You can read Justice for Hire #0 for free at Graphicly

And find out about the Justice For Hire Free for All Event where you can enter your animation and be judged by Neal Adams, Ahmed Best and other celebrity judges! Full details available on the Justice for Hire Facebook page!

Watch the Justice for Hire Motion Comic:

Read Justice for Hire #0 for Free on Graphicly:

Prophet #22

By Brandon Graham, Simon Roy, Richard Ballermann, & Ed Brisson

This comic might have fewer words than others, but I take more time with it because it’s full to bursting with wonderful vistas.

Magneto: Not a Hero #4

By Skottie Young, Clay Mann, Seth Mann, David Curiel, & Chris Eliopoulos

This is a great page but I especially love the extreme perspective on the middle panel.

The Flash #6

By Francis Manapul, Brian Buccellato, & Wes Abbott

I love everything about this double page spread. From the ballsy move of dealing with, head on, the most probably fan reaction to the new Captain Cold, to the main title being hidden in the ice, to the way that The Flash’s boots exist in the foreground and draw us into the image. Great stuff.

Fantastic Four #603

By Jonathan Hickman, Barry Kitson, Paul Mounts, & Clayton Cowles

You never want a Mad Celestial to go Full Voltron.

Chew #24

By John Layman, Rob Guillory, & Taylor Wells

This made me laugh.

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #7

By Brian Michael Bendis, Chris Samnee, Justin Ponsor, & Cory Petit

I would have thought that John Suintres would have been into a higher class of porn.

All-Star Western #6

By Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, Moritat, Gabrial Bautista, & Rob Leigh

The “SOK” sound effect coupled with the Olde Timey boxing stance also made me laugh.

Uncanny X-Force #22

By Rick Remender, Greg Tocchini, Dean White, & Cory Petit

Yep. Yep. That’s Phantomex’s face. *shudder*

Molly with Knock you OUT if you keep questioning her geek cred just because she has boobs.

Before you continue further, I must offer a disclaimer: this is a pure, unedited rant. I let my fingers work of their own accord and this is what happened. You have been warned.

Recently I moved into a new neighborhood – a small, trendy little place with cute businesses and pirate themed bars. I was delighted to find that a mere block away from my house was a tiny little comics shop – the sort of place where if you go in more than once the owner remembers you and there are always people hanging around just to be social. It’s about half the size of my apartment and it’s always open way later than the sign says because there are people playing Magic or having lively debates about recent events in comics.

I was really excited that a place like this existed so close to me – it reminded me of the toy shop where I first got comics when I was younger. In that sort of homey, tight knit way. You see, growing up I always lived in towns too small for their own comics shop, but I definitely know what the community is SUPPOSED to feel like after years of attending conventions and bonding with fellow comic book geeks.

The first night I wandered into the shop it was a few minutes before closing, so the only soul inside was the owner. He greeted me warmly, I said I had just moved to the neighborhood, he said they had boxes available, I talked shop with him a little bit and told him I wrote about comic books and other geeky things for a living. He was friendly and warm and I already loved the place.

The second time I entered the shop there were a couple of guys playing Magic by the front window. I had gone in to ask the owner if he would be interested in buying some comics from me – when I walked into the miniscule shop all conversation ceased, but I didn’t think much of it.

The third time I set foot in that shop is the reason I’m writing this article.

I have a younger friend who is a massive geek in a lot of ways but she just never really got into comics. But recently she has been intensely interested in them and I have been “learning” her, so to say. I’ve been lending her trades and when she comes over she curls up on my couch and reads comics for HOURS. One of my favourite activities is going into a comic shop with her and fluffing my comic book cred feathers – pointing out certain story arcs that are awesome, guiding her in the direction of some great indie titles, drooling together over action figures (we are both cosplayers so action figures are essentially costume porn to us).

It was one of those sort of evenings where I felt like dragging her to a comic shop with me so I could send her home with a huge stack of reading material, so naturally I decided to take her to what I was quickly considering my new haunt. We walked the block to the shop, entered, and while there were more people there than I had seen before nothing seemed amiss. We poked around back issues for a little bit, I stressed to her how important it was she read Sandman, I made myself feel better by showing off the character based off of me in T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents (Colleen is based off of me, if anyone is wondering), etc, etc.

We found our way to a stack of posters and started flipping through them. I made a sudden exclamation of delight over a “Women of Marvel” poster, and a comic book geek came over and started pointing out the characters to me. I kindly interrupted him to let him know that, yes, I knew that was Storm. He backed off slightly and I continued the trend of pointing out characters as I rifled through the posters. “Oh, Adam Hughes.” I sighed, stopping on a particularly wonderful print of Zatanna. The aforementioned comic book geek’s eyebrows shot into his receding hairline, and he said in a slightly judgmental but mostly genuinely surprised way: “Wow, you actually know your stuff.”

At first, the comment didn’t really bother me. I went home and gave my friend some comics and continued on my merry way. But it has been within me for the last week, festering like some sort of disease, bringing up a lot of unpleasantness – yes, I’m a girl, and yes, I read comics.

Now, now, before you begin to roll your eyes: I am an equal opportunist feminist. I really abhor the term geek “girl”, because geek is geek, no gender attached. I don’t feel that just because I happen to have geeky interests and also lady bits that I am entitled to anything that men aren’t. Sure, there are times when I have to flex my geek muscle twice as hard as the average guy just because I have boobs, but for the most part I live in a happy little magical land where geek is geek and what it says on your driver’s license under “sex” doesn’t matter at all.

I also spend the majority of my time on the internet, surrounded by strong women who also happen to be geeks, and we are, for the most part, on equal ground with our male counterparts as far as the geek realm goes. Twitter is my happy little bubble where it’s not surprising that I can identify every X-men on sight (even the most obscure), and that me dressing up in a leotard and thigh high boots isn’t weird at all.

But yet when I actually go out into the real world, that happy little bubble is popped. I’m sure the comic book fan at my local shop meant no disrespect by his genuine surprise that I – an attractive young woman – would know a ton about comic books, but the fact that he even had to be surprised just rubs me the wrong way.

I was at a convention last year where I got into a huge, huge argument with an insecure man who cornered me in the hotel lobby after a heavy night of drinking and accused me of only being a geek “girl” because I was insecure and needed male attention, that I was only looking for a “mate” and a boost of self esteem. And this wasn’t just directed at me – he was generalizing all women who were involved in the industry and who were attending the convention.

This intense misogyny really floors me when I run into it, because I like to think we have come a long way since the initial feminist movement. But in a lot of ways, geekiness is still a little stuck in the past. Women are accepted as engineers or computer programmers now – even Barbie promotes smart ladies! – but god forbid a lady know who wrote that particularly awesome story arc of Batman. THAT lady just wants attention. THAT lady just read a wikipedia article and has a loose grasp of their knowledge.

If a man walked into a comic shop, no one would question his knowledge about comics unless he made it abundantly clear that he was a n00b. But two women walk into the comic shop, and we have to prove ourselves against a jury of peers to prove that we are geeky enough to be there.

I know this is an uphill battle and will continue to be so, with the media still touting lady geeks as magical unicorns and the comics industry still obviously geared towards men (and with many, many laughable attempts to appeal towards the “female demographic” – here’s a helpful hint, big two: if we ladies already read comics, we are frankly insulted by all your pink hearts and puppies, dumbed down storylines, and transparent romances in your attempt to “appeal” to us).

So gentlemen (and ladies who judge other geek ladies! Stop the cattiness!), I implore you: don’t jump to conclusions the next time you see a girl browsing your comic haunt’s back issues. It’s highly possible she could school your ass in a trivia-off.

Molly McIsaac rants about things frequently (within a 160 character limit), on twitter. Or just follow her for cute pictures of her dog.

Last week we took a look at The Untamed, a dark fantasy series from Sebastian Jones and Peter Bergting. The story centers on a mysterious Stranger and his return to a corrupt desert town called Oasis. There, he cuts a bloody swathe through the avenues, reaping seven souls for seven days as part of an arcane covenant.

We talked to Jones about the book’s violent setting as well as his efforts to promote the series with a top notch motion comic.

Concept art for The Untamed by Hyoung Taek Nam

Graphicly – The Untamed takes place in a shared fantasy world called Asunda. Where or when is Asunda? 

Sebastian A. Jones – Asunda is a vast and volatile world steeped in magic and myth. It is a world all its own with no connection to our world or to others. With Asunda, I wanted to create something truly unique.

About twenty years ago I was still living in England and playing a lot of live action and table top roleplaying, pretty much anything that had to do swords and sorcery or superheroes. I spent my time collecting comics and painting miniatures, listening to Coltrane and watching Sergio Leone.

I have always been a comic nut, specifically an Incredible Hulk fiend. Peter David’s run was genius. And while I love my superheroes, it always bugged me that there were no comics outside of Conan tales that gave us a complete fantasy universe I could check in with each month, one that contained characters as complex as Batman, Wolverine, Black Panther and so on. Sure we had Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, and that sort, but their presence in comics was limited, and although fun, just a tad tame for my taste.

I wanted a Marvel or DC Universe where sword swinging dudes could live. But I don’t mean the airbrushed knights off to save the princess with affected English accents. Nor do I mean the stereotypical blood and guts bathed warriors with no motivation other than violence for its own sake. As much as I love a hacked limb and scantily clad vixen, it all gets old quickly without real story and background. With Leone, Sam Peckinpah and Akira Kurosawa in my soul, I wanted something visceral, tragic, patient, beautifully violent, and dare I say… character driven. Hell, it worked for Greek mythology and Tolkien novels, surely it could work in comics. So I began a two decade long journey to create that world.

