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Graphic Policy’s Top Comic Picks this Week!

Posted on March 3, 2015 by Brett

Wednesdays are new comic book day! Each week hundreds of comics are released, and that can be pretty daunting to go over and choose what to buy. That’s where we come in!

We’re bringing back something we haven’t done for a while, what the team thinks. Our contributors are choosing up to five books each week and why they’re choosing the books.

Find out what folks think below, and what comics you should be looking out for this Wednesday.

Brett

Top Pick: Descender #1 (Image Comics) – Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen’s new series kicks off with a hell of a first issue. One young robot’s struggle to stay alive in a universe where all androids have been outlawed and bounty hunters lurk on every planet. It’s good…. really good.

Black Science #12 (Image Comics) – The alternate dimension spanning adventure brings excitement every single issue. The series is beyond fun, and anything can happen.

Imperium #2 (Valiant Entertainment) – Toyo Harrada has a vision for the world. But is it the right vision? Is he the right person to bring it? Valiant further explores a world where people with extraordinary power exists.

Lady Killer #3 (Dark Horse Comics) – The series about a housewife assassin has been damn near perfect with each issue. Just lots of fun and where it goes from here, should be interesting.

Transformers #38 and Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #38 (IDW Publishing) – We’re heading towards Combiner Wars… yes please! IDW’s series has been absolutely amazing and deserves WAY more respect than it gets.

Edward

Top Pick: Princess Leia #1 (Marvel) – Marvel’s newest wave of in-continuity Star Wars tales sees its third ongoing series launched with the new Princess Leia. It should be an interesting series as it examines one of the more complex characters from the original trilogy.

Altered States: Vampirella (Dynamite) – Dynamite keeps expanding its non-shared universe with alternate reality stories. It might seem to be a strange move, but the potential for some cool genre mixing seems likely.

Lady Killer #3 (Dark Horse Comics) – This series has been added to the list of “guilty pleasures” of almost everyone that has read it. It mixes unconventional genres into an engaging story.

Spider-Woman #5 (Marvel) – A redesign after only 4 issues? Maybe a bit severe, but many fans were confused with the launch of the new series into the middle of the Spider-Verse. We will see if Jessica Drew is too old to be “Batgirl-ed”

The White Queen #2 (Zenescope) – Zenescope once again proves that anything that Calie Liddle touches turns to gold. Incorporating Wonderland into the confusing Age of Darkness has not slowed down this story, made better by the presence of the Trickster.

Elana

Top Pick: Spider-Woman #5 (Marvel) – Can’t wait for this relaunch. Great artist. Jessica Drew is one of my favorite characters yet no one has really done her justice in her solo book yet. I think this will be it.

Adventure Time Vol. 6 TPB (BOOM! Studios/KaBOOM!) – Get it and share it with everyone.

All-New Hawkeye #1 (Marvel) – The preview looks strong and the art in particular. Bold, graphic, not trashy. And everyone loves the Hawkeyes! Looks like a great jumping off point.

Angela Asgard’s Assassin #4 (Marvel) – Oooo pretty. Love her new warrior armor ad badass trans paramour and bard. Plus a guardians team up? Get it!

Saga #26 (Image Comics) – Every issue is a little masterwork. And every issue is leaving me hanging, obsessively thinking and worrying about what’s coming next. As you’ve probably noticed, this is the comic book to give to your friends who don’t read comics.

Nevada

Top Pick: Bright Lights, Lonely Nights: The Memories of Serena, Porn Star Pioneer of the 1970’s (BearManor Adult) – This book would be interesting as a behind-the-scenes look at the 1970’s pornographic film industry, but the fact that it’s a first-hand account told by a liberated woman and one of its biggest stars make it a must-read.

Comics and Narration (University Press of Mississippi) – I’m feeling quite bookish this week so I’ll round out my list with this continuing study about comics and how and why they work the way they do. This looks like it could go to the wonky academic side of things but I like that stuff occasionally as long as it doesn’t get too abstract. Since this features examples of work by the likes of R. Crumb and company I expect I’ll be able to learn something new and be entertained at the same time. Good deal!

