REVIEW: Babyteeth #14 is contemplative AND hilarious

January 15, 2019 by Zack Quaintance in Reviews

Babyteeth #14 is out 1/16/2019. — **Babyteeth #14** is out 1/16/2019.

By Zack Quaintance — Babyteeth #14 marks the return of one of AfterShock’s best comics. This series wasn’t on a hiatus. No, it’s last issue came out in late October. Factor in the crowded holiday season (those dreaded times when commitments other than comics rear their heads), and the book’s short break felt more like an extended skip month. Either way, the book is back now, and you know what? It’s as sharp as it's ever been.

What’s perhaps most noticeable is the humor in this issue’s script. Basically, after a two-month hiatus, Babyteeth is back, and so is writer Donny Cates, at his most hilarious and absurd. This is the clever, pithy scripting that Cates used to announce his arrival at Marvel so emphatically in late 2017 with his work on Doctor Strange and Thanos Wins. It’s the dialogue that sounds like a mix of films by Richard Linklater and Adam McKay, conversational in a lazy Texas sort of way but never far from a slapstick and hilarious one-liner.

And Cates puts that humor to great effect here as we finally meet the McGuffin of this story, satan, giving him a number of one liners that made me chuckle aloud, which is pretty rare for me to do when I’m reading a comic. He’s not the only one being funny here, though. Artists Garry Brown and Mark Englert get called on to draw a very late painting by Vincent Van Gogh, and they come back with an image that’s just perfect...disturbing in an absurd way, like something from a raunchier version of Beetlejuice.

All the jokes, however, are sort of a trojan horse for something much deeper: a contemplation of mankind’s perceptions of satan and god, which is then extended into a look at the very nature of good and evil, and how from a certain point of view it’s nigh impossible to tell which is which. And look...I know, I know...my hackles are up just writing that, but it’s not some kind of veiled diatribe about the media or fake news or something hackneyed like that.

Cates and the Babyteeth team have a deep biblical interest. They aren’t saying anything here about how the last Tweet you sent could be construed as both supportive and critical of whatever issue of the hour. This is a comic that after 14 issues is finding new thematic ground exploring the validity of some of society’s deep abiding perceptions about morality as shaped by our ideas of the being that created us.

And look, I know what we’re talking about here: a comic called Babyteeth that in the first issue probably (I forget) had a scene where the baby spit up and it caused an earthquake, or locust to fall from the sky or something. This isn’t Chaucer. It’s more fun than all that, and Cates know it. That doesn’t mean he’s not going to try to find some truth during the big goofy party. He is, after all, pretty great at that: see Thanos Wins and the Cosmic Ghost Rider character everyone loves so much, and see God Country, another comic in which his main writerly interests—Texas, theology, and badassery—work well in (very awesome) concert.

Overall: An alternately hilarious and deep comic, Babyteeth #14 makes the best use of this comic’s concept yet. It’s filled with self-aware horror tropes that dance around real pathos and theology, and everyone involved is clearly having a blast with all of it. 8.5/10

Babyteeth #14
Writer: Donny Cates
Artist: Garry Brown
Colorist: Mark Englert
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
Publisher: AfterShock Comics
Price: $3.99

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.

REVIEW: Isola #6 is the return of a great series

January 15, 2019 by Zack Quaintance in Reviews

Isola #6 is out 1/16/2019. — **Isola #6** is out 1/16/2019.

By Zack Quaintance — Isola is one of Image’s most interesting comics, in that it stands out for being both utterly beautiful and massively decompressed (see The Warning). The thing I find most intriguing about Isola, however, is that as the book gorgeously reveals more of what’s happening, why things are happening, who are these characters, and the histories they share with one another, it doesn’t lose much (if any) of its tension.

There’s a concept in fiction I think about often called the rate of revelation, which says that one way to create suspense in a story is to carefully dole out vital information at a certain pace as the plot goes on. This, I believe, is the main strength of Brenden Fletcher and Karl Kerschl’s writing in Isola. They also do a great job of giving the audience what they need to make key orienting assumptions before truths become clear. One early instance of this is how in the first issue the tiger is treated with reverence and called Your majesty. My immediate guess was that a monarch had been converted into a tiger...and I was hell bent on continuing to read until I found out whether I was right.

The other (and more evident/impressive) strength of this comic is what is arguably industry-best semi-regular art. I mean, just look at this screen grab from Isola #5.

The artwork (by Karl Karl Kerschl and Msassyk) in Isola is among the best being done in comics today. Above panel is from Isola #5. — The artwork (by Karl Karl Kerschl and Msassyk) in **Isola** is among the best being done in comics today. Above panel is from **Isola #5**.

But, friends, we are not here to talk Isola #5! Nor are we here to continue to discussing this comic in a super broad sense. We are, in fact here, to talk Isola #6, which marks a return after a hiatus and the start of the book’s second proper story arc (the Isola Vol. 1 trade is out now, btw, and as I wrote in our Top Comics to Buy for January 16, it’s one of those reasonably priced introductory Image ones, which means with $10 and a little more than an hour you can get all caught up on this fantastic comic…). And it’s quite a solid return, to be sure.

When we last left our two main protagonists—Olwyn, the tiger who wouldbe/is queen; and Captain Rook, charged with escorting her to a possibly magical place called Isola that also might be bad and could maybe not exist—they were encamped under a tarp in the rain after an ordeal that almost claimed the life of the queen. This issue is characteristically decompressed, dedicating its first seven pages (nearly ⅓ of the total) to a slow vision in which Olwyn interacts with her mother. It’s gorgeous, cut with the dreamlike blue hues that marked the last issue’s desperate end, and it also does some work in the plot, leaving me (at least) with a couple of key questions.

The first is maybe more obvious: what role did Olwyn’s family—her parents and erratic brother—play in her current danger and plight, and secondly, what is happening with the animals in this story, are they all as the queen humans banished (or escaped) into other forms? It’s a great question to raise, one that really has me engrossed in what’s happening in these pages. The other significant developments here are that we see yet again that the queen’s forces pose a threat to her and are also erroneously marching toward war in her name, and, perhaps more importantly, a small friend of Rook’s learns what’s going on. The plot, however, is less important than pointing out that Isola maintains the beautiful aesthetic and patient storytelling with ample revelats that have made its first volume such a joy. I’m pretty glad this comic is back.

Overall: Isola #6 is yet another gorgeous burst of sequential art from this creative team, more of the developing fantasy tale with its themes of loyalty, desperation, trust. This is the first issue back after hiatus, starting a new arc. I’m loving this title, and I encourage any with even mild interest to pick up this issue along with the $9.99 first volume Image trade. 8.5/10
Isola #6
Writers: Brenden Fletcher / Karl Kerschl
Artists: Karl Kerschl / Msassyk
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.

Top Comics to Buy for January 16, 2019

January 14, 2019 by Zack Quaintance in Comics

By Zack Quaintance — This was an interesting week for comics, in that many of the best creator-owned books coming out were well into their runs or midway into their first arcs. There are, of course, some interesting new #1 titles (there always as are, as that’s where the money is at, and all), including Adventure Time: Simon and Marcy, Black Widow, and Invaders. There’s also Marvel Comics Presents #1, which is the one I’m personally most interested in.

Still, great creator-owned books like Black Badge, Gideon Falls, Lodger, and Wic + Div all seem to be caught mid-arc. So, we’ve done what any good comics recommender would...read the issues and sorted them out and come up with some recommendations—even if there aren’t any good jumping on points to be had, except for Isola (more on that in a moment). We hope you’ll find it all helpful!

And now, onward to the comics!

Top Comics to Buy for January 16, 2019

*PICK OF THE WEEK*
Babyteeth #14
Writer: Donny Cates
Artist: Garry Brown
Colorist: Mark Englert
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
Publisher: AfterShock Comics
Price: $3.99
So, hey, welcome back, folks. How about that issue 13, huh? I told you it was bananas. Anyway, look, I'd like to be able to tell you this one is easier or nicer somehow, but real-ly...have any issues of this book not been insane and weird? Would you even believe me If I said it was? No. You wouldn't. So, yeah, this issue is more of all that. Plus: BETRAYAL! (Dramatic music cue!)
Why It’s Cool: This issue really teases out writer Donny Cates’ abilities as a humor writer, which were last seen this directly during his first Marvel work on Doctor Strange and Thanos. Meanwhile, artist Garry Brown also gets some great chances to shine here in what is the first issue back after a bit of a break, using his design skills to also get in on the humor tip. It’s not all laughs though—this issue also raises some pretty stark questions about the devil and God, and, by extension, about our concepts of good and evil. Basically, this is the first issue in a while that really makes good on the immense promise Babyteeth had at launch way back when, so much so it makes me absolutely elated I stuck with this series.

Black Panther #8
Writer: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Artist: Kev Walker
Colorist: Stephane Paitreau
Letterer: VC’s Joe Sabino
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99
"THE INTERGALACTIC EMPIRE OF WAKANDA: THE GATHERING OF MY NAME" Part 2 For years, the Maroons have lain dormant, planning the next stage of their rebellion. At last, it is time to strike - with a treasure hunt for unstable Vibranium! And with the Black Panther once again in their ranks, they're certain of victory. But what will victory cost? When the chips are down, will the Maroons rise to heroism, or are they doomed by the trauma of their past?
Why It’s Cool: Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates just keeps getting better and better at the comics game, and while his best work may be taking place over in Captain America, his current bonkers intergalactic arc on Black Panther is really no slouch. It’s a bit hard to make out what exactly is going on here—my guess is something funny with a wormhole...thank you to the Shuri title for the tip—but the imagination involved with the story is absolutely off the charts. Kev Walker also returns for another issue, which I’m all about because I thought Black Panther #7 was stunning.

Electric Warriors #3
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Travel Foreman
Colorist: Hi-Fi
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $3.99
The revolution starts now! Inceptor accidentally digs too far into the memories of the Electric Warrior from Gil'Dishpan and uncovers a conspiracy at the heart of the Covenant. The planet games are meant to bring profit and keep the various peoples across the galaxies in check, rather than encourage peace and cooperation. If Inceptor can convince the other Warriors of what he's learned, it might just spark the revolution that will free a galaxy.
Why It’s Cool: Simply put, Electric Warriors is the Big 2 comic right now that not enough people are talking about. It’s an impeccably-told future-set tale with a savage sci-fi concept. This issue pushes that concept a step further by—well, I won’t tip into spoiler territory but I will tell you that you should without question be reading this book. Especially if you fancy yourself any sort of DC Comics continuity buff, or even a hardcore DC fan.

Isola #6
Writers: Brendan Fletcher / Karl Kerschl
Artists: Karl Kerschl / Msassyk
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
Olwyn has returned from the land of the dead, but did she return alone? The journey to Isola continues...NOW BI-MONTHLY!
Why It’s Cool: Isola is the best-looking comic coming out today (with apologies to The Dreaming), and this is the start of a new arc. The first trade is out there at the super reasonable $9.99 Image introductory price. It’s also a fairly decompressed comic, which means that with $10 and an afternoon, you can get caught up for this new jumping on point. And trust me when I tell you it’s very much worth. Not only is the art absolutely stunning, but the world is well-built and the characters compelling. The narrative is also paced with a rewarding rate of revelation, doling out enough to stay interesting without ever tipping into overly wordy dumping of exposition.

Superman #7
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artists: Ivan Reis, Brandon Peterson, and Jason Fabok
Inker: Oclair Albert
Colorist: Alex Sinclair
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $3.99
It's the moment you've been waiting for: the shocking return of the son of Superman! A year spent traveling the stars changed Jon Kent. Are parents Clark and Lois ready for the all-new, all-different Superboy? Secrets are revealed, a new look debuts and Superman's world is changed forever!
Why It’s Cool: There’s a reason that Brian Michael Bendis dueling runs on Action Comics and Superman made our Top 5 Comics of 2018: they’re both really really good. Action grabbed me right away, but I must admit it took just a tiny bit longer for Superman to really reel me in. Now that it has, however, I just can’t get enough of this book. Superman #7 is another fantastic installment with top-tier art and a plot that keeps the pages turning. It also has something that Bendis is proving himself impressively adept at: a new iconic moment largely shaped by logical ways in which the rest of the city, Earth, or galaxy would come to view someone as powerful and benevolent as our guy Clark Kent. These are exciting and special superhero comics, and I feel lucky to be reading them in real time as they come out.

Others Receiving Votes

A Walk Through Hell #7
Amazing Spider-Man #13
Black Badge #6
Catwoman #7
Conan the Barbarian #2
Detective Comics #996
Gideon Falls #10
Hawkman #8
Ironheart #2
Lodger #3
Middlewest #3
Supergirl #26
Venom #10
Warning #3
Wicked + Divine #41

See our past top comics to buy here, and check our our reviews archive here.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.

Comic of the Week: Euthanauts #5 establishes this series as a truly special comic

January 14, 2019 by d. emerson eddy in Comic of the Week

Euthanauts #5 is out 1/9/2019. — **Euthanauts #5** is out 1/9/2019.

By d. emerson eddy — Every once in a while a comic comes along that changes the landscape. Something that redraws a neighborhood or delivers a new map. Sometimes it's just a few new houses that no one's seen before, other times it's an entire continent. Watchmen, Sandman, The Walking Dead, Hellboy, Preacher, American Flagg, The Vision, Spawn, Sin City, The Invisibles, From Hell...each of these works charted new regions and territories for comics storytelling to go into, sometimes in simple ways, other times profound. Euthanauts is one such title, charting a new course into an undiscovered country of thanateros.

