4.29.15 [#PicksOfTheWeek]

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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.