7.15.15 [#PicksOfTheWeek]

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The week after #SDCC is usually a little slim after publishers dump all their latest high profile projects and announcements into the bazaar, and that’s a good thing because I’m exhausted! It was a blast rolling with the Comics Bulletin crew this year as Jason Sacks, Chase Magnett, Daniel Elkin, and I scoured the con floor, caught up with creators for interviews and networking, hit the after parties, saw old friends, pursued our diverse individual projects, and made #BarCon and #FoodCon just as much of a priority as the comics.

As usual, I had fun playing San Diego Tour Guide and hitting some of my favorite spots. We had lunch and drinks at Queenstown Public House! We had tacos and horchata at Lucha Libre! We stopped in for a drink at The Regal Beagle! If there’s an Eisner Award for drinks, I’d bestow it upon the refreshing and smooth Cucumber Gin Gimlet at The Lion’s Share and the “Mother’s Ruin” Punch Bowl at Craft & Commerce for the name alone and the sheer spectacle of a big block of ice floating in a bowl of alcohol. Anyway, there’s really no better crew to roll with at #SDCC.

Comics! Let’s go with an oldie-but-a-goodie this week and spotlight Astro City #25 (DC/Vertigo) by Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson. Busiek is a real-deal veteran writer with a diverse body of genre work who’s capable of capturing the type of authenticity that lesser writers often try to unsuccessfully emulate. Astro City is perhaps his opus, a title that’s been a constant through decades of ups and the downs in the industry, a creator owned book before that term became cool again, and favors deep-dive examination of the personal and hidden corners of a shared superhero universe concept, sometimes to grand deconstructionist results.

I’ll also recommend Drifter #6 (Image) by Ivan Brandon and Nic Klein, a great sci-fi romp that’s as insightful about character as it is wondrous about setting and design. There’s Warren Ellis and Jason Howard’s Trees #11 (Image), which often goes in unexpected ways, focusing on the socio-political implications and individuals relationship dynamics of the setting instead of the high-concept hook that sets up the actual world. Charles Soule and Alberto Alburquerque also continue their West Wing meets Independence Day sci-fi affair in Letter 44 #18 (Oni Press).

The only other book that caught my eye was Godzilla In Hell #1 (IDW), which I’ll pick up as long as Godzilla: Half Century War alum James Stokoe is involved, an attitude that doesn’t bode well for the rest of the series because I think he’s only doing the first issue.