Graphicly – Can you describe the genesis of Asunda?

Sebastian A. Jones - It started with a game. I was seventeen. I started by creating a world that I could game in with some local pals. By day it was Larping with foam swords and half ripped bathrobes stolen from our mother’s closet, by night it was dice rolling in a world that had no rules other than the rules that we made, because I was never happy with how limiting most fantasy worlds were. Not just in scope, which should stretch the imagination for unchartered lands, but also in sameness. All the Elves were fair. And live in one forest. Well that just blows.

Nothing pissed me off more than when some douchebag at Larp would tell me I couldn’t be an elf because I’m not fair skinned. Unless, of course, I wanted to be a “dark” elf villain, because to be dark naturally meant something evil and frightening. F*** that. Aside from the bullshit racism of it, which made me beyond angry, the concept of dark elves didn’t even make sense. If they lived underground in complete dark, wouldn’t they be the whitest elves that ever existed? And are we referencing “dark” for skin color, or mood and tone. Whatever.

Asunda is much like our world in that where you come from determines what you look like. Whether you are an elf, dwarf or human, if you hail from Ujoa (Africa-type continent), you are black. If you live in Frivanna (Europe-like), you are pale. In issue 1 of The Untamed we first meet Niobe, who is half Galemren, our wild elves. She has brown skin, full features and pointy ears. And Asunda’s “evil” elves are the Morkai, silver elves who live in the darkness of Morrok. As the name implies, they’re silver.

Over the years, a lot of people have inhabited Asunda and helped grow my world into something real and complete. An awesome group of guys have poured their creative hearts into the games which helped fuel the machine. Shout out to Chris, Dave, Richard, Dirk, Solo, Mike, Josh, Ken, Dustin, Raven, Hyoung, Peter B, Mum, and the Ojai & Ventura crew, and especially to Stranger’s visionary art director, Darrell May. Darrell has a degree in anthropology and he’s used it to really enhance the reality of our world. After two decades of development, Asunda is a fully enriched brutal fantasy world with years of established history, a pantheon of gods, and a unique approach to magic.

So all that babble is to say, The Untamed is just cracking the surface. Stranger Comics plans to share this vast world through character driven comics and other media. We have a cart load of stories on the way, but for now, keep your peepers posted for Dusu: Path of the Ancient, written by me and Christopher Garner (Little Boy Po) with stellar art by newcomer James C. Webster. I’ve also done Tales of Asunda: Erathune with Darrell May and Sheldon Mitchell (The Darkness). Our Tales of Asunda #0 issue, Silver Blood, is already finished with art by Darrell and Japanese master Tomo (Piñata). As for The Untamed, with art by the incomparable Swede, Peter Bergting (The Portent, Fraztetta’s Creatures), we have three issues out and the fourth is set to be released on Graphicly on the 7th day of March.

Graphicly – This particular story centers on a dusty town called Oasis. A little patch of paradise in the desert or just a mirage of all that? 

Sebastian A. Jones - “The Town of Oasis is a watering hole for the Devil” – Salem Ravensong

Once upon a time in Asunda it was a haven, during a time of pilgrimage and peace. Now, it is a den of iniquity set away from prying eyes, and that is its attraction… for folk looking for killing work. There is a lot to discover in Oasis, but digging too deep can get your throat cut.

Character sheets by Hyoung Taek Nam & Peter Bergting

Graphicly – What can you tell us about the cloaked Stranger who comes calling in issue #1? 

Sebastian A. Jones - This is a tricky one. What I can I tell you? Stranger is the epitome of every man who has failed and needs a second chance. No matter the cost. He is a sinner, a husband, a father, and a lover. A bad man trying to do good. Or a good man wanting to do bad. In this tale we root for him to discover what is right in life, a hope for a better tomorrow, even if it is only for seven days. We all need a little hope, and we all want to be Clint Eastwood along the journey.

He is also dead. He ran the piece of sh*t hellhole that is the Town of Oasis, and for his murdering ways, he was betrayed and killed along with his family. Now he has made a deal with The Untamed, our devil. Seven days for seven souls. He has returned hell-bent on vengeance – more powerful than ever.

But ultimately he is a pawn, as all men are under the eyes of the devil. And thus, the mythos for the world will also be discovered if you have the eyes to look. Sounds a bit frickin preachy, but there you have it. What deal wouldn’t you make to save the souls of your family? Who would you kill? How would you die?

Graphicly – You’ve also produced this really impressive motion comic. How did that come about? 

Sebastian A. Jones - Thanks a lot. It is really through my awesome friendship and partnership with Ken Locsmandi. Kenny is a VFX genius who got his start on The Matrix, Donnie Darko, Fight Club and The Cell to Hollywood namedrop a few. For over a decade, he has been running his own amazing VFX and production company, Filmworks/FX (Apocalypto, Juno, Knight and Day). When Kenny is not creating breathtaking effects or beating people up in an MMA cage, he works with me on graphic novels and children’s books like Piñata.

Kenny offered me the chance to direct a motion comic for the first issue, which his amazing team would edit and animate. And so we did it, and the results were pretty awesome thanks to those guys.

But I also owe a debt to a number of other good friends and collaborators. Actress Melissa Bickerton (The Office) and The Untamed producer and developer, Andrew Cosby (Co-founder of BOOM! Studios) brought in their amazing pals for the voices. Most notably, Ed Quinn from Cosby’s show, Eureka, came in to play the voice role of Stranger.

With the music, I was inspired by Ennio Morricone, and the whistler, Alessandro Alessandron, from The Man with No Name trilogy. Then my artist, Peter Bergting, introduced me to another amazing Swede, the multitalented composer, Jens Engelbrecht. We spent hours on the phone together and eventually we got a haunting sound that had enough grit for the Frazetta Western we were trying to conjure. Jens was amazing! He completely nailed it and the motion comic is really a testament to him and the entire crew that worked on it.

We hope that it is just the first of many more to come, as we would love to tell the complete story in that format. But, one step at a time. For now it is a nice way to introduce fans to our world, and it is a great way for our producers, Lloyd Levin (Watchmen, Hellboy) and Andrew Sugerman (Conviction, Death Sentence), to show Hollywood our tale in a cinematic way.

We have every intention of making a kickass motion picture that evokes the spirit of Leone and Peckinpah. In the meantime, we’re finishing The Untamed graphic novel series and other brutal comic tales set in the vast and volatile world of Asunda.

Coming from the ashes of Wildstorm super-team Stormwatch, the Authority cast of the idea of super-heroes being impartial guardians for the human race and made them active participants in the world they lived in. Founded by the literal sparkplug Jenny Sparks, the team quickly became the defacto flagship title of the Wildstorm line until it’s dissolution in 2010.

And although the Authority itself have yet to make their make in the DCU come “New 52″ (although Stormwatch comes close), to this day you can still see its effects in comics. And it’s always worth revisiting.

The Authority: Relentless: Where it all begins. Sparks assembles a team of like-minded brutal idealists to take on the world’s threats head-on, and do it in a way that changed the comics industry. From fighting an army of flying supermen  to an extra-dimensional overlord, it’s done with a new kind of imagination and irreverence that set the tone, scope and attitude for things to come.

Jenny Sparks: The Secret History Of The Authority: The Authority was created in the spitting image of its founder Jenny Sparks, and this early formative work by Mark Millar shows the path that led to her way of thinking and also how she assembled what would be the Authority team itself. It has everything from a teenage Hitler, a sentient Kansas City and even time travel.

The Authority: Under New Management: While the first volume, Relentless, set the team up as a team to be reckoned with with super villains, this collection shows the team beginning to take notice of traditionally off-limits antagonists like the world’s governments standing in the way of the greater good. Collecting the final arc of Ellis & Hitch and Millar & Quitely’s first, Under New Management takes on some concepts head-on that we’re still waiting on other super-hero comics to catch up to.

Stormwatch: Change Or Die: Although not an Authority story per-se, this arc is one of the last gaps of the Stormwatch squad as they falter and lead to the formation of the team. It shows the U.N.-sanctioned team dealing with a iconic 40s- throwback hero looking to bring his anachronistic ideas for world peace down ont he modern world by force. In many ways it’s a dry run for what would be the message of The Authority, and a message then Stormwatch Black member Jenny Sparks takes to heart.

The Authority: World’s End: The least known out of our picks today, this latter addition shows the Authority’s role switched from Earth’s rulers to Earth’s survivors as they deal with the world lumbering into the tail end of an apocalyptic meltdown and the remaining team members trying to re-adjust to a time where their world-changing ways need to be down-sized to just staying afloat. Written by the writing duo of Danny Abnett and Andy Lanning and drawn by Simon Coleby, it’s an overlooked gem that shows a new side to being a super-hero.

With Chris and Ali‘s dueling Hot Toddy recipes over the last two weeks, it’s obvious that we’ve christened February “hot drinks month” here at Comic Shots. My turn at bat didn’t come a moment too soon, as we had temperatures around -8 °F (before windchill) in Maine this week. Alas, I don’t have a third Hot Toddy recipe to share. Instead, my pairing for this week is a bona fide classic among hot cocktails – one that you may have thought of before even the Hot Toddy.

Irish Coffee, my friends.

