EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW: The Rush #3 from Vault Comics
In this The Rush #3 preview, it’s 1899: Everyone keeps telling NETTIE BRIDGER that the frozen West is no place for a respectable lady. Lucky for her, she’s neither…
Read MoreBest New Comics of 2021: Human Target, Radio Apocalypse, and more
The list of best new comics for 2021 features a host of young books that are all worthy of recognition. This list, I should note, is also an early preview of candidates for the best comics of 2022…enjoy!
Read MoreBest Comics of 2021 - #1 to #5 - Zack's Picks
By Zack Quaintance — So, it all comes down to this…my very tardy ranking of the best comics of 2021, the top five (periodical comics in North America only…phew)…
Read MoreBest Comics of 2021 - #6 to #15 - Zack's Picks
This post includes Zack’s picks for the best comics of 2021, #16 to #15, an eclectic group that includes comics like That Texas Blood, Hellions, Superman and the Authority, and more.
Read MoreBest Indie Comics of 2021 (So Far)
On today’s list of the Best Indie Comics of 2021 (So Far), we’ve selected 10 books from a wide variety of publishers, including AfterShock Comics, Vault Comics, BOOM! Studios, Dark Horse, and more…
Read MoreINTERVIEW: Vault Comics' Adrian and Damian Wassel talk plans for 2021
Today we have an interview with Vault Comics’ Adrian and Damian Wassel, the brothers who serve as CEO/publisher and editor-in-chief, respectively.
Read MoreTRADE REVIEW: Finger Guns, Vol. 1...'the book I wish I'd read as a child'
In her review of Finger Guns, Vol. 1, Ariel Baska writes about how this story expertly harnesses magical thinking to help process childhood trauma both in the moment and years later.
Read MoreBest of Vault Comics 2020: Where to start
Vault Comics is easily one of the best and fastest-rising publishers in the industry, and so we put together a reading list of the best Vault Comics titles to start with.
Read MoreBest Indie Comics of 2020 (So Far)
On this list of the Best Indie Comics of 2020 (so far!), you’ll find titles from rising publishers like BOOM! Studios, Vault Comics, and many more!
Read MoreComic of the Week: The Plot #3, more excellent family drama in a top-tier horror story
By d. emerson eddy — Vault is one of the most consistent publishers in comics today. For the past few years they have been publishing some of the most unique and innovative stories, all of which feel like something wholly new. They've fostered a creative vision for their publishing platform that seems to allow their creators to take ideas that might appear old and subsequently transform them into something new, or just outright create things that we've never really seen before. From Heathen to These Savage Shores, Relics of Youth to Vagrant Queen, Friendo to Wasted Space, these books run the gamut of genres as their creators consistently manage to elevate the medium. Now they're doing it again as The Plot thickens.
Read MoreREVIEW: Black Stars Above #1, Canadian cosmic horror has never looked so good
By Nick Couture — Black Stars Above #1 sees writer Lonnie Nadler striking out on his own after frequent collaborations with Zac Thompson. Nadler — who is joined here by a team of Jenna Cha, Brad Simpson, and Hassan Ostmane-Elhaou — has created something that feels wholly “Nadler.” It’s a small personal story with striking art. Canadian cosmic horror has never looked so good.
Read MoreREVIEW: Wasted Space #11 is the funniest issue of an already-hilarious series
By Zack Quaintance — Maybe this compromises me as a reviewer of the arts, but I just love Wasted Space so much. I think I can say that, given this is the 11th issue of a longer story, which means we’re talking not just about this chapter but all that has come before as well. Anyway, as I’ve written in the past, Wasted Space is one of the best series in comics because of its tone. It’s established itself as a story with a great deal of range. It can have its characters lay down long monologues about philosophy, politics, and the nature of societal structures...right before segueing into a hilarious multi-panel joke about blue penises. It’s just an incredibly versatile space opera, built with much fun and excitement by writer Michael Moreci, artist Hayden Sherman, and the rest of the Wasted Space team.