This series has been one about acceptance. Of death. Of love. Of change. Of identity. Individually and all together in numerous permutations. Of Thalia coming to accept her strange nature and using it to try to help people. It spirals out into the strange, but always snaps back to stark reality.

This is never more apparent than through the artwork of Nick Robles and Eva de la Cruz. Robles is a genius of perspective and design, working through the weird of deathspace to the continued infection of Oscar's personality upon the world. His style through this series has reminded me a lot of both Jill Thompson and John Ridgway's work, with beautiful character designs, but still having a real grit to the presentation. Particularly impressive are his double page spreads, creating his own maps as Thalia and Mercy reforge their own connection and Mercy tries to explain the impossible. Atop Robles line art, de la Cruz's colours enhance and deepen the weird and mundane.

It's all grounded, though, through the narration provided by writer Tini Howard. The script is full of beautiful, mad ideas, but it's measured through simple concepts, observations of nature, tiny facts that keep us thinking about normal things while working through the connections to the stranger, broader fanciful ideas of deathspace. Or having an identity subsumed by a relative whose ego is too large to let go after he dies, whose dialogue is interestingly represented by a different font and word balloon approach from letterer Neil Uyetake. It's also often funny as hell as symbolic representations of what might happen in the real world spontaneously manifest. There's a very interesting exploration in this issue of the core concept of the title, as represented in Thalia presenting Circe's wishes for her funeral/remains to handled. To experience a happy death. And there are killer Bowie references.

Overall, Tini Howard, Nick Robles, Eva de la Cruz, and Neil Uyetake have crafted something unique here. Delving into death and dying from a different perspective that requires a bit of reflection and understanding to deal with, similar to how loss can strike us in profound and unexpected ways. All while opening up a new avenue to explore human connections and family. It's been beautiful and strange.

Euthanauts #5
Writer: Tini Howard
Artist: Nick Robles
Colorist: Eva de la Cruz
Letterer: Neil Uyetake
Publisher: IDW - Black Crown
Price: $3.99

Check out past Comic of the Week selections by d. emerson eddy on the list page.

d. emerson eddy is a student and writer of things. He fell in love with comics during Moore, Bissette, & Totleben's run on Swamp Thing and it has been a torrid affair ever since. His madness typically manifests itself on twitter @93418.

TRADE RATING: Is This Guy For Real - The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman by Box Brown

January 11, 2019 by Zack Quaintance

From Is This Guy For Real? The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman by writer/artist Box Brown. — From **Is This Guy For Real? The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman** by writer/artist Box Brown.

By Zack Quaintance — I’ve had an interest in enigmatic comedian/performance artist/professional wrestler Andy Kaufman since I was a child. Kaufman first came to my attention via the promotional blitz for the 1999 biopic, Man on the Moon. Jim Carrey (a massive star at that time) played Kaufman. I was a pre-adolescent then, absorbing my news through the daily paper and via TV. Carrey, and by extension Kaufman, were all over the entertainment coverage for weeks.

I asked my mom about Kaufman. She’d been a fan of his in the ‘70s and ‘80s (although knowing what I know now, she didn’t get him, not really), owing to his slapstick role on the TV sitcom Taxi and some brief appearances he’d made pantomiming the theme to Mighty Mouse on Saturday Night Live. My mom bought me a biography of Kaufman—Lost in the Funhouse: The Life and Mind of Andy Kaufman by Bill Zehme—for Christmas that year, and probably thought little of it thereafter.

I, meanwhile, devoured the book at a too-young age, learning all that I could about Kaufman and internalizing his deep commitment to his art, to honoring his formative childhood interests even if doing so was only entertaining to him (this is perhaps why I obsessively edit a website about comics I created in my spare time, but that’s another story…). This is all a verbose introduction to last year, when I came across writer/artist Box Brown’s latest original graphic novel, Is This Guy for Real? The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman.

I found it at the Laughing Ogre comic book store in Columbus, Ohio (a fantastic little shop), and snapped it right up. As a long-time Kaufman devotee, I was absolutely delighted to not only find the book, but to read it cover to cover in a single sitting, so engrossed was I in Brown’s simple-yet-thorough rendering of the late performance artist’s life.

In my opinion, there are two ways that stories about Kaufman and his life should be approached. Kaufman was famously devoted to his characters and bits, maintaining kayfabe (as they call it in the wrestling world) and often only showing his true self to his closest family and friends. He was, in other words, always doing a bit. So, the first way a work about Kaufman can handle things is to embrace that no-winking meta aesthetic (the excellent Netflix documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond does this to an extent). The other way is to be the straight man, so to speak, sorting through the reality of Andy’s life.

Brown opts for the latter, which proves extremely effective for his no-frills illustrative style. Brown also makes a rare choice in terms of the greater body of post-death Kaufman stories: he focuses most-heavily on Andy’s dabbling in pro wrestling. This is perhaps unsurprising, given that Brown’s most famous work is still arguably Andre the Giant: Life and Legend, in which he gives similar autobiographical treatment to the late massive wrestler in the excellent 2014 book, which was also published by First Second. This is not to say that Brown only focuses on Andy’s wrestling (Elvis and bongos and Tony Clifton are also there), but it is noticeably more prevalent in his telling than in other Kaufman biographies, so much so it’s pretty clear it was a deliberate choice.

What most impressed me about this choice on Brown’s part was that not only did he focus on the dabbling in professional wrestling that eventually marked most of Kaufman’s life (even if the vast majority of post-mortem films and books tend to focus on SNL and Taxi, same as casual fans like my mom), but he also drew through-lines in the rest of Kaufman’s life that connect directly to the eventual participation in wrestling.

In Is This Guy for Real? we see Kaufman as a wrestling fan at a young age. We even learn that he injured his neck somewhat seriously practicing moves with his brother (this tidbit was new to me). We see how his comedic style overlapped with wrestling, how rooting for the villains made him almost indifferent to the reactions of his audience, and how his practice of transcendental meditation encouraged him to embrace his pure personality (I also practice TM and can attest to it doing that). This last point is a significant one because it also enables Brown’s story to show flaws and a bit of darkness in Kaufman (important for any biographical work so as not to feel like polishing a halo), specifically in how the performer often derived sexual pleasure from wrestling with women.

Is This Guy For Real? The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman was first published 2/6/2018 by First Second. — **Is This Guy For Real? The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman** was first published 2/6/2018 by **First Second.**

Overall, the focus on wrestling feels like one that Brown settled on early. It even factors into his title. The era during which Kaufman performed was one wherein the zeitgeist itself was still asking whether wrestling was for real. Brown (rightly) in my opinion zeroes in on that idea and uses it as a roadmap through Andy’s life, complete with a diversion here or there into the life of Andy’s in-ring wrestling foil (and real life good buddy) Jerry “The King” Lawler. This wise and savvy decision is what, in my opinion, leads to Brown doing such compelling work in Is This Guy For Real?

This OGN would be especially compelling for a total Kaufman newbie, but even for someone who has read and watched as much about Kaufman as myself, this proves to be one engrossing read, a refreshing and sensical way to understand a comedian who worked so hard to obscure his true self. Much credit is owed to the writer and artist for not only deciphering the larger strokes of Kaufman’s life but for also finding the more nuanced influences that others who’ve sought to tell his story have missed. I’m not sure it’s possible for there to be a definitive biographical work about Kaufman’s life, shrouded in confusion as it was (some still insist he faked his own death), but I think Brown’s graphic novel is firmly in the upper echelon.

Is This Guy For Real? The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman
Writer/Artist: Box Brown
Publisher: First Second
Price: $19.99 US / $25.99 CAN
Released: Feb. 6, 2018

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.

The Saga Re-Read #23: Saga #23 is heavy with betrayals (plural)

January 11, 2019 by Zack Quaintance in Saga Re-Read

Saga #23 was released 9/24/2014. — **Saga #23** was released 9/24/2014.

By Zack Quaintance — Here we are at Saga #23, the penultimate issue of this story’s dour fourth arc. I have to admit, upon first reading this series, this arc was not my favorite, which in retrospect is a testament to how accurately writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Fiona Staples convey the marital discord. I didn’t like this arc—which follows a time jump—because the romance and resultant little family was so severely threatened by problems I myself could relate to.

Murderous cosmic bounty hunters and robot nobles who can turn their arms into cannon are scary, theoretically, but wanting to escape one's routine for something more exciting? Well, that was a threat I could easily see in my own life. I’ve been ready for it this second time through though, and so I’ve enjoyed this arc quite a bit more, coming to understand how pivotal it is within the plot. What is this touching romance worth if it’s not tested on its own merits, rather than an increasingly wacky parade of independent threats? It’s hard to say. The fact that mundanity is as difficult as the extreme makes the love feel more authentic and the story all the more engrossing.

Anyway, on to the individual elements!

Saga #23

Here is the official preview text for Saga #23, which was first released back on Sep. 24, 2014. I don’t want to call it time travel, not exactly, but it’s starting to feel wild that our weekly reading schedule is moving at a faster pace than the issues came out (it makes perfect sense, obviously, but still…)...

Betrayal.

Whoa. It’s just one word, but what a word! I once had a friend I hadn’t seen in a number of years come visit me somewhat out of the blue. He’d been living with a woman in New Orleans, and when he got by me in Austin, he drank like crazy and didn’t want to sleep, like at all. When I asked him how his life was going, he told me, “There’s been a betrayal.” I haven’t seen him since. Anyway, onward to this issue of Saga!

The Cover: Perhaps it's the meta nature of this cover’s concept, but I think this is one of those occasional Saga covers that can stand alone as an independent work of art, independent of its association with these characters and this series. It’s not as politically relevant as some of the other covers that fit this description, but a hunchback plant woman with an obscured face in reality but a pretty and concentrated look in the canvas reaching out and into her work to paint herself—my head just exploded, but still, my point is this concept and cover are intriguing.

The First Page: Sticking with the one-word pattern established by this issues preview text...salacious. This issue opens with Marko’s flirtation—the dance teacher and kindred mom spirit he met bringing his kid to the park—leaning casually in the doorway of what is presumably her home, wearing naught but a concert t-shirt (The Mistook) and a come hither look as she says, Why am I not surprised to see you? This arc has promised us marital complications, and with the last issue ending with Marko being tossed from his home after pelting his wife with a bag of groceries, well, none of this is good for our little family, none of it at all.

This first page conveys the biggest threat the little family has faced yet: relatable marital discord.

The Surface: This issue moves forward our various plotlines, curiously pitting Marko’s pelting Alana with a bag of groceries in a fit of rage against Alana’s descent into drug use. I suppose it’s not the story doing this so much as the ghost babysitter character Izabel. Either way, it’s an interesting juxtaposition, and the main case the character is making here is that both have a vast potential to damage a child and ruin a family, which is the central conflict of this arc. Also, Izabel has the ultimate high ground to make any point about ruination she wants, having herself been a victim of the conflict between Marko and Alana’s two sides, ultimately losing her life. Anyway, things really move here, to the point the promised separation between Marko and Alana (which turns out to be literal) occurs at the end of the issue, with Marko and Prince Robot IV coming face-to-face.

The Subtext: There’s some heavy subtext about the ongoing forever war here, and the way that regular members of society enable it. I’m thinking specifically of when the drug pusher/costume designer from The Circuit tells the kidnapper, Even if I could get you on the air, once you start ranting about politics, ninety percent of your audience is just going to change the channel. This wasn’t as painful to read as the first time I came across it, back in the halcyon political times of 2014, but now with a reality star wrecking brutal chaos in the White House, it hits so much harder. The drug pusher goes a step further to suggest Marko and Alana are analogous of the wings and horns higher powers, propagating a fake war while hooking up behind the scenes in an effort to oppress the common man. This is an idea I don’t recall being revisited often (although in many ways this very notion is why higher powers don’t want Hazel’s existence getting out), but I think it’s ripe for further exploration once this book returns from its hiatus.

The Art: Fiona Staples does an incredible bit of work here with facial expressions, using almost every central characters face to convey feeling and set individual tones within the plot. Here are some of my favorite instances of this....

The Foreshadowing: There’s not really all that much in here. Hazel makes a disparaging comment about her dance teacher, which sort of hints at how that woman’s role develops in the family mythology moving forward, but other than that, this issue is short on hints about the future.

Saga #23
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Fiona Staples
Letterer: Fonografiks
Publisher: Image Comics

Check out past installments of our Saga Re-Read.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.

Brubaker and Phillips' Criminal: Crafting a crime masterpiece

January 10, 2019 by Taylor Pechter in Comics

By Taylor Pechter — A common adage in pop culture is everyone is the hero of their own story, no matter if the person is inherently good, bad, or somewhere between. From 2006 to 2016, writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips redefined the landscape of crime comics with a multi-volume anthology series simply titled, Criminal. The stories within followed the exploits of criminals, from bank robbers to a boxer turned mob enforcer, asking readers to sympathize with horrible people before showing them that even bad guys are human.

It’s this humanity that is the key to the entire series. This week, Brubaker and Phillips returned with their latest volume of Criminal, which marks the eighth overall (read a review of this week’s Criminal #1). The new comic has, unsurprisingly, been met with a wave of critical acclaim, so much so I think it’s already appropriate to call it a success. With so many fans enjoying the series’ latest story, I’d like to take a look today at past volumes, their plots, and some thematic throughlines that appear.

