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This Week in Comics: 11/11/2009

You know what they say: a comic a day keeps you from being charged for things like arson, indecent exposure, and public urination. Well, nobody says that. I say that. Because it’s my column.

Welcome to This Week in Comics, where every day is a comic book.

MONDAY – First Issues

Supergod #1 (of 5)

(Warren Ellis/Garrie Gastony)

Avatar Press

Supergod is the third installment (with Black Summer and No Hero) of Warren Ellis’ superhero trilogy for Avatar Press. You know what this means: the promise of fucked-up imagery, great ideas, twists, turns, shocks — all rendered in Warren Ellis’ trademark drunken cynical style. This is what happens when you take someone who has no interest in superheroes and subject him to a decade of for-hire superhero work. He’s earned your fandom, and now he will punish you for it.

Fun fact: As a teenager I drew a two-page comic of a superhero being crucified. Warren Ellis stole my idea, but I’m not going to complain because he scares me.

TUESDAY – New Manga Day

Cat Paradise Volume 2/Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit Volume 3

(Yuji Iwahara)/(Motoro Mase)

Yen Press/Viz Media

Cat Paradise has too strange a premise not to feature this week. It’s about a school dorm where kids are allowed to bring their cats, thus creating the titular paradise. Conflict arises, however, when a demonic cat starts stirring up trouble. We can only hope that Iwahara puts equal important on keeping the dorm from smelling.

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit is much darker and probably features less cats. Reminiscent of Battle Royale and Logan’s Run, Ikigami depicts a world where people are chosen at random to die and given 24 hours’ notice to keep them motivated and stress the importance of life. Doesn’t sound as fun as forcing school kids to murder one another, but it’s just as dystopic.

WEDNESDAY – Mainstream Superhero Stuff

Batman/Doc Savage Special

(Brian Azzarello/Phil Noto)

DC Comics

To inaugurate DC Comics’ new line of pulp-inspired superhero books, we’re getting a crossover wherein Batman meets Doc Savage, who I assume most readers don’t really care about. However, the idea of a dual .45-toting Batman excites me mostly because I think it’ll infuriate Batman purists. I was the only fan of Brian Azzarello’s “Broken City” Batman arc from a few years ago, so I’m glad to see him return to the character in an unconventional fashion. Crime! Shooting! These are the themes of most of the books I’m covering this week.

THURSDAY – Not Quite Friday, but Still Exciting

Modern Warfare 2 #1 (of 6)

(David Lapham/Kevin West)

Wildstorm/DC Comics

Okay, I know I made fun of licensed comics in our last video segment, but really, I was just mocking Galactica 1980.

Modern Warfare 2 intrigues me for reasons completely unrelated to the video game. I liked the first game, but it lost lost me when it stopped being about Modern Warfare and just became a big James Bond movie complete with a shootout at the villain’s lair. Anyway, I’m curious about the comic because it’s written by David Lapham, of Stray Bullets and the recently-cancelled/always-brilliant Young Liars. His work tends to be harsh, so I’m curious how he handles a war comic.

FRIDAY – TGIV(iolence)

Punisher MAX #1 (Dave Johnson Regular Cover)

(Jason Aaron/Steve Dillon)

Marvel Comics/Marvel MAX

Jason Aaron, the mastermind behind Vertigo’s Scalped, proved his ability to write the Punisher with last year’s wonderful X-Mas Special, which was mean and unrelenting as only the best Punisher comics can be. Paired with Garth Ennis collaborator Steve Dillon, it’s obvious that Marvel’s hoping to recapture the vigor of the definitive Ennis/Dillon run. I have a feeling that, for Aaron, Wolverine: Weapon X was just practice for this book.

SATURDAY – Spend the Afternoon Reading a Graphic Novel (or two)

Insomnia Cafe/Luna Park

(M.K. Perker)/(Kevin Baker/Danijel Zezelj)

Dark Horse Comics/Vertigo/DC Comics

Yeah, I can cover two graphic novels if I want.

Insomnia Cafe is the solo record of Air artist M.K. Perker, about a rare book expert and a place called the Archives, which holds complete versions of books that aren’t yet finished. It seems like with Insomnia Cafe Perker is drawing with a style distinct from his work with G. Willow Wilson. The book does, however, seem as weird as Air, which is exciting.

Luna Park attracted me because of Danijel Zezelj’s name on the cover–Zezelj being the underrated Croatian artist who does loads of graphic novels I’ve yet to read as well as slightly more mainstream stuff like the last two issues that ever came out of Warren Ellis’ unfinished Desolation Jones (oh, I’ve gone and depressed myself). The story itself sounds epic: the tale of a Russian immigrant who becomes a mob enforcer in Brooklyn that somehow involves a look at New York City in the 1910s.

SUNDAY – Last Issues

BPRD 1947 #5 (Of 5)

(Mike Mignola/Joshua Dysart/Gabriel Bá/Fábio Moon)

Dark Horse Comics

I never got into Hellboy like everyone else (loved the movies though), but this BPRD miniseries is great. Issue #4 heaped on the pathos and made me feel for a character that I didn’t really care for in previous issues, and the series is leading up to a potentially great conclusion. Even if it’s a downer, though, it will still be drawn by Bá and Moon, which is reason enough for me to read this book.