Image Previews Picks: July 2023
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Scotch McTiernan vs. The Forces of Evil
The team who brought you the flashback issues of “Deadpool” that everyone loved, co-writers Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn, and artist Scott Koblish, team up for three adventures that pit the titular stoner soldier against the evils plaguing modern society. Said evils being America’s war on weed, late-stage capitalism, and… the ghost of Christmas Future? Look, they didn’t spell out what the third “evil” was so I’m just guessing based on the solicitation here. This collects “The Secret History of the War on Weed,” “Halloween Party,” and “Scotch McTiernan’s Holiday Party.” I did pick up “War on Weed” during a digital sale on ComiXology (RIP) and enjoyed it pretty well. My hope is that it won’t be the highlight of this volume and the other two one-shots will also serve as welcome reminders about how funny these guys were (together) on “Deadpool.”
Fishflies #1 (of 6): A fugitive suspected of committing a violent crime against a young boy meets up with a lonely girl. Together, they’ll form a friendship that will lead them on an odyssey of discovery and redemption. It all sounds pretty straightforward, and it probably is given that it’s coming from creator Jeff Lemire. This is one that he’s writing and illustrating himself, however, so there will at least be some invention in the visual style to offset how conventional the narrative is going to be.
Antarctica #1: From writer Simon Birks and artist Willi Roberts. Pitched as “Stargate” meets “His Dark Materials.” Does that do anything for anyone?
Purr Evil #1 (of 6): Mirka Andolfo writes while Lauren Braga provides the art for this miniseries about how a mother’s dark past threatens her daughter’s present. Andolfo’s a decent writer, better shown through her work in “Mercy” as opposed to “Sweet Paprika,” while Braga doesn’t move the needle for me. If anything, it’s the cat-based pun title of this miniseries that has me intrigued. As a cat person I’m definitely up for a miniseries about demonic cats, especially if they’re adorable ones. Meanwhile…
Scrapper #1 (of 6): Stray dogs fight against the totalitarian forces of a post-apocalyptic city. That doesn’t do much for me, though this is co-written by Alex De Campi who can usually be counted on to provide some entertaining grindhouse thrills while pushing against storytelling conventions. However, its co-writer is someone new to comics: Cliff Bleszinski, co-founder of Epic Games. He’s someone more familiar to me as a programmer or business guy than a storyteller. So if it turns out that he just came up with this concept and paid De Campi, and artist Sandy Jarrell to flesh it out, then I’m actually more interested in it now.
Swan Songs #1: Writer W. Maxwell Prince has staked out an interesting claim to fame in comics. Where other writers try to tell ongoing, sometimes epic stories that stretch on for years, he tells done-in-one tales. You can see this for yourself in his ongoing “Ice Cream Man” series with artist Martin Morazzo, and “Ha Ha” with various artists. He’s back again for this (mini? ongoing?) series that’s all about endings. That in itself doesn’t do much for me as I’ve read the first volume of “Ice Cream Man” and came away unimpressed. However, he looks to have an impressive line up for the first few issues of this series, with “The Department of Truth’s” Martin Simonds illustrating this opening one.
The Unbelievable, Unfortunately Mostly Unreadable, and Nearly Unpublishable Untold Tales of I Hate Fairyland #1 (of 5): If the first two volumes of “I Hate Fairyland” were good enough to publish, then I shudder to think about what’s in this untold tales miniseries.
Weird Work #1 (of 4): “L.A. Confidential” meets “Futurama?” Okay… I can kinda see how that’d work. A veteran cop and a rookie are paired up and tasked with investigating a triple homicide involving a hood turned cult leader, a billionaire’s assistant, and the veteran’s ex-partner. I’m not familiar with writer Justin Thomas, but there was no mistaking the distinctive work of Shaky Kane in the preview images for this title. It’s good to see him back again.
Parasocial HC: The creators of “Dracula Motherf**ker!” writer Alex De Campi and artist Erica Henderson are back with an OGN about an obsessive fan who lures a fading genre star to her home. It sounds like “Misery” redux, except when the possibility emerges that the actor may be the real monster here. Of the two De Campi-written projects in this batch of solicitations, recommending this one over “Scrapper” is easy. Particularly when you consider that this is a longer read for a better price $19 for 128 pages, than De Campi and Henderson’s previous joint.
Oblivion Song by Kirkman and De Felici Compendium: The entire 36-issue series for $50? Ehhhhhh… sure.
Radiant Black vol. 4: Two-in-One: Something has landed on Earth and it’s up to Nathan and Marshall to track it down and learn its secrets before the U.S. government does. After vol. 3 this series needs to offer up something new to keep its storytelling fresh. This doesn’t sound like the solution, but I’d sure like to be proven wrong.
That being said, issue #25 of the series is solicited here and it kicks off a storyline called “Catalyst War.” It promises to be big. How big? Pretty big, judging from the “Independence Day”-looking ship and the fleet underneath it on the two covers for this series. The solicitation text implies that this is the fleet we’ve seen hinted at in the series before now and that they’re here to get the Radiants back. So even if vol. 4 doesn’t deliver, I may have to stick around to see how the end of the storyline plays out in vol. 5.
Fire Power by Kirkman & Samnee #25: Returning with an extra-sized issue wherein Owen prepares to settle up with Wei Lun for the revelation he dropped at the end of vol. 5. While I can understand why he’d want to, I’m not really feeling the drama here. Said revelation came off as a surprise without any real buildup to it. Like the kind of hype you’d see in the Image comics of old as opposed to the kind of slow-build storytelling writer Robert Kirkman delivered for years in “The Walking Dead” and “Invincible.” Maybe the series will get back on track with this new arc, but it’s going to be hard when I fully expect Owen and Wei to trade a few blows before agreeing to let bygones be bygones. Because that’s what’s going to happen, right?
Newburn #9: Chip Zdarsky and Jacob Phillips’ CBS-procedural-as-comic-book-series returns for another run of issues. In case you’ve forgotten (since it’s been a while): Easton Newburn is a private investigator with a very exclusive clientele – the organized crime families of New York. He acquired a quasi-willing partner in the first volume and even sorted out a fairly explosive incident from her past in its best storyline. I’m hoping the quality picks up from there in these new issues and we get twistier stories as complications pile up for the title character.
The series also returns with new back-up strips from a different creative team. Writer David Brothers and artist Nick Dragotta are on tap for the first issue as they kick off “Go Back.” I sure like me some art from Dragotta, but as the first series of backup stories from “Newburn” has yet to be collected, I can’t say I’m too excited about this yet.