The history of this simple, four-ingredient cocktail is highly disputed. The most popular tale is that Daveina Davidson, a chef at an airport in western Ireland, added whiskey to travelers’ coffee to warm their spirits on a particularly brutal winter evening in the 1940s. Most people seem to agree on the origins of the drink at an Irish airport, though the year (anywhere from 1940 to 1950), inventor (Joseph Sheridan, Davidson, or Joe Jackson), and airport (likely in Ballybofey or Foynes) are disputed at bars around the world.

Agreement can be found when it comes to what exactly is in real Irish Coffee. It’s made up of coffee, heavy cream, Irish whiskey, and brown sugar. As cocktails go, it’s about as simple as they get. You brew coffee, stir in whiskey and sugar, and float cream on top. The floating cream serves a dual purpose – not only does it make for an attractive drink, but filtering the whiskey and coffee through the cream draws out their sharp flavors. There’s plenty of variations, but here’s a recipe for my favorite taken from Imbibe magazine.

Irish Coffee
3/4 cup fresh-brewed coffee
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 1/2 oz. Irish whiskey
Heavy cream

Brew up some coffee and pour it into a toddy glass. Drop in brown sugar and add the whiskey, and stir until the whiskey is well-distributed and the sugar is dissolved. Using a black and tan spoon (or the back of a serving spoon), s-l-o-w-l-y pour heavy cream over the coffee so it floats on top. Imbibe suggests garnishing the cocktail with a coffee bean, and I can’t argue with such pleasant presentation.

What you end up with is a cocktail that not only looks great, but tastes heavenly. Like a Hot Toddy, the combination of a hot drink and blood-warming alcohol in this cocktail gives you a comforting drink you can sink into like a warm bed. The sweetness of the cream, bitterness of the coffee, and bite of the whiskey balance each other perfectly. If you take the care to use good whiskey and good coffee, you’ll have a drink that blows every restaurant’s old-coffee-and-well-whiskey Irish Coffee out of the water.

[note: Bailey's Irish Cream and coffee? Not Irish Coffee. It's "Bailey's and Coffee," and it's delicious, but they aren't the same.]

As iFanboy’s resident scientist would be happy to tell you, alcohol is a depressant. It puts it a bit at odds with caffeine, the stimulant half of the cocktail. Whereas other warm cocktails may be set to send you off to slumberland, an Irish Coffee will wake you the hell up … at least for a stretch. As a character in M.K. Perker’s Insomnia Café puts it, coffee cocktails are a schizophrenic drink: “I want to get drunk, but I want to stay awake.” It’ll wake you up long enough, actually, to settle down and read a mind-bending comic.

Insomnia Café
Writer and Artist: M. K. Perker
Publisher: Dark Horse
$14.95

Peter Kolinsky, a rare book expert that works a boring job at a book distributor, can’t sleep. He’s depressed, on the run from black market thugs, and painfully alone. A trip to the Insomnia Café introduces him to a pretty girl and the stunning Archives, a home for unfinished books by famous authors. For a lonely bibliophile, both are dreams come true.

With goons on his tail and access to books that could make him a wealthy man, Peter’s dreams and nightmares are all coming true at once. It’s a tough thing to balance, especially for an insomniac losing his grip on what’s really real.

As an unrepentant book nerd, this book hits a lot of my buttons. I can’t help but feel for the bookish Peter, even though he’s not exactly sympathetic. Just as I like Sherman in Box Office Poison, I like Kolinsky because he likes books, not because he’s likable. The idea of a mystical archive that collects unfinished works from King, Salinger, and Brautigan is just as engaging. Insomnia Café is full of big, bold ideas, and I can hardly fault Perker for writing a story so vast that it seems to fray at the seams.

Even that fraying – plot points that don’t line up, characters that fizzle or fade – may be intentional. The main character is a depressed insomniac, after all, and as the book goes on there’s a question as to whether he’s completely sane.

If you’re a fan of Vertigo books, you may already be familiar with Perker’s work. M. K. was the artist on Air, drawing all 24 issues for collaborator G. Willow Wilson. He also pulled art duties on Wilson’s graphic novel Cairo, and is the co-artist (with Peter Gross) on the current arc of The Unwritten. Perker wrote two graphic novels in his native Turkey, but Insomnia Café is the first he’s written and drawn for American audiences.

Perker’s art, I think, is something readers will either love or hate. Everyone I’ve shown his books to has had an almost visceral reaction to his style. Features – mostly heads and faces, but sometimes whole bodies or scenes – are angular and exaggerated. Kolinsky’s head, for example, is shaped like a baguette. The perspective in many panels is shifted, as if someone set down the camera and let it list to one side. The style can be disorienting and confining. It works incredibly well for a sleep-deprived guy on the run from the black market, but won’t be to everyone’s taste.

The style does allow Perker to write some wild, larger-than-life characters. Angela is a bit of a MPDG when she’s introduced, but grows enough over the next chapters to be a fully realized, interesting character. Oblomov, the man after Kolinsky, is suitably sinister. Though the artist didn’t go so far as to draw him with a black hat, everything from his suit to his mannerisms screams “evil dude.” My favorite character by far is Carlos, Peter’s co-worker and confidant at his day job. We’re introduced to Carlos when he’s apologizing to Peter for drunkenly claiming to be a CIA agent, but over the rest of Insomnia Café we find that he thinks everyone is working for one secret agency or another.

At just shy of 80 pages, you’ll probably tear through Insomnia Café in a single sitting. I recommend savoring the short graphic novel along with an Irish Coffee. By the time you reach the twisty finale of the book, you’ll wonder if your head is somersaulting from the whiskey or the comic.

Josh Christie is a beer guy, but that doesn’t mean he won’t go for the occasional cocktail. Follow him on Twitter for plenty of talk about beer, books, bookselling, and even comics.

Please obey the law and only drink if you are of age. Drink responsibly and never drink and drive. Buy the comics that make you happy. Smile more.

The Mind The Gap Prologue is now FREE for you to read digitally (we’ve provided it below). Give it a read and it will give you a taste of what Jim McCann has been up to, with art by Rodin Esquejo and colors by Sonia Oback.  The first issue ships in May and after seeing this prologue, personally, I can’t wait to read more!

The current system of presenting and ordering comics three months ahead of their release as set forth by the sole comics distributor, Diamond Comics, doesn’t make it any easier either. We’re not a fan of that system, we think it’s slowly strangling comics to death, but we realize it’s a harsh reality of how the industry works and we definitely don’t want you to miss out on any of the cool comics being published.

And so, as opposed to regurgitating the list of comics solicited in Previews each month, we present to you some of the highlights of things you probably won’t want to miss out on.

SPOILER WARNING – In order to get people to order comics, the publishers have a funny habit of revealing what’s happening in the books. If you don’t want anything at all to be spoiled, then you’ll probably want to skip this post and take your chances with your pre-orders and/or your shopping.

He’s not just doing Daredevil

Lots of people are going to be talking about Samnee doing Daredevil, but look at what one of our favorite artists is doing over here at Dark Horse! Plus he’s teaming with his Area 10 partner Christos Gage.

ANGEL & FAITH #10

Story by Christos Gage
Art by Chris Samnee
Covers by Jordie Bellaire, Steve Morris, and Rebekah Isaacs

On sale May 30 / FC, 32 pages / $2.99 / Ongoing

Angel and Faith are forced into battle, less by choice and more by circumstance, when two mysterious women from Giles’s past call on the unlikely duo for help. But that’s only the beginning of Angel and Faith’s troubles as the ladies settle in for the night!

Series writer Christos Gage (Avengers Academy) and guest artist Chris Samnee (Thor), the creative team of Vertigo’s Area 10, reveal more about Giles’s past and further Angel’s quest in bringing the Watcher back from the dead!

Bad Artists Don’t Do B.P.R.D.

Max Fiumara is showing up everywhere with his gorgeous artwork, and now, he’s going to the Bureau. Plus, Hellboy’s in this one!

B.P.R.D.: HELL ON EARTH – THE TRANSFORMATION OF J. H. O’DONNELL

Story by Mike Mignola, and Scott Allie
Art by Max Fiumara, and Dave Stewart
Covers by Mike Mignola, Max Fiumara, and Dave Stewart

On sale May 30 / FC, 32 pages / $3.50 / One-shot

Twenty-four years ago, Hellboy took mild-mannered Professor O’Donnell to the secret library of a recently dead necromancer. Since that day, O’Donnell has been the Bureau’s expert on the powerful ancient forces intent on ending the age of man. Find out what O’Donnell saw in this supernatural thrill ride.

The Most Beautiful Book to be Printed in 2012

If you’ve been waiting since volume one, the second one is here, and there is nothing out there even close to Blacksad. This is art at a level we don’t see very often. This one is sold sight unseen.

BLACKSAD: A SILENT HELL HC

Story by Juan Díaz Canales
Art & Cover by Juanjo Guarnido

On sale July 11 / FC, 96 pages / $19.99 / HC, 8 3/8″ x 10 7/8″

Detective John Blacksad returns, with a new case that takes him to a 1950s New Orleans filled with hot jazz and cold-blooded murder! Hired to discover the fate of a celebrated pianist, Blacksad finds his most dangerous mystery yet in the midst of drugs, voodoo, the rollicking atmosphere of Mardi Gras, and the dark underbelly that it hides!

Before the Comics Code Got to Them

I know more about the story of the creator/editor Charles Biro than I do about the comics, but here’s your chance to see what comics used to be like. Plus, Greg Rucka does the introduction!

