So, if you go to Wonder-Con in San Francisco you have a chance to pay $2.00 to get The Man with the Getaway Face, an over-sized prelude of the new Parker book by Darwyn Cooke, The Outfit. Wonder-Con is, of course, April 2-4, 2010 at the Moscone Center. Don’t worry, if you can’t make it to Wonder-Con you can buy The Man with the Getaway Face at comic shops in July. Like I plan on doing.

First of all, how great is that title? The Man with the Getaway Face. Pulps have the best titles, don’t they?

Then we have Darwyn Cooke. Hell of a guy. Created the great miniseries DC: The New Frontier which recasts the DC Universe of the 1950s with a healthy Cold War paranoia and other contemporaneous concerns. Wrote and drew 11 of the first 12 issues of the new Spirit series and managed to keep Ebony White in the book minus all the offensive Minstrel Show-ness of the character. Oh, and he did that Wolverine/Doop two-issue comic that I dug. Fantastic artist. I really gotta pick up Batman: Ego one of these days.

That I haven’t read Darwyn Cooke’s first Parker book, The Hunter, is disgraceful, considering the original novel by Donald E. Westlake (writing as Richard Stark) was adapted into two fantastic crime flicks: Point Blank (starring a drunkenly stoic Lee Marvin) and Payback (starring a Mel Gibson-y Mel Gibson) — also, have you seen Straight Up, the director’s cut of Payback? That movie’s a mean motherfucker. Also, it was adapted into a Ringo Lam film starring Chow Yun-Fat called Full Contact, which according to Netflix I LOVED but I couldn’t tell you a thing about it except that it’s was definitely really, really violent.

Weird thing about adaptations. Nobody bats an eyelash when you adapt a book into a movie, but somehow adapting a book (or any other medium for that matter) into a comic seems strange to me. Perhaps it’s because lots of these kinds of adaptations are bastard “Classics Illustrated” affairs and most of them aren’t drawn by Darwyn Cooke. Obviously, I’m open to the idea because I’d totally read Cooke’s Parker books and one of the last great books I read was Jacques Tardi’s fantastically pulpy adaptation of West Coast Blues by Jean-Patrick Manchette. Maybe it’s pulp novels that are best suited for comic book adaptation. Something to think about, I guess.

It really goes back to what I was commenting about in an earlier article that we, those who grew up with these characters over that past 20-30 years, have been wanting and should be seeing…which is…our favorite characters and storylines coming to life without being watered down and/or candy-coated for the kiddies…which isn’t bad for the kids…but it does take away from our more sophisticated tastes of what we, now as adults really want to see.

Now, only if they really can start showing some of those AMAZINGLY drawn, exposed animated ta-ta’s…that would be cool.

With that said…on with Danny’s article:

The Incredible Hulk gets sent off to another planet and re-enacts Ridley Scott’s Gladiator but with aliens and Beta Ray Bill. Sounds like a winner to me. Granted, I had no interest in reading the “Planet Hulk” storyline in the comics — being an incredibly long story that kind of takes Hulk out of his element — but WATCHING Hulk hit things for 80 minutes sounded like a good time. Simple pleasures, right?

Planet Hulk the movie seems like a pretty faithful adaptation of the story: Hulk has smashed a bit too much for humanity’s taste, so the Illuminati (an inner circle of smart superpeople like Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Professor X and others) put Hulk on a spaceship and shoot him off into space. He ends up landing on the  planet Sakaar, where he’s captured and forced to fight monsters and robots for the amusement of the evil emperor, then he and his rag-tag group of gladiators try to escape and overthrow the empire. Oh, and there’s some weird space-virus that turns people into monsters. I dunno, I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention during those scenes.

Of all of Marvel’s mostly awful direct-to-video animations, Planet Hulk is the best, and only because of the action. I couldn’t care less about the plot and refuse to even acknowledge its worth (why force myself to lower the rating?), but Planet Hulk is suitably violent and even gory at times — and it’s pretty good gore. I kept rewinding over and over to watch an ant-like creature get crushed such that its eyeballs popped out of its head.

The animation itself is solid for DTV, but the character designs are so generic that I wanted every non-Hulk person onscreen to die so I wouldn’t look at them anymore. Their boring appearances are made even worse when the end credits show how the characters looked in the comics when drawn by Landronn or Carlo Pagulayan. Way to shoot yourselves in the foot, guys.

