Image Previews Picks: April 2022
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
The Secret History of the War on Weed (One-Shot)
Hmmmmmmmm…
Several years ago Gerry Duggan teamed up with his friend comedian/writer/actor Brian Posehn to co-write “Deadpool” over at Marvel. The issues they did were genuinely funny and got me involved in the Merc-With-A-Mouth’s exploits in a way that I haven’t been since. That includes the period where Duggan wrote the character solo and delivered a first volume that was so unfunny I stopped reading his “Deadpool” comics right then and there. He’s since redeemed himself in my eyes with his work over at the X-Office, but the fact remains that for a few years I actively avoided anything with his name on it.
What does all this have to do with “The Secret History of the War on Weed?” This is the first comic that Duggan and Posehn have written together since their “Deadpool” days. They’ve even recruited artist Scott Koblish, who did the era-specific art for the “flashback” issues of that run, to tell the story of Scotch McTiernan and his recruitment by Nancy Reagan to crush the cannabis farmers of Northern California in the 1980s. Scotch is all gung-ho and HOO-RAH to do this for the First Lady, but what happens when he starts burning down these farmers’ crops and gets high in the process?! It all sounds thoroughly ridiculous, and like a whole lot of fun. I realize it’s a big ask of this team to make the “Deadpool” lightning strike twice here, but it’ll be great if they can pull it off.
Blood-Stained Teeth #1: This is a new series from Christian Ward who is best known as an artist, but is only writing this title. Illustrating it is Mignolaverse/Outerverse veteran Patric Reynolds who strikes me as a good choice for a story that could be described as “vampire noir.” It involves. Atticus Sloane who is a vampire in addition to being a criminal and an overall misanthrope. Which is likely why he’s more than willing to take money from humans in order to turn them into vampires. This could work; though, I’m honestly surprised to see this series coming from Image. Both creators have a long history at Dark Horse, after all…
Lego Ninjago: Garmadon #1 (of 5): It’s not that Image hasn’t published licensed titles before, it’s just that they’re usually not as high-profile as something like Lego. This is coming from Skybound, and it makes me think that this could be a test run by the imprint to show that they can handle potentially bigger licenses (like, say, “Transformers”) in the future. As for whether I’ll be checking it out, my only experience with “Ninjago” has been from “The Lego Ninjago Movie” and that was actually a lot of fun. Better than “The Lego Batman” movie, actually. Still, this comic isn’t being advertised as having any ties to the movie, and its plot of “Has Garmadon turned over a new leaf?” doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
A Town Called Terror #1: “30 Days of Night” writer Steve Niles teams with artist Szymon Kudranski for this new horror series. It involves a married man being kidnapped in the dead of night and waking up in an unfamiliar place. Meanwhile, his wife tries to convince the authorities that her husband was kidnapped, but doesn’t have any actual proof. The dual-protagonist plot sounds like it could be interesting, but it’s hard to say that the solicitation makes this series stand out amongst all the other horror comics Niles has written over the years.
Image! #1 (of 12): In case you hadn’t heard, 2022 is the 30th anniversary of the founding of Image Comics. The last time the publisher tried to celebrate such an anniversary with a comic… it didn’t exactly go to plan. This time, it looks like they’re (smartly) eschewing the involvement of the founders entirely and are going with contributions from the established writers and artists who have made the publisher a haven for quality creator-owned comics. “Image!” is a 64-page $6 anthology series and the first issue kicks off 12-part contributions from Geoff Johns & Andrea Mutti and Brendan Fletcher & Babs Tarr with “The Blizzard” and “Red Stitches” respectively. Also contributing to this issue are Mirka Andolfo, Kyle Higgins, Daniele Di Nucolo, and Declan Shalvey.
Farmhand #16: It has been a while. So long, in fact, that I was worried we’d never see the continuation of Rob Guillory’s weird sci-fi horror series (with some occasional funny bits). I’m glad to see that it’s back and moving in a new direction as the Jenkins family now has to adapt to a world that’s being run through the evil influence of Monica Thorne. Guillory originally said that he planned for this series to run for 30 issues, so I’m curious to see if that’s still true or if the long hiatus has given him the drive to wrap it up with this latest batch of issues.