Brubaker and Phillips’ Criminal Vol. 1: Coward

Leo Patterson is a crook trying to turn things around. After a botched heist, he tries to quit the business. With his dad behind bars, his mom dead, and his drug-addled uncle living with him, Leo’s life is not in the best place.

As he says, “I am scared of ending up like my father. Scared of dying where I most likely belong... in prison. But the way I see it… if you aren’t afraid in our line of work then you aren’t thinking. And I won’t work with people who don’t use their brains before bullets… as a rule at least.”

This lesson about rules is what drives Leo’s story as he is lured back to heists by a former associate of his father. The job is to rob an armored car carrying a briefcase of blood diamonds. The heist eventually hits a snag. A firefight ensues, and Leo’s partner, Greta, is shot. To make things worse, the take wasn’t diamonds—it was a briefcase of uncut heroin. As the story winds down, Leo’s uncle dies from overdose after finding the heroin despite Leo hiding it. Greta also dies from her wounds, and Leo confronts a corrupt cop that was involved in the heist, which eventually leads to his death.

Overall, Leo’s story is one of guilt, regret, and failure to live up to expectations. It’s guilt that ultimately leads to his end.

Brubaker and Phillips’ Criminal Vol. 2: Lawless

Tracy Lawless is a man out to find the truth. After spending 18 months in prison for desertion, he escapes and seeks the story behind his brother Ricky’s death. To obtain this info he joins Ricky’s crew and grows close to Ricky’s former flame, Mallory. As they grow closer, however, he only grows more dedicated to his mission. This eventually drives them apart, and Mallory joins a coven.

Throughout the story, Ricky has flashbacks about his brother along and his relationship with his father, Teegar “Teeg” Lawless (who appears in this week’s new Criminal #1). These flashbacks show how both Tracy and Ricky grew to be different and ultimately the same. When Mallory spills the truth during the ending, it hits it home. Ricky’s story is a somber one: A boy hardened by his mobster father surviving on the streets, joining a heist crew, falling in love, and getting in over his head. He gets the score and tries to leave town only to be gunned down by the person he loves. However, instead of vengeance, Tracy instead practices atonement—he lets Mallory go and accepts her actions.

Overall, Tracy’s story is one of coming to terms with and ultimately accepting the truth. It is also a tale of no matter how much you try, you can’t escape family, even when there is no one left but you.

Brubaker and Phillips’ Criminal Vol. 3: The Dead and the Dying

Unlike the previous two volumes, Vol. 3 includes three intertwined stories.

The first focuses on prize boxer Jake “Gnarly” Brown and his rise through the ranks of the Hyde criminal empire. This story follows his exploits along with his employer, Sebastian Hyde, son of influential mob boss Walter Hyde. As time goes on, Gnarly and Sebastian grow apart after they both fall in love with the same woman, Danica. To make matters worse, Sebastian impregnates Danica, increasing that rift. As Gnarly lays in a hospital bed at the end of the story after an ambush by Walter Hyde’s men, he gives Sebastian his final words, sending him on his way as he languishes in the hospital.

Overall, Gnarly’s story is one of friendship, loyalty, and betrayal. After Sebastian impregnates Danica, he feels betrayed, not only by his employer but by one of his closest friends. His life as a boxer is also over, giving him nothing to return to.

The second story follows Teeg Lawless as he returns from Vietnam and re-enters life underground, soon learning he owes a debt to a casino owner. Teeg has to collect two thousand dollars in two weeks or else face consequences. As the story continues, Teeg struggles in fast jobs such as knocking over gas stations. Nearing the end, he contemplates what his life would be like if his kids ended up like him.

Overall, Teeg’s story is one of a father’s dedication. Most of his inner thoughts are about his wife and kids, and how they would react to his life as a criminal. Much like his child Tracy’s story in the previous volume, the thread of family is key to this one as well.

The third and final story centers on Danica, a dancer, who was a girl growing up Christian house. She eventually fell into drugs, got kicked out, and became a dancer. As she grows older, she learns how to use her sexuality. This helps her gain the attention of Sebastian Hyde. From there, her story intertwines with that of Gnarly Brown.

Overall, Danica’s story is one of outgrowing the naivety of youth and becoming an adult. Not only that, it is one of love and its effect on people.

Brubaker and Phillips’ Criminal Vol. 4: Bad Night

This story focuses on a struggling comic strip artist who is haunted by his own creation. In it, he is suddenly thrown into a complicated situation after a mob handoff goes wrong. Jacob Kurtz is an insomniac and former counterfeiter whose wife was killed when she lost control and drove off a ravine.

One night at a diner, he sees a woman and her boyfriend fighting. This woman is named Iris and her boyfriend Danny. Danny is abrasive, a trait that is a main lynchpin of the story. As Jacob confronts him, he is egged on by Frank Kafta, Private Eye, who is actually his comic strip creation, basically a perverse Jiminy Cricket. As time goes on, Danny and Iris plan on using Jacob’s counterfeit techniques to forge an FBI ID so Danny can hand off the money to the Triad.

Things go south, however, and Iris not only shoots Jacob but also shoots and kills Danny. She is rattled and decides to leave Jacob. However, she also has a deeper secret. As the story ends, Jacob finds that Iris was in fact working for the police undercover. As they drive off, Jacob loses control and drives off a cliff, killing Iris and severely injuring himself. As he lies in his bed, all wrapped up, not only is his life as an artist over, but his creation Frank Kafta also leaves the room.

Overall, Jacob’s story is one of accepting loss and overcoming demons. His wife’s death and his subsequent blame for it shook him to his core. This trauma leads him to create the Frank Kafta character, a specter throughout the story. As the story ends, Kafta leaves his room, leaving Jacob to finally learn to move on.

Brubaker and Phillips’ Criminal Vol. 5: The Sinners

This volume sees the return of Tracy Lawless. As notable crime figures, including Sebastian Hyde, drop like flies, Lawless is sent to find the killers. To make matters more complicated, a CID agent is hunting Tracy for his military desertion charge. Not only that, Tracy is also having an affair with Hyde’s wife. As the search unfolds, his main lead is a priest named Father Mike. As Tracy gets close to answers, everything catches up to him. Not only does the CID agent find him, Hyde also gains more suspicious of his actions. Eventually, the truth of Father Mike is revealed.

Overall, Tracy’s story continues to be one of family and the effect a father has on sons. It is also one of truth and accepting your place in the world. Throughout the story, Tracy continuously feels shame over becoming more like his father. He fears that his father’s self-destruction will eventually lead to his own discovery of the fate of his brother.

Brubaker and Phillips’ Criminal Vol. 6: The Last of the Innocent

The past is often remembered as a time of innocence. You mess around with friends, hook up with crushes, and maybe try things you shouldn’t. In reality, the past catches up to you, pretty much always, and the past can be harsh.

That is the tale of Riley Richards in Criminal Vol. 6. Riley was one of the most popular kids in the city of Brookview. Along with friends Liz, Felix, and Freakout, he formed a close group. Things become difficult when Riley starts getting wind of a possible affair between his now-wife Felix, and Teddy, his childhood rival. He plans to kill his wife. The story of Riley is told expertly not only in the modern day, but also through Archie-esque flashbacks that show a more whimsical side to Riley’s memories. This is a credit to Sean Phillips, who creates a great disconnect between that time and the present day. Not only that, bur Dave Stewart also provides colors that contrast perfectly with the dark palate that Val Staples puts forward in the present day. After Felix is murdered, Riley grows closer to Liz and Teddy sits behind bars, convicted of the act.

Overall, Riley’s story is one of nostalgia and its effect on the mind. The past is always looked upon as happy-go-lucky. As he remembers these moments, he soon realizes that his memories are wrong, and most of the time, life deals you hands you can’t win.

Brubaker and Phillips’ Criminal Vol. 7: Wrong Time, Wrong Place

It’s easier to be a fictional character. How sad is that?

This goes through the mind of young Tracy Lawless as he flees with his gang after throwing a rock through an attic window. This question also drives the narrative of this seventh volume of Criminal—Wrong Time, Wrong Place. There are two stories collected in this volume, one of Teeg Lawless’s time in jail prior to his release, and the second of a sort of road trip which includes his teenage son, Tracy.

While both stories are simple, Brubaker weaves in a unique storytelling device: the comics both of them read. Teeg reads a Conan-esque character named Zanger while Tracy reads a Kung-Fu and Teen Wolf hybrid named Fang, the Kung Fu Werewolf. Both comics inform who the men are, directly reflecting their personalities and development. Teeg is a criminal through and through. He doesn’t take anything from anyone and you better not get in his way. On the other hand, Tracy is a teenager with a criminal dad he hates and doesn’t want to become. Sadly, as this story closes, we as readers know from other volumes that Tracy’s life is destined to be just like his father’s.

Overall, this final story hits home with a father-son dichotomy that has appeared often in previous volumes. The story of the Lawlesses is a tragic one, driving much of one of modern comics’ all-time great series.

In conclusion, Criminal is the premier crime comic series by the premier noir creative team. Ed Brubaker crafts tragic stories with relatable characters inhabiting a dark world. This dark world is illustrated perfectly by artist Sean Phillips, aided along the way by colorists Val Staples, Dave Stewart, and Elizabeth Breitweiser. Phillips not only adds grittiness but also experiments with style, adding new aspects to his art in each volume. All in all, Criminal stands out as not just a masterwork of noir, but a masterwork of comic book storytelling in general. We’re lucky to have it.

Read more of Taylor’s writing on our comics analysis page.

Taylor Pechter is a passionate comic book fan and nerd. Find him on Twitter @TheInspecter.

REVIEW: Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1 is a quieter Spidey book with big implications for SPOILER

January 09, 2019 by Zack Quaintance in Reviews

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1 is out 1/9/2019. — **Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1** is out 1/9/2019.

By Zack Quaintance — I am generally opposed to comics like Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, a fourth Spidey title that takes its place in line behind the flagship Amazing Spider-Man, the rising and youthful Miles Morales: Spider-Man, the intriguing prestige Spider-Man: A Life Story (a six-issue mini about what it would have been like had Spider-Man aged from his creation in real-time), and the perpetual runner-up book, Spectacular Spider-Man. I know there are super fans out there who just can’t get enough of the character, but I find it all just a little much.

In fact, in all likelihood I’d have probably have skipped this book if it wasn’t written by Tom Taylor, who has a shining history of taking a little much ideas like this one and turning them into absolute gold (see Injustice, see X-Men: Red). The concept here is based around a hyper-local take on Peter Parker and his heroics, and the plot of this debut issue sees him literally tending to the troubles of his actual physical neighbors.

The main story in this comic (illustrated with clean adequacy by Juan Cabal) is totally fine. It’s not flashy and it’s mildly intriguing, featuring a nifty little mystery. There are some good jokes, and the book seems to go out of its way to let readers know its complimentary to Amazing Spider-Man, incorporating all the recent minor status quo shifts we’ve seen in that title. The latter is a really nice touch that a long-time superhero reader like myself appreciates. Nothing takes me out of a story more than when an auxiliary title for a Spider, Bat, X, or Superman title just outright ignores the status quo elsewhere in the line. It’s to Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’s credit that it doesn’t do this.

WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW

There are also some nice character moments here, showcasing Peter Parker as a micro-scale humanitarian, but they are nothing we haven’t seen before and seen often. What is likely to really get fans talking is the backup story, which is focused on and narrated by Peter’s Aunt May, iconic Aunt May. I don’t typically make a practice of revealing plot points in these reviews, but it’s hard to discuss this comic without doing so here. The backup story exists pretty much entirely to reveal that Aunt May is suffering from cancer.

This narrative weight is a good case for the book to make for its very existence, if a little unconvincing. I could be wrong, but it seems doubtful to me that a character as iconic as Aunt May would face any real danger in the pages of the third (or arguably fourth or fifth) most prominent Spider-Man title. In fact, in this day and age, I’d only really be convinced if one of these books was headed for a line-wide event or a milestone issue. Still, Tom Taylor is a powerful writer with a big heart, and, while I doubt Aunt May is in any real danger, I trust him to tell stories with this point that intrigue and satisfy on an emotional level.

Overall: In a quiet and polished debut, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1 does just enough to justify an addition to the Spidey line. A major development for a long-time character also happens in the backup story. It remains to be seen if this title will feel worthwhile moving forward, but Tom Taylor has done great things with lesser concepts, so for now I’m sticking with it. 7.0/10

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Juan Cabal
Colorist: Nolan Woodward
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $4.99
*Full credits aren’t clear for the backup, but the editor notes the team included Marcelo Ferreira, Robert Poggi, and Jim Campbell.

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.

REVIEW: Criminal #1 is a gorgeous, modern classic crime comic

January 09, 2019 by Bo Stewart in Reviews

Criminal #1 is out 1/8/2019. — **Criminal #1** is out 1/8/2019.

By Bo Stewart — Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips tell the best crime stories in comics. Period, and it’s not even close. This creative team has forged a partnership over many years and dozens of volumes of comics (their recently concluded series Kill or be Killed made our top comics of 2018). They understand each other perfectly, and it’s a joy to see how this deep creative understanding ultimately deepens the words they create. It’s on full display here for their latest book, Criminal #1. Simply put, missing this comic would be criminal (please forgive me).