A bit of research has told me that, in the comics, Silver Surfer occupies the the deus ex machina role that Beta Ray Bill plays in the movie, but they couldn’t use the Surfer because of a rights issue. I like seeing Beta Ray Bill a bit more, being a much quirkier character: a space-horse that dresses like Thor. Only problem with his inclusion, however, is that I automatically root for Beta Ray Bill over Hulk in any situation. Sorry, Hulk. Maybe if you were a horse.

The most exciting thing about Planet Hulk, however, is the potential for an animated version of its follow-up, World War Hulk, wherein Hulk returns to Earth and fights all your favorite Marvel superheroes. There’s no good reason why Marvel and Lions Gate  WOULDN’T do it, so we can assume it will happen and look forward to World War Hulk. You heard it here first.

Still, I question these DTV animations DC and Marvel have been doing when one of their better entries is really only good because of the punching. They can appeal to a broad audience with their live-action films, but these animated movies should be something else. You can sell most of them on brand alone, so there’s no excuse for them to be so lame and middling in trying to appeal to both fans and regular folk. Considering the violence many of them are shooting for mature audiences, so maybe the writing and style should reflect that, too.

Then again, I guess if you REALLY wanted to experience a proper superhero story you could always read the comics.

No they’re not…it’s just another smart-ass comment from Laurence who thinks he’s just too damn clever…here’s the article “Justice Leaguer’s” -

When a long-loved superhero disappears, retires, or dies, there’s always someone else who steps up and carries on their mission.  But replacement heroes are a touchy subject: people see them as second class citizens who aren’t as good as the original idols.  But no matter what you think of them, they ALWAYS bring about a new sense of freshness to a character or book.  And more often than not, these characters never stick around forever but are just fill-ins for the time being: from Kyle Rayner stepping in Hal to Bucky taking up the mantle of Captain America.  And while the comic companies are currently making up for past mistakes by bringing back long lost heroes, the second-stringers are still hanging around and playing important roles- like in DC’s newest incarnation of The Justice League of America.

After the fallout of Cry for Justice (which is still wrapping up) the JLA has once again been decimated and torn down to its core.  And James Robinson has stepped in to build them back up.  Robinson is known not only for his amazing writing style, but his usage of second, third, and fourth string characters (The Shade and the Dibny in his Starman series, for example).  And once again, he does not disappoint.  Filling in the ranks along favorites such as The Atom, Green Lantern, and Black Canary are more obscure players like the female Dr. Light, The Guardian, and Congorilla (AWESOME!!!).  But it wouldn’t be the JLA without the big three: Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.  However, Robinson has decided to give us some of the newer generation of heroes rather than the old standbys.  In Superman’s absence, Mon-El takes the stage.  Dick Grayson takes the part of Batman.  And Donna Troy steps in to play the role of Amazon warrior.  With the addition of Cyborg and Starfire to the team, James Robinson has really given the Titans characters a huge promotion: no longer are they hiding in the shadows of their mentors but are finally stepping out into the big leagues.

When the new roster was announced, I was skeptical. I am in love with Robinson’s Cry for Justice and relished in the idea of Congorilla sneaking into the League.  But I’ve really never cared for any of the Titan’s characters, save for Wally West and didn’t fancy them being in a monthly JLA book.  Why? Well, because they’ve always been sort of boring.  And maybe that’s due to their lame costumes or the fact that they’ve never been given the proper chance to shine.  Now that Bruce and Clark are out of the way, they have no one to be overshadowed by or compared to.  When the Justice League needs a Batman, there’s only one person to turn to: Dick Grayson.  The newly re-launched series is only 2 issues in, but the book already has a great stride.  The characters are well fleshed out and easy to connect to, whether you like them or not.  If you like good writing and great characters, give it a try.  And if you don’t care for these fill-in characters, at least do it for Congorilla.

This week I seem to be out to prove that I’m not a pessimist, because I’m picking things that I actually want to read. In fact, I don’t make fun of a single book this week. What the hell is wrong with me?

Don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong with me. Comics just happen to be delightful this week.

Welcome to This Week in Comics, where every day is a comic book, and some weeks, as you’ll find out, are more promising than others.

MONDAY

First Issues. You really should have seen this one coming.

Joe The Barbarian #1 (of
(Grant Morrison/Sean Murphy)
Vertigo/DC Comics

It’s a good thing Grant Morrison treats his superhero comics as serious business or the infrequency of his creator-owned stuff would frustrate. The plot to Joe the Barbarian sounds a bit like a kids’ version of Flex Mentallo: instead of an ODing rock star possibly imagining his comic books are real, it’s a diabetic, insulin-deprived kid who may or may not be visiting a world where all his toys live that he must save from dark forces. While the premise sounds a bit rote, this is Moz we’re talking about.