CRIME DOES NOT PAY ARCHIVES VOLUME 2 HC

By Various

On sale July 11 / FC, 264 pages / $49.99 / HC, 6 5/8” x 10 3/16”

The celebrated pre-Code Crime Does Not Pay comics are finally collected into a series of unflinching and uncensored deluxe hardcovers! The infamous Crime Does Not Pay stories, focusing on criminal scum, nefarious mobsters, and urban legends, made Crime Does Not Pay one of the most popular comics of the 1940s. This series was a favorite target of censors and is partially responsible for the creation of the stifling Comics Code Authority! Revered, influential, and very hard to find, Crime Does Not Pay issues #26 to #29 are collected for your enjoyment and education!

Chew on This

DHP continues to be a unique place where a massive crop of talent works their best magic in smaller chunks than you’re used to. This time out, John Layman team with Sam Keith! Among others!

DARK HORSE PRESENTS #12

By John Layman, John Arcudi, Carla Speed McNeil, Steve Niles, Evan Dorkin, Tim Seeley, Francesco Francavilla, Dean Motter, Jim Valentino, Mike Baron, Harlan Ellison, Sam Kieth, Christopher Mitten, Victor Drujiniu, Steve Rude, and Jonathan Case

On sale May 23 / FC, 80 pages / $7.99 / Ongoing

Unstoppable juggernaut of comics greatness? Unbeatable, unbelievable value?

You be the judge as another incredible issue of Dark Horse Presents hits shelves!

This issue is packing a brand-new Aliens story by Chew’s John Layman and legendary artist Sam Kieth, the return of Jim Valentino’s Normalman and Dean Motter’s Mister X, and last but not least, the reemergence of Mike Baron and Steve Rude’s intergalactic fighting force, Nexus!

McKelvie!

I know that this is some property that a lot of people near the comic book subculture seem to know about, and more power to them. But I definitely know that Jamie McKelvie fans won’t want to miss this issue featuring his art.

THE GUILD: FAWKES

Story by Felicia Day, and Wil Wheaton
Art by Jamie McKelvie
Colors by Matthew Wilson
Cover by Paul Duffield, and Emma Ríos

On sale May 23 / FC, 32 pages / $3.50 / One-shot

Felicia Day and The Guild are back, along with costar Wil Wheaton, for a brand-new story spotlighting Fawkes, the dashing, debonair, and douchey leader of the evil guild Axis of Anarchy! His relationship with Codex threatened to tear the Knights of Good apart until he was thrown off a balcony for his treatment of her. Set after season 4 of the show, this issue reveals how Fawkes deals with his split from Codex and navigates the aggressive personalities of the Axis, and follows his journey to his surprising state when he returns in

The Best Presentation in Reprinted Comics Anywhere

Set beside its four previous volumes, this shelf would be among the most beautiful in the world. It features 5 more stories in the saga of Hellboy, as the Library Editions get closer to being caught up with the present issues.

HELLBOY LIBRARY EDITION VOLUME 5 HC

Story by Mike Mignola
Art by Duncan Fegredo
Cover by Mike Mignola, and Dave Stewart

On sale July 11 / FC, 408 pages / $49.99 / HC, 9″ x 12″

Hellboy has racked up multiple Eisner Awards, numerous spinoffs, a novel line, video games, cartoons, and two feature films. Hellboy Library Volume 5 collects two complete trade paperbacks, Darkness Calls and The Wild Hunt; the short story The Mole; and an extensive selection of previously unreleased sketches and designs.

Where is Our Royalty Agreement?

You saw him here first, mounted by a barbarian, and Mike Norton took his creation well beyond our t-shirt, and dare we say? Into your hearts.

MIKE NORTON’S BATTLEPUG VOLUME 1 HC

Story and Art by Mike Norton
Colors by Allen Passalaqua

On sale July 5 / FC, 72 pages / $14.99 / HC, 8 1/2″ x 12″

The epic tale of blood and drool begins here! Join Molly and her dogs Mingo and Colfax, as she recounts the legend of “The Warrior and the Battlepug”—a tale of a fearless barbarian, his trusty and freakishly large pug, and evil baby harp seals.

This volume collects the first year of Mike Norton’s Battlepug—the perfect opportunity to get in on the ground floor of the fan-favorite webcomic by Mike Norton, Allen Passalaqua, and Crank!

A New Ongoing from Matt Kindt?

From the guy who brought you Super Spy and 3 Story, this an all new, and completely unique ongoing series. That’s easily worth a try.

MIND MGMT #1

By Matt Kindt
Variant cover by Gilbert Hernandez

On sale May 23 / FC, 24 pages / $3.99 / Ongoing

Matt Kindt, the most original voice in genre comics, outdoes himself in this bold new espionage series!

Reporting on a commercial flight where everyone aboard lost their memories, a young journalist stumbles onto a much bigger story, the top-secret Mind Management program. Her ensuing journey involves weaponized psychics, hypnotic advertising, talking dolphins, and seemingly immortal pursuers, as she attempts to find the flight’s missing passenger, the man who was Mind MGMT’s greatest success—and its most devastating failure. But in a world where people can rewrite reality itself, can she trust anything she sees?

Back after a Decade Away!

All ages books are important, and they can be very good for everyone. Andi Watson has created some of my favorite comics, and now he’s back with more Skeleton Key!

SKELETON KEY COLOR SPECIAL

By Andi Watson

On sale May 2 / FC, 32 pages / $3.50 / One-shot

One of the greatest all-ages comics of all time, Andi Watson’s Skeleton Key is back—and in color!

Using the magical Skeleton Key, schoolgirl Tamsin and fox spirit Kitsune can turn any door into a portal to an endless multiverse. Lost somewhere in space and time and trying to get home, the two friends encounter a band using the undead in a music video, check into a haunted hotel, and become catalogued in the vast Museum of the Lost! Collecting all three new stories from Dark Horse Presents, this is the perfect introduction.

No He Isn’t.

Seriously, you can read this, and that’s cool, but no he isn’t.

 STAR WARS: BLOOD TIES—BOBA FETT IS DEAD #2 (of 4)

Story by Tom Taylor
Art & Cover by Chris Scalf

On sale May 30 / FC, 32 pages / $3.50 / Miniseries

Boba Fett is dead, and whoever hired the hit squad had better run—as fast and as far as possible!

A mysterious avenger is on the trail of Boba Fett’s killers. Connor Freeman—a clone relation to Fett—has been drawn into the whodunit. Freeman, who feels like he could use some protection himself, has been recruited against his will to find and protect a particular bounty hunter on a distant world—in Mandalorian space!

You want more? Check out Dark Horse’s full list of May solicitations.

Scientific specialty is a big deal. Every scientist out there is looking to make a name for themselves by fitting into a specific club but also having their own specific role within that group. For example, when people ask me what I do I usually say I’m a “scientist.” If they ask what I study I say “paleontology.” Usually the conversation ends there, but for the truly curious I could tell them that I’m a Cenozoic mammalian paleoecologist focusing on microwear texture analysis and stable isotope geochemistry. And what that really means for the purposes of this column is that I’m not fit to find a new planet for my infant son. So how can Jor-El?

Publish or perish... LITERALLY!

Oddly enough, Jor-El’s field is never specified in the comics. I’ve looked myself, and asked around, but he seems to just be a scientist. Although I suspect Jor-El is a planetary geologist. These are the folks that think about how geologic processes might work on other planets. This would give Jor-El knowledge of other nearby planets, but also some info on stellar evolution and the inner workings of Krypton itself, thus making it more feasible for him to predict Krypton’s imminent demise. What this likely wouldn’t have given him is knowledge on how to build a rocket. Launching satellites, probes, orbiters, landers, and rovers is an important component of planetary geological study, but the building of the rockets is left to rocket scientists.

It’s possible that Jor-El is multidisciplinary, which might explain why the science council doesn’t like him (all 3 scientists reading this just laughed, by the way) but academic scientist coupled with hardcore engineering is typically an unlikely pairing. He could also have help, but that almost seems to undermine the narrative (even if it has been explored in the comics). There’s just too much that needs to be known to be an expert in both fields, it’s beyond the scope a human lifespan to learn all there is. But Jor-El isn’t human, is he?

During the Renaissance there were men who arguably knew everything there was to know about science. They could also paint, and sculpt, and probably cook a mean omelet. This was possible because there was so little known and they had enough money, either from family or backers like the Medici, that they didn’t have to do anything but sit around and learn. As science progressed we learned enough that it became impossible for one person to hold everything in their head, which in some ways lead to the explosion of specialization seen amongst scientists today. Computers and the Internet help too.

"Hello, I'm here to do some science. I brought my lunch and these scrolls."

True ‘Renaissance men’ (or women) could be possible in the future thanks to those computers. If people like Ray Kurzweil are correct, computers will continue to advance to the point where they integrate with our biology making us all immortal cyborgs forever plugged into the Internet. This event of technological union is known as the Singularity. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized a post-Singularity society would have the ability for one person to attain all knowledge. Krypton is almost certainly at this point of technological achievement, so maybe Jor-El really is a planetary geologist AND a rocket scientists. Or maybe the original writers were correct and he really is simply a “scientist.”

Now that we know Jor-El is a crazy fantastic super scientist, we can tackle the question of just how he went about finding Earth. There are a few methods that we use today to find planets, mostly by indirectly inferring their presence by observing the behavior of their stars  (however, direct imaging is becoming more and more common). We may be orbiting within the gravity well of our star, but Newton’s third law tells us that as our sun pulls on planet Earth, planet Earth pulls back on the sun. The difference in mass means the Earth continues to orbit and the sun barely moves, but sun with sufficiently big planets will wobble noticeably enough for our telescopes to spot, thus telling us a planet is nearby. This probably wouldn’t work for our sun because our biggest planet, Jupiter, is far enough away to not make the sun wobble too much, and our closest planet, Mercury, is too small to have much gravitation influence. However, this method might work quite nicely for Krypton, which is a much bigger planet than Earth, except it’s orbiting an even more massive Red Giant star. Ironic that it might have been easier for us to find Krypton than the other way around.

