It’s nearly Wednesday, and you know what that means: a fresh load of comics and graphic novels! With so many publications hitting your local comics store, comics events or digital storefront, the BF team are here to lead you through the woods with our weekly staff picks. Satisfaction guaranteed!
Comic of the Week
The Winner
It looked for a little while there that the most recent Retrofit Comics subscription Kickstarter was going to be a little touch and go. But it made it over the finishing line in the end, ensuring subscribers will get their hands on a dozen books by some top indie talent. This week sees the first two releases hit shops including The Winner from Karl Stevens.
We’re huge fans here at Broken Frontier of what Retrofit do, with the BF team having nominated them as Best Publisher three years in a row in our annual awards. The Winner is autobio with a distinctively different flavour as Stevens explores concepts of art in a self-reflective piece that combines slice-of-life storytelling and wilder flights of fancy. If you’ve yet to immerse yourselves in the engagingly eclectic Retrofit catalogue then this is your moment. Grab it!
Karl Stevens (W/A) • Retrofit Comics/Big Planet, $18.00
– Andy Oliver
Lumberjanes #50
Lumberjanes’ landmark fiftieth issue is out this week and sees a bumper edition with everyone’s favourite diverse summer camp girl scouts. I’m reliably informed that the story works on many levels. (in that there is an underground story and an above ground story, happening simultaneously) with an adventure in the tunnels beneath the mess hall turning up some awesome and ghastly surprises, while in the Zodiac cabin world conquest is afoot.
Contains a bonus short story illustrated by Brooklyn Allen, options of fancy wraparound foil variant covers, and lots of treats for fans of friendship and adventures.
Shannon Watters & Kat Leyh (W), Dozerdraws & Brooklyn Allen (A) • BOOM! Studios, $4.99
– Jenny Robins
Coin-Op Comics Anthology 1997-2017
Sibling creative team Peter and Maria Hoey are one of our recommended must-see exhibitors tabling at this year’s East London Comics and Arts Festival (ELCAF) and this month also sees a collection of their acclaimed comics practice coming to us via Top Shelf Productions.
Going back to their early work in Blab! Magazine to the more recent Coin-Op Comics this edition collects short stories that encompass “music and film, the comic and the absurd, the past and the future” in a 200-page book that will wow you with its stunning design sensibilities.
Peter Hoey (W), Maria and Peter Hoey (A) • Top Shelf Productions, $29.99
– Andy Oliver
Black Hammer: Age of Doom #2
In case anyone missed the fact that this Eisner-winning series returned with a new volume last month, I’m going to give the second issue a bump here.
Lucy Weber, the daughter of the original Black Hammer, has found the missing Golden Age heroes and she knows why they’ve been trapped on this small town farm.
But before she has the chance to reveal the answer, she gets whisked away to another dimension. The mystery deepens as Lucy must work her way through a maze set up by a trickster demon.
Jeff Lemire (W), Dean Ormston (A), Dave Stewart (C), Todd Klein (L) • Dark Horse Comics, $3.99
– Tyler Chin-Tanner
The Troublemakers
More Retrofit-published comics goodness now and this one has a historical importance as it sees the work of Baron Yoshimoto, a vitally important figure in manga (and beyond), collected for new audiences to pore over.
The Troublemakers compiles material from an artist who played a huge role in the development of the graphic novel as a form in the ’60s and the ’70s. It includes the stories ‘Eriko’s Happiness’, ‘High School Brawler Ditty’, ‘Dirt Bag’, ‘One Stripper’s Gambling Life’, ‘Homesick’, and ‘The Girl and the Black G.I’.
Baron Yoshimoto (W/A) • Retrofit Comics/Big Planet, $20.00
– Andy Oliver
The Witchfinder: Gates of Heaven #1
Another spin-off from the wildly popular Hellboy universe this 5-part miniseries showcases Sir Edward Grey, the titular Witchfinder, as he investigates the occult in Victorian London.
A communication from the palace leads to Grey becoming embroiled in a case that involves underground adventuring, fellow paranormal investigators, and a mad scientist’s quest for mystical power… one that threatens the very city itself. With the distinctive visuals of D’Israeli on offer this is of interest to committed Hellboy enthusiasts and fans of supernatural comics alike.
Mike Mignola & Chris Roberson (W), D’Israeli (A), Michelle Madsen (C) • Dark Horse Comics, $3.99
– Andy Oliver