Also, it’s only $1.00.

TUESDAY

New manga comes out on Tuesday, new comics Wednesday. Clearly they’re two completely different mediums.

Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka Volume 7
(Naoki Urasawa/Takashi Nagasaki)
Viz Entertainment

Here’s the rule, Internet: if there’s a Naoki Urasawa book or a new printing of Osamu Tezuka material, then it’ll probably show up here this week. Pluto covers both, so here we go. To get you up to speed, Pluto is Naoki Urasawa’s (with co-plotter Takashi Nagasaki) reinterpretation of Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy story arc “The Greatest Robot on Earth” as a murder mystery. I haven’t been keeping up with Pluto, but I read the first few chapters of Volume 1 and they were fantastic. Especially good is when Gesicht has to tell an emotionless robot that her husband has been killed.

P.S. The newest volume of Tezuka’s Black Jack comes out this week, too.

WEDNESDAY

Mainstream superhero stuff, because that can be good, too

Superman/Batman #68
(Joe Casey/Ardian Syaf/Vicente Cifuentes)
DC Comics

Joe Casey had a good early-to-mid ‘00s, writing subversive stuff into high-profile books like Uncanny X-Men and The Adventures of Superman (both of which were unfairly reviled) as well as doing even more subversive work in stuff like Automatic Kafka, The Intimates, and Wildcats Version 3.0. For the rest of the decade he’s been freelancing on various minis for Marvel while working on his creator-owned Gødland, a Jack Kirby-inspired book that’s just looking to endear itself with me. Now 2010 brings a gig writing the ongoing Superman/Batman. Last time he wrote Superman he tried to make him a pacifist, so we’ll see if he continues to explore that. I’m guessing no, but a guy can dream.

THURSDAY

Not Quite Friday, but Still Exciting (for me, at least)

Glamourpuss #11
(Dave Sim)
Aardvark Vanaheim

Y’know what intrigues me? Follow-ups, especially (in comics) those from the indie guys who worked on their projects for YEARS. Eastman and Laird are known for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but little else as far as comic books. Ditto Stan Sakai, who has done Usagi Yojimbo for the past 50 years, or some of the ‘90s Image guys (McFarlane with Spawn, Erik Larsen with Savage Dragon). What if Los Bros Hernandez suddenly stopped doing Love & Rockets and moved on to a new mega-narrative?

Take Dave Sim, who spent 27 years creating Cerebus before moving on to Glamourpuss, which is part fashion magazine satire, part survey of photorealism in comics history, part superhero comic (seriously). Cerebus, by comparison, was about a talking aardvark*.

*Look, I know it’s more complicated than that, but I took a bit of artistic license for the sake of a joke — what do you care, anyway? You don’t read Cerebus.

FRIDAY

TGIBone

RASL #6
(Jeff Smith)
Cartoon Books

See? There’s a reason I didn’t mention Jeff Smith in the previous blurb. I was saving him for his own little section. Jeff Smith spent years doing the wonderful Bone which you can buy in an incredibly thick but affordable one-volume edition. While Bone was a fantasy epic with three cartoon characters (the Bones) as the main protagonists, RASL is a sci-fi noir about an interdimensional art thief. Now THAT is how you do a follow-up.

SATURDAY

Essential Reading

Young Liars Volume 3: Rock Life
(David Lapham)
Vertigo/DC Comics

For a while David Lapham was going to be one of those guys, too. He’s best known for the indie crime book Stray Bullets but has since been scoring mainstream work doing books for DC and Marvel. It’s worth the sacrifice, as it’s afforded him the opportunity to do Young Liars, a brilliant Vertigo book about how the coolest people have completely invented themselves and about how you must protect yourself from the Spiders from Mars (the space-arachnids, not the band). This is the final volume because Vertigo had to cancel the thing after 18 issues when nobody read it, which I take as undeniable proof that people are inherently evil.

SUNDAY

Last Issues

Rapture #6 (of 6)
(Michael Avon Oeming/Taki Soma)
Dark Horse Comics

I love when artists work on their own thing whilst working with writers. It’s like watching a good solo act. Bá and Moon do Casanova, but they also do Daytripper. Ditto Cameron Stewart, who works with Grant Morrison but also does the webcomic Sin Titulo. David Mazzuchelli, artist with Frank Miller on “Born Again” and “Year One,” has got Asterios Polyp, which you’ve heard of if you’ve read any 2009 list of best anything.