We can also look at the star’s luminosity, i.e. how bright it is. If a big enough planet passes between us the star, the star dims a little bit. This might work for Jor-El, but it’s tough to say. None of the images of the rocket ever show it passing by Kryptonian satellites, and I seem to remember something about them not really having a space program. As far as I know we don’t have a lot of information on their atmospheric composition, so it’s possibly ground based telemetry works better for them than us, but that’s just speculation. I’ll bet Krypton just using some kind of really advanced gravitational lensing or one of the crystals lying around is good enough to directly image Earth, or at the very least Jupiter. But there’s one last thing I don’t quite get, and that’s how did Jor-El know about us here on planet Earth?

"Now remember, Lara, this is not to scale, but it's the blue one."

Some comics have Jor-El actually looking and seeing Cowboys riding around or something like that. Obviously that doesn’t work, but we have come up with a few ways to figure out if there are critters crawling around on new worlds. Fortunately, we are a loud species. We constantly blast radio and television signals out into space. There is some planet right at the edge of our communications bubble that is about to be blasted with I Love Lucy. We hope other galactic civilizations are just as loud, which is why we’re listening for them with projects like SETI. However, Jor-El found Earth by at least 1938, which was right after we’d really started broadcasting from space (Hilter’s speech at the Berlin Olympics was broadcast in 1936). These signals can only travel at the speed of light, yet I doubt Krypton is only 2 light years away (our closest star is about 4 light years away). And Jor-El would have had to discover us long before 1938 if that’s when the rocket finally landed. It’s a mystery for the ages to be sure, my theories run the gamut from Dyson spheres to Einstein-Rosen bridges, but instead of expounding I’ll stop here having sort of tackled the first two questions concerning Kal-El’s infant travels.

Krypton is assuredly in the “any sufficiently advanced science = magic” category of civilizations, so I know my analysis applying human scientific principles doesn’t really mean anything. But it’s also a fake planet and I had fun speculating. I hope you had fun too, and as I’ve learned you’re a clever bunch yourselves so give me your insight, analysis, and nitpicks in the comments!

______________________________________________________________________________

Ryan Haupt really needed to let all that out, he still has questions, but a good scientist always should. Here him try to be a good scientist on the podcast Science… sort of.

Originally created as a savage female stand-in for her cousin the Hulk, She-Hulk grew by leaps and bounds into a fully formed superwoman in control of her green-skinned alter-ego but having a harder time dealing with life as a super-hero. She’s been a member of the Fantastic Four, The Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D. and even a superhero law firm, but she’s never been able to find herself — or the sales to keep a solo book going strong. That needs to change.

The Concept:

She-Hulk has constantly been living in the shadow of her older cousin the Hulk, so why not take advantage of that in light of the events of Incredible Hulk series which sees Bruce Banner gone mad? Step aside Doc Samson and let Jennifer Walters talk to her cousin  and see how far he’s gone and the consequences of his current state. Re-introduce She-Hulk in Jason Aaron’s run and then spin her off into her own series (with the creative team below) as she uses her background as a lawyer to try to reason with the world’s biggest threats or, you know, punches them. She could go in the darker corners of the Marvel U to ferret out these hard-t0-handle situations, like a one-woman street-level Planetary squad. And she could do it with a chip on her shoulder against other heroes for turning their back on her cousin and in a way turning their back on her.

The Creators:

Writers – Brian Michael Bendis & Kelly Sue DeConnick: He is Marvel’s (and arguably the comic industry’s) biggest writer. She’s a relatively new voice in comics with experience in manga and the excellent Osborn: Evil Incarcerated on her CV. Together they wrote the “adaptation” of a fictional novel by TV show Castle’s lead character Richard Castle, titled Richard Castle’s Deadly Storm: A Derrick Storm Mystery. This potential combination could be a perfect solution to get the nuanced life of Jennifer Walters, aka She-Hulk.

Artist – Ryan Stegman: Currently drawing Scarlet Spider, Stegman is one of Marvel’s next big things (to borrow a title from their conference call announcement series), and has experience with She-Hulk. Stegman has a real grasp of super-hero action, along with a tinge of classic cartooning ability that She-Hulk needs. Together with Bendis and DeConnick, they could make something extra special.

This week, we’re looking at Jonah Hex, the ugliest bounty hunter in DC’s stable of western characters.

All-Star Western (Vol. 2) #10 (1972) Cover

Jonah Hex sprang from comic book pages visually fully formed in 1972. Originally created by John Albano and Tony Dezuniga, Jonah dressed in an old Civil War-era Confederate uniform that stood out like an anachronism during the height of his adventures in the 1860s and 70s. Half of his face was scarred, causing one of his eyes to be useless and placed a permanent sneer on his lips. Perhaps most striking of all, a flap of skin extended across one side of his mouth.

Our own Paul Montgomery has coined this deformity a “skin isthmus.”

From Weird Western Tales (Vol. 1) #18 (1973)

Living only by his own code, Jonah could shoot a man without question if he felt it was necessary. Years of hard living had proven Jonah to be the best shot in the West, and he found himself in situations where he had to use this ability constantly. If you crossed Jonah, either by going against your word or by getting in his way, his vengeance could be harsh.

From Weird Western Tales (Vol. 1) #14 (1972)

Jonah’s past came to light sporadically over the years. Other stewards of Jonah, including Michael Fleisher, who wrote Jonah’s tales from 1975 through 1987 or so, and the writing duo of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, delved into the character’s past. They flushed out the reasons behind Jonah’s personality and just where his face came from.

The Hex home was a troubled one. Early in Jonah’s youth, his mother ran away from the family to go be with a salesman. Jonah’s father, already a hard drinker, fell even further into the bottle and took his frustrations out physically on his son. In an attempt to make his fortune, the elder Hex packed up the family’s belongs and headed west to pan for gold. Along the way, Jonah and his father rode through Apache territory. As collateral for future gold, Jonah was forced to live with the Apaches until his father returned to collect him. This turned into a long wait as Jonah’s father never came back.

From Jonah Hex (Vol. 2) #14 (2007)

From that moment forward, Jonah was a slave to the Apache. This changed when, at age 15, Jonah saved the life of the chief from a puma attack. In reward, he became a full fledged member of the tribe. Not everyone agreed with this and when Non-Tante, the chief’s son, saw that Jonah had eyes on the same girl he did, Jonah was wounded by friendly fire and left behind during a raid against another tribe. Having barely survived, Jonah struck out on his own, eventually joining the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy.

Years later, Jonah returned to the Apache to challenge Non-Tante in a fight to the death. If Jonah won a tomahawk duel, it would restore his honor with the tribe. If Non-Tante won, Jonah would never bother the tribe again. The two fought and even though Non-Tante cheated, Jonah cheated second and less subtly. Jonah claimed victory in the duel by stabbing his opponent with a knife. The chief, enraged at Jonah, tied him down and scarred his face with his son’s heated tomahawk.

From Jonah Hex (Vol. 2) #15 (2007)

From then on, Jonah was a man without a people. His parents abandoned him. The Confederacy lost the war. The Apache scarred him. Jonah was completely alone. He threw himself into the life of a bounty hunter, tracking down those whom society deemed to be even less value than he did.

In 1875, Jonah’s life changed. And that change was insane.

I’m about to describe, in no small measure of detail, the 18 issues of Hex, which launched in 1985. Brace yourself because this is going to get weird.

Hex In-House Ad (1985)

In 1985, word came down the the DC offices that they wanted to publish a story featuring a post-apocalyptic Mad Max-esque setting. Michael Fleisher, then the current writer and editor on Jonah Hex (Vol. 1), saw that sales of Jonah’s current title were weakening. Instead of simply publishing Jonah Hex for another year or so and then have it be canceled, Fleisher pitched that Jonah be the character who lived in that future setting. His proposal was agreed to and Hex began publication soon after.

In the far future of 2050, the world has been ravaged by nuclear war. The government of the United States collapsed and a corrupt system of gangsters took hold of the population. For reasons never fully explained, a lone scientist with a working time machine took to staging fights between different historical armies to see who would win in a fight. For instance, he once made a battalion of World War I era French soldiers go up against World War II Germans.

From Hex #3 (1985)

Between bouts of this nature, this scientist was also trying to undermine the cartels running the world, which was a very strange plot point and one that never panned out. Interesting ideas that got thrown together willy-nilly without any payoff would be a reoccurring theme for this series.

Into this world came Jonah Hex. The scientist decided he wanted an old fashioned Western showdown and Jonah was selected to be a participant. He was plucked from between seconds in 1875 and transported into the future. Rather than simply live in a status tube between bouts, Jonah escaped his cage and ventured out into this new world.

From Hex #1 (1985)

After escaping, Jonah hooked up with a gang of motorcyclists who answered to no one. These turned out to be some not-so-nice guys so Jonah killed their leader, stole his clothes and his bike, and took off on his own. He also took a shine to a woman named Stiletta who only occasionally tried to kill him.

From Hex #6 (1986)

It’s worth noting that Jonah was able to pick up the art of motorcycle riding in his first 15 seconds of sitting on one. I suppose horse riding isn’t too far away from that activity. At least Fleisher acknowledged that Jonah’s flying abilities were subpar after Jonah immediately crashed the first aircraft he attempted to pilot.

