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Multiple Warheads #1

By Brandon Graham
48 pages, black and white
Published by Oni Press

Have you ever read something that seems eerily familiar, but you can’t even begin to place where you think you’ve seen it before? That was the problem I had when I first read Multiple Warheads by Brandon Graham, as its inaugural issue kept reminding me of something that I couldn’t place my finger on. It wasn’t until over a week later that it finally began to sink in. It wasn’t that I had read something like it before, but rather a wish to see this kind of book that was only now being fulfilled. Only in the case of Multiple Warheads, it’s probably a wish you didn’t even know you’d made.

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Potter’s Field #1

Written by Mark Waid
Art by Paul Azaceta
32 pages, color
Published by Boom! Studios

There’s an old adage that there are only a limited number of plots in the world, and that every story is just a slight variation on those ideas. (Some people claim the actual number is three, others go for seven. The fact that there’s no clear consensus on the number of actual plots says a lot in its own right.) But on a similar level, I think it is fair to say that just as two stories with the same “plot” can be radically different, so can different stories with the same basic set-up. So when I say that Mark Waid and Paul Azaceta’s Potter’s Field reminds me of Andy Helfer, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Kyle Baker’s run on The Shadow from the mid-80s, I’m not claiming that Waid and Azaceta are stealing or ripping off The Shadow. Rather, that it’s a familiar set-up that will certainly make fans of the old book a little nostalgic and probably very happy.

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Click

Written by Sara Ryan
Art by Dylan Meconis
16 pages, black and white
Published by Coldwater Press

One of the best things about the internet when it comics to comics, I think, is that it opens up the possibilities on comics that you can read. In the past, you often only got copies of small self-published comics and mini-comics through conventions, or occasionally by ordering a copy online. Now, it’s not at all uncommon to see those publications also put online so more people can read them—and in the case of Sara Ryan and Dylan Meconis’s Click, I for one am thrilled that I didn’t miss out on this comic.

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Alive: The Final Evolution Vol. 1

Written by Tadashi Kawashima
Art by Adachitoka
208 pages, black and white
Published by Del Rey

Have you ever read a back cover blurb so enticing that you absolutely had to read the book? That’s the sign of at least one of two things: a great story concept, or a great copy/advertising writer. The question is, though, just which have you encountered? That’s what I asked myself when I picked up the first volume of Alive: The Final Evolution by Tadashi Kawashima and Adachitoka. And of course, being the first volume in a series, your guess was as good as mine.

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Parasyte Vol. 1

By Hitoshi Iwaaki
288 pages, black and white
Published by Del Rey

I remember reading early volumes of Parasyte almost a full decade ago, when TokyoPop published its first English-language edition. It was a fun if slightly forgettable series, with ideas about invasive shapeshifting aliens and inventive visuals. With Del Rey bringing the series back into print in an eight-volume edition (TokyoPop’s version was 12 volumes and reversed to read left-to-right), though, it’s surprising what a difference the series has when read in today’s political climate. What was once amusing is now much more compelling with the idea of a world full of people that may be undercover killers.

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Glister #1

By Andi Watson
64 pages, black and white
Published by Image Comics

You never really know what you’re going to get with Andi Watson. Dimensional hopping teenager and fox spirit? Unemployed factory worker with relationship problems? Big town reporter going to small-town paper? Goth girl exiled by parents to the countryside? Superheroes and hangers-on in love? I suspect Watson actually delights in regularly switching genres and styles, to keep his readership forever slightly confused yet eager to see what’s happening next. With his new series Glister, Watson is mixing things up again, with a real treat ready for those who give it a try.

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Empowered Vol. 1

By Adam Warren
248 pages, black and white
Published by Dark Horse

Adam Warren is a creator whom I’m almost embarrassed to admit I forget about. His comics are always really funny, he’s got a “good girl” art style that is attractive yet non-offensive, and he’s got an amazing sense of pacing. But maybe it’s because a both-written-and-drawn Warren project isn’t something that comes out on a regular basis that he seems to fall off my radar between books. Apparently Warren’s figured out the best way around this is to just pencil his books rather than ink them so he can release them faster. And if Empowered is any sign of things to come, well, I’m not going to be forgetting just how great Warren is any time soon.

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Laika

By Nick Abadzis
208 pages, color
Published by First Second Books

You can know the ending to a book and, if it’s well crafted, still enjoy the experience. That’s absolutely the case with Nick Abadzis’s Laika, his telling of the dog sent into orbit inside Sputnik 2 in 1957. People who are even remotely familiar with Laika’s place in history know the ultimate fate of her and the Sputnik 2 mission, but that’s not the important thing. Here, it’s about how Abadzis tells Laika’s story that will keep you intrigued as a reader, and ultimately feel sadness for a brave little dog.

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Repo #1-2

Written by Rick Spears
Art by Rob G
28 pages, color
Published by Image Comics

In stories set in the future, there are always some things that seem to carry forward from the present day. There’s still crime. There’s still greed. There’s still theft. So under the circumstances, it also makes sense that there would still be repo men, who come to take back what you have either defaulted on paying for, or never owned in the first place. The only real difference, I guess, is what you’re trying to repossess.

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Hellboy: Darkness Calls #1-3

Written by Mike Mignola
Art by Duncan Fegredo
32 pages, color
Published by Dark Horse

When Mike Mignola announced two years ago at the end of the Hellboy: The Island mini-series that he was handing over the art chores on his signature character, the news was a little worrisome. Half of the appeal of Hellboy has always been the creepy atmosphere that Mignola’s art creates, and with that gone, would the book have the same punch to it? Well, aside from a small half-by-Mignola, half-by-Richard-Corben mini-series from last year, Hellboy: Darkness Calls is the first major Hellboy project to have someone else drawing Mignola’s scripts—and having reached its halfway point, thankfully all of my worries appeared to be for naught.

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