Which brings me to Michael Avon Oeming, who people might know best as the artist on Brian Michael Bendis’ Powers. His comic Rapture (with wife Taki Soma) is about humanity dealing with the aftermath of all the superheroes and supervillains disappearing from the face of the Earth, which sounds great because I love high-concept takes on superheroes like that that can’t be done at Marvel or DC. Stuff like Irredeemable and The End League.

Happy New Year, Internet, and welcome to the first 2010 edition of This Week in Comics, where every day is a comic book, but you can’t read them with the corresponding days because they all come out on Wednesday. Oops. To remind you what each day means, I’ve thrown in several subtitles for each day. Because I love you.

Since I ended last year’s edition with a quick “best of the year” list, I feel like I could make some wild prognostications about comics this year.

Dark Horse Comics will continue to live up to its name by publishing proper good comics that I like. This will prove doubly true if The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys comes out this year.

Ditto Image Comics, especially if Casanova returns this year.

With the conclusion of “Siege,” the Marvel Comics universe will see an end to “Dark Reign” and a return to a traditional status quo after the last several years of Bush-era pessimism. In lieu of constant tie-in books, Marvel Comics will be printed with an ink containing a highly addictive drug absorbed through the skin. In this sense, “Dark Reign” won’t end, but simply change forms.

In the next DC Comics crossover, probably written by Geoff Johns, Wonder Woman will get raped by Darkseid to show that the dark god of the planet Apokalips is truly as evil as we think. While the pundits and bloggers will decry this offensive attempt by DC to seem “darker” and more “adult,” the crossover will outsell even “Blackest Night” due to each issue’s inclusion of a small packet of chewable vitamins in the shape of all your favorite DC Comics rape scenes.

This year we may see Geoff Johns really put off his fan-base, and not because of all the rape.

By sheer amount of output alone, it’s inevitable that BOOM! Studios will release a comic book I unabashedly love instead of just really enjoy. This might happen in 2010. I’m not sure.

MONDAY – First Issues, New Beginnings, This Week Might Not Suck After All If Monday’s Any Indication

The Muppet Show Comic Book #1

(Roger Langridge)

BOOM! Studios

Huzzah! The Muppet Show comic proper is back with a new number one, wherein Roger Langridge remains faithful to the sketch comedy format of The Muppet Show while drawing the characters in his distinct style instead of attempting to draw the characters as they appear in real life. It’s a surprising dost of artistic license that I wish more licensed comics would take. Also, I wish more licensed comic books had Muppets. Are you listening, IDW and Dark Horse?

Hint: I grew up with Archie’s Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, which developed its own continuity independent of both the cartoon and the original Mirage Studios comics.

TUESDAY – New Manga Day, Which is Always On Tuesday, Also Sometimes I Choose Two Manga Effectively Making it “Twosday”

Yakitate!! Japan Volume 21

(Takashi Hashiguchi)

Viz Media

Cooking manga! I would buy every cooking manga there is if I had lots of disposable income. Until then, I’ll have to live with reading about them and imagining what could be. Yakitate!! Japan is about a 16-year-old boy who has superhuman baking skills and seeks to put Japan on the map when it comes to bread baking. That sounds delicious. I want to eat this comic. To me, food manga is porn.

AND

Switch Volume 12

(Otoh Saki/Tomomi Nakamura)

Viz Media

Here’s a manga that isn’t about weird transformations, robots, or demon punching. It’s a cop comic about a pair of youthful looking newbie detectives (one of whom has a “violent alter ego”) tracking a drug called Dragon Speed. Dragon Speed! My god.

WEDNESDAY- New Comic Day in the US, Mainstream Superhero Stuff, Middle of the Week

Invincible Iron Man #22

(Matt Fraction/Salvador Larocca)

Marvel Comics

Look, I try not to repeat myself, but this is a slow week. So I’m going to gush about Invincible Iron man and you can’t stop me. Because I’m wrote this in the past and you spacemen are reading it in the future. So suck it, hypothetical descendants.

Invincible Iron Man is better than superhero comics deserve to be in an age where the most popular comics are about the intersection of zombies and rape. What’s even more pleasing is that people are paying attention and reading this book.

Now watch as this issue severely disappoints.

THURSDAY – Not Quite Friday but Still Exciting, Must See Thursdays

Daytripper #2 (of 10)

(Gabriel Bá/Fábio Moon)

Vertigo/DC Comics

How good way Daytripper #1? What? You didn’t read it? Well, you missed the set-up for the whole series, plus some great art from those twins whose names force me to make extra keystrokes to include the accent marks (I live a hard life).

