Wanted Dispatch March 29 2017 aka Comics Pull List

Hello and welcome to my roll call of the books that top my pull list for the week. I try to keep this list to twenty dollars which is so hard now with so many amazing independent creators and companies making worthwhile books to divert my attention from a certain big company with massive film franchises. If I seem to be missing something excellent send me a comment and let me know what is getting your support.

 

Quantum Teens Are Go 2 $3.99

Maker society meets gonzo science and mutually supportive relationships with time travel on the side in this new book by the amazing Magdalene Visaggio. She knows she's got to boil her story down to its essence and hook us right out of the gate, make us care and crave more and like with Kim & Kim shows a deft hand at it. It's an in late out early make em want more kind of story that somehow manages to hook you right out of the gate. Compared to Kim&Kim which Magdalene was working on at about the same time are inevitable and this books is most definitely its own thing despite similarities. The art is much more hard edged and less soft and cute.

 

 

 

Karma Police 1 $3.99

Heathen is the book that got me looking at Vault Comics and what got me to meeting this book starts with a blerb by Shutter's artist Leila Del Duca and my trust of her taste in stories. Karma Police is a mystery police procedural involving Demons, Martial Arts and reincarnation with the possibility of so exploration of self and what self means in a world where you will be male or female by chance. The writing about the books I've seen makes me think a bit of Hellboy but I suspect that this will be its own wonderful things and I have hopes I've found a new cool book?

 

The Old Guard 2 $3.99

Greg Rucka could have won me with a lesser morally interesting story about functually immortal warriors but the depth of his thought on the reality of it and psychology of it touched me. Andy's and her crews voices were so well developed out of the gate should not shock me but well I'm not used to so well crafted character so right out of the gate. Andy seemed so disaffected and world weary I felt for her and the banter between the heroes of this story was reminiscent of good Ellis, Morrison and Ennis books. Leonardo Frenandez who has worked with Rucka in the past is such a great choice for this book as his stylized character concepts and solid storytelling vision make this a really very pretty version of a exceedingly violent story.

Jem and The Holograms 24 $3.99

This is the last story arc of this volume taking the band on a vacation to Hawaii to be unknowing joined by the Stingers into their so called break. Kelly Thomoson So we know from ECCC Jem will soon be renumbered to 1 along with Jem The Misfits and run a continuous story between the two titles. This is the final arc before that change and as ever I'm confident Kelly Thompson will deliver on the fun and the feels. Kelly is being joined in this go round with the Canadian artist of "Ménage e 3", Gisele Lagace who's art to is a slick manga like take on an Archie comics house style and she has in fact worked on a couple Archie books. It will be a nice looking book that I have hopes will cap off this on the two year plus long spectacular comic series.

 

Space Raders : Galaxy or Brutality 1

Apparently the first volume ended with the crew going their separate ways as the solicit implies this starts with a getting the band back together H idea as there is a threat that only they can stop. Fabian Ragel Jr. is among the group of people on Twitter I enjoy following and who's Kickstarter books I've supported and been happy to have done so. Ok yeah I have the collected first volume bought it for Christmas and need to read it and look here is the impetus to do just that.

 

This week we're also getting InSexts 10, Postal 19, and a new Animosity issue that will help push me over the edge as well as the new Image Plus which I happen to really enjoy oh and a trade I must mention called Afar that I hope to have a review up for by the weekend and the book below.

 

 

 

Henchgirl Vol 1

Also out this week and preparing to tear a hole in my budget is the collection of -- originally from Scout Comics not published by Dark Horse. We all know the villains can often be the more interesting part of a story if told well so why not the story of a twentysomething woman working as a henchmen for one of them. I love the look of Kristen Gudsnuk's art and think the story will very much be my kind of thing. Mary Posa works with jerks for a boss that doesn't appreciate her, she is a henchman with a conscious and hates her job...I'm sure we can all relate somewhere.

 

Afar OGN

Leila Del Duca joins a group of artists who are also doing a bit of writing and I have hopes that this Science Fantasy astral projection story proves her to be an apt writer too. Kit Seaton has a very appealing art style and I'm willing to give this book a go as I'm confident it's to be worth it.

 

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Wanted Dispatch March 22 2017 aka my Comics Pull List

Welcome to my weekly look at the books that I will be picking up from my friendly local comics shop while I try to stick to my twenty dollar budget. Last week I totally failed but there were a lot of books that I thought deserved support and this week I will also be kinda breaking my own rules too but thankfully not by quite so damn much.

