Sometimes, the staff at Graphic Policy read more comics than we’re able to get reviewed. When that happens you’ll see a weekly feature compiling reviews of the comics, or graphic novels, we just didn’t get a chance to write a full one for.

These are Graphic Policy’s Mini Reviews and Recommendations.

Logan

Hello Darkness #1 (BOOM! Studios) – This really is the week for anthology comics. Hello Darkness leads off with “Contagious” by Jude Ellison S. Doyle, Letizia Candonci, and Alessandro Santoro about kids killing their parents. This story connects with intergenerational tension, and Candonci and Santoro’s go from domestic bliss to chaotic violence in the blink of an eye. The intergenerational tension continues in “Stay in Your Lane” by Dave Cook and David Cousens with aggressive colors from Angel De Santiago. An aging bowler is passed over for a contract by a younger player, and decades of anger cause him to wreak havoc on the lanes. This is an absurd read, but there’s a ring of truth with Baby boomers/silent generations holding onto power and jobs until their hands are cold and dead. This story is followed by the first part of a Something is Killing the Children serial with James Tynion and Werther Dell’Edera setting the scene for Erica Slaughter to investigate some mysterious deaths in a small town. The story’s the equivalent of an establishing shot, but it’s a damn good: an atmospheric dive bar. Cartoonist Sarah Andersen follows this up with a haunting short story called “The Siren” about a mermaid and a lighthouse showing that her horror chops are equal to her comedy ones. Next, Steve Orlando and AL Kaplan do a horror comedy story about a queer man with a hand attached to his stomach that thinks will make him famous and well-liked, but that extra appendage gets all the love. Marissa Louise’s rage-filled palette helps sell his rage at being neglected. Hello Darkness concludes with its headliner: the first part of a multi-part serial from Garth Ennis, Becky Cloonan, and Tamra Bonvillain. The issue is centered around a conversation between friends at someone’s house about the war between Russia and Ukraine and about how nuclear war will never happen. The conversation gets kind of annoying, but Ennis and Cloonan end the serial in a haunting way that definitely hooks me for upcoming installments. Hello Darkness #1 is a wonderful showcase of a variety of artistic talents with not a bad story in the bunch. I also love how relevant many of the stories are to current events. Overall: 8.4 Verdict: Buy

Epitaphs from the Abyss #1 (Oni Press) -Oni Press revives the EC Comics brands with four twisted potboilers. First up is J. Holtham, Jorge Fornes, and Dan Jackson‘s “Killer Spec” about a blocked, “aspiring” screenwriter. The ending is kind of predictable, but Holtham crafts a delightfully evil protagonist who is definitely okay with using AI for screenplays while Fornes and Jackson bring the gore. It’s a story you read for the ride, not the destination. In the second story “Senator, Senator”, Chris Condon and Peter Krause get political as a journalist tries to figure out why a pro-choice conservative female politician flip flopped. The story gets creepier and creepier, and it’s a good satire of how individuals get consumed by the political machine as they rise through the ranks. “Family Values” is like the philosophical trolley problem, but in a suburban basement as a father has a limited time to choose which one of his family members to kill or men with rifles kill them all. Stephanie Phillips‘ script is full of biting satire and fleshes out each family member in a few short pages while Phil Hester and Travis Hymel nail the flop sweat on the dad’s face on the visual side. But the most unsettling part of the comic is colorist Marissa Louise literally draining the color out of the book as the clock counts down. Sadly, Epitaphs from the Abyss #1 wraps with its weakest story “Us vs Us” from Brian Azzarello and Vlad Legostaev. It’s about anti-vaxxers afraid of vaccines symbolized by creepy monsters. I like Legostaev’s design, but it lacks real bite poking at a soft target. But, overall, Epitaphs of the Abyss #1 is an unsettling and smart collection of short stories with a fun, punning horror host to tie it all together Overall: 8.0 Verdict: Buy

Something is Killing the Children #39 (BOOM! Studios) – Erica Slaughter goes to therapy in Something is Killing the Children #39 from James Tynion IV, Werther Dell’Edera, and Miquel Muerto. Although this story is set during Erica’s past, you can feel all the trauma and grief she’s gone through in the past 38 issues of this series released. Of course, there aren’t any quick fixes, but the therapist helps Erica make sense of the deaths of her birth family and her basically adoptive parent Jessica while also crafting a paradigm to see all the murders and monster attacks she encounters throughout the series. Tynion and Dell’Edera use a lot of grids for an even back and forth, but they break it sometimes in color pencil flashbacks as Erica’s memories flood back. Something is Killing in the Children is a very tense horror series so it’s nice to just have a quiet issue unpacking our protagonist’s psyche before the finale of the “Road stories” flashback arc and the upcoming issue zero. Overall: 8.9 Verdict: Buy

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 (IDW Publishing) – The new relaunch of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 from Jason Aaron, Joelle Jones, and Ronda Pattison is more Oz than Saturday morning cartoons. Aaron’s background doing gritty crime stories works for this story centered around Raphael helping out a prison warden root out corruption from the inside. But, of course, it goes deeper than any one sai wielding ninja turtle can dig or assault fellow inmates. Raph basically being an unpaid cop kind of put a sour taste in my mouth, but Aaron and Jones make his role more complex that as the story progresses. The tone of the story reminded me a lot of the Ed Brubaker arc of Daredevil where he’s in prison so it’s kind of like TMNT is going back to its Frank Miller parody roots. Plus the double page action sequences from Joelle Jones and Pattison are glorious. I’ve never followed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but between this intriguing start and Juni Ba’s work with Nightwatcher, I’m all in. Overall: 8.6 Verdict: Buy