I’ve already made space on my shelf for the trade.

FRIDAY – TGIDinosaurs (still)

Age Of Reptiles: The Journey #2 (of 4)

(Ricardo Delgado)

Dark Horse Comics

Zombies and cowboys are surely tired trends by now. When will dinosaurs be the Big Awesome Thing in comics? When we will have a Devil Dinosaur revival and a DC Comics crossover where Dr. Light rapes a triceratops?

It’s a beautiful, meticulously drawn comic book about dinosaurs doing dinosaur stuff. It has no words, just great art. And this issue has prehistoric alligators in it.

You know you want it.

SATURDAY – Essential Reading, Long Lazy Afternoons, Cleaning the Gutters

Lola: A Ghost Story

(J. Torres/Elbert Or)

Oni Press

Here’s Oni Press’ book description:

“Jesse sees dead people, monsters, demons, and lots of other things that go bump in the night that no one else can see. No one except his ailing grandmother — a woman who used her visions to help those living in her small town. The same rural community in all the scary stories Jesse’s heard as a child. Man-eating ogres in trees. Farmhouses haunted by wraiths. Even pigs possessed by the devil. Upon his grandmother’s passing, Jesse has no choice but to face his demons and whatever else might be awaiting him at grandma’s house.”

Seems like it has cool art and pathos and junk. Oni Press is good for stuff like that.

SUNDAY – Last Issues, Oh Sh!t Tomorrow’s Monday

Absolution #6 (of 6)

(Christos Gage/Roberto Viacava)

Avatar Press

Absolution’s ending already? Granted, I haven’t been keeping up, but that was quick. It seems like only yesterday I was at Comic-Con 2009, pointing out my favorite bits of gore from Issue #0 to the disinterested guy at the Avatar Press booth. How time flies!In all seriousness, Absolution is a good companion to those Warren Ellis “Maybe superheroes aren’t such a good idea” books that Avatar publishes. It’s probably not nearly as twisted as No Hero, but it promises lots of ultra-violence.

Hey…remember when Bruce Wayne died? Me either, because it never happened (LIKE I’VE BEEN SCREAMING AT EVERYONE FOR MONTHS!!!)  I’m not saying this because, personally I pretend that Final Crisis was a strange fever dream I had after a bad nacho plate (although that idea does help keep me sane) but because there’s NO way DC Comics would have let GRANT MORRISON kill BATMAN with LASER BEAMS.  When Batman R.I.P. was announced, I was angry.  And after I went through the other six stages of grief, I accepted it.  In fact, I had decided that the only way for Batman to die would be in a two page spread, featuring Batman and the Joker falling off a building: Batman ripping the Joker’s jaw off and Joker shooting Bruce point black in the head.  The.  End.  Awesome, right?  But no; instead, there were lasers, mind controlling colors, rainbow costumes, and imaginary villains that weren’t Bruce Wayne’s father…

I’ve got a headache.

But DC has FINALLY answered our prayers with: The Return of Bruce Wayne, a six issue mini-series that begins in April 2010.  And yes, it is written by none other than the weirdo that “killed” him, Grant Morrison.  The story will follow poor time-displaced Bruce as he attempts to use all of his detective skills to find a way back to the present.  Which means…. *drumroll* different era Batmen!!!  Several temporal adventures and settings have been announced for the series so far:  Late-Paleolithic Era (Caveman/Viking Batman), a Pilgrim-era Gotham (Witch-hunter Batman), the high seas era (Pirate Batman), a “western” style Gotham (Cowboy Batman), and a Noir Private Investigator Batman.  Holy time travel, Batman…how excited are you for this?!  Time-hopping Batman, dressed in all manner of garb, using those world famous detective skills to hitchhike back to present day Gotham City?  Just admit it; stop being a stuck-up hipster and admit that you love this idea.  Not only is it just incredibly sweet at its core, but it finally solves the silly mystery of “What happened to Bruce Wayne?”  He’s not dead: he’s just trapped in time, like the proverbial DeLorean stuck in the old west.  Plus, what will happen to Bruce when he does return?  Will he force Dick to give back the cape and cowl?  Perhaps he’ll retire and become a supporting Bat-character?  Maybe he’ll don a new costume and mantle (maybe something Morrison digs out of Batman’s old silver age past?)