From Hex #4 (1985)

It was the world that Jonah found himself in that Fleisher seemed most interested in. As Hex continued, Jonah’s role in several issues was secondary to the supporting cast around him. For instance, a Jewish Batman based in New York City became a central character for two issues and a group called the Dogs of War gained prominence in a later extended storyline. But perhaps my favorite image of this world, and one that wouldn’t be brought up again, was when Jonah came across a motorcycle gang roasting a giant grasshopper.

From Hex #1 (1985)

I guess nuclear war resulted in giant insects? Well, if it did, they became very rare because none were seen again.

Sales of this series started strong but the writing was on the wall after the first year that the series would be canceled due to sales. Keith Giffen came on to do the art chores on the series’ final four issues. His art style, with its emphasis on close-ups and its lack of panel gutters, was a tough style for many readers to acclimate to. It didn’t matter anyway, as the series was on its way out.

From Hex #15 (1986)

The series ended with Jonah still in 2050. There was no explanation about how he returned home.

After Hex was canceled, Jonah was out of comics for a while. He’d occasionally show up whenever a superhero found himself time traveling back to the 19th century, but that was about it. Finally, in 1993, Vertigo began publishing a few miniseries featuring Jonah. In these, he fought a variety of supernatural beings including Lovecraftian creatures, spirits, and zombies. One such zombie was Wild Bill Hickok, an actual wild west outlaw.

From Jonah Hex: Two-Gun Mojo #5 (1993)

Jonah would again get his own ongoing series when Palmiotti and Gray began writing Jonah Hex (Vol. 2) in 2006. There, the occasional tale from the end of Jonah’s life would be told.

After Jonah’s father dropped him off to live with the Apache, Jonah only saw him again once. This meeting came about decades later when Jonah’s father had been ambushed by outlaws after his gold. While his father slowly died from a gut shot, Jonah sat and watched.

From Jonah Hex (Vol. 2) #69 (2011)

As nonexistent as Jonah’s relationship with his father was, his relationship with his son wasn’t any better. During Jonah’s elder years, Jason Hex tracked his absentee father down so the pair could talk. Jonah, not being much of a talker, proceeded to get into a bar fight with his own son. When all was said and done, Jason walked away not knowing any more about his father than when they’d started talking.

From Jonah Hex (Vol. 2) #25 (2008)

Jonah died in 1904 while playing poker in a saloon. His body was stuffed and became a prop in various wild west shows. Eventually, it ended up in California where it languished as an unsuspecting movie prop. After it was broken open by accident one day, Jonah’s earthly remains were finally discovered.

From Secret Origins (Vol. 3) #21 (1987)

Jonah Hex returned to the modern DCU one final time during Blackest Night. There, he became a Black Lantern and killed the descendant of an old enemy.

From Weird Western Tales (Vol. 1) #71 (2010)

So where is Jonah in the New 52? He’s still there in the pages of All-Star Western (Vol. 3) and still a character in the 19th century. He’s now living in Gotham City working alongside Amadeus Arkham to clear the city of wrongdoing. It’s a new location for Jonah but it’s one he seems to be adapting to fairly well.

From All-Star Western (Vol. 3) #5 (2012)

How much of Jonah’s past is still considered canon and how much has been rewritten in the New 52 is up for debate. Chances are, everything that came before is still “true.” Well, except maybe that 2050 stuff.

If you have any interest in Jonah Hex, track down as much of Jonah Hex (Vol. 2) as you can. Some of it is available digitally and more is available in trade. It’s worth your time.

Jeff Reid wishes that he had some giant roasted grasshopper to eat right now. He’s hungry. Get more updates on Jeff’s diet by following him on Twitter.

Today’s evaluation is from quite some time ago.

Name: John Jones

Position: Police Detective

Employer: Middletown Police Force

Reviewed by: Lieutenant Saunders

ADMINISTRATION – Excellent
This guy was one of the best detectives I ever had. He was really weird but still really good. I’ll never forget when he first walked in here. He says to me ”Hello. I would like job as a detective.”
“Great. What’s your name?”
“J’onn.”
“John?”
“No. J’onn.”
“John.”
“Fine, John.”
“Okay, what’s your last name?”
“J’onzz.”
“Jones?”
“Fine. Yeah. Sure.”

COMMUNICATION – Above Average
He had all sorts of talents involving this one. I had a whole conversation with him one day and then realized that he had done so without moving his mouth.  I think he used to be a ventriloquist at one point. We here at the Middletown Police Department love ventriloquists!

TEAMWORK – Average
Always there with a helping hand. Always ready and willing to jump into any case. Although once there was a big fire at the Mervyn’s Department Store and John refused to help. He just paced back and forth several yards away ringing his hands through his hair and screaming. Hey, who am I to judge? I do the same whenever I watch the Celtics play.

DEPENDABILITY – Excellent
Did I mention that there wasn’t one case that went unsolved? I would get a report about a robbery and he would just look at me, give me an address and a name and he’d be right! Then I would make him tell me where my wife was at the moment.

PERSONAL APPEARANCE – Average
He always dressed the same but sometimes he just looked off. Like he wasn’t wearing his own body correctly if that makes any sense. One afternoon he came in and his head looked a little bigger, I says to him “John, you feeling okay? Your head is bigger than usual and pointy too.” He looked surprised, reached up and molded his head back into a normal shape.
I would like to add here that I haven’t touched the bottle since that day. Twenty-four years sober and counting.

FINAL THOUGHTS
I often worried about his health. I never saw him eat anything but Oreos. That sounds cute but he didn’t just eat one or two, he would shove a whole handful in his mouth. That was his lunch!

EMPLOYEE RESPONSE
Hey what are you doing this evening? Don’t say it. You are going to the movies. I knew it. Wait. What are you doing with that match? Get it away. GET IT AWAY!

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

Timmy Wood would love to read more adventures of J’onn J’onnz the detective. He is also on Twitter where he makes jokes mostly involving puns. 

Conley got his start doing superheroes in a short for BOOM!’s Planetary Brigade miniseries in 2006,  then took a two year break from comics before coming back and being snapped up for Dynamite’s line of comics adapted from prose novels. His first series was the Dragonmount miniseries in the Robert Jordan’s The Wheel Of Time franchise, and he followed that up with another volume titled The Eye of the World. As I said earlier, he just finished work in a new franchise, comics based on Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files novels. He’s sent in submissions for Marvel and other publishers over the years, but for one reason or another never made it to that level. He hasn’t come out with anything since the end of 2011, but over on his DA page he announced he was working at the animation studio Titmouse as the Supervising Character Designer for Black Dynamite: The Animated Series. That might put comics on the backburner for him temporarily, but not dead: the artist has been slowly working on a graphic novel of his own called The Kinetic Kartel.

Here’s a sample of his work. It leans heavily on his sketches and pin-ups rather than his published comics work. Although the latter is good, I think once he’s able to do a project that melds that storytelling with the more dynamic and nuanced work seen in his sketches, he’ll really hit it out of the park.

The current system of presenting and ordering comics three months ahead of their release as set forth by the sole comics distributor, Diamond Comics, doesn’t make it any easier either. We’re not a fan of that system, we think it’s slowly strangling comics to death, but we realize it’s a harsh reality of how the industry works and we definitely don’t want you to miss out on any of the cool comics being published.

And so, as opposed to regurgitating the list of comics solicited in Previews each month, we present to you some of the highlights of things you probably won’t want to miss out on.

SPOILER WARNING - in order to get people to order comics, the publishers have a funny habit of revealing what’s happening in the books. If you don’t want anything at all to be spoiled, then you’ll probably want to skip this post and take your chances with your pre-orders and/or your shopping.

Before we dive into the picks for Marvel Comics May releases, it probably is important to mention that last week, Marvel revealed a ton of information about many of May’s releases.  Here’s a recap of what was announced last week:

• New Mutants & Journey Into Mystery cross over in EXILED
• Cullen Bunn joins Rick Remender as co-writer on Venom
• Jason Aaron & Steve Dillon keep the Hulk Angry!
• Sam Humphries joins Jonathan Hickman as co-writer of Ultimate Comics The Ultimates
• Uncanny X-Force goes to the Final Execution with Mike McKone on art

CHRIS SAMNEE ON DAREDEVIL!

Cover by Paolo Rivera

The comics internet blew up this past weekend as news leaked that Chris Samnee would be joining Mark Waid and Paolo Rivera as an artist on the rotating creative team of one of the most beloved titles at Marvel right now with Daredevil #12.

DAREDEVIL #12

Story by MARK WAID
Art by CHRIS SAMNEE
Cover by PAOLO RIVERA

• It’s lawyers in love as Matt Murdock finally makes some time for assistant district attorney Kirsten McDuffie.
• The best reviewed comic of the year continues as Waid and Rivera welcome aboard new artist Chris Samnee (Ultimate Spider-Man).

32 PGS./Rated T+ …$2.99

THERE’S MOVIE COMING, RIGHT?

Cover by Mark Bagley

As Marvel preps for what may be the biggest movie release since Iron Man with Marvel’s the Avengers, this is book designed to grab people who are curious about the Avengers. It teases the re-appearance of a team of characters we’ve been clamoring for.  Could my crazy guess of Guardians of the Galaxy be this team?

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE #3

Story by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
Art by MARK BAGLEY

• Avengers versus the Zodiac! But who is behind the Zodiac?
• PLUS! The reappearance of a team of characters you’ve been clamoring for!

