New Comic Book Wednesday

Helen came back for a couple of months but they she left again. She left again yesterday, to be specific. She’s on the road right now as we speak, driving east, heading for a without-me free life of living in a no longer spare bedroom with her mom.  

I’m not taking it well. The only relief that I can find right now after an entire night of not sleeping is that I haven’t run out of whiskey yet and it’s Wednesday, which means Open Mic Poetry and Music at the Burnt Toast in Boulder tonight at 8:30 and this is also the one day of the week when all the new comics are released into the wild shelves of your local Comic Book Shop.

I’ve just returned from Time Warp in Boulder, and despite the overall despair and general shittiness going on in the world right now, it was a very good day on the New Release rack.

What follows is a list of what I picked up and what I also suggest you check out/should also be reading. So here they are, in no particular order:

Crossed #7

Garth Ennis ‘s (Preacher) new horror comic vision of a post-apocalypse world ruled by sadistic zombie-like infected human beings who do things like jerk off on bullets so that when they shoot people they’ll become infect with the Crossed virus, track down the remaining small pockets of uninfected  humans  left wandering the planet in order to rape/torture/hack the living crap out of them, and then once in a while chop off their own penis’ for fun.

The Boys #35

Garth Ennis again.  In this one he’s re-inventing the Super Hero genre. The world is ‘protected’ by various groups of spandex wearing teams of Super Heroes controlled by a Bush Administration type Greed Is Good/Fuck The Public gang of government fuck heads. As far as the public knows, the Super Heroes are the do-gooding type of flying cape wearers that people are used to seeing in comics. Behind closed doors they’re moronic packs of spoiled assholes who spend their time gang banging the innocent and circle jerk beating off to gay porn. The Boys is a group of four bad-ass dudes and one woman who know what the real score is and have dedicated themselves to taking the Supes down.

Wormwood: The Last Battle #1

What can I say. I love Garth Ennis. This is his new one. I’m not sure what this one’s all about, but the cover has a bunch of black hooded people suspended by long chains and meat hooks from the ceiling of a really nice looking mansion. Waiting underneath them is a small army of what looks like demon-eyed human babies wielding chain saws and sharp butcher knives, and they’re sort of hacking everyone into pieces. They really look like they’re having fun. I’m gonna read this one first I think. It looking interestingly fucked up.

Batman And Robin #5

Yes. Robin sucks. But Grant Morrison’s writing this one. And he’s a fucking genius when it comes to re-working old Super Heroes. I never really dug Superman until I read his All Star Superman. That book was fucking brilliant. This one’s just as good.

Justice League: Cry For Justice # 4

James Robinson’s reinventing the Justice League, which, like Robin, I never actually gave a shit about, until James Robinson took over. The Green Lantern’s a real baddass. And Mauro Cascioli’s art is really top notch.

Haunt #1

This one’s new too. Picked it up because 1. There’s a lot of good buzz going on around it (co-created by Todd McFarlane (Spawn) and Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead)), and 2. Helen just left me, and I require a constant stream on interesting reading material on hand at all times, to prevent my mind from obsessing on the fact of the leaving, and this book just feels like a good time…

Astonishing X-Men #31

Warren Ellis (Gravel) took over writing duties on this one a few months back.  And without going into any details right here because this blog post is already over the standard blog post shooting-for word count, you should be reading everything Warren Ellis has ever written. And I mean everything. He’s. That. Great. And pick up a copy of his novel too, Crooked Little Vein. There’s a bit in there involving Godzilla bukaki that’s one of the best things ever written. Enough said.

Planetary #27

I’ve been waiting for this book to come out for at least a year. It’s the final issue of a series created by Ellis and artist John Cassiday. The last chapter of a real masterpiece. If you haven’t read Planetary, you need to be reading Planetary. So go out there, and read Planetary. Do it. Right fucking now.   

Buffy The Vampire Slayer #29 and Angel #26

These books pick up where the TV shows left off. The continuing adventures of Buffy and Angel, as helmed in comic book form by TV series creator Joss Whedon. It’s like watching the TV shows, if the TV shows had been given unlimited budgets. In these books, anything goes.

The Authority #15

A complicated group of Super Heroes originally created by Warren Ellis attempt to protect what’s left of the human race in a post-apocalypse London. Things have been pretty brutal for everyone involved. Good story line. New writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning are producing some pretty good stuff.


So have at it people. And if you see Helen, tell her I miss her.

Scratch that. Don’t tell her anything.

Enjoy.

Sincerely,

Get in the car, Helen