But that’s not all!  Every issue will feature rotating artists taking their shot at the Dark Knight (Chris Sprouse doing Caveman Batman and Frazer Irving handling Witch-Hunter Batman).   BONUS: ALL of the character designs are being handled by legendary comic artist Andy Kubert.  Huzzah!!!  Seriously, is there anything else you could ask for (besides a different writer for this comic?)  Well, I guess I have just one: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE put together a few waves of Return of Bruce Wayne action figures!!!!! If DC Direct or Mattel can get me in contact with a Caveman Batman figure and an old Jurassic Park T-Rex, I might literally die of happiness… or in actuality, get sent backwards in time and attempt to find a way back to my time period proper.  PARADOX!

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.

If you’re a fan of DC Comics or just a fan of good comics in general, then you’re obviously hip deep in The Blackest Night: DC’s latest big crossover event.  Now, STOP- I don’t want you getting your nerd panties all in a twist and starting on some big nasally rant.  NO, Blackest Night isn’t some cheap money making scheme (you must be thinking of Marvel’s crappy Blackest Night knock-off: “Necrosha”) and NO, it isn’t a rip-off of “Marvel Zombies”, either.  Blackest Night had its origins planted WAYYYYY back in Green Lantern: Rebirth in 2004, a year before Marvel Zombies game out…so kindly shut up, please and thank you.

Now, if you’ve been living under a rock, or are just plain simple, I’ll go over the story real quick like.  The Green Lantern Corps aren’t the only ring-based army out in space anymore and over the last year, lanterns of various colors and emotional backgrounds have been making themselves known and are at full out war with each other:

Red: RAGE

Orange: AVARICE

Yellow: FEAR

Blue: HOPE

Indigo: COMPASSION

Sapphire: LOVE

Which brings us to the final lantern set in this emotional spectrum: The Black Lanterns, who represent death.  A mysterious force has been sending out black power rings across the galaxy which have been resurrecting deceased heroes and villains who plague the living…and brother, do they do a good job.  The difference between this and Marvel Zombies is that the later was just senseless monster fun, while Blackest Night is more of an emotional-action ride that makes you use your brain every once in a while.  Heroes are having to come face to face with grotesque and twisted versions of their long lost friends, comrades, and loved ones who are hell bent on ripping them apart.  And besides being an awesomely frantic adventure, it also serves as a great commentary on death in the DC Universe, which I have been waiting years for.  We finally get to see the somber tone in graveyards as the heaps of dead heroes are finally remembered and mourned.  And despite the fact that people are dropping like flies, death is still a heavily deep and meaningful thing that should make an impact on readers as well (if you have a heart, that is).

So go ahead and dive right in: there’s a lot to choose from, most of it being pretty great stuff.  You can just stick with the main Blackest Night series, but if you wanna dip into tie-ins by way of your favorite books, it’ll just add more to the fun.  So even though October has come and gone, you can still get your undead monster fix all the way ‘till March.  While you figure all this out for yourself, here’s the tie-in checklist for November:

Blackest Night # 5

Green Lantern #48

Green Lantern Corps # 42

Justice League of America # 39

Superman/Batman # 66

Doom Patrol # 4

Booster Gold # 26

R.E.B.E.L.S. # 10

Teen Titans # 77

Adventure Comics # 4

Outsiders # 24

And if you want another way to fall deeper and deeper into your superhero delusions, you can pick up a different colored ring every week at your local comic shop.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to put on my green ring, a domino mask, and run around the street pretending to save the world.

Judging by this week’s comics shipment, I don’t think comic books want me to write an article on them. Most of my go-to companies have mini-series ending, and I’m not going to tell you to buy the last part of the Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men Crossover because you’re probably going to do it anyway.

So here’s a bunch of books you don’t read and probably won’t buy.

DMZ #45

(Brian Wood/Riccardo Burchielli)

Vertigo/DC Comics

Wow, #45 already. DMZ is becoming one of Vertigo’s elder statesman, though significantly younger than Hellblazer (#259), about half the age of Fables (#88), and slightly older than Jack of Fables (#38).

For those of you who don’t know, DMZ takes place in a not-too-distant future where the United States has been torn apart by civil war with New York City rendered a demilitarized zone in the aftermath. The series follows a young journalist called Matty Roth who gets embedded in the DMZ and faces danger at every turn.

While the book’s been around a while, DMZ #45 gives a good jumping-on point for new readers, being part one of a five-part story.

So go read it.

You can read the first issue at Vertigo’s website.

Love & Rockets: New Stories Volume 2

(The Hernandez Brothers)

Fantagraphics Books

Love & Rockets has been around for 700 years, and will continue long after we’re all dead because The Hernandez Brothers will have their consciousnesses uploaded into cyborgs that will write comics about the descendants of Maggie, Hopey, and Luba waging future war on our alien warlord masters.

