REVIEW: Monstress #22 continues this book’s best arc yet

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By Zack Quaintance — Check out some of these quotes without context that I took from Monstress #22: Calm yourself, short-lived being. .... There was a war. There is always a war. War is the deadliest child of the living… …As the poets say, victory is a pair of twins named boldness and caution. I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point—I doubt I will soon read a comic with better writing than this one. Marjorie Liu is one of the industry’s best, from her long-form plotting to how she uses simple turns of phrase like those above.

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REVIEW: Road of Bones #1 is an immersive walk through hope and oppression

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By Zack Quaintance — Let’s start at the beginning of Road of Bones #1 (I’m told that is generally a very good place to start): artist Alex Cormack delivers one hell of an establishing shot. I’m a sucker for grandiose scene-setting in comics, and this book certainly delivers that. Road of Bones #1 introduces us to its world and subject matter with a detailed and gritty splash depicting a snowy prison camp within 1950’s USSR. You can practically feel the cold as the prisoners shovel and the guards scowl, ready to reprimand (beat down) any who step out of line. It’s one hell of an intro, perfectly chosen for this story about gulags and hopes and impossible odds and the compromises men make for…

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Top Comics to Buy for May 22, 2019: Action Comics #1011, Monstress #22, and more!

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By Zack Quaintance — So, I don’t mean to spend this Top Comics to Buy for May 22 intro space on Game of Thrones, but, actually, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. The finale was last night, and people have...strong feelings. I get being disappointed. What I maybe don’t get is being devastated, furious, moved to action, or otherwise made unhappy in any lasting sort of way. This is, after all, something we’re all congregating around because at some point it made us feel very good. We’re engaged here for entertainment, ideally saving any lasting discomfort for, oh, I don’t know, thinking about real life politics, or our work, or just the struggle that is daily life...you know?

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Comic of the Week: Last Stop on the Red Line #1 is an intriguing mix of crime and horror

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By d. emerson eddy — There are many different kinds of horror. Some horror stories are straightforward monster tales, with a slasher out to get you. Others are more insidious, doling out terror via psychological means. Recently, there has been a push towards mixing the sub-genres, working through ideas and themes that are common across them, and presenting a more cerebral kind of horror, utilizing the things that go bump in the night to make you think about more of the existential terrors in your everyday life. Last Stop on the Red Line #1 appears to be one of those things.

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The Saga Re-Read: Saga #41 is a return to a central Saga theme

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By Zack Quaintance — Here we are at the penultimate chapter of The War for Phang, which concludes neatly next week with its sixth part. First, however, there is more fighting and more suspense. Giving into violent urges a theme that is as central to this book as those about family, and we see it here thoroughly unpacked.

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Best Comics of April 2019: The Replacer, Fearscape #5, Criminal #4, and more!

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By Zack Quaintance — Hey all, first off I need to apologize for the tardiness of this column. We’re now three full New Comic Book Days into the month of May, and here I am still writing about my favorite books in April. I do, however, have a legit excuse! I’m in middle of moving across the entire damned country.

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Get hyped: BATMAN: LAST KNIGHT ON EARTH

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By Alex Batts — BATMAN: Last Knight on Earth—from Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathon Glapion, and FCO Plascencia—hits stands at the end of this month, and I don’t think my hype levels could be any higher. Admittedly, I’m a HUGE Snyder/Capullo fanboy, but I know I’m far from the only one. Their run on Batman was the first comic I ever read month-to-month, and I’ll always have a special place in my heart for it. Also, it’s just so damn good. The pair started their work on Batman in 2011with the New 52 relaunch, and now…

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REVIEW: Guardians of the Galaxy #5 pays off a plot point from the first issue

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By Zack Quaintance — It’s official, Guardians of the Galaxy has now reached that rare stratosphere of superhero comicbook, wherein I end up reading it in the front seat of my car before even leaving my local shop’s lot. If you’re reading this book, you’re likely nodding in agreement right now. This story has just been so rich with twists and turns and break-neck pacing that it demands that kind of urgency. It’s the type of book that pushes you to pick up your pull list just a little bit earlier that day, because…

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REVIEW: Gideon Falls #13 continues to shift this series’ central mystery

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By Jarred A. Luján — Gideon Falls is back this week, once again thrusting readers into the most insane mystery happening in all of modern comics. This is a series wherein almost every single issues has left its audience with bigger questions than it went in with. Gideon Falls #13 is no different….