32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

SMASH IT UP

One of the fifth week events occurring in May is Hulk Smash, featuring tales of the Hulk throughout Marvel’s history. It doesn’t look like you’ll need to get them all (unless you’re a huge Hulk fan, like my buddy Gary), but you might want to be sure to check these two issues out.

Cover by Lee Weeks

Joe Casey and Max Fiumara of Four Eyes fame? Sign me up. 70′s era Avengers vs the Hulk? Sign me up again!

HULK SMASH AVENGERS #2 (OF 5)

Story by JOE CASEY
Art by MAX FIUMARA
Cover by LEE WEEKS

• Hulk vs. the ‘70s-era Avengers: Iron Man, Wasp, Vision and the Beast!

32 PGS./Rated T …$2.99

Cover by Lee Weeks

Jim McCann brings back one of my favorite Hulks, Mr. Fixit and pits him against the 1990s West Coast Avengers? Now you’re talking…

HULK SMASH AVENGERS #4 (OF 5)

Story by JIM MCCANN
Art by AGUSTIN PADILLA
Cover by LEE WEEKS

• Mr. Fixit Hulk vs. the ‘90s-era West Coast Avengers: Iron Man, Wonder Man, Mockingbird, Tigra and Hawkeye!

32 PGS./Rated T …$2.99

STILL NO SIGN OF JOE MAD

Cover by Stuart Immonen

While there’s still no sign of Joe Madureira on Avenging Spider-Man, but there’s no Greg Land either.  And we bid adieu to Zeb Wells also but in return we get a Spider-Man team up with She-Hulk by Kathryn Immonen with art by Stuart Immonen. This switcharoo, I approve of.

AVENGING SPIDER-MAN #7

Story by Kathryn Immonen
Art & Cover by Stuart Immonen

• A night out with Spider-Man and She-Hulk!
• All the thwipping and quipping and none of the calories!
• Katherine and Stuart Immonen smash their way into the book so action packed it keeps flying off the shelves…

32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

THEY’RE DOING WHAT?!! AGAIN?

Covers by Dave Johnson

I did a double take when I saw that the rumored Garth Ennis, reunited with Punisher Max artist Goran Parlov, Fury Max series was finally solicited. If this is anything like the last go around, this may be one to watch as Ennis goes to post World War II to give us more Nick Fury adventures!

FURY MAX #1 & 2

Story by GARTH ENNIS
Art by GORAN PARLOV
Cover by DAVE JOHNSON

• Garth Ennis (Punisher MAX, Preacher) and Goran Parlov (Punisher MAX) reunite to bring you the life of Marvel’s hardest soldier like no one else could.
• In the wake of World War II, Fury is fast running out of battles to fight. But the world’s superpowers are gearing up for a new kind of war and they’ll need a man like Fury to win it.

32 PGS./Explicit Content …$3.99 (EACH)

ONE FOR THE KIDDIES

Cover by Michael Avon Oeming

We enjoyed the first volume of Takio a ton. But more importantly, the little ones in our lives enjoyed it as well. Unfortunately it looks like the digest/graphic novel format has been jettisoned for a expanded comic book sized book, but who cares. I’ll take all the Takio we can get. Uhm, err, I mean I’ll take all the Takio I can get for my nieces….

TAKIO #1

Story by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
Art & Cover by MICHAEL AVON OEMING

Bursting from the pages of last year’s best-selling graphic novel! From the Eisner Award-winning creators of POWERS comes this all-new, all-ages superhero adventure for a new generation! Taki and Olivia are sisters with superpowers! In fact, they are the only ones in the world with superpowers! So obviously, they have to become superheroes! But is the world ready for real-life superheroes? Are the girls ready for the challenge? And will the accident that made them who they are reveal secrets that will change their lives forever? The answers are no, no and yes. This is a brand-new all-ages adventure. A new book for comic-book fans of all ages. A book you can share with your kids or just enjoy for yourself. TAKIO is on the 2012 YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens List!

40 PGS./All Ages …$3.95

© 2012 Jinxworld Inc.

NOW’S YOUR CHANCE

Cover by Frank Quitely

Missed out on the last printing of the Omnibus collecting the epic run of New X-Men by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely? Now’s your chance to pick up to run that redefined the mutants for the 21st century

NEW X-MEN OMNIBUS HC (NEW PRINTING)

Story by GRANT MORRISON
Art by FRANK QUITELY, ETHAN VAN SCIVER, LEINIL FRANCIS YU, IGOR KORDEY, JOHN PAUL LEON, PHIL JIMENEZ, KERON GRANT, CHRIS BACHALO & MARC SILVESTRI
Cover by FRANK QUITELY

Grant Morrison’s wildly innovative X-Men saga returns!

The X-Men, re-imagined with a new look and a new mission, must face weird new threats including evil twins, organ harvesters, sentient bacteria, rebellious mutant youth, power-enhancing street drugs and living weapons! Joined by wicked telepath Emma Frost and mysterious powerhouse Xorn, the X-Men go public — expanding Xavier’s school to train a new generation of mutants including the insect-like Angel, the bird-boy Beak, the living sandstorm Dust and eerie telepathic quintuplets the Stepford Cuckoos.

And as secondary mutations alter familiar mutants, the team is tested when Emma Frost sets her seductive sights on Cyclops, the all-consuming Phoenix threatens to rise again, and shocking traitors plot the destruction of everything the X-Men have accomplished!

Featuring the Shi’ar Imperial Guard, the X-Corporation, Fantomex and more!

Collecting NEW X-MEN (2001) #114-154 and ANNUAL 2001.

1120 PGS./Rated T+ …$125

ISBN: 978-0-7851-6505-7

Trim size: oversized

WHO DOESN’T LOVE HANK PYM?

Seems like Hank Pym is everywhere this month.  From last week’s hot debate over the character, and now this. For those curious about the rise and fall of Hank Pym, this looks like the collection for you

AVENGERS: THE MANY FACES OF HENRY PYM TPB

Story by STAN LEE, LARRY LIEBER, ROY THOMAS, STEVE ENGLEHART, KURT BUSIEK & DAN SLOTT
Art by JACK KIRBY, DON HECK, JOHN BUSCEMA, AL MILGROM, IVAN REIS & KHOI PHAM
Cover by JOHN BUSCEMA

Dr. Henry Pym, the Avengers’ resident scientist, has had many heroic guises — and this Giant-Man-sized collection spotlights them all!

From his pre-Avenging days to his various turns as Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath, Yellowjacket and even the Wasp, Dr. Pym has been a nearly constant presence on the Avengers’ roster since the team’s inception. Relive the excitement, the horror and the heartache!

Collecting TALES OF SUSPENSE (1959) #27, #35 and #49; AVENGERS (1963) #28 and #59-60; WEST COAST AVENGERS (1985) #21; AVENGERS ANNUAL 2001; and SECRET INVASION: REQUIEM.

184 PGS./Rated T+ …$19.99

ISBN: 978-0-7851-6206-3

SWITCHAROO

And finally, from time to time, it’s clear that fill in artists are sometimes needed, Lately, it seems as if Marvel’s been handling this challenge with rotating creative teams. Personally, I think nothing stunts the momentum of a series more than changing the artist and it especially stings when it’s an artist who seems to be doing really great work and is in sync with the writer. After reviewing the May solicitations from Marvel, I was shocked with the number of artist changes that were occurring across numerous titles. To put it in perspective, here’s a rundown of several single issues coming out in May. Series that previously featured a “hot” artist who received critical and fan priase, and the artist replacing them:

Secret Avengers #27 – you loved Gabe Hardman on this book that JUST relaunched with a new creative team, so HERE’S RENATO GUEDES!

Ultimate Spider-Man #10 – you loved Sara Pichelli and her new take on Ultimate Spider-Man, so HERE’S DAVID MARQUEZ!

Ultimate Comics The Ultimates #10 and #11 – Esad Ribic blew your minds with the opening chapters of Hickman’s run, so HERE’S LUKE ROSS!

Scarlet Spider #5 – you loved Ryan Stegman after he launched this title, so HERE’S NEIL EDWARDS!

Fantastic Four #605.1 – you loved Steve Epting, so HERE’S MIKE CHOI (Speaks for itself after last week’s Green Lantern #6 atrocity)!

Defenders #6 – you loved Terry Dodson, so HERE’S VICTOR IBANEZ!

Daredevil #12 – you loved Paolo Rivera SO HERE’S CHRIS SAMNEE – oh wait, this is a good one…

EXCEPT, next issue…

Daredevil #13 – you loved Paolo Rivera and Chris Samnee, so HERE’S KHOI PHAM!

Don’t mind me, my head’s too busy spinning.

For the full list of Marvel Solicitations for May, 2012, head over to Comic Book Resources

It’s odd how I have this impulse to defend my choice of The Hunger Games.  The haughty geek in me derides the title as pop teen science fiction, not “serious” enough for me, who has spent most of his life reading battered paperbacks of “real” science fiction.  (Of course, haughty has another urge to list them and will ignore it.) That geek, of course, may be chastened to hear that I bought the book late Saturday night, not even two full days ago; I have not read a book that quickly since I was devouring Hardy Boys mysteries once, sometimes twice a day – the book is a page-turner, that’s for sure.

Over the years, however, I have really worked hard to cleanse myself of this idiotic prejudice. Popularity does not mean something is bad — or good. I find myself feeling good when I see copies of Harry Potter or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, or, now, incredibly, Clash of Kings, popping out of handbags or sitting on a beach towel.  I had a similar sneering when everyone and his mother seemed to be reading Watchmen — they won’t get it, they are only reading it because there’s a movie coming, they’re not really into comics. Just as folks reading the aforementioned titles are not really into fantasy or science fiction.

