Dark Horse Penguin Picks: January 2023
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Survival Street
“It’s ‘Sesame Street’ meets ‘The A-Team’ in a future American dystopia,” is how I imagine the pitch from co-writers James Asmus and Jim Festante and artist Abylay Kussainov went. Fortunately for us, Dark Horse agreed that it sounded like a good idea and now we’ve got the collected edition of this four-issue miniseries to look forward to (in March). It’s a ridiculous idea, but the thought of a group of former edu-tainers and their puppets fighting for kids while teaching them valuable life skills and lessons just sounds dementedly appealing to me. This could be because I grew up with both of those shows, so I may be a little biased in that regard when it comes to assessing this miniseries’ appeal. Still, there’s no doubt that I’ll be picking this up to see how well it executes on this concept when it arrives next March.
White Savior #1 (of 5): Would you believe me if I told you that a miniseries with this title was about a white man who heroically saves a Japanese village from certain destruction due to a prophecy? Or would it seem more likely that the title is ironic and that it’s actually about a white man who is also a drunken idiot and a Captain in the United States Army who is mistaken for being said hero of the prophecy. Add to that a Japanese-American teacher who has to convince the village’s population that this guy is definitely not the hero they’ve been hoping for. The premise of this miniseries from creator Eric Nguyen looks to subvert a few familiar tropes, and that’s a good thing. It just remains to be seen if he’s got a good story to tell along with the subversion.
Spy Superb #1 (of 3): Being a spy is all about blending into your surroundings so that no one suspects what you’re really here to do. So it would stand to reason that the perfect spy is someone who isn’t even aware that they’re a spy. That’s what Jay is as the organization who supervises him sends him on missions without him realizing that he’s even on them. That is until he picks up the wrong phone one day and gets some information that he wasn’t meant to. Now every major intelligence agency is gunning for this useful idiot who has actually started to believe that maybe he is the best spy around. This is coming to us from Matt Kindt and is the first project he’s written and illustrated since “Dept.H.” It’s also a super-sized issue… at least I hope it is since it’s priced at $8 without a page count being provided. “Apache Delivery Service” has left me a bit more optimistic about the creator’s output, and his most memorable stuff has always been what he’s written and illustrated himself. I’ll keep an eye on this for the inevitable collected edition.
Also being solicited here is Mister Mammoth, Kindt’s first OGN that he’s writing with Jean-Denis Pendanx providing the art. It’s about a seven-foot-tall, scarred pacifist who also works as a private investigator. The problem is he’s worried that he’s losing his touch as he struggles with a new case that could unlock the traumatic past of his childhood. I’m honestly on the fence about this one as I’m not feeling generous enough to invest myself in everything that Kindt does these days. I can’t say the hook for this OGN sounds particularly compelling, and I’d rather save myself for something that Kindt wrote and drew himself.
Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot & Hard Boiled (New Editions): Two seminal projects from the days that Frank Miller could be counted on to produce greatness with each work. Also, two that he did with Geof Darrow who can STILL be counted on to produce incredible art. The latter is an ultra-gory action-fest about an insurance investigator living a normal life, a berserk tax collector racking up an incredible body count, and a robot killing machine who is also the last hope for enslaved A.I.s. They’re also all the same person. I have an older copy of “Hard Boiled” and its quality style-over-substance fun. What I don’t have is a copy of “Big Guy & Rusty the Boy Robot” which is described here as being the modern answer to the monster movies you watched while you were growing up. Nostalgia is the appeal here, but it’s remembering the glory days of these creators that really appeals to me with checking this one out.
Snow Angels Library Edition HC: This two-volume series from writer Jeff Lemire and artist Jock gets the deluxe hardcover treatment. That said, if I was really interested in reading this, I’d shell out for the two paperback volumes. Why? They’re $20 each, while this Library Edition is $50. I’m guessing these Library Editions are really meant for libraries, as it’s hard to imagine that there’s a fanbase for this series that was really waiting to pay $10 more to read this story in a more prestigious format.
Joe Death and the Graven Image: The cover to this OGN is a striking one. It has an undead-looking character with a smile on his face that contrasts with the dark clothes he’s wearing. He looks like he was drawn with a style that looks like a more rounded cross between Mike Mignola and Andrew MacLean, which isn’t unappealing. The story itself is described as a take on the “existential hitman” trope set in a weird Western land populated by supernatural characters. This comes to us from creator Benjamin Schipper who is described in the solicitation text as an emerging talent with the Mignola connection played up a bit. I’m not entirely sold, but still curious as we could always use more Mignola-esque weirdness that doesn’t come directly from the man himself.
War Birds: It’s the story of two deserters who decide they don’t want to be part of an endless war and decide to strike off in search of their own destiny. What sets this apart from other stories of this ilk is that these deserters are actually robots and that the people who built them want to see them destroyed. It’s a new twist on a familiar setup coming to us from writer Geoffrey Wessel and artist Steve Parkhouse. While I’m not familiar with the writer, I am familiar with Parkhouse’s work mainly through “Resident Alien.” This is a different kind of sci-fi from that series and I’m at least a little interested in seeing what the reliable artist will be doing with it.
Berserk Deluxe Edition vol. 13: Collecting vols. 37-39, which means it’s time for everyone to place their bets now. Will the forthcoming vol. 14 collect just volumes 40 & 41 – the last two produced by Kentaro Miura before his death? Or will they also throw in the sourcebook to pad out the page count? Or, will they hold off until writer Koji Mori and Miura’s assistants are able to produce vol. 42? My bet is that they’ll include the sourcebook for vol. 14, but a smarter move would be to wait until Mori and co. deliver vol. 42 so that anyone who is reading “Berserk” in this format will be able to see if they can deliver a worthy continuation of the saga.