Author: Greg McElhatton

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Three #1

By Eric Orner, Joey Alison Sayers, and Robert Kirby
32 pages, color
Published by Rob Kirby Comics

Long-time readers will know I’m a fan of a good comics anthology. It doesn’t have to be overly long; Greg Means’s Papercutter, after all, proves on a regular basis that you can have a three-story collection and still end up strong. I was fairly psyched, as a result, to find the debut issue of Robert Kirby’s new anthology Three waiting for me in my mailbox recently. Based on this initial line-up of creators, I think there’s finally another regular anthology comic for me to look forward to.

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RASL #8

By Jeff Smith
24 pages, black and white
Published by Cartoon Books

RASL is one of those titles where I have no choice, mentally, but to "double-dip." I buy each issue as it’s published, and then once the collections show up they end up heading onto my bookshelf and the individual issues of RASL get passed along to other readers. It’s partially because a new Jeff Smith series is too exciting to pass up, but more than that, I stick with the individual issues because I think Smith’s one of those creators who understands simultaneously how to write for both a collected edition as well as the individual issue.

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Northlanders #30

Written by Brian Wood
Art by Ricardo Burchielli
32 pages, color
Published by Vertigo/DC Comics

Brian Wood and Ricardo Burchielli are known for working together on their series DMZ, also published by Vertigo. So when I heard that Burchielli had come on board to draw a story arc for Wood’s series Northlanders, I was intrigued. Ancient Viking settlements are about as far from a war-torn wasteland of Manhattan, but at the end of the day there’s no need to worry. This ends up being an entertaining first chapter in the latest Northlanders storyline.

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Age of Heroes #3

Written by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Kevin Grevioux, with Fred Van Lente and Dan Slott
Penciled by Brad Walker and M.C. Wyman, with Jefte Palo and Ty Templeton
Inked by Walden Wong and Victor Olazaba, with Jefte Palo and Ty Templeton
32 pages, color
Published by Marvel Comics

Age of Heroes is a slightly strange mini-series. When Marvel has a new "era" to introduce, they’re prone to releasing an anthology mini-series to tie into the latest banner. With Age of Heroes, though, it’s been a strange mixture of original stories and pieces specifically designed to feed into new mini-series and ongoing series. It’s almost like getting a movie theatre full of trailers for upcoming movies, but you also have a couple of short films interspersed among them.

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Abe Sapien: The Abyssal Plain

Written by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi
Art by Peter Snejbjerg
32 pages, color
Published by Dark Horse

One of the things I’ve grown to like about Mike Mignola’s Hellboy family of comics is that every now and then, a strange little story pops up in place of a longer mini-series or huge saga. That’s the case with Abe Sapien: The Abyssal Plain, which is over and done in just two issues. When it’s all said and done, I have to give Mignola and John Arcudi credit: it’s not only just the right length, but it manages to feel both light and serious at the same time.

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Uncanny X-Men #526

Written by Matt Fraction with Allan Heinberg
Penciled by Whilce Portacio with Olivier Coipel
Inked by Ed Tadeo with Mark Morales
40 pages, color
Published by Marvel Comics

After the conclusion of the "Second Coming" crossover throughout the X-Men family of titles, I’ve been eagerly awaiting the latest Uncanny X-Men. It’s my favorite of the mutant titles, to be fair, but writer Matt Fraction left us with such a nice cliffhanger at the end of "Second Coming" that it’s been hard to not want to see more. And so far? It’s hard to not feel a little perplexed by the choice of artist for the next five months.

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Rabbi Harvey vs. The Wisdom Kid

By Steve Sheinkin
144 pages, color
Published by Jewish Lights Publishing

I love when I end up with a good book that I otherwise might not have picked up. That’s certainly the case with Rabbi Harvey vs. The Wisdom Kid, a graphic novel set in the wild west frontier starring a rabbi who has to deal with all sorts of calamities. The book reminds me a lot of John D. Fitzgerald’s The Great Brain books, in that Rabbi Harvey is funny and clever and holds a near-universal appeal.

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Bikeman #1

By Jon Chad
44 pages, black and white
Self-Published

I love mini-comics. For those who haven’t encountered them before, they’re usually handmade comics that are assembled by the artist and sold at conventions. Every year at the Small Press Expo, almost all of my money ends up going towards mini-comics, which are often hard to find anywhere else. One of my favorite purchases last year was Leo Geo and His Miraculous Journey Through the Center of the Earth by Jon Chad, a comic over two feet tall drawn as a single continuous image showing Leo Geo climbing slowly through the planet. Having just read his new mini-comic Bikeman, I’m all the more excited to buy more of Chad’s comics, because he’s now proven himself to me as not being a one-hit-wonder.

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Kobato Vol. 1-2

By CLAMP
164 pages, black and white
Published by Yen Press

Kobato is the latest comic from Japanese creator collective CLAMP, and based on many of their past works that I’ve enjoyed (Suki, xxxHolic, Wish, Cardcaptor Sakura, Legal Drug) I figured it was worth a shot. Yen Press chose to release the first two volumes of the series simultaneously in English, and now that I’ve read them I have to say this was a smart move on their part. Had I only read the first volume on its own, I’m not entirely sure I’d have gone back to the store for a second helping.

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Strange Science Fantasy #1

By Scott Morse
28 pages, color
Published by IDW

One of the things I like about Scott Morse is that you never, ever know what you’re in store for. He jumps genres and formats faster than people can keep up, and often morphs his art style to match. So when I picked up a copy of Strange Science Fantasy #1, the only thing for certain I knew was that the cover reminded me a lot old B-grade movie posters. Turns out that’s more or less what was waiting for me on the inside, too.

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