Drawing From Life: Memory and Subjectivity in Comic Art (University Press of Mississippi) – As I embark on my own comic series that contains semi-autobiographical content, Fretville, I look forward to reading this book to further my understanding of subjectivity in comic art.

Supernatural 200th Episode Buttons (ATA Boy) – I’ve watched Sam (Jared Padelecki) since Gilmore Girls and Dean (Jenson Ackles) since the earliest days of Smallville (wow, since the WB became the CW in fact!). A fan of Supernatural from the very beginning, I’d love to have some of these to put on my denim jacket or to pin on one of my handmade throw pillows.

Wolf Moon #4 (Vertigo) – I’m interested in wolves, werewolves, and wolf lore so I’m particularly drawn to this mysterious story about a seemingly indestructible wolf on the prowl.

Around the Tubes

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Brett

Lots of new comics yesterday in the first week of new comics for the year. What did folks get? Anything good?

Around the Tubes Reviews

Comic Vine – The Amazing Spider-Man #12

Comic Vine – Angela: Asgard’s Assassin #2

Bloody Disgusting – Ant-Man #1

Comics Alliance – Ant-Man #1

Comic Vine – Birthright #4

Comic Vine – Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier #3

Comic Vine – Deadly Class #10

Comic Vine – Detective Comics #38

CBR – The Fade Out #4

The Beat – Feathers #1

Comic Vine – Green Arrow #38

Comic Vine – Green Lantern #38

Comic Vine – Hawkeye vs. Deadpool #4

Comic Vine – Hulk #10

Comic Vine – Lady Killer #1

Talking Comics – Operation S.I.N. #1

The Beat – Operation S.I.N. #1

Comic Vine – The Punisher #14

Comic Vine – Robocop #7

Comic Vine – Spider-Man 2099 #7

CBR – The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1

Comic Vine – Wolf Moon #2

Talking Comics – X-Men #23

Around the Tubes

Graphic Policy’s Top Comic Picks this Week!

Posted on January 6, 2015 by Brett

Wednesdays are new comic book day! Each week hundreds of comics are released, and that can be pretty daunting to go over and choose what to buy. That’s where we come in! Below are ten suggestions of comics, graphic novels, or trade paperbacks you should spend some extra time checking out and think about picking up.

Pick of the Week – Feathers #1 (Archaia/BOOM! Studios) – A recluse boy born covered in feathers must help his first-ever friend, a young girl named Bianca, as she tries to return to her home beyond the slums of the Maze. They must dodge street gangs and child-snatchers along the way, and perhaps together will learn the secrets to his mysterious past. The first issue is beautiful, magical, just fantastic. A great start to the new year.

Ant-Man #1 (Marvel) – Scott Lang gets the spotlight as Marvel launches a new series that puts the tiny hero forward before his movie hits later this year.

Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. #2 1952 (Dark Horse) – Hellboy is off on his first adventure! The first issue was solid, the second issue really begins to kick things up as the adventure really begins. Watching the B.P.R.D. stumble a bit in their early years, especially Hellboy, is fantastic.

IXth Generation #1 (Top Cow Productions) – Top Cow launches a series originating from their Aphrodite IX and Cyber Force series’. Add in Top Cow’s Artifacts side of things, and the series sounds really exciting!

Lady Killer #1 (Dark Horse) – Josie Schuller is a picture-perfect homemaker, wife, and mother—but she’s also a ruthless, efficient killer for hire! A brand-new original comedy series that combines the wholesome imagery of early 1960s domestic bliss with a tightening web of murder, paranoia, and cold-blooded survival. A fantastic debut issue!

Nailbiter #9 (Image) – Do you like horror? Do you like noir/crime stories? Yeah, you should be reading this.