Those folks? The ones my “dark nerd” sneers at? They are reading those books because they are curious. Which I have not been lately.

In addition to finishing The Hunger Games, I just now finished the final issue of DMZ, which I found to be a bit disappointing, while at the same time understanding that there really was no other way to finish the story.  I wrote an article about endings before, so I won’t go into that too much, but as I put down issue 72, a bit of my curiosity about what to read next…died a bit, probably because I just felt let down. I stuck with the title for the entire six year run and…well, we’ll get to this later.

Similarly, at the end of The Hunger Games, there’s a little ad facing the final page, with one of tags reading, “What will happen next?”  I realized, somewhat to my chagrin, somewhat to my disappointment, that I did not care, really. I had half-expected to swing by Barnes and Noble on the way home to pick it up — everyone I know has told me that it just gets better, my wife Whitney assures me that the third book will be my favorite, which is fine, but that curiosity that she felt, and seemingly every other reader has felt, just felt muted for me. Probably because even though there were aspects of the story that were interesting, it didn’t blow my mind, since most of the time, my mind is occupied with high concept science fiction stories, fast paces superhero adventures or dense fantasy epics filled with dozens of characters. For me, the story of this one girl dealing with her interesting problems…eh, kind of been there. Or at least been to that neighborhood. (I actually started reading the next one before I went to bed and now that I see where the story seems to be going and now I am even less inclined to keep going.)

If we’re not careful, too much experience with a given subject or experience can cultivate cynicism.  Cynicism kills curiosity. I remember reading once that cynics are “optimists who have been disappointed too many times.”  These days, as I scan the issues available on my iPad or as I peruse the covers at my local comic book shop, I find myself fighting the urge to be cynical while at the same time, propping up my need to be curious.

Why is this happening?

We’ve talked before about the heroes that keep us going, the relationships we can’t get enough of, the artists who bring us back to comics, month after month. That’s all fine, good and real, but none of this is fun if it feels like work, and I think when we are so used to a storytelling medium, when the twists and turns feel less inspirational and more rote, than the weariness creeps in.  We see the same patterns start to emerge after awhile because, well, we live this stuff, and I find myself less and less willing to take that leap with the creators, especially after last year, which I honestly don’t think was a fantastic year in comics.  What I am trying to say is that many of us, we are just too close to this stuff, that we can get in our own ways when trying to actually enjoy it.

I am sure some of you may have felt the same way and am looking forward to reading how you dealt with this slow erosion of curiosity — and when it started happening for you. For me, as I now sit back down, to finish this article, a few hours later, it seems to boil down to endings. In this day and age, where things move so fast and everything seems to be serialized, I think we bump into real endings less and less often. After reading DMZ, Ready Player One and Reamde, I understand that it’s been awhile since I’ve thought about how important it is to end stories, and perhaps the feelings I’ve had today come from a feeling of gentle resentment, that many of the books and shows and comics I read just keep…on…going.

Which is the whole point of serialized comics, sure, But with stories that end, I can think about the story as a complete work, and can file away that experience in a different way than forty issues of said comic.  Though I might not have felt satisfied by Wood’s endings for DMZ and Local, the ending still completes a statement, a definitive story that he leaves behind. Endings are important. Beginnings are important. Without them, what do we learn? What do we get from the experience? When there is a end, my curiosity about the story is resolved, it’s done — I got the answers, and if I didn’t get all the answers, well, too bad, because there’s no more story coming.  An ending releases curiosity. So, when I remarked at the beginning of the article where I was complaining about being let down by the ending of DMZ, at least we got one. Yes, I was disappointed that I won’t be seeing Matty Roth again, but perhaps that’s the whole point, you know? No one will.

The fact remains, that most comics I read are ongoing, and only end when sales taper. For me to complain about the format is unfair, to talk about my curiosity flagging and cynicism building can only be met with a shrug and a “what did you expect? It’s comics!”  Well, it’s a lot more than comics, it’s happening with TV and movies as well, and I think maybe this is what can propel people into telling their own stories, you know? Furthermore, I can see one of the thrills of being a parent is because you have no idea how your kid’s story is going to go — not to mention that you get a chance to see stories you’ve grown up with from a totally new perspective.

And that’s probably it, right? To keep things fresh, especially when experiencing stories that really will never end, it is up to you to keep your cynicism at bay, and to do that you need to change your perspective, and accept the fact that that takes energy. It is easy (and, let’s face it, fun) to complain about how lame a book is, but go to far, doing so can result in a poisonous perspective that’s hard to shake.

Perhaps what I need to do is read different kinds of comics completely. Start reading non fiction. Watch more documentaries. Go to more plays. Fill my head with different ways of telling stories so that when I do go back to comics (I always will), it will be easier to enjoy them. I will be more interested in that new fantasy book. Wait, with actual excitement, in line for that genre movie.  Fo stagnation kills curiosity, and I have a feeling that curiosity is what keeps life…life.

Mike Romo is an actor living in Los Angeles. You can reach him through email, visit his Facebook page, connect with him on Google +, and collect his tweets on Twitter.

It may not be cherry pie, but if you’ve got a spare $6.31, you might want to try some new comic books? Here’s some suggestions that even Diane would approve of.

Ron says try…

New Mutants #38

By  Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning, and Leandro Fernandez

Very quietly, Abnett and Lanning have done it again, taking the New Mutants and building it up to be one of the books I find myself looking the most forward to each issue. They’ve really captured the magic that made this group of mutants so much fun to read back and the day, without taking any cheap retro approaches or gimmicks. They’ve just honed in on the characters and do what they do best, tell good stories. Leandro Fernandez on art is just the icing on the cake with this first issue of a new story arc.

Josh says try…

Mondo #1

By Ted McKeever

A man cannot know everything. A man cannot be an expert on all things. A man can know many things, and have much wisdom, but there may still be an area lacking. I know of Ted McKeever. I know his work has resonance, and importance to those who know about such things. I know this is a book by Ted McKeever, and if you were the kind of person who knows about him, you’d want to know about this. If you don’t, maybe this is a great place to start.

Conor says try…

My Friend Dahmer

By Derf Backderf

One of the most interesting, chilling, and disturbing graphic novels that I read last year gets a new printing and it’s not to be missed. Remember that weird kid in high school? The one who skeeved you out for reasons you can’t quite explain? Well, I bet that kid didn’t grow up to be one of the most notorious serial killers in the history of the United States. Writer/artist Derf Backderf’s weird high school friend was Jeffrey Dahmer and this memoir looks back at their time together and asks many disturbing questions, not the least of which is, “how did I… how did everyone… miss the warning signs?” My Friend Dahmer is one of the most engrossing reads you’ll come across.

5. The Greatest American Hero

4. Spider-Man the Animated Series

3. X-Men The Animated Series

2. Batman

1. The Hulk End Theme

As the local SF Bay Area resident, I (Ron) will be in attendance, working the con floor, interviewing creators and talking to folks. If you’re attending the convention, please come say hi!  If you would like to be sure to see me as well as the other iFanboy crew in attendance, here’s the details on where you can find us:

PANEL:

Saturday, February 25, 2012 – 1 PM

I’m incredibly excited to announce that I’ll be moderating the below panel, featuring the Image Comics founders. It’s an honor to share the stage with these ground breaking comics creators who changed the landscape of comics 20 years ago. Here’s the full details:

Twenty Years of Independence: The Image Comics 20th Anniversary Panel
Twenty years ago, a group of young artists left their work-for-hire jobs to forge their own path in comics. The result was Image Comics, a publisher dedicated to creators’ individual visions and a champion of creative ownership. The Image Comics partners and some of the original founders now come together to talk about that momentous meeting of minds and talent.

Panelists: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Whilce Portacio, Marc Silvestri, and Jim Valentino

Moderator: Ron Richards

PARTY:

Friday, February 24, 2012 – 8 PM

We’re excited to be teaming up with Image Comics and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund to present the official Image Expo Welcome Party! Kick off the con in style with a fun night out in Oakland, with live music and DJs and rub elbows with some of the biggest comic book creators appearing at the con, including Robert Kirkman, Jonathan Hickman, Brian K. Vaughan, Blair Butler and more!

WHEN: February 24, 2012 – Doors open at 8 PM
WHERE: The Uptown – 1928 Telegraph Avenue  Oakland, CA

FREE FOR CBLDF MEMBERS
SUGGESTED DONATION: $10/all others
Proceeds will benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

RSVP on Facebook!

It promises to be a great weekend of celebrating comics! Will you be there? Give a shout in the comments below if you’re planning on attending and what you’re looking forward to.

You can see the complete programming schedule and full list of exhibitors at the Image Expo website.

Disney could take more than a few cues from Jeremy Whitley and M. Goodwin’s PrinceLess, a refreshing response to the frustratingly persistent damsel in distress genre. But the series is more than mere sendup, offering a vibrant and thoughtful adventure that never talks down to its all-ages audience. If there’s a kid in your life, they deserve to experience high fantasy from another angle, where tired gender roles are deconstructed and important questions are posed. Readers of all kinds will be thrilled to find smart, active characters ready to save the day. No more fainting couches.

PrinceLess is fun, funny and brimming with adventure. It takes an all-too familiar fairy-tale setting and breaks down time-honored stereotypes and cliches one by one. What remains is a bold heroine far more compelling than the pile of princes left smoldering in her wake.

You can grab all four issues of PrinceLess today on Graphicly.