Every week, Comics! The Blog goes through the list of new releases and we tell you which comics to plug into your mind hole. Your mileage may vary.
Nathan Edmondson will soon be a name on everyone’s lips. He’s been at the edges of the industry for a few years, first gaining traction with his series Olympus from Image with current Infinite Vacation artist Christian Ward. From there, he’s been slowly (but surely) building his name and his brand, and will very soon be discovered as the next “overnight success” - the creator coming out of nowhere with a big book that everyone starts talking about - and that book could very well be this one.
Dancer is a story about a hitman and a professional ballet dancer. There’s intrigue. There’s love. And there’s a twist that you have to see to believe. Edmondson is a master at presenting the thriller genre with a bit of a twist, and this is definitely not an exception.
On this book, he’s joined by the phenominal Nic Klien, cover artist at Marvel and interior artist of the gorgeous oversized Image series Viking - and the pages look amazing. Great pacing, great story… it would be a crime if you missed this book this week. Get in on the ground floor of something great.
DEADENDERS TP (Vertigo/DCDa Comics)
Would you read a series written by Ed Brubaker about mod culture mashed with a bit of Transmetropolitan?
I will admit, the idea seems a little hard to reconcile - although I’m not exactly sure why. I came to Brubaker by way of Sleeper and quickly begged my comic shop guy to sell me on something, anything else the guy was doing or had done. As I discovered, he was in the midst of a few superhero runs (at one point, he wrote for the Batman line, and turn Catwoman into a pop art superhero crim noir series) but both were far to gone to really jump into, what with DC’s seeming aversion to collecting a lot of their books at the time. And so my local comic shop guy started selling on the weirder things he had in stock. Things like The Fall and Detour and Lowlife and At the Seams. These were all mostly slice-of-life things, each with a slightly different flavour. Lowlife was Bru’s mostly real life account of his misspent youth. At the Seams was in a similar vein, but (I’m assuming) without as much autobio bent. The Fall was something that gave a preview of the crime fiction he would soon become known for. And then, there was Detour. Of a projected three, only one issue of this series was produced, and focused on a strange man in a world that looked similar to ours… only… things were… off. Both with the man, and the world.
It was the thing that intrigued me the most because it was just so odd. Sadly, nothing really came of that series as he started getting jobs at DC (and soon after, Marvel) and he sort of abandoned the black-and-white self-made indie scene.
But this… this looks to be a bit more of that strange Brubaker that seems to tell more straight laced stories nowadays. A bit younger, a bit wilder, with ideas quite possibly less refined than what we’re used to from the current Bru who has honed and tweaked until things just purr. A story about a guy caught in a world of crime, only it’s a little bit mod and a little bit futuristic, and a little bit… something else. I can’t wait to start plowing through this book and revisiting a flavour of Bru from times gone by. If you do too, you can pick up this handsome looking volume of 16 plus issues for a scant $29.99.
PRINCELESS VOL. 01 (Action Lab)
A princess who decides to stop being a damsel in distress, and start saving people herself. A simple concept, yet one so untouched by fairy tale fiction. You have your so-called “traditional” stories, where the prince rides in to save the lovely princess, and you have the so-called twists wherein the princess, still under the guise of damseldom, always retains the upper-hand on the hero, either with quick barbs or quicker punches. And yet there are very few that do away with the whole pretense of needing to be saved.
In Princeless, we meet a girl who is tired of the same old “locked-in-a-tower” paradigm, and sets off to save herself, and her sisters from a life of damseldom. The first four issues worth of story present the foundation of the tale, laying down the rules of the world and the villains that will need to be faced. Oh and also? It has a whole lot of fun poking fun at the whole “girl hero” thing, from the ridiculous “armor” female heroes are usually given, down to the role women play in these tales in general. A refreshing read for all ages. Anyone with a princess in their life could do well if they found a copy of this for them. (Or if the mood strikes: any princesses would do well to seek out a copy on their own.)
FANTASTIC FOUR #605.1 (Marvel Comics)
This week is pretty big for Jonathan Hickman - not only does his first script come in on the big Avengers vs. X-Men series, but there’s also an issue of Fantastic Four on the stands, and a new issue of The Manhattan Projects to devour (but we’ll get to that in a second).
This issue is another Marvel Point One issue - an initiative designed to give folks a solid jumping on point to any series, in the form of a single issue story. However this particular point one issue is quite a bit different from the norm. And by that, I mean the story opens on the origin of the Fantastic Four where the first spoken word of dialogue is “Hold steady, Mister Grimm. We are the sharp point- the very start — of the Führer’s One Thousand Year Plan.”
So yeah. That happens.
THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS #3 (Image Comics)
And somewhat finally (I say somewhat because there are tons of other great comics hitting the stands this week) we have The Manhattan Projects #3 - the continuing tale of the crazier shit that the Manhattan Project was just a cover for. If the cover and blurb are any indication, it looks like we’re going to get the pluralized Projects take on just what the crazy fuck happened when they dropped the bomb. Or tell the story about how they dropped the bomb. Or something.
What you need to know about this book is that its amazing. Each issue heaps crazy science into your mind hole while managing to function as single issue stories. Parts of a whole, if you will. Even if you haven’t read any of the other issues, I would say you can jump on with this one and be happy with what you get. Try it. Even if you don’t end up enjoying it, I can guarantee that you’ve made far worse decisions. (That’s a pull quote, right? “Not the worst decision you’ll make!” - Comics! The Blog)
These are five of the many great books being released this week! You can find the full list of comics being released here. If you have any other recommendations, let us know in the comments below.