There’s something distinctly satisfying about Brubaker/Phillips comics, in that they somehow manage to provide the exact right amount of content. I never feel short changed, but the comic also never overstays its welcome or ends up feeling bloated. In the single-issue format, that kind of satisfying consistency is quite the accomplishment. These guys are so good that, in my opinion, comic readers take them for granted. This issue serves as a reminder that this creative duo tells the stories with the best pacing in comics.

Criminal is long-form storytelling at its finest. Instead of focusing on a single character or narrative, the creators lean into the world they have created for inspiration. Previous volumes of this book have each focused on a single character or event set within the Criminal sandbox, a sprawling epic that covers decades of crime and generations of criminals affected by it. The world of Criminal is well established, fully deserving of the old the world is a character axiom. It’s a sandbox that the creators clearly enjoy playing in, and, if this issue is any indication, the world of Criminal won’t run out of worthwhile stories any time soon.

Full disclosure, I have not read the entirety of the original Criminal run. The four (of seven) volumes I have read were all amazing, though. I was a little hesitant about starting this new run without having first finished the others, but, rest assured, newcomers to the series will have no trouble keeping up. Each volume has been its own standalone story and it appears as though the new run will follow suit. These stories inform one another, but they are in no way dependent on one another.

This latest Criminal #1 focuses on Teeg Lawless. Previous fans will immediately gravitate towards the protagonist because Teeg is a figure that has loomed large over the series (his sons Tracy and Ricky Lawless are main characters of previous volumes). This is a story interested in the cyclical nature of crime and how strong it’s grasp can be. Crime doesn’t just affect the individual criminal, it infects entire families. The gangster’s son becoming a gangster is a tale as old as time, but one that will always be ripe for exploration.

Phillips continues to improve (if such a thing is even possible), and his line work has never been more detailed. Teaming up with colorist Jacob Phillips (who is his son) brings a different dimension to the art. Heavy use of blacks and neons (you know, noir stuff) really lends itself to the storytelling. It reminds me of Mat Hollingsworth’s colors on Wytches but without the paint splotches. I have no reservations just coming out and saying it: this is Phillips’ prettiest book yet.

Overall: Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Criminal #1 is a perfect continuation of a crime series that ranks as a modern classic. If you enjoy crime fiction, in any format, this one is an absolute must read. 9.5/10

Criminal #1
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Penciler: Sean Phillips
Colorist: Jacob Phillips
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Bo grinds for the Man by day so he can create comics by night. He is the lesser half of the Stewart Brothers writing team and can be found on Twitter and Instagram @stewart_bros

REVIEW: Gunning for Hits #1 is a fascinating, if esoteric, look at the music BUSINESS

January 08, 2019 by Zack Quaintance in Reviews

Gunning for Hits #1 is out 1/9. — **Gunning for Hits #1** is out 1/9.

By Zack Quaintance — The debut issue of Gunning for Hits has some heavy narrative lifting to do. This is, of course, by its own design. Gunning for Hits #1 is a normal-sized comic that essentially sets out to orient readers within two worlds: the always-tricky one of a new story (with its own setting, tone, characters, rules of reality, etc.), as well as the dense fiduciary side of the music business during the transitional (cassettes/vinyl to CDs) 1980s. Given the nature of this book—it’s a crime comic about the music business, after all—there is, of course, overlap. Still, the dual exposition makes for a relatively dense first issue.

Simply put, it’s a lot to read. It’s also fortunately a really interesting read, especially for anyone like myself who has dabbled in unhealthy or obsessive music fandom, to the point that just enjoying songs wasn’t enough and there grew a compulsion to learn about individual labels, promoters, etc. What Gunning for Hits seems bent on doing is pulling back that curtain in as entertaining a fashion as possible, and there are indications in this debut that the creative pair of new writer Jeff Rougvie and artist Mortit just might have the plan and artistic chemistry needed to pull it off.

Rougvie, for one, has the music business cred for this to be taken seriously by anyone with a passing interest in how their favorite hits were made for many years. You can find more on Jeff Rougvie’s website, as well as in the back matter of this first issue, but long story short: he’s been in the industry for decades, making things happen behind the scenes and most-famously working with David Bowie. To a certain type of person with an interest in both comics and music, it’s an incredibly lucky thing that someone with Rougvie’s resume is so motivated to tell a story with this medium that shares his vast insights and knowledge. Another fortunate thing is that he’s found an artist like Moritat who so clearly gets what Rougvie is trying to do here and is game to provide visuals. There’s a lot of text, and Moritat’s work deftly weaves around it, adding a grimy aesthetic to the proceedings and shining when it’s called upon to do so. It’s a great visual foundation for the esoteric knowledge Rougvie is dropping.

Readers shouldn’t, however, expect a light or overly-accessible read, especially not for those who have only a casual interest in music. This is specific stuff for people with some background related to at least part of its subject matter, be it music, or business, or both. I was fortunate to have an opportunity to interview Rougive about this book for ComicsBeat, and he cited Think Tank’s level of specificity as comparable to that found in Gunning for Hits, and there’s a lot of truth to that. Whereas Think Tank (a great and underrated comic, btw) relied heavily on military research and future-facing science, Gunning for Hits builds its own narrative atop bygone financial practices of a now-smaller business. It’s interesting stuff, to be sure, but it may have to work a little harder to win over any readers who aren’t initially intrigued by its premise.

Ultimately, whether or not Rougvie and Moritat are able to translate Rougvie’s music business insider status into a successful story that finds an audience will hinge on whether they can make a broader connection to the implications of capitalism on society at large, drawing a metaphor between the time and events in their story and our lives today. They’ve picked the right setting to do it—the greed is good 1980s—and the right aesthetic—crime. With my own propensity for getting lost in details and my love of music, I’m definitely compelled to keep reading.

Overall: Writer Jeff Rougvie and artist Moritat spend the majority of Gunning for Hits #1 orienting readers within the depths of the music business. They also lay some groundwork for the crime aspects of their story, which have the potential to be equally as engaging. It remains to be seen whether this act will harmonize in a way that results in chants for an encore, but there are some unique ingredients here that could make for a great comics story. 8.0/10

Gunning for Hits #1
Writer: Jeff Rougvie
Artist: Moritat
Letterer: Casey Silver
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.

REVIEW: Die #2 subverts D&D nostalgia trend by charging headlong into darkness

January 08, 2019 by Zack Quaintance in Reviews

Die #2 is out 1/9. — **Die #2** is out 1/9.

By Zack Quaintance — In the first issue of Die, a group of six young friends disappears into a fantasy world, returning after time has lapsed, beaten up with one of them missing and another missing an arm. In a pop culture moment laced with relatively bright (Stranger Things may as well be Disney compared to Die) nostalgia-laden D&D remembrances, the first issue of Die set itself apart, staking its claim as a darker, more serious alternative.

And now Die #2 is somehow even darker.

I suppose it’s a little bit on me and my expectations. This additional darkness is not a bad thing, quite the contrary (we’ll get to that), but I certainly expected this book to set up maybe some darkness when the characters were middle-aged and dealing with trauma in the real world, before plunging them back into youthful, likely cathartic fantasy adventure. That may still come, but based on Die #2, things have to get worse before they can start to get better.

Fair warning...this next part may contain spoilers. There’s a scene in this comic wherein the character who’s been lost in the fantasy world all these years (and as a result is presumably a bit stunted) models a villian off a shared middle school or high school crush...and another character gleefully destroys here. It’s a very real scene, real and adult and sensical. But holy hell is it dark. The creators know this, though, and it’s certainly not played for sensationalism (often an issue in lesser comics). I think one of the other characters even remarks at how twisted the whole episode felt.

So yes, that’s the one we’re dealing with here. With that established, the larger question becomes does it function well in the service of the story. I was going to write entertaining story there but at this point that doesn’t quite feel apt, at least not yet. There will likely be a victorious counterbalance to the challenges at some point (that’s how stories work), but it’s early in the proceedings here and we’re not ready yet. I think it functions quite well. As I wrote in my Die #1 review this is a patient and assured book. Gillen believes in his story, and Hans...well, Hans is a towering talent of an artist and everything she does on the page here is nothing short of a joy. It’s a great combo for a story that I expect to keep ramping up like the most memorable role playing campaigns.

And really that is this comic’s aesthetic: it’s the most memorable role playing game you’ve ever played (complete with Gillen penning engaging back matter about dice and characters and classes...like the sterling GM he is) mashed up with what I think is a creator’s interest in examining the lives of his characters over time, the ways that they’ve aged and why, and, perhaps, whether they can recapture how it felt to be young, or, on a darker note, whether they can avoid habitual pitfalls that sowed some of their lives’ disappointments.

Overall: Die #2 continues to embrace realism and darkness within the context of a mystical and immersive life-altering role playing game. Just as the debut before it, this sophomore issue is a thrilling slowburn that sets itself aside from the current wave of D&D pop culture nostalgia by doubling as an uncut look at the disappointments of middle age. 8.5/10

Die #2
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Stephanie Hans
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics asBatmansBookcase.

Top Comics to Buy for January 9, 2019

January 07, 2019 by Zack Quaintance in Comics

By Zack Quaintance — Ah, after a few weeks with a lesser volume of new comics releases, it’s nice to get back to full strength. Yes, this week’s Top Comics to Buy for January 9, 2019 involves a far higher volume of books than the last two weekly installments, once of which fell the day after Christmas and the other a day after New Years (side note: already shaking my head about next year, when both Christmas and New Years will actually be on a Wednesday, leading to a rough two-week new comics hiatus, I reckon).

Anyway, this week was great for quality as well as quantity, especially as it pertained to creator-owned comics. I think I read more Image review previews this week than I did in the past three weeks combined. So many of the series from that publisher that launched late last year continued this week, and you’ll see many of them present on our list below, along with some of the usual mainstays.

So with all that in mind, let’s get to that list of Top Comics to Buy for January 9, 2019!

Top Comics to Buy for January 9, 2019

Batman #62
Writer: Tom King
Artist: Mitch Gerads
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $3.99
Now features the Story solicited for #61 written by Tom King with art by Mitch Gerads. The Eisner-winning creative team behind MISTER MIRACLE is back together as artist Mitch Gerads rejoins the Bat team for a special issue! Professor Pyg is loose in Gotham, and you know that means things are going to get weird... and bloody!
Why It’s Cool: When this run is on, it’s one of the best long-form superhero stories in comics. This week, regular series writer Tom King is joined by his Mister Miracle/Sheriff of Babylon collaborator Mitch Gerads (one of comics biggest artistic talents right now), and you know what the result is? That’s right: this run is on. Since really catching the broader industry’s attention with a 12-issue Vision maxi-series for Marvel Comics in 2015, King has had a fast rise, powered in part by his fearlessness when it comes to experimenting with comics form. This issue sees him back at it, trying a new device (second person) that to my knowledge shows up for the first time in his work here. This Batman run aspires to humanize one of the most inscrutable characters in comics, and King’s use of second person here creates an interior familiarity that is often elusive in comics. Up there with the Cold Days arc and Batman #54, this is one of the best issues of this run.

Bitter Root #3
Writers: David F. Walker & Chuck Brown
Artist: Sanford Greene
Colorists: Rico Renzi & Sanford Greene
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
With violence erupting on the streets of Harlem and his cousin possessed by a demonic force, Cullen Sangerye reaches out for help from an estranged family member. Meanwhile, in Mississippi, Ford Sangerye fights for his life at the gateway to Hell.
Why It’s Cool: Holy cow, this is the issue where all hell breaks loose, almost literally. As we noted in our Bitter Root #1 review, this is a well-constructed comic that looks amazing. It’s also moving at a brisk pace, with this being only the third issue and so many of the conflicts that were foreshadowed early on coming to a head. It really speaks to the confidence the creative team has in this story. They know they’ve built it well, that they have the audience hooked, and so it’s time to deliver on early promises. We’ll have a Best New Image Comics of 2018 piece coming later this week, and you can damn sure expect Bitter Root to be on it.

Euthanauts #5
Writer: Tini Howard
Artist: Nick Robles
Colorist: Eva De La Cruz
Letterer: Neil Uyetake
Publisher: IDW - Black Crown
Price: $3.99
Thalia has learned that you don't get to the afterlife without breaking a few eggs and planting a few seeds. In this issue-people die. Some of them stay quiet about it. When the ego is destroyed, what remains? Find out in the final issue of our first arc, Ground Control.
Why It’s Cool: This comic has just been such a gorgeous tryst through blurred lines of life and death, and with a solicitation that promises characters will die (duh), we expect big things from the finale of this first arc. There’s been an ominous morbidity hanging over every last issue of this comic (it is called Euthanauts, after all), and if fourth issue is any indication, it’s in this chapter that the creative team will likely deliver the demise that has been foreshadowed. The only question is which member of the cast is likely to go. One last point: writer Tini Howard and artist Nick Robles both landed in our Top Comic Book Creators of 2018, and we highly recommend getting on board with their work now. There’s still time (just barely) to say you were here before they blew up.

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Juan Cabal
Colorist: Nolan Woodard
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $4.99
Spider-Man is the worst neighbor EVER! There are always crazy villains and property damage and drama and...and he CATCHES the villains. And he tries to fix the damage and he helps carry your groceries and actually that property damage keeps the rents down. You know what? Spider-Man is the best neighbor ever and this book will give you a closer look at Spider-Man's (and Peter Parker's) neighborhood than any book ever. Also, it wouldn't be a Spider-Man adventure without a threat that could destroy not only Spider-Man, but all his neighbors.
Why It’s Cool: Writer Tom Taylor keeps getting comics that are adjacent to Big 2 flagship titles (the third X-Men book, an alternate reality Superman/Batman comic, etc.), and he in turn keeps absolutely crushing them. I fully expect his localized Spider-Man comic to be yet another example of this. I also continue to call for Taylor to get a chance to write a more prominent Marvel or DC comic, bordering on outright begging at this point.

