By Allison Senecal — If you weren’t aware, the one and only Tini Howard has signed an exclusive, announced back in April, with Marvel. Since then she’s had Thanos and Death’s Head limited series debut to critical success (and in the case of Thanos, with serendipitous movie synergy), as well as an Excalibur ongoing announced as part of the upcoming wave of Dawn of X titles.
Read MoreBy Nick Couture — Unearth recalls many works of fiction. It evokes: Alien, The Thing, Annihilation, and countless other great works of squad action body horror. While not breaking any new ground, Unearth #2 accelerates the tension and continues the dark descent into madness.
Read MoreBy Greg Lickteig — “In my experience, force usually fails. Of course, mercy often fails, too - but it does so more pleasantly.”
Read MoreBy Alex Batts — Detective Comics #1009 is the start of a new arc for writer Peter J. Tomasi’s run. Titled “Survivor,” this one will feature Deadshot facing off against the Caped Crusader for the first time in a while, and the first time in a main Bat title since “The War of Jokes and Riddles” (if I’m remembering correctly). Tomasi is joined by artist Christian Duce, colorist Luis Guerrero, and letterer Rob Leigh, who together bring Deadshot back to Gotham, which results in an interesting setup for what’s to come.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — Everything about White Trees #1 screams, we need more comics like this! First, the format is great. White Trees is going to clock in at just two oversized issues for $4.99 a piece. Not bad, and, most importantly, your $10 gets you a 60-some page complete story.
Read MoreBy Jarred A. Luján — Another month, another Gideon Falls issue that has left me afraid of turning off any of the lights off in my house. Andrea Sorrentino and Jeff Lemire are absolutely back at it again with Gideon Falls #16 this week, in what is maybe the most enlightening issue of this reviewer’s monthly question: What the hell is happening in Gideon Falls?
Read MoreBy Jarred A. Luján — I know Kieron Gillen and Dan Mora are pretty big deals in comics, but neither of those names are what first got me excited about Once and Future. Holly, from Boom! Studios, actually tweeted out a page from the book, and it was so funny and gorgeous, that I was immediately sold on it. The creators being who they are was an afterthought...the single page was that good. I preordered it that day.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — I’m starting to be predictable, week in and week out putting the new Jonathan Hickman X-Men comic on top as our PICK OF THE WEEK. The thing is, I really feel like we’re witnessing a genuine important moment in comics here—the restoration of a once-vaunted franchise that had fallen into neglect. It’s like watching a community come to its sense and restore a gorgeous art deco theater instead of razing it and building a supermarket on top of it.
Read MoreBy Alex Batts — Have you ever thought about what 1930s Chicago would be like if magic had been outlawed during prohibition instead of alcohol? Me neither. But comics creator Christian Ward did, and with the help of artist Sami Kivela, colorist Dee Cunniffe (whom Ward is assisting with colors), and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, Tommy Gun Wizards #1 has sprung to life with that very premise. Ward, an illustrative comics veteran, is taking his first turn as purely a comics writer here and with a knock-out first issue, it’s a turn well-taken.
Read MoreBy d. emerson eddy — Die was easily one of the best new series to begin late last year. The series taps into the magic and wonder of roleplaying games, both in terms of the mechanics and experience of playing them, as well as the limitless imagination that goes into constructing them. The world-building that writer Kieron Gillen and artist Stephanie Hans have put into creating this world is practically incomparable to anything else. It's deep, incorporating influences from fantasy and literature, which shows even further in the actual working pen & paper RPG that Gillen is developing to compliment the comic.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — Hey hey, we’re back! Apologies folks, but we’ve missed a couple weeks of recaps, nearly an entire month, as things would have it. There are a few good reasons, though! Namely that the ongoing Saga hiatus looks to extend through at least October now, which takes away any need for urgency, and secondly that I’ve been busy working with contributors to get more perspectives and more content.
Read MoreBy Jarred A. Luján — In comics, it is often said that letterers are the unsung heroes of the craft. They’re generally the last hands on the pages, completing it as a narrative art piece, and they’re always the ones most pressed by deadlines. Being a letterer, suffice to say, isn’t exactly an easy gig, and it rarely comes with the credit it deserves.
Read MoreBy Charlie Stolz — Is it a bit cliché to start with that quote when you’re writing about Spider-Man? Absolutely. Did I go ahead and do it anyways? Absolutely. So yes, get those sighs out of the way now. Still with me? Okay - let’s have some fun.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — Coffin Bound #1 is a new Image book from writer Dan Watters, artist Dani, colorist Brad Simpson, and letterer Aditya Bidikar, and it’s a comic that caught my eye right away via the aesthetic of its cover art. The cover (see above) is a rather striking image, one that has shades of familiar visuals, but not familiar enough to feel evocative of anything other than itself. There’s a girl one might describe as goth leaned against a vintage sports car being driven by a vulture whose skinless head is wrapped in a bird cage. She is on the ground and armed with a pistol, a cigarette, and one hell of a smoldering stare. Throw in a pile of debris and a logo designed in the shape of a coffin—and what you’ve got is possibly the single most intriguing piece of cover art I’ve seen on a comic all year.
Read MoreBy Nick Couture — Good vibes. Bright colors. Hangin’ with the buds. This feels like No One Left to Fight at its core. It’s a pleasant romp through a gorgeous world heavily inspired by Saturday morning cartoons and anime. No One Left to Fight #2 smartly allows the relationships and dialog to take center stage as we learn more about Vale and the complex relationships with his friends.
Read MoreBy Alex Batts — Batman #75 set the stage for the story arc City of Bane, and this week’s Batman #76 is all about highlighting the stakes and dire situations Gotham and the Caped Crusader are facing. The creative team of Tom King, Tony S. Daniel, and Tomeu Morey continue to escalate the desolation inside Gotham, where Bane is ruling virtually uncontested. There are two main narratives in this issue, with another short third narrative that shows the stakes and helplessness the rest of the Bat-Family feels.
Read MoreBy Jarred A. Luján — Berserker Unbound is the new Jeff Lemire and Mike Deodato Jr. book from Dark Horse Comics. I kinda feel like this has flown a little under the radar, but that’s about to change—this first issue is awesome.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — As regular readers must have noticed by now, there have been some big changes to the site this week, namely...the name. We are no longer Batman’s Bookcase, moving instead to the less ironic (and, in my opinion, less funny) but far more original content friendly title of Comics Bookcase. As I wrote on Twitter, the main reason for this is that the site has grown bigger than I ever thought it would, covering an increasingly broad range of comics, and I wanted a new name to reflect that.
Read MoreBy d. emerson eddy — For awhile now, AfterShock Comics has been amassing a very solid library of vastly-diverse high-quality genre comics including horror, fantasy, adventure, thriller, science fiction, and more. The strength of the publisher's catalogue is incredible, and it just keeps growing. Contributing to that catalogue in a number of ways has been Cullen Bunn, who with his collaborators, has given us Unholy Grail, Brothers Dracul, and Dark Ark. Each kind of recontextualizing history and folklore into stories somewhat at the periphery of horror, and in the first two a gritty adventure sensibility similar to something like Conan. Knights Temporal #1 shares some of that sensibility, but feels wholly original.
Read MoreBy Taylor Pechter — Hollywood is one of the touchstones not just of cinema, but of all of American Culture. And while we might know more than we ever have about what happens there today thanks to constant coverage in the lead-up to big blockbusters, that was not the case during the Golden Age of Cinema. The 12-issue Image Comics series The Fade Out chronicles a search for truth in Hollywood after a young starlet is found dead in a screenwriter’s apartment following a wild night.
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