Hey everyone! I hope your weekends were exciting, because we have some sweet, sweet content waiting for you this week. Seriously, you might plotz. Maybe put down a mat or something, we don’t want injuries on our consciences. But in the meantime, we’ve still got so much to say about last week and the amazing comics that were released. Because guys? These were the best.

TO ALL THINGS

There are days when I’m not quite sure I understand the comic book industry. Specifically, they are days when things like Mystic ship, and sales are met with a resounding thud. Don’t get me wrong: this book sells in my shop. It sells a little bit better than books like, say, Morning Glories and Chew do - which is decent enough. In reality, however, I should’ve been able to pull in Fear Itself numbers on this book. I should’ve. And yet.

Now I know that the comic book industry, as it currently stands, will never be able to make a good run at selling a book like Mystic to the existing audience. Through years upon years of cultivating a specific kind of audience - one that focuses quite narrowly on the “dudes from 25-50″ market, the industry has gotten itself into one of those “self fulfilling prophecy” kind of situations. Retailers, publishers and creators often shrug and say “a book like this will never sell”, and through inactivity, it doesn’t. The audience for this book isn’t sought out, and therefore it sits on the shelves, unsold and unloved. Or in a lot of cases, it isn’t ordered for the shelves at all. It’s a shame, because the book is a perfect example as to how to make comics.

In the course of four issues, G. Willow Wilson, David López, Álvaro López and Nathan Fairbairn have created vibrant new characters. They’ve created a vibrant new world. They put forth an ambitious plot, with several conflicts and view points, and resolve it. Much like the best serialized all ages fiction, the door is wide open for more stories in this world - and yet, what you get is also complete. In a world with unending concepts and truncated books, Mystic is almost a textbook example as to how to tell a story right. It was a book that I felt comfortable selling to pretty much anyone who walked through the doors, from those guys who will buy anything with pretty girls in them, right down to children who wanted to read something fun and different and magical. The audience for this thing was wide open - but unfortunately, the comic shop is not where this book is going to sell.

The future of Mystic and books like it, is elsewhere. Or at least until such a time exists where comics don’t focus so narrowly on what’s working in the short term, and start taking a bit of a risk in pushing outwards. To do this, there needs to be some sort of sales glimmer - but that won’t happen if the marketing is not firmly in place. In this case, it would behoove Marvel to follow the Scholastic Graphix line of graphic novels. Print the book at the same size as the majority of the all ages graphic novels, price it at $10.99 American, and use those Disney connections to move some product. Because seriously, Mystic is the next step in the progression from the Disney Princess kids, to whatever is next. It features the same tropes, (even a good rags to riches story) and features strong, confident female characters who save the day. There’s no reason why this thing shouldn’t be huge.

That said, I’m not a guy who knows anything about anything. I know what I can sell in this store, and I know what I could sell, given some proper formatting, and a bit of heavy lifting in order to get the book out to an audience that will love it. Because really, this book deserves all the best. It should at least get another series or two. Not even an ongoing, because as the book market will tell you, one book every year or so will result in sales that stack. An overflowing torrent, however, will usually net you a lot of attrition over time. And so, as the first run draws to its conclusion, we award this book the J.K. Rowling Ain’ Nothin’ to Fuck With Award for potential.

And yes, we sure did just kill some eyeballs by cussing right at the very end of our glowing recommendation for an all ages book, but what do you want from us. It’s the only way we know. (B)

DOES WHATEVER AN ANIMAL CAN

Let me say this as bluntly as I can: Animal Man #3 freaked me the hell out. Issues #1 and #2 both did too, but in this issue, just about everything that was creepy or unnerving about the series so far became outright terrifying, and I can’t get enough of it.

A big part of this is that there are basically two horror movie plots going on at the same time. One one side, you have Buddy and his daughter going on the run to find the heart of The Red and solve the issues with his powers and hers. You know, the whole “bringing dead animal skeletons back to life” thing. All this brings us to a confrontation with two of the Hunters in the nightmarish world of the Red, where flesh ripples, squishes and bubbles like nothing natural.

And that’s just half of the issue. The other horror movie inside this is the final member of the Hunters going after Buddy’s mother and son, attacking them, forcing them on the run themselves and using its shape-changing abilities to heighten the fear and dramatic irony.

This is itself a pretty good horror movie story, but it’s made even scarier by the fact that Buddy knows it’s happening but can’t do anything because he’s trapped in his own horror story. Of course, it’s an entirely different kind of story, rooted in the revelations about his daughter, the surreal world of the Red and the fact that no matter how much he tries, he seems powerless to stop something bad from being thrust upon her.

When I first talked about the series, I mentioned that it was rooted in Buddy Blake’s family life more than it is his life as Animal Man. For the first two months, the series set up the importance of Buddy’s family and how lost he would be without them, and then in this issue threatens them both simultaneously while leaving him caught between the two, unable to really do anything and having just been told that he’s not even that important anyway, wamp wamp waaaaaaamp. This whole issue is basically Buddy’s worst nightmare and it is used to punishing effect by Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman. Lemire‘s script sets up the emotional cost but Foreman‘s art drives it home by being completely, mind-bendingly terrifying. Nothing else looks like this that isn’t an actual nightmare I have had, and the result is that this comic scares me like almost nothing has, ever. It’s a fear based in a real emotion, too, which is why the only thing I’ll heap on this comic more than my love is the Cold Sweat of Justice Award.

Ladies and gentlemen, you have nothing to fear. Heath Huston is on the case, and he’s gonna save alla the god damn human race.

Years into the future, after a long life of pain and suffering, Heath is set to end it all. Time is completely fucked. An alien race has rendered the human race null and void, Heath being the last glimmer of hope for his own kind. As he stands near the end of everything, both victory and defeat remain precarious options. One small tilt in either direction means salvation or complete annihilation - and Rick Remender is playing fucking hardball.

The final confrontation features a stunning coalescence of key series tropes. Jumping back and forth through time, there’s mirrors of Heath’s former life with his darling wife before things all went to sci-fi hell, and his current dire predicament, where the shell of the very same woman stands before him, attempting to orchestrate his doom. With the help of some old memories, some fantastic tricks, and Samuel Clemens, he claws forward towards an oblivion he can deal with - one that goes right to the beginning of time itself.

This final issue is a god damn masterpiece. From Remender’s immaculate pacing, to the amazing art by Mike Hawthorne, Tony Moore, John Lucas and Lee Loughridge - there is not a single sour note within the pages. As the series and Heath end their journeys, you can feel the tug of everything that has come before. Despite it’s seemingly haphazard nature, Heath’s journey was planned quite meticulously, and this payoff somehow elevates this great series to something akin to perfection. And no, that is not hyperbole. Once you get your hands on the whole series, you will completely understand.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have something in my eyes. No, they’re not tears, they’re whisky leaks. (B)

This is Comics! The Blog. We now commence our broadcast week.