Self / Made #2
Writer: Mat Groom
Artist: Eduardo Ferigato
Colorist: Marcelo Costa
Letterer: A Larger World Studios’ Troy Peteri
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
With Amala's true nature revealed, her creator has just one night to figure out how and why this miracle occurred... before Amala is lost forever.
Why It’s Cool: Even though the debut issue came out at the end of last year, Self / Made by newcomers Mat Groom and Eduardo Ferigato (edited by Kyle Higgins) is my pick for best new title of early 2019. This book is just so good. The first issue was entertaining and high-concept, reeling readers in with a standard high fantasy war scenario that quickly gave way to something more complex: the characters were actually—hey! No spoilers! Anyway, this issue extends the surprise twist of the debut further, pushing it to a place where it questions the very nature of existence without sacrificing any forward plot momentum to do so. Yes, it’s only two issues old, but this book is rapidly becoming something special.

Others Receiving Votes

Avengers #12
Cemetery Beach #5
Deathstroke #39
Die #2
Dreaming #5
Freeze #2
The Green Lantern #3
House Amok #4
Justice League #15
LaGuardia #2
Martian Manhunter #2
Outer Darkness #3
Prodigy #2
Thor #9
Unexpected #8 (final issue)

See our past top comics to buy here, and check our our reviews archive here.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.

Comic of the Week: Conan the Barbarian #1 is a Fitting Successor to Past Conan Comics

January 07, 2019 by d. emerson eddy in Comic of the Week

Conan the Barbarian #1 was released 1/2/2019. — **Conan the Barbarian #1** was released 1/2/2019.

By d. emerson eddy — Know, oh prince, that there would come a day that Marvel would regain the license to Robert E. Howard's Cimmerian...

Conan, as a property, is near and dear to my heart. Dog-eared copies of some of the old Ace paperbacks were among my favorite things to read as a kid. They filled me with a sense of wonder and sparked my imagination in regards to mythology, archaeology, and history, having a lasting effects that endures to this day. Later, I got into Marvel's Conan comics, mostly under the Epic imprint, but I normally took to Conan as a prose literary experience.

It wasn't really until Dark Horse took over the license—and began publishing the beautiful series from Kurt Busiek and Cary Nord, as well as reprinting those early Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith stories—that I really began to appreciate the comics experience more. Timothy Truman, Cullen Bunn, P. Craig Russell, Kelley Jones, Greg Ruth, and countless other creators tapped back into that sense of wonder I had as a kid and reignited a passion for Conan and his world. (I also highly recommend checking out The Conan Reader this week from Dark Horse that collects a wide cross-section of some of their best in a thick volume.)

It made me wonder, though, about Marvel regaining the license. Would it be as good as what Dark Horse had accomplished?

I don't know what the future holds, but this first issue is off to a good start. The artwork from Mahmud Asrar and Matthew Wilson is beautiful. Capturing the action, violence, and feel of Conan perfectly. There's a weight and a grit to Conan, the background characters, and the world conveyed through the artwork that enhances the atmosphere of the story, especially during the fight scenes. You feel and hear the chunk of the axe and the slash of the sword, which I think is interesting since there are no accompanying sound effects like you'd normal see here. That seems to be a testament to how powerful Asrar's line art is in representing the action.

Which is not to say that Travis Lanham is absent throughout the book; he's given a lot of dialogue and narration to tackle, just that most of the sound is left to the art. Lanham's lettering definitely captures the spirit of an old tale from the Nemedian Chronicles in appearance.

And then there's the plot and execution of the text of the story. To my mind, Jason Aaron was born to write Conan comics and it shows in this first issue. It's rich in lore without being side-tracked by too much explanation. It's the right kind of wordy, being dense in narration and dialogue, but not feeling over-written, cramped, or cluttered. It's not quite the same style as Roy Thomas, or Howard himself, but that's the general feel.

It jumps between two different time periods, connected by a dead god and a witch, and it feels like it gives a holistic view of two of the major time periods of Conan's history, as a pit fighter starting out and then as a king, while building something larger. It's a good introduction to Conan and tells an interesting story in its own right. I'm very intrigued as to where Aaron, Asrar, Wilson, and Lanham take this.

Conan the Barbarian #1
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Mahmud Asrar
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $4.99

Check out past Comic of the Week selections on the list page.

Top Comics of December 2018: Best Books at the Wire

January 04, 2019 by Zack Quaintance in Top 5 Comics

By Zack Quaintance — While the focus has decidedly turned to year-end Best Of lists, we’d like to take a not-so brief look back at some of the best comics of December as well. The holidays are a busy time, wherein I know my own ability to read comics drops somewhat. Still! There was some excellent work being done in the last month of the year.

And that’s what we’re here to look at today. So, let’s get to it!

Shout Outs

It’s always nice when what are arguably the two flagship titles for Marvel and DC are on point, and that’s certainly what we got this month with Amazing Spider-Man #11 and Batman #60. Great individual issues within runs I enjoy.

In other Big 2 news, our sites personal favorite Marvel and DC books right now also had a strong month with Immortal Hulk #10 (what did we do to deserve this comic?) and Superman #6 (how is Bendis getting this run so right?). There was a reason these two ended up near the top of our Best Comics of 2018.

Phew, okay. Now that we have Big 2 business out of the way (for this section, more to come…), we can get to our favorite indie top comics of 2018, starting with Bitter Root #2.

Murder Falcon #3 is a book about metal and mourning that hits many of the same notes (sorry!) as this series first two issues...but it’s also so stylish, assured, and well-executed that those notes are still very powerful.

We have the writing duo of Zac Thompson and Lonnie Nadler as creators to watch in 2019, and a big part of the reason why is super smart creator-owned work. In December, they wrapped up one such series with Her Infernal Descent #5, a sad story of family and mourning and a tenacious mom mashed up with Dante’s Inferno. Highly recommend getting this one in trade.

This was a great year for upstart publisher Vault Comics, and they finished it out in pretty epic fashion, wrapping up two of their best series via Deep Roots #5 and Submerged #4. We’ve written a whole lot about both books, and you can find more on our Reviews Page.

Last but certainly not least is Mars Attacks #3 from the hilarious creative team of Kyle Starks and Chris Schweizer. This book has the duo’s trademark humor, as well as a really tight survival narrative used for wide-ranging satire on modern America. Great stuff.

Top Comics December 2018

5. Aquaman #43
Writer: Kelly Sue DeConnick
Artist: Robson Rocha
Inker: Daniel Henriques
Colorist: Sunny Cho
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: DC Comics
I’ve been reading a lot of Aquaman lately, namely returning to Geoff Johns’ New 52 run on the character before continuing on to the Jeff Parker and Dan Abnett runs that bridged that one and Rebirth. And you know what? I think for the first time since Johns revitalized the character, I can say that this book is doing something drastically new. There are no Atlantean Game of Thrones plots and no caught between two worlds conflicts.

What writer Kelly Sue DeConnick and artist Robson Rocha seemed more interested in is an ethereal take on the character that speaks to his status as an almost elemental force within the sea...I think. It’s a little hard to tell after one incredibly intriguing issue. I am, to use a fishing pun (I know I’m a bad person), thoroughly hooked on what they’re doing. I also think that Rocha, who I’ve long felt is underrated, did his sharpest work yet on this opening issue. Overall, I can’t wait to see where all of this goes from here, and if the first issue is any indication, it will be filled with surprises.

4. X-Men: Red #11
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Roge Antonio
Colorist: Rain Beredo
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Our number four overall choice for best comics of December 2018 is X-Men: Red #11, the finale to what has been the single best X-Men team book in a good number of years. We’ve written about this quite a bit (most recently in our Best Comics of 2018 feature...that again!), so we won’t go into our usual talking points about how Jean is a natural leader, the threats update the metaphor for 2018, the whole deal feels organized and rejuvenated, etc.

Instead, we’ll hone in on this one issue, noting that while the book seems to have ended a bit sooner than is ideal (writer Tom Taylor said on Twitter that he could have written it for years), the creative team really gave its all in putting together a finale that A. felt exciting, and B. spoke to the themes and concerns that had made this book so interesting throughout its run. It also did a great job incorporating much of the broader Marvel universe, which is always welcome but rarely easy for X-Men titles. RIP.

3. Marvel Knights 20th Anniversary #4
Story: Vita Ayala & Donny Cates
Script: Vita Ayala
Artist: Joshua Cassara
Colorist: Matt Milla
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics
The Marvel Knights 20th Anniversary six-part mini-series has been strong so far, launching with an intriguing mystery (amnesia! sort of) as its premise, and giving a host of talented writers and artists (many of which are rising stars) a chance to kick interesting ideas around while also playing with beloved characters. This fourth issue, however, ranks so far as the standout. Written by Vita Ayala (with Donny Cates getting a story credit) and illustrated by Joshua Cassara, this story is a surprisingly one about family, oppression, and what it takes to be not so much a hero as a net force for good when faced with injustice and impossible odds.

I absolutely loved this story, which even in an alternate reality did a wonderful job of humanizing T’Challa, long one of the most difficult characters to do that with in all of Marvel Comics. The story worked hard to give all the character’s choices weight (a great tool to yield poignant results in any narrative situation) while not sugarcoating the oppressive situation a semi-memory wiped T’Challa was facing as a black man without identification going about his business (or trying to) in New York.

2. Long Lost Part 2 #5
Writer: Matthew Erman
Artist: Lisa Sterle
Publisher: Scout Comics
Matthew Erman and Lisa Sterle’s gorgeous and disquieting story of two sisters returning to a disenfranchised hometown beset by dangerous magic is, sadly, approaching its end. Long Lost Book 2 #5 is the penultimate issue, and in it, the creators stop understating their story and let loose with incredible visual flourishes. Lisa Sterle (another rising star if ever there was one) really shines in this issue, literally covering the skies at times with psychedelic horror that doesn’t draw from any established tropes I’ve ever seen to unsettle the audience.

Moreover, I appreciate that this story wisely left so many questions unanswered. As I wrote in my review of Long Lost Part 2 #5, this story speaks to a lot of what people of my generation (ages 25 to 40 or so) are going through in this political moment, especially those of us who have left rural or suburban hometowns to proliferate in urban centers. In short, we cannot shake our ties to our pasts, even if when we try to return to them what we find feels unfamiliar and ugly. This story captures all of that beautifully, and I can’t wait to buy it for my friends and family in collected editions.

1. Doomsday Clock #8
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Gary Frank
Colorist: Brad Anderson
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Publisher: DC Comics
This story took a little while to get going (made worse by the delays), but now that the action has begun in earnest, hoo boy is this a doozy. Perhaps most surprisingly, it also seems like it may be poised to live up to the incredibly lofty aspirations writer Geoff Johns set for it by using Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen characters (despite the creators publicly not wanting DC to revisit the IP they created for the company). While I don’t feel great about that disregard of Moore and Gibbons’ wishes, if I’m independently evaluating this story, I like it quite a bit.

It’s not entirely clear what it’s about just yet. This narrative, however, has become compelling and tense, using DC’s iconic superheroes to depict the vast complications of current global politics, which has become beset by a rise in authoritarian governments that rely on misguided populism. In this issue of Doomsday Clock, we see the Man of Steel himself brush up against some of those forces, being forced publicly by Vladimir Putin to take a basically take a side as Batman, listening from a Bat-Plane via radio or something, growls...Don’t take a side! It’s powerful stuff, and it seems poised to be even more provocative moving forward.

Check out our monthly lists, plus all of our Best of 2018 coverage, here.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.

The Saga Re-Read: Saga #22 is all anger, drugs, and disloyalty

January 04, 2019 by Zack Quaintance in Saga Re-Read

Saga #22 was originally released on 8/27/2014. — **Saga #22** was originally released on 8/27/2014.

By Zack Quaintance — The holidays are over, which means many of us spent (and survived) time with our family. I know I spent quite a bit of time with my parents, who have been divorced for years but came together to spend time with me in the same room because I rarely make it from California home to Chicago. And you know what? It wasn’t all bad!

I’ll spare you the details of our own familial complications, noting only that what’s happening here in Saga right now—with Marko and Alana buckling under the pressure of raising a young child in a challenging world—feels familiar to me, as I’m sure it does to a good many readers. Reflecting on my own childhood while doing this re-read really impressed upon me the universality of this book, the way that as a married adult now I can see myself in both the parents and the child. I know I know I know...I’m a broken record heaping praise upon Saga (see our Best Comics of 2018!), but I really do like it that much.

And now, our usually weekly deep dive into the twists, turns, and bliss that is this individual issue!

Saga #22

Here is the official preview text for Saga #22, which was first released back on Aug. 27, 2014. Ah, what a time that was, amiright? Anyway, below you will as always find the bygone solicit text for the issue...

The family is tested.

Really, you all? This could essentially be the preview text for literally every last issue of this series. That said, upon re-read it certainly seems like this is the arc in which the family is most tested. At least, until the arc that concluded last summer, anyway. But I digress. Let’s keep the focus on this issue! Vamos haber...

