It’s almost Wednesday, and you know what that means: a fresh load of comics and graphic novels! With so many publications hitting your local comics store or digital storefront, BF is here to lead you through the woods. These are the books that need to be on your pull list this week.
Comic of the Week
Stumptown #1
Greg Rucka (Lazarus) returns to the Rose City and his flawed, acerbic private eye with a heart of gold Dex Parios in this new ongoing series from Oni Press. Over the last couple of years, Oni has invested more resources into developing new ongoing titles thanks in large part to series like The Sixth Gun and Wasteland. It’s something of a no-brainer then, that Rucka’s popular Stumptown is next on the publisher’s list of long-form projects.
Technically in its third volume, Stumptown‘s first arc “The Case of the King of Clubs” not only showcases Rucka’s affinity for strong, afflicted protagonists but his passion for soccer, as violence strikes close to home for Dex at a Portland Timbers game against regional rivals Seattle.
Exploring a range of themes including hooliganism, family, and community, Stumptown isn’t just an opportunity to escape into another of Rucka’s trademark detective yarns, but a chance to explore, at least a little bit, the writer’s hometown as only he – and Dexadrine Parios – can show us.
Greg Rucka (W), Justin Greenwood (A) • Oni Press, $3.99
– Jason Wilkins
Copperhead #1
Upon hearing Copperhead #1 described as a “science fiction/western,” my interested was piqued in this new series from Image Comics, writer Jay Faerber (Near Death, Dynamo 5) and artist Scott Godlewski (Dracula: The Company of Monsters). And I’m sure I’m not alone.
Copperhead is a small mining town on an out-of-the-way planet, and single mom Clara Bronson is its new sheriff. With a few secrets in her closet and a relatively unknown background, Bronson is setting off the gossip machine in town. Was she hiding from something in her past? Was she on the run? Surely, the sheriff’s job in a dusty outpost can’t be anyone’s idea of a dream job—except for her deputy, who had his sights set on the sheriff job long before Bronson arrived.
Looks like Bronson’s life story won’t be the only mystery in Copperhead.
Jay Faerber (W), Scott Godlewski (A) • Image Comics, $3.50
-Karen O’Brien
Get Over It!
Chicago-based cartoonist Corinne Mucha is a growing presence in the comics world, having already picked up a Xeric Grant for her autobiographical comic My Alaskan Summer and an Ignatz for The Monkey in the Basement and Other Delusions. In Get Over It!, she has put together another memoir book that openly and fearlessly goes for a good poke around in the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.
Mucha uses her crisp and clear cartooning style to look back on the messy break-up of a relationship and her subsequent turmoil. Landing both emotional and humorous punches, Get Over It! explores her behaviour and feelings at the time, as well as the process that led her back to the light at the end of the tunnel. This is a breakthrough book from an enjoyable talent that should find a wide audience for its accessible, relatable mix of heartache and recovery.
Corinne Mucha (W/A) • Secret Acres, $15
– Tom Murphy
To Arms!
Commemorating the centennial anniversary of the First World War’s beginning, anthology comic To Arms! has its origins in the Process Comics group, a monthly meeting for aspiring comics artists and writers at London’s Gosh! Comics store. Funded on Indiegogo over the summer, To Arms! officially launches at the shop this Friday 12th September.
The anthology brings together a number of established players on the UK self-publishing scene – including Mike Medaglia, Owen D. Pomery and Jessica Martin – alongside some exciting new talents to the world of small press comics. Promising an alternative approach to its subject matter, quite unlike anything you have ever seen on the topic in comics before, To Arms! draws from a pool of distinctly international creative voices.
As co-editor Matt Duncan said when interviewed about the project here at BF earlier this year: “From the very beginning, we wanted To Arms! to be an ‘alternative’ anthology. And I think you only have to take a look at our cover art to get a sense of what we’re trying to do…”
Anthology – various creators • Limehouse Comics, £12.00
– Andy Oliver
Annihilator #1
A washed up Hollywood screenwriter named Ray Spass is at the end of his rope. His career, his relationships, and his life all unravel as a result of his self-destructive behaviour. But his imagination gets away from him when he must team up with a fictional character of his own creation in order to save all of reality from complete annihilation.
Annihilator is a six-part “graphic novel odyssey” that could not be more Grant Morrison. His trademarked metafictional style of storytelling – seen most iconically in his run on Animal Man and more recently in The Multiversity – is present even in the solicitation, but despite the familiarity there is something deeply intriguing about Morrison’s plot and character work.
Add in the romantic visual talents of Frazer Irving, whose work with Morrison through his run on Batman & Robin makes him an ideal candidate for this project, and Annihilator becomes a very real source of excitement.
Grant Morrison (W), Frazer Irving (A) • Legendary Comics, $3.99
– Reid Vanier
Lazarus #11
If you’re a fan of dystopic futures based on the very likely results of our current political and economic trends, then you really should be reading Lazarus. Due to the exponential gap in wealth, the world is now run by a handful of very powerful families who control everything. Each of these families appoint their own Lazarus, a bodyguard/military general who serves the family with unwavering loyalty. This is the role given to Forever Carlyle, but her ties to the family may not be what they seem.
In part one of this new story arc, “Conclave,” all 16 ruling families meet for the first time since they divided the world. There has been treachery in the Carlyle family, and this may be the opportunity they need to identify the traitors and eliminate their enemies. And for Forever Carlyle, it’s the first step in discovering the truth about who she is, and what she’s destined to become.
Greg Rucka (W), Michael Lark (A) • Image Comics, $3.50
– Tyler Chin-Tanner
Wild’s End #1
A peace-loving, rural 1930s community is interrupted by a surprise alien invasion, the resident’s quiet lives up-ended by violence and fear and the shock realities of life-and-death war. The town outsider, a grizzled war veteran, takes a stand and – with the townspeople rallying behind him – sets out to find the secrets of the invaders and reclaim their town.
It seems a fairly standard sci-fi alien invasion premise, except all the characters and drawn with a Blacksad/Mouse Guard-esque anthropomorphism and I.N.J. Culbard’s unique art style (recently put to use in an H.P. Lovecraft adaptation) will delight readers with it classic War of the Worlds meets H.G. Wells iconography and stunning sci-fi aesthetic.
Combined with the writing of Guardians of the Galaxy science fiction expert Dan Abnett, this quirky and intriguing comic promises characters that will be both compelling and adorable.
Dan Abnett (W), I.N.J. Culbard (A) • BOOM! Studios, $3.99
– Conori Bell-Bhuiyan