Until then, enjoy the newest 100-page installment of Love & Rockets.

Vampirella: The Second Coming #1

(Phil Hester/Daniel Sampere)

Anarchy Studios/Harris Comics

Vampirella is something I only knew about from late-1990s issues of Wizard Comics, during the regrettable “bad girl” craze, which the character was a perfect fit for. If Vampirella actually has fans, I really wouldn’t know. She must, considering she’s been around since 1969. I must admit, however, there’s an awesome pulp appeal to the property you can feel just looking at the Frank Frazetta covers of the early issues and knowing that Vampirella was, before a silly retcon, a blood-drinking alien from the planet Draculon. No, seriously.

 So there’s a new Vampirella series out this week. I was going to consider just making fun of this when I noticed that it’s full of surprises. First of all one of the variant covers is by zombie fetishist Arthur Suydam, and is not a zombie variant. Secondly, it’s written by legitimate comicker Phil Hester, creator of The Athiest and artist of things like Kevin Smith’s Green Arrow. It’s not the first time talent has become involved with the property in recent years — Grant Morrison and Mark Millar wrote a bunch of Vampirella issues in 1998.

Most shocking, however, is that Vampirella: The Second Coming is $1.99.

One dollar. Ninety-nine cents. For boobs.

To compare: the new kid-friendly Marvel Superhero Squad is $2.99. DC’s Doom Patrol #2 is $3.99.

Comics is a stupid, stupid industry.

The Unwritten #5

(Mike Carey/Peter Gross)

Vertigo/DC Comics

Not interested in reading a meta-fantasy book that lazily gives me analogues of Harry Potter tropes (isn’t there enough children’s fiction that does that already?), I gave up on The Unwritten with Issue #1.

However, a friend informed me yesterday that the book is slowly going away from the Potter analogues.

I may have to get back into The Unwritten.

Yotsuba & ! Volumes 1-6

(Kiyohiko Azuma)

Yen Press

I’ll admit it: we don’t cover enough manga. Taking full responsibility for this, I give you two Japanese comic books to help bridge the gap and marry the preposterously separate-but-equal worlds of comics and manga. Reminder: ”manga” is just Japanese for “comics.”

Yen Press is releasing the first six volumes of Kiyohiko Azuma’s Yotsuba & ! — another book I knew nothing about until I did a bit of research — all on the same week. It’s a pretty ballsy move — one made presumably so interested readers will buy multiple books at once rather than buy the first one, find out it’s mostly set-up, and not wait to see what happens next when Volume 2 comes out months down the line

With Yotsuba & !, I find myself intrigued by the covers. Azuma meticulously renders photorealistic backgrounds yet draws Yotsuba as an anomalous cartoon character. The juxtaposition is a really intriguing one, and I hope it carries on into the interior.

Regardless, this one seems good for the kids.

Squirrel Machine

(Hans Richeit)

Fantagraphics Books

For my personal blog I wrote a piece wherein I went on a huge digression about how way too many alt-comics creators just render the minutia of their lives into self-indulgent autobiographical wankery. We can’t all be Harvey Pekar.

Then I came across Hans Rickheit, whose new book The Squirrel Machine I’m going to buy based exclusively on the cover, which features a man with a weird device on his head that’s connected to another device with a drowned squirrel in it.

What’s it about? Two brothers in the 19^th century who invent weird devices from strange technology and dead animals.

You had me at “hello.”

West Coast Blues

(Jacques Tardi, based on the novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette)

Fantagraphics Books

Because West Coast Blues was adapted from a novel I was a bit wary of mentioning this, but then I saw the cover. What is it with Fantagraphics and great covers?

The cover of West Coast Blues (I love the title, too) features an entire comic sequence, presumably from the book, which made me realize something: you don’t see this very often. The only other example I can think of is an old Lee/Ditko Spider-Man with the Sandman, and I think that one might have only been a two-panel sequence. Too often do comic book covers mislead with cool Brian Bolland art when there’s boring crap in the interior. I’m looking your way, Last Days of Animal Man.

Let’s also realize that West Coast Blues is a French noir comic and then write off my wariness as a moment of weakness. Yep, definitely reading this, too.

Tyrese Gibson’s Mayhem! #2 (of 3)

(Tyrese Gibson/Mike Le/William Wilson/Tone Rodriguez)

Image Comics

New rule: if your name’s on the cover and you did not actually write the issue, you don’t get credit.