Operation S.I.N. #1 (Marvel) – The early years of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra featuring Peggy Carter and Howard Stark. The series seems to be a perfect companion to Marvel’s Agent Carter which debuts this week on tv.

Shaft #2 (Dynamite) – The first issue was set up, and now the action begins as Shaft takes up a job as security, and gets roped into an issue with a missing girl, the mob, and dead bodies.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1 (Marvel) – She beat Thanos and Doctor Doom! The series will either be awesome, or a one note joke. Hopefully it’s the former of the two.

Wolf Moon #2 (Vertigo/DC Comics) – How do you hunt a werewolf if a different person becomes the monster with every cycle of the moon? The Wolf continues to elude Dillon, and now the trail is going cold. Hoping to uncover some clues, Dillon turns to a reclusive expert on werewolf legends, and what he learns crushes any hope of ever destroying the creature. An interesting spin of the werewolf mythos from writer Cullen Bunn and artist Jeremy Haun.

Around the Tubes

Posted on December 8, 2014 by Brett

Only four more Wednesdays until the end of the year!

Around the Tubes

The Mary Sue – An Open Letter to Pat Broderick: On Cosplay, Entitlement, and Gatekeeping – We’ll have our thoughts soon….

Bleeding Cool – Oklahoma Police Arrest Batman And Captain America – Well ok then.

The Spectrum – Hollywood starlets meet supervillians in pop art show – I’d so buy this art.

Kotaku – Marvel Heroes‘ Latest Playable Character Is A Mass-Murderer. Yay! – Well ok then!

Kotaku – Suspected Gas Attack At “Furry” Convention Puts 19 In Hospital – We may not get it, but not cool!

Around the Tubes Reviews

CBR – Chew #45

Talking Comics – Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. #1

Seattle Pi – The Hospital Suite

Talking Comics – Secret Six #1

ICv2 – Tomb Raider Vol. 1: Season of the Witch

Talking Comics – Wolf Moon #1

Around the Tubes

Animals in the Hair – Finding Female Strength in Unconventional Places

Posted on December 6, 2014 by

This past week in comics there was an interesting coincidence and anomaly. On two separate comic book covers there was the image of a woman whose hair came alive and took the form of animal. On the cover of Inhuman #9, Medusa’s hair comes alive and forms snakes, and on the cover of Wolf Moon, an unidentified character’s hair comes alive and forms a wolf. In both cases it is the female character alone on the cover that is the focus of the artwork. While in both pictures, the association is an obvious one – snakes for Medusa, and a wolf for a werewolf – there is more to be read into this than what first meets the eye.

As a visual representation and as an artistic motif, the use of animal associations is nothing new. Through the association with animals, humans have for millennia defined themselves as a species other than what we are. This is a common theme in literature, art, and even shows up in colloquial language (“sly as a fox” “eating like a pig”). Through the association with a certain animal, a human derives some of their traits, while equally animals can derive the traits of humans in the same process. Lions aren’t really the kings of the jungle, they are more like one of many apex predators of the savannah, but the combination with so many royal emblems and insignia since at least the Mesopotamian era give both monarch and beast similar traits, and gives the animals a human title where there is none. Through the use of either allegory or association, subjects of artwork use animals to depict what we respect and fear about these beasts.

What is interesting here is not the use of the animals, but rather the use of the hair. As a society and culture, hair is most associated with women as it forms an important aspect of their beauty. In this case though, this aspect of the beauty is being replaced by something else, a symbol of strength and power. In the field of comics which is often criticized for its poor representation of women and of female beauty, this is an interesting and almost unnoticed coincidence from this past week, as female hair, which is usually just a representation of female beauty, in this way becomes a representation of female strength. While it is worth remembering that the medium as a whole has some ground to make up in terms of female physical standards, it is also worth noting that there are those in the field that use what they have in unconventional ways and that was the case this week with these two unintentionally related covers.