The Cover: This cover isn’t one of the most visually-stunning, but I do like it in concept. Featuring Marko’s mother seated with Izabel and that big alien walrus thing to each side, I suppose the intention behind this one is to show just how odd their little family unit has become. Perhaps odd is the wrong word. Maybe unlikely is better. Either way, I like that notion, even if this cover isn’t as illustrative of the ongoing quiet family conflict as the arc maybe demands.

The First Page: Okay, so maybe I’m in a bad mood today, but I also really don’t like this first page. Which is maybe the point? This page shows a homely-faced character in pastels and a mini-skirted rollerskating outfit having a cosmic digestive issue and remarking, Oopsie, I made a universe! This character is actually Izabel pretending for Hazel. Which is why I’m supposing part of the aim here is to be in annoyingly poor taste. I suspect either Vaughan and Staples had been watching some bad kids TV with their own kids at the time of inception...so yeah, mission accomplished, in that it re-enforces the idea that pandering to kids all the time becomes a difficult environment for adults to totally lose themselves in. Showing this annoying joke at home re-enforces (to me, anyway) why both Marko and Alana are elsewhere looking for escape.

The Surface: Marko and Alana get wind of each other’s mutual escaping from the mundanity of the routines they’ve settled into, doing what must be done for the sake of their young child, Hazel. This gives rise the heated conflict that has been building between them for several issues, tears and yelling and regret. It’s uncomfortable to watch, but done tastefully in a way that stands to show us what our characters (and more importantly, their marriage) are really made of. Meanwhile, Robot IV’s plotline progresses in two place: with him visiting his father at home and with Dengo (the kidnapper) showing up at Open Circuit, looking for access to mass media. This all ends in one hell of a cliffhanger, with Alana’s friend/co-worker/drug dealer (whose name escapes me) offering her up as a bargaining chip, a recurring plot point throughout this story.

The Subtext: There is an idea laid out pretty blatantly in this issue that has floated under the surface throughout the entire story. Agent Gale tells a disgruntled Robot IV that The whole point of having enemies abroad is getting to ignore the ones back home, as the duo stand on a palatial balcony overlooking an obvious slum, in which the homes are built atop one another. It’s a bit heavy-handed, straining the definition of subtext, but it does tease out some past subtext. This is becoming an increasingly difficult section to write, as the subtext (so much an emphasis in early orienting issues) fades into the background in favor of rapid plot points. I’m not complaining.

The Art: The headlining art in this issue is the visage of King Robot, which, to my mind, is one of the most memorable designs in the entire series. It’s a pretty risky one, extrapolating the concept of a kingdom of cyborg’s with TV heads to an extreme that could have looked really silly. Staples, however, transcends that and pulls it off, which in my opinion is yet another testament to the vast contributions she makes to the book every damn issue.

The Foreshadowing: A little bit of foreshadowing in Alana’s storyline, with Upsher and Doff noticing her use of a line from one of Heist’s novels. That will certainly come back to be relevant later. Perhaps more interesting (and subtle) is the return of Marko’s volatile rage. He pelts Alana with a bag of groceries here before immediately regretting and apologizing. We’ve seen Marko erupt before, but we’ve never seen him look so despicable doing it. The creative team is seeding his rage well, which stands out upon re-read, knowing what we do now about where this plot is headed.

Check out past installments of our Saga Re-Read.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.

Thirsty Thursdays: December's Hottest Comic Book Art

January 03, 2019 by Allison Senecal in Thirsty Thursdays

By Allison Senecal — Superhero comic art has evolved at a really impressive rate in recent years...so much so that sometimes it can be a lot to handle. First there’s excitement, obviously, but then that excitement turns into something else...which is why each month we’re running our Thirsty Thursday rankings, a new and different way to look at our favorite comic art. Welcome to a sporadic examination of (as the kids say) the month’s thirstiest comics.

Enjoy!

Martian Manhunter #1
Artist: Riley Rossmo
Colorist: Ivan Plascencia
I would be remiss as a noted alien…enthusiast to not mention this sinuously-sensual scene at the very top of this month’s column. Deep Space Sixty-Nine anyone?
????? out of ?????

In space, no one can hear you scream. — In space, no one can hear you *scream.*

Shatterstar #3
Artist: Carlos Villa
Inker: Juan Vlasco
Colorist: Carlos Lopez
I’ll be sad when this series ends next month, but at least it’ll clear up a monthly thirst spot for someone else. Who doesn’t want a slice of Shatterstar…
💦💦💦💦💦 out of 5

Marvel Knights 20th #4
Artist: Joshua Cassara
Colorist: Matt Milla
This issue really got to me emotionally, and I think that amplified everything. T’Challa absolutely ROCKING those street clothes, too. Any man who does that double hand clasp. Phew.
💦💦💦💦💦 out of 5

When he apologized to Ms. Cruz? I felt that.

Namor: The Best Defense #1
Artist: Carlos Magno
Colorist: Ian Herring
FINALLY I remember to put Namor where he belongs: on a thirst list. It’s ok, we’ll go in-depth with more Namor later this month for the first *Thirst Spotlight* (not the official title, don’t quote me).
💦💦💦💦💦 out of 5

Die #1
Artist: Stephanie Hans
It’s Stephanie Hans, so you automatically know you’re getting gorgeous art and beautiful people, but this literally hits every single one of my favorite fantasy character aesthetics in one go. *weep*
💦💦💦💦💦 out of 5

This comic had me at fantasy role-playing. — This comic had me at *fantasy role-playing.*

Thor #8
Artist: Mike Del Mundo
AngelaaaaaAAAAAAAAAA. I would pre-order the Heven out of a Del Mundo Angela mini, but I’m sure the man has other things to do besides draw my favorite Marvel ladies. (See: his Elektra series.)
💦💦💦💦💦 out of 5

Who said anything about worthy? The word is thirsty. — Who said anything about worthy? The word is *thirsty*.

Livewire #1
Artists: Raul Allen and Patricia Martin
The only other Valiant series I’ve read in its entirety is Secret Weapons, so I was more or less prepared for Amanda McKee being one of my favorite ladies again. Especially pleased to have her back in the hands of Allén and Martín, one of my favorite art teams going into 2019.
💦💦💦💦💦 out of 5

Coming later in January: NAMOR. Some Namor. More Namor. Followed by oh so much Namor.

Check out The Thirstiest Comics of November.

Allison buys books professionally and comics unprofessionally. You can find her chaotic neutral Twitter feed at @maliciousglee.

Best New #1 Comics of December 2018

January 03, 2019 by Zack Quaintance in Comics

By Zack Quaintance — This month naturally brings a deluge of year-end lists that can be fairly distracting when it comes to looking athe comics that actually come out in December. That’s why today we want to stick our usual practice of rehashing the Best New #1 Comics of December, because you know what? The last month of the year was actually a really great one for new series.

From new Big 2 superhero books to smaller creator-owned titles about wizards lounging in the sand and D&D, there was a great variety of new #1 comics in December. In fact, there were so many great new series this month that we had to extend our second section to include six choices rather than the usual five (it’s my site, after all, and if I don’t feel like narrowing down my selections, I can do that...this is one of the perks of having a site).

Anyway, let’s get to the new #1 comics!

Quick Hits

As the Stewart Bros. wrote in their Freeze #1 review, this new creator-owned comic has one hell of a central concept.

As I wrote in my Hardcore #1 review, this new creator-owned comic has a decent concept but impeccable execution from its creative team.

Kyle Higgins, arguably the reigning best espionage writer today, teams with Rod Reis on a new Bucky Barnes series in Winter Soldier #1, and the results are predictably great.

Wizard Beach #1 by writer Shaun Simon and artist Conor Nolan subverted expectations so well that it netted d. emerson eddy’s Comic of the Week.

Bryan Edward Hill did a great job grounding Killmonger #1 in the comic book Marvel Universe rather than the world of the movie, the real star of that show, however, was artist Juan Ferraya, one of our Top 2018 Comic Creators.

There was a lot to unpack in Batman Who Laughs #1 from writer Scott Snyder and artist Jock, but we can’t wait to see where the seemingly-madcap plot points are going.

Writer Ed Brisson is essentially the elder statesman of the current crop of X-writers, teaming with Dylan Burnett on the excellent new X-Force title (which you may have missed over the holidays).

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #1 from writer Saladin Ahmed and artist Javi Garron is a thing of beauty: an exceedingly well-done comic that hits just as this character is making waves in the wider world with a new movie, (the brilliant) Into the Spider-Verse.

The Stewart Bros. also reviewed Prodigy #1, describing it as a ‘blockbuster comic, pure and simple.’ It’s a good one, to be sure, loaded with writer Mark Millar’s fantastic sense of what makes a great comics concept and artist Rafa Albuquerque’s kinetic style.

And finally, Snap Flash Hustle #1 from writer Pat Shand and artist Emily Pearson is another great comic from Black Mask Studios, featuring a great combination of creators who have separately been doing excellent work for a while now. The story they’re telling here is about a secret society of models in NYC that sells drugs. It’s very good and very stylish stuff.

Top 5 Best New #1 Comics of December 2018

Die #1
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Stephanie Hans
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Image Comics
REVIEW: Die #1

We recently wrapped up our Best Comics of 2018 list, which takes into account how many issues a given title released last year. Die, of course, released only one, making its debut in December, and so given that sparsity, it was left off our list. I for one, however, would be utterly shocked if this was the case next year once this series really gets going. Simply put, Die #1 is the start of the next big Image Comic.

I’ve used that phrase before, just once, in my review of Gideon Falls #1. And you know what? I think I was right about that one—Gideon Falls took off last year, growing into (arguably) the biggest new Image comic to hit in 2018. With writer Kieron Gillen and artist Stephanie Hans, Die has the same quality hybrid of super-talented creative team. It also has a concept that plays into the current zeitgeist by exploring tabletop role playing games...and it does it with a darker, more adult tinge, taking the idea perhaps more seriously than others who have attempted to tread similar thematic territory.

LaGuardia #1
Writer: Nnedi Okorafor
Artist: Tana Ford
Colorist: James Devlin
Letterer: Sal Cipriano
Writer Nnedi Okorafor is an award-winning sci-fi novelist who, to my knowledge, made her first forrays into comics writing last year, doing so with Shuri at Marvel Comics and LaGuardia #1 for the Berger Books imprint at Dark Horse. It’s the latter I’d like to spotlight this month, combining as it does Okorafor’s seasoned sci-fi chops with a poignant satire of current events and the incredible and vibrant artwork of artist Tana Ford and James Devlin.

LaGuardia #1 is one of those debut comics that’s so well-built and polished, that you can feel the creators powerful inspiration at work as you read it. There’s a romance angle, a familial angle, and an angle aimed at societal commentary, all working harmoniously within brisk pacing and a compelling plot. There’s also a delightfully-absurd alien race of plant lifeforms that gives Ford a chance to really show off her design chops, even in subtle moments where a certain character appears. Basically, I liked this first issue quite a bit, and I’ve marked the release date of #2 (which happens to be next week). I suggest you do the same.

Livewire #1
Writer: Vita Ayala
Artist: Raul Allen
Colorist: Patricia Martin
Letterer: Saida Temofonte
Publisher: Valiant Comics
REVIEW: Livewire #1
To be blunt, it is about frigging time that a character as great as Valiant’s Livewire got a proper ongoing series. Livewire has been kicking around Valiant’s line of comics for some time, stealing entire series where she appears as one of many characters. Now, she’s not only getting the solo series treatment, but she’s getting it from one of the best creative teams in all of comics: rising star writer Vita Ayala and the absolutely stunning artist team of Raul Allen and Patricia Martin.

As contributing writer Toren Chenault wrote in his Livewire #1 review, this book stands apart from other superhero comics by putting front and center a rare thing in the genre: a character that has been under-explored. Ayala writes that character with a stunning level of depth, giving the book a moving emotional core to accompany its concept. This is the most-exciting new Valiant series in some time, and we can’t wait to see where it goes.

Martian Manhunter #1
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Riley Rossmo
Colorist: Ivan Plascencia
Letterer: Deron Bennett
Publisher: DC Comics
REVIEW: Martian Manhunter #1
Martian Manhunter was the first of two new major DC Comics to debut in December (the other being Shazam! #1...more on that in a second), with Steve Orlando writing and Riley Rossmo providing the madcap martian artwork. Powered by a murder mystery set in the present and an exploration of J’onn J’onzz’ hitherto unknown past pre-martian catastrophe as a corrupt police officer, the story aspires to be an introspective take on what makes J’onn...well, J’onn.

This is a comic that feels like a necessary experimental take on a classic superhero character. Based on the debut, this 12-part maxi-series seems bent on giving J’onn the Mister Miracle treatment, exploring the interiority of an often inscrutable character with unspeakable trauma in his past. Orlando is a writer incapable of half-efforts and Rossmo is the perfect pairing to really give this book a unique aesthetic. This is, simply put, a DC comic to watch in 2019.

Self / Made #1
Writer: Mat Groom
Artist: Eduardo Ferigato
Colorist: Marcelo Costa
Letterer: A Larger World Studios’ Troy Peteri
Self / Made #1 surprised me in the best possible way. Despite the presence of Kyle Higgins (espionage and action comics writer extraordinaire), I was unfamiliar with the creative team and adjusted my expectations accordingly. What I found when I picked up this book was an absolutely gorgeous comic that knows exactly where it’s going and is determined to be entertaining as it works its way there.