Grip of the Kombinant: This original graphic novel takes place in the far future where two megacorporations are fighting over what’s left of our solar system. It comes to us from creators Simon Roy (who I’m familiar with) and Damon Gentry (who I’m not) and the solicitation text includes the words “pure goofery” to describe the story. Any series that has the guts to use a phrase like that to describe itself is clearly worth a look. The fact that their chosen analogy doesn’t include a comparison to Hayao Miyazaki, and instead calls itself “an unholy fusion of Verhoven and Asimov” is also a definite plus.
Primordial HC: You know, if Jeff Lemire wants me to give his comics a second chance, he’s going to have to stop putting them in overpriced hardcovers. This is being done to “Mazebook” over at Dark Horse, and now his and Andrea Sorrentino’s new miniseries is getting a pricy $25 hardcover for its six issues. “Primordial” does have a nice high concept of what if the two monkeys and a dog that were sent up as part of the U.S./Soviet space race in the 50’s were actually taken in orbit… and now they’re returning. History has told me that the potential for this premise isn’t likely to be fulfilled and that I’ll only be getting some great art for Sorrentino. But I want to hope that this miniseries will actually have writing to match the quality of its art. I just don’t want to pay $25 to find out if that’s actually true.
Spawn: The Record-Breaker: Collecting issues #298-301 which established this series as the longest-running independent comic ever. To that, I can only say *slow clap*
Vinyl: A few years ago, writer Doug Wagner and artist Daniel Hillyard gave us “Plastic.” That was the story of a serial killer who was deeply in love with a sex doll… that wound up getting kidnapped by some mobsters. Lots of bloody violence and pitch-black humor ensued. It was all great fun! Wagner and Hillyard subsequently teamed up for “The Ride: Burning Desire” which wasn’t bad, but had a main story that felt underdeveloped and would’ve likely have been served better if the extra space given over to its back-up stories was given over to it. Now the creators are back with “Vinyl,” which also has a serial killer as its protagonist. The difference is that this time, he may have bitten off more than he can chew when he goes to rescue his best friend, an FBI Agent, from a death cult of female sunflower farmers. It sounds like a return to form for the creators already!
Deadly Class vol. 11: A Fond Farewell, Part One: Whaaaaaaaaaat? “Part One?” Was it really necessary for Rick Remender and Wes Craig to split up the finale to their great creator-owned series into two volumes? At least, I hope it’s just two. It’ll be a real dick move if they stretch it out to three volumes. Yes, I remember that “Invincible” also had a twelve-issue final arc, but splitting it up over two volumes made sense considering its length. Splitting up a twelve-issue arc over three volumes is the kind of price-gouging I’d expect to see from Marvel. C’mon guys, you’re better than that. Here’s hoping that this first part of “Deadly Class’” finale is good enough to make me forget such concerns.
The Department of Truth vol. 3: Free Country: The previous two volumes have seen creators James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds advance the story of Department neophyte Cole Turner and his awakening into this world of conspiracies made real. Now we’re stepping back from that to learn more about the history of the Department itself, and how one Lee Harvey Oswald became its current head. Oh, and about the Mothman as well. Simmonds takes a break for these issues as we get some some great guest artists, including Elsa Charretier, Tyler Boss, and Jorge Fornes, to illustrate these individual tales of weirdness.
The Good Asian vol. 2: Vol. 1 ended with Detective Edison Hark’s foster brother getting murdered by the killer axeman who has been terroriznig Chinatown, circa 1936. Hark’s foster brother was from a very rich family, and that means things are only going to get worse for the people who actually live in Chinatown. Vol. 1 set up an intriguing mystery steeped in historical detail, neither of which distracted much from the fact that this was clearly going to be a depressing story about how much it sucked to be Chinese at this point in America’s history. I don’t doubt that’s going to change much in vol. 2, but I’ve already committed myself to seeing this story through after buying vol. 1. So I’ll let you know how it goes when I get my hands on this volume.
Oblivion Song by Kirkman & De Felici vol. 6: This is the final volume of the series that jumped between dimensions and whose penultimate volume left off on the start of a potential war between them. Will the creators send it off on a high note with lots of surprises to complement the action? Or will this series just be remembered as the one that Kirkman worked on after “Outcast” but before “Fire Power?”