Review: Wolf Moon #1

Posted on December 4, 2014 by

Vertigo and the supernatural go almost hand in hand, but after years of werewolves being of interest in popular culture, it offers more of a challenge for stories featuring the creatures of the night to be relevant and compelling. This series from Vertigo attempts another look at the creatures, this time from a slightly different outlook. Much of the somewhat canonical background of the characters is gone, replaced by something a little bit different. The story focuses on Dillon, a man with a reason to hunt the werewolves, as he ventures to Kentucky after putting together the telling evidence from a recent attack. As he faces the beast, he comes to an interesting conclusion, one which he had not really considered before, and one which forces him towards an unconventional solution.

Throughout this issue there are different elements at play. Dillon has to deal with Cayce, who seems at first to be a romantic interest, but then might be something else. When confronting the beast Dillon has some realizations about himself, but they are left somewhat ambiguous as well. This ambiguity is meant to build tension, but it is almost too ambiguous as not enough is yet known to really draw in the reader.

Those interested in werewolves and the supernatural genre will probably find enough to draw them in here, but for outsiders the genre, there is far less here of much value. Story is often shunted for the benefit of gore, and the characters are not developed enough in this initial issue to provide enough to grasp on to. It is a shame too, because the cover by June Chung is one of the most visually captivating covers that I have seen in a long time, and while it draws in the reader, there is nothing inside this issue which matches the eloquence of the exterior.

Story: Cullen Bunn Art: Jeremy Haun
Story: 7.0 Art: 7.0 Overall: 7.0 Recommendation: Pass

Graphic Policy’s Top Comic Picks this Week!

Posted on December 2, 2014 by Brett

Pick of the Week: Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. #1 (Dark Horse) – The early years of Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. as Hellboy heads out on his first mission. The Mignolaverse (of which this is a part) is one of the best ongonig comic universes out there, and this is a fantastic entry point to check it out, or if you like the movies that spun out of it.

Angela: Asgards Assassin #1 (Marvel) – The Spawn character turned Marvel character gets her own series as she takes her first step to define her role in the Marvel Universe.

Escape From New York #1 (BOOM! Studios) – We’re big fans of the movies (well at least the original), and to see Snake Plissken come to comics makes us more than happy.

Evil Empire #8 (BOOM! Studios) – A political thriller that takes you into the government as it devolves into an evil mess. Each issue has shocked, thrilled, and entertained, and we seriously have no idea what will happen next.

Gotham Academy #3 (DC Comics) – If you thought getting detention was a pain, just wait till you see detention Gotham Academy-style! One of the freshest series to come out of DC in a long time.

Nailbiter #8 (Image Comics) – Each issue is tense as we delve deeper into the mystery of a town that produces more than its fair share of serial killers.

Secret Six #1 (DC Comics) – Gail Simone returns to the dysfunctional team that stood out from all the rest of what DC produced at the time. Will lightning strike twice? A lot has been kept under wraps for this new series, and the wait is killing us!

Shaft #1 (Dynamite Entertainment) – The classic character comes to comics in a first issue that instantly creates depth and motivation for the character. An amazing start for the series.

Valiant Sized Quantum & Woody #1 (Valiant) – An asteroid is about to destroy the planet, but with Quantum and Woody at the front line of an international team of heroes, everything’s sure to…oh sweet mercy, we’re doomed. And that’s BEFORE Thomas Edison opens a rip in the space-time continuum and lets in the mirror-image Woody of the alterna-verse!

Wolf Moon #1 (Vertigo) – Written by Cullen Bunn, with art by Jeremy Haun, the comic is a new six-issue miniseries that takes on the werewolf mythos. When Dillon Chase’s family was slaughtered by the wolf, his life was forever changed. Dillon sets out to destroy the creature, but he soon learns that lycanthropy is far more insidious than the legends ever said. With each full moon, he draws closer to the monster – and with each full moon, he becomes more aware that in order to stop the wolf, he must kill a human being and become a fearful monster himself.