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Ivy

By Sarah Oleksyk
224 pages, black and white
Published by Oni Press

I’ve become a convert to Sarah Oleksyk. Her story in Papercutter #4 was a stand-out in an already-strong comic, and likewise her contribution to I Saw You… was one of the stories worth seeking out. So with all that in mind, her first graphic novel Ivy was a must-read. I’d seen some early chapters in mini-comic form, but it had been long enough that in many ways this was a new experience. And by the time I was done, I couldn’t help but feel that Oleksyk had made a book that should have turned me off, but instead kept pulling me in.

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Flash #9

Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Francis Manapul
32 pages, color
Published by DC Comics

One of the things I’ve been quietly impressed with, over the past few years, was how Geoff Johns uses one of his regular titles to slowly lead into a big event. The most recent was, of course, Green Lantern bringing us toward Blackest Night, but the comic just as easily did so a couple of years earlier with The Sinestro Corps War, or for that matter Action Comics kicking off Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds. In the case of The Flash, we’ve been told by editorial ever since the new series began that it’s going to bring us into Flashpoint, this year’s big mini-series. And so far? Well, regardless of how Flashpoint turns out, this is an entertaining way to get there.

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Batman Annuals: Volume One

Written by Bill Finger, Edmond Hamilton, David Vern Reed, and France Herron
Penciled by Dick Sprang, Sheldon Moldoff, and Lew Sayre Schwartz
Inked by Stan Kaye and Charles Paris
264 pages, color
Published by DC Comics

There’s something disarmingly charming about the general silliness of Batman comics from the 1960s. I’ve often joked that some of the comics from that time period are clearly pointing towards illegal drugs in the water coolers, but the fact of the matter is that for whatever reason, no one seemed to be taking themselves too seriously. In many ways, the culmination of this is in the early Batman Annuals, reprinting each year some of the stranger, and crazier stories from earlier times.

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Bakuman Vol. 3

Written by Tsugumi Ohba
Art by Takeshi Obata
200 pages, black and white
Published by Viz

When I first started reading Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata’s Bakuman last year, I was almost instantly intrigued by the glimpse into the manga publishing world, and getting a look into the mechanics of pitching to and being published by the big leagues. Through the eyes of two high school students, Ohba and Obata looked to be making a fictionalized version of, "How the publishing industry works." As Bakuman has progressed, though, what we’re starting to get now is something even more interesting—most notably a question of what happens when you try and become more "commercial" in your comic-creating.

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Toys in the Basement

By Stéphane Blanquet
32 pages, color
Published by Fantagraphics Books

There are books out there that, no matter who you are, as soon as you read it you’re going to have the exact same mental description in your head. It’s impossible to not refer to it that way the second the phrase pops into your head, and the more you talk to other people, the more you realize that it’s perfect because everyone can’t help but feel the same way about it. I am pretty sure that Stéphane Blanquet’s Toys in the Basement is one of those books, and the phrase that everyone’s going to find themselves using is, "A deranged Toy Story." Which is, I shall quickly add, a complement.

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Infinite Vacation #1

Story by Nick Spencer and Christian Ward
Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Christian Ward
28 pages, color
Published by Image Comics

Here’s what I’m finding myself liking more and more about Nick Spencer’s comics. He doesn’t just take a single idea and runs with it, but rather, takes that idea and pairs it with a second one that makes both somehow even better. So for example, Infinite Vacation starts with the germ of the idea that everyone always wonders what would have happened had they made a slightly different decision in life. It’s simple enough, one that’s spawned a lot of other stories. But add in the current obsession that people have with buying apps for their smartphones, and suddenly Infinite Vacation has shifted from another story about parallel universes and into something more interesting and current.

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Zita the Spacegirl Book One: Far From Home

By Ben Hatke
192 pages, color
Published by First Second

Ben Hatke is one of those creators that when you first encounter, you instantly want to read more of his comics. That’s how I felt when I read his stories in the Flight anthologies, which had a lot of charm and wit about them. So when his debut graphic novel showed up on my doorstep, it was one of those, "Put everything down and make time to read this first." And I’m glad I did.

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Memoir #1

Written by Ben McCool
Art by Nikki Cook
32 pages, black and white
Published by Image Comics

One of the things I’ve found myself enjoying from Image Comics lately is the number of compelling-sounding projects by talents ready to step up their profile in the comics industry and have their big break-out hit. I’m not sure who at Image is bringing all of these new books in, but even when they don’t succeed creatively (they can’t all be a Walking Dead, Chew, or Morning Glories), the wealth of ideas and concepts have been impressive. So with that in mind, I figured it was time to scoop up Memoir #1 from Ben McCool and Nikki Cook; once again, it had a concept that seemed worth following through.

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Doctor Who #1

Written by Tony Lee
Art by Andrew Currie
32 pages, color
Published by IDW

Writing a licensed comic for a current property isn’t easy, because you’ve got to simultaneously come up with ideas for the characters and also not create anything long-lasting because there’s something else that automatically trumps anything you think of. So on the one hand, I’m willing to allow a little leeway. On the other hand, there’s also room for less leeway because if you don’t like the comic, well, you’ve got the original to check out instead. You know how that goes.

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Marineman #1-2

By Ian Churchill
32 pages, color
Published by Image Comics

There are so many jokes about Aquaman’s powers being fairly useless that it’s ceased to be a geek piece of knowledge and entered the general lexicon. (When even Saturday Night Live has gotten in on the act, you know it’s getting stale.) So with that in mind, I have to give credit where it’s due: Ian Churchill is awfully gutsy in having his brand-new, creator-owned comic be Marineman. I suspect Churchill’s already written all of the mockery himself at this point. But while he’s no Aquaman, Marineman ultimately became a book that both was and was the comic I was expecting when I first heard about it.

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