 

Jem the Misfits 3 $3.99

Kelly Thompson's Jem has been a favorite of mine since the first issue and I blame it all on Sophie Campbell who's art I love. Sophie had a lot of input including the creation of the Blaze character who's is the focus of this single issue much like number 2 was all about Stormer. Over time not only have I come to really love the Misfits as she envisions them buy Blaze too has really grown on me. Jenn St-Onge's art on this series has to be some of the most charming I've seen in a while; I'm not sure if it's her concepts of expression or the crispness of her linework of her overall asthetics for character design but this is one of the books that is just visually appealing. Ok, I gush about this book but it's seldom that a single issue of a book manages to bring me to tears like number 2 did unless you count the writing of Kelly Sue Deconnick.

 

 

Heathen 2 $3.99

Natasha Alterici's singular vision on this Viking warrior's quest to free a Valkyrie from a curse of Odin is something rare, it's so uncommon to have a book written and illustrated by a singular creator. This issue our hero Aydis fights her way to save the shield maiden and finds that was the easy part. The easy part for me is saying if you can most definitely pick this book up in addition to the heros tale she's telling your getting a unique vision of Norse mythology and a glorious cover by Tess Fowler to boot. Support Indy book here as Vault is publishing some lovely comics.

The Magdalena 1 $3 99

Tini Howard and Ryan Cady who have both done a bit of writing for Top Cow are getting to take a shot at their longtime legacy character that references Christian mythology and conspiracy, they are joined by horror enthusiast artist Christian DiBarri who's DeviantArt page is well worth looking at. According to the previews and this interview on Comicosity what were getting is a mentor pupil story unlike most as it's a thirty something woman teaching her teen girl protégée and the dynamics of that has seldom been written about. What we'll apparently be getting here is a kickass nun fighting the worst that Hell can throw at her and her new trainee. I was sold with Tini writing it but the interview moved it higher on my list and the fact that one of the covers is a Planned Parenthood charity cover makes it triply worth getting.

 

 

Steven Universe 2 $3.99

Melanie Gillman and Katy Farina being the creative team behind this makes this a must have in addition to it being a Steven Universe book. I was going to go on about how this is a Stevonnie story and then it hit me how would I see this as a book to someone who has no history with the show so I'll give it a go; Steven Universe is a book that pulls its inspiration for many manga and anime stories including Sailor Moon and Dragonball and sets it in a sleepy seaside town where a group of alien Guardian warriors take care of a human alien hybrid child named Steven like his three plus weird mothers. Ok it doesn't do the depth and theme of the story justice.its quite honestly the most accepting and inclusive story I've seen and it's not afraid to ask its fans to think through things on their own. Oh and this version has a talented team or creators on it.

Doom Patrol 5 $3.99

Feels like it's been a while since issue 4 and I really can't recall if iit has or not but I'm happy issue five is out. I'm thinking that this must be the issue where Gerald Way and Nick Derington get the new Doom Patrol together from their various diversion through the use of Casey, Sam and the weird ambulance but who knows. What I do know is that this book has been a fun and unexpected wild ride and that is what I always want from the Doom Patrol; I can get super-people fights anywhere but the super weird is rare. Oh and this book is also colored by Tamara Bonvillain so that's twice I can show her some support this week....look at the next post as I wrote this in the wrong order.

MoonGirl and Devil Dinosaur 17 $3.99

Looking at the preview pages around the internet this week Natasha Bustos,Amy Reeder, Brandon Montclair made me like the X-men in ways I haven't since I was a teenager. Lunella interacting with theses regular normally gritty and grim characters brightened them up and seeing Tamara Bonvillain coloring them makes me so happy. Looking just at the cover really establishes how well they understand the characters they are working with...panel to panel in the pages I've seen these are the characters I remembered. There is enough gloom and doom in my pull list so this bright and happy book needs to me among them; oh it's as serious as the rest of the continuity it's just the attitude that Lunella has lightens the story of whomever she's with.

 

Empowered Soldier of Love 2 $3.99

And yes this satire has to be here too. I love the Magical Girl trope in manga and animation and taking that concept of the bright happy to be a hero young girl and extrapolating it out into adulthood makes for an interesting outcome. I also love the fact that the Soldier of Love's dialogue is in Spanish with no subtitles as well we should really have to know another language then the one we barely do actually. I like Adam Warren's characters but I adore how Karla Diaz reinterprets them.

 

Mother Panic 5 $3.99

It's Jody Houser's dark twisted grin mirror in her bright and happy superhero title Faith. Violet Page is fighting her one angry woman war on the street and in the air over Gotham not caring she attracts the Bat-Family's attention as she's callable to deal with that. She may have found an ally but you can never be too sure. Shawn Crystal is joining Jody in the art on this issue.

