Every week I review comics elsewhere. This is the stuff I really like:
ASTRO CITY: THE DARK AGE BOOK 1 HC by Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson. Collecting the first eight issues of “The Dark Age”, the story of Astro City in the seventies when the Silver Agent got whacked. Great stuff, too infrequently seen on the racks.
CAPTAIN AMERICA #40 by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting. Crazy 1950s Cap vs. Tortured Cyborg Bucky-Cap! For da title! And the Red Skull’s daughter does A Bad Thing.
EC ARCHIVES: WEIRD SCIENCE VOL. 3 HC by The Geniuses of Their Age. Yeah, you know you want this! You want them all!
GHOST RIDER #25 by Jason Aaron and Tan Eng Huat. “Ghost Rider in Prison” by the guy who writes SCALPED! As good as this title can get!
HELLBLAZER #246 by Jason Aaron and Sean Murphy. It’s “Constantine Meets Blair Witch” as a bunch of hapless documentary film-makers blunder into Newcastle. A very bad place to look for Constantinalia… Highly recommended.
HOUDINI THE HANDCUFF KING SC by Jason Lutes and Nick Bertozzi. An informative episode from the life of the world’s most famous magician/escape artist.
HOW TO DRAW STUPID SC by Kyle Baker. Sadly there is nothing in here about how to get the next issue of SPECIAL FORCES on the rack. Still recommended because Baker is a gol-darn genius! His NAT TURNER book ain’t hay neither.
HOWARD THE DUCK OMNIBUS HC by Steve Gerber and Many Worthy Collaborators. Great. Like Marvel couldn’t have done this while Gerber was still alive… Recommended anyway because this is really great stuff. As close to the subversion of the underground comix as mainstream super companies ever got. Very worth having.
PUNISHER #59 by Garth Ennis and Goran Parlov. They should kill Frank or cancel the title when Ennis leaves but they won’t. Amazing run. Bravo.
SCALPED #19 by Jason Aaron and David Furno. Lots of The Sexy in this issue but being SCALPED it’s gonna have a dark twist. Why is everyone in the world not buying this title? Does it not suck enough to be popular? Highly recommended.
TOO COOL TO BE FORGOTTEN HC written and drawn by Alex Robinson. A really fun fantasy about a grown man sent back in time via hypnosis to the 1980s to relive high school. Hey, it worked for Batman in the fifties!
WAR IS HELL: FIRST FLIGHT OF THE PHANTOM EAGLE #5 of 5 by Garth Ennis and Howard Chaykin. The final issue in which we learn whether the PE has gone nuts. Or if he always was… If you like Ennis war comics you’ll like this.
That’s it for this week. Enjoy “Dark Knight” everybody! – JJ
