), and the oh-god-what-will-he-pull-next? fascination of Chip Zdarsky and Kagan McLeod’s Kaptara #1 (Image).

I’m also very excited to check out Mono Vol. 2 #1 (Titan Comics) by Brian Wood and Sergio Sandoval. I believe this is the first of a two-part story about an alt-history WWII mission in the Pacific Theatre, and one of the rare (only?) Brian Wood projects that I didn’t read in its first incarnation since I’m not a huge fan of the existing digital comics experience (seems like there’s still room for some innovation here by newcomers), so I’m glad to see a print version following with Titan’s lush production values. Also? Gorillas!

I’ll probably take a half-hearted flip through Star Wars #4 (Marvel), a book that has become totally yawn-inducing with the out-of-character fan-fic plots and off-model inconsistencies in the art (a host of criticisms I could probably level at all the current Marvel SW books, and I desperately hope the recently announced Lando series by Charles Soule and Alex Maleev will break the trend), as well as The Life After #9 (Oni Press), a book that made a strong start for me, but one that I’ve sort of lost interest in during the last couple of issues. With so many strong books out there, it just happens sometimes.

As for trades, the only thing that jumped out at me to recommend is Winterworld Volume 2: Stranded (IDW) by Chuck Dixon, Tomas Giorello, and Tommy Lee Edwards. Chuck Dixon has taken a pretty bad rap lately for some of his conservative world views, but hey, if you only followed the work of people whose political or religious beliefs you agreed with 100%, you probably wouldn’t be reading very many comics. Dixon is responsible for one of my favorite extended runs on Nightwing years ago, and this series about survival after cataclysmic climate change is an interesting and grounded take on a popular setting. 

4.15.15 [#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.

It’s a relatively small week, but there’s still a few hidden gems to be found! In terms of singles, I’m most curious about RUNLOVEKILL #1 (Image Comics) by Jonathan Tsuei and Eric Canete, based largely on the striking aesthetic qualities of the cover and teaser images. Image Comics is also offering Chrononauts #2 (Image Comics) and Tithe #1 (Image Comics) by Matt Hawkins and Rahsan Ekedal. I’m not in love with the humorous elements in Chrononauts, but Sean Murphy’s art alone is usually worth checking out. Hawkins and Ekedal have quite a bit of credibility established with me based on their recent work, so I’ll at least check out the first issue of their new project.

Oni Press has Letter 44 #15 (Oni Press) out from Charles Soule and Alberto Alburquerque, always good for a sci-fi political romp, and I’ll also be picking up EI8HT #3 (Dark Horse) by Mike Johnson and Rafael Albuquerque. I am starting to get worried that the sheer volume of good sci-fi (A LOT featuring dimension/time-hopping alt realities/timelines) coming out of Image and Dark Horse will glut the market, or at least make the better books a little harder to find amid the masses, or at the very least make it harder for me to quickly differentiate all of their current plot threads, but all you can do is vote with your wallet and hope the strong survive.

There’s plenty in the collected editions department, starting with Moon Knight Volume 2: Dead Will Rise (Marvel Comics), collecting issue 7 through 12 by Brian Wood, Greg Smallwood, Jordie Bellaire, and Declan Shalvey (on covers). This run was incredibly strong, and I’m still convinced that Moon Knight #8 deserves an Eisner Award in the Best Single Issue category for its handling of the ubiquitous iPhone in the Social Media Age. I’ll also recommend the Stumptown Hardcover Volume 3 (Oni Press), this one by Greg Rucka and Justin Greenwood, a murder mystery set within the context of an interesting subculture, while slowly revealing more about P.I. Dex Parios and her past.  Lastly, there’s Punks Volume 1: Nutpuncher (Image Comics) by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Kody Chamberlain, the rare humor book that’s actually funny, pushing its bizarre serial killer ransom letter collage motif to make wry social observations amid all the ludicrous character and events.

4.08.15 [#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.

It’s an exceptionally strong week for comics! Rebels #1 (Dark Horse) is finally here from Brian Wood, Andrea Mutti, Jordie Bellaire, and Tula Lotay. I’ve read an advance of the issue, and I can objectively say it’s Wood’s most personal work to date, overlapping circles in the Venn Diagram concerning what it means to be a patriot, rural upbringing in Vermont, and other familial relationships and personality quirks all set amid historical speculative fiction, something this writer knows a thing or two about. Andrea Mutti is also an exceptionally underrated artist, capable of cramming lots of great detail and emotion into the tiniest of spaces with his lean lines. I’m as excited for the masses to get their hands on this as I was the first time I read through it and saw how strong it was. All eyes seem to be on Image at the moment, but let’s not forget that creator owned hits can also be found elsewhere. This will be one of them.

Wasteland #60 (Oni Press) is also finally arriving on the shelves, the bittersweet close to the post-apocalyptic series that’s been a constant presence in my life for the last 9 years. I’ll be sad to see it go, but laud creators Antony Johnston, Christopher Mitten, Justin Greenwood, et al for having the gumption to tell the long-form story they wanted to tell in the manner they wanted to tell it. If you want to read up on the guys and the storytelling journey, check out “Surviving The Big Wet,” my recent Wasteland Retrospective Interview Series. This issue is basically an epilogue to what’s come before, but I’m sure I’ll savor every single word and image all the way to that satisfied turn of the final page.

Speaking of all things creator owned, we have top notch sci-fi in Copperhead #6 (Image Comics), two endings to choose from in the finale of Danger Club #8 (Image Comics), a second installment in Descender #2 (Image Comics), the last part of the trilogy starting up in The Legacy of Luther Strode #1 (Image Comics), Morrison and Burnham’s compelling Nameless #3 (Image Comics), Fraction and Ward’s gender-swapped Homerian adventure in ODY-C #4 (Image Comics), the ever-popular Saga #27 (Image Comics), the follow up of the new Becky Cloonan and Andy Belanger joint in Southern Cross #2 (Image Comics), as well as the reality-breaking debacle of The Surface #2 (Image Comics). I mean, if you can’t find something to enjoy in this impressive array of titles, I don’t even know why you’re reading comics in the first place. You should just put down your copies of Aquaman and Squirrel Girl or whatever it is you’re reading and head back to the mall to eat your Big Mac.

I’ll also be checking out Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson’s latest installment of their grand opus in Astro City #22 (DC/Vertigo), Tom Scioli and John Barber’s severely eclectic and maniacally irreverent 80’s nostalgia romp in Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #6 (IDW Publishing), and the mayhem lurking in Kaijumax #1 (Oni Press) by Zander Cannon. On the collected edition front, I’ll recommend the superb drama in Sheltered: Volume 3 (Image Comics) by Ed Brisson, Johnnie Christmas, Shari Chankhamma, and Ryan K. Lindsay. This is the final volume, collects issues 11 through 15, and even includes a nice shout out to my LCS Yesteryear Comics.