 

 

This week also gives us Shutter 28 ( it's great but as the series is ending it's hard to say go out there and this this crazy weird meta book New and be full on confused) and Black Hammer 7 which so many other lists mention, and the next issue of Wonder Woman's The Truth.

 

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Wanted Dispatch March 15 2017 aka my Comics Pull List

Well, welcome back to my weekly ruminations on what comics I'm looking forward to this week and the books I think may need a bit of a signal boost. I usually try to at least make a nod to my stated budget of twenty dollars so I'll mainly be doing that but this week, this damn week is going to totally break that budget for several reasons including the final issue of Island, the anthology comic from Brandon Graham and Emma Rios. So warning going over budget here.

 

Batwoman 1 $2.99

Margueritte Bennett's Batwoman book with Steve Epting (Velvet) is are likely to be on a lot of the lists but as I've adored her writing on nearly everything I have read of hers and fully support her taking on this legacy character it would be remiss for me not to celebrate the first issue of the ongoing series launch. Kate Kane is distinct in her mission as part of the Bat-family of titles as has been brought out in The run on Detective where she is honestly more of a presence then her cowled cousin and from her modern introduction under Greg Rucka she's always taken a differing tack and tone from Batman's books. I'm exited to see where Margueritte will take her and her supporting cast. In addition to this DC Bombshells comes out this week so there are two opportunities to support her writing and send a message to DC about what we want to see more of.

Mirror vol 2 1 $3.99

Emma Rios, who does stunning the art on Pretty Deadly, also is a pretty apt writer as she proved in I.D. for Island and with the first volume of Mirror with the equally apt artist and storyteller Hwei Lim. The first Mirror volume introduced the space fantasy series with its animal human hybryids, complex politics and magical mystical mysteries around a mixed cast and their conflicting stakes. It implied a deep and rich history that will be the subject of this second outing. The soft watercolor look of Hwei Lim's art

Horizon 9 $2.99

This is the book we need right now, a book about resistance against totoliatarian forces, particularly is those forces happen to be us. Horizon was a book that was on my list when I read about it but jumped up to me promote this book when I head Brandon Thomas on the BlackComicsChat podcast just before the first issue arrived. Be honest if humanity particularly the US could rape and pillage another inhabited planet for resources, technology and power we all know what the outcome would be, right?

East of West 32 $3.99

This week this is the book which has the Planned Parenthood donation cover and it's by the amazing artist Meridith McClaren who's work on Hinges and on the recent run of Jem. This isn't the only time that East of West has been on my list as I happen to like a lot of what Jonathan Nickman and Nick Dragota have been doing with this alternate history science fiction western apocalyptic tale involving the four horsemen and a love affair and the child that came from a love affair of the horseman of Death. The US in this story is clearly fractured along the lines of race and belief into five distinct nations and at this point clearly at war with each other. Thinking about it now I'm sad I didn't keep getting the issues regularly and hindsight I really love a lot of what they did with the story and respect that they are taking a financial hit to support Planned Parenthood.

Island 15 $9.99

I follow both Brandon Graham and Emma Rios across several social media platforms and suggest their feeds for comics fans and both are pretty interesting; Emma also last week clued me into the fact that this will be the final issue of Island. Dilraj Mann and Grim Wilkins are the featured creators in this last go round of unique visions in storytelling chosen by the editiors of this anthology. I'll personally miss being exposed to artists I might only otherwise have stumbled across on Twitter or tumbler sometime by chance. I'm including it again in this weeks pull list as I still think it was a comic value given its page count and the opportunity it represented to get creative voices out there. This is the $9.99 book that I'll be tending my support to this week.

 

Head Lopper 5 $5.99

Andrew MacLean is one of the growing group of artists that are the sole creators on the books they are making and Image happily is giving him the leeway to do this quarterly unashamedl sword and sorcery barbarian tale. The first four issue story arc gave us a pretty intriguing intro to the world without tons of info dump and from the looks of this cove we're heading somewhere new with our Viking-ish sword wielding hero and his still talking and spellcasting witches severed head in tow.

 

The WildStorm 2 $3.99

Warren Ellis re-imagineing of the Jim Lee creations delivered a solidly enjoyable and interesting first outing spotlighting mainly the women of the setting as Zelot, the Mechanic and to some small extant Void made the most impression on me in the issue. The new take on Deathblow, , also left a lingering impression as the corporate/government intrigue starts out right out of the gate. With all the characters Warren has to play with in the world I have great hopes for what we'll discover along the way as his takes on The rest of the wildstorm usual suspects arrive in the scene.