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REVIEW: Little Bird #3 continues to establish this series as something special

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By Zack Quaintance — Little Bird #1 was, simply put, one hell of a comic. You can read more about it in my Little Bird #1 review (obviously), but for our purposes today I’ll just note the book grabbed readers with its striking and imaginative aesthetic, before plunging them into one of the most searing sci-fi dystopian plotlines I’ve yet to see in a comic. It felt urgent, like its creators had something important they needed to say and they needed to say it right now. Oh, and—SPOILER ALERT—the titular Little Bird gets shot through…

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Comic of the Week: Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #6, a poignant story of everyday heroics

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By d. emerson eddy — Every now and again there is a story in comics that kind of blindsides you, something profound, poignant, and moving that seemingly comes out of nowhere. Stories that tackle difficult subject matter in a heartfelt, intelligent way that often can only be told through the allegory of super-heroes and how powerless even godlike beings are in the face of certain forces. Marvel has done a number of these in recent years, including the gun issue of Champions #24, and Deadpool #20's handling of a suicidal girl. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #6 doesn’t quite deal with a big issues topic, like gun control or suicide, but it’s…

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Top Comics to Buy for May 15, 2019: Little Bird #3, Superman #11, and more!

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By Zack Quaintance — It was tough to start building our Top Comics for May 15, 2019, what with the fantastic books that came out last week still bouncing around my mind. Last week was really an embarrassment of riches in terms of the exact type of comics I like to read. I had such a great time reading comics last week, from new series like Eve Stranger and Excellence, to ongoing superhero stories like Shazam and Hawkman, to series that just keep getting…

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Creator Journal: Zoe Thorogood - ‘...with each pitch I’ve gotten closer to where I want to be.’

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This piece is the fourth of a semi-monthly series giving nascent creators a chance to share and document part of their artistic journeys. We’ll be following four individuals—writers, artists, writers/artists—and spotlighting each on a rotating basis throughout 2019. Future installments will take more of a traditional journal format, giving creators a space to share thoughts and comics. For the intro, however, we’ll get to know each participant better through a question and answer.

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The Saga Re-Read #40: Saga #40 is the darkest issue in some time

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By Zack Quaintance — In Saga #40, The War for Phang is raging. Although, the real combat is happening almost entirely off-page. What we see instead is a number of characters making very dark admissions, about a range of topics, from being so worried about being a bad parent that they have come to the brink of suicide, to admitting that violence feels good. This, my friends, is a hard…

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Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits – What Rock Bottom Feels Like

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This melancholic song excerpt is what closes out the story Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits, collected in Hellblazer #41 - #46. Dangerous Habits is also the debut story written by now-comics legend Garth Ennis with art by William Simpson. In it, John Constantine is dying. Having just been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer thanks to his addiction to cigarettes, how will he spend his last moments in the land of living?

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Best New #1 Comics April 2019 — Ascender, Queen of Bad Dreams, and more!

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By Zack Quaintance — You know it’s a good month when only one of our Best New #1 Comics of April 2019 has anything to do with superheroes. Why? Because this indicates that there has been a surfeit of great ideas for new creator-owned books, so many in fact that publishers like IDW landed multiple books in our quick hits section…

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REVIEW: Wasted Space #9, now with an even more excellent sense of storytelling freedom

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By Zack Quaintance — I’m not shy about saying this: Wasted Space is one of my favorite creator-owned comics. It’s a space opera in the most grandiose sense, one that features a band of plucky rogues fighting to save the galaxy while dealing with their own issues, agendas, pasts. It’s a book that through eight issues now has built a tone and voice that are so versatile, the story can now do everything from high sci-fi action to deep philosophical monologues over a pint (or several) of space brew. This is all evident….

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REVIEW: These Savage Shores #4 is a stunning work

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By Zack Quaintance — Throughout the first three issues of this series, the real carnage has been a bit understated, with death and monsters often regulated to shadows. Last issue we saw that start to break. This issue, it’s totally gone. The opening sequence is a bloody one, in which we see the supernatural creatures at the heart of this story in the light of day. It’s fantastic….

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REVIEW: Excellence #1 is the start of something new and special

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By Zack Quaintance — First things first, Excellence #1—the new comic from Brandon Thomas (Horizon, Catalyst Prime: Nobel) Khary Randolph (Mosaic), Emilio Lopez, and Deron Bennett—has an incredibly powerful opening scene. And it’s not the usual comicbook thing of fiddling with time to put an explosion, violence, or death up front. No, in Excellence #1 the opening scene finds its power in the universal while at the same time setting the tone for the themes that will….

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REVIEW: Eve Stranger #1 is our first perfect 10 of 2019

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By Zack Quaintance — Welp, it finally happened. After four full months and a few very close calls, we have our first perfect 10 comic of 2019. It is (as one has likely already surmised by this headline) Eve Stranger #1, an absolutely perfect debut comic. There’s a powerful one-two punch on the surface of this comic that really makes it go go go from the first page…

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