I went back and forth about whether to credit Tyrese as a writer because I actually think that Tyrese has creative input in his own series even though he doesn’t actually script it. So there.

Tyrese, whether he knows it or not, is contributing to 1990s nostalgia, and I don’t know how to feel about that.

Wait. Yes I do.

And now, the ad copy for Mayhem! #2, courtesy of Image Comics and the copy-paste function:

“Mayhem and Malice are back again, but this time their rival Big X has pulled out all the stops! When his regular thugs can’t get the job done, Big X calls in the world’s most notorious assassins known as The Four Corners, who force Mayhem right to the edge. Will Mayhem survive long enough to learn that there’s more to Big X than meets the eye…?”

The Four Corners sounds like a doo-wop group, which gives me a brilliant idea for a comic book that Tyrese Gibson can also not write.

Models, Inc. #1 (of 4)

(Marc Sumerak/Paul Tobin/Jorge Molina/Vicenc Villagrasa)

Marvel Comics

Let’s get this out of the way: This is unrelated to the weirdo 1990s Aaron Spelling TV show (I think I just read The CW is reviving it?!).

This Models, Inc. is another Marvel attempt (along with Marvel Divas, which I’ve said far too much about already) to get women to read their comics. It seems Marvel’s method might be “create a solid comic book that nobody reads because we present it in an unlabeled package under a neon sign that keeps flashing the word PANDERING.”

However, the cover to Models, Inc. is light years ahead of Marvel Divas in terms of being sensible: a faux glamor mag cover a la Dave Sim’s Glamourpuss (bad example, I’m aware), full of enticing article teasers. Ignoring the Power Girl-esque cleavage-hole in her top, Millie the Model is dressed in something a real person would wear.

The plot, while totally cliché, sounds like it could be light fun: when Millie the Model is framed for the murder of a set designer, Mary-Jane Watson, Patsy “Hellcat” Walker, Jill Jerold, and Chili Storm must find out the identity of the real killer — during Fashion Week, at that.

What amuses me most about this project is the dipping into relatively obscure Marvel history. You, dear readers, probably don’t know much about Marvel non-superhero books, of which there were many in the pre-Fantastic Four era. Millie the Model (which featured Chili Storm and Jill Jerold) ran from 1945 to 1973. Before Patsy Walker was an Avenger, she was a Timely Comics humor character from 1944.

Full disclosure: I’m tempted to buy this just for the Tim Gunn variant cover. No, seriously.

Nomad: Girl without a World #1 (of 4)

(Sean McKeever/David Baldeon)

Marvel Comics

A girl with goggles and a gun.

SOLD.

Nevermind that this book sounds a bit convoluted by having to explain that Rikki Barnes is the Bucky from the Heroes Reborn universe trapped in the Marvel Universe — compared to more contrived efforts like Models, Inc., this is exactly the kind of book Marvel should be pushing if they want to entice female readers with female characters: a high-concept superhero book that doesn’t shout “HEY GIRLS! GIRLY CRAP!”

Too bad Marvel hasn’t done very much to promote this book. I only knew about it due to a reference in a completely unrelated Newsarama article and by looking for what comes out this week.

B. Ichi Volume 4

(Atsuhi Ohkubo)

Yen Press

B. Ichi looks like a high-concept boy’s action/comedy comic in the vein of Dragon Ball or One Piece. The premise surrounds a group of people called Dokeshi, who use more of their brains than the average human and, as a result, have special abilities. The protagonist, Shotaro, has the ability to gain the powers of any animal — provided he bites their bones. Ha.

Most enticing about B. Ichi is that it’s only four volumes, giving a reader minimal amount of commitment to a manga series for once. Stuff like Bleach (40 volumes, ongoing) and Naruto (47 volumes, ongoing) just seem daunting. Even something I might actually want to read like the ongoing Fullmetal Alchemist has 23 volumes already! That’s years of story I have to catch up on–

Wait, this sounds familiar.

COMICS AND MANGA ARE EXACTLY THE SAME!

So thanks B. Ichi, for being four volumes.

Secret Six #13

(Gail Simone/Nicola Scott)

DC Comics

Fanboys, you get one. And it’s not even the one that has all the zombies in it.

Secret Six is a wonderful book. It’s written and drawn by incredibly talented women, and it’s more violent and hedonistic than anything made by men at DC Comics. I love this world.

Secret Six is also the only mainstream superhero book where you can actually fear for the characters, as many of them are disposable supercriminals. As such, you also get to watch them do very mean things to one another.

I love comics.