In spite of the aforementioned relatively novice creative team, this is a polished comic and a great debut issue. It orients the reader right away by establishing a sci-fi/fantasy war premise, atop layers of entitlement and classism. This would be all well and good on its own, but Self/Made also has a compelling twist it alludes to without being too blatant, leading to a powerful ending cliffhanger that simultaneously brings this story into focus and gives readers a reason to come back. I really can’t think of much else I would want from a new #1 issue.

Shazam! #1
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Dale Eaglesham & Mayo “Sen” Naito (backup story)
Colorist: Mike Atiyeh
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Publisher: DC Comics
REVIEW: Shazam! #1
DC’s other big debut in December was Shazam! #1. This comic, however, is a different deal than the other DC December debut, Martian Manhunter. Whereas Manhunter aspires to be an illustrative re-invention of a character readers could stand to know more about, Shazam! Seeks to tease out the core essence of these characters, re-enforcing what made Billy Batson and the rest of the Shazam family so compelling in the first place.

As I wrote in my Shazam! #1 review, writer Geoff Johns and Dale Eaglesham certainly accomplish this in adorable fashion. This is a character who needs to be equal part childish enthusiasm and super-powered mystical adventuring to function property. Johns and Eaglesham go all in on the latter in the main story of this issue, with Johns then doubling down on the former with an ultra cute back-up story drawn by Mayo “Sen” Naito. With bleak stories like Heroes in Crisis agitating large portions of the DC fanbase, this comic comes across as a welcome palliative.

Check out more of our many monthly lists here.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.

Top Comic Book Creators of 2018

January 02, 2019 by Zack Quaintance in Comics

By Zack Quaintance — We’re approaching the end of our 2018 coverage, with only one more list to come (next week) after this one. As such, today we’d like to take a relatively brief look at some of the creators that made this such a special year for comics. The artists, editors, and writers below have not been chosen because they are the best at what they do, not entirely (although they are all excellent and many certainly fit that description), but instead because all of them did work that demands to be mentioned in any conversations about the past year in comics.

So, below you will find 10 favorite artists, 10 favorite writers, and six incredibly talented folks who can do it all. You will also find some names we fully expect to see on the bigger lists at this time next year, as well as a pair of editors who helped shepherd so many of our favorite 2018 books into the world. It is, simply put, an incredible time to be reading comics, and all of these lists could have been twice as long. But the hard decisions had to be made.

Without further adieu, here our the Batman’s Bookcase Top Comic Book Creators of 2018!

*SPECIAL NOTE: Deep apologies to our friends who are colorist and letterers; we didn’t have the bandwidth this year to take a deep dive into your work, but, rest assured, next year we plan to rectify this!

Top Comic Book Creators of 2018 - Artists

Bilquis Evely
Currently Drawing: The Dreaming

Fiona Staples
Currently Drawing: Saga (on hiatus)

Jon Davis-Hunt
Currently Drawing: The Wild Storm

Jorge Jimenez
Currently Drawing: Justice League

Juan Ferraya
Currently Drawing: Killmonger

Leslie Hung
Currently Drawing: Snotgirl

Mitch Gerads
Currently Drawing: Unannounced collaboration with Tom King (which is probably Sgt. Rock)

Raul Allen & Patricia Martin
Currently Drawing: Livewire

Sana Takeda
Currently Drawing: Monstress

Stephanie Hans
Currently Drawing: Die

Artists to watch in 2019: Jorge Fornes, Kate Niemczyk, Laura Braga, Lisa Sterle, Nicola Scott, Nick Robles, Ramon Villalobos, and Sean Izaaske.

Top Comic Book Creators of 2018 - Editors

Adrian Wassel of Vault Comics
Comics Edited: Deep Roots, Fearscape, Friendo, Submerged, These Savage Shores

Shelly Bond of IDW Black Crown
Comics Edited: Assassanistas, Euthanauts, House Amok, Lodger, Punks Not Dead

Top Comic Book Creators of 2018 - Writers

Al Ewing
Currently Writing: Immortal Hulk

Ann Nocenti
Currently Writing: The Seeds

Brian Michael Bendis
Currently Writing: All things Superman

Jason Aaron
Currently Writing: The Avengers, Conan the Barbarian, and Thor

Marjorie Liu
Currently Writing: Monstress

Nnedi Okorafor
Currently Writing: La Guardia, Shuri

Steve Orlando
Currently Writing: Dead Kings, Electric Warriors, Martian Manhunter

Tini Howard
Currently Writing: Age of Conan: Belit, Euthanauts, Rick and Morty

Tom Taylor
Currently Writing: Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Unannounced DC Comic

Vita Ayala
Currently Writing: Livewire, The Wilds

Writers to Watch in 2019: Alex Paknadel, Leah Williams, Mariko Tamaki, Magdalene Visaggio, Mark Russell, Michael Moreci, Stephanie Phillips, and Zac Thompson & Lonnie Nadler.

Top Writers/Artists

Daniel Warren Johnson
Work: Extremity, Murder Falcon

Joelle Jones
Work: Catwoman, Lady Killer

Jeff Lemire
Work: Black Hammer (writer only...so far), Essex County, Royal City, Sweet Tooth

Liam Sharp
Work: Brave and Bold - Batman and Wonder Woman, The Green Lantern (artist only)

Mirka Andolfo
Work: Hex Wives (artist only), Unnatural

Tillie Walden
Work: On a Sunbeam, Spinning

Check out Best Comics of 2018, #1 - #5, Best Comics of 2018, #16 - #25, and Best Comics of 2018, #6 - #15! Also, Best Single Comic Book Issues of 2018!

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.

Best Single Comic Book Issues of 2018

January 02, 2019 by Zack Quaintance in Comics

By Zack Quaintance — It is, perhaps, telling that the majority of picks for our Best Single Comic Book Issues of 2018 list are essentially self-contained. Six, to be exact, with a case to be made that at least one of the others could stand on its own, too. In an industry where many creators put out installments best consumed as part of a collected trade, a truly well-done story with a real beginning, middle, end stands out.

At least, that’s definitely what we found this year in evaluating our picks. We’re pretty happy with about it too, in part because it makes re-visiting these issues all the easier. Anyway, the below list contains stories about iconic characters like Wonder Woman, the existential horrors of decisions in life, the writer’s ego, and recovering from trauma. I hope you’ll see some favorites on here and also find new comics, regardless of whether you’re caught up on a book or have plans to continue forward.

Let’s check out this year’s list!

Best Single Comic Book Issues of 2018

Action Comics #1004
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Ryan Sook
Colorist: Brad Anderson
Inker: Wade Von Grawbadger
Letterer: Josh Reed
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: 10/24/2018
Why It’s So Good: It’s about the most iconic romance in comics: Clark Kent and Lois Lane. It’s also the first time Bendis gives extended play to the relationship during his current (and excellent) Superman run. What Bendis is doing is breaking down Superman’s central characteristics and building them back up for 2018. That’s definitely what he does here, giving us Lois as an aspiring author and Clark as the supportive (if occasionally long distance) husband. Cards on the table: this whole thing hits close to home with me. My wife is a reporter for the LA Times, and we’ve spent roughly three months total apart due to work in recent years. The reunion in this story felt true-to-life and romantic as all get out. As such, I absolutely loved it.

Batman Annual #3
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Otto Schmidt
Letterer: A Larger World’s Troy Peteri
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: 12/12/2018
Why It’s So Good: I haven’t said this in a week or so (what with the holidays and all), so I’ll say it now: Tom Taylor is the most underrated writer of corporate superhero comics today. It continues to boggle my mind that neither DC nor Marvel has locked this massive talent up with an exclusive deal and given him the keys to a massive franchise. Not the fourth Spider-Man, third X-Men, or alternate Batman hates Superman comic, but an honest to goodness flagship comic. He really is that good, and comics like Batman Annual #3 show why. This one-off is a stand-alone story that thematically ties to an exploration of fatherhood taking place in the main title, and Taylor absolutely crushes it. There’s a re-telling of the Batman origin through Alfred’s eyes that had me in tears within three pages and an ending that depicts the Alfred-Bruce dynamic in a way that had never occurred to me, suggesting that the stubbornness of Batman’s war on crime is a byproduct of Alfred setting such a noble example of necessary servitude throughout Bruce’s childhood. Put simply, it’s brilliant heartrending stuff.

Batman: Creature of the Night #3
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Artist: John Paul Leon
Letterer: Todd Klein
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: 4/18/2018
Why It’s So Good: This series is a spiritual and conceptual successor to Busiek’s seminal 2004 Superman: Secret Identity, in that Batman: Creature of the Night essentially tells the Batman story on our Earth, where Batman is a ubiquitous comic book character. Plot-wise, Creature of the Night is a bit trickier than Secret Identity. Superman was easy to get going, because Supes got his powers inadvertently and surprisingly. Batman’s heroics, however, were born of tragedy and an obsessive, steely response. Creature of the Night got the tragedy aspect right from its start, as well as things like the protagonist’s personality and his supporting cast, or at least Alfred. What was missing until now was a believable way to have Batman as a crime fighter. This book gives us that, dark and surprisingly, as it should be. Overall, Creature of the Night is one of the best Batman stories in years, a pure distillation from veteran creators of the lessons learned throughout august careers, specifically Busiek’s penchant for layered and complex stories, the sort more common in award-winning novels than in comics.

Fearscape #1
Writer: Ryan O’Sullivan
Artist: Andrea Mutti
Colorist: Vladimir Popov
Letterer: Andworld Design
Publisher: Vault Comics
Release Date: 9/26/2018
Why It’s So Good: Simply put, Fearscape #1 was the single best debut issue of a series I read all year. In it, writer Ryan O’Sullivan and artist Andrea Mutti use the graphic sequential medium to create a character and story that basically obsesses over the literary and genre fiction medium, thereby also reflecting back at the audience what it must feel like to be a comic book creator. It’s heady stuff, and it succeeds wildly. Perhaps the greatest strength of this debut issue is the protagonist’s narrative voice, which bounces violently from wild fits of looming ego to sobbingly insecure...as one imagines the creative process for great writers must feel like, oscillating from unchecked creation to solemn revisions.

From here, Ice Cream Man #6 splinters into three timelines, and structural comics greatness ensues. — From here, **Ice Cream Man #6** splinters into three timelines, and structural comics greatness ensues.

Ice Cream Man #6
Writer: W. Maxwell Prince
Artist: Martin Morazzo
Colorist: Chris O’Halloran
Letterer: Good Old Neon
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: 8/15/2018
Why It’s So Good: This comic somehow tells three self-contained stories in a single issue, doing so with little to no dialogue in a way that not only makes sense but will almost certainly haunt the vast majority of readers for weeks (at least, that’s been my experience). The craft is so impressive that I don’t want to think about it too hard, lest I lose motivation to ever attempt anything creative of my own ever again. Moreover, I have a strong predisposition against stories steeped in cynicism—and this issue is most certainly that—yet this book is so well-done I was able to get past all that. Ice Cream Man was one of 2018’s best explorations of what’s possible with this medium in terms of form and structure, and as such, I can’t recommend it enough.

Saga #54
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Fiona Staples
Letterer: Fonografiks
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: 7/25/2018
Why It’s So Good: Because nothing will ever be the same. If you’ve read the issue, check out Why Saga #54 Hurts So Bad. If you haven’t, please read the issue and then click that link. There’s just no good way to discuss this without spoilers. Simply put, though, I’ll just note that this is the most consequential issue yet in the best series in comics (as well as our Top Comic of 2018).

Secret Weapons: Owen’s Story #0
Writer: Eric Heisserer
Artist: Raul Allen & Patricia Martin
Colorist: Patricia Martin
Letterer: Patricia Martin
Publisher: Valiant Entertainment
Release Date: 3/14/2018
Why It’s So Good: Secret Weapons: Owen’s Story is a tour de force of narrative craft, a tight balancing act that involves a series of complicated decisions (all of which have an emotional charge) that add up to a satisfying climax. It plays with structure and form while never losing the rightful focus on the characters at its core. The titular Owen is a Psiot who manifests seemingly-random objects, and his story here consists of vignettes based on objects he’s selling at a yard sale, objects he manifested, objects with stories telling us more about our characters. The concept is risky, but writer Eric Heisserer and the team of Raul Allen and Patricia Martin (one of the best art duos in all of comics) handle it supremely well, creating the type of book that reminds you why having a publisher like Valiant is such a benefit for the industry.

The Seeds #2
Writer: Ann Nocenti
Artist, Letterer: David Aja
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: 9/12/2018
Why It’s So Good: I wrote about this a bit in our Top Comics of 2018 list, but The Seeds second issue was so good that it elevated this book as a concept in my head, ultimately landing it (despite publishing a scant two issues last year) among my annual favorites. I found the first issue filled with promise, heavy with intriguing concepts. I wondered, however, how thoughtful the title was and worried a bit that the power would be lost if it wasn’t connected to great meaning. Those worries were dispelled and then some in a second issue that showed this book to be among the deepest near-future disaster concepts in stories today (and there are a ton of near future disaster concepts in stories today).

What If? Magik #1
Writer: Leah Williams
Artist: Filipe Andrade
Colorist: Chris O’Halloran
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Release Date: 10/31/2018
Why It’s So Good: Writer Leah Williams and artist Filipe Andrade use the What If? concept to tell a story that sees the X-Men’s Magik tapped to be Doctor Strange’s replacement as sorcerer supreme. Her history, however, is the same: as a young girl she was kidnapped and taken to hell. To be sure, this is not handled lightly in the normal X-titles, but it also, to my knowledge, has never been extrapolated to a serious place where it reads like the supremely traumatic incident it would logically be. The villain in this story is Magik’s demonic kidnapper, cast as a manipulative human trafficker. This issue takes the character through a gauntlet of physical, mystical, and psychological tests, never discounting her trauma as the creative team shows us the Magik’s full strength, her stubborn optimism, her refusal to let a past ordeal limit or define her. That hard work and optimism (complete with expected setbacks) makes for a truly beautiful comic.