Read MoreREVIEW: Heist or How to Steal a Planet #1 is an ambitious, high-wire act of a debut
By Zack Quaintance — As a reader — of novels, short stories, comics, anything — I apparently do not have an over-saturation point for well-told stories about the dangers of corporate greed. There is certainly no shortage of these stories in comics, be they near-future dystopian extensions of things we see in the real world every day, or giant science fiction projects that take familiar themes and extrapolate them deep into realms of fantasy. Heist or How to Steal a Planet #1 definitely falls into the latter category.
Read MoreREVIEW: The Plot #2 is more of the same high-quality storytelling from the debut
By Zack Quaintance — If you haven’t read my review of The Plot #1, allow me for a moment to summarize in brief: I thought it was one of the best creator-owned debut issues of the year (in a top-tier that now also includes Undiscovered Country). Basically, that first dropped readers into a full-formed world, which is impressive enough but the creator-owned ecosystem of late has gotten really good at that. What set The Plot #1 aside, was that it also seamlessly doled out the necessary bits of a complex family backstory/dynamic while establishing itself as a character-driven drama about two young, orphaned siblings.
Read MoreTop Comics to Buy for October 30, 2019: Giant Days and Vault Comics
By Zack Quaintance — Ah, the always-odd fifth Wednesday, which often feels like a little bonus at the end of whatever month it shows up in. This fifth Wednesday is no different, and out Top Comics to Buy for October 30, 2019 maybe reflect that a bit, featuring as they do four books from one of our favorite rising indie publishers, Vault Comics.
Read MoreREVIEW: Money Shot #1 is a smart comic about society plus also sex
By Zack Quaintance — I read this comic with my tablet on a plane while leaning out into the aisle, and, oh boy, was that a mistake. There are, to be sure, panels and scenes in this book that will make you bashful if you read them in a public setting...although maybe not as many as one might assume going into it. Despite the name and branding and concept, Money Shot #1 is not really all that salacious of a story. Sex (obviously) does play a part in this story, but the main ideas/themes here are more about desperation and greed than they are about anything gratuitous.
Read MoreTop Comics to Buy for October 23, 2019: Immortal Hulk, Criminal, and more!
By Zack Quaintance — This week really made me take stock of this year, featuring as it does two of the major highlights in comics for 2019: Criminal and Immortal Hulk. It’s really, in many ways, been a very solid year for comics, albeit not an overly flashy one. We’ve gotten some really stellar self-contained superhero stories, thinking here specifically of Immortal Hulk as well as the Superman epic that unfurled at DC and ultimately delivered the return of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Read MoreINTERVIEW: Lonnie Nadler, Jenna Cha talk new Vault Comic, BLACK STARS ABOVE
By Zack Quaintance — I recently had a chance to read a new series from Vault Comics (always a treat) called Black Stars Above, which is written by Lonnie Nadler, illustrated by Jenna Cha, colored by Brad Simpson, and lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. It’s a dense and immersive comic, one that blends elements of both cosmic horror and historical fiction into a dark existential cocktail that feels a bit like Twin Peaks set in the icy Canadian frontier.
Read MoreREVIEW: Cult Classic Creature Feature #1 presents a polished vision of dark nostalgia
By Zack Quaintance — I remember when I first heard about Vault Comics’ shared Cult Classic Universe. It must have been 2017 or so. I was aware of Vault, having read (and loved) Heathen, as well as some of their other early titles, specifically Alien Bounty Hunter, Zojaqan, and Spiritus. It was billed (if I remember correctly) as a shared universe of horror-tinged stories set in the same small town and owing a bit to ‘80s teen genre films (although I can’t remember if that last part is just me projecting).
Read MoreTop Comics to Buy for October 16, 2019: Superman Smashes the Klan, X-Men, and more!
By Zack Quaintance — This is somewhat of a lighter week for my individual tastes, although if I look to the New #1s and One Shots section of our Top Comics to Buy for October 16, 2019, I do find some capital B Big books dropping. In fact, while this column generally doesn’t put #1s in our Top 5, there were so many strong debuts this week that we had to make some exceptions.
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