Injection 11 $2.99

It feels an age since Injection 10 and the odd revelations that came with it so I may have to go back and do a bit of re-read but I have been looking forward to the inherently weird fiction of Warren Ellis Declan Shalvey and Jordie Bellaire and finally here it is. Brigid Roth, the team member I've been wanting to see more of is taking the lead roll in this story.

In addition though I missed Super Sons 1 I'm likely picking up issue 2 this week and I just saw the Coady and the Creepies 1 which sounds like something I should for sure get so there is my budget fully broken but I do love comics so there you go.

 

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Wanted Dispatch March 8 2017 aka my Comics Pull List

I'm always sad when I miss a convention as it's missing another chance to meet and chat with creators I love...ECCC had so many wonderful guests that seldom get to the west cost later in the year. Anyway I'll have some comments about books announced I'll be adding to my list when they get offered. Welcome to me list for this weeks books that will be getting a peice of my twenty fiveish dollar comics budget. I tend to lean towards books that get less attention otherwise (though this weeks started with a big name book.)

 

Wonder Woman 18 $2.99

It's so nice to look forward to Wonder Woman again, I have been a fan since I was a child. Greg Rucka writes Diana with a very human Diana and for my his take on her works particularly well in the Year One story and presents her with a sense of wonder about the world and life. This story arc is done by Bilquis Evesley who has become one of my favorite artists storming with her run on Shaft with David F Walker which reminded me of MD Bright who I always loved and she's just gotten better in the couple of years since. At $2.99 this is a comics bargain at the moment and punches well outside its price class in all ways for me.

 

Motor Crush 4 $3.99

If someone told me that as a kid they were a fan of speed Racer or more recently Bari Bari Densetsu and Inertial D I would tell them to check Babs Tarr Cameron Stewart and Brendan Fletcher's Motor Crush as it's more then lived up to my high expectations. This book is hitting all the highpoints of action and drama I enjoy and what's more it's part of images celebration of Women History month so you like me can get the Leslie Hwang's cover from which all the proceeds go to Planned Parenthood (one of the three this week see me next two choices).

The Wicked + the Divine 25 $3.99

I'm getting Wicked and Divine regularly anyway though I'm a couple months behind in my reading so I can't comment too much about how much I'm enjoying the Imperial Phase story but I have every expectation that the story is up to Kieron and Jamie's usual weird dark standards. I will specificity be getting the issue with the Chynna Clugston-Flores cover as it's the one celebrating Women's History Month and supports Planned Parenthood and how could I not it's the Morrigan one.

Low 16 $3.99

Rick Remender's books I sometimes miss out on in an effort to support other lesser known quantities in the market but I will say this for Low which I made sadly missed much of I enjoyed reading the first story and the art by Greg Tocchini floors me with the depth of details and the sheer imagination on display. Vanessa Del Rey who really needs to get more regular work did the Planned Parenthood special cover which is the reason I preordered it specifically...who knows with Marvel Owners supporting the current administration I have spare comics money now to spend elsewhere Low may gat added to my regular pull list.

PowerMan and IronFist 16 $3.99

Oh, what's this a Marvel book right after that denouncement of the undistinguished noncompetition well there are creators that will get my money and support when I can and David F Walker is one of them. I have honestly loved his take on Luke Cage and the world of the street level hero and villain in the oh so personal way he's been writing this book. It's the last hurrah for the heroes for hire as this is the second to last issue of the series before the go their separate ways to their separate books (I think Danny may actually be getting two). PM&IF brought back one of the Runnaways we thought we'd never see again and gave us a very devious able villain to got on. I'll miss this book but I'm sure to follow David work in Luke Cage and wherever else he may go...say Lion Forge and maybe Black Mask Comics.

 

Mother Panic 5 $3.99

As with Wicked and Divine I am sadly behind on this book too but as it's Jody Houser who's Faith is the bright and hopeful tweaked mirror to this books dark and grim I'm faithful this book is well worth my continued support. Violet page is still an enigmatic character who is aparent needling to contend not just with the villains she's hunting but another new vigilante that may be friend or foe in this issue. Here's hoping I get a chance to catch up soon.

and it's a bit of a shocker but I may actually keep to budget this week unless I'm for getting something like the Justice League Of America 2 also hits and I'm likely to pick it up so at least it's a mildly overbudget week....nest week is looking like a huge overspend so guess it will be hard to know what to post here.

 

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