Wonder Woman #51
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Laura Braga
Colorist: Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Letterer: Saida Temofonte
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: 7/25/2018
Why It’s So Good: With Wonder Woman #51, Steve Orlando and Laura Braga tell a stand-alone story with a deep and nuanced understanding of this character, one that shows exactly why she’s been relevant all these years. It’s the type of small-scale story that plays to a hero’s essence, done ad nauseum with Batman and Superman but not nearly as much with Wonder Woman. This comic, however, helps to fix that. It’s just so perfect. Aside from the adept characterization, it features an engaging and emotional narrative that speaks to Diana’s core values. It sounds cliche, but I teared up here at the drama and I smiled at the jokes. This is, to me, an issue we’ll be hearing new creators talk about on podcasts 10 years from now, citing it as an influence for the way they write/think about this character.

Check out Best Comics of 2018, #1 - #5, Best Comics of 2018, #16 - #25, and Best Comics of 2018, #6 - #15! And check back later in the week for more year-end lists, including our Top Creators of 2018!

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.

Top Comics of 2018, #1 - #5

January 01, 2019 by Zack Quaintance in Comics

By Zack Quaintance — A difficult thing about a strong year for comics (like this one) is doing a retrospective Best Of list. Now, to be sure, no one mandates websites do rankings. That would be a clear violation of civil liberties. There is, however, a part of the pop culture blogger brain that goes wild for it, whispering all year long...where does this one rank...and if you don’t satisfy that beast—well, bad things happen.

So, here we our with ours, freshly formulated for 2018 by our committee of one. Before we dive into the third and final and (let’s face it) best part, which features in descending order selections #5 to #1 (Top Comics of 2018, #16 - #25 and Top Comics #6 - #15 are also up now, btw), let’s rehash our ground rules:

No trades or OGNs: Building out our OGN coverage is a priority for 2019. We’re just not there yet. So, while I absolutely loved work like Tillie Walden’s On a Sunbeam, Box Brown’s Is This Guy For Real? The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman, and Ryan Lindsay and Eric Zawadzki’s Eternal, you won’t find them here. Ideally, next year’s we’ll have an entire post dedicated to OGNs.
No webcomics, manga, or newspaper strips: Again, our site is a bit deficient covering these (if you are into these things, we’d love to chat about you writing for us!). I should, of course, mention that in 2018 someone under the pen name Olivia James took over the long-running Nancy strip and did amazing things with it (Sluggo is lit), but, again, you won’t find it on our list.
Longevity matters: New this year, you will find what I consider a key stat—how many issues were published this year. Late debut series like Die, Electric Warriors, and Bitter Root have tons of promise. They just haven’t been around enough to be a definitive comic of 2018. Ditto for comics that ended in April or earlier.

There you have it: guiding principles of our Top Comics of 2018. Now, without further adieu, let’s finish this bad hombre!

Top Comics of 2018

The Immortal Hulk by Alex Ross. — **The Immortal Hulk** by Alex Ross.

5. Immortal Hulk
Writer: Al Ewing
Artists: Joe Bennett
Inker: Ruy Jose
Colorist: Paul Mounts
Letterer: Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Issues in 2018: 10

The first of the Big 2 titles to make my Top 5 Comics of 2018 is the Al Ewing and Joe Bennett-driven Immortal Hulk, a startlingly-blunt take on a long-time hero that reads more like a creator-owned book than a shared universe corporate story. We’re late in the superhero trajectory, with comics having constructed, deconstructed, and exported the concept to other mediums plenty. Our best modern stories are those that get closest to capturing a character’s core, and rarely has a title done this as well as Immortal Hulk.

At the same time, this book has found a darker place that was always there, taking existing elements and extrapolating them so thoroughly they feel novel. It’s found ground not possible for the sensibilities of the 1960s, Hulk’s heyday. Both artwork and audience have evolved, becoming more sophisticated and thereby allowing Ewing, Bennett, and others to push Hulk further into monster territory while at the same time making Banner the emotional blank slate he was perhaps always meant to be. In this book, Banner is backgrounded, standing in for humanity at large as darker base impulses drag him places no one wants to go (ahem, hell). The Hulk is not the hero—that honor goes to anyone who can live a contented and peaceful life.

On the surface, this comic has also benefited from consistent artwork from Bennett who has needed few guest replacements, plus early chapters that provide satisfying narratives independent of what came before or will come after. This is a bit of a lost art, but still very much welcome, and it’s something that Immortal Hulk did expertly.

This gem by Ryan Sook and Brad Anderson from Action Comics #1006 is quite possibly the comic book page of the year. — This gem by Ryan Sook and Brad Anderson from **Action Comics #1006** is quite possibly the comic book page of the year.

4. Action Comics / Man of Steel / Superman
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artists: Patrick Gleason, Yanick Paquette, Ryan Sook, Ivan Reis, w/Doc Shaner, Steve Rude, Jay Fabok, Kevin Maguire, & Adam Hughes
Inkers: Wade Von Grawbadger, Joe Prado, & Oclair Albert
Colorists: Alejandro Sanchez, Nathan Fairbairn, Brad Anderson
Letterers: Josh Reed
Issues in 2018: 5 / 6 / 6

In 2017, Brian Michael Bendis—a leading voice at Marvel Comics for almost 20 years—announced a jump to the distinguished competition, leaving fans with questions that ranged from whether Bendis could thrive there to which titles he would take over. Some suggested this would spark a creative rejuvenation for Bendis, a chance to recapture energy from bygone days. Here’s the thing, though: Bendis had quietly been doing some of his best work at Marvel. Following the stumble that was Civil War II, his Infamous Iron Man, Jessica Jones, and Defenders titles were all excellent.

This is my way of saying I predicted Bendis at DC would be successful. He’s generally praised most for early work on Daredevil, as well as for creating Jessica Jones and Miles Morales (who’s having a moment with new film Into the Spider-Verse). What gets lost is that Bendis is likely the most prolific comic writer of a generation, consistently producing three to five monthly titles and rarely (if ever) suffering delays. As I’ve written, part of what I love about comics is the deadline-driven schedules force creators to just do the damn work, to put forth ideas without belaboring them as one must in film or prose writing. When it comes to embracing child-like excitement, love of comics history, and just doing the damn thing—Bendis is the best.

Still, even I didn’t predict what he’s doing with DC’s Superman titles. Flanked by the best artists to work on the character in decades, Bendis is telling a story that breaks this hero and his mythos down to its core before (seemingly) building it back up with slight tweaks for 2018. His Action Comics, Superman, and Man of Steel miniseries have all felt both classic and progressive as he revels in iconic stature while viscerally having a blast using the DC Universe that’s been off limits for so long. The end result is that both Action and Superman continue to rise, as satisfying as they are epic.

From Monstress #18. Artwork by Sana Takeda. — From **Monstress #18.** Artwork by Sana Takeda.

3. Monstress
Writer: Marjorie Liu
Artist: Sana Takeda
Letterer: Rus Wooton
Publisher: Image Comics
Issues in 2018: 6

This was the year of Monstress, with Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda’s expansive creator-owned fantasy hitting big at the Eisner’s and (presumably) finding a much larger audience. For fans of the book from the start, it was incredibly rewarding to see this story get its due. Liu’s world-building is phenomenal, drawing loosely from traditions while first and foremost exploring original elements. Takeda’s artwork, meanwhile, is second to no artist keeping as regular a release schedule (save for possibly the great Fiona Staples), with an intricate manga-influenced look that makes every panel of Monstress feel like the product of months of design work.

This year saw Monstress play out its third arc, a grandiose story heavy with confidence. The world-building continues, but it’s not as noticeable as it was in earlier arcs (both of which were also phenomenal, btw). The real focus of the story now is the journey of the main character. Given this is a fantasy comic (the fantasy comic of the decade), we wouldn’t have it any other way.

What started as a revenge story in 2015, has grown into a powerful young woman reckoning with a range of life: her relationship with her history, with her mother, with the mysterious power inside her, with the most responsible way to use it, and with the repercussions for noble actions that grew out of a simple desire to escape oppression and survive.

**Black Hammer: Age of Doom, Quantum Age, Doctor Star, and Chtu-Louise.**

2. Black Hammer
Black Hammer: Age of Doom / Doctor Star and the Kingdom of Lost Tomorrows / Quantum Age: From the World of Black Hammer / Black Hammer: Cthu-Louise
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artists: Dean Ormston, Rich Tommaso, Max Fiumara, Wilfredo Torres, Emi Lenox
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Letterer: Todd Klein
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Issues in 2018: 7 / 4 / 5 / 1

This past year also saw the establishing of a new superhero universe: Black Hammer. Technically, this homage-heavy universe was created back in 2016 with the advent of Black Hammer #1 from writer Jeff Lemire and artist Dean Ormston. That issue was the start of a specific story. The wider universe grew later, doing so with an adjacent miniseries that broadened the plot in 2016 (Sherlock Frankenstein and the Legion of Evil from Lemire and artist extraordinaire David Rubin).

In 2018, however, we got an even broader expansion. This past year, the Black Hammer universe continued with its main title, while adding two more miniseries and a one-shot. Add to that all kinds of rumors about what’s coming in 2019—from Lemire himself writing/drawing a 12-issue series, to a crossover between Black Hammer and DC Comics—and all signs point to this universe being here to stay. I had a chance to interview Jeff Lemire at San Diego Comic Con, and he agreed, saying as much.

I point this out as a way to note Black Hammer is so well-done that it has found a strong foothold in a market over-saturated by superhero concepts since basically 1970 (if not sooner). This is Lemire in all his brilliant Lemire-ness, following his deepest ideas and tragic lonesome sensibilities. He’s created a tone that allows him to write a few pages of funny before lapsing into full-blown meditations on the nature of generational comic book stories. Shared superhero universes function best with a strong guiding voice or perspective (see Marvel in the ‘60s). Black Hammer is doing just that, and I for one feel lucky to experience it in real time.

Saga #50 (cover by Fiona Staples) finds the family in happier times. — **Saga #50** (cover by Fiona Staples) finds the family in happier times.

1. Saga
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Fiona Staples
Letterer: Fonografiks
Publisher: Image Comics
Issues in 2018: 6

I’ve written about this often, but it’s easy to take long-running creator-owned comics for granted, forgetting what a rare thing it is to have talented writers and artists string together wholly original stories with only their keyboards and pencils. For many of us, our lifetimes have been marked with a mainstream comic selection dictated by corporations and distributors, plus whatever experimental work was on the fringes. In recent years, this has changed, and, leading that change, has been Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ familial sci-fi epic, Saga.

This year, however, was one in which we were all but forced to stop taking Saga for granted. The first reason for this was Saga’s latest story arc (which ran in issues #49 - #54, and wrapped up in July) was obscenely consequential. I don’t want to give anything away, but $@#% goes down and it’s bad, so bad I wrote about why it hurts, partially to make sense of why I was so devastated. It’s a testament to this story that it can hit such intense emotional beats so far into its run.

Second, the book announced it would be going on a year-long (minimum) hiatus. Obviously, you can’t take something for granted once it leaves you. Kind of bummer (we’re compensating with a year-long Saga re-read), made all the more bumming (is that a word? ah well) by how good the comic got before the announcement. There really is, quite simply, nothing else like Saga, not in terms of the scope of the story, the artful thematic explorations undertaken within, or the industry-best action and design graphics generated a whopping six times a year (or more!) by the massive talent that is Fiona Staples.

This site is dedicated to discussing comic books in thoughtful and analytical ways as the medium enjoys a new golden age. To us, Saga remains the leader of an ongoing renaissance, and a big part of the reason we think it’s so important to volunteer time to cover the artform. It is an absolute honor to give the book and its devastating 2018 story (kind of fitting, in sooooo many ways) our Top Comic of 2018 honor.

Check out Best Comics of 2018, #16 - #25 and Best Comics of 2018, #6 - #15! And check back later in the week for more year-end lists, including our Best Single Issues and our Top Creators of 2018!

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.

Top Comics to Buy for January 16, 2019

Top New #1 Comics

Others Receiving Votes

Saga #23

Brubaker and Phillips’ Criminal Vol. 1: Coward

Brubaker and Phillips’ Criminal Vol. 2: Lawless

Brubaker and Phillips’ Criminal Vol. 3: The Dead and the Dying

Brubaker and Phillips’ Criminal Vol. 4: Bad Night

Brubaker and Phillips’ Criminal Vol. 5: The Sinners

Brubaker and Phillips’ Criminal Vol. 6: The Last of the Innocent

Brubaker and Phillips’ Criminal Vol. 7: Wrong Time, Wrong Place

Top Comics to Buy for January 9, 2019

Top New #1 Comics

Others Receiving Votes

Shout Outs

Top Comics December 2018

Saga #22

Quick Hits

Top 5 Best New #1 Comics of December 2018

Top Comic Book Creators of 2018 - Artists

Top Comic Book Creators of 2018 - Editors

Top Comic Book Creators of 2018 - Writers

Top Writers/Artists

Best Single Comic Book Issues of 2018

Top Comics of 2018