Glitterbomb: Red Carpet Bomb

Glitterbomb, Volume 1: Red Carpet Written by: Jim Zub Line Art by: Djibril Morissette-Phan Colors by: K. Michael Russell Published: March 7th 2017 Publisher: Image Comics Genre(s): Graphic Novel, Horror, Satire Format: Paperback Length: 136 pages I’ve lived in Los Angeles for just over three and a half years now, so obviously that means I … Read more

Suburban Weirdness, Circa 1988: Paper Girls, Vol 1

Paper Girls feels like a forgotten 1980s adventure that piles on the subversive twists. They don’t make movies like that anymore, let alone ones this weird. I think the technical term here is “box office poison,” and yet I’d love to see Paper Girls up on the big screen. It begs for the kind of lovingly nostalgic adaptation that could only work with modern special effects and sensibilities.

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Kaptara: Finest Pulped Space Comedy

Kaptara is very weird and very funny. Both come with the territory whenever Chip Zdarsky is at the helm, but Kaptara makes Zdarsky’s work on Howard the Duck seem downright traditional. At a basic level, Kaptara is a foul-mouthed piss-take version of classic pulpy scifi adventure stories, but it also features a diverse cast and bizarre, gorgeous art.

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Empty Inside: The Beauty, Volume 1

The Beauty Volume 1 has one cool idea and not much else: there is a new sexually transmitted disease that makes you beautiful. If you contract it, you become young, thin and pretty within minutes. The only apparent side effect is a constant low-level fever, so people go out of their way to get infected. It isn’t long before half the population has The Beauty.

There are factions who object to The Beauty for political and religious reasons, but the real problem is that people with The Beauty are starting to spontaneously combust and nobody knows why. When a woman combusts in public, two police detectives (one of whom is infected) try to find an explanation. They are opposed by government officials trying to cover it up and a shady pharmaceutical CEO who just wants to make a profit. The story turns into a by-the-numbers conspiracy thriller/mystery after only a few pages.

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The Private Eye is Weird Neo-Noir for Luddites

Brian K. Vaughan might be one of the busiest writers in comics, and every new project he announces is weirder than the last. The Private Eye was the first series published through Panel Syndicate, a digital-only, DRM-free, pay-what-you-want imprint that releases comics designed specifically for tablets.

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Wayward Volume One: Pretty But Empty

The art in Wayward Volume One is probably the best part of an otherwise cliché book. The backgrounds are gritty and realistic in a way that feels completely grounded, and the character art is bright and stylized. Unfortunately, all that beautiful art is in service of story about yet another teenager discovering hidden magical powers and using them to fight monsters.

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Rat Queens: Everything’s Coming Up Tentacles

Rat Queens is a modern spin on classic fantasy tropes that plays within those boundaries while also subverting clichés, and does so with a light touch. It has a great premise: a group of rowdy adventurers in a fantasy world fight, fuck, and generally incite civic destruction. The twist is that they’re all women, and they are surrounded by other adventuring parties with similar mixes of race and gender.

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The Wicked + The Divine: Exploding Beauty

The Wicked + The Divine, Volume 1: The Faust Act Written by: Kieron Gillen Illustrated by: Jamie McKelvie Colored by: Matt Wilson Published: November 12th 2014 Publisher: Image Comics Genre(s): Fantasy, Graphic Novel Format: Paperback Length: 144 pages The Wicked + The Divine takes celebrity worship to an extreme and imagines a world where the … Read more

The Bunker: Apocalyptic Wish Fulfillment

In The Bunker, five friends decide to bury a time capsule in the woods, only to find the titular bunker when they start digging. Once inside the bunker, they discover letters from their future selves, who somehow sent a bunker full of evidence back in time to warn their younger selves about the impending apocalypse they will have a part in causing. It turns out this innocuous-looking group of young people includes a future president, a soon-to-be brilliant scientist and several other eventual movers-and-shakers. Heavy stuff for a bunch of recent college grads, no?

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Sex Criminals: This Raunchy Joke Goes Deep

Sex Criminals, Volume One: One Weird Trick Written By: Matt Fraction Art By: Chip Zdarsky Published: April 29th 2014 Publisher: Image Comics Genre(s): Graphic Novel, Comedy, Surrealism, Sex, Romance Format: Paperback Length: 128 pages Sex Criminals is a bit of a phenomenon. It’s one of those books that I heard a lot about before I … Read more

Alex + Ada, Volume 1: Artificial Love Story #999

Alex + Ada, Volume 1 Art: Jonathan Luna Script: Sarah Vaughn Published: July 29, 2014 Publisher: Image Comics Genre(s): Science Fiction, Romance Format: Paperback Length: 128 pages Alex + Ada opens with its sad-sack main character, Alex, waking up to yet another mundane workday. Alex, we discover, is still pining after his most recent ex-girlfriend … Read more