Dark Horse Previews Picks: June 2022
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Daisy HC
It was a toss-up between this or the latest volume of “Steeple” for this spot. I decided to go with “Daisy” because I’ve already talked about how glad I am to see that the former series is continuing, and this is coming to us from a creator that I’m completely unfamiliar with. That would be writer/artist Colin Lorimer and I’m interested in checking out this series almost entirely due to the description of its plot in the solicitation text, which can be charitably described as “utterly bonkers.” It starts out by telling us that it’s about a mother’s search for her missing son before going right off the rails into talk about the eight-foot-tall title character, cannibalistic giants spawned from Heaven, and the divine DNA of God. It sounds like a lot for a five-issue miniseries to tackle and there’s a very high probability that this could wind up being the biggest train wreck I’ll read all year. Or it could signify that Lorimer is the next big thing in comics. Either way, it doesn’t sound like I’ll be bored reading this at all, which is coming in at a reasonable $20 for 128 pages.
Always Never: Ana and Zevo have been in love for forty years, but something always got in the way of them getting together. Now they’re retiring and looking to finally see what life together has to offer. While this is where their story starts, we don’t get to find out what happens next. In a clever twist, writer Jordi Lafebre and artist Clemence Sapin start going back in time one encounter at a time to show us what kept this couple apart and how their love endured through the years. Done right, telling a story backwards can be just as revealing as telling one forwards. I’m also curious to see how this particular story is going to work as it gets further and further away from its happy ending.
Apache Delivery Service: In which two soldiers in Vietnam find out about a hidden cache of gold from WWII and decide to seize it for themselves. Unfortunately for them the closer they get to it, the more the bodies start piling up and it’s only partly because of the serial killer that’s tracking them through the jungle. I still think that the solicitation text for this latest miniseries from Matt Kindt and Tyler Jenkins gives away too much about their story. Which is why if my description of it sounds interesting, you should check it out without reading any official summaries of the plot. That being said, a lot of Kindt’s recent work has been thoroughly mediocre. If this doesn’t deliver then I think I’ll be doing a hard pass on any further projects from the writer.
B.P.R.D. Omnibus vol. 1: Didn’t they already offer a softcover collection of this omnibus, collecting the first three volumes of “B.P.R.D.” a while back? No matter. If you’ve never made it around to checking out this long-running series that served as the spine of the Mignolaverse, this is a good place to start. Just be advised that things will get even better in the next volume when John Arcudi comes onboard as a regular co-writer.
Dragon Age: Wraiths of Tevinter HC: Collecting the three previous novella-length hardcover stories in one larger hardcover edition. I keep talking about how I’ll eventually get around to checking out more of Dark Horse’s “Dragon Age” comics, but I never do. That’ll continue to be the case here as this oversized hardcover also strikes me as overpriced in asking $40 for 200 pages. That said, if you’ve liked what co-writers Nunzio DeFillips and Christina Weir and artist Fernando Heinz Furukawa have done with their stories, then be advised that they’re responsible for all three stories collected here.
Edgeworld: That this is a sci-fi story about a magistrate and a native battling to make things better on the far-off planet they live on is a secondary concern in regards to the person writing it. That would be Chuck Austen, who wrote some infamously terrible “X-Men” comics, and some not very good ones featuring the “Avengers,” that saw him make a swift departure from the industry after a few years. The solicitation text bills this as, “the surprise return to comics of Dreamworks television producer Chuck Austen,” which is putting it mildly. Unfortunately for Austen, he never learned the trick of insulating himself by working with a beloved creative figure. That way he could’ve stayed in the industry for years, even if he was an abusive prick. Don’t believe me, just ask Scott Allie. Anyway, Austen’s rep is such that it’s going to take a lot of, “Wow, I can’t believe this is actually GOOD?” reviews in order to convince me to pick this up.
Goldfish: This was Bendis’ first big crime epic and introduced some of the key characters that would show up again in its prequel, “Jinx.” David Gold has been away from the city for a long time, but he’s finally come back to get his son out of the clutches of his gangster ex-girlfriend. The problem is that she’s running the city and his friends are few in number. It’s a good read, even if it feels like table-setting for the greatness that would come in “Jinx.” While we’re on the subject of Bendis…
Joy Operations: Bendis’ latest miniseries, featuring art from Stephen Byrne. Joy is an En-Voi, a special agent of one of the city-owning Trusts. She fixes things for the Jonado Trust and is very good at her job. At least, she was until a voice popped into her head causing her to question everything she’s ever known. I didn’t realize this when it was first solicited, but this premise sounds veeeeeery similar to “Lazarus” by Rucka and Lark, doesn’t it? Well, let’s hope that Bendis and Byrne make the moral reckoning that Joy is facing genuinely compelling and visually appealing because it does feel like we’ve been down this road before.
Lonesome Hunters #1 (of 4): Speaking of stories we’ve heard before, how about the one where an old monster hunter is forced out of retirement by the young girl he meets? It also leads to a road trip to stop the monsters that have invaded their tenement, but you know the drill. This comes to us from Tyler Crook, artist on “B.P.R.D.” and “Harrow County” who I believe is making his writing debut with this miniseries. While his art has always had a distinctively creepy look to it, let’s hope he’s picked up more from John Arcudi and Mike Mignola than Cullen Bunn about how to tell a proper story of supernatural suspense.
Steeple vol. 3: It’s back! It’s bigger too: 160 pages for the same $20 price tag. What fresh Hell awaits the residents of Tredregyn in this volume? I’m not kidding about the Hell part, you know. That’s because a satanic ritual has gone awry and brought the most dubious of prospects to the town. Which would be… the filming of a cozy TV detective drama? Apparently the Dark Lord works in mysterious ways as well. Expect more quirky supernatural action and charms as creator John Allison dives once more into this delightful setting.
The Sword of Hyperborea HC: While I’m not too keen on the new $25 hardcover format for Mignolaverse stories, I’ll be paying for this one less grudgingly than the rest. That’s because it’s supposed to tell us the story behind the sword that turned B.P.R.D. Agent Howards into a Conan-level badass in the pages of the comic. What’s more is that it’s also the Mignolaverse debut of writer Rob Williams who has done some good work over the years at Marvel and DC on titles like “Dark Wolverine” and “Suicide Squad.” I’m curious to see if he’ll be as good a fit for the Mignolaverse as returning artist Laurene Campbell has been.
We Have Demons: Feels kind of weird to see the collection for this when the first issue just hit the shops this past week. Not quite as weird as it is seeing the latest collaboration between Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo coming from Dark Horse, but that deal the publisher made with ComiXology looks to be really paying off for them as they’re getting to publish the print versions of these digital comics. As for the comic itself, it’s about a woman of science who finds out that the conflict between angels and demons is real. A benevolent demon named Hellvis is also involved, thankyewverymuch.