Comic Recommendates #2

Looking back over my old posts I realized that the first "Comic Recommendates" was from November of last year. And here's #2. Not bad for something I had initially planned on doing weekly? Sheesh. The theme of this post (apparently) will be IMAGE COMICS!!! All three of my comics are from the #3 publisher behind Marvel and DC (can we assume that? I guess). And shout-outs to Image Comics for putting most of their comics' first issues on their website. Click on the highlights and it will take you the main page. Then just click on the issue picture and begin reading!!! Commencing...

UNO - Gotta start off with my favorite book, The Walking Dead.
You've seen TWD before on the BW, notably from my letter being printed in it. It is written by fellow Kentuckian, Robert Kirkman, and is drawn superbly by Charlie Adlard who picked up the duties (heh, "doodies") from Tony Moore after Issue 6.

A great post-apocalyptic zombie story with great character development and a fresh take on how we would make it in a zombie-world. The most recent Issue 48 slew me. It was so good! You get so involved with these characters you empathize with them beyond belief. And when something happens to them, well...

Trades are out there. You'll notice the art change in Trade 2. Initially I was wary but Adlard is destroying the book of late. I love Tony Moore but now I love Charlie. Love's a crazy thing. (BW NOTE: Trade paperbacks are collections of several issues in one book. Largely taking from 4 to 6 issues, or however long the story arc might be. And now you've learned something today, non-comic-book-dudes!)


DOS - I have to mention Fell and Dead Space.
I mention these books because of Mr. Ben Templesmith. He does art on both books and his style is contagious. Awesome stuff. I don't even know how he creates his stuff - computer? paints? - but it looks brilliant. Fell is largely a detective story and Dead Space is basically a space zombie book. Awesome.

Templesmith is also the artist on the 30 Days of Night vampire book written by horror-scribe Steve Niles, and now a movie (out on DVD already). I heard great things about the book and okay things about the movie.

Regardless, check out his artwork if you get a chance. Fell is relatively young and is priced to sell at $1.99!!!



TRES - The Nightly News by Jonathan Hickman
This dude's got some skills. He created this book largely in a graphic designy (is that an adjective?) way and it looks brilliant. I initially thought that it would become too "Here is what I learned in my Adobe Illustrator class today" but the story is engaging and honestly the art never gets too ham handed.

The book has been described as a mix between Fight Club and Network. That's a pretty good description. It definitely satisfied the insurgent/revolutionary in me.

Hickman's latest project is Pax Romana (which I will definitely pick up in trade). From what I hear it's like Roman Empire with machine guns. Hickman's got a pretty bright future ahead of him.